The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
De Thou Studies
Part III
De Thou and the Lorraines-Guises
Henry III's return to France offers the occasion for de Thou to make a general assessment of the political affinities at the highest level of the government, the Conseil. De Thou says that in the factionalist atmosphere in which Henry was raised, "il s'étoit laissé prévenir en faveur des Guises. Erreur excusable dans un temps, où on s'imaginoit (1) qu'il ne s'agissoit de rien moins que des intérêts de la religion...." (2) The association of the Guises with the defense of the Catholic religion had been firmly established. As staunch defenders of Roman Catholicism, the Guises placed themselves in a favorable light.
De Thou narrates Catherine's moves to maintain control over the government of her "fils bien-aimé," her favorite. Bellegarde and Pibrac were purported to seek drastic changes in the government, and to make peace; but through Cheverny, the king was asked by his mother to make no decisions until he was back in Paris.
The cardinal de Lorraine caught cold (or inhaled poisoned smoke from a torch during a penitential procession) and died. De Thou's portrait is not a eulogy, it is an assessment grounded on personal qualitites and weaknesses:
C'étoit un homme qui possédoit de grandes qualités d'esprit et de corps; mais que son inconstance naturelle et une ambition démesurée rendirent fatal au Royaume, et même à toute sa famille. On ne fit jamais de caractére plus bizarre; ferme dans l'adversité, il étoit d'une fierté insupportable lorsque la fortune favorisoit ses desseins; c'est ce qui lui reprocha plusieurs fois son frère François duc de Guise, qui par sa valeur porta si haut dans les commencements la gloire de la France et celle de sa maison, et que le malheur des tems où il vécut, empêcha seul de la pousser encore plus loin. ...
Destiné à l'état Ecclésiastique, il s'appliqua d'abord pendant sa jeunesse à l'étude, et fit de grands progrès dans les sciences; ensuite il se donna tout entier aux affaires, il y acquit bientôt une habileté beaucoup au dessus de son âge; naturellement éloquent, il avoit outre cela un air et un geste qui donnoient à ses discours une grace et une majesté infinies. Du reste il étoit inquiet, brouillon, incapable de se fixer, jamais content du present, toûjours soûpirant après un avenir incertain, roulant toûjours de nouveaux desseins. Dans les commencemens, soit pour se donner un air de dévotion, soit pour entretenir l'esprit de parti dans le Royaume, il se déclara pour la réforme, et parut assez porté pour la confession d'Ausbourg; il la proposa au colloque de Poissi, et fit même espérer au duc Christophle de Wirtemberg, de l'appupyer en France. Mais ensuite l'ouverture du concile de Trente et le feu de la guerre civile allumé par tout le Royaume, lui firent changer de systéme. Ennemi mortel des Protestans, depuis son retour du Concile et la mort de son frére, il se déclara le protecteur du Clergé à qui il devint lui-même à charge; car on le taxa d'avoir conseillé l'aliénation du patrimoine de l'Eglise pour fournir aux frais de la guerre, et pour faire sa cour à la Reine. (3)
The differences in the colors of the habits of the various confraternities is noted, and as "des esprits ambitieux prirent l'occasion d'exciter les brouilleries dans l'Etat, la superstition fit tomber la majesté du trône même dans le mépris." (4)
The account of the Estates of Blois follows upon this description of the confraternities. The general League program is summarized, as is Bodin's. The "hommes subornés par les factieux" oppose Bodin. As a result of Lorraine pressure on established préséances, there is an arrêt defining the princes du sang. The king begins to redouter the Guises, whose challenge to the Montpensiers at the coronation had become a test of the royal authority. The duc de Guise came to the Estates only for the closing ceremonies. His position in favor of war coincides with the king's desire to eliminate the Protestants; but Montpensier's (and Bodin's) party is not really defeated in what remains an indecisive final result of both the Estates and the meeting of the enlarged Conseil that followed, despite a superficial decision or attitude in favor of la douceur. There would be war. De Thou notes Guise's role as an always theatrical commander, but he does not provide an overall account of Lorraine actions in the battles in the western provinces.
In 1578 the next cardinal de Guise died, prompting a portrait by de Thou that contrasts with the portrait of his brother and fellow cardinal, who had died four years earlier.
Cette même année, mourut en France le dix-neuf de Mars Louis de Lorraine cardinal de Guise, frére du cardinal de Lorraine décédé quatre ans auparavant. Ce Cardinal se montra un des plus zélés et des plus déclarés défenseurs de la Ligue naissante, dont le génie vaste de son frére avoit enfanté le projet. ... C'étoit au reste un homme haut, et qui n'avoit de ménagement pour personne, aussi débauché, et aimant autant la table que son frére avoit été sobre et appliqué aux affaires; aussi mourut-il pour avoir mangé avec excès. Son corps fut porté à Joinville, où on le mit dans le tombeau de ses ancêtres; et sa mort renouvella les regrets d'Antoinette de Bourbon, qui contre l'ordre de la nature, avoit la douleur de se voir survivre à tous ses enfans. (5)
As the principal homme and commander of the royal troops in Poitou, the duc de la Trémouïlle had also become a fervent ligueur before his death in 1578. A similar situation prevailed in Picardy under d'Humières. In Burgundy the governor, the duc de Mayenne (also of the House of Lorraine), granted exemption regarding the payments required by fiscal edicts. This prompts de Thou to write:
Par là ils s'attachoient les peuples de cette province, en faisant paroître tant de zéle pour leurs intérêts; ils se faisoient un mérite auprès de Henri en appaisant cette émotion: enfin ils se rendoient les médiateurs entre les uns et les autres, et sembloient déja tenir la balance entre le Prince et ses sujets. (6)
Duc François de Montmorency's death (1579) prompts not only a eulogy from de Thou but also a brief account of his confrontation with the Lorraines-Guises: "L'ancienne inimité qui régnoit entre sa maison et celle des princes Lorrains, et qui jointe au danger où la Religion se trouvoit alors, donna, dit-on, naissance à nos guerres civiles ...." (7) The "dit-on" is of considerable significance at this point, since this interpretation is not so much rejected outright by Thou as subject to doubt.
