The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 04: 1555-59Motley, John Lothrop
History
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 04: 1555-59
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- Church history; Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
King Henry visited Calais, which after two centuries of estrangement had
now become a French town again, appointed Paul de Thermes governor of the
place, and then returned to Paris to celebrate soon afterwards the
marriage of the Dauphin with the niece of the Guises, Mary, Queen of
Scots.
These events, together with the brief winter campaign of the Duke, which
had raised for an instant the drooping head of France, were destined
before long to give a new face to affairs, while it secured the
ascendancy of the Catholic party in the kingdom. Disastrous eclipse had
come over the house of Montmorency and Coligny, while the star of Guise,
brilliant with the conquest of Calais, now culminated to the zenith.
It was at this period that the memorable interview between the two
ecclesiastics, the Bishop of Arras and the Cardinal de Lorraine, took
place at Peronne. From this central point commenced the weaving of that
wide-spread scheme, in which the fate of millions was to be involved.
The Duchess Christina de Lorraine, cousin of Philip, had accompanied him
to Saint Quentin. Permission had been obtained by the Duc de Guise and
his brother, the Cardinal, to visit her at Peronne. The Duchess was
accompanied by the Bishop of Arras, and the consequence was a full and
secret negotiation between the two priests. It may be supposed that
Philip's short-lived military ardor had already exhausted itself. He had
mistaken his vocation, and already recognized the false position in which
he was placed. He was contending against the monarch in whom he might
find the surest ally against the arch enemy of both kingdoms, and of the
world. The French monarch held heresy in horror, while, for himself,
Philip had already decided upon his life's mission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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