ed Catherine with having thrown France into the hands of him in whom the world recognised her daughter's murderer. Cathe

and established by violence in the North, it | ther at Bayonne. In 1568, Elizabeth died; had overcome the resistance of princes in and a rumour came to Catherine touching Central Europe, and had won toleration the manner of her death, which made it hard without ceasing to be intolerant. In France to listen to friendly overtures from her husand Poland, in the dominions of the Empe- band. Antonio Perez, at that time an unror and under the German prelates, the at- scrupulous instrument of his master's will, tempt to arrest its advance by physical force afterwards accused him of having poisoned had been abandoned. In Germany it cov- his wife. "On parle fort sinistrement de ered twice the area that remained to it in the sa mort, pour avoir été advancée," says Brannext generation, and, except in Bavaria, tòme. After the massacre of the ProtesCatholicism was fast dying out. The Po- tants, the ambassador at Venice, a man distinlish Government had not strength to perse-guished as a jurist and a statesman, reproachcute; and Poland became the refuge of the sects. When the bishops found that they could not prevent toleration, they resolved that they would not restrict it. Trust-rine did not deny the truth of the report. ing to the maxim "Bellum Hæreticorum pax est Ecclesiæ," they insisted that liberty should extend to those whom the Reformers would have exterminated.* The Polish Protestants, in spite of their dissensions, formed themselves into one great party. When the death of the last of the Jagellons, on the 7th of July 1572, made the monarchy elective, they were strong enough to enforce their conditions on the candidates; and it was thought that they would be able to decide the election, and obtain a King of their own choosing. Alva's reign of terror had failed to pacify the Low Countries; and he was about to resign the hopeless task to an incapable successor. The taking of the Brill in April was the first of those maritime victories which led to the independence of the Dutch. Mons fell in May; and in July the important province of Holland declared for the Prince of Orange. The Catholics believed that all was lost if Alva remained in command.†

She replied that she was bound to think of her sons in preference to her daughters, that the foul play was not fully proved, and that if it were it could not be avenged so long as France was weakened by religious discord.* She wrote as she could not have written if she had been convinced that the suspicion was unjust.

When Charles IX. began to be his own master he seemed resolved to follow his father and grandfather in their hostility to the Spanish power. He wrote to a trusted servant that all his thoughts were bent on thwarting Philip.t While the Christian navies were fighting at Lepanto, the King of France was treating with the Turks. His menacing attitude in the following year kept Don Juan in Sicilian waters, and made his victory barren for Christendom. Encouraged by French protection, Venice withdrew from the League. Even in Corsica there was a movement which men interpreted as a prelude to the storm that France was raisThe decisive struggle was in France. During against the empire of Spain. Rome ing the minority of Charles IX. persecution had given way to civil war, and the Regent, his mother, had vainly striven, by submit ting to neither party, to uphold the authority of the crown. She checked the victorious Catholics, by granting to the Huguenots terms which constituted them, in spite of continual disaster in the field, a vast and organized power in the State. To escape their influence it would have been necessary to invoke the help of Philip II., and to accept protection which would have made France subordinate to Spain. Philip laboured to establish such an alliance; and it was to promote this scheme that he sent his queen, Elizabeth of Valois, to meet her mo

trembled in expectation of a Huguenot invasion of Italy. For Charles was active in conciliating the Protestants both abroad and at home. He married a daughter of the

Quant à ce qui me touche à moy en particulier, encores que j'ayme unicquement tous mes enffans, je veulx préférer, comme il est bien_raysonnable, les filz aux filles; et pour le regard de ce que me mandez de celluy qui a faict mourir ma fille, c'est chose que l'on ne tient point pour certaine, et où elle le seroit, le roy monsieur mondit filz n'en pouvoit faire la vengence en l'estat que son royaulme estoit lors; mais à présent qu'il est tout uni, il aura assez de moien et de forces pour sen ressentir quant l'occasion s'en présentera (Catherine to Du Ferrier, Oct. 1, 1572; Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 15,555). The despatches of Fourquevaulx from Madrid, published by the Marquis Du Prat in the Histoire d'Elisabeth de Valois, do not confirm the rumour.

