Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve episode three hundred and four, The Grand
Progress. Despite the peace of Ambois, neither side in the French Civil War
was completely disarmed. Catherine chose to continue on as though a universal peace had
been declared. However, and as though the days of religious strife were in
the rear view mirror, they weren't. Even mere days after Ambois, the
Princess de Conde was attacked in her carriage. Conde himself was infuriated and believed
that it had all been the work of the Geese faction, but for the
moment Catherine managed to calm him down. Her goal was to simply out entertain
the rival factions. She would put on so many magnificent balls and masks,
with so many beautiful young women, that she would exhaust them all with frivolity.
Before long, Catherine reasoned, these feudal lords Huguenot and Catholic would just
forget what all the fuss had been about in the first place. These lavish
entertainments quickly made Catherine's court notorious throughout Europe for its brilliance. Yet throughout it
all Catherine remained dressed in all black, still technically in mourning for her dead
husband. She would have been very conspicuous in a court of so much color,
and that was probably the point. Anyway. Catherine might not have had
the physical looks of all the other women she kept around herself at court,
but she wasn't without charm. Indeed, in the months after Ambois, even
her critics forgot what they had been so angry about. Notwithstanding her efforts,
Catherine's days still seemed to be spent answering complaints from both sides of the First
War of Religion, each accusing each other of not observing the peace of Ambois.
To every complaint, she applied herself with calm determination to settle the disputes
tactfully and above all, expediently. She was so exacerbated by the continual protest
from Colonnier that she finally wrote to him stating that if the Protestants continued to
agitate and break the law, she would retaliate quote without respect to persons,
religion, or any other consideration, but the peace of this state end quote.
Catherine was the arbitrator, but she was also indomitable in her task.
The desire for vengeance, the inevitable fruit of civil war seemed endemic. Contract
murders were commonplace and acquired the nickname quote vengeance in the Italian manner, and
finally recognizing that drastic measures were required, the Queen Mother took a course of
audacious political bravery. She decided she would have the thirteen year old king declared
to be of age. Technically, as laid down in the past by Charles
the Fifth, the legal age of majority for a king in France was fourteen.
Catherine decided her son was close enough. She knew full well that a
king was respected more than a regent, and doubtless hoped that this would cow
the remaining difficult personalities at court into some form of submission. Catherine would,
of course continue to rule, however, the change would be purely cosmetic.
So it was that, on the seventeenth of August fifteen sixty three, Charles
was declared the King of France. Parliament argued against the designation, but Catherine
was insistent. In a document that she drafted for her son at this time,
Catherine set out the four points that she believed essential to successful rule.
The king must provide leadership and be accessible and central to all that happened at
court. The key to harmony and to maintaining a grip on affairs was quote,
to restore the proper function of court end quote. It must be the
central attraction of French life and revolve around the king. She stressed the importance
of a regular routine that ought to be kept by her majesty. Within this,
priority must be given to public affairs, and the expectation of the nobles
had to be fulfilled. Catherine also stressed her determination that the corruption of court
officials had to be stamped out. Business had to be dealt with promptly and
efficiently. Officials often let urgent affairs untended for weeks or months, adding to
the impression that the king was a instant and uncaring figure. She insisted that
Charles be personally available to all the people who came to present their grievances,
writing quote, take care to speak to them whenever they present themselves in your
chamber. I saw this done in the day of your grandfather and your father,
and when they had finished speaking about their business, they were encouraged to
converse about their families and their personal matters end quote. She also advised the
king to keep a close hand on all questions of patronage. If he had
a firm grasp of affairs relating to available offices, vacancies, and everything within
his gift, he would control not only the court but also the provinces,
stamp out corruption against the crown, and win the people's loyalty at the same
time. Here she cited the story of Louis the Twelfth, who had carried
a list of vacant offices on him everywhere he went. Francis the first paid
key provincial figures to keep him abreast of vacancies and developments, down to the
very last detail. The provincial garrisons, whose importance Francis consistently dress, were
not just for local defense, but also provided a useful quote chivalric center for
local magnates. Dispensing the spirit a fair the desire to make trouble. She
told Charles that the care of the merchants and the bourgeoisie was now of more
importance than ever before. This political testament doesn't address many important elements required for
a successful ruler. It's not a Machiavelian text, and there's no advice,
for example, on finance or military matters at all. But it's believed that
the original document had two parts, and only one of these remains, so
we can't be certain. But if you think about the magnificence of Court and
how she stresses the importance of patronage, you can see that we're just a
hop, skip and a jump from Louis the fourteenth. Catherine had now effectively
tied the piece of Ambois to the king's coming of age. This riled the
ultra Catholic faction led by the Geese family, who now made a very dramatic
into court dressed in all black. They demanded that the Duke's murderer be brought
to justice immediately, which of course would only have reignited the ongoing civil war.
