, the second of the name, of an ancient family, admiral of France,
, the second of the name, of an
ancient family, admiral of France, was born the 16th of February 1516, at Chatillon-sur-Loing. He bore arms from
his very infancy. He signalized himself under Francis I. at
the battle of Cerisoles, and under Henry II. who made him
colonel-general of the French infantry, and afterwards admiral of France, in 1552; favours which he obtained by
the brilliant actions he performed at the battle of Renti, by
his zeal for military discipline, by his victories over the
Spaniards, and especially by the defence of St. Quintin.
The admiral threw himself into that place, and exhibited
prodigies of valour; but the town being forced, he was
made prisoner of war. After the death of Henry II. he
put himself at the head of the protestants against the
Guises, and formed so powerful a party as to threaten ruin
to the Romish religion in France. We are told by a
contemporary historian, that the court had not a more formidable enemy, next to Conde, who had joined with him. The
latter was more ambitious, more enterprising, more active.
Coligni was of a sedater temper, more cautious, and fitter to
be the leader of a party; as unfortunate, indeed, in war as
Conde, but often repairing by his ability what had seemed
irreparable; more dangerous after a defeat, than his enemies
after a victory; and moreover adorned with as many virtues
as such tempestuous times and the spirit of party would
allow. He seemed to set no value on his life. Being
wounded, and his friends lamenting around him, he said
to them with incredible constancy, “The business we follow should make us as familiar with death as with life.
”
The first pitcht battle that happened between the protestants
and the catholics, was that of Dreux, in 1562. The admiral fought bravely, lost it, but saved the army. The
duke of Guise having been murdered by treachery, a short
time afterwards, at the siege of Orleans, he was accused
of having connived at this base assassination; but he cleared
himself of the charge by oath. The civil wars ceased for
some time, but only to recommence with greater fury in
1567. Coligni and Conde fought the battle of St. Denys
against the constable of Montmorenci. This indecisive
day was followed by that of Jarnac, in 1569, fatal to the
protestants. Concle having been killed in a shocking manner, Coligni had to sustain the whole weight of the party,
and alone supported that unhappy cause, and was again
defeated at the affair of Men Icon tour, in Poitou, without
suffering his courage to be shaken for a moment. An advantageous peace seemed shortly after to terminate these
bloody conflicts, in 1571. Coligni appeared at court,
where he was loaded with caresses, in common with all the
rest of his party. Charles IX. ordered him to be paid a
hundred thousand francs as a reparation of the losses he
had sustained, and restored to him his place in the council.
On all hands, however, he was exhorted to distrust these
perfidious caresses. A captain of the protestants, who was
retiring into the country, came to take leave of him: Coligni asked him the reason of so sudden a retreat: “It is,
”
said the soldier, “because they shew us too many kindnesses here: I had rather escape with the fools, than perish
with such as are over-wise.
” A horrid conspiracy soon
broke out. One Friday the admiral coming to the Louvre,
was fired at by a musquet from a window, and dangerously
wounded in the right hand and in the left arm, by Maurevert, who had been employed by the duke de Guise, who
had proposed the scheme to Charles IX. The king of Navarre and the prince of Cond6 complained of this villainous
act. Charles IX. trained to the arts of dissimulation by his
mother, pretended to be extremely afflicted at the event,
ordered strict inquiry to be made after the author of it, and
called Coligni by the tender name of father. This was at
the very time when he was meditating the approaching
massacre of the protestants. The carnage began, as is well
known, the 24th of August, St. Bartholomew’s day, 1572.
The duke de Guise, under a strong escort, marched to the
house of the admiral. A crew of assassins, headed by one
Besme, a domestic of the house of Guise, entered sword
in hand, and found him sitting in an elbow-chair. “Young
man,
” said he to their leader in a calm and tranquil manner,
“thou shouldst have respected my gray hairs but, do
what thou wilt thou canst only shorten my life by a few
days.
” This miscreant, after having stabbed him in several places, threw him out at the window into the court-yard
of the house, where the duke of Guise stood waiting.
Coligni fell at the feet of his base and implacable enemy,
and said, according to some writers, as he was just expiring “If at least I had died by the hand of a gentleman, and not by that of a turnspit!
” Besme, having
trampled on the corpse, said to his companions: “A good
beginning! let us go and continue our work!
” His body
was exposed for three days to the fury of the populace,
and then hung up by the feet on the gallows of Montfaucon. Montmorenci, his cousin, had it taken down, in order
to bury it secretly in the chapel of the chateau de Chantilli. An Italian, having cut off the head of the admiral,
carried it to Catherine de Medicis; and this princess
caused it to be embalmed, and sent it to Rome. Coligni
was in the habit of keeping a journal, which, after his
death, was put into the hands of Charles IX. In this was
remarked a piece of advice which he gave that prince, to
take care of what he did in assigning the appanage, lest
by so doing he left them too great an authority. Catherine
caused this article to be read before the duke of Alei^on,
whpm she knew to be afflicted at the death of the admiral:
“There is your good friend!