De Thou notes the Guises' deep resentment at Montmorency's insistence that they, and their suite of hundreds, not enter Paris because they were armed. Their personal reconciliation and Guise's attendance on the dying Maréchal is described as an "attachement vraiment sincére." (8) While Guise is constantly depicted as ambitious and tyrannical, he was not without humane and socially correct actions. In the eulogy, however, de Thou's parallel is more explicit: Montmorency "méprisa la haine, et la faveur du peuple, qui n'est guère recherchée que par les factieux." (9) Here was Guise, though his name was not mentioned.
For de Thou, the Guises' constant support for more military action did not result from their opposition to heresy but from their desire and need for money. A campaign would help settle creditors:
Le Roi avoit extrémement aimé les princes Lorrains dans son enfance; et comme ils s'étoient fort attachés à lui pendant la vie de Charle IX son frére, il s'étoit toûjours déclaré pour eux contre les Monmorancies; mais il changea dès qu'il fut Roi, car il vouloit la paix, et il voyoit que ces Princes doüés de qualités nécessaires pour commander, mais qui n'avoient pas reçu de la fortune de quoi les employer, cherchoient de tous côtés des matiéres de guerre, pour avoir occasion d'exercer leurs talens. Ainsi prévoyant que s'ils étoient maîtres de Strasbourg, l'une des meilleurs places d'Allemagne, ils étaleroient leur puissance au Pape et au Roy d'Espagne, avec lesquels ils avoient de grandes liaisons sous le prétexte de la Religion; qu'ils y léveroient l'étendart de la révolte et donneroient le signal aux peuples crédules de France pour prendre les armes contre leur Roi. (10)
Naming names may often be an art of unrecognized courage on the part of a historian. De Thou does just that about the conjuration of 1582 whose aim was "de mettre le Roi en prison; de pousser à bout le duc d'Anjou; d'exterminer la famille Royale; et de mettre le royaume de France entre les mains du roi d'Espagne ...." (11) The conjurés -- creatures of the Guises, thirty in all -- were from the North, the West, and the Center, and they included the de la Châtre, which must have pained de Thou because he would marry into that family. De Thou names names.
He stresses the rise of the preachers to a feverish, pro-Guise pitch, also in 1582. The preachers, he says, were inciting people to "lever pour ainsi dire l'étendart de la révolte." The queen mother did not like the king of Navarre and therefore favored the Guises; her daughter, Claude de Valois, likewise favored them. Catherine told her royal son, Henry, that the preachers had done the same thing when she was regent for Charles IX, and that it would not amount to anything.
Who was François de Rosières (de Thou writes "Roziere")? His name does not appear in many dictionaries, but Moréri! He was the archdeacon of Toul, and he published a fat volume on the genealogy of the House of Lorraine, sponsored, of course, by the Lorraines. De Thou does not mention that, of course. Rosières shows the Lorraines as descending from Charlemagne! (12) And he diminished the royal prerogatives. The king ordered him questioned and brought to Paris, where he was confined in the Bastille. The duc de Lorraine came to Paris to assure that, in deciding what to do with Rosières, none of the Lorraines' rights would be challenged. (13)
What interested de Thou most was the meeting of the Conseil du roi attended by the Lorraines-Guises, the president of the Parlement, and other princes. Rosières knelt to admit that he had inserted things "contre la vérité de l'histoire," and begged for clemency. Cheverny (de Thou's brother-in-law) declared Rosières guilty of lèse-majesté, a capital crime; but in deference to the duc de Lorraine, Henry III pardoned him and turned him over to Lorraine. The parlementaires ordered the book to be lacéré in the author's presence. The whole affair constituted a humiliating experience for the Lorraines-Guises, which is at least partly why de Thou devoted so much space to it.
Pamphleteers had circulated the notion that the Lorraines could succeed to the French crown. The king, says de Thou, had commissioned a history from Pons Thiard de Bissy that would straighten out matters. Thiard shows the Carolingians dying out after the death of Othon's son in 1005, the childless duke of Lorraine. Thiard then narrates imperial decisions affecting Lorraine, but de Thou is less interested in this trajectory than in the inadequacies of Henry III's actions to defend the rights of his crown:
La postérité jugera par ce qui arriva depuis, si une pareille ressource étoit digne d'un grand Roi, et de son Conseil, et si un tel reméde étoit bien propre à guérir un si grand mal. Lorsque'on veut approfondir la cause des incertitudes du Roi, et de sa nonchalance à venger le mépris q'on faisoit de sa dignité, on est forcé de dire que ce Prince se laissoit gouverner par ses Favoris, qu'il entroit dans toutes leurs passions, et qu'il changeoit de conduite et de maximes au gré de ceux qui avoient le plus de crédit à sa Cour. (14)
In recounting the role played by the current favorites, Joyeuse and Nogaret (Épernon) -- one of whom was pro-Guise, while the other was for Henry of Navarre -- for the year 1583 de Thou introduces his general interpretation of the wars that would follow:
Le Prince n'ayant point d'enfant, chacun se tournoit dès lors vers l'héritier de la couronne; et les plus raisonnables, quelque éloignés qu'ils fussent des Protestans sur la religion, se réünissoient avec eux pour s'attacher au Prince légitime, et favorisoient le roi de Navarre. Ceux qui désiroient du changement dans l'Etat, ou qui réduits à l'indigence ne demandoient qu'à exciter des troubles afin d'en profiter, se déclaroient pour les Guises, et cette faction paroissoit beaucoup plus puissante que l'autre, parce que la populace, et les villes lui étoient attachées à cause de la religion, qui servoit pour ainsi dire de manteau aux Guises pour couvrir leur manége.
