594 



Memoirs of Htury the Great. 



In combining economy with magni- 

 ficence, notwithstanding unfortunate 

 wars, he knew how to protect arts and 

 letters, and to liquidate the debts of the 

 state. He uiiittd amiubie qualities 

 with endearing virtues. Other monarchs 

 had regulated etiquette, Francis did 

 more: — his courtesy, his grace, and his 

 refined taste, regulated the tone and the 

 manners which a king of France ought 

 to possess in order to please his subjects, 

 his courtiers, and his mistresses, to gain 

 the hearts of his soldiers, to captivate 

 men of letters, and all those connected 

 with the arts. He was the first who 

 ascertained that Frenchmen can pardon 

 every thing in a sovereign, provided he 

 is neither vindictive nor ferocious; and 

 that he cannot be reproached with a 

 vulgarity of conduct and duplicity. 

 Francis the Fiist, several years prior to 

 his death, atoned for the faults of his 

 youth, by restoring peace to his 

 subjects, and re-establishing order in 

 his finances; independent of the sum 

 arising from the revenues of the current 

 year, he left four millions in his treasury, 

 which was at tiial period a very con- 

 siderable sum. His son, Henry the 

 Second, succeeded, when that monarch 

 recalled the constable Montmorency, 

 who had been banished from the court 

 during the preceding reign. In 1551 

 the war again broke out in consequence 

 of the League for'ued between Henry 

 and the electors of Saxony and JJran- 

 tlenburgh, under the pretext of rlelend- 

 ing the freedtmi of Germany, and 

 uifording succour to the piinces who 

 were oppressed by the emperor. This 

 «lisastrous war was fomented by the 

 advice of two anibitious rivals, the 

 Duke of Guise and the Constable 

 Montmorency, eai h endeavouring to 

 supplant the other in the midst of these 

 dissensions. Henry took possession of 

 the imperial cilit s of Metz. Toul, and 

 Verdun, wh<n a female prevented him 

 from extending his conquests: Mary of 

 Austria, sister of Charles the Fifth, who 

 then governed the Low Countries, 

 »aiscd troops, and proc cded to ravage 

 the province of Ficardy. Henry was 

 compelled to fly and succour his 

 frontiers ; after which, animated by 

 that spirit of vengeance denominated 

 a just reprisal, whereby thousands of 

 innocent victims are sacrificed, that 

 prince proceeded to Flanders, when 

 ♦ he whole country became one scene 

 of fire and slaughter. 



CATHERINE UE MEDrciS. 



The demise of Henry, and the youth- 



ful age of his successor, Francis Ih* 

 Second, who had only attained his six- 

 teenth year, produced great changes in 

 the court. 'I'he applicants for places 

 in the administration of public afi'airs 

 were numerous ; the queen mother, 

 Catherine de Medicis, aspired to assume 

 the greatest control ; but the duke of 

 Guise, and his brother the cardinal of 

 Lorraine, unqles of Mary Stuart, the 

 young regent queen, having acquired 

 the reins of government, Catherine, 

 finding it impossible to dispossess or 

 exclude them, apparently coalesced 

 with their measures. The duchess of 

 'Valentinois was exiled from court, and 

 the constable Montmorency confined 

 to his castle of Chantilly. 



" Catherine de Medicis," says M. 

 Anquetil, author of the Spirit of the 

 League, " should neither be judged by 

 the libels that have appeared, converting 

 her into a monster, nor the tulsome 

 panegyrics that have attributed to her 

 every viitue. She was liandsome, of 

 noble stature, majestic, and engaging : 

 she loved all the fine arts, and was their 

 protectress." But, it she was not the 

 secret cause of the execrable massacre 

 of Saint Bartholomew, it is at least a 

 known fact that she might have pre- 

 vented thiit atrocious catastrophe: fioni 

 this act she may be judged ; and that 

 one deed is far moie vililying to her 

 memory than all the calumny which 

 libellers have heaped uptjn her. — 

 Catherine preserved this horrid secret; 

 she presided at the execution of the 

 sanguinary plot; she procured the aji- 

 proval of the king her son! To dwtll 

 upon such an event is to depict her 

 amply ; and the endeavour to penetrate 

 into the dark recesses ot so biaik a soul,, 

 would only tend to degrade the art of 

 searching into the human character. 



BIRTH OF HENRY. 



Henry d'Albret, grandfather of Henry 

 the Fourth, who was still living, having 

 learned the pregnancy of his uaughler, 

 tiesiied that she might be immedialeiy 

 removed to Navarre, in order to be near 

 him at the time of her lying-in, wishing 

 to superintend the first moments of the 

 child's birth, who, he stated, as by a se- 

 cret presentiment, would, ;in process of 

 time,,avenge the injuries he bad .sustained 

 from the Spaniards. 



This courageous princess, therefore, 

 taking leave of her husband, led 

 Compeigne on the 15th of November, 

 1553; and having traversed France a.s 

 far as the Pyrennces, arrived at 

 Pau in Beam, the residence ot hen 



roval^^ 



