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Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
1980
1
THE LIFE
OF
MARIE DE MEDICIS
QUEEN OF FRANCE
Marie de Medicis
Second Queen of Henry IV. of France
The Life f
of #
'Marie De Medicis
Queen of France, Consort of
Henri IV., and Regent of the
Kingdom under Louis XIII.
By
Julia Pardoe
Volume I.
London : Samuel Bagster & Sons Limited
V.)
TO
MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BECKET
(OF HEVER COURT, KENT)
Cbese Dolumes
ARE VERY AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
ALL the existing records of European royalty do
not, probably, comprise the annals of a life of
greater vicissitude than that which has been chosen
as the subject of the present work. We find numer-
ous examples in history of Queens who have suffered
exile, imprisonment, and death ; but we believe that
the unfortunate Marie de Medicis is the only authenti-
cated instance of a total abandonment on the part
alike of her family and friends, which terminated al-
most in starvation. Certain it is that after having
occupied the throne of France, presided over its
Councils, and given birth to the ancestor of a long
line of Princes, she was ultimately indebted to the
sympathy and attachment of a foreign artist, of whom
she had once been the zealous patron, for a roof under
which to terminate her miserable existence ! The
whole life of this ill-fated Queen is, indeed, full of
startling contrasts from which the mind shrinks back
appalled; and her entire career is so freighted with
alternate grandeur and privation that it is difficult to
reconcile the possibility of their having fallen to the
share of the same individual ; and this too in an age
vii
viii Preface to the First Edition
when France, above all other nations, boasted of its
chivalry, and when some of the greatest names that
have ever figured in its annals gave grace and glory
to its history.
The times were, moreover, as remarkable as the
men by whom they were illustrated ; for despite the
civil and foreign wars by which they were so unhappily
distinguished, the arts flourished, and the spread of
political liberty became apparent; although it is
equally certain that they were at the same time fatal
alike to the aristocracy and to the magistrature ; and
that they rapidly paved the way to the absolutism of
Louis XIV., to the shameless saturnalia of the Re-
gency, and to the dishonouring and degrading ex-
cesses of Louis XV., who may justly be said to have
prepared by his licentiousness the scaffold of his
successor.
During several centuries the French monarchs had
indulged in a blind egotism, which rendered them
unable to appreciate the effects of their own errors
upon their subjects. L'ETAT C'EST MOI had unfortu-
nately been practically their ruling principle long ere
Louis XIV. ventured to put it into words. To them the
Court was the universe, the aristocracy the nation, and
the Church the corner-stone of the proud altar upon
which they had enthroned themselves, and beyond
which they cared not either to look or listen. A fatal
mistake fatally expiated ! Yet, as we have already re-
marked, the system, dangerous and hollow as it was,
endured for centuries endured until crime was
heaped on crime, and the fearful holocaust towered
towards Heaven as if to appeal for vengeance. And
Preface to the First Edition ix
that vengeance came ! It had been long delayed ; so
long indeed that when the brilliant courtiers of Ver-
sailles were told of disaffection among the masses,
and warned to conciliate ere it was too late the good-
will of their inferiors, they listened with contemptuous
carelessness to the tardy caution, and scorned to place
themselves in competition with those untitled classes
whom they had long ceased to regard as their fellow-
men. But the voice of the people is like the stroke
of the hammer upon the anvil; it not only makes
itself heard, but, however great may be the original
resistance, finishes by fashioning the metal upon
which it falls after its own will.
During the reign of Louis XIII. this great and fatal
truth had not yet been impressed upon the French
nation, for the popular voice was stifled beneath the
ukase of despotism ; and even the tiers-etat impor-
tant as the loyalty of that portion of a kingdom must
ever be to its rulers were treated with disdain and
contumely ; but beneath all the workings of his gov-
ernment (or rather the government of his minister, for
the son of Marie de Medicis was a monarch only in
name), may be traced the undercurrent of popular in-
dignation and discontent, which, gradually swelling
and rising during the two succeeding reigns, finally
overthrew with its giant waves the last frail barrier
which still upreared itself before a time-honoured
throne.
The incapacity of the King, the venality of the
Princes, the arrogance of the hierarchy, the insubordi-
nation of the nobles, the licentiousness of the Court,
the despotism of the Government ; all the errors and
x Preface to the First Edition
all the vices of their rulers, were jealously noted and
bitterly registered by an oppressed and indignant
people; but it required time to shake off a yoke
which had been so long borne that it had eaten into
the flesh ; nor, moreover, were the minds of the
masses in that age sufficiently awakened to a sense of
their own collective power to enable them, as they did
in the following century, to measure their strength
with those upon whom they had been so long accus-
tomed to look with fear and awe.
There cannot, moreover, exist the slightest doubt
that the wantonness with which Richelieu, in further-
ance of his own private interests, poured out so freely
on the scaffold some of the proudest blood of France,
did much towards destroying that prestige which had
hitherto environed the high nobility. When Biron
perished upon the block, although his death was
decreed by the sovereign, and that sovereign, more-
over, was their own idolised Henri IV., the people
marvelled and even murmured; but in after-years
they learned through the teaching of the Cardinal that
nobles were merely men ; while the exile of the perse-
cuted Marie de Medicis, and the privations to which
she was exposed through his agency, taught them
that even royalty itself was not invulnerable to the
malice or vengeance of its opponents ; and unhappily
for those by whom Richelieu was succeeded in power,
the lesson brought forth its fruits in due season.
Thus much premised, I shall confine myself to a
brief explanation of the manner in which I have en-
deavoured to perform my self-imposed task. For one
wilful, but as I trust excusable, inaccuracy, I throw
Preface to the First Edition xi
myself on the indulgence of my critics. Finding my
pages already overloaded with names, and that they
must consequently induce a considerable strain upon
the memory of such readers as might not chance to be
intimately acquainted with the domestic history of the
period under consideration, I have, from the com-
mencement of the work, designated the Due de Sully
by the title which he ultimately attained, and by
which he is universally known, rather than confuse
the mind of my readers by allusions to M. de Bethune,
M. de Rosny, and finally M. de Sully, when each and
all merely signified the same individual ; and I feel
persuaded that this arrangement will be generally re-
garded as a judicious one, inasmuch as it tends to
lessen a difficulty already sufficiently great; a fact
which will be at once apparent on reference to the
biographical table at the head of each volume.
On the other hand I have, contrary to my previous
system, but in justice to myself, carefully, and even
perhaps somewhat elaborately, multiplied the footnotes,
in order to give with precision the several authorities
whence I deduced my facts ; and I must be excused
should this caution appear uselessly tedious or pe-
dantic to the general reader, as I am anxious on this
occasion to escape the accusation which was once
brought against me when it was equally undeserved, of
having " quoted at second-hand," and even drawn my
materials from " historical romances of the time." It
is, of course, easy to make assertions of this nature at
random ; but when a writer feels that he or she has
conscientiously performed a duty voluntarily under-
taken, it is painful to be misjudged ; especially when,
xii Preface to the First Edition
as in the present instance, nearly three years have
been devoted to the work.
For the facsimile letters by which my volumes are
enriched I am indebted to the kindness of M. de la
Plane, a member of the Institut Royal de France, of
whose extensive and valuable cabinet of ancient
records they now form a part ; and by whom their
publication was obligingly authorised. The authen-
ticity of these letters admits of no doubt, as it is
known that they originally formed a portion of the
rich collection of autographs in the possession of the
Marechal de Bassompierre, to whom they were sever-
ally addressed ; and that at his death they were trans-
ferred to the library of the Fathers of the Oratory at
St. Magloire in Paris ; whence (it is believed at the
Revolution) they fell into the hands of a member of
that celebrated society, Le Pere de Mevolhon, for-
merly Canon and Vicar-General of the diocese of St.
Omer, by whom they were presented to M. de la
Plane.
At the time when he so kindly entrusted to me the
letters above named, the same obliging friend also
confided to my care, with full permission to make
whatever use of it I should see fit, an unpublished MS.
consisting of nearly twelve thousand pages closely
written, and divided into twenty-four volumes small
quarto, all undeniably the work of one hand. This
elaborate MS. was entitled " Memoirs of M. le Com-
mandeur de Rambure, Captain of the regiment of
French Guards, Gentleman of the Bedchamber under
the Kings Henri IV., Louis XIII. , and Louis XIV. sur-
named the Great, with all the most memorable events
Preface to the First Edition xiii
which took place during the reigns of those three
Majesties, from the year 1594 to that of 1660."
The author of this voluminous MS., who, at the age
of eighty-one, inscribes his work to his uncle, Mon-
seigneur de Rambure, Bishop of Vannes, and who
professes to have ventured thus tardily upon his Her-
culean undertaking at the request, and for the instruc-
tion, of his nephew the Marquis de Rambure, lays
strict injunctions upon his successors to keep the
record of his life to themselves ; alleging as his reason
a dread of injuring by his revelations the interests of
the young courtier, who had succeeded to his own
post of Gentleman of the Bedchamber ; " and that,"
as he proceeds to say, " to the greatest King in the
world, by whom he has the honour to be loved and
esteemed ; therefore I pray you that this writing may
never be printed, in order not to make him enemies,
who are too ready to come without being sought by
our imprudence ; and because I have only composed
these Memoirs for myself and my kindred." *
The author states that the work is not in his own
handwriting, but in that of his secretary, to whom he
dictated during eleven years four hours each day, two
in the morning, and two in the afternoon and that
he commenced his formidable task in the year 1664,
* This curious manuscript is at present the property of the Comte
d'Inguimbert d'Avignon ; who, having lost his father at an early age,
is not aware of the precise manner in which it fell into the possession
of his family. Thus much, however, is certain, that it has for a con-
siderable length of time been religiously preserved by his ancestors ;
and that the Countess his mother (sister of the last Comte de Bruges,
aide-de-camp to Charles X.), who died a few years ago at an advanced
age, had never ventured, in obedience to the injunction above men-
tioned, to entrust it to any one. J. P.
xiv Preface to the First Edition
when he was living in retirement in his Commanderie
of St. Eugene in Limousin ; and, despite his advanced
age, " in possession of all his faculties as perfectly as
when he had only reached his twenty-fifth year."
It is but recently that the present proprietor of the
Memoirs, rightly judging that the time has elapsed in
which the disclosures of the chronicler in question
could conduce to the injury of any one connected
with him, has consented to permit of their perusal ;
and that only by a few literary friends, all of whom
have been astonished by their extraordinary variety of
information, marvellous detail, and intimate acquaint-
ance, not only with the principal events of the seven-
teenth century (the writer having lived to the patri-
archal age of ninety-six years), but also with the lead-
ing actors in each of them.
In conclusion, I may say that these volumes are,
through the kindness of MM. d'Inguimbert and de la
Plane, enriched by numerous curious extracts from
these unpublished Memoirs, no part of which has pre-
viously appeared in print.
LONDON, May, 1852.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
BOOK I
MARIE DE MEDICIS AS QUEEN
CHAPTER I
1572-99
Marriages of Henri IV. Marguerite de Valois Her Character
Her Marriage with the King of Navarre Massacre of Saint
Bartholomew Henri, Due d'Anjou, Elected Sovereign of Po-
land Death of Charles IX. Accession of Henri III. Con-
spiracy of the Due d'Alencon Revealed by Marguerite Henry
of Navarre Escapes from the French Court Henry of Navarre
Protests Against His Enforced Oath Marguerite is Imprisoned
by Her Brother The Due d'Alencon Returns to His Allegiance
Marguerite Joins Her Husband in Beam Domestic Discord
Marriage-Portion of Marguerite Court of Navarre Dupin
Insults the Queen of Navarre Catherine de Medicis Induces
Marguerite to Return to France The Due d'Alencon Again
Revolts Marguerite Arrests a Royal Courier She is Banished
with Ignominy from the French Court She is Deprived of Her
Attendants Henry of Navarre Refuses to Receive Her in the
Palace Marguerite Returns to Agen Her Licentiousness
Agen is Stormed and Taken by the Marshal de Matignon
Marguerite Escapes to the Fortress of Carlat The Inhabitants
of the Town Resolve to Deliver Her up to the French King
She is made Prisoner by the Marquis de Canillac, and Conveyed
to Usson She Seduces the Governor of the Fortress Death of
xvi Contents
the Due d'Alencon Poverty of Marguerite Accession of
Henri IV. He Embraces the Catholic Faith His Dissipated
Habits The Due de Bouillon Heads the Huguenot Party
Henri IV. Proceeds to Brittany, and Threatens M. de Bouillon
Festivities at Rennes Henri IV. Becomes Melancholy
He Resolves to Divorce Marguerite, and Take a Second Wife
European Princesses Henry Desires to Marry La Belle
Gabrielle Sully Expostulates Sully Proposes a Divorce to
Marguerite The Duchesse de Beaufort Intrigues to Prevent
the Marriage of the King with Marie de Medicis She Bribes
Sillery Diplomacy of Sillery Gabrielle Aspires to the Throne
of France Her Death Marguerite Consents to a Divorce
The Pope Declares the Nullity of Her Marriage Grief of the
King at the Death of Gabrielle Royal Pleasures A New
Intrigue Mademoiselle d'Entragues Her Tact Her Char-
acter A Love-Messenger Value of a Royal Favourite Costly
Indulgences A Practical Rebuke Diplomacy of Mademoiselle
d'Entragues The Written Promise Mademoiselle d'Entragues
is Created Marquise de Verneuil 3
CHAPTER II
1599-1601
Sully Resolves to Hasten the King's Marriage Ambassadors are
Sent to Florence to Demand the Hand of Marie de Medicis
The Marriage Articles are Signed Indignation of Madame de
Verneuil Revenge of Her Brother, the Comte d'Auvergne
The Duke of Savoy Visits Paris His Reception His Pro-
fusion His Mission Fails Court Poets Marie de Medicis is
Married to the French King by Procuration at Florence Hos-
tile Demonstrations of the Duke of Savoy Infatuation of the
King for the Favourite Her Pretensions A Well-Timed
Tempest Diplomacy of Madame de Verneuil Her Reception
at Lyons War in Savoy Marie de Medicis Lands at Marseilles
Madame de Verneuil Returns to Paris The Due de Belle-
garde is Proxy for the King at Florence He Escorts the New
Queen to France Portrait of Marie de Medicis Her State-
Galley Her Voyage Her reception Henry reaches Lyons
The Royal Interview Public Rejoicings The Royal Marriage
Contents xvii
Henry Returns to Paris The Queen's Jealousy is Awa-
kened Profligate Habits of the King Marie's Italian Attend-
ants Embitter Her Mind Against Her Husband Marie Reaches
Paris She Holds a Court Presentation of Madame de Ver-
neuil to the Queen Indignation of Marie Disgrace of the
Duchesse de Nemours Self-possession of Madame de Verneuil
Marie Takes Possession of the Louvre She Adopts the
French Costume Splendour of the Court Festival Given by
Sully A Practical Joke Court Festivities Excessive Gam-
blingRoyal Play Debts The Queen's Favourite A Petticoat
Intrigue Leonora Galigai Appointed Mistress of the Robes
Reconciliation Between the Queen and Madame de Verneuil
The King Gives the Marquise a Suite of Apartments in the
Louvre Her Rivalry of the Queen Indignation of Marie
Domestic Dissensions The Queen and the Favourite are Again
at War Madame de Verneuil Effects the Marriage of Concini
and Leonora Gratitude of the Queen Birth of the Dauphin
Joy of the King Public Rejoicings Birth of Anne of Aus-
tria Superstitions of the Period Belief in Astrology A Royal
Anecdote Horoscope of the Dauphin The Sovereign and the
Surgeon Birth of Gaston Henri, Son of Madame de Verneuil
Public Entry of the Dauphin Into Paris Exultation of Marie
de Medicis . . - . . 63
CHAPTER III
1602
Court Festivities The Queen's Ballet A Gallant Prelate A
Poetical Almoner Insolence of the Royal Favourite Unhappi-
ness of the Queen Weakness of Henry Intrigue of Madame
de Villars The King Quarrels with the Favourite They are
Reconciled Madame de Villars is Exiled, and the Prince de
Joinville Sent to Join the Army in Hungary Mortification of
the Queen Her Want of Judgment New Dissension in the
Royal Menage Sully Endeavours to Restore Peace Madem-
oiselle de Sourdis The Court Removes to Blois Royal Rup-
ture A Bewildered Minister Marie and Her Foster-Sister
Conspiracy of the Dues de Bouillon and de Biron Parallel
Between the Two Nobles The Comte d'Auvergne Ingrati-
xviii Contents
tude of Biron He is Betrayed His Arrogance He is Sum-
moned to the Capital to Justify Himself He Refuses to Obey
the Royal Summons Henry Sends a Messenger to Command
His Presence at Court Precautionary Measures of Sully The
President Jeannin Prevails Over the Obstinacy of Biron
Double Treachery of La Fin The King Endeavours to Induce
Biron to Confess His Crime Arrest of the Due de Biron and the
Comte d'Auvergne The Royal Soiree A Timely Caution
Biron is Made Prisoner by Vitry, and the Comte d'Auvergne by
Praslin They are Conveyed Separately to the Bastille Exulta-
tion of the Citizens Firmness of the King Violence of Biron
Tardy RepentanceTrial of Biron A Scene in the Bastille
Condemnation of the Duke He is Beheaded The Subordi-
nate Conspirators are Pardoned The Due de Bouillon Retires
to Turenne Refuses to Appear at Court Execution of the
Baron de Fontenelles A Salutary Lesson The Comte d'Au-
vergne is Restored to Liberty Revolt of the Prince de Join-
ville He is Treated with Contempt by the King He is Im-
prisoned by the Due de Guise Removal of the Court to Fon-
tainebleau Legitimation of the Son of Madame de Verneuil
Unhappiness of the Queen She is Consoled by Sully Birth
of the Princesse Elisabeth de France Disappointment of the
Queen Sceur Ange 126
CHAPTER IV
1603-4
Court Festivities Madame de Verneuil is Lodged in the Palace
She Gives Birth to a Daughter Royal Quarrels Madem-
oiselle de Guise Italian Actors Revolt at Metz Henry Pro-
ceeds Thither and Suppresses the Rebellion Discontent of
the Due d'Epernon The Duchesse de Bar and the Due de
Lorraine Arrive in France Illness of Queen Elisabeth of Eng-
land Her Death Indisposition of the French King Sully
at Fontainebleau Confidence of Henri IV. in His Wife His
Recovery Renewed Passion of Henry, for Madame de Ver-
neuil Anger of the Queen Quarrel of the Comte de Soissons
and the Due de Sully The Edict Treachery of Madame de
Verneuil Insolence of the Comte de Soissons A Royal Re-
bukeAlarm of Madame de Verneuil Hopes of the Queen
Contents xix
Jealousy of the Marquis The Dinner at Rosny The King
Pacifies the Province of Lower Normandy The Comte de-
Soissons Prepares to Leave the Kingdom Is Dissuaded by the
King Official Apology of Sully Reception of Alexandre-
Monsieur into the Order of the Knights of Malta Death of
the Duchesse de Bar Grief of the King The Papal Nuncio
Treachery Near the Throne A Revelation The Due de
Villeroy A Stormy Audience Escape of L'Hote His Pur-
suit His Death Ignominious Treatment of His Body Ma-
dame de Verneuil Asserts Her Claim to the Hand of the King
The Comte d'Auvergne Retires from the Court Madame de
Verneuil Requests Permission to Quit France Reply of the
King Indignation of Marie The King Resolves to Obtain
the Written Promise of Marriage Insolence of the Favourite
Weakness of Henry He Asks the Advice of Sully Parallel
Between a Wife and a Mistress A Lame Apology The Two
Henrys Reconciliation between the King and the Favourite
Remonstrances of Sully A Delicate Dilemma Extravagance
of the Queen The " Pot de Vin "The Royal Letter Evil
Influences Henry Endeavours to Effect a Reconciliation with
the Queen Difficult Diplomacy A Temporary Calm Re-
newed Differences A Minister at Fault Mademoiselle de la
Bourdaisiere Mademoiselle de Beuil Jealousy of Madame
de Verneuil Conspiracy of the Comte d'Auvergne Intemper-
ance of the Queen Timely Interference Confidence Accorded
by the Queen to Sully A Dangerous Suggestion Sully
Reconciles the Royal Couple Madame de Verneuil is Exiled
from the Court She Joins the Conspiracy of Her Brother
The Forged Contract Apology of the Comte d'Entragues
Promises of Philip of Spain to the Conspirators Duplicity of
the Comte d'Auvergne He is Pardoned by the King His
Treachery Suspected by M. de Lomenie D'Auvergne Escapes
to His Government Is Made Prisoner and Conveyed to the
Bastille His Self-Confidence A Devoted Wife The Require-
ments of a Prisoner Hidden Documents The Treaty With
Spain The Comtesse d'Entragues Haughty Demeanour of
Madame de Verneuil The Mistress and the Minister
Mortification of Sully Marriage of Mademoiselle de Beuil
Henry Embellishes the City of Paris and Undertakes Other
Great National Works .188
xx Contents
CHAPTER V
1605
Trial of the Conspirators Pusillanimity of the Comte d'Auvergne
Arrogant Attitude Assumed by Madame de Verneuil She
Refuses to Offer Any Defence Defence of the Comte
d'Entragues The Two Nobles are Condemned to Death Ma-
dame de Verneuil is Sentenced to Imprisonment for Life in a
Convent A Mother's Intercession The King Commutes the
Sentence of Death Passed on the Two Nobles to Exile from
the Court and Imprisonment for Life Expostulations of the
Privy Council Madame de Verneuil is Permitted to Retire to
Her Estate Disappointment of the Queen Marriage of the
Due de Rohan Singular Ceremony A Tilt at the Louvre
Bassompierre is Dangerously Wounded His Convalescence
Death of Clement VIII. Election of Leo XL His Sudden
Death Election of Paul V. The Comte d'Entragues is
Authorised to Return to Marcoussis Madame de Verneuil is
Pardoned and Recalled Marriage of the Prince de Conti
Mademoiselle de Guise Marriage of the Prince of Orange
The Ex-Queen Marguerite She Arrives in Paris Gratitude
of the King Her Reception Murder at the Hotel de Sens
Execution of the Criminal Marguerite Removes to the Fau-
bourg St. Germain The King Condoles with Her on the Loss
of Her Favourite Her Dissolute Career Her Able Policy-
Death of M. de la Riviere Execution of M. de Merargues
Attempt to Assassinate Henri IV. Magnanimity of the Monarch
Henry seeks to Initiate the Queen into the Mysteries of
Government Madame la Regente A Timely Warning - - 285
CHAPTER VI
1606
New Year's Day at Court The Royal Tokens A Singular Au-
dience A Proposition Birth of the Princess Christine Public
Festivities A Ballet on Horseback The King Resolves to
humble the Due de Bouillon Arguments of the Queen
Policy of Henry The Court Proceeds to Torcy Surrender of
Bouillon The Sovereigns Enter Sedan Rejoicings of the
Citizens State Entry into Paris The High Court of Justice
Contents xxi
Assigns to the ex-Queen Marguerite the County of Auvergne
The " Te Deum " Marguerite Makes a Donation of her
Recovered Estates to the Dauphin Inconsistencies of Mar-
guerite The Queen's Jealousy of Madame de Moret In-
creasing Coldness of the King Towards that Lady The Frail
Rivals Princely Beacons Indignation of the Queen Narrow
Escape of the King and Queen Gratitude of the Queen to
Her Preserver Insolent Pleasantry of the Marquise de Ver-
neuil A Disappointment Compensated Marriage of the Due
de Bar The King Invites the Duchess of Mantua to Become
Sponsor to the Dauphin, and the Due de Lorraine to the
Younger Princess The Mantuan Suite Preparations at Notre-
Dame The Plague in Paris The Court Removes to Fontaine-
bleau The Royal Christenings Increase of the Plague
Royal Disappointments The Duchesse de Nevers Discourtesy
of the King Dignity of the Duchess 313
CHAPTER VII
1607-8
Profuse Expenditure of the French Nobles Prevalence of Duel-
ling under Henri IV. Meeting of the Prince de Conde and
the Due de Nevers They are Arrested by the King's Guard
Reconciliation of the Two Nobles The Due de Soubise is
Wounded in a Duel Profligacy of Madame de Moret The
King Insists upon Her Marriage with the Prince de Joinville
Indignation of the Duchesse de Guise A Dialogue with Maj-
esty The Prince de Joinville is Exiled Madame de Moret
Intrigues with the Comte de Sommerive He Promises Her
Marriage He Attempts to Assassinate M. de Balagny He
is Exiled to Lorraine Mademoiselle des Essarts Birth of
the Due d'Orleans Peace Between the Pope and the Vene-
tians The Queen and Her Confidants Death of the Chan-
cellor of France Death of the Cardinal de Lorraine Royal
Rejoicings The Last Ballet of a Dying Prince Betrothal of
Mademoiselle de Montpensier to the Infant Due d'Orleans
Sully as a Theatrical Manager The Court Gamester Death
of the Due de Montpensier The ex-Queen Marguerite Foi
a Monastery Influence of Concini and Leonora c
Queen Arrogance of Concini Indignation of the Kui|; A
\ '
xxii Contents
Royal Rupture The King Leaves Paris for Chantilly Sully
and the Queen The Letter Anger of the King Sully
Reconciles the King and Queen Madame de Verneuil and
the Due de Guise Court Gambling Birth of the Due d'Anjou
Betrothal of the Due de Venddme and Mademoiselle de
Mercoeur Reluctance of the Lady's Family Celebration of
the Marriage Munificence of Henry Arrival of Don Pedro
de Toledo His Arrogance Admirable Rejoinder of the King
Object of the Embassy Passion of Henry for Hunting
Embellishment of Paris Eduardo Fernandez The King's
Debts of Honour Despair of Madame de Verneuil Defective
Policy A Bold Stroke for a Coronet The Fallen Favourite, 352
CHAPTER VIII
1609-10
Death of the Grand Duke of Tuscany The Queen's Ballet-
Mademoiselle de Montmorency Description of Her Person
She is Betrothed to Bassompierre Indignation of the Due de
Bouillon Contrast Between the Rivals The Due de Belle-
garde Excites the Curiosity of the King The Nymph of Diana
The Rehearsal Passion of the King for Mademoiselle de
Montmorency The Royal Gout Interposition of the Due de
Roquelaure Firmness of the Connetable The Ducal Gout
Postponement of the Marriage Diplomacy of Henry The
Sick-room An Obedient Daughter Henry Resolves to Pre-
vent the Marriage The King and the Courtier Lip-deep
Loyalty Henry Offers the Hand of Mademoiselle de Mont-
morency to the Prince de Conde The Regal Pledge The
Prince de Conde Consents to Espouse Mademoiselle de Mont-
morency Invites Bassompierre to His Betrothal Royal
Tyranny A Cruel Pleasantry The Betrothal Court Festivi-
ties Happiness of the Queen Royal Presents to the Bride
The ex-Queen's ball Jealousy of the Prince de Conde In-
dignation of the Queen Henry Revenges Himself Upon M.
de Conde Madame de Conde Retires from the Court The
King Insists on Her Return The Prince de Conde Feigns
Compliance The Prince and Princess Escape to the Low Coun-
tries The News of Their Flight Reaches Fontainebleau
Birth of a Princess Unpleasant Surprise Henry Betrays His
Contents xxiii
Annoyance to the Queen He Assembles His Ministers He
Resolves to Compel the Return of the Princess to France
Conflicting Counsels M. de Praslin is Despatched to Brussels
Embarrassment of the Archduke Albert He Refuses an
Asylum to M. de Conde, Who Proceeds to Milan The Prin-
cess Remains at Brussels She is Honourably Entertained
Interference of the Queen Philip of Spain Promises His Pro-
tection to the Prince de Conde He is Invited to Return to
Brussels The Marquis de Coeuvres Endeavours to Effect the
Return of the Prince to France His Negotiation fails Madame
de Conde is Placed Under Surveillance Her Weariness of the
Court of Brussels The Due de Montmorency Desires Her Re-
turn to Paris M. de Cceuvres is Authorised to Effect Her Es-
cape from Brussels The Plot Prospers Indiscretion of the
King The Queen Informs the Spanish Minister of the Con-
spiracy Madame de Conde is Removed to the Archducal
Palace Mortification of the King The French Envoys Ex-
postulate with the Archduke, Who Remains Firm Henry
Resolves to Declare War Against Spain and Flanders Fresh
Negotiations The King Determines to Head the Army in Per-
son Marie de Medicis Becomes Regent of France She is
Counselled by Concini to Urge Her Coronation Reluctance of
the King to Accede to Her Request He Finally Consents
" The Best Husband in the World "Fatal Prognostics Signs
in the Heavens The Cure of Montargis The Papal Warning
The Cardinal Barberino The Sultan's Message Suspicious
Circumstances Supineness of the Austrian Cabinet Prophecy
of Anne de Comans Her Miserable Fate The Astrologer
Thomassin The Bearnais Noble The Queen's Dream Royal
Presentiments The Hawthorn of the Louvre Distress of
Bassompierre Expostulation of the King Melancholy Fore-
bodings 387
CHAPTER IX
1610
Preparations for the Coronation of Marie de Medicis Wherefore
Deferred They are Resumed The Cathedral of St. Denis-
Gorgeous coup d^ceil The Procession Indignation of the ex-
Queen Marguerite The Comte and Comtesse de Soissons
xxiv Contents
Leave Paris Magnificence of Marie de Medicis and her Court
The Coronation The Queen is Affectionately Received by the
King on Reaching the Palace The Banquet The Court Re-
turns to the Louvre Last Advice Given by the King to the
Queen-Regent Gloomy Forebodings The Queen's Toilet
The Due de Venddme and the Astrologer The King's Coach
Assassination of Henry IV. The Queen and the Chancellor
The Royal Children are Placed under the Care of M. de
Vitry Examination of the Royal Body The King's Heart
The State Bier The Royal Funeral 431
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
TO
THE FIRST VOLUME
PAGE
Due de Guise (Henri de
Lorraine, Le BalafrZ} . 5
Duchesse de Guise . . 6
Prince de Conde (Henri I.
de Bourbon) . . 13
Ambroise Pare . . 15
Mile, de Torigni . ,' 18
Duchesse de Bar . . 22
Due de Joyeuse . . 26
Le Pre Ange . . 26
Marechal de Matignon . 29
Marquis de-Canillac . 31
Comtesse de Guiche . 33
Gabrielle d'Estrees (Duch-
esse de Beaufort) . 33
Due de Bouillon . . 34
Comte d'Aubigny . . 34
Isabella, Infanta of Spain 38
Princess Arabella Stuart . 38
Isabeau de Bavire . . 38
Prince Maurice of Orange 39
Marie de Medicis . . 39
Mile, de Guise . . 40
Mile, de Mayenne . . 40
PACK
Mile. d'Aumale . . 40
Mile, de Longueville . 40
Mile, de Rohan . . 40
Mile, de Luxembourg . 40
Mile, de Guemenee . 41
Cardinal de Marquemont . 44
Cardinal d'Ossat . . 45
Cardinal Duperron . . 45
Due de Pine y-L u x e m-
bourg .... 47
M. de Sillery ... 47
Due de Bellegarde . .51
Due de Lude . . 5
M. de Thermes . .51
Marquis de Castelnau . 51
Marquise de Montglat . 51
M. de Frontenac . .51
Baron de Bassompierre . 51
Marquis de Verneuil . 53
Queen Louise ... 56
Comte d'Auvergne . . 59
M. de Villeroy . . 64
Duke of Savoy . . 66
Due de Biron .- . . 67
xxvi Biographical Notes
PAGE
Sebastian Zamet . . 70
M. du Terrail ... 76
Marquis de Crequy . . 76
Due de Montmorency
(Henri I.) . . . 86
Due de Nemours . . 86
Due de Ventadour . . 86
M. duVair . ; . 87
Le Pere Suares . . 89
M. Albert de Bellievre . 93
M. de Roquelaure . . 93
Cardinal de Joyeuse . 96
Cardinal de Gondy . . 96
Cardinal de Sourdis . . 96
Marquis de Gondy . . loo
Duchesse de Nemours . loo
Leonora Galigai (Marquise
d'Ancre) . . . 109
Madame de Richelieu . 109
Conci ni (Marechal d'Ancre) 1 1 4
Charles I., Cardinal de
Bourbon . . .120
Charles II., Cardinal de
Bourbon . . . 120
M. de la Riviere . .122
Due de Verneuil . .124
Due de Vendome . .128
M. de Berthault . .128
Prince de Joinville . .132
Mademoiselle de Sourdis . 143
Caterina Selvaggio . . 144
Due de la Tremouille . 149
Due d'Epernon . . 149
Conde de Fuentes . . 149
Baron de Luz . . . 155
M. de la Fin . . . 158
M. Descures . . . 159
PACE
M. Jeannm . . . 160
Comte de Soissons ( Charles
de Bourbon-Conti) . 163
Marquis de Vitry . .165
Marquis de Praslin . .165
Marechal de Montigny . 170
M. de Montbarot . .176
Baron de Fontenelles . 177
Due de Mayenne . .179
Due de Guise (Charles de
Lorraine) . . 183
Madame Elisabeth de
France . . .188
Mademoiselle de Bourbon 190
M. de Sobole . . .191
M. d'Arquien . . . 193
Due de Deux- Fonts . . 195
Comte de Beaumont . 195
M. de Bellefonds . .212
Comte de St. Pol . .213
Bishop of Nevers . .217
M. de Barrault . .221
Comte de Rochepot . . 223
Comte de Brienne . . 225
M. d'Argouges . . 242
M. de Maisse . . .255
M. de Gevres . . . 256
Mademoiselle de Bueil . 256
M. de la Houssaye . . 259
M. Murat . . .264
M.deNerestan . . 264
Comtesse d'Auvergne . 266
M. Defunctis . . . 267
Marquis de Spinola . . 269
Comtesse d'Entragues . 270
M. de Chevillard . . 272
M. de la Varenne . . 279
Biographical Notes xxvii
PAGE
M. du Plessis-Mornay . 281
M. Achille de Harlay . 286
M. Servin . . .287
Mademoiselle d'E n-
tragues . . .291
Due de Rohan . . 293
Comte de Laval . . 293
Baron de Thermos . . 295
M. de Saint-Luc . . 295
Comte de Sault . . 296
Clement VIII. . . 297
PaulV 298
Comte de Giury . . 300
Princess of Orange . . 302
Bishop of Bourges . . 305
M. de Merargues . . 309
Madame de Drou . .316
Mademoiselle de Piolant . 316
Madame Christine de
France . . .331
Comte de Sommerive . 324
Due de Nevers . . 325
Due de Montpensier . 335
Baron de la Chataigneraie 336
Duchess of Mantua . . 340
Leo XI. . . . 342
Baron de la Chatre . . 345
Comte de Liancourt . 345
Marechal de Fervaques . 346
Marquis de Bois-Dauphin 346
Marquis de Lavardin . 346
Due de Montbazon . . 346
Duchesse d'Angouleme . 347
Prince de Vaudemont . 347
Marquis de Rosny . . 349
Duchesse de Montpensier 350
Duchesse de Nevers
Due de Soubise
Comte de Moret
M. de Balagny
PAGE
350
355
360
360
Mademoiselle des Essarts 361
Comte de Beaumont- Har-
lay .... 362
Cardinal de Guise . . 362
Cardinal de Lorraine . 365
Mademoiselle de Mont-
pensier . . . 368
Gaston Jean Baptiste de
France . . . 380
Mademoiselle de Mercoeur 38 1
Don Pedro de Toledo . 382
Mademoiselle de Montmo-
rency .... 389
Seigneur de Montespan . 392
Comte d'Elbene . . 406
Marquis de Coeuvres . 406
Marquis de GSvres . . 407
Due de la Force . . 407
Archduke of Austria . 409
M. de Chateauneuf . . 414
Madame Henriette de
France . . . 415
M. de Preau . . . 419
Comte d'Anquien . . 436
Princess- Dowager of
Conde . . . 437
Duchesse de Mercceur . 437
Marquise dc Guercheville 438
Due de Lesdiguires . 442
Comtesse de Fervaques . 445
Comtesse du Fargis . 445
Ravaillac . . . 449
BOOK I
MARIE DE MEDICIS AS QUEEN
THE LIFE
OF
MARIE DE MEDICIS
CHAPTER I
1572
Marriages of Henri IV. Marguerite de Valois Her Character Her
Marriage With the King of Navarre Massacre of Saint Bartholo-
mew Henri, Due d'Anjou, Elected Sovereign of Poland Death of
Charles IX. Accession of Henri III. Conspiracy of the Due d'Alen-
c.on Revealed by Marguerite Henry of Navarre Escapes From the
French Court Henry of Navarre Protests Against His Enforced
Oath Marguerite is Imprisoned by Her Brother The Due d'Alen-
c.on Returns to His Allegiance Marguerite Joins Her Husband at
Beam Domestic Discord Marriage-Portion of Marguerite Court
of Navarre Dupin Insults the Queen of Navarre Catherine de
Medicis Induces Marguerite to Return to France The Due d'Alen-
c.on Again Revolts Marguerite Arrests a Royal Courier She is
Banished with Ignominy from the French Court She is Deprived
of Her Attendants Henry of Navarre Refuses to Receive Her in
the Palace Marguerite Returns to Agen Her Licentiousness
Agen is Stormed and Taken by the Marshal de Matignon Mar-
guerite Escapes to the Fortress of Carlat The Inhabitants of the
3
The Life of
Town Resolve to Deliver Her up to the French King She is made
Prisoner by the Marquis de Canillac, and Conveyed to Usson She
Seduces the Governor of the Fortress Death of the Due d'Alencon
Poverty of Marguerite Accession of Henri IV. He Embraces
the Catholic Faith His Dissipated Habits The Due de Bouillon
Heads the Huguenot Party Henri IV. Proceeds to Brittany, and
Threatens M. de Bouillon Festivities at Rennes Henri IV. Be-
comes Melancholy He Resolves to Divorce Marguerite, and Take
a Second Wife European Princesses Henry Desires to Marry La
Belle Gabrielle Sully Expostulates Sully Proposes a Divorce to
Marguerite The Duchesse de Beaufort Intrigues to Prevent the
Marriage of the King with Marie de Medicis She Bribes Sillery
Diplomacy of Sillery Gabrielle Aspires to the Throne of France
Her Death Marguerite Consents to a Divorce The Pope De-
clares the Nullity of Her Marriage Grief of the King at the
Death of Gabrielle Royal Pleasures A New Intrigue Made-
moiselle d'Entragues Her Tact Her Character A Love-Mes-
senger Value of a Royal Favourite Costly Indulgences A Prac-
tical Rebuke Diplomacy of Mademoiselle d'Entragues The
Written Promise Mademoiselle d'Entragues is Created Marquise
de Verneuil.
HOWEVER celebrated he was destined to be-
come as a sovereign, Henri IV. of France was
nevertheless fated to be singularly unfortunate as a
husband. Immediately after the death of his mother,
the high-hearted Jeanne d'Albret, whom he succeeded
on the throne of Navarre, political considerations in-
duced him to give his hand to Marguerite, the daugh-
ter of Henri II. and Catherine de Medicis, a Princess
whose surpassing beauty and rare accomplishments
were the theme and marvel of all the European
courts, and whose alliance was an object of ambition
to many of the sovereign princes of Christendom.
Marguerite de Valois was born on the I4th of May,
1552, and became the wife of Henry of Navarre on
Marie De Medicis 5
the 1 8th of August, 1572, when she was in the full
bloom of youth and loveliness ; nor can there be any
doubt that she was one of the most extraordinary
women of her time ; for while her grace and wit
dazzled the less observant by their brilliancy, the depth
of her erudition, her love of literature and the arts,
and the solidity of her judgment, no less astonished
those who were capable of appreciating the more
valuable gifts which had been lavished upon her by
nature. A dark shadow rested, however, upon the
surface of this glorious picture. Marguerite possessed
no moral self-government ; her passions were at once
the bane and the reproach of her existence; and
while yet a mere girl her levity had already afforded
ample subject for the comments of the courtiers.
Fortunately, in the rapid sketch which we are com-
pelled to give of her career, it is unnecessary that we
should do more than glance at the licentiousness of
her private conduct ; our business is simply to trace
such an outline of her varying fortunes as may suffice
to render intelligible the position of Henri IV. at the
period of his second marriage.
After the death of Francis II., when internal com-
motion had succeeded to the feigned and hollow rec-
onciliation which had taken place between Charles
IX. and Henri de Lorraine, Due de Guise,* Marguerite
* Henri de Lorraine, Due de Guise, was the brother of Charles,
Due de Mayenne, and of Louis, Cardinal de Guise. He was the
chief of the League, and excited a popular revolt on the day of the
Barricades, in the hope of possessing himself of the crown. Henri
III. caused him to be assassinated at Blois, in the year 1588. He
was distinguished as le Balafre by the people, in consequence of the
deep scar of a wound across the face by which he was disfigured.
6 The Life of
and her younger brother, the Due d'Alencon, were re-
moved to the castle of Amboise for greater security ;
and she remained in that palace-fortress from her
tenth year until 1564, when she returned to Court,
and thenceforward became one of the brightest orna-
ments of the royal circle. Henri de Guise was not
long ere he declared himself her ardent admirer, and
the manner in which the Princess received and en-
couraged his attentions left no doubt that the affection
was reciprocal. So convinced, indeed, were those
about her person of the fact, that M. du Cast, the
favourite of the King her brother, earnestly entreated
His Majesty no longer to confide to the Princess, as
he had hitherto done, all the secrets of the state, as
they could not, he averred, fail, under existing circum-
stances, to be communicated to M. de Guise ; and
Charles IX. so fully appreciated the value of this ad-
vice, that he hastened to urge the same caution upon
the Queen-mother. This sudden distrust and cold-
ness on the part of her royal relatives was peculiarly
irritating to Marguerite; nor was her mortification
lessened by the fact that the Due de Guise, first
alarmed, and ultimately disgusted, by her unblushing
irregularities, withdrew his pretensions to her hand ;
and, sacrificing his ambition to a sense of self-respect,
selected as his wife Catherine de Cleves, Princesse de
Portien.*
* Catherine was the second daughter of Francois de Cleves, Due de
Nevers, and of Marguerite de Bourbon- Vendome, the aunt of Henri
IV. Her dower consisted of the county of Eu, in Normandy. She
was twice married ; first to Antoine de Croi, Prince de Portien, by
whom she had no issue ; and secondly, to Henri de Lorraine, Due de
Guise. She died in 1633, at the age of eighty five years.
Marie De Medicis 7
At this period Marguerite de Valois began to divide
her existence between the most exaggerated de-
votional observances and the most sensual and de-
grading pleasures. Humbly kneeling before the altar,
she would assist at several masses during the day ; but
at twilight she cast off every restraint, and careless of
what was due, alike to her sex and to her rank, she
plunged into the grossest dissipation ; and after hav-
ing played the guest at a riotous banquet, she might
be seen sharing in the disgraceful orgies of a masquer-
ade.* A short time after the marriage of the Due de
Guise, the hand of the Princess was demanded by
Don Sebastian, King of Portugal ; but the Queen-
mother, who witnessed with alarm the increasing
power of the Protestant party, and the utter impossi-
bility of inspiring confidence in their leaders save by
some bold and subtle stroke of policy, resolved to
profit by the presence of the Huguenot King of
Navarre, in order to overcome the distrust which not
even the edict of 1570 had sufficed to remove ; and
to renew the project which had been already mooted
during the lifetime of Jeanne d'Albret, of giving
Marguerite in marriage to the young Prince, her son.
The consciousness that she was sacrificing her
daughter by thus bestowing her hand upon the sov-
ereign of a petty kingdom might perhaps have de-
terred Catherine, had she not already decided upon
the means by which the bonds of so unequal an
* She heard three masses every day, one high and two low ones, and
took the holy communion each week on the Thursdays, Fridays, and
Sundays. Letters of Etienne Pasquier, book xxii. letter v. col. 666,
of the folio edition.
8 The Life of
alliance might be rent asunder ; and it is even possi-
ble that the hatred which she bore to the reformed
faith would in itself have sufficed to render such an
union impossible, had not the crafty and compunction-
less spirit by which she was animated inspired her
with a method which would more than expiate the
temporary sin. It is at all events certain that having
summoned Henry of Navarre to her presence, she
unhesitatingly, and with many professions of regard
for himself, informed him of the overtures of the Por-
tuguese monarch, assuring him at the same time, that
although the King of Spain was opposed to the
alliance from motives of personal interest, it was one
which would prove highly gratifying to Gregory XIII.;
but adding that both Charles IX. and herself were so
anxious to perform the promise which they had made
to his mother, and to prove their good faith to his
own person, that they were willing to refuse the
crown of Portugal and to accept that of Navarre for
the Princess.
Henry of Beam hesitated. He was aware that the
chiefs of the Protestant party, especially the Admiral
de Coligny, whom he regarded as a father, were de-
sirous that he should become the husband of Elizabeth
of England. Past experience had rendered them
suspicious of the French, while an alliance with the
English promised them a strong and abiding pro-
tection. Nor was Henry himself more disposed to
espouse Marguerite de Valois, as her early reputation
for gallantry offended his sense of self-respect, while
a strong attachment elsewhere rendered him insensi-
ble to her personal attractions. As a matter of am-
Marie De Medicis 9
bition, the alliance was beyond his hopes, and brought
him one step nearer to that throne which, by some
extraordinary prescience, both he and his friends an-
ticipated that he was destined one day to ascend ; *
but he could not forget that there were dark suspi-
cions attached to the strange and sudden death of a
mother to whom he had been devoted ; and he felt
doubly repugnant to receive a wife from the very
hands which were secretly accused of having abridged
his passage to the sovereignty of Navarre. Like
Marguerite herself, moreover, he was not heart-whole ;
and thus he clung to the freedom of an unmarried
life, and would fain have declined the honour which
was pressed upon him ; but the wily Catherine, who
instantly perceived his embarrassment, bade him care-
fully consider the position in which he stood, and the
fearful responsibility which attached to his decision.
Charles IX., in bestowing upon him the hand of his
sister, gave to the Protestants the most decided and
unequivocal proof of his sincerity. It was evident,
she said, that despite the edict which assured protec-
tion to the Huguenot party, they still misdoubted the
good-faith of the monarch; but when he had also
overlooked, or rather disregarded, the difference of
faith so thoroughly as to give a Princess of France in
marriage to one of their princes, they would no
longer have a pretext for discontent, and the imme-
diate pacification of the kingdom must be the neces-
* By some extraordinary presentiment they always imagined that
they saw a King of France in the Prince of Navarre, even at a time
when the greatest obstacles were opposed to such an idea. Dreux du
Radier, Memoires des Reines et Regentes de France, vol. v. p. 130.
See also Memoires de Sully, vol. i. pp. 60-67.
io The Life of
sary consequence of such a concession. The ultimate
issue of so unequal a conflict could not, as she asserted,
be for one moment doubtful ; but the struggle might
be a bloody one, and he would do well to remember
that the blood thus spilt would be upon his own head.
Henry then sought, as his mother had previously
done, to create a difficulty by alleging that the differ-
ence of faith between himself and the Princess must
tend to affect the validity of their marriage ; but the
wily Italian met this objection by reminding him that
Charles IX. had publicly declared that " rather than
that the alliance should not take place, he would per-
mit his sister to dispense with all the rites and cere-
monies of both religions."
It is well known that the motive of the French
King in thus urging, or rather insisting upon, a mar-
riage greatly beneath the pretensions of the Princess,
was simply to attract to Court all the Huguenot
leaders, who, placing little faith in the conciliatory
edict, had resolutely abstained from appearing in the
capital ; but Catherine alluded so slightly to this fact
that it awoke no misgivings in the mind of the young
monarch.
Thus adjured, Henry of Navarre yielded; nor did
the Princess on her part offer any violent opposition
to the marriage. She objected, it is true, her religious
scruples, and her attachment to her own creed ; but
her arguments were soon overruled, the hand of the
King of Portugal was courteously declined, Philip of
Spain was assured that his representations had decided
the French Court, and immediate preparations were
made for the unhappy union, whose date was to be
Marie De Medicis n
written in blood. The double ceremony, exacted by
the difference of faith in the contracting parties, was
performed, as we have said, on the i8th of August
1572, the public betrothal having taken place on the
preceding day at the Louvre ; and it was accompanied
by all the splendour of which it was susceptible.
The marriage-service was performed by the Cardinal
de Bourbon, on a platform erected in front of the
metropolitan church of Notre-Dame ; whence, at its
conclusion, the bridal train descended by a temporary
gallery to the interior of the Cathedral, and proceeded
to the altar, where Henry, relinquishing the hand of
his new-made wife, left her to assist at the customary
mass, and meanwhile paced to and fro along the
cloisters in conversation with the venerable Gaspard
de Coligny and others of his confidential friends, the
whole of whom were sanguine in their anticipations
of a bright and happy future.
At the conclusion of the mass the King of Navarre
rejoined his bride, and taking her hand, conducted
her to the episcopal palace, where, according to an
ancient custom, the marriage-banquet awaited them. *
The square of the Parvis Notre-Dame was crowded
with eager spectators, and the heart of the Queen-
mother beat high with exultation as she glanced at
the retinue of the bridegroom, and recognised in his
suite all the Huguenot leaders who had hitherto re-
fused to pass the gates of the capital.
Save her own, however, all eyes were rivetted upon
Marguerite ; and many were the devout Catholics
who murmured beneath their breath at the policy
*Dreux du Radier, vol. v. p. 182.
12 The Life of
which had determined the monarch to bestow a
Princess of such beauty and genius upon a heretic.
In truth, nothing could be more regal or more daz-
zling than the appearance of the youthful bride, who
wore, as Queen of Navarre, a richly-jewelled crown,
beneath which her long and luxuriant dark hair fell in
waving masses over an ermine cape (or couet) clasped
from the throat to the waist with large diamonds ;
while her voluminous train of violet-coloured velvet,
three ells in length, was borne by four princesses. *
And thus in royal state she moved along, surrounded
and followed by all the nobility and chivalry of France,
amid the acclamations of an admiring and excited
people, having just pledged herself to one whose feel-
ings were as little interested in the compact as her
own.
The bridal festivities lasted throughout three entire
days ; and never had such an excess of luxury and
magnificence been displayed at the French Court.
Towards the Protestants, the bearing both of Charles
IX. and his mother was so courteous, frank, and con-
ciliating, that the most distrustful gradually threw off
their misgivings, and vied with the Catholic nobles
both in gallantry and splendour; and meanwhile
Catherine, the King, the Due d'Anjou, and the Guises
were busied in organising the frightful tragedy of St.
Bartholomew !
The young Queen of Navarre had scrupulously
been left in ignorance of a plot which involved the
life of her bridegroom as well as those of his co-
religionists ; nor was she aware of the catastrophe
* Hist, des Reines et Regentes de France, vol. ii. p. 4.
Marie De Medicis 13
which had been organised until Paris was already one
vast shambles. Startled from her sleep at the dead of
night, and hurriedly informed of the nature of the
frightful cries that had broken her rest, she at once
sprang from her bed, and throwing on a mantle, forced
her way to the closet of her royal brother, where,
sinking on her knees, she earnestly implored the lives
of Henry's Protestant attendants; but for a time
Charles was obdurate ; nor was it until after he had
reluctantly yielded to her prayers that she recognised,
with an involuntary cry of joy, the figure of her hus-
band, who stood in the deep bay of a window with
his cousin, M. de Conde. *
By one of those caprices to which he was subject,
the King had refused to sacrifice either of these
Princes ; and he had accordingly summoned them to
his presence, where he had offered them the alterna-
tive of an instant adjuration of their heresy.
Shrieks and groans already resounded on all sides ;
the groans of strong men, struck down unarmed and
defenceless, and the shrieks of women struggling with
their murderers ; while through all, and above all,
boomed out the deep-toned bells of the metropolitan
churches one long burial-peal ; and amid this ghastly
diapason it was the pleasure of the tiger-hearted
Charles to accept the reluctant and informal recanta-
* Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, first Prince of the Blood, and
Grand Master of France, was born in 1552, and succeeded his father,
the Comte Louis, who was killed at the battle of Jarnac, on the I3th
of May, 1569, in the command of the Protestant party, conjointly with
the King of Navarre (Henri IV.). He made a levy of foreign troops
in 1575, distinguished himself at Coutras in 1587, and died by poison
the following year at St. Jean d'Angely.
14 The Life of
tion of his two horror-stricken victims ; after which
he compelled them without remorse to the agony of
seeing their friends and followers butchered before
their eyes.
Enraged by what they denounced as the weak and
impolitic clemency of the King, in having thus
shielded two of the most powerful leaders of the ad-
verse faction, Catherine de Medicis and the Guises,
having first wreaked their vengeance upon the corpse
of the brave and veteran de Coligny, which they in-
duced the King to dishonour himself by subjecting to
the most ignominious treatment, next endeavoured to
alienate Marguerite from her husband, and to induce
her to solicit a divorce. It had formed no part of the
Queen-mother's intention that the Princess should re-
main fettered by the bonds which she had herself
wreathed about her ; nor could she brook that after
having accomplished a coup-de-main which had ex-
cited the indignation of half of Europe, Henry of
Navarre should be indebted for an impunity which
counteracted all her views to the alliance which he had
formed with her own family. Marguerite, however,
resolutely refused to lend herself to this new treachery,
declaring that as her husband had abjured his heresy,
she had no plea to advance in justification of so
flagrant an act of perfidy ; nor could the expostula-
tions of her mother produce any change in her
resolve.
