LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 944.02 R29Wb The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN riMi 2 9 m \ ^ 197 NOV 91 975 5 w L161 — O-1096 SOME MEMORIALS OF RENEE OF FRANCE DUCHESS OF FERRAEA BOSWORTH AND HARRISON, REGENT STREET 1859 Tke right of tramiation is reserved LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUARE f0 t^£ blxj&tb Ultmorj of ''4Cy(3505 P R E FAC E. More that ten years ago, it was suggested to me by a friend (who has since passed away) that a Memoir of Renee of France, Duchess of Ferrara, would be a desirable addition even to the already abundant stores of historical biography. It appeared that the incidents of her life and the traits of her character, preserved in the extant records of her times, were such as to excite the wish that more were known of one whose claims to be had in enduring recollection were neither few nor slight. The suggestion thus originated, was impres- sively seconded by the most efficient aid that my friend could afford; and I add, gratefully, that her lively interest in the execution of the scheme ceased only with her endeared and honoured life. Others, known to me in person, or by reputation only, on being appealed to, responded most readily with assistance, either indicating sources whence information might be drawn, or prose- cuting researches in quarters to which at that period I had no means of access. To every one of these I beg to offer my sincere and cordial thanks. If I do not name them, it is from no inadequate sense of the ser- vices which they have rendered me. They will be more viii PREFACE. gratified by being assured that they have efficiently helped me, and that I trust never to forget the obli- gations under which they have laid me. If I did enumerate those my surviving auxiliaries, I should be impelled to specify one, " a friend of many years," who has gone into the work of research and revision of materials for me with a voluntary earnest- ness, relieving my mind, while it has clearly gratified his own spirit. But he who has thus aided me, will be better pleased with the consciousness of having done so as a private friend, undesirous of publicity. My effort at authorship lays no claim to originality. It is but a compilation from various sources, some printed, some in manuscript, some old and familiar, others recently opened. Eeference to the authorities which I have consulted and indicated will show at once the extent of my obligations to them, even where I may not fully have acknowledged it by the customary marks of quotation. I wish my confession of every omission of this kind, which may be discovered, to be understood in the amplest sense ; for I should be indeed ashamed to incur the slightest imputation of that literary dishonesty which, availing itself of the labours of others, assumes the credit as its own. 1. M. B. June \%th^ 1859. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Renee's Birth and Baptism. — Her Personal Appearance. — Her Governess, Madame de Soubise. —Her Mother, Anne of Bretagne. —Matrimonial Projects for Renee.— Character of " the Good Queen Claude." — Renee promised in Marriage to the Prince Ercole of CHAPTER n. Character of Ercole, Prince of Ferrara.-Character of Renee.— Marriage of Renee.— Her Departure to Italy. -Her Reception at Ferrara.— Her Patronage of Literature. — Her Religious Opinions Favour to the Fraternity of St. Fran9ois de Paul.-Birth of the Princess Anna. —Renee's charitable Disposition. —Her Visit to Venice. — Death of Alfonso I. ... CHAPTER HI. Accession of Ercole n.~His Acts as a Sovereign.-His Literary Sym- pathies with Renea~His Journey to Rome.- Clement Marot at Ferrara.— John Calvin.— His Influence over the Duchess.-His Cha- racter. -Anne de Parthenai and her Husband.-Men of Literature at Renee's Court.— Birth of Lucrezia, the second Daughter of Renee.— I Ercole's Disappointment at Rome.— His Return to Ferrara.— Flight of Marot—Danger of Calvin.- His Arrest and Deliverance.- Renee I compelled to conceal her Religious Opinions ... 30 b X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Dawn of the Reformation in Italy. — Writings of the Reformers. — Their Preachers. — Bernardo Ochino. — Antonio Bruccioli's Italian Trans- lation of the Bible. — Dedication to Renee. — Vittoria Colonna. — Ochino proscribed as a Heretic. — Saved by Renee's Intervention. — Birth of Renee's youngest Child, Luigi. — Education of the Princess Anna. — Olympia Morata. — Her Genius, and Friendship with Anna d'Este. — Visit of Pope Paul III. to Eerrara. — Festivities consequent thereon. — Shadows of future Persecution. — The Court of Eerrara. — Its illustrious Men and Women. — Commencement of Calvin's Correspondence with Renee Page 52 CHAPTER V. Calvin's Epistle to Renee. — Her Complicity in the Conspiracy of Fieschi at Genoa. — Death of Francis I. — Marriage of Anna d'Este with Fran9ois de Guise. — Disgrace of Olympia Morata. — Faventino Fannio. — Order of the Jesuits at Eerrara. — Henry 11. of France sends the Inquisitor Oriz to Eerrara to convert Renee. — Failure of his Mission. — Renee sent to the Palazzo di Consandolo. — Her attempts to "proselytize." — Imprisonment of Renee in the Castle of Eerrara. — Separation from her Children. — She sends for the Jesuit Pelletario. — Her Reconciliation to the Church of Rome and to her Husband Ercole II. — Her Return to the Palazzo di Fran- cesco . • • . 73 CHAPTER VI. News of the Duchess Renee's Recantation received by Calvin, and by Olympia Morata. — Some further Notices of Olympia Morata's Life in Germany. — Its Joys and Sorrows. — Letter of Olympia Morata to Anna d'Este. — Olympia's last Illness and Death at Heidelberg. — Return of Prince Alfonso to Eerrara., and Reconciliation with his Father the Duke, whom he had disobliged by his Flight to France — CONTENTS. xi Partiality of Duke Ercole for Imperial Interests in Italy Accession of Paul IV. to the Papal Chair, and of Philip 11. to the Throne of Spain. — The two Despots on ill Terms with each other. — Paul IV. invokes another French Invasion of Italy The Duke of Perrara persuaded to take the Side of France by the Duke of Guise and by Paul IV. — Failure of the Enterprise in consequence of the Recall of Guise, necessitated by the Battle of St. Quentin. — Prince Alfonso of Ferrara returns to France, and nearly loses his Life by a Fall from the Duke d'Aumale's Horse Ercole's Refusal to carry the War into the Neapolitan Dominions. — The Review at Reggio" of the Armies of France and Ferrara. — The War distasteful to Ercole II. — Conspiracy against him, which fails. — Paul IV. omits to have the Duke of Ferrara included in his Treaty of Peace with Philip II. — Desperate State of Ercole's Affairs. — Prince Alfonso defeats the Army of Parma. — Good Offices of Cosmo, Duke of Florence. — He succeeds in bringing about a Peace between Spain and Ferrara. — Marriage of Prince Alfonso with Lucrezia, Daughter of Cosmo. — His Departure to France. — Montluc's Visit to the Ducal Family at Ferrara, and warm Reception by the Duchess Renee. — Renee's benevolent Care for the perishing Soldiery of Guise's Army in Italy. — Her liberal Provision for their Necessities. — Her Reply to the Remonstrances of her Steward Page 109 CHAPTER VII. Galeazzo Caraccioli. — Epistle of Calvin to Renee. — Her " Vexations." — Persecutions in France. — Deaths of Henry 11. and of Ercole II. — Character of the latter. — Succession of Alfonso II. — His Reception and " Progress." — Renee's Retirement to France. — The Cause of it 132 CHAPTER VIII. France, on Renee's Return. — Its Court.- — Its religious State. — Leaders of the French Reformation. — The Constable. — The Guises. — The House of Bourbon. — Persecution of the "Huguenots." — Conspiracy of Amboise. — Its Failure. — Cruel Executions. — Anna d'Este's Grief. — Edict of Romoran tin 1.51 xii CONTENTS, CHAPTER IX, Parties in France. — Convocation of the States- General. — New Con- spiracy detected. — Conde arrested and sentenced to Death. — Renee on her Arrival remonstrates. — Francis II. dies. — Fall of the Guises. — — Conde released. — Renee*s Communications to and from Queen Elizabeth. — Catherine's Policy. — Her Astrology and Renee's Page 173 CHAPTER X. The " Triumvirate." — Fiercely intolerant Edict of the Parliament of Paris. — Increase of Protestantism — Jeanne d'Albret its Friend — Montargis. — Renee makes it a Refuge for the Persecuted. — Tolerant Edict. — Antoine of Navarre deserts the Protestant Cause — His Motive — His Presumption Massacre of Vassy. — Renee's prudent and courageous Conduct. — Outrages at Montargis repressed by her 197 CHAPTER XL Assassination of the Duke of Guise. — Edict of Amboise. — Coligni accused — Solemnly denies his Guilt. — Reconciliation at Moulins. — Alienation of Duchess of Guise from the Reformed. — Calvin's Letter to Renee complaining of her. — Renee suspected by the Reformed. — Long and interesting Vindication of herself in a Letter to Calvin. — Marriage of Duchess of Guise to the Duke of Nemours . .219 CHAPTER XII. Death of Calvin. — Letters to and from Renee. — Huguenot Project — Its Failure. — War. — The Constable killed. — Treaty of Longjumeau. Conde and Coligni take Alarm — Edict against the Reformed. — War resumed. — Conde killed at Jarnac. — D'Andelot dies. — Defeat at Montcontour. — Renee at Montargis is obliged to dismiss the Reformed. — Edict insidiously favourable to the Reformed. — Renee's Troubles in private Affairs.— Her Statement drawn up for her Son. — Massacre of St. Bartholomew. — Anna d'Este — Her Guilt — Her Sufferings Lucrezia d'Este. — Renee's Decay — Her Death . . . 246 eenEe of feance. CHAPTER I. Eenee's Birth and Baptism. — Her Personal Appearance. — Her Governess, Madame de Soubise. — Her Mother, Anne of Bretagne. — Matrimonial Projects for Renee. — Character of the Good Queen Claude." — Renee promised in Marriage to the Prince Ercole of Ferrara. Of the issue of Louis XII.'s ambitious marriage with Anne^ heiress of the Duchy of Bretagne, two daughters only survived. The elder, born Oct. 14, 1499, and married in 15 14 to the Comte d'Angouleme, afterwards Francis I., is known to all readers of French history as " the Grood Queen Claude." The younger, who was born after the lapse of eleven years, on the 25th of October, 15 10, at the royal residence of Blois, received the name of Renee at her baptism, by the express desire of her joyful mother.* The sponsors of the royal child were Madame de Bourbon, and Madame de Bouchaige, also the celebrated Jean- Jacques de Trivulzio, Marshal of France. f * Bernier's Histoire de Blois. f flistoire de Louis XII. par Messire Claude Seyssel, Archeveque de Turin, p. 383. B 2 ME3I0EIALS OF The young princess was called une belle fille";* in fact^ she is described in a letter of the time^ as ^' bien belle, blanche, et toute jolie." | But this portraiture of Eenee, if true at all, could only have been so during her infant years. Her personal appearance in after life is usually described as the reverse of attractive, and in more than one instance the limner has confirmed the testimony of the historian on this point.J The old chronicler of Blois tells us that King Louis v^ould now and then divert himself at his child's expense, on account of the deformity of her figure, and that one day he added to his ordinary jests on this subject the remark that, for one so plain as Eenee, it might be hard in future time to find a husband. But the queen, who was present, coldly reproved the saying, by re- plying with serious emphasis, " The love which personal beauty alone excites, passes away as quickly as its object; but that which is prompted by mental beauty is not subject to change, being fixed on that which is in itself enduring." § It was therefore Queen Anne's wise aspiration for her young daughter, that as she grew to woman's * Histoire de Louis XII. par Messire Claude Seyssel, Archeveque de Turin, p. 383. t Lettres de Louis XIL t. iii. p. 36. J There is a portrait of Kenee in the Galerie du Louvre which cer- tainly conveys no idea of beauty. It was probably taken before her marriage. The MS. collections of Roddi in the British Museum contain a rough sketch of her in her old age, which is even more unsightly. § Bernier's Hist, de Blois. EENEE OF FRANCE. estate, the superior cultivation of her mind might compensate her deficiency in personal charms. And being enfeebled in health ever since the birth of Eenee, and gradually sinking under mortal disease, she chose a Breton lady, Michelle de Saubonne, wife of the Sieur de Soubise, and one of her former maids of honour, to conduct the education of the princess when she herself should be no more. The important trust was well bestowed, duly appreciated, and faithfully discharged. The Dame de Soubise was gifted with an intellect of a high order, and was ably qualified to train un esprit tout de feu," with which we are told that Eenee was born.* Her religion too was of a purer sort than was general at that period, and she laboured with pious care to impart a better wisdom than that of this world only, to her royal pupil. So that Eenee's predilections for the reformed doctrine, in later years, have been ascribed to the influence of the early lessons of Madame de Soubise. The character of Anne of Bretagne was no ordinary one, and its better qualities were inherited by her daughter Eenee. Anne was eminently virtuous and firm of purpose ; her mind too had received with facility the best instruction that the age could afford. But she was also haughty, ambitious, and vindictive.f Her ambition had been rebuked by the death of one * Bernier's Hist, de Blois. t Sismondi, Histoire des Eran9ais, t. xv. p. 660. B 2 MEMORIALS OF son after another^ till she had the bitterness of knowing that the throne of France must pass from her husband's line to the son of Louise of Savoy^ Duchess d'Angouleme, a woman whom she hated. An intense patriotism, which at times gave the semblance of ambition to her purposes, was a marked feature of Eenee's disposition ; otherwise the alloy of her mother's character cannot be traced in hers. On the contrary, she derived from her father Louis XII. much of that remarkable kind- liness of nature, which won from the States- Greneral assembled at Tours in 1506, the honourable title of " Father of his People." Being deprived of heirs male to the crown of France, and the Salic Law excluding the Princesses Claude and Eenee from the succession. Queen Anne employed the energies of her active mind in forming brilliant matri- monial projects for her daughters. Even before the infants Claude of France and Charles of Austria * had attained their second birthday they were affianced to each other, and the worldly inducement was a great one. If the marriage had eventually taken place, Claude would have been an empress. To secure to her child such a brilliant destiny, Anne of Bretagne cared not that the integrity of the French kingdom must in that case have been sacrificed to provide the dowry. But the wise judgment of Louis XII. accorded with the popular dislike of this alliance, and the dearest wish of * Afterwards Charles V, RENEE OF FRANCE. Anne's heart was disappointed. Claude was betrothed, not to Charles, but to the youthful heir of Louis, Francis, Comte de Valois, son of Charles, Comte d'Angouleme, and Louise of Sa^oy, amidst great rejoicings on the part of the people of France. But Anne had influence enough to hinder the conclusion of the marriage during her lifetime. It was not only her " marvellous affection for the house of Burgundy,"* but her deeply-rooted prejudice against Louise, which inspired her with an unconquerable aversion to the proposed union ; and more bitter still would have been her feelings could she have foreseen the misery of Claude's wedded life, which was throughout a martyrdom " to that keenest of all woman's sufferings, a despised and neglected affection ; " more persevering than ever would have been her efforts to prevent that unhappy marriage. How do the blasted schemes of the great ones of the earth, for their own aggrandisement or for that of their offspring, echo for ever the solemn words, " I charge thee, fling away ambition " ! Unchecked, however, by the failure of her plans in favour of Claude, the Princess Eenee was no sooner born than Queen Anne commenced scheming on her behalf also. The natural " bonte " of Louis XIL always permitted much meddling in state affairs on the * Anne had been affianced and married by proxy to Maximilian, King of the liomans, when she was only fourteen years of age. This marriage was nullified by her compulsory union to Charles VIIL, pre- decessor of Louis XIL B 3 6 MEMORIALS OF part of his wife, whose noble qualities commanded his love, esteem, and honour. But once, when she was taking rather a high tone with respect to Eenee's future prospects, he strove to repress her undue in- terference by a fable, which Bernier records for us. " Know, madam," said the king playfully, that Grod gave horns to the hinds as well as to the stags at the creation of the world ; but they, seeing the beautiful branches on their heads, endeavoured to give the law to the stags ; upon which the Almighty, in wrath, took from them those ornaments to punish them for their arrogance ! " Queen Anne persevered, however, in her projects ; and in November, 1513? prevailed on Louis to transfer to Eenee (who was at that time but three years old) his claims on Milan, Asti, and Grenoa. These states were designed to constitute the dowry of Eenee in the event of her marriage with either the Archduke Charles, or his younger brother Ferdinand. Such were the plans of Anne of Bretagne amidst the pangs of acute disease, and even whilst the cold shadow of approaching death lay upon her. She died at Blois on the 2nd Ja>nuary, 15 14; on the 1st January, 15 15, King Louis died also, and Eenee was left an orphan. The last testament of Anne of Bretagne committed both her children to the care of Louise of Savoy, not- withstanding the animosity which had so long subsisted between them.* Perhaps Anne hoped to conciliate her * "Ea mourant," dit, parlant d'elle (Anne de Bretagne) dans ses RENEE OF FRANCE. 7 adversary by this mark of confidence, and avert her mahce from the unoffending Claude and Eenee. Or perhaps Anne really had in her inmost heart a just appreciation of the few great qualities which partially redeemed the character of the mother of Francis I. But whatever was the conduct of the appointed guar- dian of the young princesses in the discharge of this trust, it is certain that they both found a faithful friend in the daughter of Louise, — Marguerite de Valois. Hardly emerged from infancy at the time of her mother's death, Eenee could have known but little of the sorrow of such a bereavement ; and over her child- hood and youth watched the faithful governess, Madame de Soubise, and the loving sister, Claude, Queen of France. Under their care, Eenee grew up ; and so far were the forebodings of Louis XIL as to the conse- quences of her personal plainness from being realised, that she was, in fact, sought in marriage by the most celebrated personages of that period. During the first and second years of the reign of her brother-in-law, Francis I., it seemed almost certain that she would be the bride of either the one or the other of the Austrian princes. She had been contracted to the Archduke memoires, Louise de Savoie, " elle me laissa I'administration de ses biens, de sa fortune, et de ses filles, memement de Madame Claude, depuis Relne de France, femme de mon fils, laquelle j'ay honorablement con- duit." See I'Art de Verifier les Dates, where the following remark is added : — " Ccla prouve que malgre son aversion pour Louise de Savoie, la reine avoit un grand fonds d'estime pour elle." T. ii. B 4 MEMORIALS OF Charles in 15 14, during her father's lifetime. In 1515^ on an embassy being sent by Charles to congratulate Francis I. on his accession to the crown of France and to solicit his friendship, the young monarch acknow- ledged the courtesies of the future emperor with the most friendly expressions, and promised to him the hand of the Princess Kenee when she should have attained the age of twelve. Even her dowry was determined upon. It was to consist of 200,000 silver crowns, with the Duchy of Berri, estimated as equivalent to 400,000 more. However, this arrangement was set aside; and in 15 1 6, the Archduke Ferdinand was spoken of as the destined husband of Eenee, whilst Charles, succeeding to his grandfather's throne of Castillo, strengthened his new treaty of peace with Francis I. by an article which guaranteed his marriage with Louise of France, an infant of a year old, daughter of Francis I. and Claude. Eenee's union with a prince of the house of Austria was never accomplished ; but she had another illustrious suitor in Charles, Duke of Bourbon, the celebrated Con- stable of France. He was one of the early favourites of Francis I., and that high office had been conferred on him not only at the request of his mother Louise, but as a special mark of the young monarch's friend- ship. By the deaths, in rapid succession, of his wife, Suzanne, in and of her mother, Anne of Beaujeu, in the following year. Bourbon became, in his own estimation, " the sole legitimate claimant of enormous possessions." His immense wealth, his lofty position, EENEE OF FRANCE. 9 his relationship to the sovereign, and his many noble qualities, seemed to justify his claims to the hand of Eenee, whose childish imagination he had already cap- tivated. But the proposition did not commend itself to the mind of Francis. He regarded it merely as a proof of the soaring ambition of an already too powerful subject ; and Louise, who coveted the Constable's large possessions, was also resolved to thwart this project. It is likely that, notwithstanding the disruption of their former friendship, the mother of Francis I. was still secretly attached to the person of the Constable, ir- respectively of the worldly wealth which he had in- herited. She was only eight years older than Charles of Bourbon, and Francis, though decidedly rejecting the alliance on behalf of his sister-in-law Eenee, intimated to the Constable that it was in his power to raise himself to the highest dignity in the realm next to the kingly state, by taking advantage of the favourable sentiments entertained for him by the widowed matron Louise.* But the hing and his mother, astute as she was, little knew the character of Bourbon. The Constable re- jected the proffered hand of Louise with irrepressible disdain, and with words of insult. It was no wonder, therefore, that the bitterest hatred took possession of her mind, — that she vowed vengeance against Bourbon, — it was but human nature ! On the pretext of being herself a Bourbon she claimed the inheritance of * See Miss Freer's Life of Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre, vol. i. p. 189. lo MEMORIALS OF Suzanne's rich dowry, to the total exclusion of the rights of the Constable. She went fui'ther, and "changed a wholesome heart to gall/' by not only robbing him of his estates, but by alienating from him the affections of Eenee. For when, with the full consent of " the Grood Queen Claude," he renewed his suit to the young princess, she repelled him with the mercenary reply that it was impossible for her any longer to entertain the idea of an alliance with a noble, who must, if the legal proceedings proved fatal to his claims, become one of the poorest princes in Europe. Here we may easily trace the resentment of Louise of Savoy. Such an objection could have been no spon- taneous expression of feeling on the part of a child not yet twelve years old. Queen Claude had often much to endure from the irritable temper of her mother-in-law, who has been accused of taking pleasure in revenging upon the in- nocent daughter of Anne of Bretagne the virtuous dislike with which that high-souled queen had formerly regarded her. But no experience of personal indignity could have caused so much pain to Claude as the in- fluence of the worldly Louise on the young mind of Eenee. The measure of Claude's appointed griefs was, however, soon filled up, and before the completion of her twenty-fifth year, she died, in the arms of her sister Eenee, on the 26th July, 15^4. To that sorrow- ful spirit the angel of death must have been a welcome visitor. With solemn and grateful joy the purified RENEE OF FRANCE. sufferer must have exchanged the splendid misery of her earthly palace for the holy rest of her heavenly home. But the memory of her excellence was such, as even the world, which understands it not, does not willingly let die." The burghers and people of France long revered her as their " Good Queen Claude." Her patient endurance, her boundless charity, her unfailing self-respect, and her purity of heart and life — all these high attributes of woman's character have combined to place her name amongst those which are " had in everlasting remembrance." Even her unworthy hus- band Francis, who had neither requited her love nor appreciated the beauty of her character, sorrowed deeply for a while. He did not indeed attempt to solace her last hours on earth with his presence, but paused at Bourges on his way to Italy, when he heard of her increased illness, " awaiting the end." Perhaps con- science awoke and smote him when he was told that her case was hopeless, for his sister Marguerite, in a letter to the Bishop of Meaux*, relates that "he mourned exceeding^, saying to Madame (his mother), ^ If my life could be given in exchange for hers, wil- lingly would I yield it up. Never could I have believed that the bonds of marriage, confirmed by Grod, were so hard and difficult to sever,' and so, in tears, we sepa- rated. Since we have not had news how he (the king) fares ; but I fear that he is burdened with heavy sor- * Dated "Herbault, August 1524." — Vide Miss Freer's Life of Marguerite of Yalois. 12 MEMORIALS OF row." Nevertheless, he did not return for ever so short a time to Blois to attend his queen's funeral ! He " the first gentleman of France/' as he proudly styled him- self, left that duty to be performed by others. To the credit of Louise it must be recorded that grief for the unexpected demise of Claude occasioned her a severe accession of illness. She immediately despatched Mar- guerite to Blois to comfort the Princess Renee and Claude's poor little children by her presence." The remains of the young queen were laid to rest in St. Denis ; and Francis, " after the successful expulsion of Bourbon and his invading hosts from the shores of Provence/' prepared for the realisation of his dream of conquest in the plains of Northern Italy. The Constable, in arms against his sovereign, might well have relinquished the hope of a matrimonial alli- ance with the blood-royal of France. But when the tide of fortune turned against Francis I., and that monarch became the prisoner of Charles V., it is cer- tain that, more than once during his weary captivity, he was fain to promise the hand of Renee to the traitor as one of the conditions of his restoration to liberty and to his kingdom. It was but the holding out, how- ever, of a false hope to the unhappy Bourbon. Francis I. took care to withdraw his consent to that stipulation when it ceased to be essential to his own freedom, and Renee was reserved to be disposed of in marriage here- after as might best subserve the interests of her royal brother-in-law. She only shared the fate of many a EENEE OF FRANCE. 