in much gold. The raising of funds by Catherine for Anjou's campaign and fitting out the navy against Spain brought forth a strong protest from the clergy against the heavy_taxes imposed on Church property. They appealed to Rome, and urged the abolition of the Concordat. The revolt failed in the latter object, but it brought the foolish King to a somewhat more reasonable frame of mind. While effecting useful reforms and retrenchment in other directions, it brought no relief to the Church itself; ecclesiastical offices remained mere matters of merchandise; the request for canonical election by the clergy evoked the retort from Henry that under such a system many of the aggrieved would find themselves without office.

Since Navarre's departure from Paris his wife Margaret remained at her brother Henry's court. Frivolous and pleasure-loving, her mind yet frequently turned towards serious things. Her pen was ever busy, and her satires of the French court and its mockeries were amongst the best of the quips of the period, exposing the foibles of the Louvre. Henry's apparently generous decision to allow her, after years of separation, to return to her husband met with her approval; but he was probably influenced in this by the promise of peace and freedom which the absence of the baggage entailed.

Margot, as she was called, was happy for a time at Nerac, and the simplicity of this little court she contrasted in her writings with the lavish expenditure of the larger one. She went to Mass while her husband went to the Calvinist service, and, the services concluded, they met to return home together. The mild forms of amusement in which they indulged were not sufficiently mild for the Calvinist conscience; Margaret's cheery disposition and love of excitement met with disapproval and evoked many complaints from this source, complaints which helped to effect a reaction in Henry's manner and did much to bring about rupture.

She returned to her brother, and for some time, alternately owned and disowned by the two Henrys at Nerac and Paris, she was sent from one to the other like a shuttlecock, until Navarre, as Henry IV of France, sent her from him for ever by divorce. Her place in his house was filled by Marie de Medicis, who did not turn out to be the loving spouse of his desire. Full of guile this Italian kinswoman of Catherine de Medicis played her ignoble part so well as

to escape most of the obloquy which her machinations merited. She and Epernon, quondam mignon of Henry III, it is said, had some understanding with Ravaillac before the assassination of Henry IV. She had a secret meeting with Epernon at Blois immediately after this tragic event. Her craving for the regency, which the minority of Louis XIII meant, was well known. The circumstances were more decidedly against her than against the Jesuits, whose esotery explained the case to the detectives, as it explained so many other mysterious crimes, the real perpetrators of which escaped in the mazes of the obsession.

The death of Monsieur in 1584 revived the dormant question of the succession to the crown, to which intense acuity was given by the favour shown to Navarre at court. Navarre had already changed his religion twice, and the French King, who was without male issue, sought to induce a third transition. Cujus regio ejus religio. This effected the rehabilitation of the League, which now became more active than ever. The idea of the little Bearnais succeeding was disagreeable to Spain, and the Spanish ambassador at Paris conspired with Guise to oppose it. Their plan was to nominate the aged Cardinal Bourbon heir, so as to nip the Bearnais' pretensions in the bud. The League grew in influence and proportion concurrently with increasing solidarity and combination in the Calvinist world. The Treaty of Middlebourg, signed by all the Calvinist communities in Europe, to raise an immense army for the protection of their kind, especially in France, caused a stir throughout the civilized world. France was to be the battle-ground for the decision of the bulky question of religious sway in Europe, and in France it was centred in the succession contest.

The League openly denounced the King as a hypocrite and traitor to its principles. Henry, too, though he made the religious test a conditio sine qua non for his prospective heir, found his policy opposed by his mother, and even by his notorious favourites, Joyeuse and Epernon. The malcontents, now more or less fused with the League, formed a secret society at Paris, the famous Seize, so called from its being constituted of delegates from the sixteen quarters of Paris. The Seize were remarkable for their violent and uncompromising behaviour in all things.

For a time hostilities took the form of a guerre de plume;

Catholic quip and Protestant pungency flowed freely from piquant pens. The royal pseudo-psalmist was pricked by satire and lashed by libel. He found the pen mightier than the sword, and was sorely perplexed to find a salve for his wounded authority and issue from his anomalous position. Fear alone prevented his throwing in his lot with the Huguenots. He had but an apology for an army on which he could rely, and for the upkeep of this he instituted further taxation. The clergy again revolted, but the Pope, Gregory XIII, refused to declare openly for the League, making the position of the clergy uncertain. Guise, growing weary of the deadlock, determined to bring matters to a head by taking Chalons. The Cardinal, his brother, discarding the cassock for the sword, entered the arena as participator in the fray.