In January fifteen sixty four, the King announced, however, that there
would be no immediate judgment. Instead, the matter would simply be held over
for three years. Clearly the true author of this sage pronouncement was Catherine.
Its purpose was obvious punt the issue in the hopes that things simply calmed down
in the interim, but in reality little changed. Throughout January and February fifteen
sixty four, there were multiple attempts on the lives of the leaders of the
various factions and Catherine's life, though for the moment there was no further bloodshed.
Unfortunately for Catherine, Charles really did not look the part of a majestic
king. It was frail in an emic, but she did the best with
what she had, and luckily for her, Charles at least low hunting a
fond pastime of any masculine noble male, so she had that to build upon.
Like his late brother Francis the Second, Charles seemed to lose himself in
the frenzy of the hunt. Although he was weak and his health was often
poor, he would push himself as hard as he could. Everyone noticed that
he had difficulty catching his breath, and as the years passed, he grew
weaker with each debilitating crisis, slowly becoming maddened in both body and mind.
As time progressed, his rages became so violent the courtiers genuinely feared for their
lives. Eventually, attacks of complete dementia would seize the king. But even
now, at thirteen years of age, an essentially kind and generous hearted boy,
he often found himself prey to occasional, ungovernable outbursts of anger. Charles
delighted in the chase, but showed an abnormal and morbid interest in the kill.
On occasion he even eviscerated his prey with his own hands. Now,
Charles was, to his credit, a very talented artist, as well as
evidently novice butcher. He also spoke Latin, Greek, and of course his
mothers flew into Italian. Charles was close to his family, though he had
a rivalry with his younger brother Eduard Alexandre. Note throughout history, Edard Alexandre
is referred to typically as Ari, Duke of Anjou. I'm going to do
the same. Auri was less obsessed with the hunt than his brother, but
quite masculine by standards of the day. Charles's sister Margaret, enjoyed the best
health of anyone in the family, though her mother certainly liked her the least.
The youngest child, by the way, is still around Hercules. He
was clearly the proverbial runt of the litter. He was hideously deformed, and
his legs were twisted such that he was only a little taller than the court
dwarf. For those fans of Game of Thrones, he may well have been
the inspiration for Tyrian Leanister. Ironically, Catherine had a fascination with dwarfs,
so there were plenty of them around to compare her son to. It had
always been Catherine's dream to take her family on a grand tour of the realm,
a grand progress. Now with her son officially king, she decided this
was the moment the whole court, in all its majesty, would go on
a visitation. Maybe, she hoped seeing the new king and his court would
well the religious unrest that seemed to threaten to terror the kingdom apart even still,
but the visitation had another purpose. She intended to personally meet with Philip
the Second at the Spanish border in the hopes of cementing a permanent alliance.
Catherine placed the Constable in overall charge of the Royal Progress, which left Paris
for Fontainebleau on the twenty fourth of January fifteen sixty four. They were not
set to return until May fifteen sixty six, nearly two and a half years
later. Several thousand members of the court and their servants made up the Great
Royal Progress. Among the essential members of the party were the King's Council.
In order that the government business could be conducted as they moved and of course
all the foreign ambassadors. Catherine hoped that the latter would report back to their
various masters describing the splendor of the train, thereby refuting the widely held view
that France was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The royal household traveled with
their usual attendants, ladies and gentlemen, including a flying squadron of girls,
tutors, priests, five doctors, five kitchen officers, five samollers, cooks,
musicians, porters, grooms, beaters for the hunt, and nine,
of course, essential dwarfs, who of course had their own miniature coaches.
