Diplomacy and Dogmatism: Bernadino de Mendoza and the French Catholic Leaugue

by De Lamar Jensen

Overview

This is the first study of Mendoza, the importance of whose position as Ambassador to France from 1584 to 1591—crucial in the liaison between Philip II and the French Catholic League—was long recognized but not explored. A religious zealot and military crusader who carried his uncompromising attitude into his diplomatic career, Mendoza made the connections between his master Philip and the French Catholic League much more intimate and functional than was previously suspected. In the spring of 1588, for instance, Mendoza manipulated the League and the Duke of Guise into a position of open rebellion against the King of France, thus ensuring that the Armada could sail for England without the danger of French harassment along the channel coast, and also that there would be no threat of French occupation of the Spanish Netherlands when Parma's troops should embark for the invasion of England.

Throughout the book, Spanish policies and techniques and their influence on international affairs are exemplified as they were not before. Showing how Continental diplomacy was dominated by religious zeal in the late sixteenth century, and how the fanaticism of the French religious wars formed a prelude to a reaction toward political absolutism, Jensen draws on a fund of untapped manuscript and printed sources, including Mendoza's coded letters, some of which he was the first to decipher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674181274
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/05/1964
Edition description:	Reprint 2014
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

Table of Contents

I. THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE

End of the Hapsburg-Valois Wars

Europe on the Eve of the Religious Wars

Calvinism and its Foes in France

Beginning of the Religious Wars

Huguenot Political Thought

II. FOUNDATIONS OF THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE

The Politiques

The League of Péronne

Formation of the New Catholic League

Political Theory of the League

The League and Spain: Treaty of Joinville

III. MENDOZA AND FRANCE

Mendoza's Diplomatic Mission to France

Mendoza's Background

Opening the Paris Embassy

Testing the League

IV. MENDOZA AND GUISE

Tempering the Spanish-League Alliance

Overtures to Navarre

Mendoza, Guise, and the Scottish Catholics

Mendoza and the Queen of Scots

The Alliance Strengthened by Ordeal

V. DIPLOMATIC PROCEDURE, I: GATHERING DATA

Mendoza and his Staff

Friends and Enemies at Court

Mendoza's Intelligence System

Contacts with the League and the Jesuits

VI. DIPLOMATIC PROCEDURE, II: COMMUNICATION

Mendoza's Dispatches

Post and Courier

Diplomatic Ciphers

Embassy Finances

VII. THE REVOLT BEGINS

Uneasy Peace

Strategic Occupation

The Day of the Barricades

Persona non Grata

The Edict of Union

VIII. TRIUMPH OF THE LEAGUE

Mendoza and the Armada

Aftermath of the Armada

The Estates General of Blois

"The King of Paris is Dead"

IX. MENDOZA LEADS THE PARIS LEAGUE

Salvage of the Sainte Union

Catholic Reaction to Blois

The League Governs France

Mendoza and Mayenne

Mendoza's Recall

From Tours to Saint-Cloud

X. THE STRUGGLE FOR A THRONE

Navarre and the Catholic Nobles

Mendoza Resumes Direction of the Paris League

Crucial Negotiations

The Spanish Triumvirate and the Papal Legate

Charles X versus Henry IV: The League Schism Widens

Siege and Famine in Paris

Spanish Arms and Aims in France

XI. COLLAPSE OF THE LEAGUE

Mendoza's Retirement and Later Life

"Paris is Worth a Mass"

End of the League and of the Religious Wars

Conclusions

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOTES

INDEX