The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume II Part 26

Shortly after the transfer of Madame d'Ancre to the Conciergerie she was put upon her trial; but as her mental hallucination, together with her estrangement from her husband, rendered it probable that sufficient proof of political delinquency could not be adduced against her to justify an extreme sentence, and as her escape from the scaffold must necessarily tend to render his tenure of the confiscated property of Concini (of which he had already obtained the reversion) difficult, if not impossible, De Luynes did not hesitate to tamper with her judges, and to induce them, alike by bribes and threats, to accomplish her death. For this purpose a second charge was coupled with that of _lese-majeste_, which was brought conjointly against herself and her murdered husband. She was accused of sorcery as well as of conspiring against the state; of casting alike nativities to compa.s.s the destruction of the King, and cannon for the service of the disaffected Princes; together with a host of other crimes, none of which could be proved against her. So palpable, indeed, was the motive of her persecutors, that it excited the popular indignation; and the ma.s.ses, who had so recently execrated the name of the unfortunate woman, began, ere the conclusion of her trial, to look upon her only as the victim of De Luynes. "You will see," said some of the citizens, as they learnt with what dignified calmness and logical precision she refuted the several charges brought against her, "that here the case of the Duc de Biron will be reversed--like her he was the victim of policy, but he died like a woman, while she will meet her fate like a man."

And they were correct in their conclusion. Whatever might have been her faults while she continued the favourite of fortune, Leonora Galiga was grand in her adversity; and one of her judges was so much overpowered by his conviction of her innocence, that on recollecting the pledge which he had given to De Luynes to decide upon her guilt, he fainted and was carried from the Court. When accused of treason against the state, the prisoner replied by reminding her accusers of her total estrangement from her husband during the last two years, throughout which period he had been all-powerful with the Queen-mother, and her own consequent loss of influence; and when questioned as to the nature of the sorcery by which she had so long governed her royal mistress, she answered that it was simply the magic exercised by a strong mind over a weak one.[311]

To the other charges she responded with equal composure and conclusiveness; and many among them were of so puerile a character that, despite the fearful position in which she was placed, she could not suppress a smile of mingled pity and amus.e.m.e.nt.

She was foredoomed, however; and on the 8th of July the sentence was p.r.o.nounced. It was in truth a frightful one! Both the husband and the wife were declared guilty of _lese-majeste_ divine and human; and she herself was condemned to lose her head, and to be afterwards burned; their house was to be levelled with the ground; their property, not only in France, but also all that they possessed at Rome and Florence, was to be confiscated to the Crown; and their son deprived of his rank, and rendered incapable of holding any office in the kingdom.[312]

When this sentence was declared the wretched woman, who had never antic.i.p.ated a more severe fate than exile, exclaimed in a piteous voice: "Oime poveretta!" but shortly recovering herself, she resumed the same calm courage which she had previously evinced.

Perhaps the most merciful portion of her sentence was that which condemned her to suffer on the same day; and for this she was undoubtedly indebted to the impatience of De Luynes, who did not feel himself secure of the succession until she should have ceased to breathe. The revelations which she had made of the extent of her wealth during the preliminary examinations in the prison had sealed her fate, as they so far exceeded all his antic.i.p.ations that they silenced every throb of compunction and negatived every other feeling; and they thus at least spared her a night of agony during which she might have brooded over the miserable prospects of her idolized son.

It is painful to reflect upon the position which the Marquise had filled, and to see her thus shaken and withered both in mind and body; abandoned by the protectress to whom she had clung so long and so confidingly; widowed by violence; separated from her only surviving child; and compelled to drain her cup of bitterness to the very dregs.

Not a pang was, however, voluntarily spared to her. She might, in consideration of her rank as the wife of a Marshal of France, and out of respect for the Queen-mother, of whom she had not only been the foster-sister but also the familiar friend, have been conveyed to the place of execution in a covered carriage, and thus have been in some degree screened from the public gaze; but no such delicacy was observed.

The criminal's cart, with its ghastly f.a.ggot for a seat, was her ordained conveyance; but her step did not falter as she stepped into the vehicle which had been previously tenanted by the vilest and most degraded culprits. Never had there been seen so dense a crowd in the Place de Greve; and as she glanced hurriedly around, unaware of the popular reaction of feeling, she cowered for an instant panic-struck, and murmured helplessly: "Oh, what a mult.i.tude to gaze upon a miserable woman!"

Not a word, not a gesture of vengeance or of hate, escaped, however, from the populace. Her deportment had been so dignified, her courage so great, her piety so perfect, that those who were once her bitterest enemies looked on her through their tears. Her charities had been unremitting and extensive; and those whom she had aided in their necessities had thronged, through a morbid and mingled feeling of grat.i.tude and awe, to see her die.[313]

Her head fell--her body was burned--and her ashes were scattered to the wind.

