Volume I Part 11 (1/2)
[192] Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 415-417. Matthieu, _Hist, des Derniers Troubles,_ book ii. pp. 413-415. Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 196-202. Perefixe, vol. ii. pp. 369-372.
[193] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 203.
[194] Matthieu, _Hist. des Troubles_, book ii. pp. 415, 416.
[195] Francois de la Grange d'Anquien, Seigneur de Montigny, Sery, etc., afterwards known as the Marechal de Montigny, served with the Catholics at Coutras, where he was taken prisoner. In 1601 Henri IV made him Governor of Paris; in 1609, lieutenant of the King in the Three Bishoprics; and subsequently, in 1616, Marie de Medicis procured for him the _baton_ of Marshal of France. He commanded the royal army against the malcontents in Nivernais, and died in the same year (1617). He had but one son, who left no male issue; but his brother had, among other children, Henri, Marquis d'Anquien, whose daughter, Marie Casimire, married Sobieski, King of Poland, and died in France, in 1716, two years after her return to her native country.
[196] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 204.
[197] L'Etoile computes them at one hundred and twenty-seven.--_Journ.
de Henri IV_, vol. iii. p. 21.
[198] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 205.
[199] Matthieu, _Hist. des Troubles_, book ii. pp. 426, 427.
[200] Monttaucon, vol. v. p. 410.
[201] Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 377. Mezeray, vol. x. p. 209.
[202] Rene de Maree-Montbarot, Governor of Rennes in 1602. Wrongly suspected of complicity with Biron, he made no effort to evade the consequences of the accusation, but suffered himself to be arrested in the seat of his government, whence he was conveyed to the Bastille; and although he succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng his innocence, he found himself, on his liberation, deprived of his office.
[203] Guy Eder de Beaumanoir de Lavardin, Baron de Fontenelles, was a Breton n.o.ble, who, according to De Thou, had been a celebrated Leaguer and brigand. From the year 1597 he had held, in the name of the Duc de Mercoeur, the fort of Douarnenez in Brittany, and the island of Tristain in which it is situated. Since that period he had continually been guilty of acts of piracy upon the English, and had even extended his system of theft and murder indiscriminately both on sea and land. He might, had he been willing so to do, have profited by the benefit of the edict accorded to the Duc de Mercoeur in 1598, but he affected to hold it as a point of honour to obtain a distinct one for himself, and he even appears to have continued in the enjoyment of his government despite this obstinacy; but having been convicted, during a period of profound peace, of maintaining an intelligence with the Spaniards, he was made prisoner by a stratagem, by Nicolas Rapin, provost of the connetablie (or constable's jurisdiction), as an accomplice of the Duc de Biron, as he was on the point of delivering up both the fort and the island to his dangerous allies.
[204] L'Etoile, vol. x. pp. 36, 37.
[205] Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Mayenne, was the second son of Francois de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, and was born in 1554. He distinguished himself at the sieges of Poitiers and La Roch.e.l.le, and at the battle of Montcontour, and fought successfully against the Calvinists in Guienne and Saintonge. His brothers having been killed at the States of Blois in 1588, he declared himself chief of the League, and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of lieutenant-general of the kingdom and crown of France; and by virtue of this self-created authority, caused the Cardinal de Bourbon to be declared King, under the name of Charles X.
Having inherited the hatred of his brothers for Henri III, and his successor Henri IV, he marched eighty thousand men against the latter Prince, but was defeated, both at Arques and Ivry. He annihilated the faction of the Sixteen; and was ultimately compelled to effect a reconciliation with the King in 1599, when Henri IV, with his usual clemency, not only pardoned his past opposition, but bestowed upon him the government of the Isle of France. The Duc de Mayenne died in 1611, leaving by his wife, Henriette de Savoie, daughter of the Comte de Tende, one son, Henri, who died without issue in 1621.
[206] Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, born in 1571, was the son of Henri, Duc de Guise, who was a.s.sa.s.sinated at the States of Blois in 1588. At the period of his father's death he was conveyed to the castle of Tours, where he was retained a prisoner until August 1591, when he effected his escape, a circ.u.mstance which materially changed the fortunes of the League. The general impression in the capital had been that he would become the husband of the Infanta Isabel, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, who would cause him to be proclaimed King, an arrangement which the Duque de Feria, the Spanish amba.s.sador, proposed to the League in 1593. The Legate, the Sixteen, and the doctors of the Sorbonne, alike favoured this election, and the negotiations proceeded so far that the Spaniards and Neapolitans in Paris rendered him regal honours. The young Prince, who had at this period only attained his twenty-second year, expressed great indignation at being made the puppet of so absurd a comedy, feeling convinced that neither the Duc de Mayenne nor the Duc de Nemours, both of whom coveted the crown, would finally favour his accession; and there can be little doubt that the state of extreme poverty to which he was reduced at the time caused him to consider the project as still more extravagant than he might otherwise have done, it being stated (_Mem. pour l'Hist. de France_) that his servants were, on one occasion, compelled to p.a.w.n one of his cloaks and his saddle-cloth in order to furnish him with a dinner.
[207] Sully, _Mem_. vol. iv. pp. 128, 129. Daniel, vol. vii. p. 423.
Mezeray, vol. x. p. 219.
[208] Elisabeth de France, who married in 1615 Philip IV of Spain.
[209] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 26.
