adjunct of good government, if laws could avail to restrain the delirium of faction.

A.D. 1574-1589. HENRY III. Immediately upon hearing of the death of his brother, Henry quitted Poland to ascend the throne of France; but during the short regency of the queen-mother civil war had again burst forth.

The Protestant party was reinforced by many powerful noblemen, who, without agreeing in their religious opinions, still dreaded the ambition of the duke de Guise, and held the execrable massacre of St. Bartholomew in abhorrence. The prince of Condé and the brave Lanoy were the principal leaders, but the king of Navarre, having escaped from court, and renounced his forced abjuration, arrived to join them; and at length the duke d'Alençon, brother of the king, from motives of ambition, lent the cause the support of his name, and placed himself at their head. At this crisis the treaty of Beaulieu was signed by Henry, giving considerable advantages to the Huguenots.

This prince, weak, frivolous, and corrupt, was unable to protect one party, or satisfy the other; the Catholics were deeply irritated at the advantages conceded to their opponents, and a faction was formed, calling itself the Holy League, which, under the cloak of religion, aimed at overturning the throne: the duke de Guise, Henry le Balafré, son of Francis de Guise, was the soul of the coalition, and with the view of assisting his designs, it was given out amongst his partisans that he was descended from Charlemagne, and that he was therefore legitimate heir to the sceptre usurped by Hugh Capet. To neutralise the danger, Henry III. declared himself chief of the Holy League.

Such an avowal of his weakness disgusted the Protestants, and added nothing to his influence with the Catholics, for the confederates would acknowledge no other leader than the duke de Guise.

The death of the duke d'Alençon, the king's brother, who left no family, augmented the general excitement, as the crown, in default of heirs male, would revert to the king of Navarre. The League, the Holy See, and Philip II. of Spain, united to wrest the succession from a heretic, and the king was weak enough to be incited to hostilities against the only one able to save him.

This war was designated the war of the three Henrys, from the names of the principal belligerents; Henry III. king of France, Henry king of Navarre, and chief of the house of Bourbon, and Henry duke de Guise. The provinces were once more desolated, without any important result; the king of Navarre gained the battle of Coutras over the army of the Leaguers, A. D. 1587, but did not pursue his advantage. Still it was the first action in which he had been engaged, and he showed an example of virtues rarely met with in similar circumstances; being humble in victory, humane towards the wounded, and generous to the prisoners who fell into his power.

In the heart of the capital another league was formed, called the League of Sixteen, from the chiefs being dispersed over the sixteen quarters of the city: their object was to dethrone Henry III. and give the crown to the duke de Guise.

The king was unable to make head against these factions; the duke, having successfully repelled an inroad of the Germans, whose design was to aid

Guise

their co-religionists, made a triumphant entry into Paris, despite of the orders of the king; the people received him with enthusiasm, and he may thenceforward be considered as the real sovereign. Barricades were fixed in the streets, the populace made themselves masters of the city, and kept Henry prisoner in the Louvre; all seemed lost, but the duke was irresolute, and hesitated to attack the palace, and Catherine de Medicis, amusing him with negotiations, gave time to the king to escape to Chartres. however remained master of the capital, and acted as sovereign; he changed the magistrates, and took possession of the arsenal and Bastile, but his authority not being sanctioned by the parliament, he opened a treaty with Henry, who subscribed to conditions by which he agreed to convoke the States-General at Blois, and left this powerful subject generalissimo of the armies. The king hoped to find in that assembly support against his ambitious rival, but the spirit of the league pervaded the majority of the deputies, and the royal authority was treated with contempt. Shortly afterwards the duke was summoned to attend the king at Blois, with his brother the cardinal de Lorraine; and scarcely had he entered the castle, when he was assassinated, and his brother perished on the following day. Such an impression was made by these events, that the death of Catherine de Medicis, which happened almost immediately afterwards, was scarcely noticed, though she had governed France during four reigns.

The double assassination of the duke and cardinal de Guise made the king more odious, but added nothing to his power. The duke de Mayenne, brother of the

murdered nobles, took up arms immediately with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and the war broke out with redoubled fury. Henry III., betrayed by his Catholic subjects, effected a reconciliation with the king of Navarre, and the two princes united to besiege Paris, when Henry III. was poignarded at St. Cloud by Jacques Clement, a Dominican friar; the regicide was immediately seized and put to death.

Henry III. died 2d of August, A. D. 1589, without posterity, and with him ended the fourth branch of the Capetians, which had occupied the throne seventy-four years under five kings.

The order of the Holy Ghost was instituted by Henry III. in memory of his having been elected king of Poland and becoming king of France on the day of Pentecost. Catholics only were permitted to bear the order; its principal object being to allure the Protestants to the royal cause.

HENRY IV.

CHAP. XIX.

PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES X. DEFEAT
ALEXANDER FAR-

OF MAYENNE.

NESE.

LIGION.
SULLY.

SIEGE OF PARIS.

HENRY RENOUNCES THE PROTESTANT REHIS CORONATION. -EDICT OF NANTES. MURDER OF THE KING.-LOUIS XIII.— CONMARIE DE MEDICIS. SIEGE OF ROCHELLE. RICHELIEU.- STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

CINI.

A. D. 1589-1610. HENRY IV. Henry de Bourbon king of Navarre, though next heir to the throne, was but distantly related to the deceased monarch. Strong in the support of the Spanish alliance, the league felt little anxiety about a prince whom the Pope had excommunicated, and whom the Sorbonne had declared incapable of succeeding to the crown: at Paris, the news of the death of Henry III. was received with the liveliest joy; the image of Clement was displayed in the churches to the adoration of the faithful, and he was accounted a saint and a martyr. Mayenne was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and the old cardinal de Bourbon proclaimed king under the title of Charles X. During this excitement the greater part of the Catholic nobles deserted the camp and cause of Henry IV., and he could only reckon upon a few faithful followers, by whom he was surrounded. With an army reduced to 6000 combatants, nothing of moment could be undertaken : the siege of Paris was therefore raised, and the prince retired towards Nor