The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume I Part 20

On the following day the morning was occupied by the courtiers in tilting at the ring, the prizes being distributed by the Queen and the d.u.c.h.ess of Mantua; and at dusk the whole of the royal party proceeded to the wide plain which lies to the east of Fontainebleau, in the centre of which the Due de Sully had caused a castellated building to be erected, which was filled with rockets and other artificial fireworks, and which was besieged, stormed, and taken by an army of satyrs and savages. This spectacle greatly delighted the Court, while not the least interesting feature of the exhibition was presented by the immense concourse of people (estimated at upwards of twelve thousand) who had collected to witness the magnificent pyrotechnic display, and who rent the air with their acclamations of loyalty.[352]

All further rejoicings were, however, rendered unseasonable by the rapid increase of the plague, which having declared itself with great virulence at Fontainebleau, induced the hasty departure of the Court; and the ill.u.s.trious guests having taken leave of the King and Queen laden with rich presents, their Majesties, with a limited retinue, repaired for a time to Montargis.

These baptismal festivities had not, meanwhile, been without alloy to the dissipated monarch. Despite the fascination of the wily Marquise, and the charms of the Comtesse de Moret, Henry was by no means insensible to the attractions of the many beautiful women who followed in the suite of the Queen at the august ceremony just described; and, among others, he especially honoured with his notice the d.u.c.h.esses de Montpensier[353] and de Nevers.

In neither case, however, was he destined to be successful, both these ladies possessing too much self-respect to accord any attention to his illicit gallantries; and this failure, especially with the latter, of whom he had become seriously enamoured, only tended to re-engage him with Madame de Verneuil. Throughout all the period occupied by the christening festivities, Madame de Nevers[354] had been the object of his special pursuit; but so carefully did she avoid all occasions of private conversation, that the King, unaccustomed to so decided a resistance, became irritated to a degree which induced her to escape from the Court as soon as the found it practicable; and accordingly, on the very day after the festivities, she left Fontainebleau without any previous intimation of such a design, resisting all the efforts made by the sovereign to detain her. Nor did she yield to his subsequent endeavours for her recall, but on the appointment of her husband during the following year to the emba.s.sy at Rome, she accompanied him thither; and several months elapsed ere she reappeared in France, where her duty having compelled her to pay her respects to the Queen on her return, Henry was so little master of himself as to display his mortification by inquiring who she was, and on her name being announced, to exclaim loud enough for her to hear his reply: "Ha! Madame la d.u.c.h.esse de Nevers! She is terribly altered."

The shaft fell harmless. The lady evinced the most perfect composure under the royal criticism, and having fulfilled her duties as a subject towards her sovereigns, she once more withdrew from the Court, and terminated her life as she had commenced it, without scandal or reproach.[355]

FOOTNOTES:

[312] Mamanga was the name given in playfulness by the Dauphin to Madame de Montglat.

[313] Madame de Drou was the governess of the infant Princess.

[314] Mademoiselle de Piolant, femme-de-chambre to the royal children.

[315] Sully, _Mem_. vol. vi. pp. 151-161.

[316] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 45.

[317] Madame Christine de France, who subsequently became d.u.c.h.ess of Savoy.

[318] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 36;

[319] _Memoires_, p. 46.

[320] Charles Emmanuel de Lorraine, Comte de Sommerive, second son of the Duc de Mayenne, who restored the city of Laon to the King in 1594, and died at Naples in 1609.

[321] Charles de Gonzaga de Cleves, Duc de Nevers, was the son of Louis de Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua, Duc de Nevers, and Governor of Champagne (who died in 1601, and to whose t.i.tle he succeeded), and of Henriette de Cleves, d.u.c.h.esse de Nevers et de Rethel.

[322] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, pp. 100, 101.

[323] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_, vol. i. p. 14.

[324] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, p. 102.

[325] _Mercure Francais,_ 1606, p. 106.

[326] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 358.

[327] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 282.

[328] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 102, 103.

[329] Henri de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, Governor of Normandy, peer of France, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, Dauphin d'Auvergne, etc., was born in Touraine in 1573. During the lifetime of his father he bore the t.i.tle of Prince de Dombes. The King confided to him the command of the army which he despatched to Brittany against the Due de Mercoeur. He subsequently became Governor of Normandy, and reduced that revolted province, which still held out for the League, to obedience. He was present at the memorable siege of Amiens in 1597, where he led the vanguard of the army, and accompanied Henry on his expedition against Savoy and Brescia. He was a knight of all the King's Orders, and presided at the a.s.sembly of the n.o.bles of Rouen. He died in Paris, of lingering consumption, in 1608.

[330] The Baron de la Chataigneraie was an officer of the Queen's guard.

[331] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_ vol. i. p. 18. _Mercure Francais_ 1606, p. 107. L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 370 _note_.

[332] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, p. 107.

[333] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 370.

[334] It had frequently been foretold to the King that he would die in a carriage, and the prophecy had made so great an impression upon his mind, that he always endeavoured to conceal it under a show of gaiety, particularly when any accident occurred by which it appeared likely to be verified. In the year 1597, while he was travelling near Mouy, in Picardy, the coach in which he rode was tumbled down a precipice; while the danger incurred at Neuilly was scarcely less great; and the prediction was fatally accomplished in 1610.--_Lettres de Nicolas Pasquier_, book i. letter i.

[335] In order to render this impertinence intelligible, it is necessary to explain that anciently, when the sovereigns of France were about to swallow their first draught at table, the cup-bearer announced in a loud voice, "The King drinks"; upon which a flourish of trumpets, at a given signal, announced the important fact to those who were not present.

