Henri II: His Court and Times (49 page)

Leaving the King at Joinville, Montmorency, accompanied
by the Bourbon princes, crossed the Meuse and marched on
Toul, whose magistrates, at the instigation of the bishop,
Toussaint d'Hocédy, a former protégé of Cardinal Jean de
Lorraine, admitted him without even a pretence of resistance
(April 5). Having placed a garrison in Toul, Montmorency
continued his march, entered the Lorraine town of Pont-a-Mousson without striking a blow, carried by assault the Abbey
of Gorze, the advance-post of Metz, which the Imperialists had
fortified, and arrived before the walls of that town.

In Metz itself there was no Imperial garrison, and, thanks to
the efforts of Cardinal de Lenoncourt, its bishop, who was
wholly devoted to France, a great part of the population had
already been gained over. Nevertheless, the Constable only
succeeded in getting possession of it by stratagem. The
municipal authorities having consented to allow him and the
princes to enter on condition that they brought with them
only two companies, he formed them entirely of picked
veterans. When the Messins discovered how they had been
duped, it was too late; one company was already in the centre
of the town, while the other had seized one of the gates. And
so Metz passed into French possession, to remain there for
more than three centuries (April 10).

On his side, Henri II, accompanied by Guise, La Marck
and Saint-André, left Joinville on April 11, and, after taking
formal possession of Toul, advanced to Nancy. On his arrival,
he issued a proclamation, announcing that he had come as
"the protector and preserver of the person and property" of
the Duke Charles; and, the better to protect and preserve the
little prince, he separated him from his disconsolate mother
and sent him to the French Court, to be brought up with the
Dauphin and eventually to marry Madame Claude, gave the
regency to his uncle, the Comte de Vaudémont, who was
entirely devoted to France, and placed garrisons in all the
fortresses. He then turned northwards, and on Easter Sunday
(April 17) joined the Constable at Metz.

In honour of the monarch, Montmorency held a review and
saluted his arrival with a salvo from fifty cannon. His Majesty
was much pleased with so splendid a reception, but his satisfaction was somewhat
discounted, when he learned that a party of the enemy's light horse, who were
hovering in the neighbourhood, had taken advantage of it to pillage the baggage.
On entering the town, the King swore to observe the municipal
privileges; nevertheless, instead of leaving the authority in the
hands of the sheriffs, he entrusted it to a strong garrison,
commanded by Brissac's brother, the Sieur de Gonnor, a
protégé
of Montmorency.

If we are to believe the Vieilleville
Mémoires
, the King had
wished to give him the post, but he had declined, and strongly
counselled his Majesty to reassure the Germans by showing
respect for the customs and privileges of the people of Metz.
Guise and Vendôme were of the same opinion, and the King
would have followed their advice had it not been for the Constable, who boasted that "he would enter Strasburg and the
other Rhine cities as easily as he would plunge a piece of
wood into butter." However that may be, the high-handed
treatment of Metz was to prove a serious blunder.

The duchy and the bishoprics of Lorraine being thus
occupied, and their communications with their magazines in
Champagne assured, on April 20 the French broke up from
Metz and directed their march towards the Vosges and the
Rhine. They crossed the mountains, not without considerable
difficulty, for the winter's snow still lay there, and descended
into Alsace. In Lorraine, the inhabitants had shown themselves
well disposed towards the invaders, but in Alsace, which was
thoroughly German in speech and feeling, the people were
distinctly hostile. "Not a soul came to us with provisions,
and we were obliged to go a distance of five or six leagues for
forage and food, and to take a strong escort too; since, if
even ten men went together, they never came back."
⁰⁷

From Saverne, which was reached on May 3, the King opened communications with
the magistrates of Strasburg, and Montmorency, rather naively, imagined that he would be able to repeat
the stratagem which had succeeded so well at Metz. But the
Strasburgers, who were aware of what had happened in that
town, were on their guard, and peremptorily refused to receive
the King if he were accompanied by more than forty gentlemen
of his Household; indeed, they declined to allow the troops
to approach within cannon-shot, "being proud and haughty
and not accustomed to see men of war occupying their
beds."
⁰⁸
And so the project of the French Nestor came
to nothing, and Henri II contented himself with revictualling
his army from Strasburg, and decided to follow another
route.