Au milieu de ces factions, le Prince malheureux étoit dans des allarmes continuelles, et ne sçavoit à quoi se tenir. D'un côté l'ambition des Guises lui donnoit de l'ombrage; de l'autre la religion du roi de Navarre lui étoit odieuse: il étoit outre cela fort embarrassé à garder l'égalité entre Joyeuse et Nogaret, non-seulement par rapport à leur fortune, mais encore par rapport à leurs liaisons, et aux partis qu'ils embrassoient. L'esprit remuant de sa mére lui donnoit encore beaucoup d'affaires. Cette femme au désespoir de voir son crédit déchû par celui que les favoris prenoient tout à tour sur l'esprit de son fils, mettoit tout en oeuvre pour retrouver dans les troubles de l'Etat, ce que la paix lui avoit fait perdre de sa puisisance. Voilà le motif du penchant qu'elle avoit pour le duc de Guise, parce qu'elle espéroit que la guerre civile que ce Duc méditoit, la rendroit arbitre entre son fils et lui, et que les deux partis s'en rapportant à son jugement, elle seroit maîtresse du Royaume. C'étoit dans cette vûë qu'elle justifioit toûjours les soupçons que l'on avoit des desseins des Guises; qu'elle appaisoit la juste colére du Roi; et qu'elle rendoit inutiles tous les projets, que les plus fidéles serviteurs de son fils arrêtoient dans le conseil pour renverser les desseins des factieux. (15)
So Guise meditated a civil war, the queen supported him, and both acted from base motives, according to de Thou.
Disputes over préséances have become quite difficult for historians living in an egalitarian society. Nowadays, women encourage men to go through a door before them; a man who stands up when a woman enters the room sometimes feels awkward. (Viewers of Downton Abbey seem little influenced by the manners of the aristocracy.) When the cardinal de Guise challenged the cardinal de Bourbon in 1583 over préséance, de Thou took it as just one more sign of the ambition that the Lorraines-Guises manifested up and down the social and courtly hierarchies. (16) The cardinal de Guise was put in his place, literally. At the same time, the king broke hierarchies in order to promote his favorites -- witness the marriage between Joyeuse and Marguerite de Lorraine, the sister of the reigning queen. (17) The crown, source and defender of ranks, could also legitimately break them, whereas a subject, even a Guise, only did so with disapproval.
When the duc de Montpensier married Catherine de Lorraine, François de Guise's daughter, "toute la maison de Guise vint s'offrir à lui," that is, to Montpensier. Princes of the blood and other grands seigneurs did the same. (18) The order and structure of clientage sometimes did not square with either factions or hierarchies of titles, but the ambitious calculated each marriage (and dowry) for its effects on all four.
It was in 1585, asserts de Thou, that the conspirators, plotters and brigands began to raise their heads and justify their actions, largely under papal authority. (19) He makes excuses to his readers for recounting all the "peu agréable" subjects that took during this "siècle corrompu." The only relief for readers will be the narrative of the valiant Monarch who has recovered from vices, with the help of Providence. After these lofty introductory remarks, de Thou turns once again to characterizing Henri duc de Guise and his uncle, the cardinal de Lorraine, who had secret projects. In an atmosphere of esprit de parti, Guise sought an occasion to plunge the realm into new troubles.
Though de Thou begins his account of the League in 1585, immediately after presenting the Guises, he turns back to the what is known as the "League of Péronne" of 1576. Stuart Carroll notes that some of the articles in the Manifeste drawn up in that Picard city, prefigure those of the later League, of the 1580s. (20) And though strongly Catholic, the Manifeste did not go so far as to call for the Extermination of Protestants. Indeed, Péronne would seem to have been more about the recovery of an "ancient" constitution than about religious issues. Does de Thou's emphasis on Péronne stem from his emphasis on the importance of the political over the religious?
De Thou then asserts that it had been Guise who was the "author of the union" that d'Humières had put together in Picardy. Carroll is dubious, because de Thou's assertion is based on hearsay -- non-contemporaneous reports and Huguenot propaganda. (21) It is possible that de Thou began to see Guise's hand and thought everywhere, confirming what would be a concetto of the tyrant, a portrait with layers of nuances. Guise had sought Henry of Navarre to be the visible chef de parti behind him, but then had to abandon this plan when Navarre fled the court and declared himself a Protestant! (22)
Among the major brush strokes in de Thou's portrait of Guise is his assertion that not even Guise's brothers or uncles knew his plans. The young cardinal de Guise had the ability to comprehend "les plus vastes desseins," but he was so preoccupied by pleasure that Henri de Guise concealed his plans. Also, there was the danger that the cardinal might take a mistress. (23) A niece had married the duc de Mercoeur, the reigning queen's brother and governor of Brittany, "un homme caché et naturellement attaché à son sens" and his own interests. Mercoeur's wife hoped to inherit the duchy of Penthièvre. For de Thou, Mercoeur could not be strongly attached to the Henry-III parti.