CHAPTER IV
1603
Court festivities--Madame de Verneuil is lodged in the palace--She gives birth to a daughter--Royal quarrels--Mademoiselle de Guise--Italian actors--Revolt at Metz--Henry proceeds thither and suppresses the rebellion--Discontent of the Duc d'Epernon--The d.u.c.h.esse de Bar and the Duc de Lorraine arrive in France--Illness of Queen Elizabeth of England--Her death--Indisposition of the French King--Sully at Fontainebleau--Confidence of Henri IV in his wife--His recovery--Renewed pa.s.sion of Henry for Madame de Verneuil--Anger of the Queen--Quarrel of the Comte de Soissons and the Duc de Sully--The edict--Treachery of Madame de Verneuil--Insolence of the Comte de Soissons--A royal rebuke--Alarm of Madame de Verneuil--Hopes of the Queen--Jealousy of the Marquise--The dinner at Rosny--The King pacifies the province of Lower Normandy--The Comte de Soissons prepares to leave the kingdom--Is dissuaded by the King--Official apology of Sully--Reception of Alexandre-Monsieur into the Order of the Knights of Malta--Death of the d.u.c.h.esse de Bar--Grief of the King--The Papal Nuncio--Treachery near the throne--A revelation--The Duc de Villeroy--A stormy audience--Escape of L'Hote--His pursuit--His death--Ignominious treatment of his body--Madame de Verneuil a.s.serts her claim to the hand of the King--The Comte d'Auvergne retires from the Court--Madame de Verneuil requests permission to quit France--Reply of the King--Indignation of Marie--The King resolves to obtain the written promise of marriage--Insolence of the favourite--Weakness of Henry--He asks the advice of Sully--Parallel between a wife and a mistress--A lame apology--The two Henrys--Reconciliation between the King and the favourite--Remonstrances of Sully--A delicate dilemma--Extravagance of the Queen--The ”Pot de Vin”--The royal letter--Evil influences--Henry endeavours to effect a reconciliation with the Queen--Difficult diplomacy--A temporary calm--Renewed differences--A minister at fault--Mademoiselle de la Bourdaisiere--Mademoiselle de Beuil--Jealousy of Madame de Verneuil--Conspiracy of the Comte d'Auvergne--Intemperance of the Queen--Timely interference--Confidence accorded by the Queen to Sully--A dangerous suggestion--Sully reconciles the royal couple--Madame de Verneuil is exiled from the Court--She joins the conspiracy of her brother--The forged contract--Apology of the Comte d'Entragues--Promises of Philip of Spain to the conspirators--Duplicity of the Comte d'Auvergne--He is pardoned by the King--His treachery suspected by M. de Lomenie--D'Auvergne escapes to his government:--Is made prisoner and conveyed to the Bastille--His self-confidence--A devoted wife--The requirements of a prisoner--Hidden doc.u.ments--The treaty with Spain--The Comtesse d'Entragues--Haughty demeanour of Madame de Verneuil--The mistress and the minister--Mortification of Sully--Marriage of Mademoiselle de Beuil--Henry embellishes the city of Paris and undertakes other great national works.
A few weeks after the birth of Madame Elisabeth the Court returned to Paris, where, in honour of the little Princess, several ballets were danced and a grand banquet was given to the sovereigns by the n.o.bility; but the heart of the Queen was too full of chagrin to enable her to a.s.sist with even a semblance of gratification at the festivities in which those around her were absorbed. The new-born tenderness lately exhibited by her husband had gradually diminished; while the a.s.sumption of the favourite, who was once more in her turn about to become a mother, exceeded all decent limits. The daily and almost hourly disputes between the royal couple were renewed with greater bitterness than ever, and when, on the 21st of January, Madame de Verneuil, like herself, and again under the same roof, gave birth to a daughter,[210] Marie de Medicis no longer attempted to suppress the violence of her indignation; nor was it until the King, alike chafed and bewildered by her upbraidings, declared that should she persist in rendering his existence one of perpetual turmoil and discomfort he would fulfil his former threat of compelling her to quit the kingdom, that he could induce her to desist from receiving him with complaints and reproaches. Henry was aware that he had discovered, by the a.s.sertion of this resolve, a certain method of silencing his unfortunate consort, who, had she been childless, would in all probability gladly have sacrificed her ambition to her sense of dignity; but Marie was a mother, and she felt that her own destiny must be blended with that of her offspring. Thus she had nothing left to her save to submit; and deeply as she suffered from the indignities which were heaped upon her as a wife, she shrank from a prospect so appalling as a separation from the innocent beings to whom she had given life.
Meanwhile the King, wearied alike of the exigencies of his mistress and the cold, unbending deportment of the Queen, again made approaches to Mademoiselle de Guise, upon whom he had already, a year or two previously, lavished all those attentions which bespoke alike his admiration and his designs; but he was not destined to be more successful with this lady than before, her intimacy with the Queen, to whose household she was attached, rendering her still more averse than formerly to encourage the licentious addresses of the monarch. The excitement of this new pa.s.sion nevertheless sufficed for a time to wean him from his old favourite; and forgetting his age in his anxiety to win the favour of the beautiful and witty Marguerite, he appeared on the 19th of February in a rich suit of white satin in the court of the Tuileries, where he had invited the n.o.bles of his Court to run at the ring, and acquitted himself so dexterously that he twice carried it off amid the acclamations of the spectators.
From this period until the end of the month the royal circle were engaged in one continual succession of festivities, wherein high play, banquets, ballets, b.a.l.l.s (at the latter of which a species of dance denominated _Braules_, and corrupted by the English into _Brawls_, which became afterwards so popular at the Court of Elizabeth, was of constant occurrence, as well as the _Corranto_, a livelier but less graceful movement), and theatrical representations formed the princ.i.p.al features.
An Italian company invited to France by the Queen, under the management of Isabella Andreini, also appeared before the Court, but no record is left of the nature of their performance.[211]