BBBBHB
JOAN OF ARC.
FROM THE STATUE IN THE RUE DE RIVOUI, PARIS.
From Photograph by Cassell & Co., Ltd.
FIVE FAMOUS
FRENCH WOMEN
/M
tt
BY
rs. HENRY) FA WCETT, LL.D.
AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF QUEEN- VICTORIA," "LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM
MOLESWORTH," " POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR BEGINNERS," ETC. ETC.
WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
MCMVII ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS.
PAGE
JOAN OF ARC 3
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER,
MARGARET OF ANGOULfiME, DUCHESS OF
ALENgON AND QUEEN OF NAVARRE . 53
THE CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHER . .53
THE REFORM OF THE CHURCH AND THE REVIVAL
OF LEARNING .75
PA VIA, 1525 100
QUEEN OF NAVARRE 130
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 167
JEANNE D'ALBRET, QUEEN OF NAVARRE . 173
RENEE OF FRANCE, DUCHESS OF FERRARA. 247
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
JOAN OF ARC.
Joan of Arc From the Statue in the
Rue de Rivoli, Paris Frontispiece
The Cottage at Domremy, where Joan
of Arc was born . . . .To face page 11
Ruins of the Castle, Chinon . . 18
Rheims Cathedral 29
John, Duke of Bedford ... 31
Joan of Arc, from the Statue by Barrias,
at Bonsecours 32
Joan of Arc's Tower, Rouen . 38
House in Rouen, where Joan of Arc
is said to have been lodged 40
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER.
The Dauphin, Charles Orlant, son of
Charles VIII. ..... 55
Louis XII. entering Genoa in Triumph 57
Louis XII 65
Gaston de Foix ..... 70
Francis I. of France .... 74
Margaret of Angoule'me ... 81
Louise of Savoy 109
Erasmus 113
Charles V. 118
vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
JEANNE D'ALBRET.
Catherine de Medici . . . . To face page 186
Mary Queen of Scots " La Reine
Dauphine" ." 204
Antony of Bourbon ..... 223
Louis de Bourbon .... 230
Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre . 232
The Castle, Pau 233
Charles IX 234
Henry IV. of France .... 241
REN^E OF FRANCE.
Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara . . 251
Rene"e, Duchess of Ferrara ... 253
John Calvin . .... 261
Henry II 266
Elizabeth, Queen of England . . 281
BOOKS CONSULTED.
"Proems de condemnation et de
rehabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc"
"Jeanne d'Arc" ....
"Jeanne d'Arc" .
"Jeanne d'Arc" ....
"Jeanne d'Arc" ....
" History of France "...
" Nouvelle Collection des M^moires
pour servir a 1'histoire de France"
" The Book of the Ladies " .
" Cambridge Modern History."
" Life of Marguerite d'Angouleme "
" Life of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of
Navarre"
" Biographic Universelle."
11 National Dictionary of Biography."
"Short History of the English
People"
"Some Memorials of Renee of
France, Duchess of Ferrara " .
Published by Quicherat.
By Mrs. Oliphant.
By Andrew Lang.
By Mark Twain.
By Lord Ronald Gower.
By Michelel.
MM. Michaut et
Poujoulat.
By Brantdme, Translated
by Miss K. P. Wormsley.
By Miss Freer.
By Miss Freer.
By J. R. Green.
By M. B.
viii BOOKS CONSULTED.
" Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of
France" By A. W. Whitthead.
" Women and Men of the French
Renaissance " . . . . By Miss E. Sichd.
"Margaret of Angoulme :> . . By A. Mary F. Robinson
(Madame Duclaux).
" Queen Elizabeth ". . , . By E. S. Beesly.
FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH
WOMEN.
JOAN OF ARC.
JOAN OF ARC.
EVEEY now and then in the history of the world a
revelation is granted us of a supremely beautiful
soul, one who spontaneously and without effort
breathes forth nothing but what is pure, true, just,
honest, brave, and lovely. With sublime originality
such men and women live in the world without
acquiring any of its impurities ; whatever the age in
which they live, their recorded speech becomes one
of the most precious possessions of after time :
Out of the low, obscure, and petty world,
Or only see one purpose and one will
Evolve themselves in the world, change wrong to right :
To have to do with nothing but the true,
The good, the eternal.
At least three such pure white souls have lived in
the world : each one a living miracle. Each one
perished by the hand of the public executioner
according to due process of law and what their con-
temporaries called justice. The more we know of
Joan of Arc, the more surely we are convinced that
she is worthy to stand with the other two, as one
4 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of those specially inspired , God-sent messengers ;
and she, like the other two, after living for her
fellow men, died as a common malefactor at their
hands.
Such language may be condemned as charac-
terised by fanaticism and exaggeration. But such
condemnation will scarcely proceed from those who
have made any minute study of the marvellous
career of the Maid of Orleans. Everyone is familiar
with a general outline of her brief life and cruel
death ; but when that outline is filled in by a study
of contemporary records few will be found who do
not agree that it is difficult to exaggerate or over-
praise her marvellous union of capacity and modesty ,
heroism and simplicity.
Louis Kossuth has pointed out that this peasant
girl, brought up on her father's farm at Domremy,
has the unique and imposing distinction of being
the only person of either sex who has ever held
supreme command of the military forces of a nation
at the age of seventeen.
This excites our wonder but not our veneration.
Perhaps her mere fighting excites our wonder more
than it ought ; it must be remembered that in those
days, the early fifteenth century, it was by no means
uncommon for women to fight as soldiers. Michelet
points out that thirty women were wounded in the
siege of Amiens, and if thirty were wounded a great
many more than thirty must have fought. He also
JOAN OF ARC. 5
says that in the Hussite Wars in Bohemia women
fought almost as commonly as men.
Neither does the distinction of the Maid of
Orleans^rest" in her alleged supernatural visitations ;
she heard voices .and saw visions. But the wonder
would almost have been if it had been otherwise;
voices and visions were not at all singular in the
fifteenth century. Her unique distinction was in
herself: her own character. A well-known novel
turns very much on the expression, " Miracles don't
happen." Joan of Arc _waa_a_living miracle ; not
her victories, not her voices, not. her visions, but
she herself, the peasant girl, ihe__warrior_. saint,
suddenly raised from -the humblest obscurity to
take command of the armies of -France at a^ moment
wheiuJFranca. was CTiiah^jj^nd^humiliated. This
peasant, transferred from her father's fields to be
the equal, nay, the chief and leader, of princes and
captains, but who in the_rocess loftt flrtflg nf Vmr
girlish simplicity and_moesty^^who_g;ave_ the Jting
hTs crown^again and placed the disthroned monarch
back once more on the throne of his ancestors ;
who, when asked what reward she claimed for her-
self, could think of nothing that she could wish
for except that her native village, which she had
left for ever, should be exempted from taxation.
This was the miracle of miracles. The age in
which she lived was cruel and brutal to the point
of ferocity ; lust and crime stalked unchecked all
6 VIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
through society from the highest to the lowest. She
lived among the half-savage captains of her time
not only pure and virtuous herself, but a source of
purity and clean living in them. We have their
own word for it that when they were with her they
had no thought that they might not have had for
their own mother or sister, and that she appeared
to them ' ' a thing wholly divine whether to see or
to hear." She ruled them through the magnetic
influence of her own personality ; and one secret of
it was that, added to her^inbojrn militaiy-instinct,
which commanded the respect of the men-at-arms,
she had absolute sincerity as well as common sense
and ready.- wit, and was wholly womanly in the use
of her tongue* Thus she had the man's weapon,
the sword, as well as the woman's weapon, the
tongue. To her rough soldiers she forbade the use
of oaths and bad words; but to one old man, who
found that when he was forbidden to swear he was
reduced almost to silence, slje. allowed one oath,
and told him he might swear by his stick.
Many instances are recorded illustrating her com-
mon sense and rustic humour. She repudiated any
claim-to-supernatural-powers . When the sick Duke
of Lorraine sent for her, having heard of her fame,
he thought she would cure him of his illness by
some magic spell. He asked her what he should
do. ' ' Be reconciled to your wife and make your
peace with God ' ' was the somewhat disconcerting
JOAN OF ARC. f
reply of the peasant girl. Again, later in her career,
when the good women of Bourges brought her
crosses and rosaries, beseeching her to touch them,
thinking that thus they would acquire some magic
charm, she said, " Touch them yourselves; it would
be all the same."
J^ore wonderful perhaps even than Jher jtnili-
tary and political achievements was the .skill
with which, during her trial, she parried the cross-
examination conducted by some sixty of the most
learned dialecticians in France, who tried in
vain to entangle her in her talk ; for days, weeks,
and months this girl, who had then been eight
months a prisoner, ill fed and loaded with chains,
who, as she said, did not know A from B, kept
her cruel inquisitors at bay, never once, losing
either her head or her temper; her modest stead-
fastness and high spirit confounded Jjhem. She
answered so boldly and so firmly that she turned
the current of popular feeling in her favour, and
her persecutors were fain to conduct her examina-
tion in private because through every day of her
public examination she gained ground and they lost
it. An Englishman, present at the trial and the
English were of course her enemies could not with-
hold the exclamation , ' ' Brave lass ! Why was she
not born an Englishwoman? " All through the
long weary account of the protracted trial down to
her cruel death, her character shines like a bright
8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
star out of the dark record of superstition, cruelty,
and avarice that brought her at last to the
stake.
The objection may be raised, " How do we know
all this is true? She was a sort of prodigy, no
doubt; but has not her story now become almost a
fairy tale overlaid with the embroidery of legend
and romance ? ' ' There is a remarkable reply to
this very natural objection. Almost every incident
in the career of Joan of Arc is _tfisiinjlioJ2y_ sworn
depositions made by men and women who were her
companions and friends. Scores of these some, the
companions of her childhood from her native village ;
some, men-at-arms who were eye-witnesses of her
military achievements; some, priests who cross-
examined her at Poitiers, or who attended her on
the scaffold ; some , good women of every rank w r ho
had known her in closest intimacy ; and it is from
these sworn depositions, not from popular legend,
that the details of her history are taken from these
and also from the notary's record of her examination
by her sixty-two judges, who were really her prose-
cutors, at Kouen.] This record of the trial, written
down in Latin at the time and translated about
I forty years ago into French, and in 1902 into
English, bears evidence that the dead parchment
was once full of living actuality. The learned scribe
who took down Joan's answers as she gave them
has occasionally, on the margin, added his own
JOAN OF AEG. 9
comment on their tenour; four times he writes on
the margin, " Superba responsio," " proud reply,"
or again in another place, " magno modo," " grand,
dignified manner."
It is rather important to bear in mind that
the history of the maid was sifted in the closest
way at these two^ trials, two legal processes
the first trial at Rouen, where she was tried
by sixty-two judges, all her enemies, chosen from
among the most learned lawyers and ecclesiastics
from the university of Paris, was hardly what we
should call a trial at all ; she was allowed no counsel
and no witnesses were called ; her so-called judges
prosecutors, and were fully deter-
mined on her death before the trial opened at all.
The object of the long cross-examination was to
wrest from her some admission that could be twisted
into proof of demoniac possession, which would dis-
credit the crowning of Charles VII. at Eheims, the
chief political accomplishment of Joan's life. If
the court at Rouen could prove that Joan was a
sorceress, the sanctity of Charles's coronation would
be destroyed and discredited. It was to this end
that the prolonged examination was aimed ; and in
the accomplishment of this end it signally failed.
The second trial had likewise a political end in
view. Charles VII. became King of France, as
Joan had foretold he should, and the English were
driven out of nearly all their French possessions;
to FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH
but the crowning of Charles at Kheims in 1429 had
been brought about by Joan, and she had been con-
demned and burnt as a sorceress. The pride of the
King of France could not brook that it should be
said that he owed his crown to a sorceress; there-
fore, although the wretched creature had lifted no
finger to help her, and had offered no penny to
ransom her, while she was living, and in the hands
of his and her mortal enemies, twenty-five years
after her ashes had been scattered in the Seine he
instituted another trial, which was called a .process
It was then that the companions
of her childhood were called to give their evidence,
as well as the captains who had fought by her side,
the women who had lived with her, and the priests
who had heard her in confession, and who had ad-
ministered the rites of religion to her.
It is no credit to Charles that this inquiry was
instituted ; his only motive was that it might not
be said that he owed his kingdom to the incanta-
tions of a witch ; but none the less the depositions
of the witnesses are of supreme importance as a
revelation of Joan's true character, and are of
immense interest in themselves ; they bear the
impress of truth in every page ; the evidence of
the various witnesses differs one from the other
just as an account of the same event from different
persons always differs ; but Joan's character shines
through all of them, pure, white, and spotless, " the
O -S
JOAN OF ARC. Ji
one pure figure which rises out of the greed, thej
lust, the selfishness, the unbelief of the time.*'
An attempt must now be made to tell her story
in a methodical manner. She was born on
January 5, 1412, at Domremy, a frontier village
between France and Lorraine, on the direct road to
Germany ; she was one of the children of a peasant
proprietor, Jacques d'Arc, who appears to have been
the chief man of his village. At the time of her
childhood, half France was in the hands of the
English ; the other half was desolated by civil war.
Burgundy allied itself with the English, so that
France was divided against itself, and Frenchmen
sided with the enemies of France. Domremy being!
on the border between France and Lorraine, and
being also not far removed from Burgundy, was often
the scene of war, and still oftener of rumours of
war. Once in the dead waste and middle of the
night the village was attacked by the Burgundians,
and Joan and her little brothers and sisters were
roused out of their beds to be carried by their
parents to a place of greater safety. Another time
a party of fugitives flying from armed men arrived
in the village, and Joan gave up her own bed to
some of them and went herself to sleep in an
attic. What events to stimulate the fancy of an
imaginative child ! And if these were not enough
there were other things to feed the flame of thoughts
beyond the reaches of her soul. There was the
12 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
forest with its haunted glades, an oak tree whose
branches had often served as a gibbet, and had the
awful association connected with its direful fruit of
human corpses ; and there was legend as well , and
the romantic popular saying ' ' That France had
been ruined by a woman, and was destined to be
saved by a virgin from the borders of Lorraine."
Joan brooded over these things; a quiet, good
child, obedient to her parents, attentive to religion,
loving to hear the church bells ring and to take part
in the services of the church. She had nothing that
is ordinarily_calle4-~educaiiQn. She could neither
read nor write ; but she could feel and pray. She
felt for the unutterable calamities of France, and
she prayed God to send a deliverer. She knew that
more than once God's people had been saved by a
woman, a Judith, a Deborah, and she remembered
that there was a prophecy, which was also a
promise, that a woman should bruise the serpent's
head. Tending her father's sheep, or sitting perhaps
outside her mother's door spinning in the sun, she
mused over all these things. The Psalmist says,
' While I was musing the fire kindled, then spake
I with my tongue." Em\ while Joan jvas musing
the^fireJdadled-indeed, but she did not speak; she
was spokenjtp. She was sitting in the open air in
the middle of the day in summer, and she saw a
bright light, brighter -awn than the midday summer
sun, and heard a voice which spoke to her. by name :
JOAN OF ARC. 13
"Joan, be a good child. Go often to church."
Harmless words enough, but we are told they
frightened her; she felt her destiny was coming.
She^was thirteen at the time, on the borderland
where womanhood and childhood meet. The next
time the yoicea_. spoke to her, she saw -the light
again, and she also saw the form of a noble-look-
ing. ,jnan; the voice said, "Go to the help of the
King of France, and thou shalt restore to him his
kingdom." She replied trembling, " Sir, I am but
a poor child. I know not how to ride to the wars
or to lead men-at-arms." The voice gave her direc-
tions, what she was to do. She was to go to the
nearest town, Vaucouleurs, and ask to see the
captain there, one Baudricourt by name, and he
would tell her how to approach the king. These
messages were repeated again and again during the
years while Joan .was between thirteen and seven-
teen ; till at last she felt she could choose no longer ;
she must obey, and go to find the king. It is not
difficult to imagine what happened in her home
her mother's tears, her father's fury ; these were not
times when rebellious daughters could expect any
gentleness. If we remember Capulet's language to
Juliet when she refuses to marry the County Paris,
we probably only have a faint perception of Jacques
d' Arc's to his daughter. She-said afterwards -of the
struggle with her, parents that it was the worst
battle ^ jhe ever^iQUght, jworse than any in which
14 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
'she bore arms against the English. Her father
threatened to drown her ; still she persisted ; appeals
were made to her filial piety ; she said she must
obey God rather than her parents. Asked what
prompted her, she could only reply that it was " the
pity she had for the fair realm of France Jj
At last she gained one supporter : lei his Jiame be
remembered and honoured. Her uncle by marriage,
Durant Laxart, was the first to believe in her
mission. He lived near Vaucouleurs, and could at
least help her to go there. He took her to stay with
himself and his wife, and then went by himself to
Vaucouleurs to see the captain of the men-at-arms
there, Baudricourt. Here also it was the expected
that happened. On hearing Laxart 's story that his
niece, a girl of seventeen, proposed to save France
from the English, and wanted a company of armed
men to lead her to the king, Baudricourt burst into
a loud laugh and said, " Box her ears and send her
back to her father." In point of fact she was sent
back to her father. Her_jamily_ thenjbried to settle
matters by providing her with a husband. They
produced a young man who said Joan had given
him her promise ; but she! was not a girl tamely to
submit to an imposture. She now exerted herself
with vigour ; she appealed to the ecclesiastical court
at Toul, and proved to the satisfaction of the bishop
there that she had given no promise to marry the
young man.
JOAN OF ARC. 15
Her case now began to excite some local interest ;
one of her brothers took her part, and she went
again to her uncle, Durant Laxart; a good many
people were inclined to believe in her. She ap-
peared before Baudricourt; his disbelief had lost
some of its former robust vigour. She said she
had been sent to him by the Lord, in order to tell
the Dauphin to be of good courage, that succour
should come to him before mid-Lent ; that the Lord
was the King of France, and that His will was that
she, Joan, should lead the Dauphin to be crowned
and reign over France. Baudricourt was perplexed
and doubtful. He sent a messenger all across
France to ask instructions of the king ; and he
summoned the cure, who suggested the influence of
evil spirits ; he was despatched to the house where
Joan was lodging, and sprinkling her with holy
water, he adjured her to go away if she had had any
commerce with the evil one. She was steadfast and
persistent. "Before mid-Lent," she repeated in
Baudricourt 's presence, "I must go to the king,
though I wore out my legs to the knees. No one
in the world, neither king, nor dukes, nor the
daughter of the King of Scotland, can restore the
kingdom of France but myself only ; though I should
be far happier to stay and spin by my mother's side ;
but I must go and I must act; my Lord wills it."
"And who is your Lord?" She replied, "He
is God."
16 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
A gentleman who heard her put his hand in hers,
and promised, on his honour, he would lead her to
the king. This was Jean de Metz, another name
that deserves to be remembered. "When shall I
take you to the king? " he asked. Her reply is
characteristic, "Better to-day than to-morrow."
Baudricourt, in -the meantime, had received per-
mission from the king that Joan should set out, and
two men airived from JCharles to be her escort.
These two, with Jean de Metz and his friend Pou-
lengy, formed her whole party, and the wonderful
journey across France from east to west began.
Jean de Metz gave her a suit of armour ; the towns-
folk of Vancouleurs gave her a horse; Baudricourt
gave her a sword. She was eleven days on the
journey. There were no roads and few bridges, and
the country swarmed with robbers. The safe
arrival of the maid with her little band at the king's
castle at Chinon was almost a miracle. As she
started from Vaucouleurs someone in the crowd
called out to ask her if she were not afraid. Her
reply was, " I was born for this." These words were
constantly on her lips, reminding us of Another who
had spoken similar words before her. The two ends
for which she felt she was born were the raising of
the siege of Orleans, then for many months sorely
beset by the English, and the crowning of Charles
at Kheims.
It needs an effort of the imagination on our part
JOAN OF ARC. 17
to realise the great importance attached by all
France to the coronation and consecration of the
monarch. To the French their king was no king
until he had been anointed with the sacred oil, and
had received the crown with imposing religious cere-
monial. And in the case of Charles VII., not only
had he never been crowned, but there were strong
doubts of his legitimacy ; his own mother had put
her hand to a document in which he had been
spoken of as the " so-called Dauphin," and his
rights to succeed to the throne had been set aside
in a treaty signed by his mother and his reputed
father at Troyes.
At the moment of Joan's arrival Charles's politi-
cal fortunes were at their lowest ebb. His capital,
Paris, was held by the English, and was wholly
English in sympathy. The whole of Normandy
was also held by the- English, who claimed that their
king, the child Henry VI., was the rightful King
of France. Added to all these external sources of
weakness there were still more serious internal ones ;
chief of which was that Charles VII.* was a poor
creature, more intent on amusing himself in the
castles which he still held on the Loire than on
regaining his kingdom or driving out the invader.
To this King of shreds and patches, incapable
of looking at serious things seriously, incapable of
any sustained effort to take up the tasks and duties
* Charles was the Dauphin depicted in Shakespeare's "Henry V, "
C
i8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of his station, and with no real faith in himself.
came Joan, the maid, the simple peasant girl, pro-
claiming that she was sent by her brothers in
heaven to make him a King indeed and drive the
invaders out of France.
The scene of her reception by Charles at the
castle of Chinon is well known. She was kept
waiting two days before she was admitted to the
audience chamber. When at last the time came
for the JCing &> ^eoeiveJoer, it ,^as_jniglit, and the
great hall was illuminated by the flaring light of
fifty torches. Three hundred gorgeously dressed
nobles were present with a great retinue. It seems
to have been desired to dazzle the girl with all this
splendour; or perhaps the crowd was brought
together by a natural curiosity to see the supposed
sorceress or prophetess. We are not told much of
the mutual impression produced, but the astonish-
ment cannot have been all on one side ; the sor-
ceress was a beautiful girl of seventeen, tall and
well formed, with a mellow, penetrating, womanly
voice. Charles had sought to conceal his own
identity by mingling with the crowd of nobles,
but sbe- went steaight-to4iim and .threw herself on
fc bin feet Rfl.vinff. " Gentle Dauphin,
God give you good life." " Kise," he said; " it is
not I who am the King." " Gentle Prince," she
insisted, "it is you and no other. T am Joan the
Maid. The King of Heaven commands you,
JOAN OF AEG. 19
through me, to be crowned and consecrated at
Bheims." The laughter of the courtiers was
silenced, the mocking smile on the lips of the King
faded, an-J he led her aside, where for a few
moments they spoke to one another apart. What
was said between them is not known. Joan at
her trial refused to answer all questions on what
she felt was the King's secret more than her own;
but the inference is, and there is strong evidence
in its support, that Joan answered the King's
secret gnawing doubt of his own legitimacy, and
that her first private words to him were , ' ' You
are the true heir of France, the son of the King."
From this moment Charles believed in her, and she
also had on her side the Due d'Alei^on, and the
King's wife, and her mother the Queen of Sicily.
It will be a satisfaction to most women that all
through Joan's brief two years of activity she
always and everywhere won the women to her side.
From queens and princesses to peasant children she
won them, and they saw her as she was a true
woman, seeking not her own, but just to do the
work she felt she had been sent to do. The Church,
on the other hand, was mostly either neutral or
hostile to her. It did not relish divine inspiration
which had come through other channels than those
which it had provided. Michelet has an amusing
passage about the facility with which the learned
doctors and theologians believed in bad spirits,
20 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
compared with the difficulty they felt in giving
credence to the inspiration of good spirits. They
could not bring themselves to believe in angels ;
but their faith in devils was as firm as a rock.
Before despatching the maid on her mission to
Orleans, Charles sent her to be cross-examined by
the theologians of the University of Poitiers. She
held her own with them, with the common-sense
and mother wit which always distinguished her.
They wanted her to give them some miraculous
sign of her divine commission. She replied, " I
have not come to Poitiers to give signs or to work
miracles. My sign will be to raise the siege of
Orleans. Let them give me men-at-arms, few or
many, and I will go." One wiseacre said that if
God had determined to deliver France there was
no need for men-at-arms. "Ah," she cried, "the
men must fight; it is God who gives the victory."
They asked her a great many questions about the
language in which her voices had spoken to her ;
she said it was French. " What sort of French? "
asked a monk from Limoges with a very strong
Limousin accent. " Better than yours," she re-
joined. And when the learned professors turned
for assistance to their books of theology, she said,
"Listen! There is more in God's book than in
yours. I do not know A from B, but I am sent
from God to raise the siege of Orleans and to lead
the Dauphin to be consecrated at Eheims." The
JOAN OF ARC. 21
court of inquiry began to believe in her. Orleans
was crying out for help, and no other help seemed
near. Even lawyers and men of the world began
to say, "This child is sent from God." The
doctors of the university reported in her favour.
An archbishop who was consulted said that God
had many times revealed to virgins what he had
hidden from men, and he quoted the example of
the Sybils. Moreover, the devil was held to be
incapable of making a compact with a virgin.
Thus even superstition for a time w r as favourable
to her, and she was equipped and sent forth.
It is necessary to say a few words about her
adoption of a man's dress. She wore a man's suit
of armour, and not even the entreaties of the good
Queens, nor that of the women at Poitiers, could
induce her to give it up. To ordinary inquirers
she replied, what was obvious enough, that it was
the only dress to ride and fight in; but at times
she gave the more important reason that the
armour was a real protection to her which she
would never willingly relinquish as long as she had
to live without the companionship of women in the
midst of a wild and lawless soldiery. It seems that
she must have satisfied the Queen of Sicily that
it was right for her to wear a male dress, because
the Queen presented her with a beautiful suit of
white armour inlaid with silver. The two Queens,
after close personal observation, were firmly con-
22 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
vinced of her innocence and purity. Another of
the court party favourable to her was the Duke
of Alenson : " le beau dudv' Joan often called him.
He seems to have been a nandsome fellow and a
brave soldier. He now joined the company of
armed men who were to accompany Joan to
Orleans rather to his wife's dismay, for he had
lately been a prisoner in England; she had ran-
somed him regardless of expense, and it was
rather hard on her that this expensively purchased
husband should risk himself again at once against
the English, and with a no stronger party than
that which Joan gathered about her. Joan pro-
mised the Duchess to bring her husband back in
safety to her, and she was as good as her w r ord.
This duke is one of many soldiers who testified to
Joan's inborn military genius ; he spoke particu-
larly of her skill in managing artillery, and said
she was a "gunner born."
The court gave Joan a sort of " household," of
which her brother Pierre was a member. A
chaplain and an equerry were chosen for her from
among the best men at court. Her sword was
brought from Fierbois, where it was found by
searching according to her directions in the ground
behind the high altar in the Church of St. Cather-
ine; the King gave her a scabbard of crimson
velvet worked in gold. Her standard was of white
linen fringed with silk and embroidered with a
JOAN OF ARC. 23
figure of the Saviour and the names ' ' Jesus ' ' and
" Mary " at the foot. She afterwards said at her
trial that she loved her standard forty times better
than her sword; and, indeed, she declared when
she set out , ' * I will never use my sword to kill any
man." This feminine trait may provoke a smile
a soldier unwilling to kill ; but after all the duty
of a leader is to lead, and it is said of one of the
greatest commanders of our own time and nation
that he never carried any weapon but a cane. One
of her followers, the young knight Guy de Laval,
wrote a description of her to his mother and grand-
mother. It is this letter that said of her that she
was a thing wholly divine, whether to see or to
hear. To see her completely armed, with the ex-
ception of her head, in her suit of white armour,
mounted on a great black horse, her radiant young
face shining with enthusiasm, her standard flutter-
ing by her side, to hear her womanly voice giving
the word to advance, and bidding the priests to offer
prayers for her success, these things awakened the
enthusiasm of the young knight to the highest
pitch, and he poured himself out in the letter to his
mother, still extant, from which I have quoted.
He desired his mother, who had charge of his seal,
to spare not his lands, neither in sale nor mortgage,
so that he might render help to the utmost extent
of his power to the necessities of his country.
But it must not be supposed that all the knights
24 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and squires gave her an equally generous recogni-
tion. There had been a strong party against her
from the first, both in the court and in the camp,
and at every step of her way she had to fight
against intrigue and treachery. One knight ex-
claimed furiously that he would not serve under
such a leader. " What," he cried, "is the advice
of a hussy from the fields to be taken before that of
a knight or captain ! I will fold up my banner and
become again a simple soldier ; I would rather have
a nobleman for my master than a woman whom
nobody knows." And there were always a number
of men on her own side who felt like this, and
who cheated and thwarted her whenever they were
able. It was very much the same sort of thing
that one sees now ; the really great men were mag-
nanimous, and welcomed her; but the little men,
who were not quite sure perhaps of their own
powers, or assured of maintaining their own posi-
tion, were jealous and envious.
I shall not attempt to describe Joan's achieve-
ment in raising the siege of Orleans from the mili-
tary point of view, for the excellent reason that I
know nothing of military tactics. It must suffice
me to say that Joan found Orleans weakened by
disunion among its defenders ; the citizens had
fought bravely and had made great sacrifices; but
unity of action was needed, and the commander,
Dunois, brave soldier as he was, was not able to
JOAN OF AUG. 25
create it. Joan entered Orleans on April 29th,
1429. The city received her as if they had seen
God descending among them. The crowd thronged
round her, contented if they might but touch her
horse. Joan gave them the unity of purpose and
faith in their cause which they so much needed ;
her coming also spread dismay among the English.
One of these, Glasdale, loaded her with vile epi-
thets. His insults wounded her bitterly, and she
could not restrain her tears. A day or two
later, in the midst of the great fight in which the
English were finally defeated, she saw this man
die. " Classidas, Classidas," she cried, "you have
called me vile names, but I have great pity for
your soul." "Great pity" was never very far
from her, and she could feel it for an enemy as
well as for an ally. On one occasion she saw a
French soldier ill-using a wounded and dying
Englishman. Her indignation was intense. She
leapt from her horse, rescued the unhappy man,
supported his head in her arms, sent for a priest,
and made the soldier's dying hours as tranquil at
least as gentleness and mercy could make them.
But with all her gentleness she could be strong
as steel. She insisted on her own plan of carrying
on the attack upon the English, and told Dunois
that if he attempted any attack without her know-
ledge she would have his head cut off. After a
slight advantage, the captains wanted to desist
26 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
from following it up, and held their council of war
without her. " You have held your council," she
said, "and I have had mine." And she ordered
the renewal of the attack at break of day. The
result was a victory. Everywhere her standard
was seen foremost in the fight. She was wounded ;
an arrow pierced her breast and stood out a hand-
breadth behind her shoulder. She cried from the
pain, but plucked the arrow out with her own
hands ; would not hear of having the wound
charmed. She staunched it with an oil compress,
and though at first she thought she was going to
die, and made her confession to her chaplain, she
soon scrambled on her horse again and led the fight
once more this time to complete victory. The
English were routed, and Orleans was saved.
After a siege of seven months Joan of Arc saved
the town in eight days, and justly does her name
live in history as that of the Maid of Orleans.
One incident of the fight must not be forgotten.
We have the right to hope it is true, though there is
some conflict of evidence about it. When., the
arrow struck Joan in the breast and she fell, the
man nearest to her was the captain" who was so
indignant that ' ' a hussy from the fields ' ' should be
preferred to knights and captains. He raised her
from the ground and cleared space for her in the
crowd. " Take my horse," he said, " brave crea-
ture. Bear no malice. I confess that I was in the
JOAN OF ARC. 27
wrong." "It is I that should be wrong if I bore
malice," replied Joan, " for never was knight so
courteous."
The evidence as to Joan's military instinct and
her marvellous courage in leading the charge after
so jjejiou_ a JffiaunjL Ja ..of -undoubted au thenticity .
The Duke of Alenon, who was present, stated that
" she w_as_most expert in war both with the lance
and in massing an army, and arraying battle, and
in the management of artillery. For all men mar-
velled how far-sighted and prudent she was in
war, as if she had been a captain of thirty years'
standing."
After the great victory at Orleans, the right
thing, both from the military and political point of
view, would have been to press on at once without
delay to Eheims for the coronation of the King ; but
Joan was the only one among the crowd of soldiers
and politicians to urge this sensible advice. Charles
was indolent and indifferent, and the ministers and
captains about him each seemed to have his own
private end in view, whereas Joan thought only of
the cause to which her life was devoted. Orleans
was delivered on May 8th, and it was not till more
than two months after this, July 15th, that Charles
entered Eheims to be crowned. In these two
months, between Orleans and Bheims, there was
what may be described as a " fine deal of confused
fighting." Auxerre, a Burgundian stronghold, was
28 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
passed, sorely against Joan's wishes, without at-
tacking it ; but Troyes, where the treaty disinherit-
ing Charles had been signed, was attacked and
taken. When they came near Chalons, and Joan
was approaching her own part of the country, a
party of peasants from Domremy came out to meet
her. They asked her if she were not afraid. She
replied, " I fear nothing but treason." And
through these tedious two months Joan was con-
stantly urging a bold advance, and the King's
council was as constantly preventing it. She de-
scribed what she felt during this conflict. She said,
1 When I am vexed, and find myself disbelieved
in the things I say from God, I retire by myself
and pray to God. . . . And when I have
prayed I hear a voice which says, ' Daughter of
God, go, go, go. I will help thee ; go ! ' And when
I hear that voice I feel a great joy." Her face
shone as she spoke. The maid was very con-
scious that she was surrounded by enemies and
traitors within her own party. Even after the
great victory at Orleans and other smaller triumphs
in which she had shown personal courage and mili-
tary capacity of the highest order, all that the
Church in its official capacity had to say of her was,
" Give God the praise, but we know that this
woman is a sinner." And all this w r as because Joan,
though a devout Catholic, sought inspiration and
guidance elsewhere than through the channels laid
RHEIMS CATHEDRAL
From a Photograph by Nenrdein Freres Paris.
JOAN OF ARC. 29
down by the Church. It was the old story: the
priests are mostly against the prophets. It must
not, however, be forgotten that there were some
Churchmen who regarded her in a more generous
spirit. Gerson, one of the most famous theologians
of his time, to whom some authorities ascribe the
famous treatise on the "Imitation of Christ,"
recognised Joan's true self-devotion and nobility of
aim. He is reported to have said of her: "If
France desert her and she fail, she is none the less
inspired." This Gerson devoted his learning to the
education of youth, and would accept no fee from
his scholars , only taking a promise from them to
repeat daily the prayer, " Lord have mercy on thy
poor servant Gerson." It is a satisfaction in the
dark and gloomy records of the time to come across
this beautiful nature, and to learn that he recog-
nised in Joan a kindred spirit.
Charles VII. entered Eheims on July 15th,
1429, and was crowned in the cathedral with all the
gorgeous traditional ceremonial on the 17th. The
Archbishop of Eheims, no less than the King, had
up to this time been shut out of his cathedral city.
They both entered it now in the train of the maid.
Thus, in less than five months from her first setting
forth from Vaucouleurs she had accomplished her
mission she had relieved Orleans, driven the
English back to their strongholds in Normandy,
and had set the royal crown of France on the head
30 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of the King. Thus far her progress had been a
series of victories. Her unparalleled triumphs had
not spoiled her ; she remained all through them in
her simplicity sublime. The adoration of the
crowd, the society of the great, the jealousy of
courtiers, the intrigues of politicians, were alike
powerless to deteriorate her. She had within her
the pure fire of self-devotion to a noble cause which
enabled her to keep herself unspotted from the
world. Her triumphs had not corrupted her ; but
henceforth, after the crowning of the King, she
was destined to be tried by the fires of adversity.
At Eheims she experienced the highest culmination
of her hopes. Her mission was accomplished, and
she had besides the private and personal joy of
meeting her father once more and being reconciled
to him. He who had loaded her with curses and
threats now came to Eheims to fold her in his arms
and to forgive her for being great. But she seems
to have had a presentiment of her approaching end,
though not the manner of it. Above any place she
had ever seen she loved Eheims, and expressed a
wish that she might be buried there. The arch-
bishop tried to draw from her a prophecy as to the
time and place of her death ; but she answered
simply that of this she knew nothing, only that it
would be when and where it pleased God. "I
would that it might please Him," she added, "to
let me go away and keep sheep with my sister and
JOHN, DUKE OF BEDFORD, REGENT OF FRANCE.
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY GEORGE VERTUE, AFTER A
DRAWING IN A RICHLY ILLUMINATED PRAYER-BOOK
PRESENTED BY THE REGENT TO 'HB*RY VI.
JOAN OF ARC. 31
my brothers. . . . They would be so glad to
see me again. ... I have accomplished what
our Lord commanded me to do." As she said this
she lifted her eyes to heaven, and the people round
her, says the old chronicle, saw her face as if it
had been the face of an angel.
Her advice and strong wish now was to strike
a blow at once for Paris. The English w r ere
discouraged, and were, besides, in the greatest
straits for money. " Chill penury repressed their
noble rage." The Parliament assembled in Paris
had to be dismissed because there were no funds
to meet necessary expenses. The young King,
Henry VI., had been brought to Paris, but there
was no royal proclamation of the event because of
the lack of parchment. The registrars, or keepers
of the records, had for some time provided parch-
ment at their own expense, but now they struck,
and would do so no more. The low-water mark of
national finance was never more picturesquely
indicated. The Regent Bedford, brother of
Henry V., had but one resource to apply for help
to his rich uncle, Henry Beaufort, Cardinal and
Bishop of Winchester, one of the illegitimate sons
of John of Gaunt. The help applied for was given,
but not without an equivalent. Cardinal Beaufort
was not a man to give anything for nothing ; if he
consented to finance the English occupation of
France it was under the condition that he con-
32 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
trolled it. Henceforth, therefore, t&e English
policy in France was less military than ecclesias-
tical. This was a point that told very strongly
against Joan. When she was taken she was not
treated as a prisoner of war, or as a general fight-
ing at the head of her troops, but as a heretic to
be handed over to the tender mercies of an eccle-
siastical court. Joan herself, after the crowning of
Charles at Eheims, felt that her enemies were
closing in about her. She said more than once that
her King must make all the good use of her he
could, for that she would not last for more than
a year.
It was just ten months from the day, July
25th, 1429, when she rode out triumphant from
Rheims, to May 23rd, 1430, when she was taken
prisoner. In these ten months that were left her
she did much. Many cities submitted at once
to Charles, and the French army pressed on
towards Paris. Meanwhile Charles made a secret
treaty with the Duke of Burgundy which effect-
ually crippled the progress of his army without
securing any compensating advantage. Thus the
French troops were led by Joan to the very walls
of Paris, and a great fight took place outside the
St. Honore" Gate (where the equestrian statue of
the maid now stands, near the Theatre Francais), in
which Joan, though desperately wounded, secured
a decided advantage. The next day, in spite of her
JOAN OF ARC.
FROM THE STATUE BY BARRIAS, AT BONSECOURS.
From a Photograph by Nenrdcin Freres, Paris,
JOAN OF ARC. 33
wound, she was first in the field, and was making
all preparations for a renewal of the attack, when
orders came from the King for the withdrawal
of the army. To make assurance doubly sure,
this wretched King had the bridge broken down,
which the Duke of Alen9on had made, and by
which the Maid with her forces would have ap-
proached Paris for a renewal of the fight. This
was an almost heartbreaking blow to Joan. We are
told by the chronicler that she was in great grief.
She took off her armour and laid it on the altar in
the church at St. Denis. This armour was after-
wards brought to England, but there is no record
of what became of it there. The ecclesiastical spirit
of Joan's enemies from this date is shown by the
fact that they made a special attack upon her be-
cause she had ordered the assault on Paris to take
place on September 8th, the day of the nativity of
the Virgin. The soldiers' comment would have
been, " The better the day the better the deed " ;
but to one party at any rate in the Church this
"creature in the form of a woman" proved her
demoniac possession most surely by undertaking
feats of arms on a day specially set aside by the
Church for other uses.
Joan was right when she told her peasant
friends that what she most feared was treachery.
She might have prevailed against an open foe, but
her worst enemies were of her own party. She
34 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
went away with the King and court from St.
Denis to the Loire, and afterwards to Com-
piegne and other places. The months which
followed were the most miserable of the active
period of her life. The King seemed to be throwing
away all the advantages she had gained for him.
In vain the court tried to satisfy her by tributes to
her vanity. She was set up with an establishment
of her own, a patent of nobility was conferred on
her family, she was loaded with all kinds of finery.
The King and court wished her henceforth to be
nothing but a plaything or ornament for them-
selves; but she was eating her heart out. Like
other fashionable people, the French courtiers
wished for variety in their amusements. Joan had
interested them a good deal for nearly a year, and
they began to want something new. They set up
a rival prophetess, one Catherine de la Eochelle.
She heard " voices" too, but her voices always
contradicted the voices which spoke to Joan.
" Tired of all these, for restful death I cry," one
can imagine her saying, and we can picture her
weariness of inactivity. At last, when the court was
at Sully, she broke away from it all and left secretly,
accompanied only by her two brothers and a few
faithful friends. As far as we know she never saw
Charles again. She joined the army and showed
her old courage, and had many almost miraculous
victories ; but her former unbroken success did not
JOAN OF AEG. 35
follow her; she began to know the meaning of the
word failure. April came, and she took part in the
defeat of the English at Melun. There she *' heard
her voices almost every day, and many a time they
told her she would presently be taken prisoner."
She prayed that she might die ; but her voices gave
her no promise, but only told her to bear graciously
whatever befell her. Her courage was unshaken
by her impending doom, and she set out to take
part in the relief of Compiegne, then invested by
the Burgundians. She rode all night at the head
of her party, and arrived at Compiegne very early
in the morning on May 23rd. She spent one day in
arranging the sortie which took place that evening.
The governor of the town is believed by some to
have betrayed and sold her; but although some of
the circumstances are suspicious, actual treachery
is not proved. Certain it is, however, that after a
fight, in which she showed even more than her
usual capacity and courage, she was close pressed by
the enemy, who had been reinforced by the English,
and her retreat back into Compiegne was cut off
by the gates of the town being closed against her;
thus she was caught in a trap, the enemy pressing
on behind her, and the closed gates of the town in
front. A hundred men drove her into a corner; a
dozen hands seized her bridle ; scores of voices cried,
"Yield! Yield! Give your faith to me." Joan
replied, " I have given my faith to Another, and I
36 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
will keep my oath." She was dragged from her
horse. She neither struggled nor wept. She knew
that her hour had come. Gladly would we forget,
if we could, what followed. It was the age of
chivalry, when every noble knight dedicated his
sword to the defence of maidens in distress. But
chivalry too often seems to be one of those tiresome
things that has a way of not being there when it is
wanted. There is plenty of it where it is superfluous,
but it too often fails to be on the spot when the need
is greatest. No reasonable person can complain
that her enemies triumphed over her capture. She
had become a soldier, and was bound to take the
fortunes of war as they came. But the King to
whom she had given his crown, the nobles and cap-
tains by whose side she had fought, made no effort
to rescue or to ransom her; Compiegne made no'
sally for her recovery ; from one end of France to
the other no finger was raised to help her.
In the early morning of the day in which she
was taken she had attended church in Compiegne.
As she stood leaning against a pillar, a great
many children had gathered round her, and a
longing for sympathy moved her to speak to
them. " Dear friends and children," she said,
" I have to tell you that a man has sold and be-
trayed me, and I shall soon be given up to death.
I beg of you to pray for me, for soon I shall no
longer have any power to serve the King and
JOAN OF ARC. 37
the fair realm of France." Now the impend-
ing catastrophe had come upon her. She was in
the hands of her enemies, and was forsaken and
neglected by her friends. The Archbishop of
Eheims, to whom she had restored his cathedral
city, wrote a letter in which he proved to his own
entire satisfaction that the capture of Joan was
wholly her own fault. The only thing that was
done for her was that in the cities of Orleans, Tours,
and Blois public prayers were offered for her. They
should have remembered what Joan had taught
them when she said, " Men must fight, and God
will give the victory." So much for her friends.
As for her enemies and their treatment of her in her
captivity, the English and French must share the
responsibility ; and of this the heaviest portion falls
upon the Church and Churchmen. The University
of Paris, within a day of the news of her capture,
claimed her as its lawful prey. But she was a
valuable asset, and her possessors did not lightly
relinquish her. She was passed from castle to castle
and from prison to prison. At first she was not ill-
used, receiving honourable treatment as a prisoner
of war. Noble ladies, relatives of her captors,
visited her, and, like all the rest of the women,
became conscious of her goodness and purity. She
never consented to give any promise not to attempt
to escape, and at Beaurevoir she flung herself off the
battlements, a height of sixty feet, and was nearly
38 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
killed. Till December, 1430, slic was in the hands
of the Burgundians ; then the English bought her,
and conveyed her in January to Kouen. This is
where the worst part of our shame comes in. Not
that we bought her; it was worse, perhaps, to sell
than to buy such merchandise ; but her outrageous
treatment in prison is a blot which not even cen- *
turies can wholly wipe out. She was confined in
a wretched dungeon some authorities say in an
iron cage she was watched incessantly night and
day by English soldiers who were in her room, five
by day and three by night. She was chained, and
she was never allowed one moment in privacy. The
bare fact speaks for itself. The English, more-
over, handed her over to the ecclesiastical court with
the Bishop of Beauvais at its head. This court con-
sisted of the most eminent French ecclesiastics and
university professors of the time; there were only
two Englishmen among them. From January to
May they behaved to the unfortunate girl in their
power with indescribable ferocity and cruelty. I
have already spoken of the extraordinary skill she
displayed in mere word fence with them ; how she
avoided the traps they set for her and held firmly
to her conviction that her voices were sent from
God. She told them from the first that there were
certain things she would never answer. About her-
self and her own conduct she would tell everything ;
but she would never betray secrets which pertained
5
z *
Si
JOAN OF ARC. 39
to the King and the kingdom : if they forced her
to speak on these, she frankly said she would not tell
the truth.
For hours together they questioned and cross-
questioned her about her wearing a man's dress.