The number of horses and mules required to transport both people and luggage, particularly
the gold studded trunks of the royal family, was phenomenal. With them,
the party carried everything from furniture and cooking utensils to clothes and costumes for all
the festivals, feasts and masks that had been planned. Portable triumphal arches which
could be easily erected when needed, were also stowed and elaborate royal barges for
when the royal pageant took to the water, it was quite literally a city
on the move. Catherine brought with her such diverse items as silk sheets,
silver washbinds, gold plate for banquets, a writing table registers papers, money,
hats, and her loot, and lyar in bad ways. Whether or
when the nit arose, she chose to travel either in horse drawn litter or
in a cumbersome coach drawn by six horses, so that she could conduct state
business in transit. The seats were lined with green velvet and cushions, and
the children would often sit with her in this coach, so spacious that it
resembled a small room. Unfortunately, these vast vehicles induced attacks of travel sickness
that were anything but majestic. So when weather and work permitted, the Queen
Mother, who had six of her finest horses with her, would ride along
with the rest of the nobles. Whenever possible, the royal family would travel
by barge, travel by water being simply the easiest way to get around in
this age. For protection, of course, there were four companies of soldiers,
a company of light horse, and a unit of the French Guard,
whose commander was Filippio Stratzi, a second cousin to the Queen Mother. As
the progression began, it was joined by the Cardinal of Lorraine. Freshly returned
from the finally resolved Council of Trent. He brought with him the Tridentine Decrees,
the rulings of the Council, which today comprise what historians have dubbed the
counter Reformation. The initial goal of Trent had been to forced all the Reformation.
To that end, the decrees were just a tad too late, you
might say. Catherine was determined to oppose the decrees. They would have largely
removed the French Crown's ability to manage the French Church, and all those hard
won rights, hard won over centuries would revert instantly back to the papacy.
Catherine deeply resented the papacy's attempts to enforce their rule over matters that were,
in her opinion, strictly reserved to the Crown. Her attitude hardened further when
Jean de Albert, Queen of Navarre, received to summons from Rome on a
charge of heresy. Infuriated that Pope Pius the Fourth dared to threaten a sovereign
and moreover won with actual land and property in France, Catherine replied that he
had no license to rule over foreign princes, nor to dispose them of their
properties. The entire concept was anathema to the Queen Mother, for whom rights
of the crown had become almost a religion to itself. She protected the Queen
of Navarre, and Pious deemed it wise to leave the matter alone. Jean
would later write, gratefully, quote, I put myself wholly under the wing
of your powerful protection. I will go to find you wherever you may be,
and shall kiss your feet more willingly than the popes end quote. Finally,
the progress set off in Ernest on March the thirteenth, fifteen sixty four.
On March the twenty third, the court reached Twas, where it remained
for Easter, the Protestant members having to celebrate the holiday four leagues outside the
city, and the practice thereof continued to be such a problem that during the
early months of the progress, so on June the twenty fourth rather exacerbated.
Charles the ninth, probably through Catherine, ordered that no Protestant ceremonies, accept
baptisms, and marriages would be permitted for the duration of the tour. Protestantism
was very much neither to be seen nor heard. That was how Charles was
going to keep the peace. Catherine was determined to force this piece no matter
what. In lyon, she forced Protestant and Catholic members of court to walk
side by side in a procession. See look, everyone's happy. That was
the message. We have no record as to whether or not anyone believed this
charad. We do know that shortly after the court left Leon, plague struck
the city and twenty thousand people died. The Queen Mother then made a visit
to Nostrodamus, the famous astrologer Salon in Provence. It was an interview she
probably looked forward to and dread it. At the same time, she had
infinite respect for his predictions. Unfortunately, just before the royal party arrived at
Salon des Coran, there had been an outbreak of plague, and most of
the townspeople had fled for Catherine. There was no question of avoiding the town
or canceling the interview. Accordingly, Charles ordered that the people returned to give
their king a proper welcome or face punishment. The local population evidently feared royal
ire more than the plague, because they came back to watch their magistri's entry
into the town. The royal family arrived in the mid afternoon of the seventeenth
of October. Charles was quote seated on an African horse with a harness of
black velvet with large trimmings and fringes of gold. His person was robed in
a cloak of Tyrian purple adorned with silver ribbons. He wore an amethys in
one ear and a sapphire in the other end quote. It was arranged that
the Queen Mother would meet Nostra Damas with no fuss or fanfare, and he
suggested he quote move about and meet her majesty away from the vulgar people.
End quote. Now suffering from golt, the aging Austra Damis walked up to
the chateau to meet the King and Queen Mother, moving slowly with a cane
in one hand and his velvet cap in the other. He eventually presented to
the royal party. After greeting the king properly in Latin, a long conversation
ensued, during which the prophet announced that Charles would not predecease the constable.
