Henri II: His Court and Times (56 page)

In conjunction with Mary, he also endeavoured to drag
England into the war, and, thanks to the injudicious assistance
rendered by Henri II to Sir Thomas Stafford's foolhardy
descent upon the Yorkshire coast, which aroused great irritation
in England, their efforts were eventually crowned with
success; and on June 7 war was declared.
⁰⁴

Seven thousand English soldiers were shipped across the
Channel, but their allies did not await their arrival to take
the offensive. After a feint in the direction of Champagne,
the Duke of Savoy invaded Picardy and laid siege to Saint-Quentin, on the Somme, one of the main bulwarks of Paris.
Coligny, with a few hundred men, succeeded in throwing himself
into the place before the investment was completed, and
actively organized the defence; but the fortifications of Saint-Quentin were old-fashioned and crumbling, and he perceived
that, unless help speedily arrived, its fate was sealed. Realizing
the importance of succouring a town whose fall would open
the road to the capital, the Constable hurried northwards with
all the troops he could muster. These, however, did not exceed
20,000 men, including 500 men-at-arms and 1,000 light horse,
and a great number of nobles and gentlemen.
⁰⁵

The overwhelming superiority of the enemy in numbers
decided Montmorency not to risk an engagement, but merely
to make a feint against the besiegers' lines, and, under cover of
this movement, to throw 2,000 men under Coligny's brother
Andelot and a quantity of provisions into the town, after which
he intended to retire.

Accordingly, at nine o'clock on the morning of August 10,
the French guns opened a heavy cannonade against the quarters
of the Duke of Savoy, who was compelled to beat a precipitate
retreat. This was an excellent beginning, but the boats
required by Andelot to cross the Somme had, through some
misunderstanding, been left in the rear of the army; and it was
not until after a delay of two hours that they were brought up.

This delay ruined everything. Andelot only succeeded in
getting into the town with a mere handful of men; and when
Montmorency began to retire, he found that the enemy had
crossed the Somme by a ford of which he appears to have been
in ignorance, seized the only road by which he could retreat,
and cut his army right in two.

Surprised and hopelessly outnumbered, the French were
completely routed. Nevers, Condé, and François de Montmorency
succeeded in effecting their retreat to La Fère with
the troops which they commanded. But the second Comte
d'Enghien, Montmorency's son-in-law the Vicomte de Turenne,
600 gentlemen, and 2,500 men were killed, and more than
7,000 made prisoners, among whom were the Constable himself,
⁰⁶
his fourth son, Montmorency-Montbéron, Saint-André,
Longueville, La Rochefoucauld, Gontaut-Biron — in fact, the
finest nobility in France. It was a second Pavia.

The news of the battle of Saint-Quentin, or Saint-Laurent, as
contemporary writers call it — it was fought on St. Lawrence's
Day — created the utmost consternation in Paris, and it was
feared that the Duke of Savoy would mask Saint-Quentin with
a small force, overwhelm the
débris
of the routed army at La
Fère, and march straight upon the capital. This, in fact, was
the course which Philibert was anxious to pursue; "but,"
says Montluc, "God was pleased miraculously to deprive
the King of Spain of his right judgment,"
⁰⁷
and he ordered the Duke to remain before Saint-Quentin until the town had
fallen."

Philip doubtless anticipated an easy task, but it proved a
much more difficult one than he had bargained for, as the
splendid example of Coligny inspired the garrison and the
inhabitants to heroic efforts; and it was not until after a
resistance of fifteen days, by which time eleven breaches had
been made in the walls, that Saint-Quentin was taken by assault,
amid the usual scenes of horror which marked such incidents
at this period. Coligny was made prisoner and sent to join his
relatives in Flanders. The English contingent, who had now
arrived on the scene, shared in the storming and sack of the
town.

Its heroic defence, however, had saved the situation. While
the Spaniards were battering down its feeble walls, Paris,
recovering from its first alarm, had voted, in response to an
eloquent harangue by the Queen, who showed, in this crisis,
admirable courage and presence of mind, a sum of 300,000
livres, an example which was followed by the principal towns
of the kingdom; new companies of men-at-arms and infantry
had been raised; mercenaries brought from Switzerland and
Germany, and François de Guise, summoned to return with all
possible speed, was approaching. "The advantage which my
enemies have gained over me," wrote Henri II to the duke,
"is not so great but that I have good hope, with the aid of
God, of shortly having revenge."