The least grain of common sense would have made
it obvious why she wore it alone in prison with
ruffianly men. She said if they would let her be
with women she would wear a woman's dress.
When cross-examination in public began to turn
public feeling in her favour, the public trial was dis-
continued, and she was cross-examined in her cell
by a selected band of her judges in private. Her
stedfastness was just as unshaken as it had been in
the public court. Her voices told her to answer
boldly. Then her judges conducted her to the
torture chamber and tried to intimidate her by the
sight of all the instruments of torture; they voted
on the question whether she should be tortured or
not; but even these men had some humanity, for
of the thirteen only three voted for torture.
Threatened with the stake, she replied, " I can say
nothing else to you ; if I saw the fire before me I
should only say what I have said, and could do
nothing else." This is one of the answers against
which the notary has entered on the margin, " proud
reply." Attempts were made to sully her reputa-
tion, but without avail. In reply to questions she
said she was sure of being saved and not damned,
40 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and that she believed this as firmly as if she were
in Paradise already. When it was said to her that
this answer was of great weight, she replied that
she herself held it as a great treasure. She was
repeatedly asked if she would submit to the Church,
and replied, " Yes, Our Lord being served firs*."
In one of her answers she referred to the Pope, and
was immediately asked which she held to be the true
Pope? She answered, " Are there two? "
Two or three men in Kouen befriended her, one
Lohier, a lawyer, who protested that her trial was
not legal. He also made the suggestion to her that if
she replied, " It seems to me," instead of " I know
for certain," no man could condemn her. His pro-
tests as to the illegality of the trial, in which all the
usual forms for the protection of the accused had
been disregarded, were made direct to the Bishop of
Beauvais himself, and might very probably have
had important practical results in Joan's favour,
if Lohier 's courage had had more staying power;
but having made his protest and delivered his con-
science , he fled to Rome to secure his own safety ;
the Pope immediately gave him an important legal
appointment, and he ended his days as Dean of the
Rota. Manchon, the notary, dared something for
Joan. Her judges introduced a sham priest, a false
confessor, into her cell, hoping she would reveal to
him what she had concealed from them. Manchon
declined to act as notary on this occasion, or to
FIFTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE IN RUE SAINT
ROMAIN, ROUEN, WHERE JOAN OF ARC IS
SAID TO HAVE BEEN LODGED
From a Photograph by Neurdein Frerts, Paris.
JOAN OF ARC. 41
have anything to do with this piece of treachery.
Massieu, the usher of the court, showed some
gentleness to her, but her best friend of all, one
who remained with her to the last, was a priest,
Brother Isambard. He placed himself near her
at the trial, and made suggestions likely to help her.
It must be remembered she was allowed no lawyer
to conduct her case for her. Isambard advised
her to appeal to the council then sitting at Bale.
She had to ask, " What is this council at Bale? "
and he explained that it represented the whole
Catholic Church. So that when Joan was next
asked if she would submit to the Church, she replied
she would willingly submit to the council of Bale.
The Bishop of Beauvais, the president of the court,
was in a fury, and called out, "Silence, in the
devil's name." He then ordered the notary not to
put down what Joan had said. Joan cried, " You
write what is against me, but you will not write
what is for me." Isambard placed himself in great
peril by the friendship he showed her. The English
threatened to throw him into the Seine. But a
member of the court, one Lemaitre, fiercely
warned the authorities he would have no harm come
to this good priest.
The Bishop of Beauvais, president of the court
and Joan's most inveterate enemy among her
judges, was a creature of Cardinal Beaufort's.
Beaufort had recommended him to the Pope to be
42 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Archbishop of Rouen ; but Rouen had refused to
ratify the nomination, and the appointment re-
mained in suspense. This gives the key to the
bishop's eagerness to be the submissive slave of
Cardinal Beaufort, and to please that party in
the Church which condemned Joan as a sorceress.
It was the bishop who negotiated the sale of
Joan from Jean de Ligny, her first captor, for
10,000 francs; he was in constant communication
with Warwick, then in command of the English
forces at Rouen. But he seems so far to have
misunderstood the English point of view as to
have thought that all they wanted was Joan's
death ; so in his eagerness to oblige he sent her
a dish of poisoned fish on Easter Sunday. She
nearly died, but her robust constitution and the
prompt measures ordered by Warwick for her re-
covery pulled her through. Warwick was ex-
tremely angry and said, " The King " (meaning, of
course, his king, Henry VI., a little boy of nine
years old) " would not for the world have her die
a natural death. The King had bought her, and
she had cost him dear." He was determined to
have his money's worth. This was, that she might
be publicly declared a witch and perish at the stake.
It was only in this way that the crowning of Charles
at Rheims could be discredited, and the crowning
of the young king, Henry, in Paris, which had taken
place the previous December, could pass current as
JOAN OF ARC. 43
a valid ceremonial. They required a retractation
from Joan which would reduce the first coronation
to a pantomime and raise the second to the pinnacle
of highest national significance.
Throughout the year of Joan's imprisonment this
was the darkest time. She began to be tortured by
secret doubts. Had her voices deceived her? Her
strength for a time seems to forsake her. She was
weakened, no doubt, by her long imprisonment, by
the constant strain of her cross-examination, and by
the vigilance ceaselessly required for the protection
of her honour. The poisoning, which just fell short
of killing her, had doubtless its share in the physical
and spiritual depression to which, for a time, she
succumbed. She was taken by-her. prosecutors to
the market place a_t Rouen, and there set up on -a
platfojmi_witk_-a^-iiea^ view -o the stake all sur-
rounded by faggots made ready for a victim. With
this terrific object lesson in front of her, she was
preached at, cross-examined, and questioned again.
A paper was put into her hand, and she was told she
had only to make her mark to save herself from the
flames. The people in the crowd called out, " Joan,
why will you die? Will you not save yourself? "
Once she called out, " All I did was done for good,
and it was well to do it." But at last she made a
round on one end of the paper which had been
given to her. She was told that would not do ; she
must make a cross ; and then shemade a cross. The
44 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
notary writes in the Latin chronicle , % " At the end
of the sentence Joan, fearing the fire, said she
would obey the Church." There was some cheating
practised on her about this retractation, because the
paper which was read to her, and to which she made
her mark, consisted of only two or three lines,
whereas the paper finally produced was a long docu-
ment of several pages. On her signing the retrac-
tation the sentence of the court of lifelong imprison-
ment was passed upon her. Her judges had scored
their first triumph ; they had urged submission
on this unlettered peasant from February till May
without success; but at last imprisonment, chains,
poison, overstrain of every kind, had done their
work ; the rebellious child had submitted ; but
this in itself put the court in a difficulty. For
months they had been saying " Submit or be
burnt " ; now she had submitted, and they wanted
to burn her all the same. The difficulty did not
prove insuperable. One of the promises made to
Joan on condition of her signing the retractation
was that she should be removed from the English
military prison and placed in a prison belonging to
the Church. She ardently desired this, and was
bitterly disappointed when the promise was broken.
Enormous importance had been given by her
judges throughout the trial to her wearing a man's
dress, and it was an absolute condition of her
escaping death by fire that she should resume a
JOAN OF ARC. 45
woman's dress. She therefore found herself in her
old prison once more without the protection of her
man's dress. A ruffianly attempt was made upon
her by, I grieve to say, an Englishman, and
when foiled of his design he had covered her with
blows. The next day was Sunday, Trinity Sunday,
May 28th, 1431. It was time for her to rise from
her bed, to which she was chained. She asked her
guards to unchain her so that she could rise ; they
did so, and took away her woman's dress, and at the
same time threw down the contents of the bag
which contained the male costume. She besought
them for hours to give her back the woman's dress,
but in vain. At last she rose and once more put on
the forbidden dress. It sealed her fate, and relieved
her judges of all embarrassment; she became by
this act "a relapsed heretic." The bishop was
heard laughing to Warwick, " Be of good cheer, the
thing is done." No time was lost. The next Wed-
nesday, May 31st, she was taken to the market place
again. The stake and the faggots were there once
more. Once more she was preached at. Once
more she and the Bishop of Beauvais met face to
face. " Bishop," .she said, "it is by you I die."
He heaped all manner of vile names on her head.
But Massieu, the usher, was kindly and gentle to
her. It is said that the sham priest, the spy, rushed
forward to ask her forgiveness, and would have been
killed by the English had not Warwick protected
46 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
him. Brother Isambard did not leave her. Once
she cried, " St. Michael, St. Michael, help ! " But
no help came. Before she ascended the lofty pile
where the stake was fixed she asked for a cross. An
English- soldier made a rough cross with a stick
which he broke on his knee, binding the pieces
hurriedly together. She clasped it to her breast.
Then Brother Isambard and Massieu, the usher,
sent for a cross on a large staff from one of the
churches, and the good priest, climbing on the fag-
gots, held it in front of the martyr, uttering such
words as he could of encouragement and help. He
stood there so long that there was fear that the fire
would catch his robes, and Joan herself begged him
to leave her. The victim was bound ; the torch was
lighted, and lurid flames and black smoke sprang
into the air. Twice a cry was heard from the midst
of the fire. Once it said, " My voices. were of God ;
they have JLQJ deceived, me.. ' ' The second cry was
just the name of Jesus twice repeated. Then the
noblest and most heroic heart that France has ever
owned ceased to beat, and there was no further
sound except the weeping of the crowd.
One wonders how people could live through such
events. A more than usually deep impression seems
to have been made even on her enemies by the
death of the maid. An Englishman who hated her
with fanatic fierceness, and had sworn to add a
faggot to the flames, approached the pile to do so,
JOAN OF ARC. '47
but fled in terror back to his companions to say he
had seen a pure white dove issue from the smoke.
Almost fainting, he was led by his comrades to
the nearest tavern "a lifelike touch," says Mrs.
Oliphant, " in which we recognise our countrymen."
Another Englishman left the scene of execution
muttering, " WJB- are- lost ; we have murdered a
saint.." The executioner sought out Brother Isam-
bard and confessed to him in an anguish of remorse,
fearing he could never be forgiven for what he had
done. One of the canons of Eouen, standing sob-
bing in the crowd , said to another canon , ' ' Would
that my soul were in the same place where the soul
of that woman is at this moment." The notary or
reporter, to whom reference has more than once
been made, the same who wrote " proud reply " on
the margin of his manuscript, says that he never
wept so much for anything which had ever hap-
pened, and that for a whole month he could not
recover his calm. This man had been almost daily
in Joan's presence, taking down her words from Feb-
ruary to May. He spent part of the payment he
had received for taking the notes of her trial in
buying a missal in order that he might have a per-
petual reminder to pray for her.
One word more about the responsibility of the
French and English nations for her death. There
should be no shirking the truth that both were re-
sponsible. The English were in military possession
48 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of Kouen and of the whole of Normandy; they
bought her of her Burgundian captor, who, on the
whole, had treated her well as long as he had
charge of her. The English treated her with
brutality from the time they became possessed
of her, and no doubt insisted on her death by
fire. But they found eager and willing instru-
ments among Frenchmen, especially among the
chief French ecclesiastics and the professors of
the University of Paris. While almost the worst
of all was the desertion and utter neglect of Joan
after her capture by the King whom she had
restored to the throne, and the whole of his party
which she had raised from utter defeat and demoral-
isation to a position which led ultimately to the
recovery of everything which they had lost. As the
Eomans and the Jews were jointly responsible for
the death of Our Lord, so the English and the
French are jointly responsible for the death of the
Maid of Orleans. As between the French and
English we have been more frank in confessing our
fault, while they have shown a natural, but not very
generous, wish to magnify our share in the bad
business, and to minimise their own. One very
bitter drop in our cup of humiliation is that Shak-
speare, who wrote so nobly of women, wrote un-
worthily of Joan of Arc. This is so painful that we
snatch eagerly at any evidence that the first part of
Henry VI. was not written by Shakespeare at all
JOAN OF ARC. 49
so eagerly that we doubt our own trustworthiness to
decide the point, and feel that the evidence ought to
be weighed by a less biassed jury. But if we hang
our heads when the names of Shakespeare and of
Joan of Arc are mentioned together, what must be
the feelings of the French when they think of Vol-
taire? Voltaire occupied thirty-two years of his life,
from the age of thirty-six to that of sixty-eight,
writing, re-writing, polishing and repolishing a
poem, the whole object of which appears to be to
vilify the memory of a pure girl of nineteen who had
laid down her life for her country. Mr. John Morley
says not only that the poem abounds in immodesty
and that its whole action is centred in indecency,
but that it fastens this gross chaplet round the
memory of the great deliverer of the poet's own
country. It thus sins against patriotism as much
as it sins against the heroic dead and against
decency.
Neither France nor England has any cause for
national satisfaction in the thought that they were
specially favoured by the revelation of Joan of Arc,
and that they betrayed and murdered her while she
lived, and that their greatest writers grossly vilified
her after she was dead.
Not as French or English, but as men and
women, we may be proud of her, and thankful for
her. In the greatest natures of all is to be found
the unionj>f the man and of the woman, strength
" E
50 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and tenderness. It was this union to an almost
miraculous degree that was the special wonder of
Joan of Arc. That our poor human nature can rise
now and then to such sublime heights makes a halo
of glory for the whole race, and can give us thoughts
that do often lie too deep for tears.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER
DAUGHTER.
53
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER
DAUGHTER,
MARGARET OF ANGOUL&ME, DUCHESS OF ALEN^ON
AND QUEEN OF NAVARRE.
THE CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHER.
LOUISE OF SAVOY, DUCHESS OF ANGOUL&ME, with
her daughter Margaret and her son Francis, form
the most romantic group in French history. These
three were so completely three in one that they
spoke of themselves as " noire trinite." Francis
was worshipped and adored by the other two ; they
looked at life wholly through his interests. He was
more than son, brother, and sovereign to them; he
was their god almost. Eight and wrong lost their
meaning where his commands or his interests stood
in the way.
Louise, at the outset of her career, is a pathetic
little figure. Left an orphan in early infancy, she
was brought up by her aunt, Anne of Beaujeu, the
masterful sister and guardian of Charles VIII.
Her aunt lost no time in making matrimonial
arrangements for her, and when Louise was two
years old betrothed her to Charles, Count of Angou-
leme, twenty years older than the baby bride. He
54 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
tried later to get out of the engagement. He had
been banished from court for having taken part in
the rebellion in Brittany; but Anne held him to
his promise, and the wedding took place in 1491,
when Louise was fifteen years old. She was ac-
complished, brilliant, handsome, ambitious, and
wholly without principle. She is the Lady Mac-
beth of the story. But her ambition was concen-
trated on her son, and not at all on her husband,
a heavy, stupid man, who died after five years of
marriage. His chief title to the esteem of Louise
lay in the fact that he was pere du roy mon fils.
The two children of the Count of Angouleme
and Louise were Margaret, born in 1492, and
Francis, born in 1494. From the first Louise set
her whole heart, mind, and soul on Francis becom-
ing king of France. It is an extraordinary story,
as wonderful as any romance. Her son was at the
date of his birth far removed from the succession.
Charles VIII. was alive, was a young man of
twenty-four, married to a young wife, and had had
children ; even if the direct line were all swept
away the next heir was Louis of Orleans; he, it is
true , was childless after many years of marriage ;
but Charles VIII. 's possible sons and Louis of
Orleans stood between the baby Francis and the
throne. Nevertheless, to Louise her baby boy was
the future king of France. It is said that his
elevation to the throne had been foretold to his
-THE DAUPHIN, CHARLES ORLANT
SON OF CHARLES VIII.
FROM THE PAINTING BY BOURDICHON
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER, 55
mother by astrologers and others, among whom St.
Francis de Paule has been mentioned. Certainly
she kept it in view as the main object of her life
until it was actually accomplished.
" Angouleme thou art, and Valois ; and shalt be
What thou art promised "
she might have said if she had had the opportunity
of reading "Macbeth."
A son had been born to Charles VIII. and Anne
of Brittany in 1492. He died at Amboise on
December 6th, 1495, aged three years and fifty-
eight days. The restless exultation of Louise on
the death of her son's rival may be guessed from
the fact that she and her husband immediately set
out from Cognac to visit the Duke of Orleans at
Blois to congratulate him on the death of his
little nephew, thus recovering his position as heir
presumptive. At the court at Amboise, to which
he had been summoned to console the King and
Queen for the death of their son, Louis of Orleans
had been unable to conceal the profound delight
which the event had given him. Under the pretext
of distracting the parents from their grief he gave,
says Brantome, a ball and masquerade, at which
" he did such follies and danced so gaily " that the
Queen was extremely angry, and Louis thought it
prudent to escape from Amboise and return to his
own castle at Blois. Here he received the con-
gratulatory visit from the Count and Countess of
56 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Angouleme just referred to. It was returning from
this visit of " mirth in funeral " that Louise's hus-
band took an attack of pleurisy which killed him.
Not much more than two years after this April,
1498 Charles VIII. died too, and left no living
child behind him; there was only his young widow,
Queen Anne, but she seemed born to thwart the
ambition of Louise. As the Duke of Orleans, now
become Louis XII., had been married to Joan,
daughter of Louis XI. for twenty-three years and
was childless, Louise might be said almost to have
seen the diadem of France round the brows of her
adored son. But she was to go through double and
triple anguish of doubts and fears before this vision
was realised. The first obstacle in the way of
Louise's ambition was placed there by Queen Anne.
Her husband being dead, she claimed from his suc-
cessor the resumption in her own right of the Duchy
of Brittany. Up to the time when this incon-
venient claim was made, Louis had shown every
disposition to recognise Francis as his heir. He
had installed Louise and her two children in the
royal castle at Blois ; he had invited them all to be
his guests at Chinon, and had shown them great
courtesy and affection. M. de Gelais wrote in his
history of Louis XII.: "He gave the said lady
lodgings in his castle at Chinon, over his own cham-
ber, where he went to visit her frequently in most
familiar fashion. As for the children, he did not
,
LOUIS XII. ENTERING GENOA IN TRIUMPH.
FROM AN OLD PRINT.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 57
know how to show them favour enough, for had he
been their father he could not have made more of
them. And certes, there were few children to equal
them in any rank of life, as, for their years, they
were so accomplished that it was pleasant and de-
lightsome even to look at them."
Then came the widowed Queen's inconvenient
claim to re-establish her private ownership of the
Duchy of Brittany, and King Louis was in a
serious dilemma. He saw only one way of securing
the duchy without fighting for it. He was a very
thrifty king, and shrank from the wasteful expendi-
ture of war, especially if he could get what he
wanted in a more economical way. This way in-
volved the abandonment and divorce of the wife to
whom he had been married for twenty-three years,
and his immediate remarriage with the late king's
widow. Incidentally it also involved the apparent
destruction of Louise's darling hopes for her son ;
but it may be assumed that this did not cause
Louis XII. much hesitation. This was the course
actually pursued. The Pope, Alexander VI., made
no difficulties in granting the divorce beyond requir-
ing a large sum of money. Queen Joan being thus
disposed of, King Louis married Anne of Brittany
in January, 1499, within eight months of the death
of Charles VIII.
The new Queen was exactly the same age as
Louise herself, between twenty-two and twenty-
5 8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
three. She had had children as the wife of
Charles VIII., and there was every reason to be-
lieve that she would also bear children to Louis XII.
It is not difficult to realise how the tiger-like
maternal rage of Louise was excited by the pros-
pect. There was from this time a deadly feud be-
tween the two ladies, none the less bitter .because
it was carried on under the outward appearance of
friendship.
The anticipation of the birth of children to
Louis XII. and his new wife was quickly realised ;
the eldest child, Princess Claude, was born in
October, 1499, in Louise's own dower house of
Eomorantin. The child was from her birth deli-
cate, plain, and lame; but, failing the birth of a
son to her parents, she was the heiress of Brittany,
and Louise decided that she should be the bride of
her Francis. Anne as strenuously opposed this
match, and as soon as the Emperor Maximilian's
grandson and heir was born, in 1500, schemed to
wed her little daughter to the Archduke Charles,
afterwards Charles V. How unjustly is the present
age called the age of commercialism compared with
the "good old times," when there was absolutely
nothing even in the most sacred of human relations
which apparently respectable people were not ready
to buy and sell ! Not long after the birth of Princess
Claude a son was born to Louis and Anne ; but he
scarcely survived his birth, and Louise wrote with
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 59
savage joy in her journal, " He could not retard the
exaltation of my Caesar, for he had no life."
A great deal of what we know of Louise is de-
rived from this journal, written with her own hand.
It is one of the most curious of historical docu-
ments. It was evidently not written from day to
day, but probably the mood took her about 1522 or
1523 to note down the principal events of her life,
and even of some years preceding her life. She
begins with the birth of the Emperor Maximilian
in 1459, then come notes of the birth of Louis XII.
in 1462, of his wife Anne, Duchess of Brittany,
and of herself in the same year, 1476. She makes
no mention whatever of her own marriage, the
first real flourish of trumpets records the birth of
her son "Francis, by the Grace of God King of
France and my pacific Caesar, took his first ex-
perience of earthly light at Cognac, about ten
hours after noon, 1494, the twelfth day of Sep-
tember." The next entry is, "The first day of
January of the year 1496, I lost my husband." She
next notes that ' ' my daughter Claude , conjoined to
my son in marriage, was born in my house at
Romorantin the 13th October, eight hours and fifty-
four minutes after noon, 1499."
One of her great enemies was the Marshal de
Gye". She supposed, and with some reason, that
he had been placed in her household by the king
as a spy upon her conduct. She records in the
60 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
journal how this person had nearly caused the death
of her son. On January 25th, 1501, Francis then
being six years old, " my king, my lord, my Caesar
and my son, was run away with in the fields near
Amboise, on a hackney which had been given him
by Marshal de Gye"." The poor man probably
thought he was making himself very agreeable in
giving the child a horse, but Louise flashes out at
him as if he had been a murderer, and gives thanks
to God, " toutes fois protecteur des femmes
veufves et deffenseur des orphelins," who would
not leave her desolate, deprived of her love and her
one object in life. A few years later she pursued
Marshal de Gye to his ruin. Her next entry re-
cords the death of a little dog " Hapeguai, very
loving and loyal to his master." Then comes the
very characteristic passage already referred to :
41 Anne, Queen of France, on St. Agnes' day, 21st
of January, had a son, but he could not retard the
exaltation of my Caesar, for he had no life." The
betrothal of Francis with the Princess Claude is
recorded, but it is attributed to the year 1507,
whereas contemporary records place it in 1506.
The birth of Margaret in 1492, and her marriage to
the Duke of Alencon in 1509, are set down in the
journal, but it is Francis, and not Margaret, in
whom Louise is really interested. If he runs a
thorn into his leg or scratches his finger it is re-
corded as seriously as the history of shipwrecks and
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 61
sieges. "The fifth day of June, 1515, my son,
coming from Chamont to Amboise, ran a thorn into
his leg, which caused him much pain, and me also,
for true love forced me to suffer equally with him."
His journeys, his illnesses, and his recoveries fill
her field of vision, and other events interest her
only according to their influence on him. One of
her entries seems to require confirmation, which it
has not received. The enmity between herself and
Queen Anne is emphasised by all contemporary
chroniclers. The Queen resisted the union between
Francis and her daughter Claude to so much pur-
pose that although she had been forced to give con-
sent to the betrothal of the two children in 1506,
she delayed the marriage, and continued to hope to
marry her daughter to the Grand Duke Charles.
In the negotiations leading to the betrothal of
Francis and Claude in 1506, it is expressly stipu-
lated that the proposed marriage should not be
carried out if a son were born to Louis XII. It
was not till Anne was dead that this hope was
abandoned and the marriage allowed to take place.
It was a very sombre wedding. The King insisted
that everyone, even the bride and bridegroom,
should wear black for the late Queen.
Louise asserts in her journal that Anne left her
executor of her will with control over the fortune
of her tovo daughters, " Mesmement de madame
Claude, reine de France, et femme de mon fils,
62 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
laquelle j'ai honorablement et amiablement con-
duite ; chaqun le sqait, verite le cognoist, ex-
perience le demonstre, aussi fait publique re-
nominee." "The lady doth protest too much."
Louise, writing this in 1522 or thereabouts, was
all-powerful. Her son was King, there was no one
who could bring her to book ; but it is very incon-
sistent with the well-known enmity and rivalry
which existed between her and Anne of Brittany
to suppose that the latter should have left Louise
with absolute control over the fortunes of her
daughters, especially as their father and natural
guardian was then living. Louise had very far from
a clean record in financial affairs. She loved money
almost as much as she loved her son ; sometimes it
appeared that she loved it even more. When he
was at his wit's end for money to pay the ransom
of his sons to Charles V., in 1530, his sister Mar-
garet gave with both hands and sacrificed all her
gold and silver plate. Louise gave nothing, though
at her death, which took place not long after, it was
discovered that she had in her treasury 1,500,000
gold crowns. Earlier than this, in 1512, when
Francis had embarked on his disastrous campaign
in Italy, she was in part responsible for the defeat
of her son's forces by diverting to her own use
400,000 gold crowns which were intended for the
relief of the French army in Italy. Semblangai,
superintendent of the finances, eventually suffered
LOUISE OJ SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER, 63
on the scaffold for the crime of making over this
money to the king's mother; but Louise neither
gave it up nor incurred the punishment she so
richly deserved for stealing it. Francis for the first
time was seriously incensed against his mother ; he
visited her in her apartment, and with much wrath
accused her of having caused the loss of his army
in Italy and of the Duchy of Milan. She ex-
cused herself at the expense of Semblangai, who,
she said, had long held money of hers, the proceeds
of years of saving and economy. This was in the
year 1522, and almost exactly corresponded in time
with the writing of her journal. It may very well
have been that this affair of the 400,000 crowns and
her son's anger made her feel that she required
whitewashing, and that no one but herself was
likely to undertake the task. Hence she sits down
and writes herself a testimonial for her honourable
and amiable management of the large fortunes of
the two princesses, Claude, the wife of Francis,
and Benee, the younger daughter of Louis XII.
Another entry in the journal is susceptible of a
similar explanation. Louise writes : " I/an 1515,
1516, 1517, 1518, 1519, 1520, 1521, 1522 " (that is
from the date of her son's accession to that of the
Semblan^ai affair) "sans y pouvoir donner pro-
vision, mons fils et moi feusmes continuellement
desrobts par les gens de finances. 1 ' It is tolerably
plain, if we may read between the lines, that
64 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Louise means it to be understood that she regarded
the 400,000 crowns as payment of a debt due to
her own private purse. Even if the French ex-
chequer did owe Louise money it was an incon-
venient moment to exact payment, when the
French army at Milan under Lautrec was at the
last extremity from want of funds, and when the
soldiers were mutinous, not having received any
wages for eighteen months.
It only makes the malversation by Louise of
the money intended for the army a blacker crime
than theft, when we learn that she was actuated
not only by avarice, but by the desire to ruin
Lautrec, and through him the Constable of Bour-
bon, Charles Montpensier.
But that part of the story must come later, and
we must now return to the earlier period, during
the childhood of Margaret and Francis. Every
circumstance deepened the rivalry between their
mother and the Queen of France. Anne was
wealthy, essentially narrow-minded, suspicious of
learning and education, commonplace, respectable,
and honest, a bigot in religion, rigid in her notions
of decorum, and extremely tenacious of her rights
as Queen of France and Duchess of Brittany.
Louise was the poor relation ; but she, and not
Anne, was the great lady with great social gifts and
graces, accomplished, learned, and the friend of
learning, at the same time absolutely unprincipled
LOUIS XII.
AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY J. CHAPMAN.
LOUISE OF SAVOT AND HER DAUGHTER. 65
and ambitious. Anne's great interest in life was
in promoting marriages. Miss Sichel tells that the
Pope presented her with an " autel portatif," a
travelling altar, at which she was licensed to per-
form marriages on the shortest possible notice. One
imagines her travelling about with her portable
altar just as the modern English lady has her tea
basket. Louise, on the other hand, paid but small
regard to marriage except as it served to promote
her ambition for her children. The deepest rivalry
between the two ladies centred in their children.
Those of Anne were plain, sickly, and deficient in
vitality. If they had not been the king's daughters
no one would have given them a second glance ;
while the boy and girl of Louise would have been
remarkable anywhere full of vigour both mental
and bodily, full of interest in all that life might
bring them. Francis especially had almost from his
cradle the gift of physical splendour which we
recognise in his numerous portraits, where the crim-
son velvet and satin, the jewels, feathers, and lace
do not obscure, but rather throw into relief the
flamboyant magnificence of the man.
Louis XII. and his consort were economical to
the point of cheese-paring in their personal expendi-
ture; Francis would spend a fortune on pocket-
handkerchiefs, and his jewels and clothes cost as
much every -year as would have kept a troop of
horse. There is an eternal feud between wealthy
66 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
parsimony and lavish poverty. And the economical
King knew that the magnificent young prince's bills
would make their way to him to be paid. He was
heard to exclaim of Francis, " Ce garqon Zd me
gdtera tout." But Queen Anne must have sighed
when she compared her plain children with this
young Prince Charming; and Louise, we may be
sure, looked daggers, though she used none, when she
thought that such another poor plain weakling, if
a boy, might intervene between her Francis and the
throne. In 1510 Queen Anne had another child;
to the intense joy of Louise it was again a daugh-
ter, Renee, afterwards Duchess of Ferrara. The
death of Anne, in 1514, seemed to make Louise
sure that the prize she had so long sought was really
secured. She and her son rejoiced openly at the
Queen's death, and she lost no time in bringing
about the marriage between the Princess Claude
and Francis which Anne had so long resisted. It
would not have suited her to have seen Claude mar-
ried to a powerful prince like the Grand Duke
Charles or Henry VIII. of England, who thereby
would have captured Brittany and might from that
vantage ground have tried to set aside the Salic law
and claim for his wife the crown of France.
Louis XII. had sincerely loved his wife, and
on her death gave way to a passion of grief. He
ordered her grave to be made large enough for two
coffins, and prophesied more truly than he knew
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 67
that he would quickly follow her to the next world.
For once the thrifty king let himself be profuse,
and the pages of Brantome positively glow as he
describes the lavish magnificence of her obsequies.
Louise now thought all her anxieties were over.
She was calmly arranging the visit of Francis to
Constantinople, for she had formed plans that her
"pacific Caesar" should become Emperor of the
East, master of India, and a second Alexander,
when her schemes were suddenly dashed to the
ground by another amazing marriage by Louis XII.
The broken-hearted widower, who but a few
weeks earlier had been making arrangements for
his own entombment, announced his betrothal and
speedy marriage with Mary Tudor, the sister of
Henry VIII. eighteen years old, handsome, frolic-
some, giddy, and good-natured. Louise's fury is
reflected in her journal, where she describes the
first meeting of the King, " fort antique et debile "
(he was fifty-two), with his youthful bride. The
marriage followed on October 9th the same year.
Louis's object in his third marriage was to neu-
tralise the opposition, even if he did not secure the
support, of England in the renewal of hostilities
which he was then contemplating with the Empire
for the domination of Italy. The few months
during which the marriage lasted must have been
the bitterest of Louise's life. She hated Mary
Tudor, and set spies upon her. If she could catch
68 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
her tripping she might yet overthrow her and pre-
vent any possible child of hers succeeding. It was
part of her plan for Mary's ruin that Francis, not
at all against the grain, set up a lively flirtation with
the young queen. But all these plots and plans
were suddenly rendered superfluous, for the King
died on January 1st, 1515, and Louise enters trium-
phantly in her journal : ' ' My son was King of
France." One of the intimate friends of Francis
during his youth, M. de Fleurange, " le jeune
adventureux" says in his memoirs that the death
of Louis XII., on New Year's day, was " une belle
etrenne " for Louise; and we can well believe it.
The giddy young Queen, Mary Tudor, did not
give much anxiety. She kept her mourning state
in bed for six weeks, in a chamber hung with black,
from which all daylight was excluded, according
to the monstrous etiquette then enforced on royal
widows. But she was not without distractions.
She received visits from Francis, and she then in-
timated to him that she proposed, as soon as her
seclusion was ended, to marry Charles Brandon,
Duke of Suffolk. Francis sent for the Duke, and
said, " My Lord of Suffolk, there is a bruit in this
my realm that you are come to marry with the
Queen, your master's sister." Suffolk is said to have
replied that the " bruit " was well founded, but that
he was doing nothing dishonourable nor contrary to
the will of his master. However that might be,
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 69
Francis and his mother promoted the immediate
marriage of the joyful widow with her lover. This
took place on March 31st, 1515, exactly three
months after the death of Louis. The note in
Louise's journal is: "Saturday, the last day of
March, 1515, the Duke of Suffolk, a man of low
birth, whom Henry, eighth of the name, had sent
as ambassador to the King, married Mary, sister of
the said Henry, and widow of Louis XII."
Suffolk had been betrothed once and married
twice already ; and one of his wives was certainly
living at the date on which he married Mary Tudor ;
for he presently applied to Pope Clement VII. for
a bull to dissolve his former marriage and legalise
his union with his master's sister. But these facts
do not appear to have been regarded by anyone as
a serious impediment. If Mary did not object, no
one in France had the right to do so. Louise and
Francis were too anxious to provide Mary Tudor
with a husband to be particular, and this once ac-
complished the young dowager's improprieties had
no further interest for the triumphant Louise.
Mary left Paris with her old lover and new husband
on April 15th, and troubled the mother of Francis
no more. The English princess had more difficulty
in appeasing the anger of her brother, for Suffolk
went far beyond the truth in saying that Henry
had consented to the marriage. Mary, to pacify
him, had to sacrifice all her plate and jewels, and
70 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
also to promise to pay him 24,000 in yearly instal-
ments. This strange marriage made Suffolk and
his royal wife, twenty-two years later, the grand-
parents of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey. It was
surely one of Nature's most generous miracles that
this delicate flower should have sprung from such
a hotbed of greed and passion.
Francis and his sister Margaret had been
brought up together, and she had shared in all his
studies. She soon outstripped him in her know-
ledge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and in her easy
grasp of modern languages. To another of her
interests he was almost entirely a stranger. Her
governess, Mme. de Chatillon, very early interested
her in the movement, then beginning, for the re-
form of the Church. Her chief companions in her
childhood were the group of noble youths who had
been selected as comrades for Francis. Among
them were Gaston de Foix (killed at Eavenna),
whose extraordinary beauty may still be seen in his
effigy in the Castello at Milan ; Bonnivet (killed at
Pavia) ; Charles of Montpensier, afterwards Duke of
Bourbon; and Anne of Montmorency, both in suc-
cession Constables of France. Among these boys
Margaret reigned as a little queen. With several
of them she retained a life-long friendship. For
many years she kept up continual correspondence
with Montmorency, and the volume of her letters
to him almost equals that of her letters to Francis.
HEAD OF GASTON DE FOIX.
FROM HIS MONUMENT IN THE CASTELLO AT MILAN.
From a Photograph by Alinari, Florence.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGH'.
Probably all the boys were in love with her ;
while she was being sought in marriage by 6 reat
kings and heirs-apparent. Their suits were, how-
ever, for one reason or another set aside, and in
1509 Margaret was married, at the age of seventeen,
to the Duke of Alengon. This marriage was ar-
ranged on a simple commercial basis. Margaret
never even seemed to have any personal affection for
her first husband. She left him for years at a time,
and after her brother became king spent nearly all
her time either with Francis or in his service. Her
marriage was dictated by the wish to promote her
brother's interests. This was an all-sufficient justi-
fication in the eyes of both mother and daughter.
The Duke of Alengon was mean and insignificant
both in character and appearance, and his slender
mental advantages had never been made the most
of by education. But he had a means of making his
influence felt at court ; he claimed the County of
Armagnac, which had reverted to the crown in de-
fault of male heirs. He perpetually pressed this
claim, which he derived by descent from his great-
grandfather John, fourth Count of Armagnac.
Louis XII., with his habitual eye to economy, hated
the expense both of war and of lawsuits, he there-
fore agreed that if the Duke of Alencon married
Margaret, the County of Armagnac should be her
marriage portion. This suited everyone admirably.
The Duke of Alencon made a marriage far beyond
72 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
his deserts and position, the King avoided a tedious
and expensive lawsuit, Francis and Louise were
quite satisfied because the revenues of the County
of Armagnac if at Margaret's disposal would be
entirely at their command, and finally Margaret
was satisfied because she never wished for anything
but her brother's advancement. The person who
was most to be pitied was perhaps the dull Duke of
Alengon. He obtained a brilliant and beautiful
wife it is true; but she never cared for him nor
made any pretence of doing so, and his claim to
the County of Armagnac was satisfied more in
appearance than in reality. Then and always
Margaret was true to the guiding principle of her
life. Her brother and his interests, real or sup-
posed, were her guiding star. The marriage took
place at Blois, on October 9th, 1509.
The "trinity" was now broken up. Margaret
was installed in her own court at Argentan ;
Francis, the year before, not long after his be-
trothal, left for the royal court at Blois, and, as
Louise says in her journal, " me laissa toute seule "
at Amboise. The death of Anne of Brittany, the
marriage of Francis and Claude, the re-marriage of
Louis XII. with Mary Tudor, and his death, were
all crowded into the year between January, 1514,
and January, 1515. Francis had not failed on his
marriage to demand from Louis the cession of
Brittany as his wife's inheritance in her own right,
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 73
and to this the King had given a reluctant consent.
It is possible that this exaction had its share in
bringing about Louis's third and last marriage, for
his temper, according to the chronicles of Fleurange,
was decidedly " chatouilleux ," which may perhaps
be best translated as "cat-like," for he loved to
scratch even if he were powerless to inflict a deeper
wound. He gave another instance of this disposi-
tion when he was negotiating his marriage with
Mary Tudor. He displayed to the English noble-
man, the Earl of Worcester, who acted as Mary's
proxy at the betrothal, the magnificent jewels he
was about to give his young bride ' ' the goodliest
and richest sight of jewels I ever saw," wrote the
Earl to Cardinal Wolsey. After a detailed descrip-
tion he added : ' ' There are ten or twelve of the
principal stones that there hath been refused for
them 100,000 ducats. After the King had showed
me these jewels he said, ' My wife will not have
all these at once; I shall give them to her one by
one, that I may receive in return more abundant
thanks and tokens of her affection.' "
During these anxious months, at the end of
1514, Louise, sick as she was with hope deferred,
clung to the prophecy, made by Francis de Paule,
that her son should be king; and after he had
ascended the throne she showed her gratitude by
causing the holy man to be canonised. Her way of
describing this in her journal is characteristic:
74 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
" I/an 1519, le 5 Juillet, frere Francois de Paule,
des freres meridians evangelistes, jut par moi
canonise"; a tout le moins j'en ai paye le taxe."
Louise never showed any genuine religious feeling.
She would make a pilgrimage on foot to a celebrated
shrine, not from love of God, but for value received,
or anticipated, for her son, her "glorious and
triumphant Caesar." If his arms and fortunes pros-
pered, she would make a suitable acknowledgment.
For instance, this is the reference in her journal to
the coronation of her son on the day of the con-
version of St. Paul, in 1515. " For this event I am
much beholden and grateful to Divine mercy, as by
it I have been recompensed for all the adversities
and reverses which happened to me in my early
years and in the flower of my youth. Humility [ ! ]
was then my constant companion; nevertheless,
patience never forsook me."
If Francis suffered a reverse she would offer an
expiatory victim, and would order some poor wretch
who had been accused of insulting the sacrament to
have his hand cut off and then to be burnt alive.
When the Emperor Maximilian died, in 1519,
the three candidates for election were the three
young kings, Henry of England, Charles of Spain,
and Francis of France. Henry's candidature was
only formal ; the real contest lay between Charles
and Francis. Both bribed handsomely ; but the
credit of the frugal Charles was far better than
FRANCIS I. OF FRANCE.
FROM A RELIEF BY AN UNKNOWN SCULPTOR IN THE CASTELLO, MILAN.
Photograph by Anderson, Rome.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 75
that of the spendthrift Francis. "At the critical
moment Francis could not get credit. The Swabian
league forbade the merchants of Augsburg to accept
his bills."* And on June 28th, 1519, the electors
unanimously voted for Charles. The election cost
him 850,000 florins ; but he won. The entry in the
journal of Louise is very typical of her character
and of her attitude where religious considerations
were involved. "In July, 1519, Charles, fifth of
the name, son of Philip, Archduke of Austria, was,
after the empire had been vacant for the space of
five months, elected King of the Romans, in the
town of Frankfort. Would to God it had been
longer vacant, or even that it had for ever been left
in the hands of Jesus Christ, to whom it belongs,
and to no other." If Francis had been elected,
what a different note would she not have sung?
THE REFORM OF THE CHURCH AND THE REVIVAL OF
LEARNING.
LOUISE was a worldling to the finger-tips, and so
was Francis. Not so Margaret ; she had genuine
religious fervour. She dearly wished above all
things to gain her brother's sympathy for the cause
of the reformation. Madame de Chatillon, who had
fostered Margaret's piety in her childhood, remained
with her as lady-in-waiting after her marriage. For
a time Margaret believed she had gained the sym-
* Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II., p. 41.
76 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
pathy of Francis for the reform of the church, and
she even had hopes of her mother. She constantly
interceded with her brother to save the lives of
eminent scholars and theologians whom the bigots
of the church wished to condemn to the flames or
to perpetual imprisonment. For some years Francis
allowed himself to be influenced by her prayers and
petitions. Thus when Lefevre, Louis Berquin, and
other pious scholars were condemned to death for
such trivialities as that they had taught that 'Mary,
the sister of Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and the
Mary, of the pot of ointment, were three separate
persons, Margaret besought her brother, and gener-
ally with success, to use his royal prerogative of
mercy, and to save them from the flames. On the
intellectual side Francis was in sympathy with his
sister, and for some years Margaret failed to see
that his support went no further. If he had been
as open to genuine religious impulses as she was,
the history of France, and probably of Christen-
dom, would have been very different; but Francis
was essentially without religion. He sometimes
supported the reformers, but sometimes and as his
reign went on, more frequently persecuted them,
and lent his authority to the most bigoted and
reactionary party in the church.
For some years after the accession of Francis,
Margaret reigned as virtual Queen of France.
Poor, quiet, submissive Claude was quite in the
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 77
background. Margaret always treated her gener-
ously and affectionately. It was not in her nature
to be unkind even to a sister-in-law. There was
no question of jealousy between the two. Francis
never cared for Claude, and neglected her from
the day of his marriage till that of her death.
She was simply the mother of his seven children ;
she never had any other part or lot in his life.
When she died, in 1524, after ten years of mar-
riage, Francis was not even by her bedside. She
was at Blois dying, he was -at Bourges with his
mother and sister. A message was sent to recall
Francis to his dying wife, but he disregarded
it. He was too much occupied with the prepara-
tions for his ill-fated expedition to Italy to obey the
summons. He contented himself with sending his
mother and sister back to Blois. They arrived too
late. Claude was dead, aged twenty-four, and prob-
ably thankful to be where there is no marrying or
giving in marriage. Her father's indecent marriage
with Mary Tudor almost immediately after her
mother's death had been painful and distasteful to
her, and as the neglected wife of the gorgeous
Francis she had had very few hours of joyousness
in her short life. The companionship of her little
sister Eenee was one of her consolations. News of
her death was, of course, at once conveyed to
Francis. He did not return, but he ordered her the
handsomest funeral that money could buy, and ap-
78 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
peared to be rather surprised that her death should
cause him any emotion. Margaret, in a letter, re-
presents him as saying to their mother : "If my
life could be given in exchange for hers, willingly
would I yield it up. Never could I have believed
that the bonds of marriage were so hard and difficult
to sever."
Margaret henceforward devoted herself to the
children of Francis, and became a second mother to
them. Many of her prettiest and most playful
letters are addressed to her brother about his
children. The baby Charles, " M. d'Angouleme,"
as Margaret ceremoniously calls him even when he
was only three years old, seems to have been her
special pet. Her letters to Francis about his
children show that whatever changes four centuries
may have wrought in the world, the devoted aunt
was much the same in the fifteenth as in the
twentieth. In a letter written in 1531, Margaret,
referring to the long drawn out illness of their
mother, tells Francis that there had been no im-
provement until the visit of " three little doctors,
who speedily made her forget her pain." These
were the three little princes, the Dauphin Francis,
Henry, Duke of Orleans, and Charles, Duke of
Angouleme.
" The princes, however, were very sorrowful and dis-
contented when they learned your departure ; for M.
d'Angouleme had made up his mind, if he could only see
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 79
you again, never to loose your hand ; for he says that
even if you go to hunt the wild boar, he knows that you
will take good care that nothing hurts him."
It is a pretty touch, the little prince of nine years
old, who determines when he next sees his father
never to loose his hand. He had a mind to attach
himself to the chariot of that glorious sun even if
he could not stop it in its course.
Soon after Francis first became king, Margaret
left her husband almost entirely, and devoted herself
to her brother. "The trinity" were reunited.
Margaret engaged the interest of Francis in the \
revival of learning, and endeavoured to engage it in
the reform of the Church. The two objects were
not the same, but they were touched at many points.
The University of Paris and the Sorbonne were in
vehement opposition to them both. They denounced
the teaching of Greek and Hebrew with passion.
In 1521 the University of Paris condemned Luther's
doctrines and ordered his book to be publicly burnt.
In the same year the heads of the Sorbonne and of
the University pame in a deputation to Francis to
entreat him to check the study of Greek and Hebrew
among students and foreign professors on 'the ground
that such persons, armed with the knowledge of the
languages in which the Scriptures were written,
" insinuated themselves into the houses of persons
of quality and insolently assumed the liberty of in-
terpreting the Bible." Francis, animated by Mar-
8o FIVE FAMC ^"VNCH WOMEN.
garet, dealt very shortly with these learned op-
ponents of learning, and said he would not have the
students of Greek molested. " To persecute those
who teach us would be," he declared, " to prevent
able men from coming into our country." But the
powers of ignorance and bigotry were not so easily
put down. For years, and with continually increas-
ing vehemence as the reform movement and the
revival of learning gathered strength, the Sorbonne
and the University headed the forces of obscuran-
tism in a fight to the finish. Koyal displeasure, con-
tinually and vigorously expressed over a considerable
term of years, could not repress them. Greek was
vigorously denounced by the University and the
Sorbonne ; it was the tongue of pagans and the
mother of all the heresies. Hebrew was as bad,
because it was the language of the Jews. Learn-
ing and science were equally dangerous ; they opened
men's minds to think and observe. The education
given by the University and the Sorbonne consisted
of absurd hair splittings over such points as whether
" if a donkey were led in a leash to market it was
the cord or the holder of the cord that actually led
him." * The first gravedigger in Hamlet might
have been a professor in this school of learning.
