Hello and welcome to Western Siev Episode three hundred and five, The Second War
of Religion. In the summer of fifteen sixty six, the Dutch Revolt broke
out in the Netherlands. This led to an immediate heightening of tensions between Huguenots
and Catholics in France. Not only was the revolt right on the Kingdom's border,
but the Spanish were also deeply unpopular in France at the time. Catherine
at the time, though, couldn't resist a dig at the failure of Philip's
rigorous and uncompromising policies in the Low Countries. She wrote as follows, to
him, take us as example, for we have sufficiently shown, at our
own cost, how others should govern themselves. But if Catherine believed Philip was
about to take a page from her toleration playbook, she was sadly mistaken,
As we know his response was anything but tolerant. In France, Catherine continued
her policy of peace first, everything else second. Her only goal was to
ensure that at either side not antagonized the other. That being said, by
the summer of fifteen sixty six, the Geese faction had yet again quit court
as Colonni and their Protestant faction appeared to have the King's ear, at least
for the moment. The Huguenots naturally took full advantage of their moment of seeming
royal favor and began to press the cause of their co religionists in the Netherlands,
whose calls for aid grew ever more urgent. Colonnie, offering Huguenot military
assistance, argued forcefully that French interests would be served if they helped eject Spain
from the neighboring Low countries, even suggesting that Charles might like to add these
territories to France. Catherine promptly put a stop to this discussion. The very
last thing she wanted was to inflame Philip. Besides, she needed help from
him with yet another of her marriage projects. In this case, she wished
to marry the king to one of the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian's daughters. She mistakenly
imagined that Philip would feel grateful for her stand against Cologni's plans and in return
underwrite this project. He wouldn't, However, a further bond between the DWO
dynasties formed when word arrived that Elizabeth, after suffering several miscarriages, had on
the twelfth of August fifteen sixty seven, successfully given birth in Spain to a
daughter, the Infanta. The former Queen Charles ultimately turned down Colony's request for
France to intervene in the Netherlands. As a result and part of French neutrality,
Philip prepared to send his massive army to suppress the rebellion, but his
proposed route infuriated Catherine. Philip wanted his army to disembark at Fruse in southern
France and then march overland through French territory to the Netherlands. Catherine gave a
quick and blunt answer to this request. No way. Peace in her kingdom
was precarious at best, and the notion of twenty thousand Spanish troops marauding their
way through the French countryside was not something that Catherine was about to even consider,
nor would she consider Philip's request that France should join his quote unquote righteous
crusade. In the end, found a different route, though it wasn't honestly
much better, given that it essentially led the Spanish army through Savoy and Lorraine
around the Rhine River and up towards the Netherlands. The Spanish army marched toward
Flanders, though Philip had decided not to lead his troops himself, but put
the Duke of Alba at their head, and then simultaneously he had decided to
replace Margaret as regent of the Netherlands, both facts we already know. The
Duke had orders to repress and, if need be, exterminate the rebels without
Mercy, a job he was good at. Such a large Spanish force on
her northern border hosed a critical danger to France. So, amid a lot
of anxiety on the royal council, Catherine and Charles set out immediately to inspect
their northern defenses. As an additional precaution, Charles hired six thousand Swiss mercenaries,
as well as reinforcing garrisons at Piedmont, Champan and what are called in
the historical records the three bishoprics. These are the cities of tool, Metz
and Verdun. Philip found these security measures outrageously insulting for some reason, and
the Spanish ambassador protested to the Queen Mother quote, the king has no need
of such an army the king she's talking about there, as Charles, Catherine,
knowing well the reputation for ferocity of the Spanish soldiers, felt equally incensed
that she had not been kept fully informed of Philip's plans. She commanded the
French ambassador in Madrid to explain her situation rhetorically, asking is it reasonable that,
among all the violent turbulence which is everywhere, we should be at the
mercy of anyone who wishes to do us harm. Typically, at the same
time, to keep Philip assured of her overall goodwill and good intentions, she
sent his army supplies of grain. This was also strategically a good idea.
