1621-24
Attempt to secure a cardinal's hat for Richelieu frustrated by De
Luynes--Death of Philip III of Spain--De Luynes is created Connétable de
France--Discontent of the great nobles--Disgust of the Maréchal de
Lesdiguières--The Protestants of Béarn rise against their
oppressors--The royal troops march against them--They are worsted, and
despoiled of their fortified places--The King becomes jealous of his
favourite--_Le Roi Luynes_--Domestic dissensions--The favourite is
threatened with disgrace--Cruelty of Louis XIII--Death of De
Luynes--Louis determines to exterminate the Protestants--A struggle for
power--Prudence of Bassompierre--Condé encourages the design of the
King--The old ministers are recalled--They join with the Queen-mother in
her attempt to conclude a peace with the reformed party--Marie de
Medicis solicits a share in the government--The King complies, but
refuses to sanction the admission of Richelieu to the Council--The
Duchesse de Luynes and Anne of Austria--Frustrated hopes--Condé aspires
to the French throne--Louis XIII leaves the capital by stealth in order
to join the army at Nantes--The Queen-mother prepares to follow him, but
is overtaken by illness--Ruthless persecution of the Protestants--Siege
of La Rochelle--Venality of the Protestant leaders--Indignation of the
Catholic nobles--Resistance of the citizens of Montpellier--Military
incapacity of Condé--The Duc de Rohan negotiates a peace, and Condé
retires to Rome--Montpellier opens its gates to the King--Bad faith of
Louis XIII--Triumphal entry of the King at Lyons--Marriage of the
Marquis de la Valette and Mademoiselle de Verneuil--Richelieu is created
a cardinal--Exultation of the Queen-mother--Death of the President
Jeannin--Prospects of Richelieu--His duplicity--Misplaced confidence of
Marie de Medicis--Louis XIII returns to Paris--Change in the
Ministry--Anne of Austria and the Prince of Wales--The Queen-mother and
her faction endeavour to accomplish the ruin of the Chancellor, and
succeed--Richelieu is admitted to the Council---Indignation of
Condé--Richelieu becomes all-powerful--His ingratitude to the
Queen-mother--The Queen-mother is anxious to effect a matrimonial
alliance with England--Richelieu seconds her views--The King of Spain
applies for the hand of the Princesse Henriette for Don Carlos--His
demand is negatived by the Cardinal-Minister--La Vieuville is dismissed
from the Ministry--Duplicity of Louis XIII--Arrest of La
Vieuville--Change of ministers--Petticoat intrigues--The Duc d'Anjou
solicits the hand of Mademoiselle de Montpensier--The alliance is
opposed by the Guises and forbidden by the King.
During the absence of the King from Paris, the Maréchal d'Estrées, who
was at that period Ambassador at Rome, was engaged in soliciting two
seats in the Conclave, the first for the Archbishop of Toulouse, and the
second for the Bishop of Luçon; while Marie de Medicis lost no
opportunity of entreating Bentivoglio, the Papal Nuncio, to further the
interests of the latter, impressing upon him that no period could be
more favourable than the present, when Louis XIII had enforced upon a
whole refractory province the performance of the rites which it had so
long rejected. To this argument the Cardinal had nothing to object, and
he accordingly listened with complacency to her representations; but
they were rendered abortive by De Luynes, who privately informed him
that neither the sovereign nor himself sincerely desired the promotion
of Richelieu, and that their apparent anxiety for his advancement had
been merely assumed to gratify the Queen-mother; while, far from being
disposed to consider the dissent of the Pontiff to this application as a
slight, his Majesty would be gratified should he reject it, as he had
reason to feel dissatisfied with the Bishop of Luçon, whom he was
consequently not disposed to support in an ambition which he considered
to be at once inordinate and premature. Paul V needed no further hint;
he had been unwilling to countenance the elevation of two French
prelates, and accordingly he replied to all the urgent solicitations of
M. d'Estrées with evasive replies, until at length, wearied by his
pertinacity, he laid before him a letter from Louis himself wherein he
revoked all his former orders. The indignation of the Ambassador was
only exceeded by that of Richelieu when they severally discovered that
they had been duped; but the death of the Pope, and the election of
Gregory XV, which occurred in the following month (February), once more
renewed their hopes.
The demise of Paul V was followed by that of Philip III of Spain, and
negotiations were immediately commenced with his successor for the
restoration of the Valteline to the Grisons, which were happily
concluded for the moment; but, whatever satisfaction this event might
have elicited at the Court of France, it was counterbalanced by another,
in which the great nobles felt a more personal and intimate interest. On
the 2nd of April Charles Albert, Duc de Luynes, was invested with the
sword of Connétable de France; and thus in the short space of four
years, without having distinguished himself either as a warrior or a
statesman, had risen from the obscure position of a Gentleman of the
Household, and of a petty provincial noble, to the highest dignity which
could be conferred upon a subject.