While education was thus reduced to an ab-
surdity, Church and University lent themselves to
the toleration of every kind of moral iniquity. By
* Miss Sichel's " Women and Men of the French Renaissance."
MARGARET OF ANGOULEME.
FROM A DRAWING IN THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALS, PARIS.
Photograph by P. Samianaud.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. Si
the payment of money every sin could be absolved,
and there was a regular tariff of charges for absolu-
tion for various crimes ; the tariff varied with the
wealth of the applicant ; the rich had to pay more
than the poor. Ecclesiastical offences were the most
expensive, and it was cheaper to murder a layman
than to rob a church.
Against this international system of ignorance
and viciousness all the best men in Europe com-
bined : Sir Thomas More, Dean Colet, and Arch-
bishop Waring headed the movement in England,
Erasmus led the van on the Continent of Europe,
seconded by such men as Keuchlin in Germany,
Bude and Berquin in France, Ochino in Italy. At
first there was no idea of separating from the Church
of Kome ; the whole wish of the earlier leaders was
to secure reform within the church, and to base a
purified and spiritualised religion on a study of the
Bible, and of the best philosophers and poets of
antiquity.
It is to the eternal glory of Margaret of Angou-
leme that she threw herself heart and soul on the
right side in this most profoundly interesting
struggle. She never became a Protestant, and never
separated herself from the communion of the Church
of Rome ; the coarse violence of some of the mani-
festations of the Protestant movement disgusted and
partially alienated her. But she never wavered
from the position she took up all through the years
G
82 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
when she was the first lady in France, of the pro-
tector of the new learning and the humble devotee
of a religion which was pure and undented. During
the early years of her brother's reign he had made
her Duchess of Berry in her own right, which gave
her a large revenue and the control of the University
of Bourges. Here she spent a large proportion of
her income in educating poor scholars ; she opened
her doors to the men of learning and character
who were driven from Paris by the bigotry of the
Sorbonne. But she did more than this ; she carried
the war into the enemies' camp in Paris itself.
After eight years' quiet persistent work in the way
of preparation, she founded the College de France,
while with feminine tact she made Francis believe
that he was founding it himself. Everything had
to be done in the King's name and with his consent.
But Margaret gave the motive power and kept the
King's interest alive. Bude*, the great Greek
scholar, Jean du Bellay (afterwards Cardinal) and
his two brothers threw themselves with enthusiasm
into the scheme. Bude* was a scholar of European
reputation. It was in his house in Paris that Eras-
mus and Sir Thomas More first met and laid the
foundation of a life-long friendship which had many
important consequences. He had an intense
enthusiasm for Greek, a knowledge of which he had
acquired under extraordinary difficulties. The
college was really created as a rival to the University,
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 83
but its promoters were diplomatists as well as
scholars, and it was very modest in its first scope,
dimensions, and title. It was not a university, but
a ' ' college universitaire " ; it was at first to consist
of two chairs only, one of Greek and one of Hebrew.
This was in 1529. In 1530 the professorships were
increased from two to five, and in 1545 to eleven,
when Arabic, philosophy, medicine, mathematics,
and literature each had its chair. To the new college
was affiliated the printing establishment of the
Estiennes, which was already hateful to the Sor-
bonne because it had published a translation of the
New Testament into French. Erasmus took the
keenest interest in the foundation of the college, and
Margaret and her brother desired that he should
become its first principal ; but this offer, like many
other flattering offers, including that of a cardinal's
hat from the Pope, Erasmus, for good reasons,
declined. Francis endowed the college with an
annual revenue of 50,000 crowns.
The Sorbonne and the University quite well
knew who was the real author of the new col-
lege, and they neither forgot nor forgave. It was
Margaret who constantly intervened for the pro-
tection of men, learned and unlearned, whose
crime it was to study the Scriptures, and to dare
to think for themselves in matters of conduct
and religion; and now, as the persecutors well
knew, it was Margaret who was founding this
84 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
college which was to carry the war into their own
province of education. The boldness and persistency
of the attacks made on Margaret, the King's .sister,
his devoted friend and counsellor, the most powerful
lady in the kingdom and virtual Queen of France,
give a vivid picture of the political and social power
of the Church. Ecclesiasticism was a power outside
the State, and often antagonistic to it. The Sor-
bonne and the University of Paris put themselves
in open opposition to the King and the King's sister.
When Margaret wrote " The Mirror of a Sinful
Soul," and when a book of Hours was prepared for
her by the King's confessor, Guillaume Petit,
Bishop of Senlis, leaving out many of the usual
invocations to the saints, she was summoned by the
Sorbonne to appear before its court on the charge
of heresy. She defied her would-be prosecutors
and retaliated by writing satirical poems in which
she represented a doctor of the Sorbonne eager
to put down heresy with fire and faggot, but willing
to be mollified by means of bribery. The anger
of the Sorbonne and University was great; but
they bided their time and struck back with
all their strength when the right moment came.
Francis and Margaret, or rather Francis, urged
thereto by Margaret, invited Melancthon to Paris
with a view to bringing about a purification of
the church. Melancthon was a reformer after
Margaret's own heart, gentle and moderate, desiring
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER, 85
to reconcile rather than to estrange ; earnestly work-
ing for the reform of the church from within so as
to prevent the disruption of Christendom. Melanc-
thon hesitated to accept the position offered him in
Paris ; he pleaded delay and the necessity of obtain-
ing the consent of his sovereign, the Elector of
Saxony. This consent was obtained, but Luther
unfortunately intervened and begged Melancthon
at least to postpone his departure. This played
into the hands of the University and the Sorbonne,
which were bitterly opposed to the presence of
Melancthon in Paris. The delay was in fact fatal
to the scheme. In the interval the Cardinal de
Tournon (afterwards responsible for the massacre
of the Vaudois) openly upbraided Francis for desir-
ing, by summoning Melancthon to his capital, " to
spread the deadly poison of heresy which he diffuses
with subtle skill." Every kind of political intrigue
was brought to bear both in Paris and in Saxony to
prevent the scheme being carried out, and finally
the Elector of Saxony withdrew the permission he
had given to Melancthon to leave his dominions.
In the long continued duel to the death between
Margaret and the Keformers on the one side and
the forces of obscurantism, headed by the University
and the Sorbonne. on the other, the chances of
victory seemed certainly for the first half of the
reign of Francis to rest with the Reformers. The
University and the Sorbonne constantly injured
86 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
themselves by the gross violence of their repre-
sentatives. Noel Beda was one of the chief of these.
He attacked Margaret again and again with un-
scrupulous violence, and encouraged the grossest
attacks on her by others. Their aim was to break
the influence which Margaret possessed over her
brother, the King. A monk in a sermon recom-
mended that she should be sewn in a sack and
thrown into the Seine. The College de Navarre
placed upon the stage in Paris a " morality " play,
in which the King's sister, at that time Queen of
Navarre, was represented as a woman who neglects
the spinning wheel in order to accept a translation of
the Bible into French offered to her by a monstrous
demon. The ensuing conversation was such as to
earn condemnation for its insolent indecency, even
in those times, which were very far from squeamish.
The ' ' morality ' ' ended by the transformation of the
Queen herself into a hideous demon, which was
carried off shrieking to the infernal regions. This
precious composition was performed in the presence
of the principal by four professors of theology,
assisted by the scholars of the college . Francis was
furious ; less with the theological views of the college
than with the insult to his own person through that
of his sister. A court official, attended by a body
of archers, marched down to the college to arrest all
who had been primarily concerned in the perform-
ance. A free fight ensued, and the archers had to
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 87
be reinforced, but in the end the dramatic career of
the four professors and the principal of the college
was interrupted by confinement in the Conciergerie.
By lifting her little finger Margaret could have con-
signed them to the galleys for life ; but it was wholly
characteristic of her that she chose a nobler sort of
revenge. She interceded with Francis on their
behalf and obtained their release. Beda, alone, who
was suspected of being the author of the play, re-
ceived a severer punishment, and was banished from
France for two years. It was Beda of whom Eras-
mus said , ' ' There is a good three thousand monks
in his one person."
In another contest with Beda and the Sorbonne
Margaret was less triumphant. One of the most
distinguished of French Keformers was Louis de Ber-
quin. He was of noble family, and one of the King's
bodyguard ; his mind was naturally studious and
refined, and he had a witty tongue and pen. He
wrote on the subject of the reform of religion, and
he translated the works of Erasmus, Luther and
Melancthon into French ; he had the works printed
at his own expense, and circulated them among his
friends. The spirit of compromise was not in him ;
his upbringing as a noble had given him no schooling
in hiding his opinions. Erasmus begged him to be
more on his guard, but caution and compromise were
wholly foreign to him. This man, of whom Theo-
dore B6za said, " He might have been the Luther
88 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of France had Francis been a Frederick of Saxony,"
was marked down by Beda as his prey. The first
attack was made in 1523 ; Beda, on behalf of the
Sorbonne, urged the Syndic to pay a domiciliary
visit to Berquin's house, which was subjected to a
rigorous search. The heretical writings just referred
to were found, carried off in triumph, and con-
demned to be burnt by the public executioner. Ber-
quin himself was summoned before the court of the
Sorbonne and ordered to retract his errors. He gave
an absolute and uncompromising refusal. He was
thereupon thrown into prison on the charge of
heresy ; the stake at which other less highly placed
Reformers had recently perished was in full view,
but Berquin resolutely refused to retract. His
friends went straight to Margaret, and she to Francis.
The result was an immediate and peremptory order
for his release. The hearing of the complaint
against Berquin was transferred from the ecclesi-
astical court to the Council of State, which dismissed
him with a slight reprimand, and the King then
immediately reinstated him in his offices at court.
But this was only the first trial of strength
between the opposing forces. While Francis was
a prisoner in Spain in 1525, after the battle of Pavia,
the attack on Berquin was renewed. Louise had
been made Kegent on the departure of the King on
his Italian expedition. Her authority as Eegent
had met with some opposition from the Parliament
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 89
and University. When the great reverse of Pavia
came, all the reactionary elements in French society
burst into full cry that the woes of France were sent
as a divine punishment for the sin of favouring the
reform of religion. The Sorbonne, with Beda as its
chief spokesman, clamoured for power to sweep the
heretics out of existence ; the University and the
Parliament joined in the cry for blood. " Heresy,"
said they, " has raised its head among us, and the
King, by failing to erect scaffolds against it, has
drawn down the wrath of Heaven on the kingdom."
Louise cared nothing for religion one way or the
other; she had been temporarily attracted by the
learning and general cultivation of the leading Ee-
formers, but she did not hesitate to throw them to
the wolves of popular clamour. With the royal
assent now in her hands, the fires of persecution
were once more lighted in France. She hoped
thereby to conciliate the opposition of the Parlia-
ment to her regency, and to obtain the active inter-
vention of the Pope on behalf of her son. She
therefore consented not only to persecution by the
Sorbonne, but also to the establishment of the In-
quisition in France. A decree was issued authorising
the handing over to selected bishops for trial all ac-
cused of sympathy with the doctrines of Luther;
they were then to be delivered over. to., the secular
arm and be burnt alive. Berquin was again seized
under this decree as one of its earliest victims. He
90 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
was thrown into prison and condemned to the stake.
He remained as stern and unbending as before.
Others had bowed before the storm and had recanted
opinions which they truly held. Let those who
would have been more robust condemn them. The
wonder always is that there were so many who were
faithful unto death. Louis de Berquin was one.
His friends knew that only one thing could save him
Margaret's personal influence. She exerted it to
the utmost with her mother, and it utterly failed.
Louise thought she knew what she was about, and
believed that by burning and torturing the Ke-
formers she was buying papal support for Francis
and possibly preventing an internal insurrection
against herself and her son in France. She re-
mained deaf to Margaret's entreaties. The Princess
had but one resource left : a direct appeal to Francis
in his Spanish prison. She did not appeal in vain.
Quickly there came a royal decree from Francis to
the Parliament commanding the release of the
gentleman of his chamber, Louis de Berquin.
Francis also addressed his mother as Kegent, and
commanded her to intimate officially that all pro-
cesses against heretics, " ces hommes d' excellent
savoir," should be suspended until after his return
from captivity, and that no more executions should
be allowed unless they had received his royal con-
firmation.
Again Berquin was saved, and more than Ber-
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 91
quin. The fires and faggots of the persecutors were
stayed for the time being throughout France; thus,
at the end of the second act of the tragedy, Margaret
and the friends of the Eeformation were triumphant.
How, therefore, did it happen that the third act
ended so gloomily, that the brave gentleman, twice
condemned and twice rescued by the direct inter-
vention of the King and the King's sister, should
have fallen a victim four years later to his implacable
enemies ?
Louis de Berquin, twice rescued, as we have
seen, was burnt alive on April 24th, 1529, in the
Place de Greve, Paris, in the presence of an
immense crowd. What was Margaret doing? She
had interceded again, and had interceded in vain.
Francis now turned a deaf ear to her entreaties.
What was the cause of the change? The answer is
a sad one. A man's foes are those of his own house-
hold. The cause of the Keformation in France had
been thrown back by the violence of the more
ignorant and bigoted of the Reformers.
Everyone will remember in Greek history the
extraordinary consternation produced in Athens in
the fifth century B.C. by the mutilation of the
statues of Hermes. Grote describes in a memorable
passage the intensity of mingled dismay, terror, and
wrath which seized the whole of Athens on the
morning when the outrage upon the statues became
known. Something not dissimilar to this happened
92 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
in Paris. The most sacred image which Paris con-
tained was one of the Virgin and Child at the corner
where the Kue des Eosiers crossed the Hue des Juifs
in the Quartier St. Antoine. One morning in 1528
it was discovered that this sacred image had been
wantonly and maliciously destroyed. It had been
not merely mutilated, but reduced to a formless
heap of rubbish. The rage, terror, and consterna-
tion of Paris were boundless. The King, when he
heard of the outrage, burst into tears. The intense
feeling excited is one of the things which cannot be
argued about, but must be accepted as a fact. The
very same people who could, without much emotion
or any sensations of extreme rage or shame, look on
while a living human creature was burnt alive or
torn limb from limb, were excited to a fever heat
of wild and bitter wrath by the desecration of
a stone image. The " estrapade " had been
specially invented to heighten and prolong the suffer-
ings of the victims of the Inquisition in France. By
means of an iron chain the living sacrifice was
lowered into the flames, and then after a few
moments raised out of them and urged to make re-
cantation. This process was repeated again and
again while any life remained in the poor tortured
body. Francis himself could attend such an exhi-
bition as this, accompanied by members of the court,
female as well as male, could see the pyres lighted
and watch the process till the smell of the burning
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 93
flesh turned the ladies sick ; but when it came to
destroying a statue, his wrath was unbounded; the
crime was one for which expiation must be made
by the King in person, representing the whole
realm of France. He caused the desecrated image
to be replaced by one made of solid silver ; with his
own hands he placed it in the niche, and caused a
strong iron grille to be erected for its protection.
All this was done to the accompaniment of the most
stately ceremonial. The King was attended by the
whole court, by the princes of the blood royal, and
by all the great officers of state.
The intense emotion caused by the desecra-
tion of the image produced a strong reaction against
the reform of the church, and against the persons of
those known to favour reform. The love of Francis
for his sister was one of the very few unselfish
emotions which can be traced in him ; but even
Margaret's position and influence were shaken. The
court life was a life of intrigue, envy, and jealousy,
and there were not wanting people in Francis's
intimate circle who were only too glad to undermine
Margaret's hitherto nearly absolute influence over
her brother. The Constable Montmorency was one
of these. For years Margaret had believed him to
be her friend, and had treated him with every mark
of affectionate consideration. But when Francis
was one day inveighing in the presence of Mont-
morency against heresy and heretics, and expressing
94 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
his determination to root them out of France, Mont-
morency ventured to say that he must begin with his
own court, and with his own sister. Montmorency
would never have dared to hint even an attack on
Margaret unless her influence had been seriously
impaired. But with all the faults of Francis, he
turned a deaf ear to Montmorency 's words, and re-
plied brusquely that he would not have his sister's
name brought in, and added, " She loves me too
well to believe anything which I do not believe, or
to adopt any faith harmful to my realm." But
though Francis would listen in private to no attacks
on his sister, in public he declared he " would cut
off his right arm and cast it into the flames if it were
infected with this heretic pestilence." The words
were inevitably interpreted as pointing at Margaret,
and it was well understood that the brother and
sister were no longer so absolutely at one as in
former years. Thus it was that Margaret's inter-
cession to Francis for Louis de Berquin's life was
unheeded, and that on the third occasion on which
he was condemned to death the faggots and the
stake did not claim their victim in vain.
There was, moreover, another reason for the
newly born zeal of Francis against the Keformers.
In 1528-30 he was in great straits for money. He had
quitted his Spanish prison in 1526, but he had been
forced to give as hostages to Charles V. his two
young sons, the Dauphin, Francis, aged eight, and
LOUISE OP SAVOY AND HEM DAUGHTER 95
Henri, Duke of Orleans (afterwards Henri II.), aged
seven. To release these two children, Francis was
prepared to commit every kind of cheerful perjury.
But Charles V. was wary and cautious, and knew his
man. He at first demanded that Francis should
give himself up in exchange for his sons, and was
with difficulty persuaded to accept a ransom; this,
he insisted, should be in hard cash, two millions of
gold crowns. Margaret, as already stated, gave all
she had, and parted with her plate and jewels to give
liberally. Louise gave nothing. The chancellor
Duprat wrote to Montmorency, " Touching the
matter of the money about which you and the King
wrote to me, I have tried every way in the world
to raise it through the banks, and from other
quarters, but as soon as I mention the loan every-
one drops his ears and refuses to listen to me." In
these straits the King summoned an Assembly of
the Notables, and they voted him 1,300,000 livres,
but the clergy made it a condition, to which the
King readily assented, that he should take active
measures against heresy. Thus the accident of the
critical position of the young princes told against
Berquin and the other Keformers. The ransom of
the little boys was partly paid by the best blood
in France.
Duprat, the chancellor, who was also Archbishop
of Sens and a cardinal, conceived the notable plan
of making the money, thus painfully accumulated,
96 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
go further, by paying the ransom of the princes in
debased coin. He was found out. The envoys of
the Emperor, deputed to receive the ransom at Font-
arabia, demanded that the metal should be tested,
and it was proved to be an alloy of copper and gold.
Hereafter, every gold piece was separately tested,
weighed and placed in strong safes by the Spaniards,
a process which occupied four months. To such
humiliation was Prince Charming reduced, he who
had prided himself in youth on being " fantastically
honourable." The profuse extravagance of Francis
always made him short of money, and had destroyed
his credit even before the disastrous Italian cam-
paign of 1525. Not even the bargain called the
Concordat, which had been made between Francis
and Pope Leo X., in December, 1515, had sufficed
to keep Francis in funds. By this arrangement the
revenues of the French Church were placed under
the control of the crown in exchange for the support
of Francis in upholding the rule of the Medici family
in Florence. The King under this agreement had
made most unscrupulous use of the revenues of the
church. Bishoprics and other preferments were
used to pay officers of state, or disposed of in a
less reputable fashion. The Venetian Ambassador
wrote, "Thenceforward the King began to distri-
bute bishoprics at the solicitation of the ladies of the
court, and to give abbeys to his soldiers so that they
trafficked at the court of France in bishoprics and
LOUISE OT SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 97
abbeys, as in Venice they do in pepper and cinna-
mon."
The unscrupulous character of the Concordat
and the corrupt use which Francis made of it, by no
means signified that he was exempt from ecclesi-
astical domination. If he robbed the Church, he
also trembled before it. The church party, not
unnaturally, pointed to the disasters of France in
the wars with Charles V., the defeat of Pavia, and
the imprisonment of Francis in Spain, as signs of
the wrath of Heaven caused by the Concordat, as
well as by the encouragement given by Francis and
his sister to the doctrines of Luther and Calvin.
The affair of the placards was very much on the
same lines as the mutilation of the statue, and had
nearly the same consequences in causing a vehement
reaction in Paris and throughout France against the
principles of the Keformation. It may be said to
have had even worse consequences, for it weakened,
though it did not alienate, Margaret's sympathy
with the reform movement. On October 18th, 1534,
on all the public buildings of Paris, on the gates of
the King's Palace, at Blois and Amboise, and
simultaneously on a number of cathedrals,
universities, and palaces throughout France,
appeared placards attacking the doctrine of the
mass in the most violent, not to say indecent,
manner. Even the strongest protestants of the
present time describe the wording of these placards
H
98 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
as " impious and profane," " coarse and offensive."
The placards were posted on the doors of the
King's bedchamber at Blois, and when he came in
great wrath to Paris they followed him to the
Louvre, and smaller papers of a similar character
were found under his pillow. There was another
great outburst of anti-Protestant wrath. Burnings
and tortures of all kinds were resorted to, and the
vilest measures of espionage were adopted. The
printing press was for a time stopped altogether, and
was afterwards subjected to a strict censorship.
The more refined and sensitive of those who
favoured the Keformation were bitterly wounded.
Many were permanently estranged. Roussel,
Bishop of Oleron, who had been one of the leaders
of the French Protestant movement, and a close
adviser and friend of Margaret, and her chaplain,
was thrown into prison, and for a long time his life
hung in the balance. It is needless to say that
Margaret did not forsake him ; but it required all
her influence continuously exerted to secure his
acquittal. Humbler victims to the number of
twenty- three, men and women, were burned.
Margaret felt that she stood alone. Her first hus-
band had died in 1525, and she had married the
King of Navarre in 1527, but neither her husband
nor her brother gave her any support. Roussel had
prepared a sort of confession of faith which was
called " La Messe a sept points." Francis rejected
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 99
it contemptuously , and warned his sister that ' ' it
smelt of faggots." Her husband, entering her apart-
ment and finding her engaged in some theological
argument with a Calvinist preacher, roughly boxed
her on the ears and told her she wanted to know
too much. It was after this renewed outburst
against the doctrines of the [Reformation that Rous-
sel, du Bellay, Bude, and other sympathisers com-
promised by outward observance of the forms and
ceremonies of Catholicism. Margaret acted in a
similar manner ; they were partly influenced by the
disgust with which the odious character of the
placards had filled them ; and also, it can hardly be
doubted, by the terror occasioned by the vehemence
with which the persecution of the Protestants was
carried out. An edict had been issued to the effect
that anyone convicted by two witnesses of being a
Lutheran should be burned ; within a week fifty
Lutherans were in prison awaiting execution. The
Spanish Inquisition was already a byeword through-
out Europe, and the French Lutherans expected a
repetition of its bloody orgies in their own country.
It was in the interval between the desecration of
the image and the posting of the placards that
Calvin had been compelled to fly from Paris. He
was henceforth an exile, sheltered at first by
Margaret at Nerac, and afterwards taking refuge
at Bale and Geneva. He consistently and vehe-
mently opposed all compromise, and vigorously de-
ioo FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
nounced those who outwardly conformed to Kome
while inwardly mistrusting her. He was no re-
specter of persons, and rated Margaret as soundly
for what he deemed her weakness as he would have
done the humblest peasant in France. He branded
as ' ' Nicodemites ' ' all Eeformers who lacked the
courage to come out of the ancient Church. With
him it was ' ' all or nothing ' ' ; the name of com-
promise could not be so much as mentioned in his
presence. But then he had to seek safety out of
France ; if he had held it his duty to remain in his
own country he would have shared the fate of Louis
de Berquin.
Margaret, however, henceforth compromised.
There could be no life for Francis's sister which
excluded her from his dominions, and sincere as her
interest in the reform of the Church was, Francis
was right when he said his sister would never believe
anything that was hurtful to him, or which
separated her from him.
PA VIA, 1525.
Throughout Margaret's life the dominant note of
her character, as we have seen, was her unmeasured
devotion to Francis and to everything that was his.
She married, but she preferred her brother to her
husband. She had children, but though she was
very heartbroken when her little boy died, she said
in so many words to Francis that she loved his
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 101
children better than her own. The husbands found
this attitude a little trying, and so did the daughter.
Her first husband she never even made any attempt
to care for; Francis was all in all to her. When,
after prolonged absences from her husband, spend-
-ing years with her brother, and constantly employed
in serving his interests, the Duke of Alenson at last
succeeded in carrying her off for a time to his home
at Argentan, she was angry and miserable. She
wrote an entreating letter to Francis begging him
to visit her, or, if that were impossible, she says, if
he will signify his approval, she will leave Argentan
to meet him " feigning another intent." She
speaks of the ' * lamentable misery ' ' she endured
through the mere fact of separation, and finally begs
him to burn her letters and bury their contents in
eternal silence, otherwise her miserable life will be
worse than death. This letter which Margaret so
earnestly entreated Francis to destroy is now part of
the historical collection of the Bibliotheque Nation-
ale, and is quoted at full length in Miss Freer 's
"Life of the Queen of Navarre." It reveals the
great fault of her life and character, the reason why,
with all her sweetness and lively intelligence, she
failed in her main objects in life, the reform of
religion in France, and that Francis should lead the
other princes of Europe in establishing this reform
on a sure basis and in promoting the revival of
learning. Her attitude to Francis was simply that
102 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of slavish idolatry, and idols are proverbially deaf and
blind. She told him that he was more to her than
father, mother, or husband ; that her own daughter
was dear to her mainly because Francis had adopted
her as his own. She said she kissed his letters daily,
and carried them on her person as relics. He pro-
mised her, after her marriage to the King of
Navarre, that he would win back for her husband
his lost Spanish provinces. He not only broke his
word, but wrote to the Emperor begging him to dis-
regard Henry's claim to the provinces, " even though
he hath taken to wife my dearly beloved and only
sister." But no treachery on the part of Francis
could change the slavish adoration of his sister.
Thus she came by degrees to lose her influence over
him. Why should he trouble to deserve her appro-
bation and admiration when she approved and
admired everything he did because he did it? Thus
Vthe higher nature was lowered to the meaner, and
not vice versd. She obeyed him in all things un-
hesitatingly. At his desire she brought about a
marriage between two people who particularly ob-
jected to each other, and had formed other matri-
* monial contracts. At his desire she abandoned her
daughter Jeanne, at the age of two, leaving her to
be brought up by strangers, a victim to a lonely and
miserable childhood. At his desire she insisted on
the marriage of Jeanne to the Duke of Cleves,
although the little princess exhausted every means
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 103
of proving her vehement hostility to the match. The
usually gentle Margaret ordered her daughter to be
thrashed daily till she yielded, and the dauntless
child put on record a protestation in which she said
that her consent to the marriage had only been
wrung from her under chastisement so severe that
she believed, if continued, it would have cost her life.
A few specimens will suffice to prove that in her
letters to her brother Margaret exhausted every ex-
pression of worship and adoration which her pen
could command. To be with him whom she looked
upon as more than " father, brother, husband," was
her highest joy. She would lay aside her royal
blood and accompany him as his washerwoman if
no higher role could be assigned to her. ' ' What-
ever it may be, even to casting to the winds the
ashes of my bones to do you service, nothing can
seem to me strange, or difficult, or painful, but
always consolation, repose, and honour." On re-
ceiving his commands that she should join him, she
writes of the ecstasy she experiences : ' ' Mon-
seigneur, if you could but experience a little of the
joy you have given me by the command to hasten
to a place which contains all I love most on earth."
There is no reason to suppose that these expres-
sions of devotion, however extravagant, were in-
sincere. By every action of her life, as well as by
words, Margaret showed her absolute worship of
her brother. He was her all in all, her sun, her
104 PWE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
divinity. Judge then what she and her mother
must have suffered when their ' ' glorious and trium-
phant Caesar ' ' was glorious and triumphant no
longer; when the second Italian campaign was one
long disaster, Francis himself a prisoner, and the
flower of the French nobility slain at the battle of
Pa via in 1525. When this expedition had set out,
Louise had been left regent, and it required all her
skill and statesmanship to sustain the integrity of
the kingdom under the blow which it had received.
Louise had never thought well of this Italian ex-
pedition, and had endeavoured to dissuade Francis
from undertaking it. She was too devoted to him to
remind him of this in his hour of defeat. The bitter
rage and grief throughout France was deepened by
the knowledge that it had been brought about by
the treachery of a Frenchman, and that Frenchman
the first nobleman in the kingdom, a grandson by
marriage of Louis XI., Charles of Montpensier,
Duke of Bourbon, and Constable of France.
The Montpensier story is a romance in itself.
He was the equal and friend of princes. His annual
revenues are said to have amounted to nearly a
million livres, and his power and wealth nearly
equalled those of the king. His estates had been
increased by his marriage when a mere child, in
1504, with Susanne of Bourbon, daughter of Anne
of Beaujeu, and granddaughter of Louis XI. His
appearance and demeanour at the Field of the Cloth
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 105
of Gold, in 1520, were so magnificent and haughty
that Henry VIII. had said, " If that man were lord
of mine, his head should not remain two days upon
his shoulders." It will be remembered that he was
one of the little group of noble youths brought up
with Francis and Margaret in their childhood. He
was therefore intimately known by them and by
Louise. This marriage with the heiress of the
Bourbons did not prevent his carrying on a rather
nauseous flirtation with Louise, who was thirteen
years his senior. It is understood that there was
an exchange of rings and a promise of marriage as
soon as Susanne, who was delicate and deformed,
should have departed from this world. It was partly
through the influence of Louise that Montpensier
had been made Constable by Louis XII. in 1513.
Later he became Governor of Milan. Louise,
with the infatuation sometimes seen in a middle-
aged woman for a young lover, intrigued to secure
his recall ; and his ambition thus received from
her hand a blow for which he never forgave her.
When Susanne died in 1522, instead, as Louise had
expected, of offering her his hand, he made a formal
application to the King for the hand of his sister-in-
law Eenee, afterwards Duchess of Ferrara. At first
Louise gave no heed to the defection of her former
lover ; and at her request Francis sent a messenger
to the Constable to acquaint him that the King de-
signed to bestow upon him his mother in marriage.
106 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Montpensier declined point blank, and said he would
not marry Louise for all the riches in Christendom.
He added insult to injury by saying that his former
court to her was but a feint to cover his real love for
her daughter Margaret. The rage of Louise knew
no bounds. She was now as keen to ruin Mont-
pensier, financially and politically, as she had pre-
viously been to advance him. She induced the King
to deprive him of the military command of the van
of the French army, a post most unwisely bestowed
upon the incompetent Alengon ; and as if this was
not enough, she began a lawsuit to deprive him of
the great Bourbon estates which he had inherited
from his wife. She left no stone unturned. The
law was against her and in favour of Montpensier.
She must have the law altered, and she actually got
it altered, Duprat, the chancellor, aiding her in this
iniquity. She worked so indefatigably that the law-
suit ended in adjudging the property to the crown,
and Francis bestowed it upon his mother. Mont-
pensier went into rebellion, opened negotiations
with Charles V., in conjunction with whom he be-
sieged Marseilles, but was repulsed by the valour
of the citizens, the very women working in the
trenches. He visited England in order to pay court
to another enemy of Francis. Sir Thomas Boleyn
wrote of him, " The Constable has, according to his
own showing, the noblest motives for his desertion
of his country. " Whether this were sarcasm or not
LOUISE OT SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 107
does not appear ; but deserters of their country had
need to have ' ' noblest motives ' ' in order to cover
their treachery. He seems to have been continually
trying to arrange some magnificent marriage for
himself with an emperor's sister or a king's daugh-
ter, but none of these schemes succeeded. How
Montpensier's conduct was regarded can be judged
by the fact that after Pavia, in 1525, when Mont-
pensier was in Spain, the Spanish grandees refused
to receive him, and he had much difficulty in
securing a house in Madrid suitable to his rank.
Charles V. made it a personal request to the Mar-
quis of Villana that he would allow Montpensier to
inhabit his palace. The Marquis replied that the
wish of the Emperor was a command, and that his
palace was at the service of the Duke; but, he
added , * ' when he quits it I will have it burned to
the ground, as a house polluted by the presence of
a traitor is no fit abode for a man of honour." This
is Brantome's story, and it must be remembered that
he w r as always a thick and thin supporter of the
House of Valois.
Treachery remains treachery, and disloyalty dis-
loyalty. But Montpensier had great provocations.
He had been the richest and most powerful noble-
man in France ; and he was now ruined, deprived
of his command, despoiled of his estates, the law
juggled with in order to make it an instrument
against him, all to satisfy the wounded vanity of an
io8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
unprincipled woman whose so-called love had turned
to hate. If he had remained on what was left to
him of his hereditary estates, and had abstained
from allying himself with the enemies of his
country, no one can say what his position might
have become; but as a Frenchman who fought
against France, his infamy vies with that of the
woman who provoked it. Fortunately for himself
he did not live long. At the sack of Rome, in 1527,
he raised with his own hands the first scaling ladder
upon the walls ; he was also the first to mount the
breach, and the first to fall mortally wounded, shot
through the lungs by Benvenuto Cellini.
As the traitor Montpensier was conspicuous
among the victorious enemies of Francis at Pavia,
so the incompetent Alengon was conspicuous among
those of his friends who left undone what they ought
to have done. Immense numbers of leaders, as well
as the best of the rank and file of the French army,
were slain on that disastrous day ; the rout and panic
were complete. The Duke of Alen9on had saved
himself by flight while the fate of the battle still
hung in the balance. Francis was wounded, his
horse slain under him, and he himself only saved by
the intervention of an equerry of Montpensier, who
flew to his rescue and proclaimed to tfie victorious
soldiers of Charles that it was the King. The
equerry desired that Francis should yield his sword
to his master. But this was a humiliation greater
LOUISE OF SAVOY, COMTESSE D'ANGOULEME
LOUISE OIF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 109
than Francis could endure, and he replied that he
would only give up his sword to the Marquis of
Lannoy, the generalissimo of the Imperial troops.
After his surrender Francis was taken at his own
request into the famous church of the Certosa near
Pavia, built by Ludovico il Moro. On entering, the
first words which met his eye were, " It is good for
me, Lord, that I have been in trouble, that I may
learn thy statutes." In his letter to his mother
announcing the disaster, he made use of the phrase
which has become proverbial, " All is lost save
honour and life, which are safe."
The news of the misfortune was brought to
Louise and Margaret at Lyons by Captain Prim-
rose. They rose to what the occasion demanded, and
showed inflexible courage, resource, and capacity
to meet misfortune and defy it. In such moments
even Louise showed herself great and admirable.
Crushed as she was, she did not more than tem-
porarily give herself over to despair nor to the
vain repetition, in which a feebler spirit would have
sought consolation, of such expressions as, "If
he would only have listened to me," and so forth.
Sustained by her daughter, she set herself to pre-
serve for her adored sovereign all that was left to
him of his kingdom, and to retrieve the disasters
which had overwhelmed it.
In their first letter to Francis after the news of
the defeat, his mother and sister give the foremost
no FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
place to the inexpressible comfort they derive from
knowing that his honour, life, and health are safe.
They then add :
" Monseigneur, hearing these things, and that it
is your intention to endure with resignation the ills
that God has inflicted upon you, I, for my part, like-
wise promise to bear this reverse as you hope and
desire, in such fashion, for the aid of your little
children and the affairs of this kingdom, that I will
not be the occasion of greater grief to you. I be-
seech God, Monseigneur, to have you in His holy
keeping, as prays with all her heart; your very
humble and good mother and subject, Loyse; your
very humble sister, Marguerite."
In another letter to her brother, Margaret wrote :
" Madame (Louise of Savoy) has felt such a doubling
of strength that night and day there is not a moment
lost for your affairs, therefore you need have no
anxiety or pain about your kingdom or your chil-
dren."
The imperturbable courage and good sense of
these letters stir the blood even now, after nearly
four hundred years. Each woman was enduring,
besides the general grief of the whole nation , "a
fee-grief due to her single breast." Louise must
have known that she was the real cause of Mont-
pensier's disloyalty. Margaret had to face the horrid
truth that a large share of the disaster was due to
the incompetence and cowardice of her husband.
LOUISE OT SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER, in
She made no attempt to conceal the bitter anger she
felt against him. That he should have been en-
trusted with the most important command and
should have betrayed it was to her anguish worse
than death. Pavia had been fought on February
24th, the birthday of Charles V. Alen9on arrived
in Lyons at the end of March. In every French
hamlet he had passed through he had heard his
name repeated with every sort of insult and contempt.
He and his troops were greeted as " les fuyards de
Pavie." In innumerable ballads sung in town and
village he heard what his countrymen thought of
him. Rabelais wrote, " I hate more than poison a
man who flies when sword play comes into fashion.
Why am I not King of France for eighty or a hun-
dred years ? My God ! I would crop the tails of
the curs who fled from Pavia." When at last Alen-
9on reached Lyons, his wife refused to see him. Ill
already, this was the last straw ; he took to his bed
stricken to death. One is thankful to learn that
Margaret relented towards him before it was too
late. When she heard that mortal illness was upon
him, she visited him and did her utmost to obtain
his pardon from the Regent, her mother, and also
from Francis himself. In a letter to her brother
she entreated him to ' ' receive the very humble
homage of Monseigneur d'Alenson, who esteems his
captive freedom so great a misfortune that until he
sees you again he holds his life to be as death."
ii2 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Alencon died on April llth, 1526, less than seven
weeks after the disastrous day of Pa via. It was
Tuesday in Passion week. Margaret had been tend-
ing him for several days ; early in the morning she
had urged him to take the sacrament, and she after-
wards read to him the chapters of the Gospel which
narrate the passion and death of Our Lord. Moved
thereto no doubt by her daughter, Louise also visited
the dying man, whose first thoughts on seeing her
were another endeavour to make his peace with
Francis. When Louise withdrew, and signed to
Margaret to follow her, the Duke grasped his wife's
hand and said, " Do not leave me." She remained
with him to the end. In her letters to Francis she
speaks of herself as overwhelmed by grief. " Those
first two days," she said, "made me forget all
reason." And no doubt her feelings were a medley
of shame, pity, and sorrow, perhaps also of remorse.
Could she not have made something better of the
man she had married if she had been able to give to
him even a faint shadow of the devoted affection
which she lavished on her brother? The human
soul thrives on love, and poor Alencon had had none
of it, even in the relation in which it is most essen-
tial. If she had cared for him even enough to try
to understand him, she might have prevented him
from assuming the military command for which he
was wholly unfitted, his failure in which resulted
in the rout of Pavia, the imprisonment of Francis,
ERASMUS.
FROM THE PORTRAIT BY HOLBEIN, IN THE ANTWERP GALLERY.
Photograph by Messrs. Eyre & Spottisiuoode.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 113
and his own broken-hearted death. Thus her ex-
clusive devotion to her brother had defeated its own
ends.
Margaret did not keep the six weeks' seclusion
in a darkened room which was then, in royal circles,
one of the penalties of being a widow. Even the
robust hypocrisy of the sixteenth century did not
exact that farce from her.
Her own thoughts and those of her mother were
now concentrated on what they could do to secure the
release of Francis. The learned men of Europe peti-
tioned Charles V. to set his captive free. Francis,
through Margaret, had been the patron of learning,
and every scholar deprecated the harshness with
which he was being treated. Before the existence
of the newspaper press, these cosmopolitan scholars
represented public opinion, and often led it. One
of the noblest of the letters was that written by
Erasmus, and it came with all the greater weight
because it was addressed by a subject to his sove-
reign. It is curiously modern in tone. It might
almost have been written by Tolstoi.
" If I were the Emperor," wrote Erasmus to
Charles V., "I should say to the King of France:
1 My brother, some evil fate has provoked us to
war. Fortune has made you my prisoner ; but that
which has happened to you might also have hap-
pened to me. . . . We have. been too long at
war together ; let us now combat after another
H4 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
fashion. I restore you to liberty in return grant
me your friendship; let us forget the past. I ask
you for no ransom ; let us live as good neighbours.
. . . My clemency will confer greater honour
upon me than if I had conquered France ; and your
gratitude will be more glorious to you than if you
had driven me from Italy.' "
But neither his Catholic Majesty nor the Most
Christian King understood this sort of Christianity
which found its mouthpiece in the heretic Erasmus,
whom the Inquisition would have cheerfully burned
if it could have caught him in its power.
Meanwhile letters constantly passed between
Francis and Margaret. His are full of requests for
the silver equipage of his table, for money, and so
forth ; hers are full of her anxieties on his behalf ;
she was much troubled lest he should injure his
health by fasting. " Monseigneur, as much as a
very humble sister can implore you, I entreat you
not to do this, but consider how fish goes against
you ; also believe that if you do it Madame has
sworn to do so too, and I shall have the sorrow to
see you both give way." Let us hope she was
cheered on hearing that the King was " fasting on
turtles this Lent, which he finds very good."
She sent him the Epistles of St. Paul with a
special message to Montmorency that if the King
will be pleased to read one of them daily * ' as a
prayer . . . God for His own honour and glory
LOUISE OT SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 115
will give him speedy deliverance ; for He has pro-
mised in His holy Gospel that those who love the
truth, by truth they shall be free." A curious
example that even the piety and intelligence of Mar-
garet could use the Bible as a sort of charm, and
could, when she wished it, impart an entirely un-
justified and materialistic interpretation to a w T ell-
known text.
In the meantime Charles V. remained deaf to the
entreaties of Erasmus and the other learned men.
He retained Francis as his prisoner, and removed
him from Italy to Spain, whence Louise and Mar-
garet heard terrible reports of the severity of his
confinement. Their pleasure-loving, joyous Francis,
who demanded, above all things, brilliancy, splen-
dour, and gaiety, was now shut up in a narrow,
airless chamber in the Castle of Madrid. The win-
dow, doubly barred by iron grilles deeply imbedded
in the wall, was a hundred feet from the ground, and
two battalions of soldiers kept guard night and day
on the platform below. The King was permitted no
privacy, and no personal communication with his
captor was vouchsafed. His hours of exercise were
strictly limited ; no horse was allowed him ; when
he went abroad he was mounted on a mule and sur-
rounded by an armed escort, who were commanded
never to break their ranks.
Half the ladies in Spain, from the Emperor's
sister downwards, were in love with him, but they
n6 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
could not charm away his captivity or soften its
rigours. He became seriously ill, and Louise and
Margaret were persuaded that the personal presence
of Margaret herself in Madrid would effect upon the
resolution of Charles what all other ambassadors had
entreated in vain. Louise did not part from her
daughter without grave misgivings. What if Mar-
garet became a prisoner too? The first thing neces-
sary was to obtain a safe-conduct for her from the
Emperor. This was at length promised, and Mar-
garet set forth, in August, 1525, amid a general
lamentation for her absence, and devout hopes for
her safe return and for the success of her mission.
Among those who most deplored her departure were
the Eeformers. The severity of the persecution in-
augurated by Louise for the purpose of propitiating
the wrath of Heaven for the sin of heresy, would,
they were aware, be aggravated by the absence of
the Duchess of Alencon.
But all doubts and fears had to give way to Mar-
garet's own intense wish to join her brother. Louise
accompanied her on her journey for five days, sail-
ing in a barge down the Bhone from Lyons to Aigues
Mortes. Margaret was kept waiting there for four-
teen days for the arrival of the promised safe-con-
duct. When it at last arrived she departed by sea
to Barcelona. She had a rough passage, but did not
suffer from sea-sickness. She attributed her im-
munity to her absorption in her approaching meeting
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 117
with Francis. She wrote to her brother, " The ex-
treme desire I have to see your Majesty absorbed all
other pains."
Until the arrival of Margaret in Spain, Charles V.
had always evaded, under a variety of pretexts, the
desire of Francis for a personal interview. When
Margaret was almost at the gates of his capital,
Charles felt that he could postpone the promised
visit no longer, and he resolved to see Francis before
the arrival of his sister; and on September 18th,
1525, at eight o'clock in the evening, the visit took
place. Francis was in bed, and was too weak to rise ;
Charles was startled and alarmed. His prisoner's
life was essential to him, for death sets every man
free. They were both young men Charles only
twenty-five, and Francis thirty-one. It may be
hoped that there was some touch of genuine gener-
osity in Charles's concern for the well-being of the
King. Francis exclaimed that Charles had come to
see his prisoner die, and Charles rejoined, " You
are not my prisoner, but my brother and my friend.
I have no other wish than to give you liberty with
all the satisfaction you can desire." The interview
lasted about half an hour, and the personal charm
of Francis made a decided impression on the younger
man, who departed with many assurances of good
feeling and of his desire that the forthcoming nego-
tiations with Madame la Duchesse d'Alencon would
lead to the speedy release of Francis.
ii8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
The next day, September 19th, Margaret made
her entry into Madrid. She was attired very simply,
as a widow, in deep black, with a long white veil,
and wore no jewels. The grace, dignity, and sim-
plicity of her appearance produced a deep impression
upon the solemnity-loving Spaniards. The Emperor
also appears to have been favourably impressed,
but he was more of a Fleming than a Spaniard, and
was capable of pursuing a fixed purpose quite regard-
less of the passing emotions of the hour. The
task Margaret had undertaken was not rendered
easier by her mother having offered her in marriage
to Charles V. almost before the grave had closed on
poor d'Alenson. Nothing came of the offer, which
seems to have been disregarded from the outset.