Catherine had good reason to feel the predations of foreign powers. Maximilian the Holy
Roman Emperor was enjoying a brief respite in his war against the Turks, and
he might also find this a good moment to attack and enfeebled France. Meanwhile,
Queen Elizabeth the First of England had just sent Thomas Norris as a special
envoy to the French court to demand the return of Calais. Catherine wrote a
rather uncompromising reply that Charles signed his name to quote. Since the Queen Elizabeth
I had broken the peace herself by taking LaHave. She should renounce Calais and
be content to keep the natural boundaries of her kingdom end quote. By the
summer fifteen sixty seven, Dutch Protestants had become convinced that the six thousand strong
French army those were those aforementioned Swiss mercenaries on their border, was about to
be used against them. There were two reasons for this. First, King
Charles kept the army in place even after the Duke had moved the Spanish army
deep into the Netherlands, and therefore the danger had ostensibly passed. Second,
rumors abounded with tales of Catholic atrocities against Huguenots throughout the French countryside. There
had been atrocities, but interestingly they had gone the other way. Catherine quickly
made it clear she wouldn't tolerate such lawlessness, and the Protestants within the French
court quickly found themselves on the outside looking in. That was how quickly royal
favor might change in the late sixteenth century. Moreover, the executions, as
we know, of several leading nobles back in the Netherlands made Conde de Colonni
and the other Huguenot nobles more than a little nervous, though Catherine assured them
that she intended to scrupulously follow the Edict of Ambois. But the late sixteenth
century was a tough time for trust. There were so many rumors too,
rumors that everyone was so much on edge. So it was that when Charles
refused to dismiss his Swiss mercenaries, everybody assumed the worst. Huguenots quickly began
to plan for conflict, concocting an elaborate plot to capture the royal family and
then take several large towns that could stand as Huguenot bastions in the event of
an all out civil war. On September the eighteenth, word finally reached Catherine,
detailing the Protestant preparations to brush them off. Mount Morenci, still in
charge of protecting the royal family, did so as well, but he was
sadly mistaken. His spy network wasn't what it had been years before, and
the Huguenots had gotten a lot better at screening their movements. So it was,
though, while the Spanish continued to warn Catherine of an impending attack,
she kept enjoying an Indian summer and her hunt. But by September twenty six,
fifteen sixty seven, even Catherine could no longer ignore the reality been far
too many reports of Huguenot troops taking up positions in and around where the court
was situated. So Catherine recalled the Swiss guard, which wasn't far off,
but far enough away that it needed to be recalled, and then she moved
the court to the nearby fortified town of may You. At three o'clock in
the morning on the twenty seventh of September, the Swiss troops arrived, and,
taking the advice of the geeses against that of the Constable, Catherine decided
to make a dash for Paris, preferring to risk flight rather than be besieged
at Mayou. At the center of a square troop of formation surrounded by a
quote forest of Swiss pikes end quote, the Queen, mother and the King,
their family and most senior nobles set out for the capital. Terrified,
the rest of the court joined the exodus as best they could. Rebel cavalrymen
harried and attacked the party several times at the start of a hazardous journey,
but the Swiss were able to successfully repulse each assault. Finally, it was
DECI decided that Catherine, the King and her children should dash ahead in light
carriages with a small guard to Paris, where they arrived at four o'clock in
the morning, eventually followed by the rest of the party. The courtier's appearance
made a rather uninspiring spectacle as they entered the city disheveled, terrified, and
exhausted, many of them having made the entire journey on foot. Throughout the
sprint to Paris, Catherine had watched Charles weep with rage and promise from that
day onward quote he would never allow anyone to frighten him again, and swore
to pursue the culprits into their houses and beds. He intended henceforth to lay
down the law to everyone great and small end quote. The Huguenots, frustrated
at missing their opportunity to capture the royal family, decided to make camp at
San Denis, then outside Paris, now within Paris, and if you're listening
to this, really based the site of the twenty twenty four Olympics. From
there they would blockade the sen and prepare to besiege the city of Paris itself,
Catherine sent for Conde to see what terms might bring an end to all
of this. He responded that the Royal Catholic faction needed to disarm entirely,
that the Edict of Ambois had to be fully and faithfully reinstated, and that
as an aside, taxes needed to be lowered. To that end, he
demanded that the Estates General be recalled into session. He told the King's messengers
that the French people were suffering under the onerous debts caused by foreigners, and
especially the Italians, a direct attack on Catherine and the Italian money lenders who
propped up per regime. Exasperated, Catherine determined that she could no longer play
the role of peace Baker. Here's where things were really start to change in
our French story. Charles was now left with no choice but to fight the
rebels head on. Civil war was inevitable. The king quickly raised an army,
while Catherine reached out to Philip of Spain as well as the Pope for
assistance. On October the seventh, as tradition demanded, a herald of the
King approached. Condey and the other rebel leaders had demanded that they disbanded their
army. Conde replied that he was not a rebel. He merely wanted to
save France from its present troubles. But the time for talk was over.