13 previous and subsequent princess in being the victim of mere political schemes and heartless ambition. In some motive of such unworthy sort, the idea of marry- ing her to Joachim, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, doubtless originated ; but particulars relative to this project are nowhere to be met with, nor are we told for what reason the negotiation was abandoned. Francis I., at strife with Charles V., solaced himself with the friendship of Henry VIII. of England. The feelings of the English king had been outraged by the triumphs of Bourbon's army at Eome, and in July 1527, Cardinal Wolsey was sent to France on an em- bassy from Henry, accompanied by the Bishop of London, the Earl of Derby, and Sir Thomas More. Francis and his mother received the Cardinal at Amiens on the 22nd July, with all the state and ceremonial which could have been observed towards Henry him- self." There was nothing forgot," says Holingshed, " that might doe him honor or pleasure." The treaty between Henry and Francis was renewed ; and it was agreed that a joint army should be raised to march into Italy, under the command of Marshal Lautrec, to the relief of Pope Clement VII., a prisoner by Charles V.'s order, ever since the sacking of Eome. Other ne- gotiations were also opened by the Cardinal. His master even then meditated a divorce from Catherine of Arragon, and no considerations of delicacy re- strained the ambassador from prematurely soliciting the hand of Marguerite of Valois, the now widowed MEMORIALS OF Duchess of Alenfon, for Henry VIII. But Marguerite^ the personal friend of Henry's injured wife, sternly rejected the revolting proposition. Nothing abashed, the Cardinal next hinted at a marriage between Henry and the Princess Eenee ; a suggestion which found favour in the eyes of Louise of Savoy, when she heard the affirmation of Staffeleo, Dean of Kota, " that the Pope had been able to permit the marriage between Henry and Catherine only by an error of the keys of St. Peter." But it was negatived by Francis, who feared lest Eenee, if the wife of so powerful a neigh- bour as the King of England, might be led to claim her rights as the real heiress of the duchy of Bre- tagne. For "the agreement which secured the per- petual independence of that duchy might be applied with as much reason to a second daughter as to a second son," and this contingent possibility proved fatal to Wolsey's scheme. It would be hard to con- jecture the probable fate of Eenee had she been suf- fered to marry the tyrant of England. The affinity of Henry's first wife to a powder ful monarch did not suffice to shelter her from the insult of an unmerited divorce. But Tower Hill would hardly have counted among its victims " a true king's daughter of France." The Princess Eenee would not have been subjected to the doom of Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard. The struggle of Francis I. against the emperor in Italy led to combinations which, at last, decided the marriage destiny of Eenee. It was deemed expedient RENEE OF FRANCE. IS to win from the side of Charles V. the co-operation of Alfonso I. Duke of Ferrara. An hereditary vassal of the see of Eome, he had been driven by the unjust ani- mosity of Popes Julius II. and Leo X. to take up arms in his own defence, and to maintain against them a long and exhausting warfare. Nor had he much cause to deplore the misfortunes of Clement VII., nor to interest himself in behalf of the imprisoned pontiff. But the persuasions and menaces of the ambassadors of the Holy League " were, at length, successful, and Alfonso joined himself to that celebrated confederacy. Adding other minor recompenses, the allies rewarded Alfonso's compliance by the promise of the investiture of the duchy of Ferrara, so long withheld by the court of Eome, and the hand of the Princess Eenee in marriage to his eldest son, Ercole d'Este. By this train of events, France for a long season was deprived of one of the most illustrious of her princesses, — an acquisition of which Italy, in the end, proved herself altogether unworthy. MEMORIALS OF CHAP. II. Character of Ercole, Prince of Ferrara. — Character of Kenee. — Marriage of Renee. — Her Departure to Italy. — Her Reception at Ferrara. — Her Patronaj2^e of Literature. — Her Religious Opinions. — Favour to the Fraternity of St. Fran9ois de Paul. — Birth of the Princess Anna. — Renee's charitable Disposition. — Her Visit to Venice. — Death of Alfonso I. " On the third of April of the year 1528/' says Muratori^ the chronicler of the house of Este, " Don Ercole set out from Ferrara with an honourable com- pany of nobility and with two hundred horse, to go to the court of France, and there to marry Eenee, daughter of Louis XII. King of France." This was a great alliance for the son of a petty Italian prince, even though that prince was ^Hhe Magnanimous Al- fonso." The French princess deserved a better fate, for Ercole did not inherit his father's noble character* The history of Alfonso I. is that of a great man strug- gling with adverse circumstances and finally mastering them. The history of Ercole II. is that of a feeble prince w^ho chose to purchase a prolonged term of luxurious ease by any means, however contemptible. Such was the husband provided for Eenee by the selfish policy of Francis I. She was interesting by her youth, not having at this time completed her eighteenth year, and in addition to her illustrious RENEE OF FRANCE, 17 parentage^ she appears to have been endowed with every good gift except that of personal beauty.. With all due allowance for the exaggeration of contemporaries, it is certain that her intellectual acquirements were considerable, even for an age which numbered many a learned woman amongst the ranks of the highborn. Her original powers had been developed by severe exercise. The refined trifling, which sometimes in this later age usurps the name of study," would have been despised by Eenee ; and, assuredly, it would never have achieved for her the great proficiency which she attained in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, history, and languages, both ancient and modern. Nor was she less distinguished for her moral excellence : in her noble nature were combined singleness of purpose with generosity of heart. Her charities flowed forth freely to the needy, the desolate, and the oppressed. She " loved the luxury of doing good." The candour of her disposition was so great that it soon prepared her to admit convictions adverse to many a long-revered dogma, whilst it rendered her accessible to the influences of real and ancient truths. As for her deportment, it was as courteous as (despite her personal deformity) it was majestic ; she knew how to preserve the respect due to her rank, whilst she won all hearts by the gracious- ness of her address, the modesty of her bearing, and the charm of her conversational powers. The marriage dowry of Eenee, " besides most precious ornaments," consisted of 250,000 golden scudi, for which c i8 MEMORIALS OF an equivalent was assigned to Ercole in the French duchy of Chartres, and the viscounties of Caen, Falaise, and Bayeux. The lands thus alienated from the crown of France were not re-annexed to it until the year 1597. But they cheaply purchased the possible claims of Eenee upon the fair inheritance of her mother, Anne of Bretagne ; the contingency which Francis the First so much dreaded, and to prevent which had been his chief object in marrying his sister-in-law to Ercole d'Este, as we are assured in plain terms by Mezeray : — " Le roy maria cette princesse dans un pays fort eloigne et a un party foible, de peur qu'elle ne luy demandat quelque jour partage en la Bretagne et au patrimoine de Louis." * At the Court of France, the young Prince of Ferrara was " welcomed with supreme benignity and friendship by Francis," who always loved a pretext for fetes, which he celebrated with lavish magnificence. The English ambassadors. Clerk, Bishop of Bath, and Taylor, Master of the Eolls, thus quaintly certify their " Lord Legatte's good grace " in England of these matters: — " Here is arryvyd the Duke of Ferrara is sonne, who shall marry Madame Eaynee. He hath in his trayne 300 horsis. Howbeit he came to the Court in post fasshion, and 'had not past ten or twelve horsis. He was mett with the great master, the Duke of Longaville, and dyvers other nobilles and gentilmen of the courte where he is lo ]gyd. The Kyng reecyvyd hym in his chambre. My lady upon * Hist, de France, torn. ii. p. 959. BENEE OF FRANCE. 19 hir bedde^ howbeit rather sytting then lying, for she was, and yette is, troublyd with hir gowte in hir arme." From Poisy, 24th day of May.* The marriage ceremony was not solemnised imtil Sunday, the 28th of June, more than a month having elapsed since the arrival of Ercole at the Court. The scene of the nuptials was " La Sainte Chapelle du Palais," at Paris.f Duke Alfonso signified his satisfaction at his son's connection •with the blood-royal of France, by a present to Eenee of jewels, valued at 100,000 golden scudi; — a splendid gift from a heavily burdened treasury. Meanwhile at Ferrara a destructive pestilence was raging; therefore the newly married pair were in no haste to leave Paris after their espousals. " They amused themselves there all the summer," and it grew towards the end of September before they bade adieu to France, and set forth on their journey to Italy. The pestilence, though less violent, was not yet extinct at Ferrara, so they proceeded thither with lingering steps, and it was the 12th of November before they made their triumphal entry into the city of Modena, held by the Dukes of Ferrara as a fief of the empire. Fourteen young and noble ladies of France escorted their beloved princess into Italy. She was also attended by her old and faithful friend, Madame de Soubise. Duke Alfonso, accompanied by the leading nobility of his duchies, advanced to meet his son and daughter-in- * State Papers. f Journal d'un Bourgeois dc Paris, p. 362. C 2 20 MEMORIALS OF law, half way between Eeggio and Bersillo. Mounted on a handsome palfrey, Eenee entered Modena beneath a canopy at the Porta di S. Agostino, where she was met and welcomed by the clergy and people of the city. The prince consort preceded her on horseback. The duke rode on her right hand, and Ippolito, Archbishop of Milan (her husband's brother), on her left. Thus she went to the cathedral. Ten days were spent at Modena amidst great rejoicings and festivity. The city was magnificently embellished, and nothing was heard of but banquets, masques, and dances, whilst the com- munity, and even private individuals, manifested their loyalty by liberal offerings to the duke and to the royal princess. Tidings came at that time to Alfonso, that the Florentines, engaged in their last struggle for liberty, had chosen his son, Ercole, to be captain-general of their republic. Ercole, who inherited none of his father's taste or genius for war, accepted the honour, but discharged the duties of the office by deputy, having, as we are told, altra faccenda importante in casa propria " at that time. That is, he had no inclination to exchange these marriage festivities for the hardships of a camp, and the stern struggle of the battle-field. Ferrara was now to be approached, — and the nature of the arrangements made by the duke for the reception there of Ercole and Eenee, but too sadly reveal the desolations which the recent fearful pestilence had made in that city. Three edicts, of the 17th, 24th, and 28th November, ordained that all persons and families who BENEE OF FRANCE. 21 had fled from Ferrara to escape its ravages, should return to their own habitations; that they should lay aside their mourning vestments, in order that the public melancholy caused by the universally sombre aspect of the city might be dissipated. The markets were again to be the resort of the buyers and sellers of various merchandise; the preachers were required to reascend their pulpits, and the professors to return to the Univer- sity. At the same time it was specially enjoined that on the day of the entry of the prince and princess, the shops should be closed, and that Ferrara should keep a grand holiday. The inhabitants were bidden to dress themselves in the gayest attire, and to present them- selves, on horseback if possible, on the bank of the river Po, to wait the arrival of the royal barge, and to give it an honourable reception. But it was midnight on the 30th November when the royal cortege arrived at the beautiful palace of the Belvedere, without the city walls. The following day Eenee, conducted upon the river in a superb bucentoro," appeared at the gates of Ferrara, accompanied by the ambassadors of France, Venice, and Florence, the ladies of her court, and eighty noble pages, with a golden crown upon her head. Leaving her vessel at the Porta di S. Paolo, she ascended a canopied litter, and thus entered the city of Ferrara. The firing of numerous pieces of artillery from the banks of the river and the bastions of the castle, answered by the more melodious sounds of the bells of the city churches, gave the young princess C 3 22 MEMORIALS OF welcome. Then onward, along the grand Strada, — gorgeous with red, green, and white tapestries; her pages attired in crimson, with bonnets of rose-colour adorned with white feathers, and carrying red staves; the nobles, clergy, and doctors of Ferrara preceding her, — Eenee passed to the cathedral, where she received the solemn benediction of the Bishop of Commacchio. and was presented with the keys of the city in a silvei basin, by Alfonso Trotti, the castellan of Castelvecchio. The procession was then marshalled from the cathedral to the palace of the Estensi, which was richly hung with " arras and cloth for the reception of the royal bride. And the sounds of mourning were hushed for a few days in Ferrara, whilst public spectacles and magnificent entertainments celebrated the arrival of the young Princess of France at the court of Alfonso. The Ferrarese courtiers, who remembered the sur- passing beauty of their former duchess, Lucrezia Borgia, must have been struck with a painful sense of contrast, when Eenee, "ugly and hunchbacked," appeared amongst them. There might, too, have mingled with it an anticipation of nothing more gracious than a mere haughty condescension, on the part of a princess of France, in her intercourse with them. The daughter of Louis the Twelfth, however, speedily disappointed their expectations; conciliating their moral esteem by the purity of her character, and winning their affections by her affability and grace. It was soon felt that, though the charm of personal beauty had been withheld from HENEE OF FRANCE. 23 Eenee, the want was compensated by the rare attain- ments of her mind. As soon as the pageants in honour of her arrival at Ferrara were over, her literary tastes began at once to develope themselves. Bernardo Tasso, a poet himself and the father of the great Torquato^was chosen to be her private secretary ; and he held that appointment from May 27th, 1529, until the end of the year 153 1. The Court quickly became "2^ sort of Pry- taneum of learned men," * and a literary academy was opened in Eenee's own apartments; "where," says an Italian writer, " letters were honoured, but not the Catholic religion." Learning received an impulse which it maintained in Ferrara during many brilliant years. Professors and scholars of the University, whom the terrors of the recent pestilence had scattered far and wide, were recalled by an edict of Alfonso, dated June 14, 1529, and that famous seat of learning "fast recovered its former lustre, after having suffered severely from the civil wars in which the family of Este had for many years been involved." f Eenee's early bias in favour of the reformed doctrines caused her at this period no molestation from the domi- nant Church ; nor is there any ground for considering her, as yet, "a decided Protestant." The seed had probably been sown in her heart by the pious Madame de Soubise ; Marguerite of Valois had fostered it by her kindly influence ; the blood of the martyrs, which had * Gerdesius. t Dr. McCrie's History of the Reformation in Italy, p. 91. 24 MEMORIALS OF begun to flow before Eenee left France, had cried aloud in their behalf to one so easily moved as she was to pity. The enquiring nature • of her own mind subse- quently led her to a deeper investigation of the momentous religious questions which were then agi- tating the greater part of civilised Europe. But it was long before she perceived the necessity of external separation from the Eoman communion ; a reformation of the Church itself, both in its head and in its members, was not yet regarded as impracticable; and it is not likely that Renee's orthodoxy was even suspected during the early part of her life in Italy. The only act recorded about this time that is at all illustrative of her relations with the Church of Rome, must be taken to imply friendship rather than animosity towards it — without investing with undue significance a graceful concession to a religious fraternity which both her mother, Anne of Bretagne, and her venerable father-in-law, Alfonso, had delighted to honour. To explain this allusion, it must be mentioned that the Emperor Charles the Fifth had just decided in favour of the long-disputed claim of Duke Alfonso to the investiture of the Duchy of Ferrara. This decision, publicly declared on the 1st of April, 1531, was made known to the duke on the eve of the festival of Sta Croce (May 3rd). He was standing, at the moment when the joyful tidings reached him, hard by the Church of St. Barnabas, which had formerly been presented by Ercole I. to the Brothers of St. Franpois de Paul. With unfeigned though superstitious gratitude. BENEE OF FRANCE. 25 the duke commanded the rebuilding of the churchy with the monastery, under the title of Sta Croce, to which he annexed a rich endowment in lands, and conferred the whole upon the above-mentioned order. The favourable decree of the emperor was announced by the duke in person to Eenee, at the Belriguardo Palace. She shared his joy at the prospect of restored prosperity to the house of Este, and immediately presented the fortunate fraternity of St. Franjois de Paul with the cord or girdle of their illustrious founder, — a relic which she had doubtless inherited from her mother, and which she had brought with her from France.* St. Francois de Paul had been godfather to the first-born son of Anne of Bretagne, Charles Eoland, Dauphin of France, who died at the age of four years. He was the spiritual adviser of the duchess-queen, who founded for him a monastery at Lyons, ceded to him a mansion of her own property near Chaillot, and, in 1500, began to build a house for monks of his order, near Paris, on the site of the Hotel de Bretagne.f The trifling mark of favour shown by Eenee to the fraternity of St. Francois de Paul, when she met with them again at Ferrara, was, therefore, as natural as it was in itself, perhaps, harmless. The birth of the eldest child of Eenee and Ercole took place on the i6th November, 1531. The infant was a daughter ; nevertheless the old duke regarded the * Frizzi, Memorie per la Storia di Ferrara, t. iv. c. 4, p. 295. t Miss Costello's Memoirs of Anne, Duchess of Brittany, pp. 190— i and 402 — 416. 26 MEMORIALS OF event as a gleam of favourable fortune. Ever anxious to conciliate his adversary, Alfonso besought Pope Clement the Seventh to become sponsor to the new-born princess at the baptismal font. The Pope knew not how to refuse the petition of his injured vassal, but he chose as his proxy, for the occasion, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medicis, who, on his part also, selected a deputy in Francesco Gruicciardini, the Historian, and the Grovernor of Bologna at that time.* Contemptuous as this be- haviour was, Alfonso wisely concealed his displeasure at it, but it could have added little to Eenee's scant measure of reverence for the dignitaries of the Papal Court. The sacred rite was performed at Ferrara, with much splendour, the infant receiving the name of Anna, in memory of her maternal grandmother, Anne of Bretagne. /'"'^-^^^^ ^ The name of Eenee stands first in the list of patrons of a charitable institution established at Ferrara during a period of scarcity in the year 1533. The preaching of a zealous Dominican, Fra Lorenzo da Bergamo, during the season of Lent, had directed the attention of the wealthy to the wants of their poor fellow-citizens, and the result was the founding of the Monte delle Farine," dedicated to St. John the Baptist, to which they appropriated a mill in furtherance of the objects of the charity. Eenee's patronage of this benevolent undertaking is the first recorded proof of that consider- * Frizzi, t. iv. c. 4, p. 297. RENEE OF FRANCE. 27 ate care for the poor of which her future life furnished so many evidences. It was^ indeed^ twice blessed " in her case, as in all. It made her the idol of her husband's subjects, and blinded them even to her alleged heresies. On the 22nd of November of the same year, Eenee gave birth to a son, which caused great rejoicings in all parts of the city of Ferrara. At the baptism of the infant prince, Ippolito d'Este, Archbishop of Milan, officiated as proxy for Francis the First, who was one of the sponsors, and the child was named Alfonso, after the duke his grandfather. An old MS, chronicle, now preserved in the British Museum, entitled Annali della sua Patria," by Filippo Eoddi, a Ferrarese doctor of laws, furnishes us with the following quaint description of "Eenee's visit to "the City of the Sea." "On the loth day of May (1534) Madama Eenee, desirous of seeing Venice, set out from Ferrara with a goodly number of ladies and horses, and with the prince her husband*, and went up to Francolino on a long barge, all covered with brocade and gold, followed by a barge like unto it, but covered with crimson-coloured satin, and by many other barges. Thus went she towards Chioggia, where she was met by the nobility of that city, with a quantity of smaller boats, and to do honour to such a noble stranger, races and maritime games were enacted in those waters, at the sight of * Frizzi, however, says that Ercole followed her fifteen days after. 28 MEMORIALS OF which Madama and all took great pleasure, and highly- praised the inventor of such pleasant diversions, and so going onward they were met at Malamocco by the Doge and all the Signoria, and with sounds of trumpets, fifes, and drums; after disembarking with rejoicings, she was conducted to Venice, where she staid some days in divers palaces.'^ Meanwhile Duke Alfonso went to Milan to be present at the marriage of its duke with the daughter of the King of Denmark. His troubled life was drawing near its close. His long struggle against papal aggression, so bravely sustained for so many years, had at least secured to him the actual sovereignty of his patrimonial inherit- ance, though Clement the Seventh died without granting to him the investiture of the Duchy of Ferrara. His last days were disturbed by the flight of Francisco, his younger son, to France. The exaltation of his old friend. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, to the chair of St. Peter, revived his hopes of the speedy settlement of his claims, — but he did not live to realise them. Before his son Ercole had left Ferrara on an embassy of congratulation to the new pontiff, Alfonso was seized with a sudden illness, which terminated his existence on Sunday, the 31st October, 1534. Alfonso the First had other qualities besides those of the mere warrior, which rendered him illustrious amongst the great men of his age. Benevolence, probity, clemency, simplicity, firmness in adversity, and gentleness, notwithstanding his rugged exterior, are RENEE OF FRANCE. 29 freely ascribed to him by the historian^ and, rare as the combination may be, none of its elements are incom- patible with each other. The happiest years of Eenee's married life were spent under Alfonso's reign, and the unlooked-for vicissitudes which afterwards befell her began their rapid sequence when she became partner of the throne of Ercole the Second as Duchess of Ferrara. MEMORIALS OF CHAP. III. Accession of Ercole II. — His Acts as a Sovereign. — His Literary Sym- pathies with Kenee. — His Journey to Rome. — Clement Marot at Ferrara. — John Calvin. — His Influence over the Duchess.— His Cha- racter. — Anne de Parthenai and her Husband. — Men of Literature at Renee's Court. — Birth of Lucrezia, the second Daughter of Renee. — Ercole's Disappointment at Rome. — His Return to Ferrara. — Flight of Marot. — Danger of Calvin. — His Arrest and Deliverance. — Rcnee compelled to conceal her Religious Opinions. On the day following that of the death of Alfonso the inauguration of the new Duke of Ferrara, Ercole 11., took place with the usual ceremonies. He then went in procession through the city to the cathedral, where, from their representatives, he received his people's oath of fidelity, and swore to them on his own part to govern well. On the 2nd of November, the interment of Alfonso was solemnised in the Church of Corpo Domini; the funeral oration having been previously pronounced over .the body of the departed hero as it lay in state under the " loggia " of the garden of the Ducal Palace. The first acts of Ercole, after his accession, were those of mercy and charity towards his subjects ; next, directing his thoughts to the duties of government, he gave his assent to a plan which had been proposed during Alfonso's life-time for the reform of the statutes of the city of Ferrara. On succeeding to the duch)^ Ercole was in his twenty-seventh year, having been born on RENEE OF FRANCE. 31 the 14th April, 1508. Muratori describes him as "a prince of a fine presence, above the ordinary stature, of grave speech, yet withal, pleasant, splendid, magnani- mous, clement." He was pious, too, after the most approved fashion of his religion ; for, besides founding churches, he aided in the formation of conventual establishments, and introduced foreign religious frater- nities into Ferrara. He seems to have had a paternal feeling for his subjects, and he was, in contradistinction to his father, emphatically a man of peace. But his love of splendour soon degenerated into effeminate luxury ; his desire for peace induced a policy of unworthy compliances ; if he spent but little upon the operations of war, he squandered much treasure on the pageants of a day; whilst his piety soon assumed the form of a persecuting bigotry that spared in its exercise neither his subjects nor the partner of his ducal state. Between his duchess and himself, there lay, however, the common ground of their mutual love of art, science, and letters. Such studies were cherished by Ercole, and he wrote with elegance both in prose and verse." He formed an admirable collection of medals, and was regarded as the founder of the celebrated museum of Ferrara. He introduced the art of weaving after the Flemish manner into his capital city; rebuilt and enlarged the superb Belriguardo Palace, besides erecting two new ones at Coparo and Montegna. He also made considerable additions to Modena, which city he fortified. But the events of the reign of Ercole II. will be 32 MEMORIALS OF noticed in these pages only when they affect, directly or indirectly, the personal history of the Duchess Eenee : and the next subject that claims attention on this account, is that of the investiture of the Duchy of Ferrara. This affair, as has been previously stated, still remained unset- tled at Eome, notwithstanding the decision of Charles Y. in favour of Duke Alfonso's claims. But the changes wrought by the resistless hand of time had now obviated many difficulties. Death had not only removed the daring vassal, whose reign had been a period of almost incessant resistance to the encroachments of papal ambition, but each successive Pope, against whom Alfonso's ready sword had been drawn, had also passed away. The question, therefore, v/as greatly simplified, and the young Duke of Ferrara had good reason to hope for an amicable arrangement with his father's old friend. Pope Paul III. Still it was no easy task to overcome the reluctance of the Eoman See to grant the investiture to the comparatively unoffending Ercole, who, at length, unable to bear with patience the delays of this protracted negotiation, set off to Eome on the 19th September, 1535, to expedite, by personal effort, the much-desired conclusion. This ducal journey was destined to result in painful consequences to Eenee. Meanwhile, events of far greater importance to her than the conciliation of either papal or imperial favour were occurring within the walls of her palace, and exerting a powerful influence over her heart and mind, so that the colouring of her future EENEE OF FRANCE. 33 life may be said to have been derived from this very period. The favour which Renee always showed to the re- storers of literature^ her interest in religious questions, as well as her enthusiastic devotion to the land of her birth, made it appear very natural that she should welcome to her court two remarkable men, who had been exiled from France on account of their religious opinions. In 1535, John Calvin and Clement Marot were both residents at Ferrara, — the latter seeking there a temporary shelter from the malice of his enemies ; the former holding Christian intercourse with a princess whose reputation as a favourer of " the new doctrines " had already reached France. Very different men they were, and posterity has faithfully discriminated between those who, at one period, seemed to be associated in be- half of the same great cause — the Poet and the Preacher of the French Eeformation. In spite of all calumny, the memory of Calvin lacks not abundant honour, whilst the dark shadow of moral reprobation rests upon the character of Clement Marot. Yet the name of Marot lives in the literature of his country as that of " the Prince of Poets and the Poet of Princes ; " nor does it tell lightly in his favour that he enjoyed the patronage of two such women as Marguerite of Navarre, and Renee of France. At the court of Ferrara, to which he fled in 1 535 from the less secure retreat of Bearn, he became at once the secretary and laureate of the duchess, acquired the friendship of D 34 MEMORIALS OF Calvin, and, apparently sobered by these influences, gave some promise of better things. His eye was opened, at least in part, to the vision of truth, and his heart seemed almost won. The concluding lines of his poetical " epitre," addressed to Eenee, curious as an exposition of his belief respecting his own vocation, reveal also a sense of responsibility for the talent with which he had been endowed.* While at the court of Ferrara he probably conceived the idea (which he afterwards partially executed) of a metrical version of the Psalms. Fifty of these he rendered into French verse, and they were published at Geneva, with a preface by Calvin, in 1543. Their poetical merit was generally acknowledged ; even royal voices sang them at the court of France, and the versification of the rest of the psalter being subsequently completed by Theodore Beza, the joint translation formed the psalm-book of the Huguenot assemblies, and doubtless served to ani- mate the courage of many a lowly worshipper in an age of formidable persecution. But with all his fair seeming, Marot, weighed in the balances, was," at last, " found wanting." It is but matter of regret that his name was ever connected with * " Car TEternel me I'ha (certes) donnee Pour en louer premierement son Nom : Plus pour servir les Princes de renom Et exalter les Princesses d'honneur, Qui au plus hault de fortune et bonheur S'humilier de coeur sont coustumiers, Auquel beau rang tu marches des premieres." BENEE OF FRANCE. 35 the sacred cause of the Eeformation, and that Eenee should have honoured one so undeserving. For he wanted what many like him in gifts of mind and graces of manner, and even in the transient exhibition of yet higher qualities, have wanted also, — a fixed principle of duty. The services were great which, with his genius, he might have rendered to the infant Eeformation; but no reliance could be placed upon him, for he had no taste for that self-denial which is so sure a safeguard of moral character, whilst it is the stamp of real religion, and the yoke of indispensable obligation to every one "who names the name of Christ" In a time of universal religious ferment, his superior mental in- telligence loosened his bonds of allegiance to the Church of Eome; and he found in the pure doctrine of the Eeformation the sentiment of religion " which both his imagination and feeling required him to preserve.* But his fatal love of pleasure blighted the effect of scriptural truth upon his heart; his creed witnessed against his life, and he proved at last that practical antinomianism may lead to the denial of a right faith ; for there is too much cause to fear that he twice abjured the reformed faith to serve his own ends, — at Lyons first, after his return from exile, and afterwards at Turin, where he died. The " OEuvres de Clement Marot " contain numerous memorials of his sojourn at the court of Eenee, in the shape of poetical " epitres," addressed either to herself, * Sismondi, Hist, des Fran^ais, D 2 36 MEMORIALS OF or to his former friends and patrons. In his Epitre a ses Amis/'* in which he relates his reception by the Duchess of Ferrara after leaving the court of the Queen of Navarre, he describes his new patroness in the following flattering lines : — " Mes amis, j'ay change ma dame : Une autre ha dessus moi puissance. Nee deux fois de nom et d'ame, Enfant de roy par sa naissance, Enfant du ciel par cognaissance De celuy qui la sauvera : De sorte, quand I'autre S9aura Comme ie Fay telle choisie, Je suis bien seur qu'elle en aura Plus de aise, que de ialousie." In his epitre " addressed " a Mme. la Duchesse de Ferrare " he commends himself to her favour on this ground : — . . . . "que jadis fut serviteur mon pere f De ta Mere Anne, en son regne prospere, Croyant aussi que tu S9ais que d'enfance Nourry ie suis en la Maison de France, De qui tu es Koyalle geniture/' .... Then continues in a strain of graceful compliment:— " Les oyslets des champs en leurs langages Vont saluant les buissons et boscages Par ou ilz vont : quand le navire arrive Aupres du havre, il salue le rive Avec le son d'un canon racourcy : Ma Muse dong passant ceste court-cy, * Written in the year 1535. f Jean Marot, BENEE OF FRANCE. 