The ceremony of his investiture was conducted with extraordinary pomp;
and when he had taken the oath, De Luynes received from the hands of the
King a sword richly ornamented with diamonds, which was buckled on by
Gaston, Duc d'Anjou.[61] The murmurs elicited by this extraordinary
promotion were universal, and the rather as it had long been promised to
the Duc de Lesdiguières, who was compelled to content himself with a
brevet of Marshal of France, and the title of colonel-general of the
royal army, which constituted the veteran soldier the lieutenant of De
Luynes, who had never been upon a field of battle.[62]
The remainder of the year was occupied in a campaign against the
Protestants, who, on the departure of the King from Béarn, had rallied
in the defence of their religion, and revolted against the outrages to
which they had been subjected by a lawless rabble. Their churches had
been desecrated and burnt down at Tours, Poitiers, and other cities,
themselves publicly insulted, and they began to apprehend that they were
about to be despoiled of all the privileges accorded to them by the
Edict of Nantes. Under these circumstances they had convoked a general
assembly at La Rochelle, in order to decide upon the measures necessary
for their preservation; and although warned immediately to dissolve the
meeting, they had refused compliance with the royal edict, even while
aware that they were not strong enough to contend with any prospect of
ultimate success.[63]
The new Connétable eagerly seized this opportunity of exerting his
authority, and an army of forty thousand infantry and eight thousand
horse was marched towards the Loire, at the head of which were the King
himself, De Luynes, and the Maréchal de Lesdiguières; while, as though
the projected expedition had been a mere party of pleasure, not only did
a crowd of the great nobles volunteer to swell the ranks of the already
enormous host, but the two Queens, the Duchesse de Luynes, and a
numerous suite of ladies also accompanied the troops to share in the
campaign. The result of this fearful contest is known. The unhappy
Protestants were driven from their strongholds, and with the exception
of Montauban, which was so gallantly defended that the King was
ultimately compelled to raise the siege, they found themselves utterly
despoiled, and exposed to every species of insult.
No event could have been more unfortunate for the ambitious Connétable
than the successful defence of Montauban. Louis loved war for its own
sake, but he was also jealous of success; and he felt with great
bitterness this first mortification. He had, moreover, become conscious
that he was a mere puppet in the hands of his ambitious favourite; and
he was already becoming weary of a moral vassalage of which he had been
unable to calculate the extent. As the brilliant Connétable flashed past
him, glittering with gold, the plumes of his helmet dancing in the wind,
and the housings of his charger sparkling with gems, he looked after him
with a contemptuous scowl, and bade the nobles among whom he stood
admire the regal bearing of _le Roi Luynes_; nor was he the less bitter
because he could not suppress a consciousness of his own disability to
dispense with the services of the man whom he thus criticized.
Upon one point Louis XIII greatly resembled his mother; with all his
arrogance and love of power, he possessed no innate strength of purpose,
and constantly required extraneous support; but it was already easy for
those about him to perceive that fear alone continued to link him with
the once all-powerful favourite. Rumour said, moreover, that superadded
to the jealousy which the King entertained of the daily increasing
assumption of the Connétable there existed another cause of discontent.
The Duchesse de Luynes was, as we have said, both beautiful and
fascinating, and Louis had not been proof against her attractions,
although his ideas of gallantry never overstepped the bounds of the most
scrupulous propriety. The lady had on her part welcomed his homage with
more warmth than discretion, and the favourite had not failed to
reproach her for a levity by which he considered himself dishonoured.
Madame de Luynes had retorted in no measured terms, and the young
sovereign, who detested finding himself involved in affairs of this
nature, and who had, moreover, reason to believe that he was not the
only individual favoured by the smiles of the coquettish beauty, soon
evinced an aversion towards both husband and wife, which encouraged the
enemies of De Luynes to hint that the reverse which his Majesty had
lately suffered at Montauban might be entirely attributed to the
incapacity and selfishness of the Connétable. This opinion soothed the
wounded vanity of the King, and he talked vehemently of his regret for
the brave men who had fallen, among whom was the Duc de Mayenne, and
bitterly complained of the dishonour to which he had been subjected;
while in order to revenge himself at once upon De Luynes and the
Duchess, he condescended to the meanness of informing the former that
the Prince de Joinville was enamoured of his wife, and subsequently
boasted to Bassompierre that he had done so. The Marquis listened in
astonishment to this extraordinary communication, and in reply ventured
to assure his Majesty that he had committed a serious error in seeking
to cause a misunderstanding between a married couple.
"God will forgive me for it should He see fit to do so," was the sullen
retort of Louis. "At all events it gave me great pleasure to be revenged
on him, and to cause him this annoyance; and before six months have
elapsed I will make him disgorge all his gains." [64]
The rumour of his projected disgrace soon reached the ears of the
bewildered favourite, who instantly resolved to redeem himself by some
more successful achievement. He accordingly ordered the troops to march
upon and besiege Monheur, an insignificant town on the Garonne, which
was feebly garrisoned by two hundred and sixty men, and which was in
consequence sure to fall into his hands. As he had foreseen, the place
soon capitulated, but the late reverse had rendered Louis less
accessible than ever to the claims of mercy; and although by the terms
of the treaty he found himself compelled to spare the lives of the
troops, numbers of the inhabitants were put to death, and the town was
sacked and burned.[65] This paltry triumph did not, however, suffice to
reinstate the Connétable in the good graces of his royal master, who
continued to indulge in the most puerile complaints against his former
favourite; and the latter's mortification at so sudden and unexpected a
reverse of fortune so seriously affected his health that, while the
ruins of the ill-fated town were still smouldering, he expired in an
adjacent village of a fever which had already caused considerable
ravages in the royal army.
