The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume II Part 6

In this attempt she, however, failed; the Duc de Bouillon being well aware that should the prescribed period be suffered to elapse without some pledge upon the part of the Government, the demand would be evaded by a declaration that the allotted time was past; and accordingly the Protestants persisted in their claim with so much pertinacity that the Regent found herself compelled to authorize their meeting at Saumur in the course of the ensuing year.

Under these circ.u.mstances it is scarcely matter of surprise that despite the opposition of the finance minister, M. de Villeroy succeeded in effecting the establishment of a garrison at Lyons; and the misunderstanding was shortly afterwards renewed between the two functionaries by a demand on the part of the State Secretary that the maintenance of the troops should be defrayed from the general receipts of the city. The Orientals have a proverb which says, "it is the last fig that breaks the camel's back," and thus it was with Sully.

Exasperated by this new invasion of his authority, he lost his temper; and after declaring that the citizens of Lyons were at that moment as competent to protect themselves as they had ever been, and that it was consequently unreasonable to inflict so useless an outlay upon the King, he accused the Chancellor, who had favoured the pretensions of Villeroy, of leaguing with him to ruin the Crown; a denunciation which, as it equally affected all the other ministers who had espoused the same cause, sealed his own overthrow.[92]

Satisfied of a fact so self-evident, Sully resolved no longer to breast the torrent of jealousy and hatred against which he found himself called upon to contend, but without further delay to resign at once the cares and dignities of office; a design which was vehemently opposed not only by his own family, but also by his co-religionists, the whole of whom, save only such of their leaders as had private reasons for seeking his dismissal, were keenly sensible of the loss which their cause must necessarily sustain from the want of his support. The Duke, however, firmly withstood all their expostulations; wearied and disgusted by the inefficiency of his endeavours to protect the interests of the sovereign against the encroachments of extortionate n.o.bles, and the machinations of interested ministers, he felt no inclination to afford a new triumph to his enemies by awaiting a formal dismissal; and he accordingly took the necessary measures for disposing of his superintendence of the finances, and his government of the Bastille (the most coveted because the most profitable of his public offices), in order that he might be permitted in his retirement to retain the other dignities which he had purchased by a long life of labour and loyalty.[93]

While this important affair was in progress, the Duke paid a visit to M.

de Rambure, during which he said with evident uneasiness: "The Bishop of Fenouillet was with me yesterday, and a.s.sured me that in the morning a secret council had been held at the residence of the Papal Nuncio, at which were present the Chancellor, the Marquis d'Ancre, Villeroy, the Bishop of Beziers, and the Duc d'Epernon; and that after a great deal of unseemly discourse, in which the memory of the late King was treated with disrespect and derision, it was decided that everything should be changed, that new alliances should be formed, new friendships encouraged, and new opinions promulgated. It was, moreover, arranged that a letter should be forthwith sent to the Pope, informing him that it was the intention of France to be guided in all things by his advice, while every guarantee should be given to the Duke of Savoy until the conclusion of a proposed alliance with Spain; and finally, that all persons adverse to this line of policy should be compelled to resign their places, especially those who professed the Protestant faith. Thus then, my good De Rambure," he added bitterly, "if I am wise I shall quietly dispose of my places under Government, making as much money of them as I can, purchase a fine estate, and retain the surplus, in order to meet such exigencies as may arise; for I foresee that all the faithful servants of the late King who may refuse to defer to the authority of the Marquis d'Ancre, will have enough upon their hands. As for me," he pursued vehemently, "I would rather die than degrade myself by the slightest concession to this wretched, low-born Italian, who is the greatest rascal of all those concerned in the murder of the King."

"Which," adds Rambure for himself, "he truly is." [94]

Every circ.u.mstance, moreover, conspired to strengthen the Duc de Sully in his resolution. He had, as we have shown, returned to the capital at the express invitation of the Regent; but he had no sooner arrived there than he discovered how little his tenure of office was really desired.

As, however, both his public and private interests required his presence in Paris for a time, he considered it expedient to suppress his indignation, and to hasten his arrangements, in order to be at liberty to withdraw whenever he should be prepared to do so; and he had accordingly no sooner recovered from the fatigue of his journey than he proceeded to pay his respects to the King and his august mother.

On reaching the Louvre he was informed that Louis was at the Tuileries, where he would spend the morning, and that the Regent dined at the Hotel de Zamet; upon which the Duke determined to proceed thither, where he found her attended by the Duc de Villeroy, Ba.s.sompierre, M. and Madame d'Ancre, and the princ.i.p.al members of her household. As Sully was announced Marie uttered a gracious welcome, and ungloving her hand, presented it to him to kiss; which he had no sooner done than she a.s.sured him of her continued regard and requested that he would talk no more of retiring from the service of the King, whose youth and helplessness rendered the good offices of those who had enjoyed the confidence of his royal father doubly necessary to himself; and finally, despite all that had previously occurred, the Duke took his leave almost shaken in his belief that Marie had been induced to sanction his dismissal.

