by
Jean de Court (1570) In May 1574, Charles died, and without a child his brother Anjou succeeded to the throne. For the coronation of Anjou, now styling himself Henri III, Mayenne and the Lorraines had an important role to play. Mayenne, alongside his brother Guise and cousin
Aumale, took the role of the three lay peers for the ceremony, while
Cardinal Guise crowned the king. In the confusing combats that characterised the fifth war of religion, Mayenne led an army in late 1575 facing off against a Protestant mercenary force under
Casimir von Pfalz-Simmern that had invaded the kingdom. It was one of two main royal armies, the other being commanded by Henri himself at
Gien to defend the approaches to Paris. Encamped at
Vitry-le-François, Mayenne's 10,000 men were ravaged by hunger and lack of pay and were able to do little more than shadow Casimir as he moved to Dijon on 31 January 1576, and then Moulins on 4 March, where he united forces with the
politique brother of Henri,
Alençon. United, the rebel army threatened a march on Paris that Henri no longer had the troops or funds to stop.
First Catholic ligue As a result, in May 1576 Henri was forced into a
generous peace with the Protestant and
politique rebels. Many concessions were granted to the Protestant nobility, with
the prince of Condé afforded the border town of
Péronne. The governor of Péronne and his clientèle reacted furiously, and formed the nucleus of what was to become a national
Catholic Ligue in opposition to the peace. Henri was alarmed by the rapid spread of the movement, and suspected the hand of the Guise family lay behind it. To this end in August, he had Mayenne, Guise and their ally
the duke of Nemours who he suspected of involvement swear an oath to uphold the edict of Beaulieu. During the
Estates General of 1576, called as a term of the peace, one of Henri's favourites,
Saint-Sulpice was murdered by a favourite of Alençon. Mayenne considered himself a protector of the young man, and vowed he would avenge himself on the killer. The
ligue was soon able to force Henri to break off from the peace, beginning the sixth civil war in early 1577. Mayenne was among the figures in the council who had advocated for breaking the peace, and resisting calls to bring the new war to an early close. The short peace had however re-secured the loyalty of the king's brother to the royal cause, and he volunteered to lead the royal army against his former rebel compatriots. He had little military experience, and authority for the operations of the army would in fact lie with Nevers, Guise and Mayenne. The force set about a siege of
La Charité-sur-Loire, and then
Issoire, putting each to a violent sack. However the army was starved of funds, Henri unable to secure concessions from the estates, and as such by the middle of 1577 it had largely disintegrated, leaving Henri unable to continue prosecuting the war. Mayenne moved off without Alençon with his own force, and on 18 August captured the town of
Brouage on the Atlantic coast, with the assistance of
the seigneur de Lanssac, securing a considerable supply of salt. Henri was pleased at the reduction, and added Brouage to the royal domain. The
Treaty of Bergerac brought the conflict to an end in September. Somewhat harsher than the Peace of Monsieur, it sated the
ligue movement for the following 6 years. At court, relations between the favourites of Henri and the grandee families were fraught. On Mayenne's orders, one of Henri's favourites
Saint-Mégrin was butchered as he left the
Louvre on 21 July by a gang of 20+ assailants. Rumours had circulated that Saint-Mégrin was attempting to seduce Mayenne's sister in law, the
duchesse de Guise. Henri was distraught at the death of Saint-Mégrin, but the favourite was otherwise unpopular at court, so Henri mourned alone. The killing came not long after the famous
Duel of the Mignons, which had seen another two of Henri's favourites killed. He arranged for an elaborate commemoration for the three men, overseeing an ostentatious funeral, and entombing them in marble sarcophagi.
