Henri II: His Court and Times (40 page)

Henri's arrival in Italy synchronised in a highly suspicious
manner with another conspiracy against the Doria at Genoa,
and a plot against the life of the Milanese viceroy by the sons
of Pierluigi Farnese. Both these enterprises failed, however,
and the only direct result of the King's journey was the
annexation of the marquisate of Saluzzo, lying in the southern
angle of the Western Alps, whose titular ruler had just died
in the prison into which the French had thrown him, on a
charge of treasonable correspondence with the Imperialists.
The possession of this little State was of great importance
to France, since it offered a sure means of communication
between her and Italy, and it remained French territory until
1601.

(1)
In our account of the
Sacre
, we have followed the official account,
published in Godefroy,
le Cérémonial de France
(Paris, 1619).

(2)
The Holy Ampulla was supposed
to be the vessel with which Saint-Rémy baptized Clovis, though no allusion to the miracle to which it owed its origin is
to be found in any contemporary document, and Hinckmar, Archbishop of
Rheims, who wrote more than three hundred and fifty years after the baptism of
Clovis, is the first to mention it. Hinckmar, indeed, is strongly suspected of
having invented the legend, for the twofold purpose of assuring to his church
the monopoly of the "
sacres
," and of investing the unction received by Charles
le Chauve, of whom he was a staunch adherent, with an importance which it
would not otherwise have possessed. According to him, when Saint-Rémy was
about to baptize Clovis, the crowd about them was so great that the priest
who was bringing the holy oil was unable to approach. Saint-Rémy was in
despair, but suddenly a snow-white dove was seen descending from heaven,
bearing a little phial, which it placed on the altar, and immediately disappeared.
The phial, when opened, was found to contain oil, which diffused a most
delightful odour. It was used for the baptism of Clovis and subsequently for the
anointing of the Kings of France.

This miraculous phial was called the Holy Ampulla, and was preserved at
Rheims, in the Abbey of Saint-Rémy, in an oval reliquary of silver-gilt set with
jewels, with the representation of a dove holding it between its claws in the
centre. The oil which it contained had solidified with time and become of a
reddish brown colour. At the moment of the anointing of a king, a tiny portion
was extracted with a golden needle and mixed with the chrism.

The Holy Ampulla was broken to pieces, in 1793, by Ruhl, the deputy in
mission to the department of the Marne, but before it was delivered to the Conventionalist, the Abbé Seraine, curé of Saint-Rémy, had extracted a part of its
contents, and this was carefully preserved and used at the coronation of Charles X,
in 1825.

(3)
As Montmorency's presence
in his official capacity was, of course, required in the
cathedral, his place was taken by his eldest son.

(4)
These banners were afterwards hung up in the cathedral, two on either side
of the altar, in memory of the honour which had been conferred upon their owners.

(5)
The lay peers wore "tunics of gold damask, reaching to the knee, mantles of
scarlet and purple serge, with round capes trimmed with spotted ermine, and
coronets on their heads, enriched with gems of inestimable value."

(6)
The two last prelates were not peers, but they represented the Bishops of
Laon and Troyes, who were at Rome.

(7)
The
camisole
of crimson satin was one of the Coronation vestments, which
were kept at the Abbey of Saint-Denis. The others were the tunic, the dalmatica, the mantle, and the buskins, which were all of azure satin, splendidly
embroidered and enriched with priceless gems. The Coronation ornaments
were the great and smaller crowns, the sceptre, the Hand of Justice, the sword,
and the spurs. On the accession of Henri II, the vestments were found to have
so much deteriorated that the King ordered fresh ones to be made

(8)
Although they were both cardinals, they are referred to throughout the
official account as bishops, since it was as ecclesiastical peers, and not as
members of the Sacred College, that they officiated.

(9)
It was the sub-prior who came, the grand prior, the Cardinal de Lenoncourt,
being then at Rome.

(10)
See
p. 62
supra
.