De Luynes had, as we have stated, const.i.tuted himself her heir; but it was not without difficulty that he succeeded in appropriating the princ.i.p.al portion of the coveted wealth of his victims. Du Vair, with a firmness for which the favourite was not prepared, refused for a considerable time to countersign the letters of consignment which had been granted by the King to that effect; declaring that as the property of Concini and his family had been confiscated to the Crown, it could not be otherwise disposed of. This difficulty was, however, surmounted after the fashion of the period, and the signature of the scrupulous minister was purchased by the rich bishopric of Lisieux; after which De Luynes himself negatived the destruction of the magnificent hotel of the Marechal, to which he transferred his own establishment, and then proceeded to enforce his claims upon the funded property in Rome. This pretension was, however, opposed by the Pope, who declared that all monies confiscated within the Roman states must necessarily revert to himself; and Louis XIII, after having in vain endeavoured to induce the Sovereign-Pontiff to rescind this declaration, found himself ultimately compelled to make a donation of the five hundred thousand francs claimed by his favourite to the cathedral of St. Peter's.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany, in his turn, refused to recognize the right of De Luynes to the funds which had been entrusted to him by the Marechal d'Ancre, but from a higher and a holier motive; as the young Comte de la Pena was no sooner set at liberty, with an injunction immediately to leave France, than he received him with all the sympathy due to his unmerited misfortunes, and put him in possession of this remnant of his inheritance. Thenceforward the son of Concini remained in Italy until the year 1631, when he fell a victim to the plague.[314]

Before we quit the Court to follow exclusively the fortunes of Marie de Medicis, it is necessary that we should record three circ.u.mstances of social interest which occurred during the year 1617. The first in order is the death of the President de Thou, one of the most able and upright ministers, and, perhaps, the most conscientious historian that France had ever known. He expired on the 7th of May. The next, in point of chronology, is the marriage of De Luynes, who--having obtained the most absolute power, not only over the King personally, but also over all state affairs--being anxious to strengthen his position yet more by a great alliance, after having for a time contemplated an union with the daughter of the Duc de Vendome, ultimately entered into a negotiation for the hand of Mademoiselle de Montbazon.[315] This negotiation proved successful; and through her means he became closely connected with the most ancient and powerful families in the kingdom. The marriage took place on the 13th of September, and the bride was admitted to the honours of the _tabouret_;[316] while in order to render him more acceptable to the haughty houses into which the favour of his sovereign had thus afforded him ingress, the exulting favourite was elevated to a duchy-peerage, and took his seat in the Parliament. The last circ.u.mstance to which allusion has been made is the death of M. de Villeroy, who terminated his life at the ripe age of seventy-four years on the 30th of December. As we have already stated, he was possessed of little education, had no taste for either literature or art, but was singularly upright and shrewd in the management of public business; while he was, moreover, so thoroughly disinterested, that in the midst of all the cupidity which at that period disgraced the Court of France, after having been fifty-one years in office, he died with the mere addition of two thousand livres _per annum_ to his patrimonial income.[317]

In order to enlist popular opinion in his favour, De Luynes had, as we have seen, induced the King to recall the old ministers to power; and the people, still remembering the wisdom which they had displayed during their administration, welcomed with joy the reappearance of Sillery, Villeroy, and Jeannin in the Council; but although the favourite ostensibly recognized their privileges, he was far from intending to permit their interference with his own interests;[318] and so thoroughly did he enslave the mind of the young King, that while Louis, like a schoolboy who had played truant, and who was resolved to enjoy his new-found liberty to the uttermost, was constantly changing his place of abode, and visiting in turn St. Germain, Fontainebleau, Villers-Cotterets, and Monceaux, without one care save the mere amus.e.m.e.nt of the hour, De Luynes was multiplying his precautions to prevent a reconciliation between the mother and the son; an event which must, as he believed, whenever it should occur, prove the ruin of his own fortunes. For this purpose, so soon as he saw a cloud upon the brow of the royal stripling, he hastened to devise for him some new and exciting pursuit, which might tend to deaden his remorse for the past, and to render him more conscious of the value of that moral emanc.i.p.ation which he had purchased at so fearful a price; but ere long even this subtle policy failed to dissipate the apprehensions of the favourite.

Like all persons who occupy a false position of which they fully appreciate the uncertain tenure, he became suspicious of all around him; and would not allow any individual, whatever might be his rank, to approach the King without his knowledge, nor to attempt to converse with him in private. Thus, therefore, while Louis fondly believed that he had indeed become a monarch in fact as well as name, he was in reality more enslaved than ever.