When intelligence of the decease of De Luynes was communicated to the
King he did not even affect the slightest regret, and the courtiers at
once perceived that the demise of the man upon whom he had lavished so
many and such unmerited distinctions was regarded by Louis as a
well-timed release. So careless indeed did the resentful monarch show
himself of the common observances of decency that he gave no directions
for his burial; and, profiting by this omission, the enemies of the
unfortunate Connétable pillaged his residence, and carried off every
article of value, not leaving him even a sheet to supply his
grave-clothes. The Maréchal de Chaulnes and the Duc de Luxembourg, his
brothers, with whom at his first entrance into life he had shared his
slender income, and whom in his after days of prosperity he had alike
ennobled and enriched, looked on in silence at this desecration of his
remains, lest by resenting the outrage they should incur the displeasure
of the King; and it is on record that the Abbé Rucellaï and one of his
friends alone had the courage and generosity to furnish the necessary
funds for embalming the body and effecting its transport to its last
resting-place.[66]
The resolute position still maintained by the Protestants chafed the
arrogant temper of Louis XIII, who, although personally incapable of
sustaining the royal authority, was yet jealous of its privileges.
Political and civil liberty was in his eyes a heresy to be exterminated
at whatever cost; and while he was as infirm in purpose as a child, he
grasped at absolute monarchy, and panted to acquire it. This, as he at
once felt, could never be achieved while there existed within his
kingdom a party which claimed to limit his prerogative, and to maintain
the rights which it had acquired under his predecessors, and thus he
eagerly resolved to rid himself of so dangerous an enemy; but although
his determination was formed, he found himself unequal to the
self-imposed task; he had no reliance on his own strength, and until he
had selected a new favourite upon whom he could lean for support, he
dared not venture upon so serious an undertaking.
There were, however, many candidates for the vacant honour, and De
Luynes was scarcely in his grave ere two separate parties began to
strive for pre-eminence. That of the ministers was headed by Henri de
Gondy, Cardinal de Retz, President of the Council, Schomberg, Grand
Master of the Artillery and Superintendent of Finance, and De Vic,
Keeper of the Seals, who exerted all their efforts to dissuade the King
from again placing himself in the power of a favourite; believing that
should he consent to retain the government in his own hands, they need
only flatter his foibles to secure to themselves the actual
administration of the kingdom; a policy which they commenced by urging
him to follow up his intention of pursuing the war against the
Protestants.
On the other hand, the courtiers who were anxious for peace, and who
desired to see Louis once more quietly established in his capital, were
earnest that he should advance Bassompierre to the coveted dignity; nor
were they without sanguine hope of success, as even before the death of
De Luynes, the wit, courage, and magnificence of the courtly soldier had
captivated the admiration of the King, who had evinced towards him a
greater portion of regard than he vouchsafed to any other noble of his
suite; while so conscious were the ministers of this preference, that in
order to rid themselves of so dangerous an adversary, and to effect his
removal from the Court, they offered to Bassompierre the lieutenancy of
Guienne and the _bâton_ of a marshal. These honours were, however,
declined--not from ambition, for Bassompierre, although brave in the
field, was an ardent votary of pleasure, and the Court was his world;
but he was wise enough to feel that he did not possess the necessary
talent for so perilous a post as that which his friends would fain have
assigned to him; and he was the first to declare that the intrigues of
both parties would fail, since the King must ere long fall, as a natural
consequence, under the dominion of his mother, or that of the Prince de
Condé.[67]
On the 28th of January Louis re-entered Paris, where he was received
with enthusiasm; and the meeting between the mother and son was highly
satisfactory to both parties. In compliance with the advice of
Richelieu, Marie de Medicis exhibited towards the young sovereign a
deferential tenderness and a modest exultation, which flattered his
vanity, and disarmed his apprehensions. No allusion was made to the
past, save such as afforded opportunity for adulation and triumph; Louis
began to look upon himself as a conqueror, and the Queen-mother already
entertained visions of renewed power and authority.
So soon as the death of De Luynes had been made known to M. de Condé, he
had hastened to meet the King, in order to forestall the influence of
Marie. Aware that she anxiously desired a termination of the war, he
threw himself into the cabal of the ministers, and urged Louis to
complete the work which he had so ably commenced, by compelling the
Protestants to evacuate La Rochelle, Montauban, and Royan, the only
fortified towns of which they still remained in possession; conscious
that should he succeed in once more involving the country in civil war,
his royal kinsman would not be able to dispense with his own support.
Louis had, however, recalled Jeannin and Sillery to his councils, both
of whom were jealous of the Prince, and wounded by his arrogance, and
who did not, consequently, hesitate to advise the King to offer
conditions to the reformed party, and to endeavour to conclude a peace;
while Marie de Medicis earnestly seconded their views, expressing at the
same time her desire to become once more associated in the government.
To her extreme mortification Louis hesitated; he had resolved to share
his authority only with his favourites, and he was aware that Marie
would not enter into their views; while he was equally averse to permit
the interference of Richelieu, whose power over the mind of the
Queen-mother was matter of notoriety. In this dilemma he appealed to the
two ministers, who, eager to counteract the influence of Condé, urged
him to accede to her wishes, representing at the same time the danger
which he must incur by exciting her displeasure, and thus inducing her
to oppose his measures. When he urged the powerlessness to which she was
reduced by her late reverses, they respectfully reminded him that her
faction, although dispersed for the moment, was by no means annihilated;
nor did they fail to impress upon him that her adhesion would be
necessary in order to enable him to counteract the pretensions of the
Prince de Condé, who had already given evidence of his anxiety to place
himself at the head of affairs, and to govern the nation in his name.
