FrancisII.

1559.

The Cardinal de Santa Cruce tells us, that he was exceedingly hated by the Queen-Mother, Paul IV. who knew him and his Defigns perfectly well.

Pope

III.

The Duke of Guife, Francis of Lorrain his Brother, was of a different Character; he was vaOf Francis liant, brave, a great Captain, and one of the Duke of ableft Politicians of his time: But he was tainted Guife. with the Vice of his Family, that is, a boundless Ambition afpiring to the Throne; and though he would not liften to the Counfel of his Brother the Cardinal, and make himfelf Mafter of the King and his Brothers to confine them in a Cloyfter, nevertheless he was very forry, when Francis II. executed not, what had been refolved amongst them against Anthony King of Navarr, the first Prince of the Blood, and let him go out of his Bed-Chamber, without giving the Signal agreed, to fall upon the faid Prince, and to murder him.

IV.

Navarr.

He was, as well as his Brother, an unjust Ufurper of an Authority, which by all the Laws of the Kingdom belonged to the Princes of the Blood, and fpared no injustice nor violence, not only to deprive them of their juft Rights, but even to take them out of the World, as I fhall mention in its proper Place.

I fhall add nothing to the Character I have given already of the Conftable of Montmorency, and of the Marfhal of St. Andrew, at the beginning of the last Reign.

Anthony of Bourbon Duke of Vendome, and Of Anthony King of Navarr, by his Marriage with Jane only King of Daughter and Heirefs of Henry d'Albret King of Navarr, was the first Prince of the Blood. The Hiftorians of both Parties give him the Character of having been a very weak Prince; he was a Voluptuary, and fo enervated the Facul

ties of his Mind, therefore he was lazy, dull, ir- Francis II. refolute, fickle, and eafily carried from one ex- 1559Pope treme to another, feeding himself with vain Paul IV. hopes of being reftored to his Queen's ancient Dominions, or at least to get fome Equivalent, as Sardinia, or fome other Country. He did things very unbecoming a Prince of his rank, and expofed himself to the fcorn of his Enemies; where ́as, if he had behaved himself as he ought in maintaining his Birth-right, he would more likely have obtained his ends. The fame chimerical hopes carried him fo far as to make him confent to the Ufurpations of the Guifes, nay, to league himself with them against his own Brother, and to change his Religion, of which the Catholicks made a great boaft; but he perfevered not, for M. de Thou fays pofitively, that he declared on his Death-bed, that if he was to live again in this World, he would chufe the Lutheran Religion, to live and die in it (g).

V.

Condé.

Lewis of Bourbon Prince of Condé, Brother Of Lewis to Anthony King of Navarr, was of a Genius of Borbon and Temper quite different from his Brother; Prince of he was quick, open, fincere, valiant and generous, he could not diffemble his indignation against the Princes of Guife, whom he faw abfolute Mafters of all the Employs and Preferments, which they kept for themfelves, or difpofed of them at their pleasure in behalf of their Favourites, and Dependants. Seeing himself diftinguifhed at Court only by his Quality of Prince of the Blood, and being not in a condition to support his high Rank, the low Circumstances, which he was reduced to, made him the more sensible of the wrong done to his Birth, and enter into fuch methods, which he thought the moft proper to obtain a just and reasonable Satisfaction;

(g) Thuani Hist. lib. xxxiii. p. 199,

FrancisII. faction; he imbraced the Reformed Religion, and 1559 conftantly adhered to the Doctrine of Calvin.

Pope

Paul IV.

VI.

Gafpard de Coligny, Admiral of France, was one of the greatest Men of France, and one of the best-affected to the Welfare of his Country; Greater in his Misfortunes than many others amidft their good fuccefs, no body was fo quick Admiral of in finding out Means to extricate himfelf out of

Of Gaf pard de Coligny

France.

VII.

delot.

the greatest Difficulties. As to his Religion, he was of the Reformed, and very fincere in the profeffion of it; Maimbourg acknowledges, that he had been a Man of very strict Morals (b).