After the family, de Thou turned to describe Guise's relation with the realm:
Pour ce qui est des différens ordres de l'Etat, le Duc, pour les mettre dans ses intérêts, coloroit tous ses desseins du spécieux prétexte de la Religion; et faisoit entendre sous main, qu'elle étoit en danger sous le gouvernement d'un Prince qui n'écoûtoit que de mauvais conseils, et négligeaoit d'en prendre la défense. Du reste il entretenoit des émissaires dans toutes les villes et les places du Royaume. C'étoient tous des gens ruinés, ou des scélerats, qui ne pouvoient espérer que d'une guerre civile, ou une ressource à leur misére, ou l'impunité des crimes dont ils étoient chargés. Il se tenoit sur-tout à Paris des assemblées fréquentes du parti. C'étoit par là que le Duc vouloit que commençât la révolte, persuadé que les autres ville suivroient infailliblement l'exemple de la capitale. Dans cette vûë il avoit à ses gages grand nombre de Prédicateurs, qu'il entretenoit aux depens de l'argent qu'il recevoit de la cour d'Espagne. Ces gens vendus à la Ligue, au lieu de prêcher au peuple la parole de Dieu, ne travailloient qu'à le soulever, et jettant la défiance dans l'esprit de cette populace insensée, et la remplissant de terreurs paniques. Tantôt ils se contentoient de taxer obliquement le Prince d'une sécurité, et d'une négligence inexcusables. Quelquefois ils s'emportoient jusqu'à déchirer ouvertement sa conduite. En même-tems ils donnoient les plus beaux éloges aux princes Lorrains, qu'ils appelloient les défenseurs de la Religion; et il n'y avoit point de fables grossiéres qu'ils n'imaginassent pour les rendre chers à la multitude. (24)
And the Guises did not lack authors, the most zealous being Louis d'Orléans, avocat au Parlement. His "long et ennuyeux discours" -- it warned the French of heretics and of the danger of going the way of the English, where Catholics were persecuted -- was like a "tocsin général." But since this "écrit étoit fort dangereux, et très propre à exciter le peuple à la sédition," several wrote refutations of it, including Denis Bouthillier.
Family members could be counted on, because they were family, even if they did not know why; clients of dubious morals and financial status, preachers, pamphlets and engravings all come into place in favor of a sedition. (25)
What could Guise do to win over la noblesse? Most of them naturally supported the king; but some became ligueurs because they were fleeing royal justice, while others had not paid their creditors. From de Thou's point of view, it seems that nobody joined the League for religious reasons! (26)
De Thou's personal testimonial about his encounter with King Henry III in 1585 is revealing about the latter's conduct in joining the League, and his sense that Guise lacked plans but went his seditious ways according to Fortune. Henry III also seems to have been genuinely concerned about the pope's attitude toward the League:
Pour moi je me souviens que quatre ans aprés, le Roi m'ayant donné ordre de me rendre auprès de ce Duc [Nevers] pour quelques affaires, il me dit à ce sujet, que comme personne n'avoit jamais eu plus de zéle que lui pour la Religion, s'il n'avoit pas été l'auteur de l'Union, du moins c'étoit à lui qu'elle étoit redevable d'avoir mis quelque arrangement dans ses desseins; parce que le duc de Guise, qui en étoit l'arcboutant, avoit un génie trop vaste, qui ne lui permettoit pas de suivre de vûë un certain ordre; qu'il ne cherchoit qu'à établir son autorité par le trouble,et qu'il ne prenoit que la fortune pour guide dans les projets séditieux qu'il formoit: Que pour lui, il avoit travaillé à diriger tous les projets de la Ligue sur la foi de tous les Théologiens, qui étoient à la suite du cardinal de Bourbon, qui assûroient que la guerre qu'on entreprenoit étoit juste; et qu'elle seroit autorisée par S[a] S[ainteté]. Qu'enfin lorsqu'il avoit cru avoir mis le parti en état de se déclarer avec succès, il avoit démandé qu'on levât ses difficultés, et qu'on satisfît à ses doutes: Que le principal émissaire de la Ligue avoit été un certain pere Matthieu Jésuite, qui n'étant pas moins agile et leger de corps que d'esprit, se faisoit un jeu d'entreprendre en poste le voyage de Rome: Que ce Pere lui avoit confirmé, ce qui déja lui avoit été dit, que non seulement le Pape approvoit la Ligue, mais il étoit même résolu de l'autoriser par une Bulle expresse aussitôt qu'elle seroit en état d'agir. (27)
Having described various religious rituals that were considered shocking, new, and extraordinary, and in which the King participated even though he knew they would lead to his ruin, de Thou turns to how "everything" was succeeding for Guise. At a secret League meeting, Ameline was sent off to convince towns to sign on to the League. De Thou mentions only Ameline, but he then talks of "emissaries" in the plural, without providing more names.
Then, very interestingly, he remarks that the emissaries sought out people in financial trouble, because they are the ones most likely to "troubler l'État": "Ils se servent d'eux pour ameuter la populace, et quand elle étoit attroupée, on commençoit toûjours par les assûrer des bonnes intentions du duc de Guise pour eux." (28)
Summarizing the negotiations that led to the settlement of July 7, 1585, de Thou notes that, in order not to seem motivated by ambition or hatred, the princes and seigneurs of the League were ready to give up the places de sûreté that they had previously sought. Guise proposed to resign from all his governorships and other offices, if the king so wished. Then de Thou adds: "Les Guises n'avoient ajouté ce dernier article que pour ébloüir le peuple et rendre le Roi plus odieux." (29) It was obvious that Henry would never do such thing: the popular outcry would have been intense.
The Lorraines moved in an orderly fashion to encourage nobles to join the League. (30) With the king's membership in the League and the pope's support, plus a welcome from Guise, the leading military commander in the realm, why not join?
The League emissaries returned from the towns, assured their fellow ligueurs that everything had gone well, and asserted that as soon as Paris began to revolt, all the other towns would follow its example.
