ABSTRACT
The military campaign that the king had launched against the Protestants was getting nowhere and Catherine de' Medici's failure to reach a settlement with Henry of Navarre offered the League its best chance so far of imposing its will on the king. On 22 April 1588 Poulain, the spy who had infiltrated the inner counsels of the Paris League, informed Henry III of a major plot to seize control of the capital. Henry III, it seems, viewed the Edict of Union as a temporary setback. He aimed to recover his authority in full with the help of the Estates-General. Henry III arrived in Blois on 1 September accompanied by Catherine de' Medici, Henri de Guise and all the court. Charles-Emmanuel, duke of Savoy, seized the marquisate of Saluzzo which was the last French territory in Italy, all the rest having been ceded to the duke's father by Henry in 1574.