[336] Saint-Edme, vol. ii. pp. 237, 238.

[337] Sully, _Mem_. vol. vi. p. 233.

[338] Eleonora de Medicis, wife of Vincent I, Duke of Mantua, and sister to the French Queen.

[339] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 50.

[340] Ippolito Aldobrandini, subsequently Pope Clement VIII, was born at Fano. He was created a cardinal in 1585, and in 1592 succeeded Innocent IX. He reconciled Henri IV to the Church of Rome, attached the duchy of Ferrara to the Holy See, organized the famous congregations _de auxiliis_ on grace and free-will, and contributed to the Peace of Vervins. He died in 1605.

[341] Alessandro de Medicis, who succeeded Clement VIII in 1605, and died the same year.

[342] Claude de la Chatre, Marshal of France, was the son of Claude de la Chatre, Baron de Nancy, Besigny, and Baune de la Maisonfort. He was created Knight of St. Michael and of the Holy Ghost by Henri III in 1588, and was Governor of Berry and Orleans. He distinguished himself in several engagements; and his own valour, combined with the protection of the Connetable de Montmorency, of whom he had been a page in his youth, rapidly acquired for him both fortune and renown. After the death of Henri III, M. de la Chatre embraced the cause of the League, when the Duc de Mayenne, at the solicitation of M. de Guise, created him Marshal of France, in which character he a.s.sisted at what were called by the Leaguers the States of Paris.

[343] Francois de la Grange, Seigneur de Montigny and de Sery, was a member of the Court of Henri III, and was one of his _mignons_. He was, under that monarch, successively gentleman of the bedchamber, captain of the palace-guard, head-steward of the household, and Governor of Berry, Blois, etc. He acquired great distinction by his bravery at the battle of Coutras, and at the sieges of Aubigny, Rouen, and Fontaine-Francaise, and was admitted a knight of the King's Orders the same year (1595).

Finally, in 1616, he was created Marshal of France.

[344] Nicolas du Plessis, Comte de Liancourt, Comte de Beaumont, first equerry to the King, and Governor of Paris. He married Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville, the widow of Henri de Silly, Comte de la Rocheguyon, a lady of extraordinary beauty who had been reared in the Court of Henri III.

[345] Guillaume de Hautemer, Comte de Grancy, Seigneur de Fervaques, knight of the King's Orders, and Marshal of France.

[346] Urbain de Laval, Marquis de Bois-Dauphin, Comte de Bresteau, Seigneur de Persigny, etc., was the son of Rene de Laval, second of the name, Seigneur de Bois-Dauphin, and of Jeanne de Lenoncourt-Monteuil, his second wife. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Ivry, and was created Marshal of France by the Due de Mayenne. Henri IV confirmed him in this dignity, and restored to him his estates of Sably and Chateau-Gontier.

[347] Jean de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin, was the son of Charles de Beaumanoir, who was killed at the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew. He had been brought up a Protestant at the Court of Henri IV, when that monarch was King of Navarre; but after the death of his father he embraced the Catholic religion, and at the age of eighteen commenced the career of arms, in which profession he acquired so much celebrity that he commanded the armies of the King during the absence of the Duc de Joyeuse. In 1595 he was honoured with the cordon of St. Michael, was created a Marshal of France, and his estate of Lavardin was erected into a marquisate. At the coronation of Louis XIII he officiated as Grand Master, was subsequently amba.s.sador-extraordinary in England, and died at Paris in 1614.

[348] Hercule de Rohan, Duc de Montbazon, and Prince de Guemenee, was born in 1568, and was the father, by his first marriage, of Marie de Rohan, who married Louis Charles d'Albert, Duc de Luynes, from whom she was divorced in 1621, and who subsequently became the wife of Claude de Lorraine, Duc de Chevreuse. The Duc de Montbazon had issue by his second marriage with Marie d'Avaugour of Brittany in 1628, Francois, a branch of the house of Soubise, which became extinct in 1787; Marie Eleonore, abbess of the convent of the Trinity at Caen; and Anne, who became the second wife of Louis Charles d'Albert, Duc de Luynes. M. de Montbazon died in 1654.

[349] Diane de France, d.u.c.h.esse d'Angouleme, born in 1538, was the legitimated daughter of Henri II and Philippa Duco, a Piedmontese lady.

She was first married (in 1553)to Horatio Farnese, Duc de Castro, who only survived their union six months; and subsequently to the Marechal de Montmorency, the son of the Connetable, in 1557, of whom she became the widow in 1579. Her firmness and prudence were conspicuous during the civil wars, and it was through her exertions that the reconciliation was effected between Henri III and Henri IV, when the latter was King of Navarre. She died in 1619.

[350] The Prince de Vaudemont was the brother of the Duc de Lorraine.

[351] Maximilien de Bethune, Marquis de Rosny, was the elder son of the Due de Sully and of Anne de Courtenay, his first wife. He was Superintendent of Fortifications, Governor of Mantes and Gergeau, and was destined to succeed his father as Grand Master had he survived him.

He died in 1634.

[352] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, pp. 110-113.

[353] Henriette Catherine, d.u.c.h.esse de Joyeuse, daughter and heiress of Henri de Joyeuse, Comte de Bouchage, Marshal of France, who died a Capuchin under the name of Pere Ange, and of Catherine de la Valette.

She had, in 1597, become the wife of Henri de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, etc., the last Prince of his line, who dying in 1608 left her a widow. After the death of Henri IV (1611), she re-married with Charles de Lorraine, Due de Guise, and died in 1656, at the age of seventy-one years.