This hardly gave cause for celebration, because you know, mont Morency was already
in his seventies Catherine gave Nostrodamos two hundred ECUs and made him a royal councilor
and the king's physician. This was not their first meeting, that had actually
taken place in Bluaw back in fifteen sixty, where at Catherine's request, she
had no Stra Damis draw up Honrey of Anjeu's horoscope that predicted one day he
would be king of France. The prophecy seemed to please the Queen mother very
much. Indeed, satisfactory was the interest Nostre Damis had shown during his visit
in a young page boy of the French king's suite. He insisted upon seeing
the boy, who, when called Bolton and Terror, the page was Henri
of Navarre. The following morning, Nostre Damis came back to see the young
Henri of Navarre. This time he inspected the boy's body, and when he
was done, he declared that Henri of Navarre would one day be king.
This pleased Catherine a lot less. Now from there the court proceeded to the
Mediterranean, which Catherine adored. They saw orange trees for the first time,
imported from China via Portugal, but then in December, bad news reached the
entourage. There was of course trouble, and I mean religious trouble. Back
in Paris. Martial de Montmorency, the Constable's oldest son, had gotten a
into an argument with the Cardinal of Lorraine, whose of course Geese, and
he was bringing troops to escort him into the city. As armed escorts were
banned, the Marshal de Maranci, who was also the governor of Paris,
had been forced to use his own men than to try and split up the
Cardinal's troops. Hearing this, the Geese family had sent reinforcements to their brother,
while simultaneously, Cologni, a Protestant, ordered five hundred soldiers to the
capitol to now counter the Geese's move. Now, after a time, Cologni's
men left Paris peacefully, but a renewed outbreak of civil war was only narrowly
averted. Marshal de Montmorencis swaggering and overbearing behavior had generally irritated almost everyone who
mattered, and his bravado and abuse of power in the king's absence had been
bound to cause trouble. News that can day, another Protestant was fortifying garrisons
and Picardy also arrived, to cause the Queen mother much disquiet, to the
astonishment of the Spanish ambassador, she refused to do anything other than send a
few written reprimands and keep herself informed of further developments. But the biggest event
of the tour was yet to take place, the meeting with Philip of Spain
in June fifteen sixty five. Now, Catherine knew full well that the Edict
of Ambois disgusted Philip. Now no one knows exactly why, but at some
point Philip decided that he was not going to meet Catherine in person. Now,
generally monarchs didn't meet face to face, and that might be why.
Regardless as to the reason, though, Catherine was very disappointed. However,
when she found out she would still be permitted to meet her daughter, then
she was once more pleased, and so on May the third, the party
left Bordeaux to meet Elizabeth at Mayon. On May eighth, at Mont Marsan,
Catherine heard, to her dismay rumors that Philip had decided not to send
Elizabeth after all. He was particularly displeased having heard that Catherine had, while
on the Mediterranean coast, received an emissary from the Sultan of Turkey, and
he'd also learned from his spies that a French expedition to Florida was being organized
by Catherine to sail from Dieppe. The Spanish felt fiercely protective of their New
World discoveries, and they didn't like the threat of any other nation interfering in
lands that they had been so happily plundering. Any last hopes that Catherine might
have fostered a Philip attending the meeting had now died, though her daughter finally
received permission to meet her mother after all. Unfortunately, Philip had also decided
to send the severe and ferocious Duke of Alba, the same guy who's going
to be sent to tame the Netherlands, as his personal representative. He hoped
that Alba would talk some sense into the Queen mother about the three issues that
irritated him Conversations with the Turk, concessions to French Protestants, and of course,
land claims in Florida. Three weeks later, on the thirtieth of May,
while the court remained in place, Catherine set off for Bayon incognito.
She needed time to prepare for her daughter's arrival, which had been arranged for
the fourteenth of June. The meeting between mother and daughter was extremely touching.
