Charles IX's grand tour of France was a royal tour of the French kingdom which transpired from 13 March 1564 to 10 May 1566. There were several aims to this tour, to rebuild royal authority which had been damaged by the first French War of Religion, to show king Charles IX to his subjects, to undertake diplomatic meetings with foreign sovereigns, to foster connections between Charles and his nobility, and to see the implementation of the edict of Amboise and other royal ordinances across the kingdom. The edict of Amboise had brought the first civil war to a close, and allowed for a limited toleration of Protestantism, something which was resisted strongly in many parts of the kingdom, and by the Parlements, the eight highest courts of the kingdom that in addition to judging cases, also registered royal legislation before it could go into effect.
The tour started in Champagne, and would prove the occasion for the making of peace with England during its stay in Troyes during April. Moving into Lorraine, the court met up with duc de Lorraine (duke of Lorraine), and his wife, Claude of Valois. From here the court descended into first Burgundy and then the Lyonnais, where the one-time Protestant stronghold was subjected to a royal garrison and fortress. From here into Dauphiné, where the edict of Amboise was modified in a way unfavourable to the Protestants. Passing through the Papal exclave of Comtat Venaissin the French crown established a peace arrangement between the Protestants and Catholics of the territory, before heading on into Provence. Here, the court tried to temper the virulently Catholic parlement of Aix, and took the opportunity of being in Marseille to go out in ships on the Mediterranean.
Entering into Languedoc, the court was troubled by foul weather but buoyed by news that the Spanish king Philip II had consented to a meeting between his wife, Élisabeth and Charles/Catherine. The court tarried for a while in Toulouse, settling local disputes, and taking the parlement to account. Heading into Guyenne, the royal meeting with Élisabeth was undertaken in June, before the court reunited with the Protestant queen of Navarre, who Catherine unsuccessfully campaigned to tolerate Catholicism in her sovereign territories. Passing through areas of great Protestant strength such as La Rochelle, and the Saintonge, the crown took a harsh line, the reception in La Rochelle proving a particularly cold one. The court then moved up into Brittany, staying a while near Nantes before swinging back eastwards towards the heart of the kingdom.
Arriving in Moulins, the crown would attempt to quash a festering feud between the Lorraine-Guise and the Coligny-Châtillon. However, while achieving a formal reconciliation between the parties, the dispute would continue to burn on. The stay at Moulins was also the occasion for a wide-reaching legislative package, based on the conditions the court had observed throughout the kingdom in the preceding years. This was known as the Grand Ordinance of Moulins. Though its immediate effects would be compromised by the civil wars, it would leave a long legacy. Leaving Moulins, the court headed back for Paris, arriving there in May 1566. Catherine was pleased with the success of the tour, boasting on it to her ambassador in Spain, however, only a year later, France would return to civil war.
Saint-Maur and Fontainebleau Departure On 24 January 1564, the French court departed from Paris, and made for the royal residence of the château de Saint-Maur which was near the château de Vincennes. This residence was a recent royal acquisition, having been purchased by the queen mother Catherine the preceding year. When the cardinal de Lorraine reunited with the French court on 29 January, his reception was a cool one. King Charles was absent from the court on a hunt, and Catherine was taking the air on a stroll. Lorraine was thus forced to wait alone for several hours until Charles returned. Charles' greeting to the cardinal was a similarly cold one, leaving him standing, cap in hand, while placing a hand on Lorraine's shoulder. The son of the constable de Montmorency had to point out the discourtesy. The Constable himself was similarly discourteous, putting his hand on the cardinal's shoulder and checking to see whether he was armed. It would be duchesse d'Uzès who greeted him with several kisses, an act that was imitated by the Protestant prince de Condé. A tense conversation then followed in which the cardinal de Lorraine expressed his desire not to speak in front of the 'heretics', and he was chided for not understanding developments in France such as the edict of Amboise. Catherine queried of him whether there was truth to the rumour that he was raising soldiers. The historian Champion argues that the cardinal de Lorraine had sold out the French Gallican position, including those Catholic French bishops influenced by Protestantism who were now to be turned over to the inquisition. He suggests this explains the frosty reception Lorraine experienced. The next day, the cardinal hosted a banquet. That same day, the court made its departure from Saint-Maur for the château de Fontainebleau. The Marne was forded at the Charenton bridge, with lunch held at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. The court spent the night at Corbeil before continuing its progress on 31 January. This day, they lunched at an abbey near Melun, arriving that evening at Fontainebleau.