It is probable that the perfect freedom of action for
which she was indebted to the indifference of her
young bridegroom had great influence in prompting
this reply, and that the crown which had so recently
Marie De Medicis 15
been placed upon her brow had at the same time flat-
tered her ambition; while the frightful carnage of
which she had just been a witness might well cause
her to shrink from the probable repetition of so hide-
ous a catastrophe. Be her motives what they might,
however, neither threats nor entreaties could shake
the resolution of the Princess ; and she was supported
in her opposition by her favourite brother, the Due
d'Alencon, who had secretly attached himself to the
cause of the Protestant Princes.
This was another source of uneasiness to the
Queen-mother, who apprehended, from the pertinac-
ity with which Marguerite clung to her husband,
that she would exert all her influence to effect an un-
derstanding between the two brothers-in-law which
could not fail to prove fatal to the interests of the Due
d'Anjou, who, in the event of the decease of Charles
IX., was the rightful heir to the throne. Nor was that
decease a mere matter of idle speculation, for the
health of the King, always feeble and uncertain, had
failed more than ever since the fatal night of the 24th
of August ; and he had even confessed to Ambroise
Pare,* his body -surgeon, that his dreams were haunted
* Ambroise Pare was born at Laval (Mayenne), in 1509. He com-
menced his public career as surgeon of the infantry-general Rene de
Montejean ; and on his return to France, having taken his degrees at
the College of St. Edme, he was elected Provost of the Corporation of
Surgeons. In 1552, Henri II. gave him the appointment of body-
surgeon to the King, a post which he continued to fill under Francis
II., Charles IX., and Henri III. Charles IX., whose life he saved
when he had nearly fallen a victim to the want of skill of his physi-
cian Portail, who, in opening a vein, had inflicted a deep and danger-
ous wound in his arm, repaid the benefit by concealing him in his
own chamber during the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Pare was a
zealous Calvinist. He died in 1590. His published works consist of
one folio volume, divided into twenty-eight books.
1 6 The Life of
by the spectres of his victims, and that he conse-
quently shrank from the sleep which was so essential
to his existence. The Due d'Anjou meanwhile was
absent at the siege of Rochelle, while his brother,
d'Alencon, was about the person of the dying mon-
arch, and had made himself eminently popular among
the citizens of Paris. The crisis was an alarming
one ; but it was still destined to appear even more
perilous, for, to the consternation of Catherine, intelli-
gence at this period reached the Court that the Polish
nation had elected the Due d'Anjou as their King,
and that their ambassadors were about to visit France
in order to tender him the crown. In vain did she
represent to Charles the impolicy of suffering a war-
like prince like Henri d'Anjou to abandon his country
for a foreign throne, and urge him to replace the elder
by the younger brother, alleging that so long as the
Polish people could see a prince of the blood-royal of
France at the head of their nation, they would care
little whether he were called Henry or Francis ; the
King refused to countenance such a substitution. He
had long been jealous of the military renown of the
Due d'Anjou ; while he was also perfectly aware of
the anxiety with which both the Queen-mother and
the Prince himself looked forward to his own death, in
order that Henry might succeed him ; and he conse-
quently issued a command that the sovereign-elect
should immediately repair to Paris to receive at the
hands of the foreign delegates the crown which they
were about to offer to him.
The summons was obeyed. The ambassadors, who
duly arrived, were magnificently received ; Henri
Marie De Medicis 17
d'Anjou was declared King of Poland; and, finally, he
found himself compelled to depart for his own king-
dom. Unfortunately for Marguerite, she had not
sufficient self-control to conceal the joy with which
she saw the immediate succession to the French
throne thus transferred to her favourite brother ; and
her evident delight so exasperated the Queen-mother,
that she communicated to Charles the suspicions
which she herself entertained of the treachery of the
Princess ; but the King, worn down by both physical
and mental suffering, treated her warnings with in-
difference, and she was consequently compelled to
await with patience the progress of events.
The death of the French monarch, which shortly
afterwards took place, and the accession of Henry
d'Anjou, whom a timely warning had enabled to aban-
don the crown of Poland for that of France, for a
time diverted the attention of Catherine from the sus-
pected machinations of her daughter, when, as if to
convince her of her injustice, she suddenly received
secret intelligence from the young Queen of Navarre,
that the Due d'Alencon had entered into a new league
with the Bourbon Princes. It is difficult to account
for the motive which led Marguerite to make this rev-
elation, when her extraordinary affection for her
brother, and the anxiety which she had universally
exhibited for the safety of her husband, are remem-
bered ; thus much, however, is certain, that she did
not betray the conspiracy (which had been revealed to
her by a Lutheran gentleman whom she had saved
during the massacre of St. Bartholomew) until she
had exacted a pledge that the lives of all who were
1 8 The Life of
involved in it should be spared. In her anxiety to se-
cure the secret, the Queen-mother, on her side, gave a
solemn promise to that effect, and she redeemed her
word ; while from the immediate precautions which
she caused to be taken the plot was necessarily an-
nihilated.
The Princess had, however, by the knowledge which
she thus displayed of the movements of the Hugue-
not party, only increased the suspicions both of the
Queen-mother and her son ; and the Court of France
became ere long so distasteful to Henry of Navarre,
from the constant affronts to which he was subjected,
and the undisguised surveillance which fettered all his
movements, that he resolved to effect his escape from
Paris, an example in which he was imitated by the
Due d'Alencon and the Prince de Conde, the former
of whom retired to Champagne, and the latter to one
of his estates, and with both of whom he shortly after-
wards entered into a formidable league.
Henri III., exasperated by the departure of the
three Princes, declared his determination to revenge
the affront upon Marguerite, who had not been en-
abled to accompany her husband ; but the representa-
tions of the Queen-mother induced him to forego this
ungenerous project,, and he was driven to satiate his
thirst for vengeance upon her favourite attendant,
Mademoiselle de Torigni,* of whose services he had
already deprived her, on the pretext that so young a
*Gillone Goyon, dite de Matignon, demoiselle de Torigni, was the
daughter of Jacques de Matignon, Marshal of France, and of Francoise
de Daillon, who was subsequently married to Pierre de Harcourt,
Seigneur de Beuvron.
Marie De Medicis 19
Princess should not be permitted to retain about her
person such persons as were likely to exert an undue
influence over her mind, and to possess themselves of
her secrets. In the first paroxysm of his rage, he even
sentenced this lady to be drowned ; nor is it doubtful
that this iniquitous and unfounded sentence would have
been really carried into effect, had not the unfortunate
woman succeeded in making her escape through the
agency of two individuals who were about to rejoin
the Due d'Alencon, and who conducted her safely to
Champagne.*
One of the first acts of Henry of Navarre on reach-
ing his own dominions had been to protest against the
enforced abjuration to which he was compelled on the
fatal night of St. Bartholomew, and to evince his sin-
cerity by resuming the practices of the reformed faith,
a recantation which so exasperated the French King
that he made Marguerite a close prisoner in her own
apartments, under the pretext that she was leagued
with the enemies of the state against the church and
throne of her ancestors. Nor would he listen to her
entreaties that she might be permitted to follow her
husband, declaring that " she should not live with a
heretic " ; and thus her days passed on in a gloomy
and cheerless monotony, ill suited to her excitable
temperament and splendid tastes. Meanwhile, the
Due d'Alencon, weary of his voluntary exile, and
hopeless of any successful result to the disaffection in
which he had so long indulged, became anxious to
effect a reconciliation with the King ; and for this
purpose he addressed himself to Marguerite, to whom
* Levi Alvar6s, Hist. Clas. des Reincs et Rtgentes de France, p. 185.
2O The Life of
he explained the conditions upon which he was willing
to return to his allegiance, giving her full power to
treat in his name. Henry III., who, on his side, was
no less desirous to detach his brother from the Prot-
estant cause, acceded to all his demands, among which
was the immediate liberation of the Princess ; and
thus she at length found herself enabled to quit her
regal prison and to rejoin her royal husband at Beam.
During the space of five years the ill-assorted couple
maintained at least a semblance of harmony, for each
apparently regarded very philosophically those delicate
questions which occasionally conduce to considerable
discord in married life. The personal habits of Henry,
combined with his sense of gratitude to his wife for her
refusal to abandon him to the virulence of her mother's
hatred, induced him to close his eyes to her moral de-
linquencies, while Marguerite, in her turn, with equal
complacency, affected a like ignorance as regarded the
pursuits of her husband ; and thus the little Court of
Pau, where they had established their residence, ren-
dered attractive by the frank urbanity of the sovereign,
and the grace and intellect of the young Queen, be-
came as brilliant and as dissipated as even the daughter
of Catherine de Medicis herself could desire. Poets
sang her praise under the name of Urania ; * flatterers
sought her smiles by likening her to the goddesses of
love and beauty, and she lived in a perpetual atmos-
phere of pleasure and adulation.
The marriage-portion of Marguerite had consisted
of the two provinces of the Agenois and the Quercy,
which had been ceded to her with all their royal
* Dupleix, Hist, de Louis XIII., p. 53.
Marie De Medicis 21
prerogatives ; but even after this accession of revenue
the resources of Henry of Navarre did not exceed
those of a private gentleman, amounting, in fact, only
to a hundred and forty thousand livres, or about six
thousand pounds yearly. The ancient kingdom of
Navarre, which had once extended from the frontier
of France to the banks of the Ebro, and of which
Pampeluna had been the capital, shorn of its dimen-
sions by Ferdinand the Catholic at the commencement
of the sixteenth century, and incorporated with the
Spanish monarchy, now consisted only of a portion of
Lower Navarre, and the principality of Beam, thus
leaving to Henry little of sovereignty save the title.
The duchy of Albret in Gascony, which he inherited
from his great-grandfather, and that of Vendome, his
appanage as a Prince of the Blood-royal of France,
consequently formed no inconsiderable portion of his
territory: while the title of Governor of Guienne,
which he still retained, was a merely nominal dignity
whence he derived neither income nor influence ; and
so unpopular was he in the province that the citizens
of Bordeaux refused to admit him within their gates.
Nevertheless, the young monarch who held his
court alternately at Pau and at Nerac, the capital of
the duchy of Albret, expended annually upon his
household and establishment nearly twelve thousand
pounds, and that at a period when, according to the
evidence of Sully, " the whole Court could not have
furnished forty thousand livres ; " * yet so inadequately
were those about him remunerated, that Sully him-
self, in his joint capacity of councillor of state and
* Sully, Memoires, vol. i. p. 45.
22 The Life of
chamberlain, received only two thousand annual
livres, or ninety pounds sterling. This royal penury
did not, however, depress the spirits of the frank
and free-hearted King, who eagerly entered into every
species of gaiety and amusement. Jousts, masques,
and ballets succeeded each other with a rapidity which
left no time for anxiety or ennui ; and Marguerite has
bequeathed to us in her memoirs so graphic a picture
of the royal circle in 1579-80, that we cannot resist its
transcription. " We passed the greater portion of our
time at Nerac," she says, " where the Court was so
brilliant that we had no reason to envy that of France.
The sole subject of regret was that the principal num-
ber of the nobles and gentlemen were Huguenots ; but
the subject of religion was never mentioned ; the King,
my husband, accompanied by his sister,* attending
their own devotions, while I and my suite heard mass
in a chapel in the park. When the several services
were concluded, we again assembled in a garden
ornamented with avenues of laurels and cypresses
upon the bank of the river ; and in the afternoon and
evening a ballet was performed." f
It is much to be regretted that the royal biographer
follows up this pleasing picture by avowals of her
own profligacy, and complacent comments upon the
indulgence and generosity with which she lent herself
to the vices of her husband.
* Catherine de Bourbon, Princessc de Navarre, and sister of Henri
IV., was born at Paris in 1558. After his accession to the throne of
France, Henry gave her in marriage to Henri de Lorraine, Due de
Bar. She refused to change her religion, even when her brother had
done so, and died without issue, in 1604, at Nancy.
f Memoires de Marguerite, pp. 176, 177.
Marie De Medicis 23
The temporary calm was not, however, fated to en-
dure. Marguerite, even while she indulged in the
most unblushing licentiousness, was, as we have al-
ready stated, devoted to the observances of her re-
ligion; and on her first arrival at Pau she had
requested that a chapel might be provided in which
the services of her church could be performed. This
was a concession which Henry of Navarre was neither
willing nor indeed able to make, the inhabitants of the
city being all rigid reformers who had not yet forgiven
the young monarch either his enforced renunciation of
their faith or his Catholic marriage ; and accordingly
the Queen had been compelled to avail herself of a
small oratory in the castle which would not contain
more than six or eight persons ; while so anxious was
the King not to exasperate the good citizens, that no
individual was permitted to accompany her to the
chapel save the immediate members of her household,
and the drawbridge was always raised until she had re-
turned to her own apartments.
Thus, the arrival of Marguerite in the country,
which had raised the hopes of the Catholic portion of
the population, by no means tended to improve their
position; and for a time her co-religionists, dis-
heartened by so signal a disappointment, made no
effort to resist the orders of the King ; but on the day
of Pentecost, 1579, a few zealous devotees, who had
by some means introduced themselves secretly into
the castle, followed the Queen to her oratory, where
they were arrested by Dupin the royal secretary, very
roughly treated in the presence of Marguerite herself,
and only released on the payment of a heavy fine.
24 The Life of
Indignant at the disrespect which had been shown
to her, the Princess at once proceeded to the apart-
ment of her husband, where she complained with
emphatic bitterness of the insolence of his favourite ;
and she had scarcely begun to acquaint him with
the details of the affair when Dupin entered unan-
nounced, and in the most intemperate manner com-
mented on her breach of good faith in having wilfully
abused the forbearance of the sovereign and his
Protestant subjects.
It was not without some difficulty that Henry suc-
ceeded in arresting this indecent flow of words, when,
rebuking Dupin for his want of discretion and self-
control, he commanded him immediately to crave the
pardon of the Queen for his ill-advised interference
and the want of deference of which he had been
guilty towards her royal person; but Marguerite re-
fused to listen to any apology, and haughtily and
resolutely demanded the instant dismissal of the
delinquent. In vain did Henry expostulate, declaring
that he could not dispense with the services of so old
and devoted a servant; the Princess was inexorable,
and the over-zealous secretary received orders to leave
the Court. Marguerite, however, purchased this tri-
umph dearly, as the King resented with a bitterness
unusual to him the exhibition of authority in which
she had indulged ; and when she subsequently urged
him to punish those who had acted under the orders
of the exiled secretary, he boldly and positively re-
fused to give her any further satisfaction, alleging that
her want of consideration towards himself left him at
equal liberty to disregard her own wishes.
Marie De Medicis 25
Angry and irritated, Marguerite lost no time in
acquainting her family with the affront which
she had experienced; and Catherine de Medicis,
who believed that she had now found a pretext
sufficiently plausible to separate the young Queen
from her husband, skilfully envenomed the already
rankling wound, not only by awakening the religious
scruples of her daughter, but also by reminding her
that she had been subjected to insult from a petty
follower of a petty court; and, finally, she urged
her to assert her dignity by an immediate return to
France.
Marguerite, whom the King had not made a single
effort to conciliate, obeyed without reluctance ; and, in
the year 1582, she left Navarre, and on her arrival in
Paris took possession of her old apartments in the
Louvre. She was received with great cordiality by
Henri III., who trusted that her residence in France
might induce her husband ere long to follow her ; but
he soon discovered that not even the warmth of his
welcome could cause her to forget the past ; and that,
under his own royal roof, she was secretly intriguing
with the Due d'Alencon, who was once more in open
revolt against him.
For a time, although thoroughly informed that such
was the fact, his emissaries were unable to produce
any tangible proof of the validity of their accusations ;
but at length, rendered bold by impunity, Marguerite
was so imprudent (for the purpose of forwarding some
despatches to the rebel Duke) as to cause the arrest of
a royal courier, charged with an autograph letter of
two entire sheets from the King to his favourite the
26 The Life of
Due de Joyeuse, * who was then on a mission at Rome ;
when the unfortunate messenger, who found himself
suddenly attacked by four men in masks, made so
desperate an effort to save the packet with which he
had been entrusted, that the sbirri of the Princess, who
had anticipated an easy triumph, became so much ex-
asperated that they stabbed him on the spot.
This occurrence no sooner reached the ears of
Henri III., than he sent to desire the presence of his
sister, when, utterly regardless of the fact that they
were not alone, he so far forgot his own dignity as to
overwhelm her with the coarsest and most cutting re-
proaches ; and not satisfied with expatiating upon the
treachery of which she had been guilty towards him-
self, he passed in review the whole of her ill-spent life,
accusing her, among other enormities, of the birth of
an illegitimate son,f and terminated his invectives by
commanding her instantly " to quit Paris, and rid the
Court of her presence." \
On the morrow Marguerite accordingly left the
capital with even less state than she had entered it, for
* Anne, Due de Joyeuse, Admiral and Peer of France, first gentle-
man of the bedchamber, and Governor of Normandy, was born in
1561. He was one of the mignons of Henri III., who, in 1582, gave
him in marriage Marguerite de Lorraine, the sister of the Queen
Louise de Vaudemont. He commanded the troops in Guienne against
the Huguenots, where he exercised the greatest cruelties ; and having
been defeated at the battle of Coutras in 1587, he was put to death
by the conquerors.
| This child, called by Bassompierre le P2re Archange, and by
Dupleix le Pere Ange y was the son of Jacques de Harlay de Chan-
vallon, known at Court as " the handsome Chanvallon," and was the
individual who, as the confessor of the Marquise de Verneuil, became
one of the most active agents in the conspiracy which was formed
against Henri IV. and the French Princes.
\ Dreux clu Radier, vol. v. p. 176.
Marie De Medicis 27
she had neither suite nor equipage, and was accom-
panied only by Madame de Duras and Mademoiselle
de Bethune, her two favourite attendants. She was
not, however, suffered to depart even thus without im-
pediment, for she had only travelled a few leagues
when, between Saint-Cler and Palaiseau, her litter was
stopped by a captain of the royal guard, at the head
of a troop of harquebusiers : she was compelled to re-
move her mask ; and her companions, after having
been subjected to great discourtesy, were finally con-
veyed as prisoners to the Abbey of Ferrieres, near
Montargis, where they underwent an examination, at
which the King himself presided, * and wherein facts
were elicited that were fatal to the character of their
mistress. Their replies were then reduced to writing ;
and Marguerite, who had been detained for this ex-
press purpose, was compelled by her inexorable brother
to affix her signature to the disgraceful document;
when, after she had been subjected to this new indig-
nity, the daughter of Catherine de Medicis was at
length permitted to pursue her journey ; but she was
compelled to do so alone, as her two attendants were
forbidden to bear her company.
She had no sooner left Ferrieres than Henri III.
despatched one of the valets of his wardrobe to St.
Foix, where the King of Navarre was for the moment
sojourning, with an autograph letter, in which he in-
formed him that he had considered it expedient to dis-
miss from the service of his royal sister both Madame
de Duras and Mademoiselle de Bethune, having dis-
covered that they were leading the most dissolute
* Mezeray, vol. iii. p. 546. Varillas, Histoire de Henri III., book vii.
28 The Life of
and scandalous lives, and were "pernicious vermin"
who could not be permitted to remain about the per-
son of a Princess of her rank.
Thus ignominiously driven from the Court of
France, Marguerite, who had no resource save in the
indulgence of her husband, travelled with the greatest
speed to Nerac, where he was then residing, in the
hope that she might be enabled by her representations
to induce him to espouse her cause against her brother ;
but although, in order to preserve appearances, Henry
received her courteously, and even listened with ex-
emplary patience to her impassioned relation of the
indignities to which she had been subjected, the cold-
ness of his deportment, and the stern tone in which
he informed her that he would give the necessary or-
ders for a separate residence to be prepared for her
accommodation, as he could never again receive her
under his own roof, or accord to her the honour and
consideration due to a wife, convinced her that she
had nothing more to hope from his forbearance.
Even while he thus resented his own wrongs, how-
ever, Henry of Navarre no sooner comprehended that
Marguerite had been personally exposed to < insults
which had affected his honour as her consort, than he
despatched a messenger to the French King at Lyons,
" to entreat him to explain the cause of these affronts,
and to advise him, as a good master, how he had bet-
ter act." * But this somewhat servile proceeding pro-
duced no adequate result, as his envoy received only
ambiguous answers, and all he could accomplish was
*D'Aubigny, Hist. vol. ii. book v. ch. iii. (1583). Confession de
Sancy, ch. vii. p. 447. Duplessis-Mornay.
Marie De Medicis 29
to extort a promise from Henri III. that on his return
to Paris he would discuss the affair with the Queen-
mother and the Due d'Alencon.
Unaware of the negotiation which was thus opened,
Marguerite had, as we have said, lost all confidence in
her own influence over her husband ; and accordingly,
without giving any intimation of her design, she left
Nerac and retired to Agen, one of her dower-cities,
where she established herself in the castle ; but her
unbridled depravity of conduct, combined with the
extortions of Madame de Duras, her friend and con-
fidante, by whom she had been rejoined, soon ren-
dered her odious to the inhabitants.
In vain did she declare that the bull of excommuni-
cation which Sixtus V. had recently fulminated against
the King of Navarre had been the cause of her retir-
ing from his Court, her conscience not permitting her
to share the roof of a prince under the ban of the
Church.* The Agenese, although Catholics and
leagued against her husband, evinced towards herself
a disaffection so threatening that her position was
rapidly becoming untenable, when the city was
stormed and taken by the Marechal de Matignon f in
the name of Henri III.J
* Duplessis-Mornay, Mint. p. 205.
f Jacques Govon de Matignon, Prince de Mortagne, was the repre-
sentative of a family of Brittany which traced its descent from the
thirteenth century, and had been established in Normandy towards
the middle of the fifteenth. Born at Lonray in 1526, he was ap-
pointed Lieutenant-General of Normandy in 1559, where he made
himself conspicuous by his persecution of the Huguenots. Henri III.
recompensed his services, in 1579, by the baton of a marechal, and
the collar of his Order. He subsequently became Commander-in-
Chief of the army in Picardy, then Lieutenant-General of Guienne,
and finally, Governor of that province. He died in 1597.
% Levi Alvares, p. 187.
3O The Life of
Convinced that the capture of her own person was
the sole motive of this unprovoked assault, the fugi-
tive Queen had once more recourse to flight ; and her
eagerness to escape the power of the French King
was so great that she left the city seated on a pillion
behind a gentleman of her suite named Lignerac,
while Madame de Duras followed in like manner ; and
thus she travelled four-and-twenty leagues in the short
space of two days, attended by such of the members
of her little household as were enabled to keep pace
with her.
The fortress of Carlat in the mountains of Auvergne
offered to her, as she believed, a safe asylum ; but al-
though the Governor, who was the brother of M. de
Lignerac, received her with respect, and promised her
his protection, the enmity of Henri III. pursued her
even to this obscure place of exile.
At this period even the high spirit of Marguerite
de Valois was nearly subdued, for she no longer knew
in what direction to turn for safety. She had become
contemptible in the eyes of her husband, she was de-
serted by her mother, hated by her brother, despised
by her co-religionists from the licentiousness of her
life, and detested by the Protestants as the cause, how-
ever innocently, of the fatal massacre of their friends
and leaders. The memory of the martyred Coligny
was ever accompanied by a curse on Marguerite ; and
thus she was an outcast from all creeds and all parties.
Still, however, confident in the good faith of the
Governor of Carlat, she assumed at least a semblance
of tranquillity, and trusted that she should be enabled
to remain for a time unmolested ; but it was not long
Marie De Medicis 31
ere she ascertained that the inhabitants of the town,
like those of Agen, were hostile to her interests, and
that they had even resolved to deliver her up to the
French King.
Under these circumstances, she had no alternative
save to become once more a fugitive; and having,
with considerable difficulty, succeeded in making her
escape beyond the walls, she began to indulge a hope
that she should yet baffle the devices of her enemy ;
she was soon, however, fated to be undeceived, for she
had travelled only a few leagues when she was over-
taken and captured by the Marquis de Canillac,* who
conveyed her to the fortress of Usson.f As she passed
the drawbridge, Marguerite recognised at a glance that
there was no hope of evasion from this new and im-
pregnable prison, save through the agency of her
gaoler ; and she accordingly lost no time in exerting
all her blandishments to captivate his reason. Al-
though she had now attained her thirty-fifth year,
neither time, anxiety, hardship, nor even the baneful
indulgence of her misguided passions, had yet robbed
her of her extraordinary beauty; and it is conse-
quently scarcely surprising that ere long the gallant
soldier to whose custody she was confided, surrendered
at discretion, and laid at her feet, not only his heart,
but also the keys of her prison-house.
" Poor man ! " enthusiastically exclaims Brantome,
her friend and correspondent ; " what did he expect to
do ? Did he think to retain as a prisoner her who, by
* Governor of Auvergne.
f The fortress of Usson, which had been a state prison under Louis
XI., was demolished by Louis XIII., in 1634.
32 The Life of
her eyes and her lovely countenance, could hold in her
chains and bonds all the rest of the world like galley-
slaves ? " *
Certain it is, that if the brave but susceptible mar-
quis ever contemplated such a result, he was destined
to prove the fallacy of his hopes ; for so totally was
he subjugated by the fascinations of the captive
Queen, that he even abandoned to her the command
of the fortress, which thenceforward acknowledged no
authority save her own.
Marguerite had scarcely resided a year at Usson
when the death of the Due d'Alencon deprived her of
the last friend whom she possessed on earth ; and not
even the security that she derived from the impregna-
bility of the fortress in which she had found an asy-
lum could preserve her from great and severe suffer-
ing. The castle, with its triple ramparts, its wide
moat, and its iron portcullis, might indeed defy all
human enemies, but it could not exclude famine ; and
during her sojourn within its walls, which extended
over a period of two-and-twenty years, she was com-
pelled to pawn her jewels, and to melt down her plate,
in order to provide food for the famishing garrison ;
while so utterly destitute did she ultimately become,
that she found herself driven to appeal to the gener-
osity of Elizabeth of Austria, the widow of her
brother Charles IX., who thenceforward supplied her
necessities.
In the year 1589 Henry of Navarre ascended the
throne of France, having previously, for the second
* Brantome, Dames Illustres, Marguerite de France^ JReine de
Navarre t Dis. v. p. 275.
Marie De Medicis 33
time, embraced the Catholic faith ; * but for a while
the liaisons which he found it so facile to form at the
Court, and his continued affection for the Comtesse de
Quiche, t together with the internal disturbances and
foreign wars which had convulsed the early years of
his reign, so thoroughly engrossed his attention, that
he had made no attempt to separate himself from his
erring and exiled wife; nor was it until 1598, when
the Edict of Nantes had ensured a lasting and certain
peace to the Huguenots : and that la belle Gabrielle \
* " There are three things," Henri IV. was wont to say, " that the
world will not believe, and yet they are certainly true: that the
Queen of England (Elizabeth) died a maid; that the Archduke
(Albert, Cardinal and Archduke of Austria) is a great captain ; and
that the King of France is a very good Catholic." L'Etoile, Journ.
de Henri IV., vol. i. p. 233.
f Diane d'Andouins, Vicomtesse de Louvigni, dame de 1'Escun,
was the only daughter of Paul, Vicomte de Louvigni, Seigneur de
1'Escun, and of Marguerite de Cauna. While yet a mere girl, she
became the wife of Philibert de Grammont, Comte de (Quiche, Gov-
ernor of Bayonne, and Seneschal of Beam. The passion of Henri
IV. for this lady was so great that he declared his intention of obtain-
ing a divorce from Marguerite de Valois, for the purpose of making
her his wife ; a project from which he was dissuaded by D'Aubigny,
who represented that the contempt which could not fail to be felt by
the French for a monarch who had degraded himself by an alliance
with his mistress, would inevitably deprive him of the throne in the
event of the death of Henri III. and the Due d'Alencon.
\ Gabrielle d'Estrees was the daughter of Antoine d'Estrees, fourth
of the name, Governor, Seneschal, and first Baron of Boulonnois,
Vicomte de Soissons and Bersy, Marquis de Coeuvres, Knight of the
Orders of the King, Governor of La Fere, Paris, and the Isle of
France ; and of Francoise Babou, second daughter of Jean, Seigneur
de la Bourdaisiere, and of Francoise Robertet. She married at an
early age, by the desire of her father, who was anxious to protect her
from the assiduities of the King, Nicolas d'Armeval, Seigneur de
Liancourt, who was, alike in birth, in person, and in fortune, unworthy
of her hand. This ill-assorted union produced the very result which
it was intended to avert, for Henry found means to separate the young
couple immediately after their marriage, and to attach Gabrielle to
the Court, where she soon became the declared favourite. On the
birth of her first child (Cesar, Due de Vendome), Madame de Lian-
34 The Life of
had replaced Madame de Guiche, and by making him
the father of two sons, had induced him to contem-
plate (as he had done in a previous case with her pred-
ecessor) her elevation to the throne, that he became
really anxious to liberate himself from the trammels
of his ill-omened marriage.
Having ascertained that the Due de Bouillon, * not-
withstanding the concessions which he had made to
the Protestant party, had been recently engaged, in
conjunction with D'Aubigny f and other zealous re-
formers, in endeavouring to create renewed disaffection
among the Huguenots, Henry resolved to visit Brittany,
and personally to express to the Duke his indignation
and displeasure.
court abandoned the name of her husband, from whom she obtained
a divorce, and assumed that of Marquise de Monceaux, which she de-
rived from an estate presented to her on that occasion by the King ;
and on the legitimation of her son in January, 1595, she already
aspired to the throne, and formed a party, headed by M. de Sillery,
by whom her pretensions were encouraged. She was subsequently
created Duchesse de Beaufort, and became the mother of Catherine-
Henriette, married to the Due d'Elbceuf, and of Alexandre de Ven-
dome, Grand Prior of France, who were likewise legitimated. She
died in childbirth, but not without suspicion of poison, on Ea.ster Eve,
in the year 1599.
* Henri de la Tour, Vicomte de Turenne, Due de Bouillon, Peer
and Marshal of France.
f Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigny was the son of Jean d'Aubigny,
Seigneur de Brie, in Xaintonge, and of Catherine de Lestang, and
was born on the 8th of February, 1550. At the age of six years he
read with equal facility the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages ;
and eighteen months afterwards translated the Crito of Plato. The
persecutions of the Huguenots, which he witnessed in his early youth,
and the solemn injunctions of his father to revenge their wrongs, ren-
dered him one of the most zealous and uncompromising reformers un-
der Henri IV. He died at Geneva on the 29th of April, 1630, aged
eighty years, and was buried in the cloisters of St. Pierre. D'Aubigny
left behind him not only his own memoirs, which are admirably and
truthfully written, but also the biting satire known as the Aventures du
Baron de Faenestne, and the still more celebrated Confession de Sancy.
Marie De Medicis 35
On his arrival at Rennes, where M. de Bouillon was
confined to his bed by a violent attack of gout, the
King accordingly proceeded to his residence ; where,
after having expressed his regret at the state of suffer-
ing in which he found him, he ordered all the attend-
ants to withdraw, and seating himself near the pillow
of the invalid, desired him to listen without remark or
interruption to all that he was about to say. He then
reproached him in the most indignant terms with his
continual and active efforts to disturb the peace of the
kingdom, recapitulating every act, and almost every
word, of his astonished and embarrassed listener, with
an accuracy which left no opportunity for denial ; and,
finally, he advised him to be warned in time, and, if he
valued his own safety, to adopt a perfectly opposite
line of conduct; assuring him, in conclusion, that
should he persist in his present contumacy, he should
himself take measures, as his sovereign and his master,
to render him incapable of working further mischief.
The bewildered Duke would have replied, but he
was instantly silenced by an imperious gesture from
the King, who, rising from his seat, left the chamber
in silence.
The presence of Henri IV. in Brittany was the
signal for festivity and rejoicing, and all that was
fair and noble in the province was soon collected at
Rennes in honour of his arrival; but despite these
demonstrations of affection and respect, his watchful
and anxious minister, the Due de Sully, remarked
that he occasionally gave way to fits of absence, and
even of melancholy, which were quite unusual to him,
and which consequently excited the alarm of the
36 The Life of
zealous Duke. He had, moreover, several times
desired M. de Sully's attendance in a manner which
induced him to believe that the King had something
of importance to communicate, but the interviews
had successively terminated without any such result ;
until, on one occasion, a few days after his interview
with the Due de Bouillon, Henry once more beckoned
him to his side, and turning into a large garden which
was attached to his residence, he there wreathed his
fingers in those of the minister, as was his constant
habit, and drawing him into a retired walk, com-
menced the conversation by relating in detail all that
had passed between himself and the ducal rebel. He
then digressed to recent political measures, and ex-
pressed himself strongly upon the advantages which
tranquillity at home, as well as peace abroad, must
ensure to the kingdom ; after which, as if by some
process of mental retrogression, he became suddenly
more gloomy in his discourse; and observed, as if
despite himself, that although he would struggle even
to the end of his existence to secure these national
advantages, he nevertheless felt that as the Queen had
given him no son, all his endeavours must prove fruit-
less ; since the contention which would necessarily
arise between M. de Conde and the other Princes of
the blood, when the important subject of the succes-
sion gave a free and sufficient motive for their jealousy,
could not fail to renew the civil anarchy which he had
been so anxious to terminate. He then, after a mo-
ment's silence, referred to the desire which had been
formally expressed to him by the Parliament of Paris,
that he should separate himself from Marguerite de
Marie De Medicis 37
Valois, and unite himself with some other princess
who might give a Dauphin to France, and thus
transmit to a son of his own line the crown which he
now wore.
Sully, who was no less desirous than himself to en-
sure the prosperity of the nation to which he had
devoted all the energies of his powerful and active
mind, did not hesitate to suggest the expediency of
his Majesty's immediate compliance with the prayer
of his subjects, and entreat him in his turn to obtain
a divorce, which by leaving him free, would enable
hirti to make a happier choice ; and he even assured
the anxious monarch that he had already taken steps
to ascertain that the Archbishop of Urbinp and the
Pope himself (who was fully aware of the impor-
tance of maintaining the peace of Europe, which must
necessarily be endangered by a renewal of the in-
testine troubles in France) would both readily facilitate
by every means in their power so politic and so
desirable a measure.
Henry urged for a time his disinclination to con-
tract a second marriage, alleging that his first had
proved so unfortunate in every way, that he was
reluctant to rivet anew the chain which had been so
rudely riven asunder; but the unflinching minister
did not fail to remind him that much as he owed
to himself, he still owed even more to a people who
had faith in his wisdom and generosity ; and the frank-
hearted King suffered himself, although with evident
distaste, to be ultimately convinced.
He then began to pass in review all the marriage-
able princesses who were eligible to share his throne,
38 The Life of
but to each in succession he attached some objection
which tended to weaken her claim. After what he
had already undergone, as he declared, there were
few women, and still fewer women of royal blood, to
whom he would willingly a second time confide his
chance of happiness. " In order not to encounter
once more the same disappointment and displeasure,"
he said at length, " I must find in the next woman
whom I may marry seven qualities with which I can-
not dispense. She must be handsome, prudent, gentle,
intellectual, fruitful, wealthy, and of high extraction ;
and thus I do not know a single princess in Europe
calculated to satisfy my idea of feminine perfection."
Then, after a pause during which the minister
remained silent, he added, with some inconsistency:
" I would readily put up with the Spanish Infanta,*
despite both her age and her ugliness, did I espouse
the Low Countries in her person; neither would I
refuse the Princess Arabella of England,! if, as it is
alleged, the crown of that country really belonged to
her, or even had she been declared heiress pre-
sumptive ; but we cannot reasonably anticipate either
contingency. I have heard also of several German
princesses whose names I have forgotten, but I have
no taste for the women of that country; besides
which, it is on record that a German Queen J nearly
* Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, was the second daugh-
ter of Philip II. She was the Gouvernante of the Low Countries ;
and although no longer either young or handsome, she possessed an
extraordinary influence over her royal father, who was tenderly attached
to her.
f Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles, Earl of Lennox, the grand-
son of Margaret of Scotland, sister to Henry VIII.
J Isabeau de Baviere, Queen of Charles VI.
Marie De Medicis 39
proved the ruin of the French nation ; and thus they
inspire me only with disgust."
Still Sully listened without reply, the King having
commenced his confidence by assuming a position
which rendered all argument worse than idle.
" They have talked to me likewise," resumed Henry
more hurriedly, as disconcerted and annoyed by the
expressive silence of his companion he began to walk
more rapidly along the shaded path in which this con-
ference took place ; " they have talked to me of the
sisters of Prince Maurice ; * but not only are they
Huguenots, a fact which could not fail to give umbrage
at the Court of Rome, but I have also heard reports
that would render me averse to their alliance. Then
the Duke of Florence has a niece,f who is stated to be
tolerably handsome, but she comes of one of the
pettiest principalities of Christendom ; and not more
than sixty or eighty years ago her ancestors were
merely the chief citizens of the town of which their
successors are now the sovereigns ; and, moreover, she is
a daughter of the same race as Catherine de Medicis, who
has been alike my own enemy and that of France."
Once more the King paused for breath, and glanced
anxiously towards his minister, but Sully was inexor-
able, and continued to listen respectfully and atten-
tively without uttering a syllable.
" So much for the foreign princesses," continued
Henry with some irritation, when he found that his
* Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, second son of William, and
of Anne, the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony.
| Marie de Medicis was the daughter of Francis, Grand Duke of
Tuscany, and of Jane, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary,
daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand.
4O The Life of
listener had resolved not to assist him either by word
or gesture ; " at least, I know of no others. And now
for our own. There is my niece, Mademoiselle de
Guise ; * and she is one of those whom I should prefer,
despite the naughty tales that are told of her, for I
place no faith in them ; but she is too much devoted
to the interests of her house, and I have reason to
dread the restless ambition of her brothers."
The Princesses of Mayenne,f of Aumale,J and
of Longueville, were next the subject of the
royal comments; but they were all either too fair
or too dark, too old or too plain; nor were
Mesdemoiselles de Rohan, || de Luxembourg^ or
* Louise-Marguerite de Lorraine was the daughter of Henri, Due
de Guise, surnamed le Balafrk, and of Catherine of Cleves, subse-
quently Duchesse de Nemours. She was celebrated alike for her ex-
treme beauty, her brilliant wit, and her great intellect. She wrote ad-
mirably for that age, and was the author of the Histoire des Amours
dtt Grand Alcandre, and of some Court Chronicles, which she pub-
lished under the patronymic of Dupilaust. Mademoiselle de Guise
married Francois, Prince de Conti, son of the celebrated Louis,
Prince de Conde, who was killed at Jarnac.
f Catherine de Lorraine, daughter of Charles, Due de Mayenne, and
of Henriette de Savoie-Villars, who became in February, 1599, the wife
of Charles de Gonzague, Due de Nevers, and subsequently Duke of
Mantua. She died on the 8th of March, 1618, at the age of thirty-
three years ; and was consequently, at the period referred to in the
text, only seventeen years old.
\ Anne, daughter and heiress of Charles, last Due d'Aumale, by
whom the duchy was transferred to the house of Savoy.
\ Mademoiselle de Longueville was the sister of Henri d'Orleans,
first Due de Longueville.
|| Catherine de Rohan, second daughter of Ren II., Vicomte de
Rohan, and of Catherine, the daughter and heiress of Jean de Parthe-
nay, Seigneur de Soubise. When she had subsequently become the
wife of the Due de Deux-Ponts, Henry IV. was so enamoured of her as
to make dishonourable proposals, to which she replied by the memor-
able answer : " I am too poor, Sire, to be your wife, and too well-born
to become your mistress."
^f Diane de Luxembourg, who, in 16001, gave her hand to Louis de
Ploesqueler, Comte de Kerman, in Brittany.
Marie De Medicis 41
de Guemenee * more fortunate : the first was a Cal-
vinist, the second too young, and the third not to his
taste.
Long ere the King had arrived at this point of his
discourse, the keen-sighted minister had fathomed his
determination to raise some obstacle in every instance ;
and he began to entertain a suspicion that this was not
done without a powerful motive, which he immediately
became anxious to comprehend. Thus, therefore,
when Henry pressed him to declare his sentiments
upon the subject, he answered cautiously : " I cannot,
in truth, hazard an opinion, Sire ; nor can I even un-
derstand the bent of your own wishes. Thus much
only do I comprehend that you consent to take an-
other wife, but that you can discover no princess
throughout Europe with whom you are willing to
share the throne of France. From the manner in
which you spoke of the Infanta, it nevertheless ap-
peared as though a rich heiress would not be unac-
ceptable ; but surely you do not expect that Heaven
will resuscitate in your favour a Marguerite de Flan-
dres, a Marie de Bourgogne, or even permit Elizabeth
of England to grow young again."
" I anticipate nothing of the kind," was the sharp
retort ; " but how know I, even were I to marry one
of the princesses I have enumerated, that I should be
more fortunate than I have hitherto been ? If beauty
and youth could have ensured to me the blessing of a
Dauphin, had I not every right to anticipate a different
result in my union with Madame Marguerite ? I could
* Mademoiselle de Guemenee was the daughter of Louis de Rohan,
Prince de Guemenee, first Due de Montbazon.
42 The Life of
not brook a second mortification of the like descrip-
tion, and therefore I am cautious. And now, as I
have failed to satisfy myself upon this point, tell me,
do you know of any one woman in whom are com-
bined all the qualities which I have declared to be
requisite in a Queen of France ? "
" The question is one of too important a nature,
Sire, to be answered upon the instant," said Sully,
" and the rather that I have never hitherto turned my
attention to the subject."
" And what would you say," asked Henry with ill-
concealed anxiety, " were I to tell you that such an
one exists in my own kingdom ? "
" I should say, Sire, that you have greatly the ad-
vantage over myself; and also that the lady to whom
you allude must necessarily be a widow."
" Just as you please," retorted the King ; " but if you
refuse to guess, I will name her."
" Do so," said Sully with increasing surprise ; " for I
confess that the riddle is beyond my reach."
" Rather say that you do not wish to solve it," was
the cold reply ; " for you cannot deny that all the
qualities upon which I insist are to be found combined
in the person of the Duchesse de Beaufort."
" Your mistress, Sire ! "
" I do not affirm that I have any intention, in the
event of my release from my present marriage, of
making the Duchess my wife," pursued Henry with
some embarrassment ; " but I was anxious to learn
what you would say, if, unable to find another woman
to my taste, I should one day see fit to do so."
" Say, Sire ? " echoed the minister, struggling to con-
Marie De Medicis 43
ceal his consternation under an affected gaiety ; " I
should probably be of the same opinion as the rest of
your subjects."
The King had, however, made so violent an effort
over himself, in order to test the amount of forbear-
ance which he might anticipate in his favourite coun-
sellor, and was so desirous to ascertain his real senti-
ments upon this important subject, that he exclaimed
impatiently : " I command you to speak freely ; you
have acquired the right to utter unpalatable truths ; do
not, therefore, fear that I shall take offence whenever
our conversation is purely confidential, although I
should assuredly resent such a liberty in public."
The reply of the upright minister, thus authorised,
was worthy alike of the monarch who had made such
an appeal, and of the man to whom it was addressed.
He placed before the eyes of his royal master the
opprobrium with which an alliance of the nature
at which he had hinted must inevitably cover his
own name, and the affront it would entail upon
every sovereign in Europe. He reminded him also
that the legitimation of the sons of Madame de Beau-
fort, and the extraordinary and strictly regal cere-
monies which he had recently permitted at the baptism
of the younger of the two (throughout the whole of
which the infant had been recognised as a prince of
the blood-royal, although the King had himself refused
to allow the registry of the proceedings until they were
revised, and the obnoxious passages rescinded), could
not fail, should she ever become Queen of France, in
the event of her having other children, to plunge the
nation into those very struggles for the succession
44 The Life of
from which he had just declared his anxiety to pre-
serve it.
"And this strife, Sire," he concluded fearlessly,
" would be even more formidable and more frightful
than that to which you so anxiously alluded ; for you
will do well to remember that not only the arena in
which it must take place will be your own beloved
kingdom of France, while the whole of civilised
Europe stands looking on, but that it will be a contest
between the son of M. de Liancourt and the King's
mistress the son of Madame de Monceaux, the di-
vorced wife of an obscure noble, and the declared
favourite of the sovereign ; and, finally, between these,
the children of shame, and the Dauphin of France,
the son of Henri IV. and his Queen. I leave you,
Sire, to reflect upon this startling fact before I venture
further."
" And you do well," said the monarch, as he turned
away ;, " for truly you have said enough for once." *
It will be readily conceived that at the close of this
conference M. de Sully was considerably less anxious
than before to effect the divorce of the infatuated
sovereign ; nor was he sorry to remind Henry, when
he next touched upon the subject, that they had both
been premature in discussing the preliminaries of a
second marriage before they had succeeded in cancel-
ling the first. It was true that Clement VIII., in his
desire to maintain the peace of Europe, had readily
entered into the arguments of MM. de Marquemont,f
* Sully, Mhn. vol. iii. pp. 162-174.
f Denys de Marquemont, Archbishop of Lyons, and subsequently
cardinal (1626). He did not, however, long enjoy thih dignity, to
Marie De Medicis 45
d'Ossat,* and Duperron,f whom the Duke had, by com-
mand of the monarch, entrusted with this difficult and
dangerous mission, when they represented that the
birth of a dauphin must necessarily avert all risk of
a civil war in France, together with the utter hopeless-
ness of such an event unless their royal master were
released from his present engagements ; and that the
sovereign-pontiff had even expressed his willingness to
second the wishes of the French monarch. But the
consent of Marguerite herself was no less important ;
obtain which he had exerted all his energies, as he died at the close
of the same year. He was a truckling politician, and an ambitious
priest.
* Arnaud d'Ossat was born in 1536 at Cassagnaberre, a small village
of Armagnac, near Auch. His parents lived in great indigence dur-
ing his infancy, and at nine years of age he became an orphan, totally
destitute. He was placed as an attendant about the person of a young
gentleman of family, whose studies he shared with such success that,
from the fellow-student of his patron, he became his tutor. After
some time he accompanied his employer to Paris, where by persever-
ing industry he completed his education, and was enabled to give
lessons in philosophy and rhetoric. He then proceeded to Bourges,
where he studied legal jurisprudence under the famous Cujas. Paul
de Foix, Archbishop of Toulouse, when about to proceed as ambassa-
dor to Rome, engaged him as his secretary ; and while there, he em-
braced the ecclesiastical profession, and rendered himself perfectly
conversant with the whole policy of the Papal Court. Henri III. be-
stowed upon him the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Varennes, but, as his
claim was contested, he immediately resigned it. Subsequently he was
raised to the bishopric of Rennes, was created a cardinal in 1598, and
some time afterwards was appointed to the see of Bayeux. His un-
tiring devotion to the interests of France was ultimately recognised by
his elevation to the dignity of minister under Henri IV.
f Jacques Davy Duperron was born at Berne in 1556, and being
learned in mathematics, Greek, Hebrew, and philosophy, he became a
professor of those sciences in Paris, where he obtained the appoint-
ment of reader to Henri III. Having embraced the ecclesiastical
profession, he received from Henri IV. (in 1591) the bishopric of
Evreux, as a recompense for his devotion to the interests of Gabrielle
d'Estrees. It was Duperron who obtained from the Pope the removal
of the interdict fulminated against France. He ultimately became a
cardinal, and Archbishop of Sens, and died in 1606.
46 The Life of
and with a view to obtain this, the minister addressed
to her a letter, in which he expressed his ardent desire
to effect a reconciliation between herself and the King,
in order that the prayers of the nation might be an-
swered by the birth of a Dauphin ; or, should she
deem such an event impossible, to entreat of her to
pardon him if he ventured to take the liberty of im-
ploring her Majesty to make a still greater sacrifice.
Sully had felt that it was unnecessary to explain
himself more clearly, as a reconciliation between Henri
IV. and his erring consort had, from the profligate life
which she was known to have led at Usson, become
utterly impossible ; nor could she doubt for an instant
the nature of the sacrifice which was required at her
hands. It was not, therefore, without great anxiety
that he awaited her reply, which did not reach him for
the space of five months ; at the expiration of which
period he received a letter, wherein she averred her
willingness to submit to the pleasure of the King, for
whose forbearance she expressed herself grateful;
offering at the same time her acknowledgments to the
Duke himself for the interest which he exhibited to-
wards her person. From this period a continued cor-
respondence was maintained between the exiled Queen
and the minister ; and she proved so little exacting in
the conditions which she required as the price of her
concession, that the affair would have been concluded
without difficulty, had not the favourite, who was
privy to the negotiation, calculating upon her in-
fluence over the mind of the monarch, suddenly as-
sumed an attitude which arrested its progress.
For a considerable time she had aspired to the
Marie De Medicis 47
throne ; but it was not until she learnt that the agents
of the King in Rome were labouring to effect the dis-
solution of his marriage with Marguerite de Valois, and
that the Due de Luxembourg * was also about to visit
the Papal Court in order to hasten the conclusion of
the negotiations, that she openly declared her views
to Sillery,! whom she knew to be already well affected
towards her, declaring that should he be instrumental
in inducing the King to make her his wife, she would
pledge herself to obtain the seals for him on his return
from Rome, as well as the dignity of chancellor so
soon as it should be vacant. {
Sillery, whose ambition was aroused, was not slow
to obey her wishes ; and, finding the Pope unwilling
to lend himself to the haste which was required of him,
he not only informed him privately that, in the event
of a divorce, his royal master was ready to espouse the
Princesse Marie de Medicis, his kinswoman (although
* Henri de Luxembourg, Due de Piney, was the descendant of the
celebrated Comte de Saint-Pol, and that branch of the family became
extinct in his person. He died in 1616.
f Nicolas Brulart, Seigneur de Sillery, was the elder son of Pierre
Brulart, president of the Court of Requests at Paris. He obtained
the office of court-councillor in 1573, and subsequently that of master
of the Court of Requests. Henry IV., after his accession to the throne
of France, appointed him ambassador to Switzerland ; and on his re-
turn from that country, made him sixth president, that dignity having
become vacant by the death of Jean Le Maitre. In 1598 he was one
of the deputies by whom the peace of Vervins was concluded ; and
from thence he proceeded to Brussels with the Due de Biron, to be
present when the Archduke swore to the observance of the treaty.
He next visited Italy as ambassador extraordinary to the Pope, where
he negotiated the marriage of the King with Marie de Medicis. In
1604 Henri IV. created in his favour the office of keeper of the seals
of France ; and finally, on the death of the Chancelier de Bellievre,
he became his successor.
t Sully, Mem. vol. iii. pp. 189, 190.
48 The Life of
at this period Henry evinced no inclination towards
such an alliance), but even when he discovered that his
Holiness remained unmoved by this prospect of family
aggrandisement, he ventured so far as to hint, in con-
junction with the Cardinal d'Ossat, that it was probable,
should the Pontiff continue to withhold his consent to
the annullation of the King's present marriage, he
would dispense with it altogether, and make the
Duchesse de Beaufort Queen of France: a threat
which so alarmed the sovereign-prelate that, immedi-
ately declaring that he placed the whole affair in the
hands of God, he commanded a general fast through-
out Rome, and shut himself up in his oratory, where
he continued for a considerable time in fervent prayer.
On his reappearance he was calm, * and simply re-
marked : " God has provided for it."
A few days subsequently a courier arrived at Rome
with intelligence of the death of the Duchess.
Meanwhile Gabrielle, by her unbridled vanity, had
counteracted all the exertions of her partisans. Aware
of her power over the King, and believing that this
divorce from Marguerite once obtained, she should
find little difficulty in overcoming all other obstacles,
she was unguarded enough prematurely to assume the
state and pretensions of the regality to which she
aspired, affecting airs of patronage towards the greatest
ladies of the Court, and lavishing the most profuse
promises upon the sycophants and flatterers by whom
she was surrounded. The infatuation of the King,
whose passion for his arrogant mistress appeared to
increase with time, tended, as a natural consequence,
* " Comme s'il fftt revenu d'extase," says Per6fixe, vol. ii. p. 300.
Marie De Medicis 49
to encourage these unseemly demonstrations ; nor did
the friends of the exiled Queen fail to render her cogni-
sant of every extravagance committed by the woman
who aspired to become her successor; upon which
Marguerite, who, morally fallen as she was in her own
person, had never forgotten that she was alike the
daughter and the consort of a king, suddenly with-
drew her consent to the proposed divorce ; declaring,
in terms more forcible than delicate, that no woman of
blighted character should ever, through her agency,
usurp her place.
The sudden and frightful death of the Duchess,
which shortly afterwards supervened, having, however,
removed her only objection to the proposed measure,
her marriage with the King was, at length, finally
declared null and void, to the equal satisfaction of both
parties. The event which Marguerite had dreaded
had now become impossible, and she at once * for-
warded a personal requisition to Rome, in which she
declared that " it was in opposition to her own free will
that her royal brother King Charles IX. and the Queen-
mother had effected an alliance to which she had con-
sented only with her lips, but not with her heart ; and
that the King her husband and herself being related in
the third degree, she besought his Holiness to declare
the nullity of the said marriage." f
On the receipt of this application, the Pontiff
having previously ascertained that the demand of
Henry himself was based on precisely the same argu-
* In April, 1599.
f Bernard de Montfaucon. Les Monumens de la Monarchic Fran-
Paris, 1733, in folio, vol. v. p. 396.