At that same moment, Mendoza, the ambassador of Philip II of Spain, that "protecteur des ligueurs," captured Boulogne-sur-Mer. The port would be useful as the great Spanish fleet moved northward; Mendoza promised the ligueurs that Spanish troops would disembark and join the troops of the League! De Thou adds that, if Guise and the ligueurs believed Mendoza, they were certainly deceived, because it was well known that the great Spanish fleet was destined for England. As long as the fleet was in good condition, it made little difference to Guise, who certainly was well informed about the situation in England. The king learned of the plan and stopped it. De Thou gives the impression that he believed that Guise had a master plan; but he does not venture to say what it was. This is an important nuance in the modality of tyranny.
* * *
In early February of 1581, the king was planning to go to the Foire Saint-Germain but decided against it after hearing that there might be "parties de libertinage" and quarrels among the "concours prodigieux de gens de toutes conditions." (31) The ligueurs had thought of taking advantage of the crowd and disorder to kill the king; but Épernon and some braves came instead and, with difficulty, put down a quarrel.
What is interesting about this minor incident is Guise's reaction to it:
Il leur envoya Maineville pour se plaindre de l'injure qu'ils [the ligueurs] lui avoient faite, de douter de la parole qu'il leur avoit donnée de les secourir quand il seroit tems; et il leur fit dire que s'ils en usoient de même à l'avenir, ils pouvoient faire leur affaires comme ils l'entendroient; qu'il ne s'en mêleroit plus, et qu'il feroit les siennes sans eux. (32)
The Parisian ligueurs excused themselves, explaining that they had had to do something to get La Morlière out of danger. Then, like many other great historians, de Thou ends his narrative with a touch of human interest. He recounts how Maineville, "s'étant laissé fléchir à la vue d'une chaîne de poids de cent écus d'or qu'on lui donna, voulut bien travailler à faire la paix avec le duc de Guise." (33)
While recourse to military force had been implicit in the League movement, it became explicit after 1585, What Guise did in secret did not remain secret: "Le duc de Guise avoit secretement levé sur les frontières de Picardie et de Champagne, quatre mille hommes qu'il entretenoit avec l'argent que la pieté des Parisiens lui fournissoit." (34)
There were several League plots to kill the king in 1587. Each failed, because Poulain informed a royal official. De Thou conveys the sense of intense desperation that was developing among the ligueurs over these failed assassination attempts, which inevitably ended in an appeal for Guise's help. Guise refused, but he gave "belle promesses" in order to "tir[er] les choses en longueur." (35) The secret personal plan that, according to de Thou, Guise had by then developed was not yet apparent to participants; but the mechanism -- assassination plot, followed by failure, and ending in an appeal to Guise -- begins to take shape in readers' minds: instead of riding into Paris as a conqueror, Guise was setting the stage to ride in quietly, in answer to the many appeals for his presence being made by the League. (36)
Perceval -- described by de Thou as an "homme de main habile à conduire une entreprise hardie, que le duc de Guise a sçû mettre dans ses intérêts" (37) -- transmits the message that the duke had managerial skills, that is, he did not try to do everything himself. Indeed, thanks to Guise's strong ties to the cardinal de Bourbon, he could do things in Bourbon's name.
The comte de Soissons joined Henry of Navarre because "le pouvoir et le crédit des Guises augmentoit de jour en jour ..." (38); his real complaint centered on how the rank of prince de sang was declining.
Much attention is paid to the war against the German mercenaries, a conflict that Catherine wanted, says de Thou. As German troops marched into Lorraine, Guise rushed to stop them. At one point he executed a brilliant retreat that saved his army -- which won the battle of Auneau, a victory that enhanced Guise's reputation in the eyes of the ligueurs:
Aussi prevoyoit-il que le duc de Guise, qui étoit adoré du peuple, ce que le lui [King Henry] avoit rendu déja odieux, après un succès si éclatant ne pourroit plus garder de bornes, et que cet exploit n'augmenteroit sa réputation, qu'aux dépens de la majesté Royale. (39)
The king was well received when he returned to Paris, but his indolence and his hatred of Protestants left him ineffectual at a time of increasing tensions. Then the duc de Lorraine, too, joined the League! "D'un autre coté le Duc étoit épouvanté lui-même de la grandeur de l'attentat, qu'il méditoit, mais il ne croyoit pas d'ailleurs devoir abandonner des gens...." (40) De Thou provides the names of the individuals whom Guise could count on, and Guise does indeed confide in some; 20,000 men were ready to take up arms at his call.
Arriving in Gonesse, Guise learned that the king was bringing 4,000 Swiss into Paris; he therefore headed for Soissons, where he had an interview with Pomponne de Bellièvre that changed nothing. Catherine continued to recommend, successfully, that Henry not act. Épernon was on his way to Rouen.
