71*2 
FRANCE. 
fupreme direction of affairs, her haughty temper could ill 
brook the referve that for fome time the king had main¬ 
tained towards her. The pangs of difeafe were rendered 
more intolerable by the agitation of her mind. As her 
end approached, her eyes were opened to a juft fenfe of 
the infidious policy which (he had fo long and fo fatally 
purfued ; in her laft moments (he exhorted Henry to re¬ 
concile himfelf to the princes of his blood,, particularly 
to tiie king of Navarre, whofe ftncerity (lie had conftantly 
experienced ; and toreftore the tranquillity of France, by 
allowing the free exercife of the Proteftant religion. In 
her feventieth year, A.D. 1589, (lie funk into the grave, 
and efcaped the affliction of beholding the deftruCtion of 
her laft and favourite fon. Henry was foon convinced 
how neceffary it was to adopt the dying counfels of his 
mother. On the fate of the Guifes, the crowd that had 
attended the king to Blois haftily difperfed ; the multi¬ 
tude abhorred him, the majority of his nobles were com¬ 
bined againft him, his favourites, on whom he had profu- 
fedly lavifhed his treafures, deferted him, and the clergy., 
whom he had blindly reverenced, publicly reviled him. 
All zealous catholics were armedagainft him ; the citizens 
of his capital rejected his authority, and chofe the duke of 
Aumale as their governor; the doCtors of the Scrbonne 
openly abfolved his fubjeCts from their allegiance ; and 
the council of union, compofed of forty members, af- 
iuming a fovereign power, conftituted the duke of Ma- 
yenne, brother to the late duke of Guife, lieutenant-ge¬ 
neral of France. Rouen, and the greateft part of Nor¬ 
mandy, declared for the league ; Lyons, Thouloufe, Mar- 
feilles, Arles, and Toulon, with the provinces of Brit¬ 
tany and Auvergne, embraced the fame party ; the 
Spanifh ambalfador repaired to Paris, and nourifhed by 
liis gold the factious councils of the capital ; while pope 
Sixtus V. fulminated his thunders againft the affaflins of 
the duke of Guife, and involved the king in the fentence 
of excommunication. 
While Henry was contemplating the gloomy and dif- 
traCted profpeCt before him, a ray of hope broke in from 
the honourable and difinterefted attachment of the princes 
of the blood ; thefe haftened to devote to his fervice 
their lives and fortunes; and their generous example was 
followed by the dukes d’Epernon and Nevers, and the 
m ire filial Montmorency; a reconciliation took place be¬ 
tween the kings of France and Navarre; and the former, 
invefted in Tours by the duke of Mnyenne, alter defend¬ 
ing the fnburb&.with the fame gallantry as lie had dif- 
played in early life, was relieved by the latter, who prefled 
forwards to his afliftance, and difdained, w hen he joined 
the royal ftandard, to extort from the neceftities of the 
king any conditions for his own advantage. Large levies 
were diligently raifed in Swilferland and Germany; yet 
the mind of Henry, amidft the hope of returning fortune, 
feemed continually opprelfed by the fpiritual cenlures of 
the court of Rome ; and it required the utmoft addrefs 
of the king of Navarre to animate his drooping fpirits ; 
“Let us, fire, (laid that prince with his ufual vivacity,) 
march to Paris, and if we are victorious, we (hall be ea- 
fily abfolved.” The counfel was approved; their fupe- 
rior forces, joined by the Swifs and Germans, fwept the 
revolted towns in their progrefs; and (welled by (uccels 
to near forty thoufand men, on the laft ol July, 15S9, 
they invefted the capital of France. 
The duke of Mayenne, with four thoufand foldiers, 
endeavoured to fupport the courage and conftancy of the 
inhabitants; but Henry urged the liege with inceffant ar¬ 
dour; within the walls the royalifts were (till numerous ; 
and Paris mult foon have been reduced again to acknow¬ 
ledge the authority of Iter fovereign, had not the pu- 
nilhment which her feditious and turbulent citizens (o 
long provoked been averted by the dagger of aflTu Hi nation. 
