CONTENTS. PAGE CAMEO IX.-THE RISING OF THE NORTH (1569-1571). CAMEO X.-THE RIDOLFI PLOT (1571-1572) CAMEO XI.—THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS (1568-1572) CAMEO XII.-THE ST. BARTHOLOMEW (1572) CAMEO XXXIV.-THE MARINERS OF ENGLAND (1589-1596). 343 CAMEO XXXV.-DEATH OF PHILIP II. (1595-1598). CAMEO XXXVI. THE EDICT OF NANTES (1598-1601) THE Council of Trent had ended, and the sovereigns, who owned the allegiance of the Roman Church, could no longer declare that the Church had not spoken against heresy. Maximilian II. had been disappointed, but he had gained some concessions for the spiritual welfare of his people, and he respected the agreement made at Passau, so that he took no action against the Protestants. His cousin and brother-in-law, Philip II., felt the matter much more strongly, believing himself to be the champion of the Church, and deeming himself bound pitilessly to extirpate false doctrine. France was no longer the foe to him that it had been to his father. Much of the hereditary enmity had died with the Duke of Guise, and though Catherine de' Medici cared more for internal quiet than for religion, Philip knew her to be an easier person to deal with than her husband or his father had been. Through France, he meant to work upon the young Queen of Scotland and her husband, who might be assisted to dethrone Elizabeth, in his eyes an usurper. CAMEO I. Effects of the Council of Trent. 1565. Catherine had had her young son declared of age, and was conducting him on a royal progress through his dominions. Philip offered to send his wife, her daughter Elisabeth, to visit her family at Bayonne, under the escort of the Duke of Alva, who was to invest Charles IX. with the Order of the Golden Fleece. The offer was accepted, and the Courts met. There were young Charles and his brother Henri, Duke of Anjou, commonly called Monsieur; Henri, the eldest son of the murdered Duke of Guise, a boy of twelve, and another lad of the same age; Henri, Prince of Béarn, whom his mother, Queen Jeanne of Navarre, had most reluctantly been obliged to send to attend on the King. It is touching to read how the grave mother tried to keep up her influence over her boy by writing to him letters about his horses and dogs, while Henri was the special pet of Queen Catherine, who read with him the lively and often licentious Italian romances and poems forbidden to him at home, and let him follow her about everywhere, even into the council chamber. She was lodged in the Bishop's palace at Bayonne ; the Queen of Spain in a temporary wooden building connected with it. Alva had many conversations in which he tried to stir Catherine up to sharper measures against the Huguenots, whilst she argued that she had made the best peace possible to her at the time, but that she had since quietly done much to curb them, that no heretic worship was permitted either at Paris, or where the Court was for the time, and that even the cities where it was tolerated, though inhabited by Calvinists, were commanded by their citadels, which were held by royal troops. Alva said, like a genuine Spaniard, that "nothing is more shameful in a prince, or more mischievous to himself, than to permit his people to live according to their conscience, and bring in as many varieties in religion as there are caprices and fancies in the human brain. Controversies about faith are always a pretext for the rising of the discontented, and severe remedies were needful, not sparing steel and flame." Moreover he added, significantly, that the head of one salmon was worth a hundred frogs. Young Henri of Navarre, who had the power of listening to conversation while he appeared to be occupied with his own amusements, caught up most of this ominous talk, and reported it to the wise old Chancellor of Navarre, who was in attendance on him. The Spanish State-papers have revealed a letter from Alva to Philip in which he says that the Cardinal of Guise introduced to him an envoy from the Queen of Scots. This envoy told him that there was sure to be a revolution in England, and that his mistress was undecided what course to take. Alva replied that she must take heed to the strength of parties, and dissimulate with Elizabeth; and if she acted warily, the King of Spain would bring her help when she least expected it, place her triumphantly on the throne, and restore the Church of Rome. Meantime, he bade her keep this promise a dead secret, even from her |