5o The Life of
ments, and still entertaining the hope held out to him
by Sillery that the King would, when liberated from
his present wife, espouse one of his own relatives
immediately appointed a committee, composed of the
Cardinal de Joyeuse, the Archbishop of Aries,* and
the Bishop of Modena, his nuncio and nephew, instruct-
ing them, should they find all circumstances as they
were represented, to declare forthwith the dissolution
of the marriage.|
Meanwhile the King, whose first burst of grief at
the loss of the Duchess had been so violent that he
fainted in his carriage on receiving the intelligence,
and afterwards shut himself up in the palace of Fon-
tainebleau during several days, refusing to see the
princes .of the blood and the great nobles who hastened
to offer their condolences, and retaining about his
person only half a dozen courtiers to whom he was
personally attached, had recovered from the shock
sufficiently to resume his usual habits of dissipation
and amusement. In the extremity of his sorrow he
had commanded a general Court mourning, and him-
self set the example by assuming a black dress for the
first week ; but as his regret became moderated, he ex-
changed his sables for a suit of violet, in which cos-
tume he received a deputation from the Parliament of
Paris which was sent to condole with him upon the
bereavement that he had undergone ! J while the in-
telligence which reached him of the presumed treach-
ery of the Due de Biron, by compelling his removal to
* Horace del-Monte.
f Mezeray, vol. x. p. 123.
t Maintenon, Mem., Amsterdam, 1756, vol. ii. p. 115.
Marie De Medicis 51
Blois, where he could more readily investigate the
affair, completed a cure already more than half accom-
plished. There the sensual monarch abandoned him-
self to the pleasures of the table, to high play, and to
those exciting amusements which throughout his
whole life at intervals annihilated the monarch in the
man : while the circle by which he had surrounded
himself, and which consisted of M. le Grand,* the
Comte de Lude,f MM. de Thermes,{ de Castelnau,
de Calosse, de Montglat,|| de Frontenac,Tf and de Bas-
sompierre, ** was but ill calculated to arouse in him
* Roger de St. Larry, Due de Bellegarde, was the favourite of
three successive sovereigns. Henri III. appointed him master of his
wardrobe, and subsequently first gentleman of the chamber, and
grand equerry. Henri IV. made him a knight of his Orders in 1595 ;
and ultimately Louis XIII. continued to him an equal amount of
favour. The preservation of Quillebceuf, which he defended with
great gallantry during the space of three weeks, with only forty-five
soldiers and ten nobles, against the army of the Due de Mayenne,
acquired for him a renown which he never afterwards forfeited.
f Henri Comte, and subsequently Due, de Lude, was the last male
representative of his family. He was appointed grand-master of the
artillery in 1669, and died without issue in 1685.
J Jean de St. Larry de Thermes, brother of the Due d'Aiguillon.
Jacques, Marquis de Castelnau, subsequently Marshal of France,
who, in 1658, commanded the left wing of the army at the battle of
the Dunes, and died the same year, at the early age of thirty-eight.
|| Francois de Paule de Clermont, Marquis de Montglat, first
maitre d'hotel to the King.
Tf M. de Frontenac was one of the officers of Henry IV. who,
before his accession to the throne of France (in 1576), had a quarrel
with M. de Rosny, during which he told him that if he were to pull
his nose, he could only draw out milk ; a taunt to which the future
minister replied by an assurance that he felt strong enough to draw
blood out of that of his adversary with his sword. The peculiarity
of this quarrel existed in the fact that, although De Rosny was a
Protestant, and Frontenac a Catholic, M. de Turenne nevertheless
espoused the cause of the latter; upon which M. de Lavardin, a
Catholic, declared himself ready to second the arms of the adverse
party.
'* Francois, Baron de Bassompierre, was the son of Christophe de
Bassompierre and Louise de Radeval, and was born on the I2th of
52 The Life of
better and nobler feelings. Ambitious, wealthy, witty,
and obsequious, they were one and all interested in
flattering his vanity, gratifying his tastes, and pander-
ing to his passions ; and it is melancholy to contem-
plate the perfect self-gratulation with which some of
the highest-born nobles of the time have in their
personal memoirs chronicled the unblushing sub-
serviency with which they lent themselves to the
encouragement of the worst and most debasing quali-
ties of their sovereign. Even before his departure
for Blois, and during the period of his temporary re-
tirement from the Court, while Henry still wore the
mourning habits which he had assumed in honour
of his dead mistress, the more intimate of his asso-
ciates could discover no means of consolation more
effective than by inducing him to select another
favourite.
" All the Court," says a quaint old chronicler, him-
self a member of the royal circle, t( were aware that
the King had a heart which could not long preserve
its liberty without attaching itself to some new object,
a knowledge which induced the flatterers at Court who
had discovered his weakness for the other sex to leave
April, 1579, at the chateau of Harouel, in Lorraine. He became at
an early age the intimate companion and favourite of Henri IV., by
whom he was appointed colonel-general of the Swiss troops. In the
year 1603 he was made Marshal of France, and obtained great
influence over both Marie de Medicis and her son Louis XIII.
Richelieu, who became jealous of his favour, caused him to be im-
prisoned in the Bastille in 1631, where he remained for twelve years.
He was an able diplomatist, a distinguished general, and a polished,
though dissolute, courtier. He acquitted himself with great dis-
tinction in several sieges, and at his death, which occurred in 1646,
he bequeathed to posterity his personal memoirs, which are among
the most curious in the rich collections possessed by his countrymen.
Marie De Medicis 53
nothing undone to urge him onward in this taste, and
to make their fortunes by his defeat." *
Unfortunately the natural character of the King
lent itself only too readily to their designs; and, as
already stated, they had profited by the opportunity
afforded to them during the short retreat at Fontaine-
bleau to arouse the curiosity of Henry on the subject
of a new beauty. Whether at table, at play, or
lounging beneath the shady avenues of the stately
park, the name of Catherine Henriette d'Entragues
was constantly introduced into the conversation, and
always with the most enthusiastic encomiums ; f nor
was it long ere their pertinacity produced the desired
effect, and the monarch expressed his desire to see the
paragon of whom they all professed to be enamoured.
A hunting-party was accordingly organised in the
neighbourhood of the chateau of Malesherbes, where
the Marquis d'Entragues was then residing with his
family ; and the fact no sooner became known to the
mother of the young beauty, whose ambition was
greater than her morality, and who was aware of the
efforts which had been made to induce Henry to re-
place the deceased Duchess by a new favourite, than
she despatched a messenger to entreat of his Majesty
to rest himself under her roof after the fatigue of the
* Rambure, unpublished Metn., 1599, vol. i. pp. 151, 152.
f Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, subsequently known
as the Marquise de Verneuil, was the elder daughter of the celebrated
Marie Touchet, who, after having been the mistress of Charles IX.,
became the wife of Francois de Balzac, Seigneur d'Entragues, de
Marcoussis and de Malesherbes, Governor of Orleans, who was, in
1573, elected a knight of St. Michael by Henri HI. Henriette, as
her name implies, was, together with he two sisters, the issue of this
marriage ; while her half-brother the Comte d'Auvergne, subsequently
Due d'Angouleme, was the son of Charles IX.
54 The Life of
chase. The invitation was accepted, and on his arrival
Henriette was presented to the King, who was imme-
diately captivated by her wit, and that charm of youth-
fulness which had for some time ceased to enhance
the loveliness of the once faultless Gabrielle. At this
period Mademoiselle d'Entragues had not quite at-
tained her twentieth year, but she was already well
versed in the art of fascination. Advisedly overlook-
ing the monarch in the man, she conversed with a
perfect self-possession, which enabled her to display all
the resources of a cultivated mind and a lively tem-
perament ; while Henry was enchanted by a gaiety
and absence of constraint which placed him at once
on the most familiar footing with his young and bril-
liant hostess ; and thus instead of departing on the
morrow, as had been his original design, he remained
during several days at Malesherbes, constantly attended
by the Marquise and her daughter, who were even in-
vited to share the royal table. *
The Duchesse de Beaufort had been dead only three
weeks, and already the sensual monarch had elected
her successor.
Less regularly handsome than Gabrielle d'Estrees,
Mademoiselle d'Entragues was even more attractive
from the graceful vivacity of her manner, her brilliant
sallies, and her aptitude in availing herself of the re-
sources of an extensive and desultory course of study.
She remembered that, in all probability, death alone
had prevented Gabrielle d'Estrees from ascending the
French throne ; and she was aware that, although less
* Saint-Edme, Amours et Galanteries des Rois de France, Brussels,
vol. ii. pp. 199, 200.
Marie De Medicis 55
classically beautiful than the deceased Duchess, she
was eminently her superior in youth and intellect, and,
above all, in that sparkling conversational talent which
is so valuable amid the ennui of a court. Well versed
in the nature of the monarch with whom she had to
deal, Mademoiselle d'Entragues accordingly gave free
course to the animation and playfulness by which
Henry was so easily enthralled ; skilfully turning the
sharp and almost imperceptible point of her satire
against the younger and handsomer of his courtiers,
and thus flattering at once his vanity and his self-love.
Still, the passion of the King made no progress save
in his own breast. At times Mademoiselle d'Entragues
affected to treat his professions as a mere pleasantry,
and at others to resent them as an affront to her
honour ; at one moment confessing that he alone could
ever touch her heart, and bewailing that destiny should
have placed him upon a throne, and thus beyond the
reach of her affection ; and at another declaring her-
self ready to make any sacrifice rather than resign her
claim upon his love, save only that by which she could
be enabled to return it. This skilful conduct served,
as she had intended that it should do, merely to irri-
tate the passion of the monarch, who, unconscious of
the extent of her ambition, believed her to be simply
anxious to secure herself against future disappoint-
ment and the anger of her family ; and thus finding
that his entreaties were unavailing, he resolved to em-
ploy another argument of which he had already fre-
quently tested the efficacy, and on his return to Fon-
tainebleau he despatched the Comte de Lude to the
lady with what were in that age termed " propositions."
The Life of
It is, from this circumstance, sufficiently clear that
Henry himself was far from feeling any inclination to
share his throne with the daughter of Charles IX.'s
mistress ; and that, despite the infatuation under
which he laboured, he already estimated at its true
price the value of Henriette's affection. Nevertheless,
the wily beauty remained for some short time proof
against the representations of the royal envoy; nor
was it until the equally wily courtier hinted that
Mademoiselle d'Entragues would do well to reflect ere
she declined the overtures of which he was the bearer,
as there was reason to believe that the King had, on a
recent visit to the widowed Queen Louise * at Che-
* Louise Marguerite de Lorraine, the widow of Henri III., was
the elder daughter of Nicolas de Lorraine, Due de Mercceur, Comte
de Vaudemont, and of the Marquise d'Egmont, his first wife. Henri
III. having seen her at Rheims, during his temporary residence in
that city, became enamoured of her person, and their marriage took
place on the 5th of February, 1575. Francois de Luxembourg, of
the House of Brienne, had for some time paid his addresses to Made-
moiselle de Lorraine, with the hope and intention of making her his
wife ; a fact which the licentious and frivolous King no sooner ascer-
tained than he declared his inclination to effect an alliance between
the disappointed suitor and his own mistress, Mademoiselle de Cha-
teauneuf, for whom he was anxious to provide through this medium.
He consequently proposed the arrangement to M. de Luxembourg on
the day of his coronation, but received the cold and firm reply that
the Count felt himself bound to congratulate Mademoiselle de Lor-
raine on her good fortune, since by changing her lover she had also
been enabled to increase her dignity ; but that, as regarded himself,
since he could derive no benefit whatever from becoming the husband
of Mademoiselle de Chateauneuf, he begged that his Majesty would
excuse him from contracting such an alliance. The King, however,
declared that he would admit of no refusal, and insisted upon his in-
stant obedience ; whereupon M. de Luxembourg demanded eight days
to make the necessary preparations, to which Henry demurred, and it
was finally arranged that he should be allowed three days for that
purpose, after which he was to hold himself prepared to obey the
royal command. These three days sufficed to enable the intended
victim to make his escape, and he accordingly left the kingdom. His
Marie De Medicis 57
nonceaux, become enamoured of Mademoiselle la
Bourdaisiere, one of her maids of honour, * that the
startled beauty, who had deemed herself secure of her
royal conquest, was induced to affix a price to the
concession which she was called upon to make, and
that M. de Lude returned bearing her ultimatum to
the King, f
This ultimatum amounted to no less than a hundred
thousand crowns ; \ and, setting aside the voluntary
degradation of the lady a degradation which would
appear to have been more than sufficient to disgust any
man of delicacy who sought to be loved for his own
sake it was a demand which even startled the incon-
siderate monarch himself, although he had not suffi-
cient self-command to meet it with the contempt that
it was calculated to excite. Well had it been, alike for
himself and for the nation generally, had he suffered
his better judgment on this occasion to assume the
ascendant, and misdoubted, as he well might, the tears
sarcasm against herself had so deeply irritated Queen Louise that
after the death of her husband she entreated Henri IV. to revenge
her injured dignity upon her former suitor, but the monarch declined
to aid in any further persecution of the unfortunate young noble.
The married life of the Queen was a most unhappy one, and appeared
to have entirely disgusted her with the world, as on becoming a
widow she passed two years of seclusion and mourning at Chenon-
ceaux, whence she removed to the chateau of Moulins, where she de-
voted herself to the most austere duties of religion. In her will, by
which she bequeathed nearly the whole of her property to the Church
and to charitable purposes, she left a large sum for the erection of a
Capuchin convent at Bourges, where she desired that she might be
ultimately interred ; but by command of Henri IV. the convent was
built in the Faubourg St. Honore, at Paris, and her body deposited in
the chapel.
* Sully, Mm. vol. iii. p. 312.
f Saint-Edme, p. 260.
| Equal, in the present day, to nearly five hundred thousand livres.
58 The Life of
and protestations of so interested a person ; particu-
larly, when he could not fail to remember that he had
been deceived even by Gabrielle d'Estrees, whom he
had overwhelmed with riches and honours, and who had
voluntarily given herself to him when he was young
and handsome ; whereas he was now in the decline of
life, and was suing for the love of one so much his
junior. Unfortunately, however, reason waged a most
unequal warfare with passion in the breast of the
French sovereign; and voluntarily overlooking alike
the enormity of the demand, and the circumstances
under which it was made, he at once despatched an
order to the finance-minister to supply the required
sum. Sully had no alternative save obedience ; he did
not even venture upon expostulation ; but he did bet-
ter. When admitted to the royal closet, he alluded in
general terms to the extreme difficulty which he antic-
ipated in raising the required amount of four millions
for the renewal of the Swiss alliance ; and then, ap-
proaching the table beside which the King was seated,
he proceeded slowly and ostentatiously to count the
hundred thousand crowns destined to satisfy the cupid-
ity of Mademoiselle d'Entragues. He had been care-
ful to cause the whole amount to be delivered in silver ;
and it was not, therefore, without an emotion which
he failed to conceal, that Henry saw the numerous piles
of money which gradually rose before him and over-
spread the table.
Nevertheless, although he could not control an ex-
clamation of astonishment, he made no effort to re-
trieve his error; but, after the departure of M. de
Sully, placed the required amount in the hands of the
Marie De Medicis 59
Comte de Lude, who hastened to transfer it to those
of the frail beauty. It was not until after the receipt
of this enormous present that the Marquis d'Entragues
and his stepson * affected to suspect the design of the
King, and upbraided M. de Lude with the part which
he had acted, desiring him never again to enter a house
which he sought only to dishonour; an accusation
which, from the lips of the husband of Marie Touchet,
was a mere epigram. He, however, followed up this
demonstration by removing his daughter from Males-
herbes to Marcoussis, although with what intention it
is difficult to determine, as the King at once proceeded
thither, and at once obtained an interview.
Little accustomed to indulge in a prodigality so
reckless, Henry had flattered himself that the affair
was concluded ; but such was by no means the inten-
tion of the young lady and her family. Henriette, in-
deed, received her royal lover with the most exagger-
ated assurances of affection and gratitude; but she
nevertheless persisted in declaring that she was so
closely watched as to be no longer mistress of her own
actions, and so intimidated by the threats of her father
that she dared not act in opposition to his will. In
vain did the King remonstrate, argue, and upbraid;
the lady remained firm, affecting to bewail the state of
coercion in which she was kept, and entreating Henry
to exert his influence to overcome the repugnance of
her family to their mutual happiness. To his anger
she opposed her tears ; to his resentment, her fascina-
* Charles de Valois, the son of Charles IX. and Marie Touchet,
Dame de Belleville. He was subsequently Due d'Angouleme and
Grand Prior of France. He died in 1639.
60 The Life of
tions ; and when at length she discovered that the royal
patience was rapidly failing, although her power over
his feelings remained unshaken, she ventured upon the
last bold effort of her ambition, by protesting to the
infatuated sovereign that her father had remained deaf
to all her entreaties, and that the only concession which
she could induce him to make was one which she had
not courage to communicate to his Majesty. As she
had, of course, anticipated, Henry at once desired her
to inform him of the nature of the fresh demand which
was to be made upon his tenderness ; when, with well-
acted reluctance, Mademoiselle d'Entragues repeated a
conversation that she had held with the Marquis, at the
close of which he had assured her that he would never
consent to see her the mistress of the King until she
had received a written promise of marriage under the
royal hand, provided she became, within a year, the
mother of a son.
" In vain, Sire," she pursued hurriedly, as she per-
ceived a cloud gather upon the brow of the monarch
" in vain did I seek to overcome the scruples of my
parents, and represent to them the utter in utility of
such a document ; they declared that they sought only
to preserve the honour of their house. And you well
know, Sire," she continued with an appealing smile,
" that, as I ventured to remind them, your word is of
equal value with your signature, as no mere subject
could dare to summon a great king like yourself to
perform any promise you, who have fifty thousand
men at your command to enforce your will ! But all
my reasoning was vain. Upon this point they are
firm. Thus then, since there is no other hope, and
Marie De Medicis 61
that they insist upon this empty form, why should you
not indulge their whim, when it cannot involve the
slightest consequence ? If you love as I do, can you
hesitate to comply with their desire ? Name what con-
ditions you please on your side, and I am ready to ac-
cept them too happy to obey your slightest wish."
Suffice it that the modern Delilah triumphed, and
that the King was induced to promise the required
document ; * a weakness rendered the less excusable,
if indeed, as Sully broadly asserts : " Henry was not
so blind but that he saw clearly how this woman
sought to deceive him. I say nothing of the reasons
which he also had to believe her to be anything
rather than a vestal; nor of the state intrigues of
which her father, her mother, her brother, and her-
self had been convicted, and which had drawn down
upon all the family an order to leave Paris, which I
had quite recently signified to them in the name of his
Majesty." f
As it is difficult to decide which of the two the
Duke sought in his Memoirs to praise the most un-
sparingly, the sovereign or himself, the epithet of
"this weak Prince," which he applies to Henry on
the present occasion, proves the full force of his
annoyance. He, moreover, gives a very detailed
account of an interview which took place between
them upon the subject of the document in question ;
even declaring that he tore it up when his royal
master placed it in his hands ; and upon being asked
by the King if he were mad, had replied by saying :
*Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 62, 63. Saint-Edme, pp. 2OI, 2O2.
f Sully, Mem. vol. iii. pp. 313, 314.
62 The Life of
" Would to God that I were the only madman in
France ! " * As, however, I do not find the same
anecdote recorded elsewhere by any contemporaneous
authority, I will not delay the narrative by inserting
it at length ; and the rather as, although from the
influence subsequently exercised over the fortunes
of Marie de Medicis by the frail favourite I have
already been compelled to dwell thus long upon her
history, it is one which I am naturally anxious to
abridge as much as possible. I shall therefore only
add that the same biographer goes on to state that the
contract which he had destroyed was rewritten by the
King himself, who within an hour afterwards was on
horseback and on his way to Malesherbes, where he
sojourned two days. It is, of course, impossible to
decide whether Henry had ever seriously contemplated
the fulfilment of so degrading an engagement ; but it
is certain that only a few months subsequently he
presented to Mademoiselle d'Entragues the estate
of Verneuil, and that thenceforward she assumed the
title of Marquise, coupled with the name of her new
possession, f
* Sully, Mint. vol. iii. p. 315.
f Mezeray, vol. x. p. 124.
CHAPTER II
1599
Sully Resolves to Hasten the King's Marriage Ambassadors are sent
to Florence to Demand the Hand of Marie de Medicis The Mar-
riage Articles are Signed Indignation of Madame de Verneuil
Revenge of her Brother, the Comte d'Auvergne The Duke of
Savoy Visits Paris His reception His Profusion His Mission
Fails Court Poets Marie de Medicis is Married to the French
King by Procuration at Florence Hostile Demonstrations of the
Duke of Savoy Infatuation of the King for the Favourite Her
Pretensions A Well-timed Tempest Diplomacy of Madame de
Verneuil Her Reception at Lyons War in Savoy Marie de
Medicis Lands at Marseilles Madame de Verneuil Returns to
Paris The Due de Bellegarde is Proxy for the King at Florence
He Escorts the New Queen to France Portrait of Marie de
Medicis Her State-galley Her Voyage Her Reception Henry
Reaches Lyons The Royal Interview Public Rejoicings The
Royal Marriage Henry Returns to Paris The Queen's Jealousy
is Awakened Profligate Habits of the King Marie's Italian At-
tendants Embitter her Mind Against Her Husband Marie Reaches
Paris She Holds a Court Presentation of Madame de Verneuil
to the Queen Indignation of Marie Disgrace of the Duchesse de
Nemours Self-possession of Madame de Verneuil Marie Takes
Possession of the Louvre She Adopts the French Costume
Splendour of the Court Festival Given by Sully A Practical
Joke Court Festivities Excessive Gambling Royal Play Debts
The Queen's Favourite A Petticoat Intrigue Leonora Galigai
Appointed Mistress of the Robes Reconciliation Between the
Queen and Madame de Verneuil The King Gives the Marquise a
Suite of Apartments of the Louvre Her Rivalry of the Queen
Indignation of Marie Domestic Dissensions The Queen and the
Favourite are Again at War Madame de Verneuil Effects the
63
64 The Life of
Marriage of Concini and Leonora Gratitude of the Queen Birth
of the Dauphin Joy of the King Public Rejoicings Birth of
Anne of Austria Superstitions of the Period Belief in Astrology
A Royal Anecdote Horoscope of the Dauphin The Sovereign
and the Surgeon Birth of Gaston Henri, Son of Madame de
Verneuil Public Entry of the Dauphin into Paris Exultation of
Marie de Medicis.
THE infatuation of the King for his new favourite
decided M. de Sully to hasten by every means
in his power the marriage of the sovereign with some
European princess worthy to share his throne, and he
accordingly instructed the royal agents at Rome to
demand forthwith the hand of Marie de Medicis for
the French monarch; while Henry, absorbed in his
passion, permitted him to act as he saw fit, offering
neither assistance nor impediment to a negotiation on
which his domestic happiness was in future to depend.
Nor was it until the Duke urged upon him the
necessity of selecting such of his nobility as it was his
pleasure to entrust with the management of the affair
in conjunction with the ambassador whom the Grand
Duke, her uncle, was about to despatch to Paris, that,
by dint of importunity, he was induced to name M. de
Sully himself, the Constable, the Chancellor, and the
Sieur de Villeroy,* whose son, M. d'Alincourt, had
previously been sent to Rome to offer the acknowledg-
ments of Henry to his Holiness for the dissolution of
his marriage with Queen Marguerite, and to apprise
him of that which he was desirous to contract with
Marie de Medicis. This duty performed, M. d'Alin-
* Charles de Neufville, Marquis d'Alincourt, Seigneur de Villeroy,
secretary and minister of state, knight of the King's Orders, Governor
of the city of Lyons, and of the provinces of Lyons, Forez, and
Beaujolais.
Marie De Medicis 65
court solicited the permission of the Pope to accom-
pany Sillery to Florence to pay his respects to the
Princess and to negotiate the alliance ; and having ob-
tained the required sanction, the two nobles set forth
upon their embassy, quite unaware that the prelimin-
aries were already nearly concluded.* So determined,
indeed, had been the minister that no time should be
afforded to the King to redeem the pledge which he
had given to the favourite that Joannini, the agent of
the Grand Duke, had not been many days in Paris
before the articles were drawn up and signed on both
sides, and Sully was commissioned by the other
contracting parties to communicate the termination of
their labours to his royal master. The account given
by the minister of this interview is highly characteristic.
" He had not," says the chronicler, " anticipated
such expedition; and thus when I had answered his
question of where I had come from by ' We come,
Sire, from marrying you,' the Prince remained for a
quarter of an hour as though he had been stricken by
thunder ; then he began to pace the chamber with
long strides, biting his nails, scratching his head, and
absorbed by reflections which agitated him so violently
that he was a considerable time before he was able to
speak to me. I entertained no doubt that all my pre-
vious representations were now producing their effect ;
and so it proved, for ultimately recovering himself like
a man who has at length taken a decided resolution :
' Well,' said he, striking his hands together, well, then,
so be it ; there is no alternative, since for the good of
my kingdom you say that I must marry.' " f
*Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 124, 125. | Sully, Mtm. vol. iii. p. 317.
66 The Life of
Such was the ungracious acceptance of the haughty
Florentine Princess at the hands of her future bride-
groom.
The indignation of Madame de Verneuil was un-
bounded when she ascertained that she had for ever
lost all hope of ascending the throne of France ; but
it is nevertheless certain that she was enabled to dis-
simulate sufficiently to render her society indispensable
to the King, and to accept with a good grace the
equivocal honours of her position. Her brother, the
Comte d'Auvergne, was, however, less placable ; he
had always affected to believe in the validity of her
claim upon the King, and his naturally restiess and
dissatisfied character led him, under the pretext of
avenging her wrongs, to enter into a conspiracy which
had recently been formed against the person of the
King, whom certain malcontents sought to deprive
alike of his throne and of his liberty, and to supersede
in his sovereignty by one of the Princes of the Blood.*
Among others, the Duke of Savoy ,f who, during the
troubles of 1588, had taken possession of the mar-
quisate of Saluzzo, which he refused to restore, was
said to be implicated in this plot ; and he was the more
strongly suspected as it had been ascertained that he
*Mezeray, vol. x. p. 125.
f Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, surnamed the Great, was born
in the chateau of Rivoles on the I2th of January, 1562. He greatly
distinguished himself by his gallantry upon several occasions, but tar-
nished his reputation by an ambition which was unscrupulous. He
was remarkable for his literary attainments and for his friendship for
men of letters, and was generally esteemed one of the greatest gen-
erals of the age. He was also so thorough a diplomatist that it was
commonly remarked that it was more difficult to penetrate his designs
than the fastnesses of his duchy. He died at Savillan on the 26th of
July, 1630.
Marie De Medicis 67
had constant communication with several individuals
at the French Court, and that he had tampered with
certain of the nobles ; among others, with the Due de
Biron.* He had also succeeded in attaching to his in-
terests the Duchesse de Beaufort ; and had, during her
lifetime, proposed to the King to visit France in person
in order to effect a compromise, which he anticipated
that, under her auspices, he should be enabled to con-
clude with advantage to himself. Henry had accepted
the proposition ; and although after the death of the
Duchess, M. de Savoie endeavoured to rescind his reso-
lution, he found himself so far compromised that he
was compelled to carry out his original purpose ; and
accordingly, on the 1st of December, he left Chambery
with a train of twelve hundred horse, accompanied by
the greater part of his ministers, his nobles, and the
most magnificent members of his Court, f As the
French King had issued orders that he should, in every
city through which he passed, be received with regal
honours, he did not reach Fontainebleau until the I4th
of the same month, where he arrived just as his royal
host was mounting his horse to meet him. As he ap-
proached Henry he bent his knee, but the King imme-
* Charles de Gontault, Due de Biron, Peer, Admiral, and Marshal
of France, acquired great reputation alike for his valour and his serv-
ices. He was honoured with the confidence of Henri IV., who cre-
ated the barony of Biron into a duchy-peerage for his benefit, and
loaded him with proofs of his favour; Biron, however, repaid his
sovereign with the basest ingratitude by entering into a treaty with
the Duke of Savoy and the Spaniards, who were both inimical to
France. Having refused to acknowledge his fault, and thereby ex-
hausted the forbearance of the King, he was put upon his trial, con-
victed of the crime of lese-majeste, and condemned to lose his head.
The sentence was carried into execution in the court of the Bastille on
the 3ist of July, 1602.
| Guichenon, Histoire de Savoie.
68 The Life of
diately raised and embraced him with great cordiality ;
and during the seven days which he spent at Fontaine-
bleau the Court was one scene of splendour and dissi-
pation. Balls, jousts, and hunting-parties succeeded
each other without intermission, but the Duke soon
perceived that the monarch had no intention of taking
the initiative on the errand which had brought him to
France, a caution from which he justly augured no fa-
vourable result to his expedition ; * while on his side
the subject was never alluded to by Sully or any of the
other ministers without his giving the most unequivo-
cal proofs of his determination to retain the mar-
quisate. t
Meanwhile his conduct was governed by the most
subtle policy; his bearing towards the monarch was
at once deferential and familiar ; his liberality was
unbounded ; and his courtesy towards the great
nobles and the officials of the Court untiring and
dignified.
On the eighth day after the arrival of the Duke at
Fontainebleau the Court removed to Paris, where
Henry had caused apartments to be prepared for his
royal guest in the Louvre ; but M. de Savoie, after of-
fering his acknowledgments for the proffered honour,
preferred to take up his abode in the house of his rela-
tive the Due de Nemours, near the Augustine con-
vent. The whole of the Christmas festival was spent
in a succession of amusements as splendid as those
with which he had been originally received ; and on
the 1st of January, 1600, when it is customary in
* Daniel, Histoire de France, vol. vii. p. 386.
\ L'Etoile, Journal de Henri IV., vol. ii. p. 481.
Marie De Medicis 69
France to exchange presents, the Duke repaid all this
magnificence by a profusion almost unprecedented.
To the King, his offering was two large bowls and
vases of crystal so exquisitely worked as to be consid-
ered unrivalled; while he tendered to Madame de
Verneuil, who did the honours of the royal circle, and
whom he was anxious to attach to his interests, a val-
uable collection of diamonds and other precious
stones. Nor did his liberality end here, for there was
not a great noble of the Court who was not enriched
by his munificence save the Due de Biron ; who, from
policy, declined to accept some magnificent horses
which were sent to him in the name of the Prince ; and
Sully, who, upon being presented by M. des Alimes,
one of the principal Savoyard lords, with a snuff-box
enriched with diamonds, and estimated at fifteen thou-
sand crowns, containing a portrait of M. de Savoie, at
once perceived that the costly offering was intended as
a bribe, and declined to receive it, declaring that he
had made a vow never to accept any present of value
except from his own sovereign. *
The King responded to the liberality of his guest by
the gift of a diamond star, of which the centre brilliant
covered a miniature of Madame de Verneuil, together
with other valuable jewels ; but the profusion of the
Duke was so great that his whole outlay upon this oc-
casion was estimated at no less a sum than four hun-
dred thousand crowns ; and when it was believed that
he must have exhausted his resources, he still further
astonished the French nobles by appearing at a ball
which he gave to the Court in a dress entirely covered
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 436, 437.
70 The Life of
with precious stones, and valued at a far higher sum
than that which he had expended.*
That this profusion had been dictated by policy
rather than by generosity was sufficiently apparent;
and whatever effect it might have produced upon the
minds of the courtiers, M. de Savoie was soon made
aware that it had been utterly powerless over the reso-
lution of the sovereign ; for he no sooner ventured to
allude to the subject of his journey, than Henry with
his accustomed frankness declared his determination to
enforce his right to the marquisate which his guest had
usurped ; an assurance which determined the Duke to
request that a commission might be appointed to ex-
amine their conflicting claims.
His demand was conceded ; commissioners were ap-
pointed on both sides, and the question was rigidly dis-
cussed ; propositions were mutally made and mutually
declined ; until finally the King, by the advice of his
council, despatched Sebastian Zamet t to the Duke of
* Mezeray, vol. x. p. 127.
f Sebastian Zamet was a wealthy contractor, of Italian origin, but
who had caused himself to be naturalised in France, in 1581, to-
gether with his two brothers, Horace and John-Anthony Zamet. Al-
though he ultimately became the father of an adjutant-general of the
King's armies, and of a bishop, it was confidently asserted that during
the preceding reign he had been a shoemaker. Be that as it may, it
is no less certain that he must have possessed considerable talent, as
even during the lifetime of Henri III. he was already a rich con-
tractor, and under Henri IV. he was esteemed the richest in the king-
dom. On the occasion of the marriage of one of his daughters, the
notary who was employed to draw up the marriage contract, finding it
difficult to define his real rank, inquired by what title he desired to be
designated ; upon which Zamet calmly replied : " You may describe
me as the lord of seventeen hundred thousand cr(nvns" His ready wit
first procured for him the favour of Henri IV., which he subsequently
retained by a system of complaisance of thoroughly Italian morality.
His house was always open to the King, even for the most equivocal
Marie De Medicis 71
Savoy, with full authority to negotitate either a restitu-
tion or an exchange; giving him at the same time
three months in which to consult his nobility, and to
decide upon the one measure or the other.
So skilfully did the envoy perform his mission, that
he ultimately succeeded in inducing M. de Savoie to
propose to the King, as compensation for the contested
marquisate, the cession of certain towns and citadels
named in a treaty which was signed by the two con-
tracting parties ; and this arrangement had no sooner
concluded than the court resumed its career of gaiety ;
nor was it until the 7th of March that the Duke finally
took leave of his royal entertainer, and commenced his
homeward journey.*
Meanwhile the Court poets had not been idle ; and
while the Duke of Savoy had recognised the suprem-
acy of the favourite by costly gifts, her favour had
been courted by the most popular of those time-serv-
ing bards who were accustomed to make their talents
subservient to their interests; nor is it the least re-
markable feature of the age that the three most fash-
ionable rhymesters in the circles of gallantry were all
ecclesiastics, and that the charms and virtues of Henri-
ette d'Entragues were celebrated by a cardinal, a
bishop, and an abbe ! "f
Her most palmy days were, however, at an end, for
hitherto she had reigned undisputed mistress of the
King's affections, and she was henceforward to hold at
purposes ; and so great was the familiarity with which he was treated
by the dissolute monarch, that the latter constantly addressed him by
a pet name, and held many of his orgies beneath his roof.
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 492, 493.
f Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 58 n.
72 The Life of
best a divided sway. On the 5th of May, M. d'Alin-
court arrived at Fontainebleau from Florence, with the
intelligence that, on the 25th of the preceding month,
the contract of marriage between the French monarch
and the Princesse Marie de Medicis had been signed at
the Palazzo Pitti, in the presence of Carlo- Antonio
Putei, Archbishop of Pisa, and the Duke of Bracciano ;
and that the bride brought as her dowry six hundred
thousand crowns, besides jewels and other ornaments
of value. He further stated that a " Te Deum " had
been chanted, both in the Palazzo Pitti and at the
church of the Annunciation at Florence ; after which
the Princesse Marie, declared Queen of France, had
dined in public, seated under a dais above her uncle ;
and at the conclusion of the repast, the Duke of Brac-
ciano had presented the water to wash her hands, and
the Marquis de Sillery, the French Ambassador, the
napkin upon which she wiped them. Having made
his report, and delivered his despatches, M. d'Alincourt
placed in the hands of the King a portrait of Marie
richly set in brilliants, which had been entrusted to
him for that purpose ; and the lover of Madame de
Verneuil found himself solemnly betrothed.*
This fact, however, produced little visible effect upon
the Court circle, and still less upon the King himself ;
and after having afforded a subject of conversation for
a brief interval, it soon appeared to be entirely for-
gotten amid the more absorbing matters of interest by
which the minds of the different individuals were
severally engrossed. From policy, the betrothal was
never mentioned by the courtiers in the presence of
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 511, 512.
Marie De Medicis 73
Madame de Verneuil, a restraint which caused it to
fall into partial oblivion ; and the rather as the month
of June had arrived without any demonstration on the
part of the Duke of Savoy, who had availed himself
of every possible pretext to evade the fulfilment of the
treaty of Paris ; and who had rendered it evident that
force of arms alone could compel him to resign the
usurped marquisate. Even the monarch himself be-
came at length convinced of the impolicy of further
delay, and resolved forthwith to advance to Lyons,
whither Sully had already despatched both troops and
artillery.* M. de Savoie had, however, during his so-
journ in France, made many partisans, who urged upon
their sovereign the expediency of still affording to the
Duke an opportunity of redeeming his pledge; and
Henry, even against his better reason, listened the more
complacently to their counsels that Madame de Verneuil
was about to become a mother, and he shrank from
the idea of separation from her at such a moment.
Thus he delayed his journey until Sully, who was not
long in discovering the cause of his inaction, renewed
his expostulations with still greater emphasis, and
finally induced him to make preparations for an im-
mediate departure. As the hour arrived, however, he
again wavered, until at length he declared his determi-
nation to be accompanied by the Marquise ; but this
arrangement was, from her state of health, soon found
to be impossible ; and after considerable difficulty he
was persuaded to consent that she should await his re-
turn at Monceaux, whither he himself conducted her,
with renewed protestations that he loved her well
* Sully had recently been appointed grand-master of artillery.
74 The Life of
enough to resign even then the alliance with Marie de
Medicis, and to make her his wife.* This was pre-
cisely what the favourite still hoped to accomplish.
She was aware of the extraordinary influence which
she had obtained over the mind of her royal lover, and
she looked forward to the birth of a son as the one
thing necessary to her success. Accordingly, before
she suffered the King to depart, she compelled him to
promise that he would be near her during her illness ;
and then she reluctantly saw him set forth to Moulins,
where he was detained for a fortnight, his council not
being able to agree as to the expediency of the cam-
paign.
There can be little doubt that under other circum-
stances Henry would have found means to bring
them to a decision ; but as he was enabled during
their discussions to receive daily intelligence of the
Marquise, he submitted quietly to a detention which
seconded his own wishes.
At length the period arrived in which Madame de
Verneuil was about to enforce her claim upon the
tenderness of her royal lover, and already he spoke of
returning for a while to Monceaux; when a violent
storm, and the falling of a thunderbolt in the very
chamber of the invalid, so affected her nervous system,
that she lost the infant upon which she had based all
her anticipations of greatness ; and although the King
hastened to condole with her upon her disappointment,
and even remained in constant attendance upon her
sick-bed until she was partially convalescent, the great
link between them was necessarily broken ; a fact of
* Saint- Edme, vol. ii. p. 207.
Marie De Medicis 75
which she was so well aware that her temper gave way
beneath the trial, and she bitterly upbraided her royal
lover for the treachery of which she declared him to
have been guilty in permitting his ministers to effect
his betrothal with Marie de Medicis, when she had her-
self, as she affirmed, sacrificed everything for his sake.
In order to pacify her anger, the King loaded her with
new gifts, and consoled her by new protestations ; nor
did his weakness end there, for so soon as her health
was sufficiently reestablished, he wrote to entreat of
her to join him at Lyons ; although not before she had
addressed to him a most submissive letter, in which she
assured him that her whole happiness depended upon
his affection, and that as she had too late become
aware that his high rank had placed an inseparable
barrier between them, and that her own insignificance
precluded the possibility of her ever becoming his
wife, she at least implored of him to leave to her the
happiness of still remaining his mistress, and to con-
tinue to feel for her the same tenderness, with so many
demonstrations of which he had hitherto honoured her.*
This was an appeal to which the enamoured
monarch willingly responded, and the nature of her
reception at Lyons tended still further to restore
peace between them. What the Lyonnese had
previously done in honour of Diane de Poitiers,
when, as the accredited and official mistress of Henri
II., she visited their city, they repeated in honour of
Madame de Verneuil, whose entrance within their
gates was rather that of a crowned queen than a fallen
woman; and this triumph was shortly afterwards
* Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 74-76.
y6 The Life of
augmented by her reception of the standards taken by
the King at Charbonnieres, which he caused to be
conveyed to her as a proof of his devotion, and which
she, with ostentatious pomp, transferred to the church
of St. Just.
From Lyons, Henry proceeded to Grenoble, still
accompanied by Madame de Verneuil, the Duke of
Savoy having at length declared that rather than sub-
mit to the conditions which had been proposed to him,
he would incur the hazard of a war. In consequence
of this decision, immediate measures were taken by
the French generals to march upon Saluzzo ; and the
Marechal de Biron, although already strongly suspected
of disaffection to his sovereign, having collected a
body of troops, possessed himself of the whole
territory of Brescia. The town of Bourg was stormed
by Du Terrail,* and taken, with the exception of the
citadel; while M. de Crequy t entered Savoy, and
* Louis de Comboursier, Seigneur du Terrail, commenced his
military career as a cornet in the troops of the Dauphin. He was
brave, but haughty and reckless, and was obliged to retire into
Flanders in consequence of having killed a man under the eyes of
the King, and within the precincts of the Louvre. After making a
pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Loretto, he profited by his
return through Turin to pay his respects to the Duke of Savoy, to
whom he offered his services and assistance in his project of taking
the city of Genoa by surprise. The plot was, however, discovered
by a valet, who apprised the authorities of the intended treachery ;
and Du Terrail together with a companion whom he had associated in
the enterprise were imprisoned in the castle of Yverdun, and thence
conveyed to Genoa, where they were both decapitated, in the year 1609.
f Charles de Crequy was the representative of one of the most
ancient families in France, which traced its descent from Arnoul,
called the Old, or the Bearded, who died in 879. The elder branch
of the house became extinct in the person of Antoine de Crequy,
Cardinal and Bishop of Amiens, born in 1531, and who at his death,
which occurred in the year 1574, left all his personal wealth, together
with the family possessions which he inherited from his brothers, to
Marie De Medicis 77
made himself master of the city of Montmelian, al-
though the castle still held out.
Henry then resolved to enter Savoy in person ; and
having once more taken leave of the Marquise, who
returned to Lyons, he marched upon Chambery
which immediately capitulated ; and thence he pro-
ceeded to possess himself of the citadels of Conflans
and Charbonnieres, which had hitherto been deemed
impregnable. M. de Savoie, who had confided in the
strength of his fortresses of Montmelian and Bourg,
and who had continued to affect the most perfect in-
difference to the approach of the French troops, now
became seriously alarmed, and made instant prepara-
tions to relieve the Marquis de Brandis, the governor
of the former fortress, for which purpose he applied to
Spain for assistance. This was, however, refused;
and both places fell into the hands of the French
monarch, who then successively took Chablais and
Faussigny ; after which he sat down before the fortress
of St. Catherine, which the Savoyards had erected to
overawe the Genevese.*
Antoine de Blanchefort, the son of his sister, Marie de Crequy, on
condition that he should bear the name and arms of his mother.
The son of Antonine was Charles de Crequy, de Blanchefort, and de
Canaples, Prince de Poix, Governor of Dauphiny, peer and marshal
of France, who became Due de Lesdiguieres by his marriage with
Madelaine de Bonne, daughter of the celebrated Connetable de
Lesdiguieres, in 1611. His duel with Don Philippine, the bastard
of Savoy, in which he killed his adversary, acquired for him a great
celebrity ; but he secured a more legitimate and desirable reputation
by his gallantry in the taking of Pignerol and La Maurienne, in 1630.
Three years subsequently he was sent as ambassador to Rome; in
1636 he conquered the Spanish forces on the Ticino; and in
1638 he was killed by a cannon ball, at the siege of Bremen, in
Hanover.
* Perefixe, Histoire de Henri le Grand, vol. ii. pp. 329-33.
78 The Life of
During the siege of Fort St. Catherine, intelligence
reached the King of the arrival of the young Queen
at Marseilles ; and meanwhile the gratification of the
Pope at an alliance so flattering to his pride had been
of essential benefit to the French interest, as he had,
in consequence, made no demonstration in favour of
the Duke of Savoy, although it was not entirely with-
out anxiety that he had seen the army of Henry ap-
proach his own dominions ; but, satisfied that at such
a conjuncture the French monarch would attempt no
aggressive measures against Italy, he had consented to
remain passive.
Madame de Verneuil was no sooner apprised of the
landing of Marie de Medicis than, after having vehe-
mently reproached the King for a haste which she
designated as insulting to herself, she made instant
preparations for her return to Paris, resolutely refusing
to assist at the ceremonious reception of the new
Queen ; nor could the expostulations of Henry, even
accompanied, as they were, by the most profuse proofs
of his continued affection, induce her to rescind her
determination. To every representation of the mon-
arch she replied by reminding him that out of all the
high nobles of his Court, he had seen fit to select the
Due de Bellegarde as the bearer of his marriage-proc-
uration to the Grand Duke of Florence thus indem-
nifying him to the utmost of his power for the morti-
fication to which he had been subjected by the royal
refusal to permit him to act personally as his proxy ;
while she assured him that she was not blind to the
fact that this selection was meant as an additional
affront to herself, in order to avenge the preposterous
Marie De Medicis 79
notion which his Majesty had adopted, that, after hav-
ing previously paid his court to the Duchesse de
Beaufort during her period of power, the Duke had
since transferred his affections to the Marquise de
Verneuil.
Under all circumstances, this accusation was most
unfortunate and ill-judged, and should in itself have
sufficed to open the eyes of the monarch, who had,
assuredly, had sufficient experience in female tactics to
be quite aware that where a woman is compelled men-
tally to condemn herself, she is the most anxious to
transfer her fault to others, and to blame where she is
conscious of being open to censure. Madame de
Verneuil had not, however, in this instance at all mis-
calculated the extent of her influence over the royal
mind ; as, instead of resenting an impertinence which
was well fitted to arouse his indignation, Henry weakly
condescended to justify himself, and by this unmanly
concession laid the foundation of all his subsequent
domestic discomfort.
Madame de Verneuil returned to Paris, surrounded
by adulation and splendour, and the King was left at
liberty to bestow some portion of his thoughts upon
his expected bride. It is probable, indeed, that the
portrait of Marie presented to him by the Grand
Duchess had excited his curiosity and flattered his
self-love ; for it was more than sufficiently attractive to
command the attention of a monarch even less suscep-
tible to female beauty than himself. Marie was still in
the very bloom of life, having only just attained her
twenty-fourth year ; nor could the King have foi
that when, some time previously, her portrait hgtd j^een
8o The Life of
forwarded to the French Court together with that of
the Spanish Infanta, Gabrielle d'Estrees, then in the
full splendour of her own surpassing loveliness, had
exclaimed as she examined them : " I should fear noth-
ing from the Spaniard, but the Florentine is danger-
ous." From whatever impulse he might act, however,
it is certain that after the departure of the favourite,
Henry publicly expressed his perfect satisfaction with
the marriage which he had been induced to contract, *
and lost no time in issuing his commands for the re-
ception of his expected bride.
The Due de Bellegarde, Grand Equerry of France,
had reached Livorno on the 2Oth of September, ac-
companied by forty French nobles, all alike eager, by
the magnificence of their appearance and the chivalry
of their deportment, to uphold the honour of their
royal master. Seven days subsequently, he entered
Florence, where he delivered his credentials to the
Grand Duke, having been previously joined by An-
tonio de Medicis with a great train of Florentine
cavaliers who had been sent to meet him ; and the
same evening he had an interview with his new sov-
ereign, to whom he presented the letters with which
he had been entrusted by the King, f
On the 4th of October, the Cardinal Aldobrandini,
the nephew and legate of the Pope, who had already
been preceded by the Duke of Mantua and the Vene-
tian Ambassador, arrived in his turn at Florence, in
order to perform the ceremony of the royal marriage.
His Eminence was received at the gate of the city by
* Saint-Edm6, vol. ii. pp. 211, 212.
f Montfaucon, vol. v. p. 402.
Marie De Medicis 81
the Grand Duke in person, and made his entry on
horseback under a canopy supported by eight young
Florentine nobles, preceded by all the ecclesiastical
and secular bodies; while immediately behind him
followed sixteen prelates, and fifty gentlemen of the
first families in the duchy bearing halberds. On
reaching the church, the Cardinal dismounted, and
thence, after a brief prayer, he proceeded to the ducal
palace. At the conclusion of the magnificent repast
which awaited him, the legate, in the presence of his
royal host, of the Dukes of Mantua and Bracciano,
the Princes Juan and Antonio de Medicis, and the
Sieur de Bellegarde, announced to the young Queen
the entire satisfaction of the Sovereign-Pontiff at the
union upon which he was about to pronounce a bless-
ing: to which assurance she replied with grace and
dignity.
On the morrow a high mass was celebrated by the
Cardinal in the presence of the whole Court; and
during its solemnisation he was seated under a canopy
of cloth of gold at the right-hand side of the altar,
where a chair had been prepared for him upon a plat-
form raised three steps above the floor. He had no
sooner taken his place, than the Due de Bellegarde,
approaching the Princess (who occupied a similar seat
of honour, together with her uncle, at the opposite
side of the shrine), led her to the right hand of the
legate ; the Grand Duke at the same time placing him-
self upon his left, and presenting to his Eminence the
procuration by which he was authorised to espouse his
niece in the name of the King. The document was
then transferred to two of the attendant prelates, by
82 The Life of
whom it was read aloud; and subsequently the au-
thority given by the Pope for the solemnisation of the
marriage was, in like manner, made public. The re-
mainder of the nuptial service was then performed
amid perpetual salvos of artillery. In the evening a
splendid ball took place at the palace, followed by a
banquet, at which the new Queen occupied the upper
seat, having on her right the legate of his Holiness,
the Duke of Mantua, and the Grand Duke her uncle,
who, in homage to her superior rank, ceded to her the
place of honour; and on her left, the Duchesses of
Mantua, Tuscany, and Bracciano ; the Duke of Brac-
ciano acting as equerry, and Don Juan, the brother of
the Grand Duke, as cupbearer.
The four following days were passed in a succession
of festivities : hunting-parties, jousts, tiltings at the
ring, racing, and every other description of manly
sport occupying the hours of daylight, while the
nights were devoted to balls and ballets, in which the
Florentine nobility vied with their foreign visitors in
every species of profusion and magnificence. Among
other amusements, a comedy in five acts was repre-
sented, on which the outlay was stated to have
amounted to the enormous sum of sixty thousand
crowns.
At the close of the Court festivals, the Cardinal
Aldobrandini took his leave of the distinguished
party, and proceeded to Chambery ; but the Queen
lingered with her family until the 1 3th of the month,
upon which day, accompanied by the Grand-Duchess
her aunt, the Duchess of Mantua her sister, her
brother Don Antonio, the Duke of Bracciano, and the
Marie De Medicis 83
French Ambassador, she set forth upon her journey to
her new kingdom.*
Without being strictly beautiful, Marie de Medicis
possessed a person at once pleasing and dignified. All
the pride of her Italian blood flashed from her large
dark eye, while the consciousness of her exalted rank
lent a majesty to her deportment which occasionally,
however, in moments of irritation, degenerated into
haughtiness. Her intellect was quick and cultivated,
but she was deficient alike in depth of judgment and
in strength of character. Amiable, and even submiss-
ive in her intercourse with her favourites, she was
vindictive and tyrannical towards those who fell under
the ban of her displeasure ; and with all the unscrupu-
lous love of intrigue common to her race, she was
nevertheless unguarded in her confidences, unstable in
her purposes, and short-sighted in her policy. In
temper she was hot, impatient, and irascible ; in tem-
perament, jealous and exacting ; while her vanity and
love of power perpetually made her the tool of those
who sought to profit by her defects.
It is probable that throughout the whole of Europe
no princess could have been selected less constituted to
make the happiness of a sovereign who, like Henri
IV., had not scrupled to avow to his minister that he
dreaded domestic dissension far more than foreign war-
fare ; but who at the same time did not hesitate, by his
own irregularities, to arouse all the worst passions in
the bosom of an outraged wife.
On the i /th of October the royal bride reached
Livorno, where she made her entry in great pomp, and
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 534-537.
84 The Life of
was received with the most enthusiastic acclamations ;
and on the following day she embarked in the state-
galley of the Grand Duke, one of the most magnificent
vessels which had ever floated upon the blue waters
of the Mediterranean. Seventy feet in length, it was
impelled by fifty-four oars, and was richly gilded from
stem to stern ; the borders of the poop being inlaid
with a profusion of lapis-lazuli, mother-of-pearl, ivory,
and ebony. It was, moreover, ornamented by twenty
large circles of iron interlaced, and studded with topaz,
emeralds, pearls, and other precious stones ; while the
splendour of the interior perfectly corresponded with
this gorgeous framework. In the principal cabin,
which was hung and carpeted with cloth of gold, a seat
of state had been arranged for the Queen, opposite to
which were suspended the shields of France and of the
house of Medicis side by side ; the fleurs-de-lis of the
former being composed of large diamonds, and the de-
vice of the latter represented by five immense rubies
and a sapphire, with an enormous pearl above, and a
fine emerald in the centre.* This fairy vessel was fol-
lowed by five other galleys furnished by the Pope, and
six appertaining to the Grand Duke ; and thus escorted
Marie de Medicis reached Malta, where she was joined
by another fleet which awaited her off that island ; but,
despite all this magnificence, the voyage of the Queen
was anything but propitious, for after arriving at Es-
peries, where the authorities of Genoa proffered to her,
with great respect, the attendance of their own flotilla,
she had no sooner reached Portofino than she was
compelled to anchor for several days from stress of
* Hist, des Reines et Regentes de France, vol. ii. p. 28.
Marie De Medicis 85
weather. Unaccustomed as she was, however, to this
mode of travelling, the high-spirited young Queen re-
sisted all the entreaties of those about her, who were
anxious that she should land until the wind had moder-
ated, simply remarking that the King had given no
directions to that effect ; * and retaining, amid all the
dismay and discomfort by which she was surrounded,
not only her self-command, but even her cheerfulness.!
Meanwhile, Henry had no sooner ascertained the
approach of his royal bride, than he forthwith des-
patched to welcome her, the Constable, the Chan-
cellor, and the Dues de Nemours, de Ventadour, and
de Guise; and these princes were followed on the
ensuing day by the Cardinals de Joyeuse, de Gondy,
and de Sourdis ; after which he intimated his pleasure
to all the several princesses and great ladies of the
Court who were then sojourning at Grenoble in order
to be near the royal army, that they should immedi-
ately set forth to pay their respects to their new sover-
eign, and remain in attendance upon her person until
her entry into Paris ; a command which was so liter-
ally obeyed, that three days afterwards the city was
utterly stripped of the aspect of gaiety and splendour
which had rendered it for a time an epitome of the
capital itself.
