Note 23 — Chapter I

This, indeed, is not saying much; and far higher praise might be justly bestowed. As to his domestic policy, there can be only one opinion; and M. Flassan speaks in the most favourable terms of his management of foreign affairs. Flassan, Hist. de la Diplomatie Franç. vol. ii. pp. 191, 192, 294–297, vol. iii. p. 243. And see, to the same effect, the testimony of M. Capefigue, an unfriendly judge. Hist. de la Réforme, vol. vii. p. xiv. vol. viii. p. 156. Fontenay Mareuil, who was a contemporary of Henry IV., though he wrote many years after the king was murdered, says, ‘Ce grand roy, qui estoit en plus de considération dans le monde que pas un de ses prédécesseurs n'avoit esté depuis Charlesmagne.’ Mém. de Fontenay, vol. i. p. 46. Duplessis Mornay calls him ‘le plus grand roy que la chrestienté ait porté depuis cinq cens ans;’ and Sully pronounces him to be ‘le plus grand de nos rois.’ Duplessis Mornay, Mém. et Correspond. vol. xi. pp. 30, 77, 131; Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. vii. p. 15. Compare vol. vi. pp. 397, 398, vol. ix. pp. 35, 242, with some sensible remarks in Mém. de Genlis, Paris, 1825, vol. ix. p. 299.