ABSTRACT
The Peace of Saint Germain lasted only two years. Yet historians generally believe that it represented a genuine effort by the French crown to heal the religious division of France. The withdrawal of the cardinal of Lorraine following a quarrel over a love affair between his brother, the due de Guise, and King Charles IX is said to have cleared the way for more moderate members of the king’s council to influence policy. They included Frangois de Montmorency, the governor of Paris and the Ile-de-France, Jean de Morvillier, the Keeper of the Seals, and Paul de Foix, archbishop of Toulouse.1As for the queen mother, it seems that she rested her hopes for a lasting peace on a plan to marry her daughter, Marguerite, to Henri de Navarre, the young leader of the Huguenot party. The historian, Denis Crouzet, firmly believes that Charles IX, acting under the neo platonic influence of his tutor, Jacques Amyot, tried to persuade his courtiers to rid the kingdom of evil by setting their sights on the harmony that rules the cosmos.2 This was allegedly the purpose of his creation on 10 November 1570 of the Academy and Company of Poetry and Music. Court festivals in which music, dancing, painting and poetry all played a role and which Cather ine de’ Medici zealously promoted had the same objective, so it is claimed.3