Charles was, in fact, on the point of marriage with
his sister's step-daughter Isabella, Infanta of Por-
tugal. Margaret now found herself in the presence
of a character such as hitherto she had never met
with. Slow, deliberate, obstinate, tenacious, with-
out brilliancy or imagination, Charles was a new
phenomenon in her life. She had been accustomed
to carry everything before her with her winning
grace and charm. She now found her way barred
by the granite wall of Charles's will. It was not that
he was deaf to her eloquence, insensible to her
charm, or blind to her beauty. He said he had not
thought it possible a woman could speak so well.
He greatly admired her dignity and beauty, but he
CHARLES V.
FROM THE PAINTING BY HOLBEIN.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 119
held on with bull-dog tenacity to what he wanted,
and to his power, through the imprisonment of
Francis, to exact it.
The prolonged humiliation of her sojourn in
Spain, its ultimate failure in securing the release of
her brother, her powerlessness to move the Emperor
one hair's-breadth from the path of his own interest,
left a bitterness towards him in Margaret's mind
which she never showed to any other human being.
From that time she hated Charles V., and never
forgot her hatred. Even after long years, when an
apparent reconciliation had been effected between
the Sovereigns, and the Emperor visited the King of
France at Villeneuve, Margaret, although she ac-
companied her brother, refused to see Charles. On
another occasion, when Charles passed through
France on his way from Spain to the Netherlands,
Margaret did not avoid seeing him, but she did not
fail to render him uncomfortable and ill at ease,
twitting him by contrasting the courtesy of his re-
ception with the harsh treatment she and Francis
had received at Madrid.
When Margaret first visited Francis in his prison
he was so seriously ill that even his sister's presence
failed to rouse him. His life was despaired of ; the
last sacrament was administered , and from that hour
he began to amend. A miracle was claimed by the
pious, and it was said that the consecrated wafer
arrested Francis on the road to death and set his face
120 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
once more towards life and health. Francis himself,
however, always averred that his sister saved his life
by her devotion and care. As Brantome says : " In
BO piteous a state did she find her brother that had
<ihe not arrived he was a dead man ; for she under-
stood his temperament and complexion better than
all his physicians, and caused him to be so well
treated according to her own knowledge that he was
speedily cured."
The great difficulty in securing the release of
Francis was to arrive at terms to which both he and
Charles could consent. What Charles demanded, the
cession of French territory, Francis swore he would
never grant. The firmness of Charles suffered a
shock from the illness of Francis. If the King of
France died, the very ground of Charles's exactions
ceased to exist. But with the King's recovery
Charles's demands recovered too. Margaret advised
her brother to remain in feeble health as long as
possible. Writing from Toledo, where she had fol-
lowed Charles, she says, " I beseech you, Monseig-
neur, affect a feeble and ailing deportment while in
the presence of Sieur Alar9on [the governor of the
prison] as your weakness will hasten my negotia-
tion." In this and other letters she frequently
refers to herself as her brother's " little hand," his
"great hand" being Montmorency.
But this plan of feigning illness could not serve
their turn permanently. An escape was planned,
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 121
but failed ; its only result being to deepen the anger
and suspicion of Charles. It was then that Margaret
had the thought, and pressed it on her brother with
all her eloquence, that there was a way of getting
the better of his opponent short of death, and that
was by abdication. If Francis abdicated, his son
would reign in his stead, and Charles would no
longer be in possession of the person of the reigning
sovereign of France. Letters patent were actually
drawn conferring the throne upon the Dauphin, with
Louise as Eegent and guardian of the royal chil-
dren ; in the event of the death of Louise while the
Dauphin was still a minor, her authority was to be
transferred to " our very dear and very beloved sister,
Margaret of France, Duchess of Alen$on and of
Berry." This deed of abdication was entrusted to
Montmorency for transmission to Paris. A copy
was allowed to come under the eye of Charles. He
was in consternation. But the danger was not as
great as he feared. Francis had been worked upon
by the enthusiastic spirit of Margaret to consent to
abdication, and actually to sign the deed and
despatch it to Paris ; but it contained a clause which
made it meaningless, namely, that it should be null
and void if and when he regained his liberty.
Francis had nothing of the martyr in his com-
position, and had no notion of spending the rest of
his life in prison, and Charles discovered that his
prisoner was as anxious as ever to come to terms.
122 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Internal troubles in France encouraged Charles to
abate none of his demands. Margaret had audiences
of him, and likewise pleaded her brother's cause
before the Spanish Council. The terms finally
arranged were :
1. A marriage between Francis and the Em-
peror's sister, Eleanor, Queen Dowager of
Portugal.
2. The renunciation by Francis of all rights
over Milan, Naples, Genoa, and Asti, to-
gether with the suzerainty over Flanders,
Artois, and Tournay.
3. The cession of the Duchy of Burgundy.
4. Montpensier to be pardoned and his estates
restored to him.
As a guarantee for the fulfilment of the terms, the
King's two elder sons were to be given up as
hostages, and Francis himself was to return and
give himself up as a prisoner in the event of the
non-fulfilment of the treaty.* The utmost result
of Margaret's diplomacy was to include in the terms
the marriage of Francis and Eleanor. At first
Charles held out against the marriage of his sister
to Francis, and declared that he had promised her
hand to Montpensier. But Eleanor herself had
something to say to this, and positively declined the
match. She had been won by Margaret's glowing
* " Cambridge Modern History," Vol. II, p. 51.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 123
descriptions of her brother, and was in love with
Francis without ever having seen him. More so
than she was, or had cause to be, poor lady, after
she had married him. Francis treated both his
wives with persistent neglect, and Eleanor of Por-
tugal, in particular, with cold unfriendliness. She
became his official wife and Queen of France, but
nothing more.
Before the treaty was ready for signature,
Margaret had been obliged to leave her brother.
Her safe-conduct was only good for four months,
and expired on the last day of 1525. The time had
nearly run out. Her experience of Charles did not
lead her to place any confidence in his generosity.
Francis even urged her to leave him. Brantome
says that the Emperor " meant to play her a trick,
because not reflecting on the expiration of her safe-
conduct and passport, she took no heed that the
time was elapsing. But getting wind that the
Emperor meant to arrest her, she, always
courageous, mounted her horse and rode in eight
days a distance which should have taken fifteen;
which effort so well succeeded that she reached the
frontier of France very late in the evening of the
day her passport expired, thus circumventing his
Imperial Majesty. ... I heard this tale from
Mme. la Seneschale, my grandmother, who was
with her at that time as lady of honour."
Like other tales, however, this one had lost
124 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
nothing in the telling. Margaret had an adven-
turous ride from Toledo to the French frontier. She
rode through the Pyrenees in December, and was
often in the saddle from 6 a.m. till nightfall. But
she reached the little frontier town of Salses with
ten days to spare. The reason for her haste was
that her safe-conduct was so worded that it became
invalid if the person in whose favour it was drawn
committed any act prejudicial to the Emperor, his
subjects, or his dominions. It was hinted to
Margaret that Charles might forfeit her safe-conduct
on account of the help she had given her brother in
his unsuccessful attempt at escape. Hence her
romantic gallop across Spain in mid-winter. She
was received with unbounded enthusiasm in France,
which she found desolate for the loss of its king ; a
body without a head. She wrote to Francis that
she had been received as a forerunner of himself,
as the Baptist was of Jesus Christ.
Her journey never interfered with her innumer-
able letters to her brother. Louise, with her usual
unscrupulousness, had previously written to Francis
advising him to agree to all that Charles demanded,
and to break his word as soon as he was free.
Margaret at first gave better advice. She coun-
selled her brother to stand firm. She was hoping
for help both from Italy and England. Patience
and delay, she urged, would be followed by changes
favourable to Francis. But before she left Spain
/
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND TIER DAUGHTER. 125
she also wrote to her brother advising him to con-
sent to everything " that compact cannot be bad
which restores you to France, neither can any be
good while you are detained in Madrid
Seeing how indispensable your presence is to your
friends, and how little impression your prolonged
prison makes on your enemies, I do not fear to
trouble you with this long letter to implore you to
consent to whatever they may please to propose."
She does not say in so many words ' ' promise every-
thing and break your word as soon as you are
free," but it can hardly be doubted that her letter
was intended to have this meaning read into it.
Francis was nothing loth. When his better self
urged him to promise everything, and to get free at
all costs, he was not likely to set up a stricter
standard of honour. So the treaty of Madrid was
signed by the French ambassadors in Spain before
Margaret was out of the country , on December 19th ,
3525. It required the ratification of Francis, which
was postponed until January 14th. Before putting
his signature to the treaty, Francis assembled his
counsellors in his prison chamber and told them
that he did not mean to keep his word. He had,
indeed, signed away half his dominions. Some
rumour of what Francis intended must have reached
the ears of Charles, for he did what was very un-
usual. According to Spanish historians, at the
final parting with Francis, after all the kissing and
126 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
compliments were over, the Emperor suddenly
turned to his former prisoner and said, " We have
hitherto treated together as princes. Let us now
speak as man to man. Confess to me on the faith
and honour of a gentleman, is it your intention to
execute our treaty? " They were standing in the
open roadway near a crucifix, and Francis looking
at it took a solemn oath as a gentleman faithfully
to execute the treaty. " Then," continued the
Emperor, with his usual dogged persistency, " if
you fail to do so, I may say that you have been false
to your honour as a gentleman as well as to your
treaty as a king." " You may," rejoined Francis.
This was on February 19th, 1526.
Francis was royally entertained by the Spanish
nobles on his progress towards the French frontier
at Fontarabia, where the exchange of his person for
that of the two little princes had been arranged.
He did not reach the appointed place till March 16th.
The ceremony was fixed for the 17th : a barge
was moored in the middle of the little river
Bidassoa, and the King, accompanied by his former
gaoler and an armed escort rowed to it from the
Spanish side, while his two little boys, also guarded
by Spanish soldiers, were rowed to it from the
French side. Francis was not allowed even to em-
brace his children ; but he was too full of glee at
his recovered liberty to make much trouble of this.
The Dauphin was not to him what he had ever been
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 127
to Louise, " My Lord, my King, my Caesar, and my
son." No sooner did his feet touch French soil
than he leapt on a swift horse, and waving his hat
with the shout, " Once more a king," he galloped
away for St. Jean de Luz.* All France went mad
with joy. The churches were filled with people
singing " Te Deums." Margaret and Louise were
at the height of bliss. Margaret in her poetical way
said that the sun had arisen again and caused all
nature to revive ; no one seems to have been dis-
turbed by anxieties about the little princes. Francis
distributed honours and rewards to all who had
faithfully served him during his captivity. His
mother was always to have her seat at his council
table. Margaret was made, in addition to her other
dignities, Countess of Armagnac in her own right.
Charles soon began to press Francis for the ful-
ment of the Treaty of Madrid, and the language of
Francis on the subject left no doubt as to his inten-
tion of breaking his word. " A captive in bondage,"
he said, " has no honour, and can bind himself to
nothing." He said he could not give up Burgundy
without the consent of the estates of the province,
* The menu of a "hasty meal" prepared for the King at this
place suggests that imprisonment had not impaired his appetite.
Among other dishes the following were provided : 200 oysters,
nine lampreys, nine Ibs. of turtle, eighteen roach, forty-five mullets,
six plaice, two cod-fish, two salmon, besides pike, chad, herrings, and
barbels. There were also a sturgeon pie, an apple pasty, custards,
fruits, six Ibs. of white sugar, and eight gallons of claret.
128 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and this consent was, of course, withheld. He re-
proached Charles, through his ambassador, with the
ungenerous treatment he had received as a prisoner,
and contrasted it with the chivalrous conduct of the
English Black Prince when John, King of France,
was his prisoner in London. He also complained
of the discourtesy shown to Margaret during her
sojourn in Spain. He was using all his diplomacy
to create a combination, called the Holy League,
between France, England, Switzerland, the Pope,
Florence, Venice, and the Duke of Milan, against
Charles. In order to secure the friendship of
Henry VIII., Francis offered him the hand of his
sister Margaret in marriage and his aid with the
Pope in securing his divorce from Catherine of
Aragon, the aunt of Charles. Margaret had every
reason to object to this arrangement. She was in
love with the King of Navarre, and she had a keen
feeling of respect and sympathy for Catherine ; but
she did not dare to oppose her brother openly ; her
portrait in her becoming widow's dress was sent
" on approval " to Hampton Court. She was saved
from the match she disliked more by Anne Boleyn
than by herself.
As months, and even years, passed on, and
Francis did nothing in the direction of the fulfil-
ment of the treaty, Charles became more and more
enraged. The treatment of the little princes, which
at first had been sufficiently liberal, became harsh
LOUISE OF SAVOT AND HER DAUGHTER. 129
and severe. All their French attendants were dis-
missed, and they were shut up in a dismal room
lighted only by one small window eighteen inches
square. Francis endeavoured to negotiate their
ransom, but Charles doggedly replied that it was not
ransom he wanted, but the fulfilment of the treaty ;
and in default that Francis should keep his word
and give himself up again as a prisoner. With
scorching words Charles addressed the messenger of
Francis on what he thought of ' ' the hero so jealous
of his glory, the cavalier who considers the maxims
of honour as sacred and inviolable . . . who
basely and treacherously had broken every condition
to which he had agreed while a prisoner." On
these words being repeated to Francis he thought it
incumbent on him as a gentleman and man of
honour, not to keep his word, but to challenge
Charles to single combat. To the astonishment and
confusion of Francis, Charles accepted the chal-
lenge. The King's council were unanimous in de-
claring that the duel could never be allowed to take
place ; but now it rested with Francis, who had sent
the challenge, to back out of it. An excuse was
made that the rules of heraldry had not been duly
observed by Charles and his representative in their
method of accepting the challenge. This absurd and
undignified incident was brought to an end in Sep-
tember, 1528. There can be little doubt that
Charles seriously wished to fight ; he asked Cas-
J
130 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
tiglione, the author of "II Cortegiano," to be one
of his seconds. The part of Francis in the matter
was probably mere play-acting throughout.
It was not till 1530 that the young princes were
ransomed after four years' captivity, and then, as
already related, an attempt was made to pay their
ransom in debased coin. For a king who prided
himself on being before all things a perfect gentle-
man and man of honour this is hard to beat.
Francis, in the whole of his negotiations with
Charles, showed himself mean and treacherous to
the last degree, and yet we read in the very his-
torian who sets forth the details of the foregoing
narrative, that whatever may have been his faults,
' ' he never deviated from the refinement and cour-
tesy of the perfect gentleman."
QUEEN OF NAVAEEE.
When Margaret left Spain and rejoined her
mother at Lyons, at the end of the year 1525, she
almost immediately made the acquaintance of
Henry d'Albret, the young King of Navarre. He
had been with Francis at Pavia, had fought by his
side, and had shared his fate, having been both
wounded and a prisoner. He was handsome and
winsome, brave and strong; his servants all wor-
shipped him. He had been imprisoned in the
Castle of Pavia; but no castle could hold him.
Bribes to guards, a devoted page with whom he ex-
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 131
changed clothes, a dash through the guardroom, a
rope ladder, a fearful leap, a swift horse, and Henry
of Navarre was galloping towards Lyons on the
way to liberty and the court of Louise of Savoy.
Charles V., when he met him a few years later,
said, " I have only met one man in France, and that
man is the King of Navarre." When he and Mar-
garet met, in 1525, he was twenty-two and she was
thirty-three. He fell in love with her ; but as he
fell in love with every handsome and agreeable
woman between sixteen and sixty whom he ever
met, there was nothing singular in this; it was of
more importance that she fell in love with him.
There was almost everything in him to attract her :
his devotion to Francis, his romantic escape from
prison, his interest in learning, his sympathy with
the Keformation, and his lively desire to improve the
condition of the little mountain province which
called him King. He would remit taxation, found
libraries and printing presses, reform the laws,
establish manufactures, improve the breed of cattle,
and develop agriculture. He must have been a most
attractive lad, with his vivacious Southern blood and
overflowing vitality and his devotion to Margaret
which, she did not then know, had no trace of ex-
clusiveness about it. She had, as we have seen,
some serious opposition to her marriage to over-
come. Francis had other designs for her, but these
designs for one reason or another were abandoned t
132 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and Margaret married the man she loved about a
year after the release of Francis, in January, 1527.
We have seen how tenderly she loved her
brother's children. One of her most charming
letters to Francis during his captivity describes their
illness and recovery from measles.
" They are all quite cured now," she writes,
" and very healthy. M. le Dauphin does marvels,
mingling with his studies a hundred other exercises ;
there is no question now of temper, but of all the
virtues. M. d'Orleans [afterwards Henry II.] is
nailed to his book , and says he wants to be wise ;
but M. d'Angouleme [aged four] knows more than
the others, and does and says things wonderful for
his age, rather than childish prattle which, mon-
seigneur, you would be amazed to hear of. Little
Margot [afterwards Duchess of Savoy] is growing
like me; she also follows my example, and always
refuses to be ill. They tell me here that she has
very good grace, and is growing much handsomer
than Mademoiselle d'Angouleme [herself] ever was."
How strange that this perfect aunt should have
been anything but a perfect mother. Her slavish
devotion to Francis was answerable in the main for
both perfection and imperfection. Her first child,
Jeanne, was born at Fontainebleau in January,
1528. Her letter to Francis saying that she cannot
believe that her child will presume to be born with-
out his command is quoted on another page. She
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 133
refers to a long letter she had received from Francis,
and says she will cause it to be read to her, instead
of the " Life of St. Margaret," when the pains of
childbirth assail her. After the birth of the baby
it was almost immediately put under the care of
Madame de Silly, Baillive of Caen ; at two years old
Jeanne was parted from her mother completely, and
shut up by Francis in the gloomy fortress palace of
Plessis-les-Tours, from which her parents were not
allowed to remove her. Francis dreaded that Henry
d'Albret, Jeanne's father, if he had control of her
person, would betrothe her to Philip, Prince of Spain,
the son of Charles V.
Poor little Jeanne never received a mother's
tenderness. Once, when she was about nine years
old, she had a dangerous illness, and Margaret, on
hearing of it, announced her intention of visiting
her daughter, and this she did, setting out without
an hour's delay, notwithstanding, says the admiring
biographer, that it was raining hard. Jeanne re-
covered, and was already out of danger when her
mother arrived. The illness procured for the child
the extraordinary indulgence of a visit from her
mother which lasted nearly a fortnight. Margaret's
cruelty in forcing Jeanne, by repeated whippings,
to marry the Duke of Cleves, has been already re-
ferred to. It is not surprising that Jeanne did not
share in the enthusiastic adoration which her mother
inspired in other quarters. She was too proud to
134 WE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
tell lies and to pretend what she did not feel. Her
chief feeling in regard to her mother, in after years,
was a resolve to see justice done to Margaret's
literary position. When she was Queen of Navarre
in her own right, she collected the MSS. of
Margaret's poems and stored them in an iron chest,
which was discovered not very many years ago in
Paris. When, nineteen years after the death of
Margaret, a literary pirate brought out her collection
of stories called "The Heptameron " as his own,
Jeanne came to the rescue, and caused the production
of a new edition, in which her mother's name as the
author was restored to its rightful place.
Jeanne's was not a cold nature, and if she did
not give Margaret her love it was because her mother
had never earned it.
Margaret had little happiness as a mother. What
she might have had she neglected, and her other
children died in infancy. A boy was born on Christ-
mas Day, 1530, but only lived for five months; she
had twins twelve years later, who hardly survived
their birth. Margaret's grief for the death of her
son was vehement and lasting. But she tried to
submit herself to her sorrow. The death of the
prince was announced with the words, "The
Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away,"
and she tried to persuade herself, by having a " Te
Deum " chanted, that she was thankful that her
little boy had been removed from the trials and
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 135
dangers of this world. Francis was at his best when
his affections were really touched, and his letter to
Margaret on the death of her son shows genuine
feeling. He reminds her of her sympathy with him
when he lost two children, and says that as all that
is his is also hers , so hers is his ; her sorrow for this
child is his, and he accounts the little prince just
dead as the third of his own, whom God had called
to join the glorious company above. " My darling,"
he writes, "wipe away your bitter tears; render
obedience to God ' ' ; and he counsels her to try to
seek relief from her sad thoughts by attendance on
their mother, who was then lying very ill at Fon-
tainebleau.
The last signal service which Louise was able to
render her son was the conclusion of the treaty with
Charles V., at Cambray, in August, 1529. The
negotiations were conducted on both sides by ladies,
and it was hence called "The Ladies' Peace."
Louise, Duchess of Angouleme, accompanied by
the King and Queen of Navarre, represented Francis,
while Charles V. was represented by his aunt,
the Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governess
of the Netherlands. It was then that the pro-
ject of marriage between Francis and Eleanor of
Portugal was reopened, and the money ransom
of the young princes promised in lieu of the cession
of Burgundy; it was, however, stipulated that if
the marriage of Francis and Eleanor resulted in
136 JIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the birth of a son, he should succeed to Burgundy
to the exclusion of the sons of Francis by his first
wife. Francis once more, as in the Treaty of Madrid,
renounced all his pretensions in Italy, and his
suzerainty over Flanders and Artois ; but he retained
the disputed possessions of Bourbon. Peace on
almost any conditions was welcome to both
countries; but the terms, as compared with the
Treaty of Madrid, were favourable to France.
The young princes and Eleanor of Portugal
arrived at Fontarabia in March, 1530, but were
kept waiting on the Spanish side of the river for
four months owing to the chicanery already related
of the representatives of Francis in trying to pay
the ransom in debased coin. When once this un-
toward incident had been dealt with to the satisfac-
tion of the Spaniards, the crossing of the river by
the Queen and her two future stepsons was con-
ducted with great splendour and gorgeous cere-
monial. Their reception on the French side of the
river left nothing to be desired. The actual land-
ing of the Queen of Portugal was on territory within
the little kingdom of Navarre, but the King and
Queen of Navarre were not there to welcome her.
Margaret was at Blois awaiting the birth of her
second child, and the King of Navarre was in attend-
ance on Francis. Louise was also absent. She
was ill, and it may be hoped that she was ashamed,
with that million and a half of gold crowns in her
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 137
cash box, that she had contributed nothing to the
two millions required for the ransom of her grand-
sons. Francis met his bride near the Abbey of
Captieux, and the marriage ceremony was per-
formed there. Francis treated his new wife with
coldness and aversion from the first. He cordially
hated Charles V., and as Eleanor of Portugal was
his sister, and in a sense his representative, some
of the detestation he aroused in Francis was trans-
ferred to her. The insolence of Francis in making
his mistress, Mademoiselle de Heilly, afterwards
Duchess d'Estampes, one of -the Queen's ladies of
honour from the day of her arrival in France was
resented by Eleanor, but not resisted. She bore the
insult with gloomy dignity ; then Francis complained
of her that she was not sprightly and cheerful.
Margaret, while at Blois, wrote almost daily to
Montmorency, who was now grand master of the
household, to prefer requests for posts and appoint-
ments for one or other of her numerous clients and
dependants. From the husband of the washer-
woman of the late Queen Claude to men who
aspired to be treasurer, or governor to the princes,
she had proteges in every rank, and was never
weary of trying to secure good appointments for
them. It was doubtless owing to her that one of
the most learned of the French Keformers, Lefevre,
was appointed tutor to the King's youngest son,
Margaret's pet, " M. d'Angouleme." Her benevo-
138 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
lence was no mere gratification of a good-natured
impulse at the expense of someone else. Lefevre,
for instance, she surrounded with every sort of
personal kindness to the end of his long life. When
he had to relinquish his tutorship to the little prince,
she received him as her librarian at Blois; when
the fires of persecution waxed hotter, and he was no
longer safe in France, she made a home for him
in her own home, first at Nerac, then at Pau. He
lived to be a hundred and one, but Margaret's hos-
pitality never wearied. She delighted in his con-
versation and in the simplicity and purity of his
character. He said to Margaret a few hours before
his death that now, when he was on the point of
quitting this world, he could not remember any sin
which lay upon his conscience, except that he had
fled from persecution, when so many others had
stayed and suffered death. Margaret consoled him
with wise and gentle words, so that he presently
said, " There is nothing left to me to do but to go
to my God Whom I hear calling me." He then
gave directions about the disposal of his property,
leaving his books to Eoussel, and to Margaret
' ' the trouble of distributing my possessions among
the poor." Afterwards he fell asleep, and sleeping
died. He was buried in the Cathedral of Lescar,
and his Queen was his chief mourner.
The death of Louise, which took place in 1531,
was quite of another kind. Margaret's letters from
LOUISE OIF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 139
1525-31 contain frequent allusions to her mother's
bad health. She was not old, being only fifty-five at
the time of her death, but she had been for years a
martyr to gout and allied disorders , and often suffered
agonies of pain. No one was allowed to mention
the subject of death in her presence. Preachers
were warned that if they desired the favour of
Madame they must avoid all reference to the un-
welcome topic in their sermons. She declared that
preachers only brought in the subject of death when
they were gravelled for lack of matter, and ex-
claimed scornfully , "as if everyone did not know
that the fate of all is to die." The physicians wait-
ing on her carefully concealed from her the serious
nature of her illness, and, indeed, confidently
promised her recovery. She arrived at Fontaine-
bleau in June, 1531, restless and wretched in mind
and i)ody. Between the paroxysms of the pain
which prostrated her, she would assemble poor
people "afflicted with grievous wounds, which she
dresses with her own hands, in order to try the
efficacy of an ointment which she believes possesses
singular virtue. "But nothing happens that does
not seem to add to her depression," wrote Margaret
to her brother, at the same time beseeching him not
to let their mother know what she was telling him.
By September Louise was much worse, and had
no choice but to take to her bed. It was obvious
to everyone that she was dying. But she was
1 40 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
hurried away from Fontainebleau in consequence of
the outbreak of the plague there. Margaret said in
one of her letters to Montmorency she dared not
write to the King, and scarcely to him, fearing her
letter might convey infection. It was intended to
take Louise to her old home, the dower house at
Romorentin, in Berry, where her youth was spent;
but she never lived to get there. With the egotism
of her time and rank, she saw in the comet of 1531
an omen sent especially to her to warn her of her
approaching death. At Gres, a little village near
Nemours, she announced to her attendants that she
recognised that her end was near. ' ' That is a
sign," she said to her women, referring to the
comet, " which appears not to warn persons of
mean condition : God sends it to admonish us, the
great of the earth. Close the window. . . I
must prepare myself for death." A day or two
later, on September 22nd, 1531, she expired. Her
body was buried at St. Denis, but her heart was
enclosed in a small leaden coffer and placed in the
earth at the foot of the steps of the high altar in
Notre Dame, in Paris. It was found and opened
about one hundred and fifty years later; but it was
carefully replaced, and it is believed that it still
occupies its original position, as there was nothing
external to mark the spot or to attract the destruc-
tive passions of the revolutionaries or the equally
destructive zeal of the "restorers."
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 141
It was about this time, when Margaret was in
attendance on her sick mother, that she probably
composed "The Mirror of a Sinful Soul," pub-
lished in 1532, a mystical poem which hardly any
one in the world could read, let alone write, now.
It is difficult to conceive either the opposition or
the enthusiastic admiration it aroused. It awakened
the unappeasable rage of the Sorbonne, because it
contained no mention of the saints nor of purga-
tory, and hymns to the Virgin were paraphrased
to the honour of Jesus. On the other hand, it was
greatly prized by the Keformers, and Elizabeth of
England, at the age of fifteen, translated it from
French to English, the English version being
printed in 1548, ten years before she became queen.
The year 1533 was an eventful one in many ways.
It was the year of the publication of Margaret's
poem, and of the attack of the Sorbonne upon her,
already narrated. It was the year when for the
last time Francis showed himself inclined to be led
by his sister to favour the principles of the Beforma-
tion. From that year the influence of Margaret
wanes, and that of Montmorency and the opponents
of reform waxes. It was the year when Nicholas
Cop, the rector of the University of Paris, and Cal-
vin had to fly from Paris, and ultimately from
France, on account of the Lutheran doctrines con-
tained in the rectorial address delivered before the
University by Cop, but composed by Calvin. It was
142 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the year of the marriage of Henry VIIL with Anne
Boleyn; and it was the year, too, which marked a
decided step taken by Francis to emphasise his
alliance with the papacy. He broke his promise to
his sister to marry his second son Henry, Duke of
Orleans, to her daughter, Jeanne, and married the
lad to the Pope's niece, Catherine de Medici.
Henceforward, another influence, more subtle,
and infinitely less benign than Margaret's, was work-
ing on the plastic nature of Francis. The centre of
Margaret's influence became Pau or Nerac, and as
time went on she counted for less and less with
Francis. Catherine, child as she was (she was only
fourteen at the time of her marriage), pursued her
way without haste and without rest to her ultimate
goal power. The wife of a second son, and a
despised and neglected wife, nothing, at the time of
her marriage, seemed less likely than that she would
attain the position of supreme authority she after-
wards secured. But gradually all obstacles in her
path were removed ; Francis was dexterously flat-
tered and constantly amused by her; her husband's
elder brother died suddenly and mysteriously,
whether by her means or by her connivance will
never be known, but his death certainly served her
interests. She became Dauphine, and her husband
next in the succession. She bore her husband ten
children, and endured with apparent complacency
his devotion to another woman from boyhood to
LOUISE OJ SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 143
middle age. When her husband's death made her
eldest son king, as Francis II., he and his wife,
Mary Stuart, were under the tutelage of the Guises,
and supreme power rested with them, not with her.
Francis died at the age of 16, and we are told that
Catherine was " blyeth " at the death of her son.
It made the boy Charles IX., not yet ten years old,
King of France, with his mother as Kegent, and her
goal reached. Such in barest outline was Catherine's
history from 1533 to the accession of Charles IX.
She was never in open opposition to Margaret.
Her soft insinuating manners never made an enemy.
She was far too astute to put herself into antagonism
to one who had so long been the most influential
woman in France; but her nature was essentially
different from Margaret's at every point, without
religion, without enthusiasm, and without gener-
osity; she knew how to influence Francis by
amusing him; and from childhood to old age she
mined and countermined first for her own protection
and afterwards to secure her own ultimate domina-
tion. From the date of the Medici marriage,)
Margaret's star was setting, while the star of
Catherine slowly, and at first much obscured by
clouds and mists, was rising.
Charles V. affected to pour contempt on the
Medici marriage as one beneath the dignity of the
son of the King of France; before it took place he
pretended to believe it incredible that Francis would
144 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
take " a shopkeeper's daughter " for his son's bride.
But this was a mere absurdity. The Medicis were
almost of royal standing, and on her mother's side
Catherine was descended from one of the noblest
families of France. The Emperor and the King
were as much as ever at rivalry, though not at open
war, and each was doing his utmost to secure the
papal alliance. The gibe of Charles was aimed at
preventing the marriage. In this he failed, and
Francis won, but with the bad luck which always
seemed to dog him in his never-ending struggle with
Charles, the alliance he had bought was of short
duration, for Pope Clement VII. died in September,
1534, less than a year after the marriage of his
niece with the King's son.
To show his welcome to his daughter-in-law,
Francis gave her, on her marriage, the device
of a rainbow, with a Greek motto, which signified
" She brings light and serenity." What an un-
conscious irony ! If he had given her a motto
signifying " She brings death and destruction "
he had been nearer the mark. In those days
everyone had " devices " and mottoes. Francis
had a salamander surrounded by flames and
the motto " Nutrisco et extinguo " ("I feed on it
and extinguish it "). Margaret had a daisy with
the motto " Non inferior a secutus" which may
perhaps be paraphrased by the English line, " We
needs must love the highest when we see it." The
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 145
pity was that her " highest " was her brother. The
mysterious words of the motto of Francis will bear
almost any interpretation. Polite contemporaries
said it meant ' ' I nourish good and extinguish evil ' ' ;
but this has nothing to do with flames and sala-
manders, nor has it any possible relation to the
King's actual performances. If we look at these,
the unlucky motto may be interpreted to mean, " I
feed on good faith and extinguish it." He broke
faith with almost everyone with whom he had deal-
ings with his sister and her husband about the
Spanish provinces of Navarre, and about the mar-
riage of his son with their daughter ; with the Pro-
testants whom he burned in Prance when at the
same time he was seeking to enter into an alliance
with them in Germany ; with Charles V. about the
Treaty of Madrid and on a hundred other occasions.
He accused Charles of having instigated the murder
of his eldest son the dauphin, Francis, whose mys-
terious death, in 1537, has been just referred to.
The unfortunate man, an Italian, Montecuculi, ac-
cused of having been the agent of Charles in this
matter, was put to death with horrible and unspeak-
able barbarity; but in less than two years Francis
received Charles in France with every outward
demonstration of honour and respect. He outraged
the conscience of Europe by his alliance with the
Turk; he outraged the Sultan by treacherously
betraying that alliance. There was no end to his
146 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
perfidy and double-dealing. It may be said of
Francis that no one ever trusted him without being
sorry for it. But, as Brantome says, " That is how
these great kings govern as they please."
The Turk was the common enemy of the Chris-
tian world, but Francis, in his eagerness to secure
any ally to help him in his war with Charles, had
entered into secret relations with the Sultan Soly-
man immediately after the defeat of Pavia ; he had
renewed these overtures in 1528 and in 1532. The
Sultan had faithfully carried out his part of the
understanding. In 1526 an army of 200,000 Turks
entered the Austrian dominions of Charles. In 1527
the first famous siege of Vienna by the Turks began ;
repulsed in 1529, the Sultan again advanced against
Vienna in 1532. The horror inspired by the Turks
in Europe was unbounded, and the deep suspicion
that their attack was prompted by Francis, and car-
ried out in accordance with a secret alliance between
him and the Sultan caused a vehement feeling in
Germany against the French king. The presence
of Turkish armies in South Germany stayed the
hand of Charles against the German Lutherans, and
to gain their support against the common foe he
made concessions to them in the matter of freedom
of worship for which they had long struggled in
vain. Letters are extant between Charles and his
wife, written in 1532, in which he expresses his
suspicion of the league of Francis with the Turks,
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 147
and she replies that Cardinal Colonna had discovered
the actual treaty itself, details of which she de-
scribed to her husband.
The alliance of Francis with the Turk did riot
prevent him at the same time, October, 1532, con-
cluding a treaty with Henry VIII. of England
against the Turk. In this instrument the Kings of
France and England bound themselves to assemble
an army of 80,000 men " for the defence and pre-
servation of our most holy religion, in order to resist
the damnable machinations and enterprises of the
Turk, the ancient adversary of our common faith."
He broke faith with the Turks anew in 1545, by the
terms of the Treaty of Crespy. For these and other
acts of treachery the Sultan felt that Francis had
shamelessly deceived him ; he declined to receive the
ambassador of Francis, and declared that the con-
duct of the King had been treacherous and dis-
honourable, " worthy only of Christian politics."
When the war in Italy between Francis and
Charles reopened, in 1536, Margaret retired with
her husband to their home ia Navarre. In one of
her letters to Francis, written within a few days of
her first arrival in her husband's dominions, she
naively complains that though she had been five
days in Beam, she had not yet mastered the Basque
language. In Pau and Nerac she led a peaceful,
idyllic existence ; she followed the royal custom
of France of dining every day in public, and she
148 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
welcomed to her table poets, scholars, theologians,
and politicians. To those who needed help and suc-
cour she was never slow to extend it. One of her
methods of showing courtesy was rather quaint :
she would send from her own table, sometimes from
her own plate, to any guest whom she wished par-
ticularly to honour, some dainty morsel asking him
to eat it for love of her. She had always possessed
great skill in the planning and laying out of gardens.
At Alenon she had created an " earthly paradise,"
and at Blois and Fontainebleau the pleasure grounds
owed much to her delicate fancy and invention. At
Nerac and Pau she found delight in the same occupa-
tion ; and she managed, as it were, to kill two birds
with one stone, for she employed in her gardens a
great many poor people who were unable to find
work elsewhere. She liked to call herself the
" prime minister of the poor." When alone in her
chamber, says a contemporary panegyrist, " she
took up a book instead of a distaff, a pen instead of
a spindle, and her tablets instead of a needle."
When in company with her ladies she betook herself
to needlework, she sometimes told a witty story, or
recited a poem, or told someone to read aloud. She
would also at times keep two secretaries employed,
one in writing down French verses, which she com-
posed with great facility, the other in inditing letters
at her dictation to her numerous friends.
The little mountain kingdom of Navarre was far
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 149
behind France in commerce and agriculture, and
Margaret set herself to improve both. Her husband
at first entered into all these plans with enthusiasm,
but this gradually cooled ; he more and more pursued
his own pleasures, and left to her the responsibilities
of his dominions. To improve the methods of agri-
culture, peasants from Brittany and other prosper-
ous parts of France were invited to settle in Beam,
so that the Bearnois might learn by example as well
as precept. The manufacture of cloth was also intro-
duced, and was soon practised with success. In no
respect did she hold herself aloof from her people.
She moved about among them almost unattended,
visiting those who also were sick and always ready
to help and succour those who were in need. The
reform of the laws, the suppression of brigandage
and acts of violence against life and property
always more difficult in a mountainous country than
elsewhere met with her active support, and she
advised her husband to call the estates of Be"arn
together to devise a means for the improvement and
regulation of the finances.
Brantome, whose grandmother was her lady of
honour, tells several stories about her which are
very characteristic, and cannot be better told than
in his own words (Miss Wormsley's translation is
used) :
" I have heard tell of her that one of her waiting maids
whom she much liked, being near to death, she wished to
150 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
see her die . . . and never stirrecl from beside her,
gazing so fixedly on her face that she never took her eyes
away from it until she died. Some of her most privileged
ladies asked her why she took such interest in seeing a
human being pass away; to which she answered that,
having heard so many learned persons discourse and say
that the soul and spirit issue from the body at the
moment of death, she wished to see if any wind or noise
could be perceived or the slightest resonance, but she
had noticed nothing. She also gave a reason she had
heard from the same learned persons when she asked
them why the swan sang so well before its death; to
which they answered that it was its soul which strove to
issue from its long throat. In like manner she said she
had hoped to see issue or feel resound and hear the soul
or spirit as it departed; but she did not"
There is something both naive and touching in
the story. The curious simplicity of this learned and
intelligent woman, who received with absolute faith
the strange tales she had heard in the discourses of
philosophers, proves that the age of incredulity had
not yet dawned. How long was it, for instance, and
how many swans had to die in silence before the
myth of the swan song was relegated to its place
among poetic legends? Margaret, with her ear bent
to hear the soul issue from the lips of her dying
maid, was at the parting of the ways between the
age which believed all things and the age which tries
to prove all things. Margaret was only at the begin-
ning of this newer time. She looked and listened for
the soul, and dearly wished to see or hear it ; but sbe
did not. If she had lived a hundred years earlier
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 151
she would have been able to see and hear anything
she pleased.
Another story relates how Captain de Bourdeille,
the brother of Brantome, when a very young man at
the court of Benee, Duchess of Ferrara, met a French
lady, Madame de la Koche, by whom he was be-
loved. He brought her to France, and placed her
in the court of the Queen of Navarre, and then went
his way, returned to Italy for five or six years, and
thought no more about her. The lady in the mean-
time, about three months before her faithless lover's
return, took to her bed and died. Captain de Bour-
deille, now a handsome young warrior of twenty-
four, went to Pau to pay his respects to the Queen
of Navarre, and met her as she was returning from
vespers.
" She who was the most excellent princess in the
world gave him a hearty welcome ; taking him by the
hand she led him into the church, where she walked with
him for an hour or more, questioning him about the pro-
gress of the war in Piedmont and in Italy. ... At
length, after having conversed with him for some time
. . . the Queen suddenly paused .over the tomb of
Madame de la Roche, who had died about three months
previously. Taking my brother by the hand, the Queen
said : ' Cousin ' (so she called him because a daughter of
the house of Albret had married into our family of Bour-
deille), ' do you not feel something move beneath your
feet?' 'No, madame,' he replied. 'Reflect a moment,
cousin,' rejoined the Queen. ' Madame, I do reflect,' he
answered. ' I feel nothing move, for I am standing on a
solid stone.' ' Then I admonish you,' replied the Queen,
1 52 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
without keeping him further in suspense, ' that you are
standing on the tomb of poor Madame de la Roche, who
is buried here beneath you, and whom you so greatly
loved ; and since souls have feelings after death, it
cannot be doubted that so honest a being, dying of cold-
ness, felt your step above her j and though you felt no-
thing because of the thickness of that stone, she was
moved and conscious of your presence. Now inasmuch
as it is a pious deed to remember the dead whom we
have loved, I beseech you to 'sprinkle her tomb with holy
water, and give her a Pater Noster, an Ave Maria, and a
De Profundis, in doing which you will prove yourself a
faithful lover and a good Christian/ So saying the
Queen departed, and my brother did not fail to obey
her."
The story illustrates Margaret's half poetical,
half cynical mood. " One foot on sea, and one on
shore , to one thing constant never ' ' : she had proof
enough of that in her own domestic life. But she
was more amused than bitter, whether the man were
Henry of Navarre or Captain de Bourdeille.
These later years of Margaret's life have an
almost unbroken gloom. She felt her power
over her brother slipping away. Her sympathy
with the Keformation had been cooled by
Protestant excesses and crimes, but she still
made her court the refuge of those who were
driven out of France for conscience' sake. The
miserable tale of her forcing a hated marriage
on her only child is the worst blot on her
memory. The marriage ceremony it was no more
took place at Chastellerault, in 1540. It marked
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 153
the downfall of Montmorency. Jeanne was so laden
with jewels and cloth of gold that she could not,
perhaps would not, move. Francis called to Mont-
morency, and ordered him to carry the child to the
altar. It was meant as an insult, and understood
as such by all present. Queen Margaret had her
little thrill of personal triumph, and said to those
near her : ' * The man who tried to ruin me with my
brother now serves to carry my daughter to church."
While Montmorency muttered : * ' It is all over with
my favour; good-bye to it, say I." He was both
right and wrong. It was all over with the favour of
Francis, who in dying warned his successor against
Montmorency ; but the warning was disregarded,
and all through the reign of Henry II. the Constable
was more powerful than he had ever been before.
The festivities, jousts, and processions attendant on
the marriage of the Princess Jeanne to the Duke of
Cleves were on a scale of boundless magnificence.
Francis was always lavish in matters of this kind. A
rise in the salt tax, which took place immediately
afterwards, produced a popular impression that it
had been rendered necessary by the cost of these
junketings, and the people, in view of the whole
situation, gave the wedding the terrible nickname of
" les noces saUes."
Jeanne was compelled to be present at all the
fetes and tournaments given on the occasion, but no
one could compel her to enter into their gaiety. She
154 FWB FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
sat, sad and sullen, no whit shaken in her deter-
mined opposition to the alliance forced upon her.
She was only twelve, but she Tmew her own mind,
and could hold fast to it through all opposition.
Her mother was untouched, and Jeanne's dis-
tress left her cold and unsympathetic. Nothing had
any weight with her compared with the slightest
wish of Francis. Any demand from him, however
unreasonable, was certain to be met by her with
unreasoning subservience.
When the Duke of Cleves, by his submission to
Charles three years later, made Francis as anxious
to break the match as he had previously been to
insist upon it, Margaret was equally complaisant.
She avowed, in a letter to her brother, that as long
as it was the will of Francis that the marriage should
take place, " we would rather have seen our daugh-
ter die as she protested she would do than prevent
her" from carrying out her uncle's designs; but
since the Duke of Cleves had been " so infamous
and vile " as to make his submission to the Emperor,
Margaret declares anew that she would rather see
her daughter in her grave than in the power of a
man who had deceived Francis.
The Queen of Navarre's slavish devotion to her
brother was like a canker poisoning her whole
nature. Personally fastidious, and daintily pure in
her own tastes and predilections, she cheerfully
wallowed in the mud of Boccaccian romance in the
LOUISE OJ SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 155
hope of amusing and diverting him. A dissolute life
had brought upon him the penalty of premature old
age. He was ill, morose, melancholy, weary, and at
the same time wildly restless. He had lost his eldest
son, and he was estranged from the Dauphin, who
seldom came near him. His neglected wife shut
herself up in her own apartments. She bitterly re-
sented the manner in which the King had treated
her, and her married life had brought her nothing
but misery and disillusion. If Francis neglected his
wife, he distrusted his mistress; there was an in-
cessant squalid war between her and the mistress of
the Dauphin, Diana of Poitiers, which broke the
court into two rival factions. Francis's youngest
son, the "Monsieur d'Angouleme " of Margaret's
earlier letters, had now become Charles, Duke of
Orleans. He was his father's favourite wild, gay,
and high spirited, very much what Francis had been
in his own youth. He died of plague in 1545, almost
in his father's arms.
There was no one but Margaret in the immediate
family of Francis who could offer him any solace or
consolation, and she was often at her wits' end to
think what she could do to soothe him. Sometimes
he was sunk in lethargy, but more often he wan-
dered restlessly from place to place, seeking peace
and finding none. To amuse him, she read him the
stories of the "Decameron"; then, when the
amusement to be had from them was exhausted,
156 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Margaret had the idea that she would invent some
more stories on the same pattern. The " Hep-
tameron " was the result of her efforts. The stories,
and the whole scheme of their construction, were
an obvious and avowed imitation of the ' ' De-
cameron," with the one important difference that
Margaret's stories were true, or at least founded on
fact. They would thus, though less artistic from a
literary point of view, be more entertaining to
Francis, who would there read, from the ever-
flattering pen of his sister, an account of his own
youthful escapades, escapes, and adventures. Most
of the tales are unsavoury, to use the mildest pos-
sible term ; even French critics have described them
as " peu delicates," and even " ords et salles." But
before condemning Margaret too severely the
standard of decency of the century in which she
lived must be remembered, and also that she was
writing for the amusement of Francis.
