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.The archbishop had no alternativeother than to withdraw his requête and leave the chamber, though notbefore adding that he would take his case before the crown and, ifnothing came of that, he and his brother, the sieur de Lanssac, would take revenge themselves.Although Sanssac, Candalle and Lange were to make one final attemptto arraign Lagebâton in August 1566, they were again outmanoeuvred.79It is this political skill and dexterity that characterized Lagebâton s77AHG, 13, pp.179 83.78This process is to be found in Procès-verbal du différand entre l archevêque deBordeaux et le premier président du parlement (1565), BN ms français, 15 881, fos 157 60.79 Requête de la clergy et noblesse de guienne et maires et jurats de Bordeaux contre lepremier président (August 1566), BMB, ms 369, III, fo.99. 66 CATHOLIC ACTIVISM IN SOUTH-WEST FRANCE, 1540 1570performances during the early 1560s, explaining his longevity in the officeof premier président in the face of prolonged invective from Catholic agita-tors.For the moment, Lagebâton and the moderate party had maintainedcontrol over the militant and hostile nobility of the Bordelais, who weresupported in their machinations by officers of the court and the provincialclergy.But matters were soon to change, as the recommencing of open warin 1567 saw a more determined Catholic consensus emerge at Bordeaux;one that would stop at nothing to remove the premier président fromoffice, to defeat the moderate faction within the government and to secureCatholic hegemony within the region. CHAPTER FIVECatholic Consolidation at BordeauxBy 1565, political and confessional relations at Bordeaux had reachedstalemate.While moderates maintained tacit control of the parlement, thesimmering hostility of Catholic magistrates, silenced temporarily, but stilla majority within the court, loomed large.Catholic militancy may havebeen suppressed by the edict of Amboise of March 1563, but thenetworks and alliances formed during the first war remained intact, andtheir leaders continued to be vocal in political debate.The crown was wellaware of the tentative nature of this détente, and realized that some formof equitable settlement for both Catholic and Protestant communities wasimperative to prevent sectarian violence proliferating across Guyenneonce more.Yet matters were being further complicated by the involvement ofexternal powers in the affairs of the south-west.Throughout 1563 and1564, Spain, the papacy and leading Protestant and Catholic grandeesfrom France and northern Europe had begun to exert varying degrees ofinfluence over the region.Central in much of this manoeuvring was thehostility between Catholic powers and Jeanne d Albret, the Calvinistqueen of Navarre.Fears over Jeanne s religious orthodoxy had flaredduring the mid-1550s, with rumours of her covert adherence to the newreligion culminating in evidence of overt affiliation after 1557.1 Thistension was exacerbated with the removal of the unitary duchy of Albretfrom the remit of the sénéchaussée of Guyenne, and the growing influenceof Jeanne s commissioners at the courts at Nérac, Tartes andCasteljaloux.2 In October 1558, the governor of Languedoc, Anne deMontmorency, felt compelled to respond to the religious disturbances inneighbouring Béarn by sending his lieutenant du roi at Toulouse, George,Cardinal d Armagnac, into the region to restore order and re-establishecclesiastical discipline.3 Further efforts to pressurize Jeanne followed inNovember 1559, with the cardinal of Lorraine urging the militarycaptains of the south-west, Monluc and de Termes, to cooperate fullywith the Spanish viceroy to Navarre in his attempt to unite the Catholicforces of the region in opposition to the queen s scheming.41Bryson, Queen Jeanne, pp.101 8.2Powis, The Magistrates of the Parlement of Bordeaux, p.251.3Cardinal Armagnac to Montmorency (15 October 1558), Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres inédites du Cardinal d Armagnac , pp.99 102.4Marthe W.Freer, The Life of Jeanne d Albret (London, 1862), p.107. 68 CATHOLIC ACTIVISM IN SOUTH-WEST FRANCE, 1540 1570On 19 July 1561, though, Jeanne d Albret formally legalized the reformmovement in Béarn, Navarre and her comtés of Foix and Armagnac,ordering all Catholic practices to desist with immediate effect.5 Whenchurches across the region began to be commandeered and stripped barefor use as Protestant temples, Catholic communities had little recourseother than to appeal to their French neighbours for help.Condemnation ofJeanne s activity from the parlements at Bordeaux and Toulouse and theCatholic nobles of the south-west was swift.Complaints flooded into thecourts demanding that the queen revoke her orders, and calling for mili-tary intervention should she refuse.Then, in November 1562, Blaise deMonluc warned Jeanne that, if she continued in her dalliances with thereform movement, he would pass into Spain and ask the Catholic king toenter Béarn at the head of his army and overthrow her rule.6 To back uphis threat, Monluc moved several companies of Spanish troops to theborder with Béarn.But Jeanne was one step ahead, and had alreadycomplained to the crown about this intimidation, securing royal backingfor the withdrawal of Monluc s Catholic troops.7 Jeanne s supporters atcourt, among them the leading Protestant grandees, Admiral Coligny andOdêt de Châtillon, bishop of Beauvais, petitioned the crown to reproachMonluc for his insolence, and the captain was duly reprimanded in June1563 and ordered to proceed with care in dealing with the queen ofNavarre, without offending or irritating her.8This was the opening gambit of a clash between the two that quicklyreached vendetta-like proportions.In October 1563, Jeanne, nowwidowed following the death of her husband, Antoine de Bourbon, at thesiege of Rouen the previous November, raised the stakes considerably byaccusing senior Catholics of collusion against the crown.The allegationcharged Monluc, Damville, Armagnac, Pierre d Albret, bishop ofComminges, and two of Monluc s senior captains, Negrepelisse andTerride, of plotting with Spain to overthrow her government.9 Jeanneclaimed that a secret meeting had been held at the town of Grenade tofinalize these plans, and that Monluc s son, Jean, had been dispatched toMadrid to secure Spanish troops for this purpose.10 Monluc s response5Bryson, Queen Jeanne, p.132; Greengrass, The Calvinist experiment in Béarn , p.125.Jeanne had officially converted to the reformed church on Christmas Day 1560: Bryson,Queen Jeanne, p.113.6Courteault, Blaise de Monluc.Historien, p.470.7Charles IX to Monluc (May 1563), BN nouv.acq.français, 6001, fos 7 8; Bryson,Queen Jeanne, p.154.8Charles IX to Monluc (June 1563), BN nouv.acq.français, 6001, fos 42 3.9Courteault, Blaise de Monluc, Historien, p.478.10Courteault states that Jean had recently visited Spain, but merely as a staging post onhis journey to Malta.See Courteault, Un Cadet de Gascogne, p.210
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