189 



CHARLES IX. 



CHARLKS IX. 



ro 



submit; and after this success the king marched into Pieardie to 

 oppose Maximilian. The following year the war continued on the side 

 of Picardie, and the king ordered the invasion of Bretagne by a con 

 sidorable force. The invasion was renewed in 1488, when the French 

 commander, Louis de la Tre'moille, or Tremouille, one of the firsi 

 generals of his day, gained a complete victory over the troops 01 

 BretagHe, and of the insurgent lords and their allies at St. Aubin de 

 Cormier. The Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Orange, and other per- 

 sons of note were taken ; and La Tre'mouille executed without delay 

 such of his prisoners as were of rank, except the duke and prince, 

 who were kept in close imprisonment. The submission of the Duke 

 of Bretagne, which resulted from the defeat of his troops at St. Aubin 

 de Cormier, was speedily followed by his death; and the hand of Anne, 

 his daughter and heiress, was eagerly sought by several suitors. 0) 

 these, Maximilian, king of the Romans, obtained the preference, and a 

 marriage by proxy took place, probably in 1590; but before the arrival 

 of Maximilian, who delayed above a year, the match was broken off, 

 and the young duchess was united in a firmer union to the King oi 

 France. This marriage was preceded by an unexpected revolution at 

 the court of France : Charles, now in his twenty-first year, freed him- 

 fielf from the guardianship of his sister, released the Duke of Orleans, 

 mid broke off his engagement with a daughter of Maximilian, to 

 whom he had been betrothed, and who had been sent for her edu- 

 cation to the court of France. These events led to a war with Maxi- 

 milian, who was supported by Henry VII. of England, and by 

 Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain ; but the French averted the hostility 

 of Henry, who had commenced the siege of Boulogne, by a payment 

 of money, and of Ferdinand by the cession of Roussillon and Cerdague. 

 Maximilian also agreed to terms ; the counties of Bourgogne (Franche 

 G'omtf) and Charolois were ceded to him ; and the treaty of Senlis 

 (1493), by delivering Charles from the pressure of hostilities at home, 

 enabled him to torn his thoughts to the prospect opening to his 

 ambition at the extremity of Italy. 



The house of Anjou, a younger branch of the royal family of France, 

 had claimed and contested the crown of Naples with a branch of the 

 royal house of Aragon, which latter had obtained possession. The 

 right of the house of Anjou had been purchased by Louis XI. and 

 transmitted to Charles VI II. ; and this prince, instigated by Ludovico 

 Sforza, sumamed Le More (usurper of the government of Milan under 

 the guise of being regent for his imbecile nephew, Giovanni Qaleazzo), 

 determined to support his claim to the kingdom of Naples by force of 

 arms. In 1494 he set out for Italy, at the head of an army of 3600 men- 

 at-arms, 20,000 native infantry, 8000 Swiss mercenaries, and a formid- 

 able train of artillery. In bis advance he experienced little resistance, 

 and, in despite of the advice of his moat sagacious counsellors, who 

 recommended him to make himself master of the Milanese and of 

 Genoa, he pushed on towards Naples. Excepting Sforza, none of the 

 Italian potentates seem to have supported him : 1'ietro de' Medici, who 

 governed Florence, opposed him, as also Pope Alexander VI. Charles 

 however entered Florence and Rome, where he made a treaty with the 

 pope, and early in 1495 he set out from Rome for Naples. He entered 

 this city also without a struggle, the King of Naples having quitted it 

 three days before his arrival. At his entry he wore the insignia of the 

 Eastern Empire, having purchased the rights of Andrew Paleeologus, 

 nephew of the last of the eastern emperors, Constantine Pulaeologus ; 

 for his ambitious views extended from the possession of Naples to that 

 of Constantinople, and from that again to the redemption of the Holy 

 Sepulchre. 



While Charles was staying at Naples a league was formed between 

 the pope, the emperor, Ferdinand of Spam, the republic of Venice, 

 and the treacherous Sforza, to intercept him on bis return. The Nea- 

 politans, who had at first welcomed the French, began to grow 

 disgusted with them, especially the nobles, who saw themselves 

 excluded from the great offices of state. Charles determined to 

 return with his army, which, after deducting the force left at Naples, 

 was reduced to about 9000 men. The confederates awaited him with 

 a far superior force (approaching 40,000 men), near Fornovo, not far 

 from the foot of the Apennines, about ten miles from Piacenza. The 

 French were victorious; but the victory obtained for them little more 

 than a secure retreat, and the deliverance of the Duke of Orleans, who 

 Was besieged in Novara. Naples was recovered by the great captain 

 Gonsalvo of Cordova, a Spanish general, who forced the French under 

 the Duke of Montpensier to an accommodation, and enabled the King 

 of Naples to re-enter his capital three months after he was driven from 

 it. Charles meditated a second expedition into Italy, and the Duke of 

 Orldans, who had claims on the Milanese, was appointed to the com- 

 mand ; but the duke was not anxious to be distant from the court, 

 and the influence of the party opposed to the expedition, and the want 

 of money, retarded the preparations, and the affair was not pressed 

 with any activity. Charles had three sons by his queen, Anne of Bre- 

 tagne, but all had died; and Orleans was still next heir to the 

 throne, the prospect of ascending which was brought nearer by the 

 declining health of the king. The short remainder of Charles's reign 

 was occupied in attention to the internal government of the country, 

 in which some useful reforms were commenced. Ho died in 1498, of 

 the effects of a blow on the head, received while passing through a 

 door-way which was not high enough. 

