Estates General of 1593

Unlike any other Estates General of France, it was convoked without the authority of a king, at the behest of duke of Mayenne, lieutenant-general of the kingdom for the rebel Catholic ligue (league) movement, which controlled Paris and many other cities.

Many ligueur nobles were happy without a king, but pressure was brought to bear on Mayenne, and by late 1592 he agreed to convoke an Estates General to elect a new one.

The resulting conference at Suresnes on 27 April produced a short truce, and the occasion of Henri's announcement of his planned conversion to Catholicism in mid May.

The Parlement (highest court of France) of Paris subsequently declared that Salic Law (succession through the male line) was inviable, and foreign princes were illegible for the French throne.

[5] Many ligueur nobles were entirely uninterested in who was king, happy with any candidate who would possess weak central authority that could not impede on their fiefdom building in the civil war-wracked provinces.

[6] A small radical faction of the ligue was open to the possibility of being ruled by a foreign prince, Felipe II of España or a relative of his being the top candidates.

[5] The Spanish were naturally keen on this arrangement, and pushed for the candidacy of Felipe's daughter with his wife Elisabeth de Valois, the Infanta.

[19] Alongside the physical impediments to be found on the road, many potential deputies were also dissuaded from attending to the technically illegal nature of the Estates, which had not been convoked by a legitimate king.

[6] He praised the ligue for the work they had done to save France since 1588 and announced his willingness to lay down his life in protection of the Catholic religion and state.

His speech was followed by one given by Cardinal Pellevé who argued in support of Felipe, greatly alienating a considerable portion of the assembled delegates.

He was greeted in an almost royal fashion, with a delegation of senior grandees from the Estates awaiting his arrival, among them Mayenne's son and Cardinal Pellevé.

Feria and Pellevé entered the Estates chamber, each taking a seat on opposite sides of a vacant throne that had been set up.

This point was finished with the recent relief España had provided to the cities of Paris and Rouen during their respective sieges, and the vast sums of money Felipe had expended in support of the Catholic ligue.

[33] This was too much for some in the Estates, and Cardinal Pellevé rose to expound upon the thousand year long services France had given to España all the way back to the time of king Clovis.

France's service to España could be witnessed even in more recent times, as when Bertrand du Guesclin had installed their present dynasty on the throne with the overthrow of Pedro of Castile.

[35] Pellevé then in turn alienated many deputies when he stated that Felipe would surely find in the afterlife the many grateful French he had saved from damnation by his noble services towards Catholicism.

[12] His advisor D'Aubigné decried the Estates as lacking almost any nobles of worth, with not a single prince of the blood, Marshal or Chancellor in attendance.

The main body of the Estates found themselves alienated from the ultras and disapproving of their socially inferior status, pushing them towards negotiations with the king.

[42] Representing the ligueur estates were the archbishop of Lyon, the bishop of Avranches, Jean le Maistre (a parlementaire) and Étienne Bernard.

[23][43][44] When the ligueur regime of Paris, known as the Seize (named for the Sixteen districts of the city) learned of the negotiations underway at Suresnes they were horrified.

The archbishop of Lyon, still present at Suresnes was shocked and managed only to say that he hoped the conversion was a true one and not an attempt to deceive Catholic France.

In the six day conference that followed both the young duke of Guise and du Pont were popular candidates, however Mayenne was uninterested in providing his backing to either man.

[53] It was on the subject of the Infanta that the Spanish representatives worked to continue to alienate the Estates on 16 May, with their proposals towards her rights to the throne and denunciations of Salic Law as a non-fundamental component of the French state.

To sweeten the pot on this proposal, the Spanish pointed out, that given the Holy Roman Emperor presently lacked an heir, this would likely mean France's new king would succeed to the position and rule both kingdoms.

[59] It was by now too late for Mayenne to re-secure the loyalty of the Parlementaire moderate ligueurs, Du Vair and many of the Île de France deputies had walked out.

[63] Recognising that they had perhaps gone too far, the Spanish returned in early July with a new proposal, the Infanta could marry the popular French prince, the duke of Guise.

[64] This was motivated both by changing opinions among the ligueur leadership as to the succession, and more material factors, Henri possessed a large army that was a not inconsiderable distance from Paris.

Mayenne proposed to the Spanish a list of demands for his acceptance of the candidacy of the young Guise which would have left him as the true power in France with his nephew as little but a figurehead.

[68] With little being accomplished towards electing a king, the Estates turned to the matter of ratifying the Tridentine Decrees, which pleased the ligueur clergy.

[54] The failures of the Estates General to come to a consensus as to a candidate for king (or achieve much else) would strike a heavy blow for the cohesion of the ligue as the aristocratic and bourgeois elements that composed it frayed.