This illusion was, moreover, encouraged by the conduct of the courtiers, who had no sooner ascertained the nature of his reception by the Queen, than they flocked to the a.r.s.enal to compliment him upon his return to Court; and Zamet took an opportunity of impressing upon him that he was indebted for the undisguised favour of Marie to the influence of the Marquis d'Ancre; who subsequently visited him in his turn, but so visibly with the intention of inducing him to uphold the extravagant pretensions which he was about to advance, that Sully did not disguise his disgust, and they separated mutually dissatisfied.

On the morrow the Duke proceeded, according to appointment, to the Louvre, where he was immediately admitted to the private closet of Marie; but he had scarcely crossed the threshold ere he became aware that his contention with Concini had induced a coldness on the part of the Regent, which she strove in vain to conceal. She, however, made no allusion to their interview, confining her complaints to the extortionate importunities of the great n.o.bles, which she declared her resolution to resist; and, by referring them to the Council, cause them to be subjected to so rigorous an examination as must tend to their diminution. She then placed in the hands of the finance minister a list of the demands which had been made upon her, entreating him to a.s.sist her in opposing claims that would end, if satisfied, by ruining the interests alike of the King and of the nation; and she concluded by pledging her royal word that she would uphold the Duke in his opposition, as resolutely as ever he had been supported in his former measures by the deceased monarch. More and more bewildered by this apparent inconsistency, Sully respectfully took possession of the doc.u.ment, declaring his perfect willingness to serve both her Majesty and the state by every means in his power; and he then awaited her pleasure upon other matters of more public importance; but on all else Marie was silent, and the disappointed minister at length withdrew to examine the paper which had been delivered to him, and of which we will transcribe the princ.i.p.al contents as singularly ill.u.s.trative of the venal state of the Court at that period.

The Prince de Conde demanded the captaincy of the fortress of Chateau-Trompette, the government of Blaye, and the princ.i.p.ality of Orange as far as the bank of the Rhone; the Comte de Soissons solicited the captaincy of the old palace of Rouen, and the fortress of Caen, with the tax upon cloth, flax, and hemp, which he had previously endeavoured, as elsewhere stated, to obtain from Henri IV; the Duc de Lorraine requested payment in full of the whole sum specified in his treaty, although he had previously consented to accept two-thirds of the amount; the Duc de Guise demanded the royal a.s.sent to his marriage with Madame de Montpensier, the revocation of all the patent taxes in Provence and the port of Ma.r.s.eilles, and the liquidation of his debts; the Duc de Mayenne, who had warned the Regent to resist the extravagant pretensions of the Princes, also came forward with a demand for large sums independently of those insured to him by his treaty; the Duc d'Aiguillon[95] sought to obtain a donation of thirty thousand crowns, the governments of Bresse and the city of Bourg, together with the emba.s.sy to Spain, and enormous emoluments; the Prince de Joinville, so lately an exile from the Court, requested the government of Auvergne, or failing this, that of the first province which should become vacant; the Duc de Nevers asked for the entire proceeds of the tax upon salt produced in the Rethelois, with the governments of Mezieres and Sainte-Menehould; the Duc d'Epernon demanded the command of a corps of infantry, to be constantly kept in an efficient state, the survivorship of his governments for his son, and that fortifications should be formed at Angouleme and Saintes, with three or four other equally important concessions; the Duc de Bouillon sought the liquidation of some alleged debts, the proceeds of the excise, and salt duties, and all other imposts levied in the viscounty of Turenne, the arrears of pay due to his garrisons, the liquidation of all pensions which had been discontinued during his exile, with the royal a.s.sent to a general a.s.sembly of the Protestants; the Chancellor followed with a demand of all the fees appertaining to the lesser seals, that the salary of his office should be doubled, and that he should have letters of n.o.bility in Normandy. All the officers of the Crown sought an increase of twenty-four thousand livres to their several pensions; members of the Council, augmented emoluments; governors of provinces, the revenues of these provinces which had hitherto reverted to the Crown; munic.i.p.al companies, exemptions and privileges previously unthought of; and finally, Concini, who had arrived in the French capital only a few years previously comparatively dest.i.tute, set forth his requirements to be these--the _baton_ of Marshal of France, the governments of Bourg, Dieppe, and Pont-de-l'Arche, the proceeds of the salt duties of Languedoc, and those of the reduction accorded at Moissets and Feydant.

Such, and much more of the same description, were the contents of the doc.u.ments upon which the wrath of Sully scarcely permitted him to dwell with patience. It was a chaos whence he dreaded even to attempt to draw the elements of order, feeling as he did that every concession made to one of the parties must necessarily evoke the jealousy and indignation of another, while it was utterly impossible, and would, moreover, be dangerously impolitic in any case, to satisfy the pretensions of all.

