History of the Rise of the Huguenots

1366

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 113; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 30.

1367

"Fere omnes qui non fuerunt participes cædis Amiralii et aliorum, dicunt, Huguenotos merito corripere arma ad tutandam suam salutem, cum nihil observetur eorum quæ hactenus fuerunt ipsis promissa." Languet, letter of April 14, 1574, Epistolæ secretæ, i. 239.

1368

"Et parmy leurs discours se representoient a chacun coup la journée de St. Barthélemy."

1369

The interesting particulars of the conference we obtain from two long and very important despatches of Biron to Charles IX., dated, the one, Ernandes, April 24th, the other, April 26th and 27th, 1574, MSS. Imperial Lib. of St. Petersburg, communicated to the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxii. (1873) 401-413, by M. Jean Loutchitzki.

1370

Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 117. Shrove Tuesday fell, in 1574, on March 9th.

1371

Ten miles from the château de St. Germain, and about the same distance from the palace of the Louvre. A part of the old forest yet remains.

1372

I follow Agrippa d'Aubigné, who here must be regarded as excellent authority, for not only was he present, but it was by his means ("par ma conduitte") that Guitry was introduced into Navarre's chamber. Hist. univ., ii. 119.

1373

Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 138) and the Mémoires de l'estat (Archives curieuses, "Discours de l'entreprise de St. Germain," viii. 107-118) give the last of February for the date of the discovery of the undertaking of Alençon; but, from a comparison of letters, Prof. Soldan has shown (ii. 580) that it really was March 1st.

1374

It is Agrippa d'Aubigné (Hist. univ., ii. 119) who depicts the scene. As he seems to have been present on the occasion, we may rely upon the truthfulness of the groundwork of his sketch, while ascribing a little of the coloring to the free hand of the artist.

1375

The testimony of Navarre and others is preserved, and has been published, together with the interrogatories, in the Archives curieuses, viii. 127-221.

1376

Pierre de Lestoile, Mémoires (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), 30. Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 7, 8.

1377

Jean de Serres, iv. 136; Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 8.

1378

"Je sçais bien que ce sont des chats que vos huguenots, qui se retrouvent tousjours sur leurs pieds." Mém. de Pierre de Lestoile (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), 53.

1379

"Ains les laissant en paix comme ministres de l'utilité commune, et pères nourriciers des autres estats."

1380

P. Brisson, Hist. et vray discours des guerres civiles ès pays de Poictou, apud Histoire des protestants et des églises réf. du Poitou, par Auguste Lièvre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 189, 190.

1381

De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 33.

1382

De Thou, v. 44; Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, etc., 638. Miss Freer ("Henry III., King of France, His Court and Times," i. 366) accepts the statement without question, while Prof. Soldan, ii. 587, rejects it, basing his action upon a passage in another treatise of D'Aubigné than that referred to below, viz.: "Choses notables et qui semblent dignes de l'histoire," in Archives curieuses, viii. 411.

1383

Hist. univ., ii. 126. See a contemporary account: "La Prinse du Comte de Montgommery dedans le Chasteau de Donfron … le Jeudy xxvii. de May, mil cinq cens soixante et quatorze. A Paris, 1574. Avec Privilege." Archives curieuses, viii. 223-238.

1384

Aug. 13, 1569; see Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Béarn, et Navarre (Paris, 1609), pp. 616, 617. According to this author, "le voyage de Béarn, et le coup de Navarreux sur la noblesse du païs luy cousta cela," i. e., his execution. Ib., p. 639.

1385

Mémoires d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), pp. 168, 169. See ante, chapter xiii., p. 78. Chantonnay (despatch of May 6, 1562) speaks of Montgomery as "se ventant que la plus belle et digne œuvre que se soit jamais faicte en France, fut le coup de lance dont il tua le roy Henry. Je m'esbayhis comme la royne le peult dissimuler." Mém. de Condé, ii. 37.

1386

"Discours de la Mort et Exécution de Gabriel Comte de Montgommery, par Arrest de la Court, pour les conspirations et menees par luy commises, contre le Roy et son estat. Qui fut à Paris, le vingtsixiesme de Iuing, 1574. A Paris, 1574. Avec priv." (Archives cur., viii. 239-253.)

1387

Doubtless repeating the words of the Confession of Sins, beginning: "Seigneur Dieu, Père Eternel et Tout-puissant," etc., a form loved by the Huguenots, and often on the lips of martyrs for the faith.

1388

Mémoires de Lestoile, i. 38. Agrippa d'Aubigné gives us (ii. 131) a full account of Montgomery's address, which he himself heard, mounted, as he informs us, "en croupe" behind M. de Fervaques, to whom Montgomery bade farewell just before his death. The Huguenot captain made but two requests of the bystanders: "the first, that they would tell his children, whom the judges had declared to be degraded to the rank of 'roturiers,' that, if they had not virtue of nobility enough to reassert their position, their father consented to the act; as for the other request, he conjured them, by the respect due to the words of a dying man, not to represent him to others as beheaded for any of the reasons assigned in his judicial condemnation – his wars, expeditions, and ensigns won – subjects of frivolous praise to vain men – but to make him the companion in cause and in death of so many simple persons according to the world – old men, young men, and poor women – who in that same place (the Place de Grève) had endured fire and knife." D'Aubigné's narrative, as usual, is vivid, and mentions somewhat trivial details, which, however, are additional pledges of its accuracy; e. g., he alludes to the fact that, having spoken as above to those who stood on the side toward the river, he repeated his remarks to those on the other side of the Place de Grève, beginning with the words, "I was saying to the men yonder," etc.

1389

De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 48.

1390

Hist. univ., ii. (liv. ii.) 129.

1391

Mémoires de Pierre de Lestoile (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 31.

1392

De Thou, v. 48; text in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv. 262.

1393

Mémoires de Claude Haton, ii. 764

1394

North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 27.

1395

Or, as Sorbin expressed it, "qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque n'estre encores du tout chassée." Le vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes, 88, ibid., ubi supra. The expression, it will be noticed, contains a distinct reference to the anagram upon the name of "Charles de Valois" – "va chasser l'idole," upon which the Huguenots had founded brilliant hopes. See ante, chapter xiii., p. 123. On the other hand, since the massacre, some Huguenot had discovered that from the same name could be obtained the appropriate words "chasseur déloyal." Recueil des choses mémorables (1598), 506.

1396

Languet, ii. 16.

1397

Agrippa D'Aubigné, ii. 129; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 50. Charles left but one legitimate child, a daughter, born Oct. 27, 1572, who died in her sixth year.

1398

Claude Haton, never more himself than when recounting the circumstances of a case of murder, whether by sword or by poison, fully credits the story; but the letter of Catharine to M. de Matignon, written on the 31st of May, gives an intelligible account of the results of the medical examination establishing the pulmonary nature of the king's disease.

1399

Jean de Serres, Comment de statu, etc., iv., fol. 137.

1400

See examples given by White (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 480) and others.

1401

De Thou and others ascribe to Albert de Gondy, Count of Retz, one of Charles's early instructors and a creature of Catharine de' Medici, the unenviable credit of having taught the young monarch never to tell the truth, and to use those horrible imprecations which startled even the profane when coming from the lips of a dying man. De Thou, v. 47, etc. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 137, and Brantôme, Le roy Charles IXe.

1402

See the contemporary pamphlet, "Le Trespas et Obsèques du très-chrestien roy de France, Charles IXe. de ce Nom;" reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses.