to be deeply incensed at the murder, imprisoned the assassins, and appeared to be, with difficulty, prevented from proceeding rigorously against them; but after the St Bartholomew, says. Le Laboureur, on ne soucia plus de faire mystere de ce meur'tre. '* Other explanations have been given of this assassination. Some pretend, that he had attempted to excite dissensions in the royal family; + others, that he fell a sacrifice to the resentment of a lady connected with the Duke of Anjou. ‡ Some say that he was too much beloved by a Princess; and, others, that he had boasted indiscreetly of a lady's favours. || Walsingham's correspondence, to which Dr Lingard refers his readers, describes him as an instrument employed by the House of Guise, and the rest of the Spanish faction, to prevent the marriage, and represents his death as no small furtherance to 'the cause;' but contains nothing to colour or justify the insinuation, that he fell a victim to the resentment of the Hugonots.¶ In his account of the interview at Bayonne, between the Queen of Spain and the Duke of Alva on the one side, and the Queenmother of France and her son Charles on the other, Dr Lingard has taken liberties with the authorities he cites, not less unwarrantable than those he has used on the St Bartholomew, In a note professing to examine into the truth of the supposed league of the Catholic Princes at Bayonne, for the extirpation, first of the Protestants in France, and then of the Protestants in other countries,' he tells us, on the authority of letters from Philip of Spain to his sister the Dutchess Margaret, the substance of which has been published by Strada, 'that the • French monarch professed a determination to support the Catholic faith.'*** What! no more than an innocent determination to support the Catholic faith! What says Strada, who had no motive to exaggerate, and no intention to suppress the truth? From a letter of Philip to his sister, of the 25th of September (1565), he informs us, Hispaniæ reginam multis ' gravissimisque rationibus, haud dubie a Philippo imperatis, •laboranti per Galliam religioni remedium a fratre, a parente, quorum præcipue intererat, efflagitasse; illosque quam optime 'animatos ad ea, quæ agitata sunt, consilia reperisse. • Marriages were proposed, and an alliance suggested against the Turks; but nothing was settled, regina declinante omnia præter causam religionis, quam, quum iterum, Albano suggerente, commendasset, utrinque discessam est.' The his 6 * Castelnau, i. 776.-Davila, i. 270-Matthieu, 335. † Tavannes, 378. Mezeray, ii. 1078. Matthieu, 343. ¶ Digges, 161. Thuan. iii. 66. ** Lingard, viii. 71. torian adds, that many have thought the massacre of the heretics at Paris, executed seven years afterwards, was planned at this interview; id quod mihi neque abnuere neque affirmare promptum fuerit, potius inclinat animus ut credam.' He is also of opinion, that the mutual aid, afterwards given by the two crowns against their heretical subjects, was settled there; nam Philippus, illa, quam dicebam, epistola, innuit aliquod de hujusmodi subsidiis ad profligandam hæresim mutuo in posterum submittendis.' * It appears from these extracts that something more passed at this interview than a mere profession on the part of the French King of his determination to support the Catholic faith ;' that his sister repeatedly urged him and her mother to apply some remedy to the suffering state of religion in France,-that is, suffering from impatience of the toleration, imperfect as it was, accorded to the Protestants by the peace of 1563; that she found them exceedingly well disposed to follow the counsels, which at the suggestion of her husband she had recommended; and that a mutual understanding had taken place between the two Kings, to assist each other in future against their heretical subjects. It appears also, that the historian, who perused this correspondence, of which we have only his abstract, was inclined to believe, that the massacre of St Bartholomew was concerted at this meeting. How far the suppression of these particulars is reconcileable with the candour and good faith to be expected from an historian, we leave our readers to decide. Dr Lingard is at pains to inform us, that the meeting was solicited by the King of France, and reluctantly acceded to by Philip. It is true, that it was with reluctance Philip consented to this meeting; but, after it had been settled, he was inclined to attend. Strada informs us of this fact, and that it was in the hope of rendering some effectual service to the Catholic cause, that he was disposed, even at the risk of his dignity, to be there in person: "Et sane rogatum ab Isabella uxore, ⚫ ut præsentia sua gaudium cumularet; haud alienum se osten• disse certum habeo ex ejus literis ad gubernatricem, (3d • February).' His sister having dissuaded him from going, lest he should expose himself among the French to familiarities derogatory from his dignity, he replied, (3d March), Si doceatur ad religionem pertinere, ut ipse intersit, decretum 'sibi jam tum esse, pro Dei causa nullis sese molestiis periculisve 'subtrahere.' He was prevented after all from attending, by the news of the siege of Malta, as he wrote to the Dutchess Famiana Strada de Bello Belgico, 109--Romæ 1632. 6 (27th September); or, as the historian, from a knowledge of his character, shrewdly conjectures, ex longinquo melius responsa ' daturus;' and for the same reason he withheld from the Queen the power of concluding any thing without first consulting him by letter. Dr Lingard boasts, that of this league no satisfactory evi'dence has ever been produced.' If he means that the articles of the treaty have never been published, he is in the right. They were probably never reduced to writing. But, if the concurrent opinions of the best informed writers of the age, Catholic as well as Protestant, be admitted as an evidence of an historical fact, there can be no doubt that plans were discussed, and measures projected at Bayonne, for the destruction of heresy in France. Adriani, a contemporary historian of eminence and credit, informs us of the private conferences of the Queen-mother and the Duke of Alva at Bayonne, on the means of delivering France from heretics. Et in ultimo si attenero al consiglio del Re ⚫ Catolico, esposto dal duca d'Alva, che non se potesse ciò fare · senza la morte di tutti i capi de gli Ugonotti, et fare, secondo il proverbio, un