Favoured one Despite rumours of his involvement in the murder of Saint-Mégrin, Henri was happy to permit the transfer of the office of Admiral to Mayenne in 1578. Overall Henri was far more willing to provide major commands to Mayenne than his brother, either due to a greater amount of affection, or a desire to divide the Lorraines by making them jealous of each other. When Catherine departed on her mission to the south, to sooth the wounds of the civil wars and restore order in provinces that were increasingly fragmented in central control, Mayenne was among those who travelled with her to
Montluel for her confrontation with the rebellious former favourite of the king's
Marshal Bellegarde, during which an agreement was reached between the Marshal and crown. The following year, Guise, dissatisfied with his lot, toyed with the idea of bringing the family into a group of Malcontents, alongside the Protestant brother of the elector Palatine
Casimir. He and Mayenne met with Casimir to discuss a plan to seize
Strasbourg, however ultimately nothing would come of this inter-confessional moment, and the Lorraine family returned to their reputation for crushing heresy. As a result of the relative favour in which he was held, Mayenne commanded a royal army during the brief civil war in 1580, leading it into Dauphiné against
Lesdiguières where he captured the Protestant stronghold of
La Mure in October, while Matignon reduced the border town of
La Fère up in Picardie. With the
Treaty of Fleix concluding the conflict by the end of the year, Mayenne was entrusted with ensuring that it was enforced, and obtaining the submission of the holdout towns of
Livron and
Gap, a task in which he was successful. He was not however able to hold the office of Admiral for long, as Henri detached Mayenne from it in 1582, so that he could award it to his favourite
Joyeuse, whose trustworthiness was beyond question. In return for yielding this most prestigious office, Mayenne was compensated with 120,000
écus and the elevation of his cousin,
Charles de Lorraine's seigneurie from a marquisate to a
duché-pairie. He was involved in his families abortive plans for an invasion of England in 1583. Several ships were assembled by Elbeuf in August 1583, with an army to be commanded by Mayenne, and
Marshal Brissac. He attended council with Guise and
Cardinal Bourbon at the governor of lower Normandie
Meilleraye's Château in August to discuss the details of the invasion. Brissac arrived soon thereafter with bad news, sailing was to be postponed due to lack of funds. Mayenne and the Lorraine family would soon be far too busy in domestic events.
Second Catholic ligue Disaster rocked the crown in June 1584, when the heir to the throne, the king's brother Alençon, died of tuberculosis. This left the inheritance of the throne on Henri's death to the king's distant cousin
Navarre, a Protestant. Such a succession was intolerable to many Catholics, among them the Guise family. Mayenne, Guise and
Cardinal Guise met in
Nancy during September with
Maineville a representative of Cardinal Bourbon and agreed to oppose the succession. Cardinal Bourbon, Navarre's Catholic uncle was to be their candidate for the throne. In December the family concluded an alliance with
Philip II of Spain (known as the
Treaty of Joinville) by which the Guise made many concessions to Spain in return for financial and political support. Mayenne and his brother were both signatories to the treaty for the
ligueur side. In his capacity as governor of Bourgogne, Mayenne marshalled his clientèle in support of the
ligue, while his brother Guise mobilised Champagne, and his first cousins
Aumale and
Elbeuf prepared for rebellion in their strongholds of Picardie and Normandie respectively. The
ligue movement had two wings, the aristocratic, embodied by the Guise family and the
ligue of 1576; and the urban middle class, as typified by the
Seize organisation in Paris. While Guise was alive he was tenuously able to hold the two components together in a united purpose, however after his assassination in 1588, Mayenne struggled to replicate this unity, and the
ligue movement began to splinter.
War against Henri No fool to developments in the kingdom, Henri wrote to Guise, Mayenne and Bourbon on 16 March, asking for them to explain what exactly it was they were up to, while pretending that he of course did not believe reports that they were preparing acts of rebellion. With open hostilities declared on the crown by Guise's armed entry into
Châlons on 21 March, Mayenne quickly moved to secure the major cities of his governate. Mayenne was however furious at his brother for, he felt, jumping the gun with his seizure. The two met at
Joinville on 21 April, and Mayenne lambasted his brother for having 'too soon declared and taken up arms', Mayenne having preferred a date of 18 April, the day preceding Good Friday. Mayenne argued Guise had allowed Henri to present them as the aggressor and buy off the governors the family had been approaching. Guise retorted that he had been compelled by circumstances, and that to avoid accusation of treason he had ordered Elbeuf to conduct Cardinal Bourbon to Péronne to make a declaration. Over the following months he would seize
Dijon,
Mâcon and
Auxonne for the
ligue. On 7 July Henri was compelled by the deteriorating situation of his control over the kingdom to sign a
humiliating peace where he conceded to most of the
ligueur demands, including a war against Protestantism. As a term of the peace, Mayenne was granted
Beaune as a surety town, alongside possession of the Château of Dijon. The family reunited in Troyes during September 1585 to celebrate their recent victory. Mayenne and Guise, alongside their other relatives participated in numerous festivities, among them a ceremonial burning of a straw figure representing heresy.
