WEBVTT

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Hello and Welcome to Western SIEV Episode
three hundred Huguenots and Catholics. Due to

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a series of accidents and thanks to
her skill, the forty one year old

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Catherine de Medici now found herself the
de facto ruler of France. Her foremost

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desire was to turn back the clock
to the early days of Henry the Second,

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when the realm appeared to be ascendant. To that end, she set

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about creating new symbols of royal authority
that would harken back to an earlier,

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more prosperous time, and symbols that
would seek to unite a disunified realm.

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She had a huge new seal crafted
for herself as the Governor of France her

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new title. Then she had Michel
de la Habital confirmed as Chancellor in March

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of fifteen sixty one. De Habital
was an educated man with legal training that

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would help Catherine develop intellectually some of
the ideas which up to this point had

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been reached by her instincts but not
by her legal abilities. Her half formed

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solutions based on common sense would now
acquire a finished elegance, though her innate

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ability to understand what a situation required
had proved sound enough. Thus, far

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de l'abitel translated Catherine's will into a
form that could be converted into public policy

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by the state apparatus. He also
aided her presentation of her agendas. Through

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de la habital, she acquired a
polish that frequently left her listeners surprised and

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impressed. Catherine then went on to
make Bourband the Lieutenant General of France and

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freed his brother Conde from jail in
fifteen sixty one. These were overt symbols

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to the people of France that this
regime would be different. This regime would

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not include the Geese family. But
of course, the other issue was France

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was essentially bankrupt due to the pressing
financial nightmare that continued to bedevil the kingdom.

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Catherine needed the estate's general endorsement of
her position and to support her desperate

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need to raise money. Despite the
death of France as the second it had

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been agreed that the meeting of the
Assembly should proceed, and Catherine spent days

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immediately beforehand reinforcing her position. Geese
was still around and at the head of

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a small army or Bond continued to
be docile. Letters went out to the

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provinces and foreign powers, announcing Catherine's
new powers and the subordinate role. According

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to Borbon, the arrival of the
Constable with four hundred armed men suggested he

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might cause difficulties, especially when Catherine
confirmed that Geese remained in command of the

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army. But Montmorency understood that the
change in regime meant that he and his

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family could expect to prosper much more
than they had under Francis the Second and

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the Geeses. He realized nothing could
be gained by agitation at this point,

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he needed the transition of power to
be confirmed first. Thus Catherine managed to

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present at least superficially a united front
to the Estates General when they finally convened.

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Now, the historic purpose of the
Estates General, which is going to

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take more and more center stage in
this show as we move forward, was

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to quote present grievances to the King
and the voting of money end quote.

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But historically it had only been rarely
and by the monarch at least very reluctantly

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called. To present the factions of
Geese, Barban and Mortmond sy as both

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loyal and harmonious was essential to the
Queen Mother, no matter how maybe incredible

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of a picture that was projecting seated
together at the opening ceremony with Catherine and

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her children. The albeit incongruentous unity
strengthened her image as an effective ruler and

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sent a message to the estates potentially
troublesome representatives that she had the backing already

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of the country's most powerful nobles.
This was a done deal. In his

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address to the Deputies, de la
Abital made it quite clear that the Queen

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Mother viewed decisions by the crown to
be above debate and final, nor would

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she hear any claims arising from anything
from the past. That was key.

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It was a done deal. That
book was closed. We're not going backwards.

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Catherine made it clear, We're going
forward. It rapidly dawned on the

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deputies of the Estates General that they
had not been called for genuine consultation,

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but in order to give them money. If Henry the Second's wars and gifts

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had depleted King Francis the Second's cash
reserves, his son's short reign left Catherine

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staring at an empty treasury. Even
the usual means of raising money by the

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sale of offices, however, corrupt, had been so deluded that they could

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no longer contribute anything of substance.
Squeezing money from the peasantry during the Wars

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of Henry the Second had left them
so impoverished that the estates were now being

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called upon to replenish the treasury.
Of the three estates that made up the

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Estates General, the nobility, the
clergy, and the commoners, only the

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clergy felt itself really vulnerable. Since
its riches were still relatively intact, it

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was certainly the most conscientious estate to
pillage. Now in effect, the new

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Chancellor was asking the Estates General to
raise funds and means to give the Crown