37 Fait elle mal saluant toy, Princesse ? Toy a qui rid ce beau pays sans cesse, Toy qui de rare aymes toute vertu, Et qui en as le coeur tant bien vetu ; Toy dessoulz qui fleurissent ces grandes plaines De biens et gens si couvertes et pleines, Toy qui leurs coeurs a sceu gaigner tres-bien, Toy qui de Dieu recognois tout ce bien." But the favourite valet-de-chambre of Francis I did not forget his earliest patron whilst serving that monarch's sister-in-law, as the Epitre au Koy/'' also written at Ferrara in 1535, evidences. In this poem Marot skilfully alludes to the affinity between the king and the duchess, and deprecates his sovereign's anger at his flight from France, — which the duty of self- preservation had, however, absolutely dictated. " Enfin passay les grans froides montagnes Et vins entrer aux Lombardes campagnes : Puis en ITtalie, ou Dieu qui me guidoit, Dressa mes pas au lieu ou residoit De ton clair sang une Princesse humaine, Ta belle-sceur et cousine germaine, Pille du Eoy tant craint et renomme, Pere du Peuple aux chroniques nomme. En sa Duche de Eerrare venue M'ha retire de grace et retenu, Pour ce bien lui plaist mon escripture, Et pour aultant, que suis ta nourriture. Parquoy, 0 Syre, estant avecque elle Conclure puis d'un franc coeur et vray zele Qu'a moy ton serf ne peult estre donne Reproche aucun, que t'ay abandonne En protestant, si je fuis ton service, Qu'il vient plus tost de malheur, que de vice.'* D 3 38 MEMORIALS OF It is easy to believe, with Clement Marot, that Eenee greatly enjoyed this sweet juice" of poetic adulation, flowing, as it did, from the pen of an exile of her own nation, who was also an hereditary serviteur of her family, and in the melodious tones of her own beloved language. In this gratification there was nothing sur- prising ; little, perhaps, that was blameable, but much that might eventually have injured Eenee's noble simplicity of character, had it not been for a powerful counteractive, which was soon afterwards supplied. Marot is always accused by Eoman Catholic writers of having infected the duchess with his religious opinions. She was certainly prepared to give them a favourable reception. The accomplished secretary probably made no secret of his views to the sympathising audience which he found in the private apartments of Eenee. There it was doubtless known for what cause he was an exile from France ; and the latest intelligence of the progress of the Eeformation in that country would be an interesting subject for conversation. The declaration, therefore, in Marot's petition to the Dauphin to procure him a passport for a six months' residence in France, that he had learned to be very cautious in his discourse, and never to open his mouth on matters of religion during his stay in Italy," must be received with con- siderable suspicion. If it had been true, his friendship with Calvin would probably never have been formed. No doubt the reformer had a firm conviction of Marot's sincerity at that period, besides appreciating the value EENEE OF FRANCE. 39 of an adherent, to the cause of the Eeformation, whose intellectual gifts were so attractive. In Calvin, however, the duchess beheld a far worthier representative of that Eeformation than she had found in the versatile Marot. One, who " knew not how to give flattering titles," now stood before her; and, from the important material of his discoui-se, she derived solid nourishment for her capacious and enquiring intellect. This wonderful man, who took the lead of so large a section of the Keformed Church, and kept it with almost undisturbed authority, from the year 1535, when he published the memorable " Institutes," till the period of his death, in 1564, visited Ferrara about the end of 1 535, under the assumed name of Charles d'Espeville," and was thus known at the court of Eenee. - There, " welcomed and concealed," he made diligent use of the brief opportunity afforded him of preaching the Grospel to an auditory, perhaps, the most refined in Italy; and whilst the duchess listened to a preacher "who never spoke without filling the mind of the hearer with the most weighty sentiments," * her previous convictions were confirmed and her religious knowledge enlarged by the instructions of this eminent theologian. She gained more distinct ideas of the nature of the great controversy of her age, and, making her choice be- tween Eomanism and the purer doctrine then presented to her, she became, from that time, though secretly, a sincere ally of the Eeformation. * Beza's Life of Calvin. D 4 40 MEMORIALS OF He who was the human instructor of the Duchess Eenee in divine truths, though then only twenty-six years of age, had already compressed within the limits of mere youth the experiences, labours, and achieve- ments of a long lifetime. Originally destined for the priesthood, but diverted from his earlier course of study by the ambition of his father, who deemed jurisprudence a surer path to wealth and honour than theology, Calvin underwent a severe and successful training by the most eminent French and foreign professors of law, at Orleans first, and afterwards at Bourges. Day and night he persevered in acquiring knowledge, study- ing with a laborious diligence that injured his health, originating a complaint of the stomach, which became in after years the source of intense bodily agony. Cal- vin's acquaintance with Pierre Eobert Olivetan (the translator of the Old Testament from Hebrew into French) had introduced him to the knowledge of the reformed doctrines, and given him a taste for sacred literature, — so that those studies were not merely secular ones Avhich he pursued with such ardour. At length, while in Paris in 1532, he abandoned law for theology, and devoted himself wholly to sacred things. Persecution quickly followed on this step, and when it burst upon him, he was indebted for his safety to the intervention alone of the enlightened Marguerite of Navarre. It was, however, but a temporary lull of the storm, and soon the affair of the Placarts, which kindled at Paris the flames of martyrdom, compelled RENEE OF FRANCE, 41 him to fly for his life to the secure asylum of Basle. There he published the "Institutes of the Christian Eeligion," with a preface of dedication to Francis I., vindicating the French reformers from the aspersions of their sovereign, in his representation of their conduct to the Protestant princes of Grermany. This was in August 1 535, and after this he went immediately into Italy. Such had been Calvin's "manner of life from his youth : " it is almost needless to add, that no ordinary character emerged from such a nurturing. In its sternness it may fail to win our love, but by its fervency, uprightness, and sincerity, it commands our respect. His opinions were early fixed, and changed but little in after-life. He never permitted his keenest sufferings to hinder his varied labours, and even de- livered his last sermon with asthma impeding his utterance. As to his personal appearance, we are told that " he was of a moderate stature ; of a pale and dark complexion, with eyes that sparkled to the moment of his death, and showed his great intellect." This digression has arisen out of the connection of the subject of it with Eenee's history; but it is now time to return to the court of Ferrara. Here were assembled at this time, "as in a securer and more brilliant Nerac beyond the Alps,"* a group of dis- tinguished persons, whose affection for their young * Jules Bonnet's Vie d'Olympia Morata. 42 MEMORIALS OF princess had drawn them from la belle France," and detained them in a species of honourable exile around her. One of the young and noble ladies, who attended Eenee into Italy, named Anne de Beauregard, died at Ferrara, whilst Marot held the office of secretary to the duchess, — and the touching epitaph which he wrote on her must not be withheld. It is as follows : — " De Beauregard Anne suis, qui d'enfance Laissay Parentz, pays, amys et Erance Pour suivre icy la Duchesse Eenee : Laquelle i'ay depuis abandonnee, Futur epoux, beaulte, fleurissant aage Pour aller veoir au Ciel mon heritage, Laissant le monde avec moindre soucy Qu'en laissant France, alors que vins icy." Beside the faithful governess, Madame de Soubise, we find that lady's only daughter amongst the French attendants of the Duchess Eenee. Anne de Parthenai had been the favourite companion of Eenee's childhood ; she was now married to the Sieur de Pons, who held office in the duke's bedchamber. Her brother, the Sieur de Soubise, was also at the court of Ferrara. Madame de Pons is celebrated as " one of the brightest ornaments of Eenee's court," and, unless her panegyrists have been guilty of exaggeration, she may be allowed to have competed with her royal friend in tastes, acquire- ments, and religious excellence. Unsatisfied with a knowledge of Latin merely, she cultivated the study of Grreek, until she could read with pleasure the authors who had written in that tongue. Beside these more RENEE OF FRANCE. 43 arduous pursuits, it is said that she understood all kinds of music, and that she sang like an angel." But it is higher praise, still that " she attained to a great skill in the Scriptures, and took a pleasure in discoursing almost every day with divines, on theological subjects; " — that she was, in short, ^^a sincere Huguenot, and the worthy sister of Soubise." * Her husband, Antoine de Pons, Count de Marennes, and first gentleman of the bedchamber to Ercole II., was associated with her in these elevating studies, and, while she lived, he faithfully adhered to the Eeformation. His theological predilec- tions, at this time, as also those of his brother-in-law, De Soubise, were ascribed to the teaching of Calvin at the court of the Duchess.t Griraldi, who dedicated to Madame de Pons the second dialogue of his " Historia Poetarum," thus addresses her : — " Wherefore should I take knowledge of the love and affection, or rather piety, which you show towards your husband, who is justly yours, since he is adorned with the same studies and virtues as yourself?" and elsewhere it is recorded that his proficiency in religious knowledge enabled him, personally, to take part in the instruction of his poor dependants at a subsequent period. "Many of them he edified, as well officers as others, in the town of Pons," with a zeal worthy of a minister of "the Keligion." * See the Biography of Madame de Pons, in Bayle's Dictionary. t The court at this time was quite a nursery of the reformed doc- trines. " There arrived, and were read, all the books that came out against the Catholic religion." See Frizzi, 44 MEMORIALS OF But, after the death of his first admirable wife, and his second marriage, to the Dame de Massay, he forsook the faith which he had hitherto professed, and became not only an enemy but a persecutor of its followers. Other eminent individuals, not of Eenee's native, but of her adopted, country, added brilliancy to her court at this period, where their learning made them welcome. One of these was Celio Calcagnini, a canon of the Cathedral of Ferrara, and Apostolic Prothonotary, whose early life had been spent in camps, as a soldier, in the service of the Emperor Maximilian and of Pope Julius IT. Exchanging war for diplomacy, and, finally, adopting the ecclesiastical habit, he achieved celebrity as " one of the most learned men of the sixteenth century." He was one of the first assertors of the earth's rotation on its axis, — a glance into scientific truth which better entitles him to distinction than his catalogue of medals, in the museum of Ercole IL, or than his easy and elegant verses. There was also Grregorio Giraldi, an able Greek scholar, and remarkable by reverses which often caused him to declare that " he had had to combat three powerful enemies — fortune, nature, and the injus- tice of men," — who now, rescued from poverty by the liberality of his fellow-citizens, reposed in peace under the protection of Eene Thou^ book xx\i. chap. iv. ; also Bcrnier's Hist de Blois, aLcl Montfaucon's Monumens de la Monarchies t. v. p. 91. N 3 l82 MEMORIALS OF pleaded the cause of the oppressed so boldly before one of the most powerful of the oppressors, must have sounded cheeringly in the ears of those who had learned their own peril by the arrest of the Prince of Conde. But notwithstanding the remonstrance of the duchess, the Gruises proceeded with those forms of justice by which they tried to disguise their "intent to murder their once formidable rival." The commission ap- pointed to sit in judgment on the prince comprised Christopher de Thou, father of the historian, its presi- dent, Earthelemy Faye and Jacques Viole, counsellors. Grilles Bourdin, procureur-general, and Jean du Tillet, " GrrefSer" of the Parliament. Even L' Hopital lent the sanction of his honoured name to their proceedings, by accompanying them, on the 13th November, to the prison of the prince, for the purpose of ^^interrogating" him. In vain did Conde protest against the constitu- tion of this commission, and appeal to be tried by the king, the peers, and the Chambers of the Parliament assembled. His reclamation was declared null and frivolous, and it was threatened that, if he persisted in his refusal to answer the charges preferred against him, he should be dealt with as one who was in fact convicted of high treason. " It was not to be tolerated," arro- gantly exclaimed the Duke de Guise " that un petit galant, prince though he was, should deal in such bravadesJ^ The very day was fixed for Conde's sentence and execution, the Guises delaying the fulfilment of RENEE OF FRANCE. 1B3 their sanguinary purpose only that they might thereby secure a greater holocaust of victims. The constable, however, was on his guard, and refused to come to Orleans. But the brave Coligni, though warned of the impending danger whilst on his road, was " moved by none of these things." He committed the event to Grod," and continued his journey. How to rid them- selves of the King of Navarre, was the grand perplexity of the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duke de Gruise, — - for to bring a crowned head to the scaffold was no easily-accomplished feat, even in those desperate times. Unless history universally slanders them, they contrived an expedient worthy of their unscrupulous character. They devised the assassination of Antoine by the hand of the young Francis II. This plot seemed also ripe for execution. After being repeatedly summoned to the chamber of the king, Antoine at length presented himself in the royal cabinet with a trembling apprehen- sion of intended injury. But it is to the credit of Francis, that his nature was not ferocious enough for the perpetration of such a deed of horror. He re- proached Antoine with some imaginary offence, but accepted the explanations which Navarre offered with readiness, and suffered him to depart from his presence in peace. It was then that the Guises, incensed at the failure of their bloody purpose, left the royal cabinet where they had been concealed during the interview between Francis and Antoine, exclaiming, 0 le roi N 4 MEMORIALS OF lache et poltron!"* But though the destruction of Conde appeared inevitable, in spite of human justice and mercy, and the Duchess Eenee's intervention, an overruling power wrought with irresistible hand for his deliverance, and the counsels of the Gruises were " turned into foolishness." Death, which they made so light of, came to the rescue of the prisoner, but in a different way from his expectation, or his enemies' in- tention. Francis II. expired after a short illness on the 5th December, 1560, without having completed the 18th year of his age, or the i8th month of his reign. With the death of the king, the Guises' pretensions to absolute power fell to the ground and a cry which spoke reprobation both of the duke and the cardinal rose up through the whole of PVance.J At that fortunate moment, the Duchess of Mont- pensier and the Chancellor L'Hopital interposed in behalf of Conde with the queen-mother. Catherine " loved no one, and was beloved by none," but her self-interested objects at this time were mixed up with the cause of the Bourbons. She perceived that it was now in her power to avail herself of their co-operation against the ambitious motives of the Guises. She was convinced that the life of Conde might be more serviceable to her than his death, and that with the aid of the two brothers, whilst she guarded tlie regency * Madllc. (Ic Vauvillicrs, Hist, dc Jeanne d'Albrct, t. i. p. 187. t Sisniondi, Hist, dcs Fran^ais, vol. xviii. chap. 16, p. 185. J Madllc. dc Vauvillicrs, t. i. p. 192. RENEE OF FRANCE. 185 from falling into the hands of Antoine of Navarre, she might become the actual possessor of chief power in the realm. In the mind of Catherine such considerations had sufficient weight to procure, first, the suspension of Conde's "proces," and, subsequently, his release from imprisonment. The States-Greneral were opened at Orleans on the 13th December, by the new king, Charles IX., who succeeded to his brother's throne at the age of ten years and a half. The name of Eenee, Duchess of Ferrara, is found among those of the royal personages who surrounded the young monarch on that occasion. There is no need to recapitulate, in this place, the proceedings of this earnestly demanded assembly, inasmuch as they have no bearing on the history of Renee. Its closing session was held on the 31st January, 156 1, in the presence of the same royal and noble witnesses who attended at its " overture." But whilst the court abode at Orleans, the Duchess Eenee availed herself of the opportunity which offered itself of sending for Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, that she might through him signify to his royal mistress the sentiments of admiring esteem with which she regarded Queen Elizabeth. The record of the conversation which ensued upon this interview is contained at length in a despatch of the ambassador to the English queen*; it is full of interest, as illustrative of the earnestness with * Throkmorton Ambassades, State Paper Office, vol. labelled France^ 1561." i86 MEMORIALS OF which she now desired to further the cause of truth being " fully persuaded in her own mind," and no longer afraid to be known as an adherent of the Eeformation. Sir Eichard Throkmorton writes to his sovereign as follows : — " To the Queen's most excellent Ma*^®* " It may please your Ma^^% synce my letters to the same of the thyrd of Januari, sent by De Fariory (?), the old Dutchesse of Farare (off whose aryvall at thys courte I did advertyse your Ma^^® before thys tyme) did send on off hyr s)rrvants unto me with goode words of vysytation : who desyryd me on hyr behalffe to take the payns to come and vysyte hyr at hyr lodgyngs unto whom she then (as the messanger sayd) wold declare more off hyr mynd: wyche accordyng to hyr own order, I dyd the vj^*^ off Januwary. The Dutchesse receavyd me wyth courtesy and goode words, and mayde me to sytt by hyr in a chayre, and sayd unto me: ^Mons'' I'Ambassador, bycausse I have not the comoditie to let the queue your M^^ knowe of my good wyll and affec- tion to hyr, I have desyryd you to take the payns to come to me as the best meyne to supplie the want, beynge here liyr ambassador.' ^ I tell you, Mons. I'Am- bassador,' she sayd, ' I doe her tliat reverence bycausse she is a queue that doth belong to her estate, and doth become me : But I love and honor (her) bycausse she is, I here, a Christian and virtues queue, and hathe in hyr realme advanced and set forthe the trew servysse, gloria, RENEE OF FRANCE. 187 and honor off Grod, by whose good example and con- stance thereyn I trust other pryncis will be movyd to do the lyke : So as in thys latter tyme of the world, she may (be) reputyd of goode ryghte, as good a mynyster for the restoryng and restitution of God's word off long tyme lying oppressyd and darkenyd, as ether was Josias yn the putting forthe off the old testament or Constantyne the new. ' Lo/ sayd she, ' what a lord God is that doth blemyshe the fame and estimation of the great men of the world through the doyings off a weake woman. All theyr victories and conquests/ sayd she, ^doth give place to thyse your Mystres acts. And for thys virtuos entrepryse I note,' sayd she, ' how the lord dothe blesse hyr, and give hyr moche felycitie. Fyrst, she hath the love and the obedyence of her sub- getts : she hath (from the) Lord goode successe against hyr enemies : She ys indued with many good gyftes, the grettest pryncis of Christendome dothe desyer hyr yn marriage. And on thing which ys specially to be notyd. She alone hathe done more than hyr syster could do, beyng alive, with on of the grettest pryncis of the world, yea, yn that wytche never none of her ancestors could ever bring to passe. For by occasion of hyr rely- gion, she hath obtainyd the amytie of the realme of Scotland and moreover thereby she hathe won the favor of a grette many yn everie contrie. This pros- peritie,' she sayd, ^ Mons. 1' Ambassador, ys of many folks moche regardyd, insomoche as I judge theyre be many of sondry estates, yea, yn those that be not of hyr relygion, i88 MEMORIALS OF that ar perswaded that the Lord dothe sustayne hyr and prosper hyr proceedyngs, and theyreby are more inclynyd to give eare to the treuthe. I thynke/ sayd she, ' the Quene Mother, beyng a virtuos and sage lady, dothe be- gynn to herkynne to the treuthe, and can be contented that abusys be reformed in the Churches of thys realme, which,' sayd she, ^wold in my oppinion, take better effect yff the quene your M'^^ would use some persua- sions either by wryting or otherwyse unto hyr. You will not believe,' sayd she, ' the goode towardnes that ys in the Kyng for hys age, and yt were grett pytie that he should not be instructed in the treuthe, seyng so good a dyspocition and so grett a sprjrte be mette in hym together. And as the quene your Mystres is the prin- cipall mynyster of the advancement off the kyngdome of Grod and hys word yn hyr owne realme, and in the realme of Scotland, so may she be the anchor of the same grace, if she wyll, in this realme, and so conse- quently through all Europe. For,' sayd she, ^if thys realme be converted, all other contrees wyll embrace the same relygion.' I answered that I was well assuryd your Ma*^® wold verie thankfully accept her goode affec- tion, and gladly embrace hyr amytie yn respecte of her vertew, wysdom, and estate. But I thought thys should be to your Ma*^® most acceptable, that she dyd grounde hyr goode wyll upon the occasion of relygion, your Ma*^® esteeming that the beste and most parfecte amytie which proceedyd from that fondation. And I dyd assuer hyr ' to advertysse your Ma^^® by my next dyspatche of hyr good mynd and the reasons off ytt.' BENEE OF FRANCE, The sayd duchesse sayd unto me, ^ Mons. TAmbas- sador, you for your owne parte may do some goode yn the matter. For when occasions be ofFeryd you to have conference with the queue mother, you may use some perswasions unto hyr to induce her thereto. Theyre is,' sayd she, ^ no meyns so certayne and so goode to esta- blysshe a perfecte and assuryd amytie betwyxte France and England, as an amytie in religgion, and by thys meyns, sayd she, you shall do your dutie to Grod, and do your Mrs. and hyr realme goode servysse.' I sayd to the duchesse that, ^ I had a goode wyll to employ all that was yn me to so goode a conclusion. But I dyd se yn the contrayrie religgion (that) unitie did not all ways occasion amytie.' ' That trieth,' sayd the Duchesse, ' the spryte of that relygion to be the spryte off error. But,' sayd she, ^ Mons. 1' Ambassador, that dyscord ys not amongste those that prof esse the treuthe.' I answeryd that, as thys day yn all Estates the case of relygion was estemyd so to touche the polycie (wheare- off in other pryncis contres ambassadors owght to speak warely), as I dyd take myselffe not to be a fytt instrument to have to do in that matter. But rather thowghte that she (beyng the kyng's nere kynswoman, and no stranger, and yn credytte with the queue mo- ther, the kyng of Navarr, and all other grett person- agis of thys realme, the duke of Gruys havyng here in this courte a grett authorytie, beyng hyr son yn law) was in my opinyon a most convenyient meyne to worke in the matter : and methought, I sayd ^ she could not but grettly promote the matter whyche she 190 MEMORIALS OF dyd so moche dessyr the advancement off. I sayd hyr words must be takyn to precede only off zeale off rely- gion and tranquillytie off the realme. Peradventure an embassador's words (how well sowever they were ment) should have another interpretation.' She sayd, ' Mons*^ I'Ambassador, you know what you have to do, but I thynke whatsowever the queue, your Mrs. shall do in thys matter, or whatsowever you shall say cannot but take goode efFecte.' Then she sayd, ^besyds these respects that dothe move me to love and honor the queue, your Mrs., wheareofF I have alredy spokyne to you, theyre is another cause wyche, thowgh yt be off les wheight, dothe worke yn me a parciall goode wyll towards hyr. Theyre was an old auquayntance betwyxte the queue hyr mother and me when she was on off my syster queue Claude's mayds of honor.' I did tell the duchesse that ' I would not forgett to advertysse your Ma*^® of all that she sayd unto me.' And so after a few obsequious words I toke my leave of her. While the duchesse of Farare and I talked together, the duchesse of Gruise her dawghter came ynto the cham- bre. It may please your Ma*^® at the next dyspatche to gratifie the sayd duchesse off Farare ether with your letters or some other vysytation on your behalfife. (Dated from Orleans, the loth of January, 1560 (61), and signed,) " Your Ma*^^^ most humble faythf " obeydient servant and subgett, N. TimOKMORTON." BENEE OF FRANCE, 191 That Queen Elizabeth acted on the suggestion with which her ambassador concludes his letter, is evidenced by the following letters of Eenee, acknowledging " the vysytation" of her cousin " of England. A la tres haulte et puissante Eeyne d' Angleterre. Madame, ma cousine, — Tres haulte et tres excel- lent Eeyne, nf e honoree cousine. " Du conte de bedford que vf e M*® a envoye divers le Eoy monseigneur, j'ay entendu la visite qu'il luy a pleu par luy me faire avec sa Lre et le contenu de la croiance d'icelle, et encores de son Ambassadeur Eesidant par deca. Qui m'a este tres grand tesmoignage de la bonne opinion qu'elle a envers moy, et de la bonne grace qui me demonstre davantage celle que j'ay tousjours eu d'elle et me donne occasion non seullement de continuer selon que ses vertus bonnes et dignes qualitez le com- portent, mais de I'augmenter et m'emploier pour elle, en sorte que je ne demeure ingrate, et redevable de tant d' honnestes et bonnes paroles et gracieusetez qu'elle m'a declairees. Dont pour lui en rendre les graces que je lui en doibts et I'offre qu'elles meritent, venant de vfe part (Madame), j'ay prie le dit Conte de Bedford vous en repeter et dire et faire le remerciement, et ofFrer en mon nom (?) qui me sont convenables, en si bonne voulante et affection qu'il vous plaist me demonstrer, et de celle que reciproquement je porte a votre M*% et me recommendant a sa bonne grace, je prie le createur lui 192 MEMORIALS OF donner tres bonne et longue vie. Escript a fontaine- bleau ce 20 jo^ de fevrier. Vf e bonne cousine, Eenee de France." ^^A Madame la Eeyne d' Angleterre, Madame ma cousine.* " Madame, — Le chevalier Eimynalde gentilhomme Ferraroys, pnt portour^ qui est venu en ma compaignye jusjuez ici, s'en va avec le Conte de Bedford desirant vous baiser la main. Je I'ay tres expressement charge vous faire la reverer^ce de ma part et pnter mes affec- tionnees reconnaissances (?) a votre bonnegrace. Au- quel m'en remettant, je prie a dieu, Madame, vous donner tres bonne et longue vie. De Fontainebleau ce 20 jour de Fevrier. " Vre bonne cousine, Eenee de France." In a despatch f ^^to the right Hon^^® Lords and others of the Privy Counsell," signed ^^T. Bedford," ^'N. Throkmorton," and dated Feb. 26th, 1560 (61), occurs a notice of an interview, apparently of Bedford, with the Duchess Eenee, to deliver the Queen of Eng- land's letter, as follows : — ^^From him (the King of France) I went to the Duchesse of Ferrara, and declared unto her that part * This letter is in the next page to the former, labelled on the back, in a very old hand, " Rene de Ferrare to the Quene's Ma""." f Throkmorton Despatches, State Paper Office. BENEE OF FRANCE. 193 of my instructions which was appointed me, with the delivery of the Q. Ma*^^'^ Ife. The said duchesse gave her Ma*^® her heartie thanks, and said that she was ready to her to make as good proufe of her good will as any frende her Ma*^® had in all the worlde, as she would more at large declare unto us at more convenyent tyme and place." It should appear that Eenee lost no time in fulfilling that promise ; but on the very day on which she wrote her acknowledgment to Elizabeth, she sent intelligence by her secretary, to Bedford and Throkmorton, con- tinuing a still earlier communication with them ; for^ in a despatch * addressed " to the right hon^^^^ and our varie good Lordes, the lords and others of the Queue's Ma*^^'* pryvie Counsel," dated " this twenty-sixth of February, 1560 (61) signed, F. Bedford. N. Throk- morton," there is this passage : " The next dale, beying the 20th, preparing ourselves to dept after our dyner, the duchesse of Ferrara sent her secretaire to tell us from her that whereas in con- versatioD betwixt us of the general councell at our last being w*^ her, she sayd that she thought it was like to go forwarde, as the pope desiered to have it ; since which tyme, she had heard that this morning the Queue's mother said in the affaires, that the great reasones she had heard of the Ambassadours of England, why the councell ought not to go forwarde as it was * Throkmorton Despatches, p. 627. 