War against the Protestants After passing through Paris in October of that year, Mayenne departed alongside
Marshal Biron to pursue the now royal war against heresy through attacks against Condé. To Mayenne's frustration Biron departed the army the following month and returned to the capital. It became clear in the year that followed that Henri had little interested in prosecuting the war against Protestantism he had agreed to fight. The
ligue was happy to take the lead, and Mayenne fought with
the Protestant duke of Bouillon in the
Saintonge and
Périgord. While initially Mayenne had been placed in command of the sole royal army against Navarre, Henri created several new armies under his two chief favourites
Joyeuse and
Épernon during 1586, and Mayenne's army was left to founder for lack of funds. He found himself bogged down in endless sieges in the
Dordogne. Returning to Paris in January 1587, he was furious at the treatment of his army, the numbers having been decimated further by desertions. While in Paris a plan was concocted among the militant
ligueurs of the city to seize control of the capital in the future. The group planned to utilise barricades to impede royal movement across the city, however their plan was uncovered by the king, who arrested the ringleaders. Mayenne denied any involvement, meanwhile Poulain, who had revealed the plot to Henri, informed the king that Guise was furious at his brother for planning a coup and leaving him in the dark. Henri was prevented from coming down with a firmer hand on the plotters by the death of
Marie de Lorraine in
England, who provided the
ligueurs a strong martyr that invigorated their cause, with churches throughout Paris mourning her. Back on campaign, he entered Guyenne in mid 1587, capturing the Protestant stronghold of
Monségur, however his advance was increasingly slow and he was unable to prevent Condé and Navarre from uniting forces. Observing his foundering, Catherine de' Medici urged her son to send reinforcements to bolster his campaign, which Henri assented to in August, dispatching forces both to Mayenne and his favourite Épernon who was fighting in
Valence.
Day of the Barricades during the
Day of the Barricades, by Paul Lehugeur, 19th century In May 1588, Henri undertook a showdown with the
ligue in Paris, hoping to reassert his flagging authority. Radical Catholics in Paris rose up against him however and enacted the planned uprising that had been aborted in 1587. With Henri humiliated and forced to flee Paris after the
Day of the Barricades, he was pushed to make further concessions to the
ligue by the Parisian
Seize to regain his capital. They demanded he recognise the
Sainte-Union, provide them with six surety towns, sell off all Protestant assets and establish Guise and Mayenne as the twin heads of the royal army for a new campaign against Navarre and the Protestants. Guise would lead a royal army out of Poitou, while Mayenne would command one from Dauphiné. Henri capitulated to these demands on 5 July and signed the
Edict of Union. Shortly thereafter Henri took a radical step, dismissing all his chief ministers, and bringing in a new set of men, blaming his previous ministers for the disasters of the previous months.
Villeroy who had served the king for many years before the abrupt dismissal, offered his services to Henri's enemy Mayenne, and was accepted into the circle of Mayenne's advisors. When Mayenne took charge as lieutenant-general, he would install Villeroy as a fellow conservative presence on the
Grand Conseil. In September an
Estates General convened at
Blois. The election of deputies for the body was viciously fought between the royalist and
ligueur parties. Mayenne worked hard in Bourgogne and Poitou to ensure both regions provided
ligueur slates of representatives. The rest of his family did likewise in their respective zones of authority. Henri hoped to use the occasion to regain the initiative he had lost in Paris. However he was to be disappointed, the delegates being largely
ligueur in disposition. Only Mayenne was absent among the
ligueur leadership from
Blois after the deputies arrived, due to his responsibilities leading one of the two royal armies. The Estates took it upon themselves to audit the crown's finances and were not impressed by what they found. The Third Estate resultingly promised a paltry 120,000
écus to keep the kingdoms finances afloat, however in a further twist of the knife these were not to go to the king but instead directly delivered to the crown's armies under the authority of Mayenne and Nevers.
