December 13, 1553: Birth of Henri IV, King of France and Navarre.

Tags

Antoine de Bourbon, Archduke Ernst of Austria, Catholic League, House of Guise, House of Lorraine, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Pope Clement VIII, Pope Sixtus V, Princess Elisabeth de Valois, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Joan III of Navarre, Siege of Paris 1590

From the Emperor’s Desk: On anniversary of the birth of King Henri IV of France and Navarre, I will focus on his difficult accession to the French throne.

Henri IV (December 13, 1553 – May 14, 1610) was King of Navarre (as Henri III) from 1572 and as King Henri IV of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian Dynasty. He was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.

Henri de Bourbon was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre (Jeanne d’Albret) and her husband, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, King of Consort of Navarre.

Although technically Antoine de Bourbon was a King Consort he did rule Navarre via Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) which describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title suo jure (“in her own right”).

King Henri IV of France and Navarre

Although baptised as a Catholic, Henri was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henri joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion. On June 9, 1572, upon his mother’s death, the 19-year-old became King Henri III of Navarre.

French Succession

When Henri III of France died, King Henri III of Navarre nominally, and technically, became King Henri IV of France. The Catholic League, however, strengthened by support from outside the country—especially from Spain—was strong enough to prevent a universal recognition of his new title.

Pope Sixtus V excommunicated Henri and declared him devoid of any right to inherit the crown. Most of the Catholic nobles who had joined Henri III of Navarre for the siege of Paris also refused to recognize the claim of Henri III of Navarre, and abandoned him.

King Henri IV set about winning his kingdom by military conquest, aided by English money and German troops. Henry IV’s Catholic uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon was proclaimed King Charles X by the Catholic League, but the Cardinal was Henry IV’s prisoner at the time.

Henry IV was victorious at the Battle of Arques and the Battle of Ivry, but failed to take Paris after besieging it in 1590.

Archduke Ernst of Austria

When Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon died in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the daughter of Felipe II of Spain, whose mother Princess Elisabeth de Valois, had been the eldest daughter of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici.

In the religious fervor of the time, the Catholic Infanta was recognized to be a suitable candidate, provided that she marry a suitable husband. The French overwhelmingly rejected Felipe II’s first choice, Archduke Ernst of Austria, son of Emperor Maximilian II, and brother of Emperors Rudolph II and Matthias, also a member of the House of Habsburg.

In case of such opposition, Felipe II indicated that princes of the House of Lorraine would be acceptable to him: the Duke of Guise; a son of the Duke of Lorraine; and the son of the Duke of Mayenne.

Princess Elisabeth de Valois

The House of Lorraine (German: Lothringen) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz which ruled Lorraine between 1048 to 1453. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine.

The Spanish ambassadors selected Henri I, Duke of Guise, to the joy of the League. However, at that moment of seeming victory, the envy of the Duke of Mayenne was aroused, and he blocked the proposed election of a king.

The House of Guise was founded as a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine by Claude of Lorraine (1496–1550), who entered French service and was made the first Duke of Guise by King Francis I in 1527. The family’s high rank was due not to possession of the Guise dukedom but to their membership in a sovereign dynasty, which procured for them the rank of prince étranger at the royal court of France.

Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, Archduchess of Austria

The problems with the House of Lorraine and Guise as far as succession rights to the French throne were concerned, was that neither were collateral branches of the Capetian Dynasty and therefore had no legal claim to the throne. However, there was nothing preventing them from overthrowing the old dynasty in favor of a new dynasty.

However, despite the interference of the Spanish King with the French succession, the Parlement of Paris also upheld the Salic law. They argued that if the French accepted natural hereditary succession, as proposed by the Spaniards, and accepted a woman as their queen, then the ancient claims of the English kings would be confirmed, and the monarchy of centuries past would be nothing but an illegality.

The Parlement admonished Mayenne, as lieutenant-general, that the kings of France had resisted the interference of the pope in political matters, and that he should not raise a foreign prince or princess to the throne of France under the pretext of religion. Mayenne was angered that he had not been consulted prior to this admonishment, but yielded, since their aim was not contrary to his present views.

King Henri IV of France and Navarre

Despite these setbacks for the League, King Henri IV remained unable to take control of Paris.

On July 25, 1593, with the encouragement of his mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Henri permanently renounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism in order to secure his hold on the French crown, thereby earning the resentment of the Huguenots and his former ally Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Henri was said to have declared that Paris vaut bien une messe (“Paris is well worth a mass”), although there is some doubt whether he said this, or whether the statement was attributed to him by his contemporaries. His acceptance of Catholicism secured the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects.

