The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume II Part 20

For this purpose she despatched four n.o.bles in whom she could confide to Soissons, to negotiate with the Princes, nor was it long ere they ascertained that individual jealousy had tended to create considerable disunion among them; and that each appeared ready, should any plausible pretext present itself, to abandon the others. Under these circ.u.mstances it was not difficult to convince the Due de Guise and his brother that no hostile design had ever been entertained against them, and to induce them to admit their regret at the hasty step which they had taken, together with their anxiety to redeem it. The Duc de Longueville was equally ready to effect his reconciliation with the Court; and having arranged with the royal envoys the terms upon which they consented to return, they were severally declared innocent of all connivance with the rebellious Princes. The Duc de Nevers, however, refused to listen to any compromise with the Crown; and, in defiance of the royal command, continued his endeavours to possess himself of the fortresses of Champagne, which were not comprised in his government.[258]

The persevering disaffection of M. de Nevers occasioned the disgrace of Du Vair, who betrayed an indisposition to proceed against him which so irritated Marie de Medicis that she induced the King to deprive him of the seals, and to bestow them upon Mangot, making Richelieu Secretary of State in his place; that wily prelate having already, by his great talent and ready expedients, rendered himself almost indispensable to his royal patroness.

The arrest of the Prince de Conde had restored the self-confidence of Concini, who shortly afterwards returned to Court and resumed his position with an arrogance and pretension more undisguised than ever.

The Marechale, however, had never recovered from the successive shocks to which she had been subjected by the death of her child and the destruction of her house; but had fallen into a state of discouragement and melancholy which threatened her reason.[259] For days she shut herself up in her apartments, refusing to receive the most intimate of her friends, and complaining that she was bewitched by those who looked at her.[260] Her domestic misery was, moreover, embittered by the public hatred, of which, in conjunction with her husband, she had become more than ever the object. It would appear that the injury already inflicted upon the Italian favourites had stimulated rather than satiated the detestation of the people for both of them. Every grievance under which the lower orders groaned was attributed to the influence of Concini and his wife; they were accused of inciting the Queen-mother to the acts of profusion by which the nation was impoverished; while every disappointment, misfortune, or act of oppression was traced to the same cause. Many affected to believe that Marie was the victim of sorcery, and that such was the real source of the influence of Leonora; and thus the heart-broken mother and unhappy wife, whose morbid imagination had caused her to consider her trials as the result of magical arts, was herself accused of having employed them against her royal benefactress.[261]

The nomination of Richelieu as Secretary of State had been effected through the influence of Concini, who in vain endeavoured to persuade him to resign the bishopric of Lucon, as incompatible with his new duties. The astute prelate had more extended views than those of his patron; nor was it long ere he succeeded in arousing the jealousy of the Marechal, and in convincing him, when too late, that he had, while endeavouring to further his own fortunes, only raised up a more dangerous and potent enemy than any to whom he had hitherto been opposed. Richelieu had no sooner joined the ministry than he made advances to the ancient allies of Henri IV, whom he regarded as the true friends of France; and for the purpose of conciliating those whose support he deemed most essential to the welfare of the kingdom, he hastened to despatch amba.s.sadors to the Courts of England, Holland, and Germany, who were instructed to explain to the several monarchs to whom they were accredited the reasons which had induced Louis XIII to arrest the Prince de Conde, and to a.s.sure them that the measures adopted by the French Court were not induced, as had been falsely represented, by any desire to conciliate either Rome or Spain. To this a.s.surance he subjoined a rapid synopsis of the means employed by the Queen-mother to ensure the peace of the kingdom, and the efforts made by the Prince to disturb it; and, finally, he recapitulated the numerous alliances which had taken place between the royal families of France and Spain during several centuries as an explanation of the close friendship which existed between the two countries.[262] Meanwhile considerable difficulty was experienced in the equipment of the army which had been raised. The royal treasury was exhausted, and in several provinces the revolted n.o.bles had possessed themselves of the public monies; financial edicts were issued which created fresh murmurs among the citizens; the Princes a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of stern and steady defiance; and the year 1616 closed amid apprehension, disaffection, and mistrust.

FOOTNOTES:

[196] Armand Jean du Plessis, afterwards the celebrated Cardinal de Richelieu, was the third son of Francois du Plessis, Seigneur de Richelieu, Knight of the Orders of the King, and Grand Provost of France. He was born in Paris, on the 5th of September 1585; and having been educated with great care, became an accomplished scholar. At the age of twenty-two years he was received as a member of the Sorbonne; and having obtained a dispensation from Paul V for the bishopric of Lucon, was consecrated at Rome by the Cardinal de Givry, in 1607. On his return to France he was introduced to the notice of Marie de Medicis by the Marquise de Guercheville and the Marechal d'Ancre.