This argument prevailed. The Queen-mother was admitted to the Council on
the understanding that the Bishop of Luçon should be excluded, and she
accepted the condition without comment, feeling convinced that when she
had succeeded in establishing her own position, she should find little
difficulty in accomplishing all minor measures.[68]
Madame de Luynes had no sooner ascertained that she had irretrievably
lost the favour of the King than she devoted herself to Anne of Austria,
who was soon induced to forget her previous jealousy, and to whom her
society ere long became indispensable. In many respects the tastes of
the girl-Queen and the brilliant widow of the Connétable were singularly
similar, although Anne was a mere tyro in gallantry beside her more
experienced friend. Both were young, handsome, and giddy; greedy of
admiration, and regardless of the comments of those about them; and
never perhaps did any Princess of Spain more thoroughly divest herself
of the _morgue_ peculiar to her nation than the wife of Louis XIII,
whose Court set at defiance all etiquette which interfered with the
amusement of the hour. In vain did the King and his mother expostulate;
Anne of Austria merely pouted and persisted; and even her panegyrist,
Madame de Motteville, has recorded that she did not hesitate in
after-years to admit that she had numbered among her adorers the Duc de
Montmorency, who previously to the passion with which she inspired him
had been the devoted slave of the beautiful Marquise de Sablé;[69] the
Duc de Bellegarde, of whose antiquated worship she made for a while the
jest of her circle, and her own pastime; and finally, George Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, who, mistaking her levity for a more tender feeling,
was presumptuous and reckless enough to endanger her reputation;[70]
while her imprudent encouragement of the attentions of Richelieu, which
subsequently caused her so much and such bitter suffering, has also
become matter of history. In addition to Madame de Luynes, Anne of
Austria had adopted as her especial favourites the intriguing Princesse
de Conti and Mademoiselle de Verneuil, the natural sister of the King;
and while Louis was absorbed by visions of absolute empire, and
meditating the destruction of his Protestant subjects, the private
circle of the Queen was loud with revelry, and indulging in amusement to
the very verge of impropriety.
At the period of the sovereign's return to Paris hopes were entertained
that Anne would shortly give an heir to the French throne; and while
Marie de Medicis, whose policy it had been to maintain the coldness and
indifference of the royal couple, was trembling at the increase of
influence which could not fail to accrue to the young Queen should she
become the mother of a Dauphin, Louis was impatiently anticipating the
moment which would enable him to present to his good citizens of Paris a
successor to his regal honours. Great therefore was his consternation
when he was apprised that the Queen, while running across the great hall
of the Louvre with Madame de Luynes and Mademoiselle de Verneuil, had
fallen and injured herself so severely that all hopes of a Dauphin were
for the moment at an end.
In the first paroxysm of his anger he ordered the two ladies, whom he,
perhaps justly, regarded as the cause of the accident, to quit the
palace within three days on pain of his most serious displeasure; but
the Duchess, to whom exile from the Court was equivalent to a
death-warrant, lost no time in despatching a messenger to the Prince de
Joinville (who had recently assumed the title of Duc de Joyeuse),
entreating him to exert all his influence to save her from this
disgrace; nor did she make the appeal in vain. The Prince, who was
devotedly attached to her, at once declared himself her champion, and
despite the advice of his friends, not only induced Louis to rescind his
order, but offered his hand to the lady, who subsequently became
celebrated as Duchesse de Chevreuse; and together with her own pardon
also obtained that of Mademoiselle de Verneuil, with permission to both
parties to retain their position in the Queen's household.[71]
Meanwhile the Prince de Condé continued to urge upon the King the
expediency of following up his project of aggression against the
Protestants, and proposed to him that he should join the army with
Monsieur his brother, leaving Marie de Medicis in the capital; for which
advice many designing and unworthy motives were attributed to him by his
enemies. As an immediate consequence such an arrangement must naturally
have tended to increase the dependence of the young sovereign upon
himself, while the late accident of the Queen having removed all
prospect of a new heir to the throne, should the chances of war prove
fatal to the King and the Duc d'Anjou, the crown of France became the
legitimate right of Condé himself. What tended to strengthen the belief
that the Prince actually contemplated such a result, was the fact that
it had been predicted to him by an astrologer that at the age of four
and thirty he would be King of France; and the superstition so common at
the time caused considerable faith to be placed in the prophecy, not
only by himself but by many of his friends. Condé had now attained to
within a year of the stated period; and as a few months previously Louis
had been seriously indisposed, while the Duc d'Anjou had barely escaped
with life from an illness which he had not yet thoroughly conquered, not
a doubt was entertained by the party opposed to him that his great
anxiety to see himself at the head of an army arose from his conviction
that in such a position he should be the more readily enabled to enforce
his pretensions.[72]
Be his motives what they might, however, the ministers, who were anxious
that Louis should absent himself from the capital before he fell under
the dominion of a new favourite who might thwart their own views,
zealously seconded the advice of M. de Condé; and although Marie de
Medicis strenuously opposed the renewal of civil warfare, and the Duc de
Lesdiguières represented to the King the ardent desire of the
Protestants to conclude a peace, all their efforts were impotent to
counteract the pernicious counsels of the Prince, which were destined
to darken and desecrate all the after-reign of Louis XIII. Marie then
endeavoured to dissuade the King from heading his troops in person; or,
should he persist in this design, at least to forego that of leaving her
in the capital, and of exposing Monsieur to the dangers of the campaign.