On November the tenth, the Constable rode out of Paris at the head of
the King's sixteen thousand man strong army. Charles had made an impetuous attempt to
lead the army himself, but Montmorenci had wisely held the reigns of the king's
horse because he need not risk himself fighting these rebels. The seventy four year
old Constable of Fans told the king. A sweeping and courageous cavalry charged by
Conde nearly won the battle, but was repulsed by the royal troops, and
by nightfall the Huguenot army quit the field. During the battle, the Constable
received a mortal wound, having endured several blows to the face and had an
arkibus shot in the back, left him dying in agony. Carried back to
the city, and after much suffering, the old man died on the twelfth
of November. Catherine and the King ordered a funeral with such honors that it
could almost have been mistaken for a royal internment. Montmorency was finally laid to
rest Assan Deni near the tomb of Henry the Second, the king that he
had loved and served so faithfully. Having lost the constable, Catherine now made
a grievous error. She appointed her sixteen year old son, Henri of Anjou,
lieutenant general of the army. Not only did he have no mililitary experience
at all, but she surrounded the teenager with a motley crew of petty lords
who were much more interested in fighting amongst themselves than advancing on Conde. Meanwhile,
Conde had withdrawn towards the east that eventually joined his forces with those of
a large condition of German writers, hired troops from Protestant princes who had come
to his aid. Just before Christmas fifteen sixty seven, Catherine summoned the Spanish
ambassador and asked him to join her for a walk in the gardens of the
Tuleery, where building had started on a new palace. Catherine excused her son
Ariavonjou military's incompetence by blaming his youth, but the ambassador responded rather uncompromising.
Why blame your's son's youth, he asked when she Catherine had chosen idiots as
his chief commanders those men Conseil was a nobody, Nemours was too love struck
to think of war, and Montpensier was an absolute fool. This man,
whose name was Alva, strongly advocated that the Queen mother appoint tavannas a great
and loyal soldier who would not flinch from doing his duty, and so in
January fifteen sixty eight, Catherine set out for Angu's headquarters as Charles Laman.
The disarray of the camp was obvious. Had it not been for the arguments
between two senior officers who preferred to arrange a private quarrel between themselves before taking
up arms, the German writers might have been prevented from uniting with the rest
of the enemy army. Furthermore, with the army chiefs unable to agree on
a course of action, the Queen found her son and his commanders in a
state of hopeless chaos. She therefore followed the Spanish ambassador's advice and placed Tavanness
at the head of a vanguard part of an army, and decided that they
should proceed to Toois to stop the Huguenots from capturing the heartlands of France.
Now. It was around this time that Catherine also entered into secret talks with
the rebels about a potential resolution to all of this. While these talks ultimately
came to nothing, they still cost Catherine politically. When rumors of them leaked
out. The Parisians, who had suffered greatly under the blockade, were furious
that the Queen Mother would accept anything but the complete obliteration of the Huguenot scourge.
There were even a few riots that the Royal Guard had to quell as
a result. Despite the bitterly cold winter of fifteen sixty six sixty eight,
the Huguenots and the German writers made substantial advances, reaching Agerre and then racing
onwards to take view. In the face of the Protestant progress, Anjou was
forced to pull back his forces in Paris once again lay open to the enemy.
Charles, already angry at his brother's military command and incompetence, declared that
he himself would lead the Royal army to victory, but Catherine refused to allow
the king to expose himself to such danger. Condey managed to reach Chatras in
late February and laid siege to the city, but his campaign stopped there due
to a lack of money and supplies. During the war, both sides have
been pillaging the countryside, leaving the land ravaged and the peasants in a precarious
state. Now there remained nothing to live off of, Condey sent out an
urgent appeal to the King for talks, which he answered and resulted in the
Peace of Longemieu, signed on the twenty third of March fifteen sixty eight.
As usual, of course, everyone hated the deal, but it had the
upshot of ending the war, and really that's the only conclusion that matters.