Assassination of the duke of Guise - 19th century These continued humiliations and attempts on his authority finally brought Henri to a fateful decision. On 19 December he resolved to
execute the duke of Guise and his brother Cardinal Guise, a plan which was carried out from 23 to 24 December. Many theories have been put forward for what finally pushed Henri into the act, among them the request of the estates general for the tax revenue they provided to be given directly to Mayenne. Henri had also received reports that there was considerable jealousy between the more popular and charismatic duke of Guise; and Mayenne, Aumale and Elbeuf, who resented being in his shadow. The killing of the Cardinal was a deeply sacrilegious act, and the
ligue and Henri competed to present their version of what had transpired to the Pope. In January, Mayenne dispatched Jacques de Diou, a member of the order of Malta to present the
ligueur interpretation to
Pope Sixtus V. On the days of the assassinations, Mayenne was occupied in
Lyon preparing for a new offensive against the Protestants. He was able to only narrowly avoid being arrested by agents of the king in the city, and he hurried back to the security of his governate before arranging for the hiring of 6000
Swiss mercenaries. This accomplished he left from Bourgogne to Paris on 16 January, accompanied by
his sister. On route he passed through many cities, securing their allegiance to the
ligue, arriving in Chartres on 5 February shortly after a
ligueur coup had thrown out the governor of the city. His entourage arrived in the capital several days later.
Seize On 12 February, Mayenne, alongside his cousin Aumale, and ally
the duke of Nemours presented themselves before the church of Saint-Jean-de-Grève in Paris where they were hailed by ecstatic crowds with cries of 'Long live the Catholic princes!' The
Seize regime in Paris created a
Grand Conseil of 40 members to administer the kingdom. They submitted their proposed member list to Mayenne for his approval, and he gave his assent. This body in turn nominated Mayenne as ''lieutenant général de l'État et Couronne de France
in February. He swore his oath accepting the position on 13 March. Mayenne took to his new role with enthusiasm, quickly raising a ligueur
army to fight Henri and Navarre. He further began levying taxes in his governate in the manner of a king. This office gave him far broader authority than the traditional lieutenant-general'' of the kingdom, whose purview was largely military. He confirmed offices as minor as the '
master of the mint' for the city of Poitiers, and had the authority to appoint figures to offices from the governors of regions to royal sergeants. He worked closely with the Italian financier Sébastien Zamet, who lent money to the
ligueurs. The two men regularly dined together in Paris, Mayenne having taken up residence in the
Hôtel de la Reine, formerly inhabitaed by Catherine de' Medici. He and the
Seize collaborated to install a new leadership of the Paris
Parlement after the purge of the royalists from the body, with
Barnabé Brisson established as
prémier president. Mayenne was keen to secure the grandee
Nevers for the
ligueur cause, but despite his incessant letters Nevers remained loyal to the king.
Provincial reaction In total across France, roughly half of the 50 largest cities defected to the
ligue in the wake of the assassinations at Blois. Mayenne would be intimately involved in many of their rebellions.
Rouen Rouen experienced its own Day of the Barricades in February 1589, when a
ligueur regime succeeded in a coup to take the key city.
Carrouges, governor of Rouen, initially tried to maintain his place in the city hierarchy following the coup, claiming a conversion to the
ligueur cause. Few were convinced by this eleventh hour change, and Mayenne himself visited Rouen on 4 March, to install a
ligueur provincial council, with the more reliable
Villars,
Meilleraye and his brother
Pierrecourt at its head. Mayenne was far more pleased with this regime, having induced it with an aristocratic character through the appointment of friendly elite
ligueurs. It contrasted with the
Seize regime in Paris, which Mayenne viewed with distaste. He had been greeted on his entry to the city by
ligueurs keen to demonstrate their piety, the population filing through the streets for hours in a barefoot procession. Before departing, Mayenne rewarded the city with a series of letters patent in which he reduced their taxes and ordered many offices to be suppressed on the death of their incumbent. Despite this the need to reward his allies would mean that he would attempt to keep the offices active by assigning them to new men, though he was opposed in this by the Rouen
Parlement. In Spring 1590, Mayenne appointed
Tavannes, a protégé from Bourgogne, and a noble of he felt, appropriately august lineage, as the head of the provincial council. Tavannes proved a poor choice, quickly alienating the elite of Rouen, and he in turn was ousted from leadership in 1591 by the opportunist governor of
Le Havre, Villars. When Mayenne visited Rouen in 1591, Villars camped outside the city with an army, and threatened to defect to the royalist side unless Tavannes was removed as
ligueur governor of Normandie. Mayenne acceded, and appointed
his own son governor, with Villars to act with the full powers of governor until the boy was of age. He further made Villars the
ligueur Admiral of France.
