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Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve
episode three hundred and four, The Grand

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Progress. Despite the peace of Ambois, neither side in the French Civil War

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was completely disarmed. Catherine chose to
continue on as though a universal peace had

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been declared. However, and as
though the days of religious strife were in

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the rear view mirror, they weren't. Even mere days after Ambois, the

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Princess de Conde was attacked in her
carriage. Conde himself was infuriated and believed

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that it had all been the work
of the Geese faction, but for the

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moment Catherine managed to calm him down. Her goal was to simply out entertain

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the rival factions. She would put
on so many magnificent balls and masks,

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with so many beautiful young women,
that she would exhaust them all with frivolity.

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Before long, Catherine reasoned, these
feudal lords Huguenot and Catholic would just

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forget what all the fuss had been
about in the first place. These lavish

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entertainments quickly made Catherine's court notorious throughout
Europe for its brilliance. Yet throughout it

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all Catherine remained dressed in all black, still technically in mourning for her dead

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husband. She would have been very
conspicuous in a court of so much color,

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and that was probably the point.
Anyway. Catherine might not have had

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the physical looks of all the other
women she kept around herself at court,

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but she wasn't without charm. Indeed, in the months after Ambois, even

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her critics forgot what they had been
so angry about. Notwithstanding her efforts,

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Catherine's days still seemed to be spent
answering complaints from both sides of the First

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War of Religion, each accusing each
other of not observing the peace of Ambois.

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To every complaint, she applied herself
with calm determination to settle the disputes

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tactfully and above all, expediently.
She was so exacerbated by the continual protest

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from Colonnier that she finally wrote to
him stating that if the Protestants continued to

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agitate and break the law, she
would retaliate quote without respect to persons,

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religion, or any other consideration,
but the peace of this state end quote.

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Catherine was the arbitrator, but she
was also indomitable in her task.

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The desire for vengeance, the inevitable
fruit of civil war seemed endemic. Contract

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murders were commonplace and acquired the nickname
quote vengeance in the Italian manner, and

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finally recognizing that drastic measures were required, the Queen Mother took a course of

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audacious political bravery. She decided she
would have the thirteen year old king declared

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to be of age. Technically,
as laid down in the past by Charles

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the Fifth, the legal age of
majority for a king in France was fourteen.

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Catherine decided her son was close enough. She knew full well that a

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king was respected more than a regent, and doubtless hoped that this would cow

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the remaining difficult personalities at court into
some form of submission. Catherine would,

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of course continue to rule, however, the change would be purely cosmetic.

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So it was that, on the
seventeenth of August fifteen sixty three, Charles

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was declared the King of France.
Parliament argued against the designation, but Catherine

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was insistent. In a document that
she drafted for her son at this time,

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Catherine set out the four points that
she believed essential to successful rule.

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The king must provide leadership and be
accessible and central to all that happened at

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court. The key to harmony and
to maintaining a grip on affairs was quote,

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to restore the proper function of court
end quote. It must be the

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central attraction of French life and revolve
around the king. She stressed the importance

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of a regular routine that ought to
be kept by her majesty. Within this,

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priority must be given to public affairs, and the expectation of the nobles

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had to be fulfilled. Catherine also
stressed her determination that the corruption of court

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officials had to be stamped out.
Business had to be dealt with promptly and

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efficiently. Officials often let urgent affairs
untended for weeks or months, adding to

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the impression that the king was a
instant and uncaring figure. She insisted that

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Charles be personally available to all the
people who came to present their grievances,

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writing quote, take care to speak
to them whenever they present themselves in your

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chamber. I saw this done in
the day of your grandfather and your father,

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and when they had finished speaking about
their business, they were encouraged to

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converse about their families and their personal
matters end quote. She also advised the

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king to keep a close hand on
all questions of patronage. If he had

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a firm grasp of affairs relating to
available offices, vacancies, and everything within

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his gift, he would control not
only the court but also the provinces,

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stamp out corruption against the crown,
and win the people's loyalty at the same

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time. Here she cited the story
of Louis the Twelfth, who had carried

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a list of vacant offices on him
everywhere he went. Francis the first paid

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key provincial figures to keep him abreast
of vacancies and developments, down to the

