The life and letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq v 1

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OGIER GHISELIN DE BUSBECQ

VOL. I.

Letter I

Yestverpay, August 21, I arrived at Speyer. I stayed a day at Salzburg and another at Augsburg, on account of my health. For at my third stage from Vienna an attack of hemorrhage came on, unaccompanied, however, by pain, or any great derangement of the system. The physicians I consulted at Salzburg and Augsburg told me that, if I neglected it, the consequences might be serious, and ordered me to rest forsome days. For my own part, till now I saw no reason for interrupting my journey for any length of time, but, as I observe that this trouble, whatever it may be, is aggravated by heat and motion, I intend to stay here over to-morrow, for fear of more haste perhaps proving to be worse speed. In order to save time, I have abandoned my project of passing through the Netherlands, and intend to go directly to Metz by easy stages, as my health will not admit of rapid travelling. As to the King of France, I can learn nothing here; no one knows where he is, but he is said to be going straight to Rheims, which lies, I imagine, on my road, and I hope to get there before him.

‘When I passed through Munich, the Duchess, the sister of your Majesty,! who had lately returned from a visit, sent to me, and made particular inquiries about the health of your Majesty, of the Empress, and your children, She also gave me messages for the Queen

+ Albert IIL, Duke of Bavaria, married in 1546 Anne, daughter of Ferdinand, and had by her two sons, William, the hereditary Prince, his successor, and Ferdinand.

Ba of France, and sent letters to Augsburg next day for me to take to her.

I was speaking to someone to-day who had come but lately from the Prince of Orange, and he said that negotiations! for peace had been opened with him through St. Aldegonde, who was a prisoner in the hands of the Royalists. He represented the Prince as strongly inclined for peace, but said that the cities, which had called him in, were no less strongly opposed to it, and would rather suffer the worst extremity than trust themselves to the Spaniards, or send Orange away. The same person told me that Leyden was starving, and must soon surrender.? The Prince, he said, was not to blame for it, but the inhabitants, who, having been repeatedly warned to lay in stores in time, had obstinately neglected to do so. He also informed me that the Spanish fleet, if it was really coming, was to sail round Scotland, and that Orange had set up false beacons and lights on the coast to draw it among the shoals and sandbanks.

Perhaps the information I have sent your Majesty is not of much importance, still I feel sure that it will at least do no harm, and that with your accustomed graciousness you will not take my sending it amiss. 1 pray God to preserve your Majesty, and remain, &c.

Speyer,? August 22, 1574.4

1 For details of these negotiations, see Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic Part 1V., ch. iii,

* See Motley, Dutch Republic, Part IV. ch. ii, The siege was eventually raised on October 3rd,

2 In the original the place is given as ‘Auguste’ = Augsburg ; but from the first line of the letter it appears it was written at Speyer. ‘ Augustz’ is probably a mistake caused by ‘ Augusti’ following immediately.

+ Nearly twelve years have elapsed since we parted company with Busbecq on his return from Turkey. A sketch of his life during this interval will be found in vol. i. pp. 59-64. We there expressed some doubt

ARRIVAL AT PARIS. 5

LETTER IL

On September 2 I arrived at Meaux, fourteen! miles from Paris. My journey was delayed by want of posthorses, for, as the King had just gone to Lyons, they had almost all been transferred to that road from thcir proper stations, and so for two days and nights I sailed down the Marne, but, as it winds very much before its confluence with the Seine, near Paris, I had to change my mode of travelling, and return to land. As no horses or carriages were to be had, I sent people to Paris to get some, and also to look for lodgings against our arrival. When the Queen, your Majesty’s daughter, knew of this, she sent two of her own carriages, which brought me and my suite to Paris on the 4th.