(11)
Cited by Aubertin,
le Roi Henri II
^e
à
Beaune en 1548
. Now that
pageants are so much the vogue, it may not be without interest to know that on May 21, 1888,
a pageant representing the entry of Henri II and Catherine de' Medici into
Beaune was performed in that town with great success. A singular feature of
this pageant was that the actors were forbidden to cry "
Vive le roi!
"
and "
Vive la reine!
" from fear lest such expressions should be misinterpreted.

(12)
La Prinse d'un fort,
à l'entrée du roy Henri second de ce nom, faicte en la
ville de Beaulne le XVIII
^e
jour de juillet dernier
passé, rédigé far escript par
maistre Denys Berardier, greffier de la Chancellerie de Beaulne, etc
. (Paris,
1549), cited by Aubertin,
le Roi Henri II à Beaune en 1548
.

(13)
At Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne a novel diversion had been prepared for the
King. On his arrival, he was met by a troop of one hundred men clothed in
the skins of bears, and "so cleverly disguised that they might have been taken
for real bears," who followed him on all-fours to the church, whither he proceeded to hear Mass, and afterwards escorted him to his lodging, climbing up
walls and the columns of the market-place, and imitating the howling of the
animals they represented. Their antics appear to have entertained his Majesty
greatly, and he distributed among them a sum of 2,000 écus; but the din they
made frightened the horses of his escort, which had been tethered outside
the church, with the result that they stampeded and injured a number of people.

(14)
Decrue,
Anne, duc de Montmorency
.

(15)
Henri Martin; La Barre Duparc,
Histoire de Henri II
.

Revolt against the g
abelle
, or salt tax, in the south-western provinces — Insurrection at Bordeaux — Murder of the Sieur de Moneins, the King's lieutenant in
Guienne — The Constable despatched to Bordeaux — His punishment of the city —
The severities inflicted on the Bordelais defended by the Constable's biographer,
M. Decrue — State entry of the King into Lyons — Glorification of Diane de
Poitiers — Marriages of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret, and of
François de Guise and Anne d'Este — State entry of the King into Paris —
Persecution of the Protestants — Henri II and the martyr

I
N
the midst of the festivities at Turin alarming news
arrived from France: Guienne and Saintonge had risen
in revolt against the
gabelle
, or salt tax.

Until the last years of the previous reign the inhabitants
of the south-western coasts, which were covered with salt-
marshes, had been exempted from a part of this impost; but
in 1541 François I, finding himself at the end of his resources,
had decided that the
gabelle
should be levied- equally in all
the provinces of the kingdom. The salt of the Aquitaine
marshes, on account of its superior quality, was in great
demand in England, Holland, and North Germany, and had
been for centuries a source of prosperity for that coast. But
the increase of the tax ruined the industry and deprived
thousands of poor people of their only means of livelihood;
while all classes were indignant at a clause in the ordinance
which compelled the head of every family to purchase at an
exorbitant price a certain quantity of salt each year from the
royal storehouses. So intense was their resentment that they
even attempted resistance, and Rochelle became the centre of
a revolt, which, however, was suppressed without bloodshed,
François generously pardoning the Rochellois. But he did
not revoke the fatal edict, which was confirmed by Henri II
on his accession to the throne.

The tax was rendered all the more odious by the way in
which it was collected. A swarm of hungry officials descended
like locusts on Guienne and Saintonge, "devouring the substance
of the people and only departing when they had made
enormous fortunes." The "
gabeleurs
," as they were called,
committed, under the protection of the law, all kinds of
exaction and frauds, invading houses in search of contraband
salt, harassing the dealers, imposing arbitrary fines for the
smallest infraction of the edict, and imprisoning all who were
either unwilling or unable to pay them. "Their insolence,"
writes Paradin, "was more intolerable than the tax itself,"
while, to make matters worse, "those who had charge of the
salt depots were accused of mixing sand with the salt."
⁰¹

Goaded to exasperation by the tyranny of the "
gabeleurs
," in
May 1548 the inhabitants of Blansac, Barbezieux, and the
neighbouring towns and villages rose in revolt, proclaimed
the commune of Saintonge, and proceeded to elect "colonels"
to command them. One band, led by a gentleman of Barbezieux named Puymoreau, entered Saintes and Cognac,
sacked the houses of the officers of justice and the finances,
murdered the receiver of the
gabelle
, and broke open the
prisons and set at liberty a number of dealers in contraband
salt who were confined there. Another captured one of the
chief tax-collectors near Cognac and drowned him in the
river, crying out in derision: "Go, you scoundrelly
gabeleur
,
and salt the fish of the Charente."

