Monday 26 June 2017

Ahuitzotl


The City State

The city-state of Tenochtitlan was located on an island shared with the city state of Tlatelolco[i] off the shores of Lake Texcoco[ii], more than 7,000 feet above sea level, the city covered more than 20 square miles. The city was founded in the mid-13th century on lands that no other settlers in the region wanted. It was designed to fit its setting and was laid out in four quarters with each calpulli or tribal clan allocated a quarter.

Tenochtitlan was built mainly in stone around a system of canals and housed between 150,000 to 300,000 people by the end of the 15th century. There were three causeways to the mainland about twelve feet wide and an aqueduct carried water from Chapultepec Hill. The Spanish conquistadors who arrived in the New World in the early 1500s called Tenochtitlan;

‘The most beautiful city in the world.’[iii]

Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco
Tenochtitlan had a central plaza used for a market that the Spaniards claimed was where;

‘More than 60,000 souls gather daily buying and selling….jewelry of silver and gold, precious stones, skins of deer, jaguar, and puma, pottery, and textiles, beautiful mosaics made from bird’s feathers, honey, fish, venison, turkey, fattened hairless dogs, dyes for fabrics, tobacco, rubber and much else besides.’[iv]

The city had been extended into the lake by means of chinampas or ‘floating gardens’, rafts varying in size from 1,100 to 9,000 feet2, and farmed by up to 15 people. They were made from silt and reeds held in place by stakes. The reeds eventually took root in the lake’s shallow waters forming an island. Up to 300 foot long the chinampas were used for the cultivation of fruit, flowers and vegetables for Tenochtitlan’s inhabitants.

Religion and Sacrifice

The city also had a central religious complex, the Great
Tlaloc
Temple
dedicated to the gods Huitzilopochtli[v] and Tlaloc[vi]. The Huey Teocalli or Templo Mayor was at the heart of the sacred precinct[vii] which in turn was at the centre of Tenochtitlan. Enclosed by a wall it was reserved for the priests and priestesses. The precinct included a ball court, the temple for conquered idols of captured towns, and tzompamtis – display racks for the skulls of sacrificial victims.  

The Templo Mayor itself was an impressive 45 foot high pyramid[viii] topped with temples to both Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli. The temple of Tlaloc was decorated in blue and white, the symbols of water and rain, while Huitzilopochtli’s was decorated in red and white symbols of war. Two staircases flanked by sculpted serpents led up to the twin temples. Religion was dominated by the two High Priests of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc but there were many other gods in the Aztec pantheon[ix].

Huitzilopochtli
The priests oversaw the sacrifices which were particularly bloody; ensuring that the sun rose each day required frequent blood sacrifices[x]. The gods were offered the beating hearts of their victims.  The prisoners used in the sacrifices were treated with respect, usually cared for by the warriors who took them prisoner.

On their way up the temple steps the victims, as was the custom, were sprayed with a narcotic to dull their senses. Four priests laid the prisoner on the sacrificial stone whilst a fifth tore out his heart.

During the sacrifices musicians played conch-shell trumpets, bone flutes drums and rattles while dancers wearing gold and silver bells performed as the blood flowed down the temple steps. The bodies of the victims, imbued with the presence of god were eaten after death by the victorious warriors. One Spanish chronicler recorded watching a sacrifice of his fellow soldiers;

‘There was sounded the dismal drum of Huichilobos [Huitzilopochtli] and many other shells and horns and things like trumpets and the sound of them all was terrifying. We saw them [the priests] place plumes on the heads of many of them and with things like fans in their hands they forced them to dance before Huichilobos, and after they danced they immediately placed them on their backs…..and with stone knives they cut open their chests and drew out their palpitating hearts.’[xi]

Ordinary people made minor sacrifices on a regular basis by inserting cactus needles into their ears and offering the blood to whatever deity they wished to propitiate. The Aztec people believed in shamans who they believed had the ability to shapeshift. Many of the Aztec gods had the capacity to appear in animal, human or other forms; the god Tezcatlipoca[xii] took the form of a jaguar while Xolotl[xiii] took the form of a coyote. In addition each person had an animal form which was believed to act as that person’s protector.