Charles paid the German mercenaries to get them off of French soil and reinstated the
Peace of Ambois, and the Protestants, for their part, were supposed to
hand back all the towns that they had taken during the very brief but very
chaotic Second War of Religion. Unfortunately, implementing the peace proved much harder than
negotiating it. Protestants refused to hand over some towns. There were wanton acts
of barbarism on both sides. Frankly to a large extent, the quote unquote
peace was worse than the war for many French citizens. As the violence escalated,
it became clear that the Peace of Longemius could barely even be called a
truce. One Protestant historian claimed that more Huguenots died during the period after the
Second Civil War than during both the first two wars together. By late April
fifteen sixty eight, when Catherine called the King's Council, she no longer knew
what to do. On April twenty eighth, she fell desperately ill with a
high fever, suffering from agonizing headaches, vomiting, and pains to her right
side. By May tenth, as Catherine started to bleed from her nose and
mouth, the council began discussions about what they should do in the event of
her death. During these urgent council meetings, Charles had been lost without his
mother to guide him. True to form, the Bishop of Laurent pressed for
the most stringent measures of repression and punishment against the Huguenots, and Catherine's chief
counselor to help Etal, equally true to his form, advised further conciliation.
Just as all hope seemed lost. Catherine's fever started to reduce, though the
illness and sweating returned in the evening. Her bedclothes had to be changed four
or five times each night. She managed to do a little work during the
day. By the twenty fourth of May, she sat propped up in bed,
dictating letters, one to Colon Yie about the theft of money intended to
pay for the departure of the German mercenaries. Charles's almost total paralysis that his
mother beside him had been an alarming taste of what to expect if Catherine did
in fact die of the rash political assassinations that followed the Treaty of Lngeumieux.
One commenter remarked, quote, since France has learned Italian fashion in murder,
and the custom has grown of hiring assassins to cut throats as one might make
a deal with a mason or a carpenter, it would be almost a novelty
if several days were to pass without some crime of this sort. Whereas formerly
a man might not hear of a murder more than ten times in his lifetime.
We know that it was the ancient custom of France, and more religiously
observed than anywhere else to attack an enemy openly, never taking him unarmed or
otherwise at a disadvantage, but always warning him about giving him time to draw,
and considering it unfair to attack him. Two to one of all this,
I've heard the Italians make great sport end quote. The blame for all
this was often laid unfairly at the door of, of course, the Italian
Queen Catherine and the Italian habits she had brought with her. There was a
general sense that social order was disintegrating. What had begun as a religious struggle
was turning into an arket depraved free for all. Now, all this was
going on the Dutch Republic, and revolt continued to burn. A few weeks
after the peace in France, a group of French Protestants moved to join their
religious brethren in the Netherlands. Luckily, Catherine found out about it in time,
and had the force intercepted and turned around, had the French army across
the border, Philip would have been rightly incensed then on the twenty ninth of
July fifteen sixty eight, and ordered Conde arrested. Clearly Throughout the course the
preceding year, her attitude toward the Huguenots had decisively changed. Condey with such
a massive retinue that the Protestants dubbed it a modern flight from Egypt of God's
chosen people fled to La Rochelle. Catherine's problem was that as the economic situation
deteriorated and the civil wars grew in intensity and number, so grew the number
of Huguenots. The people of France were proving themselves increasingly interested in John Calvin's
message of reform and change. Calvin's doctrine seemed to effectively fit with calls for
social and political reform to such an extent that it became difficult to determine whether
people were actually converting out of religious conviction or for some other purpose. I
am probably political. All of this only hardened Tran's attitude. She now wrote
openly of a desire to quote run them the Huguenots to Earth, defeat them,
and destroy them before they can do something worse quote. And it wasn't
just the religious situation that was impacting her mood. Since August, Charles the
ninth had been ill, and his conditions seemed to worsen with every day.
Catherine did not know it, but her son was suffering from the final stages
of tuberculosis. While caring for Charles, Catherine received word that Pope Pius the
fifth had authorized a special levy on church property to pay for what seemed like
an imminent third religious war. Catherine was inclined to do so, but her
chancellor l'ap dal objected, arguing this would only provoke the Huguenots further. This
was the final break for la'apital, who found him himself so isolated due to
this position that he was shortly thereafter forced to retire. His resignation was a
signal the time for conciliation was over. By mid August, the king had
recovered enough to attend council sessions once more. The atmosphere, however, remained
somber. War loomed than everyone knew it. Henry of Anjou was positively giddy
at the idea of leading an army to victory. Catherine prepared what was eventually
to be called the Declaration of Saint Maher, in which in effect she revoked
the Edict of Ambois and declared Catholicism the only legal religion that could be practiced
in France, but Catherine found her work on this interrupted again when Charles's condition
suddenly worsened. Yet somehow eventually he recovered, But the news for Catherine's family
wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Spain, on October the third,
Elizabeth died, having given birth to another child prematurely. Catherine was shocked
at the news, and, upon hearing it, withdrew from court without so
much as a word. There was little time to grieve, however. War
was upon France, although a harsh winter prevented any immediate military engagements. There
was little talk now in the council about a potential compromise, even that Catherine
would not hear. She wanted a decisive victory this time. Interestingly, Catherine
commented around this time that she envied Queen Elizabeth of England, whose subjects followed
the religious policy to the tea as set by the Crown. Elizabeth would have
been overjoyed by this statement had it been remotely accurate. On February the twenty
second, Catherine visited the fortifications at Metz, a cold, wet day.