vespro Siciliano; et finalmente resolverono, como il Re tornasse a Molins nel Borbonese, dove si credeva 'essere abitazione per il Re in azzione di tanta importanza 'forte et sicura, di far quivi questa strage, che segui poi l'anno 1572, in Parigi il giorno di San Bartolomeo, al quel tempo si ' reservo tale esecuzione, per alcuni sospetti, che apparivano • negli Ugonotti, et per difficulta di condurvegli tutti, et ancora perche piu sicuro luogo era Parigi che Molins.' * Adriani is supposed to have derived the materials for his history from the Journal of Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who died in 1574. + Davila, whose family enjoyed the favour and confidence of the Queen-mother, informs us, that at Bayonne both parties were agreed on the destruction of heresy; but that Alva recommended at once to cut off the heads of the tallest poppies, to catch the large fish and let the small fry alone, saying, one salmon was worth a hundred frogs; while she riserbando questo per 'ultimo partito,' wished if possible to prevent the effusion of blood, and by peaceable means to bring back the Hugonot chiefs to the church. They parted, he says, with the resolution to lend one another mutual aid, but each to take his own course, and to pursue the plan that seemed best adapted to his situation. + †Thuan. ii. 435. * Storia, ii. 1320, Ed. of 1583. onne. 6 The author of the Memoires of Tavannes, whose authority Dr Lingard will hardly decline, says expressly, that at Bayonne the Queens of France and Spain, and the Duke of Alva, came to the resolution of extirpating heresy both in France and Flanders; and in stating the reasons of the Protestants for their enterprise at Meaux, assigns the principal place to the impression left on their minds by the interview of BayLes synodes deffendus,' he observes, les meurtres • impunis, les modifications de l'edit de pacification, ne mirent tant en soupçon les Huguenots que l'assemblée de Bayonne ; là ou il fut resolu, que les deux couronnes se protegeroient, ⚫ maintiendroient la religion Catholique, ruineroient leurs rebelles, et que les chefs seditieux seroient attrapez et justiciez :' and with the same candour he acknowledges, that the levy of Swiss, on pretence of guarding against the Duke of Alva, was made by the Queen-mother pour s'assurer. '* It is well known, that the advance of these Swiss into the interior of France, after the Duke of Alva had passed into Flanders, was the immediate cause or pretext of the insurrection of the Protestants. Castelnau, who had so great a share in defeating their enterprise, says it was undertaken on an opinion vray semblable ou imaginaire,' that their destruction was in contemplation; and his commentator Le Laboureur more decidedly asserts, that the Hugonots were bien avertis ⚫ de la ligue qu'on brassoit contre eux presqu'à decouvert de'puis l'entrevue de Bayonne. '+ In what degree the Protestants were informed of the secret resolutions taken at Bayonne, it is more difficult to decide. That they had suspicions, confirmed by the subsequent conduct of the government towards them, is most certain; ‡ but to what extent they were informed of the particular designs entertained to their prejudice, is not so clear. Without adopting the whole of the story told by Matthieu, § of the private consultations between Alva and the Queen-mother, overheard by the Prince of Bearn, and by him repeated to his mother, it is not impossible that some of the expressions imputed to Alva may have dropped from him in presence of the young Prince; and retained by him on account of their singularity, that they may have been repeated to others who could better affix a meaning to them. Since writing the above, we have perused in the Memoires de Nevers, || the original of this story in a memoir of Calignon, * Tevannes, 282-296. + Castlenau, 1. 189-213-ii. 344-456. § Matthieu, 283, Pasquier, Euvres, ii. 110. Mem. de Nevers, ii. 577, 6 Chancellor of Navarre, which converts our conjecture into certainty. Calignon relates, nearly in the words of Matthieu, the account given to him by Henry IV. of the conversations he overheard between the Queen-mother and the Duke of Alva. Much was said about the extirpation of heresy; and the expression of Alva, qu'une tête de Saumon valoit mieux que celles de cent grenouilles,' having struck the imagination of the young Prince, remained engraved on his memory. La Noue also, an author of the highest credit, enumerates, among the reasons for the enterprise at Meaux, La resolution 'prise à Bayonne avec le duc d'Alve d'exterminer les Huguenots de France et les Gueux de Flandre, de quoy on avoit 'été averti par ceux de qui on ne se doutoit pas. La Noue adds, that before their final resolution was taken, the Hugonots held three several meetings, at the two first of which it was decided, chiefly by the influence of the Admiral, to remain quiet; but at the third, it was determined to take up arms, certain information having been received from Court that it was resolved, in the Secret Council, to arrest the Prince of Condé and the Admiral, to shut up the one in prison, and to put the other to death. * Similar confederacies against the Protestants had been in agitation among the Catholic Princes at a still earlier period. When William, Prince of Orange, went to France as an hostage after the peace of Cateau Cambresis, he was told by Henry II., with whom he was in habits of familiarity, that the Duke of Alva had proposed to him a scheme for the extermination of heresy, not only in France and Flanders, but throughout all Christendom. Not suspecting the secret bias of the prince in favour of the reformed religion, the King talked to him freely of their design, and of the means for carrying it into execution. Part of their plan was, to establish an Inquisition in the Low Countries, more severe than that of Spain. † There is a mode of telling a story, that, without being positively false, conveys an impression very different from the truth. Dr Lingard, when he chooses, is an adept in that art. He informs us, that after the conferences at Poissy, the Catholics were joined by the King of Navarre and the Queen Regent, ' with her son.' It is true, that some time after the conferences at Poissy, the Catholics were joined by the King of Navarre; but it is not true that they were joined by the Queen *La Noue, 606. + Apologie du Guillaume, Prince d'Orange-Dumont, i. 384, Lingard, vii. 417. |