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back its independence from itself, and
nobody misunderstood what was going on. Once

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the flowery, legal and loyal language
had all been bandied about, the bare

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fact remained that this was an auditious
ask, to say the least, since

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none of the three estates stepped up
to offer a solution, they'll all beat

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del asked them to consider the proposal
he now put to them. His prescription

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was to raise the what are called
talaise. This is the Crown's only direct

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tax, the burden of which fell
upon the peasantry, as the nobles and

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clergy were both exempts, so the
idea was they would raise that for six

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years, and also that the clergy
should buy back rents and revenues that the

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Crown had been forced to sell.
The only suggestion that emerged from the estates

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themselves could best be described as unimaginative, which was just simply, you know,

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the Crown needed to tighten its belt. Catherine diligently cut down the number

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of servants and offices, She lowered
pensions and salaries, and was able to

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then rather triumphantly announce the savings of
two point three million livre. Instead of

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congratulating Catherine on her endeavors, however, the deputies merely observed that if such

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a sum could be saved with such
ease, could more deep cuts be made.

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One contemporary wrote of Catherine's efforts as
follows, quote the greatest of subsidies

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is the drastic economy which the court
imposes on itself in all things end quote.

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De la Potel received instructions from the
Queen mother to send the deputies away

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into return with an answer in May. Although the financial question had been left

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without a solution, Catherine and de
l'apotel congratulated themselves upon the reforms of the

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judicial system that have been pushed through
in an attempt to alleviate the terrible and

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these were bad abuses taking place in
the judiciary. Magistrates would henceforth have to

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be elected, and several other measures
were agreed to which would protect the peasantry

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and prevent abuses, mostly by the
other two estates, the nobility and the

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church. A unification of weights and
measures was also adopted, and taxes levied

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on moving goods from one area of
France to another abolished. The further notable

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decision taken to creed that the Estates
General should meet at least once every five

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years. As to religion, the
Chancellor pronounced that he considered it impossible to

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expect a cord between people of different
faiths. He confirmed his axiom that he

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would repeat over and over and over
again throughout the reign quote one faith,

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one law, one king. End
quote. He added, Let us not

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innovate lightly, let us deliberate long
and previously instruct ourselves. If a man

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may be allowed to adopt a new
religion as he chooses, beware lest there

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be as many religions as there are
families and heads of men. You may

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say that your religion is better,
I defend mine. Which is more reasonable

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that I should follow you or you
follow me? End quote. For all

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of this reference to Orthodoxy, de
la Alpitelle's speech nonetheless outlined Catherine's clear break

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with the Geese's methods of violent persecution. He reminded the estates general quote the

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knife is of no avail against the
spirit, save to lose both body and

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soul. Gentleness will accomplish more than
rigor end quote. He spoke of the

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need of a general assembly of the
Church Council to get to the root of

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this religious division, and he tried
to make it clear that a council would

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be convoked for this purpose in the
very near future. Once again, the

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Protestants misunderstood this as a measure of
toleration. Unfortunately, as a consequence,

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they grew ever more brazen in their
open practice of the new religion, and

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this would only magnify Catholic fears by
damaging church property, smashing sacred statues,

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and committing other sacrilegious acts. As
always, steps towards toleration were meant by

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religious open expression of toleration, and
this only made the more orthodox community react.

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Ever, the harsher as we're going
to see today. As Catherine's moderate

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religious policy became clear, an unlikely
alliance grew together in a stated effort to

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keep France's traditional Catholic values firmly in
place. This alliance saw the Geese family

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unite with Maltmonalcy plus the Marshal de
sa Andre, who formed what was called

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the Triumvirent. The three men intended
first to secure France from further Protestant encroachment

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and then to go on the offensive, fighting against the Protestant powers of Europe.

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They had the support of Philip of
Spain, the Emperor, and of

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course the papacy. In reality,
the three men also had an unstated aim,

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which was to remove Catherine from power. For the moments, the supporters

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of these three men only made matters
worse as they took it upon themselves to

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attack groups of Huguenots, which are
French Protestants. I'll get to the termin

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minute throughout the kingdom. After Easter, the Triumvirance announced that they were leaving

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court and would not return. Catherine
was furious, but recognized that there was

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little she could do without the support
of either the Constable or the Geese family.

