Volume II Part 11 (1/2)
The Duke of Savoy had no sooner ascertained that the hand of Madame Elisabeth was definitely pledged to the Spanish Prince than he declared to the Queen-Regent his readiness to receive that of the Princesse Christine for his own son; and for awhile Marie had affected to favour the alliance; but her great ambition was to see each of her daughters upon a throne, and she had accordingly entered into a negotiation with the English monarch for effecting a marriage between the younger Princess and Henry, Prince of Wales, who was about to be betrothed to the Princess of Savoy. She was the more encouraged to hope for the success of this proposal as James had already been a candidate for the hand of her elder daughter; nor was she deterred by the knowledge that the Grand Duke of Tuscany[152] had offered one of his sisters, with an enormous dowry, to the British Prince.[153]
So eager, indeed, was Marie de Medicis to effect this alliance for the Princesse Christine, that the English Amba.s.sador did not hesitate to declare to his Government that from the manner in which the affair had been urged upon him by M. de Villeroy, he felt a conviction that his royal master might conclude the treaty of marriage whenever he considered it expedient to do so, and might moreover make whatever conditions he thought proper.
While the negotiations were still pending, however, the lamentable death of the high-spirited and promising young Prince terminated at once the struggle for his hand; and Marie de Medicis, to her undisguised regret, found herself unable to realize one of her most cherished hopes.
On the 1st of November the Comte de Soissons, who was suddenly attacked by scarlet fever while still engaged in projects of ambition and revenge, also breathed his last; an event which was destined to effect a complete change in the aspect of the Court. By his decease the governments of Dauphiny and Normandy, as well as the appointment of Grand Master of the King's Household, became vacant; and four-and-twenty hours had not elapsed before as many claimants presented themselves, eager to secure these coveted honours. The Prince had, however, left an infant son, to whom the Queen-Regent immediately transferred both the government of Dauphiny and the place at Court recently held by his father. As regarded Normandy, she resolved to retain it in her own hands, and to appoint a lieutenant-governor to whom she could confide the command of the province; but she had no sooner declared her intention than she was met by the expostulations of M. de Conti, who reminded her that having formerly ceded the government of Dauphiny to the Comte de Soissons at her request, he considered himself ent.i.tled to succeed to that which had now become available by his death.
Determined to retain her possession of the province, and yet fearful of exciting once more the resentment of the Princes of the Blood, the Regent was compelled to propose a compromise, which, after some hesitation, was accepted by M. de Conti. It will be remembered that the Comte d'Auvergne, Charles de Valois, recently become Duc d'Angouleme, had been committed to the Bastille by Henri IV for conspiring with his father and sister against the person of the King and the tranquillity of the realm; nor is it probable that Marie de Medicis would have felt the slightest inclination to show any indulgence to the step-brother of Madame de Verneuil, had it not on the present occasion been a matter of policy to do so. The Marquis de Coeuvres was accordingly instructed to visit him in his prison, and to offer him his liberty provided he would resign to the Prince de Conti his government of Auvergne; and although the Duke at first evinced extreme reluctance to comply with this condition, he was ultimately induced to yield to the solicitations of the royal envoy, who convinced him that the freedom for which he yearned so eagerly could be purchased at no other price.[154]
The body of the Comte de Soissons was conveyed to the Chartreuse at Gaillon, and there deposited in the tomb of his ancestors;[155] and before the close of the month the Queen-Regent a.s.sisted, at the Hotel de Soissons in Paris, at the baptism of his son, which was celebrated in the presence of all the most distinguished personages of the Court.[156]
At this period a new cabal was organized which effectually neutralized all attempt at opposition. The chief of this formidable faction was the Prince de Conde; and it was moreover composed of the Ducs de Nevers, de Mayenne, and de Longueville, the Marechal de Bouillon, and the Marquis d'Ancre. By this combination of rank, influence, and favour, the Guises, the Duc d'Epernon, and their adherents saw themselves thrown into the background, and threatened with utter annihilation as a political party.
