A. D. CHAPTER XXIX. HENRY IV. But be thy failings cover'd by thy tomb, HAYLEY. 1. THE death of Henry III. relieved Paris from the imminent dangers to which it had been exposed; the 1589. title of Henry IV. was indeed acknowledged by the principal leaders of the besieging army, but his religion prevented them from warmly espousing his cause; the greater part drew off their forces, and Henry was compelled to raise the siege, which his diminished forces could no longer continue. The duke of Mayenne, who might have assumed the title of king, chose rather to proclaim the cardinal of Bourbon, though he remained a prisoner; and having collected a numerous band of leaguers, he pursued Henry on his retreat to Normandy. 2. The royalists, though inferior in numbers, gained two brilliant victories at Arques and Ivri, over the partizans of the league; but though these triumphs served to A. D. raise the character of Henry, they were not sufficient to crush a party bound together by their own bigotry, the gold of Spain, and the spiritual authority of the pope. 3. His own followers gave the king nearly as much trouble as his enemies; the catholic royalists detested the Hugonots; the protestants returned the hatred, and were, besides, divided amongst themselves; the princes of the blood were either too young to exert any influence, or had ranged themselves under the banners of the league, and Henry found himself engaged in this dangerous war almost solely dependent on his own personal resources. 4. The king of Spain was anxious to obtain the crown of France for his daughter, Clara Eugenia; the protestant princes of Europe, dreading the additional power that would thus be added to the Spanish monarchy, already formidable, resolved to support the cause of Henry, the queen Elizabeth, especially, assisted him with money and warlike stores. 5. These aids, and the confidence inspired by several successive triumphs, soon enabled Henry to under1590. take the siege of Paris, where the hatred of the leaguers displayed itself with more violence, in proportion as the king showed himself more worthy of affection. Though their shadow of a king, the cardinal de Bourbon, had lately died, and they had not selected any other in his place, so far were they from thinking of submitting to their rightful sovereign, that the doctors of the Sorbonne declared that Henry, being a relapsed heretic, could not receive the crown even though he should obtain absolution, and this shameful decree was confirmed by the parliament. 6. In the meantime, Paris being closely blockaded and ill supplied with provisions, was attacked by all the horrors of a severe famine. Bread was made of bones ground into powder, food the most revolting was eagerly sought after, multitudes dropped daily dead in the street from extreme starvation, but no one spoke of yielding. The clergy had promised a crown of martyrdom to all who died in the cause of the church, and their deluded followers. submitted to every privation without a murmur. Still, had Henry not been moved with a paternal pity for his frantic subjects, he might have taken Paris by assault; but when urged to give orders for the purpose, he replied "I had rather lose Paris, than get possession of it when ruined by the death of so many persons." He gave the fugitives from the city a safe passage through his camp, and permitted his officers and soldiers to send in refreshments to their friends. By this lenity he indeed lost the fruit of his labours for the present, but he gained the approbation of his own conscience and the admiration of posterity. 7. The prince of Parma, who commanded the Spanish army in Flanders, advanced to the relief of Paris when the citizens were at the very point of despair; by a series of masterly movements, he disconcerted the efforts made by Henry to bring on an engagement, relieved the garrison, and returned to continue his wars with the Dutch; after having performed this essential service to the league with scarcely the loss of a man. 8. The following year, Henry met a similar disappointment at the siege of Rouen, where the escape of the prince of Parma was effected under such difficult circumstances, that Henry could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses when he found that the hostile troops were beyond his reach. 9. Death soon after delivered the king from this formidable rival; the prince died in Flanders at the age of fortyseven; his military talents and great virtues would have brought the United Provinces again under the yoke of Spain, had it been possible to find a remedy for despotism and persecution. 10. The conduct of the Sixteen at Paris, contributed much to weaken the influence of the league; these hot-headed rebels pretended to give the law both to the duke de Mayenne and the parliament. When a man whom they wished to destroy was acquitted, they suddenly broke out into the most furious. excesses, and actually hanged three of the magistrates who had been judges at the trial, amongst whom was Brisson, the first president of the parliament. The duke de Mayenne acted on this occasion with a promptitude and decision foreign to his character; he marched to Paris at the head of his most trusty followers, delivered the most violent of the murderers to the executioner, deprived the Sixteen of the Bastille, which had been their principal stronghold, and thus finally crushed a detestable faction, which derived its whole strength from the madness of fanaticism. 