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This also happened to be when the
idea of a marriage between Mary,

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Queen of Scott's, and Don Carlos, Philip's heir, surfaced. Catherine was

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livid, mostly because she realized that
with Spanish support, the Gheese family would

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become basically unstoppable and might easily sweep
her and her son aside. So she

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wrote to her daughter, now married
to Phillip the Second in Spain, to

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do everything that she could to subvert
the plan. In the end, both

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Catherine and Elizabeth the First Queen of
England opposed the match, and Philip didn't

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have enough strength for another fight,
so by April fifteen sixty one, the

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project was dead and Catherine had dodged
another bullet. Though, as we will

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see, Mary Stuart, mary Queen
of Scott's, continued to push for this

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idea long after it was actually dead. Catherine was eager to get Mary out

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of France and back to her homeland
Scotland, which, by the way,

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Mary knew next to nothing about.
Ultimately, Catherine got her way. On

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August the fourteenth, Mary Stuart left
France for Leith, Scotland, never to

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return on May fifteenth, fifteen sixty
one, Charles the ninth was finally crowned

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at Reams. It was a muted
affair. Economically, the Crown could not

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afford a lavish ceremony. Had it
not been for the intervention of the Pope,

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none of the triumvis would have gone. But the papacy reminded the Geeses

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at Montmorency that if they continued to
absent themselves from court, then Charles would

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definitely fall under the sway of Protestants. Had no choice. They had to

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go back, so they did,
but they stood at the ceremony looking surly

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and unhappy about it the whole time. After the coordination, Catherine worked to

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bring Montmorency and the Geese family back
into the royal fold. She managed to

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get the Duke of Geese to come
back to Paris, but only with the

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promise that he could lead an annual
Catholic procession. In the end, Catherine

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achieved a cosmetic sense of unity,
but the sore beneath the veneer continued to

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fester. Importantly, Catherine continued to
work to show up her relations with Philip

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of Spade, because she knew that
he was a person who was really supporting

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the three triumvers. If she could
pull Philip away, then the whole thing

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might fall apart. And to that
end, she always portrayed herself as the

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model, stern Catholic matriarch, though
her behavior in private often suggested that this

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too was cosmetic. The Queen Mother's
daughter Margaret, would later report that the

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court was full of heretics. Yet
in public and in her messages sent across

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the kingdom, Catherine consistently portrayed herself
as an ardent Catholic. But the reality

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was that Catherine's middle position left her
looking weak to many. Her advisors consistently

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urged her to take a harder line
against the Huguenots. At least, they

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wanted her to take action that would
curb some of the appearances, and I

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do mean outward appearances of Protestantism.
If Catherine wasn't going to persecute the Huguenots,

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then she should at very least stop
their actions from being so public.

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That might slow down the simmering conflict, But she did not. On the

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thirtieth of July, and edict was
announced that offered amnesty for all religious offenses.

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Since Henry the second's death with a
provision that in the future those persons

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led quote peaceful and Catholic lives.
It was yet another stopgap solution. With

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the meeting of the Church Council that
have been promised about the Estates General now

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only a month away. Catherine felt
more optimistic than most that a reasonable solution

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might be found. To her,
God should only be invoked as a protector,

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not as an avenger. In religious
matters. She was no fanatic,

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except when her sons and their birthrights
were concerned. The Catholic Mass suited her

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just fine, a lifelong habit that
she found comforting, almost as though it

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was just a talisman. Unfortunately,
she failed to grasp that the burning issues

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were not tiny doctrinal differences between Christians, but a profound rejection by the reformers

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of two fundamental truths upon which the
Catholic Church was built, the Eucharist and

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the doctrinal authority of the Pope.
Now the Pope was concerned about the Estates

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General as well, and especially the
suggestion of a French Church Council. He

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wanted, obviously, to be in
charge of doctrinal reforms. He pressed Catherine

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to delay the Council with Trent still
humming. The Council of Trent, by

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the way, doesn't end until fifteen
sixty three. Catherine didn't believe that she

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could wait, and she pressed ahead, telling the Pope that he was welcome

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to send a representative to the meeting, which he did shortly before the Church

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conference. The Estates General met on
the twenty seventh of August. The meetings

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that for May had been postponed due
to the coronation. The outcome of the

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meeting, which had been called to
deal with the crown's financial problems, resulted

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in money being voted to curb the
king's finance issues. Most of the funds

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came from the Church, which,
fearing even harsher demands being made upon it,

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offered one point five million livre over
six years quote for the redemption of

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royal domains and of indirect taxes which
had been alienated, and quote a further

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seven and a half million livre would
be paid to settle the King's debts.