The Connetable de Montmorency, who believed the power of the Guises to be firmly established, and who had consequently allied himself to their interests, was absent in Languedoc, of which province he was governor; while the Grand Equerry, M. de Bellegarde, who was also their friend, was sojourning in Burgundy; and thus they found themselves exposed, almost without support, to the evil offices of the rival faction. The Queen openly espoused the cause of M. de Conde and his party, while the ministers soon saw themselves utterly deprived of both influence and credit; and at length, seriously alarmed by the posture of affairs, the Duc de Guise wrote to entreat M. de Bellegarde to return with all speed to Paris, in order to a.s.sist him in his endeavour to overthrow the rapidly-growing power of their mutual adversaries. M. le Grand was preparing to comply with this request, when an order to the same effect reached him from the Regent, which tended to hasten his departure; but on arriving at Sens he was met by one of his friends, who warned him not to trust himself in the capital, as he had only been recalled in order that he might either be bribed or frightened into the resignation of his government, of which the Marquis d'Ancre had undertaken to effect the transfer to the Duc de Mayenne.
In consequence of this intimation M. le Grand, instead of appearing at Court in compliance with the royal mandate, returned in all haste to Languedoc, and the Duc de Guise found himself deprived of his antic.i.p.ated a.s.sistance.[157] Bellegarde himself, who attributed this attempt to deprive him of his government to the Baron de Luz--who through the influence of Ba.s.sompierre had been reinstated in the favour of the Queen, and had consequently abandoned the faction of the Guises, of whose projects and designs he was cognizant, in order to espouse the interests and to serve the ambition of the Marquis d'Ancre--vowed vengeance against the recreant baron, and complained bitterly to his friends of the insult to which he had been subjected through this unworthy agency.
The Guises, already apprehensive of the consequences which might accrue to themselves from the defection of M. de Luz, were only too ready to sympathize with the indignant Duke, and unfortunately for all parties they did not confine their sympathy to mere words. Ever prompt and reckless, they at once resolved to revenge themselves upon their common enemy; nor was it long ere they carried their fatal determination into effect.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 394.
[132] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 78.
[133] Rambure, MS. _Mem_. vol. vi. p. 81.
[134] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 175-177.
[135] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. ii. pp. 607-612.
[136] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 127.
[137] Henri de Lorraine, Due d'Aiguillon, who had succeeded to the t.i.tle of his late father.
[138] Siri, _Mem. Rec._ vol. ii. pp. 618-620.
[139] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 30, 31.
[140] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. ii. pp. 640-642.
[141] Charles de Longueval, Comte de Buquoy, was so eminently distinguished for his military talents that Philip III of Spain and the Emperor Ferdinand II confided to him the command of their joint armies in 1619. He completely defeated the forces of the malcontents in Bohemia; and then marched upon Hungary, which had just elected Bethlem-Gabor as its sovereign. In 1621 he overcame the troops of the Magyar monarch, which were entirely routed; but was killed the same year in a skirmish with a small party of the enemy.
[142] Don Rodrigo Calderon was a statesman rendered famous by his extraordinary elevation and his equally remarkable reverses. Born at Antwerp, the son of a Spanish trooper and a Flemish woman of low extraction, his talents ultimately raised him to the rank of confidant and favourite of the Duque de Lerma, prime minister of Philip III, through whose influence he subsequently became Conde d'Oliva, Marques de Siete-Iglesias, and secretary of state. In 1618 the disgrace of his patron involved his own ruin. Accused of having poisoned the Queen Marguerite, he was (in 1619) committed to a dungeon, and two years afterwards was sacrificed by the Conde-Duque d'Olivares to the public hatred against the Duque de Lerma. He perished upon the scaffold in 1621.
[143] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. pp. 78, 79.
[144] Francois Paris de Lorraine, Chevalier de Guise.
[145] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 139.
[146] _Mem. du Duc de Rohan_, book i. _Vie de Du Plessis-Mornay_, book iii.