” said she, “observe the advice he gives the king!
” “I cannot say,
” returned the
duke, “whether he was very fond of me; but 1 know that
such advice could have been given only by a man of strict
fidelity to his majesty, and zealous for the good of his
country.
” Charles IX. thought this journal worth being
printed; but the marshal de Retz prevailed on him to
throw it into the fire. We shall conclude this article with
the parallel drawn by the abbe“de Mably of the admiral de
Coligni, and of Francois de Lorraine, due de Guise.
” Coligni was the greatest general of his time; as courageous
as the duke of Guise, but less impetuous, because he had
always been less successful. He was fitter for forming
grand projects, and more prudent in the particulars of their
executioj. Guise, by a more brilliant courage, which
astonished his enemies, reduced conjunctures to the province of his genius, and thus rendered himself in some sort
master of them. Coligni obeyed them, but like a commander superior to them. In the same circumstances ordinary men would have observed only courage in the conduct of the one, and only prudence in that of the other,
though both of them had these two qualities, but variously
subordinated. Guise, more successful, had fewer opportunities for displaying the resources of his genius: his dexterous ambition, and, like that of Pompey, apparently
founded on the very interests of the princes it was endeavouring to ruin, while it pretended to serve them, was
supported on the authority of his name till it had acquired
strength enough to stand by itself. Coligni, less criminal,
though he appeared to be more so, openly, like Caesar,
declared war upon his prince and the whole kingdom of
France. Guise had the art of conquering, and of profiting
by the victory. Coligni lost four battles, and was always
the terror of his victors, whom he seemed to have vanquished. It is not easy to say what the former would have
been in the disasters that befell Coligni; but we may
boldly conjecture that the latter would have appeared still
greater, if fortune had favoured him as much. He was
seen carried in a litter, and we may add in the very jaws of
death, to order and conduct the longest and most difficult
marches, traversing France in the midst of his enemies,
rendering by his counsels the youthful courage of the
prince of Navarre more formidable, and training him to
those great qualities which were to make him a good king,
generous, popular, and capable of managing the affairs
of Europe, after having made him a hero, sagacious,
terrible, and clement in the conduct of war. The good
understanding he kept up between the French and the
Germans of his army, whom the interests of religion alone
were ineffectual to unite; the prudence with which he contrived to draw succours from England, where all was not
quiet; his art in giving a spur to the tardiness of the
princes of Germany, who, not having so much genius as
himself, were more apt to despair of saving the protestantsof France, and deferred to send auxiliaries, who were
no longer hastened in their march by the expectation of
plunder in a country already ravaged; are master-pieces of
his policy. Coligni was an honest man. Guise wore the
mask of a greater number of virtues; but all were infected
by his ambition. He had all the qualities that win the
heart of the multitude. Coligni, more collected in himself, was more esteemed by his enemies, and respected by
his own people. He was a lover of order and of his country. Ambition might bear him up, but it never first set
him in motion. Hearty alike in the cause of protestantism
and of his country, he was never able, by too great austerity, to make his doctrine tally with the duties of a subject. With the qualities of a hero, he was endowed with a
gentle soul. Had he been less of the great man, he would
have been a fanatic; he was an apostle and a zealot. His
life was first published in 1575, 8vo, and translated and
published in English in 1576, by Arthur Golding. There
is also a life by Courtilz, 1686, 12mo, and one in the
“Hommes Illustres de France.
”
, the second of the name, and the eldest son of Robert, was born at
, the second of the name, and the eldest son of Robert, was born at Paris in 1528, and froiii his inf-mcy gave every promise of perpetuating the honours of the family. His tatuer, uoi having it in his power to superintend his education as he wished, entrusted that care to an able tutor, who was to instruct him in the elements of grammar. At this time his tutor, in his ordinary course, was teaching his other pupils the Medea of Euripides, and Henry was bo captivated with the sweetness and harmony of the Greek language, that he resolved immediately to learn it. His tutor, however, objected to this, as he thought that the Latin should always precede the Greek, in a course of education; but Henry’s father being of a different opinion, he was allowed to foilow his inclination, and his progress corresponded to the enthusiasm with which he entire < on this language. A few days were sufficient for the Greek grammar, and Euripides being then put into his hands, he read it with avidity, and could repeat most of the plays, even before he had become a thorough master of the language. He afterwards perfected himself in Greek under Turnebus and other eminent scholars, and at the same time did not neglect to make himself acquainted with the Latin, as may appear by the notes he published on Horace, when he was only twenty years of age. He also studied arithmetic, geometry, and even judicial astrology, then very fashionable, but he is said to have very soon discovered its absurdity.