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The financial aid promised was a huge
relief to Catherine. With one problem solved,

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she could move on to the next. The Church Council, leading Calvinist

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present, Theodore de Bezier arrived in
Poissier on August the twenty third. He

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was believed to be the most reasonable
of the Calvinist leaders, though that wasn't

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saying much because they weren't, on
the main a super reasonable bunch. Bezez

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met with Cardinal Loran and spoke at
length about various doctrinal issues. While they

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didn't come out of the meeting with
anything concrete, at least they didn't come

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to blows. Catherine claimed it as
a triumph. A few days later,

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However, this triumph proved to be
purely fool's gold. The result of this

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religious convocation was the so called Colloquio
Posse. The Colloquia Posse opened in a

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refractory of a Dominican convent not far
from Paris. Seated there on the raised

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00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:22.920
dais were Catherine and her children,
the Princes of the Blood, and the

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00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:27.240
King's counsul. Along both sides of
the room, facing each other, sat

206
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:33.759
the difference prelates the doctors of theology, cardinals and ministers who were to participate

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in debate and hear the arguments.
The Duke of Geese brought in the meager

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number of Protestant representatives under guard and
placed them behind a low barrier, as

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if to prevent them from contaminating the
rest of those present. As seating arrangements

210
00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:53.839
go, it was neither tactful nor
auspicious. Dibse opened with a graceful speech

211
00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:56.880
and then proceeded to go to the
straight to the heart of the matter before

212
00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:03.039
them, his el the listeners.
As he moved on to the subject of

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the Eucharist, he then spoke those
fatal words about the host quote, his

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00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:10.839
body is as far removed from the
bread and the wine as Heaven is from

215
00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:15.880
Earth end quote. There followed a
horrified and stunned silence, followed by an

216
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:21.599
uproar, and then shouts of blasphemy
and scandal. The Cardinal of Trent rounded

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00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:25.480
on Catherine on her raised platform and
cried out, quote, how can you

218
00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:30.039
tolerate such horrors and blasphemy to be
spoken before your children, who are still

219
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.599
of such a tender age end quote. Catherine replied that she and her sons

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were Catholic and would live and die
as Catholic. The Jesuit general, who

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00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:42.000
was present, warned the queen that
the kingdom was doomed if she didn't banish

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00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:48.480
the heretics. Then in there with
de Bese's words, Catherine's hopes for a

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00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:53.119
compromise collapsed. After a few more
days that produced nothing but deeper division and

224
00:19:53.200 --> 00:20:00.359
more hatred, the Colloquia Poisse closed
on the thirteenth of October fifteen sixty one.

225
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Despite the acrimony at plis A,
Catherine continued to show favor to the

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00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:10.160
Protestants. One explanation apart from her
pragmatism and hopes of unity based on reason,

227
00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:15.240
could be put down to simply the
conduct of the Huguenots present. While

228
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:19.599
the Triumvirs and the Spanish bullied and
threatened her, the Protestant leaders and noblemen

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00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:25.759
treated the Queen Mother with the greatest
respect, calling her our Queen and making

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00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:30.720
endless loyal professions as French subjects to
the crown. This clever policy of appealing

231
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:36.160
to her as their ruler and protector, lauding her wisdom and foresight, gained

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them a lot of ground and favor. This was particularly true since the Catholic

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chiefs were frequently absent from the court, sulking at their estates, and if

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they did deign to appear at court, they were constantly rude to Catherine.

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00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:56.799
In the absence of the war hero
Geese and other Catholic icons. The most

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brilliant Huguenot leaders, such as the
care charismatic Admiral Gaspard de Colin Neay you'll

237
00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:07.119
hear of him again, who had
been publicly disowned by his uncle Montmorency for

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00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:12.160
his change of religion. They had
the stage to themselves, and they proved

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00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:17.440
irresistible to many, and de Beze
received a gracious invitation to remain at court.