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very last detail. The provincial garrisons, whose importance Francis consistently dress, were

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not just for local defense, but
also provided a useful quote chivalric center for

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local magnates. Dispensing the spirit a
fair the desire to make trouble. She

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told Charles that the care of the
merchants and the bourgeoisie was now of more

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importance than ever before. This political
testament doesn't address many important elements required for

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a successful ruler. It's not a
Machiavelian text, and there's no advice,

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for example, on finance or military
matters at all. But it's believed that

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the original document had two parts,
and only one of these remains, so

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we can't be certain. But if
you think about the magnificence of Court and

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how she stresses the importance of patronage, you can see that we're just a

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hop, skip and a jump from
Louis the fourteenth. Catherine had now effectively

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tied the piece of Ambois to the
king's coming of age. This riled the

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ultra Catholic faction led by the Geese
family, who now made a very dramatic

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into court dressed in all black.
They demanded that the Duke's murderer be brought

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to justice immediately, which of course
would only have reignited the ongoing civil war.

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In January fifteen sixty four, the
King announced, however, that there

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would be no immediate judgment. Instead, the matter would simply be held over

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for three years. Clearly the true
author of this sage pronouncement was Catherine.

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Its purpose was obvious punt the issue
in the hopes that things simply calmed down

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in the interim, but in reality
little changed. Throughout January and February fifteen

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sixty four, there were multiple attempts
on the lives of the leaders of the

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various factions and Catherine's life, though
for the moment there was no further bloodshed.

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Unfortunately for Catherine, Charles really did
not look the part of a majestic

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king. It was frail in an
emic, but she did the best with

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what she had, and luckily for
her, Charles at least low hunting a

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fond pastime of any masculine noble male, so she had that to build upon.

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Like his late brother Francis the Second, Charles seemed to lose himself in

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the frenzy of the hunt. Although
he was weak and his health was often

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poor, he would push himself as
hard as he could. Everyone noticed that

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he had difficulty catching his breath,
and as the years passed, he grew

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weaker with each debilitating crisis, slowly
becoming maddened in both body and mind.

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As time progressed, his rages became
so violent the courtiers genuinely feared for their

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lives. Eventually, attacks of complete
dementia would seize the king. But even

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now, at thirteen years of age, an essentially kind and generous hearted boy,

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he often found himself prey to occasional, ungovernable outbursts of anger. Charles

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delighted in the chase, but showed
an abnormal and morbid interest in the kill.

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On occasion he even eviscerated his prey
with his own hands. Now,

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Charles was, to his credit,
a very talented artist, as well as

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evidently novice butcher. He also spoke
Latin, Greek, and of course his

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mothers flew into Italian. Charles was
close to his family, though he had

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a rivalry with his younger brother Eduard
Alexandre. Note throughout history, Edard Alexandre

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is referred to typically as Ari,
Duke of Anjou. I'm going to do

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the same. Auri was less obsessed
with the hunt than his brother, but

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quite masculine by standards of the day. Charles's sister Margaret, enjoyed the best

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health of anyone in the family,
though her mother certainly liked her the least.

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The youngest child, by the way, is still around Hercules. He

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was clearly the proverbial runt of the
litter. He was hideously deformed, and

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his legs were twisted such that he
was only a little taller than the court

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dwarf. For those fans of Game
of Thrones, he may well have been

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the inspiration for Tyrian Leanister. Ironically, Catherine had a fascination with dwarfs,

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so there were plenty of them around
to compare her son to. It had

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always been Catherine's dream to take her
family on a grand tour of the realm,

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a grand progress. Now with her
son officially king, she decided this

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was the moment the whole court,
in all its majesty, would go on

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a visitation. Maybe, she hoped
seeing the new king and his court would

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well the religious unrest that seemed to
threaten to terror the kingdom apart even still,

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but the visitation had another purpose.
She intended to personally meet with Philip

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the Second at the Spanish border in
the hopes of cementing a permanent alliance.

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Catherine placed the Constable in overall charge
of the Royal Progress, which left Paris

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for Fontainebleau on the twenty fourth of
January fifteen sixty four. They were not

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set to return until May fifteen sixty
six, nearly two and a half years

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later. Several thousand members of the
court and their servants made up the Great

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Royal Progress. Among the essential members
of the party were the King's Council.