By August, the insurgent forces, constantly recruited by
beggars, outlaws, and other bad characters, had swollen to
nearly 50,000 men, who marched up and down the country,
burning, pillaging, and murdering. All well-to-do persons, we
are told, were tax-collectors in their eyes, and were robbed
indiscriminately, under the pretence that they were "
gabeleurs
";
nor were the scoundrels content with plundering, "but must
needs address them familiarly in the second person singular,
without any rhyme or reason. So enraged was the populace
with the abuse of the tax."
⁰²

From Saintonge the movement spread to Guienne, and the
commune was proclaimed on the banks of the Gironde. The
governor of Guienne, Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre, had
followed the King to Turin, but his lieutenant, the Sieur de
Moneins, a cousin of the Constable, was at Bayonne; and, at
the request of the
Parlement
and the jurats of Bordeaux, he
proceeded thither to endeavour to re-establish order. Moneins,
a courageous but imprudent man, instead of taking counsel
with the
Parlement
and the municipal authorities as to the
best means of pacifying the populace, summoned a meeting of
the inhabitants at the Hotel de Ville, and informed his audience
that the gibbet would be the fate of all those misguided persons
who followed the example of the neighbouring towns. A rich
merchant named Guillotin interrupted him, crying out that
the people of Saintonge and Guienne were doing well in
vindicating by arms the liberty of their ancestors; the tocsin
sounded, the mob rose, seized the Arsenal, murdered a number
of Government officials, tax-collectors, priests, and wealthy
citizens, and sacked their houses; and Moneins and his suite
had to fly to the Château Trompette, where they shut themselves up.

After a time, the First President of the
Parlement
,
La Chassaigne, succeeded in restoring some semblance of
order, and, on the assurance that the riot was at an end and
that the people were prepared to listen to reason, Moneins
was persuaded to quit his asylum and descend into the
town. No sooner had he appeared than the tumult broke
out afresh; a ferocious mob fell upon the King's lieutenant,
and, despite the efforts of La Chassaigne and other magistrates
to protect him, massacred him and all his people, after which
the people cut open his body, filled it with salt, and left it
unburied. They then, under the threat of instant death,
compelled La Chassaigne, the two brothers Du Sault, the
one captain of the town, the other commandant of the
Château du Ha, and the jurats, to become their leaders, in
order to throw on them the responsibility for the insurrection,
and for some days "the greatest insolences and the
most brutal cruelties were practised in the town of Bordeaux."

La Chassaigne and the other notables, though for a
time they affected to sympathise with the popular cause,
employed the power which had been thrust upon them in
the interests of the royal authority, and were supported
by the better-class citizens, who, disgusted by the excesses
of the mob, went over in a body to their side. The gates
of the town were closed, so as to prevent the peasants
from the surrounding country coming in to reinforce the
insurgents; the
Parlement
and the jurats were re-established
in their authority, and the ringleader of the populace, one
Lavergne, was brought to trial, condemned to death, and
broken on the wheel. By the middle of September, the
insurrection had been practically quelled, and the
Parlement
wrote to inform the King that, with the aid of a few troops,
peace would be completely re-established, and to implore his
clemency for the offenders.

The Court had been disagreeably surprised by the news from
the south-western provinces; but it did not appear at first to
have realised the gravity of the movement. However, on
learning of the rapid spread of the insurrection, Henri II
decided to return to France, and in the first week in September
he crossed the Alps.