On that day the Queen? wished me to rest, and did not send for me till the next day. I found her in excellent health, but her face was melancholy, and still showed traces of her recent loss. As I was going through the points mentioned in my instructions, she spoke gratefully of your Majesty’s thinking of her and sending to console and visit her in her bereavement. She was not surprised, she added, at the deep regret as to whether there was any trustworthy authority for his visit to Spain in attendance on the younger Archdukes ; we have, however, since obtained evidence ofitin the Archduke Albert’s decree, creating the Barony of Bousbecque. In it are recited Busbecq's services, and amongst them this visit is mentioned. The date of the decree is September 30, 1600, and itstates that the visit took place twenty-five years before. This is obviously an error, as we can account for his time from August 1574 to February 1576; in all probability the true date of the visit lies between the years 1570, when Albert and Wenceslaus went to Spain with their sister Anne on her marriage to Philip II., and 1572, when we find Busbecq residing at Vienna. See vol. i. p. 62.

1 That is, about thirty-five English miles. See note, vol. i. p. 80.

* For an account of this interesting lady, who was at this time barely twenty years of age, see note to Letter XXXVI.

expressed by your Majesty, for, indeed, her late Consort had always felt the warmest affection for you, and had always been most anxious to meet your wishes. She then made very minute inquiries about your Majesty's health. But, when I said that she must wait patiently till your Majesty should be able to decide, according to the turn events might take, whether she was to leave or stay, she gently replied, that all she asked was to be allowed to do that which was most useful and pleasing to her father. Our conversation then ended, and I received permission to retire.

The next day the Queen again ordered me to be summoned, and during the interview I contrived to introduce the question of her marriage to the new King (Henry III) by alluding to the reports now current ; many people set her down as his future bride, I remarked, and if the union were to take place, it would, in my opinion, harmonise with your Majesty's views and policy. Her reply was such as to make it perfectly plain the suggestion was by no means to her liking; and yet I could see that she did not intend to be obstinate ; she will, Iam sure, place herself in her father’s hands, and further his interests and wishes by every means in her power.’

1 After Henry III’s flight from Poland, he stayed some time at Vienna, where Maximilian, through Pibrac, made overtures to him, offering the hand of his daughter, the widowed Queen. Henry was under such great obligations to Maximilian, that he was disinclined to give a downright refusal. Thuanus, iii. p. 8. The following quotation from an account of Busbecq’s Queen will show what these obligations were. “Or, estant veufve, plusieurs personnes d’hommes et dames de la Court, des plus clair voyans que je scay, eurent opinion que le Roy, son retour de Pologne, Vespouseroit, encore qu’elle fust sa belle sceur; car il le pouvoit par la dispense du Pape, qui peut beaucoup en telles matieres, et sur tout & lendroit des grands, & cause du bien public quien sort. Et y avoit beaucoup de raisons que ce mariage se fist, lesquelles je laisse deduire aux plus hauts discoureurs, sans que je les allegue. Mais, entre autres, une estoit pour recognoistre par ce mariage les obligations grandes que le Roy avoit regeues de l’Empereur & son retour et depart de

INTERVIEW WITH THE QUEEN. 7

I also touched on the Constantinople matter, as your Majesty directed. She promised to bear it in mind when the Queen Mother returned. 1 will then make it my business to remind her of it.

I went to her a third time to ask that, as your Majesty's principal reason for sending me here was that I might look after her interests, she would kindly give orders to the maré&haux de logis to provide me with proper quarters in the neighbourhood, and she at once complied with my request.

As to other matters, there is no news of any importance. The King is expected to arriveat Lyons to-day, where the Queen Mother, Alengon, and Vendéme!

Pologne ; car il ne faut point douter que, si ’Empereur eust voulu luy donner le moindre obstacle du monde, il n’eust jamais peu partir ny passer ny se conduire seurement en France. Les Polonnois le vouloient retenir sil ne fust party sans leur dire adieu ; car les Allemans le guettoient de toutes parts pour Vattrapper (comme fut ce brave roy Richard d'Angleterre, retournant de la Terre Saincte, ainsi que nous lisons en nos chroniques), et Veussent tout de mesme arresté prisonnier et faict payer rangon, ou possible pis; car ils luy en vouloient fort, 4 cause de la feste de la Sainct Barthelemy, au moins les princes protestans’—Arantome, v. 298-299.