0 194 MEMORIALS OF publyshed^ gave her occasion to call the matter againe in question to have it consulted upon, whether it were mete for the King to accept it so or not. The said duchesse said also that these persuasions and reasons used by us from the Queue's Ma*^% were like to do very moch good in the matter, and wyshed also that the princes of Almaine would take the same way that her Ma*^® hathe done. Being thus moved by this advertiss- ment from the said duchesse, and by suche conversation as we had with the Admirall, but especially bycause in all our former conferences with the Queue mother, and the King of Navarre about that matter, they referred their acceptance of the counsell to the agreement of the Empire, and also by other matters come to our know- ledge by other good means, we thought it very expedient as well for the furtherance of the matter, as for her Ma*^^'^ better sheltery (?) to send the princes of Almaine word thereof with all the best diligence we could. And finding there one Emanuel Tremelle, reader of the Hebrew lecture in King Edwarde's time in Cambridge, redy to employe him self in that service, we wrote to the said princes, and gave him instructions how to pro- cede therein, in such sort as by the copie of our letter and instructions presently sent to yo^ Lordshippes may appere. And for that the matter required some spede, we sent him in post and gave him a hundred crowns to make his voyage. The said Emanuel was a suyter in this courte, recommended hither by some of the Princes of Almayne in the name of the people of Metz, to have RENEE OF FRANCE. 19s some toUeration in that town for matters of religion, and to places granted them to preach publicly the gospel, and to get released certain prisoners that had been imprisoned there for religion, which his suit was never graciously heard till our coming hither. And since our talking and persuasion with the Queue's mother, it is granted them that the said prisoners shall be released. As for their other request for a place to preache in, though it is not altogether granted to them, yet it is permitted that they shall meet to the number of sixty (?) and not above, in places appointed by themselves, and there preache as they shall thynke good." At this period it was Catherine's policy to be tolerant of the Huguenots. Only ambitious of power, and, com- paratively speaking, indifferent which should be the triumphant creed, so that her authority might be firmly established, she perceived in the spirit manifested by the lately assembled States- Greneral (despite the efforts of the Cruises to impart to it a decidedly Catholic colouring) that the educated majority of the French people^ whether belonging to the Nobility or the Commons, were gained over to the cause of the Eeformation. The ladies of the Royal Household were for the most part devoted to the Huguenots." The upright, mild, and liberal L'Hopital was her most trusted counsellor ; after him in her confidence, stood Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, who leant openly towards the reformers. No wonder that Renee thought Catherine " inclined to O 2 196 MEMORIALS OF hearken to the truth/' until she learnt better to esti- mate the cunning craftiness of ^Hhat Italian woman/' who only " lay in wait to deceive." No two other individuals of exalted rank^ thus, in the course of events, thrown in each other's way, could have had less in common than the Queen Mother of France, and the . Duchess Dowager of Ferrara. Even at the period now alluded to, religion must have been a very insecure topic of conversation between them. Politics, so mingled with religion, were equally dangerous ground. But we are told, that a venerable superstition, in which each participated, supplied them with an interesting subject of discourse. Astrology was Eenee's weakness; in the mind of Catherine it took the place of religion ; she had no faith in Grod, but she trusted implicitly in the stars." The observatory of Catherine still exists in an old detached tower on the south side of Chateau Blois. Thither she used often to retire with her astro- loger, to consult the disposition of the heavenly bodies. On astrology she conversed with Eenee, who in her early days "had studied that vain science under Luc Gaurie," and whose proficiency in it led the queen mother to declare one day in the hearing of the gos- sipping Brantome, "that the greatest philosopher in the world could not have treated the subject better." RENEE OF FRANCE, 197 CHAP. X. The "Triumvirate." — Fiercely intolerant Edict of the ' Parliament of Paris. — Increase of Protestantism — Jeanne d'Albret its Friend. — Montargis — Renee makes it a Refuge for the Persecuted. — Tolerant Edict. — Antoine of Navarre deserts the Protestant Cause — His Motive — His Presumption. — Massacre of Yassy Renee's prudent and courageous Conduct. — Outrages at Montargis repressed by her. The young King Charles IX. with the whole Court, left Orleans on the 5th of February, 1561, and proceeded to Fontainebleau, Thither also went the Duchess Dowager of Ferrara, as the dates of her letters to Queen Elizabeth inform us. The Cruises, whose power was no longer paramount, departed shortly afterwards to Eheims, the archchiepiscopal see of the Cardinal of Lorraine. Fortune again smiled on the rival House of Bourbon. The Prince of Conde presented himself at Fontainebleau, when a decree of the Council speedily relieved him from the sentence which had hung over his head ever since his arrest at Orleans. The King of Navarre procured from the queen mother the office of f Lieutenant-Greneral of France. But new troubles were impending on the Huguenot party. Its antagonists were too strong to yield their point without a struggle. The jealous old Constable de Montmorency joined himself with the Duke de Cruise and the Marshal St. o 3 MEMORIALS OF Andre^ in a league ^^for the defence of the Catholic Eeligion ; " an alliance which procured for its chiefs the name of The Triumvirate." The Parliament too, formerly so liberal in its religious tendencies, now ap- peared disposed to rival the Sorbonne in bigotry and intolerance. It not only remonstrated against the Edict of Eomorantin, but prohibited by fresh decrees the Huguenot assemblies for worship. It desired to revive the ancient ordinances against heretics, and even accused the Queen Mother of betraying both the religion and the laws of the kingdom, by permitting men to re-enter her councils who had abjured the faith of their fathers.* Its harsh policy triumphed in the edict of July, 156 1, which declared the celebration of religious worship by the harassed Protestants to be punishable with death and confiscation of goods. This savage measure was carried in spite of the efforts of the excellent L'Hopital, who strove, though unsuccessfully, to mitigate the severity of its enactments. One clause alone, which prohibited domiciliary visits of an inquisitorial cha- racter, tended to afford some alleviation of its vexatious tyranny. The Guises, of course, exulted in this edict, and the duke loudly proclaimed his readiness to enforce it, if need were, with the sword. But Coligni and the Huguenots stoutly protested against the least encroach- ment on the scant measure of toleration which they * Sismondi, Hist, des rran9ais, t. xviii. p. 213. BENEE OF FRANCE. 199 had enjoyed since the beginning of the year,'^ Nor did popular opinion stamp its approval on the course which the Parliament had taken. The deputies of the no- bility and of the tiers-etat, assembled at Pontoise, were entirely opposed to the tenor of the new edict. The celebrated Colloquy of Poissy, in which the Cardinal of Lorraine and Theodore Beza consented to meet each other to discuss the doctrine of the Eucharist, seemed to promise the introduction of a milder spirit into religious controversy. Besides this, ''the irresistible extension of Protestantism throughout France/' in- spired good hope of its ultimate victory. At this period, or a little later, more than two thousand re- formed congregations existed in the kingdom. In the territory of Navarre, the cause of the Eeformation was not merely tolerated by its admirable Queen, Jeanne D'Albret, — it was warmly cherished and promoted. For Jeanne was no waverer between two opinions like her husband Antoine, and the indomitable courage dis- played by her in behalf of the cause she had espoused, stood out in remarkable contrast to his vacillating weak- ness. The moral influence of her character however, told upon him until the crafty Catherine de' Medici succeeded in alienating his affections from her. Into the mind of her son Henry she infused enough of her own predilections to qualify him in a great degree for the leadership of the French Huguenots, a post of * Sismondi, Hist, des rran9ais, t. xviii. p. 220. o 4 200 MEMORIALS OF honour and of difficulty, which it must be acknowledged he grandly occupied. Jeanne was worthy of her mother, Marguerite de Valois. Indeed, her unvarying adhe- rence to the truth places her character in a less equi- vocal light than that in which the name of Marguerite has come down to us. Nevertheless, the Duchess Eenee, who knew them both, valued each very highly. Of Marguerite, she wrote thus to Calvin, " The Queen of Navarre was the first Princess of this Kingdom who favoured the Grospel. " Of Jeanne, Eenee in the same letter commends the good zeal and the good judg- ment," adding with affectionate warmth, "1 love her with a mother's love, and praise the graces which God has bestowed upon her." It is difficult to ascertain the precise time when Eenee first took up her abode at Montargis after her return from Italy. It would seem (notwithstanding the assertions of some writers) that this city did not originally form part of her marriage dower, but, being assigned to her in compensation for any conceivable claims which she might prefer to her ancestral rights, it became the home of her widowhood. Nearly a hun- dred years later it was the birthplace of one with whom Eenee would have rejoiced to hold conimunion — the devoted Madame Gruyon. Montargis was a little city of the Gratinois, a district of the ancient Orleannois, about '"^ixty miles to the south of Paris. It stood on the banks of the Loing, and was bordered by an extensive forest. Its old castle, of vast size, served as a royal TtENEE OF FRANCE. 201 nursery^ and was called the ^^Berceau des enfans de FraDce." A stormy cradle it must have been, rocked amidst tumults, for the inhabitants were famed from of old for their mutinous temper and rude bearing, as much towards one another, as towards any luckless traveller who came within their reach. Nor were they amended in this respect at the period when the Dame de Montargis (the title by which Eenee was commonly known) came to dwell amongst them. Beza complains that they profited but little by the amiable example of their Lady Eesident " and the good instruction which she took pains to provide for them. The revenue de- rived by Renee from Montargis was very small, and was entirely absorbed by the expenses contingent on the troubles of those times. It however afforded a ^shelter during the tempest of the civil wars, and she gener- ously shared her asylum with many who needed her protection. Numbers of the suffering adherents of the cause which Renee loved had reason to rise up and call her blessed. She never shrunk from availing herself of her high position and of her absolute right in her own domain to hold out the hand of succour to the perse- cuted, and the large castle which she occupied was soon filled with many more inhabitants than those who merely ministered to her state or guarded its walls. It is asserted that not less than three hundred Huguenots were housed, clothed and fed under its roof, during the disastrous epoch of the religious wars. In the first year of her residence at Montargis, Mons, 202 MEMORIALS OF de Coulonges became Eenee s chaplain, — the same Sieur de Coulonges who presided over the first French re- formed synod at Paris, in 1559. That his ministrations were at first acceptable to Eenee we may infer from the following extract of a letter from Calvin to Beza, dated Oct. 2ist, 1561. ^^That Coulonges might not be recalled, the Lady Duchess carefully begged of me, whose hope concerning you also it were scarcely right to frustrate. She indeed eagerly expects you and D. Martyr, whom she asserts to have been promised to her." Of Mons. de Coulonges we shall hear again. At the commencement of the year 1562, Catherine de' Medici, with the co-operation of L'Hopital, convoked at St. Grermain an assemblage of deputies from the eight Parliaments of France. These deputies were chosen by the chancellor himself, and their concurrence in the measure of toleration which he designed to establish by their means could therefore be relied on. The result was " The Edict of January," which granted permission to the Huguenots to assemble for worship in fields without the towns, and placed these assemblies under the protection of the law. But acceptable as this tolerant decree must have been to the Huguenots, they were still far from being allowed to enjoy in peace the liberty of worship that it pro- claimed to them. The Parliament of Paris at first refused to register the Edict, nor did it do so until the 6th March, after repeated commands from the queen RENEE OF FRANCE. 203 mother. Meanwhile the sky was darkening over the heads of the Eeformed. Pius IV. and Philip II. were alike enraged at the Colloquy of Poissy. Not dis- cussion, but extermination, was their remedy for re- ligious divisions. And the apparent defection of the queen mother from the Catholic cause, emboldened some of its more zealous advocates to open a treason- able correspondence with the Court of Spain. The Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, brother of the late Duke Ercole II., had succeeded in winning over the weak Antoine of Navarre from the Huguenot to the Catholic party. Antoine pretended to have been convinced of the fallacy of the arguments in behalf of the reformed doctrine by the Colloquy of Poissy, but the true motive of his perversion must be traced to the bait held out to him of the possible restoration of that part of his ancient kingdom which Spain had formerly wrested from the Navarrese dominions and held with unrelaxed grasp ever since. Overcome by this temp- tation, he sent Jeanne his queen back to Bearn; dis- missed Beza and the reformed preachers from his household ; changed the preceptors of his son. Prince Henry*; quarrelled with the Chatillons, and even went the length of demanding their dismissal from the court. The conjunction of the Spanish ambassador * At a later period, after severe illness in virulent small pox, the young Prince of Navarre was confided to the care of the Duchess Eenee at Montargis, by the urgent entreaty of his mother. See Miss Freer's Life of Jeanne D'Albret, vol. i. p. 293. 204 MEMORIALS OF with the King of Navarre in this demand, aroused Catherine's spirit, and she haughtily repulsed this foreign interference with her domestic affairs. She dis- missed the Cardinal de Tournon to his province, and commanded the Marshal St. Andre to take his depar- ture to Lyons. He refused obedience. To rid herself of his presence, Catherine removed with the king her son to the chateau of Monceau, in Brie, accompanied by the Papal Legate, the Cardinal of Ferrara, the Secre- taries of State and Antoine of Navarre. The Parliaments of Dijon and Aix refused to register the Edict of January, and their disapprobation of its merciful provisions was followed in Burgundy and Provence by revolting cruelties practised on the un- happy Huguenots. The Duke d'Aumale, another of the family of Cruise, and governor of the former province, was little inclined to favour the Government scheme of toleration. Still the queen mother and the chancellor flattered themselves that the asperities of the contro- versy would in time be softened, and that, weary of constant strife, the partizans of the two religions would become tolerant of each other's existence. They were deceived. Already the Triumvirate, encouraged by the adherence of Antoine of Navarre, were preparing to assert the absolutism of the Catholic creed by open hostilities in the battle-field. Being invited to return to Paris by the King of Navarre, their former foe and new ally, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke de Guise set out from the EENEE OF FRANCE. 205 chateau of Joinville, on the ^iSth of February, and on the morrow, which was Sunday, they arrived at Vassy. In this town a Huguenot congregation had been formed about six months previously, and it now comprised between eight and nine hundred people ; a large pro- portion of the population of the place, which consisted of not more than three thousand souls.* On that fatal day, they were assembling for their Sabbath worship without the walls, in obedience to the regulations of the new Edict, and ignorant of the doom awaiting them. Unhappily, the sound of the bells which summoned the worshippers together, attracted the attention of La Montague, maitre d'hotel to one of the Guises. He demanded what it meant, and was told that it announced the "preche" of the Huguenots. The Duke de Guise heard the question and the answer. His ire was roused, and he exclaimed with an oath, We will Huguenot them presently after a different fashion." He probably remembered the sanguinary request of his mother Antoinette de Bourbon, "that she might be delivered from the presence of a nest of heretics so near to her chateau of Joinville." He and his armed escort hastened at once to the barn where the simple service of the Huguenots was proceeding. La Mon- tague and La Brosse were the first to enter, uttering threats of massacre. The congregation, knowdng that they had the sanction of the new Edict, turned out the * Sismondi, Hist, des rran9ais, t. xviii. p. 262. 206 MEMORIALS OF intruders^ and fastened the door against them. But the soldiers of Gruise speedily burst through the insufficient barrier, and began to discharge their pistols and harque- busses amongst the terrified people. A stone thrown in self-defence by one of the Huguenots, struck the Duke de Guise on his cheek, and caused the blood to flow. This was the signal for the ever-infamous mas- sacre of Vassy." Sixty-four persons were slain, either in the barn, or whilst endeavouring to effect their escape, and more than two hundred were grievously w^ounded. In this outrage, as in the executions which followed the discovery of the Conspiracy of Amboise," the only voice of mercy was that of Anna d'Este, Duchesse de Gruise.* The horror with which the unhappy Hugue- nots heard of the cruel infringement of the Edict framed for their protection soon gave place to other and more formidable emotions. The slaughter of their brethren at Vassy awoke the tocsin of civil war. Tidings of this dreadful event were not slow in reach- Montargis, and when the barbarous deed of her son-in- law was reported to Eenee, she gave commandment that the gates of the town should be guarded, without pre- venting the ingress or egress of either Catholic or Huguenot. The duchess had good cause for this and every other precautionary measure. The seditious temper of the townspeople was instantly aroused at the sound of strife abroad in the land. There was one * Sismondi, Hist, des Fran9ais, t. xviii. pp. 262— 264. BENEE OF FRANCE. 207 Michel Barreau, " maitre des eaux et des forets " of Montargis, and warden of the Magdalen Church, the largest in the town, who was at the head of the dis- affected on this occasion. " He was secretly favoured/' says Beza*, by some of the magistrates, who caused a report to be circulated that they of the religion would come and throw down the images on the night of the Ascension." Under colour of this pretext, they placed in the Church a garrison of thirty men in corslets, armed with lances and harquebusses. The night pre- vious this number was doubled, and their design was to issue from the Church at midnight, and to cut the throats of all the Protestants on whom they could lay hands in the town. " But Grod willed it," continues the same graphic historian, "that Madame being warned thereof, should break this blow, roughly menacing him whom she ought to have had hung, and prohibiting, by the town-bailiff, the assemblage of persons either by day or night, under pain of corporal punishment. Nevertheless, so far were the mutinous from receding on that account, that the next day, at seven o'clock in evening, from six to seven hundred of them assembled at the temple with such arms as they could get, and with noise louder than the sound of the tocsin, they rushed to the house of a poor blind ' hosteller,' intending to kill him, who nevertheless, was saved in a loft, but his wife, also aged, was wounded on her chin with a * Histoire des Eglises de France, t. ii. livre viii. 208 MEMORIALS OF blow from a stick, and (after being cruelly mutilated) was left for dead." The " Dame de Montargis " had need of nerve amongst such men of violence ! They were not appeased with the blood of a poor old woman, and from the house of the innkeeper, they betook themselves to the dwelling of the town bailiff, Ignace Courtois, whose profession of the reformed doctrine had made him unpopular, insincere as that profession after- wards proved to be. But the bailiff's house was better defended than the former, and they were repulsed from it, as they were also from that of an elder of the re- ligion named Claude Chaperon, who did not conceive it to be his duty to practise the virtue of non-resistance, Avhen an infuriated mob had come to seek his life. The uproar soon reached the ears of the duchess, who sent down from the chateau some of the gentlemen of her household to appease the tumult, to the great peril of their lives. ^^Nevertheless," adds Beza, ^Hhat gave some respite to those of the religion ; they kept them- selves on their guard, whilst Madame, having sent in all haste to the Prince (of Conde) at Orleans, obtained from thence some horse and foot soldiers, who, on their ar- rival, disarmed the seditious by her commandment, their arms being carried into the castle. Some of them were imprisoned, whereof three were hung by sentence of the provost-marshal, and the rest were set at liberty some time afterwards — thanks to Eenee's mildness and clemency.* * Hist, des Eglises de France RENEE OF FRANCE. 209 The prompt measures and firm attitude of the duchess in the midst of these alarming circumstances, and her wisely-mingled administration of justice and mercy after the tumult was suppressed, were, at least for some time, followed by the happiest results. Her Eomanist subjects learned that their Lady would suffer no intolerance, and that she was resolved to uphold her authority in Montargis. So that whilst without its walls all was agitation, a perfect tranquillity reigned within, and " Montargis became a place of refuge for the Huguenots from several parts of the kingdom, as from Paris, Melun, Nemours, Louis, Sens, Blois, Tours ; nay, even of several of the Eoman religion flying from the tumults of the war, of which this good duchess received several terrible assaults after that the prince, seeing the camp of his enemies approaching Orleans, had sent to recall all his men." * For the ^^Eeligious Wars " had at length actually begun. The endurance of the Huguenots had been exhausted by the massacre of Vassy. All their hopes of being suffered to enjoy religious freedom without molestation were at an end, since the Edict promulged by Eoyal authority on their behalf had been set at nought by the leaders of a powerful party which longed eagerly for their annihila- tion. Nothing seemed to be left for them but an appeal to arms. Calvin indeed had distinctly enjoined the duty of passive endurance of oppression, and con- * Hist, (ies Eglises de France, P 2IO MEMOBIALS OF demned an armed defence of the rights of conscience. But the Protestant party reconciled their proceedings with the principles of the Eeformer, by protesting that they fought not against the king or his mother, but against those who strove to usurp the lawful authority of their monarch. They had also a prince of the blood- royal for their leader, and so they justified their resort to the carnal sword. It must be confessed that they were driven into rebellion. But the means which they adopted for the preservation of their cause ensured its ultimate downfall. The sword makes no real converts to the truth, and from the hour when it was unsheathed in behalf of the Eeformation in France the glory of that Eeformation departed. Its progress was arrested. It became throughout the land as unpopular as it had long been in Paris. ^^The blood of the martyrs is" indeed " the seed of the Church," but not the blood of mail-clad warriors, poured out on the field of battle. The seed which fructifies to such a harvest of blessing is the blood of patient saints, "led as sheep to the slaughter." The fine saying of Beza*, when he re- monstrated with the King of Navarre, who was justify- ing the Duke de Gruise in the matter of Vassy — so low had Antoine fallen! — deserves never to be forgotten. " Sire, it is true that it is the part of the Church of God, in whose behalf I speak, to endure blows, not to give them — but, may it please you to remember, that ♦ Sismoiidi, Hist, dcs Fran^ais, t. xviii. p. 269. BENEE OF FRANCE. 211 it is an anvil which hath worn out many hammers." It has been said * that " Eenee did not approve that religion should be used as a pretext for revolt," and that " she ceased to see the Prince of Conde when he had become the leader of the Huguenots armed to demand liberty of conscience." There is nothing in the state- ment that Eenee disapproved of the wars of religion that is at all incredible. '^A king's daughter" (and she never forgot her parentage) might very naturally object to the subjects' revolt, even in so righteous a cause. Besides, it was with reluctance that her friend Coligni agreed to take part in the first outbreak, so questionable did the step appear to him. But it can hardly be true that Eenee refused to hold any inter- course with Conde, after he had assumed the command of her Huguenot forces, for it has appeared already that she availed herself of his proximity and that of his army at Orleans, a very short time after the commence- ment of hostilities, to apply for military aid during the sedition at Montargis. And we have seen that he granted that aid to the duchess, and continued it until necessity obliged him to recal the troop of soldiers which he had lent to her in that great emergency. Following the order of events as Beza records them f, we read that Eenee herself, on the departure of Conde's small contingent, provided for the maintenance of order within Montargis by levying a few soldiers to guard the * Biographic Universelle. f Histoire des Eglises de France, p 2 212 MEMORIALS OF chateau and gates of the town against all violent intru- sion, whilst freely opening them to the refugees of either party, whether Huguenot or Catholic. She thus secured peace within the walls for a season. But the royal army, on its return from the siege of Bourges, which capitulated on the 31st of August, passed through Montargis, thereby causing much terror to the Protes- tant inhabitants of the place. The duchess, when she heard of the approach of these unwelcome visitors, be- came " marvellously anxious " for the safety of the poor Huguenots and their families about to be exposed to the insults of an inflamed soldiery, under the leader- ship of merciless men. She advised the reformed minister of Montargis, Francois de Morel, better known as De Coulonges, and Pierre Antin, minister of Anty, to withdraw to a chateau whose owner was friendly until the storm should have blown over. Accord- ingly they departed, and reached the desired asylum in safety, but not without encountering great dangers by the way, being surrounded by a large body of French and Scottish horsemen, and but for the friendly aid of the Scotch, who first drove them out of the way, and then guided them " to the haven where they would be," they must have perished miserably. For their coun- tenances betrayed them, and their speech, inasmuch as that "i\\ey swore not, like other men." Honourable distinction! The Huguenot popidation of Montargis found shelter in their lady's chateau, which was filled to overflowing, and resembled an hospital. It is possible 1 EENEE OF FRANCE. 213 that this spectacle moved even their enemies to com- passion. The Cardinal of Lorraine, and Madame de Gruise, who were with the advanced guard of the army, were the first to arrive at Montargis. They strove to allay the fears of the duchess on behalf of her poor people, by assuring her that they desired the arrest of no one on account of his religion, but merely of rebels who were occupjdng the towns of the king. After the cardinal and the Duchess de Guise, came the young king, followed by the Duke de Griiise. Charles, it is said, caressed much the lady, his aunt, kissing her several times and shedding tears." It was thence con- cluded that these contests, at that time, pleased him not." But he was so kept under, continues the histo- rian, that it was impossible for him to converse for a long time with her apart. Meanwhile the army quartered in the town of Mon- targis, justified the dread with which its arrival had been anticipated. The Huguenots indeed, were out of the reach of its fury, but the bigoted soldiers wreaked their vengeance on the Protestant temple, tearing down the seats and demolishing the pulpit ; re-erecting also as many images and altars as they could find, in the places from whence the zeal of the Eeformed had re- moved them. Those too who had been banished from Montargis for sedition, availed themselves of this oppor- tunity to return, uttering menaces against such as were beyond the reach of their hate, which state of things being reported to Eenee, she promptly obtained from P 3 214 MEMORIALS OF the king a proclamation, by the sound of a trumpet, that no outrage should be offered to any partizan of either creed, under penalty of death. A soldier who ventured to transgress this ordinance being immediately hung these disorders ceased, and tranquillity was secured to the town. But the peace of the good duchess was much troubled by this formidable visitation. For the Duke de Gruise, although Eenee was his mother-in-law, deprived her of the guardianship of Montargis at his departure, and committed it to an archer of the Guard, named Eeynaudes, an apostate from the Eeformed religion, and on that account much beloved by the duke. The duchess was also forbidden to admit her own domestics to hear the instruction of the Huguenot ministers, but this decree was only observed for a little while. The boldest attack on Eenee, however, was made during the siege of Orleans by the Duke de Gruise. Success appeared ready at last to crown his ambition. The King of Navarre was dead of a wound received at the siege of Eouen, the Prince of Conde was a prisoner in the hands of Guise since the fatal day of Dreux.