Coronation and recognition (1594–1595)

Since Reims, traditional coronation place of French kings, was still occupied by the Catholic League, Henri IV was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres on February 27, 1594. Pope Clement VIII lifted excommunication from Henri on September 17, 1595.

King Henri IV did not forget his former Calvinist coreligionists, however, and was known for his religious tolerance. In 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted circumscribed toleration to the Huguenots.

September 27, 1590: Death of Pope Urban VII after a 12 day reign

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Bishop of Rome, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Giovanni Battista Castagna, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Sixtus V, Pope Urban VII, Roman Curia, Sovereign of the Papal States

Pope Urban VII (August 4, 1521 – September 27, 1590), born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was Bishop of Rome Pope of the Catholic Church, and sovereign ruler of the Papal States from September 15 to 27, 1590. His thirteen-day papacy was the shortest in history.

Giovanni Battista Castagna was born in Rome in 1521 to a noble family as the son of Cosimo Castagna of Genoa and Costanza Ricci Giacobazzi of Rome.

Castagna studied in universities all across Italy and obtained a doctorate in civil law and canon law when he finished his studies at the University of Bologna. Soon after he became auditor of his uncle, Cardinal Girolamo Verallo, whom he accompanied as datary on a papal legation to France.

He served as a constitutional lawyer and entered the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Pope Julius III as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura. Castagna was chosen to be the new Archbishop of Rossano on 1 March 1, 1553, and he would quickly receive all the minor and major orders culminating in his ordination to the priesthood on March 30, 1553 in Rome. He then received episcopal consecration a month after at the home of Cardinal Verallo.

He served as the Governor of Fano from 1555 to 1559 and later served as the Governor of Perugia and Umbria from 1559 to 1560. During the reign of Pius IV, he settled satisfactorily a long-standing boundary dispute between the inhabitants of Terni and Spoleto. Castagna would later participate in the Council of Trent from 1562 to 1563 and served as the president of several conciliar congregations.

He was appointed as the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain in 1565 and served there until 1572, resigning his post from his archdiocese a year later. He also served as the Governor of Bologna from 1576 to 1577. Among other positions, he was the Apostolic Nuncio to Venice from 1573 to 1577 and served also as the Papal Legate to Flanders and Cologne from 1578 to 1580.

Pope Gregory XIII elevated him to the cardinalate on December 12, 1583 and he was appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Marcello.

Papacy
Election

After the death of Pope Sixtus V, a conclave was convoked to elect a successor. Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany had been appointed a cardinal at the age of fourteen but was never ordained to the priesthood.

At the age of thirty-eight, he resigned from the cardinalate upon the death of his older brother, Francesco in 1587, to succeed to the title. (There were suspicions that Francesco and his wife died of arsenic poisoning after having dined at Ferdinando’s Villa Medici, although one story has Ferdinando as the intended target of his sister-in-law.) Ferdinando’s foreign policy attempted to free Tuscany from Spanish domination.

He was consequently opposed to the election of any candidate supported by Spain. He persuaded Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto, grand-nephew of Sixtus V, to switch his support from Cardinal Marco Antonio Colonna, which brought the support of the younger cardinals appointed by the late Sixtus.

Castagna, a seasoned diplomat of moderation and proven rectitude was elected as pope on September 15, 1590 and selected the pontifical name of “Urban VII”.

Activities

Urban VII’s short passage in the office gave rise to the world’s first known public smoking ban, as he threatened to excommunicate anyone who “took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose”.

Urban VII was known for his charity to the poor. He subsidized Roman bakers so they could sell bread under cost, and restricted the spending on luxury items for members of his court. He also subsidized public works projects throughout the Papal States. Urban VII was strictly against nepotism and he forbade it within the Roman Curia.

Death

Urban VII died in Rome on September 27, 1590, shortly before midnight, of malaria. He had reigned for 13 days. He was buried in the Vatican. The funeral oration was delivered by Pompeo Ugonio. His remains were later transferred to the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, on September 21, 1606.

His estate, valued at 30,000 scudi, was bequeathed to the Archconfraternity of the Annunciation, for use as dowries for poor young girls.

December 13, 1553: Birth of Henri IV, King of France & Navarre

Tags

Antoine de Bourbon, Catholic League, Excommunication, French Wars of Religion, Henry III of France, Henry IV of France and Navarre, Huguenot, King of Navarre, Margaret of Valois, Pope Sixtus V

Henri IV (December 13, 1553 – May 14, 1610), also known by the epithet Good King Henri or Henri the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henri III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty.