All that she could obtain was a promise that the Duc d'Anjou should
remain in Paris, while as Louis had named no precise period for his own
departure it was believed that he would not leave the city before the
termination of the Easter festival, and that meanwhile circumstances
might occur to induce him to change his resolution. But while Marie de
Medicis indulged in this hope, the same anticipation had produced a
different effect upon the minds of Condé and his party, who secretly
urged upon the King that longer delay could only tend to afford
facilities to the Protestants for strengthening their faction, and
consequently their means of resistance, an argument which determined
Louis at once to carry out his project; and so alarmed was the Prince
lest some circumstance might supervene to impede the departure of the
monarch, that he finally induced him to have recourse to the undignified
expedient of quitting the Louvre by a back entrance at dusk on Palm
Sunday, and of proceeding to Orleans, where he remained until the close
of Easter, awaiting the arrival of the great officers of his household,
who had no sooner joined him than he embarked with the troops who had
been stationed there, and hastened with all possible speed to Nantes,
where he appointed the Prince de Condé lieutenant-general of
his army.[73]
The indignation of the Queen-mother was unbounded when she became
apprised of the departure of the King, which she at once attributed to
the anxiety of M. de Condé to remove him beyond her own influence, and
she consequently made immediate preparations for following the royal
fugitive; but although she exerted all her energy to accomplish this
object, her mental agitation overcame her physical strength; and when
she reached the town of Nantes, which Louis had already quitted, she was
unable to proceed farther, and was compelled by indisposition to remain
inactive, and to leave her adversaries in possession of the field.
The war which supervened was one of great triumph to the royal army, if
indeed the massacre of his own subjects can reflect glory upon a
sovereign; but the laurels gained by Louis and his troops were sullied
by a series of atrocious and bootless cruelties, which made them matter
of reproach rather than of praise. In vain did the Maréchal de
Lesdiguières, the Duc de Bouillon, and even Sully, who had once
controlled the destinies of France, make repeated offers of submission;
the Prince de Condé had sufficient influence over the infatuated King to
render every appeal useless, and to induce him to persist in the
wholesale slaughter of the unhappy Protestants.
In the affair of La Rochelle alone Bassompierre informs us that "there
died upon the field, killed in cold blood, and without resistance, more
than fifteen hundred men, while more than as many prisoners were taken
who were sent to the galleys: the rest were put to death by the
followers of M. de la Rochefoucauld and by the peasantry. So that M. de
Soubise re-entered La Rochelle with thirty horsemen out of the seven
hundred whom he had with him, and not four hundred infantry of the seven
thousand who comprised his army on the preceding day." [74]
The leaders of the Protestants, some alarmed for their personal safety,
and others gained over by the offers of the Court, began to desert the
cause for which they had so long contended, and to make terms with the
sovereign. The Duc de la Force sold himself for two hundred thousand
crowns and the _bâton_ of a marshal; the Duc de Sully, after repeated
delays, surrendered his fortress of Cadenac; the veteran De Lesdiguières
abandoned not only his friends, but also his faith, for the sword of
Connétable de France; and finally the Marquis de Châtillon, the grandson
of the brave and murdered Coligni, delivered himself up together with
the stronghold of Aigues Mortes; thus leaving no men of mark among the
reformers, save the two brothers MM. de Soubise and de Rohan; the former
of whom was then in England soliciting the assistance of James I.,
while the latter was endeavouring to raise troops in the Cévennes for
the protection of Montpellier and Nîmes, both which cities were
threatened with siege.[75]
The favours accorded to the renegade Protestant leaders having caused
great dissatisfaction among the Catholic nobles of Louis XIII, the King
found himself compelled to gratify these also by honours and emolument.
The Duc d'Epernon was made Governor of Guienne, a province which had
never hitherto been bestowed save on a Prince of the Blood; while
Bassompierre succeeded to the marshal's _bâton_ vacated by Lesdiguières
on his promotion; and M. de Schomberg was invested with the governments
of Angoumois and Limousin.
Towards the close of August the troops marched upon Montpellier, but the
arrival of the new Connétable excited the jealousy of Condé, who refused
to submit to his authority. Lesdiguières, who, although he had abandoned
his faith, had not yet ceased to feel a lively interest in the cause of
his co-religionists, was eager to effect a peace, and for this purpose
had conferred with the Duc de Rohan, who was equally anxious to obtain
the same result; but for a considerable time the threatened cities
refused to listen to any compromise. At length, however, the
representations of Rohan prevailed, and the negotiation was nearly
completed when M. de Condé haughtily declared that whatever might be
the conditions conceded by the King and the Connétable, he would deliver
over the city to pillage so soon as he had entered the gates. The
citizens of Montpellier, who were aware that, despite the capitulations
made with other places, the most enormous atrocities had been committed
in the towns which had surrendered, persisted in their turn that they
would only admit Lesdiguières within their walls provided he were
accompanied neither by Louis nor the Prince de Condé; a resolution which
excited the indignation of the King, and the negotiation consequently
failed. The Connétable returned to Guienne, and once more M. de Condé
found himself in undisputed command of the royal army.