* The constable was shut up in Orleans, so that every- thing seemed to be in the power of the duke. Having therefore no cause to dread being called to account for anything he might choose to do, he gave orders in the council, in the king's name, that the Duchess Eenee, albeit she was his mother-in-law, advanced in years, * Fought on Dec. 19, 1562. RENEE OF FRANCE, 215 and diseased in body, should be removed from Mon- targis, ^^that nest of Huguenots/' and be required to take up her abode in one of the three following palaces, Fontainebleau, St. Grermain-en-Laye, or the Bois de Vin- cennes. The plea of '^the king's service" coloured this odious rescript ; the town and castle of Montargis, being, as the duke declared, ^^of very great impor- tance." Poulin, Baron of the Gruard, was charged with the execution of this commission, by letters express from the queen mother. The Sieur de Malicorne followed in his steps with four companies of horse, to strike terror into the heart of the duchess and to com- pel her to instant submission. The townspeople opened the gates to Malicorne on his arrival, and " immediately the populace began to rage with increased audacity." From the windows of her chateau Kenee looked down on the furious mob and the savage soldiery. They were wreaking a pitiful vengeance on a poor Huguenot, whom they had dragged from his sick bed, and were beating without mercy. In desperation, to rid himself of his tormenters, the miserable sufferer threw himself into the river, where a " harquebusade " was opened upon him, and he was finally despatched by dagger wounds. But there was no terror in the heart of the duchess. Her reply to the summons of surrender was as fearless as it was decisive. She said that she saw plainly that it was not for the king's service they wished to dislodge her ; that there was no ground for the allegation that Montargis was a place of great importance, because neither the 2l6 MEMORIALS OF town nor the castle was tenable against an assault with- out great repairs, and that injury to the king's cause, could not proceed from a place which was already in the hands of an archer of the Gruard, who had been left by Gruise in charge of it. And she denied that there was a single person in the chateau who was not, and had not ever had been, the king's very humble servant. She represented that to place her in either of the above mentioned palaces, which were unfortified, and two of which were at the very gates of Paris, would expose her to the risk of slaughter, which she had not merited, and which she well knew that the king her nephew did not intend. And therefore she desired to be more fully in- formed of the king's will, and prayed Poulin to return to the court with a gentleman of her party, for the better understanding thereof. But during the absence of Poulin on this errand, Malicorne, eager to prove himself the de- voted servant of Gruise, who had given him the rank of chevalier, and to whom he looked for further promotion, presumed to menace the Duchess Eenee, in the hope of bringing her to unconditional obedience. He threatened an assault of the citadel by a storming party with batter- ing engines, and even went so far as to apply to the Sieur de Biron for some pieces of cannon which he had brought from Paris to the siege of Orleans. Kenee answered the upstart right royally ; bidding him beware what he did, for that no one throughout the whole realm of France had any authority over her, except the RENEE OF FRANCE. 217 king. And she assured him that if he came against her castle with artillery, she would place herself first upon the breach, and would try, at the risk of her life, whether he or any other beside him were so foolhardy as to dare to slay the daughter of the best and mightiest of kings ! She added that she had no lack of friends and relatives who would avenge with spirit any injury done to herself on the persons of those who should incur such serious guilt, and would inflict punishment of the most signal kind, not only on them, but on their children also, even on their very babes in the cradle." Malicorne, who looked not for such an answer, quailed before the stern determination of the woman, and for- bore to proceed to violent measures. It must have been with reluctance that he abandoned the prospect of ex- pected booty, for he had designed to enrich himself with the plunder of those who had retired for safety within the castle, four of whom were ofiicers of the king of high degree, besides the ministers of the reformed re- ligion, for whose blood he thirsted. " But God ordained it otherwise." The mortal wound which the Duke de Gruise received from the hand of Poltrot averted the present danger. On receiving the astounding tidings, Malicorne hastened back to Orleans, and though on his return to Montargis he showed that he wanted not the will to do mischief, it was soon perceived " that it was with him as with organs that lack blowing." He with- drew altogether from the place shortly after, and " thus," 2l8 MEMORIALS OF as Beza concludes the story, was Montargis preserved with those who had retired thither, each of whom re-, turned afterwards to his house in hope of the enjoy- ment of the edict of peace." The tempest was lulled, but " the clouds returned again after the rain." RENEE OF FRANCE. 219 CHAP. XI. Assassination of the Duke of Guise. — Edict of Amboise. — Coligni accused — Solemnly denies his Guilt. — Reconciliation at Moulins. — Alienation of Duchess of Guise from the Reformed. — Calvin's Letter to Renee complaining of her. — Renee suspected by the Reformed. — Long and interesting Vindication of herself in a Letter to Calvin. — Marriage of Duchess of Guise to the Duke of Nemours. The death of the Duke de Gruise, whose wound proved mortal, on the 24th February, 15^3^ procured a short respite for the harassed Huguenots. Peace was signed by Conde and the queen mother on the 12th March, and this treaty was repubhshed under the form of the Edict of Amboise/' seven days later. "Freedom to worship Grod/' under certain restrictions, was thereby guaranteed to the privileged classes; liberty of con- science to the bourgeoisie, with permission for the celebration of the reformed worship in one town of each " bailliage," whither it was allowed them to repair that they might participate in these services. An act of amnesty and oblivion cancelled all past offences; but the wound was only skinned over. The treaty of peace was unsatisfactory to the Huguenot party. Coligni said to Conde, "You have ruined more churches by this stroke of the pen than all the forces of the enemy could have destroyed in ten years."* The assassination of the * Sismondi, Histoire des rran5ais, t. xviii. 220 MEMORIALS OF Duke de Gruise also, whilst it delivered the Protestants of France from a sanguinary enemy, bore bitter fruit afterwards. The murderer accused Coligni, Soubise and Beza of complicity in the deed of blood. They indignantly repulsed the accusation ; but Coligni, whilst striving, in his reply to each article of Poltrot's de- position, to establish the point that he had not seduced him to become an assassin, nor paid him to commit the deed, allows it to be understood that he was at least aware of the threats of Poltrot, and that he felt no horror at them. But on his life and honour he de- clared that he had neither induced, solicited nor sought for any one to act the part of a murderer, by words, money or promises. The admiral," writes Pasquier to me of his friends, has defended himself so feebly that those who wish him well, wish that he had either been silent or that he had defended himself better."* We must deplore the fierce excitement of mens' minds in that stormy period, which led them to regard the act of tjrrannicide as excusable under the plea of self-defence. For Coligni knew that Guise had taken counsel to kill, not him only, but also his brother D'Andelot and the Prince of Conde. But those who, from calmer heights, ludge such matters more correctly, condemned these unlawful deeds and vindicated their cause from the reproach of them. "More than once it was Calvin himself who held back the hands of those who longed * Sismondi, Hist, des Fran9ais, t. xviii. pp. 375 — 7. RENEE OF FRANCE. 221 to embrue them in the blood of Franpois de Guise, the ruffian of Vassy. can protest/ he wrote to the Duchess of Ferrara ^ that it was entirely owing to me that, before the war began, men of daring courage had not tried to rid the world of him ; they were held back solely by my exhortations."* The Duchess of Guise adopted the suspicion that Coligni had incited Poltrot to murder her husband, and presented a request to the council of the king that the admiral should be placed on his trial before the said council. When Coligni heard this, he set out from Chatillon-sur-Loing, with a retinue of six hundred gentlemen, and directed his steps to St. Germain's, where the court then was, to the great alarm of the queen mother. Catherine prayed Conde to go to meet the admiral, and induce him to return with his cortege. She knew that a spark might kindle the smouldering embers of civil war. D'Andelot presented himself before the council alone, and pro- tested that the deposition of Poltrot was false and calumnious.f Made under the pressure of frightful torments, and again denied, Poltrot's accusations were certainly not worth much. Nevertheless the Duchess Anna and the family of Guise would not consent to forego their demand for vengeance upon the admiral. The formal consideration of it had been postponed by the king, whilst yet a minor, for the queen mother desii-ed a cessation of hostilities, and the leaders of the * History of the Protestants of France, by G. De Felice, f Sismondi, Hist, des Franyais, t. xviii. p. 377. 222 MEMORIALS OF Huguenots contended that the murder of the duke was one of those acts of the late war which the treaty of peace had condoned. But as soon as the majority of Charles IX. had been declared, the Cruises resolved to urge their suit again. Antoinette de Bourbon, mother of the late duke, and Anna d'Este his widow, presented themselves before the king in long black robes. They were followed by the children of Francois de Cruise, by veiled women who made the air resound with their cries and groans, and by all the relations and friends of the family clad also in mourniug. The two duchesses threw themselves at the feet of the king on their knees crying " Justice." Though they did not utter the name of the admiral, everyone knew that it was he on whom they invoked the vengeance of the law. The king at first promised them justice," and consented that the Parliament of Paris should entertain the question, but the Cardinal de Chatillon, the only one of the three brothers then at Court, protested against the trial of Coligni by judges whose partiality was well known, and who were wholly swayed by their deep prejudices in all matters affecting a Huguenot. The king commanded that the decision should be suspended for three years.* But the subject was not permitted to rest. The ambassadors of the Pope, the Emperor and the King of Spain had audience of Ca- therine at Fontainebleau on the 12th February, 1564, ♦ SisiTiondi, Hist, dcs rran9ais, t. xviii. p. 404. RENEE OF FRANCE. 223 to address to her a solemn invitation to be present at Nancy on the 25th March ensuing, where also the other Christian princes would be assembled to take cognizance of the Canons of the council of Trent; to swear to observe them, and to come to a mutual under- standing as to the means to be employed everywhere and at the same time for the destruction of heresy. They also demanded that the king should revoke the pardon granted to the rebels by the last treaty, espe- cially to those convicted of the crime of " lese-majeste divine," for Grod only, they said, and not the princes of this earth, had the right to pardon them. They urged that the king should pursue with the utmost vigour the authors and accomplices of the detestable assassination of the Duke de Gruise; — and lastly, that he should ab- stain from alienating the goods of the clergy, inasmuch as neither the King of Spain nor the Duke of Savoy wished to be paid their wives' dowry with money de- rived from such a source. They offered also, for the accomplishment of these objects, to succour the king with all the forces of their respective states. It is pro- bable, continues the historian*, that the principal end of the Pope and the King of Spain in sending this solemn embassy was to compromise the king with his Protestant subjects, and to inspire them with distrust. Catherine saw the snare, and avoided it by dictating a reply to her son which defined nothing, and left him * Sisraondi, Hist, des rran9ais, pp. 415, 416. 224 MEMORIALS OF unfettered. He declared his attachment to the Catholic faith ; but, as to the rest, that he should conduct himself according to the counsels of the princes and lords of his kingdom. There was no conference in Lorraine on the day which the ambassadors had appointed. The quarrel between the Chatillons and the Cruises was ostensibly composed in 1566, at Moulins. The admiral cleared himself by oath from the murder of Duke Franpois, solemnly affirming that he was not the author of it, and that he had not consented to the deed. Thereupon Anna D'Este and the Cardinal of Lorraine, by command of the king, embraced the admiral, and the reconciled parties mutually promised to nomish resentment against one another no longer.* But the young Duke Henry de Gruise and D'Aumale his uncle had no share in this ceremony. On the fatal day of St. Bartholomew, Guise and his band of assassins grati- fied their revenge with the blood of Coligni. The Duchesse de Guise had long retained the early bias of her mind towards the Keformed; even the Cardinal of Lorraine once declared f that " he knew his sister-in- law was a Protestant, and that she caused his son to be privately instructed in the Augsburg Confession." But from the time of the murder of her husband a change passed over her, and she became inimical to the strug- gling cause. The Koman Catholic ladies of the Court regarded her as their leader J, and Calvin, in a letter to * Sismoridi, Hist, des Fran^ais, t. xviii. p. 469. f Bayle's Diet. vol. v. p. 632, art. Francis of Lorraine Duke of Guise. J See Miss Frecr's Life of Jeanne d'Albret, vol. ii. p. 4. BENEE OF FRANCE, Eenee, undated, but which appears to have been written subsequently to the deed of Poltrot, complains of the course of action pursued by Madame de Guise, and entreats the maternal interference. This epistle is pre- served in the MS. collection of Dupuy. The following is a translation Madame, — I am rejoiced to have an opportunity of writing to you with safety by the bearer ; not that I have any great matter at this time, but that I may acquit myself of my duty, and also because I think that my letters are always welcome to you through your favom*, when they can minister to your profit. I would, more- over, take pains to convey them to you more frequently, but that you have, thank Grod, in your household, one competent to exhort you, and to confirm you, wherein- soever you have need. I have no tidings to send you which you do not know already, especially none which would give you joy; and I love not to vex you, although I am constrained to unburden my heart, not without great regret, of a grief which is common to all the children of Grod. You know, Madame, what the enemies of the truth are plotting; witness the league of the Pope with the King of Spain, the Venetians, and potentates of Italy, in which our neighbour is comprehended; it seems, indeed, to them that they ought to exterminate all Christianity from the world. Meanwhile Madame de Gl-uise takes a course which can only result in her confu- sion if she persevere, for though she thinks not of it, she seeks the ruin of the poor Churches of France, of whom Q 226 MEMORIALS OF God will be the Protector, and uphold their cause. I protest once more, Madame, that T would willingly abstain from wearying you, but on the other hand, I greatly desire that she may be induced by your au- thority to moderate her passions, which she can only obey as she does, by fighting against God. I tell you frankly, Madame, what every one knows, that you may consider, according to your discretion, what good expe- dient to provide in order to persuade her not to conspire with those who only seek to abolish pure religion, and not to entangle herself in devices of which the issue can only be calamitous, inasmuch as they are contrary to God. Madame, after having very humbly recommended myself to your good grace, I will supplicate our Hea- venly Father to keep you always in His protection, to strengthen you with His might, and to increase you in all wealth and prosperity. " From Geneva, this . . . The death of the Duke de Guise, as we have seen, relieved the Duchess Eenee from a perplexing, if not a dangerous position, yet her perceptions of a Christian's duty were too clear to be confused even by the pas- sionate excitements of the age of civil war. Her rela- tionship to Guise, and her desire that his character should be dealt with fairly, seem to have caused a misunderstanding in the minds of some of the Huguenot party; and painful indeed it is to find that one so excellent as the Duchess of Ferrara was not honoured as BENEE OF FRANCE. 227 she deserved to be, by those whose religious creed was the same as her own. But controversy is an element of bitterness, necessary as it often is — and " wars of re- liofion" are ever found to be destructive of the true life of Christianity. The "weapons" of Eenee's " warfare " were " not carnal." She scorned to avail herself of the " arrows " and " sharp swords " of bitter words and false accusations. She knew that it mightily concerned the Eeformed to show forth the superiority of their faith by the blamelessness of their lives and conversation, and thus to cut off occasion from them that desired to find occasion against them. Hence the coldness, the slights, if not the indignities, which she had to encounter from some of the Huguenot persuasion, who, in the heat of party strife could not appreciate the milder graces of religion. A very long letter from Eenee to Calvin, in the MS. collection of Dupuy, which has been assigned to the year 1563, throws much light upon the difficulties of her position, and gives a graphic illustration of the petty but vexatious annoyances to which she was subjected. Bernier, in his " Histoire de Blois," referring probably to this letter, comments with surprise on the fact "qu'une si grande Princesse se soit abaissee presques a rendre compte a Calvin de sa creance et de sa conduite, ce qui paroist par une lettre ecrite a Montargis le 21 Mars, 1563, que j'ay veue en bon lieu, et dont le Pere Hilarion de Costa nous a donne un fragment dans ses ' Eloges des Dames lUustres.' " If Calvin had been a Romish priest, and Renee's confessor, Mons. Bernier Q 2 228 MEMORIALS OF probably would not have been sbocked at all. How blind is bigotry! how often does the stroke it aims recoil upon itself ! There is no servile abasement per- ceptible in this letter of Eenee's. It shows much Christian humility, and submission to the precept, ^^obey them that have the rule over you, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account but she carefully maintains her own integrity and justifies her own conduct. The style is involved, and a very literal trans- lation is impossible, but the following version is presented to the reader in the firm belief that it con- tains a correct rendering of the sense of the original. " MoNS. Calvin, — I have received your letters of the 8th of January by M. Bude, and those of the 24th, in answer to my last by Millet, at the time when I was preparing to return to the court at Fontainebleau, to finish, in some measure, affairs of mine which were omitted at my departure from Paris, and I remained there a whole month, which has been the reason why I have not been able to reply sooner to your letters thus acknowledged. The circumstance which occasioned me to leave that place before the king, was my being for- bidden to have preaching there, as I had [had] for some days ; and not only in the house of the king was it refused me, but also in one which I have bought, which is in the village, which I have always lent and dedicated to that purpose even when I was not at the court : and what has grieved me more in the matter is, RENEE OF FRANCE, 229 that this has taken place at the request and solicitation of certain persons, husband and wife, who are com- municants, and have [Protestant] ministers. Mons. the Admiral and his wife did not arrive till the day on which I departed, and were not able to do more than I did as to preaching, and departed a week afterwards, which they came to acquaint me with themselves, at this place, with the cardinal their brother. The two messengers whom I have mentioned above, who brought me your letters, which I have just acknowledged, have not yet returned to me to receive answers. However, I hope that they will repair hither again, and that they will bring news from me. Meantime, I will tell you that I have seen the exhortation which you address to me, both in regard to my subjects, and to my household. Now, as to my subjects, long is it since I began [the work], and I am now striving to complete it, if it shall so please God, and so also as to the matter of [the administration of] justice, and in regard to the daily subsistence of the poor, whether inhabitants or casual passengers, as well as with reference to the members of my own household, and the providing against vices and scandalous matters generally, in every person, and par- ticularly in regard to members of the household of the Faith, as you will have opportunity of hearing by Soutenix, who will, I think, soon be with you, and from Mons. de Coullonges, whom I have instructed to write to you. And those [persons and matters ?] settle (?) by means such as you shall adopt (?), and by a Q 3 MEMORIALS OF good arrangement which you shall prescribe for the future. I hope that the interests of the Church in this place will thrive, on which point [however] I am Hot able to render account to you, inasmuch as De Coul- longes, above mentioned, has always had the entire charge of it, and knows, before Grod, that I have as- sisted him in what he has required, and that from the fir^t, when he demanded of me that he should be present at the consistory, I granted it to him, and he chose elders as seemed good to him, and when he told me that it was not right that women should be present at it, nor that I should be there, although I knew that the Queen of Navarre, Madame the admiral's wife, and Madame de Koye* took their place there in their houses, and that [the rights of] my own house were concerned, never- theless I did not urge my going thither, and never ceased, when he told me to speak to any one of my household to go thither, or that, without his speaking to me, they informed me of his having summoned them thither, to exhort them always to comply with him, and there to serve God even as the same De Coullonges might there teach and bid them ; except one who had charge of the expenditure of the kitchen, whom I did not allow to enter it, he having the employment which I thought sufficient for his capacity and condition, he Wing young, and I had fears lest he might commit some insolent act in such a place, as, in fact, after- ♦ Mother of Eleanor, Princess of Conde. RENEE OF FRANCE. 231 wards, in the kitchen itself, he struck an old man who was in bad health, and who had not adopted the [Ee- formed] Eeligion. Of persons of this city, he [De Coul- longes] has put in and out whomsoever he thought proper, without any hindrance on my part, and some- times of their own accord they have put themselves out, as they have done also with those of my household, as you may learn more particularly from the said Sou- tenix (?), who was one of them, and at the present time I do not know that those of the city molest anybody. I receive help and take counsel from M. the Admiral, next to the help and counsel of Grod, for the repression of vices and scandals; and it is manifest, that among his subjects* religion thrives and increases, (although there are some as much opposed to it as in this place,) and the greater part [of his subjects] are under [the juris- diction of] this bailiwick, and he has established there preaching and ministers, which has not been done for my other subjects, except in one place, called Bonny, where, speaking one day with the said De Coullonges and a young minister of the said admiral, that there should be one sent thither, because when I came into this place, and before the said De Obullonges was here, there was one who withdrew himself to go to the wars; he told me * Chatillon-sur-Loing, the beautiful domain of Coligni, was four leagues distant from Montargis. It was situated in the Gatinois. There is mention of the church and pastors of this place in a catalogue of all the Reformed Churches prepared for a synod at Rochelle in 1607, also in the record of the 27th synod in 1627. Q 4 232 MEMORIALS OF that he had just sent one thither, I do not know whom ; and as to the members of my household, the principal ones, and those whom I most employ, are of the [Reformed] Eeligion, and communicants. There are, beside them, some servants and officers, fewer in number, and I hope that Grod will draw them to Himself (?). And, as to my privilege, or that of my house, I assure you that I have neither required nor sought any, and that I have had so little [of privilege] among the faithful, [that] that which affects me and depends on me has always been cast down, and put off into the farthest place and situation. And my attendants, and my own [waiting] women have been thrust down and driven away at ban- quets and festivals, even by persons of the [Reformed] Religion, into places where all the other women were, even to the weavers of the "chaperon de drap," whom they escorted, whilst they drove away mine, — treatment which I willingly endured, and considered as of no moment, and I put them into the hands of their husbands, where I respected (?) them no less than I did the others, and [so] I remained with- out any of my [waiting] women, which is not usually the case with persons of n^y quality, and was not even done to those who ought not, according to the usage of the world, to have any in attendance on them. I esteemed both mine and myself honoured by such treat- ment. As to the young women of my household, they gave them no trouble(?). I could wish that your eye and your person could arrive here to see and know all BENEE OF FRANCE. 233 things as they pass^ better than one can write or relate them. I see and know that the representation which you address to me, particularly by your letter, is very requisite in order to maintain the Keformed Church, and that it would be found very necessary that there should be in it many elder superintendents and ministers in greater numbers, and that my judgment and intelligence were greater and more perfect. Nevertheless, according to what Grod has bestowed of those qualities on me, with the hope which I have that for a long time I have had some share of them, and [with the aid of] the representations, which in former days you have made to me, by messages and letters, it seems to me that the frequent visits here of many good persons and ministers would greatly conduce to that end, and that it would be expedient that each of them truly delivered his opinion. God grant me grace to employ myself in serving Him purely and sincerely, as you desire. I assure you that it is also my desire, and I hope that He will accomplish it, and will make you to know as well as He has by the past [course of events] those by whom the Eeligion is not extended. ^^And as to the present and new year's gift which you have sent to me, I assure you that I have seen and received it with good will, and [I tell you] that I had never seen one like it, and I have praised God that the late king, my father, had adopted such a device.* If * The allus'on is supposed to be to the medal struck by Louis XIL, with the celebrated motto, " Perdam Babylonis nomen." 234 MEMORIALS OF Grod did not grant to him the privilege of executing its purport, perhaps He reserves its accomplishment for some one of his descendants occupying his place. " M. Calvin, I will not attempt to reply to the whole of your last letter, in order that I may not delay writing to you so long as that would require. But, as briefly as possible, I will tell you that it seems to me that I have not succeeded, by my letter which preceded it, in possessing your mind with my meaning, or else that you have been prepossessed concerning it by some other person. For I wrote to you concerning two ministers, of whom one argued with me by [the use ofj a process of falsehood, which I thought unlawful; the other on the ground of a judgment of election and reprobation caused by the prayers of men : that it seemed to me that by that [argument] he [the latter ?] declared to me a diabolical hatred, to incite me to hate what Grod has not commanded me [to hate] ; for al- though I had not forgotten the point adduced in your letter, that David hated the enemies of God with a mortal hatred, [and] I mean not to oppose or derogate from that point in any degree, for if I knew that the king, my father, and the queen, my mother, and my late husband, the duke, and all my children, were reprobates under the judgment of God, I would be willing to hate them with a mortal hatred, and desire them to have their portion in hell, and [so] entirely conform myself to the will of God, if He were pleased to grant me grace to do so. But if I see persons so RENEE OF FRANCE. 