Toulouse Toulouse was overtaken by a
ligueur coup in early 1589 also, under the overall authority of the bishop
Comminges. Comminges' leadership of the important city was challenged by Mayenne's appointee as military leader of Languedoc
Joyeuse, entering the city on 30 September, he secured it for Mayenne's moderate faction of the
ligue after a brief power struggle.
Troyes In Troyes, Mayenne arrived with his troops on 24 January, all officials were expected to swear an oath to the
ligue in his presence, any who refused were expelled from the city. Mayenne established the second son of the late duke
Chevreuse, who was only 11 years old, as governor, forming a governors council in the city for him. After seven weeks of this arrangement, the council was superseded in name as a 'new'
ligue council. This council would form one of the twelve provincial councils that the
ligue operated. Such councils had authority over both financial and military matters, as well as more minute financial decisions, as to determine the appropriateness of ransoms for captured nobles. In theory these provincial councils were to enact orders received from the main
Grand Conseil in Paris, and thus Mayenne, but they often had an independent streak. During December 1592, Mayenne wrote to the
ligueur administration of Troyes, warning them about the rumours of Henri's plans to convert to Catholicism, reminding them that he would still be excommunicated and thus unworthy to rule France, as such not invalidating their rebellion. Officials in the town were warned that if they accepted his conversion, they would be placed under house arrest.
Champagne Mayenne, in his capacity as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, appointed
the young duke of Guise to the position his father had occupied, governor of Champagne. He followed this up with the appointment of
the baron de Rosne and
Saint-Paul in overall authority as lieutenant-general of Champagne, giving them the effective powers of governor due to the imprisonment of the young duke of Guise. De Rosne had previously served the late duke of Guise as his governor of
Châlons-sur-Marne, while Saint-Paul had been made lieutenant-general of Reims by Guise to counter
Dinteville's influence during the 1580s. Dinteville was the lieutenant-general of the kingdom according to the king. In 1593 Mayenne elevated Saint-Paul to the rank of Marshal as he became increasingly ambitious in Champagne.
Dijon In his governate of Bourgogne, Mayenne was in a strong position at the death of Guise. His client Jacques La Verne was the mayor of
Dijon and he had further clients among the
Parlementaires. He appointed
the sieur de Fervaques as lieutenant-general of the province for the
ligue to replace the royally appointed
comte de Charny. He had first nominated Fervaques back in October, for the confirmation of Henri, however that process was now done away with. Yet La Verne was not quick to seize Dijon for the
ligue in the wake of news reaching the city and only when Mayenne himself arrived on 5 January was Dijon secured for the
Sainte Union. On 16 January he assembled the city council, and quoted scripture to prove that they owed obedience to the church before they owed anything to Henri. Before departing Mayenne oversaw the taking of an oath, and made the city grandees promise to obey La Verne and not allow troops within their walls without his permission. La Verne was more independent than Mayenne had hoped, and engaged in a power struggle with Fervaques over which of them would control the Château of the city. In April 1589 La Verne imprisoned Fervaques for refusing to swear the
ligueur oath. Mayenne was increasingly frustrated by his client, and turned to several
Parlementaires, supporting them in the mayoral elections of 1590 and 1591 against La Verne, but they were unable to overcome his 99% vote margins. In 1592 Mayenne succeeded in getting his candidate elected, La Verne never having been secure in his dictatorial control of the Dijon council. Though the following year La Verne would triumph again, Mayenne would be rid of his former client in 1594, disposing of him permanently after La Verne attempted to hand the Château over to Henri, having him executed.
Bourgogne Mayenne's efforts in Dijon were part of a large picture in Bourgogne, of his attempts to influence mayoral elections in the favour of his political interests. He wrote to Fervaques from Paris about his plans for the province, promising to send more troops so that Bourgogne could be 'cleansed of vermin', by which he meant any enemies of the
ligue. In April he replaced Fervaques, who had proved more royalist than anticipated with
the baron de Sennecey a long time client of the Lorraines.