Shortly thereafter, she fell ill with a fever and remained so while Anjou fought
his first major battle, the first of what is now, by the way,
the Third War of Religion, the Battle of Jarnac, situated near Cognac,
was notable, apart from being a Royalist victory over the Huguenots, for
the final death of the Huguenot leader Luis de Conde. The royal army,
though nominally led by Anjou, was de facto commanded by Catherine's trustee now Marshal
Tavanness. On March thirteenth, fifteen sixty nine, after the Royalists had finally
succeeded in engaging Colonne and his men in battle, Conde, who had injured
his leg the night before, received an urgent summons to bring help to Colonni.
According to the account of his death by the Huguenot soldier and scholar Agrippa
de Albonne, Conde mounted his horse awkwardly and broke his injured legs so badly
that the pone pierced the side of his boot. Despite this, he cried
out quote to face danger for Christ is a blessing, brave and noble Frenchman.
This is the moment we have waited for. End quote He then galloped
off at the head of a splendid though hopeless cavalry charge. Colony, interestingly
enough, had already countermanded his request for help, but the news did not
reach Conde in time. When his horse was killed from under him, he
couldn't get to his feet properly. Weighed down by his armor and the pain
of his broken leg, he surrendered and lifted his visor. The two soldiers
to whom he gave himself up, who were interestingly named de Argens and Monsieur
de Saint Jean, recognized him immediately. De Argens had fought at Algoume with
Conde, where the prince had, interestingly enough, saved his life. Sonjay
also knew him by sight. They advised him to keep his visor down if
he valued his safety. The approaching guard of the Duke of Anjous spotted the
prince and shouted kill kill. At this, Conde turned and said, you
cannot save me. De Argen's Anjou's guard then rather unceremoniously shot Conde in the
back of the neck, the bullet exiting from his right eye. Anjou savored
the death of his princely relative. His men tied Conde's body to a mule
and paraded it around to shouts and jeers of the engaging little ditty quote.
He who avoids the mass now is tied to an ass. It is catchy.
I'll give it that such behavior was worlds away from the chivalric traditions that
have been so highly valued by the previous generation. In a stark contrast,
previously, when Francois, Duke of Guise, had taken con Day prisoner after
the Battle of Jew, he had invited him to stay with him and they
dined together. Now asked what to do with the crowd of captives nearby on
Jeu, is alleged to have ordered quote slay them all end quote. He
left this task to the Swiss mercenaries. This conduct on the field of battle
demonstrates clearly how the usual courtesies and traditions of knightly conduct had been entirely replaced
in these French wars of religion by the passion for vengeance as a result of
the appalling acts each side had now committed against each other since the first Religious
Civil War. I suppose it's a truism that civil wars and wars of religion
tend to produce the worst atrocities. Thus we have a combination here civil war
and war of religion. So should we be surprised just how ghastly these French
war were on Jue proudly announced his victory to Charles, who was certainly jealous
of his brother's accomplishment. Admiral de Colonni was now the sole leader and figurehead
of the Huguenot cause. The Catholics knew he presented a formidable enemy. He
inspired near veneration amongst his Huguenot followers. So it was that on April the
seventh, fifteen sixty nine, the Spanish ambassador went to see Catherine about how
they might deal with the Colonni situation. Together, they agreed it would be
best for colon Ni to well not be alive anymore. To that end,
they placed massive bounties on the heads of all the remaining Huguenot leaders, Colonni
included. So when many of these men fell desperately ill on and around May
the seventh, fifteen sixty nine, everyone soon oomed Catherine had been behind it.
And remember everyone believes Italians all know how to poison people, so it
wasn't much of a logical leap to look at the events and presume ill intentions.