Accordingly, having left a detachment at Saverne to maintain his communications with France, he turned northwards
and marched on Haguenau, which, when threatened by an
assault, promptly capitulated. At Haguenau, where the women
of the town "crowded the parapets of the walls, the steeples,
and the tallest houses to get a view of the camp," the French
found the widows and children of several
landsknecht
captains
whom the Emperor had caused to be put to death because of
their attachment to France. The King summoned them all
before him, distributed a sum of 10,000 crowns among the
women, provided the young men with arms and accoutrements
and gave them commissions in his German companies, selected
four boys as pages of his
Ecurie
, and found places for five
others about the persons of the princes and the gentlemen of
his Household.

Leaving Haguenau on May 10, the King advanced to
Weissembourg, where he was very well received. He was
about to resume his northward march, when the Rhine princes,
assembled at Worms, and the Imperial Chamber of Speyer sent
to beg him to advance no further and to remind him that he
had been invited to protect and not to conquer — a fact which
his Majesty seemed in danger of forgetting. The national
sentiment, indeed, had been profoundly moved by Henri II's
treatment of Metz and the insolence of the French troops, who
conducted themselves as if they were in a conquered country;
and it was plain that if the King neglected the warning he had
received, he would rally all Germany to the Emperor.

That potentate, meanwhile, was in parlous case. Simultaneously
with the advance of his French allies into the Rhineland,
Maurice of Saxony had broken up his camp before
Magdeburg and marched rapidly southwards. On April 1,
he entered Augsburg and was within striking distance of the
Emperor, who had taken up his residence at Innspruck,
whence he could supervise the proceedings of the Council of
Trent. Charles, although protected by a mere handful of
troops, remained where he was until the confederates were
almost upon him, when he escaped over the Brenner to
Villach, in Carinthia; while the Council of Trent dispersed in
confusion.

But the Emperor's position, however humiliating, was less
critical than may at first sight appear, for the excesses of the
rebel princes, who had laid waste the country through which
they passed with ruthless cruelty, joined to the irritation
aroused by the proceedings of the French King, had effected a
reaction in his favour and strengthened the hands of the
middle party in Germany; and there was every hope that the
Diet, which was to meet at Passau on May 27, would succeed
in effecting some compromise between Charles and his disaffected
subjects.

On his side, the "protector of German liberties" received
intelligence that Mary of Hungary had thrown a considerable
force into the duchy of Luxembourg, which might threaten his
line of retreat, and this removed any doubts which he might
have entertained as to the imprudence of venturing farther from
his base. Accordingly, "having watered their horses in the
Rhine," the French turned their backs on the great river and
began their homeward march. They did not, however, return
by the most direct route, for, after snapping up Verdun — the
last of the Three Bishoprics — they invaded Luxembourg,
captured Rodemachern, Damvilliers, Ivoy and other places,
and reinstated Diane's son-in-law, the Maréchal de la Marck, in
his duchy of Bouillon, of which he had been deprived by the
Emperor.

Ivoy offered some resistance and did not surrender until it
had been subjected to a bombardment from nearly forty
cannon. Henri II entered the trenches and amused himself
by pointing the pieces, as though he had been a junior officer
of artillery, to the delight of the soldiers, but to the great alarm
of the Constable, who remonstrated with him on the impropriety of thus exposing himself to danger. "Sire," said he,
"if you wish to act like this, we shall have to regard the life of
a King as of no more account than that of a bird upon a
branch, and have a new forge to forge them afresh every day."
⁰⁹
At Sedan, where the King arrived in the last week in June,
he was taken ill, and we find both Catherine and Diane applying
to the Constable for news of him. However, his illness
was not of long duration, and in a few days he was able to
rejoin the army, which was finally disbanded at Étréaupont on
July 26.

