Stories from French History by Lena Dalkeith

Author:Lena Dalkeith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ozymandias Press

A STORY IN PRAISE OF AND PITY FOR THE HUGUENOTS

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TAKEN FOR THE MOST PART from the memoirs of Maximilian Bethune, Baron de Rosny, afterwards Duke of Sully and Chief Minister to Henry IV., King of Navarre.

“As this is part of the history of my own life together with that of Prince Henry of Navarre, my gracious master, it is needful that I should make known something of myself.

“Maximilian is my name, Bethune that of my family. I am of the younger branch of this famous family, and the fortunes of our house were somewhat sunken in the time of which I write, owing to the extravagance of my grandfather, who left my father nought but the estate of Rosny, his wife’s dower.

“At the time of which I write, I was in my eleventh year. My parents were of the Reformed religion. In that religion I was bred, and neither threats nor promises nor chances of fortune, nor even the change of the King, my master, have ever been able to make me renounce it.”

Here shall be told something of the religious wars which made France suffer so terribly and for so long a time, so you who read may understand better this story of the Baron de Rosny, as Maximilian Bethune was then called.

In the time of Rosny, and for long before it, the Roman Catholic Church was very different from what it had been in the beginning. It had become so corrupt, so many evils were done in its name, that at last some honest and brave men had refused to believe any longer what it taught. They left the Church and founded a Church and another belief for themselves; they worshipped God in freedom and in their own way.

Luther first in Germany began this revolt against the power and authority of the Pope of Rome. Calvin followed later in Geneva. By degrees the new faith and the new desire to worship God as they liked spread over all Europe.

As you may believe, the Roman Catholics did their best to crush it. In Spain the cruel Philip II. tortured and burned thousands of the Protestants, for so these Protesters against Rome were called. In every country they were persecuted and put to death.

Nevertheless, the new religion did not die; it grew, it prospered, even until the sixteenth century, when the Protestants were strong enough to send an army against the Catholics. Thus began the religious wars, as they were named, although men fought in them for many other reasons than religion.

Now again we turn to Rosny and his story:

“Henry, King of Navarre, of the Royal House of Bourbon, was seven years older than I. He, too, was born a Protestant of the Reformed Church. His grandmother was a sister of Francois I., King of France. She married the King of Navarre. They had a daughter Jeanne, who married Antoine de Bourbon. Henry of Navarre, my master, was their son.

“Now, Henry’s mother, Jeanne, who upon her father’s death became Queen of Navarre, was a staunch Protestant and ever supported our side.

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