The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume II Part 11

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.

[147] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 142-152. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 36-38.

D'Estrees, _Mem_. pp. 294-298. Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. pp. 473, 474.

[148] Henri, Duc de Luxembourg-Piney, was a descendant of the celebrated Comte de Saint-Pol, and the last male representative of his family. He died in 1616, leaving one daughter, Marguerite Catherine de Luxembourg, who married the Comte Charles Henri de Clermont-Tonnerre, and became the mother of Madeleine, wife of Francois de Montmorency, commonly known in history as the Marechal de Luxembourg.

[149] Pierre de Gondy, Bishop of Langres, and subsequently first Archbishop of Paris, who was created a Cardinal by Sixtus V in 1587. He died in the French capital in 1616, in his eighty-fourth year.

[150] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. ii. pp. 697-700.

[151] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 153, 154. _Mercure Francais_, 1612.

[152] Cosmo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, succeeded his father Ferdinand in 1609. He was a Prince of liberal and peaceful sentiments, and greatly endeared himself to his subjects. He married Marie Madeleine, Archd.u.c.h.ess of Austria, sister of the Queen of Spain and the d.u.c.h.ess of Savoy; and died in 1621, leaving his duchy to his elder son, Ferdinand II.

[153] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. ii. pp. 647-654.

[154] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 39, 40. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 160.

D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 398.

[155] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 474.

[156] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 80.

[157] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 161. Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 80.

CHAPTER V

1613

State of France at the commencement of 1613--Characteristics of the Baron de Luz--His imprudence--He is challenged by the Chevalier de Guise, and killed--The Regent summons a council--The n.o.bles a.s.semble at the Hotel de Guise--The Duke is forbidden to enter the Louvre, and ordered to disperse his friends--M. de la Rochefoucauld refuses to leave the Hotel de Guise--He is exiled from the Court--Moderation of the Duc de Guise--Inflexibility of Marie de Medicis--Her anger against the Chancellor--She holds a secret council--The Prince de Conde is directed to demand the seals from M. de Sillery, and to command him to retire from the capital--Marie determines to arrest the Duc d'Epernon--Her designs are thwarted by Concini--The Marquis d'Ancre introduces the son of M. de Luz to the Regent--Marie promises him her protection-- Ba.s.sompierre endeavours to effect the recall of the Duc de Guise, and succeeds--His reception by the Regent--Arrogance of the d.u.c.h.esse de Guise--The Prince de Conde forms an alliance with M. de Guise-- Influence of the Prince--He demands the captaincy of the Chateau Trompette--Over-zealous friends--Alarm of the Queen--She resolves to conciliate the Guises--The Marquis d'Ancre and his wife incur the displeasure of the Queen--Marie purchases the loyalty of the Duc de Guise--Dignified bearing of the Duc d'Epernon--A reconciliation--"Put not your faith in princes"--Exultation of the ministers--A private audience--Eavesdroppers--Mortification of the Prince de Conde--Concini endeavours to conciliate the Queen--He is repulsed--The young Baron de Luz challenges the Chevalier de Guise--Wounds his adversary, and is killed--Royal solicitude--Death of the Chevalier de Guise--Banquet at the Hotel de Conde--Affront to Ba.s.sompierre--Concini retires to Amiens--The Duc de Vendome joins the faction of the Prince de Conde--A new intrigue--Suspicions of the Regent--Midnight visitors--The Prince de Conde and the Duc de Vendome leave the Court--The Regent refuses to sanction the departure of M. de Guise--The Queen and her favourite--The ministers pledge themselves to serve Concini--Peril of Ba.s.sompierre--He determines to leave France--Is dissuaded from his purpose by the Regent--Troubles in Mantua--Negotiation with the Duke of Savoy--James I.

offers the hand of Prince Charles of England to the Princesse Christine--Satisfaction of Marie de Medicis--The Pope takes alarm--The Regent and the Papal Nuncio--Death of the Marechal de Fervaques--Concini is made Marechal de France--Ladies of Honour--The Queen and her foster-sister--The Princesse de Conti--A well-timed visit--The new Marechal--A sensation at Court.