240
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Indeed, Catherine allowed him to preach
to the increasing number of Protestant converts

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00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:25.960
there, among them some of the
most important noble men and noble women of

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00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.519
the country. Of course, the
result of all this was that the Geese

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00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:34.720
faction again withdrew from court in protest
Now as they did, they this time

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00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:41.759
attempted to kidnap Eduard Alexandre, Catherine's
youngest and certainly favorite child. The effort

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00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:47.559
to steal away her son incensed Catherine. Later on, perhaps as part of

246
00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:51.640
a greater plan, perhaps out of
a good natured interest, King Philip wrote

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00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.880
to Catherine that she should move her
remaining children somewhere where they would be safe

248
00:21:56.119 --> 00:22:00.240
from all the strife. She wrote
back, the only place she could think

249
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.400
of to send them was the Spanish
court. This was likely just an effort

250
00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.240
to smoke out Philip to see if
he had a hand in the effort to

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00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:14.519
kidnap the Prince. Neither way,
he declined. During the late autumn of

252
00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:18.519
fifteen sixty one, monks were being
killed and churches pillaged in the southwest of

253
00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:22.799
France, where the Huguenots held Sway. In revenge, Parisian Catholics rose up

254
00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:29.640
and attacked Huguenot gatherings in an attempt
to keep the warring parties separate. Protestants

255
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:33.359
were banned from worshiping within the city
walls and not at all on Sundays or

256
00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:37.039
Catholic feast days. De Besei wrote
to Calvin that he had secret permission for

257
00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:41.640
Protestants to meet in safety and waited
for an edict that would give them better

258
00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:47.960
terms. Catherine was making a final, brave attempt to unite the two faiths,

259
00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.279
holding back French clergymen from setting out
to attend the Council of Trent.

260
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:57.359
She struggled heroically to find some sort
of accommodation. Despite all her efforts,

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00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:02.799
what Catherine failed to see was the
sheer passion with which many people clung to

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00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:07.039
their beliefs. For many, there
could be no accommodation when it came to

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their faith. There could be no
compromise. For them, Paris was not

264
00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:18.720
yet worth a mass. Catherine's last
effort at producing a peaceful solution came with

265
00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:23.519
the Edict of January. In de
Haupital's opening speech before the meeting to discuss

266
00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:27.640
it, he put forward the view
that he shared with Catherine, affirming that

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00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:32.759
the Assembly had not been called to
decide which was the best religion, but

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00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:36.640
only the best way to restore the
state. He said it was possible to

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00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:41.119
be a citizen without being a Christian. Indeed, it was possible for an

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00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:45.960
excommunicant to be a citizen. The
debates and resulting vote took place on the

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00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:52.079
fifteenth of January fifteen sixty two.
The edict effectively recognized and legalized the Protestant

272
00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:57.640
religion in French, which had hitherto
been outlawed. By giving the Protestants even

273
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minimal recognition, Catherine now allowed them
the right of citizenship, albeit a second

274
00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.400
class one. Henceforth, they would
be allowed to practice their religion, but

275
00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:12.839
only outside town and city walls,
closing the council with an eloquent speech in

276
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:18.559
which she explained her vision and her
hope. She reaffirmed that quote she and

277
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.839
her children and the King's Council wished
to live in the Catholic faith in obedience

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00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:29.680
to rome end quote. Catholics,
of course, were furious with the edict,

279
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:34.680
and Parliament refused to ratify it.
Even her daughter Elizabeth wrote from Spain,

280
00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:40.440
saying bluntly that her mother must either
declare unambiguously for the Catholics and receive

281
00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:44.960
the support from Spain, or sided
with the Protestants, in which case she

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00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.640
would be Spain's enemy. Finally,
Catherine sent her delegates to attend the Council

283
00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:53.799
of Trent and argued that the edict
must be seen as a stopgap. Before

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00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:00.759
the council finished its deliberation, Catherine
wrote to Philip, hoping to clarify her

285
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:06.160
stance as a firm Catholic and somehow
some way pulled off the impending storm.

286
00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:12.079
It didn't work. On March the
first, fifteen sixty two, the storm

287
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:18.440
finally broke. The Duke of Geese
had been visiting his family estates in the

288
00:25:18.519 --> 00:25:22.440
Champon region during early fifteen sixty two, and on Sunday, the first of

289
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:26.519
March, he rode with an armed
escort to hear the mass. As he

290
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.880
passed through the small town of Vessay, belonging to his niece Mary Stewart,

291
00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:37.119
he heard singing coming from within a
barn that was inside the town walls.

