Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe by Stuart Carroll Page B

Scotland were dealt with by French commissioners. Henry II was now the ‘Protector’ of Scotland. No distinction was made between his protection of the kingdom and its young queen; writing to inform the Estates of Scotland that the ‘young Queen, my daughter’, had arrived safely in France and was with ‘her husband’, Henry declared that ‘in consequence, her Kingdom, her affairs and subjects are with ours the same thing, never separated’. 3 Henry’s intervention in Scotland was not foreseen as a short-term commitment; rather it was the beginning of a grand project, a first step in the building of a Franco-British empire, in which the kingdoms of France and Scotland would be joined in dynastic union. As regent, Marie de Guise energetically set about establishing French power in Scotland. But the French imperial imagination went further. The Tudor dynasty in England was weak and unstable. Edward VI was a sickly 13-year-old in 1550—his potential heirs all women. Mary Tudor’s claim was impeccable but she, a 34-year-old spinster, was not in rude health either. Mary Stuart was next in line to the throne: the Roman Catholic Church had never recognized Anne Boleyn as queen and in 1536 her daughter, Elizabeth, had been declared illegitimate by Parliament. The concept of a Franco-British empire, which at some future date might include the kingdom of England, was immensely attractive to Henry II, who had been schooled in classical ideas of imperial grandeur and who felt threatened by Spain’s claim to world empire.
    Elsewhere, French diplomacy remained cautious, its purpose to build alliances against the Habsburgs rather than to confront them openly. Its chief architect was Montmorency. Born in 1493, he possessed all the experience and gravitas that the young king lacked; he had not only been chief counsellor to Henry since he was dauphin, but filled the role that Henry’s own father had failed in. An Italian ambassador described the king as trembling at the constable’s approach ‘as children do when they see their schoolmaster’. 4 Montmorency was made immensely rich through service to the Crown. His principal weakness was that, although he was descended from an ancient baronial house, he was not a prince and therefore lacked the pedigree of his rivals.
    Although they did not direct foreign policy, the Guise, with their impeccable ancestral credentials, were the principal means by which the Franco-British empire was to be forged. The themes of empire and conquest that dominated the new reign are best understood in an examination of the magnificent festival organized at Rouen in 1550 in honour of the king. All newly crowned French kings had the right to be feted during a royal entry into each of the principal towns of the kingdom, where ceremonial displays were performed, depicting such themes as loyalty, submission, and civic liberty. The Rouen entry was of a different order from royal entries before or since in its size and sophistication; it was the most spectacular event of the sixteenth century, ‘a vainglorious display of [Henry’s] accomplishments and a confident expression of things yet to come’. 5
    The choice of Rouen was significant in itself, a choice not predicated solely on its historic ties to the British Isles. With a population approaching 20 million France was by far the most populous state in Europe, and for the previous half-century its demographic growth had been matched by an unprecedented urban, economic, and cultural renaissance. Rouen, whose population had doubled to 75,000 during this time, was a symbol of this transformation. It was surpassed in importance only by London and Antwerp as a Channel seaport. It had a dynamic economy based on the expanding Atlantic shipping trade; a major entrepôt it was home to significant communities of English, Scottish, Spanish, and Portuguese merchants. Its geographic position, linking it to Paris via the river Seine, and its international maritime