* Malherbe, the favourite poet of Marie de Medicis, profited by the
tediousness of her voyage to make it the subject of an allegory, in
which he represents that Neptune
" Dix jours ne pouvant se distraire
Au plaisir de la regarder,
II a, par un effort contraire,
Essaye de la retarder."
A specimen of his godship's gallantry, with which the young sovereign
would, in all probability, most willingly have dispensed,
f L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 537.
86 The Life of
On the 28th of October the Queen once more put
to sea, and two days subsequently she entered the port
of Toulon, where she landed under a canopy of cloth
of gold, with her fine hair flowing over her shoulders.*
There she remained for two days, in order to recover
from the effects of her voyage ; after which she re-
embarked and proceeded to Marseilles, where she
arrived on the evening of Friday the 3d of November.
A gallery had been constructed from the port to the
grand entrance of the palace in which apartments had
been prepared for her ; and on stepping from her
galley, she was welcomed by the Chancellor, f who
announced to her the orders that he had received from
the King relative to her reception, and presented to
her Majesty the Connetable-Duc de Montmorency, J
and the Dues de Nemours and de Ventadour.|| The
* Valadier, year 1600.
f M. de Sillery.
\ Henri I. de Montmorency, duke, peer, marshal, and Constable of
France, Governor of Languedoc, etc., was the second son of the
celebrated Anne de Montmorency. He rendered himself famous,
during the lifetime of his father, under the name of the Seigneur de
Damville, and made prisoner the Prince de Conde at the battle of
Dreux in 1562. Having subsequently incurred the displeasure of
Catherine de Medicis, he retired to the Court of the Duke of Savoy,
and became the leader of the malcontents in Languedoc during the
reign of Henri III. Henri IV. restored him to all his honours, and
made him Constable of France, and a knight of the Order of the
Holy Ghost, in 1593. He died at an advanced age, in the town of
Agde, in 1614.
Charles Amedee de Savoie, Due de Nemours, was the son of
e.cques de Savoie and of Anne d'Este, whose first husband was the
uc de Guise. This lady made herself very conspicuous during the
League. Charles Amedee married Elisabeth, the sister of Cesar de
Vendome, Due de Beaufort, and during the Fronde attached himself
to the party of the princes ; but having quarrelled with his brother-in-
law, he was killed by him in a duel in the year 1652.
|| Anne de Levis, Due de Ventadour, was the representative of one
of the most ancient and illustrious families of France, which derived
Marie De Medicis 87
consuls and citizens then tendered to her upon their
knees the keys of the city in gold, linked together by
a chain of the same precious metal ; after which cere-
mony, the young Queen was conducted to the palace
under a rich canopy, preceded by the Constable, sur-
rounded by the Cardinals and prelates who had been
sent to welcome her, and followed by the wife of the
Chancellor, and the other great ladies of the Court.
So long a delay having occurred between her betrothal
and her marriage, the Princess had been enabled to
render herself mistress of the language of her new
country; and the satisfaction of the courtiers was
consequently undisguised when she offered her ac-
knowledgments for the courtesy of her reception in
their own tongue ; a gratification which was enhanced
by the fact that Marie had made no effort to assimi-
late her costume to that of the French Court, but
appeared in a robe of cloth of gold on a blue ground,
fashioned in the Italian taste, and with her fine fair
hair simply braided and utterly destitute of powder ;* a
circumstance which had already sufficed to awaken
the jealousy of the French princesses.
On the following day the Queen held a reception in
the great hall of the palace, and graciously listened,
surrounded by her august relatives, to the eloquent
and celebrated harangue of M. du Vair,f the presi-
its name from the estate of Levis, near Chevreuse, where his an-
cestor, Guy de Levis, a famous general, founded in the year 1190 the
abbey of La Roche.
* Valadier, year 1600.
f Guillaume du Vair, ultimately Bishop of Lisieux, and Keeper of
the Seals, was the son of Jean du Vair, knight, and attorney-general
of Catherine de Medicis and Henri de France, Due d'Anjou. He
was born at Paris on the 8th of March, 1556, and was successively
88 The Life of
dent of the Parliament of Provence ; to which she had
no sooner replied than she hastened to examine from
the balcony a sumptuous state-carriage presented to
her by the King, and then retired to her own apart-
ments, attended by her personal suite. Of the royal
vehicle in question Cayet gives a minute description,
which we transcribe as affording an accurate idea of
the taste displayed in that age in the decoration of
coaches : " It was," he says, " covered with brown
velvet and trimmed with silver tinsel on the outside ;
and within it was lined with carnation-coloured velvet,
embroidered with gold and silver. The curtains were
of carnation damask, and it was drawn by four gray
horses." * These royal conveyances were, however,
far less convenient than showy, being cumbrous and
ungraceful in form, rudely suspended upon leathern
straps, and devoid of windows, the use of glass not
becoming known until the succeeding reign.
On the morrow during her toilette the Queen re-
ceived the principal ladies of the city, who had the
honour of accompanying her to the temporary chapel
which adjoined the principal saloon, where a high
mass was performed with all the magnificent accesso-
ries of which it was susceptible; the numerous
prelates and high dignitaries of the Church then
assembled at Marseilles assisting at its celebration.
councillor of parliament, master of requests, first president of the
Parliament of Provence, and finally (in 1616) keeper of the seals. He
subsequently embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and was elevated
to the see of Lisieux in 1618. He was a man of consummate talent;
and his works, which were published in folio in Paris, in 1641, are
still highly esteemed. Guillaume du Vair died at Tonnoins, in
Agenois, in 1621, at the age of sixty-six years.
* Chronologic Septennaire, p. 184.
Marie De Medicis 89
The subsequent days were spent in courtly festivities
and a survey of the noble city, where the ponderous
and gilded coach of the royal bride was followed by
the wondering acclamations of the dazzled and de-
lighted populace, probably little less dazzled and de-
lighted than herself; for Marie de Medicis, young
and ambitious, could not but be forcibly struck by the
contrast of her present splendour with the compara-
tive obscurity of the Court to which she had been
previously habituated.
On the 1 6th of the month, however, she experienced
her first trial, in a separation from the Grand Duchess
her aunt, and the Duchess of Mantua her sister, who
then took their leave, and returned to Florence in the
galleys which were still awaiting them ; and they had
no sooner left the port than the Queen, followed by
the brilliant train by which she had been surrounded
since her arrival in France, proceeded to Aix, where
she remained two days ; and on the morning of the
third she made her entry into Avignon escorted by
two thousand horsemen, who met her before she
reached the city, and officiated as a guard of honour.
Every street through which she passed was richly deco-
rated; tapestry and velvet hangings were suspended
from the windows, and draped the balconies ; triumphal
arches and platforms, splendidly decorated and covered
with devices and emblems appropriate to the occasion,
were to be seen on all sides ; and finally, in the great
square of the city, her progress was arrested by a
stately procession of ecclesiastics, in whose name she
was harangued by Francois Suares ; * who having in
* 4 Fran9ois Suares, a celebrated scholar and theologian, was born at
90 The Life of
the course of his address expressed his ardent hope
that before the anniversary of her entry into Avignon
she might give a Dauphin to France, she momentarily
interrupted by exclaiming energetically : " I will pray
to God to grant me that grace ! " *
The royal train then again moved forward, and
Marie took possession of the stately abode which had
been prepared for her, amid the firing of musketry, the
pealing of bells, and the shouts of the excited people,
in whom the affability and beauty of their new Queen
had aroused the most ardent feelings of loyalty and
hope.
On the following day the corporation of the city
presented to their young sovereign a hundred and fifty
medals of gold, some of which bore on their obverse
her own profile, and others that of the King, their re-
verse being in every case a representation of the town
by which the offering was made ; and on the ensuing
evening she attended a banquet given in her honour by
the Papal vice-legate at the palace of Rouvre, where
at the conclusion of the ball, as she was about to retire
with her suite, the tapestry hangings of the saloon
were suddenly withdrawn, and revealed a magnificent
collation served upon three separate tables. Among
other costly delicacies, the guests were startled by the
variety and profusion of the ornamental sugar-work
which glistened like jewellery in the blaze of the sur-
Granada in 1548, and in 1564 became a Jesuit. He taught theology,
with great success, at Alcala, Salamanca, Rome, and Coimbra ; and
died at Lisbon in 1617. His collected works were published in
twenty-three folio volumes, and are principally treatises on theology
and morals. His treatise on the laws was reprinted in England.
* L'Etoile, Journal cU Henri IV. t vol. ii. p. 589.
Marie De Medicis 91
rounding tapers ; for not only were there representa-
tions of birds, beasts, and fishes, but also fifty statues,
each two palms in height, presenting in the same frail
material the effigies of pagan deities and celebrated
emperors. So marvellous indeed had been the outlay
of the prelate on this one luxury, that at the close of
the repast three hundred baskets of the most delicate
confectionery, consisting chiefly of fruits skilfully im-
itated in sugar, were distributed among the fair and
astonished guests.*
During her sojourn at Avignon Marie received from
the hands of M. de Rambure, whom the King had
despatched from Savoy for that purpose, not only his
renewed assurances of welcome, but also the costly
gifts which he had prepared for her. " After the de-
parture of the princes and cardinals," says the quaint
old chronicler, " his Majesty desired my attendance in
his chamber, and I had no sooner entered than he ex-
claimed : * Friend Rambure, you must go and meet our
future Queen, whom you must overtake two days be-
fore her arrival at Lyons ; welcome her in my name,
and present to her this letter and these two caskets of
gems, together with these chests containing all the ma-
terials necessary for her first state-toilette ; and having
done this, bring me back her answer without delay.
You will find a relay of horses awaiting you at every
second league, both going and coming, in order that
you may use all speed, and give me time to reach
Lyons so soon as I shall know that she is to be
there.' " This order could not, however, be implicitly
obeyed, as the courtier was only enabled on his return
*Cayet, p. 187. L'Etoile, vol. i. pp. 539, 540.
92 The Life of
to the King's presence to inform him that the Princess
would enter Lyons that very day ; upon which Henry
instantly ordered post-horses, and accompanied by
Sully, Rambure, and ten more of his favourite nobles,
he commenced his journey, making, as he rode along,
a thousand inquiries relative to his young wife, her
deportment, and her retinue ; asking with the utmost
earnestness how she had received the presents which
he had sent, and finally demanding of M. de Rambure
if he were satisfied with the diamond ring that she had
presented to him, a question which his messenger was
careful to answer in the affirmative, at the same time
assuring his Majesty that although he valued the jewel
itself at a hundred pistoles, he prized it still more as
the gift of so illustrious a Princess and Queen.*
On the 3d of December the Queen reached La
Guillotiere, one of the faubourgs of Lyons, where she
passed the night ; and on the following morning she
proceeded to Lamothe, where she assisted at the mass,
and subsequently dined. At the close of the repast,
all the several civic corporations paid their respects to
their new sovereign, the Chancellor replying to their
harangue in the name of the Queen ; who, immediately
that they had retired, ascended her carriage, and en-
tered the city gates in the same state, and amid the
same acclamations which had accompanied her entry
into Avignon. The suave majesty of her demeanour,
the magnificence of her apparel, and the flush of
health and happiness which glowed upon her counte-
nance, filled the people with enthusiasm.
As her ponderous coach with its heavy curtains
* Rambure, MS. Mem. vol. i. pp. 276, 277.
Marie De Medicis 93
drawn back crushed beneath its ungainly wheels the
flowers and branches that had been strewn upon her
path, she showed herself in all her imperial beauty,
dividing her smiles between the richly-attired groups
who thronged the windows and balconies and the tu-
multuous multitude who ran shouting and gesticulating
at her side ; and the popular enthusiasm was as great
as though in her person each individual beheld an
earnest of the future prosperity and happiness of the
nation over which she had been called to reign.
Triumphal arches, floating draperies, and emblematic
devices were scattered over the city ; and thus wel-
comed and escorted, she reached the cathedral, where
an address was delivered by M. de Bellievre, * and a
" Te Deum " was solemnly performed.
In the course of the afternoon the young Queen re-
ceived M. de Roquelaure, | who had been despatched
by the monarch to announce that he was already on
his way to Lyons ; J and her interview with this new
* Albert de Bellievre was the second son of the celebrated Chan-
cellor Pomponne de Bellievre and of Marie Prunier, demoiselle de
Grignon. He was a distinguished classic and an elegant scholar.
Having become Archbishop of Lyons, he subsequently transferred
that dignity to his younger brother Claude, and retired to his abbey
of Jouy, where he died in 1621.
f Antoine de Roquelaure, Seigneur de Roquelaure in Armagnac,
de Guadoux, etc., marshal of France, grand-master of the King's
wardrobe, knight of the Orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost,
perpetual mayor of Bordeaux, etc., was the younger son of Geraud
Roquelaure, and the representative of an illustrious house. He was
highly esteemed both by Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, and by
Henry IV., who loaded him with honours and distinctions in requital
of his faithful and zealous services. He subsequently became gov-
ernor of several provinces, and was created a marshal of France by
Louis XIII., in 1615. He restored to their allegiance Clerac, Nerac,
and several other revolted fortresses ; and died at Lectoure in 1625, at
the age of eighty-two years.
t Daniel, vol. vii. p. 398.
94 The Life of
messenger had no sooner terminated than she was in-
vited to pass into the great saloon, where several costly
vases of gold and silver were presented to her in the
name of the citizens ; after which she was permitted
to take the repose which she so greatly needed while
awaiting the arrival of the King.
Meanwhile Henry, who was not expected until the
loth of the month, reached Lyons on the previous
evening just as the Queen had taken her seat at the
supper-table; and being anxious to form his own
judgment of her person and deportment before he de-
clared his identity, he entered the apartment in an un-
dress military uniform, trusting in this disguise to pass
unnoticed among the throng of attendants. The
Chancellor had, however, hurriedly seized an oppor-
tunity of intimating to Marie the arrival of her royal
consort; while the King had no sooner crossed the
threshold than he was recognised by several of the
nobles ; who, by hastily stepping aside to enable him
to pass, created a movement which the quick eye of
the Princess instantly detected, and of whose cause
she did not remain one instant in doubt. Neverthe-
less, she betrayed no sign of her consciousness of the
monarch's presence ; while he, on his side, aware that
all further incognito had become impossible, hastily
retired.
When he had withdrawn, the Queen instantly
ceased eating ; and, as each succeeding dish was pre-
sented to her, silently motioned its removal. Thus
the remainder of the repast was rapidly terminated ;
and at its close, she rose and retired to her private
apartments, which she had scarcely reached when a
Marie De Medicis 95
loud stroke upon the door of the ante-room, so au-
thoritatively given that she was at once made aware
of the approach of her royal consort, caused her to
rise from the armchair in which she was seated, and
to advance to the centre of the floor. She had
scarcely done so when the tapestry hanging was drawn
aside, and M. le Grand * entered, followed by the im-
patient monarch. In an instant she was at his feet,
but in the next she found herself warmly and affec-
tionately welcomed; nor was it until he had spent
half an hour in conversation with her, that the King,
weary and travel-worn as he was, withdrew to partake
of the refreshment which had been prepared for him.
On the following afternoon their Majesties, occupying
the same carriage, attended vespers with great pomp
at the Abbey of Aisnay ; after which they passed the
ensuing days in a succession of the most splendid fes-
tivities, at which the whole of the Court were present
(the cost of those of the 1 3th being entirely at the ex-
pense of the monarch, in celebration of his birthday),
until the arrival of the Cardinal Aldobrandini, whom
the King had invited from Chambery to be present at
the public celebration of his nuptials, and who entered
the city in state, when preparations were immediately
made for the august rite upon which he was to confer
his benediction.
At the close of a state dinner on the morrow (i7th
of December), the royal couple proceeded, accompanied
by all the princes and great nobles of the Court, to the
church at St. John ; where the Papal legate, surrounded
* Due de Bellegarde.
9 6
The Life of
by the Cardinals de Joyeuse, * de Gondy, f and de
Sourdis, J together with the prelates then residing in
the city, were already awaiting them. The royal bride
retained her Tuscan costume, which was overlaid with
the splendid jewels that formed so considerable a por-
tion of her dowry ; the most conspicuous among them
being an ornament serving as a stomacher, which im-
mediately obtained the name of "the Queen's Bril-
liant." This costly decoration consisted of an octag-
onal framework of large diamonds, divided into sections
by lesser stones, each enclosing a portrait in enamel of
one of the princes of her house, beneath which hung
three immense pear-shaped pearls. The King was
attired in a vest and haut-de-chausses of white satin,
elaborately embroidered with silk and gold, and a black
* Francoise de Joyeuse was the second son of Guillaume, Vicomte
de Joyeuse, Marshal of France. He was born in the year 1562, and
received a brilliant education, by which he profited so greatly as to
become celebrated for his scientific attainments. He was successively
Archbishop of Narbonne, of Toulouse, and of Rouen ; and enjoyed
the entire confidence of three monarchs, by each of whom he was en-
trusted with the most important state affairs. Highly esteemed, alike
for his wisdom, prudence, and capacity, he died full of honours at the
age of fifty-three years, at Avignon, where he had taken up his abode
as senior cardinal. He left, as monuments of his piety, a seminary
which he founded at Rouen, a residence for the Jesuits at Pontoise,
and another for the Fathers of the Oratory at Dieppe.
f Pierre de Gondy (or Gondi), Bishop of Langres, and subsequently
Archbishop of Paris, who was called to the Conclave by Pope Sixtus
V. in 1587. He died at Paris in February, 1616, at the advanced
age of eighty-four years. The Cardinal de Gondy was the first Arch-
bishop of Paris, the metropolis having previously been only an epis-
copal see.
\ Francois d'Escoubleau, better known under the name of Cardinal
de Sourdis, was the son of Francois d'Escoubleau, Marquis d'Alliere,
and was of an ancient and noble house. He distinguished himself so
greatly by his mental and moral qualities as to secure the confidence
and regard of Henri IV., who, in 1598, obtained for him a cardinal's
hat ; and in the following year he was created Archbishop of Bordeaux,
in which city he died in 1628.
Marie De Medicis 97
cape ; * and wore upon his head the velvet toque that
had been introduced at the French Court by Henri
III., to which a string of costly pearls was attached by
a star of diamonds. Nor were the ladies and nobles
of the royal retinue very inferior in the splendour 6f
their appearance even to the monarch and his bride ;
feathers waved and jewels flashed on every side ; silks
and velvets swept the marble floor ; and the brilliant
uniforms of the royal guard were seen in startling con-
trast with the uncovered shoulders of the Court dames,
which were laden with gems ; while, to complete the
gorgeousness of the picture, the high altar blazed with
light, and wrought gold, and precious stones ; and the
magnificent robes of the prelates and priests who sur-
rounded the shrine, formed a centre worthy of the
rich framework by which it was enclosed.
At the termination of the ceremony, gold and silver
coins were thrown to the crowd, and the procession re-
turned to the palace in the same order as it had reached
the church.
Great, however, as was the satisfaction which Henri
IV. had publicly expressed at his marriage, and lavish
as were the encomiums that he had passed upon the
grace and beauty of his wife, it is, nevertheless, certain
that he by no means permitted this legitimate admi-
ration to interfere with his passion for Madame de Ver-
neuil, to whom he constantly despatched couriers,
charged with both letters and presents ; and whom he
even permitted to speak of the Queen in her replies in
a disrespectful manner. But the crowning proof of
the inequality of the struggle which was about to
* Cayet, p. 191.
98 The Life of
ensue between the wife and the mistress, was the de-
parture of the King from Lyons on the 1 8th of De-
cember, the second day after his marriage ; * when,
announcing his intention of travelling post to Paris, he
left the Queen and her suite to follow at their leisure.
That the haughty spirit of Marie de Medicis was
stung by this abrupt abandonment, and that her
woman-pride revolted, will admit of no doubt ; nor is
it wonderful that her indignation and jealousy should
have been aroused when she discovered that, instead
of pursuing his way to the capital, where the public
arrangements necessitated by the peace with Savoy,
which he had just concluded, required his presence,
the King had embarked at Roanne, and then pro-
ceeded from Briare, where he landed, to Fontaine-
bleau, whence on the morrow, after dining at Vil-
leneuve, he had travelled at once to Verneuil, and re-
mained there three days before he entered Paris. Nor
even after his arrival in the capital was his conduct
such as to reassure her delicacy ; for Bassompierre has
left it upon record that the newly-wedded sovereign
took up his abode with M. de Montglat, at the priory
of St. Nicolas-du-Louvre, where he constantly enter-
tained ladies at supper, as well as several of his confi-
dential courtiers.f
So singular and insulting a commencement of her
married life was assuredly well calculated to alarm the
dignity of the Tuscan Princess ; and even brief as had
been her residence in France, she had already several
individuals about her person who did not suffer her to
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 546.
f Bassompierre, Mem. p. 25.
Marie De Medicis 99
remain in ignorance of the movements of her royal
consort; while, unhappily for her own peace, her
Italian followers revolted by an indifference on the
part of the monarch which they considered as an insult
to their mistress instead of endeavouring to allay the
irritation which she did not attempt to conceal, exas-
perated her feelings by the vehemence of their indig-
nation. It was indeed but too manifest that the fa-
vourite retained all her influence ; and the arrange-
ments which had been formally made for the progress
of the Queen to the capital involved so much delay,
that it was not possible for her to remain blind to the
fact that they had been organised with the view of
enabling the monarch to enjoy uninterruptedly for a
time the society of his mistress. In consequence of
these perpetual stoppages on the road, the harangues
to which she was constrained to listen, and the dreary
ceremonies to which she was condemned, it was not
until the ist of February, 1601, that Marie de Medicis
reached Nemours, where she was met by the King,
who conducted her to Fontainebleau, at which palace
the royal couple made a sojourn of five or six days ;
and, finally, on the Qth of the month, the young Queen
entered Paris, where the civic authorities were anxious
to afford to her a magnificent state reception ; a pur-
pose which was, however, negatived by the monarch,
who alleged as his reason the enormous outlay that
they had previously made upon similar occasions, and
who commanded that the ceremony should be de-
ferred. * Whatever may have been the real motive of
Henry for exhibiting this new slight towards his royal
* L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 549.
ioo The Life of
bride, it is certain that the partisans of Marie did not
fail to attribute it to the malevolence of Madame de
Verneuil ; and thus another subject of animosity was
added to the list.
Under these circumstances, the Queen entered the
metropolitan city of her new kingdom without any of
that pomp which had characterised her progress
through the provinces ; and alighted at the residence
of M. de Gondy, * where the Princesses and the prin-
cipal ladies of the Court and city hastened to pay
their respects to her Majesty on her arrival.
It was rumoured that one motive for the visit of the
King to Verneuil had been his anxiety to induce the
insolent favourite (whom he resolved to present to the
Queen in order that she might be authorised to main-
tain her place at Court) to treat her new sovereign
with becoming respect ; and with a view to render her
presentation as dignified as possible, he commanded
the Duchesse de Nemours t to officiate as her sponsor.
The pride of Anne de Savoie revolted, however,
against the function which was assigned to her, and
she ventured respectfully to intimate her reluctance to
* Jerome (or Albert) de Gondy, peer of France, knight of the
King's Orders, and first gentleman of the bedchamber, occupied the
mansion which was subsequently known as the Hotel de Conde. He
enjoyed the confidence of Catherine de Medicis and Charles IX. so
fully, that he had the honour of espousing, in the name of that mon-
arch, the Princess Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of the Emperor
Maximilian II. At the coronation of Henri III. he represented the
person of the Constable; and at that of Henri IV., he was proxy for
the Comte de Toulouse.
f Anne d'Este, Duchesse de Nemours, was the mother of the Due de
Mayenne, and grandmother of the young Due de Guise who aspired to
the throne. She was first married to Francois de Lorraine, Due de
Guise, and subsequently to Jacques de Savoie, Due de Nemours,
whose son, after his decease, also pretended to the crown.
Marie De Medicis 101
undertake so onerous an office, alleging as her reason,
that such a measure on her part must inevitably de-
prive her of the confidence of her royal mistress.
Nevertheless the King insisted on hef obedience ; *
and, accordingly, the mortified Duchess was compelled
to lead the mistress of the monarch into the circle,
and to name her to the agitated and outraged Queen.
Marie de Medicis in this trying emergency was sus-
tained by her Italian blood ; and although her lip
quivered, she vouchsafed no other token of displeasure ;
but after coldly returning the curtsey of the favourite,
who was blazing with jewels and radiant with triumph,
she turned abruptly aside to converse with one of the
Court ladies, leaving the Marquise still standing before
her, as though she had suddenly become unconscious
of her existence. Nor did the Duchesse de Nemours
receive a more gracious welcome when, having ven-
tured to interpose in the conversation, she sought the
eye of the Queen ; for that eye was instantly averted,
and she became aware that she had in truth incurred
the displeasure which she had so justly apprehended.
But although the high-born and exemplary Duchess
shrank from the anger of her young sovereign, the
parvenue Marquise was far from feeling equally
abashed. With a steady step and a proud carriage
she advanced a pace nearer to Marie, and in her turn
* One historian (Sauval., Gallerie des Rois de France, vol. i.) as-
serts that the King himself presented his mistress to his wife ; but he
is unsupported in this statement save by Bassompierre, who also says :
" The King presented Madame de Verneuil to her, who was gra-
ciously received" (Memoires, p. 25). Every other authority, how-
ever, contradicts this assertion, which is indeed too monstrous to be
credible.
102 The Life of
took up the thread of the discourse; nor did the
haughtiness of the Queen's deportment disturb her
serenity for a moment. The great fascination of
Madame de -Verneuil existed, as we have already re-
marked, in her extraordinary wit, and the vivacity of
her conversation ; while so ably did she on this
occasion profit by her advantage, that the disgust of
Marie was gradually changed into wonder ; and when,
at the close of one of her most brilliant sallies, the
insolent favourite even carried her audacity so far as
to address her royal mistress personally, the Queen
was startled into a reply.* She soon, however, re-
covered her self-possession; and pleading fatigue,
broke up the circle by retiring to her own apart-
ments.
The mortification of Madame de Nemours, whose
highest ambition had been to secure the affection of
her new sovereign, and whose pride had been sorely
wounded by the undignified office that she had been
compelled to fulfil, had not, however, yet reached its
culminating point; for as on the approach of the
King, who was in his turn preparing to withdraw,
she waited some acknowledgment of the submission
with which she had obeyed his commands, she was
startled to see a frown gather upon his brow as their
eyes met; and still more so to hear herself rebuked
for the ungracious manner in which she had performed
her task; an exhibition of ill-will to which, as he
averred, Madame de Verneuil was solely indebted for
the coldness of her reception.
The Duchess curtseyed in silence; and Henry,
* L'Etoile, vol. i. p. 550.
Marie De Medicis 103
without any other salutation, slowly pursued his way
to the ante-room, followed by the officers of his house-
hold.
On the 1 2th of the month the Queen changed her
residence, and took up her abode in the house of
Zamet,* where she was to remain until the Louvre
was prepared for her reception, a precaution which
Henry had utterly neglected; and on the I5th she
at length found herself established in the palace which
had been opened to her with so much apparent
reluctance. On the morrow Marie appeared in the
costume of the French Court,| with certain modifica-
tions which at once became popular. Like those by
whom she was now surrounded, she wore her bosom
considerably exposed, but her back and shoulders were
veiled by a deep ruff which immediately obtained the
name of the " Medicis," and which bore a consider-
able resemblance to a similar decoration much in vogue
during the sixteenth century. The " Medicis " was
composed of rich lace, stiffened and supported by wire,
and rose behind the neck to the enormous height of
twelve inches. J The dress to which this ruff was
attached was of the most gorgeous description, the
materials employed being either cloth of gold or silver,
or velvet trimmed with ermine ; while chains of jewels
confined it across the breast, descending from thence to
the waist, where they formed a chatelaine reaching to
the feet. Nor did the young Queen even hesitate to
*This residence, which was situated near the Bastille, and sub-
sequently known as the Hotel de Lesdiguieres, was the same in
which la belle Gabrielle had breathed her last.
f Bassompierre, Mem. p. 25.
\ Wraxall, History of Fra.nct ; vol. vi. p. 187.
IO4 The Life of
sacrifice to the prejudices of her new country the
magnificent hair which had excited so much astonish-
ment on her arrival ; but, in conformity with the taste
of the French Court, instead of suffering it, as she had
previously done, to flow loosely over her shoulders, or
to display its luxuriant braids like a succession of glossy
diadems around her head, she caused it to be closely
cut, and arranged in stiff rows of thickly-powdered
curls.
Hitherto, since the accession of Henri IV., the
French Court had been one of the least splendid in
Europe ; if, indeed, it could in reality have been said
to exist at all a circumstance to which many causes
had conduced. During his separation from Marguerite,
and before his second marriage, Henry had cared little
for the mere display of royalty. His previous poverty
had accustomed him to many privations as a sovereign,
which he had sought to compensate by self-indulgence
as a man ; and thus he made a home in the houses of the
most wealthy of his courtiers, such as Zamet, Gondy,
and other dissipated and convenient sycophants, with
whom he could fling off the trammels of rank, and
indulge in the ruinously high play or other still more
objectionable amusements to which he was addicted.
On the arrival of the Tuscan Princess, however, all
was changed ; and, as though he sought to compensate
to her by splendour and display for the mortifications
which awaited her private life, the King began forth-
with to revive the traditional magnificence of the Court.
Two days after their arrival at the Louvre, Henry
conducted his Queen to the royal palaces of Fon-
tainebleau and St. Germain ; and on the 1 8th of the
Marie De Medicis 105
month, their Majesties, attended by the whole of their
respective households, and accompanied by all the
princes and great nobles then resident in the capital,
partook of a superb banquet at the Arsenal, given by
Sully in honour of his appointment as Grand-Master
of the Artillery. At this festival the minister, casting
aside the gravity of his functions and the dignity of
his rank, and even forgetful, as it" would appear, of the
respect which he owed to his new sovereign, not
satisfied with pressing upon his guests the costly viands
that had been prepared for them, no sooner perceived
that the Italian ladies of her Majesty's suite were
greatly attracted by the wine of Arbois, of which they
were partaking freely, quite unconscious of its
potency, than he caused the decanters containing the
water that they mingled with it to be refilled with an-
other wine of equal strength, but so limpid as to be
utterly undistinguishable to the eye from the purer
liquid for which it had been substituted. The con-
sequences of this cruel pleasantry may be inferred;
the heat, the movement, and the noise by which they
were surrounded, together with the increased thirst
caused by the insidious draughts that they were un-
consciously imbibing, only induced the unfortunate
Florentines to recur the more perseveringly to their
refreshing libations ; and at length the results became
so apparent as to attract the notice of the King, who,
already prepossessed like Sully himself against the
Queen's foreign retinue, laughed heartily at a piece of
treachery which he appeared to consider as the most
amusing feature of the entertainment.*
*L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 550, 551.
io6 The Life of
During the succeeding days several ballets were
danced by the young nobles of the Court; and a
tournament, open to all comers, and at which the
Queen presented the prizes to the victors, was held at
the Pont-au-Change.
At the close of Lent, the Duchesse de Bar, the
King's sister, and her father-in-law, the Due de Lor-
raine, arrived in France to welcome the new sovereign ;
who, together with her consort, met them at Mon-
ceaux, which estate, lately the property of la belle
Gabrielle, Henry had, after her arrival in the capital,
presented to his wife. Here the Court festivals were
renewed ; and had the heart and mind of Marie been
at ease, her life must have seemed rather like a brilliant
dream than a sober reality. Such, however, was far
from being the case; for already the seeds of do-
mestic discord which had been sown before her mar-
riage were beginning to germinate. Madame de
Verneuil was absent from the Court, and it was
evident to every individual of whom it was composed,
that the King rather tolerated than shared in the
gaieties by which he was surrounded.
Bassompierre relates that during this sojourn at
Monceaux, while Henry was standing apart with him-
self, M. de Sully, and the Chancellor, he suddenly
informed them that the favourite had confided to him
a proposal of marriage which she had received from a
prince, on condition that she should be enabled to
bring with her a dowry of a hundred thousand crowns ;
and inquired if they would advise him to sacrifice so
large a sum for such a purpose. " Sire," replied M.
de Bellievre, " I am of opinion that you would do well
Marie De Medicis 107
to give the young lady the hundred thousand crowns
in order that she may secure the match." And when
Sully, with his usual prudence, remarked that it was
more easy to talk of such an amount than to procure
it, the Chancellor continued, heedless of the interrup-
tion : " Nay more, Sire ; I am equally of opinion
that you had better give two or even three hundred
thousand, if less will not suffice. Such is my advice." *
It is needless to say that it was not followed.
The only amusement in which Henri IV. indulged
freely and earnestly was play ; and he was so reckless
a gamester, that at no period has the Court of France
been so thoroughly demoralised by that frightful vice
as throughout his reign. Not only did his own
example corrupt those immediately about him, but the
rage for gaming gradually pervaded all classes. The
nobility staked their estates where money failed ; the
citizens trafficked in cards and dice when they should
have been employed in commerce or in science ; the
very valets gambled in the halls, and the pages in the
ante-chambers. Play became the one great business
of life throughout the capital; and enormous sums,
which changed the entire destiny of families, were won
and lost. One or two traits will suffice to prove this,
and we will then dismiss the subject. In the year
1607, M. de Bassompierre relates in his Memoirs, that
being unable from want of funds to purchase a new
and befitting costume in which to appear at the
christening of the Dauphin, he nevertheless gave an
order to his tailor to prepare him a dress upon which
the outlay was to be fourteen thousand crowns ; his
* Bassompierre, Mem. p. 25.
io8 The Life of
actual resources amounting at that moment only to
seven hundred ; and that he had no sooner done so,
than he proceeded with this trifling sum to the hotel
of the Due d'Epernon, where he won five thousand ;
while before the completion of the costume, he had
not only gained a sufficient amount to discharge the
debt thus wantonly incurred, but, as he adds, with a
self-gratulation worthy of a better cause, " also a
diamond-hilted sword of the value of five thousand
crowns, and five or six thousand more with which to
amuse myself." *
In 1609, only one year later, L'Etoile has left on
record a still more astounding and degrading fact.
" In this month " (March), he says, " several academies
of play have been established, where citizens of all
ages risk considerable sums, a circumstance which
proves not only an abundance of means, but also the
corruption of morals. The son of a merchant has
been seen at one sitting to lose sixty thousand crowns,
although he had only inherited twenty thousand from
his father ; and a man named Jonas has hired a house
in the Faubourg St. Germain, in order to hold one of
these academies for a fortnight during the fair,
and for this house he has given fourteen hundred
francs." |
D'Aubigny and several other chroniclers bear
similar testimony ; and while Bassompierre boasts of
having won five hundred thousand pistoles in one
year (each pistole being little inferior in value to our
own sovereign), he nevertheless gives us plainly to
* Bassompierre, Mem. p. 50.
f L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 505, 506.
Marie De Medicis 109
understand that the King was a more reckless game-
ster than himself, a fact corroborated moreover by
Sully, who tells us in his Memoirs, " The sums, at
least the principal ones, that I employed on the
personal expenses of Henry, were twenty-two thou-
sand pistoles, for which he sent to me on the i8th of
January, 1609, and which he had lost at play; a
hundred thousand livres to one party, and fifty-one
thousand to another, likewise play debts, due to
Edward Fernandez, a Portuguese. ... A thou-
sand pistoles for future play; Henry at first took
only five hundred, but he subsequently sent Berin-
ghen for the remainder for a different purpose. I
carried him a thousand more for play when I went
with the Chancellor to Fontainebleau." *
Only a short time subsequent to the establishment
of the Court at the Louvre, what neither the desire and
authority of the King himself nor the arts of his mis-
tress had been able to accomplish, was achieved
through the agency of the Queen's favourite attendant,
Leonora Galigai,f who had accompanied her royal
mistress and foster-sister from Italy at the period of her
marriage. On the formation of the Queen's house-
hold, Henry had, among other appointments, honoured
Madame de Richelieu J with the post of Mistress of
* Sully, Mtm. vol. vii. pp. 180, 181.
f Leonora Dori, otherwise Galigai, was the daughter of the nurse
of Marie de Medicis (who was the wife of a carpenter), and she was
consequently the architect of her own fortunes. By her great talent
and insinuating manners, she had, however, succeeded not only in
securing the affection of her royal patroness, but also in exerting an
influence over her actions never attained by any other individual, de-
spite unceasing attempts to oust her.
J Suzanne de la Porte, wife of Francois du Plessis, Seigneur de
Richelieu, Knight of the Royal Orders, and Grand Provost of France.
no The Life of
the Robes ; but Marie de Medicis having decided on
bestowing this charge upon Leonora, refused to per-
mit the Countess to perform the duties of her office,
and requested the King to transfer it to her Italian
protegee. This, however, was a concession to which
Henry would not consent ; and while the Queen per-
sisted in not permitting the services of Madame de
Richelieu, her royal bridegroom as pertinaciously
negatived the appointment of the parvenue lady of
honour. The high-born countess bore the affront thus
offered to her with the complacent dignity befitting her
proud station ; but such was far from being the case
with the ambitious and mortified Leonora, who had not
been a week at the French Court ere she became aware
that all the Italian followers of the Queen were pecul-
iarly obnoxious both to .the King and his minister;
and who felt that should she fail to push her fortunes
upon the instant, she might one day be compelled to
leave France as poor and as powerless as she had en-
tered it. Not contented, therefore, with urging her
royal mistress to persevere in her resolution of reject-
ing the attendance of Madame de Richelieu, she began
to speculate upon the most feasible measures to be
adopted in order to secure her own succession to the
coveted dignity ; and after considerable reflection, she
became convinced that this could only be accomplished
through the assistance of the Marquise de Verneuil.
Once assured of the fact, Leonora did not hesitate;
but, instead of avoiding, as she had hitherto done, the
advances of the favourite who, aware of her un-
limited power over the mind of the Queen, had on
several occasions treated her with a courtesy by no
Marie De Medicis in
means warranted by her position at the Court she be-
gan to court the favour of the Marquise in as marked
a manner as she had previously slighted it; and ere
long the intrigue of the two favourites was brought to
a successful issue. Each stood in need of the other,
and a compact was accordingly entered into between
them. Madame de Verneuil, whose pride was piqued
by her exclusion from the royal circle, was desirous to
gain at any price the countenance of Marie, and to be
admitted to her private assemblies, where alone she
could carry out her more extended plan of ambition ;
while the wily Italian, rendered only the more pertina-
cious by difficulty, and anxious moreover to secure a
post which would at all times enable her to remain
about the person of the Queen, thought no price too
great, even the dishonour of her royal foster-sister, to
obtain her object, and thus a mutual promise was
made ; the Marquise pledging herself that, in the event
of the Queen recognising her right to attend her re-
ceptions, and treating her with the courtesy and con-
sideration due to the rank conferred upon her by the
King, she would effect the appointment courted by
Leonora ; while the Signora Galigai', with equal con-
fidence, promised in her turn that she would without
delay cause Madame de Verneuil to receive a sum-
mons to the Queen's presence.
Nor did either of these ladies overestimate the
amount of her influence ; for the monarch no sooner
learnt that the reception of his mistress by the haughty
and indignant Princess could be purchased by a mere
slight to Madame la Grande Prevoste, than he con-
sented to sanction the appointment of the Italian
1 1 2 The Life of
suivante of Marie to the post of honour ; while Leo-
nora soon succeeded by her tears and entreaties in
wringing from her royal mistress a reluctant acquies-
cence to her request.
Thus then, as before stated, a hollow peace was
patched up between the unequal rivals ; and Madame
de Verneuil at length found herself in possession of a
folding-seat in the Queen's reception room ; while her
coadjutress triumphantly took her place among the
noblest ladies of the land ; but scarcely had this result
been accomplished, when Henry, profiting by so
unhoped-for an opportunity of gratifying the vanity
of the favourite, assigned to her a suite of apart-
ments in the Louvre immediately above those of the
Queen, and little, if at all, inferior to them in magnifi-
cence.
This, however, was an affront which Marie de
Medicis could not brook; and she accordingly, with
her usual independence of spirit, expressed herself in
no measured terms upon the subject, particularly to
such of her ladies as were likely to repeat her com-
ments to the Marquise. The latter retorted by assu-
ming all the airs of royalty, and by assembling about
her a little court, for which that of the Queen herself
was frequently forsaken, especially by the monarch,
who found the brilliant circle of the favourite, wherein
he always met a warm and enthusiastic welcome, in-
finitely more to his taste than the formal etiquette and
reproachful frowns by which his presence in that of his
royal consort was usually signalised.
Nor could the annoyance of the proud Florentine
Princess be subject of astonishment to any rightly-
Marie De Medicis 113
constituted mind. The position was a monstrous and
an unnatural one. Both the wife and the mistress
were about to become mothers ; and the whole Court
was degraded by so unblushing an exhibition of the
profligacy of the monarch. Still, however, the French
ladies of the household forbore to censure their
sovereign ; and even sought to persuade the outraged
Queen that when once she had given a Dauphin to
France the favourite would be compelled to leave the
palace; but Marie's Italian followers were far less
scrupulous, and expressed their indignation in no
measured terms. The Queen, wounded in her most
sacred feelings, became gradually colder to the Mar-
quise, who, as though she had only awaited this relapse
to sting her still more deeply than she had yet done,
retorted the slights which she constantly received by
declaring that " the Florentine," as she insolently des-
ignated her royal mistress, was not the legal or lawful
wife of the King, whose written promise, still in her
possession, he was, as she asserted, bound to fulfil
should she bear him a son. This surpassing assurance
no sooner reached the ears of Marie de Medicis than
she once more forbade Madame de Verneuil her pres-
ence ; but the Marquise, strong in her impunity, merely
replied by an epigram, and consoled herself for her
exclusion from the Queen's private circle by assuming
more state and magnificence than before, and by col-
lecting in her saloons the prettiest women and the most
reckless gamblers that the capital could produce.
Thus attracted, the infatuated monarch became her con-
stant guest ; and his neglected wife, in weak health, and
with an agonised heart, saw herself abandoned for a
ii4 The Life of
wanton who had set a price upon her virtue, and who
made a glory of her shame.
Poor Marie ! whatever were her faults as a woman,
they were bitterly expiated both as a wife and as a
mother !
Vain were all the efforts of the King on the one
hand and those of Leonora on the other to terminate
this new misunderstanding; the Queen was coldly
resolute, and the Marquise insolently indifferent ; nor
would a reconciliation, in all probability, ever again
have taken place, had not the interests of the Mistress
of the Robes once more required it, when her influ-
ence over the mind of her royal foster-sister sufficed
to overcome every obstacle.
Among the numerous Florentines who composed
the suite of Marie de Medicis was Concino Concini, *
a gentleman of her household, whose extreme personal
beauty had captivated the heart of Leonora ; while
she saw, as she believed, in his far-reaching ambition
and flexile character the very elements calculated, in
conjunction with her own firmer nature and higher
intellect, to lead her on to the most lofty fortunes. It
is probable, however, that had La Galigaf continued to
attend the Queen in her original and obscure office of
waiting-woman, Concini, who was of better blood than
herself, and who could not, moreover, be supposed to
find any attraction in the diminutive figure and sallow
countenance of his countrywoman, would never have
been induced to consent to such an alliance; but
Leonora was now on the high road to wealth and
* Concino Concini was the son of a notary, who, by his talent, had
risen to be secretary of state at Florence.
Marie De Medicis 115
honour, while his own position was scarcely defined ;
and thus ere long the consent of the Queen to their
marriage was solicited by Concini himself.
Marie, who foresaw that by this arrangement she
should keep both parties in her service, and who, in
the desolation of a disappointed spirit, clung each day
more closely to her foreign attendants, immediately
accorded the required permission ; but it was far other-
wise with the King, who had no sooner been informed
of the projected union than he sternly forbade it, to
the great indignation of his consort, who was deeply
mortified by this new interference with her personal
household, and saddened by the spectacle of her fa-
vourite's unaffected wretchedness. In vain did the
Queen expostulate, and, urged by Leonora and her
suitor, even entreat of Henry to relent ; all her efforts
to this effect remained fruitless ; and she was at length
compelled to declare to the sorrowing woman that she
had no alternative save to submit to the will of the
King.
Such, however, was far from being the attention of
the passionate Italian. Too unattractive to entertain
any hope from her own pleadings with Henry himself,
she once more turned in this new difficulty to Madame
de Verneuil, who, in order to display how little she
had been mortified or annoyed by the coldness of the
Queen, and at the same time to prove to her that
where the earnest entreaties of the latter had failed to
produce any effect, her own expressed wish would
suffice to ensure success, immediately bade Leonora
dry her eyes and prepare her wedding-dress, as she
would guarantee her prompt reception of the royal
ii6 The Life of
consent upon one condition, and that one so easy of
accomplishment that she could not fail to fulfil it.
Marie de Medicis had been heard to declare that in
the event of her becoming the mother of a Dauphin,
she would, at the earliest possible period, dance a
ballet in honour of the King, which should exceed in
magnificence every exhibition of the kind that had
hitherto been attempted ; and the condition so lightly
treated by the favourite was no less than her own ap-
pearance in the royal ballet, should it indeed take
place. Even La Galigai herself was startled by so
astounding a proposition; but she soon discovered,
from the resolute attitude assumed by the Marquise,
that her powerful intercession with the King was not
otherwise to be secured ; and it was consequently with
even less of hope than apprehension that the agitated
Mistress of the Robes kissed the hand of Madame de
Verneuil, and assured her that she would leave no
effort untried to obtain the consent of her royal mis-
tress to her wishes. But when she had withdrawn,
and was traversing the gallery which communicated
with the apartments of Marie, she began to entertain
serious misgivings : the pretension of the Marquise
was so monstrous, that, even conscious as she was of
the extent of her own influence over her foster-sister,
she almost dreaded to communicate the result of her
interview, and nearly despaired of success ; but with
the resolute perseverance which formed so marked a
feature in her character, she resolved to brave the ut-
most displeasure of the Queen rather than forego this
last hope of a union with Concini. It was, neverthe-
less, drowned in tears, and with a trembling heart, that
Marie De Medicis 1 1 7
she presented herself before Marie as the voluntary
bearer of this new and aggravated insult ; while, in-
comprehensible as it must appear in this age, what-
ever may have been the arguments and entreaties of
which she was clever enough to avail herself, it is at
least certain that they were ultimately successful ; and
that she was authorised by the Queen to communicate
to Madame de Verneuil her Majesty's willingness to
accede to her request, provided that the Marquise
pledged herself in return to perform her portion of
the contract.
That her partiality for her early friend induced
Marie de Medicis to make, in this instance, a most un-
becoming concession, is certain ; while it is no less
matter of record that, probably to prevent any oppor-
tunity of retractation on the part of Madame de
Verneuil, she lavished upon her from that day the
most flattering marks of friendship, and publicly
treated her with a distinction which was envied by
many of the greatest ladies at Court, even although it
excited the censure of all.*
The comparative tranquillity which succeeded this
new adjustment of the differences between the Queen
and the Marquise continued until the month of Sep-
tember, on the 1 7th day of which Marie became the
mother of a Dauphin (subsequently Louis XIII.), at
the palace of Fontainebleau, where, as had already
been the case at the Louvre, the apartments of the
favourite adjoined her own. Nothing could exceed
* Dreux du Radier, Memoires des Reines et Regentes de France,
vol. vi. p. 81. Conti, Amours du Grand Alcandre, Cologne edition,
1652, p. 41.
n8 The Life of
the delight of Henry IV. at the birth of his heir. He
stood at the lower end of the Queen's apartment, sur-
rounded by the Princes of the Blood, to each of whom
the royal infant was successively presented ; and this
ceremony was no sooner terminated than, bending
over him with passionate fondness, he audibly in-
voked a blessing upon his head ; and then placing his
sword in the tiny hand as yet unable to grasp it,
" May you use it, my son," he exclaimed, " to the
glory of God, and in defence of your crown and peo-
ple." * He next approached the bed of the Queen :
" M'amie" he said tenderly, " rejoice ! God has given
us what we asked." f Mezeray and Matthieu both as-
sert that the birth of the Dauphin was preceded by
an earthquake, which, with the usual superstition of
the period, was afterwards declared to have been a
forewarning of the ceaseless wars by which Europe
was convulsed during his reign.J
Rejoicings were general throughout the whole coun-
try, and were augmented by the fact that more than
eighty years had elapsed since the birth of a successor
to the crown who had been eligible to bear the title of
Dauphin, Francis II. having come into the world be-
fore his father Henri II. was on the throne, who had
himself only attained to that title after the death of
his elder brother Francis, who was born in i5i/.
" Te Deums " were chanted in all the churches ;' salvos
of artillery were discharged at the Arsenal ; fireworks,
bonfires, and illuminations made a city of flame of
* Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 346. L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 573, 574.
f Matthieu, vol. ii. p. 441.
j Mezeray, vol. x. p. 178.
Daniel, vol. vii. p. 407.
Marie De Medicis 119
Paris for several successive nights ; while joyous ac-
clamations rent the air, and the gratified citizens con-
gratulated each other as they perambulated the streets
as though each had experienced some personal benefit.
The fact that Anne of Austria, the daughter of Philip
III. of Spain, was born only five days previous to the
Dauphin, was another source of delight to the French
people, who regarded the circumstance as an earnest
of the future union of the two kingdoms, a prophecy
which was afterwards fulfilled by the marriage of the
two royal children.
We have already made more than one allusion to
the belief in magic, sorcery, and astrology which at
this period had obtained in France, and by which
many, even of the most enlightened of her nobles
and citizens, suffered themselves to be trammelled and
deluded; and however much we of the present day
may be inclined to pity or to despise so great a weak-
ness, we shall do well to remember that human
progress during the last sixty years has been more
marked and certain than that which had taken place
in the lapse of the three previous centuries. It is true
that there were a few strong-minded individuals even
at the period of which we treat who refused to submit
their reason to the wild and illogical superstitions
which were rife about them ; but these formed a very
small portion of the aggregate population, and from
the peasant in his hovel to the monarch on his throne
the plague-spot of credulity had spread and festered,
until it presented a formidable feature in the history
of the time. It is curious to remark that L'Etoile, the
most commonplace and unimaginative of chroniclers,
I2O The Life of
who might well have been expected in his realism to
treat such phantasies as puerile and absurd, seems to
justify to his own mind the extreme penalties of the
scaffold and the stake as a fitting punishment for
sorcerers and magicians : declaring them, as he records
in his usual terse and matter-of-fact style, to be dic-
tated by justice, and essential to the repression of an
intercourse between men and evil spirits.
Gabrielle d'Estrees was the dupe, if, indeed, not the
victim, of her firm faith in astrology. She had been
assured that " a child would prevent her from attain-
ing the rank to which she aspired ; " * and the pre-
disposition of an excited nervous system probably
assisted the verification of the prophecy. The old
Cardinal de Bourbon, f whom the Leaguers would fain
have made their king, was seduced from his fidelity to
the illustrious race from which he sprang by his weak
reliance upon the predictions of soothsayers, who
thus degraded him into the tool of the wily Due de
Guise ; J while his nephew, Charles II., also a Cardi-
nal, even more infatuated than himself, had been im-
pelled to believe that the disease which was rapidly
sapping his existence was the effect of the machina-
* Matthieu, Hist, de Henri IV. t vol. i. p. 307.
f Charles I. de Bourbon, Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, legate of
Avignon, abbot of St. Denis, of St. Germain-des-Pres, of St. Ouen, of
Ste. Catherine of Rouen, and of Orcamp, etc., was the son of Charles,
Due de Vendome, and was born in 1523. After the death of Henri
III., in 1589, he was proclaimed King by the Leaguers and the Due
de Mayenne under the title of Charles X. Taken captive by Henri
IV., of whom he was the paternal uncle, he was imprisoned at Fon-
tenay, where he died in 1594.
t De Thou, vol. xi. pp. 154, 155.
Charles, the natural son of Anthony of Navarre and of Made-
moiselle de la Beraudiere de la Guiche, one of the maids of honour to
Catherine de Medicis.
Marie De Medicis 121
tions of a Court lady by whom he had been be-
witched ! Traitors found excuse for their treason in
the assertion that they had been deluded by false
predictions or ensnared by magic ; * princes were
governed in their political movements by astral calcu-
lations ; f a grave minister details with complacency,
although without comment, various anecdotes of the
operation of the occult sciences, J and even makes
them a study ; while a European monarch, strong in
the love of his people and his own bravery, suffers the
predictions of soothsayers and prophets to cloud his
mind and to shake his purposes, even while he de-
clares his contempt for all such delusions.
That such was actually the case is proved by De
Thou, who relates an extraordinary speech made by
the King at the Louvre, in 1599, on the occasion of
the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes, to the
deputies of the Parliament of Paris, in the course of
which he declared that, twenty-six years previously,
when he was residing at the Court of Charles IX., he
was about to cast the dice with Henri de Lorraine,
Due de Guise, his relative, amid a large circle of
nobles, when at the instant in which they were pre-
* Such was the plea of the Marechal de Biron during his imprison-
ment in the Bastille.
f Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, whose intellect had in other
respects outrun his age, and whose shrewd good sense should have
emancipated him from so gross an abuse of reason, never undertook
any measure of importance without consulting the astrologers. See
De Thou, vol. xiii. p. 538.
J See the Memoirs of Sully.
