The 1560 Assembly of Notables (French: Assemblée des notables de 1560) was a gathering of the political elite of the kingdom of France from 21 to 26 August 1560 that aimed to find a solution to France's political, religious and financial crisis. From the start of François II's reign in 1559 the kingdom had been in a difficult position, burdened with a great debt. This was made more complicated in March 1560 by a politico-religious crisis when a Protestant coup attempted to seize the king and remove him from his chief ministers, the duc de Guise (duke of Guise) and cardinal de Lorraine. Though this failed, the realm was greatly destabilised, and disorders would continue throughout the remainder of 1560. Around the same time as the conspiracy, a combination of the cardinal de Lorraine, the queen mother Catherine and the amiral de Coligny (admiral of Coligny) resolved to abandon persecution of Protestantism and embark on a new path. This was embodied in the May Edict of Romorantin. Some combination of these figures then resolved that it would be necessary to summon together an enlarged version of the king's council to devise a solution to the kingdoms troubles, and achieve a number of other objectives.
Thus on 21 August, 54 notables met at the royal residence of Fontainebleau. Proceedings were opened by the chancellor L'Hôpital before Guise and Lorraine explained the state of the various areas of royal administration they were responsible for. At the start of the second session on 23 August, the amiral de Coligny interjected himself at the start of proceedings and presented to the king two petitions from the Protestants of Normandie that were then read to the assembled notables. After this interruption the bishop of Valence spoke, he denounced persecution and the Papacy and spoke in favour of concord with Protestantism. He also advocated for a meeting of the Estates General. The next speech was that of the archbishop of Vienne. Vienne expounded on the view that the reunification of the Christian church would best be brought about peaceably. He then strongly advocated for a church council and a meeting of the Estates General. On 24 August, Coligny spoke more formally. He endorsed the petitions he had presented the prior day that sought temples (churches) for Protestant worship, putting him in a more radical position than that of Valence and Vienne. He then denounced the religious policy of the Lorraine-Guise government and the security under which they kept the king. When it was Guise's turn to speak he defended the necessity of François' security and challenged Coligny's petitions. The argument between the two became heated. After Guise spoke Lorraine. He endorsed the need for an Estates General and reform of the church (that might require a church council). He expressed the belief that peaceable Protestants could be left in peace by the state, which should only trouble itself with those who tried to worship under arms or who caused other disorders. Lorraine's position was endorsed by a majority of the present notables on 26 August. On 31 August the king announced the summoning of the Estates General to meet at Meaux on 10 December, and a church council to meet on 20 January 1561. The assembly failed to reunify the elite of the kingdom, with the absentee prince de Condé and king of Navarre engaging in rebellious acts during August and September. It also failed to make clear the crowns religious policy.
Background
Conjuration d'Amboise
At the start of the reign of François II in 1559, the French royal debt totalled around 43,000,000 livres. In March 1560 there was a failed coup attempt at the royal residence of Amboise. an event known as the conjuration d'Amboise. Protestant rebels made an attempt to kidnap the young king François and thereby remove him from the influence of his wife's Catholic uncles the duc de Guise (duke of Guise) and cardinal de Lorraine (cardinal of Lorraine). There were great reverberations from the episode. The repression that crushed the conjuration after the attempted attack on the gates on 17 March was a violent one. Conspirators were hanged, drowned and beheaded. Some Protesatant contemporaries, such as the sieur de Soubise were moved by events. In the wake of the conjuration, the cardinal de Lorraine was subject to virulent abuse in the pamphlet 'Le Tigre' (The Tiger) by the Protestant Hotman which denounced him as a 'viper' who 'abused the youth of our king'. Many other pamphlets also heaped scorn on Lorraine and the duc de Guise.
In reaction to the violence of the suppression of the conjuration d'Amboise, the queen mother Catherine began to distance herself from the Lorraine led government. Despite this, neither she nor the king were entirely convinced by the protestations of the conspirators that their efforts had been targeted at the Lorraine led government and not François himself.
She entrusted the amiral de Coligny (admiral of Coligny) with a mission into Normandie to undertake an investigation. It was thus to this end that Coligny devoted himself after his departure from Amboise. In addition to this, while in Normandie in April Coligny would work towards the undertaking of a military expedition to Scotland.
Moderate policy
The cardinal de Lorraine and the duc de Guise were disconcerted by the hostility they had faced in the conjuration. The cardinal de Lorraine was of the opinion that it was no longer practical to imagine 'extirpating heresy' (i.e. Protestantism). According to Le Roux, Lorraine took on a policy of conciliation, instituting the Edict of Romorantin in May 1560 while effectively abolished the death penalty for Protestantism, and differentiated the crime of 'heresy' from that of sedition, while maintaining the illegality of Protestant worship. According to Pernot it was Catherine who took the initiative on this edict, and Lorraine followed her course. Those Protestants who had been arrested solely on the grounds of their religion were to be freed.