292
00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:41.680
A Protestant service was being held,
which, according to the terms of the

293
00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.759
new edict, was clearly illegal.
The Duke attended Mass in a church not

294
00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:51.759
far from the barn, to his
increasing anger. The voices of the psalm

295
00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:56.759
singers could be clearly heard as they
filtered through the church walls. Whoever provoked

296
00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:03.799
the subsequent fight is not The Duke's
official version gave it out to a quote

297
00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:11.039
regrettable accident end quote. The temples
boiled over into a violent struggle between the

298
00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:17.039
Huguenots and Geese's men, which left
seventy four Protestants dead and over one hundred

299
00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:22.599
wounded. Among the casualties were women
and children. Geese himself received a cut

300
00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:27.359
to the face and some of his
men were also hurt. The incident became

301
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:33.200
known as the Massacre of Vessay,
and it admittedly lit the fuse that sparked

302
00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:51.599
off what will come to be known
as the French Wars of religion. News

303
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:55.599
of the massacre of Vassi swept across
the Kingdom of France like a great crashing

304
00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:00.359
wave. Shortly thereafter, the Duke
of Geese was marching to Paris ahead of

305
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:04.160
three thousand men. Already within the
city stood Conde at the head of his

306
00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:08.759
own private army of one thousand as
Saint Germaine. When she heard news of

307
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:14.559
the massacre of Vassi, Catherine made
an eleventh hour attempt to stop open warfare

308
00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:18.960
breaking out in the capitol. She
commanded Conde's brother, the Cardinal de Bourbon,

309
00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.359
governor of France, to order both
Geese and Conde to quit the city

310
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:27.119
at once, taking their win with
them. Knowing he was secure though having

311
00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:32.640
two thousand more men, Geese did
not move, but Conde rightly feared for

312
00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:37.599
his life and left Paris on March
twenty third, fifteen sixty two. Catherine

313
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:41.640
then sent four emotional letters to him
in the last two weeks of March,

314
00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:45.440
begging him not to abandon either her
or the peace of France. In it,

315
00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:48.960
she wrote, quote, I see
so much that pains me that were

316
00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:52.279
it not for the confidence I have
in God, and the certainty that you

317
00:27:52.279 --> 00:27:56.880
will help me preserve this kingdom and
serve the king my son, I would

318
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:03.319
even feel worse hope that we shall
remedy all with your good counsel and help

319
00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:07.440
end quote. Now, even at
the best of times, Conde never allowed

320
00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:12.359
himself to be taken in by Catherine's
flattery. The prince now considered it time

321
00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:17.759
to arm and fight for what he
believed was right. All her appeals were

322
00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:23.480
made in vain. Catherine and the
court smartly moved to Fontainebleau, but the

323
00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:27.880
Duke of Geese arrived there on the
twenty sixth of March with one thousand armed

324
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:33.440
men. He claimed that he had
come to protect the royal family and take

325
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:37.160
them back to Paris. Catherine refused, but when the Duke insisted, she

326
00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:42.640
had no choice and capitulated. In
possession of the king, The Catholic faction

327
00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:48.920
was now effectively now in control of
the government. On April, the second

328
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:53.319
Conde to the south captured the city
of Orleans, Rua felt the Huguenots a

329
00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:59.480
few days later. Sides were now
being drawn for an all out civil war.

330
00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:03.759
Catherine met with Conde on June ninth, but nothing came from the meeting

331
00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:07.880
other than the promise of meeting again. The two did meet again a few

332
00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:12.079
weeks later, but it came to
nothing. At this point, both sides,

333
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:17.559
Huguenot and Catholics, started to reach
out for foreign aid. The Huguenots

334
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:22.519
called out to Geneva and, of
course, Protestant England. Queen Elizabeth was

335
00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:29.039
at first noncommittal, but ultimately signed
the Treaty of Hampton Court in fifteen sixty

336
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:33.000
two in September. Now that being
said, any help that came from England

337
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:38.359
was only partly assisting the Huguenots out
of a desire to help their fellow Protestants.

338
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:45.079
Mostly, Queen Elizabeth just wanted Calais
back. To that end, she

339
00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:49.559
agreed to send six thousand English troops
who worked to improve fortifications at La Have.