235 partial in their affections, and have heard such startling propositions, of which I have only reported to you [those which were] the least [so], . . And as to my late son-in-law, it seems to me that there is more than enough evidence, by which any one may see and know whether I have swerved on his account in any situation whatever, but [rather] whether it were not he who swerved [from his course] to protect those of the [Re- formed] Religion whom I have in this town, even so far as to be answerable (he and the Cardinal de Lorraine) for them to the queen, and whether Grod did not em- ploy their hands for the protection of them. And [it should be seen and known] whether it was only for this spot, or whether he did not also exert his interest that Chastillon, which belongs to the admiral, and is within the jurisdiction of this bailiwick of Montargis should not be confiscated, neither that it should be sacked or oppressed; though these are facts which I am well aware that some wish neither to be understood nor known. I say it before God, who knows the truth of it. And [yet] I would not on that ground excuse the failings of my son-in-law of whom I have been speak- ing, in respect to his not having the knowledge of Grod. But as to what is asserted that it was he alone who lighted up the flame, it is well known that he had retired into his house from which he refused to stir, and [these are known also] the letters and the messages which he received to induce him to come forth from it : and [it may be seen that] even now when he is dead and is 236 MEMORIALS OF no longer there, such [organs of] venom of hatred so pestilent will never rest from discovering themselves by [their circulating] all the falsehoods that can be in- vented and imagined. I must tell you that I neither hold nor consider [it possible] that such falsehoods proceed from God. I know that he did persecute, but I do not know, neither do I believe, to express myself freely to you, that he was a reprobate by Divine judgment. For he gave signs to the contrary before he died. Only people do not choose that it should be spoken of, and there is a wish to shut and lock up the mouths of those who know it. And as for myself, I know that I have been hated and held in abomination by many persons because he was my son-in-law, on whom they wished to lay the faults of all. Do you not see, too, that they cannot rest satisfied [with their attacks on him] even after that he is dead, and even had he been the greatest wretch and reprobate that ever existed ? [Ought this to continue ?] And will persons never talk of anything else ? As [an instance,] a secretary of M. d'Arzy was saying to me, and to the Queen of Navarre, one day, in this place, all the evil that was possible of him, and of some others, and [it followed] that I said to him before her, and adjured him that he should speak the truth, [and say whether] what he was asserting was true or not. He confessed to us that there was no truth in it, and gave the name of the person who had taught him to tell such stories of him, [in order] to put upon him [the duke] things RENEE OF FRANCE. 237 whicli he had never thought of, and that it was in order to support the [Eeformed] Keligion (a procedure which the said lady approved), and that we ought to employ all sorts of defence of that cause, and that falsehood, so applied, was good and holy, as many say and hold; which view I could not but resist, saying that God is not the father of lies, but that it is the devil who is so, and that Grod is the Grod of truth, and that His word is powerful enough to defend His own people, without our taking up the arms of the devil and of his children. Nevertheless, that lady hath such good zeal and such good judgment in many things, that I desire to take example by it ; and as the late Queen of Navarre, her mother, has been the first princess of this kingdom who has favoured the Gospel, it may be that the Queen of Navarre, her daughter, will complete the work by es- tablishing it there, and it seems to me that she is as well qualified for that work as any princess or woman that I know. I love her with a mother's love, and admire and praise the graces which God has bestowed upon her. [And] to return to the subject already mentioned, M. Calvin, I must tell you that I have heard words such as I should be too long in repeating ; and of a good and holy cause, [namely,] the defending the children of God and supporting them, people have sometimes made a diabolical one, and that on account of the enmities which have existed between the King of Navarre, Monsieur the Constable, and my son-in-law, we ought to put a mask on [the plain meaning of] the MEMORIALS OF word of Grod, and it seems that even after he has been killed, still there is no other than he who can vex those who are of the [Reformed] Eeligion ; no other than he who can favour the Papists. [Now] the bodies of men, when the souls are out of them, do not such miracles, nor even when they are alive in the world, can one man destroy so many as he is charged with [destroying]. But those whose determination has been to enter into [a course of] partiality, and who have wanted to prove that the King of Navarre, and after him the Prince of Conde, were the King David, and that David was their resemblance, and that it was not that of Jesus Christ, and who have let simple persons be argued with, and believe to that effect, in order to cut off a minor ; and those who have some lettered advocates and doctors, where are they, in consequence of their proceedings, at this time ? Does not Grod show His power ? And if there are reprobates in the world, I think that they are those who twist the truth of God, which they know and are acquainted with, in their insolent falsehoods. M. Calvin, I am sorry that you do not know how half the world conducts itself in this kingdom, nor the habits of adulation and of ill-will which prevail in it, even to the exhorting simple young women to say that they should like to kill and strangle with their own hands. That is not the rule which Jesus Christ and His Apostles have given us : and I say it with all the great regret of my heart, on account of the affection which I be,ar to religion and to those who bear its title, of all whom I do RENEE OF FRANCE, 239 not speak, but of a great part of those whom I know among them, and if they should be inclined to say that what I assert is [dictated] by passion for my late son- in-law, it is well known that I never was so passionately fond of him or of my own children, and those who accuse me have not, perchance, [considered] the proof which I have given of my sincerity by having left them, to follow the path and way which God has taught me, and the journeys by which He has conducted me. But I see that there are people who are disposed to take the side and [adopt] the passions of others, without considering whether they proceed from God or not, and to twist and pull holy Scripture to the string of their bow, which they themselves have woven, and in which course they will at last stumble : and [I see that] they are minded to continue always lying and slandering, making their delight (?) of it, and that such people give you to under- stand that a thing is different from what it is. I beg you, M. Calvin, to make prayer to God that He would show you the truth of all things, as I declare it to you, so far in so many matters, as I still entertain hope that by you He will expose these hidden workings of malice which I see, which prevail in this age in this world, which [state of things] makes me not only fear and have misgivings, [lest] the chastisements of God [fall] on those of His Church, but makes it seem to me that they are, as it were, manifest. I may add that I have never requested nor sought for the ministers from whom I have heard such suggestions, to pray for me or for other 240 MEMORIALS OF persons, and I leave always at liberty and to the con- science of every one the making prayer ; and as to those to whom I give, it would seem as if I wished myself recompensed, if I bade them pray for me. We all pray for one another [in other ways], and in the prayer which our Lord has taught us. Nevertheless, I cease not to pray particularly for those whom it seems to me well-pleasing to Grod that I should pray for, and specially for those who are of the house of faith, and those who publish the word of Grod, and for the king whom God has given us, and princes, lords, and judges of the earth, because God has commanded it, and in order that every one may ^ lead a quiet and peaceable life,' not only in the peace which the world gives, but in that which our Lord has left to us, and I am not one of those who pray, or who cause prayer to be made, for those who are no longer in this world. I know well that there are those who say, that all those who ai-e against [the Eeformed] Religion are the bad characters [among men]. I grant it, but I do not know whether God may not be pleased to call them. I have no business (?) to complain of them to those who cannot provide (?) for the evil [that is among them], and in myself, I know before God that there are too many defects and sins ; but before His creatures, God commands us to give testimony of our manner of living, and to proceed, as I am ready to do, if it shall please God ; and as to what I have heard of what is charged upon the ministers and children of God, I have not held my peace, but have taken on me to EENEE OF FRANCE. 241 protect them with more care than I have taken to pro- tect myself. And I know that there are those who endeavour to banish them from this kingdom, for which reason it seems to me that one ought not to yield occa- sion for the accomplishment of the designs of those who wish to drive them away, which has caused me to be prolix in this letter and in some others which I have from time to time written to you, which I have begged you to burn, as I also beg you to do with this present letter, and to continue to write to me and freely com- municate what shall seem good to you, which I shall always hear and receive willingly. With this I shall conclude, praying to Grod, M. Calvin, to keep you in His holy and worthy guardianship. Yours, very truly, ^' Eenee of France." It is impossible to regret that this sadly-interesting letter escaped the doom which its writer entreated for it. Its faithful exhibition of the deteriorating effects of religious strife on the minds of those engaged therein, makes it an instructive study for every age. Happy indeed are they who are called to serve Grod in peace, and who only hear at a safe distance, if they hear at all, the polemical trumpet sounding ^^the alarm of war." Such, however, was not the blessedness of the servants of Grod in the sixteenth century ; — such was not the privilege of any one, royal or noble, gentle or simple, whose spirit had been stirred up to attempt the solution R 242 MEMORIALS OF of the mighty problem given to that century to work out; — such was not the lot of Eenee. Truth firsts and then peace, — much as she craved for the latter, warmly as she detested the mistaken means adopted to advance the former, — was the order in which she would marshal those two inestimable blessings. Accordingly we find that the ordinance of preaching held a high place in her regard; and that she constantly asserted, even at the Court, her right to the enjoyment of that especial means of grace. The foregoing letter testifies to the fact, and a paragraph in a letter from the Spanish ambassador Chantonnay, to Philip II., in the early part of 1564, supplies additional evidence of it. " The Duchesse of Ferrara has quitted the Court, which is indeed a very notable good, for every day prayers and preches were holden in her apartments." * The reconciliation at Moulins in 1566 between Coligni and the Duchess de Guise may have been the more sincere on the part of the widow of Francis, by reason of her impending marriage with Jacques de Savoy Duke de Nemours. Her obligation to the memory of her former husband had been fully dis- charged. Coligni had purged himself in the most solemn manner from the reproach under which he had laboured of being the author of that foul murder. No further demand of "justice " could be made ; and the Duchess de Guise had already given her affections I * Sec Miss Frcer's Life of Jeanne d'Albret, vol. ii. p. 25. RENEE OF FRANCE. 243 to ^^one of the most perfect and accomplished of princes, lords, or gentlemen for such was the estima- tion in which the Duke de Nemours was held in his day.* Everybody pointed him out as worthy of the hand of " la plus belle et la plus spirituelle princesse de I'Europe," such was the age's estimate of Anna d'Este. But before this union could be accomplished, a grievous wrong had to be done. Nemours, even if not legally united to Franpoise de Eohan, a near relative of the Queen of Navarre, had pledged himself in a written document to become the husband of that lady, and was bound by the strictest laws of honour to marry no other than Franpoise. Antoine of Navarre had warmly es- poused the cause of his kinswoman, and after his death, Jeanne d'Albret maintained the rights of her young re- lation with all the earnestness of her resolute nature. But Franf oise was a Protestant, Antoine was dead, and Nemours, having applied to the supreme pontiff to be released from his solemn obligations to Mademoiselle de Eohan, found small difficulty in obtaining his re- quest. The Court of France confirmed the favourable decision of the pope, and shortly after the assembly of notables at Moulins, Nemours wedded the Duchess of Gruise. It was a marriage which highly gratified the queen mother and Charles IX. The nuptials were celebrated by the Cardinal of Lorraine at St. Maur, in May 1566. Eenee was not present ; and the Queen of * Brantome, Eloge de Jacques de Savoye, Due de Nemours (quoted in Miss Freer's Life of Jeanne d'Albret, vol. ii. p. 31). • 244 MEMORIALS OF Navarre quitted the Court disgusted at the injustice done to the forsaken Franjoise de Eohan. The cere« monial was interrupted by a gentleman sent by Fran- poise to forbid the marriage: a somewhat undignified proceeding, but who shall severely criticise a step re- sulting from feelings shamefully outraged, or a rebuke so signally merited by the faithless suitor ? " Catherine charged the constable, Anne de Montmorency, with a letter to Eenee in anticipation of the union of Anna d'Este with the Duke of Nemours, assuring her therein, that both she and the kino: her son will take o^ood care " that there shall be nothing in the marriage con- tract injurious to the interests of the children of the Duchess of Guise, and that everything shall be arranged to the contentment of Eenee, to whose inspection she promises to submit the marriage articles, before any- thing shall be done, in order that her will may be made known concerning them.* The crafty Catherine avails herself of this opportunity to allude to certain minis- ters " whom Eenee had with her at Montargis at that period, "touching whom, the constable will converse with her ; " and dexterously refers to the love which the Duchess of Ferrara has " for the laws and ordinances of the king my son," and to her desire to be foremost in setting a good example to others. What the issue of this embassy was remains unknown. But that the duchess did not deliver her ministers into the ferocious * Recueil des Lcttrcs dc Catherine de Medicis, BENEE OF FRANCE. 245, hands of the constable may be most surely believed., His friendship with the Chatillons doubtless caused him to be selected for this errand ; Eenee's regard for the admiral being no secret. The intolerance of the Court had been already manifested at Moulins in the attempt to arrest the Protestant minister of the Queen of Na- varre. Moreover there is little doubt that a general massacre of the Huguenot leaders was already planned, and that Moulins would have been the scene of those horrors afterwards enacted at Paris in 1572/^ only that Coligni and the other chiefs came well attended, and the bloody deed was therefore adjourned to a better opportunity."* * De Felice, History of the Protestants of France. R 3 246 MEMORIALS OF CHAP. XII. Death of Calvin. — Letters to and from Eenee. — Huguenot Project. — Its Failure. — War. — The Constable killed. — Treaty of Longjumeau. — Conde and Coligni take alarm. — Edict against the Reformed. — War resumed. — Conde killed at Jarnac. — D'Andelot dies. — Defeat at Montcontour. — Renee at Montargis obliged to dismiss the Re- formed. — Edict insidiously favourable to the Reformed. — Renee's Troubles in private Affairs. — Her Statement drawn up for her Son. — Massacre of St. Bartholomew. — Anna d'Este.— Her Guilt. — Her Sufferings. — Lucrezia d'Este. — Renee*s Decay. — Her Death. We retrace our steps to notice an event which ought not to be passed over in silence. In little more than a year after the publication of the Edict of Amboise, Eenee's spiritual father, John Calvin, died at Grenoa on the 27th May, 1564. It is an ascertained fact that he maintained his correspondence with the duchess to the last, and there can be no doubt that Eenee sincerely mourned the bereavement which she then sustained. For who ever looks back unmoved on a friendship of many years, suspended, though not severed by death, especially if that friendship has influenced not only our temporal, but our eternal destinies ? Certainly Eenee was not one of those who consign the memory of faithful friends to cold oblivion. It may be that the misleadings of hearsay, the prejudices of religious an- tagonism, together with distance from the scene of action, occasionally diminished the value of Calvin's BENEE OF FRANCE. 247 counsel in some practical matters, but the earnest convictions of so vigorous a mind must have been a powerful support to Kenee in many a trying hour. How striking are those words of faith which are found in the last testament of the great reformer, dated 25th April, 1564. "With my whole soul I embrace the mercy which He has exercised towards me through Jesus Christ atoning for my sins, with the merits of His death and passion, that in this way He might satisfy for all my crimes and faults, and blot them from His remembrance." Theodore Beza, who edited the Eecueil des Opuscules, c'est-a-dire, Petits Traites de M. Jean Calvin," * recognised appropriately the long and intimate friendship which had subsisted between Calvin and Eenee, by prefixing to this work, (now exceedingly rare) a very long epistle of seven pages folio, addressed a tres illustre, et tres haute Princesse, Ma Dame Eenee de France, Duchesse de Ferrare et de Chartres," &c., dated May 20, 1566. But the personal influence of Calvin was not needed to hold the Duchess Eenee to the profession of the Eeformed faith, nor did the cessation of his earnest monitions render her one whit the less desirous for its establishment among those over whom her legitimate influence extended. Everywhere it was known that she longed for the success of the cause of truth and righteousness, and that her aid might be invoked in its * A Geneve, Imprimc par Baptiste Pinereul. 1566. R 4 248 MEMORIALS OF behalf, not only in her own, but also in foreign lands. Of this there is interesting evidence extant in a letter addressed to her by the ministers of the Eeformed Church at Antwerp*, of which the following is a trans- lation. Madame, — Inasmuch as we doubt not that you are well-informed by the report of several trustworthy persons, what is the present condition of these Low Countries, and how necessary it is at this time to labour there for the glory of Grod (of which you have ever shown yourself the faithful and affectionate guardian in ^11 your household, and the notable patron to all those without). Moreover the gentleness and kindness which are natural to you, the fruit of so many excellent gifts which it hath pleased the Lord to impart unto you, for the joy and edification of His people, are sufficiently known to us. We have made bold to write to you this present epistle to entreat your excellency to accord us this favour, which shall be to the great profit and advantage of all the country, as we hope ' that our brother and companion in the work of the Lord, M. Pierius, may by your means, and with your per- mission, come here and help us in pursuing this work, which it has pleased Grod to commence on this side, and that we also may communicate with him and find consolation in the Lord. For, notwithstanding that in the present day many learned men are found to whom such numerous graces have been imparted by the * Collections Baluzc, vol. 8720, fo. 80. BENEE OF FRANCE, 249 goodness of Grod, that we have occasion continually thereof to thank him; nevertheless there are many reasons which lead us to seek this benefit from your excellency^ and we hope that they will weigh with you, that you may grant it to us the more freely. Especially as we desire to have a man, not only of learning and authority, but likewise of counsel, who by the usage and experience of things past, might help us, and direct our cause to some better furtherance, by the blessing of the Lord ; and this we have known him of a long season to possess, as he has shown in the great need and necessity of the parts in which he has been in France. Added to which also that he is one of the natural subjects of the king to whom we belong, which may be of great avail as well for the satisfaction and edification of this Church in which he has long been known with great profit, as for the hindrance of those reproaches, scandals, and calumnies, wherewith the enemies of the truth commonly arm themselves in order to traduce the Grospel and blaspheme the sacred name of Grod, as you know, Madame, and have seen by so , many examples, even in our own times. Having considered which, we have agreed to make known to you by letter, our desire and intention, hoping that as the Lord has long given you grace to prove by a judgment truly royal and worthy of your line so holy an affection, that also now you will effectually shew in regard to our place that this same affection is neither grown cold, nor retarded by the distance of the country or other like hindrances, but rather increased by the 250 MEMORIALS OF contemplation of the growth and advancement of the kingdom of Grod, whom we pray, Madame, after having presented to your excellency all obedience from your servants, that it may please Him to increase you more and more in His grace and to endue you with His holy blessing from on high. " From Antwerp, this Thursday, 28th May, 1566. " Your humble and obedient servants, (Signed) " The Ministers of the Church at Antwerp." It was at an interesting epoch in the history of the Eeformed religion in those parts, that this letter was written. The Netherlanders had long manifested their discontent with the Church of Eome, and their willing- ness to receive the Eeformation. " The writings of Luther were early and eagerly read in those Provinces, and to quench the rising flame the Inquisition had been established, in the year 1522. A fierce persecution followed, and it was computed that during the reign of Charles V. not less than fifty thousand of his Belgian subjects lost their lives in consequence of their defection from the creed of their monarch. Yet the number of the Eeformed continued to increase," in spite of the bigoted zeal of Philip II., whose oppressive edicts provoked, in 1566 (in which year the letter from Antwerp to Eenee is dated), the remonstrances of the nobility of the Netherlands, who, "though generally Catholics, entered into an association to protect and defend the liberties of their country." The Protestants, RENEE OF FRANCE. 251 whose numbers now amounted to a hundred thousand^ " petitioned the king for toleration," and even " ventured to hold their meetings for worship openly, instead of in private," as formerly.* The immediate results were such as might have been anticipated from the character of the gloomy tyrant whose subjects they had the mis- fortune to be. But the ferocious cruelty of the Duke of Alva and his " Bloody Tribunal," the executions on the same day of June 1568 of the Counts of Egmont and Horn, and the barbarous punishments inflicted on the so-called heretics, of whom about eighteen thousand perished during the administration of the Duke of Alva by the hand of the executioner, excited at last a revolt, which issued in the severance of " The Seven United Provinces," from the rest, and their complete emancipa- tion, under the Prince of Orange, from the thraldom of Spain. The Belgic Confession of Faith," first pub- lished in 157 1, "was, for the most part, in unison with that adopted by the French Eeformed Church . . . the causes of which will readily appear if we consider the proximity of the French and the number of them residing in the Netherlands, the high reputation of Calvin and the Genevan School, and the indefatigable industry of the Grenevans in extending the boundaries of their Church." f But we must now return to Eenee and to Montargis, * Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Eev» H. Soames's edition, vol. i\u pp. 142, 168, 169, f Ibid., p. 401. 252 MEMORIALS OF which, as her chief place of abode, was naturally the centre of her most anxious efforts for the furtherance of the Gospel in France. She was never slow to avail herself of any opportunity that occurred for the promo- tion of her great object, and the Archives of Genoa preserve an interesting letter from the Duchess to the authorities of that city, which at once exhibits the kindly nature of the woman and the care of the Christian administratrix for the good of those committed to her charge. If the Eeformed pastor sought shelter or repose in her chateau, he was not, therefore, doomed to a life of idleness, but whilst reaping her carnal things she looked to him to sow to her, and to her people also, in spiritual things. The following is the epistle referred to.* Messieurs les Sindicts et Consuls, — One of your ministers, M. Enocq, who is suffering from severe illness, having been here for some days, for the recovery of his health, has again, during the last few days, felt himself nigh unto death, and finds his stomach so weak that he does not esteem himself able, any longer, to administer the Word of God. Wherefore he requests you to release him from that charge : never- theless, by the help of God, and of my physicians, who attend him in this said town, the air of which he has * Archives dc Geneve. Portefeuillcs des Pieces Ilistoriques, dossier No. 1835. EENEE OF FRANCE. 253 found advantageous^ I have good hope of his recovery, if not to preach, at least for counsel, and for the Con- sistory, And forasmuch as you have the honour of Grod in such singular estimation, that you seek the advancement of it, even throughout the world, and because there will be need here of a minister, concern- ing which I have several times written to you, I have greatly desired to write to you the present epistle, by one of my people, whom I send expressly to require that the said Sieur Enocq, on his convalescence, may serve in this place, to the glory of Grod, and if he be unable to minister the word, at least by his long experience to aid us in conforming our Consistory to yours. And, in the hope which I have that his presence will be of great service here for the advancement of the glory of Grod,' I doubt not but that you will grant my request, and permit that the above-mentioned bearer should bring hither his wife and family to attend and console him during his illness. And on your conferring on me this benefit and satisfaction I will acknowledge it in any other way in which you might desire to employ me, with as good heart as I pray Grod to preserve you and maintain you in His holy and worthy keeping. "From Montargis, this 16th August 1567. " La bien vostre, (Signed) " Eenee de France.'' This letter was received at Greneva on the 28th August and in the minutes of the session of the "Petit Conseil " MEMORIALS OF on the same day, we find it referred to in the following manner.* " There have been received letters from Madame the Duchess of Ferrara, in which she prays that the said Sieur Enocq may be suffered to remain with her, for the Consistory and for counsel. Agreed that the opinion of the ministers be taken on the subject. The next day MM. de Beze and Colladon presented themselves to the Council on the part of the ^ Compagnie des Pasteurs/ to blame the conduct of the Sieur Enocq, in seeking to remain on the other side [the mountains], and to abandon his charge, under pretence of a journey which he had been permitted to make. And [to advise] that the said Duchess be written to, to this effect, that they recommend her not to avail herself of his services for counsel, seeing that he is not a man of judgment, nor such as she esteems him to be. It was agreed to hold by their advice." What course was taken by Eenee on receipt of this discouraging communication does not appear. Whilst regretting her disappointment, however, it must be con- fessed that Monsieur Enocq's stern compeers at Greneva were more capable of arriving at a correct estimate of his qualifications for the post he coveted than was the warm-hearted duchess, whose acquaintance with the ailing pastor had been on her own showing so brief. Montargis, as we see, thanks to the noble resolution * Reg. du Conscil, annee, 1567, f. xoi, 102, BENEE OF FRANCE. 255 of Kenee, was still a secure asylum for the persecuted Huguenots, but the smouldering flames of civil war were gathering strength in other quarters for a fresh outburst. The conduct of the queen mother inspired the minds of the Eeformed with utter distrust. " She was seen once more assisting with her sons at the ecclesiastical processions; she removed from the Court all the ladies who had ceased to attend the Eoman Catholic services and ceremonies; wherever the Court appeared, no Protestant worship was permitted for many miles round. The Edict of Pacification was limited by partial arrangements, now in one way and now in another, without any respect to the complaints of the Huguenots, however well grounded." * It was however the arrival of Alva in the Netherlands which preci- pitated the second war of religion in France. The Grovernment commenced arming, under pretext of being prepared against possible invasion by the terrible gene- ral of Philip II. But it was soon understood that the new levies, both of French and Swiss soldiers, were designed to crush the doomed Huguenots. These, in their turn, — ^^eagued and armed in secret" — in the extremity of their apprehension, unhappily determined to take the initiative in offensive operations. They concerted to surprise the Court during its sojourn at Monceau, and to get possession of the person of the king. They hoped by this means to rid him of the * Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, &c., by Leopold Ranke, vol. i. p. 338. 256 MEMORIALS OF dangerous influence of the Cardinal of Lorraine, and to procure the dismissal of the Swiss. But the project failed. The Court effected its escape to Meaux, and there the counsel of the Duke of Nemours decided the king to take the road to Paris. The duke made all the required arrangements; placing the king in the centre of the Swiss battalion, which numbered 6000 men, and of which he took the command.