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and more favourable to the friends and confederates of CHA P. England. XLIV.

THE violence of the League having constrained Henry to declare war against the Hugonots, thefe religionifts 1590. French seemed expofed to the utmost danger; and Elizabeth, fenfible of the intimate connection between her own inter- affairs. efts and those of that party, had fupported the king of Navarre by her negociations in Germany, and by large fums of money, which the remitted for levying forces in that country. That great prince, not difcouraged by the fuperiority of his enemies, took the field; and in the year 1587 gained, at Coutras, a complete victory over the army of the French king; but as his allies, the Germans, were at the fame time difcomfited by the army of the League, under the duke of Guife, his fituation, notwithftanding his victory, feemed ftill as defperate as ever. The chief advantage, which he reaped from this diversity of fuccefs, was the diffentions, which, by that means, took place among his enemies. The inhabitants of Paris, intoxicated with admiration of Guife, and strongly prejudiced against their king, whofe intentions had become fufpicious to them, took to arms, and obliged Henry to fly for his fafety. That prince, diffembling his refèntment, entered into a negociation with the League; and having conferred many high offices on Guife and his partizans, fummoned an affembly of the ftates at Blois, on pretence of finding means and expedients to fupport the intended war against the Hugonots. The various fcenes of perfidy and cruelty, which had been exhibited in France, had juftly begot a mutual diffidence among all parties; yet Guife, trufting more to the timidity, than honour of the king, rafhly put himself into the hands of that monarch, and expected, by the afcendant of his own genius, to make him fubmit to all his exorbitant prétenfions. Henry, though of an eafy difpofition, not fted- Murder of dy to his refolutions, or even to his promifes, wanted the duke of neither courage nor capacity; and finding all his fubtilties Guife. eluded by the vigour of Guife, and even his throne expofed to the molt imminent danger, he embraced more violent counfels than were natural to him, and ordered that prince and his brother, the cardinal of Guise, to be affaffinated in his palace.

THIS cruel execution, which the neceffity of it could alone excufe, had nearly proved fatal to the author, and

seemed

CHAP. feemed at first to plunge him into greater dangers than XLIV. thofe which he fought to avoid, by taking vengeance on

his enemy. The partizans of the League were enflamed 1590. with the utmost rage against him: The populace every where, particularly at Paris, renounced allegiance to him: The ecclefiaftics and the preachers filled all places with execrations against his name: And the most powerful cities and moft opulent provinces appeared to combine in a refolution, either of renouncing monarchy, or of changing their monarch. Henry, finding flender resources among his catholic fubjects, was conftrained to enter into a confederacy with the Hugonots and the king of Navarre He enlifted large bodies of Swifs infantry and German cavalry: And being ftill fupported by his chief nobility, he affembled, by all these means, an army of near forty thousand men, and advanced to the gates of Paris, ready to crush the League, and fubdue all his enemies. The defperate resolution of one man diverted the course of these great events. Jaques Clement, a Dominican fryar, inflamed by that bloody fpirit of bigotry, which diftinguishes this century and a great part of the following beyond all ages of the world, embraced the refolution of facrificing his own life, in order to fave the church from the perfecutions of an heretical tyrant; and being admitted, under fome pretext, to the king's preMurder of fence, he gave that prince a mortal wound, and was imHenry the mediately put to death, by the courtiers, who hastily revenged the murder of their fovereign. This memorable incident happened on the first of Auguft, 1589.

third.

THE king of Navarre, next heir to the crown, affumed the government, under the title of Henry the fourth; but fucceeded to much greater difficulties than those which furrounded his predeceffor. The prejudices, entertained against his religion, made a great part of the nobility defert him; and it was only by his promise of hearkening to conferences and inftruction, that he could engage any of the catholics to adhere to his undoubted title. The League, governed by the duke of Mayenne, brother to Guise, gathered new force; and the king of Spain entertained views, either of difmembering the French monarchy, or of annexing the whole to his own dominions. In these distressful circumftances, Henry addressed himself to Elizabeth, and found her well difpofed to contribute to his affiftance, and to oppofe the progrefs of the catholic

League,

League, and of the king of Spain, her inveterate and CHA P. dangerous enemies. To prevent the desertion of his Swifs XLIV. and German auxiliaries, she made him a prefent of twentytwo thousand pounds; a larger fum than, as he declared, 1590. he had ever feen before: And the fent him a reinforcement of four thousand men, under lord Willoughby, an officer of reputation, who joined the French at Dieppe. Strengthened by these fupplies, Henry marched directly to Paris; and having taken the fuburbs fword in hand, he abandoned them to be pillaged by his foldiers. He employed this body of English troops in many other enterprizes, and found ftill reafon to praise their courage and fidelity. The time of their service being elapfed, he dismiffed them with many high commendations. Sir William Drury, fir Thomas Baskerville, and fir John Boroughs acquired reputation this campaign, and revived in France the antient fame of English valour.