340
00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:56.799
Catherine and the Catholics sent out their
own appeals for aid. Philip of

341
00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:03.799
Spain sent ten thousand infantry and three
hundred cal Swiss mercenaries came in droves to

342
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:07.880
fill royal ranks, but if anything, the first few weeks of what became

343
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:15.000
known as the First War of Religion
in France were dominated by atrocities on both

344
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:22.480
sides, especially in the countryside.
Two hundred Protestants were drowned at tours in

345
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:30.119
Sinns, monks had their throats cut. Even the recently deceased Francis the Second

346
00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:33.920
was not free from the violence.
His heart was stolen from its urn and

347
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:40.880
desecrated. By mid October, Catherine
was present at the siege of Rowan,

348
00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:47.480
watching her guns bombard the battlements.
Geese and Montmorency warned her not to expose

349
00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:51.160
herself to danger, but she laughed
at their fears, saying only, quote,

350
00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:55.559
my courage is as great as yours
end quote. They did not exaggerate

351
00:30:55.880 --> 00:31:00.599
the risks that she ran. When
Antoine de barban A Pyeing, one of

352
00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:04.279
the forward Royalist positions, needed to
relieve himself. He wandered into the bushes

353
00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:07.920
a little way off from his men
and was hit in the left shoulder by

354
00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:12.559
a shot of an archieblus. Geese, who found Bourbon knocked to the ground,

355
00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:17.240
picked him up and had him carried
to the surgeons. Yeah first sight,

356
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:19.240
the wound did not look mortal,
but despite what must have been an

357
00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:26.000
excruciating exploratory surgeons as the physicians poked
and brought it about the bullet could not

358
00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:30.160
be found. Catherine arrived at Bourbon's
sick bed, bringing with her Geese and

359
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:36.839
Antoine's brother, the Cardinal de Babon, as a host of doctors and surgeons

360
00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:41.319
surrounding him maintained their optimism. However, at some point it was clear that

361
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:47.039
the doctors were wrong, and a
replacement doctor was brought in who diagnosed the

362
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:53.519
situation correct. The wound was gangrenous. This surgeon later recalled Bourbon's suffering quote

363
00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:57.960
it was necessary to open his arm, from which came a smell so foul

364
00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:01.720
that many people are unable to bear
the stench were forced to leave the room

365
00:32:01.960 --> 00:32:07.200
end quote. Unfortunately, noplus accompanied
the putrid odor, and the patient grew

366
00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:13.440
delirious as his fever steadily rose.
He asked to be removed from the unhealthy

367
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:16.079
air of Rowan and be taken up
the sin in a galley. With his

368
00:32:16.279 --> 00:32:21.960
end quickly approaching, Urban behaved as
indecisively in death as he had done in

369
00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:27.119
life. Both Catholics and Protestants,
eager to claim the salvation of this high

370
00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:30.920
prince, surrounded him, arguing over
his soul. On November the ninth,

371
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:36.880
he confessed to a Catholic priest,
but the following day, regaining consciousness,

372
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.359
he declared, quote, I wish
to live and die as a Lutheran.

373
00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:44.720
On the night of the seventeenth of
November, one month after receiving his wound,

374
00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:49.880
death finally claimed him. His last
words were to his Italian valet,

375
00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:53.400
of whom he was fond Grabbing the
man's beard, he gasped, quote,

376
00:32:53.640 --> 00:33:00.039
serve my son well and make sure
he serves the king Antoine's and meant that

377
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:05.559
his eight year old son, Anri, became not only the first prince of

378
00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:09.200
the blood, but also heir to
the throne after Catherine's sons. For this,

379
00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:15.039
if for no other reason, Catherine
feared the boy, and in time

380
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:20.000
Amrie would also prove himself to be
a much more intractable foe than his father

381
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:24.279
had ever been. But for now, at only eight, onreposed what could

382
00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:30.240
be said is only a theoretical challenge
to Catherine's power. One of the joys

383
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:37.599
that Catherine had anticipated upon the recapture
of Ruan evaded her. However, Gabrielle

384
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.240
de Montmorency, one of the key
leading Protestant figures, with a handful of

385
00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:46.000
men, escaped on board a ship, but just before the town fell in

386
00:33:46.039 --> 00:33:52.640
a vengeful frenzy, four thousand rebel
captives were put to the sword by Royalist

387
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:57.839
soldiers, though Geese tried to put
a stop to the worst excesses and keep

388
00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:04.200
some of the more valuable prisoners for
rans. More pressing problems now occupied Catherine.

