Volume III Part 3 (1/2)
[36] Francois Le Clerc du Tremblay, known as the Capuchin Father Joseph, was the elder son of Jean Le Clerc, President of the Court of Requests at Paris, and of Marie de la Fayette. His sponsors were the Due d'Alencon (brother of Francis II) and the d.u.c.h.esse d'Angouleme, the natural sister of that Prince. He was a man of great learning and talent, but cunning, ambitious, and unscrupulous, who had attached himself to the fortunes of Richelieu, of whom he was the _ame d.a.m.nee_, and who endeavoured to cause him, in his turn, to be admitted to the honours of the conclave. He died suddenly at Ruel on the 18th of December 1638; and some years subsequently the d.u.c.h.esse de Guise having, at her own expense, repaved the choir of the Capuchin church, the tomb of _la pet.i.te Eminence Grise_, as he was familiarly called by the Parisians, was placed beneath that of Pere Ange (the Cardinal-Due de Joyeuse), in front of the steps of the high altar. Richelieu had caused an eulogistic and lengthy inscription on marble to be affixed to his sepulchre; but the Parisians, who more truly estimated his merits, added others considerably more pungent, among which the most successful was the following:--
”Pa.s.sant, n'est-ce pas chose etrange Qu'un demon soit aupres d'un ange?”
[37] Le Va.s.sor, vol. ii. pp. 118, 119. Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. v. pp.
49-51. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 184, 185.
[38] Henri de Gondy, Master of the King's Oratory, and subsequently Archbishop of Paris, on the resignation of his uncle Pierre, Cardinal de Gondy, who died in 1616.
[39] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 639.
[40] Le Va.s.sor, vol. ii. pp. 121, 122.
[41] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. v. pp. 53-56.
[42] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 453, 454. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 187, 188.
Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 129. Brienne, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 339. Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. ii. pp. 306-309.
[43] _Mercure Francais_, 1619. Le Va.s.sor, vol. ii. pp. 150, 151. Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. v. pp. 59-63. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 188-191.
[44] Le Va.s.sor, vol. ii. pp. 153, 154.
CHAPTER III
1620
Louis XIII creates numerous Knights of the Holy Ghost without reference to the wishes of his mother--Indignation of Marie de Medicis--Policy of De Luynes--Richelieu aspires to the cardinalate--A Court quarrel--The Comtesse de Soissons conspires to strengthen the party of the Queen-mother--Several of the great Princes proceed to Angers to urge Marie to take up arms--Alarm of the favourite--He seeks to propitiate the Duc de Guise--The double marriage--Caustic reply of the Duc de Guise--Royal alliances--An ex-Regent and a new-made Duke--The Queen-mother is threatened with hostilities should she refuse to return immediately to the capital--She remains inflexible--Conde advises the King to compel her obedience--De Luynes enters into a negotiation with Marie--An unskilful envoy--Louis XIII heads his army in Normandy--Alarm of the rebel Princes---They lay down their arms, and the King marches upon the Loire--The Queen-mother prepares to oppose him--She garrisons Angers--The Duc de Mayenne urges her to retire to Guienne--She refuses--Treachery of Richelieu--League between Richelieu and De Luynes--Marie de Medicis negotiates with the King--Louis declines her conditions--The defeat at the Ponts de Ce--Submission of the Queen-mother--A royal interview--Courtly duplicity--Marie retires to Chinon--The Ducs de Mayenne and d'Epernon lay down their arms--The Court a.s.semble at Poitiers to meet the Queen-mother--Louis proceeds to Guienne, and Marie de Medicis to Fontainebleau--The King compels the resumption of the Romish faith in Bearn--The Court return to Paris.
