A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times | Page 9

his instructions to his legate. After Pope Urban VIII.'s apparition of
thirteen days' duration, Gregory XIV. was elected pope on the 5th of
December, 1590; and, instead of a head of the church able enough and
courageous enough to comprehend and practise a policy European and
Italian as well as Catholic in its scope, there was a pope humbly
devoted to the Spanish policy, meekly subservient to Philip II.; that is,
to the cause of religious persecution and of absolute power, without

regard for anything else. The relations of France with the Holy See at
once felt the effects of this; Cardinal Gaetani received from Rome all
the instructions that the most ardent Leaguers could desire; and he gave
his approval to a resolution of the Sorbonne to the effect that Henry de
Bourbon, heretic and relapsed, was forever excluded from the crown,
whether he became a Catholic or not. Henry IV., had convoked the
states-general at Tours for the month of March, and had summoned to
that city the archbishops and bishops to form a national council, and to
deliberate as to the means of restoring the king to the bosom of the
Catholic church. The legate prohibited this council, declaring,
beforehand, the excommunication and deposition of any bishops who
should be present at it. The Leaguer Parliament of Paris forbade, on
pain of death and confiscation, any connection, any correspondence,
with Henry de Bourbon and his partisans. A solemn procession of the
League took place at Paris, on the 14th of March, and a few days
afterwards the union was sworn afresh by all the municipal chiefs of
the population. In view of such passionate hostility, Henry IV., a
stranger to any sort of illusion at the same time that he was always full
of hope, saw that his successes at Arques were insufficient for him, and
that, if he were to occupy the throne in peace, he must win more
victories. He recommenced the campaign by the siege of Dreux, one of
the towns which it was most important for him to possess in order to
put pressure on Paris, and cause her to feel, even at a distance, the
perils and evils of war.
On Wednesday, the 14th of March, 1590, was fought the battle of Ivry,
a village six leagues from Evreux, on the left bank of the Eure.
"Starting from Dreux on the 12th of March" [Poirson, Histoire du
Regne d'Henri IV., t. i. p. 180], "the royal army had arrived the same
day at Nonancourt, marching with the greatest regularity by divisions
and always in close order, through fearful weather, frost having
succeeding rain; moreover, it traversed a portion of the road during
the shades of evening. The soldier was harassed and knocked up. But
scarcely had he arrived at his destination for the day, when he found
large fires lighted everywhere, and provisions in abundance, served out
with intelligent regularity to the various quarters of cavalry and
infantry. He soon recovered all his strength and daring." The king, in

concert with the veteran Marshal de Biron, had taken these prudent
measures. All the historians, contemporary and posterior, have
described in great detail the battle of Ivry, the manoeuvres and
alternations of success that distinguished it; by rare good fortune, we
have an account of the affair written the very same evening in the camp
at Rosny by Henry IV. himself, and at once sent off to some of his
principal partisans who were absent, amongst others to M. de la
Verune, governor of Caen. We will content ourselves here with the
king's own words, striking in their precision, brevity, and freedom from
any self-complacent gasconading on the narrator's part, respecting
either his party or himself.
[Illustration: Henry IV. at Ivry----26]
LETTER OF KING HENRY IV. TOUCHING THE BATTLE OF IVRY.
"It hath pleased God to grant me that which I had the most desired, to
have means of giving battle to mine enemies; having firm confidence
that, having got so far, God would give me grace to obtain the victory,
as it hath happened this very day. You have heretofore heard how that,
after the capture of the town of Honfleur, I went and made them raise
the siege they were laying to the town of Meulan, and I offered them
battle, which it seemed that they ought to accept, having in numbers
twice the strength that I could muster. But in the hope of being able to
do so with more safety, they made up their minds to put it off until they
had been joined by fifteen hundred lances which the Duke of Parma
was sending them; which was done a few days ago. And then they
spread abroad everywhere that they would force me to fight,
wheresoever I might be; they