Gaspard de Coligny – Martyr or Murderous Warmonger?

Today (August 24), we marked 445 years ofSt. Bartholomew's Day Vierzeit is identical to Gaspard II de Coligny, Lord of Théon, let us engage for a few moments in historical subversion, try on the devil's advocate's cloak, and ask the assimilation question "What if?"
Because everyone, without exception, condemns the murder of the illustrious admiral, a revered leader of the Huguenots, and the massacre that followed, and rightly so. But somehow, everyone also tends to elegantly overlook the main reason for this murder, and it is actually quite spicy – ​​Coligny was a warmonger.

Collinay seeks war in the Antilles

He served his purpose during the French Wars of Religion – after all, he was no worse than his enemies, and did what everyone else did. His long-time friend, François de Guise, leader of the Catholic faction, did exactly the same things, if not worse, until Coligny (so everyone believed) ordered his assassination.
The thing is, even in peacetime, which was, let's admit, an act of Catherine de Medici and its diplomats, even then Coligny was looking for employment for his Calvinist warriors in candles: “He knew the character of his Huguenots too well not to know that if you do not employ them and do not turn their passions outward, they will turn to muddying the waters from within. Because he knew them to be people lacking in intelligence, not peaceful, active and great devotees of their main hobby.” – writes Pierre de Bourdelle, who claims that these are the things that were told to him by the admiral himself.

In any case, starting with the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1570, Coligny had been constantly pushing the king into war with Spain. The king, Charles IX, had just launched his youthful rebellion against his mother, whom he suspected (rightly) of favoring his brother, Duke Henri of Anjou. Along with his mother, the entire royal council had lost its reputation in the king's eyes. And here suddenly appears Coligny, the leader of the Huguenot faction, a state within a state (with all the cities that fell to them according to the Treaty of Saint Germain) and he offers Charles the opportunity to gain his own glory, to fight a mandatory war, and to step out of his mother's shadow. It is no wonder that Charles began to address the admiral as “my father,” and it is no wonder that Catherine felt threatened by the admiral – not only personally, but also politically: “Keep the peace in your policy, my son, it is beneficial and it is a commandment,” she would repeatedly plead with her impulsive son.

In July 1571, Coligny had already sent an experimental balloon – a small flotilla sailed with his blessing to the Antilles, on a reconnaissance mission: to familiarize themselves with the area in order to land a flotilla there. French Larger. Unfortunately for them, the Huguenots were carried away by piracy in the region, attracting the attention of the Spanish, who trapped them in Santo Domingo and destroyed them all.

The military adventure that almost happened in the Low Countries

However, the main arena of action was planned in the Low Countries, which were then in the midst of a rebellion against Philip II. Again, in this case too, there is no need to think that the entire population of the Netherlands and Belgium would rise up as one against the Spanish king – it was a civil war that turned into a religious war, of Protestants against Catholics. The Huguenot faction had already signed a treaty with William of Orange, in which it was promised that the French Protestants would intervene in favor of their brothers in Flanders. Now, with the king under the influence of Coligny, the opportunity arose to involve the France All of it.

The plan was to prepare an army of 28 soldiers, and with the help of England and the German Lutheran principalities, to invade Flanders, where the local Protestants were supposed to open their cities to the French. The arguments of the critics of the plan: that it was not worth getting involved with the best army in the world; that the English and Germans, despite their initial support for the plan, would not be happy, in the end, with the annexation of the Low Countries to France; that the Flemish and Dutch themselves would not be happy about it either, once they came to their senses and realized that they had exchanged one foreign yoke for another…

All these claims were rejected outright by Coligny. “The wisest statesmen certainly know that a warlike people needs an external enemy, so as not to turn their weapons against themselves. The national character of the Frenchman dictates that he has difficulty parting with weapons after he first takes them into his hands and not to turn them against his own people if he cannot use them against an enemy from without. The Italians, Germans and Swiss returned home after peace was concluded. But the Frenchman, who despises his home, his rest and all the arts, will turn to seek war in another country, and if he does not have the opportunity to continue this, he will resort to highway robbery. To prevent this chaos in advance, we need a war abroad, which will be just, easy and profitable. The war I propose is a war against the King of Spain.” – Coligny wrote in a memorandum submitted to the king in 1572. In July, the Huguenot vanguard, numbering 4000 men, sets out for Flanders, but suffers a crushing defeat. Coligny, meanwhile, is busy preparing the main invasion force.

A different perspective on the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

And now, imagine yourself in Catherine's black shoes - her son has gone completely crazy, and is bringing her entire life's work down the drain - all she asked for was peace, and he not only does not want peace, but starts a war against the world's leading military and financial power, and this while the series of terrible defeats at the hands of the Spanish is still fresh in the national memory. And the cause of this madness is one, and his name is Gaspar de Coligny.

Is it surprising that she turns to the services of the assassin Charles de Lavier, better known as “Mourvair”? And when he misses the mark (the moment he pulled the trigger, the admiral was bending down to adjust his boot) and creates a terrible unrest among the thousands of Huguenots who came to Paris, the capital, for the wedding of Henri and Margot, an unrest that could at any moment erupt into mass slaughter (cases have happened before) – is it even then impossible to understand why she turned to the leaders of the Catholic faction, asking them to finish Mourvair’s work and eliminate all “people who lack intelligence, are not peaceful, are active, and are great followers of their main hobby”?
And when Coligny, mortally wounded by the Czech mercenary, Karel Janowski-Z-Janowicz (known to Parisians as “Bam”), and thrown by him from the window of his house, at the feet of the young Duke de Guise, the son of his longtime friend, who was murdered, apparently, on his orders, – did he then think: “What if, instead of invading a foreign country, I had chosen peace?”

P.S. Coligny's severed head was embalmed and presented as a gift to Pope Gregory XIII. The Holy Father was very happy.