the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands.

[853] Charriere, Negociations de la France dans le Levant, Documents
inedits (publ. by the Imperial Government), Paris, 1853, iii. 200. Cf. Sir
James Mackintosh, Hist. of England, vol. iii., App. A., pp. 345, 346,
audience of Sr. de la Bourdaiziere at Rome, cir. Sept., 1571.

[854] Margaret being born May 14, 1552, and Henry of Navarre, Dec. 13,
1553.

[855] Letter of March 21, 1556/7, Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon
et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 145. The story of the promise of
Margaret by her father to Henry of Navarre is confirmed by a letter of
Charles IX., now in the National Library, dated October 5, 1571. "The
Queen of Navarre," he writes to Ferralz (Ferrails), at Rome, "has several
times invited me to do her son the honor to marry him to my sister,
_whereby also the promise would be fulfilled which my father gave to the
late King of Navarre_." Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris (Leipsic, 1830),
i. 290.

[856] Mlle. Vauvilliers, Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret (Paris, 1818), i. 106.

[857] Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, ii. 413.

[858] "I thinke," wrote Sir Thomas Smith, as early as January 17, 1563,
"your Majestie hath understood of the marriage practized betwixt the
Prince of Portugall and Madame Margaret, the king's sister." Forbes, State
Papers, ii. 287.

[859] Memoires et Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, edited by M. F.
Guessard (Publications of the French Historical Society), Paris, 1842, 23.

[860] De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 491, 492. Notwithstanding the frequent
assertions in royal letters (as, for instance, in one which I have already
quoted), that the Queen of Navarre herself urged the marriage, it is
certain that she did not initiate it, while it is even maintained that she
was only brought to consent by threats. "La reine fut ouie un temps sans
vouloir approuver ledit mariage, jusqu'a cette extremite qu'on la menaca
de faire declarer son fils illegitime, a cause du mariage qui avoit ete
contracte entre elle et le Duc de Cleves. Enfin vaincue, elle declare
qu'elle n'en esperait que tout malheur." Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris,
i. 291.

[861] Memoires de Marg. de Valois, 24. The absurdity of the story that
Margaret was averse to this marriage, because of a romantic attachment to
young Henry of Guise, is sufficiently clear from the circumstance that the
Duke of Guise had been married for some time when the match between the
Prince of Navar