prebends in Christendom would buy the support of the Catholic clergy. The sternest Huguenot would offer no resistance to the centralizing policy of the liberator of his brethren in Flanders.

Moreover, Philip's weakness would prove the opportunity of Tuscany. Catherine, the daughter of Florentine bankers, was in her attachments thoroughly provincial. It was her dream to raise the House of Medici to royal rank. The Emperor's refusal to sanction her kinsman's assumption of the title of Grand Duke had stung her to the quick. The Protestants, by their connection with many German princes, might aid him in attaining his wish. The power of France might place upon his brow the crown of central Italy. Her courtiers would no longer be able to sneer at her plebeian origin.

Despite these lofty aims, she was further influenced by plebeian motives. Under the will of Duke Cosmo, Catherine claimed from his successor 300,000 ducats. Of this sum, Francis Alexander offered her 100,000 scudi down, and the remainder when the Spaniards should remove their garrisons from the Tuscan coast. These Spanish posts were galling alike to French commerce and Tuscan independence, and their removal was earnestly desired by both peoples.

Ere she could gain these ends, Philip's power must be further weakened. The spell of the Spanish name still lingered upon the nations, and no prince would stir in Italy, no rebel would rise in Flanders, unless in the full assurance that French help would arrive more speedily than Spanish vengeance.

France, as had ever been her policy since 1525, was seeking friends in Eastern Europe to counterbalance the power of her enemies in the west. She was striving to gain the crown of Poland, then mainly Protestant, for the Duke of Anjou, and was in close though secret alliance with Turkey, nominally to secure the Sultan's interest in the next Polish election. The Turks seemed invincible. The whole power of Spain was now engaged in the Levant, and a Turkish victory would win Flanders and Italy for France. Catherine's hopes would be fulfilled if the Crescent triumphed over the Cross.

Under such circumstances, amongst the French courtiers temporal interests had almost effaced religious animosities, and a third party arose, composed of those who placed the welfare of their country above that of any religion whatsoever. At their head stood Marshal de Cossé, an avowed atheist, to whose counsels the Queen mother turned a ready ear.

Late in July, 1571, he suggested to her to give her daughter Margaret in marriage to Henry of Navarre, the nominal chief

of the Huguenots, in order to cement the peace signed in the previous August. His plan appeared in the first instance very feasible, and encountered little or no opposition from either party. The Catholics and the more moderate Huguenots alike favoured this alliance. The former saw in Margaret a new Clotilde of Burgundy going forth to win a new Clovis to the Faith. The latter hoped that the influence of the bridegroom and of his mother, the saintly Jeanne d'Albret, would bring her to the feet of the Reformers of Geneva. If Henry were converted to Catholicism, the Princes of Condé and the greater part of the Calvinist nobility would probably follow in his train. Thus Coligny would be left alone in his opposition to the Government, unsupported save by a few traders of Gascony and Guienne.

Catherine, although at first unwilling that her daughter should marry a heretic, at length gave way. She was overcome, she told the Nuncio, by the pressure put upon her by the Catholic nobility, and chose the marriage not as being good in itself, but as the least of the evils which awaited her.

Although Caiazzo at first affected to approve of the plan, Pius V., whose dispensation was required by the relationship existing between the parties, sternly refused his consent. He feared to offend Spain by any step which might aid in securing tranquillity to France, and, said Caiazzo, "thought it not right to join Christ to Calvin."+ As Pius himself said, "even were the French army in St. Peter's Square, and the lives of himself and his Cardinals at stake, he would not swerve a hand'sbreath from his resolution."*

Coligny, on the other hand, fully realized the situation in which he would find himself were he deserted by his colleagues. He therefore endeavoured to arrange a marriage between Henry and a kinswoman of the English Queen, who was in the line of succession to the throne. Elizabeth, however, could not be brought to sanction any measure, which would result in the aggrandizement of a person, whom she had not "recognized" as her heir. Who that person was is problematical. Caiazzo used the word "Nipote," which must mean either "daughter' or "granddaughter." Moreover, Elizabeth was averse to entering into any close connection with the Huguenots. Coligny's overtures in this direction therefore proved fruitless. As a set off, he succeeded in winning the goodwill of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, by securing for him the support of the + Caiazzo to Rusticucci, August 14th, 1571. * Petrucci to Prince of Tuscany, Sept. 16th.

Palatine and Saxon electors, in his efforts to obtain the recognition of his title. In return the Grand Duke instructed his envoy to influence the Queen mother, so far as might be, in favour of the Protestants.

The result of Petrucci's efforts was, that the King invited Coligny to pay him a visit at Blois. He arrived there on September 14th, 1571, and was received by their Majesties with the greatest courtesy. The Nuncio was detained at Paris by an outbreak of the plague amongst his household. Consequently, there was no one on the spot, whose business it was to defend the Catholic cause.

Coligny proceeded with the greatest caution, refraining from bringing forward any measures of importance, until he had thoroughly assured himself of the footing upon which he stood. It was believed, however, that he intended to propose a treaty with England and Germany against Spain.

So complete did his ascendency appear, that Caiazzo thought the courtiers would certainly turn his Majesty Huguenot. As, however, the Nuncio was Philip's warm partisan, he may have written thus to wean Pius V. from any leaning to the antiSpanish party.