It is a certain fact that Henri IV., however he might verbally
despise the pretensions of those who exercised what has been happily
designated as the " black art," nevertheless admitted more than once
a conviction of their mysterious privileges.
122 The Life of
pared to commence their game drops of blood ap-
peared upon the table, which were renewed without
any apparent agency as fast as they were wiped
away. Each party carefully ascertained that it could
not proceed from any of the individuals present ; and
the phenomenon was so frequently repeated that
Henry, as he averred, at once amazed and disturbed,
declined to persevere in the pastime, considering the
circumstance as an evil omen.* Whatever may be
the opinion of the reader as to the actual cause of this
apparent prodigy, it is at least certain that it was
verified by subsequent events, as well as the extraordi-
nary and multiplied prophecy that the King himself
would meet his death in a coach.
Under these circumstances, combined with the al-
most universal credulity of the age and nation which
he governed, it is scarcely matter of surprise that
Henri IV., on so momentous an occasion as the birth
of his son, should have sought, even while he feigned
to disregard the result, to learn the after-destiny of the
royal infant ; and accordingly, a few days subsequently,
he commanded M. de la Riviere,t who publicly pro-
fessed the science of judicial astrology, to draw the
horoscope of the Dauphin with all the accuracy of
which the operation was susceptible. The command
* De Thou, vol. x. p. 375.
f M. de la Riviere had originally been the chief medical attendant
of the Due de Bouillon, who ceded him to Henri IV., by whom he
was appointed his body-surgeon, in which office he succeeded M.
d'Aliboust. He was born at Falaise, in Normandy, and was the son
of Jean Ribel, professor of theology at Geneva. He himself, how-
ever, embraced the reformed religion, and died in 1605, sincerely re-
gretted by the monarch, to whom his eminent talents and unwearied
devotion had greatly endeared him.
Marie De Medicis 123
was answered by an assurance from La Riviere that
the work was already in progress ; but as another week
passed by without any communication from the seer,
Henry became impatient, and again summoned him to
his presence in order to inquire the cause of the delay.
" Sire," replied La Riviere, " I have abandoned the
undertaking, as I am reluctant to sport with a science
whose secrets I have partially forgotten, and which I
have, moreover, frequently found defective."
" I am not to be deceived by so idle a pretext," said
the King, who readily detected that the alleged ex-
cuse was a mere subterfuge ; " you have no such
scruples, but you have resolved not to reveal to me
what you have ascertained, lest I should discover the
fallacy of your pretended knowledge or be angered by
your prediction. Whatever may be the cause of your
hesitation, however, I am resolved that you shall speak ;
and I command you, upon pain of my displeasure, to
do so truthfully."
Still La Riviere excused himself, until perceiving
that it would be dangerous to persevere in his per-
tinacity, he at length reluctantly replied : " Sire, your
son will live to manhood, and will reign longer than
yourself ; but he will resemble you in no one particular.
He will indulge his own opinions and caprices, and
sometimes those of others. During his rule it will be
safer to think than to speak. Ruin threatens your
ancient institutions ; all your measures will be over-
thrown. He will accomplish great deeds ; will be for-
tunate in his undertakings ; and will become the
theme of all Christendom. He will have issue ; and
after his death more heavy troubles will ensue. This
124 The Life of
is all that you shall know from me, and even this is
more than I had proposed to tell you."
The King remained for a time silent and thoughtful,
after which he said coldly : " You allude to the Hu-
guenots, I see that well ; but you only talk thus be-
cause you have their interests at heart."
" Explain my meaning as you please," was the ab-
rupt retort; " but you shall learn nothing more from me."
And so saying, the uncompromising astrologer made a
hurried salutation to the monarch and withdrew.*
A fortnight after this extraordinary scene another
event took place at the Louvre sufficiently interesting
to Henry to wean his thoughts for a time even from the
foreshadowed future of his successor. In an apartment
immediately contiguous to that of the still convalescent
Queen, Madame de Verneuil became in her turn the
mother of a son, who was baptised with great cere-
mony, and received the names of Gaston Henri ; *f
and this birth, which should have covered the King
with shame, and roused the nation to indignation,
when the circumstances already detailed are consid-
ered, was but the pretext for new rejoicings.
* Sully, Mm. vol. vi. pp. 46-49.
j- Gaston Henri, the son of Henri IV. and of Henriette d'En-
tragues, Marquise de Verneuil, originally took orders, and became the
incumbent of several abbeys, among others that of St. Germain-des-
Pres. He was subsequently made Bishop of Metz, and bore that title
for a considerable time. On the 1st of January, 1662, having been
created a knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and in the following
year a duke and peer, he took the title of Due de Verneuil, and as
such was sent to England in 1665 as ambassador extraordinary.
Finally, in 1666, Louis XIV. bestowed upon him the government of
Languedoc, when he sold his church property, and married (in 1668)
Charlotte Seguier, the widow of Maximilien-Francois de Bethune III.,
Due de Sully. He died without issue, at Versailles, on the 28th of
May, 1682.
Marie De Medicis 125
On the 27th of October the Dauphin made his
public entry into Paris. The infant Prince occupied a
sumptuous cradle presented to him by the Grand
Duchess of Florence ; and beside him, in an open
litter, sat Madame de Montglat, his gouvernante, and
the royal nurse. The provost of the merchants and
the metropolitan sheriffs met him at some distance
from the gates, and harangued him at considerable
length ; and Madame de Montglat having replied in his
name to the oration, the cortege proceeded to the
house of Zamet. Two days subsequently he was con-
veyed in the same state to St. Germain-en-Laye,
where, in order that the people might see him with
greater facility, the nurse carried him in her arms.
The enthusiasm of the crowd, by which his litter was
constantly surrounded, knew no bounds ; and the heart
of that exulting mother, which was fated afterwards to
be broken by his unnatural abandonment, beat high
with gratitude to Heaven as her ear drank in the en-
thusiastic shouts of the multitude, and as she remem-
bered that it was herself who had bestowed this well-
appreciated blessing upon France.
CHAPTER III
1602
Court Festivities The Queen's Ballet A Gallant Prelate A Poetical
Almoner Insolence of the Royal Favourite Unhappiness of the
Queen Weakness of Henry Intrigue of Madame de Villars The
King Quarrels With the Favourite They are Reconciled Madame
de Villars is Exiled, and the Prince de Joinville Sent to Join the
Army in Hungary Mortification of the Queen Her Want of
Judgment New Dissension in the Royal Menage Sully En-
deavours to Restore Peace Mademoiselle de Sourdis The Court
Removes to Blois Royal Rupture A Bewildered Minister
Marie and Her Foster-sister Conspiracy of the Dues de Bouillon
and de Biron Parallel Between the two Nobles The Comte
d'Auvergne Ingratitude of Biron He is Betrayed His Arro-
gance He is Summoned to the Capital to Justify Himself He
Refuses to Obey the Royal Summons Henry Sends a Messenger
to Command His Presence at Court Precautionary Measures of
Sully The President Jeannin Prevails Over the Obstinacy of Biron
Double Treachery of La Fin The King Endeavours to Induce
Biron to Confess His Crime Arrest of the Due de Biron and the
Comte d'Auvergne The Royal Soiree A Timely Caution Biron
is Made Prisoner by Vitry, and the Comte d'Auvergne by Praslin
They are Conveyed Separately to the Bastille Exultation of the
Citizens Firmness of the King Violence of Biron Tardy Re-
pentance Trial of Biron A Scene in the Bastille Condemnation
of the Duke He is Beheaded The Subordinate Conspirators are
Pardoned The Due de Bouillon Retires to Turenne Refuses to
Appear at Court Execution of the Baron de Fontenelles A Salu-
tary Lesson The Comte d'Auvergne is Restored to Liberty Re-
volt of the Prince de Joinville He is Treated With Contempt by
the King He is Imprisoned by the Due de Guise Removal of
126
Marie De Medicis 127
the Court to Fontainebleau Legitimation of the Son of Madame
de Verneuil Unhappiness of the Queen She is Consoled by
Sully Birth of the Princesse Elisabeth de France Disappointment
of the Queen Soeur Ange.
THE convalescence of the Queen was the signal
for a succession of festivities, and the whole
winter was spent in gaiety and dissipation ; banquets,
ballets, and hunting-parties succeeded each other with
bewildering rapidity ; and so magnificent were several
of the Court festivals that even some of the gravest
historians of the time did not disdain to record them.
The most brilliant of the whole, however, and that
which will best serve to exemplify the taste of the
period, was the ballet to which allusion has already
been made as given in honour of the King by his
royal consort, and in which Marie de Medicis herself
appeared. In order to heighten its effect she had
selected fifteen of the most beautiful women of the
Court, Madame de Verneuil being, according to the
royal promise, one of the number ; and the first part
of the exhibition took place at the Louvre. The
entertainment commenced with the entrance of Apollo
and the nine Muses into the great hall of the palace,
which was thronged with native and foreign princes,
ambassadors, and ministers, in the midst of whom
sat the King with the Papal Nuncio on his right hand.
The god and his attendants sang the glory of the
monarch, the pacificator of Europe; and each
stanza terminated with the somewhat fulsome and
ungraceful words :
" II faut que tout vous rende hommage,
Grand Roi, miracle de notre age."
128 The Life of
Thence the whole gay and gallant company pro-
ceeded to the Hotel de Guise, where the eight maids
of honour of the Queen performed the second act;
and this was no sooner concluded than the brilliant
revellers removed to the archiepiscopal palace, where,
the Queen appeared in person upon the scene, with
her suite divided into four quadrilles. Marie herself
represented Venus, and led by the hand Cesar de
Vendome * attired as Cupid ; when the splendour
of her jewels produced so startling an effect that
murmurs of astonishment and admiration ran through
the hall. Gratified at the sensation caused by the
unexampled magnificence and grace of his royal con-
sort, Henry smilingly inquired of the Nuncio " if he
had ever before seen so fine a squadron ? "
" Bellissimo e pcricolosissimo I " was the reply of
the gallant prelate.
Each of the ladies composing the party of the
Queen represented a virtue ; an arrangement which,
when it is remembered that Madame de Verneuil was
one of the chosen, rendered their attributes at least
equivocal. This royal ballet was nevertheless con-
sidered worthy of a poetical immortality by Ber-
thault,f a popular bard of the day, who left little
* Cesar de Vendome was the son of Henri IV. and la belle
Gabrielle. He became Governor of Brittany, and superintendent-in-
chief of the national navigation. Henry also bestowed on him as
an appanage the duchy of Vendome. He married the daughter of
Philip Emmanuel of Lorraine, Due de Mercosur, by whom he had
three children : Isabelle, who became the wife of Charles Amedee,
Due de Nemours; Louis, who died single; and Francois, Due de
Beaufort.
f Jean de Berthault (or Bertaut) was born at Caen, in 1552. He
was first-almoner of Catherine de Medicis, Abbot of Aulnai, and
subsequently Bishop of Seez. He was a pupil of Ronsard, and a
Marie De Medicis 129
behind him worthy of preservation, but who enjoyed
great vogue among the fashionables of the Court at
that period. Its most important result was, however,
the marriage of Concini and Leonora ; to which, in
consideration of the honour done to the favourite by
the Queen, Henry withdrew his opposition; even
authorising his royal consort to bestow rich presents
upon the bride, and to celebrate the nuptials with
considerable ceremony.*
All these royal diversions were suddenly and dis-
agreeably terminated some months afterwards by an
intrigue which once more threw the King and his
courtiers into a state of agitation and discomfort.
As regards Marie de Medicis herself, she had long
ceased to derive any gratification from the splendid
festivities of which she was one of the brightest orna-
ments ; her ill-judged indulgence, far from exciting
the gratitude of Madame de Verneuil, having
rendered the insolent favourite still more arrogant
and overbearing. To such an extent, indeed, did the
Marquise carry her presumption, that she affected to
believe herself indebted for the forbearance of the
Queen to the conviction of the latter that she had a
superior claim upon the monarch to her own ; and
while she permitted herself to comment upon the
words, actions, and tastes, and even upon the per-
sonal peculiarities of her royal mistress, she declared
her conviction of the legality of the written promise
friend of Desportes. He wrote a great number of sacred and pro-
fane poems, psalms, and sonnets. He also produced a " Funeral
Oration on Henri IV.," and a " Translation of St. Ambroise." He
died in 1611.
* Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 41.
130 The Life of
obtained by her from the King ; and announced her
determination, now that she had become the mother
of a son, to enforce its observance.
These monstrous pretensions, which were soon
made known to the Queen, at once wounded and
exasperated her feelings ; and she anxiously awaited
the moment when some new imprudence of the
favourite should open the eyes of the monarch to her
delinquency, as she had already become aware that
mere argument on her own part would avail nothing.
Several writers, and among them even female ones,
yielding to the prestige attached to the name of
Henri IV., have sought the solution of all his domestic
discomfort in the " Italian jealousy " of Marie de
Medicis ; but surely it is not difficult to excuse it under
circumstances of such extraordinary trial. Marie was
a wife, a mother, and a Queen ; and in each of these
characters she was insulted and outraged. As a wife,
she saw her rights invaded as a mother, the legitimacy
of her son questioned and as a queen her dignity
compromised. What very inferior causes have pro-
duced disastrous effects even in private life ! The only
subject of astonishment which can be rationally enter-
tained is the comparative patience with which at this
period of her career she submitted to the humiliations
that were heaped upon her.
In vain did she complain to her royal consort of the
insulting calumnies of Madame de Verneuil ; he either
affected to disbelieve that she had been guilty of such
absurd assumption, or reproached Marie with a want
of self-respect in listening to the idle tattle of eaves-
droppers and sycophants; alleging that her foreign
Marie De Medicis 131
followers, spoiled by her indulgence, and encouraged
by her credulity, were the scourge of his Court ; and
that she would do well to dismiss them before they ac-
complished her own unhappiness. A hint to this
effect always sufficed to silence the Queen, to whom
the society and support of Leonora and her husband
were becoming each day more necessary; and thus
she devoured her tears and stifled her wretchedness,
trusting that the arrogance and presumption of the
Marquise would ultimately serve her better than her
own remonstrances.
Such was the position of affairs when the intrigue
to which allusion has been already made promised to
produce the desired result ; and it can create no sur-
prise that Marie should eagerly indulge the hope of de-
livering herself from an obnoxious and formidable
rival, when the opportunity presented itself of accom-
plishing so desirable an end without betraying her own
agency.
During the lifetime of la belle Gabrielle, her sister,
Juliette Hippolyte d'Estrees, Marquise de Cerisay, who
in 1597 became the wife of Georges de Brancas, Due
de Villars, had attracted the attention of the King,
whose dissipated tastes were always flattered by
novelty ; although if we are to credit the statements
of the Princesse de Conti, this lady, so far from rival-
ling the beauty of her younger sister, had no personal
charms to recommend her beyond her youth and her
hair* Being as unscrupulous as the Duchesse de
Beaufort herself, Juliette exulted in the idea of capti-
vating the King, and left no effort untried to secure her
* Amours du Grand Alcandre t p. 42.
132 The Life of
supposed conquest; but this caprice on the part of
Henry was only momentary, and in his passion for
Henriette d'Entragues, he soon forgot his passing fancy
for Madame de Villars. The Duchess herself, how-
ever, was far from being equally oblivious ; and listen-
ing to the dictates of her ambition and self-love, she
became persuaded that she was indebted to the Mar-
quise alone for the sudden coldness of the King ; and
accordingly she vowed an eternal hatred to the woman
whom she considered in the light of a successful rival.
Up to the present period, anxious as she was to avenge
her wounded vanity, she had been unable to secure an
opportunity of revenge ; but having at this particular
moment won the affection of the Prince de Joinville,*
who had been a former lover of Madame de Verneuil,
and with whom, as she was well aware, he had main-
tained an active correspondence, she made his sur-
render of the letters of that lady the price of her own
honour. For a time the Prince hesitated ; he felt all
the disloyalty of such a concession ; but those were
not times in which principles waged an equal war
against passion ; and the letters were ultimately placed
in the possession of Madame de Villars.
The Duchess was fully cognisant of the fact that it
was from an impulse of self-preservation alone that
M. de Joinville had been induced to forego his suit to
the favourite, and to absent himself from the Court, a
* Claude de Lorraine, Prince de Joinville, was the fourth son of
Henri, Due de Guise, surnamed the Balafre, brother of Charles, Due
de Mayenne, and of Louis, Cardinal de Guise. He married Marie
de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse, the daughter of Hercule de
Rohan, Due de Montbazon, and peer of France, and was subsequently
known as Due de Chevreuse. He died in 1657.
Marie De Medicis 133
consideration which should have aroused her delicacy
as a woman ; but she was by no means disposed to
yield to so inconvenient a weakness ; and she had con-
sequently no sooner secured the coveted documents
than she prepared to profit by her good fortune.
Henriette d'Entragues had really loved the Prince
if indeed so venal and vicious a woman can be sup-
posed capable of loving anything save herself and
thus the letters which were transferred to Madame de
Villars, many of them having been written immedi-
ately after the separation of the lovers, were filled with
regrets at his absence, professions of unalterable affec-
tion, and disrespectful expressions concerning the King
and Queen ; the latter of whom was ridiculed and
slandered without pity. It is easy to imagine the
triumphant joy of the Duchess. She held her enemy
at her mercy, and she had no inclination to be merci-
ful. She read and re-read the precious letters ; and
finally, after deep reflection, her plans were matured.
The Princesse de Conti was her personal friend, and
was, moreover, attached to the household of the
Queen, to whom Madame de Villars, from circum-
stances which require no comment, had hitherto been
comparatively a stranger. Marie de Medicis, who had
experienced little sympathy from the great ladies of
the Court, having thrown herself principally upon her
Italian followers for society, had in consequence been
cold and distant in her deportment to the French mem-
bers of her circle ; who, on their side, trammelled by
the rigorous propriety of her conduct, were quite satis-
fied to be partially overlooked, in order that their own
less scrupulous bearing might pass unnoticed by so
134 The Life of
rigid a censor ; and thus, when, upon the earnest re-
quest of Madame de Villars to be introduced to the
more intimate acquaintance of the Queen, the Princess
succeeded in obtaining for her the privilege of the
petites entrees (unaware of the powerful passport to
favour which she possessed), she found it difficult to
account for the eagerness with which the ordinarily
unapproachable Marie greeted the appearance and
courted the society of the astute Duchess ; nor did she
for an instant dream that by facilitating the intercourse
between them, she was undermining the fortunes of a
brother whom she loved.
It appears extraordinary that of all the ladies about
the Queen, Madame de Villars should have selected
the sister of the Prince de Joinville to enable her to
effect her purpose ; but let her have acted from what-
ever motive she might, it is certain that day by day
her favour became more marked ; and the circumstance
which most excited the surprise of Madame de Conti,
was the fact that \\er protegee was often closeted with the
Queen when, for reasons sufficiently obvious, she her-
self and even Leonora Galigai were excluded. In en-
couraging the vengeance of her new friend, Marie was
well aware that she was committing an imprudence
from which the more far-seeing Florentine would have
dissuaded her ; and thus, with that impetuosity which
was destined through life to be her scourge, she re-
solved only to consult her own feelings. The secret
of this new discovery was consequently not divulged
to her favourite ; and as her cheek burned and her
eye flashed, while lingering over the insults to which
she had been subjected by the unscrupulous mistress
Marie De Medicis 135
of the monarch, she urged Madame de Villars to lose
no time in communicating the contents of the obnox-
ious letters to her sovereign.
The undertaking was difficult as well as dangerous ;
and in the case of the Duchess it required more than
usual tact and caution. She had not only to encounter
the risk of arousing the anger of Henry by accusing
the woman whom he loved, but also to combat his
wounded vanity when he should see his somewhat
mature passion made a subject of ridicule, and, at
the same time, to conceal her own motive for the
treachery of which she was guilty. This threefold
trial, even daring as she was, the Duchess feared to
hazard. In communicating the fatal letters to the
Queen, she had calculated that the indignation and
jealousy of the Italian Princess would instigate her to
take instant possession of so formidable a weapon
against her most dangerous enemy, and to work out
her own vengeance; but Marie had learnt prudence
from past experience, and she was anxious to conceal
her own agency in the cabal until she could avow it
with a certainty of triumph. Perceiving the reluctance
of Madame de Villars to take the initiative, she ha-
stened to explain to her the suspicion which would
naturally be engendered in the mind of the King,
should he imagine that the affair had been preconcerted
to satisfy her private animosity; and moreover sug-
gested that the Duchess should, in her interview with
the monarch, carefully avoid even the mention of her
name. Encouragement and entreaties followed this
caution ; while a few rich presents sufficed to convince
her auditor and ultimately, Madame de Villars (who
136 The Life of
had too long waited patiently for such an opportunity
of revenge to shrink from her purpose when it was
secured to her), having gained the favour and confi-
dence of the Queen at the expense of her rival,
resolved to terminate her task.
The pretext of urgent business easily procured for
her a private interview with the King, for the name of
D'Estrees still acted like a spell upon the mind and
heart of Henry, and the Duchess was a consummate
tactician. Notice was given to her of the day on
which the sovereign would visit St. Denis ; and as she
presented herself in the lateral chapel where he had
just concluded his devotions, Henry made a sign for
his attendant nobles to withdraw, when the Duchess
found herself in a position to explain her errand, and
to assure him that she had only been induced to make
the present disclosure from her affection for his person,
and the gratitude which she owed to him for the many
benefits that she had experienced from his condescen-
sion. Having briefly dwelt on the contents of the
letters which she delivered into his keeping, she did
not even seek an excuse for the means by which they
had come into her own possession, but concluded by
observing : " I could not reconcile it to my conscience,
Sire, to conceal so great an outrage ; I should have felt
like a criminal myself, had I been capable of suffering
in silence such treason against the greatest king, the
best master, and the most gallant gentleman on
earth." *
Henry was not proof against this compliment. He
believed himself to be all that the Duchess had
* Amours dtt Grand Alcandre, pp. 272, 273.
Marie De Medicis 137
asserted but he liked to hear his own opinion con-
firmed by the lips of others ; and, although smarting
under the mortification of wounded vanity occasioned
by the contents of the letters of his perfidious mis-
tress, he smiled complacently upon Madame de
Villars, thanking her for her zeal and attachment to
his person, and assuring her that both were fully
appreciated.
She had no sooner retired than, as the Queen had
previously done, he repeatedly read over each letter
in turn until his patience gave way under the task ;
when hastily summoning the Due de Lude, he desired
him to forthwith proceed to the apartments of the
Marquise, and inform her in his name that " she was
a perfidious woman, a monster, and the most wicked
of her sex ; and that he was resolved never to see her
again." *
At this period Madame de Verneuil had quitted the
palace, and was residing in an hotel in the city, which
had been presented to her t by the King : a fortunate
circumstance for the envoy, who required time and
consideration to enable him to execute his onerous
mission in a manner that might not tend to his own
subsequent discomfiture; but on the delivery of the
royal message, which even the courtly De Lude could
not divest of its offensive character, Madame de
Verneuil (who was well aware that the King, however
he might yield to his momentary anger, was even less
able to dispense with her society than she herself was
to lose the favour which alone preserved her from the
ignominy her conduct had justly merited) did not for
* Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 85. Saint-Edm6, p. 218.
138 The Life of
an instant lose her self-possession. " Tell his Majesty,"
she replied, as calmly as though a sense of innocence
had given her strength, " that being perfectly assured
that I have never been guilty of word or deed which
could justly incur his anger, I cannot imagine what can
have induced him to treat me with so little considera-
tion. That some one has traduced me, I cannot
doubt ; but I shall be revenged by a discovery of the
truth." *
She then rose from her seat, and retired to her
private room, much more alarmed and agitated than
she was willing to betray. De Lude had, during the
interview, suffered a few remarks to escape him from
which she was enabled to guess whence the blow had
come; and conscious of the enormity of her im-
prudence, she lost no time in confiding to her most
confidential friends the difficulty of her position, and
entreated them to discover some method by which she
might escape its consequences.
As had been previously arranged with the Queen,
Madame de Villars, at her audience of the King, had
carefully abstained from betraying the share which his
consort had taken in the intrigue, and had assumed to
herself the very equivocal honour of the whole pro-
ceeding ; and it was, consequently, against the Duchess
alone that the anger of the favourite was excited.
Even the Prince de Joinville was forgiven, when with
protestations of repentance he threw himself at the
feet of the Marquise, and implored her pardon he
could scarcely fail to be understood by such a woman,
when he pleaded the extremes to which passion and
* Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 274.
Marie De Medicis 139
disappointment could urge an ardent nature while the
Due de Bellegarde was no sooner informed by the
Princesse de Conti that the fortune, and perhaps even
the life, of her brother were involved in the affair, than
he devoted himself to her cause.
We have already stated that the time was not one
of unnecessary scruple, and the peril of the Marquise
was imminent. The letters not only existed, but were
in the hands of the King: no honest or simple
remedy could be suggested for such a disaster ; and
thus, as it was imperative to clear Madame de
Verneuil from blame in order to save the Prince, it
was ultimately determined to deny the authenticity
of the documents, and to attribute the forgery to a
secretary of the Due de Guise, who was celebrated
for his aptitude in imitating every species of hand-
writing. The attempt was hazardous ; but the in-
fatuation of Henry for the fascinating favourite was
so well known, that the conspirators were assured of
the eagerness with which he would welcome any ex-
planation, however doubtful ; and they accordingly
instructed the Marquise boldly to disavow the author-
ship of the obnoxious packet. The advice was, un-
fortunately, somewhat tardy; as, in her first terror,
Madame de Verneuil had declared her inability to deny
that she had written the letters which had aroused the
anger of the King ; but she modified the admission,
by declaring that her hand had betrayed her heart, and
that she had never felt what, in a moment of pique and
annoyance, she had permitted herself to express.
These were, however, mere words ; and she had no
sooner become cognisant of the expedients suggested
140 The Life of
by her advisers than she resolved to gainsay them ;
and accordingly, without a moment's hesitation, she
despatched a message to the monarch to entreat that
he would allow her to justify herself.
For a few days Henry remained inexorable, but at
length his passion triumphed over his pride ; and in-
stead of summoning the Marquise to his presence as a
criminal he proceeded to her residence, listened blindly
to her explanations, became, or feigned to become,
convinced by her arguments, and ultimately confessing
himself to have been sufficiently credulous to be the
culprit rather than the judge, he made a peace with his
exulting mistress, which was cemented by a donation
of six thousand livres.
As is usual in such cases, all the blame was now vis-
ited upon her accusers. Madame de Villars was exiled
from the Court a sentence to her almost as terrible as
that of death, wedded as she was to a court-life, and
by this unexpected result, separated from the Prince
de Joinville, whose pardon she had hoped to secure by
her apparent zeal for the honour of the monarch. The
Prince himself was directed to proceed forthwith to
Hungary to serve against the Turks ; and the unfortu-
nate secretary, who had been an unconscious instru-
ment in the hands of the able conspirators, and whom
it was necessary to consider guilty of a crime abso-
lutely profitless to himself whatever might be its result,
was committed to a prison ; there to moralise at his
leisure upon the vices of the great.
No mortification could, however, equal that of the
Queen ; who, having felt assured of the ruin of her
rival, had incautiously betrayed her exultation in a
Marie De Medicis 141
manner better suited to a jealous wife than to an indig-
nant sovereign ; and who, when she became apprised
of the reconciliation of the King with his wily mistress,
expressed herself with so much warmth upon his wilful
blindness, that a fortnight elapsed before they met again.
Nothing could be more ill-judged upon the part of
Marie than this violence, as by estranging the King
from herself she gave ample opportunity to the Mar-
quise to resume her empire over his mind. It never-
theless appears certain that although he resented the
sarcasms of the Queen, he was less the dupe of
Madame de Verneuil than those about him imagined ;
he was fascinated, but not convinced ; and it is prob-
able that had Marie de Medicis at this moment suf-
ficiently controlled her feelings to remain neuter, she
might, for a time at least, have retained her truant hus-
band under the spell of her own attractions. Such,
however, was not the case ; and between his suspicion
of being deceived by his mistress, and his irritation at
being openly taunted by his wife, the King, who
shrank with morbid terror from domestic discomfort,
instead of finding repose in the privacy of his own
hearth, even while he was anxious to shake off the
trammels by which he had been so long fettered, and
to abandon a liaison which had ceased to inspire him
with confidence, only sought to escape by transferring
his somewhat exhausted affections to a new object.
The struggle was, however, a formidable one ; for al-
though the Marquise had forfeited his good opinion,
she had not lost her powers of fascination ; and she so
well knew how to use them, that, despite his better
reason, the sensual monarch still remained her slave.
142 The Life of
Thus his life became at this period one of perpetual
worry and annoyance. Marie, irritated by what she
justly considered as a culpable weakness and want of
dignity on the part of her royal consort, persisted in
exhibiting her resentment, and in loading the favourite
with every mark of contempt and obloquy; while
Madame de Verneuil, in her turn, renewed her asser-
tions of the illegality of the Queen's marriage, and the
consequent illegitimacy of the Dauphin. The effect of
such a feud may be readily imagined : the Court soon
became divided into two distinct factions ; and those
among the great ladies and nobles who frequented the
circle of the Marquise were forbidden the entrance of
the Queen's apartments. One intrigue succeeded an-
other; and while Marie, with jealous vindictiveness,
endeavoured to mar the fortunes of those who at-
tached themselves to the party of Madame de Ver-
neuil, the Marquise left no effort untried to injure the
partisans of the Queen. This last rupture was an ir-
revocable one.*
In vain did Sully endeavour to restore peace. He
could control the finances, and regulate the defences of
a great nation ; but he was as powerless as the King
himself when he sought to fuse such jarring elements
as these in the social crucible ; and while he was still
striving against hope to weaken, even if he could not
wholly destroy, an animosity which endangered the
dignity of the crown, and the respect due to one of
the most powerful monarchs of Christendom, that
monarch himself, wearied of a strife which he had not
the moral courage either to terminate or to sustain,
* Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 276.
Marie De Medicis 143
sought consolation for his trials in the smiles of
Mademoiselle de Sourdis,* whose favour he purchased
by giving her in marriage to the Comte d'Estanges.
This caprice, engendered rather by ennui than affec-
tion, was, however, soon terminated, as the new fa-
vourite could not, either personally or mentally, sustain
a comparison with Madame de Verneuil; and great
coldness still existed between the royal couple when
the Court removed to Blois.
During the sojourn of their Majesties in that city, a
misunderstanding infinitely more serious than any by
which it had been preceded took place between them ;
and at length became so threatening, that although the
night was far advanced, the King despatched D'Armag-
nac, his first valet-de-chambre, to desire the imme-
diate presence of M. de Sully at the castle. Singularly
enough, the Duke in his Memoirs affects a morbid re-
luctance even to allude to this outbreak, and professes
his determination, in accordance with his promise to
that effect made to both parties, not to reveal the sub-
ject of dispute ; while at the same time he admits that,
after a long interview with Henry, he spent the re-
mainder of the night in passing from one chamber to
the other, endeavouring to restore harmony between
the royal pair, during which attempt many of the at-
tendants of the Court were enabled at intervals to hear
all parties mention the names of the Grand Duke and
* Mademoiselle de Sourdis was the daughter of Francois d'Escou-
bleau, Seigneur de Jouy, de Launay, Marquis de Sourdis, etc., and of
Isabelle Babou, Dame d'Alluie, daughter of Jean Babou, Seigneur de
la Bourdaisiere, and aunt of Gabrielle d'Estrees. He was deprived
of the government of Chartres by the League ; but was restored by
Henri III. at the entreaty of Gabrielle.
144 The Life of
Duchess of Florence, the Duchess of Mantua, Virgilio
Ursino, Don Juan de Medicis, the Due de Bellegarde,
Joannini, Concini, Leonora, Trainel, Vinti, Caterina
Selvaggio,* Gondy, and more frequently still, of Ma-
dame de Verneuil ; f a circumstance which was quite
sufficient to dispel all mystery, as it at once became
evident to those who mentally combined these signifi-
cant names, that the royal quarrel was a recriminatory
one, and that while the Queen was indulging in invec-
tives against the Marquise, and her champion M. le
Grand, the King retorted by reproaching her with the
insolence of her Italian favourites, and her own weak
submission to their thrall.!
Capefigue, in his history, has shown less desire than
Sully to envelop this royal quarrel in mystery; and
plainly asserts, although without quoting his authority
for such a declaration, that after mutual reproaches had
passed between Henry and his wife, the Queen became
so enraged that she sprang out of bed, and throwing
herself upon the monarch, severely scratched him in
the face ; a violence which he immediately repaid with
interest, and which induced him to summon the min-
ister to the palace, whose first care was to prevail upon
the King to retire to another apartment.
Marie, exasperated by the persevering infidelity of
her husband, considered herself, with some reason, as
the aggrieved party; she had given a Dauphin to
* Caterina Selvaggio was one of the Queen's favourite Italian
waiting-women.
f Sully, Mem. vol. iv. pp. 93, 94.
j Rambure, MS. Mem. vol. i. p. 332.
Capefigue, Hist, de la Reforms, de la Ligue t et du Regne de
Henri IV., vol. viii. pp. 147, 148.
Marie De Medicis 145
France; her fair fame was untainted; and she per-
sisted in enforcing her right to retain and protect her
Tuscan attendants. Henry, on his part, was equally
unyielding; and it was, as we have already shown,
several hours before the bewildered minister of finance
could succeed in restoring even a semblance of peace.
To every argument which he advanced the Queen re-
plied by enumerating the libertine adventures of her
husband (with the whole of which she proved herself
to be unhappily only too familiar), and by declaring that
she would one day take ample vengeance on his mis-
tresses ; strong in the conviction that to whatever acts
of violence she might be induced by the insults heaped
upon her, no rightly thinking person would be found
to condemn so just a revenge.*
This declaration, let Sully modify it as he might,
could but aggravate the anger of the King ; and ac-
cordingly, he replied by a threat of banishing his wife
to one of his distant palaces, and even of sending her
back to Florence, with the whole of her foreign at-
tendants.
From this project, if he really ever seriously enter-
tained it, Henry was, however, at once dissuaded by
his minister ; who, less blinded by passion than him-
self, instantly recognised its enormity when propor-
tioned to the offence which it was intended to punish ;
and consequently he did not hesitate to represent the
odium which so unjust a measure must call down upon
the head of the King.f The Queen, whose irritation
* Histoire de la Mire et du Fits, a continuation of the Memoirs of
Richelieu, incorrectly attributed to Mezeray, vol. i. p. 7.
f Sully, Note to Memoirs, vol. iv. pp. 95, 96.
146 The Life of
had reached its climax, was less easily persuaded ; or
the astute Concini, was ever daring where his personal
fortunes might be benefited, sacrificed his royal mistress
to his own interests ; for we find it recorded that some
time subsequently, when Madame de Verneuil was re-
siding at her hotel in Paris, the Florentine favourite
privately informed the monarch that Marie had en-
gaged some persons on whom she could rely, to insult
the Marquise ; upon which Henry, after expressing his
thanks for the communication, caused the favourite to
leave the city under a strong escort.*
Had the King been less unscrupulously inconstant,
there is, however, no doubt that Marie de Medicis,
from the strict propriety of her conduct to the last, and
under every provocation, would ultimately have be-
come an attached and devoted wife. Her ambition
was satisfied, and her heart interested, in her maternal
duties; but the open and unblushing licentiousness
with which Henry pursued his numerous and frequently
ignoble intrigues, irritated her naturally excitable
temper, and consequently tended to throw her more
completely into the power of the ambitious Italians by
whom she was surrounded; among whom the most
influential was Madame de Concini, a woman of firm
mind, engaging manners, and strong national prej-
udices, who, in following the fortunes of her illustrious
foster-sister, had deceived herself into the belief that
they would be almost without a cloud ; and it is there-
fore probable that a disappointment in this expectation,
which, moreover, involved her own personal interests,
rendered her bitter in her judgment of the dcbonnaire
* Richelieu, La Mtre ft le Fils, vol i. p. 7.
Marie De Medicis 147
and reckless monarch who showed himself so indiffer-
ent to the attractions of her idolised mistress.
The subsequent ingratitude of Marie, indeed, only
tends to increase the admiration of a dispassionate
critic for the ill-requited Leonora ; to whom it would
appear, after a close analysis of her character, that
ample justice has never yet been done ; for ambitious
as she was, it is certain that this unfortunate woman
ever sought the welfare of the Queen, to whom she
owed her advancement in life, even when the more
short-sighted selfishness of her husband would have
induced him to sacrifice all other considerations to his
own insatiable thirst for power.
Unfortunately, however, the very excess of her
affection rendered her a dangerous adviser to the in-
dignant and neglected Princess, from whose private
circle Henry at this period almost wholly absented
himself.
Nor were these domestic anxieties the only ones
against which the French King had to contend at this
particular crisis ; for while the Court circle had been
absorbed in banquets and festivals, the seeds of civil
war, sown by a few of the still discontented nobles,
began to germinate; and Henry constantly received
intelligence of seditious movements in the provinces.
On the banks of the Loire and the Garonne the symp-
toms of disaffection had already ceased to be proble-
matical ; while at La Rochelle and Limoges the in-
habitants had assaulted the government officers who
sought to levy an obnoxious tax.
Little doubt existed in the minds of the monarch
and his ministers that these hostile demonstrations
148 The Life of
were encouraged, if not suggested, by the secret agents
of Philip III. of Spain, and the Duke of Savoy, who
had been busily engaged some time previously in dis-
suading the Swiss and Orisons from renewing the
alliance which they had formed with Henri III., and
which became void at his death. This attempt was,
however, frustrated by an offer made to them by
Sillery of a million in gold, as payment of the debt
still due to them from the French government for their
past services ; which enormous sum reached them
through the hands of the Due de Biron, to whom, as
well as to the memory of his father, the old Marechal,
many of the Switzers were strongly and personally at-
tached.
Day by day, also, the King had still more serious
cause of apprehension, having ascertained almost be-
yond a doubt that the Due de Bouillon, the head of
the Huguenot party, who were incensed against Henry
for having deserted their faith, was secretly engaged in
a treaty with Spain, Savoy, and England, a circum-
stance rendered doubly dangerous from the fact that
the Protestants still held several fortified places in
Guienne, Languedoc, and other provinces, which would
necessarily, should the negotiation prove successful, be
delivered into his hands. There can be no doubt,
moreover, that the monarch keenly felt the ingratitude
of this noble, whom he had himself raised to the in-
dependent sovereignty of the duchy whence he derived
his title ; but his mortification was increased upon as-
certaining that the Marechal de Biron, who had been
one of his most familiar friends, and in whose good-
faith and loyalty he had ever placed implicit trust, was
Marie De Medicis 149
also numbered among his enemies, and endeavouring
to secure his own personal advancement by betraying
his master.
No two men could probably have been selected
throughout the whole nation more fitted to endanger
the stability of the royal authority. Both were
marshals of France, and alike celebrated for their tal-
ent as military leaders, as well as for their insatiable
ambition. Of the two, perhaps, however, the Due de
Bouillon was likely to prove the most formidable
enemy to the sovereign ; from the fact of his being by
far the more able and the more subtle politician, and,
moreover, gifted with a caution and judgment which
were entirely wanting in the impetuous and reckless
Biron.
Bouillon, who possessed great influence in the
counsels of the Huguenots, was supported by the Due
de la Tremouille, * his co-religionist, another leader of
the reformed party; and secretly also by the Due
d'Epernon, f whose fortunes having greatly deterio-
* Claude, Seigneur de la Tremouille, second Due de Thouars, peer
of France, Prince de Talmond, was born in the year 1566, and first
bore arms under Francois de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier. He
embraced the reformed religion, and attached himself to the fortunes
of Henri de Navarre, subsequently King of France, whom he followed
to the sieges of Rouen and Poitiers, and the battle of Fontaine-Fran-
caise ; after which the King conferred upon him the rank of peer of
France. He was the brother-in-law of the Due de Bouillon. He
died in the castle of Thouars, to which he had retired, suspected of
treason, after refusing to return to Court to justify himself, on the 25th
of October, 1604, in his thirty-eighth year.
f Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, Due d'Epernon, was the
younger son of an old Gascon family, who sought his fortunes at the
French Court under the name of Caumont. After the death of Charles
IX., he offered his services to Henri de Navarre, subsequently Henri
IV. ; but was ultimately admitted to the intimacy of Henri III., who
caused him to be instructed in politics and literature, and made him
150 The Life of
rated since the death of Henri III., considered himself
harshly treated, and was ready to join every cabal
which was formed against that King's successor, al-
though he always avoided any open demonstration of
hostility which might tend to compromise his personal
safety.
A third individual pointed out to the King as one
of his most active enemies was Charles de Valois,
Comte d'Auvergne, the stepbrother of Madame de
Verneuil; to whom not only in consideration of his
royal blood, but also as the relative of the Marquise,
Henry had ever shown a favour which he little merited.
Such an adversary the monarch could, however, afford
to despise, for he well knew the Count to be more
dangerous as a friend than as an enemy ; his cowardly
dread of danger constantly impelling him, at the
merest prospect of peril, to betray others in order to
save himself; while his cunning, his gratuitous and
unmanly cruelty, and the unblushing perfidy which re-
called with only too much vividness the character of
his father, Charles IX., rendered him at once unsafe
one of his mignons. He was next created Due d'Epernon, first peer
and admiral of France, colonel-general of infantry, and held several
governments. On the death of Henri III., this ennobled adventurer
once more became a partisan of his successor, and commanded the
royal forces during the war in Savoy ; but throughout the whole of
this reign he lived in constant misunderstanding with the Court and
the King, and was even suspected of the act of regicide which de-
prived France of her idolised monarch. It was the Due d'Epernon
who, immediately after that event, convoked the Parliament, caused
the recognition of Marie de Medicis as Regent, and formed a privy
council over which he presided. Banished by the Concini during
their period of power, he reappeared at Court after their fall, but
Richelieu would not permit him to hold any government office, and,
moreover, deprived him of all his governments save that of Guienne.
He died in 1642.
Marie De Medicis 151
and unpleasant as an associate. Despite all these
drawbacks, Biron with his usual recklessness had
nevertheless accepted him as a partner in his meditated
revolt, D'Auvergne having declared that he would run
all risks in order to revenge the dishonour brought
upon his family by the King ; but in reality the Comte
only sought to benefit himself in a struggle where he
had little to lose, and might, as he believed, become a
gainer.
The madness of the Due de Biron in betraying the
interests of a sovereign who had constantly treated
him with honour and distinction, can only find its so-
lution in his overweening vanity, as he was already
wealthy, powerful, and popular; and had, moreover,
acquired the reputation of being one of the first soldiers
in France. He had been appointed admiral, and sub-
sequently marshal ; and had even been entrusted with
the command of the King's armies at the siege of
Amiens, where he bore the title of marshal-general,
although several Princes of the Blood and the Con-
netable himself were present. He was decorated with
all the Royal Orders ; was a duke and peer of the
realm, and Governor of Bordeaux ; and, in fine, every
attainable dignity had been lavished upon him ; while
he yielded precedence only to royalty, and to the Due
de Montmorency, to whose office it was vain to aspire
during his lifetime.*
Such was the Marechal de Biron, when, in the vain-
glorious hope of one day becoming the sovereign of
certain of the French provinces, he voluntarily
trampled under foot every obligation of loyalty and
* Daniel, vol. vii. p. 408.
152 The Life of
gratitude, and leagued himself with the enemies of his
royal master, to wrest from him the sceptre which he
so firmly wielded. The first intelligence of the Duke's
defection which reached the monarch to whom, how-
ever, his conduct had long appeared problematical
was obtained through the treachery of the Mare dial's
most trusted agent ; a man whom Biron had con-
stantly employed in all his intrigues, and from whom
he had no secrets. This individual, who from certain
circumstances saw reason to believe that the plans of
the Duke must ultimately fail from their very immen-
sity, and who feared for his own safety in the event of
his patron's disgrace, resolved to save himself by com-
municating the whole conspiracy to the King ; for
which purpose he solicited an audience, declaring that
he had important matters to reveal, which involved not
only the throne of the sovereign, but even his life ;
and he so confidently insisted upon this fact, that an
interview was at length accorded to him at Fontaine-
bleau ; where, in the presence of Henry and the Due
de Sully, he confessed that conceiving himself to have
been ill-used by the Court, he had from mortified vanity
adopted the interests of M. de Biron, and even par-
ticipated in the conspiracy of which he was now
anxious to anticipate the effects, and from which he
had instantly retired when he discovered that it in-
volved the lives of his Majesty and the Dauphin.
He then solemnly asserted that when the Marechal
de Biron proceeded to Flanders to receive the oath of
peace from the Archduke Albert, the Spaniards, who
at once detected the extent of his vanity and ambition,
had flattered his weakness and encouraged his hopes ;
Marie De Medicis 153
and that they had ultimately despatched to him an in-
dividual named Picote, who for some time had been
exiled from Orleans, and who was authorised to give
him the assurance that it only depended upon the
Duke himself to secure a brilliant position through
their agency, should he see fit to become their ally.
The Marechal, his associate went on to say, listened
eagerly to the proposition, and expressed his willing-
ness to treat with Spain whenever it might be deemed
expedient to confide to him the real meaning of the
message ; a reply which satisfied the Spaniards that
with proper caution they should find it no difficult un-
dertaking to attach him entirely to their interests, or,
failing in this attempt, to rid themselves of a danger-
ous adversary by rendering him the victim of his own
treason.
Elated by the brilliant prospect which thus opened
upon him, Biron gradually became less energetic in the
service of his legitimate master ; and after the peace of
Vervins, finding his influence necessarily diminished,
he began to murmur, affecting to believe that the
services which he had rendered to the sovereign had
not been duly recognised ; and it was at this period,
according to his betrayer, that their acquaintance had
commenced, an acquaintance which so rapidly ripened
into friendship that ere long he became the depository
of his patron's most cherished secrets.
After many and anxious consultations, principally
caused by the uncertainty of the Duke as to the
nature of the honours which were to be conferred
upon him, it had been at length resolved between the
two conspirators that they should despatch a priest to
154 The Life of
the Duke of Savoy, a monk of Citeaux to Milan, and
Picote himself to Spain, to treat with the several
Princes in the name of the Marechal ; and what was
even more essential to the monarch to ascertain, was
the fact that a short time subsequently, and before he
visited Paris, the Duke of Savoy had entered into a
secret negotiation with Biron, and even led him to be-
lieve that he would bestow upon him the hand of one
of his daughters, by which marriage the Marechal
would have become the cousin of the Emperor of
Germany, and the nephew of the King of Spain, an
alliance which, to so ambitious a spirit, opened up an
opportunity of self-aggrandisement never to be real-
ised in his own country and under his own sovereign.
In return for this concession, Biron had pledged
himself to his wily ally that he would provide so much
occupation for Henry in the interior of his kingdom,
that he should have no leisure to attempt the invasion
of the marquisate of Saluzzo, a pledge which more
than any other gratified M. de Savoie, who lived in
constant dread of being driven from his territories.
During the war the Marechal nevertheless took several
of the Duke's fortresses in Brescia ; but a perfect un-
derstanding had been established between them which
rendered this circumstance comparatively unimpor-
tant ; and on the refusal of Henry to permit the ap-
pointment of a governor of his own selection for the
citadel of Bourg, Biron became so incensed by what
he designated as the ingratitude of his sovereign
though he was fully aware that by countenancing
such an arrangement the King must necessarily leave
the fortress entirely in his power that he no longer
Marie De Medicis 155
restrained himself, but declared that the death of the
French sovereign was essential to the accomplishment
of his projects ; and meanwhile he gave the Duke of
Savoy, whom he thenceforward regarded as his firmest
friend, constant information of the state and move-
ments of the hostile army.
A short time afterwards it was definitely arranged
between the conspirators that the Duke of Savoy
should give his third daughter in marriage to the
Mare dial, with a dowry of five hundred thousand
golden crowns ; that the Spanish monarch should cede
to him all his claims of sovereignty upon the duchy of
Burgundy ; and that the Conde de Fuentes * and the
Duke of Savoy should march their combined forces
into France, thus disabling Henry from pursuing his
design of reconquering the long-coveted duchy.
This treasonable design, owing to circumstances
upon which the impetuous Biron had failed to calcu-
late, proved, however, abortive; and he had no sooner
convinced himself of the fact, and comprehended the
perilous position in which he had been placed by
his imprudence, than he hastened to Lyons, where the
King was then sojourning ; and having obtained an
audience, he confessed with a seeming frankness
irresistible to so generous and unsuspicious a nature as
that of Henry, that he had been sufficiently misled by
his ambition secretly to demand from the Duke of
Savoy the hand of his younger daughter ; and that,
moreover, in the excess of his mortification at the
refusal of his Majesty to appoint a governor of his own
selection at Bourg, he had even been induced to plot
* Pedro Henriques Azevedo, Conde de Fuentes.
156 The Life of
against the state, for both which crimes he humbly
solicited the royal pardon.
Full well did Henry and his minister remember this
occurrence ; nor could the King forget that although
he had urged the Marechal to reveal to him the whole
extent of the intrigue, he had dexterously evaded his
most searching inquiries, and constantly recurred to
his contrition. Henry owed much to Biron, whom he
had long loved ; and with a magnanimity worthy of
his noble nature, after a few expostulations and
reproaches, he not only pardoned him for what he
believed to have been a mere temporary abandonment
of his duties, but even assured him of his future favour,
and bade him return in all security to his post.
Unhappily, however, the demon of ambition by
which the Duke was possessed proved too powerful
for the generous clemency of the King, and he re-
sumed his treasonable practices ; but a misunderstand-
ing having ensued between himself and the false friend
by whom he was now betrayed, all the private docu-
ments which had been exchanged between himself and
the foreign princes through whose aid he trusted to
obtain the honours of sovereignty, were communi-
cated on this occasion to the monarch whose dignity
and whose confidence he had alike outraged.
A free pardon was accorded to the traitor through
whose means Henry was made acquainted with the
extent of the intrigue, on condition that he should
reside within the precincts of the Court and lend his
assistance to convict the Duke of his crime, terms to
which the perfidious confidant readily consented ;
while with a tact worthy of his falsehood, he soon
Marie De Medicis 157
succeeded in reinstating himself in the good graces of
the Duke, by professing to be earnestly engaged in
France in furthering his interests, and by giving him
reason to believe that he was still devoted to his
cause.
To this deception, and to his own obstinacy, Biron
owed his fate.*
The alarming facts which had thus been revealed to
them were communicated by Henry and his minister
to certain members of the privy council, by whom a
report was drawn up and placed in the hands of the
Chancellor; and, this preliminary arrangement com-
pleted, it was determined to recall the Marechal to
Court either to justify himself, or to undergo the
penalty of his treason. In order to effect this object,
however, it was necessary to exercise the greatest
caution, as Biron was then in Burgundy; and his
alarm having already been excited by the evasion of
his most confidential agent, they felt that he might,
should his suspicions be increased, place himself at the
head of the troops under his command, by whom he
was idolised, and thus become doubly dangerous. It
was, consequently, only by a subterfuge that there was
any prospect of inducing him to approach the capital ;
and the King, by the advice of Sully, and not without
a latent hope that he might be enabled to clear him-
self of blame, openly asserted that he put no faith in
the disclosures which had been made to him, and that
he would advise the Marechal to be careful of those
about him, whose envy t or enmity led them to put a
misconstruction upon his motives as well as upon his
* Montfaucon, vol. v. pp. 405-407.
158
The Life of
actions. The Baron de Luz,* the confidential friend
of Biron, for whose ear these declarations were es-
pecially designed, did not fail to communicate them on
the instant to the accused party ; while La Fin,f by
whom he had been betrayed, likewise wrote to assure
him that in revealing the conspiracy to the King and
the ministers he had been cautious not to utter a word
by which he could be personally implicated. It is cer-
tain, however, that the Duke placed little reliance either
upon the assertions of Henry, or the assurances of his
treacherous agent ; as on the receipt of a letter from
the sovereign, announcing his own instant departure
for Poitou, where he invited Biron to join him, in
order that he might afford him his advice upon certain
affairs of moment, the latter wrote to excuse himself,
* Edme de Malain, Baron de Luz, Lieutenant-Governor of Bur-
gundy, was the son of Joachim de Malain and Marguerite d'Epinac.
He was deeply involved in the conspiracy of the Marechal de Biron,
and would infallibly have perished with him had he not been induced
by the President Jeannin to reveal all that he knew of the plot to
Henri IV., on condition of a free pardon. He survived his treachery
for ten years, and in 1613 was killed in a duel by the Chevalier de
Guise. His son, Claude de Malain, having sworn to avenge his death,
in his turn challenged M. de Guise, at whose hands he met with the
same fate as his father.
f Jacques de Lanode, Sieur de la Fin, was a petty Burgundian
nobleman, whose spirit of intrigue was perpetually involving those to
whom he attached himself in cabals and factions. He had been
actively engaged at one time in the affairs of the Due d'Alencon,
and at another, he was no less busily engaged in instigating Henri
III. to aggressive measures against the Due de Guise. Since that
period he had negotiated with the ministers of Spain and Savoy, and
by these means he had contracted a great intimacy with the Due de
Biron, to whom he affected to be distantly related, and over whom
he acquired such extraordinary ascendancy by his subtle and unceas-
ing flattery that the weak Marechal became a mere puppet in his
hands, and, misled by his vanity, suffered himself to be persuaded
that his merit had been overlooked and his services comparatively
unrewarded, and that he was consequently fully justified in aspiring
even to regal honours, and in using every exertion to attain them.