Tridentine decrees The cardinal de Lorraine had recently returned from the council of Trent and sought to see the Catholic Tridentine decrees (the outcomes of that ecumenical council) adopted in France. Many opposed the Tridentine decrees on the grounds that their adoption would compromise the Gallican liberties (the autonomy of the French church from Papal oversight) of the French church. Various decrees of the council attacked the autonomy of the French church as concerned clerical justice and asserted Papal supremacy over Catholicism. The council of Trent had challenged the practice of ecclesiastical pluralism (holding of multiple offices), and the cardinals de Lorraine and his brother the cardinal de Guise would step back from their holding of multiple benefices. This did not mean surrendering of control, as they resigned the offices to their clients. Indeed, in response to 'the reformation of the princes' a Papal proposal at the council by which princes would only be able to levy taxes in times of great difficulty or war with the 'infidel', the crown had ordered the French delegation at the council withdraw. The cardinal de Lorraine, initially part of the opposition in the council had undertaken an about face of the course of his time in Trent and become a partisan of the ultramontane (Papal supremacist) cause. He had been unable to convince the French delegates to return to Trent. Though Gallican, the Faculty of Theology in Paris supported the cardinal de Lorraine in the matter of the adoption of the Tridentine decrees. The parlement (highest court of appeals in ancien régime France, also responsible for signing royal legislation into law) of Paris by contrast baulked. Lorraine pushed his position in royal council on 22 February and was met with stringent opposition from the chancellor L'Hôpital. The présidents (senior judges) of the Paris parlement were also present for the occasion. L'Hôpital would find allies in them for his campaign against Trent, their protectiveness of Gallican liberties superseding any other considerations they might hold. L'Hôpital was a former client of the Lorraine-Guise who had defected from service to their house in favour of service to the queen mother. Lorraine exploded at the 'insolence' and 'ingratitude' of L'Hôpital in opposing his efforts regarding the Tridentine decrees, accusing the chancellor in council of being a secret convert to Protestantism, for his wife (Marie Morin) and daughter were both Protestants. This was indeed the opinion of the Spanish party concerning the chancellor. L'Hôpital shot back that the Lorraine-Guise bore the blame for the 1562 massacre of Wassy and the first French War of Religion. Lorraine appealed to the queen mother, that the pope was now ready to make the concessions she had sought from the church in 1562, communion under both kinds (receiving both the bread and the wine during Mass) and the liturgy being partly in French, Catherine however was no longer interested.
Consultations were subsequently undertaken on the Tridentine decrees and related matters. Invited into the conseil privé for the occasion, the présidents de Thou, Séguier, Prévost, and Harlay, the avocat général du Mesnil, his assistant Boucherat, and the procureur général Bourdin. Catherine looked to reassure the Papal nuncio, cardinal Santacroce that these parlementaires would be kept in order. The parlementaires reacted in opposition to the decrees. They were a threat to the peace as the situation stood now and should be delayed until such time as the Protestants were no longer a threat. These discussions continued in secrecy for the following three weeks. Du Mesnil wrote up his objections in a work entitled Advertissement sur le faict du Concile de Trente. He took up a Gallican position; the French church was subordinate only to God's law and earlier church councils. The rulings of modern popes and councils only had relevance at the king's discretion to implement their conclusions. He then moved into a discussion of the threat the decrees posed to the kingdom fresh off its civil war. To advocate for these decrees at a time of such fragility in the kingdom was to be a disloyal subject, who should not be tolerated. He then moved onto procedural troubles. It was flawed by fact of being a continuation of prior Trent sessions, rather than a new council. Further, it contradicted prior councils, and expanded papal power, rather than curtailing it. It was also guilty of collaborating with Spanish attempts to usurp the precedence of the French. Moving to the specific decrees, he objected to those which pushed aside the rights of secular authorities in favour of clerical oversight. These were an assault on Gallicanism and subordinated the king and the law to the Papacy. Bourdin preferred resignation from the parlement to registering the findings of the council. Unsatisfied with du Mesnil's dismantling of the findings, he produced his own work, which challenged sixty of the Trent articles. De Thou rejected the Tridentine decrees in their totality, while Séguier took a more moderate position, only finding some of them to be objectionable. With the consultations of Fontainebleau over, Catherine declared that a decision on the Tridentine decrees would be made in May.
Another difficult encounter that is supposed to have occurred between Catherine and the cardinal de Lorraine involved the queen mother's observation that Lorraine maintained regular correspondence with the Spanish churchman, and administrator, cardinal Granvelle. Lorraine admitted he maintained such a correspondence, noting that he desired to remain abreast of affairs relating to the health of the Catholic church. He noted that in all other matters he was a servant of the French crown, but that if the king no longer desired his services, he would take his leave, and head abroad.