Madame de Montpensier, Guise's sister, was "sans cesse aux oreilles de la Reine-Mère" to move the king to invite the duke to Paris. With very few attendants, he finally came to the capital and went to Catherine's residence, after which they both set off for the Louvre, to see the king, the queen mother in a sedan chair and the duke on foot. The peuple expressed a sort of veneration for Guise, as women jostled one another to touch his clothes. (41) Guise "cachoit l'extrême joye qu'il ressentoit de se voir ainsi l'objet des voeux de cette populace; regardant l'attachement qu'elle faisoit paroître pour lui, comme un présage heureux...." (42)
The king took several initiatives to ensure security. Villequier proposed that Henry ride about the city to reassure the population; others warned that this would be dangerous, so it was not done. Tensions began to run high in the Place Maubert, where the League was particularly strong:
... la Reine-mére recommanda instamment de contenir les troupes, de ne pas attaquer, et de se tenir sur la défensive. Ces ordres, qui faisoient paroître tant de mollesse, et de lâcheté, ne servirent qu'à décourager les troupes du Roi, et à relever au contraire le coeur aux factieux. (43)
Messages arrived about a worsening situation, but Catherine continued to insist that the royal troops refrain from violence and remain on the defensive. She, along with Bellièvre, began to implore Guise to leave Paris. Upon learning that the royal troops were remaining inactive, Guise decided to stay "chez lui avec ses amis et quelques gens armés." The king could easily have taken him captive at the Hôtel de Guise, not far from the Hôtel de Montmorency, as Guise walked between hedges of people. De Thou adds:
Pour moi, je me souviens que quelque tems avant midi lorsque les ruës n'étoient point encor barricadées, je voulu me contenter dans l'attente où j'étois de ce grand événement, et voir quelle contenance tenoient les deux partis. Dans cette vûë étant sorti de chez moi, sans craindre le danger auquel je m'exposois, je me rendis à pied au Louvre que je trouvai désert, et où régnoit un morne silence, marque certaine de la consternation où l'on y étoit. Sortant donc de-là la douleur dans le coeur, je passai ensuite par l'hôtel de Guise; et y ayant rencontré le Duc qui se promoenoit, je m'approchai d'un de mes amis qui m'accompagnoit, et lui dis à l'oreille que ce jour-là, si je ne me trompois, alloit porter le dernier coup au Roi et à l'autorité Royale; et que je croyois remarquer dans les yeux du duc de Guise et de ses gens un air de gayeté et de confiance .... (44)
De Thou notes that Guise no longer receives the law, he begins to give it.
Speaking "avec douceur" to the royalist troops at the Hôtel de Ville, Guise watches them march away without being attacked by the people. At the Marché Neuf, marshals d'Aumont and de Biron had been sent by the king to withdraw the troops; Guise ordered the peuple to let them go. A clash between the Swiss and the peuple ended in the deaths of sixty combatants. In the evening, the prévôt des marchands sought from the king the mot d'ordre that he habitually gave to the militia captain. This time, the militia would accept only an order from Guise. The bourgeois captains and some of Guises's emissaries went from house to house to ensure calm. Paris remained calm.
The consolidation of Guise's power continued, although opposition was stiff in Orléans. De Thou himself had been sent to Normandy to gain support for Henry III, and he was quite successful; but Le Havre turned to the League despite de Thou's efforts to persuade them to the contrary. De Thou would also rush into Picardy, where he urged Jean de Belleforière [de Soyecourt], governor of Corbie, a relation by marriage, wife, to remain in the king's camp. The English ambassador refused to recognize the League-Guise government, but that made little difference.
As always, there were negotiations. Would Guise be content with the title "généralissime"? Or would he only be satisfied with the more prestigious rank of "connétable"? Delegates from the Estates-General began to arrive, and it seems that only then did Henry realize that League sympathies extended all across France, and that many of the delegates to the Estates would be ligueurs. Intensely frustrated, the king discharged Chancellor Cheverny (de Thou's brother-in-law) and two secretaries of state, Pomponne de Bellièvre and Villeroy, who had been sympathetic to the League and who were carrying out the queen mother's orders, not Henry's.
At the opening ceremony of the Estates, Guise carried out his duties as grand maître:
... il étoit assis au pied du trône sur un placet, tenant sa main un long bâton semé de fleurs de lys d'or, qui est la marque de cette dignité, et ayant une contenance, et un air qui attiroit sur lui les regards de tous ceux de son parti, qui n'étoient qu'en trop grand nombre dans cette assemblée, et que le Roi au contraire ne voyoit pas avec plaisir. (45)
As we have noted, de Thou almost measures the increasing imbalance between the king's authority and Guise's.
As Guise slowly and artfully created the persona that would be so attractive to the Parisian peuple, his support for Catholicism, his military victories, and his attention to the signs that conveyed, falsely, modesty and magnanimity, excluded all possibilities that he would be perceived as a tyrant. The general picture painted by F. Baumgartner (46) traces, by contrast, how the heir-less Henry was increasingly perceived as a sorcerer, especially after Alençon's death in June 1584. Still, prior to the Guise executions in December 1588, the last Valois was only occasionally called a "tyrant."
Black magic would not prevail over white magic -- or so it seemed prior to the executions at Blois. The executions would bring a sharp change in viewpoint. During the fury and anguish that came over the ligueurs when they learned of the death of the heroic savior who had been fending off heresy and other evils, accusations that the king was a tyrant would become an integral part of the League world view.
Was Guise fully aware of his triumph, as Henry III fled? With his powers, to what extent could he think of himself as a Renaissance prince for whom power without legitimacy, other than the power emanating from himself, counted for much? To be sure, he had sought and received legitimacy by associating with cardinal de Bourbon. As we shall see, Henry's decision to dismiss his chancellor, several ministers, and secretaries of state apparently did not prompt Guise to be cautious as he walked into the council meeting -- and met his death. He had pressed for honors and titles his entire life, thus it is possible that Catherine and Guise shared the same belief that something could always be arranged through more negotiations.
How many times in his courtly life had he been warned not to attend a council meeting? Omens, dreams and nightmares inspired and haunted the great and the humble in courtly households. This time, according to de Thou, the warning prompted a boutade entirely in conformity with the Guise persona: "il n'oseroit." (47)
It is possible that the persona that Guise had created for himself made it impossible for him to stop before the door of the council room. In his powerfully analytical chapter, "Various outcomes," de Thou's friend, Michel de Montaigne, pulls together various historical examples and, before turning to a characterization of Henry of Navarre and Henri de Guise, relates:
This Alexander represented much more vividly in action, and more daringly, when, after reading in a letter from Parmenio that Philip, his most beloved doctor, had been corrupted by Darius' money and was planning to poison him, he gave Philip the letter to read and at the same time swallowed the drink that Philip had brought him. Wasn't that expressing this resolve, that if his friends wanted to kill him, he was willing to let them? This prince is the supreme model of hazardous acts; but I do not know if there is an episode in his life that shows more courage than this one, or a beauty shining in so many aspects.