1 Henry of Navarre is generally spoken of in these letters as the Duke of Vendéme, or at most, the titular King of Navarre. The greater part of the kingdom had been seized by Ferdinand the Catholic in 1515, and has ever since been held by the Kings of Spain. Henry's power was derived from his position as a great French noble, the first Prince of the blood after the King’s brother, and from his vast possessions in France, and not from the fragment of Navarre from which he derived his title, Subjoined is a short sketch of his famil

Charles de Bourbon, Duc de Vendéme, descended from the sixth son of Louis IX.

‘Gaire Louis) 1 Authboy, ‘= Jeanne d'Albret, Luis db Bourbon, Charl, Cardinal Duc de Vendome | "Queen Navarre "Prince te Conde “de Bourbany Elice tarot Set pas Klog by i i A i after Henry, Catherine = Henri, Duc de Bar, Henry III's death ‘Duc de Vendéme, ‘eldest son under the title of scsards Henry 1V. Skshe Dake Ghasles Hos, tom ths2,Franfoin Prince de Chaves, Cardi Sevetal other Prncede Conde, “Cont lor ssi palde Bourbon, “children orate have been for some time awaiting him. Disturbances are still going on in Poitou and the neighbouring provinces. The King, they say, is preparing to exert his influence, and, if need be, to put them down with a strong hand. He has hired 5,000 Swiss, besides reiters from Germany, and some thousands of Italian musketeers.

With regard to our business, not much, I see, can be done here while the King is away, and so, if I was not afraid I might transgress the rules of etiquette, I should like to run home for a few days. But I cannot make up my mind, as I hardly know what people here might think ; otherwise I see no objection, as I had your Majesty's permission.

Montmorency and Cossé" are still confined in the Bastille, and both are so strictly guarded by the people,”

1 Montmorency, the eldest son of the famous Constable Anne de Montmorency, and himself Duc de Montmorency and Marshal of France. He was born in 1530, and fought at St. Quentin, and at the taking of Calais. He and Cossé were suspected of being implicated in the rising of Shrove-Tuesday, 1574, concerted between Alencon and the Huguenots, and were imprisoned in the Bastille. His wife was a natural daughter of Henry Il. by Diane de Poitiers, who had been legitimated. He died without issue in 1579. His four brothers were, Damville, Monsieur de Montbéron, killed at the battle of Dreux in 1562, Monsieur de Méru, and Monsieur de Thoré. See note page 11, and also note page 16.

Cossé took part in Guise’s famous defence of Met: in 1552, was appointed surintendant des finances in 1563, and Marshal in 1567. He fought at St. Denis and Moncontour, but was defeated by Coligny at Amy-le-Duc in 1570. He died in 1582, aged 70. According to Brantdme (ii. 434), he remarked on his imprisonment : ‘Je ne say pas ce que M. de Montmorency peut avoir faict, mais quant & moy, je scay bien que je n’ay rien faict pour estre prisonnier avec luy, sinon pour luy tenir ‘compagnie quand on le fera mourir, et moy avec luy ; que Yon me fera de mesmes qué V’on faict bien souvent a de pauvres diables, que l’on pend pour tenir compagnie seulement A leurs compagnons, encor quillz wayent rien meffaict.’

2 (Le peuple de la ville, n'agueres partisan de cette famille, les receut avec injures et contribua 800 harquebusiers de garde tant que leur prison dura,’—Aubigné, Histoire, vol. ii. bk. ii, ch. vi.

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ARRIVAL OF THE KING AT LYONS. 9 that passers-by cannot so much as bow to them without danger.

Yesterday there arrived here Master John Koch, whose misfortune has been a great grief to me. To-day I took the letters he brought to the Queen, and she immediately answered them.

Paris, September 10, 1574.

Letter III

A Few days ago I sent such news as I had by way of Brussels ; I now write, more because I have a convenient opportunity of forwarding a letter, than because I have anything particular to tell.