The framework of the ' ' Heptameron ' ' is this :
The writer supposes that a party of distinguished
ladies and gentlemen, French and Spanish, have
met at the baths of Cauterets, in the Pyrenees. On
separating and returning to their respective coun-
tries, the French are stopped near the Abbaye of
Notre Dame de Serrance by finding the river Gave
in flood ; as the river was not fordable they resolve
to build a bridge. The workmen say this cannot be
done in less than ten days. The party of travellers
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 157
are sure that the time will hang very heavy on their
hands unless they can find " some pleasant and vir-
tuous " occupation to distract them. They consult
the eldest of their company, Dame Oisille, generally
identified with Margaret herself. She replies that,
having searched for a remedy for ennui all her life,
she has found nothing so efficacious as the reading
of the Holy Epistles ; but as she recognises that this
is too austere a remedy for the young, she suggests
that, after dining every day at 10 a.m., they should
disperse each to his or her own private affairs and
meet again at midday " in the beautiful meadow on
the banks of the river Gave, where the trees are so
leafy that the sun cannot pierce the shadows or heat
the coolness; there, seated at our ease, each shall
tell some story he has known or heard related from
a trustworthy person." As the company were ten
in number, and there were ten days, the intention
was to produce a hundred stories. But either be-
cause the springs of Margaret's remembrance ran
dry, or for some other reason, the ten days were
reduced to seven, and Margaret's book was a " Hep-
tameron," and not a "Decameron." St. Beuve
says of her stories that quite apart from their dis-
tastefulness according to the standard of the present
time, there is not much in them that is really charm-
ing; that they are without art, composition, and
denouement ; at the same time he absolves her from
any indecency in intention.
158 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Their intention, one may be sure, was the
distraction of her brother, and at the same time, if
possible, to bring him back to a frame of mind more
in harmony with her own on the subject of the re-
form of religion. Nearly all the stories of the
" Heptameron " turn on the villainies, stupidities,
and immoralities of monks. Dame Oisille exclaims,
" Good God, shall we never get out of these stories
of monks? " The King and his sister had drifted
far apart in their attitude towards reform. Mar-
garet, it is true, did not openly break with Kome ;
she conformed outwardly, and was blamed by Beza
for it. But her sympathies always remained true
to the cause of reform. Francis had by this time
given a free rein to the cruellest and bitterest of the
persecutors. How little effect the very mild remon-
strance of his sister produced may be judged by the
fact that the writing of the " Heptameron," in 1544,
was immediately followed by the massacre of the
Vaudois in 1545.
These simple mountain people were reformers
before the Eeformation. They had preserved from
the earliest times a form of the Christian faith
similar to that which the reformers were seeking to
make universal. They^ did not believe in Purgatory,
nor in prayers for the dead, nor in confession, but
taught that it is sufficient to confess to God, and
that God alone has the right to excommunicate.
Among their positive doctrines they believed that
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 159
every good and holy man was the Son of God, even
as was Christ Himself, and that the soul of every
good man is the Holy Spirit of God. They were in
many respects like Quakers ; they would not swear,
they would not lie, and their lives were pure and vir-
tuous. They neither adored the cross nor the ele-
ments in the sacrament ; they accounted a church
or churchyard no holier than any other place, for
they said that the whole earth was equally blessed
by God. They condemned war, and they had no
consecrated priesthood. In 1530, when the news of
the Eeformation first reached them, they received it
with joy, and in 1536 they formally joined the Re-
formed Church of Geneva. The Inquisition kept an
eye on them and waited only a favourable moment
to plan their destruction. This came in 1545, when
Francis signed the Treaty of Crespy, which con-
cluded peace between himself, Charles V., and
Henry VIII. Cardinal de Tournon, who fifteen
years earlier had vehemently resisted the bringing of
Melancthon to Paris, had acted as the minister in
attendance on Francis, when the terms of this peace
were arranged. Five years earlier, in 1540, he had
secured from the King a writ condemning to death
for heresy the head of every household among the
Vaudois. Guillaume du Bellay had then come to
the rescue, and had secured the suspension of the
iniquitous decree. But du Bellay was now dead;
Margaret was away, and Cardinal de Tournon was
160 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
at the elbow of Francis, acting as his evil genius. He
urged the King to prove his zeal as a true son of the
Church, and to justify his title of Most Christian
King (a little smirched by the alliance with the
Turks), by signing a writ condemning to death the
whole Vaudois population, men, women, and chil-
dren. This monstrous crime was as near as might
be carried into execution. Two towns, Cabrieres
and Merindol, and twenty-two villages were burned
to ashes, and every man, woman, and child they
contained put to death ; even babies at the breast
w r ere not spared. Of the whole community only a
remnant escaped by flying over the frontiers into
Switzerland.
A bitter cry of rage and horror went up. Francis
declared he had never read the writ which authorised
the massacre. What must Margaret have felt?
Where was the dream of her youth that her glorious
and triumphant Caesar would lead the reform move-
ment in Europe and procure the purification of
Christendom from within? The only answer was
found in the smoking, bloodstained ashes of what
once were innocent and happy homes. It was not
only the Vaudois villages which lay in ashes, it was
Margaret's life and Francis's reputation.
Not long after this, March 31st, 1547, came the
death of the King. Henry VIII. had died earlier
in the same year, and Charles V. was only waiting
for a suitable moment to carry out his long-cherished
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 161
plan of abdicating his crowns and retiring to a
monastery to end his days.
Two of the three young sovereigns who had
been rival candidates for the Empire in 1519, whose
strenuous personalities had played such a leading
part in the history of Europe and of the Keforma-
tion for nearly half a century, were now removed,
and their place knew them no more. With the
death of Francis, Margaret's life may be said to
have ended too. She had not been with him
at the end. With the fitful restlessness of
disease he had roamed from place to place, stop-
ping at nearly a dozen different castles in the
last six weeks of his life. Hunting by day, groan-
ing and tossing by night, consumed by an un-
quenchable thirst, the King's misery gave him no
rest. At one moment he would ardently desire his
sister's presence and despatch a courier to fetch her ;
the next another courier would be sent post-haste to
stop the first. He did, however, send for his heir,
the Dauphin, and bade him as his dying wish never
to recall Mbntmorency, to check the pretensions of
the Guises, and to remit taxation : admonitions of
which Henry II. took little heed.
When Francis died at Eambouillet, Margaret
was staying in the convent at Tusson. It was a
fortnight before the news of her brother's death
reached her. She had been full of anxiety about
him. One night early in April she dreamed of him,
162 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
and saw him standing pale and ghastly at the side
of her bed. He cried, " Ma sceur, ma sceur! " and
she awoke trembling and full of renewed apprehen-
sion.
When the news of the King's death reached the
convent, the nuns were afraid to tell her of it ; they
even told her that he was better. But the place
must have been full of an air of mystery and con-
cealment, for she was not satisfied, and despatched
a messenger of her own to make inquiries at the
court. She then proceeded to the chapel to pray.
As she passed through the cloisters she heard the
sound of bitter weeping. Following the sound, she
discovered it proceeded from a poor, half-crazy nun,
whose intellect was unequal to the task of telling
anything but the truth. " My sister," said the
Queen, " what is it that you weep for? " The nun
looked up and said, "For you, Madame." And
hiding her face in her veil, she fled. Then Margaret
knew that her brother was dead. Her sun had gone
down, and she was left in darkness. She must have
thought of those earlier days when * ' noire trinite ' '
had been so happy, so hopeful, so full of the great
things they intended to do. Now she was the only
one left. She was very much alone, her daughter
was cold and estranged, her husband no longer made
much pretence of loving her. The jolly King of
Navarre was by no means inconsolable for the death
of his brother-in-law.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER 163
When the Queen of Navarre visited her nephew's
court, she very quickly found what a different
position she occupied in it from that she had held
when Francis was king. The mistress of Henry II.,
the famous Diana of Poitiers, was now the pre-
dominant influence there. The King and the whole
court (including Catherine de Medici) wore Diana's
colours, quaintly enough the black and white of her
mourning for her husband ; her crescent, motto, and
monogram formed part of the architectural ornament
of the royal palaces, and anyone may see th6m
to-day, and the D interlaced with the H, on the
oldest existing court of the Louvre.
The annulling of the union with the Duke
of Cleves, and her marriage with the man of
her choice. Anthony of Bourbon, Duke of Ven-
dome, gave Jeanne the liveliest satisfaction, but
awakened little or no interest in her mother.
Henry II. was glad to get his cousin Jeanne safely
married to a Frenchman ; the dread of a Spanish
marriage was ever before his eyes ; he was as much
set against it as his father had been.
Princess Jeanne was at this period of her life
extravagant and wilful. She was heiress of a crown,
and she spent royally and profusely. She kept up a
splendid household in Paris, quite regardless of the
pecuniary losses which her mother had suffered since
the death of King Francis. It is a little humiliating
to find Margaret beseeching Montmorency and Diana
164 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of Poitiers to use their influence with the new king
for the continuance of the pension, 25,000 livres
Tournois, which she had enjoyed during the reign
of Francis. It is difficult to discover what had be-
come of the great revenues Margaret had enjoyed
during the earlier part of her brother's reign. The
huge wealth of Louise, to which the estates of Bour-
bon had been added, had been absorbed by Francis.
He was a great spending department ; probably all
the disposable revenues of Margaret had gone the
same way. It is certain that towards the close of
her life she was in straits for money. She passed
much of her time in the convent at Tusson, and
reduced her expenses to the narrowest limits. Her
whole expenditure for the year 1548, exclusive of
pensions and gifts to the poor, only reached 220
livres Tournois.
She left the convent at Tusson to receive her
daughter and her husband at Pau and welcome them
to Beam ; but the pomp and display of the visit only
wearied her. She was growing very weak and very
tired. The well-meaning nuns at Tusson tried to
console her by talking of the bliss of Paradise. But
Margaret was very human and healthy-minded ; she
did not wish to die. To one who talked of death and
the happiness succeeding it she replied, "All that
is true, but we shall stay a long time under ground
before we come to that." Brantome relates this,
and also that when her attendants told her she must
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 165
die she replied that those words were most bitter,
adding that she was not so old but that she might
live on for many years. She was fifty-seven when
she died at the Castle of Odos, in Bigorre. Bran-
tome confidently says she * ' took her illness looking
at a comet which appeared at the death of Pope
Paul III." She no doubt had a stroke of paralysis,
for he speaks of her mouth being drawn a little side-
ways. She was speechless for three days. When
her speech returned she is reported to have said that
she had protected the reformers more from compas-
sion than because she shared their beliefs. This is
asserted by all Catholic historians, and vehemently
contested by all Protestant historians. What she
said when she was dying is not of so much import-
ance as her words and actions when she was in the
height of her intelligence and vigour. No doubt
compassion went a long way in influencing Mar-
garet, if that compassion could be gratified without
running counter to her brother's wishes or interests ;
but there was much more than compassion in her
intercourse with Erasmus, Melancthon, Calvin,
Eoussel, Lefevre, Marot, the du Bellays, Be"za,
and the Estiennes. If she had had the power
she would have done much to secure the reformation
of the church from within, and on spiritual rather
than on political lines.
With her faults, which are obvious enough, she
will always remain a most attractive, pathetic figure ;
166 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the Marguerite des Marguerites, the pearl of
pearls, gentle, joyous, generous, but wrecking her
life's highest hopes by unmeasured devotion to an
unworthy idol. If her pearls were wasted on
Francis, they were not wasted on the learning she
encouraged, the reformers she succoured, the high
ideals she nourished in the inmost sanctuary of her
soul.
LOUISE OF SAVOY AND HER DAUGHTER. 167
PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF LOUISE
OF SAVOY, DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME,
AND OF MARGARET HER DAUGHTER,
DUCHESS OF ALEN9ON AND QUEEN OF
NAVARRE.
1476. Birth of Louise of Savoy.
1491. Her marriage with the Count of Angouleme.
v 1492. Birth of her daughter, Margaret.
1494. Birth of her son Francis, afterwards Duke of
Valois, and King of France.
1496. Death of her husband.
1498. Death of Charles VIII. Accession of Louis XII.
1499. Marriage of the new King with Anne of Brittany,
the late King's widow. Birth of Princess
Claude, the heiress of Brittany.
1500. Birth of Archduke Charles, afterwards Charles V.
1509. Marriage of Margaret with the Duke of Alen<jon.
1514. Death of the Queen, Anne of Brittany. Marriage
of Francis, Duke of Valois, with Princess
Claude. Marriage of Louis XII. with Mary
Tudor.
1515. Death of Louis XII. on New Year's Day. Acces-
sion of Francis I. His first Italian campaign.
i68 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
V 1516. The Concordat between Francis I. and Pope
Leo X.
1519. Death of the Emperor Maximilian, and election
as Emperor of his grandson, the Archduke
Charles, as Charles V.
1520. The Field of the Cloth of Gold.
1522. Discomfiture of the French army at Milan under
Lautrec. Appropriation by Louise of 400,000
crowns intended for his relief. Bitter feud
between Louise and Charles of Montpensier,
Constable of France and Duke of Bourbon.
Louise claims his estates and he goes into
rebellion.
1524. Death of Queen Claude. Francis I. departs for
Italy, leaving his mother regent.
1525. Defeat of Francis at Pavia, February 24: his im-
prisonment in Spain. Death of the Duke of
Alenc.on. Margaret's embassy to Spain. Per-
secution of heresy becomes more severe in
France. Secret understanding between Francis
and the Sultan entered into.
1526. Release of Francis. His two elder sons given as
hostages to Charles V. Treaty of Madrid.
\i 1527. Death of the Constable Montpensier at the sack
of Rome. Marriage of Margaret with Henry
d'Albret, the King of Navarre.
J 1528. Birth of Margaret's daughter, Jeanne d'Albret,
afterwards Queen of Navarre in her own right.
Desecration in Paris of a famous image of the
Virgin. Reaction against the Reformation.
J 1529. The burning of Louis de Berquin. The peace of
Camibray (the Ladies' Peace). The siege of
Vienna by the Turks. The founding of the
College de France.
LOUISE OF SAVOT AND HER DAUGHTER. 169
1530. The ransom of the Princes and the marriage of
Francis with Eleanor of Portugal. Birth and
death of Margaret's son. Renewal of persecu-
tion of Protestants.
1531. Death of Louise of Savoy.
1532. Margaret's poem, " The Mirror of a Sinful Soul,"
published.
1533. Attack upon Margaret by the Sorbonne and the
University. The address of Nicholas Cop to
the University: his flight to Geneva. The
flight of Calvin to Margaret's protection at
Ne'rac. Marriage of Henry, second son of
Francis I., with Catherine de Medici. Mar-
riage of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyn.
1534. Affair of the " placards " : further reaction against
Church reform: period of violent persecution
sets in. Death of Pope Clement VII.
1536. War between Francis I. and Charles V. breaks out
again. Treaty between Francis and the Sultan.
1537. Death of the Dauphin. Charles V. accused of
having caused his death.
1538. Truce between Francis I. and Charles V.
1539. Charles V. received by Francis I. with extreme
honour and ceremony on his passage through
France to the Netherlands.
1540. Enforced marriage between Princess Jeanne and
the Duke of Cleves.
1541. Renewal of war between Charles V. and Francis I.
1543. The marriage of Princess Jeanne with the Duke
of Cleves dissolved by the Pope.
1544. Probable date of the writing of "The Hep-
tameron."
170 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
1545. Massacre of the Vaudois.
1547. Death of Francis I. : accession of Henry II.
1548. Marriage of Princess Jeanne to Antony of Bour-
bon, Duke of Vendome. Betrothal of the
Dauphin Francis to Mary Queen of Scots,
niece of the Guises.
1549. Death of Margaret.
JEANNE D'ALBRET.
173
JEANNE D'ALBRET,
QUEEN OF NAVARRE.
IT has been the fate of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of
Navarre, to be known to history and to the gossip
which enlivens history, chiefly as the mother of a
famous son, and as the daughter of a distinguished
mother. Notwithstanding that she was a Queen
Regnant, and had a force and vigour of character
well suited to her station, and to the stirring and
important years during which she lived, her fame
is overshadowed by that of a famous mother and
of a still more famous son. Just as the little inde-
pendent principality, Beam, which made her a
queen, was overshadowed by its great neighbours,
France and Spain, so Jeanne herself is over-
shadowed by her mother, Margaret of Angouleme,
poetess and reformer ; and by her son , the great
Henry of Navarre, who became Henri IV. of
France. She therefore flits through history as " his
mother, a grand and noble lady/' No unenviable
fate, it may be frankly acknowledged. Still, such
words awaken curiosity. It is not enough to call
174 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
her "grand and noble," we wish to know what
made her so.
IThe little kingdom of Navarre had at one
time spread itself on both sides of the Pyrenees.
Ferdinand the Catholic had seized the Spanish
provinces of Navarre fifteen years before the birth
of Jeanne, and the hope of recovering these lost
provinces often had an all-powerful influence in
determining the policy of her father, herself, her
husband, and her son. The place which the
recovery of Alsace and Lorraine holds in the
imagination of the French people was occupied in
the sixteenth century, in the minds of Jeanne and
of her house and people, by the hope of recovering
the provinces of Spanish Navarre.
In those days, even more than in our own, the
marriages of princes and princesses were determined
by political considerations. It was no uncommon
thing for a woman of forty to be sought in marriage
by a boy of sixteen, nor for a man of mature years
to enter into an arrangement to marry a baby
then in the cradle. The Emperor Charles V., for
example, was betrothed to a baby in arms, and it
was at the same time arranged that if that baby
died he should wed another child of the same house,
then unborn. It will be easily understood that
situated as it was on the mountains between France
and Spain, and holding the key of many of the
passes between the two kingdoms, the marriages of
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 175
the princes and princesses of Navarre should become
political events of no small importance to the two
powerful kingdoms flanking her north and south.
To read Love's Labour's Lost is to under-
stand how, under the most favourable circum-
stances, a marriage between a king of Navarre and
a princess of France was sometimes arranged. A
princess arrives to negotiate a treaty, and the astute
old courtier, who well understands the rules of the
game, quickly sees that a marriage treaty would
include and supersede other treaties of a purely
political kind.
There were frequent marriages between the
royal houses of France and Navarre. That of
Jeanne's mother had been prompted by affection
rather than by politics, nevertheless it was not with-
out its political uses to France. It secured that
the interests and powers of Navarre should be
exercised on behalf of France, and above all not
exercised on behalf of her powerful neighbour and
rival, Spain. Margaret, Queen of Navarre, never
ceased to be at heart a Frenchwoman and a de-
votedly loyal subject of her brother Francis. A
subject, technically, she was not as regarded the
principality of Beam; but a subject she was as
regarded the Counties of Foix, Armagnac, Albret,
Bigorre, and Comminges, which she and her hus-
band held in feudal tenure under the suzerainty of
the King of France. Queen Margaret showed her
176 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
devotion to her brother in a manner which reminds
us of Canute's rebuke to his courtiers. The Queen
of Navarre was residing at Fontainebleau expecting
the birth of her child. The King, her brother, was
absent in Paris occupied by affairs of state. Letters
constantly passed between them , and in one of these
the Queen wrote, " I cannot believe my child will
presume to be born without your command." How-
ever, Jeanne, ever a less accomplished courtier than
her mother, did presume to be born in the palace at
Fontainebleau on January 7th, 1528, while King
Francis was still in Paris, and without having re-
ceived the royal permission to make her entry into
the world.
The place where Jeanne was born was not with-
out its political significance ; the Princess Eoyal of
Navarre was born in the French king's palace,
because her loving uncle intended to keep possession
of her as a hostage for her father's fidelity. As
years passed, Jeanne's importance grew with her
growth ; a boy, born to her parents when she was
about two and a half years' old, only lived a few
months, and as no other children survived their
birth, Jeanne was recognised as heiress presumptive
of her father's throne.
All the firmer therefore did Francis retain his
grip on her. The natural desire of her parents to
take their child with them to Be*arn was absolutely
negatived by the King of France. He insisted that
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 177
she should be brought up entirely in France, and
under his control, and he established the child in
the royal castle of Plessis-les-Tours, well known,
as readers of " Quentin Durward " need not be re-
minded, as the gloomy fortress palace of Louis XI.,
near Tours, on the Loire, about 130 miles south-
west of Paris. The poor little princess was only
four years old when she was installed at Plessis-les-
Tours, with a lady of honour, a preceptor, two chap-
lains, a steward, a master of the horse, tirewomen,
and other attendants, but with no father and mother
to pet and love her. The only master of the horse
required by a baby of four years old would have
been a master of the rocking horse. Her lady of
honour, Madame de Silly, Baillive de Caen, secured
the child's affection, but from the first Jeanne's
character showed itself the stronger of the two.
She was very conscious of the dignity of her royal
birth, fearlessly truthful, fearlessly outspoken,
and sharp and witty in her retorts. The drilled
submissiveness of Madame de Silly was often aghast
at the audacious way in which Jeanne addressed her
uncle, the King of France, who visited her from
time to time. He suspected his brother-in-law,
Jeanne's father, the King of Navarre, of wishing
to negotiate a marriage for his daughter with Philip,
Prince of Spain, then five years old, son of Charles
V. One great inducement to the King of Navarre
in favouring this marriage was that he believed he
M
i 7 8 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
could thereby recover the lost Spanish provinces of
his kingdom. But this marriage would have vir-
tually incorporated the whole of Navarre with Spain ,
and have given to a future Spanish prince feudal
rights over several of the southern provinces of
France ; it was accordingly regarded by Francis with
determined and ceaseless opposition. The more
securely to prevent it he informed the King of
Navarre that he meant to bestow the hand of Jeanne
on his second son, Henry, Duke of Orleans, after-
wards Henry II. But Francis, who was everything
by turns and nothing long, abandoned this proposed
marriage, and before Jeanne was six years old he
bestowed her prospective bridegroom on another
bride, destined throughout her life to be Jeanne's
evil genius, the far-famed and ill-famed Catherine
de Medici. It is probable that Francis held out the
prospect of the marriage of Jeanne with his second
son just long enough to reconcile the King and
Queen of Navarre to the establishment of their child,
out of their own control, in the castle of Plessis-les-
Tours.
In 1538, Jeanne being then ten years old, a
change for the better was made in her lonely and
miserable childhood. Her aunt, her father's sister,
Isabel d'Albret, Viscountess de Eohan, with two
children, came to live at Plessis. One of these
children, Frangoise de Kohan, was of an age to be
a playmate and companion to Jeanne ; but she was
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 179
of a timid and shrinking disposition, and Jeanne
appears to have thought she required a good deal
of corporal punishment, the administration of
which she entrusted to no hand but her own. We
owe the knowledge of these domestic details to a
valedictory verse written by Mile, de Rohan when
she left Plessis, in which she declares that the
oftener she was beaten the stronger grew her love
for her chastiser, and that she preferred the severity
of Jeanne's hand to wealth and honour !
In these strange and unwholesome surroundings,
poisoned on the one hand by flattery, on the other
by the unnatural loneliness and severity of her
education, Jeanne's character developed more in the
direction of strength than of sweetness. She was
always from her infancy extraordinarily tenacious
in her desires and affections. She passionately
longed to return to her own home, to be with her
own parents. She wept for hours in her lonely
palace at Plessis the bitter tears of childhood which
blind the eyes to any possible deliverance from
present affliction. In 1540, when she was about
twelve, she was surprised by a sudden visit from
her uncle, King Francis, who informed her that he
had at last consented to her joining her mother,
Queen Margaret, at Alengon, but only on the con-
dition that she should be immediately betrothed to
the Duke of Cleves, brother of the Anne of Cleves
who had just been married to Henry VIII. of
i8o FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
England. The two marriages were part of one
political scheme, to unite the Protestant princes of
Germany and England against Charles V. Jeanne
at once strongly expressed her repugnance to the
proposed marriage. But Francis was immovable,
and his will was law.
Nearly the whole of his reign had been one long
struggle with Charles V. The enmity between the
houses of Hapsburg and Valois was hereditary.
Francis had been defeated by the Emperor at Pavia
in 1525, had been his prisoner in Spain, and had
only been set free on condition of leaving his two
young sons as hostages behind him. His enmity to
Spain was one of the very few traits of constancy
in his character, and what particularly recom-
mended the Duke of Cleves to his mind as a suit-
able husband for his niece, was that at that moment
he was in rebellion against Charles V., the point in
dispute betwen them being their rival claims to
the Duchy of Guelderland. By giving Jeanne's
hand to the Duke, he strengthened his own position
in antagonism to Charles, and likewise put an end
to all danger of her eventual marriage with the
Prince of Spain. The King of Navarre and the
national council of Beam for the same reasons
objected to the marriage. It could be no advantage
to Navarre to have its future Queen married to a
prince in rebellion against his suzerain, and that
suzerain their powerful neighbour, the King of Spain.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 181
The Duke of Cleves was a Protestant, and this
recommended him in the eyes of Queen Margaret,
who had strong sympathies with the reformed
religion, and no doubt favoured the Protestant
alliance just referred to. But, all questions of
religion apart, she then and always supported the
authority and was guided by the wishes of her
brother.
Jeanne had her desire and left Plessis, joining
the court in Paris for a few days. Here she met
the Duke of Cleves, and took the opportunity of
testifying, by her behaviour, how little the pro-
posed marriage was to her mind. King Francis
and Madame de Silly, her lady of honour, reproved
her and tried in vain to control her. She had no
wish to marry the Duke, and concealment of her
feelings was always a hard task to her. She was
then sent on to Queen Margaret, who wrote the
humblest apologies in excuse for her daughter's
contumacy. "Having heard, monseigneur, that
my daughter not appreciating as she ought the
great honour which you conferred by deigning to
visit her, nor the obedience which she owes to you ;
neither that a maiden ought to have no will of her
own was bold enough to utter so senseless a re-
quest as to beseech you that she might not be
married to M. de Cleves. . . I entreat you very
humbly, monseigneur, that for this one unreason-
able petition she has preferred, and which is the
182 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
first fault she has committed in respect to yourself,
you will not withdraw that paternal favour which
you have ever manifested towards her and our-
selves."
Jeanne, however, remained obdurate. Her
mother ordered her to be whipped daily ; but she was
not to be daunted. She had given blows and was
now prepared to receive them. Notwithstanding her
opposition, however, all the preparations for the
betrothal went forward. It was understood that
although the marriage was to take place almost
immediately after the betrothal, Jeanne was to
remain in her mother's care for three years after
the ceremony. Both before and after the betrothal
the little princess drew up with her own hand re-
markable documents protesting earnestly that the
contract was against her will, that she never had
consented and never would consent to it, that she
did not love the Duke of Cleves, and would not
have him for her husband ; that she yielded to
threats, not only of a whipping, but of punishment
so severe as to be likely to cause her death. " There-
fore," she says in the first of these documents, " I
protest beforehand, if it happens that I am affianced,
or married to the said Duke of Cleves in any way or
manner, it will be against my heart, and in defiance
of my will; and that he shall never become my
husband, nor will I ever hold or regard him as such,
and that my marriage shall be reputed null and
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 183
void." This was signed by Jeanne, and witnessed
by three members of her household. Again before
the marriage a similar protest was drawn up, signed,
and witnessed that she only yielded ' ' under violence
and restraint."
Notwithstanding her protests the marriage
ceremony took place at Chatellerault on July 15th,
1540. The poor child was arrayed in cloth of gold,
and loaded with jewels ; a ducal coronet, decorated
with costly gems, was placed on her head. Her
tenacity of will led her to resist to the last. When
King Francis advanced to lead the bride to the altar,
Jeanne declared she was unable to walk under the
weight of gold and jewels with which she was
covered. Greatly enraged, Francis then ordered
the Constable Montmorency to carry her to the
altar I Thus was the Duke of Cleves wedded.
Immediately after the marriage ceremony Jeanne
was placed in her mother's charge, and for three
years she was under the tutelage of the ablest and
most accomplished princess of her time, with much
benefit to herself as regarded her education.
In the meantime the chances of war favoured
Jeanne's determination never to regard the Duke of
Cleves as her husband. In his first battle with
Charles V. he was badly worsted ; ill-luck continued
to pursue him ; he never received the military sup-
port which he had a right to expect from Francis,
and Charles swore rather to forfeit his crown than
184 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
to leave the Duke an inch of territory. He saw
himself on the brink of utter ruin, and in order to
save at least his Duchy from being absorbed in the
dominions of the victorious Emperor, he made an
absolute and unconditional surrender. Charles
exacted from him the most humiliating terms, which
included his renunciation of the reformed religion,
and the restoration of Koman Catholicism in his
dominions ; his alliance with the King of France
was to be repudiated, his claims to Guelderland
abandoned, his treaty-making power curtailed, his
soldiers to be incorporated in the Imperial army, and
his chief fortresses to be manned by Imperial troops.
Francis, who had done nothing else for his
protege, had ordered Jeanne to proceed to Luxem-
bourg and thence to Aix-la-Chapelle for the com-
pletion of the marriage contract. Her vehement
protests that she would rather die were un-
heeded; Francis was proposing to conduct her
himself from Luxembourg to Aix-la-Chapelle, where
she was to be handed over to her bridegroom, when
the news reached Francis of the Duke's submission
to Charles V.
The tables were now turned ; Francis became as
anxious to annul the marriage as Jeanne herself.
Her reiterated protests, which had been treated as
waste-paper at the time when she penned them , now
became important state papers. The French am-
bassador in Eome was instructed by Francis to ask
JEANNE D'ALBKET. 185
the Pope for a bull to declare the marriage void, on
the ground that violence had been done to the feel-
ings of the Princess ! Jeanne's joy at the release
was unbounded, and so also, one may imagine, was
her contempt for her uncle. Her mother, as usual,
entirely acquiesced in everything which Francis
wished. The shadow of this marriage hung over
Jeanne till the spring of 1545, and, indeed, in a sense
over the whole of her life; but at Easter, 1545, she
made her final public protest against it in the chapel
of the royal chateau at Tours, and shortly after-
wards the Pope declared the marriage null and void,
and that Jeanne and the Duke of Cleves were free
to marry whom they would. A strange and tragic
story to darken the life of a young girl during the
years between twelve and seventeen.
Jeanne was now at last free, and it was not long
before she became free also from the capricious
tyranny of her Uncle Francis. He died on March
31st, 1547, and was succeeded by his second son,
Henry II., the husband of Catherine de Medici.
The eldest son of Francis had died in 1536, not
without suspicion of poison affixing itself to the
name of his sister-in-law, Catherine. One may say
of this lady that throughout her life no one who
stood in her way could die without the suspicion
being aroused that she had helped him out of the
world. Her manners were sweetness itself, "her
conduct was cited as a model of feminine propriety,"
186 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
but it was certainly very dangerous and often fatal
to oppose or thwart her ; she presented the strongest
possible contrast to the abrupt honesty of Jeanne,
who said what she meant and meant what she said.
The succession of Catherine's husband, Henry II.,
to the throne of France did not immediately give
her a position of political importance. He was
entirely under the influence of his mistress, Diane
de Poitiers. I Catherine made no complaint ; she
bided her time. She ornamented her dress with
Diane's monogram, and was the most complaisant
of wives. "^ She had ten children, the worst of
all the bad things she did for France, says Dean
Kitchin. Three of them sat on the throne of
France, three of the worst kings who ever reigned,
and the wickedest of the three, Henry III., was
her favourite son. Her husband died young, after
a reign of only ten years ; a wound received in
a tournament proved fatal eleven days after its
infliction. The reign of the Dauphin, Francis, was
even shorter. His accession threw supreme power
into the hands of the Guises, through their niece,
Mary Stuart, then for a few months Queen of
France. Francis II. died of some unknown and
mysterious disorder at the age of seventeen at
Orleans. Now was Catherine's opportunity, so long
waited for. The death of Francis II. undermined
the power of the Guises; Catherine, as Kegent,
during the minority of the child Charles IX., then
CATHERINE DE MEDICI.
FROM THE DRAWING BY MAURAISSE.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 187
only ten years old, became the dominant will in the
government of France, and the high death-rate in
royal circles was checked. Catherine was by no
means a genius, but she knew what she wanted
and was absolutely unscrupulous in its pursuit.
She never forgave an enemy, or hesitated at any
means of getting rid of one. Such was the prmcess
with whom Jeanne waged a life-long contest?^
On the death of Francis I. and the release of
Jeanne from her supposed marriage with the Duke
of Cleves, the question of uniting her with Philip
of Spain, son of Charles V., was again brought
forward ; but the match was vetoed as positively by
Henry II. as it had been by his father. Her chief
suitors were Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise,
and Antony of Bourbon, Duke of Vendome. Of
the two the Duke of Guise was by far the ablest.
But the prizes in the court of marriage are not given
as the result of a competitive examination, and
Jeanne chose Antony of Bourbon. He was just ten
years older than herself, of the blood royal, and after
the King's sons next in succession to the throne. He
'was handsome, dashing, brave, and foolish. The
magnificence of his dress and jewels was conspicu-
ous. He was the glass of fashion and the mould of
form in the French court. His inclination to favour
the reformed religion recommended him to Jeanne's
mother, though not then to Jeanne herself. The
marriage took place at Moulins in October, 1548,
i88 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
but not without a painful scene with the bridegroom,
who at the very last moment was seized with violent
doubts as to the validity of Jeanne's former marriage
with the Duke of Cleves. All the facts in connec-
tion with it had been public property for four years ;
all the world knew that the marriage had been but
a form and had been annulled by the Church ;
Antony shared this knowledge, and knowing it had
become an ardent suitor for the hand of the Princess ;
it was characteristic of his vacillating, unstable
character that at the eleventh hour, on the very day
fixed for the marriage, he should seek to draw back
from it. However, his scruples were overcome and
the ceremony proceeded. Immediately after the
wedding Jeanne's other suitor, the Duke of Guise,
was betrothed to Anne d'Este, daughter of Rene,
Duchess of Ferrara, granddaughter of Louis XII.,
and first cousin on the mother's side to the King of
France. " Autre temps, autre mceurs." This lady's
portrait without a stitch of clothing, unless an olive
branch, a dove, a velvet toque, a gold chain and
bracelets, can be so described, is preserved in the
museum of Aix, in Provence, and was exhibited in
Paris in 1904 in the exhibition of early French Art.
Jeanne and her husband visited Be"arn very soon
after their marriage, and were rapturously received
by the little principality. The death of Jeanne's
mother took place about two months after the
marriage. At the end of two years Jeanne's first
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 189
child was born, a son, named Henry, after his
grandfather the King of Navarre. The child was
sacrificed to the ignorance of the time. Jeanne con-
fided him to the care of the same Madame de Silly
who had been her own lady of honour and governess
during her childhood. This lady possessed the horror
of fresh air which still survives among the ignorant ;
but she had it in a terribly aggravated form. When
Jeanne's little son was confided to her she lived in
an apartment of which the windows were rendered
absolutely air-tight ; it was heated by a stove kept
burning during the whole day and night, and the
walls were heavily covered by tapestry. In this
oven the poor baby was kept, and was never taken
into the open air even in the finest weather. He
must have had a strong constitution, for it took
eighteen months of this treatment to kill him ; very
soon afterwards the Princess had another son. This
time Jeanne had learned from experience, and kept
the child in her own care ; he was a strong and
^ healthy infant, but he fell a victim, when only a few
months old, to an accident caused by the carelessness
of his nurse. He was let fall from her arms and
fell on a marble pavement. Terror led her to add
to her fault by concealing it, and the poor baby died
after four days' sharp suffering, which was attributed
to every cause but the right one.
The King of Navarre's sorrow for the death of his
heir took the form of anger with his daughter. He
IQO FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
charged her with having, through her neglect,
caused the death of the two little princes. He
solemnly threatened her that he would marry again,
and that her inheritance would then probably pass
to a son of his own. Jeanne then promised her
father that if she ever had another child, she would
come to Pau for its birth, and that her father's
will should be law over its bringing up and nur-
ture. The King was somewhat mollified by this
promise, and in the year 1553 the time came for its
fulfilment. The King determined that the coming
grandchild should be brought up as a hardy Bear-
nois, and not " mollement a la jranqaise." All
this time Jeanne was in considerable anxiety as to
her father's possible marriage, and the disposition he
was making of his property by will. He saw all
this and it amused him to perplex her and thwart
her curiosity. He produced a small gold box which
he said contained his will, and promised it should
be hers on condition that when the pains of child-
birth assailed her she should sing a Bearnois song.
Jeanne accepted the extraordinary condition, and
the great Henry of Navarre was born on Decem-
ber 13th, 1553, while his mother was singing the
old Bearnois song appropriate to the emergency.
" Notre Dame, du bout du pont aidez-moi d,
cette heure." The King placed the gold box
in his daughter's hand saying, "Daughter, this
is thine," and folding the newborn child in the
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 191
skirt of his gown he added, " and this is mine."
Tradition says that the child did not cry while
the King performed the Bearnois ceremony of
putting on his lips a clove of garlic, and moistening
his tongue with a few drops of wine ; and that
on tasting the wine the baby ' ' raised his head and
otherwise testified satisfaction." A healthy peasant
woman was chosen for the child's nurse, who proved
faithful to her charge, and the baby escaped the
perils of infancy and the misfortunes which had
overtaken Jeanne's first two children.
The King of Navarre died when the little prince
was about seventeen months old, and Jeanne suc-
ceeded to her father's kingdom. With her new
dignity trials and difficulties came thick upon her.
The beginning of her married life had been happy,
but after seven years she had no more illusions about
the essentially frivolous and unstable character of her
husband. They were proclaimed King and Queen of
Navarre; he delighted in the dignity, but thought
more of its suits and trappings than he did of its
'duties and responsibilities. Navarre was the per-
petual object of the intrigues and ambitions of the
French court, and the weakness of Antony and 'his
want of political sagacity encouraged Henry II. to
think that the accession of the new sovereign would
afford a favourable opportunity for maturing plans
which had long been cherished for the merging of
the principality of Beam in the kingdom of France.
192 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
On the occasion of Antony's first visit to the court of
France after becoming titular King of Navarre, all
the arts of that most artful of courts were brought to
bear on him to induce him to give up the indepen-
dent principality of Be"arn in exchange for an equal
territory in central France. Antony had, however,
not long enjoyed the title of king, and he was by
no means disposed to relinquish it. He was, more-
over, shrewd enough to know that the real decision
would not rest with him, who was king only by
courtesy, and that Jeanne's consent was more than
doubtful ; he therefore returned an evasive answer
and requested leave from the King of France to con-
fer with the Queen of Navarre on the subject. He
left St. Germain, where the French court then was,
and joined Jeanne at Coucy, but he was only allowed
to do this on condition of returning with Jeanne
immediately to St. Germain. Her indignation on
hearing of the French king's proposal was bound-
less. She at once put herself in communication
with Baron d'Arros, who had been placed in charge
of the military forces of Navarre by her late father.
She renewed his warrant in her own name, and gave
him instructions with the view of defeating the
French King's project should any practical steps be
taken towards its realisation. She then presented
herself with her husband before the King of France.
Veiling her indignation at the proposal which was
renewed in her presence, she took refuge in the
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 193
position familiar to us now as that of a constitutional
sovereign ; she said she could do nothing without the
consent of the States of her little realm. The re-
fusal of this consent was a foregone conclusion. All
Beam was up in arms against the merging of
Navarre in France. Jeanne's chancellor, who had
been won over by the wiles of the French court , was
the object of popular execration. His palace was
burned, and he saved his life only by precipitate
flight. The States met and voted reinforcements
for all the strong fortresses of Beam, and made the
most energetic preparation to resist by force the
carrying out of the French king's scheme.
Jeanne and her son, now a beautiful child of
about two years old, were everywhere received with
rapture by the people. Antony endeavoured to pro-
pitiate a similar loyalty by emphasising his sympathy
with the reformed religion which had been estab-
lished at Pau by Queen Margaret. Queen Jeanne,
who afterwards became an ardent Calvinist, did not
.then sympathise with her husband's protestantism.
She felt that in the crisis which existed everything
should be done to unite her people as much as
possible, and that religious differences might very
likely be used as a powerful means of disuniting
them.
A curious letter, dated August 22nd, 1556, is ex-
tant from Jeanne to the Viscount de Gourdon, one
of the barons of Navarre, and an ardent Calvinist,
i 9 4 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
inviting him to a conference on the religious ques-
tions then so hotly in dispute. Queen Jeanne ex-
plained her attitude of indifference on these subjects
up to that time in the following quaint manner :
MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE,
I write to inform you that up to the present
time, I have followed in the path of the deceased
queen, madame my most honoured mother (whom
may God absolve), relative to my choice between the
two religions; nevertheless, the said queen, being per-
suaded by her brother monseigneur King Francis I. of
happy and glorious memory, my most revered uncle, not
to puzzle her brains with new dogmas, after a time
seemed to care only for humorous and witty romances.
Moreover, well do I remember, that long previously, the
king, monsieur my most honoured father and lord, hear-
ing that the said queen was engaged in prayer in her own
apartments, with the ministers Roussel and Farel,
entered and dealt her a blow on the right cheek the
ministers having contrived to escape in great per-
turbation while he soundly chastised me with a rod,
forbidding me to concern myself with matters of
doctrine : the which treatment cost me many bitter tears
and held me in dread until his decease. At the present
moment, however, free by the demise of the said mon-
seigneur my father, two months ago, and incited by the
example and the exhortations of my cousin, the
Duchess of Ferrara,* it appears to me that reform is as
reasonable as it seems necessary ; so much so that I
deem it disloyal cowardice towards God, towards my
conscience, and towards my people to halt any longer
in suspense and perplexity."
* Ren6e of France, daughter of Louis XII., a convinced
Calvinist.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 195
She concludes by urging that it seemed to her
needful that worthy people should confer together
upon the changes desirable to adopt in religion, and
being apprised that in the Viscount were united
wit, nobility and courage, likewise that he had about
him certain reverend personages, she begs him to
bring them during the next ensuing month of Sep-
tember to meet her at the Castle of Odos in Bigorre.
This was very far removed from the language of
religious enthusiasm or even of religious conviction.
Jeanne appears at the date of this letter to have
looked at the whole controversy simply from the
point of view of political expediency. She did not
forget that a papal interdict laid upon Navarre in
the reign of her grandfather had been the cause of
the loss of the provinces of Spanish Navarre; she
was interested in religious questions because she
was convinced that an understanding of them was
necessary in order to avert political dangers. Her
language at a later period was very different. The
.conference at the Castle of Odos probably never took
place. Jeanne became alarmed by the degree to
which her husband openly espoused the Protestant
cause, especially as his conduct called forth a letter
from Eome threatening the little principality with
the pains and penalties of an interdict. Her very
feebly awakening interest in the religious aspect of
Protestantism was checked. She forbade anyone
to preach who had not obtained a licence from the
196 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Bishop of Lescar. The Calvinist ministers appealed
to Antony, but without success. Jeanne took the
reins into her own hands and said she had no
intention to hazard the remnant of her ancestral
dominions for the sake of preachers and preaching.
More restrictions on the freedom of Protestant
worship followed in her principality, and the danger
of an interdict was averted.
As long as Jeanne and Antony were together she
had to provide discretion enough for the two. Thus
on their way to Paris, on another visit to Henry II.
in 1557, they stayed at Rochelle, a Protestant strong-
hold. On their attending the theatre, the piece per-
formed held up the Roman Catholic faith to offensive
ridicule. Queen Jeanne sat out the performance
rigid as a statue, giving no applause whatever.
King Antony, on the other hand, openly expressed
his approval, took the company of actors under his
special patronage, and presented each member of it
with a considerable sum of money. The whole
thing is said to have been a trap devised by the
Guises to ensnare the foolish Antony and his con-
sort. The Guises were becoming all-powerful in the
court of France. Francis of Lorraine, Duke of
Guise, the head of the family, and his brother
Charles, the cardinal, formed between them a for-
midable alliance of practical executive energy with
astute political acumen. The Duke was a great
soldier; it is he who is known as " le grand Guise."
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 197
His face was frightfully scarred by wounds received
when fighting against the English in 1546, but it
was his son and not himself who received the nick-
name of " le Balafrd." The Guise brothers were
supreme over the will of the French King, and they
strengthened their position by the marriage of their
niece, Mary Stuart (the Queen of Scots), with the
Dauphin Francis. They were vehemently Catholic ;
and the forces of fanatical Catholicism had recently
been strengthened by the accession of Philip, son of
Charles V., to the crown of Spain. The Emperor
Charles had publicly resigned in favour of his son,
as far as Spain and the Netherlands were concerned,
in 1555 ; a year later he retired into the monastery
of Yuste, in the valley of Estremadura. As long as
he lived he took the keenest interest in public affairs,
and was always ready to give his advice to his suc-
cessor. In 1558, however, he died, and thus
Philip II., the narrowest bigot in Europe, was left,
uncontrolled by any broader and more statesmanlike
mind , to use the whole influence of his great position
to extirpate heresy. It is well known that he sought
to extirpate it by open warfare, by cruel persecution,
by assassination, and by all the crafts and intrigues
which his pettifogging character produced in such
abundance.
The events of the marriage of the Dauphin to
Mary Stuart and the death of Charles V., which
both took place in 1558, gave a strong impulse
198 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
in France and Spain to the fanatical party intent
on stamping out heresy at all costs. The death of
Mary of England in the same year, though emi-
nently favourable to Protestantism in that country,
was used to heal the old feud and to strengthen the
newly formed alliance between the anti-Protestant
powers of Spain and France. The death of Mary
enabled her husband, Philip of Spain, once more to
use his own marriage for political purposes. In
1559 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of
Henry II. and Catherine de Medici.
There had already been a secret conference at
Peronne between Philip and the Guises, at which
a league was formed for the extirpation of heresy.
Philip pledged himself to support the Guises in
France, and they pledged themselves to support the
influence of Philip in their own country, and they
were both to unite to stamp out Protestantism.
The marriage of Philip with the Princess Elizabeth
of France followed very shortly ; and the political
importance of the Guises suddenly received another
startling impulse from the death of Henry II. He
was wounded in the eye, in the course of a tourna-
ment given in honour of the marriage, and died
eleven days after the accident. The King who suc-
ceeded was Francis II., a lad of about sixteen,
married to Mary Stuart, a niece of the Guises.
Up to this point it had been the traditional
policy of France, as the old enemy of Spain, to
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 199
support, nominally at least, the claims of the Sove-
reign of Navarre to the lost Spanish provinces.
