On 23 December 1588, Henri I, Duke of Guise was assassinated by the Quarante Cinq serving King Henry III. The event was one of the most critical moments of the French Wars of Religion. The Duke had achieved, since 1584, considerable power over the Kingdom of France, through his alliance with the Catholic League, which he had co-opted for the cause of resisting the King's lawful successor to the throne: the future Henry IV — a Protestant. Despite some effort to resist Guise and the League, Henry III had been forced by his weak position to accede to their continued demands. After the Day of the Barricades in May 1588, the League expelled Henri from Paris, and Henri was forced to make Guise lieutenant general of the kingdom, call an Estates General and sign an Edict of Union in July which prohibited Henry of Navarre from succeeding to the throne and outlawed Protestantism in France. Increasingly unable to bear the humiliations Guise and the League forced upon him, he was further outraged by the Estates General. The body — largely League-dominated — rejected his attempt to chastise Guise for forming associations, diverted tax income to Guise's brother Mayenne and rejected all compromise with the King.
These indignities in combination with the increasingly cavalier attitude of much of the Guise family, who spoke of deposing him and interring him in a monastery, persuaded Henry to have the Duke killed. To accomplish this, he required a time when Guise was alone, something that could be accomplished only at a meeting of the council. Feigning an intention to leave Blois for Christmas, he persuaded Guise to come to a council meeting on 23 December. Guise received numerous warnings of the King's intentions for the meeting, but was unable to imagine that the pious and compliant Henry would dare touch him. Shortly after the meeting began, Guise was called away to meet the King. En route to the King he was attacked by several members of the King's bodyguard, the Quarante Cinq and murdered. His brother, the Cardinal of Guise and their ally Pierre de Saint-Priest d'Épinac, Archbishop of Lyon, heard the fight in the next room, but were apprehended before they could aid their friend and brother. While the King prevaricated over what to do with Cardinal Guise he eventually decided that the Cardinal's threats against him warranted his death, and he was murdered in his cell the following day. The two men were cremated to avoid their remains becoming martyr's relics then scattered into the Loire.
While the estates were quickly cowed from reacting with any fury to this royal coup, with the prominent League members in their midst arrested, the rest of France was not so easily quieted. The Seize which had controlled Paris since the Day of the Barricades declared that they would have their vengeance against the murderer of the princes. The organisation quickly moved to purge the Parlement of Paris of royalist sympathisers, making the body League dominated. The Sorbonne for its part, pre-empted a Papal declaration of Henri's excommunication for the murder of the Cardinal by declaring that all subjects were released from their oath of obedience, and that it was their duty to fight Henry III. Across the kingdom the majority of the fifty largest urban centres in the country defected to the Catholic League. In Paris the furious Catholic population destroyed any public monument, image or symbol that represented the King, while pamphleteers denounced him as a Herod, Nero and anti-Christ, with some going so far as to say that he should be killed. Pope Sixtus V for his part was furious at the murder of the Cardinal, and despite the King sending several representatives to convince him, threatened excommunication in thirty days unless Henry came to Rome to explain himself. Henry for his part made an alliance with Henry of Navarre, and the two set forth to reconquer Paris. Putting the city to siege on 29 July, Henry was assassinated by a radical Catholic friar, energised by the hatred in the city, on 1 August 1589.
Crisis of the ligue
Quarante Cinq
In 1584 the Catholic League was re-founded by the Duke of Guise to advocate for Cardinal Bourbon to be the King's heir instead of the Protestant Henry of Navarre. King Henry, in the wake of this new League became increasingly concerned for his security. To this end he established a new body for his protection the Quarante Cinq. Its members were largely drawn from the clientele of his two chief favourites Anne de Joyeuse and Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (Épernon). The King hoped that this body would provide him protection that he could trust, as he was increasingly uneasy with putting his security in the hands of the grandees of his court. The League denounced the Quarante Cinq as a bunch of disreputable Gascons, not worthy of holding such an important task. In May 1585 one of the Quarante Cinq was arrested for making an attempt on the King, and under duress falsely claimed that Charles I, Duke of Elbeuf cousin to the duke of Guise had paid him to assassinate the king.