389
00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:07.920
However, despite the Royalists regaining the
momentum, there was a sudden and

390
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:15.239
real danger posed when Conde and his
army left Orleans marching toward Paris. Geese,

391
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:19.320
who had planned to take La Have, abandoned his project and set out

392
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.039
immediately with his army in a headlong
rush to try to cut the army off

393
00:34:23.239 --> 00:34:28.519
before the Huguenots could reach the capitol. Geese ultimately did win the race,

394
00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:32.119
and Conde turned toward the English troops
in Normandy, planning to join forces with

395
00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:37.480
them before any major engagement took place, but he was foiled by Mount Moranci's

396
00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:42.760
army, which blocked the route northward, and the Battle of Jua was fought

397
00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:49.039
on the nineteenth of December fifteen sixty
two. The Huguenots actually nearly won this

398
00:34:49.159 --> 00:34:53.000
battle on what could be only described
as a dazzling cavalry charge, but in

399
00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:58.239
the end, Geese's arrival meant that
the Catholic faction had just way more men

400
00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:04.360
and that they won the day.
Interestingly enough, both Conde, a Protestant,

401
00:35:04.599 --> 00:35:08.519
and mat Morenci, a Catholic,
found themselves prisoners by the opposite side

402
00:35:08.599 --> 00:35:13.760
at battle's end. The upshot of
all of this became that the Duke of

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00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:19.760
Geese was now the unquestioned head of
the Royalist faction. Catherine wanted to use

404
00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:22.119
this victory, which was tactical but
not a complete defeat for the Protestants,

405
00:35:22.599 --> 00:35:27.760
to start peace talks. But Geese, as I said, now totally in

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control, decided to proceed onto Orleans
and placed really the last major bastion of

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00:35:31.719 --> 00:35:39.320
Huguenot power under siege. It proved
to be a costly error. On February

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00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:44.760
eighteenth, fifteen sixty three, while
inspecting the progress of the siege, the

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00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:49.800
Duke of Geese was shot in the
back by an assassin. He died shortly

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00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:54.159
thereafter. Catherine was at Bluis when
she heard the news. She was in

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00:35:54.159 --> 00:36:00.199
part devastated because the Duke had been
by far her best military commander, but

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00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:04.519
she was also elated because his death
meant that his control over her son was

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00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:09.679
over. But in the end she
really realized that the Duke's death made any

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00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:17.519
chance of peace impossible. Now it
would be all eye for an eye justice,

415
00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:23.679
and matters only grew more serious when
the assassin was found and confessed that

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00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:29.960
he had done all he had done
on orders from Huguenot leaders. On March

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00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.800
the nineteenth, the Duke received a
state funeral and thousands lined the streets to

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00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:40.239
witness the procession. The assassination of
the Duke of Geese set in motion a

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00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:45.840
series of events that's going to culminate
in the deaths of tens of thousands of

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00:36:45.880 --> 00:36:52.159
people about nine years later. So
no one knew that yet. Invariably,

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00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:57.880
Catherine's long and often difficult relationship with
the Geese family left a cloud of suspicion

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00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:02.159
over her as well. Ring to
the Venetian and Master, Catherine had once

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00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:07.920
remarked her only regret was that Geese
had not died sooner. However, the

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00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:13.760
reality remained that after the Duke's death, Catherine was the undisputed head of the

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00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:20.760
Catholic faction. She truly wanted peace, but recognized that most French were ardent

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00:37:20.840 --> 00:37:24.599
Catholics, and that any agreements that
ended the conflict would need to prevent the

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00:37:24.639 --> 00:37:31.599
spread of the Reformed Faith. But
we're going to leave things with Catherine there

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00:37:31.960 --> 00:37:36.800
because the death of the Duke of
Geese really brings to an end the first

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00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:42.599
phase of the French Wars of Religion. Next time, we're going to go

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00:37:42.679 --> 00:37:47.000
back to England, where Elizabeth is
still without an air and as we will

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00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:53.199
see, the situation is growing more
and more perilous for the English, all the while