Estates General of 1593
The Estates General of 1593 was a national meeting of the three orders of France that met from January to August 1593. Unlike any other Estates General of France, it was convoked without the authority of a king, at the behest of duke of Mayenne, lieutenant-general of the kingdom for the rebel Catholic ligue movement, which controlled Paris and many other cities. The Catholic ligue had reformed in 1584 to oppose the succession to the throne of the Protestant king of Navarre. They proposed the candidacy of Cardinal Bourbon, Navarre's Catholic uncle. In 1589, the king died, and while royalists recognised Navarre as Henri IV, ligueur controlled areas instead recognised Bourbon as Charles X. In 1590, Bourbon died, leaving the ligue without a king. Many ligueur nobles were happy without a king, but pressure was brought to bear on Mayenne, and by late 1592 he agreed to convoke an Estates General to elect a new one. This Estates would not be recognised by Henri.
The Estates assembled from the limited areas the ligue controlled in January 1593, their arrival impeded by the forces of Henri. He did however recognise the danger in their electing a king, and therefore reached out to entreat with the Estates, a prospect which was agreed to over the objections of radical members of the Estates. The resulting conference at Suresnes on 27 April produced a short truce, and the occasion of Henri's announcement of his planned conversion to Catholicism in mid May. Meanwhile, at the Estates, the Spanish allies of the ligue sought to impose the king of Spain's daughter known as the Infanta as the queen of France, proposing first the Austrian Archduke Ernst, and when this was received poorly proposing instead a French prince, the duke of Guise. To aid their project they attempted to distribute bribes, but these were poorly received. The Spanish proposals aroused the displeasure of the legal-minded members of the Estates, who walked out in June in protest. The Parlement of Paris subsequently declared that Salic Law was inviable, and foreign princes were illegible for the French throne. By now the momentum was against the Spanish, and even with the ambassador proposing French princes, neither the Second or Third Estate felt they had the authority to elect a king. The Estates' final business would be to ratify the adoption of the Tridentine Decrees, with its final meeting on 8 August before it was prorogued by Mayenne.
Kingdom without a king
Catholic ''Ligue''
In July 1584 king Henri III's brother Alençon died, leaving the king's distant Protestant cousin the king of Navarre as heir to the throne. This was seized upon as unacceptable by a certain segment of the Catholic nobility, led by the duke of Guise who reformed the Catholic ligue to oppose his succession. The Catholic ligue settled on Navarre's Catholic uncle Cardinal Bourbon as their candidate to succeed Henri. Bourbon was an aged man, and has been considered a 'stopgap' candidate for the throne. In 1589 Henri was assassinated and the ligue declared Bourbon the king as Charles X. Bourbon would however die before being released from captivity on 9 May 1590, leaving the ligue without a king to oppose Henri.Candidates
Among many elements of the ligue, attentions therefore turned to the prospect of an Estates General to select a new king. There were many candidates that recommended themselves to factions of the ligue. the lieutenant-general of the kingdom for the ligue the duke of Mayenne favoured himself for the role, while his nephew the young duke of Guise was popular among Parisian ligueurs. Many ligueur nobles were entirely uninterested in who was king, happy with any candidate who would possess weak central authority that could not impede on their fiefdom building in the civil war-wracked provinces.A small radical faction of the ligue was open to the possibility of being ruled by a foreign prince, Philip II of Spain or a relative of his being the top candidates. The Spanish were naturally keen on this arrangement, and pushed for the candidacy of Philip's daughter with his wife Elisabeth de Valois, the Infanta.
The leading ligueur theorists argued that a king could only have the right to rule if they followed the correct laws and other prerequisites. Therefore, in the absence of such a candidate presently, it was the duty of the Estates and the Pope to solve the problem by electing a king.