The incapacity of the Prince, the casualties of war, and the sickness
which manifested itself among the troops, had, however, greatly tended
to weaken the military resources of the sovereign; the Cardinal de Retz
and De Vic, the Keeper of the Seals, had both fallen victims to disease;
while numbers of the nobility had been killed; and De Rohan, with his
usual perspicacity, decided that the moment had now arrived in which,
could he ever hope to do so, he might be enabled to effect the desired
treaty. Louis, who had become weary of the overweening pretensions and
haughty dictation of Condé, secretly encouraged him to persist in his
attempt; and the Duke immediately exerted himself to prevail upon the
inhabitants of Montpellier to receive his Majesty into their city.
While he was thus engaged, the Prince, who soon discovered from the
altered demeanour of the King that he should be unable to prevent the
conclusion of a peace, resolved to absent himself from the army. He had
been apprised by his emissaries of the recall of Lesdiguières, and he at
once comprehended that the presence of the Connétable could be required
for no other purpose than that of weakening his own authority, and of
thwarting his own views; and acting upon this conviction, he did not
hesitate to inform Louis that he was aware of the projected return of
the veteran noble; adding that, as he could not bring himself to obey
the orders of an individual so greatly his inferior in birth, he
preferred retiring for a time to Italy, should his Majesty graciously
accord him permission to absent himself. Louis required no entreaties to
concede this favour to his arrogant kinsman; and, accordingly, to the
undisguised satisfaction of the harassed army, the Prince departed for
Rome; the Duc de Lesdiguières replaced him in his command; and, finally,
the King having acceded to the conditions demanded by the citizens of
the beleaguered town, they consented to receive him within their walls,
provided that at his departure he withdrew the whole of his troops.
All the terms of the treaty were observed save this last demand. An
edict of pacification was duly signed and registered; and Louis, in the
month of November, quitted Montpellier with the bulk of his army, but
left two regiments in garrison within the very heart of the city. The
Protestants were, however, too weary of warfare, and too much exhausted
by suffering, to resent this infraction of their rights; and they
consequently saw the King set forth for Lyons without expostulation or
remonstrance.[76] Had they been enabled to make a final effort, it is
probable that they might have imposed still more favourable conditions,
as after the departure of Condé Louis relapsed into his usual
helplessness; for although perfectly competent to direct the manoeuvres
of a body of troops on a review-ground, he was totally unequal to the
command of an army; and with the littleness of a narrow mind, he was at
the same time jealous of his generals; neither was he able to comprehend
either the precise political position of his own kingdom, or that of
Europe; and thus, although he assumed an appearance of authority, so
soon as the controlling influence of the paramount favourite was
withdrawn, his powers were paralyzed, and he no longer possessed any
defined principle of action.
The entry of the King at Lyons was celebrated with the utmost
magnificence. Had he achieved the conquest of half Europe he could not
have been greeted with more enthusiasm than awaited him on this
occasion, when his hand still reeked with the blood of hundreds of his
own subjects, and the shrieks of injured women and slaughtered children
were still appealing to Heaven for vengeance. Triumphal arches,
ecclesiastical and municipal processions, salvos of artillery,
flourishes of trumpets, all the pomp and circumstance of war blent with
the splendour of triumph, awaited him on his arrival in that city. The
two Queens with their separate Courts, and the Duke and Duchess of Savoy
with a brilliant retinue, were assembled to give him welcome; and while
the houseless inhabitants of Montpellier and of the smouldering villages
of Guienne were wandering about the ruins of their once happy and
prosperous homes, the streets of Lyons swarmed with velvet-clad
courtiers and jewelled dames, hurrying from ball to banquet, and wholly
absorbed in frivolity and pleasure. Theatrical performances took place
every evening; and on the 12th of November the three Courts assisted at
the marriage of Mademoiselle de Verneuil and the Marquis de la Valette,
the second son of the Duc d'Epernon, which was celebrated with great
pomp. The King presented to his sister a dowry of two hundred thousand
crowns, to which the Marquise, her mother, added one hundred thousand
more. This union was followed by that of Madame de Luynes with the
Prince de Joinville; and the two marriages were followed by Italian
comedies, fireworks, and public illuminations.[77]
The most important event, however, which occurred during the sojourn of
the King at Lyons, was the admission of the Bishop of Luçon to the
Conclave. The long-coveted hat was forwarded to the French sovereign by
Gregory XV, from whose hands it was received by Richelieu. The
Queen-mother triumphed; but neither Louis nor his ministers felt the
same exultation as Marie and her favourite; for guardedly as the new
Cardinal had borne himself while awaiting this honour, his spirit of
intrigue had already become notorious, and his extraordinary talents
excited alarm rather than confidence. The death of the Cardinal de Retz,
which had occurred while the King was with the army in Languedoc, had
created two important vacancies; one in the Holy College, and the other
in the royal Council, to both of which the astute Richelieu aspired; but
Louis, urged by his ministers, decidedly refused to admit him to the
Privy Council, and he was fain to content himself for the moment with
the honours of the scarlet hat, while M. de la Rochefoucauld was
appointed to the vacant seat in the Council.
The President Jeannin had died in the month of October, at the ripe age
of eighty-two; a demise which was followed by those of De Vic, the
Keeper of the Seals, and the Duc de Bouillon; and thus three
stumbling-blocks had been removed from the path of Richelieu, whose
professions of attachment to Marie de Medicis became more fervent than
ever; while he was meanwhile carefully measuring the strength of those
to whom he was opposed, studying the foibles of the King, and gradually
forming a party at Court which might enable him to secure his own
ultimate elevation, and to render himself independent of Marie's
protection.