Lorraine and Guise assented to the replacement of the recently deceased chancellor Olivier by the distinguished lawyer L'Hôpital in June. L'Hôpital was an Erasmian humanist, who desired to reinforce the authority of the monarchy and preserve peace. He looked to further the policy of religious moderation embodied by the crown in the last few months. Nevertheless, he did not believe two religions could co-exist in France. He was the choice of Catherine, and intended to favour no one party at the court. Nevertheless, he would not openly oppose the Lorraine led government.
Continued disorders
The aftershocks of Amboise were reverberating through the kingdom at this time in continued disorders. Churches were attacked in Guyenne, Languedoc and Provence. Armed men had risen up in Dauphiné, Provence and Guyenne and begun seizing towns. Shortly before the Assembly of Notables would meet, on 19 August, Jean Sturm informed the Danish king that "the Gallic conspiracy, suppressed in the first outbreak, seems to be secretly increased and strengthened, and what before was advanced by secret plots now seems ready to erupt into open war." The disorders culminated in a failed Protestant attempt to seize Lyon on 4 September shortly after the Assembly, led by a captain who had been involved in the conjuration d'Amboise. Concurrent to these rebellions, peasants also entered rebellion against the dîmes (tithes) they had to pay to the Catholic church. Such refusals would occur in both the north and south of the kingdom.
Calling an Assembly Catherine adopted the moderate political attitude of the cardinal de Lorraine. To this end she summoned an Assembly to meet at Fontainebleau in August. The cardinal de Lorraine and L'Hôpital also campaigned for the summoning of such an Assembly. According to Constant, Cloulas and Mariéjol, it was Coligny who advocated for the summoning of the Assembly, and the duc de Guise supported him in this. Carroll argues the initiative came from Guise and Lorraine who intended to outmanoeuvre the Bourbon princes. Sutherland argues Guise and Lorraine were not opposed to the Assembly, in the hopes that they might dominate it. It was hoped that through this meeting a consensus, among the elites of the kingdom at least, could be re-established after the discord of the previous months. L'Hôpital hoped that the great nobles, including the Bourbon princes might be sated through the opportunity to participate in the government of the kingdom. The Assembly would have the effect of gaining the appropriate buy-in for the new quasi-tolerant policy of religious concord the crown was pursuing prior to any church council. Another advantage of the Assembly would be that it would disprove the assertion levelled by opponents of the present regime that François was a child in the clutches of his wife's uncles (Lorraine and Guise). It would also possibly pave the way for Catherine's desired Estates General. In addition to the religious and political crisis, the kingdom also continued to face a financial crisis.
Great efforts were made to see the Bourbon princes show up for the Assembly.
Shortly before the meeting of the Assembly. François inducted a new batch of seventeen chevaliers (knights) of the Ordre de Saint-Michel (Order of Saint-Michel) so that the crowns preferred policies during the meeting would enjoy a comfortable majority. The recipients were chosen by the duc de Guise from among his comrades. This method also offered the benefit of rewarding those who had shown loyalty to the crown during this unstable year. Such a move would be replicated before the showdown with Condé in October of the same year.
Attendees
In total the meeting would involve 54 persons. Members of the royal conseil privé (privy council), the princes du sang (princes of the blood - agnatic descendants of the royal line outside the royal family), the trésoriers de l'épargne (receivers of royal revenues), the maîtres des rêquetes (senior judicial figures), the sécretaires d'État (secretaries of state) and the chevaliers de l'Ordre de Saint-Michel were invited. Unlike the estates general the large majority of the participants were not elected, and thus the body had the character of an enlarged and more serious version of the king's conseil.
Chief among the attendees were members of the royal family as represented by the king François, the queen Mary, his mother Catherine, and François' two eldest brothers the duc d'Orléans and the duc d'Angoulême.
For the royal administration, present were the chancellor L'Hôpital, the surintendant des finances (superintendent of the finances) Avançon, the grand écuyer the marquis de Boisy, the maître des requêtes ordinaire de l'hôtel du roi (a senior legal official) du Mortier, and the four sécretaires d'État (L'Aubespine, Bourdin, de Fresnes and Alluye . The queen mother's chevalier d'honneur (knight of honour) the comte de Crussol was at the Assembly, as was an unknown other chevalier de l'ordre de Saint-Michel that Romier speculates might have been the baron de Fourquevaux as he was at the French court at this time.
The sécretaires d'État occupied a subordinate position during the meeting of the Assembly of Notables. They were to take notes and perhaps transmit orders.