Children

Chalchiuhtlicue (C)

Children were valued within the Aztec empire and parents were expected to take pains with educating their children to their position in life. Children were expected to value family, school, their clan, professional organisation and society as a whole. The empire offered opportunities socially and professionally for the common man or woman, especially in the military and priesthood.

The arrival of a child was greeted with war cries from the midwife, honouring the mother’s battle. The child was given a purifying bath during which the midwife spoke to the child about the purifying water deity Chalchiuhtlicue[xiv];

‘Approach thy mother Chalchiuhtlicue, Chalchiuh Tlatonac! May she receive thee! May she wash thee! May she remove, may she transfer, the filthiness which thou has taken from thy mother, from thy father! May she cleanse thy heart! May she make it fine, good! May she give thee fine good conduct!’[xv]

Between the ages of three and four children were introduced to basic household chores and by six or seven were doing tasks outside the home such as gathering reeds or working with fishing nets. Parents passed on specialist knowledge such as bakery or pottery to their offspring, men to their sons and women to their daughters.

Education

The Aztecs used books[xvi] to record their history, laws rites and ceremony, although their writing was closer to pictograms than hieroglyphs, and the books were used more as a pictorial aide memoire.

Children did not attend school until they were at least seven (if they had been promised to the school). There were two types of school (both single sex); one was the telpochcalli, or youth house[xvii], and each clan had one attached to a local temple. The telpochcalli concentrated on moral and religious training, history, dancing, singing and rhetoric[xviii]. Boys were given military training while the girls were trained in the duties they would undertake as priestesses.

Calmecac glyph
The calmecac schools also attached to temples but were solely for the nobility to train their children in leadership. There was only one in each city. Priests as well as the scions of the nobility were trained in the calmecac. According to one Spanish chronicler, as well as the art of warfare children were trained to;

‘Speak well, to salute and to make obeisance….All the verses of songs were taught to them so that they could sing them. These were hymns the verses of which were recorded in their books. In addition they were taught Indian astrology, the interpretation of dreams and the counting of the years.’[xix]

They were taught to read, write and to calculate sums as well as Aztec history which was viewed as a very important subject. There was considerable state control over what history was taught, to ensure that children were educated in state dogma.

Bibliography

The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico – Nigel Davies, Penguin 1985

The New World – Nicholas Hordern, Aldus Books/Jupiter Books 1971

The Ancient American Civilisations – Friedrich Katz, Phoenix Press 2000

Moctezuma and the Aztecs – Elisenda Vila Llonch, the British Museum Press 2009

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Aztecs and Maya – Charles Phillips, Hermes House 2010

The Aztecs – Richard F Townsend, Thames & Hudson Ltd 2010


www.wkipedia.en


[i] Defeated in 1473 by Axayacatl
[ii] Drained by the Spaniards after the Conquest, the Aztecs held fertility rites here yearly addressed to ‘Mother Vast Water’
[iii] The New World – Hordern
[iv] Ibid
[v] The son of the goddess Coatlicue, Huitzilopochtli was the god of war, also known as the Southern Hummingbird or Hummingbird of the Left; who legend had it led the Aztecs from their mythical birthplace in Aztlรกn he had driven off the god of learning, wind and wisdom Quetzalcoatl who vowed to return in a year Ce Acatl or One Reed, one such year was 1518 which saw the arrival of the Spaniards who were perceived to be agents of a vengeful Quetzalcoatl.
[vi] God of rain and fertility, also known as the Storm Lord
[vii] Housing the numerous buildings and temples dedicated to the Aztec gods
[viii] A reference to the mythical Coatepetl (Snake Mountain); the sky was sacred and therefore the holiest places were mountain peaks or the tops of the temple pyramids
[ix] Circa forty
[x] Blood was the precious liquid sustaining life and was equated with water essential for life; they also practised child sacrifices, in the first month of the Aztec year (14th February to 5th March) to Tlaloc to ensure the fertility of the land. During the dry season from April to May the Tlatoani made an annual pilgrimage to sacred caves in the mountains above Tenochtitlan
[xi] The Ancient American Civilisations - Katz
[xii] God of the night sky, hurricanes and obsidian
[xiii] God of lightening and death
[xiv] Also known as Jade Skirt, she was the goddess of water, rivers, streams, lakes and patroness of childbirth and the wife and/or sister of Tlaloc
[xv] The Aztecs - Townsend
[xvi] Mainly destroyed by the Spaniards after the conquest of Mexico
[xvii] For the education of commoners
[xviii] Public speaking without notes was an essential part of Aztec ceremony and men and women were supposed to be proficient in the skill
[xix] The Ancient American Civilisations - Katz

Monday 19 June 2017

The Spare Prince IX

Henri II
The Dauphin’s Marriage

By this time Henri’s sexual passions were beyond being slaked by Diane, who remained his closest advisor. Instead Henri met with courtesans in a bedroom guarded by his valet Griffon. Diane turned a blind eye to these sorties while the queen minded more Diane’s continued hold over Henri.