The state of France at the commencement of the year 1613 was precarious in the extreme. As yet no intestine war had broken out, but there existed a sullen undercurrent of discontent and disaffection which threatened, like the sound of distant thunder, to herald an approaching storm. The Court was, as we have shown, the focus of anarchy and confusion; the power and resources of the great n.o.bles had steadily increased since the death of Henri IV, and had they only been united among themselves, the authority of Marie de Medicis must have been set at nought, and the throne of the boy-King have tottered to its base. The provinces were, in many instances, in open opposition to the Government; the ministers indignant at the disrespect shown alike to their persons and to their functions; the Parliament jealous of the encroachments on its privileges; the citizens outraged by the lavish magnificence, and indignant at the insolent a.s.sumption of the n.o.bility; and the people irritated and impoverished by the constant exactions to which they were subjected in order to supply the exigencies of the state.

Such was the condition of a kingdom dependent for its prosperity upon the rule of a favourite-ridden woman, and a helpless child.

We have already stated the anxiety of the Guises to revenge themselves upon M. de Luz; and we have now to relate the tragedy which supervened upon this resolution. It appears to be the common fate of all favourites to accelerate their own ruin by personal imprudence; nor was M. de Luz destined to prove an exception. His life had been a varied one; but the spirit of intrigue and enterprise with which he was endowed had enabled him to bid defiance to adverse fortune, and to struggle successfully against every reverse. Patient under disappointment because strong in his confidence of future compensation, he was less cautious in his more prosperous moments; and in one of these he was unhappy enough to afford a pretext for the violence of the enemies who had vowed his ruin.

Disregarding the presence of the Chevalier de Guise, or perhaps unconscious of his propinquity, De Luz, shortly after the return of the Duc de Bellegarde to Languedoc, was relating to a group of n.o.bles, who were lounging away the time in the great gallery of the Louvre while awaiting the appearance of the King, the circ.u.mstances which preceded the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Duc de Guise at Blois; boasting that he was present with the Marechal de Brissac when Henri III decided upon the murder, and had even prevented the former from intimating his danger to the intended victim. The Chevalier, who was young, impetuous, and, like all the members of his house, utterly careless of the consequences of his actions, would have felt himself justified in demanding satisfaction of M. de Luz simply for the insult offered to his brothers and himself by his abrupt and unscrupulous abandonment of their interests, and the affront given to their friend and ally the Duc de Bellegarde; but when to these real or imagined injuries was superadded the fact that he had publicly boasted of the share which he had gratuitously and wantonly taken in the murder of his father, no wonder that the fiery young man, disregarding alike the royal edicts against duelling and the dictates of humanity, at once resolved to silence the vauntings of the quasi-a.s.sa.s.sin, or to perish in the attempt.

At the moment in which he volunteered the fatal communication De Luz was protected by the roof that covered him. It was certain death to any individual, whatever might be his rank, who drew a hostile weapon within the precincts of the royal palace; and De Guise was aware that by such an act of imprudence he might forfeit all hope of vengeance. He affected, consequently, not to have overheard the imprudent admission of the baron, and controlled the impulse which would have led him to fell him as he stood; but his thirst of vengeance only became the more unquenchable by delay, and he watched the movements of his destined victim with an a.s.siduity which soon enabled him to slake it.

On the 5th of January, at mid-day, his carriage encountered that of M.

de Luz in the Rue St. Honore, when he immediately summoned him to alight and defend himself; and at the second pa.s.s stretched him lifeless at his feet.[158]

The Regent, who since she had pardoned M. de Luz had found him a most zealous and efficient adherent, was angered beyond measure, not only at the wilful disregard of the royal authority exhibited by the Chevalier, but also at the loss of an active and useful agent; and the intelligence had no sooner reached her than, rising from her dinner, which she had just commenced when the news was brought, she burst into tears, and retired to her closet. When she had become somewhat more calm she a.s.sembled the Council, by which she was advised to refer the matter to the Parliament; but while the subject was under deliberation tidings reached the Louvre that a numerous body of n.o.bles had a.s.sembled at the hotel of the Duc de Guise, who was himself about to set forth for the palace attended by a strong party of his friends. Alarmed at the prospect of such a demonstration, which bore the semblance of an enforcement of impunity rather than of a deprecation of justice, the Queen was entreated by those around her to despatch M. de Chateauvieux to the residence of the Duc de Guise, to forbid his approach to the royal presence until formally summoned to appear; and to command in her name that all the persons who had a.s.sembled under his roof should immediately retire.