[197] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 96.

[198] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. p. 334.

[199] Continuation of Mezeray. _Hist. de France_.

[200] _Vie du Duc d'Epernon_, book iii.

[201] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 439, 440. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 98, 99.

D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 408.

[202] Nicolas Le Jay, Baron de Tilly, etc., Keeper of the Seals, and First President of the Parliament of Paris. He rendered important services both to Henri IV and Louis XIII, and acquired great celebrity as a learned scholar and an upright minister. He died in 1640.

[203] Richelieu, _Mem_. book vi. pp. 268-272.

[204] Matthieu, _Hist, des Derniers Troubles_, p. 550.

[205] Fontenay-Mareuil, _Mem_. pp. 290-298.

[206] Henri, Duc de la Ferte de Senectere, Comte de Saint-Pol et de Chateauneuf, Vicomte de Lestrange et de Cheylard, Baron de Boulogne et de Privas, Seigneur de Saint-Marsal, de Ligny, de Dangu, de Precy, etc.

[207] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 348.

[208] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 101, 102. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 464.

[209] The Duque d'Usseda was the son of the Duque de Lerma.

[210] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 351.

[211] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 352-354.

[212] _Mercure Francais,_ 1615. De Rohan, _Mem_. book i. Mezeray, vol.

xi. pp. 105, 106.

[213] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 498, 499. _Vie du Duc d'Epernon_, book vii.

_Mercure Francais_, 1616. Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 110.

[214] Mademoiselle d'Entragues, who had endeavoured to compel Ba.s.sompierre to fulfil the promise of marriage which he had made to her.

[215] The colonel-generalship of the Swiss Guards.

[216] The Princesse de Conti, whom he privately married.

[217] The Cardinal de Richelieu, who was exasperated at his marriage, and through whose agency Ba.s.sompierre incurred his subsequent disgrace and long imprisonment in the Bastille.

[218] Rambure, MS. _Mem_. vol. vi. pp. 380-386.

[219] Conference of Loudun at the close of the _Mem_. of Philippeau de Pontchartrain, vol. vii. p, 315.

[220] Richelieu, _Mem_. vol. vii. p. 287. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 450.

[221] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 509. Richelieu, _Mem_. book vii. p. 288.

Pontchartrain, _Conference de Loudun,_ p. 406. Rohan, _Mem_. p. 134.

D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 411.

[222] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. ii. p. 14.

[223] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 361.

[224] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 514.

[225] D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 411.

[226] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 363.

[227] Claude Mangot, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and a.s.sistant-Secretary of State.

[228] Pierre Brulart, Seigneur de Puisieux, son of Nicolas Brulart, Seigneur de Sillery et de Puisieux en Champagne, Chancellor of France, was Secretary of State. In 1622 he took Montpellier, and died in 1640.

[229] M. Barbin was Comptroller of the Household of the Queen-mother. "A man of little consequence," says Philippeau de Pontchartrain; "but upright, and well versed in business."

[230] Rohan, _Mem_. book i. _Mem. de la Regence de Marie de Medicis_.

[231] Francoise Bertaut, Dame de Motteville, was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, Gentleman in ordinary of the Bedchamber, and of Louise Bessin de Mathonville, of the Spanish family of Saldana. At the age of fifteen she married Nicolas Langlois, Seigneur de Motteville, a man already advanced in years, but with whom she lived happy until 1641, when she was left a widow with a very slender jointure. Two years subsequently, at the age of twenty-two, she entered the household of Anne of Austria, rather as a personal friend than as an official attendant; a post which she retained for many years with honour, her sweetness of disposition and total absence of ambition causing her to be respected by all parties. She was present at the death of her royal mistress, who, by a bequest of ten thousand crowns, enabled her to quit the Court, and to devote her whole attention to the revision of her well-known Memoirs.

Intimately acquainted with Mesdames de la Fayette and de Sevigne, she for some time maintained a constant intercourse with both; but on the termination of her self-imposed task she retired to the convent of Ste.

Marie de Chaillot, where she died on the 29th of December 1689.

[232] Motteville, _Mem_, edition Pet.i.tot, vol. i. pp. 336, 337.

[233] Motteville, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 337.

[234] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. iii, 112. Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 365.

[235] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 577.

[236] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. pp. 113, 114.