Day of the Barricades
After the Day of the Barricades in which Henry was forced to flee from Paris, leaving the duke of Guise ascendant in the city. Henry sought to regain the initiative at the calling of the Estates General at Blois that had been forced upon him by the state of royal finances.
Guise continued to exercise his strong hand, proposing that Épernon and La Valette should be condemned as Protestants and traitors. Épernon for his part had provided the King similar advice, back in April having argued that Guise should be executed. Henry was also receiving reports that there was internal division in the Guise clan, between the popular duke and his relatives, Mayenne, Elbeuf and Charles, Duke of Aumale who were jealous of the regard in which their cousin/brother was held.
Tense meeting
On 1 August 1588, Guise arrived at Chartres with a retinue of 800 horse to make his formal submission to the King. The people of Chartres emerged from their houses to cheer Guise, viewing him as their saviour from Protestantism. Kneeling before the King, Henry lifted him up and the two exchanged kisses. At a meal that evening the tension between the men became apparent when Guise asked Henry to whom they should toast, and Henry jokingly proposed the Protestants. Guise's friends warned him that the King had 'wicked designs' for him, but he dismissed the concerns, arguing that only if he was isolated in the King's chambers was he seriously at risk from Henry any more. For his part, he saw a reconciliation with the King as in his best interests, he was ill inclined to fully put himself at Spain's mercy as a client of Philip II, and was in such a position of ascendancy as little needing further confrontation. This was not the opinion of all members of his family, his sister Catherine argued that they should depose Henry and place him in a monastery, his brother Cardinal Guise tried to force his hand by seizing the town of Troyes. The King for his part continued to make conciliatory gestures, dismissing Épernon from his position in Normandy and making Guise lieutenant-general of the army.
Estates General of 1588
Shortly before their convening, Henri remarked to Cardinal François de Joyeuse that the Estates would reveal to him whether Guise remained a servant, or if he was now an enemy. Guise and Henry campaigned vigorously for the selection of the delegates for the estates, the King performed slightly better than expected in the members of the first and second estate, partly as a result of personal interventions to ensure his candidate was chosen. However, in the third estate a uniformly 'League supporting list of delegates was returned.
The King was faced with a set of Estates almost uniformly dominated by League deputies despite these efforts. The first estate was led by Cardinal Guise and Cardinal Bourbon, the second by Marshal Charles II de Cossé, Duke of Brissac, and the third by La Chapelle-Marteau, who led the Seize League government in Paris. All these men were deeply invested in the 'League. The King, speaking before the estates, announced that through his July endorsement of the League's Edict of Union, all political associations were now banned in France. He made an oblique reference to 'some grandees' of his kingdom, who had in past years made leagues and associations. Henry promised that all these acts of the past were forgiven and forgotten, but he warned that any such activities in future would be considered treason. This represented a shot across the bow at Guise, who had re-founded the Catholic League in December 1584. Guise who was in the room became pale at these words, and after the session concluded for the day was chided by Cardinal Guise for having trusted in half measures. Bourbon and the Archbishop of Lyon successfully got these statements of the King excised from the published version of his speech. This was accomplished through the humiliating threat that the estates would depart if it was not done.
The estates countered the royal proposal for ecclesiastical land alienation, with the idea to farm venal office through the Luccan financier Scipio Sardini. The Estates went as far as to propose that the money raised through this program would not go to the King, but directly to the League generals Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers, and Guise's brother Mayenne. The King was enraged that he was not even to have access to his own kingdom's tax revenue if the estates had their way.
The League deputies pressed the King to acknowledge that the Edict of Union, and Henry of Navarre's exclusion from succession were fundamental laws of the kingdom, as opposed to legislation he could simply abolish. Henry was evasive on this issue and distracted the deputies with a ceremony in which it was reaffirmed. The clergy were not happy with this, and demanded Navarre be condemned as a traitor but Henry was not keen to have him condemned, and gave the excuse that he had a right to defend himself, suggesting they send an embassy to meet with him.
While the estates were ongoing Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy invaded the French held Marquisate of Saluzzo in late October under the pretext of 'protecting the territory from heresy'. Henry sensed an opportunity to discredit Guise and the 'League, by emphasising that only he was willing to defend France's territorial rights, while Guise was allied with Savoy. However the League estates countered that they were happy to appoint leaders to command against Savoy in a war, on condition a war against heresy was maintained. Despite the King's conviction that Guise and the League had coordinated this action with Savoy, Guise had in fact declined overtures from the duke of Savoy to participate.