The ceremony of his admission to the Conclave had no sooner been
concluded in the chapel of the Archbishop's palace, than Richelieu
hastened to place the symbol of his new dignity at the feet of his
benefactress.
"Madame," he said, at the close of a harangue full of the most
exaggerated declarations of devotion to her person, "this honour, for
which I am indebted to the benevolence of your Majesty, will ever cause
me to bear in mind the solemn vow I have made to shed my blood in
your service."
Marie listened and believed; and in addition to the scarlet hat, and the
dignity of Minister of State which it involved, the deceived Princess in
the short space of a few months bestowed upon her future enemy the
enormous sum of nine hundred thousand crowns, besides sacerdotal plate
to an almost incredible amount. No timely presentiment warned her how
the "solemn vow" was to be observed; and the influence of the selfish
and unprincipled churchman became greater than ever.[78]
The King did not return to Paris until the 10th of January (1623), and
shortly after his arrival another change took place in the ministry.
Schomberg had excited the animosity of the Chancellor Sillery, his son
the Marquis de Puisieux (who, since the death of De Luynes, had risen
greatly in the favour of Louis), and the Marquis de Caumartin,[79] who,
on the demise of M. de Vic, had been appointed Keeper of the Seals. He
was also avowedly obnoxious to M. de la Vieuville,[80] the
adjutant-general of the royal army; and these nobles combined to effect
his ruin. As, however, M. de Schomberg was protected by the Prince de
Condé, the conspirators were for a time compelled to forego their
purpose, but the Prince had no sooner taken his departure for Italy than
they hastened to poison the mind of the King against his finance
minister; an attempt in which they so easily succeeded, that although
Schomberg undertook to prove the fallacy of every charge which was
brought against him, Louis refused to admit his justification, and he
was dismissed from his charge, which was conferred upon De la Vieuville;
while by the death of De Caumartin, which shortly afterwards occurred,
Sillery once more found himself in possession of the seals. His triumph
was, however, of short duration, the King having conceived an
extraordinary aversion to the Chancellor, although he was aware that he
could not safely dispense with his services; and accordingly, a short
time subsequently, the seals were again reclaimed, and bestowed upon M.
d'Aligre.[81]
On the return of Louis XIII to the capital Anne of Austria organized two
magnificent ballets, one of which was danced in the apartments of the
King, and the other in her own. It was hinted that these splendid
entertainments were given in order to impress Lord Holland with a high
idea of the splendour of the French Court, that nobleman having been
instructed by James I. to endeavour to effect a marriage between the
Prince of Wales and Madame Elisabeth; and great was the astonishment of
the royal party when they ascertained that the Prince himself, attended
by the Duke of Buckingham, had been present incognito, both personages
being disguised with false beards and enormously bushy wigs; and that,
after only remaining one day in Paris, they had pursued their journey to
Spain, where Charles was about to demand the hand of the Infanta. It
was, moreover, afterwards ascertained that having arrived in the French
capital on the evening before that of the royal ballet, the Prince and
his companions had gone disguised to the Louvre to see the Queen-mother
at table, and had introduced themselves as travelling nobles into a
gallery in which Louis was walking surrounded by his courtiers; after
which they had induced the Duc de Montbazon to allow them to enter the
hall in which the festival was to take place. There Charles saw for the
first time the young Queen of Louis XIII, with the portrait of whose
sister he had become enamoured, and also Madame Henriette, who was
subsequently destined to become his wife. But it would appear that the
French Princess whom he so tenderly loved in after-years made, on this
occasion, no impression upon his mind; as, still eager to convince
himself that the Spanish Infanta was as beautiful as the miniature in
his possession, he set forth on the following day for Madrid, as he had
originally intended.[82]
La Vieuville and his party (at the head of which figured the
Queen-mother, who could not brook that Louis should retain about his
person a minister whose influence counterbalanced her own) began in the
spring of 1624 to make new efforts to effect the disgrace of the veteran
Chancellor and his son M. de Puisieux; both of whom had, moreover,
incurred the hatred of Richelieu by their endeavours to oppose his
admission to the Conclave; and the continual representations of the
cabal soon produced so marked an alteration in the bearing of the King
towards Sillery, that the latter resolved not to await the dismissal
which he foresaw would not be long delayed. Pretexting, therefore, his
great age--for he had attained his eightieth year--and his serious
sufferings from gout, by which he was disabled from following his
Majesty in his perpetual journeys to the provinces, he entreated
permission to retire from the Government, an indulgence which was
conceded without difficulty; and the seals transferred, as we have
already stated, to M. d'Aligre; and although Louis continued to treat De
Puisieux with studied courtesy, the rival faction soon discovered that
his favour was at an end. On several occasions the King gave audiences
to the different foreign ambassadors without desiring his presence,
although as Secretary of State it had hitherto been considered
indispensable; and finally, both father and son were informed that they
were at liberty to quit the Court.
The exultation of Marie de Medicis at their dismissal was undisguised,
and she immediately took measures to secure the admission of Richelieu
to the ministry; for which purpose she endeavoured to secure the
interests of La Vieuville. For a time, however, the finance minister
declined to second her views, as neither he nor his colleagues were
desirous of the co-operation of a man whom they distrusted; but Marie,
who would suffer no repulse, at length succeeded in overcoming his
repugnance, and he was ultimately induced to urge upon the King the
expediency of compliance with the wishes of his mother; although under
certain restrictions which might tend to curb the intriguing and
ambitious spirit of the enterprising candidate.