11. But these favourable events were not sufficient to put Henry in possession of the kingdom, while he professed a religion odious to the majority of his subjects; his most faithful followers, protestant as well as catholic, recommended him to change his religion, and Henry only delayed through fear of offending Elizabeth and the protestant princes of Germany. At length, finding that the states-general had proceeded so far as to offer the crown to the Spanish infanta, on condition of her marrying a French prince, Henry saw that further delay might bring ruin on his cause, and publicly abjured protestantism in the church of St. 1593. Denis. 12. Though this conversion was any thing A. D. but sincere, it was followed by the most beneficial effects. The nobility, in general, hastened to reconcile themselves to a king whose character they respected, and most of those who still held out, only did so in hopes of receiving some reward for returning to their allegiance. 13. The duke de Mayenne and some few of the more violent leaguers, however, obstinately refused to acknowledge the king, until he had received absolution from the pope; the bigoted clergy preached with their accustomed vehemence against the man of Bearn, as they still called their sovereign; but the efforts of some men of genius who had joined the royal cause, weakened the force of their invectives. 14. Several ingenious writings against the follies and absurdities of these ignorant bigots, especially the Menippean satire, covered them with such merited ridicule, that they found their declamations unheeded and neglected. At length Paris opened its gates to Henry, and found in him not a vindictive conqueror, but a paternal sove- 1594. reign. 15. While he was employed in giving the A. D. most remarkable proofs of his beneficence and zeal for the public good, his life was attempted by a young fanatic, named John Chatal. When the assassin was interrogated, he pleaded in excuse the doctrine of tyrannicide, which he had learned among his masters, the Jesuits, and had heard preached by the Capuchins. The parliament having witnessed so forcible a proof of the dangerous tendency of the doctrines preached by these monastic orders, commanded them to be banished from the kingdom. 16. At length the long expected bull of absolution A. D. arrived from the pope; and the leaguers having no 1595. further grounds of resistance, prepared everywhere for submission. The duke de Mayenne set the example, and during the remainder of his life was one of Henry's most faithful and devoted subjects; the other chiefs followed his example, but exacted a high price for the purchase of their loyalty, which Henry, notwithstanding the disordered state of his finances, faithfully paid. 17. Philip, king of Spain, was now Henry's only enemy; and even he, notwithstanding his blind and brutal obstinacy of character, saw that the league was irretrievably ruined. He still continued the war, captured Calais, and soon after added to his conquests the city of Amiens, which his forces surprised. 18. But Henry soon recovered the latter, and forced the Spanish army to retreat. The protestants were naturally displeased with the king for having deserted their religion, and were inclined to create disA. D. turbances in the provinces. Henry, therefore, to con1598. ciliate this portion of his subjects, issued the celebrated edict of Nantes, by which they were granted a perfect toleration of their religion, and full security both in person and property. 19. Soon afterwards the war with Spain was terminated by the treaty of Vervins, which Henry, by the tacit consent of his allies, the Dutch and English, concluded separately with Philip. 20. The death of the Spanish king followed in a short time after the conclusion of this pacification, and with him the power of Spain seems to have terminated. His efforts to crush protestantism in Europe, dictated by bigotry rather than by policy, were eminently unsuccessful, and served in the end to ruin the country which was cursed with him as a sovereign. England defeated the armada arrogantly named invincible, and crushed the naval power of Spain; Holland succeeded in throwing off Philip's yoke, and acquiring independence; the league perished in France; his only successful project was the establishment of the inquisition in Spain, which long continued to degrade that unhappy country. 21. The return of peace and tranquillity produced a period of comparative happiness in France, to which its inhabitants had been long unaccustomed. The protestants, indeed, thought that Henry was not sufficiently grateful to his oldest and most |