Marie De Medicis 159
alleging, as a pretext for his disobedience to the royal
command, the rumour of a reported aggression of the
Spaniards, and the necessity of his presence at a meeting
of the States of Burgundy which had been convoked for
the 22d of May, where it would be essential that he
should watch over the interests of his Majesty.*
The King did not further insist at that moment ;
but having ascertained on his return from Poitou that
fresh movements had been made in Burgundy, in
Saintonge, in Perigord, and in Guienne, which
threatened to prove inimical to his authority, and that
couriers were constantly passing from one of these
provinces to the other, he sent to desire the presence
of the Sieur Descures,! an intimate friend and follower
of the Marechal, whom he commanded to proceed
with all speed to Burgundy, and to inform his lord that
if he did not forthwith obey the royal summons, the
sovereign would go in person to bring him thence.
This threat was sufficiently appalling ; and the rather
as Sully, by his authority as grandmaster of artillery,
had taken the precaution, on pretext of recasting the
cannon and improving the quality of the powder in
the principal cities of Burgundy, to cripple Biron's
resources, and to render it impossible for him to at-
tempt any rational resistance to the royal will. The
Marechal soon perceived that he had been duped, but,
nevertheless, he would not yield; and Descures left
him, firm in his determination not to trust himself
within the precincts of the Court.
* Matthieu, Histoire des Derniers Troubles arrivez en France t book
ii. p. 411.
f Pierre Fougeuse, Sieur Descures.
160 The Life of
The King, who, from his old attachment to Biron,
had hitherto hoped that he had been calumniated, and
that, in lieu of crimes, he had only been guilty of
follies, offended by so resolute an opposition to his
will, began, like his ministers, to apprehend that he
must in truth thenceforward number the Duke among
his enemies; and he consequently suffered himself,
shortly after the return of his last messenger, to be
persuaded to despatch the President Jeannin * as the
bearer of a third summons to the Marechal, and to
represent to him how greatly he was increasing the
* Pierre Jeannin was the architect of his own fortunes. He was
born at Autun in 1540, where his father followed the trade of a
tanner, and was universally respected alike for his probity and his
sound judgment. The future president, after receiving the rudiments
of his education in his native town, was removed to Bourges, where
he became a pupil of the celebrated Cujas. In 1569 he was entered
as an advocate at the Parliament of Burgundy, where he greatly
distinguished himself during the space of two years, at the expiration
of which time he was appointed provincial advocate and member of
the Burgundian States ; and in this capacity he justified, by his ex-
traordinary talents, the choice of his fellow-citizens. On one occasion
a wealthy individual, enchanted by his eloquence, waited upon him at
his house, and expressed a desire to have him for a son-in-law, in-
quiring, however, at the same time, the amount of his property.
Jeannin, by no means disconcerted at the abruptness of his visitor,
pointed with a smile first to his head and then to his books : " You see
it before you," he said with honest pride ; " I have not, nor do I re-
quire, a greater fortune." Tradition is silent as regards the termina-
tion of the interview. In the following year (1572) Jeannin was
present at the council which was held during the frightful massacre of
St. Bartholomew, where he secured the friendship of the Comte de
Charny, at that period Grand Equerry of France, Lieutenant-General
of Burgundy, and provisional governor of the province during the
absence of the Due d'Aumale, then Governor of Paris ; and in the
same year he was deputed from the tiers-Mat of Burgundy to the
States-General, convoked at Blois by Henri III. It was on that oc-
casion that he began to comprehend the designs of the Guises, and
made the celebrated speech in favour of religious toleration which
does so much honour to his memory. By Henri III. he was suc-
cessively appointed governor of the chancelry of Burgundy, councillor
of the provincial Parliament, and subsequently president. Petitot.
Marie De Medicis 161
displeasure of the sovereign by his disobedience, as
well as strengthening the suspicions which were al-
ready entertained against him. Finally, the president
was instructed to assure the haughty and imperious
rebel that the King had not forgotten the good service
which he had rendered to the nation ; and that he as-
cribed the accusations which had reached him rather
to the exaggerations of those who in making such re-
ports sought to increase their own favour at Court
than to any breach of trust on the part of the
Marechal himself.*
Somewhat reassured by these declarations, and un-
conscious of the extent of La Fin's treachery, Biron
allowed himself to be persuaded by the eloquence of
Jeannin, and reluctantly left Dijon for Fontainebleau,
when he arrived on the I3th of June. As he was
about to dismount, La Fin approached to welcome
him ; and while holding his stirrup whispered in his
ear : " Courage, my master ; speak out boldly, for they
know nothing." The Duke silently nodded his reply,
and at once proceeded to the royal chamber, where
Henry received him with a gay countenance and open
arms, declaring that he had done well to accept his
invitation, or he should assuredly have gone to fetch
him in person as he had threatened. Biron excused
himself, but with a coldness extremely displeasing to
the King, who, however, forbore to exhibit any
symptom of annoyance; and after a short conversa-
tion in which no further allusion was made to the
position of the Marechal, Henry, as he had often
* Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 414, 415. Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 367. Matthieu,
Hist, des Derniers Troubles, book ii. p. 411.
1 62 The Life of
previously done, proposed to show him the progress
of the new buildings upon which he was then actively
engaged ; and, leading the way to the gardens, he did
in fact for a time point out to him every object of in-
terest. This done, he suddenly turned the discourse
upon the numerous reasons for displeasure which the
recent acts of Biron had given him (being careful,
nevertheless, not to betray the extent of his knowl-
edge), and earnestly urged him to confess the real
amount of the imprudence of which he had been
guilty, pledging his royal word, that should he do so
with frankness and sincerity, the avowal would ensure
his pardon.
But this the infatuated Duke had no intention of
conceding. The whispered assurance of La Fin still
vibrated on his ear, and he also calculated largely on
his intimacy with D'Auvergne, which secured to him
the influence of Madame de Verneuil. He con-
sequently replied, with an arrogance as unbecoming as
it was misplaced, that he had not come to Court
to justify himself, but in order to ascertain who were
his accusers ; and, moreover, added that, having com-
mitted no crime, he did not require any pardon ; nor
could either Henry himself or the Due de Sully, with
whom he had subsequently a lengthened interview,
succeed in inducing him to make the slightest con-
fession.
The noonday repast was no sooner over than the
King sent to summon the Marechal to his closet, where
he once more exerted every effort to soften the obdu-
racy of the man to whose valour he was well aware
that he had been greatly indebted for his crown, and
Marie De Medicis 163
whom he was consequently anxious to save from dis-
honour and ignominy ; but, unfortunately for his own
interests, Biron retained as vivid a recollection of the
fact as Henry himself ; and he so highly estimated the
value of his services, that he resolved to maintain the
haughty position which he had assumed, and to persist
in a denial that was fated to cost him his life. Instead,
therefore, of throwing himself upon the clemency of
the King by an undisguised avowal of his treason, he
merely replied to the appeal by again demanding to
know who were his accusers ; upon which Henry rose
from his seat, and exclaiming : " Come, we will play a
match at tennis," hastily left the room, followed by
the culprit.
The King having selected the Comte de Soissons *
as his second against the Due d'Epernon and the
Marechal, this ill-assorted party continued for some
time apparently absorbed in the game ; and so thor-
oughly did it recall past scenes and times to the mind
* Charles de Bourbon-Conti, Comte de Soissons, espoused the cause
of the King of Navarre, whom lie accompanied to the battle of
Coutras in 1587. Henry promised to him the hand of his sister,
Catherine de Navarre, to whom he presented him immediately after-
wards, when a reciprocal affection was the result. M. de Soissons,
however, abandoned the reform party, and did not return to it until
after the death of Henri III. He served actively and zealously dur-
ing the League ; but having discovered that the King did not intend
to fulfil his promise of marrying him to the Princess, he quitted him
during the siege of Rouen in 1592, on the pretext of illness, and
hastened to Beam, hoping to induce Catherine to become his wife be-
fore the King could interfere to prevent their union, and by engaging
himself to support his brother, the Cardinal de Bourbon, to make him-
self master of the possessions of the house of Navarre beyond the
Loire. On reaching Beam, however, he found Henry already there,
and was obliged to withdraw without having accomplished either ob-
ject. A short time subsequently he renewed his friendship with that
monarch, and officiated as Duke of Normandy at his coronation at
Chartres in 1594.
1 64 The Life of
of the monarch, that he resolved, before he abandoned
his once faithful subject to his fate, to make one last
endeavour to overcome his obstinacy. He accordingly
authorised M. de Soissons to exert whatever influence
he possessed with the rash man who was so blindly
working out his own ruin, and to represent to him the
madness of persisting in a line of conduct which could
not fail to provoke the wrath of his royal master.
" Remember, Monsieur," said the Prince, who was
as anxious as the monarch himself that the scandal of
a public trial, and the certainty of an ignominious
death, should be spared to so brave a soldier " re-
member that a sovereign's anger is the messenger of
destruction." *
Biron, however, persisted in declaring that he had no
reason to fear the displeasure of Henry, and had con-
sequently no confession to make ; and with this fatal
answer the Count was fain to content himself.
The King rose early on the following morning, full
of anxiety and apprehension. He could not look back
upon the many gallant acts of the unfortunate Mare-
chal without feeling a bitter pang at the idea that an
old and formerly zealous servant was about to become
a victim to expediency, for the spirit of revolt, which
he had hitherto endeavoured to suppress by clemency,
had now risen hydraheaded, threatening to dispute his
right of reprisal, and to involve the nation once more
in civil war. He painfully felt, that under circum-
stances like these, lenity would become, not only a
weakness, but a crime, and possessing, as he did, the
most indubitable proofs of Biron's guilt, he saw him-
* Perefixe, vol. ii p. 369.
Marie De Medicis 165
self compelled to forget the friend in the sovereign,
and to deliver up the attainted noble to the justice of
his betrayed country.
A privy council was consequently assembled, at
which Henry declared his determination to arrest the
Duke, and to put him upon his trial, if, after mature
deliberation, it was decided that he deserved death, as
otherwise he was resolved not to injure his reputation
by any accusations which might tarnish his renown or
embitter his existence. To this last indication of re-
lenting he received in reply an assurance that no fur-
ther deliberation was requisite, as the treason of the
Marechal was so fully proved, and the facts so amply
authenticated, that he would be condemned to the axe
by every tribunal in the world.
On finding that his councillors were unanimous in
this opinion, the King summoned MM. de Vitry * and
de Praslin,t and gave them orders to arrest both the
Due de Biron and the Comte d'Auvergne, desiring
them at the same time to act with the greatest caution,
and carefully to avoid all noise and disorder.
When their Majesties had supped they retired to the
private departments, where t among other courtiers,
they were joined by the two conspirators, both of
* Louis de THOpital de Vitry, knight of all the Royal Orders, and
Captain of the King's bodyguard, was descended from the illustrious
and ancient family of the Marquis de Sainte-Meme and de Montpel-
lier, Comtes d'Entremons.
f Charles de Choiseul, Marquis de Praslin, the representative of one
of the most illustrious families of France, was a descendant of the an-
cient Comtes de Langres. He distinguished himself at the siege of
La Fere in 1580, at that of Paris in 1589, and at the battle of Aumale
in 1592. Henri IV. made him a captain of his bodyguard, and
Louis XIII., in 1619, bestowed upon him the baton of marshal of
France. He died in 1626, in his sixty-third year.
1 66 The Life of
whom were peculiarly obnoxious to the Queen
D'Auvergne from his general character, as well as his
relationship to Madame de Verneuil, and Biron from
his intimacy with the brother of the favourite, who had
renewed her pretended claim to the hand of Henry, a
subject which always tortured the heart of Marie, in-
volving, as it did, the legitimacy of her son, and her
own honour. It was not, therefore, without a great
exertion of self-command that she replied to the
ceremonious compliments of the Duke by courtesies
equally lip-deep, and, at the express desire of the
King, was induced to accept him as her companion at
the card-table. During the progress of the game, a
Burgundian nobleman named Merge approached the
Marechal and murmured in a low voice, as he affected
to examine his cards, that he was about to be arrested,
but Biron being at that moment deeply absorbed in
his occupation, did not hear or heed the warning, and
he continued to play on in the greatest security until
D'Auvergne, to whom Merge had communicated the
ill-success of his own attempt, in his turn drew near
the royal table, and whispered as he bowed profoundly
to the Queen, by which means he brought his lips to
a level with the Duke's ear : " We are not safe
here."
Biron did not for an instant lose his presence of
mind ; but without the movement of a muscle again
gathered up his cards, and pursued his game, which
was only terminated at midnight by an intimation
from the King that it was time for her Majesty to re-
tire. Henry then withdrew in his turn ; but before he
left the room he turned towards the Marechal and said
Marie De Medicis 167
with marked emphasis : " Adieu, Baron de Biron, you
know what I have told you." *
As the Duke, considerably startled by this extraor-
dinary address, was about to leave the ante-chamber,
Vitry seized his right arm with one hand, and with the
other laid a firm grasp upon his sword, exclaiming :
" Monsieur, the King has confided the care of your
person to me. Deliver up your sword." A few of
the gentlemen of the Duke's household who were
awaiting him made a show of resistance, but they
were instantly seized by the guard; upon which the
Marechal demanded an interview with the monarch.
" His Majesty has retired," replied Vitry. " Give
me your sword."
" Ha ! my sword," said Biron with a deep sigh of
indignant mortification, " that sword which has ren-
dered him so much good service ; " and without further
comment or expostulation he placed the weapon in
the hands of the captain of the guard, and followed
him to the chamber in which he was to pass the night.
The Comte d'Auvergne had meanwhile also been
arrested at the gate of the palace by M. de Praslin,
and conducted to another apartment.
The criminals were no sooner secured than the
King despatched a messenger to Sully to inform him
of the fact, and to desire his immediate attendance at
the palace ; and on his arrival, after narrating to him
* Mezeray asserts, and with greater probability, that Henry's part-
ing words were: "Since you will not speak out, adieu, Baron"
(Hist, de France, vol. x. p. 201) ; while Perefixe gives a third version,
asserting that the King took leave of htm by saying : " Well then, the
truth must be learnt elsewhere ; adieu, Baron de Biron " (Hist, de
Henri le Grand, vol. ii. p. 371). .Mi.
<?
1 68 The Life of
the mode of their capture, Henry desired him to
mount his horse, and to repair without delay to the
Bastille, in order to prepare apartments for them in
that fortress. " I will forward them in boats to the
water-gate of the Arsenal," he pursued ; " let them
land there, but be careful that they are seen by no
one ; and convey them thence to their lodgings as
quietly as possible across your own courts and gar-
dens. So soon as you have arranged everything for
their landing, hasten to the Parliament and to the
H6tel-de-Ville ; there explain all that has passed, and
say that on my arrival in the capital I will communi-
cate my reasons for what I have done, of which the
justice will be at once apparent." *
This arrangement was made upon the instant, and
on the morrow the prisoners were embarked in sepa-
rate boats upon the Seine, under a strong escort of
the King's bodyguard ; and on their arrival at the
Bastille they were delivered into the express keeping
of the Due de Sully ; while upon his subsequent en-
trance into Paris on the afternoon of the same day,
Henry was received with acclamation by the citizens,
who were aware of the fruitless efforts made by the
monarch to induce the Mare dial to return to his alle-
giance, and whose joy was of the most enthusiastic
description at the escape of their beloved sovereign
from a foul conspiracy.f The Marechal de Biron,
like all men who have attained to a high station, and
* Sully, Mem. vol. iv. pp. 108, 109.
f Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 415-417. Matthieu, Hist, des Dernier s
Troubles, book ii. pp. 413-415. Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 196-202.
Perefixe, vol. ii. pp. 369-372.
Marie De Medicis 169
whose ambition prompts them to conciliate the good-
will of those by whom they are approached, possessed
many friends ; but the accusation of lese-majeste un-
der which he laboured was one of so formidable a
nature that they remained totally passive ; and it was
only his near relatives who ventured to peril their own
favour by making an appeal in his behalf. Their sup-
plications, earnest and humble though they were,
failed, however, to shake the resolution of Henry,
whose pride had, in this instance, been doubly
wounded alike as a monarch and as a man. He felt
that not only had the King of France to deal with a
rebel, but that the confiding friend, who had been
ready upon the slightest appearance of regret or re-
pentance once more to forgive, had been treated with
distrust and recompensed by falsehood.
While those closely connected with him were en-
deavouring, by every means in their power, to appease
the just indignation of the sovereign, and to intercede
in his behalf, Biron himself, as though his past services
must necessarily suffice to secure his impunity, was
indulging, even within the formidable walls of the
Bastille, in the grossest and most ill-judged vitupera-
tions against the King ; and boasting of his own ex-
ploits, rather like a maniac than a brave and gallant
soldier who had led armies into the field, and there
done his duty unflinchingly. * He partook sparingly
of the food which was presented to him ; and instead
of taking rest, spent the greater portion of the night
in pacing to aryi fro the narrow apartment. It was
evident that he had firm faith either in the royal par-
* Mezeray, vol. x. p. 203.
170 The Life of
don, or in the means of escape being provided for him
by his friends ; but as day by day went by, and he re-
ceived no intelligence from without, while he remarked
that every individual who entered his chamber was
fully armed, and that the knives upon his table were
not pointed, in order that he should be unable to con-
vert them into defensive weapons, he became some-
what less violent ; and he no sooner ascertained that
Henry had refused to comply with the petition of his
family than he said, with a bitter laugh : " Ha ! I see
that they wish me to take the road to the scaffold."
Thenceforward he ceased to demand justice on his
accusers, became less imperious, and even admitted
that he had no rational hope save in the mercy of the
monarch. *
On the 27th of July, the preliminary arrangements
having been completed, the Mare dial was conducted
to the Palais de Justice by the Sieur de Montigny ,f
the Governor of Paris, in a covered barge escorted by
twelve or fifteen armed men. Previously, however, to
his being put upon his trial, he was privately interro-
gated by the commissioners chosen for that purpose ;
* Matthieu, Hist, des Troubles, book ii. pp. 415, 416.
f- Francois de la Grange d'Anquien, Seigneur de Montigny, Sery,
etc., afterwards known as the Marechal de Montigny, served with the
Catholics at Coutras, where he was taken prisoner. In 1601 Henri
IV. made him Governor of Paris ; in 1609, lieutenant of the King in
the Three Bishoprics; and subsequently, in 1616, Marie de Medicis
procured for him the baton of Marshal of France. He commanded
the royal army against the malcontents in Nivernais, and died in the
same year (1617). He had but one son, who left no male issue; but
his brother had, among other children, Henri, Marquis d'Anquien,
whose daughter, Marie Casimire, married Sobieski, King of Poland,
and died in France, in 1716, two years after her return to her native
country.
Marie De Medicis 171
but this last judicial effort to save him only tended to
secure his ruin. When confronted with his judges,
Biron appeared to have lost all consistency of char-
acter ; the soldier was sunk in the sophist ; he argued
vaguely and inconsistently ; and compromised his own
cause by the very clumsiness of the efforts which he
made to clear himself. Unaware of the revelations of
JLa Fin, when he was confronted with him he declared
him to be a man of honour, his relative, and his very
good friend ; but the depositions of the Burgundian
noble were no sooner made known to him than he re-
tracted his former assertion, branding him as a sorcerer,
a traitor, an assassin, and the vilest of men, with other
epithets too coarse for repetition.* These terrible ac-
cusations, however, came too late to serve his cause ;
he had already committed himself by his previous
panegyric ; and, perceiving that such was the case, he
hastened to support his testimony against his former
accomplice by asserting that were Renaze alive and in
France, he should be able to prove the truth of what
he advanced, and to justify himself. Unfortunately
for the success of this assurance, Renaze in his turn
made his appearance in court ; having, by a strange
chance, recently escaped from Savoy, where the Duke
had held him a prisoner ; and Biron had the mortifi-
cation of finding that this, another of his ancient
allies, had not been more faithful to him in his ad-
versity than La Fin. These two witnesses, indeed,
decided his fate ; as the letters which were produced
against him were proved to have been written before
the previous pardon granted to him by Henry at
* Mezeray, vol. x. p. 204.
172 The Life of
Lyons, and they were consequently of no avail as re-
garded the present accusation.
The Parliament was presided over by Messire Pom-
ponne de Bellievre, Chancellor of France, beside whom
the Marechal was requested to take his place upon a
low wooden stool. Matthieu asserts that, although
neither duke nor peer had obeyed the summons of
the Chambers, the number of Biron's judges never-t
theless amounted to one hundred and twelve ; * and
it is probable that this very fact gave him confidence,
as during the two long hours occupied by his trial he
never once lost his self-possession, but argued as
closely and as sagaciously as though he had yielded
to no previous intemperance of language. He urged
the pardon previously accorded to him by the King ;
earnestly protested that he had never entered into any
cabal against the throne or dignity of his sovereign ;
and denied that any man could be proved a traitor,
whatever might be his wishes, so long as he made no
effort to realise them. He admitted that he might
have talked rashly, but appealed to his judges whether
he had not proved himself equally reckless in the
field ; and required them to declare if so venial a fault
had not, by that fact, already been sufficiently ex-
piated. He then recapitulated the events of his career
as a military leader ; but he did so temperately and
modestly, without a trace of the arrogant bombast for
which he had throughout his life been celebrated. So
great was the effect of this unexpected and manly
dignity, that many members of the court were seen to
*L'Etoile computes them at one hundred and twenty-seven.
Journ. de Henri IV., vol. iii. p. 21.
Marie De Medicis 173
shed tears ; and had his fate been decided upon the
instant, it is probable that his calm and touching elo-
quence might have saved his life ; but so much time
had already been exhausted that enough did not
remain for collecting the votes, and the result of the
trial was consequently deferred ; the Marechal mean-
while returning to the Bastille under the same escort
which had conveyed him to the capital.*
On the 29th, the Chambers having again assembled,
they remained in deliberation from six o'clock in the
morning until two hours after midday, when sentence
of death was unanimously pronounced against the
prisoner ; and he was condemned to lose his head in
the Place de Greve, " as attainted and convicted of
having outraged the person of the King, and con-
spired against his kingdom ; all his property to be
confiscated, his peerage reunited to the Crown ; and
himself shorn of all his honours and dignities."
On the following day, the decision of the Parlia-
ment having been made public, immense crowds col-
lected in the Place de Greve in order to witness the
execution ; scaffoldings were erected on every side for
the accommodation of the spectators ; and the tumult
at length became so great that it reached the ears of
the Marechal in his prison chamber. Rushing to the
window, whence he could command a view of some
portion of the open fields leading to the Rue St. An-
toine, along which numerous groups were still making
their eager way, he exclaimed, in violent emotion:
" I have been judged, and I am a dead man." One of
his guards hastened to assure him that the outcry was
* Mezeray, vol. x. p. 205.
174 The Life of
occasioned by a quarrel between two nobles, which
was about to terminate in a duel; and the unhappy
prisoner thus remained for a short time in uncertainty
as to his ultimate fate. Yet still, as he sat in his
dreary prison, he heard the continued murmur of the
excited citizens, who, believing that he was to be put
to death by torchlight, persisted in holding their
weary watch until an hour before midnight.*
The King had, however, determined to postpone the
execution until the morrow ; when, apparently yield-
ing to the solicitations of the Duke's family, but, as
many surmised, anxious to avoid a tumult which the
great popularity of Biron with the troops, and the
numerous friends and followers whom he possessed
about the Court, led him to apprehend might prove
the result of so public a disgrace to his surviving rela-
tives, Henry consented to change the place of execu-
tion to the court of the Bastille, where the Mare dial
accordingly was beheaded at five o'clock in the even-
ing. The circumstances attending his decapitation
are too painful for detail ; suffice it that his last
struggles for life displayed a cowardice which ill ac-
corded with his previous gallantry, and that it was
only by a feint that the executioner at length suc-
ceeded in performing his ghastly office; while so
great had been the violence of the victim, that his
head bounded three times upon the scaffold, and
emitted more blood than the trunk from which it had
been severed.
It was said that the father of the culprit, the former
Marechal, had on one occasion, during an exhibition
* Matthieu, Hist des Troubles, book ii. pp. 426, 427.
Marie De Medicis 175
of the violence in which Biron so continually indulged,
bitterly exclaimed : " I would advise you, Baron, as
soon as peace is signed, to go and plant cabbages on
your estate, or you will one day bring your head to
the scaffold."* A fearful prophecy fearfully fulfilled.
The corpse was conveyed to the church of St. Paul,
where it was interred without any ceremony, but sur-
rounded by a dense mass of the populace, many of
whom openly pitied his fate, and lamented over his fall.f
La Fin and Renaze were pardoned ; but Hubert, the
secretary of the Marechal, suffered " the question,"
both ordinary and extraordinary, and was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment, having refused to make
any confession. He was, however, a short time sub-
sequently, restored to liberty; but the remembrance
of all that he had undergone rankled in his heart, and
he no sooner found himself once more free than he
abandoned his country, and withdrew to Spain, where
he passed the remainder of his life.
The Baron de Luz, who had revealed all he knew
of the conspiracy on the promise of a free pardon,
was not only forgiven for the share which he had
taken in the plot, but had, moreover, all his appoint-
ments confirmed; and was made governor of the
castle of Dijon and the town of Beaune. The gov-
ernorship of Burgundy, vacant by the death of Biron,
was given to the Dauphin ; and the lieutenancy of the
province was conferred upon the Due de Bellegarde,
by whom the young Prince was ultimately succeeded
in the higher dignity.
* Montfaucon, vol. v. p. 410.
f Perefixe, vol. ii. *p. 377. Mezeray, vol. x. p. 209.
176 The Life of
A Breton nobleman, named Montbarot,* was com-
mitted to the Bastille on suspicion of being involved
in the cabal ; but no proof of his participation having
transpired, he was shortly afterwards liberated.
The Due de Bouillon, who was conscious that he
had not been altogether guiltless of participation in
the crime for which the less cautious Biron had just
suffered death, deeming it expedient to provide for his
own safety, took refuge in his viscounty of Turenne,
where, however, he did not long remain inactive ; and
reports of -his continued disaffection having reached
the ears of the King, he was, in his turn, summoned
to the royal presence in order to justify himself ; but
the example of his decapitated friend was still too
recent to encourage him to such a concession ; and in-
stead of presenting himself at Court he despatched
thither a very eloquent letter, in which he informed
the monarch that, being aware of the falsehood and
artifice of his accusers, he entreated him to dis-
pense with his appearance in the capital ; and to ap-
prove instead, that, for the satisfaction of his Majesty,
the French nation, and his own honour, he should
present himself before the Chamber of Castres ; that
assembly forming an integral portion of the Parlia-
ment of Toulouse, which held jurisdiction over his
own viscounty of Turenne. Having forwarded this
missive to the sovereign, he hastened to Castres, where
* Rene de Maree-Montbarot, Governor of Rennes in 1602.
Wrongly suspected of complicity with Biron, he made no effort to
evade the consequences of the accusation, but suffered himself to be
arrested in the seat of his government, whence he was conveyed to the
Bastille ; and although he succeeded in establishing his innocence, he
found himself, on his liberation, deprived of his office.
Marie De Medicis 177
he appeared as he had suggested, and caused his pres-
ence to be registered. The determination of Henry
to compel his attendance at Paris was, however, only
strengthened by this act of defiance ; and having as-
certained that the King was about to despatch a mes-
senger to compel his obedience, M. de Bouillon left
Castres in haste for Orange, whence he proceeded, by
way of Geneva, to Heidelberg, and placed himself
under the protection of the Prince Palatine, after
having declared his innocence to Elisabeth of Eng-
land and the other Protestant sovereigns, and entreated
their support and mediation.
Thus far, with the exception of Biron himself, all
the members of this famous conspiracy had escaped
with their lives, and some among them without loss,
either of freedom or of property ; one of their num-
ber, however, was fated to be less fortunate, and this
one was the Baron de Fontenelles,* a man of high
family, who had for several years rendered himself
peculiarly obnoxious to the King and his ministers,
* Guy Eder de Beaumanoir de Lavardin, Baron de Fontenelles,
was a Breton noble, who, according to De Thou, had been a cele-
brated Leaguer and brigand. From the year 1597 he had held, in the
name of the Due de Mercoeur, the fort of Douarnenez in Brittany, and
the island of Tristain in which it is situated. Since that period he had
continually been guilty of acts of piracy upon the English, and had
even extended his system of theft and murder indiscriminately both
on sea and land. He might, had he been willing so to do, have
profited by the benefit of the edict accorded to the Due de Mercoeur
in 1598, but he affected to hold it as a point of honour to obtain a dis-
tinct one for himself, and he even appears to have continued in the
enjoyment of his government despite this obstinacy ; but having been
convicted, during a period of profound peace, of maintaining an in-
telligence with the Spaniards, he was made prisoner by a stratagem,
by Nicolas Rapin, provost of the connetablie (or constable's jurisdic-
tion), as an accomplice of the Due de Biron, as he was on the point
of delivering up both the fort and the island to his dangerous allies.
178 The Life of
and whose atrocious barbarities caused him to fall un-
pitied. This wretched man, after having been put to
the torture, was, by the sentence pronounced against
him by the council, broken alive upon the wheel, where
he suffered the greatest agony during an hour and a
half. His lieutenant was condemned to the gallows
for having been the medium of his communication
with the Spanish Government ; although, even as he
was ascending the fatal ladder, he continued to declare
that he had always been ignorant of the contents of
the packets which he was charged to deliver, and
could neither read nor write.*
With the life of Biron, the conspiracy had termi-
nated ; while his fate had not failed to produce uni-
versal consternation. His devotion to the early for-
tunes of the King had been at once so great and so
efficient, his military renown was so universally
acknowledged, and his favour with the monarch was
so apparently beyond the reach of chance or change,
that his unhappy end pointed a moral even to the
proudest, and so paralysed the spirit of those who
might otherwise have felt inclined to question the
royal authority, that even the nearest and dearest of
his friends uttered no murmur ; while those individuals
who had dreaded to find themselves compromised by
his ruin, and who, to their equal surprise and satisfac-
tion, discovered that, while he had unguardedly pre-
served all the papers which could tend to his own de-
struction, he had destroyed every vestige of their crim-
inality, rejoiced at their escape, and flattered themselves
that their participation in this treachery would forever
* L'Etoile, vol. x. pp. 36, 37.
Marie De Medicis 179
remain undiscovered; a circumstance which rendered
them at once patient and silent.
That the necessity for taking the life of the Mare-
chal had been bitterly felt by the King himself, we
have already shown ; and it was further evinced when
he declared to those who interceded for the doomed
man, that had his personal interests alone been threat-
ened by the treason of the criminal, he should have
found it easy to pardon the wrong that had been done
him ; but that, when he looked into the future, and
remembered that the safety of the kingdom which had
been confided to him, and of the son who was to suc-
ceed him upon the throne, must both be compromised
by sparing one who had already proved that his loy-
alty could not be purchased by mercy, he held himself
bound to secure both against an evil for which there
was no other safeguard than the infliction of the ut-
most penalty of the law.
Many argued that, having spared the lives of the
Dues d'Epernon, de Bouillon, and de Mayenne,* all
* Charles de Lorraine, Due de Mayenne, was the second son of
Francois de Lorraine, Due de Guise, and was born in 1554. He dis-
tinguished himself at the sieges of Poitiers and La Rochelle, and at
the battle of Montcontour, and fought successfully against the Calvin-
ists in Guienne and Saintonge. His brothers having been killed at
the States of Blois in 1588, he declared himself chief of the League,
and assumed the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom and crown
of France ; and by virtue of this self-created authority, clused the
Cardinal de Bourbon to be declared King, under the name of Charles
X. Having inherited the hatred of his brothers for Henri III., and
his successor Henri IV., he marched eighty thousand men against the
latter Prince, but was defeated, both at Arques and Ivry. He anni-
hilated the faction of the Sixteen; and was ultimately compelled to
effect a reconciliation with the King in 1599, when Henri IV., with
his usual clemency, not only pardoned his past opposition, but bestowed
upon him the government of the Isle of France. The Due de
Mayenne died in 1611, leaving by his wife, Henriette de Savoie,
i8o The Life of
of whom had at different times been in arms against
him, Henry might equally have shown mercy to Biron ;
but while they urged this argument, they omitted to
remember that the political crime of these three nobles
had not been aggravated, like that of the Marechal,
by private wrong ; and that they had not, by an un-
yielding obstinacy, and an ungrateful pertinacity in
rebellion, exhausted the forbearance of an indulgent
monarch. Moreover, Biron, in grasping at sovereignty,
had not hesitated to invite the intrusion of foreign and
hostile troops into French territory, or to betray the
exigencies and difficulties of the army under his own
command to his dangerous allies ; thus weakening for
the moment, and imperilling for the future, the re-
sources of a frank and trusting master ; two formidable
facts, which justified the severity alike of his King and
of his judges.
The lesson was a salutary one for the French nobil-
ity, who had, from long impunity, learnt to regard
their personal relations with foreign princes as matters
beyond the authority of the sovereign, and which
could involve neither their safety nor their honour ;
for it taught them that the highest head in the realm
might fall under an accusation of treason ; and that,
powerful as each might be in his own province or his
own government, he was still responsible to the mon-
arch for the manner in which he used that power, and
answerable to the laws of his country should he be
rash enough to abuse it.
That Henry felt and understood that such must
daughter of the Comte de Tende, one son, Henri, who died without
issue in 1621.
Marie De Medicis 181
necessarily be the effect produced by the fate of the
Marechal there can be little doubt, as well as that he
was still further induced to impress so wholesome a
conviction upon the minds of his haughty aristocracy
by the probability of a minority, during which the
disorders incident to so many conflicting and imagi-
nary claims could not fail to convulse the kingdom
and to endanger the stability of the throne ; while it
is no less evident that, once having forced upon their
reason a conviction of his own ability to compel
obedience where his authority was resisted, and to
assert his sovereign privilege where he felt it to be
essential to the preservation of the realm, he evinced
no desire to extend his severity beyond its just
limits. Thus, as we have seen, with the exception
of the Baron de Fontenelles, who had drawn down
upon himself the terrible expiation of a cruel death,
rather by a long succession of crime than by his as-
sociation in the conspiracy of Biron, all the other
criminals already judged had escaped the due punish-
ment of their treason ; while the Comte d'Auvergne,
after having been detained during a couple of months
in the Bastille, was restored to liberty at the interces-
sion of his sister, Madame de Verneuil, who pledged
herself to the monarch that he was guilty only in so
far as he had been faithful to the trust reposeoVin him
by the Marechal, and had forborne to betray his secret,
while he had never actively participated in the con-
spiracy. She moreover assured Henry, who was only
anxious to find an opportunity of pardoning the
Count an anxiety which the tears and supplications
of the Marquise, as well as his own respect for the
1 82 The Life of
blood of the Valois inherited by D'Auvergne from his
royal father, tended naturally to increase that the
prisoner was prepared, since the death of Biron had
freed him from all further necessity for silence, to com-
municate to his Majesty every particular of which he
was cognisant. The concession was accepted ; the
Count made the promised revelations ; and his libera-
tion was promptly followed by a renewal of the King's
favour.
Towards the close of the year, intelligence having
reached Henry that the Prince de Joinville, who was
serving in the army of the Archduke, had, in his turn,
suffered himself to be seduced from his allegiance by
the Spaniards, he gave instant orders for his arrest;
but the Prince no sooner found himself a prisoner than
he declared his readiness to confess everything, pro-
vided he were permitted to do so to the King in per-
son and in the presence of Sully. His terms were
complied with ; and, as both Henry and his minister
had anticipated from the frivolous and inconsequent
character of their new captive, it at once became ap-
parent that no idea of treason had been blent with the
follies of which he had been guilty, but that they had
merely owed their origin to his idle love of notoriety.
A correspondence with Spain had become, as we have
shown, the fashion at the French Court ; and Joinville
had accordingly, in order to increase his importance,
resolved to effect in his turn an understanding with
that country. During his audience of the King he so
thoroughly betrayed the utter puerility of his proceed-
ings that the monarch at once resolved -to treat him as
a silly and headstrong youth, towards whom any
Marie De Medicis 183
extreme measure of severity would be alike unneces-
sary and undignified; and he had consequently no
sooner heard Joinville's narration to an end than he
desired the presence of his mother the Duchesse de
Guise and his brother the Duke,* and as they entered
the royal closet, somewhat startled by so sudden a
summons, he said, directing their attention to the de-
linquent : " There stands the prodigal son in person ;
he has filled his head with follies ; but I shall treat him
as a child and forgive him for your sakes, although
only on condition that you reprimand him seriously ;
and that you, my nephew," addressing himself particu-
larly to the Duke, "become his guarantee for the
future. I place him in your charge, in order that you
may teach him wisdom if it be possible."
In obedience to this command M. de Guise, who
* Charles de Lorraine, Due de Guise, born in 1571, was the son of
Henri, Due de Guise, who was assassinated at the States of Blois in
1588. At the period of his father's death he was conveyed to the
castle of Tours, where he was retained a prisoner until August, 1591,
when he effected his escape, a circumstance which materially changed
the fortunes of the League. The general impression in the capital
had been that he would become the husband of the Infanta Isabel,
the daughter of Philip II. of Spain, who would cause him to be pro-
claimed King, an arrangement which the Duque de Feria, the Spanish
ambassador, proposed to the League in 1593. The Legate, the Six-
teen, and the doctors of the Sorbonne, alike favoured this election,
and the negotiations proceeded so far that the Spaniards and Nea-
politans in Paris rendered him regal honours. The young Prince, who
had at this period only attained his twenty-second year, expressed
great indignation at being made the puppet of so absurd a comedy,
feeling convinced that neither the Due de Mayenne nor the Due de
Nemours, both of whom coveted the crown, would finally favour his
accession ; and there can be little doubt that the state of extreme
poverty to which he was reduced at the time caused him to consider
the project as still more extravagant than he might otherwise have
done, it being stated (Alem. pour r Hist, de France) that his servants
were, on one occasion, compelled to pawn one of his cloaks and his
saddle-cloth in order to furnish him with a dinner.
1 84 The Life of
was well aware with how rash and intemperate a spirit
he was called upon to contend, at once, with the royal
sanction, reconducted Joinville to his prison, where
during several months the young Prince exhausted
himself in threats, murmurs, and every species of ver-
bal extravagance, until wearied by the monotony of
confinement he finally subsided into repentance, and
was, upon his earnest promise of amendment, permitted
to exchange his chamber in the Bastille for a less
stringent captivity in the Chateau de Dampierre.*
Such was the lenient punishment of the last of the
conspirators ; and it was assuredly a clever stroke of
policy in the monarch thus to cast a shade of ridicule
over the close of the cabal, which, having commenced
with a tragedy, had by his contemptuous forbearance
almost terminated in an epigram.
The Court, after having passed a portion of the
summer at St. Germain, removed in the commence-
ment of August to Fontainebleau, the advanced
pregnancy of the Queen having rendered her anxious
to return to that palace. But any gratification which
she might have promised herself, in this her favourite
place of residence, was cruelly blighted by the legitima-
tion of the son of Madame de Verneuil, which was form-
ally registered at this period. Nor was this the only
vexation to which she was exposed, the notoriety of the
King's intrigues becoming every day more trying alike
to her temper and to her health ; while the new con-
cession which had been made to the vanity or, as the
Marquise herself deemed it, to the honour of the
'* Sully, M&m. vol. iv. pp. 128, 129. Daniel, vol. vii. p. 423.
Mezeray, vol. x. p. 219.
Marie De Medicis 185
favourite, induced the latter to commit the most in-
decent excesses, and to increase, if possible, the
almost regal magnificence of her attire and her
establishment, at the same time that her deportment
towards the Queen was marked by an insolent dis-
respect which involved the whole Court in perpetual
misunderstandings.
As it had already become only too evident that the
unfortunate Marie de Medicis possessed but little in-
fluence over the affections of her husband, however
he might be compelled to respect the perfect propriety
and dignity of her character, the cabal of the favourite
daily increased in importance ; and the measure of the
Queen's mortification overflowed, when, soon after the
royal visit to Fontainebleau, Henry took leave of her
in order to visit Calais, and she ascertained that he
had on his way stopped at the Chateau de Verneuil,
whither he had been accompanied by the Marquise.
It was in vain that M. de Sully to whom the King
had given strict charge to endeavour by every method
in his power to reconcile the Queen to his absence,
and to provide for her amusement every diversion of
which she was in a condition to partake exerted him-
self to obey the command of the monarch; Marie
was too deeply wounded to derive any consolation
from such puerile sources, nor was it until the return
of her royal consort, when his evident anxiety and
increased tenderness once more led her to believe
that she might finally wean him from his excesses
and attach him to herself, that she once more became
calm.
On the nth of November the anticipated event took
1 86 The Life of
place, and the Queen gave birth to her eldest daughter *
in the same oval chamber in which the Dauphin first
saw the light, f The advent of Elisabeth de France
was not, however, hailed with the same delight by
Marie as had been that of her first-born ; on the con-
trary, her disappointment was extreme on ascertaining
the sex of the infant, from the fact of her having
placed the most entire confidence in the assurances of
a devotee named Soeur Ange, who had been recom-
mended to her notice and protection by the Sovereign-
Pontiff, and who had, before she herself became cogni-
sant of the negotiations for her marriage, foretold that
she would one day be Queen of France. This woman,
who still remained in her service, had repeatedly as-
sured her that she need be under no apprehension of
bearing daughters, as she was predestined by Heaven
to become the mother of three princes only ; and after
having, with her usual superstition, placed implicit
faith in the flattering prophecy, Marie no sooner dis-
covered its fallacy than she abandoned herself to the
most violent grief, refusing to listen to the consolations
of her attendants, and bewailing herself that she should
have been so cruelly deceived, until the King, although
he in some measure participated in her annoyance,
succeeded in restoring her to composure by bidding
her remember that had she not been of the same sex
as the child of which she had just made him the father,
she could not have herself realised the previous predic-
tion of Sceur Ange ; an argument which, coupled with
the probability that the august infant beside her might
* Elisabeth de France, who married in 1615 Philip IV. of Spain,
f Bassompierre, Mem. p. 26.
Marie De Medicis
187
in its turn ascend a European throne, was in all likeli-
hood the most efficacious one which could have been
adopted to reconcile her to its present comparative in-
significance.
CHAPTER IV
1603
Court Festivities Madame de Verneuil is Lodged in the Palace She
Gives Birth to a Daughter Royal Quarrels Mademoiselle de
Guise Italian Actors Revolt at Metz Henry Proceeds Thither
and Suppresses the Rebellion Discontent of the Due d'Eper-
non The Duchesse de Bar and the Due de Lorraine Arrive in
France Illness of Queen Elisabeth of England Her Death In-
disposition of the French King Sully at Fontainebleau Confi-
dence of Henri IV. in His Wife His Recovery Renewed Passion
of Henry for Madame de Verneuil Anger of the Queen Quarrel
of the Comte de Soissons and the Due de Sully The Edict-
Treachery of Madame de Verneuil Insolence of the Comte de
Soissons A Royal Rebuke Alarm of Madame de Verneuil
Hopes of the Queen Jealousy of the Marquis The Dinner at
Rosny The King Pacifies the Province of Lower Normandy The
Comte de Soissons Prepares to Leave the Kingdom Is Dissuaded
by the King Official Apology of Sully Reception of Alexandre-
Monsieur Into the Order of the Knights of Malta Death of the
Duchesse de Bar Grief of the King The Papal Nuncio Treach-
ery Near the Throne A Revelation The Due de Villeroy A
Stormy Audience Escape of L'Hdte His Pursuit His Death
Ignominious Treatment of His Body Madame de Verneuil Asserts
Her Claim to the Hand of the King The Comte d'Auvergne Re-
tires From the Court Madame de Verneuil Requests Permission to
Quit France Reply of the King Indignation of Marie The King
Resolves to Obtain the Written Promise of Marriage Insolence of
the Favourite- Weakness of Henry He Asks the Advice of Sully
Parallel Between a Wife and a Mistress A Lame Apology The
Two Henrys Reconciliation Between the King and the Favourite
Remonstrances of Sully A Delicate Dilemma Extravagance of
188
Marie De Medicis 189
the Queen The Pot de Vin "The Royal Letter Evil Influ-
ences Henry Endeavours to Effect a Reconciliation with the
Queen Difficult Diplomacy A Temporary Calm Renewed Dif.
ferences A Minister at Fault Mademoiselle de la Bourdaisiere
Mademoiselle de Beuil Jealousy of Madame de Verneuil Con-
spiracy of the Comte d'Auvergne Intemperance of the Queen
Timely Interference Confidence Accorded by the Queen to Sully
A Dangerous Suggestion Sully Reconciles the Royal Couple
Madame de Verneuil is Exiled From the Court She Joins the Con-
spiracy of Her Brother The Forged Contract Apology of the
Comte d'Entragues Promises of Philip of Spain to the Conspirators
Duplicity of the Comte d'Auvergne He is Pardoned by the
King His Treachery Suspected by M. de Lomenie D'Auvergne
Escapes to His Government Is Made Prisoner and Conveyed to
the Bastille His Self-confidence A Devoted Wife The Require-
ments of a Prisoner Hidden Documents The Treaty With Spain
The Comtesse d'Entragues Haughty Demeanour of Madame de
Verneuil The Mistress and the Minister Mortification of Sully
Marriage of Mademoiselle de Beuil Henry Embellishes the City
of Paris and Undertakes Other Great National Works.
A FEW weeks after the birth of Madame Elisabeth
the Court returned to Paris, where, in honour of
the little Princess, several ballets were danced and a
grand banquet was given to the sovereigns by the
nobility ; but the heart of the Queen was too full of
chagrin to enable her to assist with even a semblance
of gratification at the festivities in which those around
her were absorbed. The new-born tenderness lately
exhibited by her husband had gradually diminished ;
while the assumption of the favourite, who was once
more in her turn about to become a mother, exceeded
all decent limits. The daily and almost hourly disputes
between the royal couple were renewed with greater
bitterness than ever, and when, on the 2ist of January,
Madame de Verneuil, like herself, and again under the
190 The Life of
same roof, gave birth to a daughter, * Marie de Medi-
cis no longer attempted to suppress the violence of her
indignation ; nor was it until the King, alike chafed
and bewildered by her upbraidings, declared that
should she persist in rendering his existence one of
perpetual turmoil and discomfort he would fulfil his
former threat of compelling her to quit the kingdom,
that he could induce her to desist from receiving him
with complaints and reproaches. Henry was aware
that he had discovered, by the assertion of this resolve,
a certain method of silencing his unfortunate consort,
who, had she been childless, would in all probability
gladly have sacrificed her ambition to her sense of
dignity ; but Marie was a mother, and she felt that her
own destiny must be blended with that of her off-
spring. Thus she had nothing left to her save to sub-
mit ; and deeply as she suffered from the indignities
which were heaped upon her as a wife, she shrank
from a prospect so appalling as a separation from the
innocent beings to whom she had given life.
Meanwhile the King, wearied alike of the exigencies
of his mistress and the cold, unbending deportment of
the Queen, again made approaches to Mademoiselle de
Guise, upon whom he had already, a year or two pre-
viously, lavished all those attentions which bespoke
alike his admiration and his designs ; but he was not
destined to be more successful with this lady than be-
fore, her intimacy with the Queen, to whose house-
hold she was attached, rendering her still more averse
* Gabrielle-Angelique de Bourbon, who was declared legitimate as
her brother had previously been, married in 1622 Bernard de la
Valette et de Foix, Due d'Epernon, and died in childbed in April
1627.
Marie De Medicis 191
than formerly to encourage the licentious addresses of
the monarch. The excitement of this new passion
nevertheless sufficed for a time to wean him from his
old favourite ; and forgetting his age in his anxiety to
win the favour of the beautiful and witty Marguerite,
he appeared on the iQth of February in a rich suit of
white satin in the court of the Tuileries, where he had
invited the nobles of his Court to run at the ring, and
acquitted himself so dexterously that he twice carried
it off amid the acclamations of the spectators.
From this period until the end of the month the
royal circle were engaged in one continual succession
of festivities, wherein high play, banquets, ballets, balls
(at the latter of which a species of dance denominated
Braules, and corrupted by the English into Brawls,
which became afterwards so popular at the Court of
Elisabeth, was of constant occurrence, as well as the
Corranto, a livelier but less graceful movement), and
theatrical representations formed the principal features.
An Italian company invited to France by the Queen,
under the management of Isabella Andreini, also ap-
peared before the Court, but no record is left of the
nature of their performance.*
From this temporary oblivion of all political anxiety
Henry was, however, suddenly aroused by a rumour
which reached the Court of a revolt in the town of
Metz, which proved to be only too well founded. For
some time previously great discontent had existed
among the citizens, who considered themselves ag-
grieved by the tyranny of the two lieutenants f of the
* Matthieu, Hist, de Henri IV., vol. ii. book vi. p. 446.
f Raimond de Comminge, Sieur de Sobole, and his brother, noble-
men of Gascony.
192 The Life of
Due d'Epernon their governor ; and to such a height
had their opposition to this delegated authority at
length risen that the Duke found himself compelled to
proceed to the city, in order, if possible, to reconcile
the conflicting parties. This intelligence had no
sooner been communicated to the King than he re-
solved to profit by so favourable an opportunity of re-
possessing himself, not only of the town itself, but of
the whole province of Messin, in order to disable the
Due d'Epernon (against whom his suspicions had
already been aroused) from making hereafter a disloyal
use of the power which his authority over so impor-
tant a territory afforded to him of contravening the
measures of the sovereign. The fortress was one of
great importance to Henry, who was aware of the ne-
cessity of placing it in the safe keeping of an individual
upon whom he could place the fullest and most perfect
reliance; and the more so that M. d'Epernon had,
during the reign of Henri III., rather assumed in Metz
the state of a sovereign prince than fulfilled the func-
tions of its governor, and that he would, as the King
at once felt, if not opposed, resist any encroachment
upon his self-constituted privileges. The revolt of the
Messinese (for, as was soon ascertained, the disaffection
was not confined to the city, but extended throughout
the whole of the adjoining country) afforded an admi-
rable opening for the royal intervention, and Henry in-
stantly decided upon visiting the province in person,
accompanied by his whole Court, before the two fac-
tions should have time to reconcile their differences
and to deprecate his interference. At the close of
February he accordingly commenced his journey,
Marie De Medicis 193
despite the inclemency of the weather and the un-
favourable condition of the roads, which rendered
travelling difficult and at times even dangerous for the
Queen and her attendant ladies ; and pretexting a visit
to his sister the Duchesse de Bar, he advanced to
Verdun, where he remained for a few days ere he
finally made his entry into Metz.
So unexpected an apparition paralysed all parties.
M. d'Epernon having refused to consent to the re-
moval of Sobole, who was, as he knew, devoted to his
interests, had failed to appease the indignation of the
Messinese, who were consequently eager to obtain
justice from the King ; while Sobole himself, after a
momentary vision of fortifying the citadel and defying
the royal authority, became convinced that his design
was not feasible ; and he accordingly obeyed without
a murmur the sentence of banishment pronounced
against him, gave up the fortress unconditionally, and
left the province.
Sobole had no sooner resigned his trust than the
King appointed M. de Montigny lieutenant-governor
of the province of Messin, and his brother, M. d'Ar-
quien,* lieutenant-governor of the town and fortress ;
while the garrison was replaced by a portion of the
bodyguard by which the monarch had been accom-
panied from the capital.
The vexation of the Due d'Epernon was extreme,
but he dared not expostulate, although he at once per-
ceived that his power was annihilated. So long as his
lieutenants had been creatures of his own, his domin-
* Antoine, Seigneur d'Arquien, was Governor of Calais, Sancerre,
etc.
194 The Life of
ion over the province had been absolute ; but when
they were thus replaced by officers of the King's se-
lection, his influence became merely nominal; so
great, moreover, had been the tact of Henry, that he
had found means to compel the Duke himself to
solicit the dismissal of Sobole and his brother, in order
to assure his own tenure of office ; and he was conse-
quently placed in a position which rendered all sem-
blance of discontent impossible, while the citizens,
delighted to find themselves thus unexpectedly re-
venged upon their oppressors, and proud of the pres-
ence of the sovereigns within their walls, were profuse
in their demonstrations of loyalty and attachment.
A slight indisposition having detained the King for
a longer period than he had anticipated at Metz, the
Duchesse de Bar, the Due de Lorraine, and the Due
and Duchesse de Deux- Fonts, arrived on the i6th of
March to welcome him to the province. Thereupon
a series of entertainments was given to these distin-
guished guests which was long matter of tradition
among the Messinese ; and which resulted in the be-
trothal of Mademoiselle de Rohan and the young Due
de Deux-Ponts.*
While still sojourning at Metz, information reached
Henry of the serious illness of Elisabeth of England ;
a despatch having been forwarded to the monarch by
the Comte de Beaumont, f his ambassador at the
Court of London, informing him of the apprehensions
which were entertained that her Majesty could not
*Jean Henri, Due de Deux-Ponts, who married Catherine de
Rohan, was descended from a branch of the royal house of Bavaria.
f Christophe de Harlai, Comte de Beaumont, Governor of Orleans.
He died in 1615.
Marie De Medicis 195
survive so grave a malady. The effect of this intelli-
gence was to induce the King to hasten his return to
his capital, and he accordingly prepared for immediate
departure; but he was finally prevailed upon to so-
journ for a few days at Nancy, where Madame (his
sister) had prepared a magnificent ballet, which was
accordingly performed, greatly to the admiration of
the two Courts. Henry, however, whose anxiety ex-
ceeded all bounds, caused courier after courier to be
despatched for tidings of the illustrious invalid, and
took little share in the festivities which were designed
to do him honour. He was probably on the eve, as
he declared in a letter to the Due de Sully, of losing
an ally who was the enemy of his enemies, and a
second self, while he was totally ignorant of the views
and feelings of her successor.
