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The Italian Wars of Henry II Downloaded From 602 October The Italian Wars of Henry II Downloaded from HE wars of Henry II had a very decisive effect upon French T influence in Italy and upon the fortunes of Italy herself for more than two centuries to come ; the grand duchy of Tuscany, for instance, owed its existence to one of them. Yet until http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ M. Lucien Romier published his two volumes on Les Origines Politique8 des Ouerres de JReligion1 there was no adequate account of the motives and diplomatic antecedents of these wars. The title of the book hardly gives a precise idea of its contents, which are really almost confined to the foreign policy of the reign, and the foreign policy as relating to Italy alone. There is to outward appearance a salient distinction between the Italian policy of Francis I and Henry H. The former aimed at conquest naked at University of California, San Diego on September 1, 2015 and unabashed, the latter at all events professed merely the pro- tection of weaker powers. Just as in Scotland Henry posed as the champion of the Stuarts, and in Germany of the Protestant princes, so in Italy he undertook the defence of the Farnesi of Parma, of the Sienese republic, and of Paul IV against Charles V or Philip II, and of the Corsican rebels against Genoa. M. Romier shows how far in each case these pretensions were genuine, or how far they merely served to veil schemes of conquest. At the Dase of all the diplomacy is the feud of the Constable Montmorenci and the house of Guise, who in turn dominated the king's vacil- lating will and sluggish intellect. In proving the constant relation of this feud to Italian politics M. Romier has broken entirely fresh ground. Italian intervention is really the barometer of the success or failure of the Guises at the French court. If Mont- morenci would have war at all, its sphere should be the north- eastern frontier of France, but Italy attracted all the old Angevin ambitions inherited by the house of Guise from Ren6 of Lorraine. The marriage of Duke Francis to Anna dTEste doubtless gave a strong stimulus, but it was an effect rather than a cause. Among its results was the addition of yet another group of Italian courtiers to that which had become naturalized under Francis I, and to that which was gathering round the queen. The factions which were mainly responsible for these Italian wars, and which were in turn stimulated by them, had no small 1 Two volumes, Paris, Iibrairie Perrin et Compagnie, 1911, 1913. 1915 THE ITALIAN WARS OF HENRY II 603 share in determining the outbreak of civil and religious war. Though Montmorenci found himself on the same side as his rivals when Catholicism was at stake, yet his party lived on under the leadership of his nephews, the Chatillons. After his death his two elder sons, successively heirs to his office, though catholics themselves, revived the policy of opposition to the Guises, while the younger brothers joined the Huguenots. Thus M. Homier may fairly give to his subject the title Les Origines Politiques des Downloaded from Ghierres de Religion, which at first sight seemed somewhat far- fetched. The importance, therefore, of this somewhat obscure chapter of history becomes so great that English readers may welcome a fuller account of his conclusions than could be con- tained in a short review. It is to be hoped, however, that such http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ a summary will not deter them from recourse to the book itself, which is delightful reading owing to the writer's love for person- ality and his consequent skill in character-drawing, illustrated in every chapter. The volumes are anything but a dry record of diplomatic intrigue. For a government inclined towards intervention in Italy there was an agency and an army ready to hand. Two of the author's freshest chapters deal with the cardinal protectors at Rome, and at University of California, San Diego on September 1, 2015 the Florentine, Neapolitan, and other exiles, whose chief centres were Lyons, Rome, and Venice, with the little state of Mirandola as a military base. The official function of the protectors was to propose candidates for benefices in consistory, but practically, as diplomatic agents, they stood above the ambassadors, and decided French policy in no small degree. The titular pro- tector from 1548 until Henry IPs death was Hippolyto dTEste, whose wealth, splendour, and family connexion gave him an influence scarcely justified by his narrow intellect and jealous punctilio. It is to his credit, however, that, in spite of his close Guisard connexion, he was usually on the side of moderation. During his absences from Rome substitutes were appointed. Thus we read of Jean de Bellay, in politics a Montmorencist, but now too old and ill for