Legends -- Pyrenees; Pyrenees -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- History
Of the four that were on fire, two died on the spot. The other two--the
Bastard of Foix and the Count de Joigny--died two days after in great
agony.
Orthez contains the Calvinist University established here by Jeanne
d’Albret, a building of the sixteenth century, now no longer used for
the purpose designed.
The bridge over the Gave is picturesque; it has one broad arch spanning
the river, and three pointed arches sustaining the road leading to it,
raised high to avoid floods. On the main pier is a tower, whence in
1569 the Calvinist soldiery of Montgomery precipitated the priests who
would not abjure the faith, upon the pointed rocks below.
Jeanne d’Albret, after the death of her husband, Antoine de Bourbon,
threw off the mask, and set diligently to work Protestantizing her
dominions. She put one of her pastors in the see of Oloron; her
kinsman, d’Albret, Bishop of Lescar, apostatized and married. She found
in many places that the people were ready for a change, especially such
as had been subject to exactions from the monasteries, which owned much
land and exercised extensive jurisdiction. In many, however, there was
strong resistance. In 1566 she was about to absolutely interdict the
exercise of the Catholic religion in Béarn, Foix, and Bigorre, when the
resistance of the Estates and the threatening attitude of the people
alarmed her and she withheld the edict for a time. In 1568, finding
that Charles IX was about to send troops into her land to protect the
oppressed Catholics, and fearing lest she should have her children
taken from her, she fled to La Rochelle, the Geneva of French Calvinism.
Charles IX announced his resolution to take possession of Béarn.
Bigorre was in revolt against her reforms, and a good many of the
seigneurs of Béarn could not endure them. The King commissioned the
terrible Monluc to pacify Bigorre, and the Baron de Terride to do
the same in Béarn. The Béarnais were in difficulties. They were to a
man loyal to their Viscountess, the titular Queen of Navarre, but a
considerable number of them were opposed to her religious policy, and
did not relish the taste of Calvinism. If they joined the forces of
the King they were rebels to their sovereign. If they took up arms for
her they fought for a religion that their soul abhorred. Nay, Pontacq,
Morlaas, shut their gates against the royal forces, and were reduced.
Lescar, Sauveterre, and Salies opened their gates to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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