The Peace of the Pope

 

This battle, no less fatal to France than the ancient victories of Crecy and Agincourt, gained by the English on the same frontier, bore a near resemblance to those disastrous events in the suddenness of the rout; in the ill-conduct of the commander in chief; in the number of persons of note slain or taken; and in the small loss sustained by the enemy. It filled France with equal consternation. Many inhabitants of Paris, with the same precipitancy and trepidation as if the enemy had been already at their gates, quitted the city and retired into the interior provinces. The king, by his presence and exhortations, endeavored to console and to animate such as remained, and applying himself with the greatest diligence to repair the ruinous fortifications of the city, prepared to defend it against the attack which he instantly expected. But happily for France, Philip's caution, together with the intrepid firmness of the admiral de Coligny, not only saved the capital from the danger to which it was exposed, but gained the nation a short interval, during which the people recovered from the terror and dejection occasioned by a blow no less severe than unexpected, and Henry had leisure to take measures for the public security, with the spirit which became the sovereign of a powerful and martial people.

Philip, immediately after the battle, visited the camp at St. Quintin, where he was received with all the exultation of military triumph; and such were his transports of joy on account of an event which threw so much luster on the beginning of his reign, that they softened his severe and haughty temper into an unusual flow of courtesy. When the duke it Savoy approached, and was kneeling to kiss his hands, he caught him in his arms, and embracing him with warmth, "It becomes me", says he, "rather to kiss your hands, which have gained me such a glorious and almost bloodless victory".

As soon as the rejoicings and congratulations on Philip's arrival were over, a council of war was held, in order to determine how they might improve their victory to the best advantage. The duke of Savoy, seconded by several of the ablest officers formed under Charles V insisted that they should immediately relinquish the siege of St. Quintin, the reduction of which was now an object below their attention, and advance directly towards Paris; that as there were neither troops to oppose, nor any town of strength to retard their march, they might reach that capital while under the full impression of the astonishment and terror occasioned by the rout of the army, and take possession of it without resistance. But Philip, less adventurous or more prudent than his generals, preferred a moderate but certain advantage, to an enterprise of greater splendor, but of more doubtful success.

He represented to the council the infinite resources of a kingdom so powerful as France; the great number as well as martial spirit of its nobles; their attachment to their sovereign; the manifold advantages with which they could carry on war in their own territories; and the unavoidable destruction which must be the consequence of their penetrating too rashly into the enemy's country, before they had secured such a communication with their own as might render a retreat safe, if, upon any disastrous event, that measure should become necessary. On all these accounts, he advised the continuance of the siege, and his generals acquiesced the more readily in his opinion, as they made no doubt of being masters of the town in a few days, a loss of time of so little consequence in the execution of their plan, that they might easily repair it by their subsequent activity.

The weakness of the fortifications, and the small number of the garrison, which could no longer hope either for reinforcement or relief, seemed to authorize this calculation of Philip's generals. But, in making it, they did not attend sufficiently to the character of admiral de Coligny, who commanded in the town. A courage undismayed, and tranquil amidst the greatest dangers, an invention fruitful in resources, a genius which roused and seemed to acquire new force upon every disaster, a talent of governing the minds of men, together with a capacity of maintaining his ascendant over them even under circumstances the most adverse and distressful, were qualities which Coligny possessed in a degree superior to any general of that age. These qualities were peculiarly adapted to the station in which he was now placed; and as he knew the infinite importance to his country of every hour which he could gain at this juncture, he exerted himself to the utmost in contriving how to protract the siege, and to detain the enemy from attempting any enterprise more dangerous to France. Such were the perseverance and skill with which he conducted the defence, and such the fortitude as well as patience with which he animated the garrison, that though the Spaniards, the Flemings, and the English, carried on the attack with all the ardor which national emulation inspires, he held out the town seventeen days. He was taken prisoner at last [Aug. 27], on the breach, overpowered by the superior number of the enemy.

Henry availed himself; with the utmost activity, of the interval which the admiral's well-timed obstinacy had afforded him. He appointed officers to collect the scattered remains of the constable's army; he issued orders for levying soldiers in every part of the kingdom; he commanded the ban and arriere ban of the frontier provinces instantly to take the field, and to join the duke of Nevers at Laon in Picardy; he recalled the greater part of the veteran troops which served under the marechal Brissac in Piedmont; he sent courier after courier to the duke of Guise, requiring him, together with all his army. to return instantly for the defence of their country; he despatched one envoy to the grand seignior, to solicit the assistance of his fleet, and the loan of a sum of money; he sent another into Scotland, to incite the Scots to invade the north of England, that, by drawing Mary's attention to that quarter, he might prevent her from reinforcing her troops which served under Philip. These efforts of the king were warmly seconded by the zeal of his subjects. The city of Paris granted him a free gift of three hundred thousand livres. The other great towns imitated the liberality of the capital, and contributed in proportion. Several noblemen of distinction engaged, at their own expense, to garrison and defend the towns which lay most exposed to the enemy. Nor was the general concern for the public confined to corporate bodies alone, or to those in the higher sphere of life, but diffusing itself among persons of every rank, each individual seemed disposed to act with as much vigour as if the honor of the king, and the safety of the state, had depended solely on his single efforts.