The King arrived at Lyons on the 6th. Hisarmy is besieging the town of Nove,! twelve miles from Lyons, which they think will not be hard to take, as itis commanded on every side by the adjoining hills. Still, they are not quite confident, as they know how obstinate the King’s opponents have hitherto been in defending the places they have occupied. Montpensier*

» By Move Busbecq probably means the town which d’Aubigné (Histoire,vol. ii. bk. ii.ch. ix.) calls Nonnai, now Annonay, 24 French miles from Lyons. D’Aubigné says the distance is nine leagues, which roughly corresponds with Busbecq’s twelve miles. See note, vol. i. page So. Annonay was a town in the Vivarais, one of the districts which were the strongholds of the Protestant cause, and was itself a Protestant town. For an account of the sieges it underwent, and of the civil war in the Vivarais, see Poncer, Mémoires sur Annonay. On this occasion the town was summoned on October 22nd, and blockaded till December 8th, so the news in the text was premature. Dr. Dale, the English representative at the French Court, mentions the raising of the siege of ‘Noue,’ in a letter dated December 23rd.—Calendar of State Pabers, Foreign Series, 1572-74, p- 583-

2 Louisde Bourbon, Duc de Montpensier, born in 1513, was descended from a branch of the Bourbon-Vendéme family, and on his mother’s side is besieging the town of Fontenay ; a capitulation, they say, was agreed on, but his men refused to accept it, preferring to risk their lives in storming the place, rather than forego their plunder, so the result is still uncertain. Great is the strength of despair, and however things may turn out, their spoils, I warrant, will be blood-stained.

They say that the King, before he reached Lyons, asked his Council's advice, as to whether he should send back the Italian troops he had brought with him as a body guard, and that Pibrac,’ whom your Majesty saw at Vienna, was for dismissing them. This gave offence to the Queen Mother, and on his arrival at Lyons she ordered him to return to Paris, and resume his duties as Advocate of the Kingdom. The Queen was nephew to the Constable de Bourbon. He served as a volunteer at St. Quentin, where he was made prisoner. He was a bitter enemy to the Huguenots. ‘Quand il prenait les heretiques par composition,’ says Brantome (iii. 364), ‘il ne la leur tenait nullement, disant qu’a un heretique, on n’estoit nullement obligé de garder sa foy. He distinguished himseat Jarnac and Moncontour. He took a prominent part in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. From 1574 to 1576 he commanded in Poitou and Saintonge, and died in 1582. By his first wife, Jacqueline de Longwy, who was a Protestant, he had a son and four daughters, one of whom, Charlotte, married the Prince of Orange. See Letter XIX. and note. His son—who, till he succeeded to the title of Montpensier, on his father’s death, was known as the Prince Dauphin d’Auvergne—is frequently mentioned in Busbecq's letters to Rodolph. Fontenay is a town, nearly due west of Poitiers, and about fifty-five English miles from it.

1 Guy du Faur, Seigneur de Pibrac, was born at Toulouse, in 1529. He became member of the Parliament there, and was one of the French ambassadors at the Council of Trent in 1562, In 1565, at the recommendation of the Chancellor ?Hépital, he was appointed Avocat- Général to the Parliament of Paris. He accompanied Henry to Poland as Chancellor, and was in great danger during the precipitate flight of the King. After his return to Paris he sold his office of Advocate. He was again despatched to Poland, to persuade the Diet to allow Henry to retain the crown, but his mission proved unsuccessful. He was afterwards Chancellor of the Queen of Navarre, with whom he was supposed to be in love. He went with Alencon to Flanders, as his Chancellor, and died in 1584. He was celebrated for his eloquence.

DAMVILLE. Ba

Mother, people think, is in favour of war, because she hopes thereby to retain her power.

Damville,’ they say, received an unfavourable answer from the King, and consequently remained at Turin; he has now, I hear, been summoned by the King; a suspicious circumstance, as many think. It will be two months, it is supposed, before the King gets away from his affairs at Lyons, and in the meantime business here makes little progress. 1 expect the King and the Queen Mother will give your Majesty an account of what is passing in France. At any rate I feel justified in saying that everybody is anxiously looking for a marriage between the King and your Majesty's daughter—it is the general topic of conversation.

The Comte de Bailen, after being kept for a long time in Gascony by the dangers of the road, has at last started for Lyons.

Paris, September 17, 1574.

Letter IV

1 wave despatched two letters to your Majesty since I arrived here, one I sent by way of Brussels, the other, dated the 17th, was given to a servant of the Duke of Bavaria, who was travelling this way from Spain.