His forebodings were verified, for ere the Court left
Nancy, Elisabeth had breathed her last ; which intelli-
gence was immediately conveyed to him, together
with the assurance that her council had secured the
person of the Lady Arabella Stuart, the cousin of the
King of Scotland, and that there was consequently
nothing to fear as regarded the succession. The death
of Elisabeth did not in fact in any respect affect the
relative position of the two countries, neither Henri
IV. nor James I. being desirous to terminate the good
understanding which existed between them; and on
the 3<Dth of July a treaty of confederation was con-
cluded between the two sovereigns by Sully, in which
they were mutually pledged to protect the United
Provinces of the Low Countries against their common
enemy Philip of Spain.
196 The Life of
But, notwithstanding the apparent certainty of a
continuance of his amicable relations with England,
whether it were that this fatal intelligence operated
upon the bodily health of the King, or that his hasty
journey homeward had overtaxed his strength, it is
certain that on reaching Fontainebleau he had so vio-
lent an attack of fever as to be compelled to counter-
mand the council which had been convened for the
third day after his arrival. The Court physicians, be-
wildered by so sudden and severe an illness, declared
the case to be a hopeless one ; while Henry himself,
believing that his end was approaching, caused a letter
to be written to Sully to desire his immediate attend-
ance.* So fully, indeed, did he appear to anticipate
a fatal termination of the attack, that while awaiting
the arrival of the minister, he caused the portrait of the
Dauphin to be brought to him ; and after remaining for
a few seconds with his eyes earnestly fixed upon it, he
exclaimed, with a deep sigh : " Ha ! poor child, what
will you have to suffer if your father should be taken
from you ! " f
Sully lost no time in obeying the melancholy sum-
mons of the King ; and, on arriving *at Fontainebleau,
at once made his way to the royal chamber, where he
indeed found Henry in his bed, but with no symptoms
of immediate dissolution visible either in his counte-
nance or manner. The Queen sat beside him with one
of his hands clasped in hers ; and as he remarked the
entrance of the Duke, he extended the other, exclaim-
ing : " Come and embrace me, my friend ; I rejoice
at your arrival. Within two hours after I had written
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 94. f Capefigue, vol. viii. p. 163.
Marie De Medicis 197
to you I was in a great degree relieved from pain ;
and I have since gradually recovered from the attack.
Here," he continued, turning towards the Queen, " is
the most trustworthy and intelligent of all my servants,
who would have assisted you better than any other in the
preservation alike of my kingdom and of my children,
had I been taken away. I am aware that his humour
is somewhat austere, and at times perhaps too inde-
pendent for a mind like yours ; and that there would
not have been many wanting who might, in conse-
quence, have endeavoured to alienate from him the
affections of yourself and of my children ; but should
it ever be so, do not yield too ready a credence to
their words. I sent for him expressly that I might
consult with both of you upon the best method to
avert so great an evil ; but, thanks be to God, I feel
that such a precaution was in this instance unneces-
sary." *
Sully, in describing this scene, withholds all com-
ment upon the King's perfect confidence in the heart
and intellect of his royal consort ; but none can fail'to
feel that the moment must have been a proud one for
Marie, in which she became conscious that the nobler
features of her character had been thoroughly appre-
ciated by her husband. The vanity of the woman
could well afford to slumber while the value of the
wife and of the Queen was thus openly and generously
acknowledged.
And truly did Marie de Medicis need a remem-
brance like this to support her throughout her unceas-
ing trials ; for scarcely had the King recovered suffi-
* Sully, Mem. vol. iv. pp. 197-199.
198 The Life of
cient strength to encounter the exertion than he
determined to remove to Paris ; and, having intimated
his wish to the Queen, immediate preparations were
made for their departure. They arrived in the capital
totally unexpected at nine o'clock in the morning, and
alighted at the Hotel de Gondy, where Henry took a
temporary leave of his wife, and hastened to the res-
idence of Madame de Verneuil, with whom he re-
mained until an hour after midday ; thence he pro-
ceeded to the abode of M. le Grand, with whom he
dined j nor was it until a late hour that he rejoined the
Queen,* who at once became aware that the tempo-
rary separation between the monarch and his favourite,
occasioned by the journey to Metz, had failed to pro-
duce the effect which she had been sanguine enough
to anticipate.
Nor did Marie deceive herself ; for, during the so-
journ of the Court at Paris, which lasted until the
month of June, Henry abandoned himself with even
less reserve than formerly to his passion for the Mar-
quise ; while the forsaken Queen who hourly received
information of the impertinent assumption of that
lady, and who was assured that she had renewed with
more arrogance, and more openly than ever, her pre-
tended claim to the hand of the sovereign unable to
conceal her indignation, embittered the casual inter-
course between herself and her royal consort with
complaints and upbraidings which irritated and
angered the King ; and at length caused an estrange-
ment between them greater than any which had hith-
erto existed. There can be little doubt that this period
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 88, 89.
Marie De Medicis 199
of Marie's life was a most unhappy one. Deprived
even of the presence of her children, who, from con-
siderations of health, had been removed to St. Ger-
main-en-Laye, and who could not in consequence be
the solace of every weary hour, she found her only
consolation in the society of her immediate household,
and the zealous devotion of Madame de Concini ; to
whose first-born child she became joint sponsor with
M. de Soissons, greatly to the annoyance of the King,
who watched with a jealous eye the ever-increasing
influence of the Florentine favourite.
Previously to her marriage with the Due de Bar,
Madame, the King's sister, had affianced herself to M.
de Soissons ; but the circumstance no sooner became
known to Henry than he expressed his extreme dis-
taste at such an union, and directed the Due de Sully
to expostulate with both parties, and to induce them,
should it be possible, to abandon the project, and to
give a written promise never to renew their engage-
ment. In this difficult and delicate mission the min-
ister ultimately succeeded; but since that period a
coldness had existed between the two nobles which at
length terminated in mutual dissension and avoidance.
It was, consequently, with considerable surprise that
while preparing for his embassy to England, where he
was entrusted with the congratulations of his own
sovereign to James I. on his accession, M. de Sully
found himself on one occasion addressed by the Prince
in an accent of warmth and friendliness to which he
had long been unaccustomed from his lips ; and
heard him cordially express his obligation for some
service which, in his official capacity, the minister had
2oo The Life of
lately rendered him, and declare that thenceforward he
should never recur to the past, but rather trust that for
the future they might be firm and fast friends. Sully
answered in the same spirit; and thus a misunder-
standing which had disturbed the whole Court, where
each had partisans who violently defended his cause,
and thus rendered the schism more serious than it
might otherwise have been, was apparently terminated ;
but the Duke had no sooner returned to France than
it was renewed more bitterly than ever, to the extreme
annoyance of the King, who was reluctant to inter-
fere ; the high rank of M. de Soissons on the one
hand, and the eminent services of Sully on the other,
rendering him equally averse to dissatisfy either party.
In the month of August, 1603, the Comte de Sois-
sons, whose lavish expenditure made it important for
him to increase his income by some new concession on
the part of the monarch, held an earnest consultation
with Madame de Verneuil, with whom he was on the
closest terms of intimacy, as to the most feasible
method of effecting his object, and it was at length
determined that the Prince should solicit the privilege
of exacting a duty of fifteen sous upon every bale of
cloth, either imported or exported throughout the
kingdom ; while the Marquise pledged herself to exert
her influence to induce the King to consent to the ar-
rangement, for which service she was to receive one-
fifth of the proceeds resulting from the tax. Extraor-
dinary as such a demand must appear in the present
day, it was, according to Sully, by no means an un-
usual one at that period ; when, by his rigorous re-
trenchments, he had greatly reduced the revenues of
Marie De Medicis 201
the Court nobles, and put it out of the power of the
monarch to bestow upon them, as he had formerly
done, the most lavish sums from his own privy purse ;
thus inducing them to adopt every possible expedient
in order to increase their diminished incomes. Sym-
pathising with the annoyance of his impoverished
courtiers, and anxious to silence their murmurs, the
good-natured and reckless sovereign seldom met their
requests with a denial, and from this abuse a number
of petty taxes, each perhaps insignificant in itself, but
in the aggregate amounting to a heavy infliction upon
the people, were levied on all sides, and under all pre-
tences ; and the evil at length became so serious that
the prudent minister found it necessary to expostulate
respectfully with his royal master upon the danger of
such a system, and to entreat of him to discountenance
any further imposts which had no tendency to increase
the revenues of the state, but merely served to en-
courage the prodigality of the nobles.
It was precisely at this unpropitious moment that M.
de Soissons proffered his demand, which was warmly
seconded by Madame de Verneuil, who represented to
the monarch the impossibility of his refusing a favour
of this nature to a Prince of the Blood, when he had
so frequently made concessions of the same nature to
individuals of inferior rank; and the certainty that,
were his request negatived, M. de Soissons would not
fail to feel himself at once injured and aggrieved.
Still, mindful of the promise which had been extorted
from him by Sully, the King hesitated ; but upon be-
ing more urgently pressed by the favourite, he at
length demanded what would be the probable yearly
2O2 The Life of
produce of the tax, when he was assured by the Count
that it could not exceed ten thousand crowns ; upon
which Henry, who was anxious not to irritate him by
a refusal where the favour solicited was so compara-
tively insignificant, at once signified his compliance ;
and as the subject had been cleverly mooted by the
two interested parties at Fontainebleau, while the min-
ister of finance was absent in the capital, Madame de
Verneuil, by dint of importunity, succeeded in indu-
cing the monarch to sign an order for the immediate
imposition of the duty in favour of M. de Soissons ;
but before he was prevailed upon to do this, he de-
clared to the Prince that he should withdraw his con-
sent to the arrangement, if it were proved that the prod-
uce of the tax exceeded the yearly sum of fifty
thousand francs, or that it pressed too heavily upon the
people and the commercial interests of the kingdom.
This reservation was by no means palatable to M. de
Soissons, who had, when questioned as to the amount
likely to be derived from the transaction, answered
rather from impulse than calculation ; but as the said
reservation was merely verbal, while the edict authori-
sing the levy of the impost was tangible and valid, the
Prince, after warmly expressing his acknowledgments
to the monarch, carried off the document without one
misgiving of success.
Henry, however, when he began to reflect upon the
nature of the concession which he had been prevailed
upon to make, could not suppress a suspicion that it
was more important than it had at first appeared ; and,
conscious that he had falsified his promise to the min-
ister, he resolved to ascertain the extent of his impru-
Marie De Medicis 203
dence. He accordingly, the same evening, despatched
a letter to Sully, in which, without divulging what had
taken place, he directed him to ascertain the probable
proceeds of such a tax, and the effect which it was
likely to produce upon those on whom it would be
levied.
So unexpected an inquiry startled the finance min-
ister, who instantly apprehended that a fresh attack
had been made upon the indulgence of the monarch ;
and he forthwith anxiously commenced a calculation,
based upon solid and well-authenticated documents,
which resulted in the discovery that the annual amount
of such an impost could not be less than three hundred
thousand crowns ; while it must necessarily so seri-
ously affect the trade in flax and hemp, that it was
likely to ruin the provinces of Brittany and Normandy,
as well as a great part of Picardy.
Under these circumstances it was decided between
Henry and his minister, that the latter should withhold
his signature to the order which had been extorted
from the King ; without which, or a letter from the
sovereign specially commanding the registration of the
edict by the Parliament, the document was invalid.
There can be no doubt that the most manly and
dignified course which the monarch could have
adopted, would have been to inform M. de Soissons of
the result of the verification which had been made ;
and to have declared that, in accordance with his ex-
pressed determination when conditionally conceding
the edict, he had resolved, upon ascertaining the mag-
nitude of the sum which must be levied by such a tax,
not to permit its operation. This was not, however,
204 The Life of
the manner in which Henry met the difficulty. He
felt that his position was an onerous one, and he gladly
transferred his responsibility to M. de Sully ; who ac-
cordingly, upon the application of the Prince for his
signature, in order that the document might be laid
before the Parliament and thus rendered available, de-
clined to accede to the request ; alleging that the affair
was one of such extreme importance, that he dared
not take upon himself to forward it without the con-
currence of the council.
M. de Soissons urged and expostulated in vain ; the
minister was inflexible ; and at length the Prince with-
drew, but not before he had given vent to his indigna-
tion with a bitterness which convinced his listener that
thenceforward all kindly feeling between them was at
an end.
But if the Count thus suffered himself to be defeated
by a first refusal, Madame de Verneuil was by no
means inclined to follow his example. Baffled but not
beaten, she resolved upon returning to the charge ; and
accordingly she drove to the residence of the minister,
and met him at the door of his closet as he was about
to proceed to the Louvre, in order to have an interview
with the King.
There was an expression of haughty defiance in
the eye of the favourite, and a heightened colour upon
her cheek, which at once betrayed to Sully the purpose
of her visit ; while he on his side received her with a
calm courtesy which was ill-calculated to inspire her
with any hope of success ; and she had scarcely seated
herself before he gave her reason to perceive that he
was as little inclined to temporise as herself. When
Marie De Medicis 205
they met he held in his hand a roll of paper, which,
even after she had entered the apartment, he still con-
tinued to grasp with a pertinacity that did not fail to
attract her attention.
" And what may be the precious document, Mon-
sieur le Ministre," she demanded flippantly, " of which
you find it so impossible to relax your hold?"
" A precious document indeed, Madame," was the
abrupt reply, " and one in which you figure among
many others." So saying, he unrolled the scroll, and
read aloud a list of edicts, solicited or granted, similar
to that of the Comte de Soissons, one of which bore
her own name.
" And what are you about to do with it ? " she asked.
" To make it the subject of a remonstrance to his
Majesty."
" Truly," exclaimed the Marquise, no longer able to
control her rage, " the King will be well-advised should
he listen to your caprices, and by so doing affront
twenty individuals of the highest quality. Upon whom
should he confer such favours as these, if not upon the
Princes of the Blood, his cousins, his relatives, and his
mistresses ? "
"That might be very well," replied the minister,
totally unmoved by her insolence, " if the King could
pay these sums out of his own privy purse ; but that
they should be levied upon the merchant, the artisan,
and the labourer, is entirely out of the question. It is
they who feed both him and us ; and one master is
enough, without their being compelled to support so
many cousins, relatives, and mistresses."*
* Sully, Mini. vol. v. pp. 45-50.
206 The Life of
Madame de Verneuil could bear no more ; but rising
passionately from her chair, she left the room without
even a parting salutation to the plain-spoken minister,
who saw her depart with as much composure as he
had seen her enter ; and quietly rolling up the obnox-
ious document which had formed the subject of discus-
sion between them, he in his turn got into his carriage,
and proceeded to the Louvre.
Furious alike at her want of success and at the
affront which had been put upon her, the Marquise
drove from the Arsenal to the hotel of M. de Soissons ;
where, still smarting under the rebuff of the uncom-
promising Duke, she did not scruple sufficiently to
garble his words to give them all the appearance of a
premeditated and wilful insult to the Prince personally.
She assured him that in reply to her remark that the
relatives of the monarch possessed the greatest claim
upon his liberality, M. de Sully had retorted by the
observation that the King had too many kinsmen, and
that it would be well for the nation could it be de-
livered from some of them.
This report so exasperated M. de Soissons, that on
the following morning he demanded an audience of the
sovereign, during which he bitterly inveighed against
the arrogance and presumption of the minister, and
claimed instant redress for this affront to his honour
and his dignity as a Prince of the Blood ; haughtily
declaring that should the King refuse to do him justice,
he would find means to avenge himself.
The unseemly violence of the Count, by offending
the self-respect of the monarch, could not have failed,
under any circumstances, to defeat its own object ; but
Marie De Medicis 207
aware as he was that Sully had sought only the pres-
ervation of his master's interests, Henry was even less
inclined than he might otherwise have been to yield to
a dictation of this imperious nature. The very excess
of his indignation consequently rendered him calm
and self-possessed, and thus at once gave him a decided
advantage over his excited interlocutor. Instead of
retorting angrily, and involving himself in an undigni-
fied dispute, he replied to the intemperate language of
the Count by calmly inquiring if he were to under-
stand that M. de Sully had addressed the obnoxious
remark which was the subject of complaint to the
Prince himself, or if it had merely been reported to
him by a third person. To this question M. de
Soissons impatiently replied that the insult had not in-
deed been uttered to himself personally, but that the
individual by whom it was communicated to him was
above all suspicion ; while he moreover considered that
his assurance of its truth ought to suffice, as he was in-
capable of falsehood,
" Were it so, cousin," said Henry coldly, " you
would differ greatly from the other members of your
family, especially your elder brother; but since you
appear to place so perfect a reliance on the veracity of
your informant, you have only to name him to me,
and to explain precisely what he alleges to have
passed, and I shall then understand what is necessary
to be done, and will endeavour to satisfy you as far as
I can reasonably do so."
M. de Soissons was not, however, prepared to in-
volve Madame de Verneuil in a quarrel which threat-
ened the most serious results ; and he consequently
208 The Life of
declared that he had plighted his word not to divulge
the identity of his informant; a promise which he,
moreover, considered to be utterly unnecessary, as he
was ready to pledge himself to the entire truth of
what he had advanced.
" So, cousin," said the King with an ambiguous
smile, " you screen yourself under the shadow of an
oath from revealing to me what I desire to know ; then
I, in my turn, swear not to believe one syllable of your
complaint beyond what M. de Sully may himself re-
port to me ; for I hold his veracity in as great estima-
tion as you do that of the nameless partisan to whom
you are indebted for the fine story you have inflicted
upon me."
It was in somewhat the same frame of mind in which
the Marquise had quitted the finance minister that M.
de Soissons, as the King rose and thus indicated the
termination of the interview, passed from the royal
closet ; nor did he retire until he had indulged in such
unrestrained threats of vengeance that Henry consid-
ered it expedient to despatch Zamet without delay to
the Arsenal to warn Sully to be upon his guard
against the impetuous Prince, and not to venture
abroad without a sufficient suite ; while at the same
time the messenger was instructed to inquire if the
obnoxious expression had indeed been used, and to
whom.
On being apprised of the visit which had been paid
by Madame de Verneuil to the Duke, the King in-
stantly comprehended the whole intrigue, and at once
declared that it was useless to search further ; as he
well knew that she possessed both malice and invention
Marie De Medicis 209
enough to distort the words of the minister to her own
purposes ; an admission which indicated for the mo-
ment a considerable decrease of infatuation on the part
of her royal lover.*
That this had, however, already become evident,
was exemplified by the fact that upon some rumour
of the kind being addressed to the Duchesse de Rohan,
coupled with an inference that the infidelity of Madame
de Verneuil had become known to the King, the
young Duchess had gaily replied : " What could he
anticipate ? How was it possible for love to nestle be-
tween a mouth and chin which are always interfering
with each other ? " f
It is scarcely doubtful that the present incautious
proceeding of the Marquise tended to shake the con-
fidence which Henry had hitherto felt in an affection
so admirably simulated that it might have inspired
trust in an individual of far inferior rank. He could
not overlook the fact that Madame de Verneuil had
presumed to declare herself hostile to his favourite
minister, and had even made a tool of one of the
Princes of the Blood ; an affront to himself which he
resented after his accustomed fashion, by withdrawing
himself from her society, and assiduously appearing in
the private circle of the Queen.
On this occasion, however, week succeeded week,
and the monarch still continued to avoid the enraged
favourite ; and even occasionally alluded to her with a
contempt which stung her haughty and presumptuous
* Sully, Mtm. vol. v. pp. 49-53. Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp.
90-92. Saint-Eclme, pp. 222, 223.
\ Capefigue, vol. viii. p. 130.
2io The Life of
spirit beyond endurance. She saw her little Court
melting away, her flatterers dispersing, and her friends
becoming estranged ; nor could she conceal from her-
self that if she failed shortly to discover some method
of estranging Henry from the Queen, and once more
asserting her own influence, all her greatness would be
scattered to the winds. Her vanity was also as deeply
involved as her ambition, for she had hitherto believed
her power over the affections of the King to be so
entire that he could not liberate himself from her
thrall ; yet now, in the zenith of her beauty, in the
pride of her intellect, and in the very climax of her
favour, she found herself suddenly abandoned, as if
the effort had not cost a single struggle to her royal
lover.
Marie de Medicis, meanwhile, was happy. She
cared not to look back upon the past ; she sought not
to look forward into the future ; to her the present
was all in all, and she began to encourage bright
dreams of domestic bliss, by which she had never be-
fore been visited since the first brief month of her
marriage. So greatly indeed did her new-born happi-
ness embellish the exulting Queen, that it was at this
period that the profligate monarch declared to sev-
eral of his confidential friends, that had she not been
his wife, his greatest desire would have been to possess
her as a mistress. * The whole of her little Court felt
the influence of her delight ; she lavished on all sides
the most costly gifts ; she surrounded the King with
amusements of every description, and day after day
the heart of the irritated favourite was embittered by
* Richelieu, La Mtre et le Fils, vol. i. p. 17.
Marie De Medicis 2 1 1
the reports which reached her of the unprecedented
gaiety and splendour of the Queen's private circle.
As the dissension which had arisen between Sully
and the Comte de Soissons rather increased in inten-
sity than yielded to the royal expostulation, Henry
resolved to give a public proof of his continued regard
for the minister ; and for this purpose he caused him
to be informed that on his way to Normandy (whither
he was about to proceed in order to investigate the
truth of certain rumours which had reached him of a
meditated insurrection in that province) he would pass
by Rosny, and should claim his hospitality for one day
with his whole Court. As the King was on the eve of
his departure, Sully at once left the capital, and by
travelling with great speed, he reached the chateau four
days before his expected guests, for whose reception
he made the most magnificent preparations of which
so brief an interval would admit. As the approaches
to the domain were not yet completed, and it was nec-
essary to level the road by which their Majesties would
arrive, the Duke, in order to accomplish this object,
incautiously caused a canal by which it was traversed,
and over which the bridge was still unbuilt, to be
dammed up ; and this arrangement made, he directed
his whole attention to the internal decorations of the
castle. Unfortunately, however, while his royal and
noble guests were still seated at the elaborate and
costly banquet which had been prepared for them, a
terrific storm burst over the edifice, and information
was brought to the host that the waters had become so
swollen as to have overflowed their banks, while the
pent-up canal which he had just driven back had inun-
212 The Life of
dated the court, and was pouring itself in a dense vol-
ume through the offices. The alarm instantly be-
came general; the Queen, the Princesses, and the
ladies of the Court sought refuge in the upper rooms
of the castle, whither, as the danger momentarily in-
creased, they were soon followed by Henry and his
retinue ; and meanwhile Sully gave instant orders that
workmen should be despatched to clear the bed of the
canal, and thus afford an escape for the invading ele-
ment. This was happily accomplished without any
loss of life, and the accident entailed no further evil
consequence than the destruction of all the fruits and
confectionery by which the banquet was to have ter-
minated.* After this misadventure the Court pro-
ceeded to Caen, where at the close of a patient inves-
tigation the King withdrew the government of the city
from M. de Crevecoeur-Montmorency, who was accused
of being engaged in a treasonable correspondence with
the Due de Bouillon, the Comte d'Auvergne, and the
Due de la Tremouille, his relative, and bestowed it upon
M. de Bellefonds.f Thence the royal party removed to
Rouen, where Henry succeeded in reestablishing per-
fect order throughout the whole province of Lower
Normandy.
On his return to Paris the King learnt that M. de
Soissons, who had declined to accompany him in his
journey, so deeply resented his visit to Rosny, the pur-
pose of which he had comprehended upon the instant,
that he had resolved in consequence to quit the king-
dom. As the voluntary expatriation of the Princes of
* Sully, Mhn. vol. v. pp. 54, 55.
\ Bernardin Gigault de Bellefonds.
Marie De Medicis 213
the Blood tended alike to weaken his resources and to
undermine his authority, Henry at once directed MM.
de Bellievre and de Sillery to wait upon the Count,
and to assure him that, so soon as he produced certain
proof of the culpability of the Due de Sully, he should
receive ample satisfaction for the alleged affront, but
that until such proof was furnished he should continue
to protect the minister, and to consider him innocent
of the offence imputed to him. The Chancellor was,
moreover, instructed to inquire into the motive which
had induced the Prince to declare his intention of
leaving France.
To this message M. de Soissons coldly replied by
observing that he had been insulted by the Duke, to
whom he had given no cause of offence ; but that as
it nevertheless appeared by the statement to which
he had just listened, that it was the pleasure of his
Majesty to defend the accused rather than the accuser,
he considered that he need not advance any further
reason for absenting himself from the kingdom. After
the departure of MM. de Bellievre and de Sillery, how-
ever, the Prince requested the Due de Montbazon,*
and the Comte de St. Pol f to wait upon the sovereign,
in order to explain to him his reason for quitting the
country ; to assure him of the regret which he felt that
recent circumstances had left him no other alternative ;
and to entreat his Majesty to pardon him if he ventured
to take his leave through the medium of these his
friends, rather than, by appearing in person, incur the
risk of aggravating his displeasure.
* Hercule de Rohan, Due de Montbazon.
| Francois d'Orleans-Longueville, Comte de St. Pol, Governor of
Picardy.
214 The Life of
Having seen the two nobles depart upon their mis-
sion, M. de Soissons mounted his horse and at once
proceeded to Paris, to make the necessary preparations
for the journey which he contemplated ; but before he
had taken any definite measures to that effect he was
rejoined by his friends, who had been directed by the
King to follow him with all speed, and to explain to
him that he had altogether mistaken the message en-
trusted to the Chancellor, as the only protection which
his Majesty had declared his intention of affording to
M. de Sully was against his own threats of personal
violence ; while in the second place they were in-
structed to inform him that the King strictly enjoined
him not to quit Paris, as a want of obedience upon
this point would prove very prejudicial to his Majesty's
interests ; and finally, they were authorised to assure
him that, in the event of his compliance with the royal
wishes, he should receive ample satisfaction for the
affront of which he complained.
In reply, M. de Soissons maintained that he had
given no ground for the apprehensions expressed by
the monarch for the safety of his minister, and that he
had never entertained any design to injure the interests
of the sovereign, while the knowledge that his with-
drawal from the country might have such a tendency
was a more powerful preventive to his departure than
" though he had been fettered by a hundred chains " ;
and that all he required from his adversary was a
public acknowledgment of the offence which he had
committed against him.
This concession of the irate Prince was followed by
a still greater one on the part of the minister, who,
Marie De Medicis 215
anxious to relieve the mind of his royal master from
the annoyance which he felt at a quarrel in which
every noble of the Court had taken part, and which
threatened to become still more inveterate from day
to day, addressed a letter to M. de Soissons, wherein,
although he explicitly denied " having uttered the
expression which was imputed to him," he over-
whelmed the Prince with the most elaborate and
hyperbolical assurances of respect and devotion, de-
claring " that he would rather die than so forget him-
self."
This submissive letter was accepted as an apology,
and a hollow peace between the disputants was thus
effected, which restored for a time the tranquillity of
the Court.
On the 2d of February, 1604, the Queen was in-
vited to participate in a ceremony which, had she been
less happy and hopeful than she chanced to be at that
particular period, could not have failed to excite in her
breast fresh feelings of irritation and annoyance. This
was the reception of Alexandre-Monsieur, the second
legitimated son of the monarch and Gabrielle d'Es-
trees, into the Order of the Knights of Malta. The
King having decided that such should be the career
of the young Prince, was anxious that he should at
once assume the name and habit of the Order, and he
accordingly wrote to the Grand Master to request that
he would despatch the necessary patents, which were
forwarded without delay, accompanied by the most
profuse acknowledgments on the part of that dignitary.
In order to increase the solemnity and magnificence
of the inauguration, Henry summoned to the capital
216 The Life of
the Grand Commanders both of France and Cham-
pagne, instructing them to bring in their respective
trains as many other commanders and knights as could
be induced to accompany them ; and he selected as
the scene of the ceremony the Church of the Augus-
tines, an arrangement which was, however, abandoned
at the entreaty of the Commandeur de Villeneuf, the
Ambassador of the Order, who deemed it more digni-
fied that the inauguration should take place in that of
the Temple, which was one of their principal establish-
ments.
At the hotfr indicated the two sovereigns accord-
ingly drove to the Temple in the same carriage, Alex-
andre-Monsieur being seated between them; and on
alighting at the principal entrance of the edifice, the
King delivered the little Prince into the hands of the
Grand Prior who was there awaiting him, attended by
twelve commanders and twelve knights, by whom he
was conducted up the centre aisle. The church was
magnificently decorated, and the altar, which blazed
with gold and jewels, was already surrounded by the
Cardinal de Gondy, the Papal Nuncio, and a score of
bishops, all attired in their splendid sacerdotal vest-
ments. In the centre of the choir a throne had been
erected for their Majesties, covered with cloth of gold,
and around the chairs of state were grouped the
Princes, Princesses, and other grandees of the Court,
including the ambassadors of Spain and Venice, the
Connetable-Duc de Montmorency, the Chancellor, the
seven presidents of the Parliament, and the knights of
the Order of the Holy Ghost.
The coup d'oeil was one of extraordinary splendour.
Marie De Medicis 217
The whole of the sacred edifice was brilliantly illumi-
nated by the innumerable tapers which lit up the
several shrines, and which casting their clear light upon
every surrounding object, brought into full relief the
dazzling gems and gleaming weapons that glittered on
all sides. The organ pealed out its deepest and most
impressive harmony; and not a sound was heard
throughout the vast building as the Grand Prior, with
his train of knights and nobles, led the youthful neo-
phyte to the place assigned to him. The ceremony
commenced by the consecration of the sword, and the
change of raiment, which typified that about to take
place in the duties of the Prince by his entrance into
an Order which enjoined alike godliness and virtue.
The mantle was withdrawn from his shoulders, and his
outer garment removed by the knights who stood im-
mediately around him, after which he was presented
successively with a vest of white satin elaborately em-
broidered in gold and silver, having the sleeves
enriched with pearls, a waist-belt studded with jewels,
a cap of black velvet ornamented with a small white
plume and a band of large pearls, and a tunic of black
taffeta. In this costume the Prince was conducted to
the high altar by the Due and Duchesse de Vendome,
followed by a commander to assist him during the
ceremony, and they had no sooner taken their places
than Arnaud de Sorbin, * Bishop of Nevers, delivered
* Arnaud de Sorbin, Bishop of Nevers, was justly celebrated both
for his piety and his learning. He was originally curate of the parish
of Ste. Foy, where he had been placed by Georges, Cardinal d'Armag-
nac, Bishop of Toulouse, who afterwards removed him from that
parish, in order to keep him near his person. The Cardinal d'Este,
aware of his great worth and extraordinary talents, conferred upon
him the rank of doctor of divinity of the cathedral of Auch, the capital
218 The Life of
a short oration eulogistic of the greatness and excel-
lence of the brotherhood of which he was about to be-
come a member. The same prelate then performed a
solemn high mass, and when he had terminated the
reading of the gospel, Alexandre-Monsieur knelt before
him with a taper of white wax in his hand, to solicit
admission into the Order. He had no sooner bent his
knee than the King rose, descended the steps of the
throne, and placed himself by his side, saying aloud
that he put off for awhile his sovereign dignity that he
might perform his duty as a parent, by pledging him-
self that when the Prince should have attained his six-
teenth year, he should take the vows, and in all things
conform himself to the rules of the institution. The
procession then passed out of the church in the same
order as it had entered, and the young Prince was im-
mediately put into possession of the income arising
from his commandery, which was estimated at forty
thousand annual livres. *
This ceremony was followed by a series of Court
festivals, which were abruptly terminated by the arrival
of a courier from Lorraine with the intelligence of the
death of the Duchesse de Bar, an event which it was so
well known would deeply affect the King, that the
principal personages of the Court, and the members of
his council, determined to go in a body to communi-
of his archbishopric; but he did not retain it long, having been re-
called by his first patron to assume the same position in his church at
Toulouse, where he was universally loved and respected. He was
successively lecturer to Charles IX., Henri III., and Henri IV., and
was consecrated, on his elevation to the see of Nevers, by the Cardinal
de Gondy, Bishop of Paris. Monseigneur de Sorbin died in Nevers,
on the 1st of May, 1606.
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 152-154.
Marie De Medicis 219
cate it, in order that they might offer him the best
consolation in their power. This, however, was a grief
beyond their sympathy, the affection which Henry
bore towards his sister having been unshaken through-
out their lives ; and the distressing intelligence was no
sooner imparted to him than he burst into a passionate
flood of tears, and desired that every one should with-
draw, and leave him alone with God. He was no
sooner obeyed than he caused the windows of his
closet to be closed, and admittance refused to all
comers ; after which he threw himself upon his bed,
and abandoned himself to all the bitterness of a sorrow
alike unexpected and irremediable. Several days
passed away in this ungovernable grief, and when its
violence at length partially subsided, the King issued
an order that the whole Court should assume the
deepest mourning, and that no one should presume to
approach him in any other garb. Not only, therefore,
were all the great officers of the Crown, and all the
Court functionaries, from M. le Grand to the pages
and lacqueys in the ante-chambers, clad in the same
sable livery, but even the foreign ambassadors, anxious
alike to avoid giving offence to the monarch, and to
escape the inconvenience of being excluded from his
presence and thus rendered incapable of furthering the
interests of their several sovereigns, adopted a similar
habit. The mourning of the Queen and her household
more than satisfied all the exigencies of the King ; for
Marie de Medicis not only sympathised deeply with
the sufferings of her royal consort, but also felt that in
Madame Catherine she had lost a sincere friend that
rarest of all luxuries to a crowned head ! and it was
220 The Life of
not consequently in her outward apparel alone that
she gave testimony of her unfeigned regret, for in
abandoning her usual garb, she also abandoned every
species of amusement, and forbade all movement in
her immediate circle beyond that which was necessi-
tated by the service of her attendants.
There was, however, one exception to this general
concession, and that one was consequently so conspic-
uous as to excite instant remark. The Papal Nuncio
had exhibited no intention of conforming to the uni-
versal demonstration which had draped the throne and
palaces of France in sables ; and the monarch no
sooner ascertained the fact than he caused it to be
made known to the prelate that he had no desire to
oblige him to assume a garb repugnant to his feelings,
but that he requested to be spared his presence until
the period of his own mourning was at an end. This
announcement greatly embarrassed the Nuncio, who
at once felt that by persisting in the course he had
adopted he should be deprived of the frequent audi-
ences that were essential to the interests of the Sover-
eign-Pontiff, and accordingly he resolved no longer to
offer any opposition to the express wishes of the
King ; but after having written to Rome to explain
that he had put on mourning simply to secure himself
against the threatened exclusion, and thereby to be en-
abled to watch over the welfare of the Holy See, he
ultimately followed the example of those around him,
and demanded permission in his turn to offer his com-
pliment of condolence to the monarch.
This he did, however, in a manner little calculated
to reconcile Henry to the reluctance which he had ex-
Marie De Medicis 221
hibited in performing this duty ; for after having de-
clared his earnest sympathy with the grief of his
Majesty, he went on to remark that those who knew
who he was, and for whom he spoke, could not fail
to be startled by such an assertion, although he on his
part, could assure his Majesty of his sincerity, as while
others were weeping over the body of Madame, who
had died a Protestant and a heretic, his master and
himself were mourning for her soul.
To this unexpected exordium the King replied, with
considerable indignation, that he had more faith in the
mercy of God than to believe that a Princess who had
passed her life in the fulfilment of all her social duties
was destined to be condemned from the nature of her
creed, and that he himself entertained no doubt of her
salvation.* After which he diverted the conversation
into another channel, with a tone and manner suffi-
ciently indicative to the Nuncio that he must not pre-
sume to recur to so delicate a subject.
The body of Madame was, at the King's desire,
conveyed to Vendome, and deposited beside that of
her mother, a dispensation to this effect having been,
after many delays, accorded by the Pope ; although
too late for the Duchess to have been made aware that
this the earnest wish of her heart had been conceded.
At this period a new cause of uneasiness aroused the
sovereign from his private grief. To his extreme sur-
prise he had received intelligence from the Sieur de
Barrault f that all the most secret deliberations of his
* Cayet, Ckron. Septen., 1604.
f Emeric Gobier, Sieur de Barrault, ambassador at the Court of
Spain.
222 The Life of
council were forthwith communicated to the King of
Spain, without a trace of the source whence this im-
portant information could be derived ; and for a time
the mystery defied all the investigations which were
bestowed upon it by Henry and his ministers. At
length, however, long impunity rendered the culprit
daring, and it was ascertained that Philip III. was in
possession of copies of the several letters written by
the French monarch to the King of England, the
Prince of Orange, and other friendly powers, all inim-
ical to Spain, a circumstance which at once rendered it
apparent that this treachery must be the work of some
official in whom the greatest confidence had hitherto
been placed ; and steps were forthwith taken to secure
the identification of the traitor, which was effected
through the agency of another equally unworthy sub-
ject of Henry himself. A certain native of Bordeaux,
named Jean Leyre (otherwise Rafis), who had been
one of the most violent partisans of the League, and
who had been banished from France, had entered the
Spanish service, and long enjoyed a pension from the
sovereign of that country, in recompense of the zeal
and ardour with which he rendered every evil office
in his power to the kingdom whence he had been cast
out.
Circumstances, however, tended to make Leyre less
useful to Philip, who had, as we have shown, secured
a much more efficient agent, and the ill-acquired pen-
sion had accordingly been diminished, while the traitor
had no difficulty in perceiving that the favour which
he had hitherto experienced from his new master
was lessened in the same proportion, a conviction
Marie De Medicis 223
which determined him to make a vigorous effort
to obtain the permission of his offended sover-
eign to return to France. In order to effect this object,
Leyre attached himself to such of his countrymen as
were, like himself, domiciliated in Spain, and finally he
made the acquaintance of one Jean Bias, who in a
moment of confidence revealed to him that a secretary
of the Comte de Rochepot * (the predecessor of M. de
Barrault as ambassador at the Court of Madrid), who
had subsequently returned to the service of the Due
de Villeroy, still maintained a secret correspondence
with the Spanish secretaries of state, Don Juan Idiaque
Franchesez, and Prada, to whom, in consideration of a
pension of twelve hundred pounds of gold, he be-
trayed all the most important measures of the French
cabinet.
This man, whose name was Nicholas L'Hote, was
the son of an old and trusted follower of the Due de
Villeroy, to whose family his own ancestors had been
attached for several generations, while he himself was
the godson of the Duke, who had obtained for him the
honourable office of secretary to M. de Rochepot,
when that nobleman accepted the embassy to Spain,
On the return of the Count to France, L'Hote, whose
services were no longer necessary to him, was dis-
missed, and upon an application to his old patron, was
unhesitatingly received into his bureau ; where, believ-
ing that his loyalty and devotion to himself were be-
yond all suspicion, he was employed by M. de Villeroy
in deciphering his despatches; an occupation which
* Antoine de Silly, Damoiseau de Commercy, Comte de Rochepot,
knight of the order of the Holy Ghost.
224 The Life of
afforded the traitor ample means of continuing his ne-
farious correspondence with his Spanish confederates.
Leyre had no sooner obtained this important infor-
mation, and moreover convinced himself of its proba-
bility by various circumstances connected with
L'Hote which he was careful to learn from other
sources, than he proceeded to the residence of M. de
Barrault, and solicited an interview on business con-
nected with his government. The ambassador, who
was still striving by every method in his power to dis-
cover the author of the active and harassing treason
by which his official measures were perpetually tram-
melled, with a vague hope that the object of this re-
quest might prove to be connected with the mystery
which so disagreeably occupied his thoughts, at once
granted the required audience; when Leyre, having
explained his own position, and expressed the deepest
contrition for his past disloyalty, together with his
ardent desire to obliterate, by an essential service to
his rightful sovereign, a fault which was now irrepa-
rable, proceeded to inform M. de Barrault that he was
prepared to reveal a system of treachery which was
even at that moment in operation to the prejudice of
France ; but added that, as in communicating this
secret he should be compelled immediately to escape
from Spain, he would not consent to do so until the
ambassador pledged himself that he should be per-
mitted to return to his own country with a free par-
don, and a sufficient pension to secure him against
want ; and concluded by saying that should it be be-
yond the power of M. de Barrault to give such a
pledge without the royal authority, and that should he
Marie De Medicis 225
consider it necessary to mention him by name, and to
state the nature of the promised service to his govern-
ment, he must entreat him to make this revelation
solely to the monarch, and by no means to commit
the affair to writing.
To these terms M. de Barrault readily agreed ; but
after the departure of Leyre, conceiving that the
extreme mystery enjoined by that personage was
merely intended to enhance the implied value of his
revelation ; and convinced, moreover, that the sovereign
would immediately communicate such a circumstance
to his ministers, he addressed himself, as he was in the
habit of doing, to the Due de Villeroy, from whom he
shortly afterwards received the required promise of
both pardon and pension.
These were, however, no sooner placed in the hands
of the astute Leyre, than, perceiving that they bore
the counter-signature of Villeroy, instead of that of
Lomenie,* which would have been the case had they
been forwarded through the personal medium of the
King, he revealed the whole transaction to M. de
Barrault; representing that the traitor being under the
roof of the minister by whom they had been des-
patched, and entirely in his confidence, must already
be apprised of his danger, as well as fully prepared to
avert it by the destruction of his betrayer ; and accord-
ingly he declared that, in order to save his life, he
* Antoine de Brienne de Lomenie, Seigneur de la Ville-aux-Clercs,
ambassador-extraordinary to England in 1595, and secretary of state,
was the representative of a distinguished family of Berry, whose
father, Marechal de Brienne, registrar of the council, fell a victim to the
massacre of St. Bartholomew. He himself died in 1628, bequeathing
to the royal library three hundred and forty manuscript volumes,
known as the Manuscripts of Brienne.
226 The Life of
must at once get into the saddle, and endeavour to
distance the pursuit which could not fail to be made
with a view to seize his person.
This reasoning was so valid that the ambassador not
only consented to his immediate departure, but also
caused him to be accompanied by his own secretary,
M. Descartes, by whom he was to be introduced to the
sovereign. The precaution proved salutary, as no
later than the following morning the officers of the
law were sent to the house of Leyre, and being unable
to find him, forthwith mounted in their turn and took
the road to France. Fortunately for the fugitives
they had, however, already travelled a considerable
distance; and although hotly pursued, they were
enabled to reach Bayonne without impediment, whence
they proceeded to Fontainebleau to report their arrival
to the King.
Before they reached their destination, they en-
countered the Due de Villeroy, who was on his way
to his chateau of Juvisy, and to whom Descartes con-
sidered it expedient to declare their errand, without
concealing the name of the culprit whom they were
about to accuse. The Duke listened incredulously;
and when the travellers offered, should it meet with
his approbation, to return at once to Paris and arrest
his secretary, in order that he might himself deliver
him up to the monarch, he declined to profit by the
proposal, desiring them to fulfil their mission as the
service of the King required ; and adding, that he
should shortly join them at Fontainebleau, where he
was to be met on the morrow by the accused party,
when the necessary steps for ascertaining the truth of
Marie De Medicis 227
the statement might be at once taken ; but that until
he had obtained an audience of the monarch, and as-
certained his pleasure, all coercive measures would be
premature.
With this unsatisfactory reply Leyre and his com-
panion were fain to content themselves ; and having,
as they were desired to do, delivered into the hands of
the Duke the detailed despatch of M. de Barrault with
which they had been entrusted, they saw him calmly
resume his way to Juvisy, while they continued their
route to Fontainebleau.
Early the next day M. de Villeroy in his turn
reached the palace, and at once proceeded to the royal
closet ; where, at the command of the King, he began
to read aloud the papers which had been thus
obtained ; but he had not proceeded beyond the name
of the accused when Henry vehemently interrupted
him by exclaiming :
" And where is this L'Hote, your secretary? Have
you caused him to be arrested ? "
" I think, Sire," was the reply, " that he is at my
hotel ; but he is still at liberty."
" How, Sir ! " said the King still more angrily ; " you
think that he is at your hotel, and you have not had
him seized ? This is strange negligence ! What have
you been about since you were informed of this act of
treason, to which you should at once have attended ?
See to it instantly, and secure the culprit."
The Due de Villeroy quitted the royal presence in
anxious haste, and made his way to the capital with all
speed, feeling convinced that should he fail in arresting
his delinquent secretary he could not escape the sus-
228 The Life of
picion of the King. L'Hote had, however, profited
by the intervening time to explain his predicament to
the Spanish ambassador, who instantly perceived that
not a moment must be lost. Horses were accordingly
provided, and the detected traitor, accompanied by the
steward of the ambassador, made the best of his way
to Meaux, whence they were to travel post to Luxem-
bourg.
Orders had, meanwhile, been despatched to all the
postmasters not to supply horses to any traveller an-
swering the description of L'Hote ; but as he wore a
Spanish costume similar to that of his companion he
might still have passed undetected, had he not, while
endeavouring to mount at Meaux, trembled so vio-
lently as to fall from his saddle ; a circumstance which
attracted the attention of the groom who held his
stirrup, and who immediately inferred that he must be
some criminal who was flying from justice. On reenter-
ing the house he related the incident to his master ; and
upon comparing the height, and bulk, and features of
the fugitive with the written detail furnished by the au-
thorities, both parties became convinced that they had
suffered the very individual whom they were commis-
sioned to arrest to pursue his journey to the frontier
through their own agency; and thus impressed, the
terrified postmaster hastened to the Prevot des Mare-
chaux,* who lost no time in following upon his track.
* The Prevots des Marechaux were magistrates whose duties con-
sisted in trying vagrants and persons who could not prove their
identity, culprits previously sentenced to corporal punishment, banish-
ment, or fine, soldiers, highway robbers, and the members of illicit
societies. The Prevots des Marechaux took the title of Equerry-
Councillors of the King, and their place on the bench of the criminal
court was immediately after that of the presiding judge.
Marie De Medicis 229
The fugitives had, however, changed horses before the
anxious functionary and his attendants could arrive to
interpose their authority ; but despite the darkness of
the night, which prevented them from obtaining even
a glimpse of those whom they were endeavouring to
overtake, they persevered with confidence, being aware
that before the close of the second stage a ferry must
be passed, which would necessarily detain the travel-
lers.
The event proved the accuracy of their calculation,
the lateness of the hour compelling L'Hote and his
companion to rouse the reluctant ferryman from his
rest, a process which involved considerable delay ; and
they were consequently scarcely half way across the
river when they heard the clatter of horses' hoofs upon
the bank, and the voice of the Mare dial hoarsely
shouting to their conductor instantly to return, or he
should be hanged for his disobedience.
The fugitives at once felt that they were lost should
they permit him to comply; and accordingly the
Spaniard drew his sword, threatening to bury it in the
heart of the affrighted ferryman should he retreat an
inch ; while L'Hote, as craven as he was traitor, could
only urge the boat forward by the rope, groaning at
intervals : " I am a dead man ! I am a dead man ! "
On gaining the opposite shore neither of the two
attempted to remount ; but, abandoning their horses,
they set off at their best speed on foot; while the
postilion by whom they had been accompanied had
great difficulty, during the return of the boat, in se-
curing the three animals who were thus suddenly com-
mitted to his sole charge.
230 The Life of
L'Hote, terrified and bewildered by the voices of
the Prevot and his men, who had, in their turn, passed
the ferry, and unable in the darkness to discern any
path by which he might secure his escape, parted
from his companion, and continued his course along
the river bank ; until, attracted by some shallows which
he supposed to be an island in the middle of the
stream, he threw himself into the water in order to
reach it; but soon getting beyond his depth, and
being unable to regain the shore, as well as alarmed by
the rapid approach of his pursuers, he perished miser-
ably; and was found on the following morning not
twenty yards from the spot where he had abandoned
the land.
The Spanish steward, who was captured on the
morrow in a hayloft about two leagues from the river,
was conducted to Paris with the corpse, which was
consigned to the prison of the Chatelet, where it was
publicly exposed during two days, and then drawn
upon a hurdle to the place of execution, where it was
torn asunder by horses ; the quarters of the body being
subsequently attached to four wheels which were
placed in the principal roads leading to the capital.
The ignominy with which the body was treated was,
as Sully asserts, in accordance with the earnest request
of the Due de Villeroy, who could not disguise from
himself the difficulty of his own position ; nor was it
until after several days' deliberation that Henry, re-
membering the extent of the confidence placed by the
Duke in the traitor by whom his interests had been so
seriously compromised, could sufficiently control his
indignation to assure him that he in nowise suspected
Marie De Medicis 231
him of complicity, but should continue to regard him
with the same trust and favour as heretofore. The
people were, however, less amenable ; nor did they
scruple to accuse M. de Villeroy of participation in the
crime of his follower. They could not forget that he
had been an active member of the League ; and they
looked with jealousy upon every transaction in which
he was involved ; while, fortunately for the Duke, the
King was ultimately prevailed upon to believe in the
sincerity of his regret, and to remember that since he
had attached himself to the royal cause he had rendered
essential service to the country ; nor did the murmurs
of his enemies, who had begun to hope that the treason
of his secretary must involve his own ruin, induce the
monarch to exhibit towards him either distrust or
severity. So lenient, indeed, did the King show him-
self, that after having being detained for a short time
in prison, the Spaniard who had been taken with
L'Hote was set at liberty, as too insignificant for trial,
and as the mere tool of his master.*
While this affair had monopolised the attention of
the King, Madame de Verneuil, enraged by a contin-
ual estrangement which threatened the most dangerous
results to herself, and resolved at all hazards to recall
the attention of the monarch, began to assert more
openly and arrogantly than ever her claim upon his
hand, and the right of her son to the succession ; while
at the same time her brother, the Comte d'Auvergne,
pretexting a quarrel with M. de Soissons, quitted the
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 185-193. Matthieu, Hist, des Derniers
Troubles, book ii. pp. 435-437. Sully, Mem. vol. v. pp. 109-121.
Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 254-257.
232 The Life of
Court, and proceeded to the Low Countries, where he
had for some time past been actively engaged in
organising a conspiracy, in support of this extravagant
and hopeless pretension.
The double personage enacted by the Marquise was
one which necessitated the utmost tact and caution,
for she was aware that it involved her liberty, if not
her life ; and consequently, in order to secure the sym-
pathy of the people, while she was at the same time
exciting the passions of those discontented nobles who
being remnants of the League still retained an uncon-
querable jealousy of the power by which they had been
prostrated, she affected the deepest and most bitter re-
pentance for her past errors, and solicited the permis-
sion of the King to retire from France with her chil-
dren, that she might expiate, by a future of retirement
and piety, the faults of which she had been guilty. To
this request Henry, without a moment's hesitation, re-
plied by the assurance that she was at perfect liberty
to withdraw from the country whenever she saw fit to
do so ; adding, however, that he would not permit the
expatriation of her children, and that before her own
departure she must deliver into his hands the written
promise of marriage, which, although according to the
decision of all the high ecclesiastics of the kingdom
totally void and valueless, she had nevertheless been so
ill-advised as to render a source of uneasiness and an-
noyance to the Queen.
This demand was, however, arrogantly rejected, the
Marquise declaring that she would neither part with
her children nor with a document that rendered her the
legal wife of the King ; a decision which so incensed
Marie De Medicis 233
Marie de Medicis that she vehemently reproached her
royal consort for an act of weakness by which her
whole married life had been embittered, and refused
to listen to any compromise until the obnoxious paper
should be restored.
Thus circumstanced, Henry at length resolved to
exert all his authority, and despairing of success
through the medium of a third person, he determined
himself to visit the Marquise and to exact the restitu-
tion of the document. At this period, however, Ma-
dame de Verneuil was too deeply involved in the con-
spiracy of her brother to prove a willing agent in her
own defeat, and she accordingly received the monarch
with an unyielding insolence for which he was totally
unprepared ; violently declaring that the promise had
been freely given, and that the birth of her son had
rendered it valid. In vain did the King insist upon
the absurdity of her pretensions ; she only replied by
sneering at the extraction of the Queen, and asserting
her own equality with a petty Tuscan princess, whose
gestures and language were, as she declared, the jest
of the whole Court. The King, outraged by so gross
an impertinence, imperatively commanded her silence
upon all that regarded the dignity or pleasure of his
royal consort, a display of firmness which more and
more exasperated the favourite, who retorted by ob-
serving that since the monarch had seen fit to retract
a solemn engagement, and thus to brand herself and
her children with disgrace, it only remained for her to
reiterate her demand for permission to leave the coun-
try, with her son and daughter, and her father and
brother, both of whom were prepared to share her
234 The Life of
fortunes, gloomy as they might be, the fear of God not
permitting her to recur to the past without the most
profound repentance.
To this persistence Henry coldly answered that in
his turn he reiterated his declaration that she was at
liberty to retire to England whenever she thought
proper to do so, and to place herself under the protec-
tion of her kinsman, the Earl of Lennox, but that he
would not suffer any other member of her family to
share her exile ; nor should she herself be permitted to
reside either in Spain or the Low Countries, where the
treasonable practices of the Comte d'Auvergne and
the party of the discontented nobles with whom she
had recently allied herself, had already given him just
cause for displeasure.
Madame de Verneuil, perfectly unabashed by this
reproach, assured the King, with a smile of haughty
defiance, that she could be as firm as himself where
her own honour and that of her children was involved,
and added that should he persist in demanding the
restoration of the written promise by which he had
triumphed over her virtue, he might seek it where it
was to be obtained, as he should never receive it from
her hands ; while as regarded her estrangement from
himself, it had ceased to be a subject of regret, as
since he had become old he had also become distrust-
ful and suspicious, and his affected favour only tended
to render her an object of public jealousy and indig-
nation.
