Born in the midst of the religious wars of France,
Charlotte de la Tr^moille, Countess of Derby, expe-
rienced in England all the shocks of the Rebellion of
1640 and of the Protectorate of Cromwell, and died
in 1664, only three years after the restoration of
Charles II. There was, indeed, no calamity that she
had not seen, no sorrow, public or private, that she
had not suffered.
France was hardly beginning to breathe under the
government of Henry IV., when, at the Chateau of
Thouars,* in 1601, Charlotte was born. Her father,
Claude de la Tr^moille, then in his thirty-fifth year, had
been a soldier from his earliest youth, having served
in the royal armies against the Protestants. He after-
wards embraced the Reformed religion, and, from his
rank no less than his merit, soon became one of the
foremost men of his party. He sided with the King of
Navarre against the League, fought bravely at Coutras,
was one of the chief Protestants who went to the
succour of Henry III., at that time besieged in Tours
by the Due de Ma)cnnc, and after their reconciliation
accompanied the two kings to the siege of Paris.
• The CliJliMu of TlioiKirs was sitiuital in that part of ancient
roitoii \vlii(h now loniis iIr- cK|iarlii)cnl of Deux Sc'vrcs.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY DAYS. 3

Henry III. was assassinated just as the French
Protestants began to look for the triumph of their
faith and the reahzation of their hopes. After his
death Claude de la Tr6moille fought at the side
3f Henry IV. at Ivry, and at the siege of Rouen.
Henry's recantation suddenly extinguished the hopes
of Protestantism, and, though its adherents remained
faithful, their ardour was gone.