The enormous sums produced by the imposts, whose transfer from the Crown to individuals was thus unblushingly demanded, would have rendered the Princes to whom they might be granted more wealthy than many of the petty sovereigns of Europe; while the governments and provinces sought to be obtained by others must inevitably make them independent of the King, and thus place the subjects who should have been the support of the throne in direct rivalry with their sovereign. The finance minister was aghast; and the more earnestly he considered the subject, the more he became convinced that there was no alternative save to negative all these egregious claims _en ma.s.se_; a conviction which satisfied him that by fearlessly adopting this course, his tenure of office would, had he still desired to contend with the cabal which had already been formed against him, become utterly impossible.

Nevertheless Sully did not shrink from what he considered an imperative duty; and accordingly he resolved no longer to trust the lip-deep a.s.surances by which he had been beguiled since his return to Court, but immediately to declare his resignation of office, and to follow it up by the most resolute and determined opposition.[96]

He had no sooner, therefore, irrevocably arrived at this decision, than he addressed a letter to the Regent, in which he requested her permission to retire from the Government; and, satisfied that his suit must prove successful, he calmly awaited her reply. Meanwhile, resolved that no reproach should be cast upon him after his departure, he demanded an audience of the King, in order to explain to him the exact state of the royal treasury, and the manner in which its contents had been diminished since the demise of his royal father; but as a private interview with a mere child would not have satisfactorily sufficed to accomplish this object, Sully produced his papers before all the members of the royal household; and while engaged in the necessary explanation, he remarked that the antiquated fashion of his costume, which he had not changed for years, had excited the hilarity of the younger courtiers. He suddenly paused, and after glancing coldly round the giddy circle, looked fixedly at the young monarch, and said with a dignity which chased in an instant every inclination to mirth in the bystanders: "Sire, I am too old to change my habits with every pa.s.sing wind. When the late King, your father of glorious memory, did me the honour of conferring with me upon state affairs, he was in the habit of previously clearing the apartment of all buffoons and mountebanks." [97]

To the Princes of the Blood, the ministers of state, and the n.o.bles of the Court, Sully that day added to the list of his enemies the boy-courtiers of the royal circle.

Thus in heart-burning and uncertainty closed the year which had commenced with the a.s.sa.s.sination of the King. An arrogant and unruly aristocracy, a divided and jealous ministry, and a hara.s.sed and discontented population were its bitter fruits.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_, vol. i. p. 91.

[74] _Mercure Francais_, 1610, p. 505.

[75] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 191, 192.

[76] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 10, 11. D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 379.

[77] _Mercure Francais_, 1610, pp. 510, 511.

[78] Matthieu, _Hist, des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 455.

[79] Sully, _Mem_. vol. viii. pp. 81-84.

[80] _Mercure Francais_, 1610, p. 505.

[81] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 11. L'Etoile, on the contrary (vol. iv. p.

132), a.s.serts that the command was offered to Bouillon, but that he wisely declined it.

[82] Claude de la Chatre was originally one of the pages of the Duc de Montmorency, who continued to protect him throughout his whole career.

He distinguished himself in several battles and sieges, and having embraced the party of the League possessed himself of Berry, which he subsequently surrendered to Henri IV. At the period of his death, which occurred on the 18th of December 1614, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years, he was Marshal of France, Knight of the King's Orders, and Governor of Berry and Orleans.

[83] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 13.

[84] L'Etoile, vol. iv. p. 146.

[85] L'Etoile, vol. iv. p. 147.

[86] Sully, _Mem_. vol. viii. pp. 121-124.

[87] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 183, 184.

[88] Richelieu, _Hist, de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. p. 109.

[89] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 192, 193.

[90] Charles de Lorraine, Duc d'Elboeuf, was the grandson of Rene, Marquis d'Elboeuf, the seventh son of Claude, Duc de Guise. He married Catherine Henriette, the daughter of Henri IV and _La belle Gabrielle_, and was involved in the intrigues of the Court during the ministries both of Richelieu and Mazarin. His posterity terminated in his grandson, Emmanuel-Maurice, who died in 1763, after having served the Emperor in Naples. During his sojourn in Italy the Duc Emmanuel built a superb palace at Portici; and it is worthy of remark that it was while searching for ancient marbles to decorate that edifice that the ruins of Herculaneum were discovered. The subject of the note died in 1657.