The son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Jeanne III d’Albret, the Queen of Navarre, Henri was baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother.

As a teenager, Henri joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion. On June 9, 1572, upon his mother’s death, the 19-year-old became King of Navarre.

At Queen Jeanne III’s death, it was arranged for Henri to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici. The wedding took place in Paris on August 18, 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral.

On August 24, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henri’s wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed.

Henri narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism. He was forced to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On February 5 of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict. He named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years.

Henri and his predecessor Henri III of France were direct descendants of Saint-King Louis IX. Henri III belonged to the House of Valois, descended from Philippe III of France, elder son of Saint Louis; Henri IV belonged to the House of Bourbon, descended from Robert, Count of Clermont, younger son of Saint Louis IX. As Head of the House of Bourbon, Henri was “first prince of the blood”.

When Henri III died, Henri of Navarre nominally became king of France. The Catholic League, however, strengthened by support from outside the country—especially from Spain—was strong enough to prevent a universal recognition of his new title.

Pope Sixtus V excommunicated Henri and declared him devoid of any right to inherit the crown. Most of the Catholic nobles who had joined Henri III for the siege of Paris also refused to recognize the claim of Henri of Navarre, and abandoned him. He set about winning his kingdom by military conquest, aided by English money and German troops. Henri’s Catholic uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon was proclaimed king by the Catholic League, but the Cardinal was Henri’s prisoner at the time. Henri was victorious at the Battle of Arques and the Battle of Ivry, but failed to take Paris after besieging it in 1590.

When Cardinal de Bourbon died in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the daughter of Felipe II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henri II of France.

In the religious fervor of the time, the Infanta was recognized to be a suitable candidate, provided that she marry a suitable husband. The French overwhelmingly rejected Felipe’s first choice, Archduke Ernst of Austria, the Emperor’s brother, also a member of the House of Habsburg.

In case of such opposition, Felipe indicated that Princes of the House of Lorraine would be acceptable to him: the Duke of Guise; a son of the Duke of Lorraine; and the son of the Duke of Mayenne. The Spanish ambassadors selected the Duke of Guise, to the joy of the League. However, at that moment of seeming victory, the envy of the Duke of Mayenne was aroused, and he blocked the proposed election of a king.

The Parlement of Paris also upheld the Salic law. They argued that if the French accepted natural hereditary succession, as proposed by the Spaniards, and accepted a woman as their queen, then the ancient claims of the English kings would be confirmed, and the monarchy of centuries past would be nothing but an illegality.

The Parlement admonished Mayenne, as lieutenant-general, that the Kings of France had resisted the interference of the pope in political matters, and that he should not raise a foreign prince or princess to the throne of France under the pretext of religion. Mayenne was angered that he had not been consulted prior to this admonishment, but yielded, since their aim was not contrary to his present views.

Despite these setbacks for the League, Henri of Navarre remained unable to take control of Paris.

On July 25, 1593, with the encouragement of his mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Henri permanently renounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism in order to secure his hold on the French crown, thereby earning the resentment of the Huguenots and his former ally Queen Elizabeth I of England.

He was said to have declared that Paris vaut bien une messe (“Paris is well worth a mass”), although there is some doubt whether he said this, or whether the statement was attributed to him by his contemporaries. His acceptance of Catholicism secured the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects.

Coronation and recognition (1594–95)

Since Reims, traditional coronation place of French kings, was still occupied by the Catholic League, Henri was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres on February 25, 1594. Pope Clement VIII lifted the excommunication from Henri on September 17, 1595. He did not forget his former Calvinist coreligionists, however, and was known for his religious tolerance. In 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted circumscribed toleration to the Huguenots, thereby effectively ending the French Wars of Religion.

Henri was the target of at least 12 assassination attempts, being considered a usurper by some Catholics and a traitor by some Protestants. Though he faced much opposition during his reign, Henri IV gained more status after his death. An active ruler, he worked to regularise state finance, promote agriculture, eliminate corruption and encourage education. During his reign, the French colonization of the Americas truly began with the foundation of the colonies of Acadia and Canada at Port-Royal and Quebec, respectively. He is celebrated in the popular song “Vive le roi Henri” (which later became an anthem for the French monarchy during the reigns of his successors) and in Voltaire’s Henriade.