Toutes mes fantaisies sont handées pour m'opposer à la grandeur des Espagnols, et délibère m'y conduire le plus dextrement qu'il me sera possible (Charles Ix. to Noailles, May 11, 1572; Noailles, Henri de Valois, i. 8).

conflict of the churches. At first it was believed that a hundred thousand Huguenots had fallen. It was said that the survivors were abjuring by thousands,* that the children of the slain were made Catholics, that those whom the priests had admitted to absolution and communion were nevertheless put to death. Men who were far beyond the reach of the French Government lost their faith in a religion which Providence had visited with so tremendous a judgment; and foreign princes took heart to employ severities which could excite no horror after the scenes in France.

tolerant Emperor Maximilian II.; and he carried on negotiations for the marriage of his brother with Queen Elizabeth, not with any hope of success, but in order to impress public opinion.* He made treaties of alliance, in quick succession, with England, with the German Protestants, and with the Prince of Orange. He determined that his brother Anjou, the champion of the Catholics, of whom it was said that he had vowed to root out the Protestants to a man,† should be banished to the throne of Poland. Disregarding the threats and entreaties of the Pope, he gave his sister in marriage to Navarre. By the peace of St. Germains the Contemporaries were persuaded that the Huguenots had secured, within certain limits, Huguenots had been flattered and their po freedom from persecution, and the liberty of licy adopted only for their destruction, and persecuting; so that Pius v. declared that that the murder of Coligny and his followers France had been made the slave of heretics. was a long premeditated crime. Catholics Coligny was now the most powerful man in and Protestants vied with each other in dethe kingdom. His scheme for closing the tecting proofs of that which they variously civil wars by an expedition for the conquest esteemed a sign of supernatural inspiration of the Netherlands began to be put in mo- or of diabolical depravity. In the last forty tion. French auxiliaries followed Lewis of years a different opinion has prevailed. It Nassau into Mons; an army of Huguenots has been deemed more probable, more conhad already gone to his assistance; another sistent with testimony and with the position was being collected near the frontier; and of affairs at the time, that Coligny succeedColigny was preparing to take the commanded in acquiring extraordinary influence over in a war which might become a Protestant crusade, and which left the Catholics no hope of victory. Meanwhile many hundreds of his officers followed him to Paris, to attend the wedding which was to reconcile the factions, and cement the peace of religion.

In the midst of these lofty designs and hopes, Coligny was struck down. On the morning of the 22d of August he was shot at and badly wounded. Two days later he was killed; and a general attack was made on the Huguenots of Paris. It lasted some weeks, and was imitated in about twenty places. The chief provincial towns of France were among them.

Judged by its immediate result, the massacre of St. Bartholomew was a measure weakly planned and irresolutely executed, which deprived Protestantism of its political leaders, and left it for a time to the control of zealots. There is no evidence to make it probable that more than seven thousand victims perished. Judged by later events, it was the beginning of a vast change in the

*Il fault, et je vous prie ne faillir, quand bien il seroit du tout rompu, et que verriés qu'il n'y auroit nulle espérance, de trouver moyen d'en entrettenir toujours doucement le propos, d'ici à quelque temps; car cella ne peut que bien servir à establir mes affaires et aussy pour ma réputation (Charles IX. to La Mothe, Aug. 9, 1572; Corr. de La Mothe, vii. 311). This is stated both by his mother and by the Cardinal of Lorraine (Michelet, La Ligue, 26).

the mind of Charles, that his advice really predominated, and that the sanguinary resolution was suddenly embraced by his adversaries as the last means of regaining power. This opinion is made plausible by many facts. It is supported by several writers who were then living, and by the document known as the Confession of Anjou. The best authorities of the present day are nearly unanimous in rejecting premeditation.