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In order that the government business could
be conducted as they moved and of course

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all the foreign ambassadors. Catherine hoped
that the latter would report back to their

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various masters describing the splendor of the
train, thereby refuting the widely held view

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that France was teetering on the brink
of bankruptcy. The royal household traveled with

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their usual attendants, ladies and gentlemen, including a flying squadron of girls,

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tutors, priests, five doctors,
five kitchen officers, five samollers, cooks,

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musicians, porters, grooms, beaters
for the hunt, and nine,

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of course, essential dwarfs, who
of course had their own miniature coaches.

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The number of horses and mules required
to transport both people and luggage, particularly

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the gold studded trunks of the royal
family, was phenomenal. With them,

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the party carried everything from furniture and
cooking utensils to clothes and costumes for all

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the festivals, feasts and masks that
had been planned. Portable triumphal arches which

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could be easily erected when needed,
were also stowed and elaborate royal barges for

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when the royal pageant took to the
water, it was quite literally a city

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on the move. Catherine brought with
her such diverse items as silk sheets,

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silver washbinds, gold plate for banquets, a writing table registers papers, money,

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hats, and her loot, and
lyar in bad ways. Whether or

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when the nit arose, she chose
to travel either in horse drawn litter or

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in a cumbersome coach drawn by six
horses, so that she could conduct state

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business in transit. The seats were
lined with green velvet and cushions, and

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the children would often sit with her
in this coach, so spacious that it

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resembled a small room. Unfortunately,
these vast vehicles induced attacks of travel sickness

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that were anything but majestic. So
when weather and work permitted, the Queen

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Mother, who had six of her
finest horses with her, would ride along

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with the rest of the nobles.
Whenever possible, the royal family would travel

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by barge, travel by water being
simply the easiest way to get around in

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this age. For protection, of
course, there were four companies of soldiers,

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a company of light horse, and
a unit of the French Guard,

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whose commander was Filippio Stratzi, a
second cousin to the Queen Mother. As

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the progression began, it was joined
by the Cardinal of Lorraine. Freshly returned

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from the finally resolved Council of Trent. He brought with him the Tridentine Decrees,

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the rulings of the Council, which
today comprise what historians have dubbed the

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counter Reformation. The initial goal of
Trent had been to forced all the Reformation.

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To that end, the decrees were
just a tad too late, you

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might say. Catherine was determined to
oppose the decrees. They would have largely

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removed the French Crown's ability to manage
the French Church, and all those hard

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won rights, hard won over centuries
would revert instantly back to the papacy.

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Catherine deeply resented the papacy's attempts to
enforce their rule over matters that were,

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in her opinion, strictly reserved to
the Crown. Her attitude hardened further when

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Jean de Albert, Queen of Navarre, received to summons from Rome on a

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charge of heresy. Infuriated that Pope
Pius the Fourth dared to threaten a sovereign

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and moreover won with actual land and
property in France, Catherine replied that he

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had no license to rule over foreign
princes, nor to dispose them of their

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properties. The entire concept was anathema
to the Queen Mother, for whom rights

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of the crown had become almost a
religion to itself. She protected the Queen

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of Navarre, and Pious deemed it
wise to leave the matter alone. Jean

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would later write, gratefully, quote, I put myself wholly under the wing

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of your powerful protection. I will
go to find you wherever you may be,

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and shall kiss your feet more willingly
than the popes end quote. Finally,

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the progress set off in Ernest on
March the thirteenth, fifteen sixty four.

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On March the twenty third, the
court reached Twas, where it remained

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for Easter, the Protestant members having
to celebrate the holiday four leagues outside the

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city, and the practice thereof continued
to be such a problem that during the

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early months of the progress, so
on June the twenty fourth rather exacerbated.