On August 18, 1572, Henry married his second cousin Margaret of Valois; their childless marriage was annulled in 1599. His subsequent marriage to Marie de’ Medici on 17 December 1600 produced six children:

HenrI’s first marriage was not a happy one, and the couple remained childless. Henri and Margaret separated even before Henri acceded to the throne in August 1589; Margaret retired to the Château d’Usson in the Auvergne and lived there for many years. After Henri became king of France, it was of the utmost importance that he provide an heir to the crown to avoid the problem of a disputed succession.

Henri favoured the idea of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Margaret and taking his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées as his bride; after all, she had already borne him three children. Henri’s councillors strongly opposed this idea, but the matter was resolved unexpectedly by Gabrielle’s sudden death in the early hours of April 10, 1599, after she had given birth to a premature and stillborn son. His marriage to Margaret was annulled in 1599, and Henri married Marie de’ Medici, daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, in 1600.

Assassination

Henri was the subject of numerous attempts on his life, including one by Pierre Barrière in August 1593 and Jean Châtel in December 1594.

Henri IV was killed in Paris on May 14, 1610 by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac, who stabbed him in the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Henri IV’s coach was stopped by traffic congestion associated with the Queen’s coronation ceremony. Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon, was with him when he was killed; Montbazon was wounded, but survived. Henri IV was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica.

His widow, Marie de’ Medici, served as regent for their nine-year-old son, Louis XIII, until 1617.

1590-1591: The Reign of Three Popes.

Tags

Bishop of Rome, Cardinal, French Wars of Religion, King Philip II of Spain, Pope Clement VIII, Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Gregory XIV, Pope Innocent IX, Pope Sixtus V, Pope Urban VII

From The Emperor’s Desk: Between September 15, 1590 to December 30, 1591, a time period lasting 1 year, 3 months, 15 days, saw three Pope’s reign over the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Urban VII ( August 4, 1521 – September 27, 1590), born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was head of the Catholic Church, and ruler of the Papal States from September, 15 to 27 1590. His twelve-day papacy was the shortest in history.

Giovanni Battista Castagna was born in Rome in 1521 to a noble family as the son of Cosimo Castagna of Genoa and Costanza Ricci Giacobazzi of Rome.

Castagna studied in universities all across Italy and obtained a doctorate in civil law and canon law when he finished his studies at the University of Bologna. He served as a constitutional lawyer and entered the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Pope Julius III as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura.

Castagna was chosen to be the new Archbishop of Rossano on March 1, 1553, and he would quickly receive all the minor and major orders culminating in his ordination to the priesthood on 30 March 30, 1553 in Rome. Pope Gregory XIII elevated him to the cardinalate on 12 December 1583 and he was appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Marcello.

After the death of Pope Sixtus V a conclave was convoked to elect a successor. Castagna, a seasoned diplomat of moderation and proven rectitude was elected as pope on September 15, 1590 and selected the pontifical name of “Urban VII”.

Activities

Urban VII was known for his charity to the poor. He subsidized Roman bakers so they could sell bread under cost, and restricted the spending on luxury items for members of his court. He also subsidized public works projects throughout the Papal States. Urban VII was strictly against nepotism and he forbade it within the Roman Curia.

Death

Urban VII died in Rome on September 27, 1590, shortly before midnight, of malaria. He was buried in the Vatican. The funeral oration was delivered by Pompeo Ugonio. His remains were later transferred to the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, on 21 September 1606.

Pope Gregory XIV (February 11, 1535 – October 16, 1591), born Niccolò Sfondrato or Sfondrati, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from December 5, 1590 to his death in 1591.

Niccolò Sfondrati was born at Somma Lombardo, then part of the Duchy of Milan, in the highest stratum of Milanese society. His mother, of the house of Visconti, died in childbirth. His father Francesco Sfondrati, a senator of the ancient comune of Milan, was created Cardinal-Priest by Pope Paul III in 1544.

In his youth he was known for his modest lifestyle and stringent piety. He studied law at Perugia and Padua, was ordained a priest and swiftly appointed Bishop of Cremona, in 1560, in time to participate in the sessions of the Council of Trent from 1561 to 1563. Pope Gregory XIII made him a Cardinal-Priest of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere on 12 December 12, 1583.