James Clement, a jacobin friar, and native of Sens, of 
ftrong pallions but weak intellects, had eagerly liftened 
to the trealonable di.fcourfes which the popular preachers 
af tlte league daily dilTeniinated. A difpofition natu 
1 
rally gloomy and fanatical, was inflamed to defperaiiotr 
by thefe intemperate harangues ; and impelled by that fan. 
guinary fuperftition that ftrongly marked the tidies, he de¬ 
termined by one fatal ftroke to extinguilh the enemy of the 
pope, and of the catholic religion. With a paffport pro¬ 
cured under falfe pretences from the count de St. Brienne, 
one of the king's generals then a prifoner, and a letter 
forged from the prelident Harlay, who at that time was 
confined in the Baftile, lie fet out from Paris for St. Cloud, 
the royal quarters ; on the road lie met the attorney-ge¬ 
neral, and informing hint that he had fome important in¬ 
telligence to communicate to the king in perfon, he was 
entertained by that officer at his houfe, who alfo engaged 
to procure him an audience of Henry. The next morn¬ 
ing he was introduced to the king, to whom he prefented 
his letters ; and while Henry was attentively occupied iu 
the p'erufal of them, Clement fuddenly plunged a knife, 
that he had concealed in his fleeve, in tiie bowels of his 
unhappy fovereign. The wounded monarch inftantly 
drew it out, and twice ftruck with it the affafiin ; the at¬ 
torney-general, with a blow of his fword, extended him 
on the floor ; and two of the royal guards difpatched him. 
Henry at far ft had flattered himfelf that his wound was 
not mortal ; but frequent huntings foon convinced him 
of his approaching end, and he prepared to meet it with 
a compofure worthy of his high lituation. He fummoned 
to his prefence Henry king of Navarre, whom he tenderly 
embraced, and declared his lawful fucceffor; he exhorted 
the nobility to acknowledge and fupport their new fove¬ 
reign ; and expired the next morning, in the lixteenth 
year of his reign, and the thirty-ninth of his age. In him 
was finally extinguilhed the race of Valois; and his wi. 
dow Louifa de Vaudemont, of the family of Lorrain, 
after lamenting the untimely fate of her confort, whofe 
tendernefs (lie had invariably experienced, retired, amidft: 
the diltraCtions of her bleeding country, to linger through 
twelve years of blamelefs obfeurity. 
From the ACCESSION of the HOUSE of BOUR. 
BON, to the DEATH of LOUIS XIV. 
Henry IV. the firft monarch of the houfe of Bourbon, 
had completed his thirty-fifth year when hd afeended the 
throne of France, in 1589. He found himfelf at the head 
of a confiderable army ; but by far the greateft parr of 
his troops, as well as of his fubjeCts, confided of catho¬ 
lics; while he himfelf was the champion and defender 
of the proteftant caufe. His capital was in the hands of 
a faCtion formidable by their numbers, and daring in their 
defigns ; his coffers were empty ; and the molt fertile 
provinces of France acknowledged the authority of the 
league. 
The Swifs guards, with their colonel Sanci, firft faluted 
Henry as their fovereign ; the marelchal Biron allured 
him of his fidelity ; the principal catholics, Bellegarde, 
d’O, Chateauvieux, d’Emragues, and Dampierre, who 
had attached themfelves to the fortunes of the late king, 
declared themfelves in favour of the prefent ; but the 
duke d’Epernon, with the troops under his command, de¬ 
ferted the proteftant monarch, and firft communicated to 
the camp the contagious fpirit of difiiffebtion. 
The duke of Mayenne, who held the command in Paris, 
was, on this critical occalion, at leaft as much embarraffed 
as Henry; but in a lituation the moft delicate, he con¬ 
ducted himfelf with dignity and judgment, and juftified 
the favourable opinion which his party entertained of his 
abilities. He declined the dangerous title of king, which 
he was earneftly folicited to accept; he rejected a pro- 
pofal that was made to offer the crown to Philip of Spain ; 
but at the fame time he exhorted the people of France 
to live and die in the catholic religion, and as tlte king of 
Navarre was an heretic, to acknowledge as their love- 
reipn the cardinal of Bourbon. Tlte defertion of the 
duke d’Epernon was followed by that of the moft zealous 
catholics ; and Henry, lenlible of the diminution of his 
forces, retired from the walls of Paris, and directed his 
marcit 