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Charles the ninth, probably through Catherine, ordered that no Protestant ceremonies, accept

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baptisms, and marriages would be permitted
for the duration of the tour. Protestantism

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was very much neither to be seen
nor heard. That was how Charles was

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going to keep the peace. Catherine
was determined to force this piece no matter

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what. In lyon, she forced
Protestant and Catholic members of court to walk

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side by side in a procession.
See look, everyone's happy. That was

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the message. We have no record
as to whether or not anyone believed this

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charad. We do know that shortly
after the court left Leon, plague struck

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the city and twenty thousand people died. The Queen Mother then made a visit

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to Nostrodamus, the famous astrologer Salon
in Provence. It was an interview she

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probably looked forward to and dread it. At the same time, she had

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infinite respect for his predictions. Unfortunately, just before the royal party arrived at

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Salon des Coran, there had been
an outbreak of plague, and most of

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the townspeople had fled for Catherine.
There was no question of avoiding the town

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or canceling the interview. Accordingly,
Charles ordered that the people returned to give

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their king a proper welcome or face
punishment. The local population evidently feared royal

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ire more than the plague, because
they came back to watch their magistri's entry

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into the town. The royal family
arrived in the mid afternoon of the seventeenth

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of October. Charles was quote seated
on an African horse with a harness of

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black velvet with large trimmings and fringes
of gold. His person was robed in

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a cloak of Tyrian purple adorned with
silver ribbons. He wore an amethys in

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one ear and a sapphire in the
other end quote. It was arranged that

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the Queen Mother would meet Nostra Damas
with no fuss or fanfare, and he

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suggested he quote move about and meet
her majesty away from the vulgar people.

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End quote. Now suffering from golt, the aging Austra Damis walked up to

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the chateau to meet the King and
Queen Mother, moving slowly with a cane

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in one hand and his velvet cap
in the other. He eventually presented to

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the royal party. After greeting the
king properly in Latin, a long conversation

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ensued, during which the prophet announced
that Charles would not predecease the constable.

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This hardly gave cause for celebration,
because you know, mont Morency was already

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in his seventies Catherine gave Nostrodamos two
hundred ECUs and made him a royal councilor

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and the king's physician. This was
not their first meeting, that had actually

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taken place in Bluaw back in fifteen
sixty, where at Catherine's request, she

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had no Stra Damis draw up Honrey
of Anjeu's horoscope that predicted one day he

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would be king of France. The
prophecy seemed to please the Queen mother very

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much. Indeed, satisfactory was the
interest Nostre Damis had shown during his visit

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in a young page boy of the
French king's suite. He insisted upon seeing

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the boy, who, when called
Bolton and Terror, the page was Henri

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of Navarre. The following morning,
Nostre Damis came back to see the young

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Henri of Navarre. This time he
inspected the boy's body, and when he

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was done, he declared that Henri
of Navarre would one day be king.

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This pleased Catherine a lot less.
Now from there the court proceeded to the

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Mediterranean, which Catherine adored. They
saw orange trees for the first time,

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imported from China via Portugal, but
then in December, bad news reached the

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entourage. There was of course trouble, and I mean religious trouble. Back

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in Paris. Martial de Montmorency,
the Constable's oldest son, had gotten a

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into an argument with the Cardinal of
Lorraine, whose of course Geese, and

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he was bringing troops to escort him
into the city. As armed escorts were

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banned, the Marshal de Maranci,
who was also the governor of Paris,

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had been forced to use his own
men than to try and split up the

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Cardinal's troops. Hearing this, the
Geese family had sent reinforcements to their brother,

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while simultaneously, Cologni, a Protestant, ordered five hundred soldiers to the

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capitol to now counter the Geese's move. Now, after a time, Cologni's

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men left Paris peacefully, but a
renewed outbreak of civil war was only narrowly

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averted. Marshal de Montmorencis swaggering and
overbearing behavior had generally irritated almost everyone who

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mattered, and his bravado and abuse
of power in the king's absence had been

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bound to cause trouble. News that
can day, another Protestant was fortifying garrisons

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and Picardy also arrived, to cause
the Queen mother much disquiet, to the

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astonishment of the Spanish ambassador, she
refused to do anything other than send a

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few written reprimands and keep herself informed
of further developments. But the biggest event

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of the tour was yet to take
place, the meeting with Philip of Spain

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00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:27.480
in June fifteen sixty five. Now, Catherine knew full well that the Edict

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00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:34.759
of Ambois disgusted Philip. Now no
one knows exactly why, but at some

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00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:41.880
point Philip decided that he was not
going to meet Catherine in person. Now,

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00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:48.200
generally monarchs didn't meet face to face, and that might be why.