Those who preach to princes such an attentive distrust, under the guise of preaching them security, preach them their ruin and their shame. Nothing noble is done without risk. I know a man of very martial courage by nature, and enterprising, whose fine career is being corrupted every day by such persuasions: that he should stay in close among his own people; that he should hear of no reconciliation with his former enemies, should keep apart and not trust himself to hands stronger than his own, whatever promise may be made him, whatever advantage he may see in it. I know another who has advanced his fortune beyond all expectations by following a wholly opposite plan.
Boldness, the glory of which they seek so avidly, displays itself, when necessary, as magnificently in a doublet as in armor, in a room as in a camp, with arm hanging as with arm raised.
Such tender and circumspect prudence is a moral enemy of lofty actions. (48)
Binary opposites carefully discerned. Navarre would reject advice that Montaigne deplored.
De Thou thought that, at the time of his death, Guise still had "grands desseins" to carry out. Ever since Machiavelli's account of Cesare Borgia, abandoned by Fortune, having a plan, a master plan born of reflection, was becoming an essential feature of the would-be tyrant. De Thou has Fiesque share his plans with his householders and allies. Guise shared his plans with no one.
De Thou offers an assessment of the duc de Guise, not a eulogy. One could not deny his successes:
Le succès de la journée du Pont-Saint-Victor; celui de Vimory; enfin la défaite des armées alliées à Auneau dans la Bausse [read: Beauce], lui avoient sur-tout acquis l'estime de tout le monde; en sorte que ceux mêmes qui détestoient ses projets ambitieux, et qui n'aimoient pas sa personne, ne pouvoient s'empêcher de faire l'éloge de sa valeur et de son courage. (49)
The paragraphs that immediately follow contain perhaps the harshest assessment that I have found in the first ten volumes of the History. De Thou does not accuse Guise of inhumanity, his most damning judgment; rather, Guise is "agreeably malicious":
Il avoit outre cela toutes les qualités nécessaires pour gagner les hommes; un agrément infini dans son extérieur, joint à une gravité admirable; une éloquence insinuante qui se faisoit sentir dans ses entretiens particuliers plûtôt qu'en public, et qui triomphoit de tous les coeurs; une libéralité qui alloit jusqu'à la profusion; une bonté qui prévenoit tout le monde; une taille avantageuse, une physionomie revenante; un geste enfin, et un air de dignité dans sa démarche et dans toutes ses actions qui marquoit parfaitement la grandeur de son ame et l'élévations de ses sentimens. Du reste accoûtumé à souffir également le froid et le chaud, la faim et le soif, quoiqu'élevé délicatement, on le voyoit sous les tentes et dans la tranchée se contenter comme le soldat de la nourriture la plus grossiére; dormant peu, travaillant sans cesse, toûjours guai, et si habile à manier les affaires que les plus importantes ne sembloient être pour lui qu'un badinage. On l'eût désoeuvré au milieu des plus grandes occupations.
Tant de talents qu'il avoit reçûs de la nature étoient gâtés par une ambition démesurée qui ne lui permettoit pas de mettre aucunes bornes à ses désirs, non plus qu'à ses projets; maître dans l'art de dissimuler et de tromper; habile à inventer ce qui n'avoit jamais existé, il sçavoit soutenir un premier mensonge par un second; et lors même qu'il étoit le plus éloigné de la vérité, il imaginoit encore mille nouveaux moyens de faire donner dans ses piéges ceux qu'il vouloit tromper; toûjours prêt à se justifier aux dépens des autres, lorsqu'il étoit pris sur le fait. Ce défaut qui n'étoit connu que de ses plus intimes, le rendoit insensiblement odieux à ses amis mêmes; et plusieurs l'abandonnérent uniquement parce qu'on ne pouvoit compter sur lui ni sur sa parole. Aussi l'agréable malice du duc de Guise avoit-elle passé en proverbe parmis les Dames de la Cour.
(Erat praeterea in eo ad alliciendos homines mira comitas cum gravitate conjuncta, in arcano magis quam in publico facundia ad persuadendum efficax, profusa liberalitas et obvia humanitas, et in corpore procero, ac decoro vultu, incessu, et composito gestu dignitas, quae magnitudinem animi et ingenteis spiritus prae se ferebat: ad haec patiens corpus frigoris, aestus, sitis, inediae; et inter exquisitas lautitias enutritus, dum cum milite in vallo sub pellibus degebat, nihil vile aut sordidum existimabat: parcus somni, impiger, hilari semper vultu; adeo in explicandis negotiis facilis, ut inter seria jocari, cum maxime negotia urgerent otiari, videretur. Tot naturae dotes corrumpebat vasta ambitio, quae nec modum cogitationibus, nec sinem consiliis, faciebat; ad quam ille attulerat vasrum et versatile ingenium. Summus dissimulandi et fallendi artifex, et in comminiscendis rebus varius mendacium mendacio adjuvabat; ita ut, cum maxime falleret, novas subinde rationes fallendi et mendacii excusandi, culpa in alios rejecta, semper reperiret: quod perspectum intimis tantum, amicis ipsis cum invisum sensim reddebat, multique ob id ab eo desciverunt, fidem ejus desiderantes, et quod candorem, quem verbis praeferebat, facto non praestaret. Itaque gynaecei regii dicterio jucunda Guisii malitia in proverbium abierat.) (50)
In a world of honor, not keeping one's word with one's intimates is about the harshest accusation that could typically be made about a prince. Numerous studies on the parole d'honneur ought perhaps be mentioned here, but the essential work that contextualizes de Thou's assessment of Guise's oral expression is Kristen Neuschel's. (51) Aristocratic culture and Robe culture were not the same. A lawyer's training did not necessarily alter conversation at table, but it offered a way to characterize the sort of oral performance that de Thou attributes to Guise.