This unanimity made it harder for him to divide and conquer the estates, as he had been able to achieve more successfully in the Estates General of 1576. Henri believed that behind each one of their actions, the duke of Guise pulled the strings. This was despite the fact Guise was frustratedly trying to convince the Third Estate to support the raise in taxation necessary to fund a war against heresy and Navarre. He had to balance his divergent desires from his League base with his need for their support to provide him a power base. Guise found himself involved in a furious debate with La Chapelle-Marteau on 28 November where he urged the third estate to afford the King some financial relief but he was unable to shake the third estates resolve. His failure to deliver the compromise he had hoped for was a cause of significant embarrassment to Guise yet he was also compromised as an instigator of the third estates intransigence by his repeated secret meetings with its leaders.
Unable to sway the estates from their course Henry was faced with a radical alternative to reimpose his authority on the kingdom.
Point of no return
During November as the estates continued, Guise and Henry quarrelled over the matter of Orléans. Guise contended that the Edict of Union the King had given the League the city as a surety town. Henry contended that in fact the surety town he had granted was Doullens in Picardy. Unwilling for this to be the issue over which he broke with Guise, Henry backed down and granted them Orléans.
By December it was becoming increasingly apparent that the situation was approaching the point of no return. On 9 December at a council between Guise, his brother the Cardinal, several Guisard captains and the leading third estate League supporters, the majority of the council urged him to depart for the safety of Orléans. Guise followed the advice of the Archbishop of Lyon, who told him that retreating from Blois would be an admission of defeat. Guise for his part began to overplay his hand, so confident that the King would not move against him. He complained that the office of lieutenant-general was not enough any more.
At a family dinner on 17 December, Guise's brother in an indiscreet moment, offered a toast to his brother, referring to him as the King. His sister, Catherine followed this up with a joke about 'using her scissors' a reference to the way Merovingian kings were tonsured. An Italian actor, Venetianelli, present at the dinner reported on what he had heard to the King, further enraging Henry, who was already at his breaking point with Guise.
Assassination
Planning
Henri resolved that he could no longer bear the hold that the Guise had over him, and decided, on 19 December to assassinate the Duke. The decision was made in a council Henri conducted with his most trusted advisors, Jean VI d'Aumont, Nicolas d'Angennes, Marquis de Rambouillet, his brother Louis d'Angennes, Seigneur de Maintenon and Marshal Alphone d'Ornano, execution was agreed as the course of action 3-1. According to Guise's secretary Péricard, Henry arrived at the decision shortly after the secret visit of the League governor of Orléans, Entragues, who assured the King of his loyalty. Agrippa d'Aubigne for his part argues that the decision was a product of being emboldened by news of the failure of the Spanish Armada.
The details of the plan were fleshed out on 20 December, with the deed to be entrusted to the Quarante Cinq, Henry's bodyguard. Guise was always well guarded so it would be necessary to separate him from his entourage, meetings of the conseil privé were the only circumstance where this could be guaranteed. As Grand Master of France, Guise normally had possession of the keys to the château every evening. To circumvent this problem, Henry announced that he would shortly be retiring to La Noue, which afforded him an excuse to keep hold of them.
This plot could not remain secret, and on 21 December the Papal Nuncio warned Guise to quickly depart from Blois. In the following 48 hours he received warnings to a similar affect from his mother the duchess of Nemours and the duke of Elbeuf his cousin. On the morning of 23 December he left the chambers of his mistress only to be handed five notes to much the same affect, he confidently confided to his surgeon that the King wouldn't dare to touch him, 'I would never get anything done if I listened to all these warnings' he remarked.
Final meetings
Back on 21 December, the King and Guise held discussions for several hours in the gardens of the Château. Guise complained that the King was misinterpreting his actions, and he was making efforts to win his trust. He further announced his intention to the King to resign the office of lieutenant-general. This confirmed in Henry's mind that Guise desired the office of Constable of France, and after returning from their walk to his cabinet he exploded with rage. Rumours swirled at Blois of various plots to kidnap the King on the one hand and kill the Duke on the other.