THE army which Henry next campaign led into the Progress of field, was much inferior to that of the League; but as Henry IV. it was composed of the chief nobility of France, he feared not to encounter his enemies in a pitched battle at Yvree, and he gained a compleat victory over them. This fuccefs enabled him to blockade Paris, and he reduced that capital to the laft extremity of famine; when the duke of Parma, in confequence of orders from Philip, marched to the relief of the League, and obliged Henry to raise the blockade. Having performed this important fervice, he retired to the Low Countries: and by his confummate fkill in the art of war, performed thefe long marches in the face of the enemy, without affording the French monarch that opportunity which he fought of giving him battle, or so much as putting his army once in diforder. The only lofs which he sustained was in the Low Countries, where prince Maurice took advantage of his abfence, and recovered fome places, which Parma had formerly conquered from the States P.

THE fituation of Henry's affairs, though promifing, was not fo well advanced or established as to make the queen difcontinue her fuccours; and fhe was still more VOL. V. confirmed

U

D See note at the end of the volume.

CHA P. confirmed in the refolution of fupporting him, by fome XLIV. advantages gained by the king of Spain. The duke of

Mercœur, governor of Britanny, a prince of the house 1590. of Lorraine, had declared for the League; and finding himself hard preffed by Henry's forces, he had been obliged, in order to fecure himself, to introduce fome Spanish troops into the fea-port towns of that province. Elizabeth was alarmed with the danger, and foresaw that the Spaniards, befides infesting the English commerce by privateers, might employ thefe harbours as the feat of their naval preparations, and might more easily, from that near neighbourhood, than from Spain or Portugal, project an invasion of England. She concluded, therefore, a new treaty with Henry, in which the engaged to fend over three thousand men, to be employed in the reduction of Brittany, and ftipulated that her charges fhould, in a twelvemonth, or as foon as the enemy was expelled, be refunded her E. These forces were commanded by Sir John Norris; and under him by his brother Henry, and by Anthony Shirley. Sir Roger Williams was at the head of a fmall body which garrifoned Dieppe: And a fquadron of fhips, under the command of fir Henry Palmer, lay upon the coaft of France, and intercepted all the veffels belonging to the Spaniards or the Leaguers.

THE operations of war can very little be regulated beforehand by any treaty or agreement; and Henry, who found it neceffary to lay afide the projected enterprize against Britanny, perfuaded the English commanders to join his army, and to take a fhare in the hoftilities which he carried into Picardy F. Notwithstanding the disgust which Elizabeth received from this disappointment, he laid before her a plan for expelling the Leaguers from Normandy, and perfuaded her to fend over a new body of four thousand men, to affift him in that enterprize. The earl of Effex was appointed general of thefe forces; a young nobleman, who, by many exterior accomplishments, and still more real merit, was daily advancing in favour with Elizabeth, and feemed to occupy that place in her affections which Leicester, now deceased, had fo long enjoyed. Effex, impatient for military fame, was extremely uneafy to lie fome time at Dieppe unemploy

Camden, p. 561. * Rymer, tom. xiv. p. 116.

ed;

1591.

ed; and had not the orders, which he received from his CHA P. mistress, been fo pofitive, he would gladly have ac- XLIV. cepted of Henry's invitation, and have marched to join the French army now in Champagne. This plan of operations was alfo propofed to Elizabeth by the French ambaffador; but the rejected it with great difpleasure; and the threatened immediately to recal her troops, if Henry fhould perfevere any longer in his prefent practice, of breaking all concert with her, and attending to nothing but his own interefts G. Urged by thefe motives, the French king, at last, led his army into Normandy, and laid fiege to Rouen, which he reduced to great difficulties. But the League, unable of themfelves to take the field against him, had again recourfe to the duke of Parma, who received orders to march to their relief. He executed this enterprize with his ufual ability and fuccefs; and, for the prefent, fruftrated all the projects of Henry and Elizabeth. This princefs, who kept ftill in view the interefts of her own kingdom. in all her foreign tranfactions, was impatient under thefe disappointments, blamed Henry for his negligence in the execution of treaties, and complained that the English forces were thrust foremost in every hazardous enterprize H. It is probable, however, that their own ardent courage, and their defire of diftinguishing themselves in fo celebrated a theatre of war, were the caufes why they fo often enjoyed this perilous honour.

NOTWITHSTANDING the indifferent fuccefs of former enterprizes, the queen was fenfible how neceflary it was to fupport Henry against the League and the Spaniards; and the formed a new treaty with him, in which they agreed never to make peace with Philip, but by common confent; he promised to fend him a new fupply of four thousand men; and be ftipulated to repay her charges in a twelvemonth, to employ thefe forces, joined to a body of French troops, in an expedition against Britanny, and to confign into her hands a fea-port town of that province, for a retreat to the English. Henry knew the impoffibility of executing fome of thefe articles, and the U 2 imprudence

G Birch's Negociations, p. 5. Rymer, tom. xiv. p. 123,
H Camden, p. 562.
Rymer, vol xvi.

140.
p. 151, 168, 171, 173.

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