CHAPTER XXXI.——­HENRY II. (1547-1559.)

[Illustration:  GALLERY HENRY II——­230]

Henry II. had all the defects, and, with the exception of personal bravery, not one amongst the brilliant and amiable qualities of the king his father.  Like Francis I., he was rash and reckless in his resolves and enterprises, but without having the promptness, the fertility, and the suppleness of mind which Francis I. displayed in getting out of the awkward positions in which he had placed himself, and in stalling off or mitigating the consequences of them.  Henry was as cold and ungenial as Francis had been gracious and able to please:  and whilst Francis I., even if he were a bad master to himself, was at any rate his own master, Henry II. submitted without resistance, and probably without knowing it, to the influence of the favorite who reigned in his house as well as in his court, and of the advisers who were predominant in his government.  Two facts will suffice to set in a clear light, at the commencement of the new reign, this regrettable analogy in the defects, and this profound diversity in the mind, character, and conduct of the two kings.

Towards the close of 1542, a grievous aggravation of the tax upon salt, called Babel, caused a violent insurrection in the town of Rochelle, which was exempted, it was said, by its traditional privileges from that impost.  Not only was payment refused, but the commissioners were maltreated and driven away.  Francis I. considered the matter grave enough to require his presence for its repression.  He repaired to Rochelle with a numerous body of lanzknechts.  The terrified population appeared to have determined upon submission, and, having assembled in a mass at the town-hall, there awaited anxiously the king’s arrival.  On the 1st of January, 1543, Francis I. entered the town in state, surrounded by his escort.  The people’s advocate fell on his knees, and appealed to the king’s clemency in dealing with a revolt of which every one repented.  The king, who was seated on a wooden boarding, rose up.  “Speak we no more of revolt,” said he; “I desire neither to destroy your persons nor to seize your goods, as was lately done by the Emperor Charles to the Ghentese, whereby his hands are stained with blood; I long more for the hearts of my subjects than for their lives and their riches.  I will never at any time of my life think again of your offence, and I pardon you without excepting a single thing.  I desire that the keys of your city and your arms be given back to you, and that you be completely reinstated in your liberties and your privileges.”  The cheers of the people responded to these words of the king.  “I think I have won your hearts,” said the king on retiring; “and I assure you, on the honor of a gentleman, that you have mine.  I desire that you ring your bells, for you are pardoned.”  The Rochellese were let off for a fine of two hundred thousand francs, which the king gave to his keeper of the seals, Francis de Montholon, whom he wished to compensate for his good service.  The keeper of the seals in his turn made a present of them to the town of Rochelle to found a hospital.  But the ordinances as to the salt-tax were maintained in principle, and their extension led, some years afterwards, to a rising of a more serious character, and very differently repressed.