THE FRENCH EXPERIMENT 317Lourds Polonais, qui vous font indomptagles:
La pauvrete seulement vous defend.. .*From start to finish, the French experiment in Poland had lasted less than two
years.
In retrospect, it is easy to identify the flaws which rendered the Valois candid-
acy unworkable. It is hard to see how the untried, republican constitution of
Poland-Lithuania could ever have been smoothly operated by a youthful prince
whose meagre experience was confined to an absolutist court and to sectarian
warfare. It is difficult to believe that the infinitely devious Catherine de Medici
could really have expected her son to graft French interests and designs onto a
distant, proud, and quarrelsome country. Yet both sides had wished fervently
for a mutually advantageous arrangement. Wishful thinking and fair words
won the day, and paved the way to rapid disillusionment. It must be remem-
bered, however, that the negotiations of 1573 had been undertaken with a view
to a reign of forty or fifty years, and with the aim of founding a new branch of
the Valois dynasty. The premature death of Charles IX - the blow which
brought the experiment to a sudden end — was foreseen by no one.
Henry never relinquished his claim to the Polish throne. He kept the Polish
title in his royal style till the end of his life. But he never tried to renew the Polish
alliance, and never returned to Poland. Nor did he bring much profit to France.
The religious wars continued amidst mounting blood and intrigue. Surrounded
by his mignons, his 'pretty young men', Henry earned from the common people
the epithet of the 'New Herod', and from his mother 'le Roi de Rien' (The King
of Nothing). Having murdered his main Catholic rivals, Duke Henry and
Cardinal Henry de Guise, he was himself knifed to death at St. Cloud on the 2
August 1589 by the stiletto of a Dominican monk, Jacques Clement. By that
time, Poland-Lithuania had already completed one of the most brilliant decades
of its history, and was again wrestling with the effects of a royal election no less
unfortunate than that of 1573.
* Farewell Poland! Farewell deserted plains/Eternally covered with snow and ice.. ./Oh
Savage people, arrogant and thieving./Boastful, verbose, and full of words/Who, wrapped
night and day in shaggy furs, takes its only pleasure by playing with a wineglass./By snoring
at table and falling to sleep on the floor/And who then, like Mars, wishes to be famous./It is
not your great, grooved lances,/Your wolf's clothing, your misleading coats-of-arms/Spread
all over with wings and feathers,/Your muscular limbs, nor your redoubtable deeds, Dull-
witted Poles, that have saved you from defeat:/Your miserable condition alone protects you