* So bold a front did he present to the enemy, that the Prince of Conde dared not attack him, and the failure of this rash scheme only made matters worse. Who would now venture to assert the loyalty of the Huguenot party ? L'Hopital did so, but in vain. Catherine de' Medici became "zealously hostile" to them. Negotiations proved fruitless, and hostilities commenced. The battle of St. Denys, san- guinary but indecisive, was fought on loth November, 1567. Conde commanded the Huguenots. The old Constable de Montmorency commanded the army of the king, and fell in the contest. " War was rekindled all over France." At last the Prince of Conde having received a strong auxiliary force, under John Casimir of the Palatinate, laid siege to Chartres (Eenee's duchy) one of the granaries of Paris.* But as soon as fortune began to smile on the Huguenots, the Court resolved to delude them by overtures of peace. It offered the restoration of the former Edict of Pacification, but refused to grant guarantees for its performance. Conde * History of the Protestants in France, by G. de Felice. BE NEE OF FRANCE, 257 and Coligni were not deceived by the demonstrations of the court, and represented to their followers the im- prudence of lending ear to proposals which were only- designed to beguile them to their more complete de- struction. But they protested in vain. The Huguenot army and the German auxiliaries loudly demanded the acceptance of the terms which the court had proposed to them. Unhappily at this juncture, the death of Charlotte de Laval, the admirable wife of Coligni, sum- moned him away to Chatillon-sur-Loing, where he had left her with their children, and where, no later than 23rd January, 1568, we read of her as engaged in affectionate and intimate correspondence with her at- tached friend, the Duchess Eenee, on matters of mutual interest.* During the admiral's absence, the opposite counsels in the Huguenot camp prevailed. The Treaty of Peace was signed, in spite of his just misgivings, at Longjumeau, on the 20th March, 1568. It was nick- named at once ^^La paix boiteuse et malassise," and justified the description but too soon. Nothing indeed was further from the intention of the court than the observance of the terms on which peace had been concluded with the Huguenots. The Pope, the King of Spain, and the Catholic princes of Europe blamed Catherine de' Medici for the toleration accorded to the Eeform worship, in the renewal of the Edict of Pacification ; but she really did not deserve their * Collections Bethune, 8720, fo. 36. S 258 MEMORIALS OF censure; she was playing a deeper game than they suspected. The Treaty of Longjumeau was a mere deception^ intended to lull the Huguenots into security, that, when dispersed and disarmed, they might fall an easy prey to their enemies. The insincerity of the court soon became alarmingly apparent. The Swiss troops were not sent back; the Eeform worship was interdicted in all places belonging either to the queen- mother, her sons, or the Duke of Montpensier. The Duke of Nemours refused to execute the conditions of the treaty in Lyons and Grrenoble, — places under his jurisdiction. The Pope wrote to praise him, and Catherine did not blame him for his disobedience. The Eomanist populace, unrestrained by the authority of the law, committed frightful excesses, and massacres of the helpless Huguenots, in several important towns, met with no punishment. The virtuous Chancellor L'Hopital fell into disfavour with the court for always insisting, in the council of the king, on the faithful observance of the treaties of peace. The seals were at last taken from him on the plea of his age demanding repose, and given to another, Jean de Morvilliers. Conde and Coligni were commanded to repay to Catherine the sum of 300,000 crowns, which she had advanced to the Grerman auxiliaries of the Eeformed, at the conclusion of the treaty. The money was to be paid from their own private means; they were forbidden to avail themselves of the liberality of the Eeformed Churches of France, for it was the ruin of the chiefs of BENEE OF FRANCE, the Huguenot party at which Catherine aimed. But there was no longer any doubt of the nature of her in- tentions, when it became known that her ministers had demanded and obtained a Bull from Eome, authorising the sale of the temporalities of the French Church to the amount of 150,000 livres annually, the proceeds to be applied to the extermination of the Eeformed religion and of its professors. Finally, Conde and Coligni received the intelligence that their arrest had been determined on, and that steps were being taken for their seizure. They immediately addressed a petition to the king, setting forth the grievances of the Huguenots and the numerous violations of the recent Treaty, the blame of which they threw on the Cardinal of Lorraine alone, acquitting their sovereign of it. They then, by a rapid movement, effected their escape, with their families, to La Eochelle. On the other hand, the council of the king promulgated an edict at St. Maur (which the Parliament of Paris registered on the 28th Sep- tember), prohibiting on pain of death and confiscation of goods the exercise of the Eeformed religion through- out the kingdom; its ministers were ordered to quit France within fifteen days, and it was declared that pardon to the Huguenots for their past errors should only be granted on condition of their abandoning them immediately. The edict attributed all past concessions to mere necessity, and asserted that they had been made against the will of the king, who had resolved on revoking them as soon as circumstances should permit. s 2 26o MEMORIALS OF There remained no alternative to the Huguenots but to try again the miserable chances of war.* The Queen of Navarre joined the Huguenot chiefs at La Eochelle, with her son Prince Henry, and 4000 men. Normandy, Poitou, Perigord, Provence, con- tributed reinforcements, and Conde and Coligni found themselves at the head of the strongest army they had yet commanded. The third war of religion com- menced under more favourable auspices than the pre- ceding. The leaders of the Keformed often applied to themselves the saying of Themistocles, we should have been lost but for our ruin ; " and the court, at first astounded by such an unexpected rising, suffered them to seize on the principal cities of the west of France. The Duke of Anjou, the king's brother, commanded the Eoman Catholic army, but dared not offer battle to the Huguenots through the winter of 1 568-69, although he was at the head of !2 8,000 men. At last, on the 13th of March, the fatal battle of Jarnac deprived the Ee- formed of one of their gallant chiefs, Louis, Prince of Gonde. D'Andelot, brother of Coligni, died of fever at Saintes on the 27th May. The admiral gained some slight advantage over the enemy at La Eoche-Abeille on the 23rd June, but suffered loss at the siege of Poitiers, which he was obliged eventually to raise. The disaster at Moncontour on the 3rd October, when Coligni received three wounds and was defeated, seemed ♦ Sismondi, Hist, dcs rran9ois, t. xix. pp. 20 — 33. BENEE OF FRANCE. 261 to crown the misfortunes of the Huguenots. It was during this^ the third war of religion, that Montargis ceased for awhile to be an asylum for the oppressed. The massacre of the Eeformed at Orleans in the year 1569, caused the flight of all who were of ^'The Eeli- gion/' especially the women and children, from the towns and villages of the flat country, to their once serene retreat, in the hope of refuge from the cruel strife which was raging round them. This last concourse of Protestants at Montargis," we are told by D'Aubigne, " stirred up the preachers of Paris, and they the king, to force Eenee to turn away 460 persons, of whom two-thirds were women and children at the breast." We are not left to imagine the grief of Eenee at the stern decree ; it is described to us. " Bursting into tears," she said to Malicorne (who again appears as the dis- turber of her peace), " that if she had on her chin what he had on his, she would kill him with her own hands, as a messenger of death." The Duke of Alenfon is said to have been active in this evil work * ; giving the duchess to understand that plots were daily hatched at Montargis against his majesty, and desiring her not only to dismiss the Eeformed and their ministers, but to leave the exercise of the Eeformed religion, or else to remove to some other place. Eenee answered, " that she was too nearly related to the crown to be so ill-affected to it ; that those to whom she gave a shelter were only a * D'Aubigne, livre viii. fo. 253. 1569. S 3 262 MEMORIALS OF harmless and poor people, who meddled with nothing .that could be of the least importance to the king s state ; that she could not leave a place which belonged to her, and where she was resolved to live and die, without forsaking the exercise of that religion which had been permitted to her by the king, and in which she had hitherto been brought up." However, about the end of the month of September, she was obliged to dismiss most of those helpless ones who had taken shelter at Montargis, " being threatened with having a garrison sent in very speedily." All that she could do to alleviate the hardship of their lot, she did with the generous devotion of her own noble heart. ^^Foras- much as there were several families, many women, and a great number of young and old people, all unable to go the long journeys they were forced to take, or else be at the mercy of those who waited only for an opportunity to destroy them," she furnished this dis- tressed company with a hundred and fifty waggons, eight travelling coaches, and a great many horses"* — "an- swering for the waggoners who carried the rest and their baggage." They had, however, hardly passed the Loire, when fresh dangers menaced these persecuted beings. A captain of the Koman Catholic army, named Cartier, with a troop of about 200 horsemen, was sent to massacre them. The ministers who escorted the fugitives; perceiving on a neighbouring hill the ap- * D'Aubigne, Histoire Universelle (quoted by Bayle). EENEE OF FRANCE. 263 proach of the murderous band, threw themselves on their knees with their timid flock, exhorted them to die with constancy, and began to sing a psalm. But rescue was near. He in whom they trusted had given com- mandment to save them." Suddenly from the opposite quarter there appeared between two hills a body of 800 horsemen, under command of the Captain Du Bee de Bourry, a Huguenot, who was on his way with his troop from Bourges to La Charite. He charged the foe unexpectedly, put them to flight, and escorted in safety to the latter place the trembling troop of fugitives from Montargis.* No wonder that Eenee longed, and prayed, and laboured for peace." War — such war — without her gates, and within no security as heretofore for those whose faith she shared, must have thrilled her very soul with sorrowful dismay. To whom she wrote the follow- ing letter does not appear, for it is sans adresse," but it forcibly expresses in few and simple words the anxiety of her mind for the pacification of the fearful strife, and is evidently written to one whose friendly co-operation was valuable.! "My Cousin, — I do not wish to dispatch the present messenger, who has brought me tidings of you, without a word of intelligence concerning mine, praying you to * Sismondi, t. xix. pp. 58, 59. t Collections Bethune, 8703, fo. 68. s 4 264 MEMORIALS OF hear them^ and entirely to believe them, and to employ yourself, as I know you are accustomed to do, in whatso- ever way shall be possible to you, in striving to arrive at a good peace, in which endeavour, I, on my part, shall put forth all my power, if it shall please Grod. And if it cannot be a general one, at least that it shall be to those who desire it, and who belong to us ; and confiding my letter to the said messenger, after recom- mending myself to your good remembrance, I pray Grod, my cousin, to keep you in His. From Montargis, this 20th day of August, 1569. ^' Your good cousin, Eenee of Fkance." Peace came after awhile, at least a breathing-space from war, for thus perhaps may be more correctly cha- racterised the interval between the Treaty of 1570, which will presently be described, and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which interpreted its real purpose on the part of the court. The bravery and skilful general- ship of Coligni raised the Huguenot cause from the lowest depths of depression after the defeat at Moncon- tour. He was still enabled to maintain the struggle, for his very name inspired confidence, and brave men rallied round him, proud to fight under such a great commander. Though fearfully tried, his faith failed not, for his heart was fixed, trusting in God." An able writer says of him, He never indeed had that singular joyousness of spirits which Conde had, but always a BENEE OF FRANCE. 265 serene strength of heart, which perhaps on the whole was as effective for himself and for others, the settled determination of a man who had counted the cost of his cause before he engaged in it, and was prepared to pay it to the uttermost."* He wintered in Languedoc, and " refused two several offers of peace from the court, because they would not concede sufficient toleration." But the court was disgusted with the war; the Huguenot party was stronger in the field than ever ; and the king, impatient to commence a life of festivity and indulgence, was restrained by an exhausted treasury, f He was jealous of his brother, the Duke of Anjou, and the other leaders of the Eoman Catholic party were also jealous of each other. Their divisions aided the cause of peace, and Coligni having received guarantees of a satisfactory nature for the fulfilment of the treaty, signed it at La Charite on the 8th August, 1570. The Edict of Pacification was published at St. Grermain-en-Laye, and was immediately registered in all the courts of the kingdom.:]: " It was more favourable to the Eeformed than the preceding ones. It gave them liberty of worship in all the places which were in their possession, in addition, two towns of every province for the celebra- tion of service, an amnesty for the past, equal right of admission to public offices, permission to reside in any * Lectures on Great Men. Gaspard de Coligny, by the Kev. F. Myers, p. 419. f Sisnaondi, t. xix. p. 81. X Ibid., t. xix. p. 84. 266 MEMORIALS OF part of the kingdom without being molested on account of religion, and four hostage-towns, to be held by the Huguenot troops for two years, La Eochelle, La Charite, Cognac, and Montauban/'* " So the land had rest from war ; " but though hos- tilities had ceased for a space, the two parties were not reconciled. The Eeformed had suffered loss in moral force, in numbers, and in political influence, by the civil wars, and the bitter strife had deepened the hatred of their adversaries against them. The enmity of Ca- therine de' Medici to the Huguenots was now a fixed principle in her breast. Peace had been signed, — but vengeance was intended. The cruel counsel of the Duke of Alva at the Bayonne Conference in 1565 had never been forgotten. ^^Kill the leaders, for ten thousand frogs are not worth the head of a salmon." Nevertheless, for awhile, a seeming calm pre- vailed, and the Eeformed began to hope that better times were in store for them. The Seventh National Synod assembled at La Eochelle in the spring of 157 and was the first that was held with the full consent of the king. The chiefs of the Huguenots were present, and took part in the deliberations. From the business of this conference the venerable Coligni was summoned to the councils of Charles IX., who received him with every mark of respectful affection. Popular infractions of the Edict of St. Grermain were duly punished ; but * History of the Protestants of France, by G. de Felice. REJSTEE OF FRAWCE. 267 as time passed on, less favourable indications manifested themselves. Meanwhile Eenee dwelt at Montargis, feeble in health and advanced in years, but still earnest as ever in desiring the instruction of ministers " for herself and others. One more glimpse of the duchess under this familiar aspect we obtain from the following interesting letter, addressed to her by a Huguenot pastor named Toussain which also throws a little light on the state of religion in Eenee's neighbourhood at the period in which it was written.f "Madame, — I believe that your Excellency hears daily of the vexations which are practised on those who come hither from Orleans to hear the word of Grod, which cause has hindered me, and all the more that I am alone, f?om travelling until now, for if the means of doing so had not been cut off from me by continual occupation, I should not have delayed so long going to Montargis in order to present myself before your Ex- cellency, since you have done me the honour to desire and command me to do so. Above all, I have greatly ^ regretted not having been able to visit vour Excellency when you were indisposed, in consequence of having been myself seized at that very time with an illness which confined me for several days to the house. Now it appears that the Lord our God looks upon us with a * Is he the " Good Toussain,'* pastor of the church at Montbeliard many years previously ? See reference in Letters of John Calvin, com- piled by Dr. Jules Bonnet, vol. ii. p. 161. f Collections Bethune, 8739, ^^4* 268 MEMORIALS OF more favourable eye, and will vouchsafe during tliis springtide to revive the state of our Church, which has been, as it were, dead, for it hath pleased the majesty of om* king to make so many and such express commands to the people of Orleans to leave us peaceably to enjoy the exercise of our religion in this place, that those people, hitherto so seditious, have begun to grow more gentle, so that we have been able to celebrate the Lord's Supper for two Sundays with a large company, and I hope that henceforth I may be able sometimes on the Mondays to go to Montargis to render you the very humble service which I owe you, praying the good Grod, Madame, that fortifying you daily in all bodily and spiritual strength. He may preserve you to a long and very happy life. "From risle les Orleans, this 15th April, 1572. " Your Excellency's very humble and obedient servant, "D. TOUSSAIN." The blessings thus devoutly implored for Eenee, — health and life prolonged in happiness, — were not in store for her. Her troubled existence was waning, her bodily strength was diminishing, and before her eyes were closed in the welcome repose of death, the scenes or the news of the hideous massacre of St. Bartholomew must have banished from her heart all earthly joy. But before we trace her career of trials and woes to its solemn termination, let us for awhile leave the subject of Renee's connection with the Reformed faith BENEE OF FRANCE. 269 and its afflicted professors, in order to illustrate, as clearly as may be, a few other points in the sorrowful history of her life. For beside the external commo- tions which so sorely troubled the years of Eenee's widowhood in France, there were other sources of harassing anxiety opened to her in the unsettled state of her private affairs. In temporal, as in spiritual things, she had an arduous struggle with opposing difficulties. Her perplexities arose from the injustice with which she appears to have been treated, with reference to the dowry in France settled upon her on occasion of her marriage with Ercole II. In the ab- sence of other detailed information on this subject, it is desirable to subjoin the following translation of a statement prepared by Eenee herself for the use of her son, Duke Alfonso.* The food which this document furnishes to the thoughtful reader, cannot but render its introduction acceptable. Notwithstanding the learned studies of her youth, Eenee's literary powers certainly did not exceed those of average capacity, — yet whatever Eenee wrote contains a deep intrinsic interest. "The state in which my affairs are ; — to be delivered to my son, Monsieur the Duke of Ferrara. " I have before now written concerning the vast and tiresome processes which I have carried on, in the * Collections Bethune, 8727, fo. 29, Ko. (Bibliotheque Imperiale). 270 MEMORIALS OF desire and loving inclination which I had to satisfy you, my son, in the prosecution of the business of my af- fairs, as the late Alvarot, your ambassador, may have told you, and borne witness of, in his lifetime, as also how I had invested in that suit the expenses which I have incurred in it with a view to success, sometimes through his hands, and then again by those of Annibal Milan and many other persons, and you know that for that express purpose I took my journeys to Lyon and Avignon*, where you found me, and were not willing that any mention should be made of my rights, (but allowed the monies due to the late Mons. your father) notwithstanding the doubts which I set before you, and my foreseeing that if the present opportunity were lost, those rights could never be recovered. Since then I have taken several journeys to the court and to Paris, and presented petitions to the king in his council, at the Louvre (of which I sent you duplicates), to which [petitions of mine] no answer was given. [I also] at- tended in the city of Paris, at the lodgings of the chancellor, where the council of the king was as- sembled, and set forth my claims as above alluded to, and demanded my 250,000 livres, since there had been taken from me Grisors and Vernon, and [they had] been made part of the appanage of Mons. * V\^as this during the " progress " of Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX, through the southern provinces of France in 1 565 ? It was then that the Duke of Ferrara was at the court (vide Colquhoun's Life in France and Italy in the Olden Time, p. 584), — a fact which seems to lend probability to this date. BENEE OF FRANCE. 271 the duke, my nephew, which [Grisors and Vernon] are the chief part of my revenue, for Montargis has been assigned to me at the worth of only 1900 livres of revenue ; it has been demanded of me during all the troubles [of the civil war], and I was pressed to quit it with an offer of houses and other things. I have still long letters concerning it, written by the hand of the queen ; I knew that it never would have been restored to me or to any of my family. There only remained to me Chartres, which was assigned to me at the worth of only iioo livres [of revenue], and costs me every year much more. And afterwards began again the wars, during which, it was impossible to transact business ; and at that interval, considering that the period of ten (?) years since the decease of the late Monsieur, my husband, was passing away, I made ar- rangements with my daughter, and granted to her power to act for me in effecting a composition of such sort, that I might not lose everything. I could not find any one on whom I could with more safety or surety rely in this matter, since neither you, my son, nor your brother, could take part in it, nor any one as represent- ing you. She did so much, that my petition was signed [as granted], and that Grisors and Vernon remained to me, and were declared mine. I assure you that all these difficulties have been still much more vexatious and painful than I have been able to represent to you by letters, and [that] I should have been in danger of losing all. Nevertheless, after having toiled so hard in the 272 MEMORIALS OF undertaking, I again found my affairs in such a state, that I have [now] to begin over again, although [in foUo^ving them up] I have spared neither my trouble nor my health in various journeys which I have pur- sued, and others which I have again taken both to the court and to Paris, in the most inclement season of the year, at great expense and cost both to myself and to my daughter above mentioned : and we have also attended in person, both of us, and she also alone, before the king, and in his council, and at pleadings which have been made in the Court of Parliament concerning the ratification of the agreement, on which occasions the attorney-general with other parties appeared, and alleged so many doubts and difficulties against my right, that they have obstructed up to this time the confirmation of this agreement as being too prejudicial to the demesne of the king, and that I and my family were too advantageously and too favourably dealt with by this agreement, considering the little right I had in the lands which I claimed, whether on this side or on that side of the mountains inasmuch as by the laws and ordinances of France, according to which all this affair ought to be judged, no person having passed the age of thirty-six years is received [as a competent party] on any occasion of debate touching an agreement made during his minority, much less still in the case of those which have been transacted with the prince, and * Louis XII. assigned to his daughter Renee, in his lifetime, his rights (or claims) to the Duchy of Milan. BENEE OF FRANCE. 273 on account of marriage, [even] without regard had to the term of the said years elapsed since the decease of the late already-named Monsieur, your father, it was the only way of [establishing] my good right, and nevertheless the time was about to expire without the means of remedy, because of the wars which began again, as has been said, and which were not to end so soon, as experience and expectation have shown. More- over, in regard to ^Bretaigne,' they alleged the statutes and ordinances of the states maintained by those of the country concerning successions in [the cases in which] there are only daughters, together with the decrees pronounced between the Counts of Blois and of Montfort, which tell much to my prejudice, beside the very large debts paid at the acquittance of the late king, my father, which they demanded that I should repay, and by such means and innumerable others which cannot be fully detailed in what I am now writing, they have obstructed, as they are still doing, the ratifica- tion of my agreement, saying that the king had been cir- cumvented, considering the slightness of the evidence for my right ; and neither T, nor my daughter with me, whatever costs, exertions, and journeys we have bestowed in the matter, have been able to obtain any more, for the last two years, than an audience in the Court of Parliament, in which a decree passed in my presence and in hers, which puts me into a position of delay and misgiving in respect to my right, such that I can enter- tain no hope of prompt or successful despatch of my T 274 MEMORIALS OF business^ being unprovided with documents, deeds of title, and agreements which are necessary to me ; although before I spoke to my daughter already named, I had made every effort to recover them, and without those which were recovered by the care and diligence of my daughter De Nemours, your sister, and by means of her connexions, never would the king or his council have consented to do anything for me, nor to pass the agree- ment concerning which I doubt not that you under- stand well enough how advantageous it is, since my adversaries are not satisfied with it, nay, have been obstructing it by every means in their power for two years and more, in the confident hope which they have of showing how little right I have to the things which I claim, for [the recovery of] which I have never meant to avail myself of the authority and power of any prince, or lord, out of this realm, with whom, if one was minded to transact business, there would arise more difficulties than in France, and very much more expense and loss, and less credit, and [so] I cannot see with what safety that could be done, considering that in such quarters neither have you had so close alliance, nor your pre- decessors so close friendship as with this realm. Every one knows what the king, my father, and the kings Francis and Henry have done for your state, and for all those of your house, and the favours and friendly offices which you have all received from them. Beside which, I have been assured, that by the laws written and ob- served in the other countries, I should be much more UENEE OF FRANCE. rigorously excluded from my right by the lapse of time, so that there would only remain [recourse to] arms, and a seed of wars, which would only bring after them divisions and disadvantages in and to our houses and states. So then, having considered all these things, and the time at [the expiration of] which I could no longer prosecute my rights, the difSculties which were thrown in my way, the few deeds of title which I found in my possession for establishing them, and being without the means of being able to recover any of them, [these re- flections] made me readily submit and trust to the advice [given me] to agree to an amicable composition [of the suit], and accept the arrangements which you have seen, which I regard as more advantageous for us and all my children and descendants, than to bequeath to them, after my death, the prosecution of a suit for a right too doubtful and confused, after having, forsooth, refused a pension of sixty thousand livres from the king, which would have brought me more profit and less trouble and inconvenience ; only that I knew that neither you nor any of my children would have re- mained satisfied, which [consideration] has induced me the sooner to come to terms and [accept] an amicable composition as the best and [most] advantageous which I have hitherto had an opportunity of obtaining. Fur- ther, you ought not to find fault with what is sur- rendered by this agreement to my daughter De Nemours, considering the care and diligence which she has be- stowed on endeavours to recover the deeds of title and T 2 276 MEMORIALS OF papers which were [in quarters?] unknown to us^ and [that she has] employed the interest which she and her connexions had with the lords about their Majesties and in their council, without which efforts and aids never would this agreement have been passed, as the king has declared [to his having] granted the said agreement partly in favour of your sister already mentioned, and her family, to which sister you know also that I have never supplied any monies for her marriage, notwith- standing that I intend to give some to my other daughters, so that after the ratification of the agree- ment she will not be able any more to make any demand on my property, whether in the duchy of Chartres, county of Grisors and Vernon, which are secured to me, although they had been before taken away from me (as I have said above), nor in the county of Gien, which is to be given to me instead of Montargis, if the ratification is passed, which arrangements cannot but turn to your advantage, as you may see and know more fully : and otherwise neither you nor I shall ever obtain anything from the king, nor in this realm, and shall only lie at utter disadvantage." This document is without date. But there is a rough copy extant of a legal instrument, dated 1568, in which the king is declared to have appointed, on two distinct occasions, the nominees of the duchess to the office of Comptroller of the "Aides and Tallies" of Gisors. There- in also the style and title of Renee is formally set forth in the following terms: — "We, Renee of France, RENEE OF FRANCE. 