REMARKS ON THE "GRAND DESSEIN" OF HENRI IV.

Sully's Memoirs are the only source of information respecting Henry IV.'s Grand Project ("Les Mémoires de Sully sont le seul monument qui ait conservé à la postérité le détail du grand dessein de Henri IV.; Ed. 1822, Vol. VI., p. 97, Note). These the Duc de Sully began to dictate to his Secretaries shortly after Henry's death in 1610. Only the first two volumes, which cover the years 1570 to 1605, were completed during Sully's lifetime; but after his death the unfinished portion was transcribed and completed by his two Secretaries and Jean Laboureur. The first edition was published in 1638, fifteen years after Eméric Crucé, also a Frenchman, had published the book in which he advocated the establishment at Venice of an International Court of Arbitration. A new edition was published at Rouen in 1649. The first is in four parts, which form as many volumes, although in some libraries they are found united in two volumes only. The first and second of the four parts were printed at Amsterdam, that is at the Château de Sully, without date or printer's name. This is commonly called the Green Letter Edition, because the vignette and some of the letters were in green. (Ib., preface, pp. xvii. and xxx.)

Henry's project was undoubtedly, and necessarily, the work of his Minister, Sully. Nys says that the so-called Grand Dessein is purely and wholly the product of Sully's brain ("Etudes de Droit International et de Droit Politique," par Ernest Nys, Brussels and Paris, 1896, p. 302). This does not, of course, lessen the value of the project. Princes are dependent on their Ministers, and the scheme was no less Henry's because the literary form was Sully's. The author of an old treatise which exists amongst the MSS. of the Royal Library, and which is

apparently the oldest record that we have of that period, does not doubt that the project would have been fully carried into execution had Henry lived. Later, Péréfixe (pp. 384, etc., Edition de Ledoux, 1822), who has given a very good abridgment of it in the third part of his history of Henry the Great, says positively that it would have been carried, and furnishes proofs of it. (Ib., Vol. VI., p. 98.)

The question was opened with Elizabeth as early as the year 1596, for Sully, referring to his interview with her, on one of his visits to London, says: "Elle me rappela ce qui s'était passé à ce sujet en 1596, entre le roi et les ambassadeurs anglais et hollandais, et me demanda si ce prince ne persistait pas toujours dans les mêmes sentimens, et pourquoi il différait tant à mettre la main à l'œuvre." (Ib., Vol. III., p. 131.) Negotiations were continued with Elizabeth later, for Sully says again: "Il le communiqua néanmoins par lettres à Elisabeth; et ce fut ce qui leur inspira une si forte envie de s'aboucher en 1601, lorsque cette princesse vint à Douvres, et qu'il s'avança jusqu'à Calais.” (Ib., Vol. VI., p. 106). Both the views of that Princess and her hope of the prospect of the success of the scheme are expressed in the continuation of this passage. "Je la trouvai fortement occupée des moyens de faire réussir ce grand projet ; et malgré les difficultés qu'elle imaginait dans ces deux points principaux, la conciliation des religions et l'égalité des puissances, elle me parut ne point douter qu'on ne pût le faire réussir. . . . Elle disait encore qu'il aurait été à souhaiter qu'il eût pu s'exécuter par toute autre voie que par celle des armes, qui a toujours quelque chose d'odieux; mais qu'elle convenait que du moins on ne pouvait guère le commencer autrement." This is most interesting. "Une très-grande partie des articles," he continues, "des conditions et des différens arrangemens est due à cette reine, et montre bien que du côté de la pénétration, de la sagesse et de toutes les autres qualités de l'esprit, elle ne cédait à aucun des rois les plus dignes de porter ce nom." (Ib., pp. 106-7.)

Sully's first reference in this passage is supported by contemporary documents, and applies to what was even then a definite

C

and extensive movement.

This appears from the following

extract, which is given verbatim :—

A Treaty of Alliance and League between Henry the IV., King of France, Elizabeth Queen of England, and the United Provinces of the Low Countries, to defend themselves against Spain. Done at the Hague, the 31st of October, 1596.

"II. That as soon as this can be conveniently done, and that within the next year 1597, there shall be a General Congress assembled and held by the Deputies of the different Confederates, and other Kings, Princes, Lords and States, who shall join in the foresaid League, at such a Day, Time and Place as the said King of France, and the said Lady, the Queen of England shall think convenient; there to deliberate and resolve upon the means to be made use of in order to attack the said King of Spain, and make an Invasion into his Kingdoms and Lands, at the common Cost, Charge, Forces, and Endeavours of the said Confederates, to advise together about the Execution and Fulfilment of the said League and Confederacy, with all that depends thereupon."