Provence The
ligue movement in Provence was headed by
the comte de Carcès who aligned himself with Mayenne through a marriage to his daughter in law. Mayenne's candidate for leadership of the
ligue in Provence was opposed by Hubert de Vins and his sister Chrétienne d'Aguerre, comtesse de Sault. After the death of her brother in November 1589 she took charge of their faction, and invited
the duke of Savoie into
Aix. He entered in November 1590, bringing about the triumph of the faction of Sault over the faction preferred by Mayenne, that of Carcès.
Provincial overview In total there were 12 provincial
ligueur councils across France,
Agen,
Amiens,
Bourges, Dijon,
Le Mans, Lyon,
Nantes, Poitiers,
Riom, Rouen, Toulouse and
Troyes. Mayenne would have preferred to govern without them and where possible he shaped them towards his aristocratic vision of the
ligue.
War against Henri Departing from Paris in the wake of his elevation to lieutenant-general of the kingdom, Mayenne headed to Orléans, which had rebelled against its governor
Entragues on 23 December having got word of Henri's coup in Paris. Henri was keen to re-secure the city, but Mayenne reached Orléans first. Upon his entry the royal garrison abandoned the citadel which they had retreated to after losing the main city. Having returned to Paris, he departed again on 8 April at the head of a new army assembled at Étampes which numbered over 10,000 men. He subdued
Vendôme in mid April causing consternation in the royal camp at
Tours. On 28 April Mayenne participated in a bloody skirmish with the
comte de Brienne, brother in law to Henri's favourite Épernon, 50
ligueurs were killed but Brienne surrendered, a cause for great celebration in Paris.
Alliance of the kings Conscious of his incredibly tenuous position in the wake of having assassinated the duke, Henri turned to Navarre for support and the two king's entered a compact on 3 April. The treaty specified that Navarre was to march against the forces under Mayenne, and drive him from the field. This accomplished, they devised a plan to seize back Paris for the crown, with both to approach from different directions. Mayenne was almost able to capture the king in a surprise attack at
Tours on 8 May, catching Henri off guard during a private visit to the
Abbey of Marmoutier outside the walls. Henri was able to retreat into Tours, and Mayenne's artillery pummelled Henri's residence in the hours that followed. He sent appeals to Navarre, who promptly forwarded reinforcements. With reinforcements at hand, Henri was able to rebuff Mayenne at a narrow bridge into the city and Mayenne was forced to withdraw soon thereafter. The battle had cost the lives of 200 royalists, among them a member of the
Quatre Cinq, Henri's bodyguard unit which had carried out the murder of the duke of Guise. Mayenne ensured the head was dispatched to Paris to be displayed, while pamphleteers in the capital proclaimed his great victory at Tours. That same month George d'Avoy approached Henri, offering to kill Mayenne. Henri was suspicious and under interrogation George confessed to being sent by Mayenne to murder Henri. Rebuffed at Tours, Mayenne moved into Normandie, seizing
Alençon. Normandie was in the midst of a peasant revolt known as the
Lipans and thousands flocked to Mayenne's banner, though he was uninterested in their cause and rejected offers from them to aid him. Ultimately, Mayenne and Aumale vainly sought to halt the advance of the two men's forces, and the royalists captured Étampes, Montereau and Senlis. He visited the
ligueur controlled city of Reims in early July, causing much panic in
Châlons, the only major city in Champagne still loyal to the royalist cause. Returning to the capital, Mayenne busied himself trying to strengthen the outer perimeter of Paris in preparation for what seemed likely to come. In this effort, he vainly sought to stop them from capturing the strategic town of
Pontoise on 26 July which controlled much of the supply into Paris, but his relief effort arrived too late. By the end of July the royalists were in a position to invest Paris. Mayenne looked desperately for outside assistance, receiving a welcome coup when forces under
Claude de La Châtre ligueur governor in Berry arrived to bolster the garrison. He looked to Felipe and the duke of Parma for further aid, promising Felipe the title of 'protector of the kingdom' and an allowance to keep any fortresses he captured from Protestants during a campaign into France. ==Reign of Henri IV==