277 Dowager of Ferrara^ Duchess of Chartres, Countess of Grisors, and Lady of Montargis." * Vernon, the other contested possession, appears to have been visited by Eenee in the spring of 1566 ; a passport for oats/' purchased at Nogent-sur-Seine, " for the provision of the horses of her stable " during her intended sojourn at Vernon, being preserved in the MS. collections of Bethune.f The correspondence between Eenee and her daughter, Anna d'Este, Duchess of Nemours, fully attests " the care and diligence " with which the latter attended to all business matters of family interest, however trivial the subject of them might appear to be. Equally vigilant and industrious, she responded to each demand for promptitude of action, and her practical mind did not disdain the details of less exalting occupations than those which once engaged her in companionship with Olympia Morata. At one time she writes to her mother in behalf of a Monsieur Miron, the Seigneur of Saint Prest, who owes Eenee a fine for his marriage, and has wished to compound for it with the Sieur Grondy, who makes his demand for it at a very high rate. However " (she continues), the said Miron, fearing lest his lands should be seized, has offered him as much as 600 livres, which is equal to two fines, inasmuch as his predecessor, who was the Sieur de la Chesnaye, paid no more than 300 livres as his fine. And because the said * Collections Bethune, 8739, ^7* t Ibid., 8739, fo- T 3 278 MEMORIALS OF Grondy objects to admit him at that composition, he has betaken himself to me in order to obtain some favour from you. "WTiich I very humbly beseech you to grant him, Madame, since he and his predecessors have always been your servants, and servants of all our house, and I should like to be able to gratify them in some matter. And you will write, if you please, to the said Sieur Grondy, saying what it is your pleasure that he should do in the matter, which again I request of you very humbly, that the said Miron may know that this letter has been of some use to him, and that he may have so much the more cause to render you very humble service. From Paris, this o^^th day of June, 1571."* At another time the Duchess of Nemours forwards to Eenee a memorial presented to her by a Serjeant of Montargis, who threatens a remonstrance to the privy council if his suit be unattended to, and implores her mother to see to the affair without delay, and to advise her as to the reply to be given, in order that she may obviate any disagreeable consequences that may possibly ensue.f Again she listens to the (pro- bably) inefficient pleadings of Eenee's proctor before the Court of Parliament, and writes to propose the appointment, in his stead, of her own, a certain Maitre Julien Chauveau, "an honest man" "worthy of this office," whose " good will, probity, and diligence " are * Collections Bethune, 8737, fo. 34. t Ibid., 8737, fo. 93 (dated Paris, July 12th, 1572). BENEE OF FRANCE. 279 well known to her^ and from whose services Eenee will undoubtedly derive full satisfaction.* But she did not always limit her interference to matters equally harm- less and legitimate : the following epistle to her mother could not have been a very welcome missive.f " Madame, — Whereas the king by his letters patent of the 1 8th June has ordered that the sister Frances du Plessis shall be brought back to her convent, near Montargis, whence she departed a considerable time since, that she may live there henceforth religiously, and according to the rules of her order, I have been entreated to write to you this short letter, in order to sup- plicate you very humbly that it may please you to men- tion this to the prioress, so that, according to the in- tention of his Majesty, she may be prepared to receive her, and not permit her to leave her convent so freely as she has heretofore done. And whereas those who have spoken of this to me are my intimate friends, whom I should desire to gratify in even a greater mat- ter, I would not fail to recommend her to you, praying very humbly that it may please you to speak of it "-o the said prioress, in order that she may not allow her to go out, unless those who are related to her be first of all informed. And now, after having very humbly kissed your hands, I will supplicate the Creator to bestow on * Collections Bethune, 8737, fo. 99. t Ibid., 8737, fo. 87. T 4 280 MEMORIALS OF you, Madame, very good health, and a long and happy life. ^^From Paris, this 8th day of July, 157:3. Your very humble and very obedient daughter and servant, Anne d'Est." Political intrigue, the baneful companionship of Catherine de' Medici, her own relationship to the Cruises, and the deplorable state of the French Court and society at that period, had all lent their pernicious influences toward the perversion of the once-promising Anna d'Este. Most sad it is to contrast what she was with what she became, when years spent in such de- basing intercourse had done their work upon her. And if it be true that it is the maternal parent whose cha- racter generally decides that of her children, what might not be inferred from the history of Henri le Balafre, Duke of Guise, and from that of the Duchess of Montpensier ? * Yet Anna d'Este herself was the daughter of the pious and virtuous Kenee, and so furnishes, in her mature years at least, a startling excep- tion to the rule above referred to. Faulty as she was, however, she appears from her letters to have been not wholly uninfluenced by filial love and duty ; whilst it is evident that Kenee clung to her with all a mother's * It was by her that Jacques Clement was incited to assassinate Henry III. in 1589. BENEE OF FRANCE, 281 tenderness, such as a child's offences, however aggra- vated, have seldom power to diminish. Her second husband, Jacques de Savoy, Duke of Ne- mours, " the flower of all chivalry," as he was in the eyes of Brantome the flatterer, though by no means free from stain, contrasts on the whole favourably with some of the leading men of his party, perhaps because he withdrew at an early period from public life, in decaying health and disgust at the aspect of political affairs. In 1569 he had been charged, in conjunction with the Duke d'Aumale, to oppose the passage of the Loire by the troops which the Duke de Deux Fonts was leading to the succour of the Huguenots. This enterprise failed through the stubbornness of D'Aumale, and Ne- mours, fearing that the Guises would throw the whole blame on him, and being also worn out with fatigue, retired to his duchy of Grenevois, where he sought dis- traction from his troubles of body and mind in the cultivation of letters and the fine arts.* The corres- pondence of Eenee with the Duke of Nemours leaves no room to doubt the kindly regard entertained by her for her son-in-law. The reader will not regret the insertion of one of these letters, which the Bethune collection has preserved. " To my son. Monsieur the Duke of Nemours and of Grenevois. " My Son, — Since [the receipt of] several letters which * Biographie Universelle, t. xxxi. pp. 60, 61. 282 MEMORIALS OF you have written to me, and those which my daughter, your wife, brought to me (which I gave her to read, and deeply repented having done so, for it was not without her shedding many tears, on account of what you wrote to me of your illness, and being herself much distressed at having left you, and wearied with her journey; in uncertain health, and fatigued with [her exertions in] our affairs, in which she has laboured exceedingly, and I, on my part, having made a winter journey, for which I found myself the worse in health), I have again returned from another journey this summer, having been absent for a month on account of the illness of the queen-mother, of which my daughter has given you a particular account, she having remained a long time with her (not without difficulty), as I know you will have heard from all, and of the good health of her said Majesty, as also of that of my daughter, your wife, who was well the evening before I set out, when she had returned to your dwelling in Paris ; but she there received letters mentioning the slight attack of gout which had unexpectedly come upon you, and the illness of your little girl, which [news] has laid your wife on her couch, where I left her, which I should not have done but for the consent of the nurse and of the physicians, who all declared that she had need of repose and to have nothing to weary her. For there have been many things against her, since the overturning of her coach, and her separation from your society, — which is so difficult and grievous for her to bear, — besides the exertions which she took upon herself to make during RENEE OF FRANCE. 283 the illness of the queen-mother, and then the last intelligence of your little girl and of your affairs which require your presence with her. [These considerations] have made me resolve to write to you, my son, and to pray you, that until your arrival you will prohibit your people from writing to her of the illness of your little girl, but rather to tell her that she is cured, in order to cheer her, for she has need of it. And if the illness should increase, and there should be need of a physician, I pray you to certify me of it, for I have ability to provide one sooner than she, being so much nearer. I have earnestly wished to go to you, which she will not be able to do until after her accouchement and recovery. I have hope that you will be there [with her], which will afford her the greatest consolation and satisfaction that she could have, and knowing that she has advised you of the state of your affairs, and that she has heard the intention of their Majesties, since I took leave of them, and the good will and friendship they bear to you, and their desire to hear of your return, I will not prolong this letter, except to offer and commend myself to your good grace and re- membrance, praying you to employ me for you and your little children in everything that shall be agreeable to you ; and I will pray Grod, my son, to bring you back again, with as good health, happiness, and content- ment, as I desire for you. ^^From Montargis, this 26th day of June, 1572." "My Son, — I would not forget to tell you, that, if 284 MEMORIALS OF Grod preserves me in health, I shall very soon be returning to the court, having been invited by the king, and the queen his mother, to the nuptials of Madame your nieee, and again afterwards at Fontainebleau, where the queen* is to be confined, which will be at the time when I assure myself that, if it please Grod, you will also be there. Yonr good mother^ ^' Een^e of France." Here the question presents itself. Was Eenee present at the ill-omened nuptials of Henry of Navarre with the worthless Marguerite of Valois on the 1 8th of Au- gust, and was she doomed to witness the horrors of St. Bartholomew's Day in Paris, on the 24th of the same month ? This question, interesting as it is, the writer, through insufficient information, is compelled to leave unanswered. The foregoing letter proves that Eenee's speedy return to the court was designed, and that it depended only on the state of her health ; also a letter is in existence from the Duchess of Nemours to her mother, dated September nth, which intimates anxiety at not having received tidings from her "since her arrival at Montargis." But this does not afford sufficient ground for concluding that Eenee was present in Paris during that "Eeign of Terror." If Eenee had been then at the court, would Anna d'Este have dared to plot Charles IX. married, in 1571, Elizabeth, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II. BENEE OF FRANCE. 285 with Catherine de' Medici the assassination of her mother's old and trusted friend^ the brave, the venerable Coligni ? * Could she have borne to risk the sight of her mother's tears — tears of mingled grief and*indigna- tion ? Could she have endured to hear the impassioned condemnation with which that mother would have de- nounced such a dark deed of vindictive hatred? It might have been so. The men of that age in France had hard hearts, but the hearts of many of its high-born women were harder still ; and the fierce blood of Italy was flowing in the veins of Anna d'Este. However, with the guilt of blood upon her soul, she had craft enough to veil the complicity which had incurred it. Who would suspect any partnership in the great crime, which had so lately been committed, in the author of the fol- lowing letter ? " To Madame the Duchess Dowager of Ferrara.f Madame, — Not having had any tidings of you since your arrival at Montargis, I have determined to send you this ' laquais,' by whom I very humbly entreat you to write me intelligence of yourself and of your state, also if you have heard anything of Monsieur my hus- band; because since the time when I was given to understand that he would be setting out on his journey hither, I have had no certain information as to whether * Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, by Leopold Kanke, vol. ii. pp. 36, 37. t Collections Bethune, 8747, fo. 99. 286 MEMORIALS OF he will continue his journey, or whether, indeed, he have deferred it, having heard of what has taken place. I have indeed heard that he set out on the 25th from Chazay,^and nothing more. Here things seem to be very peaceable, and no murder is committed, nor act of offence, that I have heard of, continued to be done to any person. And it is hoped that all will go on still better, by means of an ordinance which was yesterday published, whereby the king enjoins on all the wards- men of the city to put in writing the names, titles, and residences of all those who are of ' The Eeligion,' and to give up to him the lists which shall be made of them, to be placed in the hands of whomsoever his Majesty shall please to ordain, with prohibition to injure them, or to slander them, on pain of death, which [edict] is only to set them free from prison, and to secure them from heavy fine. I will send you the ordinance as soon as it shall be printed, as I will not fail to do with all other edicts and ordinances which shall be issued here- upon. For the rest, Madame, having heard the plead- ing of your proctor in the Court of Parliament, I deter- mined to propose to you Maitre Julien Chauveau, who is our proctor, an honest man, and from whom (if it should please you to do him so much favour and honour, as to give him your letters of attorney), I would venture to assure you that you will have entire satisfaction and service ; and I pray you very humbly to believe, that if I did not know him to be worthy of this charge, I would not propose him to you, nor make to you this very RENEE OF FRANCE. 287 humble request ; but the knowledge which I have of his good will, probity, and diligence, causes me to entreat this very humbly from you, and that it may please you to do me the honour to signify to me your gX)od plea- sure hereupon. Madame, with regard to my health, it appears to me that for three nights past I have had better rest than I have been accustomed to, which has brought me much amendment, and the hope of very soon seeing myself in all health and prosperity, to do you the humble and very affectionate service which I owe to you. " Madame, I supplicate in this place the Creator to grant you, in perfect health, a very happy and a very long life. "From Paris, this nth September, 157^^. Your very humble and very obedient daughter and servant, "Anne d'Est." Madame, — I have resolved, seeing that I have no tidings of Monsieur my husband, to send this ' laquais ' further on, to bring me back news of him, praying you to send me yours. I have recovered the edict which I send you, and pray you very humbly to pardon me for not having written to you with my own hand. I have not yet found out how to regain [possession of] the Soeur de la for those who detain her, when they found that we were stirring in the matter, have disclaimed knowledge of her. I send Arragon there * The word here omitted is illegible. 288 MEMORIALS OF every day, and I will do what I can to get her out, and I am deliberating if I can to-day send for the secretary of the Prince Dauphin, and speak to him myself, and then I will advertise you of everything. I very humbly kiss your hands." Contemporary documents placing the assertion beyond doubt that the murder of the admiral had received the sanction of Anna d'Este, it must be acknowledged that there is something fearful in the calmness of the above epistle, in the facility with which the duchess turns from public events of such painful interest to the com- paratively trivial matters which occupy the remainder of the letter, if we except from such description her evident anxiety for the safety of Monsieur de Nemours, which shows at least that all tender feeling was not yet extinct in the heart of the writer. The edict of which she speaks so favourably to the Duchess Eenee was doubtless an emanation of the crooked policy of the court, which, after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was sorely puzzled how to explain or to justify its barbarous work in the eyes of France, and of Christian (not Popish) Europe, yet repented not of the atrocities it had ordered, but with cruel craft sought rather, by seeming mildness, to complete the enterprise it had undertaken ; that of extirpating heresy from the kingdom. Hence the Letters Patent of the 28th October, " qui monstraient une tant bonne af- fection du Eoy envers ses sujets," whilst "les lettres RENEE OF FRANCE. 289 closes qui furent dressees cinq jours apres chantoient bien autre chanson." * Happily there is no need to dwell at length in this place on the disgusting details of this terrible crime and great political mistake, for they have been repeat- edly described by the pen of the historian. Enough to say, that Divine vengeance pursued the perpetrators ; and the end which the massacre was designed to secure, the suppression of Huguenotry," failed altogether. Who can refuse to confess a retributive Providence in the miserable death of Henry, Duke of Gruise, assassi- nated in the Castle of Blois in 1588 by command of Henry III., who, as Duke of Anjou, had been one of the chief accomplices of Gruise in the plot against the lives of Coligni and the Eeformed ? . . . Then it was that Anna d'Este, when brought prisoner to Blois after the murder of her sons the Duke and the Cardinal, appealed in these somewhat quaint but touching terms to the memory of her mother (as related in old French memoirs). " 0 mother ! when your father built these walls, you did not expect that my children would have been hacked to pieces therein ! " ****** One letter more from the correspondence between Eenee and her daughter, the Duchess of Nemours, will complete the documentary portion of these memorials.f * Bulletin de la Societe de I'Histoire du Protestantisme rran9ais, Nos. 3 et 4, p. 1 01. ^ t Collections Bethune, 8739, ^o^- U 290 MEMORIALS OF It has reference to private matters only^ but brings to our notice the name of Kenee's second daughter, Lucrezia, Princess of Urbino, whose history, distinct though it be from that of her mother, ought not to be passed over without some slight allusion. ^^Mt DAuaHTER, — Having received your letter, and before the letters delivered by this bearer, another which I had had from you and my son. Monsieur de Nemours, to which I was meditating to send you both presently an answer, but M. Franco No^^^ has returned to me to take instructions concerning the MS. books of my daughter, the Princess of Urbino, of which you have often spoken to me. He has employed so much solicitation and research about the matter that I have spent much time listening to him, and deferred writing to you until I might be able to inform you of all that took place with him, which is, that having been lately in Paris, I caused a minute to be drawn up at Versori's touching the said MS. books, which I thought at that time to have com- municated to you, but your illness and my departure prevented my having the opportunity to do this : also I deferred [writing], waiting still until the confirmation was passed, that I might not further displease my son, and for the continuance of the good and perfect understand- ing amongst you all my children, such as I know, my daughter, to be your wish. But the solicitation which the said Novello has continued (having in his possession a power of attorney and articles with which he presented RENEE OF FRANCE. 291 me on his return from Paris) has been so great — added to which a packet has come to hand addressed to him, in which were letters for him from my said daughter, your sister, and also for me, advising me of what has happened there, which Bellanger will relate to you from me — all which has caused him even to redouble his urgency. I have shown to the said Novello the said minute drawn up at Paris, after his having promised me not to speak of it to any one but my said daughter, which minute when he had seen, he was sure that neither my said daughter nor any one in that quarter would be satisfied with it ; likewise, that by virtue of his power of attorney and articles which he had in possession, he could not accept it. Upon which he drew up one which I could not accept. I delivered him another to take to my said daughter D'Urbino, that she may acquaint me with her opinion of it. I send to you the duplicate of the said minutes and articles, which you can look at and deliberate upon, in order to advise me of what shall seem to be for the best ; and whether the consent of my son, your brother, would not be necessary, seeing the concessions that you have both made. For the rest, I experience great regret at the departure of my son, M. de Nemours, and at not having been able to see him here with our son, De Genevois. Concerning the little boy, I have charged the said Bellanger to tell you that if you will send him to me I shall most willingly receive him. I have like- wise spoken to him of a plan very necessary for the U 2 292 MEMORIALS OF health of our said grandson, and for my own, should any pestilence or illness occur in this place, and of a certain thing which has already been promised to me. ^^My daughter, I have received your letter by the bearer, Bellanger, and the duplicate of my instructions concerning the MS. books, for which I thank you to the best of my ability, and grieve much for the trouble which the said bearer tells me you have taken. We must cause the said copy to be authenticated in the ^ Chambre des Comptes,' and when it is authenticated we must take counsel as to the most ready means of pay- ment which shall present itself, whether by purchase of land or other assignments. It is true that it would be a long time to wait till the king should receive 200,000 livres, and the pious and charitable works [paid for] and the debts discharged, — but also I fear that if they valued an estate at too high a price, I could not satisfy the demand, and that the creditors would address themselves to me. I believe that nothing will be given up by the commissioners on this side [the mountains ?], who will remit the whole to the king, in order to bring the affair to a close, and to come to a decision. I hope to see you soon at Fontainebleau, and to talk to you of what shall be needful for many purposes, concerning which I can- not write to you. And immediately after Easter I will hold myself in readiness to start on my journey thither, when you shall send me word to do so. Meanwhile I send you the answer to the letters, which my said son, M. de Nemours, your husband, has written to me. EENEE OF FRANCE. Entrusting the rest to the said Bellanger, I pray Grod, my daughter, to give you all the happiness and satisfac- tion that you can desire. From Montargis, this 12th day of March, i573*" (This letter is not signed. It appears to have been the rough copy of one written by Eenee to her daughter, the Duchess of Nemours.) Lucrezia d'Este had been married at Ferrara, on the 2nd January, 157 1, to Francesco Maria, eldest son and heir of Gruido Baldo, Duke of Urbino. " The nuptials,'' we are told *, " were celebrated with great splendour, and with chivalrous games and other festivities." Her dowry of 150,000 scudi had been prospectively augmented by the sum of 5O5OOO livres tournois, settled upon her for her sole and separate use, by her mother, but not payable until after the Duchess Eenee's decease. Be- tween the bride and bridegroom there was unfortunately a great disparity in age, Lucrezia being by thirteen years and two months senior to her husband. The mar- riage, distasteful from the first to Francesco Maria, proved an unhappy one, and in 1573, the year before his accession to the ducal throne of Urbino, Lucrezia left him, to return to Ferrara, and to the elegant court of her brother, Alfonso Il.f We read that " she was chiefly distinguished there as the promoter and inspirer * Dennistoun's Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino. f Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 127, 128, 144, 145. u 3 294 MEMORIALS OF of literature and music/' and as " the especial patroness of Tasso."* In 157 7, Francesco Maria endeavoured to negotiate a reconciliation with Lucrezia, in order to her return to Urbino. He offered to her " the same establishment as had been enjoyed by his mother, besides Novilara and its dependencies, — in all about 6000 scudi a year." The attempt, however, failed, and the affair next year being submitted to the decision of the Cardinals Farnese, Sforza, and Este, it would ap- pear that an amicable separation was then determined on. At all events, the duchess returned no more to her husband's state."f Lucrezia interested herself in the establishment at San Matteo of an asylum for wives, who, like herself, were separated from their husbands by incompatibility of character.:}: She died on the nth of February, 1598. The youngest daughter of Eenee, Leonora d'Este^ will ever be remembered in connection with the genius and misfortunes of Torquato Tasso. She was infinitely beloved at Ferrara, and was regarded as so pure and holy a creature, that the deliverance of that city from an inundation was ascribed to her prayers." Her physical constitution, it is said, was " delicate," and her manners " quiet and retiring," hi^t she shared with her sister Lucrezia " the higher and*- stronger qualities of mind," insomuch that during the absence of her brother ♦ Ranke's History of the Popes, vol. ii. t Dennistoun's Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, p. 145. X Ibid., p. 147. BENEE OF FRANCE. Alfonso IL, in 1566^ on his Hungarian expedition, she administered the affairs of government to the complete satisfaction of the people.* She alone of the three daughters of Eenee appears to have been worthy of a parent at once so noble and so good. And now, let us attend that venerable parent to the departure of her spirit from " this troublesome world 1 " '^I would not live alway," was the exclamation of a suffering believer of old, and we can well imagine that there was a voice within the heart of Eenee saying the same words. Her health had long been infirm * ; and the anxieties of her position as the protectress of the oppressed ; the perplexities consequent on the state of her private affairs ; the personal exertions which they demanded of her, often in journeys during the winter season and in inclement weather ; the bitter sorrow with which one so excellent in every relation of life could not but have regarded the conduct of her family and kindred generally — all these causes doubtless aided in the wearing-out of the body, in the release of the spirit. The welcome hour was tolled at last. The turmoil of life ceased. The crimes she could not prevent, but could only deplore, — the cries of those * Ranke's History of th Popes, vol. ii. f In a letter to her secretary, Mallot, dated Paris, July 15, 1566, Renee alludes to her health as improving by exercise, and says, " I have no need of asses' milk." She adds, " But Maitre Francois de Plumiers has so strongly advised me to take it, that I would not have you give up looking out for some, and on my return I will advise with the said Maitre Francois about it." 296 MEMORIALS OF who had lain helpless, but for her loving ministry, — the groans of the miserable victims of war and super- stition, — the prolonged struggle in which the blood, the morals, the religion itself of France were being rapidly exhausted, — harassed her soul no longer. At Mont- argis, which her munificence had enriched with archi- tectural ornamentation, and where her charities had flowed so freely, — on the 12th of June, according to one authority*, — on the 2nd July, 1575, according to another f, Renee died, in the sixty-fifth year of her age. The Ambassador of the Duke of Ferrara notified this event to the Court of Parliament, whilst to the queen - mother the communication was made by the Duke of Nemours. The reply of Catherine is characteristic. It contains no expression of regret for the death of the illustrious princess, on whom, when living, she had abundantly lavished her hypocritical assurances of regard.J But the opportunity afforded foi: conciliating the Duke of Nemours, by the most gracious intimations of royal favour is, of course, not lost. " The Court of Ferrara," says Litta, " put on mourn- ing " for the Dowager Duchess, " but did not celebrate her obsequies. § Most unmeaning, indeed, would have been such a ceremonial. Eenee had died an unshriven * Biographic Universelle, art. Renee de France, f Litta. Famiglie Cclebri Italiane, Este. % MS. Recueil des Lettres de Catherine de' Medici, Bib. Eq. 967. § Famiglie Cclebri Italiane, &c. EENEE OF FRANCE, heretic/' and was beyond the reach of intercession^ such as the disciples of Eome invoke for the departed. Eenee was interred in the church belonging to the Castle of Montargis, where she breathed her last. 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