By all accounts. Philip demanded that his wife not be quote unquote infected by
heretics, so Conde was not permitted anywhere near the meeting. The heat was
also so intense that several people fainted from exhaustion, but that was really the
only hiccup. Catherine found Elizabeth much changed since leaving her mother in fifteen fifty
nine. Her daughter had become more Spanish than French, and had acquired many
of the elaborate formalities of her adopted land. When she spoke, it was
with the words of her husband, whom she loved, and years of indoctrination
by an older man who at last had found true happiness, it seems,
with Elizabeth his third wife, and that brought her uninformed. At least that's
what Philip would have said, Mine to think as he did. Thus,
after a few first impulsive embraces and displays of tenderness, Elizabeth suddenly became more
formal and restrained. Though they tried to recapture them, the easiness of their
former days was just gone. Elizabeth had become Philip's mouthpiece for all practical purposes,
and after a long and futile effort begging her mother to see reason,
she received a quick response from Catherine. Quote, so your husband Philip suspects
me. Do you know that his suspicions will lead us to war? End
quote? Elizabeth replied, what makes you suppose, madame, that the king
suspects your majesty? To this, the Queen mother remarked, how Spanish you
have become my daughter now. In addition to Elizabeth and Alva, Philip had
taken trouble to replace his ambassador to France, Chantonnay, for Francis's Duke of
Alva. He hoped that by removing Chantonnay, whose relationship with Catherine had often
been less cordial and marked by his frequent reproaches, veiled threats and supports for
the Protestants, this new man might help bring Catherine firmly back into the Catholic
camp. Of course, one of the key reasons that Catherine had wanted this
meeting in the first place was that she wanted to promote further marriages between the
House of Balos and the Habsburgs. Alba, who had no experience dealing with
a woman especially one who employed every device and artifice to flatter and conjole him,
found himself kind of out of sorts. Her naive belief in the power
of dynastic unions, and some might say if fundamentally bourgeoisie desire to see her
younger children well married were not at all what the Duke of Alba was expecting.
The idea old idea of a union between Margot and the insane Don Carlos
was resurrected, and then Catherine enthusiastically suggested a new proposal that Aenri of Anjou
should be married to Juana, Dowager, Queen of Portugal and Philip's sister.
The fact that Juana was twice Amri's age and Don Carlos also was a homicidal
madiac shortly to be locked in the cell didn't worry Catherine in the slightest.
Off his guard and just not familiar with having marriage discussions, Alba steadily grew
gruff, soldierly, and distant in all the meetings. In each ensuing talk,
he did his best to keep the conversation focused on religion, specifically Catherine's
policy of religious toleration, which, of course Philip despised. He even hinted
at one point that if Catherine could not contain the growth of heresy within her
own realm, then Philip would have to step in into it for her.
Clearly, this was a veiled threat of war. Catherine was unmoved. She
did not believe a new wave of persecution would solve her problems. Indeed,
as Albo was about to find out for himself in the Netherlands, persecution is
rarely a path to peace. Finally, exasperated, the Duke gave up trying
to convince Catherine otherwise. Now as an aside, Charles was present for this
meeting with his sister, but he took no part at all in the serious
negotiations. This was still very much Catherine's show to run. In the end,
the meetings solved nothing. Spain was as distrustful of Catherine and in France
as ever, Catherine had agreed to nothing on the religious front, so for
the Spanish the whole affair had been a waste of time. On July second,
fifteen sixty five, Catherine left she would never see her daughter again.
Catherine, for her part, felt the meeting had been a modest success because
even if it had resolved nothing, neither had it made the situation worse.
But the Huguenots at court didn't see it that way. They had been effectively
banished, plus Catherine had fraternized with Alba, who they hated. Years later
they would point to this meeting as a time when the seeds of future deadly
conflict were sown. The biggest problem is that Catherine's policy of toleration had only
in the end made both sides distrustful of her and gained her no firm allies.
She had tried to chart this middle course, and she had now found
herself essentially alone on a boat from the Spanish border. The procession now slowly
made its way home. On January sixth, fifteen sixty six, news of
terrible atrocities from Florida, where Spanish colonists had massacred the newly arrived mainly French
Protestant colonists. The French had actually reached the new territory first, and claimed
that in the name of their king, but they had reckoned, without Philip's
fury, that there should be a colony of French heretics anywhere even remotely close
to Spanish territory. He had sent a force of twenty six thousand men who
attacked the six hundred settlers, which is a little bit of being outnumbered,
and four companies of French soldiers. In a fury of bloodletting, most of
the settlers, men, women and children had their throats cut. Only a
handful managed to escape. The French court was agassed when it heard the news.
In the end, however, Catherine was powerless to avenge the killings.
At long last. On the first of May fifteen sixty six, after eight
hundred and twenty nine days tour, arrived back in Paris. Catherine saw this
as an epic personal triumph. To some extent it was. But beneath the
veneer of cooperation, the rest of passions of religion continued to ferment, and,
as we will see next week, conflict loomed ominously on the horizon.
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