Philip, who was no stranger either to the prudent measures taken by the French monarch for the security of his dominions, or to the spirit with which his subjects prepared to defend themselves, perceived, when it was too late, that he had lost an opportunity which could never be recalled, and that it was now vain to think of penetrating into the heart of France. He abandoned, therefore, without much reluctance, a scheme which was too bold and hazardous to be perfectly agreeable to his cautious temper; and employed his army, during the remainder of the campaign, in the sieges of Ham and Catelet. Of these, he soon became master; and the reduction of two such petty towns, together with the acquisition of St. Quintin, were all the advantages which tie derived from one of the most decisive victories gained in that century. Philip himself, however, continued in high exultation on account of his success; and as all his passions were tinged with superstition, he, in memory of the battle of St. Quintin, which had been fought on the day consecrated to St. Laurence, vowed to build a church, a monastery, and a palace, in honor of that saint and martyr. Before the expiration of the year, he laid the foundation of an edifice, in which all these were united, at the Escurial in the neighborhood of Madrid; and the same principle which dictated the vow, directed the building. For the plan of the work was so formed as to resemble a grid­iron, which, according to the legendary tale, had been the instrument of St. Laurence's martyrdom. Notwithstanding the great and expensive schemes in which his restless ambition involved him, Philip continued the building with such perseverance for twenty-two years, and reserved such large sums for this monument of his devotion and vanity, that the monarchs of Spain are indebted to him for a royal residence, which, though not the most elegant, is certainly the most sumptuous and magnificent of any in Europe.

The first account of that fatal blow which the French had received at St. Quintin was carried to Rome by the courier whom Henry had sent to recall the duke of Guise. As Paul, even with the assistance of his French auxiliaries, had hardly been able to check the progress of the Spanish arms, he foresaw that, as soon as he was deprived of their protection, his territories must be overrun in a moment. He remonstrated, therefore, with the greatest violence against the departure of the French army, reproaching the duke of Guise for his ill conduct, which had brought him in such an unhappy situation; and complaining of the king for deserting him so ungenerously under such circumstances. The duke of Guise's orders, however, were peremptory. Paul, inflexible as he was, found it necessary to accommodate his conduct to the exigency of his affairs, and to employ the mediation of the Venetians, and of Cosmo di Medici, in order to obtain peace. Philip, who had been forced unwillingly to a rupture with the pope, and who, even while success crowned his arms, doubted so much the justice of his own cause, that he had made frequent overtures of pacification, listened eagerly to the first proposals of this nature from Paul, and discovered such moderation in his demands, as could hardly have been expected from a prince elated with victory.

The duke of Alva on the part of Philip, and the cardinal Caraffa in the name of his uncle, met at Cavi, and both being equally disposed to peace, they, after a short conference, terminated the war by a treaty on the following terms:

That Paul should renounce his league with France, and maintain for the future such a neutrality as became the common father of Christendom;

That Philip should instantly restore all the towns of the ecclesiastical territory of which he had taken possession;

That the claims of the Caraffas to the duchy of Paliano, and other demesnes of the Colonnas, should be referred to the decision of the republic of Venice;

That the duke of Alva should repair in person to Rome, and after asking pardon of Paul in his own name, and in that of his master, for having invaded the patrimony of the church, should receive the pope's absolution from that crime.

Thus Paul, through Philip's scrupulous timidity, finished an unprosperous war without any detriment to the papal see. The conqueror appeared humble, and acknowledged his error; while he who had been vanquished retained his usual haughtiness, and was treated with every mark of superiority. The duke of Alva, in terms of the treaty, repaired to Rome, and, in the posture of a supplicant, kissed the feet, and implored the forgiveness of that very person whom his arms had reduced to the last extremity. Such was the superstitious veneration of the Spaniards for the papal character, that Alva, though perhaps the proudest man of the age, and accustomed from his infancy to a familiar intercourse with princes, acknowledged that when he approached the pope, he was so much overawed, that his voice failed, and his presence of mind forsook him.

 

The Sagacity of Cosmo di Medici.