On 24th April 1558 the marriage between the Dauphin Franรงois and Mary, Queen of Scotland was celebrated at Notre-Dame with the bride’s uncle Franรงois in charge of the celebrations instead of the absent Constable, still a prisoner of the Spanish.

The married couple were a great contrast with the sickly stuttering bridegroom now allied with a beautiful young lady taller than he was. The bride was clad in;

‘A robe white as a lily, fashioned so sumptuously and richly that it would be impossible to describe it. The train, which was of marvellous length, was borne by two young demoiselles….on her head she wore a golden crown studded with pearls, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and other gems of priceless value.’[i]

Mary Queen of Scots
The wedding feast featured twelve man-made horses covered in gold and silver cloth[ii] pulling coaches full of singers who entertained the bridal party. These were accompanied by six silver-sailed ships that appeared to float over the floor. These and other amusements would have even further exhausted the already depleted treasury.

At court, Mary was a favourite with everyone bar the queen. She learned to play lute and virginals, she was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry and needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek. Twenty days before the wedding, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. This success further bolstered the standing of the Guise family at court.

On 17th November the ailing queen in England, Mary Tudor, died. That same month the Scottish Parliament granted the crown matrimonial to Franรงois[iii], a reminder to the English that Scotland, allied with France, was still a danger on her northern borders.


Ghent
Henri was concerned about Montmorency’s continued imprisonment, he wrote the old man regularly, assuring Montmorency of his love and friendship. Diane too was becoming concerned about the preponderance of the Guise family in state affairs. The Guise family were busy promoting their own interests The Venetian ambassador wrote of Diane’s change of stance;

‘At present there is open rupture and enmity between her and the Cardinal of Lorraine, she is being so united with the Constable that they are one and the same thing.’[iv]

Montmorency was able to use his enforced stay in Ghent to hold informal peace talks. Henri was not the only one who was short of money; Philip was too. He knew Henri needed peace as badly as he did. Henri too was irritated with Franรงois de Guise who he believed had talked him into the last war in Italy.

In October 1558 Henri’s old mentor was finally released on a short parole and he met with an emotional Henri. Montmorency shared the king’s bedchamber that night and the two men spent their time denigrating the Guise tendency for ambition, greed and general hawkishness. Henri was inconsolable when Montmorency had to return to his imprisonment two days later.

It was not until 3rd April 1559 that the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrรฉsis was signed; there were two treaties, one between France and England

·         France was to retain Calais for eight years and then pay an indemnity or return the town to the English and sixteen cannon captured were to be returned to the English

·         French fortresses on the Scottish border were to be dismantled.

Cateau-Cambrรฉsis Part Two

The other treaty between France and Spain was more complex. Although the terms were not seen by the French as advantageous for France, Henri did strengthen France strategically, giving up possessions in northern Italy that would have been expensive and difficult to defend in order to strengthen France’s borders.

·         All Tuscan possessions were handed to the Duke of Mantua or the Duke of Florence.

·         Spanish rights to Milan and Naples were recognised

·         Bresse, Savoy and Piedmont were handed back to the Duke of Savoy

·         France kept the bishoprics of Toul, Metz and Verdun

·         France kept the Marquisate of Saluzzo and five strongholds in Piedmont including Turin.