Outraged by this last insult, the King rose angrily
from his seat, and without vouchsafing another word
to the imperious Marquise quitted the room. It was
Marie De Medicis 235
not, however, in the nature of Henri IV. to find him-
self once more in the presence of his mistress un-
moved, and although the indignity to which he had
been subjected throughout the interview just described
should have sufficed to inspire him only with disgust
for the woman who had thus emancipated herself from
every observance of respect towards his own person
and decency towards the Queen, it is nevertheless
certain that his very anger was mingled with admira-
tion ; and that not even his sense of what was due to
him both as a monarch and as a man could overcome
the attraction of Madame de Verneuil. Their tempo-
rary separation, during which he had failed to find any
equivalent for her wit and vivacity, gave an added
charm to every word she uttered ; he yearned to see
her once more brilliant and happy, devoting her intel-
lect and her fascinations to his amusement ; and even
while complaining to Sully of her impertinent and un-
compromising boldness, he could not forbear uttering
a panegyric upon her better qualities, which convinced
the minister that their misunderstanding was not des-
tined to be of long duration, an opinion in which he
was confirmed when the weak and vacillating Henry,
at the close of this enthusiastic apostrophe, proceeded
to institute a comparison between the Marquise and
the Queen, in which the latter suffered on every point.
The earnest wish to please of the favourite was con-
trasted with the coldness of Marie de Medicis, the wit
of the one with the haughty superciliousness of the
other ; in short, the longer that the King discoursed
upon the subject, the more perfect became the con-
viction of his listener that the late meeting, tempes-
236 The Life of
tuous as it was, had sufficed to restore to Madame de
Verneuil at least a portion of her former power.
" I have no society in my wife," pursued the mon-
arch ; " she neither amuses nor interests me. She is
harsh and unyielding, alike in manner and in speech,
and makes no concession either to my humour or my
tastes. When I would fain meet her with warmth she
receives me coldly, and I am glad to escape from her
apartments to seek for amusement elsewhere. My
poor cousin De Guise is my only refuge ; and although
she occasionally tells me some home-truths, yet she
does it with so much good humour that I cannot take
offence, and only laugh at her sallies." *
It was sufficiently evident at that moment that even
the " poor cousin " of the monarch, beautiful and ac-
complished though she was, faded into insignificance
before the pampered and presuming favourite.
" Perhaps," says Sully, with a calm sententiousness
better suited to some question of finance, " the Queen
had only herself to blame for not having released him
from the snares of her rival, and detached him from
every other affair of gallantry, as he appeared to me
perfectly sincere when he urged me to induce her to
conform to his tastes and to the character of his
mind! 1
M. de Sully, great as he was in his official capacity,
evidently possessed little knowledge of a woman's na-
ture, and the workings of a woman's pride. We have
seen what were the " tastes " of Henri IV., and what
was the " character of his mind " ; and although it
would undoubtedly have proved both pleasant and
* Sully, Mini. vol. v. p. 137.
Marie De Medicis 237
convenient to the harassed minister that Marie de
Medicis should have devoured her grief and mortifica-
tion, and have received the mistresses of the King as
the intimates of her circle, it was a result little to be
anticipated from a pure-hearted wife, who saw herself
the victim of every intriguing beauty whose novelty
or notoriety sufficed to attract the dissolute fancy of
her consort. Even at the very moment in which M.
de Sully records this inferential reproach upon the
Queen, he admits that Henry was once more in the
thrall of the Marquise, and, moreover, the obsequious
friend of Mademoiselle de Guise ; and yet he seeks to
visit upon Marie the odium of a disunion which can
only be, with any fairness, attributed to the King him-
self, who, even while professing to return to his alle-
giance as a husband, was openly indulging in a system
of licentiousness calculated to degrade him in the eyes
of a virtuous and exemplary woman.
That Marie de Medicis had many faults cannot be
denied by her most zealous biographer, but that she
was outraged both as a wife and as a mother is no less
certain ; and adopting, as we have a right to do, the
conjectural style of M. de Sully, perhaps, we say in
our turn, had the Queen, from the period of her mar-
riage, been treated with the deference and respect
which were her due, the harsher features of her char-
acter might have become softened, and the faults which
posterity has been compelled to couple with her name
might never have been committed. Assuredly her
period of probation was a bitter one, and it may be
doubted whether the axe of our own eighth Henry
were not after all more merciful in reality than the
238 The Life of
wire-drawn and daily-recurring torture to which his
namesake of France subjected the haughty and high-
spirited woman who was fated to find herself the victim
of his vices.
The foreboding of M. de Sully was verified, for
within a few days of the interview just recorded be-
tween the King and Madame de Verneuil, and during
the continuance of his estrangement from his wife, it
soon became known that the favourite had reassumed
her empire. In vain did the mortified minister protest
against this new weakness, and assure his royal master
that it could not fail to increase the anger and indigna-
tion of Marie de Medicis ; Henry only replied by as-
serting that when Sully should have succeeded in in-
ducing the Queen to change her humour and to exert
herself to please him, instead of persisting in closeting
herself with her foreign followers, and permitting them
to criticise his conduct and to aggravate his defects, he
would forthwith relinquish his liaison with the Mar-
quise. Such an answer, however, did not check the
zeal of his anxious adviser ; who, fearful lest this last
schism should prove more important than those by
which it had been preceded, and undeterred even by
the impatience with which the King listened to his
representations, persisted in assailing him with argu-
ments, remonstrances, and warnings, peculiarly un-
palatable at all times, but especially so at the very
moment in which he had effected a reconciliation with
the favourite that promised a renewal of the entertain-
ing intercourse whence he derived so much gratifi-
cation.
" You have now, Sire," resolutely urged the un-
Marie De Medicis 239
daunted counsellor, " an admirable opportunity of
terminating in a manner worthy of your exalted rank
the difficulty by which you are beset, and of ensuring
your own future tranquillity. Assume the authority
which appertains to you as a sovereign ; compel the
Queen to silence ; above all, strictly forbid her any
longer to indulge in public in those idle murmurs and
lamentations by which your dignity suffers so severely
in the eyes of your subjects ; and visit with the most
condign punishment every disrespectful word of which
others may be guilty either towards yourself or her.
This effort, Sire, will be insignificant besides others
which you have made, and in which your personal
tranquillity was not involved ; be no less courageous in
your own cause, and do not suffer your reputation to
be tarnished by a weakness incomprehensible in so
great and powerful a monarch. By exacting the con-
sideration and obedience which are your due, you are
guilty of no tyranny ; for it is the indisputable privi-
lege of every crowned head to enforce both. Let me
then entreat of your Majesty at once to assert yourself,
and thus put a period to the domestic differences by
which the whole Court is convulsed."
" Your advice may be good," was the evasive reply
of the King, " but you do not yet understand me, or
you would be aware that I cannot bring myself to ex-
ercise severity against persons with whom I am in the
habit of familiar intercourse, and especially against a
woman."
" In that case, Sire," said Sully, " you have but one
alternative. Exile your mistress from the Court, and
make the required concessions to the Queen."
240 The Life of
" I am prepared to do so," said Henry hastily, " if,
in return for this sacrifice on my part, she will pledge
herself no longer to annoy me by her jealousy and vio-
lence, and to meet me in the same spirit ; but I have
little hope of such a result : she is perfectly unable to
exercise the necessary self-command, and is perpetu-
ally mistaking the impulse of temper for that of
reason. Her intolerance and rancour forbid all pros-
pect of sincere harmony between us. She is perpetu-
ally threatening with her vengeance every woman
upon whom I chance to turn my eyes ; and even the
children of Gabrielle, who were in being before her
arrival in the kingdom, are as hateful to her as though
she had been personally injured by their birth ; nor
have I the least reason to anticipate that she will ever
overcome so irrational an antipathy. Nor can she be
won by kindness and indulgence. Not only have I
ever treated her with the respect and deference due to
the Queen of a great nation, but even in moments of
pecuniary pressure I have been careful, not merely to
supply her wants, but also to satisfy her caprices ; and
that too when I was aware that the sums thus bestowed
were to be squandered upon the Italian rabble whose
incessant study it has been to poison her mind against
both myself and her adopted country. Would to
Heaven, Rosny, that I had followed your advice on
her arrival, and compelled the mischievous cabal to re-
cross the Alps ; but it is now too late for such regrets ;
and if you can indeed succeed in inducing the Queen
to become more amenable to my wishes, and more in-
dulgent to my errors, Ventre Saint-Gris ! you will
effect a good work, in which I shall be ready to second
Marie De Medicis 241
you. But mark, you must do this apparently upon
your own responsibility, and be careful not to let her
learn that I have authorised such a measure, or you
will only defeat your own purpose, and render her
more impracticable than ever." *
Such was the unsatisfactory result of the effort made
by the minister to reconcile the royal couple ; while, in
addition to all his other anxieties, he found himself
placed in a position at once so difficult and so danger-
ous that he was at a loss how to proceed, until a cir-
cumstance fortunately occurred of which he hastened
to avail himself. In exchanging the petty Court of
Florence for that of France, Marie had speedily eman-
cipated herself from the compulsory economy to
which she had been accustomed from her childhood,
and had become reckless in her expenditure to an ex-
cess which constantly disturbed the equanimity of the
prudent minister of finance. The current expenses of
her household amounted annually to the sum of three
hundred and forty-five thousand livres, an enormous
outlay for that period ; while she was so lavish to her
favourites that she was constantly applying for further
supplies ; and on one occasion, when these were with-
held, had actually pawned the crown jewels, which it
was necessary to redeem by a disbursement from the
public treasury. In addition to these resources, her
income was also considerably increased by gratuities,
bribes from contracting parties,! and edicts created in
* Sully, Mhn. vol. v. pp. 139-142.'
f The French term which I have ventured thus freely to translate
is pot-de-vin, and literally signifies a sum of money given to a third
party who is able to ensure the success of a bargain or negotiation of
whatever nature. Thus, for example, in the granting and acceptance
242 The Life of
her favour ; the last of which were peculiarly obnox-
ious to Sully, from the fact of their harassing the
people without any national benefit ; and it was ac-
cordingly with great reluctance, and frequently not
without expostulation, that he was induced to counter-
sign these documents.
The circumstance to which we have alluded as
affording to Sully an opening for the delicate negotia-
tion with which he was entrusted by the King, was an
offer made to Marie de Medicis of the sum of eighty
thousand livres in the event of her causing an edict to
be issued in favour of the officials of the salt-works of
Languedoc, which she forthwith dispatched to the
minister by M. d'Argouges,* with a request that he
would use his influence to obtain it.
Having made himself acquainted with the nature
and tendency of the edict, M. de Sully desired the
messenger to inform her Majesty that he was of opin-
ion that the sovereign might safely authorise its oper-
ation without any injury to the public interests ; but
added that he feared the moment was an unpropitious
one as regarded the Queen herself, the King being
still deeply offended by some of her recent proceed-
ings ; nor would he advise her to venture upon such
of a lease which has been effected by such means, the contracting
parties jointly pay down the stipulated amount, irrespective of the
value of the lease, for the benefit of the person through whose agency
it has been concluded ; while so general is the system throughout the
country, even to this day, that domestic servants give a pot-de-vin to
the individual to whom they are indebted for their situation, in which
instance, however, the bribe or recompense is also called a denier d
Dieu.
* Florent d'Argouges, Treasurer of the Queen's Household. His
son was first president of the Parliament of Brittany, and subsequently
councillor of state and member of the Privy Council.
Marie De Medicis 243
an application until she had succeeded in disarming
his anger ; for which purpose he respectfully suggested
that she should endeavor to conciliate her royal consort
by some concession, which he would exert all his
ability to enhance in the eyes of his master, and in
every way endeavour to advance her interests as he
had already done on several previous occasions.
Marie, eager to possess herself of the large sum thus
proffered for her acceptance, consented to follow his
advice ; and decided upon addressing a letter to the
King, expressive of her regret at the coldness which
existed between them, and of her willingness to meet
his wishes should he condescend to explain them.
This letter having been read and approved by the
finance minister was forthwith forwarded from Fon-
tainebleau, where Marie de Medicis was then residing,
to the King at Paris ; but it was not without a struggle
that the Queen had compelled herself to such an act
of self-abnegation, and her courier was no sooner
despatched than she complained in bitter terms to M.
de Sully of the humiliations to which she was sub-
jected by the infatuation of the monarch for Madame
de Verneuil ; declaring that she could never submit to
look with favour or indulgence upon a woman who
had the presumption to institute comparisons between
herself and her sovereign ; who was rearing her chil-
dren with all the pretensions of Princes of the Blood
Royal, and encouraging them in demonstrations of
disrespect towards her own person ; and who was,
moreover, fomenting sedition, i>y encouraging the dis-
contented nobles to manifestations of disloyalty to
their monarch ; while the King, blinded by his passion,
244 The Life of
made no effort to rebuke, or even to restrain, her im-
pertinence.
The minister listened calmly and respectfully to
these outpourings of her indignation, but assured her
in reply that it only depended upon herself to annihi-
late the influence of the favourite, by a system of con-
sideration for the feelings of her royal consort of which
she had not hitherto condescended to test the efficacy.
He, moreover, implored her to make the trial; and
represented so forcibly the benefit which must accrue
to herself by a restoration of domestic peace, that she
at length admitted the justice of his arguments, and
pledged herself to accelerate, by every means in her
power, a full and perfect reconciliation.
Gratified by this almost unhoped-for success, Sully
shortly afterwards withdrew; and the reply of the
King to the letter which she had addressed to him was
delivered to Marie when she was surrounded only by
her own private circle. It was at once courteous and
conciliatory ; and it is probable that, had it arrived
before the departure of the Duke, it would have been
acknowledged in the same spirit; but, unfortunately,
the Queen had no sooner communicated its contents
to her confidential friends than she was met by the
assurance that the monarch had, on the receipt of her
missive, carried it to the Marquise, where her credulity
had excited great amusement, an assertion which was
followed by other commentaries so distasteful to her
pride, that, instead of persevering in the prudent course
which she had been induced to adopt, she haughtily
informed the royal courier by whom the letter had
been brought that she should entrust him with no
Marie De Medicis 245
written reply, but should expect his Majesty on the
following day according to his own appointment.
This marked and impolitic demonstration of dis-
respect excited anew the resentment of Henry, who
openly expressed his indignation in the most unmeas-
ured terms, and that so publicly, that within a few
hours Marie was informed of every particular ; and the
breach which Sully had fondly flattered himself that he
was about to heal became wider and more threatening
than ever. *
Meanwhile the commerce of the King and the
favourite was far from affording to the former all the
gratification which he had anticipated from its renewal.
The coquetry to designate it by no harsher term of
Madame de Verneuil irritated the jealousy of the mon-
arch, who could not forget that she had taunted him
with his advancing age, and who saw her unblushingly
encourage the admiration and attention of such of the
courtiers as she could induce to brave his displeasure ;
while her lavish expenditure and unceasing demands,
alike upon his patience and his purse, involved him in
perpetual difficulties with his finance minister, which
her extravagant attempts to assume the airs and to
usurp the privileges of quasi-royalty did not tend to
diminish.
The French King was, in fact, at this period, the
victim of his own vices ; the sovereign of a great and
powerful nation, without a home or a hearth, a wifeless
husband, and a discontented lover ; tenderly attached
to all his children, and yet unable to confer a favour
upon the offspring of one mother without incurring
* Sully, Mtm. vol. v. pp. 144-146.
246 The Life of
the resentment of the other ; and while feeling himself
degraded by the thrall in which he lived, totally devoid
of the moral courage necessary for his escape from so
disgraceful a bondage.
It is in moments such as these that virtue and
honour assert their well-earned privileges without even
the effort of enforcing them. Weary of his perpetual
discomfort, harassed by the heartless conduct of his
mistress, and pining for the mental repose which he so
greatly needed, Henry once more turned towards his
wife as his only probable and legitimate haven of rest ;
but hopeless of success through his own agency, he
again addressed himself to Sully for assistance and
support.
Suddenly summoned by the monarch, the minister
presented himself at the Tuileries, where he found
Henry in the orangery, in which he had taken refuge
from a shower of rain, pale, agitated, and anxious.
The subject of his reconciliation with the Queen was
mooted on the instant, and he repeatedly called upon
Sully for his advice as to the best and surest method of
effecting it. Conscious that his counsels had hitherto
been either disregarded or rendered abortive by the
King himself, the Duke endeavoured to escape this
new demand upon his patience, but Henry was per-
emptory.
" Since then you command me to speak, Sire," he
said at length, " I will be frank. In order to accom-
plish the object which you have in view, you can only
pursue one course. Put the sea between yourself and
four or five individuals by whom you are now beset,
and cause as many others to pass the Alps."
Marie De Medicis 247
" Your first suggestion is practicable," was the reply ;
" there is nothing to prevent me from banishing the
malcontents who are conspiring in my very Court, but
I am differently situated with regard to the Italians ;
for, in addition to the hatred which I should draw
down upon myself from a nation proverbially vindic-
tive, the Queen would never forgive an affront offered
to her favourites. In order to free myself from these
she must be induced herself to propose their return to
their own country, and I know no one more likely
than you, Rosny, to effect an object at once so desira-
ble and so important. Make the attempt, therefore ;
and should you succeed, I pledge myself from that
moment to abstain from every intrigue of gallantry.
Reflect upon what I have suggested in my turn, and
consider the means by which this may be accom-
plished with the least possible delay."
So saying, the king, after ascertaining that the
weather had again cleared, abruptly quitted the
orangery, leaving M. de Sully perfectly aghast at the
new duty which had thus been suddenly thrust upon
him.
As it was utterly impossible to propose such a
measure to Marie de Medicis as that of dismissing her
most favoured attendants until a perfect reconciliation
had been effected between the royal couple, it was to
that object that the prudent minister first turned his
attention; and so successful did he ultimately prove,
that after a brief correspondence the King and Queen
had an interview, during which the whole of their
recent misunderstanding was calmly discussed, and de-
clared by both parties to have been occasioned by the
248 The Life of
ill-judged interference of those by whom they were
severally surrounded ; nor did they separate until they
had mutually pledged themselves to consign the past
to oblivion/ and thenceforward to close their ears
against all the gossiping of the Court.
The effect produced by this matrimonial truce (for
it was unfortunately nothing more, and lasted only for
the short space of three weeks) was of the most happy
description. Nothing was seen or heard of save proj-
ects of amusement, which, not content with absorb-
ing the present, extended also into the future. This
calm, like those by which it had been preceded, was
not, however, fated to realise the hopes of either party.
Henry was too much addicted to pleasure to fulfil his
part of the compact, while the Queen had, unhappily
for her own peace, so long ascustomed herself to listen
to the comments and complaints of her favourites, that
it was not long ere they found her as well disposed as
she had previously been to lend a willing ear to their
communications. In Madame de Verneuil they, of
course, possessed a fruitful topic ; and as Marie, despite
all her good resolutions, could not restrain her
curiosity with regard to the proceedings of this obnox-
ious personage, she ere long betrayed her knowledge
of the new affronts to which she had been subjected
by the Marquise.
The result of this unfortunate enlightenment was such
as, from her impulsive character, might justly have
been anticipated. She no sooner found herself in
the society of the King than she once more assailed
him with invectives and reproaches which he was of
no temper to brook ; and in this new dilemma Sully
Marie De Medicis 249
resolved, as a last and crowning effort to establish peace,
to suggest to Marie that as her happiness had again
been destroyed solely by the evil tongues about her,
she should secure to herself the gratitude and affection
of her royal consort by dismissing all her Italian house-
hold, and surrounding herself entirely by French
friends and attendants.
The indignation of the Queen at this proposal was
beyond the reach of all argument. She declared her-
self to be sufficiently unhappy separated from her
family, and neglected by her husband, without driving
from her presence, almost with ignominy, the few per-
sons who still remained faithful to her interests, and
who sincerely sympathised in her sufferings; and
although the Duke ventured again and again to recur
to the subject, and always with the same earnestness,
Marie continued to reject his counsel as steadily as
when it was first offered.*
The new attachment felt or feigned by the King for
Mademoiselle de la Bourdaisiere had again awakened
her jealousy ; and she complained with equal reason
that Henry, even while indulging in this new passion,
made no attempt to restrain the arrogance and bitter-
ness of the forsaken favourite. Nor was Madame de
Verneuil less indignant than the Queen ; for even while
affecting an extreme devotion, and surrounding her-
self with ecclesiastics, who, not content with labouring
to effect her salvation, were also feeding her vanity
with the most fulsome panegyrics, she could ill brook
to see herself so easily forgotten ; and once more she
indulged in such indecent liberties with the name of
* Sully, Mem. vol. v. pp. 147-149.
250 The Life of
Marie de Medicis that the King, whose patience was
the more easily exhausted from the fact that he be-
lieved himself to be at last independent of her fascina-
tions, was again driven to resort to the assistance of M.
de Sully, in order to compel the restoration of the
written promise of marriage which he had been weak
enough to place in her hands.
It was, indeed, impossible for the sovereign of a great
nation longer to temporise with an insolence which at
this period had exceeded all endurable limits ; for not
only did the Marquise assert, as she had previously
done, the illegality of the King's union with his wife,
but so thoroughly had her affected devotion wrought
upon the minds of the priests about her that several
among them were induced to support her pretended
claim, and even publicly to declare the bans of mar-
riage between herself and the monarch.* Among
these, two Capuchins, Father Hilaire of Grenoble and
Father Archange, her confessors, the last in France, and
the first in Rome, attached themselves recklessly to her
interests,! while at the same time numerous letters and
pamphlets were distributed in the capital, advocating
her cause ; J and so dangerously active had the cabal
* Sully, Mtm. vol. v. p. 155.
f Saint-Edme, vol. ii. p. 223.
J In order to convey some idea of the effect produced by the osten-
sible devotion of Madame de Verneuil upon those who gave her credit
for sincerity, we need only quote a passage in the dedication of
D'Hemery d'Amboise to his translation of the works of Gregoire de
Tours, in which, addressing himself to the Marquise, he gravely says
" that she had deduced from the inspired writings of the fathers their
salutary doctrine ; and that she practised it so faithfully, that her firm-
ness had triumphed over her adversities, and her merit exceeded her
happiness. Your life," he adds, with the same unblushing syco-
phancy, " serves as a mirror for the most pious, and compels the ad-
Marie De Medicis 251
become in the Eternal City that the Cardinal d'Ossat
considered it expedient to address a letter to the
French Government upon the subject, which impli-
cated in this wild conspiracy both the King of Spain
and the Duke of Savoy, who, through the agency of
Father Hilaire, were represented as upholding the pre-
tensions of Madame de Verneuil. These circumstances,
and especially the notoriety of a fact which involved
alike the dignity of her husband and her own honour,
so greatly exasperated the temper of the Queen that
she no longer attempted to control her irritation ; and
on one occasion when, as was constantly the case, the
pretended claim of the Marquise became the subject of
discord between the royal couple, Marie so thoroughly
forgot the respect which she owed to the King that she
raised her hand to strike him. Fortunately, however, for
both parties, the Due de Sully, who was present dur-
ing the altercation, and who instantly detected her in-
tention, sprang forward and seized her arm ; but in his
haste he was compelled to do this so roughly that she
afterwards declared he had given her a blow, adding,
however, that she was grateful to him for having thus
preserved her from a worse evil.
So great, indeed, was her sense of the obligation
thus conferred, that thenceforward Marie regarded the
finance minister with more favour than she had hitherto
done ; and occasionally requested his advice during her
miration of all who see so holy and resolute a determination exerted at
an age that has scarcely attained its prime ; and at which, despising
mere personal beauty, and the other precious advantages with which
you have been richly endowed by Heaven, you have devoted the course
of your best years to the contemplation of the marvels of God, joining
spiritual meditation to good works." Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp.
94, 95-
252 The Life of
misunderstandings with the King. She could not have
chosen a safer counsellor, for although Sully does not,
in any instance, attempt to disguise his dislike to the
Tuscan princess, he was incapable of betraying so
sacred a trust ; and if, as generally occurs in such cases,
his advice was frequently neglected, she never once
had cause to question its propriety.
A short time subsequent to the scene we have just
described the Queen sent to request the presence of
the minister in her closet, where he found her convers-
ing with Concini, and evidently much excited. On
his entrance she informed him that she was weary of
the infidelities of the monarch ; that the jealousy
which he constantly kept alive alike undermined her
health and destroyed her happiness ; and that she had
determined to follow the advice of her faithful servant,
there present, and to communicate to his Majesty cer-
tain advances which had been made to her by some of
the Court nobles, who were less insensible to her at-
tractions than the King himself.
This communication startled M. de Sully ; and while
he was endeavouring to frame a reply by which he
might remain uncompromised, Concini with his usual
presumption followed up the declaration of the Queen
by asserting his own conviction that it was the wisest
measure which she could adopt ; as it would at once
convince her royal consort that she desired to keep
nothing secret from him in which he was personally
interested.
This interruption afforded time for the Duke to
collect his thoughts, and heedless of the interfer-
ence of the Italian, he remarked in his turn
Marie De Medicis 253
that her Majesty must pardon him if he declined to
offer any opinion on so delicate a question, as it was
one entirely beyond his province ; after which, reso-
lutely changing the tone of the discourse, he continued
to converse with the Queen upon indifferent topics until
Concini had retired. Then, however, he voluntarily
reverted to the subject which she had herself mooted,
and implored her to abandon her design ; assuring her
that he had her interest too sincerely at heart to see
her without anxiety about to place herself in a position
at once false and dangerous, as such an assurance from
her own lips could not fail to excite in the breast of
the King the greatest and most legitimate suspicions ;
for every man of sense must at once feel that no in-
dividual, be his rank what it might, would have dared
to declare his passion to a person of her exalted con-
dition without having previously ascertained that its
expression would be agreeable to her, and having been
tacitly encouraged to do so ; while, on the other hand,
so far from discovering any merit in such an avowal,
or regarding it as a proof of confidence, his Majesty
would immediately decide that the motive by which
she had been actuated in making it must have been
either the fear of discovery, or a desire to rid herself
of persons of whom she had become weary, in order
that she might be left at liberty to encourage new
suitors ; or, finally, that she had been urged to this un-
heard-of measure by individuals who had obtained
sufficient influence over her mind to induce her to
sacrifice her peace and her honour to their own
views.*
* Richelieu, Hist, de la Mere et du Fits, vol. i. pp. 8-n.
254 The Life of
Happily for herself, Marie de Medicis admitted the
validity of these arguments, and abandoned her ill-
advised intention ; and she was the more readily in-
duced to do this from the assurance which she received
from M. de Sully that the restoration of the promise
given to Madame de Verneuil by the King was about
to be enforced, and that she would consequently be
speedily relieved from the anxiety by which she had
been so long tormented. Nor was the pledge an idle
one, as immediate measures were adopted to effect this
act of justice towards the Queen. The negotiation
was renewed by two autograph letters from the King
himself, addressed respectively to the Comte d'En-
tragues and the Marquise de Verneuil, which were
long preserved in the library of Joly de Fleury, but
are now supposed to be lost. Copies of both had
been, however, fortunately taken by the Abbe de
1'Ecluse,* and as they are highly characteristic of the
monarch, and cannot fail to prove interesting to the
reader, we shall insert them at length.
To M. d'Entragues the King wrote as follows :
" M. d'Entragues, je vous envoye ce porteur pour
me rapporter la promesse que je vous baillay a Males-
herbes je vous prys ne faillir de me la renvoyer et si
vous voulez me la rapporter vous mesme je vous diray
les raisons qui m'y poussent qui sont domestiques et
non d'estat par lesquelles vous direz que jay raison et
reconnaitrez que vous avez ete trompe, et que jay un
naturel plutost trop bon que autrement, massurant que
vous obeyrez a mon commandement, je finirai vous
assurant que je suis votre bon mestre."
* MSS. Dupuy, vol. 407.
Marie De Medicis 255
The letter addressed to Madame de Verneuil bears
the same date, and runs thus :
" Mademoiselle, lamour, Ihonneur et les bienfaits que
vous avez recus de moi, eussent arrete la plus legere
ame du monde si elle n'eut point ete accompagnee
d'un mauvais naturel comme le vostre. Je ne vous
picqueray davantage bien que je le peusse et dusse
fair, vous le savez : je vous prie de me renvoyer la pro-
messe que savez et ne me donnez point la peine de la
revoir par autre voye: renvoyez moi aussi la bague
que je vous rendis 1'autre jour : voila le sujet de cette
lettre, de laquelle je veux avoir reponse a minuit."
These specimens of royal eloquence were unavail-
ing; evasive answers were returned by the King's
messenger, and entreaties having proved ineffectual,
threats were subsequently substituted, upon which the
arrogant Marquise was ultimately induced to relinquish
her claim to ascend the throne of France, on condition
that she should, at the moment of delivering up the
document, receive in exchange the sum of twenty
thousand silver crowns and the promise of a marshal's
baton for her father the Comte d'Entragues, who had
never been upon a field of battle. This condition,
onerous as it appears, was accepted ; and the father of
the lady finally, but with evident reluctance, restored
the pernicious document to the King in the presence
of the Comte de Soissons and the Due de Montpen-
sier, MM. de Bellievre, de Sillery, de Maisse,* de Jean-
*Andr Hurault, Seigneur de Maisse, had been ambassador to
Venice under both Henri III. and Henri IV., and in his official
capacity had frequent disputes with the nuncios of Sixtus V. and
Clement VIII., in consequence of which those prelates exerted all
their influence to injure his interests at the Court of Rome. Andr6
256
The Life of
nin, de Gevres,* and de Villeroy, by whom it was veri-
fied, and who signed a declaration to this effect, t
although it was afterwards proved J that D'Entragues
had only delivered into the hands of Henry a well-
executed copy of the paper, while he himself retained
the original.
This ceremony over, the Marquise was commanded
to leave the Court, and for a short time peace was per-
fectly restored. The King had already become weary
of his new conquest, and the hand of Mademoiselle de
la Bourdaisiere was bestowed upon a needy and com-
plaisant courtier ; but still the absence of the brilliant
favourite, despite all her insolence, left a void in the
existence of Henry which no legitimate affection suf-
ficed to fill, and it was consequently not long ere he
became enamoured of Mademoiselle de Bueil, a
Morosin mentions M. de Maisse as an able and far-seeing man, sagaci
admodum ingenio. In 1595 Henri IV. again sent him to Venice to
offer his thanks to the Senate for the extraordinary embassy which
they had forwarded to him during the previous year ; and as M. de
Maisse travelled on this occasion with Cardinal Duperron, who was
instructed to pass by that city on his way to Rome, great alarm was
created in the mind of the Pope that the French ambassador was about
to visit the Papal Court in his company, an event which he deprecated
from the distrust which he felt of the designs of an individual who had
already frustrated the measures of his accredited agents. His Holi-
ness was, however, quitte pour la peur, the instructions of M. de
Maisse having restricted him to his Venetian mission.
* Louis Potier de Gevres, Secretary of State. It is from him that
the branch of his family still bearing the name of Gevres is descended,
while that of Novion owes its origin to his elder brother, Nicolas
Potier de Blancmenil.
f Mezeray, vol. x. p. 261.
j Le Labouretir sur Castelnau.
Jacqueline de Bueil, subsequently Comtesse de Moret, was the
daughter of Claude de Bueil, Seigneur de Courcillon and La Ma-
chere, and of Catherine de Monteclu, who both died in 1596. The
family of Bueil traced their descent from Jean, the first of the name,
Sieur de Bueil in Touraine, who was equerry of honour to Charles-le-
Bel in 1321.
Marie De Medicis 257
young beauty who had recently appeared at Court in
the suite of the Princesse de Conde. The extra-
ordinary loveliness of the youthful orphan at once
rivetted the attention of the King, and her own inex-
perience made her, in so licentious a Court as that of
Henri IV., an easy victim, so easy, indeed, that the
libertine monarch did not even affect towards her the
same consideration which he had shown to his former
favourites, although her extraordinary personal per-
fections sufficed to render her society at this period
indispensable to him.
It was not long ere the exiled favourite was apprised
of this new infidelity, yet such was her reliance upon
her own power over the passions of the King that she
affected to treat it with contempt ; but although she
scorned to admit that she could feel any dread of
being supplanted by a rival, after-events tended to
prove that she was by no means so indifferent to the
circumstance as she endeavoured to appear, and being
as vindictive in her hate as she was unmeasured in her
ambition, she could not forgive the double insult which
had been offered to her pride. Forgetting the excesses
of which she had been guilty, and the forbearance of
the King, not only towards her faults, but even to-
wards her vices, she determined on revenge, and
unhappily she felt that the means were within her
reach.
The Comte d'Auvergne, although he had been a
second time pardoned by Henry, who was ever too
ready to receive him into favour, and was wont to de-
clare that although he was a prodigal son he could
never make up his mind to see the offspring of his
258 The Life of
King and brother-in-law perish upon a scaffold,* was
devotedly attached to his sister, and of an intriguing
spirit which delighted in every species of cabal and
conspiracy ; while Francois de Balzac d'Entragues, her
father, overlooking the fact that he had himself become
the husband of a woman whose reputation was lost be-
fore their marriage, talked loudly of the dishonour which
the King had brought upon his family, and moreover
resented, with great reason, an attempt made by Henry
to seduce his younger daughter, Marie de Balzac.
For this lady, who subsequently became the mistress
of Bassompierre, the King conceived so violent a pas-
sion that, although at that period in his fiftieth year,
he did not hesitate to assume the disguise of a peasant
in order to meet her in the forest of Verneuil. The
appointment had, however, become known to M.
d'Entragues, who, exasperated by this second affront,
and indignant at the persevering licentiousness of the
monarch, stationed himself with fifteen devoted ad-
herents in different quarters of the wood in order to
take his life. Happily for Henry, he was well
mounted, and on being attacked, defended himself so
resolutely that he escaped almost by a miracle.
The disappointment of M. d'Entragues at this failure
was so great that he compelled his daughter to propose
another meeting in a solitary spot which he indicated,
and where he made every preparation to secure the
assassination of the imprudent monarch ; but although
she despatched the letter containing the assignation,
Marie de Balzac found means to apprise her royal lover
of the reception which awaited him, and he con-
* Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 97.
Marie De Medicis 259
sequently failed to keep the appointment.* That the
Comte d'Entragues, twice foiled in his meditated venge-
ance, should lend himself willingly to any conspiracy
against the honour and life of his sovereign, is conse-
quently scarcely surprising, when we remember how
many nobles had in turn caballed against Henri IV.
with scarcely a pretext for their disloyalty ; and mean-
while Madame de Verneuil, fully conscious of the
hatred of Philip of Spain for the French King, had no
sooner resolved upon revenge than she at once turned
her attention towards that monarch, and by exciting
his worst passions succeeded in securing his support.
She found an able and zealous coadjutor in Don
Balthazar de Zuniga, the Spanish Ambassador at the
Court of France; while her stepbrother, the Comte
d'Auvergne, was no less successful with the Duke of
Savoy, who, like Philip III., was never more happy
than when he discovered and profited by an opportu-
nity of harassing the French sovereign.
This conspiracy, as absurd as it was criminal, was,
moreover, supported by many of the discontented
nobles who had never pardoned Henry for the suppres-
sion of the League ; and, wild as such a project can-
not fail to appear in these days, we have the authority
of Amelot de la Houssaye t for the fact that the Comte
* Wraxall, vol. v. pp. 356, 357.
f Abraham-Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye, was born at Orleans
in the year 1634, and passed nearly all his life in composing works of
history and in translating the historians by whom he had been preceded.
His principal productions are A History of the Government of Venice ;
Historical, Political, Critical, and Literary Memoirs; and transla-
tions of the History of the Council of Trent, by Fra Paolo ; of the
Prince, by Machiavelli ; and of the Annals of Tacitus. He died in
1706.
260 The Life of
d'Auvergne had induced Philip by a secret treaty to
promise his assistance in placing Henri de Bourbon,
the son of Henri IV. and Madame de Verneuil, on the
throne of France, to the detriment of the legitimate
offspring of Marie de Medicis.
In the act by which Philip bound himself thus to
recognise the pretended claim of the Marquise, he also
gave a pledge to furnish her with five hundred
thousand livres in money, and to despatch the Spanish
troops which at that moment occupied Catalonia to
support the disaffected French subjects who might be
induced to join the cabal in Guienne and Languedoc.
Report also said that M. d'Auvergne, not satisfied
with this attempt to undermine the throne of Henri
IV., had formed a design against his life, but the
rumour obtained no credit even from his enemies.*
Whatever extenuation may be found for Madame de
Verneuil in such an attempt as this ; whatever indul-
gence may be conceded to a woman baffled in her
ambition, misled by her confidence in a supposititious
claim, and urged on by a blind and uncalculating affec-
tion for her children, it is difficult to find any excuse
for the persevering ingratitude of her stepbrother.
As regards M. d'Entragues, we have already shown that
he had more than sufficient cause for seeking revenge
upon a monarch who sacrificed every important con-
sideration to the passion of the moment; but the
Comte d'Auvergne had experienced nothing save in-
dulgence from Henry, and it was consequently in cold
blood that he organised a conspiracy, which, had it
succeeded, must have plunged the whole nation into
* M<zeray, vol. x. pp. 261, 262.
Majrie De Medicis 261
civil war. He was, moreover, the more culpable that
he had, in order to secure a pardon for his previous
participation in the crime of Biron, assured the too-
credulous monarch, that in the event of his restoration
to favour, he would, if permitted to contine his inter-
course with Philip of Spain as unrestrictedly as here-
tofore, profit by the facility thus afforded to him to
reveal to his Majesty all the secrets of the Spanish
Government.
There can be no doubt that such a proposal must
have startled and even disgusted the frank nature of
the French King ; but it was nevertheless too tempting
to be rejected ; and he himself avowed to Sully, when
the new conspiracy of D'Auvergne became known to
him, that it was less by the prayers of the culprit's
sister, and by his own consideration for the children
whom she had borne to him, than in the hope that he
might, through the medium of the Count, be enabled
to counteract the measures of his most subtle and dan-
gerous enemy, that he had been induced on that
occasion to pardon his disloyalty. *
By this unwise and ill-calculated concession the King
had afforded an opportunity to the restless and dis-
affected noble of pursuing a correspondence with Philip
as dangerous as it was convenient. Couriers were per-
mitted to come and go unquestioned ; and it was not
long ere every measure of the French Cabinet was as
intimately known at Madrid as it was in the Privy
Council of Henry himself. This evil was, moreover,
increased by the unconditional pardon which had
enabled M. d'Auvergne, after his strange and degra-
* Sully, Mem. vol. iv. p. 125.
262 The Life of
ding offer, to return to the Court ; and he profited so
eagerly by the opportunity which was thus afforded to
him that he had little difficulty in convincing the false
and vindictive Philip that the moment was at length
come in which he might overthrow the power of the
sovereign whom he hated.
M. de Lomenie, however, who, unaware of the
promise made by the Count to Henry, became uneasy
at the constant communication which the former main-
tained with the Court of Spain, at length determined
to satisfy himself as to its nature, and for this purpose
he intercepted some letters, by which he instantly be-
came convinced of the treason meditated against his
royal master. Indignant at the discovery which super-
vened, he suffered his displeasure to reach the ears of
the culprit, who forthwith quitted the capital, and
hastened to secure himself from arrest in Auvergne, of
which province he was the governor, and where he
made instant preparations to leave the kingdom should
such a step become necessary.
It was consequently in vain that the King, when in-
formed of the circumstance, despatched the Sieur
d'Escures * to summon the Count to his presence in
order that he might justify himself. D'Auvergne
resolutely refused to quit his retreat until he had re-
ceived a formal promise from the sovereign that he
should be absolved from all blame of whatever descrip-
tion, and received by his Majesty with his accustomed
favour, alleging as a pretext for making this demand,
that he was on bad terms with all the Princes of the
Blood, with the Grand Equerry, and even with his
* Pierre Fougeuse, Sieur d'Escures.
Marie De Medicis 263
sister, Madame de Verneuil, and that he could not
make head against such a host of enemies except he
were supported by the King.
The expostulations of the royal messenger were
fruitless, the Count being more fully alive to the
danger of his position than M. d'Escures himself ; and
to every argument and denegation of the anxious
envoy he consequently replied by saying that it was
useless to urge him to compromise his safety while he
felt certain that his ruin had been decided upon, a fact
of which he was convinced from the circumstance of
his having received no letter from any of the intimate
friends of the King since he had withdrawn from the
Court, while he was sufficiently acquainted with the
bad disposition of Madame de Verneuil to be assured
that in the event of her being enabled to effect a recon-
ciliation with the monarch at his expense, she would
not scruple to sacrifice his interests to her own.
The embassy of M. d'Escures thus signally failed,
and instead of furthering the purpose for which it was
intended, it produced a totally opposite effect, as,
warned by this attempt to regain possession of his per-
son, it induced M. d'Auvergne to adopt the most ex-
traordinary precautions. He from that moment not
only refused to enter any town or village where he
might be surprised, but he also declined to hold any
intercourse even with his most familiar friends save on
a highway, or in some plain or forest where the means
of escape were easy ; and when hunting, a sport to
which he was passionately attached, and which was at
that period the only relaxation he could enjoy with
safety, he caused videttes to be stationed upon the sur-
264 The Life of
rounding heights, who were instructed to apprise him
by a concerted signal of the approach of strangers.*
All his caution was, however, vain, his capture being
an object of too much importance to the King, at the
present conjuncture, to be readily relinquished, and
accordingly it was at length effected by a stratagem.
By the advice of the Due de Sully, this enterprise was
entrusted to M. Murat, f who associated with himself
M. de Nerestan J and the Vicomte de Pont-Chateau,
who, by his instructions, paid several visits to the
Count at his chateau of Borderon near Clermont, with-
out, however, inducing him to quit its walls.
These gentlemen, nevertheless, made themselves so
agreeable to the self-exiled conspirator, and listened so
patiently to his complaints, that their society became
at last necessary to him, and so thoroughly did they
succeed in gaining his confidence that they finally ex-
perienced little difficulty in persuading him to be pres-
ent at a review of the light cavalry of the Due de
Vendome, of which he was the colonel-general, and
which was about to take place in a little plain between
Clermont and Nonant. He accordingly proceeded to
the spot with only two attendants, and he was no
sooner seen approaching than M. de Nerestan and the
Vicomte de Pont-Chateau advanced from the ranks,
apparently to welcome him, but on reaching his side,
the latter seized the bridle of his horse, while his com-
* Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 453, 454.
f Treasurer of the war department, and lieutenant-general at Riom.
$ Philibert de Nerestan, knight of Malta, and captain of the body-
guard of Henri IV., was as celebrated for his admirable qualities of
mind and heart as for the antiquity of his birth. He was grand
master of the Orders of St. Lazarus and Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel,
the latter of which was instituted by the sovereign at his intercession.
Marie De Medicis 265
panion arrested him in the name of the King.* Re-
sistance was of course impossible, and thus the Comte
d'Auvergne, despite all his precautions, found himself
a prisoner.
L'Etoile, f with a naivete well calculated to provoke
a smile of pity, calls this a " brave " and subtle strata-
gem ; on its subtlety we may be silent, but we leave
alike its courage and its honesty to the judgment of
our readers. Sully admits \ that not only the two
captors, but even Murat himself, who had an ancient
grudge against D'Auvergne, spared no pains or deceit
to insinuate themselves into his confidence, while it is
equally certain that it was to his perfect faith in their
professions that he owed his capture.
Having secured their prisoner, M. Murat and his
coadjutors caused him to deliver up his sword, and to
exchange the powerful charger upon which he was
mounted for a road-hack that had been prepared for
him, upon which he proceeded under a strong guard
to Briare, whence he was conducted in a carriage to
Montargis, and finally, conveyed in a boat to Paris.
During this enforced journey his gaiety never deserted
him, nor did he appear to entertain the slightest appre-
hension as to the result of his imprisonment ; through-
out the whole of the way he jested, drank, and laughed,
as though his return to the capital had been voluntary ;
and when he was finally met at the gates of the city
by M. de la Chevalerie, the lieutenant-governor of the
Bastille, he was in such exuberant spirits that the
* Matthieu, Hist^des Verniers Troubles, book ii. p. 438. Perehxe,
vol. ii. pp. 406, 407.
f L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 242.
j Memoir es, vol. v. p. 185.
266 The Life of
astounded official deemed it expedient to remind him
that they had not come together to dance a ballet, but
for a totally different purpose. *
It was only when he found himself conducted to the
very chamber which had been occupied by the Mare-
chal de Biron previous to his execution, that a shade
of anguish passed over the features of the Count. He
could not but remember that the traitor-Duke, who
had rendered great and good service to his sovereign,
had suffered for the same crime of which he was in
his turn accused without any such plea for mercy,
and it is therefore scarcely surprising that he should
have been startled upon finding himself installed as the
successor of the condemned marshal.
M. d'Auvergne was not, however, of a temperament
long to yield to gloomy ideas, and consequently, while
his unhappy wife | was lost in tears, and endeavouring
by every exertion in her power to save him from a fate
which appeared inevitable, he availed himself to the
utmost of the leniency of his jailors, and indulged in
every luxury and amusement which he was enabled to
command. Agonised by her apprehensions, the un-
happy Countess at length resolved to throw herself at
the feet of the King, where, with a humility which
contrasted strangely with the unbending arrogance of
her sister-in-law, Madame de Verneuil, she besought in
the most touching terms that Henry would spare the
life of her husband, and once more pardon his crime.
Her earnest supplications evidently affected the King,
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 243.
f Charlotte, eldest daughter of Henri, Due de Montmorency, High
Constable of France.
Marie De Medicis 267
while Marie de Medicis, who was present, wept with
the heart-broken wife, and warmly seconded her peti-
tion, but the monarch, who probably feared the result
of such an act of mercy, having raised her from her
knees with a gentle kindness which made her tears flow
afresh, led her to the side of the Queen, upon whose
arm he placed his hand as he said firmly : " Deeply,
Madame, do I pity you, and sympathise in your suffer-
ing, but were I to grant what you ask, I must neces-
sarily admit my wife to be impure, my son a bastard,
and my kingdom the prey of my enemies."
All, therefore, that the Countess could obtain was
the royal permission to communicate with her hus-
band, a concession of which she hastened to take ad-
vantage ; when, in reply to her anxious inquiry as to
what he desired of her, she received by her messenger
the heartless reply that she might send him a good
stock of cheese and mustard, and that she need not
trouble herself about anything else.*
The intercepted letters of the Comte d'Auvergne
having also implicated his stepfather M. d'Entragues,
and his sister Madame de Verneuil, both were subse-
quently arrested ; the former by the Provost Defunctis f
in his castle of Marcoussis, and the latter at her resi-
dence in the Faubourg St. Germain ; while her chil-
dren were taken from her, and sent, under a proper
escort, to the palace of St. Germain-en-Laye. So im-
portant did it, moreover, appear to the French min-
isters to ascertain the exact extent of the conspiracy,
* L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 247-249.
f Jean Defunctis, Lieutenant criminal of the Provost of Paris.
Hist. Chron. de la Chance II. de France, p. 316.
268 The Life of
that the Provost was accompanied to Marcoussis by M.
de Lomenie, in order that a search might be instituted
upon the premises ; the result of which tended to
prove, beyond all possibility of doubt, that the original
engagement delivered by the father of the Marquise to
the sovereign had, in fact, not been restored, but had
been skilfully copied by some able pen ; while the im-
portance which was still attached to the real document
by the family of Madame de Verneuil may be gathered
from the fact that it was discovered by the Secretary
of State in a glass bottle, carefully sealed and enclosed
within a second, which was laid upon a heap of cotton
and built up in a wall of one of the apartments. Nor
was this the only object of importance found in the
possession of M. d'Entragues ; as, together with the
promise of marriage which he had professed to restore
to the King, M. de Lomenie likewise discovered,
secreted with equal care, sundry letters, the treaty be-
tween Philip of Spain and the conspirators, and the
cypher which had been employed in their corre-
spondence.*
From these documents it was ascertained that the
King of Spain had stipulated on oath that, on the
condition of Madame de Verneuil confiding her son to
his guardianship, he should be immediately recognised
as Dauphin of France, and heir to the throne of that
kingdom ; while five fortresses in the territory of
Portugal should be placed at his disposal, and subjected
to his authority, as places of refuge should such a pre-
caution become necessary. A similar provision was,
* Wraxall, Note quoted from Le Laboureur sur Castelnau, vol. v.
P- 35 6 -
Marie De Medicis 269
moreover, made for the Marquise herself; and an in-
come amounting to twenty thousand pounds English
was also promised to the quasi-Prince for the support
of his household.
Nor was this domestic arrangement by any means
the most important feature of the conspiracy, as ap-
pointments, both civil and military, involving consider-
able pecuniary advantages, were also promised to the
Comte d'Auvergne and his stepfather ; and a simulta-
neous invasion was arranged by the Duke of Savoy in
Provence, the Conde de Fuentes* in Burgundy, and
Spinolaf in Champagne.
On the nth of December M. d'Entragues was con-
veyed in a close carriage to the prison of the Concier-
gerie at Paris, accompanied by his son M. de Marcous-
sis on horseback, but without a single attendant ; and
he was in confinement for a considerable time before
he was allowed either fire or light ; while on the same
day, Madame de Verneuil was placed under the charge
of M. d'Arques, the Lieutenant of Police, who was in-
formed that he must answer with his life for her safe-
keeping, and who accordingly garrisoned her residence
with a strong body of his guards and archers.
* Pedro Henriques Azevedo, Conde de Fuentes, succeeded to the
command of the Spanish army on the demise of the Archduke Ernest.
f Ambroise Spinola, Marques de los Balbazez, one of the most dis-
tinguished generals of the seventeenth century, was the descendant of
an illustrious family of Geneva, whose branches spread alike over
Italy and Spain. He was born in 1569, and first bore arms in Flan-
ders. In 1604, being in command of the army, he took Ostend, and
in consequence of his important services was appointed General of the
Spanish troops in the Low Countries. When opposed to Prince
Maurice of Nassau, he counterbalanced alike his renown and his suc-
cess; and in 1629, when serving in Piedmont, he took the town of
Casal, but died in the following year of vexation at having failed to
reduce the fortress of that city.
270 The Life of
The Comte d'Entragues was no sooner incarcerated,
than his wife,* following the example of her daughter-
in-law, obtained an audience of Henry, in order to
* Marie Touchet, Comtesse d'Entragues, was the daughter of an
apothecary at Orleans ; who, on the occasion of a visit of Charles IX.
to that city, obtained permission to see his Majesty dine in public,
where her extreme beauty so impressed the Monarch that he inquired
her name, and at the close of the repast despatched M. de Latour, the
master of his wardrobe, to desire her attendance in his closet. The
negotiation did not prove a difficult one ; as the lady, although at the
moment strongly attached to M. de Monluc, the brother of the Bishop
of Valence, could not resist the prestige of royalty. Charles, anxious
to retain her near him, requested Madame Marguerite, his sister, to re-
ceive her into her household as a waiting woman ; but as she shortly
afterwards became pregnant, he removed her from the Court and es-
tablished her in Paris, where she gave birth to Charles, Comte
d'Auvergne. Although tenderly beloved by the King, Marie Touchet
still retained her attachment to Monluc, with whom she carried on an
active correspondence, which was at length discovered by Charles ;
who, having on one occasion been apprised that she had at the moment
a letter from her former lover in her pocket, instantly caused a number
of the Court ladies to be invited to supper ; and they were no sooner
assembled than he sent to desire a man named Chambre, the chief of
a band of gipsies, to disperse a dozen of his most expert followers
about the apartment, with orders to cut away the pockets of all the
guests and to bring them carefully to his closet when he retired for the
night. He then caused the faithless favourite to be seated beside him-
self, in order that she might not have an opportunity of disposing of
the letter elsewhere ; and the Bohemians having adroitly obeyed his
instructions, the King found himself a few hours afterwards in posses-
sion of the booty. In the pocket of Marie Touchet he discovered, as
he had anticipated, the letter of M. de Monluc ; which, on the follow-
ing morning, he placed, with the most bitter reproaches, in the hands
of its owner; who, on finding herself detected, declared that the
pocket in which the King had discovered it was not hers, a subterfuge
by which, as the letter bore no address, she hoped to escape the anger
and indignation of her royal lover. Unfortunately, however, Charles
recognised several of the trinkets by which it had been accompanied ;
and she had, consequently, no alternative save to acknowledge her
fault and to entreat for pardon. Charles, who could not resist her
tears, was soon induced to promise this, provided she pledged herself
to relinquish all intercourse with Monluc ; and in order to render her
performance of this pledge more sure, he shortly afterwards married
her to the Comte d'Entragues, whose complaisance he rewarded by the
government of Orleans. L'Etoile, Hist, de Henri IV., vol. iii. pp.
247-249.
Marie De Medicis 271
implore the pardon of her husband ; but it was re-
marked that, earnest as she was in his behalf, she never
once, during the whole of the interview, made the
slightest allusion either to the Comte d'Auvergne or
Madame de Verneuil ; doubtless feeling that in the one
case the well-known respect of the King for the blood
of the Valois, and in the other his passion for the Mar-
quise, would plead more powerfully in their behalf
than the most emphatic entreaties. Like that of the
Comtesse d'Auvergne, her attempt, however, proved
abortive, save that Henry accorded to her prayers a
mitigation of the rigour with which her husband had
hitherto been treated.
Meanwhile Madame de Verneuil, far from imitating
the humility of her relatives, openly declared that,
whatever might be the result to herself, she should
never regret the measures which she had adopted to
obtain justice for herself and her children ; and when
on one occasion she was urged to make the concessions
by which alone she could hope for pardon, she an-
swered haughtily : " I have no fear of death ; on the
contrary, I shall welcome it. If the King takes my
life, it will at least be allowed that he sacrificed his own
wife, for I was Queen before the Italian woman. I ask
but three favours from his Majesty : pardon for my
father, a rope for my brother, and justice for myself."*
Her reason fo 