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00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:53.200
Regardless as to the reason, though, Catherine was very disappointed. However,

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when she found out she would still
be permitted to meet her daughter, then

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she was once more pleased, and
so on May the third, the party

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00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:08.680
left Bordeaux to meet Elizabeth at Mayon. On May eighth, at Mont Marsan,

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Catherine heard, to her dismay rumors
that Philip had decided not to send

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00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:19.160
Elizabeth after all. He was particularly
displeased having heard that Catherine had, while

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on the Mediterranean coast, received an
emissary from the Sultan of Turkey, and

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he'd also learned from his spies that
a French expedition to Florida was being organized

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by Catherine to sail from Dieppe.
The Spanish felt fiercely protective of their New

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00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:40.920
World discoveries, and they didn't like
the threat of any other nation interfering in

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00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:45.799
lands that they had been so happily
plundering. Any last hopes that Catherine might

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00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:51.279
have fostered a Philip attending the meeting
had now died, though her daughter finally

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00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:56.440
received permission to meet her mother after
all. Unfortunately, Philip had also decided

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00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:00.880
to send the severe and ferocious Duke
of Alba, the same guy who's going

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00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:06.599
to be sent to tame the Netherlands, as his personal representative. He hoped

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that Alba would talk some sense into
the Queen mother about the three issues that

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00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:15.640
irritated him Conversations with the Turk,
concessions to French Protestants, and of course,

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land claims in Florida. Three weeks
later, on the thirtieth of May,

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while the court remained in place,
Catherine set off for Bayon incognito.

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She needed time to prepare for her
daughter's arrival, which had been arranged for

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00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:38.000
the fourteenth of June. The meeting
between mother and daughter was extremely touching.

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00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:45.640
By all accounts. Philip demanded that
his wife not be quote unquote infected by

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00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:51.400
heretics, so Conde was not permitted
anywhere near the meeting. The heat was

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also so intense that several people fainted
from exhaustion, but that was really the

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00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:03.440
only hiccup. Catherine found Elizabeth much
changed since leaving her mother in fifteen fifty

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nine. Her daughter had become more
Spanish than French, and had acquired many

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00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:12.839
of the elaborate formalities of her adopted
land. When she spoke, it was

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with the words of her husband,
whom she loved, and years of indoctrination

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00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:21.200
by an older man who at last
had found true happiness, it seems,

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00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:26.160
with Elizabeth his third wife, and
that brought her uninformed. At least that's

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00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.240
what Philip would have said, Mine
to think as he did. Thus,

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after a few first impulsive embraces and
displays of tenderness, Elizabeth suddenly became more

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00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:40.480
formal and restrained. Though they tried
to recapture them, the easiness of their

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00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:45.680
former days was just gone. Elizabeth
had become Philip's mouthpiece for all practical purposes,

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00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:49.359
and after a long and futile effort
begging her mother to see reason,

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she received a quick response from Catherine. Quote, so your husband Philip suspects

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00:24:56.200 --> 00:25:00.839
me. Do you know that his
suspicions will lead us to war? End

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00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:04.799
quote? Elizabeth replied, what makes
you suppose, madame, that the king

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00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:11.480
suspects your majesty? To this,
the Queen mother remarked, how Spanish you

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00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:18.279
have become my daughter now. In
addition to Elizabeth and Alva, Philip had

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00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:22.920
taken trouble to replace his ambassador to
France, Chantonnay, for Francis's Duke of

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00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:29.759
Alva. He hoped that by removing
Chantonnay, whose relationship with Catherine had often

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00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:34.759
been less cordial and marked by his
frequent reproaches, veiled threats and supports for

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00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:41.480
the Protestants, this new man might
help bring Catherine firmly back into the Catholic

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00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:47.000
camp. Of course, one of
the key reasons that Catherine had wanted this

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00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:52.200
meeting in the first place was that
she wanted to promote further marriages between the

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00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:57.160
House of Balos and the Habsburgs.
Alba, who had no experience dealing with

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00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:03.319
a woman especially one who employed every
device and artifice to flatter and conjole him,

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00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:07.839
found himself kind of out of sorts. Her naive belief in the power

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00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:14.400
of dynastic unions, and some might
say if fundamentally bourgeoisie desire to see her

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00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.079
younger children well married were not at
all what the Duke of Alba was expecting.