The evidence on the opposite side is strong er than they suppose.

The doom which awaited the Huguenots had been long expected and often foretold. People at a distance, Monluc in Languedoc," and the Protestant Mylius in Italy, drew the same inference from the news that came from the court. Strangers meeting on the road discussed the infatuation of the Admiral.

Letters brought from Rome to the

*In reliqua Gallia fuit et est incredibilis defectio, feras, ut etiam eos qui defecerunt (qui pene sunt inquæ tamen usque adeo non pacavit immanes illas numerabiles) semel ad internecionem una cum integris familiis trucidare prorsus decreverint (Beza, Dec. 3, 1572; Ill. vir. Epp. Sel. 621, 1617).

Languet to the Duke of Saxony, Nov. 30, 1572 (Arcana, sec. xvi. 183).

Vidi et cum dolore intellexi lanienam illam Gallicam perfidissimam et atrocissimam plurimos per Germaniam ita offendisse, ut jam etiam de veritate nostræ Religionis et doctrinæ dubitare incœperint (Bullinger to Wittgenstein, Feb. 23, 1573; Fried länder, Beiträge zur Rel. Gesch. 254). § De Thou, Mémoires, 9.

Emperor the significant intimation that the | which connects the massacre with the conference of Bayonne; and it can no longer now be doubted that La Roche-sur-Yon, on his deathbed, informed Coligny that murderous resolutions had been taken on that occasion.* But the Nuncio, Santa Croce, who was present, wrote to Cardinal Borromeo that the Queen had indeed promised to punish the infraction of the edict of Pacification, but that this was a very different thing from undertaking to extirpate heresy. Catherine affirmed that in this way the law could reach all the Huguenot ministers; and Alva professed to believe her. Whatever studied ambiguity of language she may have used, the action of 1572 was uninfluenced by deliberations which were seven years old.

birds were all caged, and now was the time to lay hands on them.* Duplessis-Mornay, the future chief of the Huguenots, was so much oppressed with a sense of coming evil, that he hardly ventured into the streets on the wedding-day. He warned the Admiral of the general belief among their friends that the marriage concealed a plot for their ruin, and that the festivities would end in some horrible surprise.† Coligny was proof against suspicion. Several of his followers left Paris, but he remained unmoved. At one moment the excessive readiness to grant all his requests shook the confidence of his son-in-law Téligny; but the doubt vanished so completely that Téligny himself prevented the flight of his partisans after the attempt on the Admiral's life. On the morning of the fatal day, Montgomery sent word to Walsingham that Coligny was safe under protection of the King's guards, and that no further stir was to be apprehended ‡

For many years foreign advisers had urged Catherine to make away with these men. At first it was computed that half a dozen victims would be enough.§ That was the original estimate of Alva, at Bayonne. When the Duke of Ferrara was in France, in 1564, he proposed a larger measure; and he repeated this advice by the mouth of every agent whom he sent to France. After the event, both Alva and Alfonso reminded Catherine that she had done no more than follow their advice.*1 Alva's letter explicitly confirms the popular notion

* Il me dist qu'on luy avoist escript de Rome, n'avoit que trois semaines ou environ, sur le propos des noces du roy de Navarre en ces propres termes; Que à ceste heure que tous les oiseaux estoient en cage, on les pouvoit prendre tous ensemble (Vulcob to Charles IX., September 26, 1572; Noailles, iii. 214).

Mémoires de Duplessis-Mornay, i. 38; Ambert, Duplessis-Mornay, 38.

Digges, Compleat Ambassador, 276, 255. Correr, Relazione; Tommaseo, ii. 116. IIe said to Catherine: Que quando quisiesen usar de otro y averlo, con no mas personas que con cinco o seys que son el cabo de todo esto, los tomasen a su mano y les cortasen las cabeças (Alva to Philip 11., June 21, 1565; Papiers de Granvelle, ix. 298).

