Remonstrance of the Prince of Condé

Estates, authorized by the King’s council with the most notable company that could be chosen, and registered by the Parliaments of this Kingdom. And although the said Lord Prince had, by his own full right, just enough occasion to oppose a violence and oppression committed manifestly against the King and his Edicts, he nevertheless refrained from undertaking anything to this effect until he received the command to do so.

Whereupon the said Lord Prince most humbly beseeches the Majesty of the Queen to remember that, being at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, she had warning of the goal toward which the Sieurs de Guise were tending, which was to dispossess her of her authority and to banish from her side her most faithful and affectionate servants, so as more easily to seize control of the government of this Kingdom, upon which they have always cast their eye, and which they have pursued ever since they have had some management of affairs in their hands. This, therefore, having come to the knowledge of the Queen, and together with it the league which they were practicing through the means of the Ambassador of Spain to favor their designs, she received such worry as the magnitude and urgency of the danger required. This was her occasion to ask the said Lord Prince, one evening, to assemble the greatest number of gentlemen he could, in order to prevent the effect of such a dangerous enterprise. To this he applied himself faithfully, having regard both to the command of the Queen and to the duty he owes toward the Majesty of the King and the conservation of his crown.