Plans for convocation
Abortive efforts
There had been desires in the ligueur camp for the convoking of an Estates General since at least 1591 when it had been first planned for one to meet. Mayenne made several abortive plans during this period for Estates, proposing variously Paris, Melun and Orléans to host them, but always cancelling them before the plans could advance significantly. In June 1592 summons had even gone out for the hosting of an Estates, to be held at Reims, with some elections held and even a couple of delegates arriving in the city before Mayenne decided to cancel it. He reasoned that it was too close to the border with the Spanish Nederland and therefore the Spanish commander the duca di Parma would be able to easily impose himself on it by force of arms. Spain, keen to see an arrangement involving the Infanta endorsed by the ligue pushed Mayenne to convoke it. An exchange is reported involving Mayenne and the ligueur mayor of Paris in November of that year, in which Mayenne frustratedly asked La Chapelle Marteau what the people wanted, and the mayor replied that they desired a king.Mayenne was also under pressure from the Parlement which urged Mayenne to seek Henri's conversion so that he could become their king, and if he would not convert to proceed with the election of an alternate king. Mayenne rebuffed the Parlement, arguing that conversion was not sufficient for Henri to have a right to the throne, and that Papal approval was also required. He therefore reluctantly conceded to the alternate proposal to convoke the Estates. To this end in the Autumn of 1592 he gave permission for elections to take place. In December of that year, Mayenne invited the Catholic princes who had rallied to Henri to attend the Estates, as observers. He was relieved also, to learn of the death of Parma, which he felt made the chance that Spain would dominate the Estates, less likely.
Election of the deputies
The local ligue councils distributed across France operated largely independently of Paris in the conduct of their affairs. An exception to this arrangement was made for the selection of delegates for the Estates General, which was instead centrally directed from Paris.Deputies were mainly dispatched to the Estates from regions in which the ligue held secure authority. Therefore, from Guyenne only in Poitou and Périgueux could ligueur deputies be brought to the capital. By contrast in Champagne Troyes, Chaumont, Sens, Meaux and Mézières provided deputies.
Henri was vigorously campaigning against the ligue in early 1593, the duke of Bouillon was campaigning for him in Champagne, the duke of Nevers was occupying Beauce and Jean VI d'Aumont had been tasked with entering Bretagne to combat the ligueur duke of Mercœur. It was in this difficult circumstance that the deputies had to travel to the capital.
Alongside the physical impediments to be found on the road, many potential deputies were also dissuaded from attending to the technically illegal nature of the Estates, which had not been convoked by a legitimate king.
The prospective deputies would find many of their roads blocked in their attempts to make it to Paris. To combat this they took to disguising themselves, in hopes of slipping past royalist blockades. Despite this, many would face arrest by royal soldiers, alongside other merchants who happened to be passing in the direction of Paris.
In Bourgogne, one of Mayenne's chief clients from Dijon, Étienne Bernard would be selected as a delegate for the Estates. To ensure the Dijon delegation could reach Paris, Jean de Saulx would be entrusted with providing them an armed escort. Ligueur clergy prayed for the safety of the delegates on the road to Paris.
Turnout
In total 128 deputies would make it to Paris for the 1593 Estates, a far lower turnout than 1588 when the nobility alone had provided 180 deputies. In total the prior two Estates had each reached around 400 deputies. These deputies would break down as follows: 49 members of the First Estate, 24 members of the Second Estate and 55 members of the Third Estate. The particularly weak showing from the nobility, demonstrates their hesitance by this period to associate with the ligue. The provinces were represented unevenly: 24% of the deputies were from the Île de France, Bourgogne provided 16%, the Orléanais 12%, Champagne 11% and Normandie 10%. Only 2% of the deputies were from regions such as Guyenne, Dauphiné and Bretagne.Estate composition
Of the deputies elected for the First Estate, there would be 13 bishops, among whom three were recent appointees to their bishopric by Mayenne. Pellevé, the archbishop of Reims and Épinac, the archbishop of Lyon were elected as présidents of the Estate. The First Estate delegation from Paris was particularly hardline ligueur in view.Among the Second Estate deputies was the ligueur governor of Orléans, Claude de La Châtre.
The Third Estate deputies were divided between Parlementaires such as Du Vair, Le Maistre, and Masparault, and ligueur Parisians from the Seize who had originally planned to be in attendance at the 1591 Estates, such as Neuilly, Dorléans and Roland. The Parlementaires of Paris were significantly more politique in inclination. Therefore, in contrast to the Estates of 1588, it would be Paris that was overall a moderating influence on the more radical deputies from the provinces.