This might seem like simple expediency to us, but at the time it
was a very dishonorable way to deal with your enemies. You had to meet
them face to face and win, not poison their food and drink. Ajou
and the war Council now desperately needed Catherine's presence. The Huguenots had the support
of various German Protestant princes and their armies. The Duke of Bavaria, the
Duke of Vabucan and I'm doing my absolute best on that one, and the
Flemish Prince Louis of Nassau. Were facing a Royalist army of French Catholics,
Swiss Mercenaries, troops financed by Spain, Italians from Rome and Tuscanyan soldiers led
by the Margrave of Baden and the Count Ernest de Mansfeld, besides, were
numerically fairly evenly matched by the autumn of fifteen sixty nine, with the Royalists
holding a slight advantage. Despite this, the Royalist troops felt that their victory
at Jarneck had had been wasted and were angry that the armies of the foreign
Protestant princes had successfully joined the forces due to blunders by Charles commanders. Luckily
for Charles, one of the leading German leaders died after consuming allegedly poisoned wine.
His forces failed to link up with the rest, weakening the Protestant position
at a crucial moment. In July of fifteen sixty nine, Charles passed an
edict confiscating all Huguenot property. Colony was also declared a traitor and sentenced to
death, a difficult sentence to carry out given that the Catholic faction well didn't
have possession of him. On July the fourteenth, the Huguenots laid sieged to
Poitiers. By the fifth of September, Aju had managed to lift it Already
he was beginning to prove himself an excellent student in the art of war.
Then, on October the third, fifteen sixty nine, Aju engaged his enemy
in battle dear Montcoture. Despite a series of brave cavalry charges by Colony,
who was shot in the face at one point, the Catholics held the field
at the day's end. That night, as many as fifteen thousand French Protestant
soldiers were put to death. Colony still had a substantial army, however,
in fact, nearly all of his losses had been infantry, his cavalry totally
intact. He withdrew to La Rochelle and fortified the approaches as best he could.
Tavoness wanted to pursue Colony immediately and put an end to the war,
but when Charles arrived on the field, he wanted a chance to win some
glory for himself, so instead the army decided to spend the necessary time taking
each stronghold approaching La Rochelle, rather than simply just setting off immediately to finish
the job. After the battle, though, the Protestants remained confident, and
so both sides decided that the time was right to open some sort of peace
negotiations. The king seemed opposed to anything other than total capitulation, however.
Peace talks now centered around a proposed marriage between Margot, Catharine's eldest remaining and
single daughter, and Henry of Navarre. The idea was basically the same as
the one that had ended the Wars of the Roses, when Elizabeth of York
married Henry Tudor At the same time, however, the Cardinal of Laurent was
trying to arrange a marriage between Margot and his nephew, Henry of Geese,
for whom Margot seems to have held a genuine in faction. Charles hated that
idea and flew into a rage when he found out that the two were evidently
already romantically involved. The Queen mother summoned Margot before herself and the King,
who beat Margot for her temerity. All this family drama then read to real
consequences. The Cardinal of Laurent wisely quit court when everyone found out he was
behind this alleged marriage union. He was perhaps the most hawkish of any of
the King's advisers, so his absence allowed peace talks to proceed in earnest.
By the end of July, Catherine worked tirelessly to find a solution acceptable to
all. The result was the Treaty of Son Germain on August eighth, fifteen
seventy. Its main terms mirrored the Priests of Ambois of fifteen sixty three.
It allowed the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship, with restrictions as to
location. La Rochelle Cognac Montebain and La Cherte were granted as places of worship
where the Protestants were free. In addition, goods and properties seized during the
Civil War were to be restored. There was to be no discrimination against Huguenots
regarding universities, schools, or hospitals, to which they were to enjoy the
same access as other citizens. Once again, both sides greeted this enlightened treaty
with very little enthusiasm. The Catholics grumbled that they were giving away more than
was needed, while the Protestants thought they weren't being given enough. Charles solemnly
commanded his counselors to swear adherence to the treaty's terms, and Catherine later wrote
quote, I am glad that my son is now old enough to see that
he has better obeyed than in the past. I will help him with my
counsels and with all my power, and will assist him in enforcing the terms
which he has conceded, as I have always wanted to see this kingdom restored
to the state it was under its royal predecessors. Quote. In the end,
Catherine probably just saw the Treaty of San German as a reprieve. She
wanted time to consolidate power. The war had not ended because either side had
won, but because both sides were exhausted. Catherine realized that two religions just
didn't work in France, at least the France that was, and in many
respects it was a France that was quite medieval. The time was important.
It was time for her to recover and consolidate power. She would need every
second, as we will see next time, the men born