A General Collection of Treatys, Manifesto's, etc., from the year 1495, to the year 1712. Second Edition, London, M.DCC.XXXII. Vol. II., p. 114.

After Elizabeth's death the matter was still pursued with her successor, James I. (Ib., Vol. III., p. 408.) The arrangements with other princes are well summarised by Rousseau; in fact, the progress of the great scheme was only cut short by the dagger of Ravaillac.

Like the Amphictyonic Council, which was avowedly taken as its model, the Grand Dessein had no direct purpose of International Arbitration. Incidentally, references are made to its adoption; and these are most significant as foreshadowing the modern idea of permanent Arbitration, but this was not its object.

a "very Christian reIt was to consist of

Henry IV. of France intended to form public" (république très chrestienne). fifteen sovereignties, with the power of each so nicely adjusted that neither would be tempted to take up arms against its

neighbours for fear that the others would attack it. To accomplish this a readjustment of European Powers would be necessary, of which the requisite changes in the North of Germany were to be made through the Arbitration of the Kings of France, England, Lombardy, and of the Republic of Venice. ("Toutes ces cessions, échanges et transports au nord de l'Allemagne devaient être faits à l'arbitrage des rois de France, d'Angleterre, et de Lombardie, et de la république de Venise" (Vol. VI., pp. 128, 9).)

Switzerland, with the addition of Franche-Comté, Alsace, the Tyrol, and other dependencies, was to be formed into a republic, governed by a council or senate, of which the Emperor, the German Princes, and the Venetians were to be appointed arbitrators. ("La Suisse, accrue de la Franche-Comté, de l'Alsace, du Tyrol et autres dépendances, aurait été érigée en république souveraine, gouvernée par un conseil ou sénat, dont l'empereur, les princes d'Allemagne et les Vénitiens auraient été nommés sur-arbitres" (Ib., pp. 124, 5).)

Henry proposed, in case of a disagreement over the election of the Emperor or the King of the Romans, that the differences should be referred "to the Arbitration of the Pope, the Kings of England, Denmark, and Sweden, of the Venetians and the cantons of Switzerland, such of the three as they would wish to choose." ("En l'arbitrage du pape, des rois d'Angleterre, Dennemarc et Suède, des Vénitiens et des cantons de Suisse, tel des trois qu'ils voudront choisir" ("Eméric Crucé," by T. W. Balch, 1900, p. 19).)

Finally, each of the fifteen sovereign members of the Christian Republic were to send delegates to a General Council, which should decide all causes of dispute that might arise between the different sovereignties, and fix the amount of the contribution which each Power should make towards the maintenance of the army and navy of the Confederation. Sully thought that the forces raised by the confederated Powers would be sufficiently strong to restore and maintain the Empire, as he writes to Henry, in its ancient "rights, liberties, and privileges, which is the

principal object of your designs" ("droit, libertez et privileges, qui est le principal but de vos desseins" (Ib., p. 22).)

Three religions, and three only, were to be recognised in Europe, the Roman Catholic, the Reformed, and the Lutheran. The passage in which Sully defends this part of the project is as follows:

:

"As each of these three religions is at the present time established in Europe, so that it does not appear that any one of the three can be destroyed, and as experience has shown the uselessness and the danger of any such attempt, there is nothing better to do than to leave all three in existence, and even to strengthen them in such a way, however, that this indulgence should not in the future open the door to all sorts of capricious imagination in the way of false dogmas, which should, on the contrary, be carefully stamped out at their very birth. God, by visibly supporting what the Catholics are pleased to call the new religion, teaches us to behave in this way, which is in conformity with the precepts and the examples of Holy Writ."

["Chacune de ces trois religions se trouvant aujourd'hui établie en Europe, de manière qu'il n'y a aucune apparence qu'on pût venir à bout d'y en détruire aucune des trois, et que l'expérience a suffisamment montré l'inutilité et les dangers de cette entreprise, il n'y a rien de mieux à faire, que de les y laisser subsister toutes trois, et même de les fortifier; de manière cependant que cette indulgence ne puisse dans la suite ouvrir la porte à tout ce que le caprice pourrait faire imaginer de faux dogmes, qu'on doit avoir un soin particulier d'étouffer dans leur naissance. Dieu, en paraissant visiblement soutenir ce qu'il plaît aux catholiques d'appeler la nouvelle religion, nous enseigne cette conduite qui n'est pas moins conforme aux préceptes de la sainte écriture, que confirmée par ses exemples." (Ib., Vol. VI., pp. 113-114).]

Concerning its object, Sully, in a letter to the King, referring to the "Grand Dessein," says that it was 66 first to reduce the whole House of Austria to a dominion so well adjusted and composed in such due proportion that it would deliver all the Christian states and dominions from the fears and apprehensions