Jeanne had the mortification of seeing this tradi-
tional policy abandoned. Spain remained her enemy
as much as ever, but France, under the Guises, had
ceased to be her friend. Her little kingdom seemed
likely to be crushed between the upper and the
nether millstone.
Philip, as the son-in-law of one king and brother-
in-law of his successor, was continually pointing out
that the seeds of the Protestant heresy were sown
broadcast in France, that scarcely any of the nobles,
with the exception of the Guises, were free from the
heretical taint, and that the measures taken for the
extinction of Protestantism were rendered futile by
the asylum offered to its leading supporters in the
little kingdom of Navarre. In these difficult cir-
cumstances Jeanne, for the sake of the safety of her
kingdom, humbled herself before the Pope. She
had succeeded her father in 1555, but had never
offered her homage to the Holy See. She now
(1559) despatched a commissioner to Home to offer
apologies for the delay, and to proffer her homage.
Great manoeuvring was necessary to induce the
Pope to receive her kinsman and ambassador, Pierre
d'Albret, Bishop of Comminges. Tit is believed that
the Pope would have continuecT to refuse the
audience requested had it not been for the inter-
vention of Catherine de Medici herself. This astute
200 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
lady had begun to find the yoke of the Guises very
galling, and jshe sought__to_weaken their influence
by strenthening thai_oi Jihe Bourbon princes. It
great frigidity that the Pope at last
consented jo receive the homage of the ' ' queenly
penitent." ^Jeanne's letter, which the Bishop of
Comminges presented to his Holiness, gave an
assurance that she had no intention of alienating
the temporal possessions of the Eoman Church
throughout her dominions, and thus a temporary
reconciliation was effected.
\ On the death of Henry II., Antony of Bourbon,
King of Navarre, as first prince of the blood and
next heir to the throne after the sons of Catherine,
ought to have been associated with the Queen
Mother as Regent for the young king ; but the right
moment for asserting his claim was let slip, and on
his first appearance in public Francis II. announced
that by the advice of the Queen, his mother, he had
appointed his wife's uncles, the Duke of Guise and
the Cardinal, to govern the kingdom. The Guises, in
anticipation of this declaration , had offered Catherine
de Medici a junior partnership, as it were, if she
would combine with them in keeping out the Bour-
bons, Antony, and his far more capable brother,
Louis, Prince of Conde. She had assented, or
appeared to assent ; but she was by no means con-
tent to resign herself to the uncontrolled sway of
the Guises, y
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 201
She, however, carefully pursued her own ends;
and her far-reaching schemes for undermining the
power of the Guises were not long in arriving at
maturity. In the meantime, however, the rival
chiefly feared by the duke and cardinal was Antony
of Navarre. Their ally, Philip, therefore caused it
to be intimated to him and to Jeanne, that any
attempt to remove the Guises from power would be
instantly followed by the invasion of Navarre by
Spain. While Antony was suffering paroxysms of
indecision as to what course he should steer, Jeanne
lost no time in visiting every fortress throughout her
dominions to see that each was well stored with
provisions and ammunition in the event of a sudden
attack. Apart from his genuine hatred of the re-
formed religion, of which Antony was then the
patron, Philip had solid political reasons for prevent-
ing him from being invested with the regency of
France. This would have given him control over
the military resources of that country and made his
claim for the restoration of the Spanish provinces
a far more formidable affair than it could become
as long as he was merely King Consort of Navarre.
When Antony arrived in Paris to pay his re-
spects to the young king, every kind of insult, small
and great, was showered upon him by the all-power-
ful Guises. The rooms he usually occupied at St.
Germain were inhabited by the Duke and Duchess
of Guise, and he was told an attempt to occupy
202 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
them would cost him his life and that of 10,000 men.
His baggage was piled up in the courtyard in a
manner purposely designed to block up the way ; he
was denied his seat at the council table, and when
he approached the King and the Queen Mother they
scarcely deigned any sign of recognition. Baffled
and perplexed, the King of Navarre asked leave to
pay a visit to the tomb of the late king at St.
Denis; and while he was there his brother Conde
contrived to bring about a secret midnight meeting
between himself, Antony, and Nicholas Throckmor-
ton, the English ambassador in Paris. This latter
delivered to the King of Navarre a message from
Queen Elizabeth desiring alliance with him " for the
honour of God," and to prevent their enemies
"from injuring the cause" . . . "of true
religion." Antony could not bring himself to accept
with firmness the alliance thus offered ; he returned
to the court and accepted all the insults he received
with irritating submission. Open threats were re-
peated in his presence that the Spanish King would
invade Navarre if any opposition were offered to the
predominance of the Guises ; on the other hand ,
vague hopes were held out to him that the coveted
Spanish provinces might be restored if he proved
himself complaisant. Thoroughly complaisant he
was ; but this did not prevent Cardinal Guise from
hatching a plot to seize Bayonne and hand it over
to Spain, a conspiracy which was defeated only by
JEANNE D'ALfiJtET. 203
the activity and vigilance of Jeanne and the Baron
d'Arros.
While Antony was compromising the indepen-
dence of her kingdom at the French court, Jeanne
was vigorously asserting it in Navarre. The next
move on the part of the Guises was the appointment
of the Cardinal d'Armagnac as inquisitor-general in
the principality of Beam and its dependencies.
Executions were ordered and everything seemed
ready for the inauguration of a bitter period of per-
secution. Jeanne foiled this scheme by informing
the Cardinal Inquisitor that he was at liberty to
make inquiry and to report cases of heresy to her
privy council, but that she retained for herself,
as sovereign Princess, all power of arrest and
punishment.
On the Cardinal disregarding this, and causing
Barran, a well-known Calvinist minister, to be
arrested and thrown into prison, she instantly issued
a warrant for his release, signed by herself under
her great seal, and informed the Cardinal that such
arbitrary acts were unauthorised and illegal, and
would never be tolerated in her dominions.
But these spirited actions, away in distant
Navarre, had little or no effect on the course of
events in Paris, where the anti-Protestant party was
predominant. Executions for heresy began to take
place. Catherine de Medici herself was in some
danger. Her orthodoxy was doubtful, and she was
20-i TIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
watched by her daughter-in-law, Mary Stuart, who
reported her observations to her uncles, the Guises.
She felt herself to be a virtual prisoner, and only
saved herself from becoming an actual one by ap-
parent acquiescence in all the high-handed actions of
the dominant party, (^t this time and for several
years later Catherine was supposed to have sympathy
with the Protestant movement?) The Huguenots
<3auni.e_Lon her support, not recognising that sne
was essentially a Gallic in matters of religion.
Such hesitation as she undoubtedly had of firmly
allying herself with either of the rival religions,
arose from her doubt as to which would ultimately
predominate over the other. ^Her policy in religion
was to support the strongest sideT^>
^Her immediate and most keenly felt wish in 1560
was to be relieved from the yoke of the Guises f""\
Their insolence was passing all bounds. A Hugue-
not gentleman, named Gaspard de Heu, had been
seized by their orders, without any form of trial,
and strangled in the castle of Vincennes. No one
felt safe. A plot was formed, to which Louis
of Conde was certainly privy, and with which
Catherine probably sympathised, to seize the
persons of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise at
Amboise. It miserably miscarried, and is some-
times called the conspiracy or, more contemptuously,
the tumult, of Amboise. Conde" immediately sought
refuge in his sister-in-law's court at Nerac, whence
Mf
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS "LA REINE DAUPHINE.
FROM THE DRAWING BY CLOUET.
Photograph by A. Girandon, Paris.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 205
he was summoned with his brother, the King of
Navarre, by the young ' r ing Francis to attend upon
him at Orleans to answer the charges brought
against him. Antony was commanded to bring
Conde with him, willing or unwilling, for, said the
King, " should the said Prince refuse obedience, I
assure you, mon oncle, that I shall soon make it
apparent that I am King, as I have commissioned
Monsieur de Crussol to explain to you both."
On receipt of this letter Jeanne strongly urged
her husband either to remain where he was and
await events, or if he went to Orleans to go with so
strong an armed escort as to overawe his enemies.
Antony, who has been well described "as foolish
as fearless," did not take her advice. He was bent
on going to Orleans at all risks. Catherine de
Medici wrote private letters to him, assuring him
that he would be in no danger, and persuading him
to advance " with fearless courage." Both appeals
touched him ; but he appears not to have perceived
their inconsistency. If there was no danger, fear-
less courage was uncalled for. The deeply seated
suspicions and fears of Jeanne and of the Princess
of Conde resulted in delaying, but did not prevent,
the departure of Antony and his brother. The
Cardinal of Bourbon, another brother of Antony and
Louis, arrived at Nerac to express the displeasure
of the King of France at the delay in their setting
forth; he also delivered a personal message from
206 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
King Francis to assure the King of Navarre and the
Prince of Conde" that they would be allowed to
leave Orleans immediately after having faced their
accusers. The Cardinal described the tears with
which Catherine had bade him farewell and
delivered to his sister-in-law, Jeanne, a polite
message from the Queen Mother inviting her also
to join the court at Orleans. This invitation Jeanne,
on her own behalf, at once declined. She could not
forbid the departure of her husband and her brother-
in-law, but she felt that her duty lay in her own
dominions, and in the protection of her children,
of whom she now had two, a daughter having been
born in February, 1559. As soon as the Bourbon
princes had quitted Navarre on their way to Orleans
Jeanne withdrew to Pau, where she called her thir-
teen barons in council. Acting on their advice
she applied herself once more to the defence and
fortification of her kingdom. She garrisoned all
the strong places, especially those bordering on
France, and awaited with the utmost anxiety news
of the issue of her husband's journey. In the strong
fortress of Navarreins, in which she took up her
abode, she devoted herself to the education of her
son, now a beautiful and intelligent boy of seven
years old, and sought relaxation in the conversation
of the cultivated and able men she gathered round
her. It was during this period that her protes-
tantism hardened into real conviction. She refused
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 207
to comply with the order, which reached her from
the Privy Council of the King of France, to deliver
up the persons of David, Boisnormand, and Theo-
dore Be"za, and three other Calvinist ministers, that
they might be put upon their trial for sedition. She
revoked the permission she had given them to
preach publicly in those domains which she held in
fief under the King of France, and directed them
to preach only in the principality of Beam in which
she reigned in her own right.
Antony of Navarre and Louis of Conde had set
out on their journey with a strong escort, and as
they went on their way, the Protestant noblemen
of the south of France offered them a virtual army,
amounting to nearly 7,000. Antony, with his
usual vacillation, could not determine whether to
accept or refuse. He became positively ill with
distraction and anxiety; at Vertueil he received a
message from the King of France ordering him not
to approach Orleans with more than his customary
household attendants. This order he determined at
last to obey, much to the chagrin of his willing pro-
tectors, who warned him that he was yielding him-
self up with a rope round his neck.
The Guises fully intended to justify these fears.
Their plan was to arrest and execute Louis Conde,
and to assassinate his brother, the King of Navarre.
The brothers reached Orleans on October 30th, 1560,
and Conde was arrested on the evening of the same
208 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
day, charged with treason and with complicity in
the conspiracy of Amboise. All the promises for
his safety which had been made by and through
his brother, the Cardinal of Bourbon, were so
much waste-paper. Catherine alone stood between
Antony and a similar fate. The trial of Conde was
pushed forward with all haste ; he was condemned
to death on November 26th, and the execution was
fixed for December 10th. Antony did his best for
his brother, but he was warned on all hands that his
own fate trembled in the balance. Cardinal Guise's
design for getting rid of Antony was to admit him
to an audience with the young king ; and it was
arranged that Francis was to appear to be suddenly
transported with fury and to strike at his cousin
with a poniard in an apparently ungovernable rage.
Antony would probably defend himself, and then
the King's attendants were to fall upon him and
finish him.
Antony's behaviour all through this episode is
the best thing we know about him. The plot was
whispered abroad; indeed, the boy king seemed so
pleased with his own prominent part in it that he
could not keep his tongue still. Antony, therefore,
at first evaded the interview to which the King in-
vited him. When the terms of the invitation became
too peremptory to be set aside, he accepted it with
full knowledge of the risk he was running. He sum-
moned a faithful personal attendant, and, telling him
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 209
everything, said, "If I fall, take my shirt stained
with my blood to my wife. The Queen will avenge
my death. Let her send the fragments of this shirt
to every court in Europe, that its sovereigns may
read in my blood how they ought to avenge the
assassination of a King."
When Antony entered the King's presence he
took the line of agreeing obsequiously with every-
thing which Francis said, so as to give him no
excuse whatever for an outbreak of passion.
Cardinal Guise was heard to exclaim, " Voila le
plus poltron cceur que f4t jamais." Whether this
referred to Francis or Antony seems uncertain.
But it is certain that when it came to the point,
the courage or the wickedness of Francis failed
him, and Antony left the presence chamber
unharmed.
Suddenly the whole situation was changed by
the illness and death of Francis on December 5th.
There was never a more dramatic transformation
scene. With the death of Francis, the power of
Mary Stuart and of her uncles, the Guises, was
reduced to almost nothing. The new king, Charles
IX., was only ten years old. Who so fitting to be
Eegent as his mother, aided by the counsel and
support of the first prince of the blood royal,
Antony of Bourbon? Catherine summoned Antony
at once to her presence, and offered to make him
Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and therefore
210 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
master of all the military forces of France, if he
would support her claim to the regency and forego
his own. He had already been warned by the
Duchess of Montpensier that only by agreeing to all
Catherine proposed would he save his own life and
that of his brother, still under sentence of death.
He accepted and became henceforth a mere tool in
Catherine's hands, which she used or threw away
according to the convenience of the moment. The
Guises were scattered ; the Duke went to his castle
at Joinville, the Cardinal to his diocese, Mary Stuart
to Fontainebleau and afterwards to Nancy. Louis
of Conde was released from prison and went to the
castle of Ham in Picardy ; his brother Antony was
placed next to the Queen Mother in the highest
position in the kingdom. Catherine de Medici, so
lately scorned and slighted by the Guises, was
mistress of the situation with no one to share her
power but a man whom she reckoned she could
twist round her little finger.
Everyone will wonder: did she kill her son?
There is no evidence that she did. But Sir James
Melville, a contemporary and eye-witness, wrote,
" The Queen was blyeth of the death of King
Francis, hir sone, because she had no guiding of
him." With a woman like Catherine there was
not a very long step between being ' ' blyeth ' ' of her
son's death and murdering him. But she is
entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 211
Antony of Navarre accompanied the Queen
Mother to St. Germain, whence he wrote to Jeanne
begging her to join him that he might have the
advantage of her advice. She did not instantly
obey the summons, but left Navarreins for Pau, not
reaching Paris till August, 1561. Up to the acces-
sion of Charles IX., Catherine de Medici had never
been in a position of real power. But now she had
overthrown her rivals and the power so long sought
was hers. As far as religion \vas concerned it long
appeared almost certain that she would espouse the
Protestant cause. The persecutions of the last two
reigns were attributed to the Guises. By the influ-
ence of Catherine, Michel de I'Hopital, sometimes
called "the Bacon of France," a strong moder-
ating influence in the war of religious opinions, had
been made chancellor. Catherine had gone so far in
the direction of Protestantism as to write to the
Pope to request that all images of the saints, includ-
ing those of the Virgin, should be removed from the
churches of France, and that the Holy Communion,
in both kinds, should be administered to the laity.
During the Lent of 1561, Protestant ministers
preached openly at the court, where fasting was
entirely neglected. During the autumn of the same
year she promised the Tiers-e"tat at Poissy that she
would bring up the young king and his brother in
the reformed faith. There was a strong Protestant
party in almost every province of France, and all
212 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
things looked as if the claim of the Protestants to
religious freedom would be substantiated.
During this period, before she left Pau, Jeanne
formally and publicly professed the reformed faith.
She received the Holy Communion according to the
rites of the Protestant Church in the cathedral at
Pau, with the full consent and approval of the
barons of her council. It was less than eighteen
months since she had made a formal submission to
the Pope, and had begged his forgiveness for the
delay which had taken place in rendering homage
to the Holy See for her principality. It may be
said : If she was sincere in the one profession she
could hardly have been so in the other. It must be
remembered, however, that in the interval between
October, 1559, and the spring of 1561, she had gone
through a crisis in her life which may well have left
its reflex upon her religious convictions. It may
be also that when she submitted to the Pope she
bowed before political necessity, and when that
necessity was removed she reverted to the open ex-
pression of her real convictions. The little girl who
had been severely beaten by her father, as a warning
not to concern herself with questions of doctrine, was
not so very far removed from the young queen of
thirty-one who sought safety for her dominions in
rendering homage to the Pope in words which found
no echo in her heart. If this be the real explana-
tion of Jeanne's inconsistency, no one can say that
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 213
it was heroic, but it was very human. Politics and
religion acted and reacted on each other throughout
the Keformation period, and nowhere more power-
fully than in France. Was Queen Jeanne not the
mother of the sovereign whose saying, " Paris vaut
bien une messe" has passed into a proverb? From
the time, however, that she made her open pro-
fession of protestantism, the Queen of Navarre
never faltered in her faith, and she showed again
and again in the last ten years of her career that her
religion had become part of her life and was no
longer a matter of political expediency.
When Jeanne arrived in Paris in 1561 she de-
clined apartments in the Louvre, and took up her
abode in the Hotel Conde, her brother-in-law's
palace in the rue de Grenelle, A great deal had
happened since she last had seen her husband.
The Queen Mother had spread her toils round the
foolish Antony. Passionless herself, she knew how
to work on the passions of others. She kept at her
command a cohort of beautiful women, called
" T escadron de la reine mere"} one of these,
Mademoiselle de la Limaudiere, generally called
"la belle Rouet," had been told off to the not
very difficult task of captivating the King of
Navarre and alienating his affections and fidelity
from his wife. The Guises had now returned to
court, and they deemed that their safest road to a
return to power lay in alienating Antony from
214 VWE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Jeanne. The Spanish ambassador in Paris and the
Papal Nuncio joined in the scheme, and Antony was
induced by them to lend a favourable ear to
projects which they laid before him for ceding the
principality of Beam in exchange for the island of
Sardinia. They also induced him, who had been so
hotly Calvinist in the earlier years of his marriage,
seriously to reconsider the matter and to weigh well
whether he would not do better for himself by
going back to the old faith and an alliance with the
Guises. Personally, politically, and religiously,
therefore, Queen Jeanne and her husband were now
at variance, and bitter words were exchanged be-
tween them. A little later the gulf between them
was widened through the influence of Cardinal Ippo-
lito d'Este, stepson of Lucrezia Borgia, who played
upon the feeble character of Antony by persuading
him that his marriage with Jeanne had never been
legal owing to her previous contract with the Duke
of Cleves. It was not difficult to persuade Antony
that his marriage with Mary Stuart lay within the
bounds of possibility, and that the triple crown of
Scotland, England, and Navarre would then be an
adornment worthy of the sagacity and courage of
Antony of Bourbon. It did occur to him to inquire
how, if he divorced Jeanne, he could still cling to
the crown matrimonial which she had brought him.
A ready answer was given. Jeanne was to be de-
prived of her dominions on account of the crime of
JEANNE &ALBRET. 215
heresy, and they would then be bestowed upon her
former husband. Antony said he would take a few
days to think about it all.
The object of all these schemes was to make an
unbridged gulf between Antony and Jeanne, to
detach the former from the party of Catherine de
Medici, and to annex him to that of the Guises.
Words are cheap, and Cardinal Ippolito D'Este,
and his confederates did not spare them in working
upon the ambition of Antony of Bourbon. They
insinuated that if he would only make his peace
with Eome nothing stood between him and the royal
crown of France itself but the lives of three little
boys in fragile health. If he was a Macbeth, they
played the part of the witches to perfection, and set
his foolish head aflame with unholy hopes and
aspirations. But Queen Jeanne was stolid and
solid ; and no persuasions of Antony could stir her
from her fidelity to the reformed faith or from her
loyalty to her little cousins.
A triumvirate had been formed at Easter, 1561,
consisting of the Constable Montmorency, the
Duke of Guise, and the Marshal St. Andre*; they
were in close alliance and constant communication
with the Pope and with Philip of Spain. Their
object was the maintenance of the Eoman Catholic
faith, and, as an accessory to this, the restoration of
the Guises to power. They were then apparently
face to face with the almost immediate triumph of
2i6 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Protestantism at the French court. Theodore Beza
preached openly at St. Germain in the early autumn,
and he was afterwards summoned to take part in an
argument with Cardinal Guise. This conference took
place in the apartments of Conde, where were
assembled the Queen Mother, the King and Queen
of Navarre, Cardinal Guise, and the Duchesses of
Montpensier and Uzes. The argument was con-
ducted with ability and dignity on both sides. Each,
however, as is not unusual in such cases, claimed a
dialectical victory over the other. This private dis-
cussion was only preliminary to a public tournament
of a similar character which opened at Poissy on
September 9th, 1561, and is known in history as
the Colloquy of Poissy. The chief protagonists were
again Theodore Beza and Cardinal Guise. Beza's
speech was powerful and impressive, the Cardinal's
was less argumentative, but concluded with an im-
passioned appeal to the young king not to forsake
the religion of his ancestors. Special point was
given to this appeal from the fact that the village of
Poissy was the birthplace of St. Louis. There were
some results of practical importance from this
colloquy, but during the last few days of its duration
it degenerated into unseemly wrangling. Every-
body was angry, and neither party was convinced
by the other.
The Protestant party had a powerful represen-
tative in Beza. His great learning and his good
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 217
birth gave him a position which he used perpetually
to further the cause of the Keformation. He had
completed the metrical translation of the Psalms
into French, begun by Clement Marot, and they
were sung at the French court and, indeed, through-
out France, where they attained such popularity that
they were called " Beza's ballads." Next to Calvin
he was the most powerful personality produced by
the Keformation in France, and for a short time it
seemed that he would turn the scale in a direction
which would have made France a Protestant
country. The "colloquy" had given him the
opportunity of making a formal statement of the
principles of the Eeform party, and of pressing the
right of the Protestants to freedom of worship. The
government of Catherine de Medici, at his instance,
issued letters to the magistrates all over the country,
directing them to interpret the edict forbidding
Protestant worship in a lenient spirit. This vir-
tually enabled the Protestants to meet without mo-
lestation. A great impulse was thus given to their
cause, and there was, in consequence, a demand for
the services of Protestant clergymen greater than
Geneva, could supply. On Michaelmas Day, 1561,
Theodore Beza publicly celebrated the marriage,
according to the Protestant ritual, of Jean de Eohan,
a cousin of Queen Jeanne on her father's side,
with Diane de Barbancon, niece of the Duchess
d'Estampes. The King and Queen of Navarre,
218 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Cond, Coligny, and many other influential persons,
were present. This certainly had the effect of making
the edict, published in the previous July, forbidding
Protestant worship, null and void. The event was
significant, and caused anger and dread in the papal
party, and a corresponding elation and expectation
of speedy triumph among the Protestants. The
Spanish ambassador openly threatened Catherine de
Medici that his master was prepared to interfere by
force of arms to protect the Catholic cause in France.
Queen Jeanne found herself in a more and more
isolated position. Her husband's mistress, "la
belle Rouet," had lately borne him a son. She was
directed by Catherine de Medici to put forth
her utmost fascinations to detain and allure him.
She was nothing loth ; for if Antony divorced
Jeanne, she had a chance, at any rate, of becoming
Duchesse of Vendome and of legitimising her son.
The breach between the two Queens, Catherine and
Jeanne, was widened by Catherine's treachery.
Taking alarm at all she heard of Antony being about
to throw himself on the side of the Guises, it is said
that Catherine proposed to him that he should divorce
Jeanne and marry her little daughter, Margaret, or
Margot, then ten years old ! Jeanne wrote a re-
markable letter to her trusted counsellor, Viscount
de Gourdon, dated January, 1562, describing the
disappointment of her hopes with regard to the
progress of the reform of religion, her fears for her
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 219
kingdom, and her grief for the disloyalty of her
husband. She describes the hopes she had enter-
tained in the early days of the new reign, and
adds :
" Since which, however, the King of Navarre,
hungering after the seductive flatteries of several
fair damsels, dexterous and versed in toils for in-
spiring love, of whom the said Queen (Catherine)
avails herself to accomplish and perfect her secret
designs, the said King of Navarre, I repeat, has
become so deluded and enervated, both mentally and
bodily, by indolence and luxury, that he has per-
mitted the Guises, assisted by the Constable, to
regain the upper hand, to his great shame and the
public calamity.'* She then recounts Antony's
willingness to give up Beam, and the consequent
danger to its political independence , and proceeds :
" My heart feels very heavy and sorrowful when
I contemplate all that is concocting here in so
sinister a manner. . . Amidst all this woe, my
soul, sad and perplexed, yearns to be counselled and
consoled by a loyal friend. Come then to me here,
or at least write to me what it appears to you I
ought to do, and I will try to conform to your
opinion."
The Viscount in reply counselled Jeanne to sub-
mit to her husband in the matter of religion.
Catherine preferred the same request with the view
of inducing Antony to break with the Guises.
220 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Jeanne turned a deaf ear to both these counsellors,
declined reconciliation with her husband, and re-
jected with scorn all efforts to persuade her to
abandon her adhesion to the reformed faith. Beza,
in his history of the Eeformation in France, states
that she replied to Catherine, " Madame, if I at this
moment held my son and all the kingdoms of the
world in my grasp, I would hurl them to the bottom
of the sea rather than peril the salvation of my
soul."
Antony now publicly identified himself with the
triumvirate, the party of the Guises. Jeanne was
left quite unsupported. Catherine was seriously
alarmed for her own safety. Conde* and Coligny
had retired to Orleans. The triumvirate took into
consideration the desirability of Queen Jeanne's
assassination ; but shrinking from this extreme
course they succeeded in persuading her husband
to consent to her arrest and imprisonment. The
warrant was prepared with his full concurrence.
She never forgave this. " From that moment," she
wrote in later years, " I closed my heart for ever
against the affection which I still cherished for my
husband, and devoted its every impulse to perform
my duty."
The news of the intention to arrest and imprison
the Queen of Navarre leaked out, and there was a
great demonstration on the part of Huguenot Paris
in her defence. Jeanne demanded permission to
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 221
depart to her own principality ; after some hesita-
tion this permission was granted , for it was intended
to re-arrest her at her husband's castle of Vendome.
She left Paris in April, 1562, taking her daughter
with her ; but she was compelled by Antony to leave
her son behind at St. Germain to be brought up in
the vicious life of the court. Bitter must have been
her regrets at leaving him. She had an interview
with him before her final departure, when she
solemnly adjured him to remain true to the reformed
faith, and never to forget his mother. She also had
a painful farewell interview with her husband, whom
she never saw again. The intention to re-arrest her
at Vendome was frustrated by the tumultuous pro-
tection of a body of Huguenot troops who were
poured into the town, probably at the instance of
Conde. She regained her own dominions in safety,
but not without a series of exciting adventures.
France was now on the eve of the outbreak of
the civil wars on religion which lasted with occa-
sional short interludes for thirty-six years. From a
similar fate England was saved by the sagacity and
statesmanship of Elizabeth. If Jeanne had been
placed by birth in a similarly powerful position, she
might have steered the ship of state as successfully
as our great queen. But her tiny principality did
not give her the place in Europe which Elizabeth
occupied. Still, to the full extent of her power, she
championed with fearless frankness, unswerving
222 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
tenacity, and ever prompt action the principles of
the Keformation. She had considerable gifts as an
orator, which had been cultivated by the public
position she had occupied from childhood, and both
by voice and pen she often roused her followers to
the highest degree of enthusiasm. " To obtain for
all men liberty of conscience, I am minded to do
good battle, and not to relax my efforts. The cause
is so holy and sacred that I believe God will
strengthen me by His mighty power." With
stimulating words like these she breathed life
and strength into her party. She had been com-
pelled to leave her dear little son in the power of
her enemies. Her husband's mistress had con-
stant access to the young prince. The natural
chagrin and pain caused by this did not enfeeble
Jeanne's resolutions, or impede her bold expression
of them. Now and then, indeed, the queen is for-
gotten, and we hear the cry of the dispossessed
mother. The little prince, when about ten years
old, had a severe attack of small-pox, and through-
out his illness called piteously, but, of course, un-
availingly, for his mother. Jeanne despatched an
urgent entreaty that her son might be given back to
her. Her desire was unsatisfied, but a concession
was made and the boy was removed from the
guardianship of "la belle Rouet " and placed in that
of Rene*e, Duchess of Ferrara. This lady, on the
death of her husband, had returned to France
ANTONY OF BOURBON, KING OF NAVARRE.
FROM THE DRAWING BY MAURAISSE
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 223
and was then resident at Montargis. Queen
Jeanne, during 1562, issued letters patent estab-
lishing the Protestant religion in Beam. She
strengthened the fortifications at Navarreins, and
mounted seventy large cannon there. Antony sent
one of his secretaries to protest against her proceed-
ings. Jeanne had him arrested and all his papers
seized as soon as he entered her dominions. Fear
of reprisals on the party of Elizabeth of England
prevented either Philip of Spain or the Guises from
despatching a punitive expedition against the
Queen of Navarre. King Antony could only look on
in amazement and indignation. Jeanne went her
own way, but she smartly reproved Be"za for omit-
ting her husband's name from the liturgy prescribed
for the reformed churches of Beam.
Antony's death took place in November of this
year, 1562. He was wounded, not very seriously
as it was thought, at the siege of Kouen on
October 25th. Imprudences and the gratification
of his insatiable desire for display and dissipation
converted a trifling injury into a mortal wound, and
Antony was told by the Bishop of Mende that his
end was not far off. His courage again redeemed
him from contempt. He received the news with
fortitude, made his will, left his horses to the Duke
of Guise, and his fortune to his son; he also wrote
a farewell letter to his wife. But his extraordinary
vacillation clung to him to the last. He appears to
224 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
have wished to give Protestantism one more chance,
and he vowed that if God restored him to health he
would openly espouse the Lutheran faith. He thus,
in his forty-fourth year, changed his religion, if
religion it can be called, for the fifth time. He
desired his physician, de Mezieres, a Huguenot, to
read him St. Paul's epistles, where the apostle ex-
pounds the duties of husbands and wives. When
the verse was read, " Wives submit yourselves unto
your own husbands," Antony made a sign of cordial
approbation ; but the honest physician would not
allow any slur to be cast upon Jeanne, " Yes, sir,"
he replied, " but the Holy Scripture also says,
' Husbands love your wives.' '
The Papal Nuncio, in a letter to Cardinal
Borromeo, referred to the death of the King as
a most lucky event ; it relieved him of all anxiety
on the subject of the numerous promises he had
made without any intention of fulfilling them.
Jeanne always suspected that her husband's road
out of this world had been facilitated by the
treachery of the Guise faction by whom he was
surrounded.
During the civil war now raging in every
province of France, the Huguenots, after some pre-
liminary triumph, suffered sharp reverses. The
towns which had been conquered by Conde were all
reconquered, with the exception of Orleans, and
Conde was himself a prisoner. The Duke of Guise,
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 225
while conducting the siege of Orleans in February,
1563, was assassinated by a Huguenot named Pol-
trot. The wars of religion in France were stained
by every atrocity committed almost equally on
both sides, until the balance was finally and com-
pletely overweighted against the Catholics by the
hideous massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572.
Catherine de Medici was and is suspected in regard
to the murder of the Duke of Guise. Suspicion of
complicity in it also lingers round the otherwise
honoured name of Gaspard Coligny, Admiral of
France. Mr. Whitehead, in his biography of the
Admiral, carefully weighs all the evidence for and
against, and arrives at the conclusion that Coligny
was innocent ; but it is an undoubted fact that the
whole Catholic party believed him guilty at the
time; that Guise's eldest son Henry, then a boy of
thirteen, was with his father at Orleans and saw
him die, and vowed an eternal enmity against the
assassins, chief among whom he placed the name
of Coligny. Crime produced more crime. Feb-
ruary 3rd, 1563, in due time, gave birth to August
24th, 1572.
During the ten years of life which remained to
the Queen of Navarre after she became a widow,
she came to the front as an efficient sovereign and
as a fearless and resolute leader of the French
Protestants. One of her first acts was to reform
the legal code of her dominions. She sought the
226 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
advice of the leading jurists of her time, and by
their aid published a code of laws which provided a
remedy for many long-standing abuses. The code
was received with real gratitude by her subjects and
remained in force under the name of " le Stil de la
Royne Jeanne," until all ancient codes were swept
away at the time of the Kevolution.
She successfully resisted the renewed attempt
to set up the Inquisition in her principality of
Beam ; she established the Protestant religion there,
and caused a translation of the New Testament in
the Basque language to be made and circulated
among her subjects. She organised her military
resources to the utmost extent of her power, so that
she was able to bid defiance to the powerful king-
doms lying on her northern and southern borders.
All efforts to intimidate her were vain: "A cceur
vaillant rien d'impossible " was the motto on which
she acted and with which she constantly inspired
her subjects to deeds of heroism. She was re-
minded by her enemies that her little kingdom was
not like England " bound in by the triumphant sea."
Her answer was to strengthen her fortresses and to
rally all her subjects from noblemen to peasants to
her standard. Plots were continually hatching to
seize her and her children, and to hand them over
to the Inquisition. Constant efforts, some of them
successful, were made to raise the standard of revolt
against her. Her husband's brother, the Cardinal of
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 227
Bourbon, was among those who joined the league
against her. He attempted to withdraw from her
the property which he had settled on her at the
time of her marriage. He replied to those who
remonstrated with him, " No ties of blood must be
heeded ; no deed must be thought too atrocious if it
aid the extermination of heresy." She was cited
by the Pope to appear in Eome to answer a charge
of heresy. Failing to obey she was excommuni-
cated, her marriage was declared invalid and her
children illegitimate. She shared the honour of ex-
communication with Elizabeth of England ; but like
Elizabeth she knew that excommunication meant
that every Catholic fanatic would believe himself to
be doing God's service if he assassinated her.
She and her son were probably saved from
assassination by the protection of Catherine de
Medici. The Queen Mother of France was never
run away with by her emotions, and she knew that
the death of Jeanne and Henry would only place
Conde* and his son, both Protestants, in the place in
the succession then occupied by Prince Henry of
Navarre. The Cardinal of Bourbon was considered
to be out of the succession, in consequence of his
calling.
One of the hardest things which Queen Jeanne
had to bear was the forcible separation from her son,
which continued for more than three years after the
death of Antony of Bourbon. It must have been
228 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
anguish to her that her beautiful and brilliant boy
was being brought up in the inner circle of the
most wicked and corrupt court in Europe. But
whatever his faults the young prince remained
thoroughly loyal to his mother. The Catholic
League for the destruction of Protestantism had
been formed, and Henry was allowed to hear plans
discussed between the Spanish General Alva and
Queen Catherine for re-enacting in France the
massacre of the Sicilian Vespers. Alva advised the
destruction of the leaders rather than that of the
rank and file, and observed, " Car, madame, une
tete de saumon vaut mieux que cent tetes de
grenouilles." Young as he was, Prince Henry re-
cognised this as pointing at his mother, and he
managed to convey a warning to her to be especially
upon her guard.
Queen Jeanne at length, through a pardonable
stratagem, contrived to regain possession of the
person of her son. She appealed to the King,
Charles IX., to allow her to take her son from the
French court to receive the homage of her vassals
in Picardy and Vendome; and on receiving the
permission acted upon it, notwithstanding the oppo-
sition offered by Catherine de Medici. Charles was
just of an age keenly to enjoy showing that he had
escaped from the tutelage of his mother. When
Catherine intervened Jeanne appealed to the King's
promise, and hinted that it was absolutely impossible
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 229
to believe that he would ever break it ; thus was the
adroit Catherine foiled. Prince Henry was only
thirteen years old when he rejoined his mother.
His beauty, vivacity, and intelligence delighted her.
She endeavoured diligently to instil into him her own
high conception of the duties of princes. " All
earthly power," she argued, " was derived from God
and was delegated to princes that they might main-
tain justice, succour the fatherless, widows, and
orphans, and protect them from malignant men.
Power is not given to princes to pamper and indulge
their worldly pride, avarice, and vanity." Queen
Jeanne was famous for her letters and speeches,
many of which were printed and circulated all over
Europe for the strengthening and encouragement of
the Protestant cause. They often put new life and
spirit into her followers in moments of despondency.
Her first -thought for her son as soon as he rejoined
her, was to endeavour to wean him from the ener-
vating luxury in which his last six years had been
spent, to invigorate his mind by the study of serious
subjects, to awaken his martial ardour, and to train
him for distinction in military service. She was
delighted to find him an apt pupil. When the time
came in 1568 for him to take part in actual warfare,
with her own hands she buckled on his armour, and
witnessed his departure with unshaken courage.
Euskin has taught us that this buckling on of a
knight's armour by a lady's hand in olden times was
230 TIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
no mere caprice of romantic fashion, but the type
of an eternal truth " that the soul's armour is never
well set to the heart unless a woman's hand has
braced it, and that it is only when she braces it
loosely that the honour of manhood fails."*
In the civil wars which were raging, Henry of
Navarre soon justified his mother's dearest wishes
for him. He showed himself, not only apt and
valiant, but also ready to concede to his elders the
leadership to which his birth in itself might have
entitled him. If we may read between the lines of
Jeanne's address to her son when he joined the army
of Conde, we gather that she was in some anxiety
lest the young prince should not loyally acknowledge
his uncle's leadership. In this, however, Henry, com-
pletely satisfied her. He was a soldier born, and as
such acknowledged discipline and obedience as the
foundation of all success ; he knew that the leaders
must be men who have shown they can lead.
At the disastrous battle of Jarnac, in 1569, the
Huguenots were defeated, Conde was taken prisoner
and treacherously murdered. The Huguenot army
was in profound discouragement, when they were
roused to new spirit and hope by the Queen of
Navarre. On horseback, with her own son on her
right and the dead Conde 's heir on her left, she rode
down the lines, inspiring her own " high heart and
lofty resolute spirit " into the whole army. Refer-
*" Sesame and Lilies," p. 105.
LOUIS DE BOURBON.
FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER A PAINTING BY FRAGONARD.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 231
ring to the death of Conde, she said, " He died on
the true bed of honour, and with greater credit to
himself than to his enemies."
Continuing, she rallied the courage of the army
with these words :
" Soldiers, you weep. But does the memory of
Conde demand nothing more than tears. . .
Does despair overpower you ? Despair ! that shame-
ful failing of weak natures : can it be known to you,
noble warriors and Christian men? When I, the
Queen, hope still, is it for you to fear? Because
Conde is dead is all, therefore, lost? " She then
recounted the noble names of the leaders who were
still left to them, and added: "To these brave
warriors, I add my son. Make proof of his valour !
The blood of Bourbon and Valois flows in his veins !
. . Behold, also, Conde 's son, now become my
own child. He is the worthy inheritor of his father's
virtues. . . Soldiers ! I offer to you everything
in my power to bestow : my dominions, my treasures,
my life, and that which is dearer to me than all
my children ! ' '
No wonder that her eloquence had an almost
magical effect. The soldiers crowded round her and
demanded to be led once more to battle. With the
sudden inspiration which sometimes animates a
crowd, they proclaimed young Henry of Navarre
their leader. His mother signified her approval,
and he was by popular voice chosen head of the
232 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Huguenot party. His speech was short. He was,
as he had said elsewhere, more ready to act than to
speak; but every word was to the point. He said,
" Soldiers! Your cause is mine. I swear to you
on the salvation of my soul, and by my honour and
life, never to abandon you." He was then sixteen
years old ; young enough , but one year older than
the Black Prince was at Crecy.
Not long after this Queen Jeanne, still further
to encourage her son's army, had a medal struck
bearing the following legend, " ou paix asseurde, ou
victoire entiere, ou mort honeste." These medals
in gold were given to the leaders, while copies in a
less costly material were distributed among the
soldiers. One of them in gold was found on
Coligny's body at the time of his murder on St.
Bartholomew's Day, 1572.
A famous contemporary, the Huguenot historian
D'Aubigny, in praising Jeanne, says, "Having of
woman only the sex, with a soul given to things that
rather became men, with an intelligence at home in
great affairs, and a courage invincible in adversity,"
she inspired a feeling of admiration even among her
foes. We should not to-day use D'Aubigny's words.
Jeanne was a thorough woman, and was not the
less so for her intelligence, sagacity, and courage,
and the power of inspiring courage in others.
Some few more distinctively feminine traits
have come down to us. She, like her mother,
JEANNE D'ALBRET, QUEEN OF NAVARRE.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 233
delighted in flower gardens, and created them
wherever she had the opportunity. One of her last
recreations before leaving for her fatal visit to the
court of France, in 1572, was to build in the
grounds of the castle at Pau a picturesque little
chateau for her daughter, Madame Catherine.
The designing and decorating of this building,
which she called Castel-Beziat or Chateau-Cheri,
and the laying out of its grounds, provided her
chief amusement during the last period of her
life. Like all Calvinists she attributed great
importance to preaching, and wherever she went
was accompanied by quite a retinue of Huguenot
ministers. With all her enthusiasm for the good
cause, she found it, however, quite beyond her
power to sit through their long sermons without
going to sleep. She therefore asked the synod to
grant her permission to work tapestry during the
sermon. If it was simply human to sleep during
the sermon, it was certainly feminine to resort to
the tapestry frame to cure the inclination. A letter
to her son written during the last January of her life
gives us a glimpse of her home and home-life. She
tells of the wedding celebrated the day before of one
of her ladies, and says that her son's absence de-
prived her of most of the joy she would otherwise
have felt in it. In the opening sentence of this
letter she says how glad she is that ' ' Pistolle has
got her puppies."
534 VIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
When the valiant La None had his arm shattered
at the siege of Fontenay, in 1570, it was Queen
Jeanne alone who had influence enough with him to
induce him to consent to its amputation. It was a
tragic thing for a brilliant cavalry leader to sacrifice
his right arm. But the choice was one of life and
death. The physicians, however, were powerless
to induce the brave soldier to face the fact. Where
they had failed, Queen Jeanne succeeded, appealing
to his loyalty to the cause for which he was fighting ,
his affection for his friends and for herself. His
consent once won, Jeanne stayed with him during
the operation, supporting him while it was per-
formed, and cheering and encouraging him through-
out the painful ordeal. It was she who had the
artificial arm manufactured for him, which gave
him his well-known surname of " Bras-de-f er. "
So far from saying she had nothing of the
woman but the sex, we should say that she showed
the best and noblest type of valiant womanhood.
We now approach the last few months of her
life. France was drenched with the blood of a long
series of civil wars. Every sort of horror and crime
had accompanied the footsteps of the armies. The
court of France was hardly less distracted by strife
than France itself. Charles IX., now, in 1572,
nearly twenty -two years of age, has been described
as "half beast and wholly a child." He was a
beast in uncontrolled passion, but it is a libel on
CHARLES IX. OF FRANCE.
FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING.
JEANNE &ALBRET. 235
children to call him a child. Mentally he was
almost a cretin, but with enormous physical
strength and activity. His mother still had con-
siderable influence over him ; she could work upon
the worst part of his nature and rouse him to
diabolical fury. He was subject to paroxysms of
rage, which almost resembled epileptic fits in their
exhausting effect upon him. He was furiously
jealous of the military renown of his brother, the
Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III., Catherine's
favourite son, and the worst of all her bad brood.
He was jealous of the young Duke of Guise, partly
because his sister, Margaret of Valois, wished to
marry him. The King absolutely forbade this
marriage, and threatened the Duke with death if he
persisted in his suit. To escape the scaffold the
Duke hastily married Catherine of Cleves, then a
rich young widow. Out of the plots and counter-
plots, the furious anger, hatred, and jealousy of
which these events were the outcome, came another
scheme, " built in the eclipse and rigged with
curses dark," the proposed marriage between Henry
of Navarre and Margaret of Valois. Catherine de
Medici represented to Jeanne that peace was neces-
sary, and that nothing would promote the recon-
ciliation between the opposing parties of Huguenots
and Catholics like the marriage of Henry and
Margaret. The proposed marriage of Elizabeth of
England with one of the brothers of the King of
236 YIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
France was part of the same scheme. Elizabeth
played with it to prevent, just on the eve of the
Armada, the closer alliance of France with Spain.
But the other proposed marriage was on a different
footing. It had been one of the habits of Charles IX.
constantly to praise Henry of Navarre to the dis-
paragement of his own brothers. " Alone of all my
royal house/' he had said, " Henry loves me and I
him." He therefore supported the marriage of his
sister with " won bon frere Henri," and said that
he desired by means of this union to bring about,
in a manner, the marriage of the two religions. The
inclination of the principals was the last thing
thought of. If Margaret ever knew what love was,
she loved the Duke of Guise. Henry was at his worst
in his relations with women. This fatal marriage
has been described by Dean Kitchin as the union of
" the worst of wives with a husband none too good."
When the proposal for the marriage was com-
municated to Jeanne, she was full of foreboding and
suspicion. The brilliance of the alliance did not
allure her ; but she temporised , pleaded the absence
of her son, and the consequent impossibility of con-
sulting him. A special ambassador, Marshal de
Biron, was despatched from the court of Charles IX.
to press the advantages of the marriage upon Queen
Jeanne. But he found himself powerless to remove
her distrust and misgiving. On a former occasion
friendly overtures from Catherine de Medici had
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 237
caused Jeanne to exclaim, " Can the Queen, who
never pardons, pardon me? " and the same thought
must have been in her mind when she parried the
arguments of Biron in favour of the marriage of
Henry with Margaret of Valois. Biron then turned
from Jeanne to try his powers of persuasion upon
Admiral Coligny, to whom he presented a most
flattering letter from the King. Only three years
earlier, the Parliament of Paris had found Coligny
guilty of treason and condemned him to death ; as
he did not present himself for the execution of the
sentence, it had been carried out on his effigy. His
estates had been confiscated, his children degraded
from their rank, and 50,000 crowns offered for his
person dead or alive. But politicians have short
memories, and easily forget what it is convenient not
to remember. The admiral shed tears of gratitude
when he read the King's flattering letter, and
announced his intention of immediately acting on
the invitation it contained to visit the court in Paris.