·         Corsica was given back to the Genoese

Elisabeth de Valois
Queen Catherine was horrified by the terms of the treaty and, on her knees, begged Henri to refuse to ratify it; advice he wisely took no notice of. Catherine blamed the treaty on Diane. Henri’s bosom friend Franรงois de Guise was also horrified by the agreements made and left court at Christmas while the negotiations were still ongoing. He told Henri;

‘I swear to you, Sire, that there is evil in taking this road. For if you do nothing but lose for the next thirty years you would not give up as much as now at a single stroke.’[v]

The treaty also called for two marriages; one was of the Princess Elisabeth to Philip, now a widower for the second time. Elisabeth was married by proxy on 22nd June; the Duke of Alva standing in for his master. Elisabeth’s dowry was 400,000 livres[vi], money her father could ill afford. The other marriage was between the Duke of Savoy and Henri’s sister Marguerite. The Princess Claude married Duke Charles of Lorraine on 22nd January 1559.

Montmorency married his son Henri[vii] to Diane’s granddaughter Antoinette de la Marck a few days after the wedding of Princess Claude. The wedding was celebrated at the Constable’s chateau at ร‰couen. The previous year Henri had married his illegitimate daughter Diane to Montmorency’s eldest son Franรงois.

The Tournament of Death

Hotel des Tournelles
Marguerite’s marriage was scheduled for 4th July and her dowry fixed at 300,000 livres[viii]. To honour his sister and daughter’s marriages Henri ordered a magnificent five day tournament to take place in the Rue Saint-Antoine in front of the Hรดtel des Tournelles.

On the third day of the tournament Henri appeared in the lists riding a Turkish stallion given to him by Emanuel-Philibert. He wore, as usual, an outfit in black and white to honour Diane. Having vanquished his first two opponents Henri rode against Gabriel de Montgomery, Seigneur de Lorges and captain of the Garde ร‰cossaise.

Losing against de Lorges resulted in Henri demanding another bout against the advice of his wife and courtiers. The two men broke their lances and, under tournament rules, should have immediately dropped them. Instead de Lorges held onto his and the lance glanced upwards and slipped under the king’s visor. Several splinters of needle sharp wood pierced Henri’s head just over his right eye.

The tournament
Henri was taken off his horse and carried into the Hรดtel des Tournelles where Queen Catherine held vigil by his bed. There he was attended by the famous physician Vesalius who had hurried from Brussels. Vesalius, after experimenting on the head of a murder victim proclaimed that Henri’s brain was undamaged.

For three days Henri was able to talk and even attended to some state business but on 4th July he developed a fever. The next day, as her brother lay dying, Marguerite was married elsewhere in the palace. At 1 pm on 10th July Henri died; the post-mortem found that a splinter of bone had pierced the brain.

The Protestants believed that his death was divine punishments for Henri’s attacks on their religion. Nicholas Throckmorton, the English ambassador, wrote;

‘The noblemen, gentlemen and ladies did lament the misfortune, the townsmen and people did rejoice, and let not openly to say that the king’s dissolute life and his tyranny to the professors of the Gospel had procured God’s vengeance.’[ix]

France was left with a callow youth as king, and the country ruled by a woman who detested heresy and was determined to do all she could to stamp it out.

Bibliography

Martyrs and Murderers – Stuart Carroll, Oxford University Press 2009

Catherine de Medici – Leonie Frieda, a Phoenix Paperback 2003

Philip of Spain – Henry Kamen, Yale University Press 1997

French Renaissance Monarchy – RJ Knecht, Longman Group 1996

The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France – RJ Knecht, Fontana Press 1996

Catherine de’ Medici – RJ Knecht, Pearson Education Ltd 1998

A History of France – David Potter, The MacMillan Press 1995

Henri II – H Noel Williams, Methuen and Co 1910 (reprint 2016)

www.wikipedia.en


[i] Henri II - Williams
[ii] The royal children had similarly caparisoned hobby-horses
[iii] After his marriage to Mary Franรงois was known as the Roi-Dauphin and Mary as the Reine-Dauphine
[iv] Catherine de Medici - Frieda
[v] Ibid
[vi] In 2015 the relative: historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is 136,800,000.00 labour earnings of that income or wealth is £2,012,000,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £4,934,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £58,270,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[vii] He later inherited his father’s dukedom after the death of his brother Franรงois. The couple had two children
[viii] In 2015 the relative: historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is £102,600,000.00 labour earnings of that income or wealth is £1,509,000,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £3,701,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £43,700,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[ix] Henri II - Williams

Monday 12 June 2017

The Spare Prince VIII


Henri II
An Italian Interlude

The newly installed King Philip decided to trade for time and on 5th February 1556 the Truce of Vaucelles was signed with France giving Spain a five year breathing space. It gave Philip Franche-Comtรฉ. It is highly likely that Henri accepted a truce rather than a treaty because the French treasury was empty and the crown owed over two million รฉรงus[i].