much initiative, but retaining his full senses as to the danger of an adventurous policy. He becomes in time garrulous and bibulous, and is pulled up by the pope as a bore, when he speaks in consistory. Cardinal Tournon has left a bad reputation from his part in the wars of religion, but M. Romier regards him as the cleverest and most patriotic of the diplomatists who managed French affairs in Italy. Ultramontanism attached him to the Guises, but his interests were loyally French. It would seem that the protectors, if only from the splendid ease and luxury of their position, would be inclined to diplomatic rather than to military methods. After all, in time of actual war they would lose much of their influence. A protectorate of the smaller 604 THE ITALIAN WARS OF HENRY II October states against Spain would be their aim rather than conquest, as it was that of other reasonable French politicians down to d'Argenson. An exception was Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, hand in glove with Piero Strozzi and the cardinal of Lorraine, an adven- turer looking only to personal interests, more closely linked to the condottiere than to the cardinal group. It must be confessed, too, that Tournon, though he reconciled Henry II and Julius III, had paved the way for the revolution of Siena, though he was Downloaded from opposed to the offensive alliance with Carafa in 1555. The exiles, needless to say, never left the French court alone. They were weakened by their difference in aims, the Neapolitans urging an Angevin reconquest of Naples, the Tuscans the liberation of Florence from Cosimo de' Medici. The latter, at all events, http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ were not of the starveling type. Henry II was financed by the Strozzi and the Guadagni-del-Bene banks, much as was Charles V by the Fugger and the Welser. They had, moreover, the warm support of the queen. Piero Strozzi, violent and unbalanced as he was, gave glamour to the cause by the pure-hearted patriotism which devoted thereto his whole life and huge fortune. From the very beginning of the reign the dualism between Montmorenci and the Guises in Italian politics became apparent. When Pier at University of California, San Diego on September 1, 2015 Luigi FarneBe, lord of Parma and Piacenza, was assassinated by his nobles, and Piacenza occupied by the imperialists, the outraged father and suzerain, Paul III, appealed to Henry II. The king was sympathetic, because Pier Luigi's younger son, Orazio Farnese, was engaged to his natural daughter Diane, and had won his warm affection. The cardinal of Lorraine was sent to Rome, and negotiations went merrily forward. But his absence gave Montmorenci his opening, and he contrived to delay the war. This was not merely because he disliked Italian complications, and especially Guise influence with the Farnesi, but because his strong Gallican principles were opposed to papal reforming activity. In this Henry II, essentially conservative, heartily concurred. French cardinals were indeed sent to the council of Bologna, but they made uncomfortable demands upon the pope, and resented any innovations, even the most obviously salutary reforms. Hence the political alliance with the pope was delayed, and he in despair united Parma and Piacenza to the church, at the expense of his sons Ottavio and Orazio. Ottavio, as is well known, attempted to occupy Parma in his father's face, provoking a violent quarrel. Paul III on his death-bed, under the influence of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, restored the city to his son, and this grant was confirmed by the cardinals during the conclave. The delay in the conclave was caused purely by the scandalous division among the French cardinals, Montmorenci ordering his party to elect a Spaniard rather than a Guisard. Henry II at 1915 THE ITALIAN WARS OF HENRY II 605 length insisted on their combining to elect a neutral, and the result was the pontificate of Julius III, the Cardinal del Monte. The new pope was an indolent gourmand, neglecting his duties for bis gardens and his vineyards. To the messenger inquiring, Beatissime Pater, eras erit consistorium ? he would reply, Cras erit vinea. Unfortunately he combined with much humour and amiability a violent temper subject to equally rapid reaction. The war of Parma was a war of two tempers, explosive on the Downloaded from pope's part, obstinate on that of the French king. Not but what either side had genuine grievances. Julius, in his desire to pro- pitiate the emperor, transferred the council from Bologna to Trent, and even proposed to grant him Parma and Piacenza as a papal fief. The king at once promised protection to Ottavio http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ Farnese and carried his Gallican revolt to the very borderland of schism.
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