He had, however, some little time to wait for his revenge,
and, in the meanwhile, Philip II took Noyon and burned it
literally to the ground. But, by the end of October, France
had 50,000 men under arms, and Guise was at their head.

The duke, who had arrived at Saint-Germain on October
6, had found a clear field; the Constable and the greatest
nobles of France were prisoners, and the Montmorency party
utterly discredited by the disaster of Saint-Quentin, which had
caused the Neapolitan fiasco to be forgotten. Upon himself
all the hopes of France were now centred; and the King
hastened to appoint him Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom,
with the fullest powers.

Early in November, the inability or unwillingness of Philip
II to furnish the money to pay the troops had compelled the
Duke of Savoy to disband his army. Guise might have taken
advantage of his retirement to attempt the recovery of Saint-Quentin; but the difficulties of a winter campaign in the ruined Vermandois caused him to discard this project for one which
would gratify the national pride and assure to himself an
immense popularity: the taking of Calais and the final expulsion
of the English from French soil.

The loss and recovery of Boulogne had naturally drawn
attention to Calais, since two hundred years in the possession
of England, and the question of an attempt upon it appears
to have several times been discussed. If we are to believe
Brantôme, Coligny was "the first inventor of this enterprise,"
and in the previous year had drawn up elaborate plans of
attack. Both Brantôme and the Huguenot historian La Place
assert that in 1557 it was Henri II who suggested it, and the
latter adds that the King insisted on Guise undertaking the
expedition, although the duke, either because he believed
the attempt impossible, or because he desired to exaggerate
its difficulties in order to enhance the merits of his expected
success, resisted for some time. But whoever ought to be
given the credit of the idea, there can be no question that the
merit of its execution belongs entirely to Guise.

The Calais Pale comprised three forts: Calais itself and the
two outlying forts of Guines and Ham; the former lying
about three miles from Calais; the latter between the two,
equidistant from both. Two fortresses defended the approaches
to Calais: one called by the French Nieullay, and by the
English Newnham Bridge, commanded the only road across
the marshes; the other, the Rysbank, protected the approach
from the dunes along the shore, and commanded the entrance
to the harbour and the town. There was also a smaller work
called the Sandgate, which, as its name implies, covered the
entrance to the dunes. At Nieullay, there were sluices
through which, at high water, the sea could be let in over
the marshes.

Calais had been so long in the possession of the English
that they had come to regard it as impregnable,
⁰⁸
and during the winter it was the custom to keep but a few hundred men
there. The fortifications, as well as those of Guines and
Ham, had been repaired by Henry VIII in 1541, but they
had been again allowed to fall into ruin, and the sluices at
Neuillay were out of order. Guise made his preparations with
the utmost secrecy and care, writing all his orders with his
own hand, so that there might be no possibility of misunderstanding. Towards the end of December, all was in readiness,
and the troops began assembling at Abbeville. Lord Grey de
Wilton and Wentworth, who commanded at Guines and Calais
respectively, wrote warning Mary of the French preparations;
but, though the Queen gave orders for reinforcements to be
sent, she subsequently countermanded them, on the ground
that "she had intelligence that no enterprise was intended
against Calais or the Pale."

On New Year's Day 1558, Calais was invested by 20,000
men, and on the following morning the French advanced in
force against Nieullay, and attempted to take it by assault.
The attack was gallantly repulsed, but before evening Guise
had carried both the Sandgate and Rysbank forts, thus obtaining
command of the entrance to the harbour and cutting off
all communication with England.

Nothing now could save the town, which was only garrisoned
by 500 men, unprovisioned for a siege, and exposed to
a furious cannonade from the French batteries at the Rysbank,
except the prompt advance of a relieving army from the
Netherlands. The Duke of Savoy hurriedly collected some
Spanish troops at Gravelines, and sent to England for assistance;
but, when the men were ready to embark, there were
no ships to transport them. The Spaniards, unaided, made a
really gallant attempt to break through the besiegers' lines and
force their way into the town; but they were easily repulsed,
and on January 6 Calais surrendered.

Calais was lost; but Guines might perhaps have been
saved, had not the scandalous mismanagement of the English
Government prevented the reinforcements from sailing. And
so, on January 20, after a brave defence, Guines surrendered,
and the last remnant of the continental dominions of the
Plantagenets was gone.