Cardinal Carafa visited Paris, ostensibly to discuss peace, in reality to press for war. His uncle told Franรงois de Tournon,

‘It is time to break the truce and to give the crown of Naples to the King of France.’[ii]

Philip did not wait for the French and the pope to come to an agreement but had Alba make a pre-emptive strike into Latium. By mid-September Alba’s troops had captured Anagni opening up the road to Rome. Cardinal Carafa turned to Henri for help and he agreed to send an army to the pope’s aid.

Ercole d'Este 
Franรงois de Guise was appointed Lieutenant General in the Italian peninsula and over 200 of the nobility joined up to seek glory. They were well aware that the overarching plan was to conquer the kingdom of Naples for France[iii]. Franรงois de Guise left Turin on 9th January 1557 with 11,000 infantry, 1,800 cavalry and a few guns. The weather was terrible as the army marched down the Po Valley leaving horses and men floundering in mud.

De Guise met up with his father-in-law Ercole d’ร‰stรฉ Duke of Ferrara and Cardinal Carafa at Reggio nell’Emila. The news arrived that the pope was dying and had only created two new French cardinals which would be insufficient to force through the appointment of Henri as king of Naples. Given that his Italian allies refused him subsidies and the Turks were not prepared to act in the French interest Henri decided to cut his losses in Italy.

The Truce is Broken

Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy
In the summer of 1557 Philip launched an invasion of northern France under the leadership of Emanuel-Philibert of Savoy. Montmorency awaited him with an army and the two sides clashed at St Quentin on 10th August. Montmorency was taken prisoner as the French army was beaten ignominiously. The Parisians blamed the Cardinal of Lorraine for wishing this war upon them

‘The Parisians ….ceaselessly lacerate the Cardinal of Lorraine as the principal author of this war; they recall that he went to Rome to conclude an alliance with the pope and that, aided by his family, he has since pressed the king as hard as possible to go to war.’[iv]

Henri recalled Franรงois de Guise and his army from Italy as a first step to save France from the Spanish incursion. Franรงois was back at court by October and was appointed Lieutenant General of the kingdom with extraordinary powers while his brother Cardinal Lorraine was put in charge of domestic and foreign policy in place of the absent Montmorency.

Nieupoort
The two brothers planned to take back Calais for France, encouraged by the Hapsburg-Tudor alliance. Henri arranged to borrow the monies necessary to fund the campaign. The clergy promised to fund one third of the 3,000,000 crowns needed for the exercise while the towns loaned the remainder to Henri at 8.3% interest[v]. In return Henri promised to reduce taxation.

Henri chose to launch the attack in winter and Franรงois’ army crossed into the Pale on 31st December 1557 and seized the outworks before taking the castle. The town fell on 7th January. Henri made his entrance into Calais in mid-January as his troops were attacking Guรฎsnes. To reward the Guise family Henri finally agreed to the marriage between the Dauphin and Mary of Scotland, despite Montmorency’s objections.

Paul de Termes was made Governor of Calais and in June he and Jean d’Estouville de Villebon took and sacked Dunkerque, Nieupoort and Bergues. De Termes was captured during an attempt to take Gravelines. In late August the Vidame de Chartres cleared out the remaining English garrisons in Picardy.

Renewed Attacks on Heresy

Prince de Conde
In July 1557, horrified that the nobility were being contaminated by heresy Henri issued the Edict of Compiรจgne. The Prince de Condรฉ espoused the new religion and one of the Coligny brothers[vi] Franรงois was a keen supporter. The Calvinists sent eighty-eight missionaries into France in the seven years between 1555 and 1562. Their converts came mainly from the urban middle class and the main strength of the movement was in towns like Poitiers and Orlรฉans.

The edict was directed at the Calvinists and applied to death penalty for all those who failed to take the sacrament. Lutherans were exempt as many of Henri’s allies, mercenaries and bankers were of that faith. Henri had been given permission by the pope to start a French Inquisition.

