The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 | Page 2

leaders, of whom
they might be robbed by the hand of the assassin, than upon a
conviction of the righteousness of their cause, which no sophistry of
their opponents could dissipate. The Huguenots, at the death of Charles
the Ninth, stood before the world a well-defined body, that had
outgrown the feebleness of infancy, and had proved itself entitled to
consideration and respect. Thus much was certain.
The subsequent fortunes of the Huguenots of France--their wars until
they obtained recognition and some measure of justice in the Edict of
Nantes; the gradual infringement upon their guaranteed rights,
culminating in the revocation of the edict, and the loss to the kingdom
of the most industrious part of the population; their sufferings "under
the cross" until the publication of the Edict of Toleration--these offer an
inviting field of investigation, upon which I may at some future time be
tempted to enter.[1]
The history of the Huguenots during a great part of the period covered
by this work, is, in fact, the history of France as well. The outlines of
the action and some of the characters that come upon the stage are,
consequently, familiar to the reader of general history. The period has
been treated cursorily in writings extending over wider limits, while
several of the most striking incidents, including, especially, the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, have been made the subject of
special disquisitions. Yet, although much study and ingenuity have

been expended in elucidating the more difficult and obscure points,
there is, especially in the English language, a lack of works upon the
general theme, combining painstaking investigation into the older (but
not, necessarily, better known) sources of information, and an
acquaintance with the results of modern research.
The last twenty-five or thirty years have been remarkably fruitful in
discoveries and publications shedding light upon the history of France
during the age of the Reformation and the years immediately following.
The archives of all the principal, and many of the secondary, capitals of
Europe have been explored. Valuable manuscripts previously known to
few scholars--if, indeed, known to any--have been rescued from
obscurity and threatened destruction. By the side of the voluminous
histories and chronicles long since printed, a rich store of contemporary
correspondence and hitherto inedited memoirs has been accumulated,
supplying at once the most copious and the most trustworthy fund of
life-like views of the past. The magnificent "Collection de Documents
Inédits sur l'Histoire de France," still in course of publication by the
Ministry of Public Instruction, comprehends in its grand design not
only extended memoirs, like those of Claude Haton of Provins, but the
even more important portfolios of leading statesmen, such as those of
Secretary De l'Aubespine and Cardinal Granvelle (not less
indispensable for French than for Dutch affairs), and the
correspondence of monarchs, as of Henry the Fourth. The secrets of
diplomacy have been revealed. Those singularly accurate and sensible
reports made to the Doge and Senate of Venice, by the ambassadors of
the republic, upon their return from the French court, can be read in the
collections of Venetian Relations of Tommaseo and Albèri, or as
summarized by Ranke and Baschet. The official statements drawn up
for the eyes of the public may now be confronted with and tested by the
more truthful and unguarded accounts conveyed in cipher to all the
foreign courts of Europe. Including the partial collections of despatches
heretofore put in print, we possess, regarding many critical events, the
narratives and opinions of such apt observers as the envoys of Spain, of
the German Empire, of Venice, and of the Pope, of Wurtemberg,
Saxony, and the Palatinate. Above all, we have access to the continuous
series of letters of the English ambassadors and minor agents,

comprising Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, Walsingham,
Jones, Killigrew, and others, scarcely less skilful in the use of the pen
than in the art of diplomacy. This English correspondence, parts of
which were printed long ago by Digges, Dr. Patrick Forbes, and
Haynes, and other portions by Hardwick, Wright, Tytler-Fraser, etc.,
can now be read in London, chiefly in the Record Office, and is
admirably analyzed in the invaluable "Calendars of State Papers
(Foreign Series)," published under the direction of the Master of the
Rolls. Too much weight can scarcely be given to this source of
information and illustration. One of the learned editors enthusiastically
remarks concerning a part of it (the letters of Throkmorton[2]): "The
historical literature of France, rich as it confessedly is in memoirs and
despatches of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, possesses (as far
as I am aware) no series of papers which can compare either in
continuity, fidelity, or minuteness, with the correspondence of
Throkmorton.... He had his agents and his spies everywhere throughout
France."
Little, if at all, inferior in importance