Cardinal Bourbon issued a manifesto denouncing all forms of religion except the Catholic State religion, and this the King was forced to accept in the Treaty of Nemours (1585). Up to this Navarre had temporized, accepting the attentions of Henry III and considering, or pretending to consider, his appeal for conversion; but he now declared his undying allegiance to Calvinism and challenged Guise to single combat. He protested his unswerving fidelity to Henry III and his opposition only to Guise and the League. Another war with the Huguenots was, of course, inevitable, and the impost for the funds required fell as usual most heavily on the clergy, who again demurred, notwithstanding the object. But Henry had regained some authority by the Treaty of Nemours and his will prevailed, the clergy perhaps deriving a lesson from the royal assertion that weakness in suppressing heretics endangered the Mass. De Beze and other agents were working successfully in Germany and Switzerland to augment the Huguenot army.

The contest which followed is known as the war of the three Henrys-Henry of France, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise. It was begun by Condé in Poitu. At first successful, Condé was ultimately routed, the League and the Royalists for the time making common cause. The war spread to the south, where Joyeuse and Epernon commanded the royal troops. Catherine, once again adopting her favourite rôle of peacemaker, proceeded to treat with Navarre at St. Bris, where she spent two months in fêtes and parleys, but accomplished nothing. Again the question of Navarre's conversion was discussed, and his

apparent hesitancy gave hope to his mother-in-law, while it prompted distrust amongst his followers.

The

The Catholics declared that nothing but the sword could make the heretics see the truth. The enmity between the Royalists and the League never ceased, and the Seize at Paris were plotting to carry off the King; but the abduction did not appeal to Guise, probably because of the German menace which made the moment inopportune. A large German force managed to get through to the Loire, though the French had three armies in the field. League, under Guise, dogged the Germans; the King, with a second army was on the Loire, and a third army, led by Joyeuse, was watching the movements of Navarre in the south. This third army soon encountered the Huguenots at Coutras in Livourne, and a terrific struggle ensued in which Joyeuse was killed. Cowardice was not one of the failings of this parasite, nor was his strategy as a leader defective; so Navarre's victory was one of much éclat. The Huguenots, with an inferior army, routed the Catholics with great slaughter. It was the first battle they had won of the many they had fought, and it occasioned intense joy, not only in the little kingdom but in all reformed circles throughout Europe. In the meantime, the Germans were being harassed by Guise; with the actual co-operation of the King they would probably have met with disaster, but Henry, jealous of League successes and irritated by League accusations of supineness, put little heart into the fight and made peace with the Germans, who escaped from a precarious position.

The League, incensed at the action of the King and the extrication of the Germans from their predicament, made haste to overtake and harass them, but the retreating force got safely away through Franche Comté. This unfortunate State had exhibited some favour towards the Lutherans and was accordingly subjected to sack and pillage by the Leaguers, the pyromaniac Guise encouraging this form of recreation.

Taking advantage of the turmoil in France and the pre-occupation of Guise, Elizabeth now took occasion to have Mary Stuart executed in England. The French League had been plotting with Spain for the rescue of this unfortunate queen. Elizabeth considered the tomb the

safest prison.

The King, on his return from the Loire, entered Paris

VOL. X-17

in triumphal state two days before Christmas (1587); he had certainly played a successful trick on the League by his treaty with the Germans. Guise was out of the limelight, and the League was ignored absolutely in the bestowal of honours and favours by the court. The question of the succession was as far from solution as ever. Cardinal Bourbon sent demands to Henry for a further declaration of his adherence to the Treaty of Nemours. The Seize were again plotting an abduction. Knowing the power and influence of Guise, now at Soissons, Henry forbade him to enter Paris on any pretext whatsoever. But Guise could not resist the importunities of the Seize, who continually exhorted him to return. His only cause for hesitation was doubt of the maturity of the Seize plots. In May (1588) all seemed well, and at the head of a few retainers he arrived at the gates of the city, where he was joined by an enormous retinue, in part already assembled from various directions and in part arriving later according to secret plan.

The Parisians were not merely friendly but displayed the wildest enthusiasm in their reception of Guise, who had the rare gift of holding the favour of a mob against the numerous subtle influences to which it is subject. Probity and honour fail signally with mobs, and the gift should always indicate a searching of conscience in those who possess it. Guise had not time even had he the inclination to search his on this occasion. Events were precipitate. The dense heaving mass of humanity surged towards the Louvre with the good-looking scarred scoundrel in its centre, directed rather than directing. The royal nincompoop trembled behind the gates and hastily summoned the Swiss Guard, which proved futile to quell the tumult. Furniture was hastily dragged from shops and houses and improvised street ramparts sprang up like fungi-hence the Day of the Barricades. During an interval of calmness introduced by Balafré, the redoubtable mediator, Catherine, 'with bated breath and whispering humbleness,' stepped over to Guise's hotel to parley, while her spiritless son mounted his palfrey and hied him in the dead of night to Rambouillet, thirty miles off. Guise's hesitation had lost him a crown that day!

The League took possession of most institutions, altered existing laws and made new ones. Catherine de Medicis remained their prisoner. The Edict of Union, which soon