The capture of Calais had an immense moral effect. In
England, it excited a violent outcry against the unpopular rule
of Mary and undoubtedly hastened the death of the Queen.
In France, it revived the confidence of the nation, so rudely
shaken by the disaster of Saint-Quentin, and induced an
assembly of Notables which the financial straits of the Government
had compelled Henri II to convene in Paris to vote a
loan of three million écus "for the service of the country."

In celebration of the recovery of Calais, the King, on the
night of January 20, 1558, treated the Parisians to a sumptuous
Oriental masquerade in the Rue Saint-Antoine. "By the
light of forty-eight torches," writes Sauval, "the King and the
Dauphin with several princes and other great nobles took part
in a tournament. Some armed in Turkish fashion, others like
Moors, and all mounted on small horses, issued from the
Hôtel des Tournelles and from that of the Connétable de
Montmorency, situated in the Rue Saint-Antoine. The Turks,
among whom was Henri II, accompanied by the Dauphin
and several Princes of the Blood, carried on the left shoulder
a quiver full of arrows, and were dressed in garments of white
silk, made like those of the Levantines. In one hand, they
held a buckler, in the other, a hollow ball of terra-cotta. At
their head marched the trumpeters of the King on horseback;
and behind them twelve men clothed in white, in Turkish
fashion, mounted on asses and mules, each having in front of
him two drums and two tymbals. Scarcely had they reached
the field of battle when the Moors arrived, and they all
forthwith began to charge against one another; sometimes
flinging their balls and sometimes shooting their arrows; at
first two by two, and afterwards all together; always to the
sound of the tymbals, drums, and trumpets, which made in
truth a strange music, but rather well concerted. Finally,
they rallied, and, ranging themselves in a circle, two by two
and to the sound of the same instruments, they tried to make
their horses dance in time, with appalling cries and whoops."

(1)
His desire to placate the Pope, in the hope that he might be persuaded to
pronounce in favour of his son in the affair of Mlle. de Piennes, was probably
one of the reasons of his feeble resistance.

(2)
Froude.

(3)
And not the disaster of Saint-Quentin, as Henri Martin, Dr. Kitchin, and
other historians seem to imagine. This defeat occurred some days after the
orders for the recall of Guise were despatched.

(4)
Mary was in so desperate a hurry to send her defiance to Henri II, whom
she cordially hated, that the English herald arrived at Villers-Cotterets, where
the Court then was, without a passport, without the insignia of his office, and
without even announcing his coming. The King took this precipitancy in good
part, and gave him a valuable gold chain; but the Constable was furious, and
told the herald that he had rendered himself liable to be hanged.

(5)
But the army was not, as some historians state, mainly French; nearly two-thirds of the infantry were
landsknechts
: to be precise, fifteen French companies
and twenty-two German.

(6)
Montmorency
fought like a lion. "
Gare, gare, reculez-vous!
" he cried to those
who endeavoured to restrain him. Having been severely wounded, however, he
was obliged to surrender.

(7)
Commentaires
.

(8)
Over the gates of Calais
had once stood the following boastful inscription:

The Guises turn the duke's brilliant military success to political account by
hastening the marriage of their niece to the Dauphin — Madame de Valentinois,
alarmed by the increasing power of her former
protégés
, resolves to redress the
balance by an alliance with the captive Constable, and attempts, though without
success, to delay the affair — Marriage of the Dauphin and Mary Stuart — Banquet
and festivities at the Palais de Justice — Secret treaty signed by Mary Stuart at
Fontainebleau — Unbearable arrogance of the Guises — Denunciation of the heresy
of Andelot by the Cardinal de Lorraine — Henri II, irritated by the insolence of
the Guises, desires peace and the return of the Constable — His letters to Montmorency — Guise takes Thionville — Disastrous defeat of Termes at Gravelines —
Henri II and Philip II join their respective armies — A suspension of arms is
agreed to, and negotiations for peace are begun at the Abbey of Cercamp —
Interview between the King and the Constable at Beauvais — The Spanish
plenipotentiaries demand the evacuation of Italy by the French — And, notwithstanding the desperate financial straits of Philip II, their demands are conceded —
Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis — Indignation in France — Results of the treaty
considered