He did all his Endeavours to recall the Prince of Condé from his Inclinations for the Sex, and obliged him to marry again after the death of his first Wife, the virtuous Eleonora de Roye. In a word, his Virtue was fo pure, that his good Name could never be tainted, not by the blackest Calumnies; he has been accused of having had a hand in fome Affaffinations, and particularly in that of the Duke of Guife by Poltrot; but we fhall clear his Innocency in its proper place.

D'Andelot was not inferior to his Brother in Of Dan- Prudence and Sagacity, or good Management of Affairs; he was as great a Captain as the Admiral, and even more daring and undertaking. As to his Religion, I have already said, that he had embraced the Reformation, which he maintained at his great peril before the King.

VIII.

Of Odet

Cardinal of ChatilJan.

That Houfe of Châtillon was fruitful in Heroes. Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de Châtillon, was no less distinguished than his Brothers, by his Christian and Civil Virtues. Brantome fays of him, that he was a learned Man, and loved the Learned, being a Mæcenas to many of them. He was of fuch an obliging Nature, that he refused

(b) Maimbourg Hift. du Calvin. liv. 2.

fufed no body, when it was in his power to do Francis II. any Kindness or Service. Maimbourg concludes 1559Pope his Encomium of this Lord by these words, that Paul IV. it may be truly faid, that he would have enjoyed the glory of being one of the greatest and most accomplished Prelates of the Kingdom, if he had not tainted his Purple and Character with Herefy (). He had fo little value for his Dignity of Cardinal, that when the Ceremony of his Marriage was performed, he put on his Cardinal's Habits; and kept fo little account of the Pope's Cenfures and Excommunication, that, when he heard that he had been deprived at Rome of his Dignities, and had been excommunicated, he affected to appear in all publick Ceremonies or Affemblies in his Cardinal's Habit, and to take his place in the Council as a Cardinal. He was poifoned in England in 1571, by his Valet de Chambre, who was hanged for it at la Rochelle.

Such was the Character of the Chiefs of the two Factions which divided the Kingdom, and put it upon the very brink of its utter ruin; by which the Reader may guefs already, on what fide was juftice and right: but more of this when we fhall come to the Plot of Amboise. Let us fee now the Condition the Reformed were in at the beginning of this Reign, and how they were treated by their Enemies.

the Re

The Reformed were in hopes of finding fome IX. relaxation by the death of King Henry, either Hopes of because the Queen-Mother Catharine de Medicis formed had fhewn fome inclination for their Religion, fruftrated. particularly in the Affair of St. James's-Street, or because it was very likely that fuch a great and fudden Change would put a stop to the defigns of the warmeft.

(i) Ibidem.

Befides

FrancisII.

Befides that, the youth of the King, thought 1559 already married, gave the principal Authority in Pope Paul IV. the Government to the King of Navarr by his Birth-right, as being the firft Prince of the Blood, and he had much forwarded the Reformation in his own Dominions, and in his Government.

Furthermore, it was likely, that thofe who had. made an ill use of their Authority under the last King, and had incenfed him against the Reformed, would be called to an account, and make place for others. It was rumoured that Henry, a little before his death, had refolved to difmifs and fend away the Chiefs of the House of Guife. There was no doubt but the Duchefs of Valentinois would be utterly undone, and perhaps lofe her head upon a Scaffold; and indeed, if the was not treated after her own defert, that was much more owing to the favour of the Guifes, whofe Brother the Duke of Aumale had married the Duchefs's Daughter, than to any respect that the Queen-Mother had for the Memory of the late King.

It was also very likely, that the Constable would entirely be a dependant of the King of Navarr, particularly because at that time he was a fworn Enemy to the Guifes. As to the Marfhal of St. Andrew, and Cardinal Bertrandi Keeper of the Seals, it feemed impoffible for them to ftand before the King of Navarr, with whom the Prince of Condé, and the House of Châtillon, all profeffed Friends to the Reformed, fided.

But God Almighty had difpofed things otherwife, to the end that all the honour and glory of the Reformation fhould be afcribed to himself, and that every one might be convinced, that the excellency of that power was of God, and not of Men (k). The (*) Beze Hia. Ecc. liv. 3: