The Treaty of Chateau-Cambresis [Feb. 6, 1559]

 

The treaty of peace between France and England contained no articles of real importance, but that which respected Calais. It was stipulated,

That the king of France should retain possession of that town, with all its dependencies, during eight years;

That at the expiration of that term, he should restore it to England;

That in case of non-performance, he should forfeit five hundred thousand crowns, for payment of which sum, seven or eight wealthy merchants, who were not his subjects, should grant security;

That five persons of distinction should be given as hostages until that security were provided;

That, although the forfeit of five hundred thousand crowns should be paid, the right of England to Calais should still remain entire, in the same manner as it the term of eight years were expired;

That the king and queen of Scotland should be included in the treaty;

That if they, or the French king, should violate the peace by any hostile action, Henry should be obliged instantly to restore Calais;

That on the other hand, if any breach of the treaty proceeded from Elizabeth, then Henry, and the king and queen of Scots were absolved from all the engagements which they had come under by this treaty.

Notwithstanding the studied attention with which so many precautions were taken, it is evident that Henry did not intend the restitution of Calais, nor is it probable that Elizabeth expected it. It was hardly possible that she could maintain, during the course of eight years, such perfect concord both with France and Scotland, as not to afford Henry some pretext for alleging that she had violated the treaty. But even it that term should elapse without any ground for complaint, Henry might then choose to pay the sum stipulated, and Elizabeth had no method of asserting her right but by force of arms. However, by throwing the articles in the treaty with regard to Calais into this form, Elizabeth satisfied her subjects of every denomination; she gave men of discernment a striking proof of her address, in palliating what she could not prevent; and amusing the multitude, to whom the cession of such an important place would have appeared altogether infamous, with the prospect of recovering in a short time that favorite possession.

The expedient which Montmorency employed, in order to facilitate the conclusion of peace between France and Spain, was the negotiating two treaties of marriage, one between Elizabeth, Henry's eldest daughter, and Philip, who supplanted his son, the unfortunate Don Carlos, to whom that princess had been promised in the former conferences at Cercamp; the other between Margaret, Henry's only sister, and the duke of Savoy. For however feeble the ties of blood may often be among princes, or how little soever they may regard them when pushed on to act by motives of ambition, they assume on other occasions the appearance of being so far influenced by these domestic affections as to employ them to justify measures and concessions which they find to be necessary, but know to be impolitic or dishonorable. Such was the use Henry made of the two marriages to which he gave his consent. Having secured an honorable establishment for his sister and his daughter, he, in consideration of these, granted terms both to Philip and the duke of Savoy, of which he would not, on any other account, have ventured to approve.

The principal articles in the treaty between France and Spain were,

That sincere and perpetual amity should be established between the two crowns and their respective allies;

That the two monarchs should labor in concert to procure the convocation of a general council, in order to check the progress of heresy, and restore unity and concord to the Christian church;

That all conquests made by either party, on this side of the Alps, since the commencement of the war in one thousand five hundred and fifty-one, should be mutually restored;

That the duchy of Savoy, the principality of Piedmont, the country of Bresse, and all the other territories formerly subject to the dukes of Savoy, should be restored to Emanuel Philibert, immediately after the celebration of his marriage with Margaret of France, the towns of Turin, Quiers, Pignerol, Chivaz, and Villanova excepted, of which Henry should keep possession until his claims to these places, in right of his grandmother, should be tried and decided in course of law;

That as long as Henry retained these places in his hands, Philip should be at liberty to keep garrisons in the towns of Varcelli and Asti;

That the French king should immediately evacuate all the places which he held in Tuscany and the Siennese, and renounce all future pretensions to them;

That he should restore the marquisate of Montferrat to the duke of Mantua;

That he should receive the Genoese into favor, and give up to them the towns which he had conquered in the island of Corsica;

That none of the princes or states, to whom these cessions were made, should call their subjects to account for any part of their conduct while under the dominion of their enemies, but should bury all past transactions in oblivion.

The pope, the emperor, the kings of Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, the king and queen of Scots, and almost every prince and state in Christendom, were comprehended in this pacification as the allies either of Henry or of Philip.

Thus, by this famous treaty, peace was re-established in Europe. All the causes of discord which had so long embroiled the powerful monarchs of France and Spain, which had transmitted hereditary quarrels and wars from Charles to Philip, and from Francis to Henry, seemed to be wholly removed, or finally terminated. The French alone complained of the unequal conditions of a treaty, into which an ambitious minister, in order to recover his liberty, and an artful mistress, that she might gratify her resentment, had seduced their too easy monarch. They exclaimed loudly against the folly of giving up to the enemies of France a hundred and eighty-nine fortified places, in the Low-Countries: or in Italy, in return for the three insignificant towns of St. quintin, Ham, and Catelet. They considered it as an indelible stain upon the glory of the nation, to renounce in one day territories so extensive, and so capable of being defended, that the enemy could not have hoped to wrest them out of their hands, after many years of victory.

But Henry, without regarding the sentiments of his people, or being moved by the remonstrances of his council, ratified the treaty, and executed with great fidelity whatever he had stipulated to perform. The duke of Savoy repaired with a numerous retinue to Paris, in order to celebrate his marriage with Henry's sister. The duke of Alva was sent to the same capital, at the head of a splendid embassy, to espouse Elizabeth in the name of his master. They were received with extraordinary magnificence by the French court. Amidst the rejoicings and festivities on that occasion, Henry's days were cut short by a singular and tragical accident [July 10]. His son, Francis II a prince under age, of a weak constitution, and of a mind still more feeble, succeeded him. Soon after, Paul ended his violent and imperious pontificate, at enmity with all the world, and dis­gusted even with his awn nephews. They, persecuted by Philip, and deserted by the succeeding pope, whom they had raised by their influence to the papal throne, were condemned to the punishment which their crimes and ambition had merited, and their death was as infamous as their lives had been criminal. Thus most of the personages, who had long sustained the principal characters on the great theatre of Europe disappeared about the same time. A more known period of history opens at this era; other actors enter upon the stage, with different views, as well as different passions; new contests arose, and new schemes of ambition occupied and disquieted mankind.

 

Conclusions