Note 1680 — Chapter XVIII

The plot was an old one and long in preparation. See a letter of St. Goard to the King, May 20, 1573 (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, Appendix, No. 59). The Spanish had been advised by word from Besançon, on April 3, that those of Geneva and Bern had confederated with the Lutheran cantons and secured the favor of the duke John Casimir, whose purpose was to overcome Besançon and the free county of Burgundy (cf. letter of De Grantyre, the French agent in the Grisons, to Bellièvre, April 8, 1573, Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, No. 52, and the letter of Charles IX to Bellièvre, May 9, 1573, ibid., No. 55). The author of the plan was a Dr. Butterich, councilor of the elector (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, V, 89, 99, 101, 107, 120-3). The Swiss cantons were also appealed to, but Beza hesitated (ibid., 111). Spain had secret information of the plot (ibid., 89). It finally failed (see a letter of Butterich to John of Nassau, June 6, 1575, ibid., 214; cf. Languet, Epist. secr., I, Part II, 106, July 11, 1575).