1 The Comte de Damville was second son of the Constable, and brother to the Duc de Montmorency (see page 8). He was born in 1534, and was made Governor of Languedoc in 1563, which he held for nearly fifty years, almost as an independent sovereign. He was the leader of the moderate Roman Catholic party, known as the Politiques, and after the death of Henry III. adhered to the cause of Henry IV., who on December 8th, 1593, created him Constable. He succeeded to the Dukedom of Montmorency on his brother’s death in 1579. He died in 1614.

Go gle ’

Now I have a convenient opportunity of sending despatches by the hands of Master John Koch.

The King has determined to continue the war rather than suffer two religions in his kingdom, or allow the rebels to remain in possession of the towns they have seized; while they declare that they will hold them to the death, having no hope of safety left save in their walls and their despair. Thus the King is again getting entangled in difficulties, from which he will not easily free himself, and which he might perhaps have avoided,

Fontenay, the town about which I wrote lately, fell at the third assault. There was great slaughter both of besiegers and besieged. People think Lusignan will be attacked next. It is a fortress of considerable strength, five miles from Poitiers, and being built ona rock is not easily accessible.’ The siegeof Lusignan will give Mont-

1 The Castle of Lusignan was the original seat of the famous family of Lusignan, which gave kings to Jerusalem and Cyprus. In the keep of the chateau was a fountain, said to be haunted by the fairy Melusine, the ancestress and tutelary genius of the family. According to the legend, the founder of the family first met her by a forest spring. Before she became his wife she exacted a promise from him that he would not attempt to see her on the Saturday in every week, or to find out where she had gone. Fora time all went on well, but unfortunately the husband was at last persuaded to peep into the room to which Melusine had retired. To his horror he discovered that on every Saturday half her body was transformed into a serpent. Finding the secret was no longer hers, she thrice flew round the chateau, and then vanished. She was believed to appear at times on the keep of the chateau, and whenever she was seen it was said to presage a death, either in the Lusignan family or in the Royal family of France.

Lusignan is situated about fourteen English miles south-west of Poitiers. Del'Estoile, i. 49, gives some details of the siege and capitulation, “Le mardy, 25° janvier, la ville et chasteau de Lusignan furent rendus par les Huguenos & M. de Montpensier, chef de l'armée du Roy en Poictou, soubs condition de vies et bagues sauves, et d’estre conduits seurement & la Rochelle : de quoi furent baillés ostages pour seureté de ladite capitulation, encores que la foy de M. de Montpensier ne peust ni ne deust estre suspecte aux Huguenos, lesquels furent assiégés trois mois et vingt et un jours, durant lesquels furent tirés de sept & huict mil coups de

THE FIRST EDICT. 13 pensier's army occupation for some time, and though less important places like these may be easily recovered by the King, at any rate the reduction of Montauban, Nismes, Rochelle, and other towns, which still hold out, will prove a more difficult task. But who can say what may happen in the meanwhile? Time brings about many a surprise, and the result may turn out far other than what it is expected to be. The King thinks differently ; under his mother’s influence, as it is supposed, he is entering on the war with a light heart. Within the last few days an Edict! was published, by which all who had fled the country are invited to return home within six months, under promise of an amnesty ; if they do not avail themselves of this act of indemnity within that time, they are to be considered outlaws and public enemies. This proclamation, it is feared, will be the signal for those who distrust the King’s word to take the field—it is the trumpet calling them to battle. To people's astonishment some noble families, as, for instance, those of Rambouillet and dEstrées,? have been ordered to leave the Court and retire to their homes.

At his parting from the Duke of Savoy, the King is said to have made him a present of two towns which are still held by his garrisons—namely, Savigliano and Pignerolo, if I remember the names rightly. This arrangement, however, has been interfered with by canon.’ If BrantOme does not belie Montpensier (see note z, page 9), the besieged had good reason for the precautions they took.

