THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 131 



organised and the nucleus of a modern army formed. Expenditure on 

 buildings and festivities, the rapacity of courtiers and frequent wars 

 necessitated ever increased taxation, and the new burdens led to popular 

 risings. Unrestrained by humanistic leanings, Henry treated religious 

 and intellectual reformers with uniform severity, yet in spite of steady 

 and cruel repression the Huguenots increased and formed themselves 

 into an organised Church. As soon as Henry was removed from the 

 scene the evils of this policy became evident. The ferment caused by 

 intolerable taxation, extinction of local and popular rights, and suppres- 

 sion of religious liberty could not be allayed by the partisan rule of 

 faction-leaders or the opportunism of the queen-regent. When in July 

 1559 Henry was accidentally killed in a tournament, it was the signal for 

 the curtain to rise on a thirty years' drama of civil struggle. 



THE COURT AND ARCHITECTURE. If Henry II. had no such claim 

 as Francis to be the eponymous hero of a style and was devoid of 

 enthusiasm for art, he is entitled to the credit of continuing his father's 

 building operations. He retained Primaticcio's services, when to be 

 of the queen's nationality was almost a title to disgrace, and seems to 

 have shown interest in the work of Lescot and de 1'Orme, and perhaps 

 even suggested to du Cerceau the idea of his book, "Les Plus 

 Excellents Bastiments de France." It was of a piece with the selfish 

 aims of the governing classes at this period that while they spent large 

 sums on private palaces but scanty funds were spared for public works, 

 and it was not till the age of reorganisation under Henry IV. that any- 

 thing of importance under this head was done. All art was inevitably 

 tinctured by Italian influence, but Henry and Diana, Montmorency 

 and the du Bellays seem to have preferred French artists. Thus they 

 employed de FOrme and Bullant, while Serlio was dismissed. Catharine, 

 on the contrary, was faithful to Italian traditions, supported Primaticcio 

 throughout, promoted him on her accession to power, and when in 

 later years she employed a Frenchman to design her palace, it retained 

 many Italian features. 



CHARACTER OF PERIOD. Following upon a period of eager 

 enthusiasm, of breaking with old ideas and indiscriminate adoption of 

 new, the central years of the century were a time in which accumulated 

 materials were sifted, systematised and turned to account, and acquired 

 results consolidated. It was a time very critical for France, for in it 

 she chose and with some reservations it must be judged that she 

 chose wisely the path in which she was to tread during the coming 

 centuries. This was in some degree the case in all domains, but in 

 literature and language, sculpture, decorative art and architecture the 

 crisis was especially momentous, and the standards then fixed were 

 so broad and elastic that they sufficed with but comparatively slight 

 adjustment and amplification for the expression of French ideas for 