 CHAKLES IX. was the second son of Henri II., and succeeded to 



the throne on the death of his elder brother Francis II. in 1560, being 

 then in bis eleventh year. The government during his minority was 

 administered by his mother Catherine de' Medici, while Anthony of 

 Bourbon, king of Navarre, had the title of lieutenant-general of the 

 kingdom. The release of the Prince of Condi?, brother of the King of 

 Navarre, who had been imprisoned duriug the preceding reign, was 

 one of the first acts of the new government: the prince had been 

 looked up to as the leader of the Reformed or Huguenot party, to 

 which the King of Navarre now also joined himself. Alarmed at the 

 growing strength of the Calviuists, the Constable Moutmorenci and 

 the Duke of Guise, previously rivals and enemies, were reconciled, and 

 formed, with the Marshal St. Andre", a union to which the Huguenots 

 gave the name of the Triumvirate. Thus early in the king's reign 

 did the parties seek to strengthen themselves, whose animosity and 

 struggles deluged France with blood. A project suggested by the 

 King of Navarre for the resumption by the crown of all the grants 

 of the last two reigns, in which the members of the triumvirate had 

 largely shared, had probably considerable influence in the formation 

 of this union. 



An edict prohibiting the public preaching of the reformed religion 

 on pain of exile having been issued in 1561, the Huguenots refused 

 obedience, and took up arms in defence of their liberty. Their chiefs 

 demanded a public conference with the Catholics ; and the demand 

 led to the celebrated ' colloquy of Poissy," in which Theodore Beza 

 defended the cause of the reformed, and the Cardinal of Lorraine that 

 of the Catholic church, before the king, the princes of the blood, 

 and a number of nobles and dignified ecclesiastics. The disputants 

 remained, as might be supposed, unconverted ; but the conference 

 served the King of Navarre as a pretext for abandoning the party of 

 the reformed, and reconciling himself with the Guises. A promise 

 of the restoration of Navarre proper, which had been conquered by 

 Spain, was probably the lure that drew him over. But it was not by 

 words that the differences of the parties were to be decided : dis- 

 turbances arose in the provinces; and the Queen Mother, jealous of 

 the union of Navarre with the Guises, by which her own influence 

 was diminished, sought to win the support of the Huguenots, by 

 procuring an edict to be issued allowing them the exercise of their 

 religion out of the towns. The peace thus established was of short 

 continuance ; a quarrel between some domestics of the Duke of Guise, 

 and a congregation of Protestants at Vassy in Champagne, led to the 

 massacre of the latter, and became the signal for hostility. The 

 Proteatants possessed the predominance in the south and west of 

 France ; they held Orleans, Blois, Tours, Angers, La Rochelle, Poitiers, 

 Rouen, Havre-de-Grace, and Dieppe ; and they were supported by 

 Elizabeth of England, and the Protestants of Germany. The Catholics 

 had for them the king and the court, the regular army, the capital, 

 the provinces of the north and east, the talent of the Guises, aud the 

 support of Philip II. of Spain. The first important event was the 

 siege nnd capture of Rouen in 1562 by the Catholics, who lost their 

 general, the king of Navarre, mortally wounded during the siege. 

 The Prince of Conde", and the Admiral Coligni, with the Protestant 

 army, threatened the capital ; but being obliged to withdraw, were 

 overtaken at Dreux, where they were defeated, and the prince was 

 made prisoner. The Protestants bad however early in the action 

 captured the Constable Moutmorenci, commander of the Catholics, 

 and the constable and the prince were soon after exchanged. The 

 Marshal St. Andre, another member of the triumvirate, fell in this 

 battle. 



The following year (1563) was marked by the siege of Orleans, and 

 the assassination of the Duke of Guiso, commander of the besieging 

 army, by Poltrot, a Protestant. The removal of the duko probably 

 prepared the way for peace, which was concluded not long after his 

 death. Havre, which had been placed by the Huguenots in the 

 bands of the English, was taken from them in July of this yenr by 

 a French army under the Constable : and peace with England was 

 subsequently made. In 1564 the king by an edict revoked some of 

 the advantages which had been conceded to the Huguenots at tho 

 peace concluded the foregoing year, and disgusted the Prince of Cond(5, 

 by refusing to fulfil a promise that he should be made lieutenant- 

 general of the kingdom in the place of his late brother, the King of 

 Navarre. The court, strong in the support of an army, which had 

 been raised to guard the frontier from any violation consequent upon 

 the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain, excited the jealousy of 

 the Protestant leaders; aud Conde" and Coligni attempted, in 15(57, to 

 carry off the king. This led to the second religious war, in which 

 Catherine de' Medici was decidedly hostile to the Huguenots, whom 

 previously she had been inclined to favour. 



The battle of St Denis, in which the Constable Montmorenci was 

 tilled (1567), led to no decisive result. Peace was made in 1568, but 

 it was soon after broken : neither party had confidence in the other ; 

 and the king issued a decree declaring that he would have only one 

 religion in France, and ordering all the ministers of the reformed 

 mrty to leave the kingdom. The battle of Jarnac in Angoumois was 

 fought in 1569, and the Protestants lost both the victory and their 

 leader the Prince of Condd, who was taken and shot in cold blood after 

 ;he battle by Montesquieu, captain of the Guards to the king's brother, 

 ihe Duke of Anjou, who commanded the Catholic army. Henri of 

 3ourbon, prince of B^arn, afterwards Henri IV. was now recognised 



