Simancas: October 1590

Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 4, 1587-1603. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1899.

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'Simancas: October 1590', in Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 4, 1587-1603, (London, 1899) pp. 586. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol4/p586a [accessed 25 April 2024]

October 1590

28 Oct.
Paris Archives, K. 1571.		 602. Advices from Bearn's head quarters.
[Extract.]
The Viscount de Turenne (fn. 1) has been appointed, by Bearn, protector of the Huguenots, and will shortly go to England with Stafford and Pallavicini, who are here together, for re-inforcements to be sent from England. Bearn has decided to secure the queen of England for the expenses she may incur, by handing over to her certain towns, and M. de la Chatre, governor of Dieppe, is urging the Queen to send him 2,000 Englishmen to hold the Pays de Caux.
Viscount de Turenne is also going to Germany, to request the Protestant princes to help Bearn with troops. His object is (many Catholics having left him, and his forces being small) to have as many Huguenots as possible with him in order to be able to make more favourable terms of peace. (fn. 2)

Footnotes

  • 1. Duke de Bouillon, who with du Plessy-Mornay, strongly supported the Huguenot cause in the councils of Henry of Navarre.
  • 2. In August 1590, Bearn had been forced partially to raise the siege of Paris, and for a short time supplies flowed into the famished city. Mendoza then thought that surely his time for release had come. His one friend, Cardinal Gaëtano, went to Rome, and Mendoza wrote to the King that he must, and would, leave the city, which was unhealthy and dangerous. But he was without money, even to buy firing, and a bill he had drawn for 10,000 ducats upon Antwerp for his expenses had been protested. He writes urgently —even violently—to the King and Idiaquez, about his treatment, and prays that, even if they care nothing for his life, at least they will save his honour. But before replies could reach him Paris once more was closed, though Parma was outside ; and Mendoza, old, ill and quarrelsome, was again a prisoner. Despairing of Philip's permission, he begged Parma to receive him. But Parma was cool, and sent no escort for him. All through the winter Mendoza remained without money, famished with hunger, as he says, and unable even to buy fuel. The English and other dependents upon him in Paris were in worse case still. It was not until the early spring of 1591 that Mendoza at last escaped, and his great diplomatic career came to an end.
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