On October 14th, Coligny presented to the King a petition from himself and his adherents. They demanded that the Peace of St. Germain should be published in the papal territory of Avignon, that all Huguenots holding Church preferment should retain their prebends, and that the rights of patronage and the greater tithes of all the inferior benefices should be granted to lay patrons.

This addition to the strength of the great feudatories would have struck at the root of the supremacy of the Crown, yet, in order to secure the support of the Calvinists and weaken the Papal influence, it was taken into serious consideration by the Queen Regent. She felt herself insulted by the Pope, and talked of procuring a dispensation from some French archbishop. The courtiers pressed Charles to assume in matrimonial cases, wherever a Protestant was concerned, the jurisdiction hitherto exercised by the Pope. The Huguenots had reached the culminating point of their power. France seemed destined to be lost to Rome, like England 40 years before, for a dispute about a Royal marriage.

But the triumph of the Huguenots was brief. On October 30th, Nuncio Caiazzo and the Venetian Envoys arrived at Blois in great pomp, with the tidings that the "God-sent Man," Don John of Austria, had annihilated the Turkish squadron in the

waters of Lepanto. Spain was now become paramount. Consternation fell upon her enemies. None of her Protestant subjects, none of her rivals in Italy would dare budge, and Catherine herself felt that she must, for the time, lay aside her plans of conquest. Their postponement assured the triumph of the Counter-Reformation.

Great was the Pope's joy at the victory of his navy. For a moment Rome seemed sincerely reconciled to Spain. The sack of the Eternal City was forgiven. Pius V. forgot his understanding with Tuscany. He forgot the negotiations, which but a few short weeks before, Masa and Fregoso, secret agents of the Grand Duke, had been carrying on at Paris with “Fulichai, "a gentleman of the Prince of Orange."* His Holiness now spoke of nothing but of destroying heresy everywhere with the aid of Spanish arms. The dispensation was again contemptuously refused.

Catherine was frightened out of all intercourse with the enemies of Spain, and thought of giving her daughter to Sebastian, King of Portugal, or to the young Prince of Savoy. It was, however, soon evident that the end of the Turkish Empire was not yet come, Disunion prevented Spain and her allies from reaping the fruits of her victory.

The Queen Mother's hopes revived, and, late in November, with secret encouragement from Tuscany, she recommenced negotiations with Louis of Nassau, youngest brother of William the Silent. It was decided that a rising in Flanders should take place in the spring of 1572.

Although Coligny's influence had received a severe check, by skilful management he soon regained his ground, despite the opposition of Anjou and of the Guises, whose intrigues made them secretly hateful to Catherine. This fact is plainly stated by Petrucci in the following_despatch.

"Were it not for the support of Retz, the Nuncio could do nothing here, as, besides all his other difficulties, he has to struggle with their Majesties' intense dislike to any one, whether he be Guise or Montmorency, having a following at Court, as they do not wish either faction to attain to such power and authority, and, in fact, succeed in overthrowing many such camerillas, by a policy of putting down first one and then another of those who have such followings, so that, to make any way at all with them, one must act with such skill and caution, as few can succeed in attaining to or practising."†

* C. to Rusticucci, Aug. 21st.

+ P. to Prince of Tuscany, December 16th, 1571.

The Guises met with greater success among the provincial nobility. Mutual suspicion between the two religions rapidly reappeared. A gathering of the Lorraine faction in arms at Troyes led to a counter-gathering of Protestants at Orleans and Chatillon, and the general exasperation of parties was increasing daily.

"Constable de Montmorency gave notice to the King, that a great many gentlemen, friendly to the Guises, were lately come to Paris, and had taken lodgings in many different parts of the city, where they were constantly holding assemblies by night to discuss some secret business, and that they were setting about making a provision of arms, one of their plans being to go and lay siege to the Admiral in his own house. Upon this the King forbade either the Guises or the Admiral to come to Court, with any beyond their ordinary attendants, He said that he would take the field in person, and break the heads of any who might dare to disobey this edict. People say that if the Guises do so, it will be because they have arranged everything that is to be done, with some promise of powerful support, and perhaps, with the intention of getting some towns into their hands, as they have been encouraged to do by several princes for divers reasons. Peace will only be kept with Spain, so long as they succeed in keeping the Duke of Anjou in their power. I am remaining in France to the no small danger of my life, especially should all the Princes come to Court, for a way may be opened for thus killing the men.'t

Petrucci's fears as to his personal safety were well founded, Caiazzo, as a thorough-going partisan of Spain, was an enemy of Tuscany. Philip's object was to sow jealousies between France, the Pope, and the Italian Princes. Consequently his ambassador at Rome was ordered to accuse the Grand Duke to Pius V. as an avowed and notorious heretic, whilst the Nuncio made the same charge to the Queen Mother against the Tuscan envoys. Meanwhile, to win her favour, Caiazzo was humbling himself to the dust, and seemed to have put off his Nuncio's robes to don her livery. He strove to flatter her into the desertion of the cause of her native country.

On Jan. 25th, 1572, Cardinal Alessandro, nephew of Pius V., arrived from Lisbon, with his secretary Salviati, a distant relation of the Medici family. His mission bade fair to be successful. The Queen of Navarre was not allowed to enter Paris during his stay, and negotiations with Portugal were resumed. After his departure hot words ensued between the

+ P. to P. of T., Dec. 21st, 1571,