1 10 HISTOR V QF FRANCE. [chap. Then, in 1567, there was another vain and useless war, chiefly notable for the death of the Constable of Mont- morency at St. Dcnys in the moment of victor}-, with whom much staunch honesty died. The king declared that he would bear his own sword, and made his brother Henry Diikc of Anjou lieutenant-general at sixteen. In the south, Conde actually had coins struck bearing the inscription, " Lewis XII I., first Christian king of France." A battle took place between him and the Duke of Anjou on the 13th of March, 1569, at the bridge oi Jartiac over the river Vienne. Conde had been hurt the day before by a fall from his horse, and was kicked in the leg as the fight was beginning, but in this state he bravely charged the enemy. He was driven back, the Huguenots fled, his horse was killed under him, and, disabled as he was, he had just surrendered when he was shot dead by his greatest enemy, the Baron de Alontesqitiou. His death would have broken up the party, had not the Queen of Navarre come forward, presenting to the disheartened Huguenots her son Heniy, Prince of Bcarn, and his cousin the Prince of Condd, sixteen and twelve years old. Henry was proclaimed generalissimo, and Coligny com- manded in his name. But, in the autumn of 1569, the L>uke of Anjou again routed them at Moncontour, and peace was made by the king, partly out of jealousy of his brother's exploits. 7. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572. — Catha- rine now again opened her court to the Huguenot nobles. Her object was to use upon the young heir of Navarre the arts that had sapped the energy of his uncle. She therefore offered him the hand of her daughter Margaret, and invited him and his mother to court. Queen Joan came alone, and was treated with much civility, but at the end of three weeks she died, early in 1572, of a short illness. She was thought to have been poisoned by the court perfumer, called by some the queen's poisoner. She was a great loss to her cau?e, and, with her, caution seemed to have been taken from the whole party. Her son Henry, now King of Navarre, came to court, and Coligny and the great body of the Huguenot nobles flocke 1 thither in his train, only the older and more wary holding back. The queen-mother seems to have been as usual inclined to smooth matters, and keep one party in check by the other ; and her son Charles IX. whom she had instructed to win over the Huguenots, was honestly