Ci rallegriamo con la Maestà sua con tutto l'affetto dell' animo, ch' ella habbia presa quella risolutione così opportunamente sopra la quale noi stesso l'ultima volta che fummo in Francia parlammo con la Regina Madre. . . . Dipoi per diversi gentilhuomini che in varie occorrenze habbiamo mandato in corte siamo instati nel suddetto ricordo (Alfonso II. to Fogliani, Sept. 13, 1572; Modena Archives).

* Muchas vezes me ha accordado de aver dicho a Su Mag. esto mismo en Bayona, y de lo que mi offrecio, y veo que ha muy bien desempeñado su palabra (Alva to Zuñiga, Sept. 9, 1572; Coquerel, La St. Barthélemy 12).

During the spring and summer the Tuscan agents diligently prepared their master for what was to come. Petrucci wrote on the 19th of March that, for a reason which he could not trust to paper, the marriage would certainly take place, though not until the Huguenots had delivered up their strongholds. Four weeks later Alamanni announced that the Queen's pious design for restoring unity of faith would, by the grace of God, be speedily accomplished. On the 9th of August Petrucci was able to report that the plan arranged at Bayonne was near execution. Yet he was not fully initiated. The Queen afterwards assured him that she had confided the secret to no foreign resident except the Nuncio; § and Petrucci resentfully complains that she had also consulted the ambassador of Savoy. Venice, like Florence and Savoy, was not taken by surprise. In February the ambassador Contarini explained to the Senate the specious tranquillity in France, by saying that the Government reckoned on the death of the

*Kluckhohn, Zur Geschichte des angeblichen Bündnisses von Bayonne 36. 1868.

Il signor duca di Alva . . . mi disse, che come in questo abboccamento negotio alcuno non havevano trattato, ne volevano trattare, altro che della religione, così la lor differenza era nata per questo, perchè non vedeva che la regina ci pigliasse risolutione a modo suo ne de altro, che di buone parole ben generali. . . . È stato risoluto che alla tornata in Parigi si farà una ricerca di quelli che hanno contravenuto all' editto, e si castigaranno; nel che dice S. M. che gli Ugonotti ci sono talmente compresi, che spera con questo mezzo solo cacciare i Ministri di Francia.... Il Signor Duca di Alva si satisfa piu di questa deliberatione di me, perchè io non trovo che serva all' estirpation dell' heresia il castigar quelli che hanno contravenuto all' editto (Santa Croce to Borromeo, Bayonne, July 1, 1565, мS.).

Desjardins, Négociations avec la Toscane, iii. 756, 765, 802.

Io non ho fatto intendere cosa alcuna a nessuno principe; ho ben parlato al nunzio solo (Desp. Aug. 31; Desjardins, iii. 828).

Admiral or the Queen of Navarre to work | and that the sole remedy was utter extermi

a momentous change. * Cavalli, his successor, judged that a business so grossly mismanaged showed no signs of deliberation. There was another Venetian at Paris who was better informed. The Republic was seeking to withdraw from the league against the Turks; and her most illustrious statesman, Giovanni Michiel, was sent to solicit the help of France in negotiating peace. The account which he gave of his mission has been pronounced by a consummate judge of Venetian State-papers the most valuable report of the sixteenth century.§ He was admitted almost daily to secret conferences with Anjou, Nevers, and the group of Italians on whom the chief odium rests; and there was no counsellor to whom Catherine more willingly gave ear. Michiel affirms that the intention had been long entertained, and that the Nuncio had been directed to reveal it privately to Pius v.