1 Published September 1oth at Lyons.

2 The Seigneur de Rambouillet was sent by the Queen Mother, and the Seigneur d’Estrées by Alencon, to Henry on June 4th, to congratulate him on his accession.—De ’Estoile, i. 5. ‘Rambouillet, that was aforetime captain in one of the guards, and his three brothers, has left the Court, because the King has given away an office, that one of the Rambouillets looked for.’—Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, 1572-74, P. 560.

the Duke’s wife having died, unfortunately for him, before it was completed, an event which may possibly make the King change his intentions."

I am far from satisfied with the state of the business which is the principal object of my mission— namely, the settlement of the Queen’s dower. The King’s return, I suspect, is further off than people think, and meanwhile nothing can be done here. The Queen is thus left in a state of uncertainty ; she knows not what is to happen, or what her position is to be, and therefore she naturally feels by no means comfortable. Some people think the King will go down to Avignon, to be nearer the seat of the war which is imminent ; and, if so, it is supposed he will not be in Paris for full six months from this. If this be true, though sufficient provision has been made for her in the meantime, still perhaps it is hardly creditable that a lady, who is now practically your Majesty's ward, should be left dependent on another's beck and call, and sit quietly waiting till it pleases him to ask her to become once more a wife. Such a position is, in my humble opinion, a highly improper one ; nor do I believe that in any other case the relatives of a widowed queen ever waited so long before taking steps to protect her interests. I trust your Majesty will consider what is to be done. Shall I go to the King—which

1 These towns had been retained by the French when the rest of the possessions of the.Duke of Savoy were restored to him, partly after the treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, in 1559, and partly by Charles 1X. in 1562. With the exception of the Marquisate of Saluzzo, they were the last remains of the French conquests beyond the Alps. The Duchess of Savoy was Margaret, daughter of Francis I., and therefore aunt to Henry II. She was born in 1523, married in 1559, at the conclusion of peace, to Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and died September 14th, 1574. The indignant protest of the Duc de Nevers against the surrender of these towns may be found in the compilation known as his Mémoires, vol. i. page i.

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FORECAST OF THE FUTURE. 15 will involve some expense—or shall I write to him, or shall [ wait here for his return, whenever that may be ?

If I may give my opinion, I think the King is likely to have more trouble than he expects. For, taking even the most favourable supposition, and assuming that he reduces a great part of the rebels to submission, I consider that he cannot possibly complete his task during the present winter, and that many of them will hold out still, What then will be the King’s position? His forces will be no longer what they were at the beginning of the campaign ; war, privation, and winter will have thinned their ranks. On the other hand, we must be prepared to see the exiled nobles now in Germany come to the succour of their friends with such troops as they can raise. All France will then be in a blaze once more; the issue of the contest it is impossible to foretell, for who can say how many secret allies the rebels can reckon on? Those who are thoroughly estranged from the King are not a few.

This forecast of future probabilities is derived in great measure from a conversation I had, when I was passing through Kaiserslautern, with an intimate friend of the Palatine and Casimir! The exiles I speak of

* Frederic III. was Elector Palatine from 1559 to 1576. He was the first important German prince who embraced Calvinism, and was the head of that sect in Germany. His Court was the asylum of the French and Flemish exiles. When Henry III. passed through Germany on his way to Poland, he visited Heidelberg at the Palatine’s invitation. He found the gates of the town guarded, the streets lined with soldiers, match in hand, and no one to receive him at the Castle except armed men, Halfway up the stairs he was met by the Rhinegrave, attended by two of the survivors of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The Rhinegrave asked him on the Elector’s behalf to excuse his coming down, on account of indisposition, Henry found him at the entrance of the room supported by a gentleman, in the attitude of aman who finds it a great effort to stand upright. ‘On n’y pouvcit entrer sans jetter la vetie sur un have been prevented from invading the country chiefly by two motives: in the first place, they had some hopes that the King would be more indulgent to their party, and wished to give him a trial ; secondly, among their chiefs are two sons of the Constable,’ and they saw that if they stirred it would be the signal for the execution of their imprisoned brother, Montmorency ; the Queen Mother has openly threatened and declared as much. Perhaps, too, they are influenced by the consideration that it would be very bad policy to choose grand Tableau de la mort del'Admiral, et des principaux Seigneurs tués & Paris.