What were Guise's religious beliefs? De Thou always characterizes the duke as a political actor for whom religious belief served to veil his own self-interest. Guise seems to have participated in religious services as a conventional Roman Catholic, that is, without the more recently developed confraternal or other overt manifestations of the Catholic Reformation. Henri de Guise did not build a new monumental chapel to rival the Primaticcio chapel of the Hôtel de Guise commissioned by his predecessors; nor did he construct a place of devotion adjacent to the magnificent château de plaisance that his grandfather had erected, the Grand Jardin at Joinville. But on the issue of Guise's true beliefs, I must confess that what I have noted here is very tentative and would need correcting after reading the dozen-odd older, important studies, beginning with H. Outram Evennett. Always theatrical, superbly dressed, poised and radiant, we can imagine Guise at prayer in a church, for all to see. (52)
* * *
Was de Thou a Humanist historian? He was deeply interested in and supportive of the editing and publishing of the works of Antique authors. His closest friends, Casaubon and Pithou, advanced Humanist scholarship, but de Thou did not do so himself. His work on falconry is not an edition.
Living fully in his terrible present, he occasionally escaped by paraphrasing Job; but it was truly his History that constituted his great work and that held his undivided attention and potential for glory. He sought to deepen the understanding of the human social and political conditions of man.
Heretics and tyrants do not usually die in their beds. De Thou leaves it to his readers to decide if violent death is part of the equation. Limitless ambition and winning popular political support, equals death. De Thou's Providence sustains the virtues and the good accomplished by Henry IV. He occasionally wonders if divine judgment ultimately leads to punishment. For de Thou, Humanity remained so fragile that it seemed destined to extinction, like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. By reading about violence, the human heart could be moved to diminish it. De Thou was a humane historian.
Notes:
1. Jotham Parsons wondered whether "où on s'imaginoit" is part of the original Latin Historiarum. The Latin passage can befound in book LVIII, p. 17, of the A. and H. Drouart edition, Paris, 1607, p. 27: "...excusando forte tunc errore, cum maiorum religionis caussam agiratus, ..." In other words, the translator inserted "où on s'imaginoit."
2. HU, vol VII, bk LVIII, p. 131.
3. HU, vol. VII, bk LIX, pp. 165-166.
4. HU, vol. VII, bk LIX, p. 165.
5. HU, vol. VII, bk LXV, pp. 644-645.
6. HU, vol. VII, bk LXVI, p. 731.
7. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXVIII, p. 84.
8. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXVIII, p. 85.
9. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXVIII, p. 85.
10. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXVIII, pp. 558-559.
11. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXXV, p. 630.
12. Moréri, Grand dictionnaire, (ed. of 1748), vol. VII, p. 468.
13. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXVIII, pp. 71-72.
14. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXVIII, p.72. For Rosières, see pp. 70-73.
15. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXVIII, p. 73.
16. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXVIII, p. 86.
17. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXXIV, p. 551.
18. HU, vol. VIII, bk LXXII, p. 403.
19. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 263.
20. Stuart Carroll, Noble Power During the French Wars of Religion (Cambridge, UK, 1998), p. 167.
21. Carroll, p. 161.
22. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, pp. 264-265.
23. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 268.
24. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, pp. 268-269.
25. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 270.
26. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 331.
27. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 293.
28. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXVI, p. 655.
29. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 326.
30. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 331.
31. HU, vo. IX, bk LXXXVI, p. 663.
32. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXVI, p. 663.
33. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXVI, p. 664.
34. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 652.
35. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, pp. 658-59.
36. HU, vol. IX, bk LXXXI, p. 663.
37. HU, vol. X, bk LXXXII, p. 3.
38. HU, vol. X, bk LXXXII, p. 10.
39. HU, vol. X, bk LXXXII, p. 56.
40. HU, vol. X, bk XC, p. 247.
41. HU, vol. X, bk XC, p. 253.
42. HU, vol. X, bk XC, p. 253.
43. HU, vol. X, bk XC, p. 259.
44. HU, vol. X, bk XC, p. 260.
45. HU, vol. X, bk XCII, p. 373.
46. F. Baumgartner, Radical Reactionaries (Geneva 1975), chapter 5.
47. HU, vol. X, bk SCIII, p. 469.
48. Montaigne, The Essays, transl. D. Frame (Stanford, 1957), bk I, 24, p. 94.
49. HU, vol. X, bk XCIII, p. 475.
50. HU, vol. X, bk XCIII, pp. 475-476; and Historiarum sui temporis (London, 1733), vol. IV, bk XCIII, p. 672. In his convincing and profound critique of the 1734 (Desfontaines) translation into French, Kinser, p. 275, comments on why it is what it is: neither the tone nor the deeper meaningfulness of de Thou is captured in the French. However, he also notes that the translation by which de Thou is at all known is that very one -- quite an eloquent work in its own right. It has all the stylistic faults of a Voltaire work, that is, practically none. And it is perhaps clearer in places than de Thou. The unfortunate reader stuck in de Thou's Latin may not always be as adequate as he thinks!
51. Kristen Neuschel, Word of Honor (Ithaca, 1989).
52. In addition to Stuart Carroll's study of the Guises in Normandy, see the excellent mises au point on the major issues in Y. Bellenger, ed., Le Mécénat et l'Influence des Guises (Paris, 1997). There are chapters by A. Jouanna, J. Boucher, M. Venard, A. Talon, J.-M. Constant, Y.-M. Bercé.