After the death of Pope Urban VII on September 27, 1590, the Spanish ambassador Olivares presented the conclave a list of the seven cardinals who would be acceptable to his master King Felipe II of Spain. On December 5, 1590, after two months of deadlock, Sfondrati, one of Felipe II’s seven candidates but who had not aspired to the office, was elected pope. Alessandro Cardinal Montalto came to Sfondrati’s cell to inform him that the Sacred College had agreed on his election and found him kneeling in prayer before a crucifix.

On the day after he was elected Pope, Gregory XIV burst into tears and said to the cardinals: “God forgive you! What have you done?” In his bull of March 21, 1591, Cogit nos, he forbade under pain of excommunication all betting concerning the election of a Pope, the duration of a pontificate, or the creation of new cardinals.

Papacy

Gregory XIV’s brief pontificate was marked by vigorous intervention in favour of the Catholic party in the French Wars of Religion. Instigated by King Felipe II of Spain and the Duke of Mayenne, he excommunicated Henri IV of France on March 1, 1591, reiterating the 1585 declaration of Pope Sixtus V that as a heretic (Protestant) Henri was ineligible to succeed to the throne of Catholic France and ordered the clergy, nobles, judicial functionaries, and the Third Estate of France to renounce him.

Gregory XIV levied an army for the invasion of France, and dispatched his nephew Ercole Sfondrati to France at its head. He also sent a monthly subsidy of 15,000 scudi to Paris to reinforce the Catholic League. By coming down solidly on the side of Spanish interests, in part because Gregory XIV was elected due to the influence of the Spanish cardinals, the recent papal policy of trying to maintain a balance between Spain and France was abandoned.

Gregory XIV created five cardinals, among whom was his nephew Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, his Secretary of State. The biographers mention that Pope Gregory XIV had a nervous tendency to laughter, which occasionally became irresistible and even manifested itself at his coronation. Gregory XIV, who was in poor health before his election to the papacy, died due to a large gallstone.

Pope Innocent IX ( July 20, 1519 – December 30, 1591), born Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from October 29 to December 30, 1591.

Prior to his short papacy, he had been a canon lawyer, diplomat, and chief administrator during the reign of Pope Gregory XIV (r. 1590–1591).

Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, whose family came from Crodo, in the diocese of Novara, northern Italy, was born in Bologna on July 20, 1519. He was the son of Antonio Facchinetti and Francesca Cini. He studied at the University of Bologna – which was pre-eminent in jurisprudence — where he obtained a doctorate in both civil and canon law in 1544. He was later ordained to the priesthood on March 11, 1544 and was appointed a canon of the church of Saints Gervasio and Protasio of Domodossola in 1547.

He travelled to Rome and he became the secretary to Cardinal Nicolò Ardinghelli before entering the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, brother of the Duke of Parma and grandson of Pope Paul III (1534–1549), one of the great patrons of the time.

Pope Gregory XIII made him a cardinal on December 12 ,1583 as the Cardinal-Priest of Santi Quattro Coronati and he was to receive the red hat and title on January 9,1584. Pope Gregory XIV made him the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in 1591.

Papacy

Even before Pope Gregory XIV died, Spanish and anti-Spanish factions were electioneering for the next pope. Felipe II of Spain’s (r. 1556–1598) high-handed interference at the previous conclave was not forgotten: he had barred all but seven cardinals. This time the Spanish party in the College of Cardinals did not go so far, but they still controlled a majority, and after a quick conclave they raised Facchinetti to the papal chair as Pope Innocent IX.

It took three ballots to elect him as pope. Facchinetti received 24 votes on October 28 but was not successful in that ballot to be elected as pope. He received 28 votes on October 29 in the second ballot while the third saw him prevail.

The cardinal protodeacon Andreas von Austria crowned Innocent IX as pontiff on November 3, 1591. He elevated two cardinals to the cardinalate in the only papal consistory of his papacy on December 18, 1591.

Mindful of the origin of his success, Innocent IX supported, during his two months’ pontificate, the cause of Felipe II and the Catholic League against Henri IV of France (r. 1589–1610) in the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598), where a papal army was in the field. His death, however, prevented the realisation of Innocent IX’s schemes.

Death

On December 18, the pope made a pilgrimage of Rome’s seven pilgrimage churches, despite being ill, and caught a cold as a result. This became a heavy cough combined with a fever that led to his death.

Innocent IX died in the early morning of December 30, 1591. He was buried in the Vatican grottoes in a simple tomb.

Pope Innocent IX was succeeded by Pope Clement VIII who’s pontificate lasted for 13 years.

Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland

Tags

 Act of Supremacy of 1559, Church of England, Church of Ireland, Duke of Norfolk, Irish Catholics, Mary I of Scotland, Papal Bull, Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Pius V, Pope Sixtus V, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, Regnans in Excelsis, Ridolfi Plot, Thomas Howard

The other day I wrote about how Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk was arested for his role in the Ridolfi Plot. The Ridolfi Plot was the plan to murder Queen Elizabeth I, and replace her on the English throne with Mary I of Scotland. The historical event that paved the way for this plot was the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I.

Regnans in Excelsis (“Reigning on High”) was a Papal Bull that Pope Pius V issued on February 25, 1570. The Bull excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England, referring to her as “the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime”, declared her a heretic, and released her subjects from allegiance to her, even those who had “sworn oaths to her”, and excommunicated any who obeyed her orders: “We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects, peoples and others afore said that they do not dare obey her orders, mandates and laws. Those who shall act to the contrary we include in the like sentence of excommunication.” Among the queen’s alleged offences, “She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics.

The Bull, written in Latin, is named from its incipit, the first three words of its text.

Background

The Papacy had previously reconciled with Mary I, who returned the Church of England and Church of Ireland to Catholicism. After Mary I of England’s death in November 1558, Elizabeth’s Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy of 1559, which re-established the Church of England and Church of Ireland’s independence from papal authority. This bull can be seen as an act of retaliation for the religious settlement, but as it was delayed by eleven years, caused in part by a number of royal Catholic suitors who hoped to marry Elizabeth, and because she had tolerated Catholic worship in private.

Content

Pius V issued the bull in support of, but following, the failed Rising of the North of 1569, by which Catholic nobles attempted to depose Elizabeth and replace her with Mary I of Scotland, and the first Desmond Rebellion in Ireland, which broke out in June 1569. Although the Desmond Rebellion’s main goal was to preserve the independence of feudal lords from the English throne, it developed religious overtones as James FitzMaurice FitzGerald sought support from Catholic Europe.

The bull declared Queen Elizabeth excommunicated and absolved her subjects from any allegiance to her. It also excommunicated any that obeyed her orders. Its argument drew on the hierocratic theory of the papacy established by medieval canonists.

Pius did not consult any Catholic rulers. Both Felipe II of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II disagreed with his approach. Felipe thought, correctly, that it would only harden the Crown’s treatment of English Catholics. According to Evelyn Waugh, It provided a convenient pretext for those in Elizabeth’s court, looking for an excuse to do so, to persecute Roman Catholics, and they took full advantage of it. To take effect in church law the bull had to be promulgated. This logistical effort relied on individuals such as John Felton.

Aftermath

The Bull provoked the English government into taking more repressive actions against the Jesuits, whom they feared to be acting in the interests of Spain and the papacy. This reaction soon seemed justified: it was the publication in England of Pius’s exhortation that gave the impetus in 1571 to the Ridolfi Plot, in which the Duke of Norfolk was to kidnap or murder Queen Elizabeth, install Mary I of Scotland, on the English throne, and then become de facto king by marrying her. Heinrich Bullinger of Zurich published a critique of the bull in 1571.

Suspension from 1580–84

At the request of the Jesuits and to relieve the pressures on Catholics in England, Pope Gregory XIII issued a clarification or suspension in 1580, explaining that Catholics should obey the queen outwardly in all civil matters, until such time as a suitable opportunity presented itself for her overthrow. How widely this was communicated to, and understood by, Catholics in England and Ireland is unknown. Later that year Pope Gregory XIII sponsored an abortive expedition to Ireland in support of the Second Desmond Rebellion that ended in the Siege of Smerwick, so the suggestion that the Bull was suspended earlier in 1580 cannot be taken seriously. Soon after the start of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), an English Act “against Jesuits, seminary priests and other such like disobedient persons” was passed into law.

Renewal in 1588

In 1588, Pope Sixtus V, in support of the Spanish Armada, renewed the solemn bull of excommunication against Queen Elizabeth I, for the regicide of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 as well as the previously catalogued offences against the Catholic Church. During the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada, it transpired that most of the Catholic residents in England remained loyal, and that those who were a real threat to the throne, like William, Cardinal Allen and Robert Persons, were already exiles.

While the bull had little impact in England, it caused a rift in Elizabeth’s Kingdom of Ireland where most of the population remained Roman Catholic; Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, had used the bull as justification for the Second Desmond Rebellion. While divisions had existed before 1570, after the bull the official world based in Dublin conformed to Anglicanism while the majority of the Parliament of Ireland were Catholics until 1613.