Queen Jeanne, young Conde, and all the leading
Protestants tried to dissuade him, but to no
purpose. "No, no, madame," he said, "I firmly
confide in the honour and word of my King," and
henceforth all his influence was used to promote the
marriage. Henry himself was favourable to it; all
the conditions with regard to freedom of worship
for the Protestants which Queen Jeanne asked for
were conceded. She called her own Council of State,
hoping they would urge reasons in opposition to the
238 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
marriage. On the contrary, they urged its wisdom,
and Jeanne exclaimed mournfully, "Helas! je
compte peu d'amis." Little by little she was forced
to give way and to consent to go to Paris to nego-
tiate the articles of the marriage. On no account
would she allow her son to accompany her. She
insisted on Prince Henry remaining in Beam as her
representative during her absence. Her last injunc-
tions to him were to allow no solicitation to induce
him to visit the French court unless he had received
her direct authorisation.
Her design was, if she were forced to allow
the marriage to take place, to arrange that Henry
should be represented at the ceremony by proxy,
and that afterwards she would conduct the prin-
cess to her bridegroom at Pau. Catherine de
Medici would by no means consent to these arrange-
ments. All Jeanne's other requirements were,
after some resistance, agreed to. No stipula-
tions at all were made by the French court,
save the personal attendance of Henry in Paris for
the marriage. Jeanne, in great perplexity, con :
sulted the English ambassador, Walsingham, show-
ing him how she saw danger every way, whether in
concluding, or not concluding, the marriage. Coligny
was completely captured, and thoroughly believed
in the professions of friendship which were showered
upon him. Jeanne's health l-egan to show signs of
breaking down, and her powers of endurance were
further tried by the serious illness of her only
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 239
daughter, Madame Catherine, whom she had brought
with her from Beam.
At length, after nearly four months of weary
negotiations, Jeanne consented to the marriage,
and consented also to her son taking part in it
in person ; in doing this, however, she emphasised
the importance of his coming to Paris with only
a very limited number of Huguenot nobles and
gentlemen. If she had lived, her prescience would
have saved the Huguenot party from the trap
laid for them. Queen Jeanne arrived in Paris
in the last week in May, 1572, to make prepara-
tions for her son's wedding. In less than a
fortnight she was dead. The suspicion of poison
was universal among the Huguenots. The Queen
.of Navarre had, on her arrival in Paris, visited a
large number of shops and warehouses, making
purchases of jewels, clothes, etc., of suitable mag-
nificence for the approaching marriage. Among
other places she had gone to the shop of an Italian
perfumer whom Catherine de Medici had brought
from Florence. She purchased from him drugs,
perfumes, and embroidered ruffs and gloves. It
was rumoured, but never proved, that her death had
been caused by one of those subtle poisons with the
secret of which Italian chemists of the period were
credited. Very shortly after her visit to the Floren-
tine her dying illness, which lasted just a week,
began. Her last thoughts and words were for her
son and daughter, but she never spoke of the
240 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
approaching marriage. She desired that her daughter
should at once return to Beam. She saw Coligny
on Sunday, June 8th, and named him as one of her
executors. Her death took place in the morning of
the following day. In one of her recent letters to
her son she had described how she had sought an
interview with Margaret of Valois, and had asked
her if she had any message for the prince.
" Madame for some time made no reply ; at length,
on my pressing her for an answer, she replied that she
would not send you any message without having first
obtained permission, but that I was to present to you
her commendations and to say that you were to come
to the court ; but I, my son, / bid you to do quite the contrary"
With the death of Queen Jeanne, the protection
which her prudent foresight would have afforded to
the Huguenot party was lost. Coligny summoned
Henry at once to Paris. Charles IX. continued to
show the admiral every mark of respect and affec-
tion, addressing him as " mon pere." No suspicion
of treachery arose in his mind ; he therefore
suggested no special precautions to Henry. The
prince, after attending his mother's funeral at Ven-
dome, was delayed by illness from immediately pro-
ceeding to Paris, but he arrived there on July 8th
at the head of 800 noblemen and gentlemen, nearly
the whole strength of the Huguenot chivalry of
France. They were being led as lambs to the
slaughter, owing to the ill-placed, if generous, con-
fidence of Coligny in the loyalty and good faith of
the court and the Catholic League.
HENRY IV. OF FRANCE.
FROM THE PAINTING BY RUBENS, IN THE LOUVRE.
Photograph by X. Paris.
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 241
The marriage between Henry of Navarre and
Margaret of Valois was celebrated at the great portal
of Notre Dame on August 18th, 1572. It is said
that Margaret refused to make any answer when she
was asked if she would take the King of Navarre as
her husband ; and that King Charles, placing his
hand on her head, forced her to incline it, which
was taken as an equivalent to her assent. The next
few days were given over to festivities in honour of
the marriage ; but Catherine de Medici and her
coadjutors had laid all their plans for what
immediately followed. It was intended that the
signal for the murder of the Huguenots in Paris
should be the assassination of Admiral Coligny.
He was fired at on August 22nd, on his way from
the Louvre, the shot proceeding from a house in
the occupation of an adherent of the Guises. The
shot was aimed true, but missed its mark through
Coligny making a sudden unexpected movement
in fastening or unfastening his overshoes; he was
not killed, but his right forefinger was smashed,
and his left arm severely wounded. He preserved
the calmness of the tried veteran, and when all
was in confusion pointed out the window where
the smoke was as the one from which the shot
had been fired. His assailant escaped. The crime
had been planned by Catherine de Medici, her
son, the Duke of Anjou, and the Duke of Guise.
The news of the attempt on Coligny caused the King
genuine sorrow. He visited the sufferer and ordered
Q
242 TIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
every kind of vigilance for the detection of the
criminal. Catherine became uneasy. She visited
the King in his chamber. She there boldly avowed
that she and the King's brother were the real
authors of the attempt on Coligny, that she had done
it to save the King from a great danger ; there was
a Huguenot plot, she declared, to destroy the
Catholics, and the only way to prevent it was to be
beforehand with them ; to kill them before they had
time to carry out their wicked schemes. At last
she got her way. She worked her son up into one
of the ungovernable furies to which he was liable,
and he consented to everything. That afternoon,
August 23rd, in the gardens of the Tuileries the
treacherous crime of the St. Bartholomew massacre
was decided on. The signal was given in the very
early morning of Sunday, August 24th, from the
belfry of St. Germain 1'Auxerrois, almost the parish
church of the Louvre. One of the first acts of the
dark tragedy of St. Bartholomew was the cold-
blooded murder of the wounded Coligny by the Duke
of Guise, with every circumstance of barbarous and
loathsome brutality. For three days and nights all
Catholic Paris gave itself up to a carnival of blood.
Men, women, and children were cut down. The
Huguenots were chased into the river, and shot
while trying to save themselves by swimming. The
window of the Louvre is still shown from which
the now almost maniac Charles shot at his subjects.
Navarre and Conde were saved; they were of the
JEANNE D'ALBRET. 243
blood royal, but their followers almost to a man
were murdered. It is estimated that more than
10,000 Protestants were murdered in Paris alone.
Mr. White-head tells in his " Life of Coligny " how
a priest, Father Panicarola, wrote enthusiastically
to Rome, " Everywhere we have seen rivers of blood
and mountains of dead bodies."
What had been done in Paris was almost im-
mediately imitated in several of the provincial
towns ; though , to their immortal honour be it
remembered, that in several cases the governors
of towns refused, at peril of their lives, to carry
out the infamous orders which they received from
Paris. Well would it have been for the fame of
the Catholic religion if a similar spirit had been
evinced by the head of the Church, or by any lead-
ing representative of the Catholics. But this was
very far from being the case. When the news of
the massacre was told to Philip II. he laughed
" for almost the only time on record." The account
of the crime was received in Rome with transports
of joy. The Pope, Gregory XIII., presented a gift
of a thousand crowns to the courier who brought the
joyful news. He wished to illuminate Rome, but
was checked by the French ambassador because the
news had not then been officially confirmed. When
the news became official, through the receipt of
letters from the Papal Nuncio in Paris, there was no
longer any reason for holding back from the most
open rejoicing over it and glorification of the crime.
244 fWE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
" That same morning," wrote the Cardinal of Como,
" . . . His Holiness, with the whole college of
cardinals, went to the Church of St. Mark to sing
the ' Te Deum ' and thank God for so signal a
favour shown to Christian people." The Pope said
that the news was better than fifty victories at
Lepanto. The guns of St. Angelo were fired, and
an illumination of the city ordered. Another solemn
" Te Deum " was sung, preceded by a mighty pro-
cession consisting of the Pope and thirty-three
cardinals on foot; they visited the French church
of Saint Louis, and the 101st Psalm was specially
ordered to be sung. A papal medal w r as struck in
commemoration of the massacre, and a series of
frescoes, still to be seen on the walls of the Sala
Eegia of the Vatican, were ordered to be painted
to put on record the joyful event. The paint-
ings depict the attempted assassination of Coligny
on August 22nd, and the throwing of his mangled
corpse from the window of his house on August
24th. By every means in its power Eome made
itself accessory to the crime of St. Bartholomew.
The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde"
were compelled to renounce their religion, and
for four years the former remained virtually a
prisoner in the Louvre. Often must he have thought
of that passage in his mother's letter in which she
sent him Margaret of Valois's message bidding him
to come to Paris, and added, " but I, my son, I bid
you to do quite the contrary."
RENEE OF FRANCE.
2 4 7
RENEE OF FRANCE,
DUCHESS OF FERRARA.
IT is a truth so self-evident as to need no em-
phasis, that marriage forms an immensely im-
portant element in the happiness or the reverse
of most men's lives ; but that its importance is even
greater in the lives of women. A man who is
unhappily married generally has a business or a
profession to which he can escape. But a woman
who has a miserable home generally has no refuge
but in her own thoughts, which too often only
reflect, and perhaps magnify, her misery. Socrates,
when Xantippe's tongue became unendurable,
could betake himself with undisturbed equanimity
to the market-place or to the gymnasia in the de-
lightful surroundings of Athens, there to discourse
with his young friends on ' ' What is friendship ? ' '
or on the " Nature of the soul." But how can
Mrs. Blue Beard console herself? If she some-
times and somehow finds an innocent way of doing
so, it is infinitely to her credit. Eeligion, pure
and deep, the centring of the soul on God, has
been the unfailing consolation of many unhappy
248 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
wives. It was that of Benee of France, Duchess
of Ferrara ; and she added to the inward spiritual
religion of the soul, the active, practical religion
which visits the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and keeps itself unspotted from the
world.
The extraordinary marriage customs prevalent
in the middle ages and during the renaissance
among the reigning families of Europe are well
exemplified in the history of BeneVs father,
Louis XII. of France. His predecessor was
Charles VIII., the weak and worthless son of
Louis XI. Charles VIII. had a long minority,
during which his very capable sister, Anne
of Beaujeu, " Madame La Grande," acted as
Begent. For nine years she was virtually Queen
of France, and as her brother approached manhood
she managed to secure for him the hand of the
great heiress, Anne of Brittany, thereby uniting
the hitherto independent principality of Brittany
with the realm of France.
Charles VIII. died childless in 1498, and was
succeeded by his second cousin, Louis XII. Louis
at the time of his accession was married already
to a royal lady, Princess Jeanne, daughter of
Louis XI. ; but the risk of losing Brittany if Anne,
its duchess, the widow of the late king, remained
unmarried, or married a rival, was too great to be
endured. Louis XII. therefore obtained from the
RENEE OF FRANCE. 249
Pope, Alexander VI., a dispensation enabling
him to divorce Jeanne and marry Anne. The
Pope's son, Caesar Borgia, was selected as the
messenger to bring the papal dispensation to
France. To honour him and to indicate the im-
portance of his special embassy the King of
France created him Duke of Valentinois, presented
him with a large sum of money, and found him a
bride from the house of Navarre. The marriage
of Louis XII. with Anne of Brittany was successful
in its political aim. It confirmed the union of
Brittany with France ; but Louis and Anne had no
son who survived infancy, and at the time of Anne's
death, in 1514, she left behind her only two
daughters, Claude, then aged fifteen, and Kenee,
who was but four years old. In consequence of
the Salic law neither of these was in the suc-
cession to the crown ; but the elder, Claude, was
married, almost immediately after the death of her
mother, to the heir-presumptive, Francis of Angou-
leme, afterwards Francis I. The widowed king
was heartbroken on the death of his wife, and
desired her grave might be made large enough for
two ; but before the year was out he married Mary
Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII. Louis XII.
hoped through this marriage to leave behind him a
son who would be his successor. But his hopes
were vain ; he died on New Year's Day, 1515.
Francis, therefore, became king, and his wife
250 JIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Claude, the heiress of Brittany, again confirmed
the union of that province with the crown of
France. The good Queen Claude, however, died
in 1524, nine years after the accession of her hus-
band, and the marriage of his little sister-in-law
Eenee became an important political topic. The
Salic law did not prevail in Brittany, and the first
thing which Francis I. sought to secure in the
bridegroom-elect was that he should be a prince
who could not make good any claims to Brittany
on Benee's behalf. The suit of Henry VIII., who
was moving in the matter of his divorce from
Catherine of Aragon, was dismissed, not on any
moral ground, but because he was too near and too
powerful ; a king of England with a colourable
claim on French soil was no stranger to French
history. The demonstration of friendship between
Henry and Francis at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold in 1524 did not influence Francis to bestow
the hand of his sister-in-law, with her possible
claims on Brittany, on the King of England. In
1527 Cardinal Wolsey came to Paris as special
ambassador from the King of England, with in-
structions to propose that Henry VIII. should
marry Margaret, Duchess of Alengon, the only
sister of Francis I. This match was declined by
the Duchess. "Never," she said, "speak to me
again of a marriage which would take away the life
and happiness of Catherine of Aragon." Wolsey
Ferrana yulcnt
H etc quarfi, e Duciius Jorma, Jutfaue,
ERCOLE D'ESTE, DUKE OF FERRARA.
FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 251
had another string to his bow, and when he found
that the marriage with Margaret was hopeless he
proposed that his master should wed the Princess
Renee. But though, as the old writer says, " there
was nothing forgot which might doe him pleasure
or honour," the match was declined.
The battle of Pavia had been fought and lost
by Francis in 1525, and the life-long hostility be-
tween the King and the Emperor Charles V. was,
at the time of Wolsey's visit, in its most acute
stage. This circumstance also influenced the choice
of a husband for Kenee; and Ercole d'Este, eldest
son of the Duke of Ferrara, was finally selected,
partly because the duchy to which he was heir was
too small and unimportant to enable him to make
good any attempt to revive Renee 's claims to
Brittany, and partly because Francis desired to de-
tach the Duke of Ferrara from allying himself with
the cause of Charles V. in Italy.
ReneVs marriage with Ercole d'Este took place
at la Sainte Chapelle, in Paris, on June 28th, 1528.
The splendid beauty of the ladies of the d'Este
family was proverbial. Renee was plain and
slightly deformed. Ercole was one of the sons of
Lucrezia Borgia by her marriage with Alfonso,
Duke of Ferrara; the d'Este family was on bad
terms with the court of Rome, but had shown no
leanings towards Protestantism. Renee, on the
other hand, partly through the influence of her
252 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
cousin, Margaret of Angouleme, afterwards Queen
of Navarre, and partly through that of her friend
and governess, Madame de Soubise, was very
favourably inclined to the reformed religion.
Rene was, and through life remained, a devotedly
patriotic Frenchwoman. When political questions
arose she put France first and the rest of the world
nowhere. Ercole, as was natural in an Italian
prince, could not share his wife's political en-
thusiasms. He put the little dukedom of Ferrara
first, and was ready to throw it into the scale either
for Francis or for Charles according to the circum-
stances of the moment. There were, therefore,
plenty of opportunities for discord between the pair.
On the other hand, there were certain things which
united them. Rene"e was the daughter of one king
of France, and the sister-in-law of another. The
marriage was a great match for Ercole from the
worldly point of view. Renee had a large dowry,
consisting of a quarter of a million of golden scudi
charged against the Duchy of Chartres and the
Viscounties of Caen, Falaise, and Bayeux. Besides
these solid advantages, which doubtless endeared
her to her husband, Rene"e had an alert intelligence,
the natural qualities of which had been developed
by a careful education. She was candid, thought-
ful, conscientious, and above all generous with a
regal generosity. Despite her plainness and de-
formity she was quite capable of royal dignity in
RENEE OF FRANCE, DUCHESS OF FERRARA.
FROM THE PAINTING BY CORNEILLE DE LYON. IN THE VERSAILLES GALLERY.
From a Photograph by A. Giraitdon, Paris.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 253
her personal bearing. At the time of her marriage
she was eighteen, and her husband twenty. The
bridegroom, Ercole, as became an Italian prince of
the renaissance, was a lover and patron of the fine
arts and of literature. He formed the nucleus of
the celebrated museum of Ferrara, and was a skilful
collector, especially of medals. He encouraged the
industrial arts in his principality, and was a great
builder both of palaces and fortifications. He was
tall and of a fine presence, inheriting much of the
personal beauty of his mother, but effeminate and
self-indulgent. He shrank from the personal hard-
ships and suffering which military leadership would
have entailed upon him. In short, he was as
inferior to Benee in character as he excelled her
in person.
Nevertheless, this inherent want of harmony
between them did not immediately make itself felt.
After the gorgeous festivals given in Paris in June
and July to celebrate the marriage, the bride and
bridegroom remained in France till nearly the end
of September, putting off their departure on ac-
count of the plague, which then was raging in
Italy. When at last they arrived on the other side
of the Alps, one of the first pieces of news which
reached them was that the Florentines, then fight-
ing for their liberty, had chosen Ercole as captain-
general of their forces. If he had had anything of
the soldier in him, he would have eagerly seized
254 VIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the opportunity for active service. But he was
not a soldier. He may have fyeen a diplomatist,
for he tried both to accept and to decline the offer
at the same time : that is, he nominally accepted it,
but appointed another man to act in his place. He
sent a deputy to do the fighting, and he remained
and went on with his wedding festivities. " I have
married a wife, therefore I cannot come," was his
excuse for his indolence.
The inhabitants of Modena and Ferrara were
bidden to banish from the sight of their young
prince and his bride all signs of the mourning and
desolation caused by the plague. Nothing was to
be visible but mirth and jollity. All persons who
had fled from the city to escape the pestilence were
bidden to return, the bells were to ring, the markets
arid churches were to be reopened, the university
professors were told to resume their classes. An
order was issued that all black was to be discarded,
and the inhabitants of Ferrara were bidden to array
themselves in their gayest clothes. No measures
were neglected to compel the appearance of re-
joicing.
One wonders how long it was before the com-
passionate child in whose honour all this was done
discovered the truth. The first impression she pro-
duced among the Ferrarese was, we are told, one
of disappointment ; they did not hesitate to call
her " ugly and hunchbacked." But they were not
RENEE OF FRANCE. 255
long in discovering that she was nevertheless ' ' a
real princess." Her gentleness, compassion, and
generosity soon won the hearts of the Ferrarese.
The circle which she made for herself in her new
home was one where learning was honoured and
encouraged, and she gathered about her some of
the most famous men and women of thought and
letters in Europe. Among these may be mentioned
Bernardo Tasso, her secretary, the father of the
poet; Clement Marot, the Frenchman, translator
of the Psalms into his native tongue; John Calvin,
who found an asylum at Ferrara before he estab-
lished himself at Geneva ; Eabelais ; Vittoria
Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara, the friend of
Michel Angelo ; Lavinia della Eovere, great-niece
of Pope Julius II. ; Bernardino Ochino, the great
Capuchin preacher, of whose eloquence Charles V.
had said, " That man would make the very stones
weep." After an effort to reform the Church from
within, he threw in his lot with the Geneva Ee-
formers. There was also the learned Professor
Fulvio Morata, whose brilliant daughter, Olympia
Morata, was chosen by Eenee to be the special
friend and companion of her own eldest child, Anna,
afterwards Duchess of Guise. Olympia joined the
reformed religion, and before the end of her short
life devoted herself entirely to its cause.
It will be gathered from the mere enumeration
of this list that Eene"e very early showed her interest
256 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
in the reform of religion, and her determination to
use her power to protect leading Eeformers when
the storm of persecution burst upon them.
When Rene"e was first married she was not
Duchess of Ferrara, but the daughter-in-law of the
reigning Duke, Alfonso ; in him she ever found a
friend and protector. When he died in 1534,
and her husband succeeded to the dukedom, a
new era in Renee's life began. Duke Alfonso
had kept up a perpetual struggle with the Papacy.
The popes of his time had persisted in their
refusal to invest him with the Duchy of Ferrara.
It is quite probable that this political conflict
with the Papacy inclined him, without sharing in
ReneVs sympathy with the Reformation, to look
leniently on the patronage and protection which
she extended to leading reformers. One of Duke
Ercole's first acts on his accession was to take
steps to settle the question in dispute with Rome.
In 1535 he went in person to Rome, hoping and
expecting to have the matter adjusted to his
satisfaction. Failing in this, he went on to Naples,
where the Emperor Charles V. then was, and did
homage to him for the Duchy of Modena. The
result of the conferences between the Emperor and
the Duke was that Ercole threw in his lot with
Charles and abandoned his support of his wife's
native country, France. It was largely a question
of money. Both Pope and Emperor demanded
RENEE OF FRANCE. 257
huge sums of Ercole before confirming him in the
possession of his duchies. Rabelais wrote of the
business
" The Duke of Ferrara, who went to the emperor at
Naples, re turn' d hither this morning. I know not yet
how he has determined matters relating to the investi-
ture and homage of his lands ; but I understand he is
come back not well satisfy' d with the emperor. I fear
he will be forced to empty his coffers of those crowns
his father left him, and that the Pope and emperor will
fleece him at pleasure My lord Bishop of
Limoges, who was the king's ambassador at Ferrara,
seeing that the said duke, without acquainting him with
his design, has gone over to the emperor, is return'd
to France. "Tis feared that my Lady Renee will suffer
no little vexation by it: the duke having removed
Madame de Soubise, her governess, and ordered her to
be served by Italians, which don't look well."
With the French ambassador in Ferrara with-
drawn, and her French friends and attendants dis-
missed, Renee must have suffered acutely by the
isolation in which she was placed. Some of those
French members of her court who were not dis-
missed by Ercole, departed on their own initiative.
Among these was Clement Marot, the poet. He
had fled from France to escape persecution,* and
he had no desire to court it in Ferrara. He with-
drew to the independent republic of Venice, and
there indited poetical letters to Margaret of Navarre
describing the sorrows of Renee and the harshness
* He had been imprisoned in France for the unpoetical crime
of eating bacon in Len^.
R
258 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of her husband. Deeds of desperate daring may not
be expected of poets, but it was not very chivalrous
to run away and then call upon a lady on the other
side of the Alps to come to Eenee 's rescue and
" Console-la.'' At a safe distance from Ercole,
Marot could write at his ease, " dur mari, rempli
de violence," and thus adjure Margaret of Navarre
" Ha, Marguerite ! ecoute la souffrance
Du noble cceur de Renee de France,
Puis comme sceur plus fort que d'esperance
Console-la.
Tu sais comment hors son pays alia
Et que parens et amis laissa la
Mais tu ne sais quel traitement elle a
En terre e"t range."
and so on for pages of neatly turned stanzas.
Calvin's friendship was of a very different
character. He arrived in Ferrara early in the same
year when Clement Marot quitted it. He jour-
neyed thither, Dr. Fairbairn believes, in the hope
of mitigating, by the help of Eenee, the severity of
the persecution of his co-religionists which was
then beginning in France. He came under an
assumed name Charles d'Espeville and by his
ministrations and exhortations put new strength
into the little band of reformers who gathered about
Eenee. He administered the Holy Communion to
them in private, and sustained and elevated their
minds to the point of bearing persecution for the
sake of liberty of conscience.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 259
Kenee did not openly separate herself from the
Church of Kome ; but she absented herself from
mass and from confession, and heard the services
and sermons of the reformers in her own apart-
ments. She was deeply impressed by the teachings
of Calvin : his intensity of conviction and his abso-
lute uprightness of conduct were a passport to her
respect. The officers of the Inquisition were on his
track in 1536, the date of his first visit to Ferrara,
and he was arrested. While being conducted as a
prisoner from Ferrara to Bologna his guards were
overtaken by a company of armed men, who rescued
him and set him at liberty. It is generally believed
that the Duchess Kenee was the real author of this
rescue.
From this time forth Calvin frequently corre-
sponded with the Duchess, and continued till
his death to exercise great influence upon her
mind.
Kenee 's home-life grew more and more difficult.
Her husband was becoming increasingly subservient
to the Papacy, while she was becoming absolutely
emancipated from it. He identified himself in
politics with the cause of Charles V., while she
remained heart and soul for France. She had in
all five children Anna, born in 1531, Alfonso in
1533, Lucrezia in 1535, Leonora in 1537, and Luigi
in 1538. Their nurture and education must have
been a source of disagreement rather than of union
260 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
when there were such fundamental differences be-
tween their parents.
Notwithstanding the ill-success of his mission to
the Pope in 1535, Ercole had a little later, and
perhaps by the aid of the golden crowns referred to
by Rabelais, induced the Pope to receive his homage
and recognise him as a vassal. In 1543, taking the
opportunity of the Pope making a journey from
Reggio to Bologna, Duke Ercole invited his Holiness
to turn aside to pay a visit to Ferrara. Some idea of
what this meant may be gathered from the fact that
the Pope's suite consisted of 3,000 persons, includ-
ing eighteen cardinals and forty bishops. One hun-
dred and forty apartments in the ducal palace of
Ferrara were placed at the disposal of the Pope and
the most distinguished members of his retinue. On
the Pope's arrival he was met by young Alfonso, the
heir of the dukedom, accompanied by eighty noble
youths all clad alike in crimson silk, velvet and gold.
The young prince presented his Holiness with the
keys of the city in a golden basin. He then kissed
the Pope's feet, prostrating himself on the ground.
The Pope returned the keys and gave the prince his
blessing. Nothing was left undone to show honour
and submission to the Pope. The Duchess Renee,
attended by seventy-two noble ladies, also came out
to meet him, and on the following day the Pope
celebrated mass in the cathedral. After this he pre-
sented the Duke Ercole with the golden rose in
JOHN CALVIN.
FROM THE PAINTING BY R. HOUSTON.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 261
token of complete reconciliation, and the Duke made
obeisance and kissed the feet of the Pontiff. Eenee
was present at this ceremony, though her feelings
in respect to it must have been well known. The
five children of Ercole and Eenee in the evening
took part in acting a Latin comedy by Terence in
the presence of the Pope and his suite. The Pope
on his departure bestowed rich gifts upon them and
upon Eenee. His Holiness had only a few weeks
previously signed the bull which established the
Inquisition in Italy, and it is probable that neither
he nor Eenee w r as unaw r are that he only awaited a
favourable opportunity to let her taste its rigours in
her own person. He on this occasion gave her a
brief which exempted her from all Eoman jurisdic-
tion except that of the Inquisition.
Eenee was in the unfortunate position of being
torn in two contrary directions. Her interests and
domestic peace and happiness drew her one way ;
her convictions and the influence of Calvin drew her
another way. Calvin had to the full the clear and
logical qualities of the French mind. He could not
see that Eenee, being a convinced believer in the
principles of the Eeformation, had any excuse for
concealment or compromise. His own personal his-
tory had been one of unhesitating sacrifice of every-
thing for the sake of maintaining what he believed
to be the truth. Born at Noyou, in the north of
France, in 1509, he had been sent at fourteen years
262 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of age to Paris for his education. His father at first
intended him for the church, but after three years
changed his views, and sent Calvin at the age of
seventeen to study law in the University of Orleans.
At the age of twenty-three Calvin produced his first
work a commentary on Seneca's " De dementia."
It contains, says Dr. Fairbairn, conclusive evidence
of Calvin's finished scholarship, but not a trace of
religious enthusiasm. It showed him to be a scholar,
a moralist, and a jurist, with political ideas far in
advance of his age.
" He bids monarchs remember that their best guar-
dians are not armies or treasuries, but the fidelity of
friends and the love of subjects. Arrogance may be
natural in a prince, but it does not therefore cease to be
an evil. A sovereign may ravage like a wild beast, but
his reign will be robbery and oppression, and the robber
is ever the enemy of man. Cruelty makes a king exe-
crable ; and he will be loved only as he imitates the
gentleness of God. And so clemency is true humanity ;
it is a heroic virtue, hard to practise, yet without it we
cannot be men." *
This is all very good sense, and although in ad-
vance of current thought when it was written, has
now, in Western Europe at all events, almost passed
from truth to truism. The next year saw a great
development in Calvin's mind. He had witnessed
in Paris the union in high quarters of religious
fanaticism with flagrant immorality. He had also
* Rev. A. M. Fairbairn, D.D., Vol. II., "Cambridge Modern
Hifctory," p. 353.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 263
witnessed in intimate personal friendship the greater
purity and integrity of the reformers. He had seen
" Captive good attending Captain ill." He knew the
character and aims of the men who were burned at
the stake for conscience' sake, and the character and
aims of the men who burnt them. He no longer had
any choice ; he was forced to become a reformer and
a Protestant. He was the real author of the address
given by Nicholas Cop as Hector of the University
of Paris on November 1st, 1533. It shows the
awakening in the mind of its author of religious
enthusiasm. It was full of the influence of Luther
and Erasmus. Persecution for conscience' sake had
already begun in Paris, and very soon after the de-
livery of the address both Calvin and Cop had to fly
for their lives. Calvin resigned all his offices, and
became henceforth an exile and a wanderer. He
formally and definitely renounced the Eoman
Catholic religion, and allied himself with the re-
formers. His first city of refuge was Bale, which
had for so many years sheltered Erasmus, and where
his works had been printed by his friend John
Froben. In Bale Calvin wrote his next work, the
" Institutio," with a noble prefatory letter addressed
to Francis I. Dr. Fairbairn says of it
" It is one of the great epistles of the world, a splen-
did apology for the oppressed and arraignment of the
oppressors. It does not implore toleration as a con-
cession, but claims freedom as a right. Its author is a
young man of twenty-six, yet he speaks with the gravity
264 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
of age. He tells the king his first duty is to be just;
that to punish unheard is but to inflict violence and
perpetrate fraud.' 7
He speaks as a subject to his sovereign, but " as
a subject who knows that his place in the State
is as legal, though not as authoritative, as the
sovereign's."
We have seen how in 1536 Calvin's wanderings
led him to the court of the Duchess of Ferrara, and
it is not difficult to picture the deep impression
which his earnest, dignified character made upon
her and her circle. Henceforth, in his correspon-
dence with her, he was constantly addressing himself
to the task of keeping her up to the patient en-
durance of the wrongs and sufferings involved by
the open profession of the reformed religion. She
was in a very difficult position. Her mind was
wholly convinced that the reformed religion was
pure and acceptable to God ; yet, lest she should
entirely break with her husband, and be separated
from her children, she desired to conform outwardly
to Eoman Catholic rites. She desired to hear mass
in public, and then afterwards to receive the Holy
Communion in her own apartments in private. A
Calvinist preacher, Master Fran9ois, attached to the
household of the Duchess, had advised her that this
was permissible. Calvin would have none of it. In
a letter of many pages, probably written in October,
1540, he denounces Master Francois as " a wolf in
RENEE OF FRANCE. 265
sheep's clothing who, with feigned words, made
merchandise of the Divine Word ; one who sought
the honour which cometh from men, who was ready
either to declare the truth or to conceal it, for filthy
lucre's sake." He begs her not to believe for a
moment that he has been incited to write by any of
her household :
" I assure you, before God, that I do so without being
requested by anyone. . . . On the other hand, I
would rather desire to be cast into the lowest depths of
the abyss than to twist about or wrest the truth of God
to make it suit the hatred or to procure the favour of
any creature whatsoever. But what makes me speak out
is that I cannot bear that the Word of God should be
thus to you concealed, perverted, depraved, and cor-
rupted in such essential things, by those in whom
you have some confidence, to whom you have given
authority."
However deeply Kenee may have been moved by
this letter, she did not conform to its demands. She
refused to attend mass or go to confession, but
she did not commit herself to a total breach with the
Church of Borne. We have already seen that when
she received the Pope Paul III. as her guest in 1543,
she was present at the mass celebrated by the Pontiff
in the cathedral of Ferrara. There must, up to
1548, have been an understanding between Kenee
and her husband that she would be allowed religious
liberty as long as she did not openly renounce the
Eoman Catholic faith. Calvin condemned this com-
promise, but if Kenee continued to bow her knee in
266 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the house of Rimmon she may have consoled herself
with the remembrance that however sternly Calvin
might judge her, Elisha had, under similar circum-
stances, gently bidden his convert "go in peace."
But this outward conformity with the ceremonies
of the dominant church did not permanently protect
Renee from persecution. In 1547 Francis I. died,
and his sister, Margaret, Queen of Navarre, also died
in the following year. As long as they lived they
were powerful protectors of Renee. Francis cared
nothing for any religion, but he cared for his sister,
and she was very sympathetic with the Protestant
cause. Margaret was Renee's friend. They had
been brought up together, and Renee had derived
her first interest in the reformed religion from the
lips of Margaret. Francis, through inherent in-
stability of character, had only permitted persecu-
tion of the French Calvinists by fits and starts, and
through affection for his sister had never allowed it
to extend into royal circles.
But all this was changed when Francis I. was
succeeded by Henry II., who, under the guidance
and influence of Diana of Poitiers and of the
Guises, supported the Inquisition in France and
inaugurated a much severer and more searching
persecution than had been known there during the
reign of Francis.
The change in France had its reflex effect upon
Ferrara. The Inquisition was established there in
HENRY II.
FROM THE PAINTING BY CLOUET.
Photograph by X. Paris.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 267
1548, and an era of cruelty and misery began.
Olympia Morata was driven in unmerited disgrace
from the court, and in some unexplained way the
anger of the Duchess Renee was inappeasably
aroused against her. Olympia was obliged to fly
precipitately, not even taking her dresses and orna-
ments with her, from the court which had been her
home from childhood. What slander of Olympia
Rene*e was forced to believe will probably never be
discovered. All that is known of Olympia redounds
to her credit. She was not less famous as a scholar
than as a devoted wife and daughter. Her pupil,
Anna d'Este, Renee 's eldest daughter, had just been
married to the Duke of Guise, so that she was not in
Ferrara to plead for justice for her friend. Olympia
wrote to the Duchess of Guise from Heidelberg, in
1554, in terms implying unbroken affection. It
may therefore be assumed that whatever the cause
of the estrangement between Renee and Olympia,
the Duchess of Guise did not share with her mother
in the alienation from her former friend.
The Duke Ercole was urged on to persecute and
torment those in his dominions who favoured the
reformed religion. The first martyr was a young
man named Fannio. He had studied the Bible
eagerly, through an Italian translation, and he could
not keep what he learned there to himself. He was
always talking, preaching, teaching, and making
converts. He was thrown into prison. The
268 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
entreaties of his wife and sister caused him to recant
in order to save his life. But when he had saved
his life he felt that he had lost it, and once more he
resumed his preaching ; he was again arrested and
sent in chains to Ferrara. He was for two years in
prison there, and was visited by Olympia Morata
and by Lavinia della Eovere , on whom his confident
faith and resolute cheerfulness made a deep im-
pression. Eenee interceded for him with Home, but
to no avail. He was condemned by the Inquisition
as a relapsed heretic and sentenced to death. The
condemnation was confirmed by the Duke Ercole,
and Fannio was strangled on August 22nd, 1550 :
his body was afterwards burned and the ashes
thrown into the river. Other martyrdoms followed ;
and the Pope and the Inquisition constantly urged
the Duke to deal with heresy in his own household,
and especially in the person of his Duchess.
If Henry II. had resembled his father he might
have been depended on to protect his own flesh and
blood. But he was all for rooting out heresy by the
active persecution of heretics, even when the victim
was his own mother's sister. In 1554 Duke Ercole
applied to Henry II. to send him an "able and
energetic " teacher to turn the Duchess from the
error of her ways. In a long letter written by King
Henry in reply, he appointed the Inquisitor,
Mathieu Cry, for this purpose; he dwelt on the in-
expressible grief, sorrow, and annoyance he had felt
RENEE OF FRANCE. 269
on learning that his ' ' only aunt ' ' had suffered her-
self to be led into the labyrinths of these unhappy
opinions ; he said that these opinions involved
nothing less than * ' the loss of the bodily and
spiritual life of his aunt," whom he had always so
much loved, esteemed, and honoured, "and doth
singularly still." King Henry further reminded his
aunt that one of the greatest favours which God
had granted to her was ' ' being the issue of the
purest blood of the most Christian house of France,
where no monster has ever existed." If she con-
tinued to reject the holy Catholic faith, it would dis-
please him, the King said, as much as anything in
the world, and would cause him entirely to forget
the friendship and all the observances and demon-
strations of a good nephew. He therefore advised
and commanded if the said lady should finally remain
obstinate and pertinaceous in such errors, that the
" said duke should cause the said lady to be put into
a place secluded from society and conversation,
where she may henceforth injure no one but her-
self, taking from her her own children, and the
whole of her family entirely, of whatever nation
they be, who shall be found burdened with, or be
vehemently suspected of, the said errors and false
doctrines , that they may be put on their trial ; the
said Ory being sent for, who is experienced in such
matters belonging to his profession, he being In-
quisitor of the faith in this kingdom."
270 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
The concluding paragraph of the letter recom-
mended that exemplary punishment be awarded to
all who had encouraged the Duchess in her heresies,
and that the Duke should subject them to such ' ' exe-
cutions and procedures. . . that justice may take
effect without scandal or notoriety." No one will
quarrel with Henry's expression that his love
and esteem for his aunt was very singular in its
manifestations.
As long as the Inquisitor confined himself to
arguments and persuasion, Eenee stood her ground.
She was not convinced, and would not feign the
conviction she did not feel. The first practical
measure taken against her was to dismiss all the
suspected members of her household. The Duke
sent his own confessor to her, but he was as un-
successful as Ory had been. Then the decisive step
was taken. The Duchess Kenee was condemned
to imprisonment in the castle of Ferrara. She was
allowed two attendants, but no books; she was
entirely cut off from the outside world and from her
children. Her two younger daughters were sent to
a convent, where it was expected that the effects of
Eenee 's heretical training would be counteracted.
The poor Duchess did not hold out for more than
six days. Twenty-four of her servants had been sen-
tenced at the same time with herself. " The execu-
tions and procedures . . . without scandal or
notoriety," as recommended in the letter of the King
RENEE OF FRANCE. 271
of France, probably meant being strangled in prison
without trial. Whatever mitigation of extreme
penalties might be reserved for the Duchess, as a
king's daughter, no similar leniency could be ex-
pected for her servants. , She gave way and "re-
ceived pardon." She pretended to believe what she
did not believe, and saved the lives of her servants ;
she was restored to liberty and to her children. On
the same day on which she was released she supped
with her husband ; on the next day her younger
children were given back to her, and her eldest son
Alfonso returned from Flanders, She remained at
heart a Calvinist, but attended mass and in other
ways conformed to the rites and ceremonies of the
Church of Home.
The news of her abjuration quickly spread among
the reformers in various parts of Europe. Calvin
seems to have judged her less harshly than might
have been anticipated. He wrote to one of his
friends from Geneva, November 1st, 1554 : " There
is sad intelligence, and more certain than I could
wish, of the Duchess of Ferrara ; that, overcome by
threats and reproaches, she has fallen. What shall
I say, except that instances of fortitude in nobles
are rare? "
Some changes for the better took place in Kenee's
position soon after her recantation; first there was
the return of her eldest son. Young Alfonso had
had a quarrel with his father, and might on that
272 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
account, although a reconciliation had been effected,
have proved by his mere presence somewhat of a
protection to his mother. The chief public events
in Europe in 1555-6 did Eenee no ill service. In
1555 Paul IV. became pope. He was a vehement
supporter of the Inquisition, and had himself filled
the office of Grand Inquisitor before his pontificate.
In 1556 Philip II. succeeded his father as King of
Spain, which meant that the most narrow-minded
bigot in Europe could now support his bigotry with
the resources of a powerful kingdom. It might
appear that these two accessions were unfavourable
to the cause of the [Reformation, but the event
proved otherwise. Paul IV. was a Neapolitan, and
as a Neapolitan hated with a deadly hatred the
Spaniards who were the masters of his native city.
The new pope and the new king therefore were at
odds, and soon they were at war. Paul IV. induced
Henry II. of France and Ercole, Duke of Ferrara,
to join him as allies, and although the armies of
Philip II., under the generalship of the Duke of
Alva, were victorious, yet the renewed alliance
between France and Ferrara must have been
consolatory to the ever-constant patriotism of the
Duchess. The Duke of Guise, the son-in-law of
Ercole and Eenee, commanded the armies of France
during this short war. He was recalled to France to
repair the disaster to French arms at the battle of
St. Quentin, but he left his soldiers behind him to
EENEE OF FRANCE. 273
the number, says Brantome, of 10,000 in a terribly
destitute condition. They were rescued by the
princely generosity of Eenee. When her steward
remonstrated with her about the expense incurred,
she replied, " What would you have me do? These
are poor Frenchmen and my countrymen, who, if
God had given me a beard on my chin would have
been my subjects." She was not quite correct, for
it was her sister, not herself, who would have suc-
ceeded to the throne of France but for the Salic
law ; but the anecdote illustrates Eenee's attitude
towards her native country, her inextinguishable
love for it, and her instinctive translation of emotion
into practical action.
There is no reason to suppose that the religious
change in Eenee went beyond outward observances.
She kept up her correspondence with Calvin, and
his letters to her after the date of her recantation,
while stimulating her to greater courage, show no
trace of any doubt as to the steadfast character of her
faith in the reformed doctrines.
"I beseech you, madame," he wrote in 1558, " at what-
ever cost, to persevere in being daily taught in the school
of our Lord Jesus Christ, as in fact you know well enough,
without being admonisHed by others that you have need
to be, especially at a time when the devil is stirring up
all the vexations he can in order to make you turn away
from it. ... Only, madame, take courage ; yield not
to Satan the vantage which he looks for of finding you
unprepared. . . . Even were the condition of the
children of God a hundred times harder than it is, not a
S
274 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
thought should be entertained of abandoning the good
to which God by His infinite goodness has been pleased
to call us."
In the same letter he alludes to her ' ' domestic
vexations," and a little rashly counsels her to model
her conduct on that set down in the 101st Psalm,
where David so confidently says he will not know a
wicked person, and that he will soon cut off all the
ungodly out of the land. That was the very spirit
which animated the authors of the Inquisition,* and
from which both the Duchess and her adviser had
suffered so cruelly. But Renee's " domestic vexa-
tions " were about to be brought to an unexpected
end. In 1559 Henry II. was accidentally killed in
a tournament which was held to celebrate the mar-
riage of his daughter with Philip of Spain; and,
within less than three months death also claimed
Ercole, the Duke of Ferrara. The nephew who had
shown his " so singular affection " for his aunt as to
advise her imprisonment, and the husband who had
acted on the advice were now cut off. ReneVs son
became the reigning duke. He was away in Paris
at the time of his father's death. Henry II. had,
in fact, on receiving his mortal wound, fallen into
the arms of Prince Alfonso; Renee's youngest son,
Luigi, was also in France; the Cardinal Ippolito,
the late Duke's brother, was in Rome. Renee there -
* Tt was this psalm which the Pope, Gregory XIII., ordered to he
chanted after the Te Deum in Rome at a thanksgiving service for the
Massacre of Saint Bartholomew (see p. 244).
RE NEE OF FRANCE. 275
fore became Kegent until the return of her son. At
first all seemed to promise well for a period of greater
domestic happiness than any she had enjoyed since
her alienation from her husband. The new duke
sent most affectionate messages to his mother, and
when he returned to Ferrara slipped away from the
pomp and ceremonial of his public reception by the
nobles in order to pay her a private visit. Acts of
mercy graced his accession , and he conferred favours
on the city and state of Ferrara. He also showed
that he shared in no mean degree the enthusiasm
for learning and the arts which distinguished so
many of the Italian princes of the renaissance. He
ordered that the library at Ferrara should be pro-
vided, at whatever cost, with every book which had
ever been printed.
But Renee's pride and satisfaction in her son's
reign were not destined to be of long duration. On
the visit of Alfonso II. to Rome, in 1560, to do
homage to the Pope for his dukedom, Pius IV. re-
proached him with the heresy of his mother. She
was not only a heretic herself, but the protector of
heretics. The Inquisition could not have free scope
for its activities while Renee remained at Ferrara.
On his return Alfonso gave the alternative to his
mother, either once more to abjure the reformed
faith or to leave Ferrara and Italy. She chose the
latter course, and in September, 1560, she left the
city which had been her home for thirty-two years
276 FIVE FAMOUS F BENCH WOMEN.
to return to her native land. Alfonso did not allow
his mother to depart without showing her strong
marks of undiminished affection and respect. Her
younger son, Luigi, then aged twenty-two, accom-
panied her to her new home, and the Duke Alfonso,
with a train of three hundred ladies and cavaliers,
attended her on her journey as far as the frontier
of his dominions. The people of Ferrara mourned
her departure, as well they might, for she had ever
been the generous protector of those who most
needed her aid ; but it was not only as a Lady
Bountiful that they missed her. Her departure
was a symptom that henceforth the Papacy and the
Inquisition would work their will unchecked in both
Ferrara and Modena. Burnings, torture, and every
kind of mental and physical anguish were used to
root out heresy. In one year, not long after Kenee's
departure from her son's dominions, there were four-
teen people thirteen men and one woman burned
alive in Modena alone.