Thus ended the "Austrasian expedition," as this military
promenade was called. Its results, if less splendid than
Henri II had anticipated, were, nevertheless, of the highest
importance. In the first place, it had created a diversion in
favour of the rebel princes, who would otherwise have had to
fear an attack upon their rear by the Imperial army of the
Netherlands. In the second, the effective protectorate of
France had been established over Lorraine, the custody of its
little ruler's person secured, and the Austrian influence of
Christina of Denmark replaced by the French influence of the
Comte de Vaudémont. In the third, the north-eastern frontier
had been strengthened by the acquisition of several fortresses
and the recovery of La Marck's duchy of Bouillon. Finally,
France had Metz.

(1)
According to the
Vieilleville Mémoires
, the herald informed the King that,
if he ignored the Imperial prohibition, his master would treat him "as a young
man." To which Henri II replied that "if the Emperor addressed himself to
him, he would accommodate him as an old dotard."

(2)
The old alliance of France with the Swiss cantons and their confederates
(Grisons, Valais, Saint-Gall, and Mulhausen) had been renewed in June 1549,
notwithstanding the opposition of Berne and Zurich, irritated by Henry II's
persecution of the Protestants.

(3)
Dr. Kitchin, "History of France," vol. ii, says that Maurice had been given
the administration of Magdeburg and Halberstadt. He had certainly been
promised the protectorate, but he had not yet come into actual possession; and
the non-fulfilment of the Emperor's promise was one of his grievances.

(4)
Mémoires de Vieilleville
.

(5)
The figures given by Rabutin
(
Guerres belgiques
) differ considerably from
the above. He gives the number of men-at-arms as between 1,000 and 1,100,
with 2,000 light horse, and from 1,200 to 1,500
harquebusiers à cheval
. The
men-at-arms, he tells us, were mounted on powerful Turkish or Spanish horses,
clad in complete armour, and armed with long lances, long swords, and sometimes with maces; the light cavalry wore only corselets, arm-pieces and
bourguignettes
(light casques), and carried half-lances, short, curved swords, and
pistols. The pistol, it may be observed, was a weapon which had only been
recently introduced.

(6)
Boyvin du Villars,
Mémoires
.

(7)
Mémoires de Vieilleville.

(8)
Rabutin,
Guerres belgiques
.

(9)
Brantôme.

The agreement of Passau — Preparations of Charles V for the recovery of Metz
— The defence of the town is entrusted to François de Guise — His preparations
— Siege of Metz — Obstinacy of the Emperor — The Imperialists are compelled to
raise the siege —  Horrible condition of their abandoned camp — Humanity of
Guise towards the wounded — Marriage of Diane de France and Orazio Farnese
— Thérouenne stormed by the Imperialists and razed to the ground — Death of Orazio Farnese at Hesdin
— The French army assembles at Amiens — Skirmish
at Doullens — The King and the Constable carry the war into the Netherlands,
but nothing is effected —  Death of Edward VI of England — Alarm of Henri II at
the proposed marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain — Mary refuses to
make a new treaty with France — Henri II encourages the English refugees and
refuses the Queen of England's demand for their extradition — Futile campaign
of the King and the Constable in Flanders — Battle of Renty — Outcry against the
incapacity of Montmorency — The war in Italy — Truce of Vaucelles — Abdication
of Charles V

F
RANCE
had Metz, but it was doubtful if she would long
be able to retain it. At the earnest entreaty of his
brother, the Emperor, on August 2, 1552, accepted
the agreement of Passau, by which he annulled the Interim
of Augsburg, promised to convene a Diet for the regulation of
religious affairs, and set at liberty the captive princes. Thus
freed from his Germanic embarrassments, he was able to turn
all his forces against the foreign enemy, and he at once
resolved on a great effort for the recovery of the lost bulwark
of Lorraine.

Under the pretext of suppressing Albert Alcibiades, who
had refused to recognise the agreement of Passau and at the
head of 20,000 brigands was roaming the Rhine country,
forcing cities to pay him tribute, pillaging churches, and
spreading terror and devastation wherever he went, he began
assembling a formidable army in the valley of the Upper
Danube. From all sides troops arrived, and particularly from
Italy, where the War of Parma was now at an end, Julius III
having agreed to a truce which would enable Ottavio Farnese
to hold Parma for two years; and in the middle of August he
began his march for the Rhine.