As no Chevaliers of the Order of the Holy Ghost had been created since the death of Henri IV, their number had so much decreased that only twenty-eight remained; and De Luynes, aware that himself and his brothers would necessarily be included in the next promotion, urged Louis XIII to commence the year (1620) by conferring so coveted an honour upon the princ.i.p.al n.o.bles of the kingdom. The suggestion was favourably received; and so profusely adopted, that no less than fifty-five individuals were placed upon the list, at the head of which stood the name of the Duc d'Anjou. But although some of the proudest t.i.tles in France figured in this creation, it included several of minor rank who would have been considered ineligible during the preceding reigns; a fact which was attributed to the policy of the favourite, who was anxious to render so signal a distinction less obnoxious in his own case and that of his relatives; while others were omitted whose indignation at this slight increased the ranks of the malcontents.[45]
Marie de Medicis, who had not yet forgiven the royal declaration in favour of the Prince de Conde, was additionally irritated that these honours should have been conceded without her partic.i.p.ation; for she immediately perceived that the intention of the favourite had been to reserve to himself the credit of obtaining so signal a distinction for the n.o.blemen and gentlemen upon whom it was conferred, and to render her own helplessness more apparent. As such an outrage required, however, some palliation, and De Luynes was anxious not to drive the Queen-mother to extremity, he induced the King to forward for her inspection the names of those who were about to receive the blue ribbon, offering at the same time to include one or two of her personal adherents should she desire it; but when, in running her eye over the list, Marie perceived that, in addition to the deliberate affront involved in a delay which only enabled her to acquire the knowledge of an event of this importance after all the preliminary arrangements were completed, it had been carefully collated so as to exclude all those who had espoused her own cause, and to admit several who were known to be obnoxious to her, she coldly replied that she had no addition to make to the orders of the King, and returned the doc.u.ment in the same state as she had received it.[46]
The indignation expressed by the Queen-mother on this occasion was skilfully increased by Richelieu, who began to apprehend that so long as Marie remained inactively in her government he should find no opportunity of furthering his own fortunes; while, at the same time, he was anxious to revenge himself upon De Luynes, who had promised to recompense his treachery to his royal mistress by a seat in the Conclave; and it had been confided to him that the first vacant seat was pledged to the Archbishop of Toulouse, the son of the Duc d'Epernon. In order, therefore, at once to indulge his vengeance, and to render his services more than ever essential to the favourite, and thus wring from his fears what he could not antic.i.p.ate from his good faith, he resolved to exasperate the Queen-mother, and to incite her to open rebellion against her son and his Government.
Circ.u.mstances favoured his project. The two first Princes of the Blood, M. de Conde and the Comte de Soissons, had at this period a serious quarrel as to who should present the finger-napkin to the King at the dinner-table; Conde claiming that privilege as first Prince of the Blood, and Soissons maintaining that it was his right as Grand Master of the Royal Household. The two great n.o.bles, heedless of the presence of the sovereign, both seized a corner of the _serviette_, which either refused to relinquish; and the quarrel became at length so loud and so unseemly that Louis endeavoured to restore peace by commanding that it should be presented by his brother the Duc d'Anjou. But although the two angry Princes were compelled to yield the object of contention, he could not reduce them to silence; and this absurd dissension immediately split the Court into two factions; the Duc de Guise and the friends of the favourite declaring themselves for Conde; while Mayenne, Longueville, and several others espoused the cause of the Comte de Soissons.
It is almost ludicrous to be compelled to record that out of a quarrel, originating in a servile endeavour on the part of the two princ.i.p.al n.o.bles of a great nation to usurp the functions of a _maitre-d'hotel_, grew an attempt at civil war, which, had not the treachery of Richelieu nipped it in the bud, might have involved France in a sanguinary and unnatural series of conflicts that would have rendered that country a frightful spectacle to all Europe. Thus it was, however; for the Comtesse de Soissons, the mother of the young Prince, who was then only in his seventeenth year, eagerly seized so favourable an opportunity to weaken the party of the Prince de Conde, whose sudden influence threatened the future prospects of her son, by attaching to the cause of Marie de Medicis all the n.o.bles who were opposed to the favourite, and consequently to the first Prince of the Blood by whom he was supported in his pretensions.
The ambition of the Countess was to obtain for her young son the hand of Madame Henriette de France, the third sister of the King; an alliance which she was aware would be strenuously opposed by Conde, and which she could only hope to accomplish through the good offices of the Queen-mother; and it was consequently essential that, in order to carry out her views, she should labour to augment the faction of Marie. Her efforts were successful; between the 29th of March and the 30th of June the Ducs de Mayenne and de Vendome, the Grand Prior (the brother of the latter), the Comte de Candale, the Archbishop of Toulouse, and Henry of Savoy, Duc de Nemours, all proceeded to Angers; an example which was speedily followed by the Comte and Comtesse de Soissons, and the Ducs de Longueville, de Tremouille, de Retz, and de Rohan; who, one and all, urged Marie de Medicis once more to take up arms, and a.s.sert her authority.[47]
These successive defections greatly alarmed the favourite, who became more than ever urgent for the return of the Queen-mother to the capital; but a consciousness of her increasing power, together with the insidious advice of Richelieu, rendered her deaf alike to his representations and to his promises. In this extremity De Luynes resolved to leave no means untried to regain the Duc de Guise; and for this purpose the King was easily persuaded to propose a double marriage in his family, by which it was believed that his own allegiance and that of the Prince de Conde to the royal cause, or rather to that of the favourite, would be alike secured. M. de Conde was to give his daughter to the Prince de Joinville, the elder son of M. de Guise; while the latter's third son, the Duc de Joyeuse, was to become the husband of Mademoiselle de Luynes.
The marriage articles were accordingly drawn up, although the two last-named personages were still infants at the breast; but when he took the pen in his hand to sign the contract, De Guise hesitated, and appeared to reflect.
”What are you thinking of, Monsieur le Duc?” inquired Louis, as he remarked the hesitation of the Prince.
”I protest to you, Sire,” was the reply, ”that, while looking at the name of the bride, I had forgotten my own, and that I was seeking to recall it.”