The last stage of ReneVs life opens with her
return to France, in 1560. She first joined the
French court during its sojourn at Orleans, on
November 7th, 1560. The stirring events which
were there taking place are narrated in the chapter
on the life of Jeanne d'Albret. It is sufficient here
to say that on the arrival of llen^e at Orleans the
Guises had lately revenged the conspiracy of Am-
boise by the slaughter of twelve hundred victims,
RENEE OF FRANCE. 277
that Louis of Bourbon, Prince of Conde, was lying
in prison under sentence of death, and that Antony
of Navarre was in hourly danger of assassination.
Renee's relations with the contending factions
which divided the French court were peculiar.
Francis, Duke of Guise, was her son-in-law ; but
she was bound by the convictions of a lifetime to the
Huguenot party and by ties of friendship to Jeanne
d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, and to the Coligny
brothers, Gaspard Coligny, Admiral of France,
Francis d'Andelot, and Odet, the Cardinal. In
Andelot she must have taken a special interest, be-
cause it was through reading the books she had lent
him during his imprisonment at Milan from 1551-6
that he had become a Protestant. Francis had in
his turn converted his brother Gaspard. He likewise
had turned a period of imprisonment, after the battle
of St. Quentin, to good account, reading the Bible
and other books sent to him by his brother Francis
d'Andelot. As his latest biographer has said, " im-
prisonment gave him a chance to think."*
Francis d'Andelot Coligny had suffered from
Henry II. a similar indignity to that inflicted upon
Kenee by her husband. The proud, strong man,
no less than the delicate, deformed woman, had after
imprisonment, bought liberty by a promise to attend
mass. The Coligny s, especially the Admiral, were
* " Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France," by A. W. Whitehead.
(Methuen and Co.)
278 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
the strongest and best characters among the French
noblemen who joined the Huguenot cause. If there
had been among them a larger number of men of
equal fibre the whole issue would have been very
different. The Eeformation in France was too much
based on party rancour, and too little on genuine
religious conviction. Its roots did not go sufficiently
deep into what is strongest in human character to
give it a firm and permanent hold on the soil. The
Colignys were Huguenots from genuine religious
conviction, but with many of the other leaders, on
both sides, it seems a mere accident with which of
the contending parties they would ally themselves.
The Duke of Guise, for instance, had no fixed and
unalterable objection to the principles of the Ee-
formation, or he would hardly have married Eenee's
daughter; he was forced, as it were, into the front
rank of its opponents by the hostility of his house to
the houses of Bourbon and Chatillon, the first repre-
sented by Antony of Navarre and Conde, the second
by the brothers Coligny.
Anna d'Este, Duchess of Guise, had in the
early years of her life something more than a
feeling of toleration for the Huguenots. After
the discovery of the conspiracy of Amboise,
when the awful cruelties which avenged it were
being carried out, we are told that many of "the
executions were reserved until after dinner, contrary
to custom. . . to afford some pastime for the
HENEE OF FRANCE. 279
ladies." On the occasion of one of these terrible
spectacles Anna d'Este, bathed in tears, rushed from
the balcony from which she had just witnessed the
butchery of the aged Baron of Castelnau, and flew
to the apartments of the Queen Mother, who coolly
demanded " what was the matter? " The Duchess
replied that she had all the occasion in the world
for her grief, that she had just witnessed the most
piteous tragedy and strange cruelty, and that she
doubted not that the punishment of God must follow
on such inhumanity.* The frightful cruelty with
which the conspiracy of Amboise was revenged made
even the Chancellor, who had given his consent to
the executions, exclaim to the Cardinal Guise, "
Cardinal ! you will ruin the souls of us all." It was
this pouring out of the best blood of France like
water for which the Guises were responsible; and
the terror they had awakened had no small share
in producing their downfall. No one felt safe as
long as such tigers were predominant in the council
chamber of the King. The tension in Orleans was
tremendous.. The town was filled with troops. The
population had been disarmed. There was scarcely
a knife left for table use.! This was the court with
which Kene'e had now cast in her lot. She was
* Did this story suggest to Shakespeare the remirk of Touchstone in
the first Act of As You Like It: "It is the first time that I ever
heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies" ?
t " Life of Coligny " by Whitehead, p. 90.
280 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
received with all honour by the French king and his
brothers, the King of Navarre, and all the great
personages of the court. The event of her arrival
was notified to Queen Elizabeth of England by her
ambassador, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.
On learning the condition of affairs, and especi-
ally the peril in which Conde then was, the Duchess
Benee remonstrated very earnestly with her son-in-
law, the Duke of Guise, and declared that if she had
arrived while Conde was still at liberty she would
have prevented his imprisonment. As a royal
princess she insisted on what she thought the
peculiar iniquity of doing violence to princes of the
blood. "Such wounds," she said, "bleed long,
and it had never ended well with anyone who had
been first in the assault upon chiefs of royal blood." *
The Constable did not come to Conde's rescue, but
Admiral Coligny hurried to Orleans. He knew his
danger, but said he committed the event to God.
Henceforward, till his murder on St. Bartholomew's
day twelve years later, he was the recognised chief
of the Huguenot party.
But neither the prayers of Kenee nor the threats
of Coligny availed. The Guises were all powerful,
and they intended that Conde should die. But a
stronger power than they could contradict thwarted
their intents. The death of Francis II. on Decem-
ber 5th changed the whole aspect of affairs. The
* Pe Thou. Quoted in " Memorials of Renee of France," p. 181.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND.
FROM A RECENTLY DISCOVERED PORTRAIT AT SIENA.
RENEE OF FRANCE. 281
power of the Guises fell like a house of cards;
Catherine de Medici became Begent, and during the
next few months nearly all signs pointed to the
probable triumph of the Huguenot cause throughout
France.
We can only follow these events here in so far
as they are connected with the Duchess Benee. She
used the opportunity of the presence of the English
ambassador in the court at Orleans to put herself in
direct communication with Queen Elizabeth. Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton acquaints his mistress with
the results of his conference with Eenee in a long
despatch, dated Orleans, January 10th, 1560- (61).
" The old Dutchesse of Farare (off whose aryvall at
thys courte 1 did advertyse your Ma^ie before thys tyme)
did send one off hyr syrvants unto me with goode words
of vysytation : who desyryd me on hyr behalffe to take
the payns to come and vysyte hyr at hyr lodgyngs unto
whom she then (as the messanger sayd) wold declare
more off hyr mind."
The ambassador accordingly waited on ' ' the old
Dutchesse of Farare " on January 6th. Eenee was
only fifty years old, but at this time Elizabeth was
not much more than twenty-seven, and twenty-seven
may well look upon fifty as well advanced into the
vale of years. Eenee expressed to Throckmorton
the reverence, love, and honour she felt for the
Queen of England. She congratulated Elizabeth on
having won the love and obedience of her subjects,
282 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
on her good success against her enemies, and that
which none of her ancestors could ever bring to
pass, " the amytie of the realm of Scotland." This
prosperity, Eenee continued, according to the am-
bassador, had caused many people,
" yea those that be not of hyr relygion to be perswaded
that the Lord doth sustayne hyr and prosper hyr pro-
ceedyngs, and theyreby are more inclynyd to give eare
to the treuthe."
The Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, Eenee
was persuaded, was one of these :
" beyng a virtues and sage lady, she dothe begynn to
herkynne to the trewthe . . . . ' which/ sayd she,
1 wold in my oppinion, take better effect yff the quene
your M r s would use some perswasions either by wryting
or otherwyse unto hyr. You will not believe,' sayd she,
'the goode towardnes that ys in the Kyng for his age,
and yt were grett pytie that he should not be instructed
in the treuthe, seyng so good a dyspocition and so grett
a spryte be mette in hym together.' '
She urged Sir Nicholas also to use his good offices
in persuading the Queen Mother of the " trewthe,"
because there was no means so certain of producing
a perfect and assured amity between France and
England as an amity in religion. Sir Nicholas
deftly excused himself from undertaking the task of
converting Catherine.
" I dyd take myselffe not to be a fytt instrument to
have to do in that matter. But rather thowgthe that she
(beyng the kyng's nere kynswoman .... and in
credytte with the quene mother .... and all other
RE NEE OF FRANCE. 283
grett personagis of thys realme, the duke of Guys
havynge here in this courte a grett authorytie being hyr
son yn law) was in my opinyon a most convenyent meyne
to worke in this matter."
With one more homely touch the letter con-
cludes :
" Then she sayd ' besyds these respects that dothe
move me to love and honor the quene, your M", whearoff
I have alredy spokyne to you, theyre is another cause
wyche, thowgh yt be off less wheight, dothe worke yn
me a parciall goode wyll towards hyr. There was an old
acquayntance betwyxte the quene hyr mother and me
when she was on off my sister quene Claude's mayds of
honor.' I did tell the duchesse that I would not forgett
to advertysse your Ma tie of all that she sayd unto me.
And so after a few obsequious words I toke my leave off
her. While the duchesse of Farare and I talked together,
the duchesse of Guise her dawghter came ynto the
chamber."
Benee would probably remember as she sent
this message to Queen Elizabeth about her mother,
the embassy of Cardinal Wolsey to Paris, before the
marriage of Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn ; his
mission being to propose the marriage of his master,
first to Margaret of Angouleme, and failing that to
Eenee herself. It may well have reached Eenee 's
ears that a kindly reference to "the quene hyr
mother" would smooth the way to Elizabeth's
favour. Professor Beesly, in his monograph on
Elizabeth, says that she placed great reliance on the
courage and fidelity of her kinsmen on the Boleyn
side. When she was dying the one person to whom
284 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
she seemed to cling with trust and affection was
Lord Nottingham, the Admiral, a second cousin of
Anne Boleyn.*
Apart from the humorous and personal touches
in the foregoing letter the most interesting part of it
is that which shows the hopes then entertained by
the Huguenots of winning over the Queen Mother
to their side. In 1561 Eenee did not know that
' ' vertuos and sage lady ' ' as well as she learned to
know her later. Catherine treated her husband's
aunt with courtesy and allotted her a distinguished
place in the ceremonies of state. The two ladies
were further drawn together by their common
interest in astrology. Catherine constantly tried
to read the future in the stars, and often discoursed
on the subject with Eenee, whose proficiency in it
she warmly extolled.
Not long after the court left Orleans the Duchess
Eenee was installed in the castle of Montargis, and
it became her home henceforth till her death. The
castle had been a favourite royal residence before
the building of Fontainebleau, and had acquired the
name of " Le Berceau des Enfans de la France."
It was very large, capable of accommodating a
garrison of 6,000 men. The Duchess was made
Governor of both castle and town, and was known
in the district as " La Dame de Montargis." During
* " Queen Elizabeth " by E. S. Beesly, p. 236. Twelve English
Statesmen series. Macmillan and Co.
PENEE OF FRANCE. 285
her occupation of the castle she constantly converted
it into a harbour of refuge for persecuted Huguenots.
By hundreds at a time she sheltered and relieved
them. For a short time, indeed, it seemed that the
Huguenots would have no need of protection, the
colloquy of Poissy and the edict of January, 1562,
recognising the legality of protestant worship out-
side the walls of towns, seemed to promise that a
period of religious liberty was assured. But the
massacre of Vassy, which followed within forty days
of the promulgation of the edict, showed that it
was not worth the paper on which it was written.
In February, 1562, a congregation of Huguenots
numbering about eight or nine hundred assem-
bled for worship in a barn outside the little town
of Vassy. The sound of their bell unfortunately
attracted the attention of the Duke of Guise, who
was in the neighbourhood. He and his armed escort
surrounded the barn and shot down the assembled
congregation unarmed as they were. Sixty-four
were killed on the spot, and more than two hundred
grievously wounded.
The outbreak of the first of the long series of
civil wars was the direct consequence of this treach-
erous outrage. Theodore Beza, as leader of the
French Protestant Church, demanded vengeance of
Catherine and of Antony of Navarre, who was then
associated with her in the regency. Eeceiving no
answer but mocking and contemptuous words from
286 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Antony, Beza retorted, " Sire, it is, I confess, for
the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to en-
dure blows and not to give them. But may it please
you remember it is an anvil which has worn out
many hammers."
When news of the massacre reached Renee, she
caused the gates of Montargis to be closed so that
no one, whether Catholic or Huguenot, could pass
in or out. She was confronted by those within the
town who sympathised with the party of the Duke
of Guise and applauded the cruel massacre which
had just taken place at his instigation. A plot was
on foot to repeat at Montargis the example given
at Vassy. But Renee 's energy and determination
frustrated the scheme. She had but very few sol-
diers at her disposal, and she sent in all haste to
Prince Louis of Bourbon (Conde) for a detachment
of horse and foot. On their arrival the heads of the
plot were tried, three were hanged, some were im-
prisoned, and all their followers were disarmed.
The Duchess's promptitude and vigour showed that
she was determined to make her authority respected,
arid that she would leave nothing undone to preserve
law and order in the town of which she was the
governor.
The first civil war had now begun. As a princess
of the blood royal of France Renee had no sym-
pathy with those who were in arms against their
sovereign, but she made Montargis a place where
EENEE OF FRANCE. 287
peaceful people, whether protestant or catholic,
could carry on peaceful pursuits in peace. They
could worship God, each in the way his conscience
preferred, safe from violent molestation. Beza says
that whilst all was war and tumult outside, perfect
security reigned inside Montargis, and it became a
place of refuge for Huguenots from Paris, Melun,
Nemours, Louis, Sens, Blois, and Tours ; many also
of the Eoman religion sought the peace there
.which they looked for in vain elsewhere.
When Conde's soldiers were withdrawn, the
Duchess raised a small band of her own to guard the
walls and gates of her town and castle. But this
period of tranquillity was not destined to be of long
duration. The royal army, under the command of
the Duke of Guise, having accomplished the capitu-
lation of Bourges by the end of August, marched on
to occupy Montargis. The Duchess was greatly
perturbed. She counselled the Huguenot ministers
to withdraw to a castle in the neighbourhood whose
owner could be relied on to shelter them, and then
she gathered all the hundreds of poor Huguenots in
the town within the protecting walls of her own
castle, so that it resembled a hospital rather than
a royal residence.
The first to arrive were the Duchess of Guise,
Kenee's daughter, accompanied by her brother-in-
law, the Cardinal. Then came the young King,
Charles IX., and his suite, and later Renee's greatly
288 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
dreaded son-in-law, the Duke of Guise. Anna,
Duchess of Guise, had done her best to allay her
mother's fears and anxieties. Charles IX. " caressed
much the lady his aunt, kissing her several times,
and shedding tears." The formidable Duke, when
he arrived, permitted his soldiers to wreck the pro-
testant place of worship and to re-erect the statues
and altars which had been cast down in the Eoman
churches. The seditious part of the population,
some of whom had been banished under Eenee's
orders, now returned, and the whole place was on
the brink of a violent outbreak of fanaticism and
disorder. Eenee, however, obtained a proclamation
from the king ordering, under penalty of death,
that no one should be interfered with in the practice
of either religion. The Duke of Guise went on to
the siege of Orleans, but before he left he deprived
Eenee of the governorship of Montargis. While at
Orleans he went further in his hostile measures
against her, and gave orders in the King's name that
she should leave Montargis, "that nest of Hugue-
nots," and live either at Fontainebleau , St. Ger-
main, or Vincennes. He not only gave the order,
but sent four companies of horse, under the com-
mand of Sieur de Malicorne, to see that it was car-
ried out. Eenee offered a courageous and stubborn
resistance. She warmly asserted her own loyalty
and that of every person in her castle. She main-
tained that in France she was subject to no one but
EENEE OF FRANCE. 289
the King. When Malicorne threatened to bring a
storming party to make a breach in her walls with
battering rams, she said she would place herself
upon the battlements so that she would be the first
to be slain, and added that "she had no lack of
friends and relatives who would avenge with spirit
any injury done to herself." Malicorne had not
expected this spirited reception from the ' ' olde
Dutchesse of Farare," and while he was hesitating
what next to do, the news came, February, 1563, of
the assassination of the Duke of Guise at Orleans,
by Poltrot, a Huguenot. After this Beza writes of
Malicorne that " he wanted not the will to do mis-
chief, but that " it was with him as with organs
that lack blowing." His active career of mischief
was suspended, and the Duchess Eenee was left in
undisturbed possession of her castle.
The murder of the Duke had miserable conse-
quences on the cause of Protestantism in France.
Not only did a suspicion of complicity attach to the
great name of Coligny, but it awakened in the
Duchess of Guise and in her son an insatiable desire
for vengeance. Anna d'Este had been to some ex-
tent, during her husband's life, a moderating in-
fluence. Her brother-in-law the cardinal had said
roundly that he knew his sister-in-law was a Pro-
testant ; this probably meant no more than that she
had exhibited some pity and compassion for the
sufferings of Protestants; but after her husband's
290 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
murder she was a changed woman. Her one thought
was to avenge his death. The cruelty from which
she had formerly shrunk now became, she believed,
her duty. Her young son Henry, Duke of Guise,
she brought up with the idea that he was no true
son unless he dipped his hand into the blood of the
murderers of his father. The Catholic opinion of
the time judged Coligny to be guilty ; and the
hideous and revolting attack of the young Duke
upon the aged and wounded Coligny on St. Bar-
tholomew's Day, 1572, and the barbarous outrages
on the corpse, were doubtless excused in his own
eyes because they were perpetrated as revenge for
his father's death.
The Duchess of Guise became the leader of the
Roman Catholic ladies in the court. Her influence
was now always used to encourage greater cruelty
and ferocity towards the Huguenots. An undated
letter from Calvin to the Duchess Renee bears in-
ternal evidence that it was written shortly after the
murder of the Duke of Guise. In it Calvin beseeches
Renee to exert her influence with the Duchess of
Guise , that ' ' she may be induced ... to
moderate her passions, which she can only obey as
she does by fighting against God." He asserts that
Renee's daughter was joining herself with those who
were plotting " to exterminate all Christianity out
of the world." Calvin had consistently opposed all
acts of violence and bloodshed ; this gave him a
EENEE OF FRANCE. 291
strong moral position in attempting to check their
consequences. In particular he had reprobated any
murderous attempt on the life of the Duke of Guise.
"It was entirely owing to me," he wrote, "that
men of daring courage had not tried to rid the world
of him. They were held back solely by my exhorta-
tions.'' But, however free from blame himself,
his party had to reap the bitter harvest arising
from the violence and treachery of some of its mem-
bers. ' What's done cannot be undone " by all the
sorrows and tears in the world. Of course the
Huguenots had had hideous provocation ; but they
were standing for purer morals and a more spiritual
religion, and when they descended to treacherous
murder and to brutal and irreverent desecration of
altars, tombs, and the symbols of Catholic worship,
they fell from a greater height than when Roman
Catholics did similar things.
Kenee stands absolutely blameless in the matter
of the murder of the Duke of Guise. His death re-
lieved her from a dangerous and difficult position,
but she never condoned or excused it, and conse-
quently had to endure coldness and even bitter words
and false accusations from those enthusiastic Hugue-
nots who believed they could promote good by doing
evil. There is a long and terribly involved letter
from Eenee to Calvin on the whole matter of the
murder of the Duke and similar acts of violence.
In this letter she more or less defends the Duke,
292 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
saying that she knew he had protected the property
of Coligny from confiscation and his castle from sack
and pillage, and in other ways had shown humanity
superior to that of the bulk of his party. She urges
that even now, when he was dead, his enemies pur-
sued his memory with falsehood and slander.
" I must tell you," she naively says, " that I neither
hold nor consider [it possible] that such falsehoods pro-
ceed from God. I know that he did persecute, but I do
not know, neither do I believe, to express myself freely
to you, that he was a reprobate by Divine judgment.
For he gave signs to the contrary before he died. Only
people do not choose that it should be spoken of, and
there is a wish to shut and lock up the mouths of those
who know it. As for myself, I know that I have been
hated and held in abomination by many persons because
he was my son-in-law, on whom they wished to lay the
faults of all."
She reprobates the idea that the cause of God can
be served by acts of the devil. She states that Jeanne
D'Albret, Queen of Navarre, had in conversation
maintained a contrary view and had said that in
defence of the reformed religion all weapons, even
falsehood, were allowable.*
" Which view," continues the Duchess Rene"e, " I could
not but resist saying that God is not the father of lies,
but that it is the devil who is so ; and that God is the
God of truth, and that His word is powerful enough to
defend his own people, without our taking up the arms
*0ne would like to have heard Queen Jeanne's account of this
conversation before forming a judgment on her part in it. Renee's
report is not consistent with Jeanne's general character.
EENEE OF FRANCE. 293
of the devil and of his children. ... M. Calvin, I
am sorry you do not know how half the world conducts
itself in this kingdom nor the habits of ... ill-will
which prevail in it even to the exhorting of simple young
women to say that they should like to kill and strangle
with their own hands. That is not the rule which Jesus
Christ and His Apostles have given us : and I say it with
all the great regret of my heart on account of the affec-
tion which I feel to the religion and to those who bear
its title."
A modern soldier has described war as ' ' hell let
loose." How much the civil wars of religion in the
sixteenth century deserved such a description, this
letter of Kenee's vividly brings before us.
In 1565 the wife and mother of the murdered
Duke of Guise, attended by veiled women, all
dressed in the deepest mourning, and uttering cries
and groans, had flung themselves at the feet of
Charles IX. demanding " justice" upon the
murderers. The torture and final execution of Pol-
trot had not sated their desire for vengeance; they
were aiming at Coligny. However, an apparent
reconciliation took place in 1566 at Moulins.
Coligny then positively swore that he was neither
the author of the murder nor a consenting party to
it. The council declared him innocent. Where-
upon, by command of the King, a formal recon-
ciliation took place; the widow, Anna d'Este, and
Cardinal Guise embraced Admiral Coligny, and
promised no longer to bear malice in their hearts
294 FWE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
against him. It is to be noted, however, that the
young Henry, Duke of Guise, took no part in this
reconciliation, and refused to acknowledge the
verdict of the council. The marriage shortly after
this between the widowed Duchess of Guise and
Jacques of Savoy, Duke of Nemours, confirmed her
close future identification with the most vehement
section of the anti-Huguenot party. The Duke of
Nemours had been pledged to marry Franchise de
Rohan, a protestant and a near relative of Queen
Jeanne of Navarre. He threw her over and obtained
a papal dispensation, freeing him from the obliga-
tions into which he had entered with her. This was
to enable him to marry the Duchess of Guise.
Renee was not present at her daughter's second
marriage, and there is no record of her opinion upon
it. It deeply offended Queen Jeanne, who left the
court and endeavoured to extend protection and
friendship to the forsaken Mademoiselle de Rohan.
But little remains to be told of the life of the
Duchesse Renee. She continued in fairly frequent
correspondence with Calvin till his death at Geneva
in May, 1564. Her position towards the reformed
church is marked by Beza's dedication to her of his
edition of Calvin's shorter works, and his prefatory
letter addressed to the " tres illustre, et tres haute
Princesse, Ma Dame, Renee de France, Duchesse
de Ferrare et de Chartres."
France, now and for many years after Renee's
RENEE OF FRANCE. 295
death, was engulfed under the desolating waves of
civil war. During what remained to her of life, she
could do little beyond expressing her sympathy with
the reformed churches of Europe, and opening the
hospitable and protecting castle at Montargis to
refugees who were suffering for " the religion." A
cruel massacre of Huguenots at Orleans in 1569
caused a great flight thence, especially of women and
children, to Eenee's sheltering care. She proved
herself a guardian angel to 460 of these poor
creatures. It was her last remaining pleasure to
succour and defend them. Through the evil offices
of those who had the ear of the King in Paris, she
was ordered by her sovereign to turn her poor
pensioners away. She pleaded that she was too
nearly related to the crown to be ill-affected towards
it ; that the poor people within her walls were quite
harmless, meddling with nothing which could be
injurious to the welfare of the King or of the State.
But nothing she said produced any effect, and the
usually gentle Kenee burst into tears of rage, saying
to the messenger, " If I had on my chin what you
have on yours, I could kill you with my own hands."
Bitterly grieved as she was, she did not let her
fugitives go empty away. She provided them with
150 waggons, eight travelling coaches, and the
necessary number of horses and drivers. The feel-
ings of the refugees on leaving her may well be
imagined. They fully believed that they would be
296 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
overtaken and massacred; and at one moment in
their flight they all thought their hour had come ; a
troop of 200 armed horsemen was sent out by the
Catholic party to waylay and kill them ; the ministers
who acted as scouts perceived the approach of this
murderous band and were in the very act of exhort-
ing their poor pilgrims to die with courage, when
suddenly a rescue party of 800 Huguenot soldiers
appeared, who escorted Rente's fugitives in safety
to La Charite*. No doubt it was not long before
they contrived to let Renee hear of their marvellous
escape and new harbour of refuge.
A temporary peace was proclaimed in 1570. Some
important concessions were made to the Huguenots.
They were allowed liberty of worship in all the towns
then in their possession, and besides this in the
suburbs of two towns in each of the provinces of
France ; they were likewise granted an amnesty for
past offences, a right to admission to public office,
and permission to reside where they would. Four
towns, La Rochelle, La Charite, Cognac, and Mon-
tauban, were to be held by Huguenot troops for two
years as sureties for the carrying out of the fore-
going conditions. This peace was called " la paix
boiteuse et malassise," because of its two chief
negotiators one, Biron, was lame, and the other
bore the name of Malassise.
A Huguenot synod was called at La Rochelle in
the following year, whence Coligny was summoned
RENEE OF FRANCE. 297
to Blois, and later to Paris, by the young King, and
the events were put in train which culminated in
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
In the meantime, Duchess Eenee had much
trouble with the French court about the payment of
the dowry which had been settled on her at the
time of her marriage. Chartres, which had been
assigned to her with a revenue of 1,100 livres, she
declared cost her each year a much larger sum.
Gisors and Vernon had been made over to another
claimant. An attempt had been made to charge
on Renee's estates the repayment of the debts of
her late father, who had died some fifty years earlier.
" My daughter, De Nemours," as Eenee called her
in a long explanatory letter to her son, the Duke of
Ferrara, had exerted herself with much care and
diligence to recover the title deeds and papers which
would make good her mother's claim to the lands
and money settled on her at her marriage. Eenee
entreats Alfonso not to be dissatisfied with what
she is surrendering out of her property to the
Duchess of Nemours, and reminds him that the
terms which had been granted to her were due to
the favour his sister enjoyed at the court, and also
to her great personal exertions. The Duchess of
Nemours seems to have had a very good eye to the
main chance, but she never broke with her mother
or neglected her. The rest of EeneVs life was
spent at Montargis. She was safe in her castle
298 FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
when the tornado of St. Bartholomew broke over
Paris ; but her daughter and son-in-law and grand-
son had a large share of the blood-guiltiness of that
awful crime. Seventeen days after August 24th,
1572, the Duchess of Nemours wrote to her mother
from Paris a letter in which she observes that,
"Here things seem to be very peaceable, and no
murder is committed nor act of offence that I have
heard of continued to be done to any person."
She adds that the King was having lists made of
the names, titles, and residences of all who were of
"the religion," with prohibition to injure or
slander them. This was as if Herod had opened an
infant school after the massacre of the innocents.
The Duchess, continuing her letter, said, " Madame,
with regard to my health, it appears to me that for
three nights past I have had better rest than I have
been accustomed to, which has brought me much
amendment."
It was not many years after this that those
wonderful words were written :
" Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more."
The perpetual iteration in Macbeth that sleep could
not visit with its consoling, refreshing power, the
eyes that had gloated on the shedding of innocent
blood , seems almost foreshadowed in the cold , formal
words of Anna d'Este's letter. Poor woman, she
RENEE OF FRANCE. 299
was destined to drink to the dregs the bitter cup
which she had pressed so callously upon others. In
1588 her two sons were murdered at Blois by the
order of Henry III. , and she herself was brought to
the castle as a prisoner. It is said that her thoughts
then went back to her mother, and that she ex-
claimed, " mother! when your father built these
walls, you did not expect that my children would
have been hacked to pieces therein."
The Duchess Eenee died within less than three
years after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The
date of her death was June 12th, 1575. She was
only sixty-five; but she had never been a strong
woman, and the wars, tumults, and massacres
which darkened her later years made her an "old
woman before her time. She was buried in the
church belonging to the castle at Montargis, her
tomb bearing the simple inscription, with no refer-
ence to Ferrara :
" Rene"e de France, Duchesse de Chartres, Comtesse
de Gisors et Dame de Montargis."
I N DEX.
Alencon, Duke of (1429), 19, 22, 27,
33
, (1525), 71, 101, 108-112
Alexander VI., Pope, 57, 249
Alva, General, 228, 272
Amboise, Tumult of, 204, 276-279
Angouleme, Margaret of (tee
Margaret)
, Count of, 53
, Charles, Duke of, 78, 132,
137, 155
, Duchess of (see Louise of
Savoy)
Anne of Beaujeu, 53, 54, 248
Anne of Brittany, 55, 66, 248
Arc, Joan of (see Joan of Arc)
Armagnac, County of, 71, 72, 127
Bale, 99, 263
, Council of, 41
Bartholomew, Massacre of St.,
225, 232, 242, 297, 298
, , , joy caused in
Rome by, 243, 244
Baudricourt, Captain, 13-15
Beaufort, Cardinal, 31, 41, 42
Beaujeu, Anne of (see Anne)
Beauvais, Bishop of, 38, 41, 45
Be"da, Noel, 86, 87
Bedford, John, Duke of, 31
Bellay, Jean du, 82, 99
, Guillaume du, 159
Berquin, Louis de, 76, 81, 87, 89-91,
94, 95, 100
B<za, Theodore, 87, 207, 216, 217,
220, 223, 285-287, 294
Boleyn, Sir Thomas, 106
, Anne, 128, 142, 283, 284
Borgia, Caesar, 249
, Lucrezia, 214, 251
, Eoderigo (see Alexander VI.)
Bourbon, Cardinal of, 205, 208,
209. 226, 227
, Antony of, King of Navarre,
163, 187. 191-196, 200-224, 227,
285
, Catherine of, daughter of
Jeanne d'Albret. 206, 233, 239.
240
, Charles of Montpensier,
Duke of (see Montpensier)
, Louis of (see Conde")
, Susanne, Duchess of, 104
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suf-
folk, 68-70
Brittany, 57, 72, 248
Bud<, 81, 82, 99
Burgundy, Duke of, 11, 32
Calvin, 99, 141, 217, 255, 258, 259,
261-265, 271, 273, 289, 294
Cambray, Treaty of, 135
Catherine de Medici, 142, 163, 178,
185, 186, 199. 200, 203-211, 213,
215, 217. 227-229, 235-241. 279,
281-284
Catherine of Bourbon (set Bour-
bon)
Cellini, Benvenuto, 108
Charles V., Emperor, 58, 61, 62, 66,
74, 75, 94, 106, 107, 113, 130, 143,
159, 160, 174, 180, 183, 184, 197,
256
Charles VII. of France, 9, 10, 16-
18, 20, 29, 32, 42
depicted by Shake-
speare, 17 (note)
VIII. of France, 53-56, 248
IX. of France, 209, 211, 228.
234, 236, 240-242, 287, 288, 293
Chatillon, Madame de, 70, 75
Chinon, Castle of, 16, 18, 56
Civil wars in France (see France)
Claude, Queen, 58-61, 66, 76, 137,
249
Clement VII., Pope, 144
Cleves, Catherine of, 235
, Duke of, 102, 133, 154, 179-
185, 214
, Anne of, 179
Coligny, Francis d'Andelot, 277
, Gaspard, Admiral of
France, 225, 232, 237, 238, 240-
244, 277, 280, 292, 293, 296
, Odet, Cardinal, 277
College de France, 82-84
Compiegne, 35, 36
Concordat, The (1515), 96
Conde, Henry of Bourbon, Prince
of, 227, 230, 237, 242
, Louis of Bourbon, Prince
of, 200, 202, 204-210, 224, 227,
230, 277, 280, 286
, Princess, 205
Cop, Nicholas, 141, 263
Crespy, Treaty of, 159
Dauphin, son of Charles VIII.,
Death of, 55
-, Francis I., Death of,
145, 185
De Ge"lais, 56
De Gy6 (see Gye~)
" Devices," Use of, 144
Diana of Poitiers, 155, 163, 186,
266
Domremy, 11, 28
Dunois, 24, 25
Eleanor of Portugal, 122, 135-137
Elector of Saxony, 85, 87
Elizabeth de Valois, Queen of
Spain, 198
, Queen of England, 141, 221,
223, 227, 236, 280-283
Erasmus, 81-83, 87, 113, 263
Este, Anna d' (see Guise)
, Alfonso d', Duke of Ferrara,.
256
, , (son of Rene"e),
271, 274, 275
, Ercole d', Duke of Ferrara,
251-253, 256
. Ippolito d', the Cardinal,
214, 215
" Estrapade," Use of, 92
302
FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Fannio, martyr, 267, 268
Ferrara, Duchess of ( JJ,ene"e)
. Duchy of, 252
, Duke of (see Bate)
, Persecution of Protestants
in. 267, 276
Foix, Gaston de, 70
France, Civil wars in, 221, 224, 234,
295
Francis de Paule, 55, 73
Francis I.: birth, 54, 59; be-
trothal, 60, 61; youth, 70;
marriage to Princess Claude,
72; becomes king, 68, 249;
Italian campaign, 62-64; a
candidate for the empire, 74;
field of the Cloth of Gold, 104 ;
death of first wife, 77; chil-
dren, 77, 78; defeated at
Pavia, 108-112; imprisoned in
Spain, 112; signs a deed of
abdication, 121; signs Treaty
of Madrid, 122: sons given as
hostages, 94, 122, 126; returns
to France, 127; his treachery,
102, 125, 129, 145, 147; protects
learning and the Reforma-
tion, 79, 82; loses sympathy
with the Reformation, 92, 97,
98; marries Eleanor of Por-
tugal, 122, 135; hatred of
Charles V., 137; challenges
Charles to fight a duel. 129;
devotion to his sister, 94, 135 ;
separates Jeanne from her
parents, 102, 172; death of
eldest, son, 145: alliance with
the ^Sultan, 145-147; sanctions
the massacre of the Vaudois,
160 ; death. 160-162. 263
Francis II., 186, 198, 205, 208, 209,
280
Froben, John, 263
Ge-lais, de, 56
Geneva, 99
Gerson, 29
Guelderland, Duchy of, 180, 181
Guise, Anna d'Este, Duchess of.
188, 201, 255, 267, 278, 279, 287
289, 293, 294, 297-299
, Charles of Lorraine, Car-
dinal, 196, 202, 216, 279, 293
, Francis of Lorraine, Duke
of, 187. 188, 196, 201, 215, 223,
224, 267, 272, 278, 280, 285-289
, Henry of Lorraine, Duke of,
225, 235, 236, 241, 289, 294, 298
Guises, the, 161, 196, 198, 200, 201,
203, 207, 209, 211, 213, 219
Gy6, de. Marshal. 59, 60
Henry d'Albret, King of Navarre.
128, 130-132, 149, 162, 171, 177,
189, 191
Henry VI. of England, 17, 31, 42
Henry VIII. of England. 66, 67, 74,
105, 128. 142, 159, 160, 179. 249,
250, 283
Henry II. of France, sometime
Duke of Orleans, and Dau-
phin, 142, 155, 161, 163, 185,
186. 191, 198, 200, 266, 268, 269.
274
Henry III. of France, 186, 235, 241,
299
Henry IV. of France. 173, 190,
222, 227, 228-232, 23^, 24{-242
Heptameron, The, 134, 154-158
Hopital, Michel de 1', 211
Image, Desecration of, in Paris,
92
Isabel d'Albret, Viscountess de
Rohan (see Rohan)
Isabella of Portugal, 118
Isambard, 41, 46
Jarnac, Battle of. 230
Jean de Ligny, 42
Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Na-
varre, 173-244; birth, 132, 176;
brought up at Plessis-les-
Tours, 177; unhappy child-
hood, 179; enforced marriage
to Duke of Cleves, 102. 133.
152, 179-185; her vehement re-
sistance, 180-185 ; marriage
annulled, 163, 184; marries
Antony of Bourbon, 163, 187;
visits Be"arn, 188; birth and
death of two sons, 189; birth
of Henry of Navarre, 190;
succeeds her father as sove-
reign, 191 ; rejects proposal to
exchange Navarre for other
provinces, 192, 193; interest
in the Reformation, 194; does
homage to the Pope for her
kingdom, 199; threatened
by Spanish invasion and
strengthens her fortresses,
201, 206; her daughter, Ma-
dame Catherine, 206, 239; re-
vokes permission given to
Calvinist ministers to preach,
except in B6arn, 207; joins
the reformed church, 212;
faithlessness of her husband,
213 ; breach with her husband,
214-220; separated from her
son, 221, 227; champions the
Reformation with vigour, 22
226 ; death of husband, 223,
224; alleged attitude regard-
ing the murder of the Duke
of Guise, 292; carries out re-
forms in B6arn, 225; resists
the establishment of the In-
quisition, 226; excommuni-
cated, 227; regains possession
of her son, 228; trains him to
arms, 229-232; her eloquence,
229-231 ; has medal struck, 232 :
protects Mdlle. de Rohan, 294;
her recreations, 233; forebod-
ings concerning her son's
marriage, 236; illness and
death, 239; suspicions of
poison, 239
Joan of Arc, 3-50; birth, 11;
father, 11, 13, 14, 30; voices
INDEX.
3<>3
and visions, 12, 28, 35, 39, 43;
encounters family opposition,
13, 14; helped by her uncle, 14,
15; first interview with
Charles VII., 18, 19; raises the
siege of Orleans, 16, 24-27;
Queens believe in. her, 19, 21;
wears a man's dress, 21, 39;
44, 45; fights in Paris, 32;
taken prisoner, 35; trial at
Rouen, 38-47; death, 46;
Shakespeare and Voltaire on,
48, 49
John of Gaunt, 31
Ladies' Peace (see Cambray)
La Noue, 234
Lannoy, Marquis of, 109
Lautrec, 64
Laval, Guy de, 23
Laxart, Durant, 14, 15
League, Catholic, 228, 240
Lefevre, 76, 137, 138
Lemaitre, 41
Ligny, Jean de, 42
Limaudiere, Mdlle. de la (la belle
Rouet), 213, 218, 222
Lohier, lawyer, 40
Louis XII., 54; joy upon death of
Dauphin, 55; divorces his first
wife, 56, 248; marries Anne of
Brittany, 57; parsimony, 65;
marries Mary Tudor, 67;
death, 72
Louise of Savoy, 53-140; journal,
59-64, 74, 75; diverts funds
from French army in Italy,
62; betrays Semblancai, 63;
made Regent, 88, 104, 121; re-
lations with Montpensier, 105-
108; receives news of disaster
of Pavia, 109; shows courage
and resource, 110; but always
unscrupulous, 124; meanness,
62-64/95, 137; persecutes re-
formers, 89; negotiates treaty
of Cambray, 135; illness and
death, 138-140 ; chronological
tables of events in life, 167
Ludovico Sforza, il moro, 109
Luther, 85, 87
Madrid, Treaty of, 122, 125, 127,
136, 145
Malicorne, Sieur de, 288-289
Manchon, 40
Margaret of Angouleme, Duchess
of Ale"ncon and Queen of Na-
varre, 53-170; birth, 54; child-
hood, 64; marriage with the
Duke of Alencon, 71; interest
in the Reformation, 75, 79,
81; and devotion to learning,
82; protects reformers, 90,
137; virtual Queen of France,
76; becomes Duchess of Berry,
82; and Countess of Armag-
nac, 127; educates poor scho-
lars, 82; founds the College de
France, 82; slavish dr"otion
to her brother. 71. 101, 103,
154, 166, 176; tender love for
his children, 132; prefers
them to her own, 100, 132;
attacked by Sorbonne, the
University of Paris, and Col-
lege de Navarre, 86, 141; at-
tacked by Montmorency, 93,
94; receives news of disaster
of Pavia, 109; death of Duke
of Alencon, 112; mission to
Madrid, 116-124; dislike of
Charles V., 119; offered in
marriage to Charles V., 118;
and to Henry VIII., 128, 250;
marries the King of Navarre,
98, 128; birth of daughter.
132, 176; birth and death of
other children, 134; writes
'Mirror of a Sinful Soul,"
84, 141 ; and the Heptamerou,
134, 154-158; cruelty to her
daughter, 103, 133, 182; Bran-
tome's anecdotes, 123, 149-
152; life at Nerac, 138. 147-149;
motto and device, 144; death
165; chronological table, 167-
170
Margaret of Valois (la reine Mar-
got), 235, 236, 241
Marot, Clement, 165, 217, 255, 257
Mary, Queen of Scots, 197 204
209, 210, 214
Mary Tudor, Queen of England,
,
Massieu, 41, 45, 46
Maximilian, Emperor, 58, 59, 74
Medici, Catherine de (see
Catherine)
Melancthon, Philip, 84, 85, 159
Melville, Sir James, 210
Metz, Jean de, 16
Milan, 64, 70, fr)5
"Mirror of a Sinful Soul," 84,
141
Modena, 254
Montargis, Castle of, 284, 286, 288,
295, 299
Montmorency, Anne of, Constable
of France, 70, 93, 95, 121, 137,
140, 141, 153, 161, 163, 183, 215
Montpensier, Charles of, Duke
of Bourbon, Constable of
France, 64, 70, 104-8
Morata, Fulvio, 255
, Olympia, 255, 267
More, Sir Thomas, 81, 82
Navarre, Henry d'Albret, King of
(see Henry d'Albret)
Navarre, Henry, King of, after-
wards Henry IV. of France
(see Henry IV.)
Navarre, Spanish provinces of,
102, 145, 174, 178. 199
Nemours, Duke of, 294
, Duchess of (tee Guise, Anna
d'Este)
Ochino, Bernardino, 81, 255
304
FIVE FAMOUS FRENCH WOMEN.
Orleans. Siege of (1429), 16, 2224-27
, (1563), 225
, University of, 262
, French court at, 205, 279
, Death of Francis II. at, 209,
280
, Assassination of Duke of
Guise at, 225, 289
, Duke of (see Henry II. and
Louis XII.)
Ory, Matthieu, 268
Paris, held by the English, 17, 31,
, University of (see Uni-
versity)
Paule, Francis of (see Francis)
Pavia, 88, 97, 100-130, 251
Philip II. of Spain, 133, 177, 197,
198, 201, 215, 243, 272
" Placards," Affair of the, 97
Plessis-les-Tours, 133, 177-181
Poissy, Colloquy of, 216
Poitiers, 8, 20
, Diana of (see Diana)
Poltrot, murderer of the Duke of
Guise, 225, 289
Poulengy, 16
Queen of Navarre (see Margaret
of Angouleme and Jeanne
d'Albret)
Queens protect Joan of Arc, 19, 21
Quentin. St. (see St. Quentin)
Rabelais, 111, 255, 257
Eansom of the young princes, 95;
attempt to pay, in debased
coin, 96, 130, 136
Reform movement in Europe, 81;
reaction against, 92, 97-99
Rene of France, Duchess of Fer-
rara, 247-299; birth, 66; child-
hood, 77; offers of marriage,
105, 251; marriage, 251; court
at Ferrara, 151, 255; interest
in the Refprmation, 194, 252-
256, and in learning, 255;
patriotic Frenchwoman, 252,
272, 273; appearance and cha-
racter, 252-255; protected by
her father-in-law, 256; hus-
band's accession, 256; French
attendants dismissed, 257 ;
visited by Calvin, 258; corre-
spondence with Calvin, 273;
domestic difficulties, 259-261;
children, 259, 260; visit from
Pope, 260 ; a Calvinist, but not
openly, 259, 264; loses protec-
tors through death of Francis
I. and Margaret, Queen of
Navarre, 266; daughter mar-
ries Duke of Guise, 267 ; Henry
II. advises her imprisonment,
269; is imprisoned, 270; she
abjures and is released, 271;
domestic situation improved,
271, 272; death of husband,
274; becomes Regent till re-
turn of son, 275; papal pre
sure renewed, 275; quits Fe.
rara for France, 275-276; join
French court at Orleans, 279
interview with English an
bassador, 280-283; installed a
Montargis as governor o
castle, 284; has charge o
Henry of Navarre during par
of his childhood, 222; Duke o
Guise attempts to turn hei
out of Montargis, 288; hei
vigorous resistance, 288; sh<
protects Protestants, 256, 259
288, 295; murder of her son-
in-law, the Duke of Guise,
289, 291, 292; financial difficul-
ties, 297; assisted by her
daughter, 297; death, 299
Rheims, Coronation of Charles
VII. at, 9, 10, 16, 20, 27, 29
Rohan, Isabel, Viscountess of,
178
, Francoise, 178-179, 294
Rome, Rejoicings in, for the mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew, 243
Rouen, 38, 42
Rouet, La belle (fee Limaudiere)
St. Andre", Marshal, 215
St. Bartholomew, Massacre of
(see Bartholomew)
St. Quentin, Battle of, 272, 277
Savoy, Louise, of (see Louise)
Semblancai, 62, 63
Shakespeare on Joan of Arc, 48,
49
Sicily, Queen of, 19
Silly, Madame de, 133, 177, 181,
189
Sorbonne. The, 79, 83, 141
Soubise, Madame de, 252, 257
Spanish provinces of Navarre
(see Navarre)
Suffolk, Duke of (see Brandon)
Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas, 202,
280-283
Tournon, Cardinal, 87, 159
Triumvirate, The, 215
Turks, Alliance of Francis I.
with, 145-147; besiege Vienna,
146
University of Paris, 9, 36, 37, 48,
79, 83, 141
of Poitiers, 20
Vassy, Massacre of, 285
Vaucouleurs, 13, 14, 16, 29
Vaudois, Massacre of the, 85,
158-160
Vendome, Duke of (see Bourbon,
Antony of)
Venetian ambassador on Concor-
dat, 96
Voltaire on Joan of Arc, 49
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 238
Warwick, Earl of, 42, 45
Wolsey, Cardinal, 73, 250, 283
Worcester, Earl of, 73
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