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00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:26.759
The idea old idea of a union
between Margot and the insane Don Carlos

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00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:33.359
was resurrected, and then Catherine enthusiastically
suggested a new proposal that Aenri of Anjou

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should be married to Juana, Dowager, Queen of Portugal and Philip's sister.

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00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:42.279
The fact that Juana was twice Amri's
age and Don Carlos also was a homicidal

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00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:47.599
madiac shortly to be locked in the
cell didn't worry Catherine in the slightest.

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Off his guard and just not familiar
with having marriage discussions, Alba steadily grew

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gruff, soldierly, and distant in
all the meetings. In each ensuing talk,

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00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:04.319
he did his best to keep the
conversation focused on religion, specifically Catherine's

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00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:10.119
policy of religious toleration, which,
of course Philip despised. He even hinted

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00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:12.480
at one point that if Catherine could
not contain the growth of heresy within her

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00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.880
own realm, then Philip would have
to step in into it for her.

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00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:22.440
Clearly, this was a veiled threat
of war. Catherine was unmoved. She

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did not believe a new wave of
persecution would solve her problems. Indeed,

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00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:33.160
as Albo was about to find out
for himself in the Netherlands, persecution is

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00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:38.559
rarely a path to peace. Finally, exasperated, the Duke gave up trying

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00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:45.039
to convince Catherine otherwise. Now as
an aside, Charles was present for this

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00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:48.640
meeting with his sister, but he
took no part at all in the serious

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00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:53.519
negotiations. This was still very much
Catherine's show to run. In the end,

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the meetings solved nothing. Spain was
as distrustful of Catherine and in France

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00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:02.839
as ever, Catherine had agreed to
nothing on the religious front, so for

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00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:07.000
the Spanish the whole affair had been
a waste of time. On July second,

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fifteen sixty five, Catherine left she
would never see her daughter again.

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00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:15.200
Catherine, for her part, felt
the meeting had been a modest success because

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00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.319
even if it had resolved nothing,
neither had it made the situation worse.

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00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.960
But the Huguenots at court didn't see
it that way. They had been effectively

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00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:29.000
banished, plus Catherine had fraternized with
Alba, who they hated. Years later

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00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:32.240
they would point to this meeting as
a time when the seeds of future deadly

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conflict were sown. The biggest problem
is that Catherine's policy of toleration had only

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00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:44.440
in the end made both sides distrustful
of her and gained her no firm allies.

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00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:47.480
She had tried to chart this middle
course, and she had now found

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00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:52.960
herself essentially alone on a boat from
the Spanish border. The procession now slowly

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00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:57.359
made its way home. On January
sixth, fifteen sixty six, news of

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00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:04.960
terrible atrocities from Florida, where Spanish
colonists had massacred the newly arrived mainly French

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00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:11.000
Protestant colonists. The French had actually
reached the new territory first, and claimed

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00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:15.480
that in the name of their king, but they had reckoned, without Philip's

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00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:19.920
fury, that there should be a
colony of French heretics anywhere even remotely close

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00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:26.519
to Spanish territory. He had sent
a force of twenty six thousand men who

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attacked the six hundred settlers, which
is a little bit of being outnumbered,

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00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:34.119
and four companies of French soldiers.
In a fury of bloodletting, most of

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00:29:34.119 --> 00:29:38.960
the settlers, men, women and
children had their throats cut. Only a

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00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:45.839
handful managed to escape. The French
court was agassed when it heard the news.

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In the end, however, Catherine
was powerless to avenge the killings.

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00:29:51.640 --> 00:29:56.039
At long last. On the first
of May fifteen sixty six, after eight

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00:29:56.119 --> 00:30:03.160
hundred and twenty nine days tour,
arrived back in Paris. Catherine saw this

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00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:10.839
as an epic personal triumph. To
some extent it was. But beneath the

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00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:18.200
veneer of cooperation, the rest of
passions of religion continued to ferment, and,

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as we will see next week,
conflict loomed ominously on the horizon.

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If you've enjoyed the show, feel
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345
00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:33.519
the show notes. I have a
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