Enriched by the spoils of Concini and his wife, De Luynes next caused himself to be appointed lieutenant of the King in Normandy; and this was no sooner done than he entered into a negotiation for one of the princ.i.p.al governments in the kingdom. He appeared suddenly to have forgotten that one of the most cogent reasons which he had so lately given for the necessity of sacrificing the Marechal d'Ancre and his wife was the enormous wealth of which they had possessed themselves at the expense of the state. His ambition as well as his avarice became insatiable; and not contented with pushing his own fortunes to a height never before attained by a mere petty n.o.ble, he procured great advantages for his brothers, and lodged them in his apartments in the Louvre. But while Louis remained unconscious or careless of the new bondage into which he had thus fallen, the courtiers and the people were alike less blind and less forbearing. With that light-heartedness which has enabled the French in all ages to find cause for mirth even in their misfortunes, some wag, less scrupulous than inventive, on one occasion, under cover of the darkness, affixed above the door leading to the rooms occupied by the brothers a painting which represented the adoration of the Magi, beneath which was printed in bold letters, "At the sign of the Three Kings"; a practical jest which afforded great amus.e.m.e.nt to the Court.[319]

At this period Louis XIII, still a mere youth, and utterly inexperienced in those great questions of public policy which determine the prosperity or the peril of a nation, resolved upon a measure which Henri IV himself had not ventured to undertake. The Roman Catholic religion had been abolished in Bearn by Jeanne d'Albret, his grandmother, and the property of that church seized in virtue of an Act pa.s.sed at the a.s.sembly of the States; and now, on the demand of his clergy, he determined to issue a decree ordaining the rest.i.tution of all the ecclesiastical property, and the re-establishment of the Roman faith. This was, of course, resisted by the Protestants, as well as the annexation of the princ.i.p.ality of Bearn to the Crown of France; but the advisers of the young King considered the opportunity to be a favourable one for effecting both measures; and they easily persuaded him to persevere in his purpose. The edict was consequently published; and its effects were destined to be painfully felt by the reformed party throughout the remainder of his reign.

The people, on their side, had not forgotten the promises which they had received of a reform in the government, and De Luynes still continued to give them hopes of their accomplishment; but as no measures to that effect were taken, they, at this period, demanded a new a.s.sembly of the States-General. They were, however, induced to modify this demand; and a meeting of the _Notables_[320] was finally conceded, which was to take place at Rouen on the 24th of November, in the presence of the sovereign. This a.s.sembly was accordingly held, but thanks to the influence of De Luynes produced none of the results which had been antic.i.p.ated.[321]

A few days before the departure of Marie de Medicis from Paris the King of Spain declared war against the Duke of Savoy, who immediately appealed to France for aid, which was in the first instance refused; but, on the representations of the Marechal de Lesdiguieres, it was finally accorded, and troops were raised which proceeded to Piedmont under the command of that general.[322]

Such was the general aspect of the Court and kingdom of France at the close of the year 1617; of which we have considered it necessary to sketch the princ.i.p.al features, in order to remind the reader of the exact position of the country at the period of the Queen-mother's exile.

Henceforward we shall princ.i.p.ally confine ourselves to following her in her banishment.

FOOTNOTES:

[293] The Comte de Fiesque was the equerry of Anne of Austria.

[294] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 643, 644. Pontchartrain, _Mem_. p. 223.

[295] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 396, 397. Richelieu, _Mem_. book viii.

pp. 420-428. Rohan, _Mem_. p. 144. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 647-649.

Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 139. Richelieu, _Hist, de la Mere et du Fils_ vol.

i. pp. 200-202.

[296] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 202-204.

[297] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. iv. p. 63.

[298] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 643.

[299] Rohan, _Mem_. book i.

[300] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 126. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 653.

[301] Richelieu, _Hist, de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. p. 200.

[302] Deageant, _Mem_. pp. 65, 66.

[303] The dower of the widowed Queens of France was twelve hundred thousand annual livres.

[304] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 140, 141. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 655, 656.

Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 403.

[305] Jean Goujon, a celebrated architect and sculptor, who was surnamed the Correggio of sculpture from the grace and beauty of his productions.

The finest of his statues was the Hunting Diana, which long formed one of the treasures of Malmaison. The Fountain of the Innocents, the bas-reliefs of the Hotel de Carnavalet, and those of the Louvre were alike the monuments of his genius. He was occupied in completing the latter when he was killed by the ball of a carbine during the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew.

[306] Richelieu, Unpublished MSS.

[307] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 398-404. Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. pp. 126, 127. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 653-659. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 137-142.

Brienne, _Mem_. vol. i. pp. 327-329.

[308] Rohan, _Mem_. book i. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 659.

[309] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 128.

[310] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 666. _Relation de la mort du Marechal d'Ancre_. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 142, 143. Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp.

123, 124. Brienne, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 333.

[311] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 407, 408. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 667-672.

Richelieu, _Hist, de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 223-230.

[312] This incapacity to hold office under the French Government was, moreover, on this occasion, declared thenceforward to extend to all individuals who were natives of other countries; and an attempt was made thirty years subsequently to render it applicable to Cardinal Mazarin.

[313] Bernard, book iii.

[314] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 410, 411. Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. pp. 674, 675.

[315] Marie de Rohan-Montbazon was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Due de Montbazon, and of his first wife, Madeleine de Lenoncourt. After the death of the Connetable de Luynes she married Claude de Lorraine, Due de Chevreuse, and became celebrated towards the close of the reign of Louis XIII, and during the minority of his successor, for her wit, her beauty, her profligacy, and her political intrigues. She died at a very advanced age in the year 1679.

[316] Brienne, _Mm_. vol. i. p. 333.

[317] Le Va.s.sor, vol. i. p. 675. Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 430, 431.