[91] It may not be uninteresting to our readers to learn the honours and offices to which Sully had attained at the death of Henri IV. Here follow his t.i.tles: Maximilien de Bethune, Knight, Duc de Henrichemont and Boisbelle; Marquis de Rosny; Comte de Dourdan; Sire d'Orval, Montrond, and St. Amand; Baron d'Espineuil, Bruyeres, le Chatel, Villebon, la Chapelle, Novion, Bagny, and Boutin; King's Counsel in all the royal councils; Captain-Lieutenant of two hundred ordnance men-at arms; Grand Master and Captain-General of the Artillery; Grand Overseer of the highways of France; Superintendent of Finance, and of the royal fortifications and buildings; Governor and Lieutenant-General of his Majesty in Poitou, Chateleraudois, and Loudunois; Governor of Mantes and Gergeau; and Captain of the Bastille.

[92] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 109-113.

[93] Sully, _Mem_, vol. viii. pp. 125-129.

[94] Rambure, MS. _Memoires_, vol. vi. pp. 78, 79.

[95] Henri de Lorraine, Duc d'Aiguillon, peer of France, elder son of the Duc de Mayenne.

[96] Sully, _Mem_, vol. viii. pp. 109-118.

[97] Bonnechose, vol. i. p. 450.

CHAPTER III

1611

A cold correspondence--Increasing influence of the Marquis d'Ancre-- Animosity between the Duc d'Epernon and Concini--Disunion of the Princes de Guise and de Lorraine--Renewed dissensions between M. de Bellegarde and the Marquis d'Ancre--They are reconciled by the Comte de Soissons--Marriage of the Duc de Guise--Jealousy of M. de Soissons --Quarrel between the Prince de Conti and the Comte de Soissons-- Mission of the Duc de Guise--A new rupture--Intervention of the Duc de Mayenne--Alarm of the Regent--Sully leaves Paris--Madame de Sully--Retirement of M. de Thou--Unpopularity of the Duc d'Epernon --Marie de Medicis endeavours to reconcile the Princes--The royal closet--The Protestants prepare for the General a.s.sembly--The Prince de Conde retires to Guienne--The Duc d'Epernon is charged to watch his movements--Arrogance of Concini--Concini seeks to marry his daughter to a son of the Comte de Soissons--Indignation of the Prince--Cunning of Concini--Bouillon returns to Court--He offers his services to the Regent at the General a.s.sembly--He proceeds to Saumur--He desires to be appointed President of the a.s.sembly--He is rejected in favour of M. du Plessis-Mornay--He attributes his defeat to Sully--He resolves to conciliate the ex-Minister of Finance--Meeting of the a.s.sembly--The Court determines to dissolve the meeting--Prudence of Du Plessis-Mornay --Death of M. de Crequy--The Marquis d'Ancre succeeds to the government of Amiens--His insolent disregard of the royal prerogative--Indignation of the ministers--The Regent resents his impertinence--She refuses to receive Madame d'Ancre--Intrigues of the Princesse de Conti--The favourites forgiven--Marie de Medicis issues several salutary edicts--Court festivities--The d.u.c.h.esse de Lorraine arrives at Fontainebleau--Death of the Duc de Mayenne--Death of the Queen of Spain--The d.u.c.h.esse de Lorraine claims the hand of Louis XIII for her daughter--Death of the Duc d'Orleans--Departure of the d.u.c.h.esse de Lorraine--Rival claims--M. de Breves appointed preceptor to the Duc d'Anjou--The Comte de Soissons applies for the duchy of Alencon--Rebuke of the Regent--A hunting-party--A new cabal--Recall of the Marechal de Lesdiguieres--Marie de Medicis purchases the Hotel de Luxembourg.

The first political event worthy of record which occurred in France at the commencement of the year 1611 was the retirement of the Duc de Sully; who, on the 24th of January, received the reply of the Regent to the letter in which he had solicited her permission to withdraw from the Government. It contained a faintly-expressed regret at the resolution he had taken; "but that," as he himself says, "was merely for form's sake;"

[98] and the accuracy of his judgment is evidenced by the fact that only two days after he had again written to declare that his determination was unalterable, the Duc de Bouillon delivered to him the official warrants by which he was discharged from his duties of Superintendent of Finance, and Captain of the Bastille. These were worded in the most flattering terms; and he was guaranteed against all inquiry or annoyance upon either subject from the day in which he resigned his tenure of office. A third warrant was, moreover, added, by which, in consideration of his past services, the Queen bestowed upon him the sum of three hundred thousand livres; and a few days subsequently he received letters from the King and the Regent authorizing him to transfer the command of the Bastille to M. de Chateauvieux;[99] which he had no sooner done than he turned all his attention to the final arrangement of his public accounts, in order that he might, with as little delay as possible, be enabled to quit the capital.[100]

The transfer of the Bastille was shortly afterwards followed by that of the ministry of finance, which was placed under the joint direction of M. de Chateauneuf[101] and the Presidents de Thou and de Jeannin; the latter of whom was, however, invested with the rank of Comptroller-General, which gave him the entire management of the public funds, to the exclusion of his colleagues, who were in consequence only eligible to a.s.sist in the official distribution of the public monies.