‘In accordance with the persuasion and advice that Cardinal Caraffa has given me on the part of our Holy Father, to introduce here the Inquisition, according to legal form, as the true means of extirpating the root of such errors.’[vii]

The cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon and Chรขtillon[viii] were chosen to head the new body. It was Cardinal Lorraine who was the most eager proponent of the new body which fell foul of the French magistrates who disputed the Inquisition’s right to take on tasks hitherto supervised by them.

Franรงois de Coligny arranged for his estates in Brittany to become evangelised with the aid of a Parisian pastor, setting up a permanent church at le Croisic and reinvigorated the church at Angers. Franรงois was arrested when he returned to Paris and pressured to recant even as another missionary was being introduced to Franรงois’ brothers, Gaspard[ix] and Cardinal Odet[x]

Heresy in Paris

Francois de Coligny
In September 1557 an angry mob broke up a Calvinist meeting in Paris and the congregation included members of the nobility, royal officials, artisans and servants. The armed nobles managed to get away but 132 people were arrested and thrown in prison. They were tried in Parlement and three were burnt to death on 14th September.

On 15th January 1558 Henri appeared before Parlement to obtain registration of his edict against heresy. The defeat at Saint-Quentin meant that the edict was never enforced. The conversions continued unabated. The German Protestant princes wrote to Henri requesting clemency for their co-religionists; Henri told them to mind their own business.

In May 1558 the Protestants, taking advantage of the momentary softening of the anti-heretic actions, staged a mass demonstration in Paris where a group of 4-5,000 people, protected by armed nobles, sang psalms in the Prรฉ-aux-Clercs, a field within sight of the Louvre. The demonstration lasted several days despite a ban by Parlement. Henri felt that the display at Prรฉ-aux-Clercs was a challenge to his authority. He quarrelled violently with Franรงois de Coligny and removed him from his position of Colonel-General of Infantry.

Encouraged by the Cardinal de Lorraine,
‘To prove to the King of Spain his firmness in the faith’[xi]
St-Chapelle (R background)
on 10th June 1559 Henri attended a special mercuriale[xii] called to counter the increasing numbers of staff holding heretical views. The king was horrified by the opinions of some of the councillors and ordered the arrest of eight suspects.

His actions against heresy may very well have been given extra weight by the attempted assassination of himself when emerging after a service at the Sainte-Chappelle[xiii]. A chancellery clerk, whose brother had been tried and executed for blasphemy and other charges, tried to stab Henri. Henri wanted to talk to his attacker but he had been disposed of, allegedly by the Calvinists who did not want their secrets to fall into official hands.

The French Calvinists were becoming more organised and in May 1559 held a synod in Paris which resulted in the drafting of a Confession of Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline.

Bibliography

Martyrs and Murderers – Stuart Carroll, Oxford University Press 2009

Suleiman – Andrรฉ Clot, Saqui Books 2012

Catherine de Medici – Leonie Frieda, a Phoenix Paperback 2003

Philip of Spain – Henry Kamen, Yale University Press 1997

French Renaissance Monarchy – RJ Knecht, Longman Group 1996

The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France – RJ Knecht, Fontana Press 1996

Catherine de’ Medici – RJ Knecht, Pearson Education Ltd 1998

A History of France – David Potter, The MacMillan Press 1995

Henri II – H Noel Williams, Methuen and Co 1910 (reprint 2016)

www.wikipedia.en


[i] Only 650,000 รฉรงus of which were secured. Henri issued a series of edicts that consolidated his debt moving from short-term to long-term loans at 16%. But by the end of October 1555 Henri had contracted further debts of at least 340,000 รฉรงus In 2015 the relative: labour cost of that project is £1,456,000,000.00 economic cost of that project is £49,800,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com. Problems paying these debts meant that in April 1557 the French line of credit ran out  
[ii] The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France - Knecht
[iii] There was some historical precedent for this as Joanna of Naples had appointed one of the French royal family as her heir see http://wolfgang20.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-queen-of-naples-ix_29.html
[iv] The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France - Knecht
[v] The nobility failed to fund any part of the expedition
[vi] Nephews of Anne de Montmorency
[vii] Henri II - Williams
[viii] Named Grand Inquisitor in 1561
[ix] One of France’s admirals
[x] Who was to formally become a Protestant in 1561
[xi] Henri II - Williams
[xii] The name given to the three monthly religious review of government staff