Salviati was related to Catherine, and had gained her good opinion as Nuncio in the year 1570. The Pope had sent him back because nobody seemed more capable of diverting her and her son from the policy which caused so much uneasiness at Rome.*1 He died many years later, with the reputation of having been one of the most eminent Cardinals at a time when the Sacred College was unusually rich in talent. Personally, he had always favoured stern measures of repression. When the Countess of Entremont was married to Coligny, Salviati declared that she had made herself liable to severe penalties by entertaining proposals of marriage with so notorious a heretic, and demanded that the Duke of Savoy should, by all the means in his power, cause that wicked bride to be put out of the way.t1 When the peace of St. Germains was concluded, he assured Charles and Catherine that their lives were in danger, as the Huguenots were seeking to pull down the throne as well as the altar. He believed that all intercourse with them was sinful,

*Alberi, Relazioni Venete, xii. 250. † Alberi, xii. 328.

nation by the sword. "I am couvinced," he wrote, "that it will come to this." "I they do the tenth part of what I have advised, it will be well for them."* After an audience of two hours, at which he had presented a letter from Pius v., prophesying the wrath of Heaven, Salviati perceived that his exhortations made some impression. The King and Queen whispered to him that they hoped to make the peace yield such fruit that the end would more than countervail the badness of the beginning; and the King added, in strict confidence, that his plan was one which once told could never be executed. This might have been said to delude the Nuncio; but he was inclined on the whole to believe that it was sincerely meant. The impression was confirmed by the Archbishop of Sens, Cardinal Pellevé, who informed him that the Huguenot leaders were caressed at Court in order to detach them from their party, and that after the loss of their leaders it would not take more than three days to deal with the rest. Salviati on his return to France was made aware that his long deferred hopes were about to be fulfilled. He shadowed it forth obscurely in his despatches. He reported that the Queen allowed the Huguenots to pass into Flanders, believing that the Admiral would become more and more presumptuous until he gave her an opportunity of retribution; for she excelled in that kind of intrigue. Some days later he knew more, and wrote that he hoped soon to have good news for his Holiness.§ At the last mo ment his heart misgave him. On the morning of the 21st of August the Duke of Montpensier and the Cardinal of Bourbon spoke with so much unconcern, in his presence, of what was then so near, that he thought it hardly possible the secret could be kept.

Oct. 14, 1570.

Nov. 28, 1570.

+ Sept. 24, 1570.

Quando scrissi ai giorni passati alla S. V. Ill in cifra, che l'armiraglio s'avanzava troppo et che gli darebbero su l'unge, gia mi ero accorto, che non lo volevano più tollerare, et molto più mi confermai nell' opinione, quando con caratteri ordinarii glie scrivevo che speravo di dover haver occasione di dar qualche buona nova a Sua Beatitudine, benchè mai havrei creduto la x. parte di quello, che al presente veggo con gli occhi (Desp. Aug. 24; Theiner, An

Son principal but et dessein estoit de sentir quelle espérance ilz pourroient avoir de parvenir à la paix avec le G. S. dont il s'est ouvert et a demandé ce qu'il en pouvoit espérer et attendre (Charles IX. to Du Ferrier, Sept. 28, 1572; Char-nales, i. 329). rière, Négociations dans le Levant, iii. 310). § Ranke, Französische Geschichte, v. 76.

Digges, 258; Cosmi, Memorie di Morosini, 26. T Alberi, xii. 294.

Mittit eo Antonium Mariam Salviatum, reginæ affinem eique pergratum, qui cam in officio contineat (Cardinal of Vercelli, Comment, de Rebus Gregorii XIII.; Ranke, Päpste, App. 85).

Desp. Aug. 30, 1570.

Che molti siano stati consapevoli del fatto è necessario, potendogli dizer che a 21 la mattina, essendo col Cardinal di Borbone et M. de Montpensier, viddi che ragionavano si domesticamente di quello che doveva seguire, che in me medesimo restando confuso, conobbi che la prattica andava gagliarda, e piutosto disperai di buon fine che altrimente (same Desp.; Mackintosh, History of England, ii. 355).