At this period the Court was sojourning at Compiègne; and on one
occasion, as Louis, according to his custom, paid his morning visit to
the Queen-mother in her sleeping-apartment, he announced, to her extreme
delight, that he had appointed the Cardinal de Richelieu Councillor of
State; warning her, however, that he must rest satisfied with a
subordinate authority, and not permit himself to suggest measures which
had not previously been considered by the King himself.
That Louis nevertheless made this concession with reluctance is
evidenced by the fact that he forthwith wrote to M. de Condé, who was
then residing at Bourges, to invite him to return to Court in order to
counterbalance the influence of the Queen-mother, which the admission of
her favourite to the Privy Council could not fail greatly to augment.
The appeal was, however, fruitless; the Prince considering himself
aggrieved not only by the elevation of an individual to whom he justly
attributed his imprisonment in the Bastille, but also by the increased
power of Marie de Medicis, and he consequently coldly returned his
thanks for the desire evinced by his royal kinsman to see him once more
near his person, but declared his intention of remaining in his
government.[83]
From this period the prominent figure upon the canvas of the time is
Richelieu. He it was who negotiated the marriage of the Prince of Wales
with Madame Henriette, after the alliance with Spain had been abandoned
by James I. To him the Marquis de la Vieuville owed his disgrace, and by
his representations the Queen-mother enlisted the young Prince Gaston
d'Anjou in his interests. All bent, or was crushed, before him; he had
affected to accept office reluctantly; pleaded his physical weakness,
even while he admitted his mental strength, declaring that his bodily
infirmities incapacitated him from collision with the toil and turmoil
of state affairs; and coquetted with the honours for which he had
striven throughout long years until he almost succeeded in inducing
those about him to believe that he sacrificed his own inclinations to
the will of the sovereign and his mother.[84] But history has proved
that having once possessed himself of the supreme power, and moulded the
mind of his royal master to his own purposes, he flung off all
restraint, and governed the nation like a monarch, while its legitimate
sovereign obeyed his behests, and made peace or war, as the necessity of
either measure was dictated to him by his imperious minister.
And amid all this pomp of power and pride of place, how did the
purple-robed politician regard the generous benefactress who had
furthered his brilliant fortunes? It cannot be forgotten that the
wretched Concini had been his first patron, and that when one word of
warning from his lips might have saved the Maréchal from assassination,
those lips had remained closed; that he had even affected to slumber
with the death-warrant of the victim beneath his pillow, and had striven
to rise upon his ruin. The after-career of Richelieu did not belie its
commencement. The glorious talents with which Heaven had gifted him
festered into a curse beneath his ambition; he became the marvel of the
whole civilized world, and the scourge of those who trusted in his
sincerity.
That Marie was as eager as Richelieu himself for the alliance with
England is undoubted; for while the latter, whose enlarged political
views led him to seek through this medium to curb the growing power of
Austria and Spain, looked only to the aggrandizement of the nation which
he served, the Queen-mother was equally anxious to secure for herself a
safe asylum in the event of any new reverse; and consequently on this
particular subject they acted in unison, the Cardinal openly striving to
attain his own object, and Marie de Medicis secretly negotiating at the
Court of St. James's to effect a marriage by which she believed that she
should ensure her future safety.
The difference of religion between the contracting parties necessarily
induced considerable difficulties, but as these were never, at that
period, suffered to interfere with any great question of national
policy, Richelieu unhesitatingly undertook to obtain the consent of the
Sovereign-Pontiff, who, as the minister had foreseen, finally accorded
the required dispensation. Nor was he deterred from his purpose by the
opposition of the Spanish monarch, who caused his ambassador to assure
Marie de Medicis that, in the event of her inducing the King to bestow
the hand of the Princesse Henriette upon the Infant Don Carlos, he would
secure to that Prince the sovereignty of the Catholic Low Countries on
the demise of the Archduchess Isabella, and meanwhile the royal couple
could take up their abode at Brussels under the guardianship of that
Princess.[85]
The Queen-mother, however, placed no faith in the sincerity of this
promise, while Richelieu met it by an instant negative, declaring that
"every one was aware that Spain was like a canker which gnawed and
devoured every substance to which it attached itself." [86] And
meanwhile Louis, glad to have once more found an individual alike able
and willing to take upon himself the responsibility of government,
suffered the Cardinal to pursue his negotiation with England. The dowry
demanded by James with the Princess was eight hundred thousand crowns,
half of which was to be paid down on the eve of the marriage, and the
remainder within eighteen months, while it was further stipulated that,
in the event of her dying before her husband, and without issue, a
moiety only of the entire sum was to be repaid by the Prince.
During the progress of this treaty, the Marquis de la Vieuville, whose
rapid elevation had created for him a host of virulent and active
enemies, was suddenly dismissed. Although not gifted with remarkable
talents, M. de la Vieuville was a man of uprightness and integrity, who
commenced his office as Superintendent of Finance by reducing the
exorbitant salaries and pensions of the great officers of state and
other nobles. This was not, however, his worst crime. Well aware of the
constitutional timidity of the monarch, he had assumed an authority
which rendered him odious to all those whose ambition prompted them to
essay their own powers of governing, and among these, as a natural
consequence, was the Cardinal de Richelieu, who, despising the abilities
of the finance minister, chafed under his own inferiority of place, and
did not fail to imbue the Queen-mother with the same feeling. La
Vieuville was accused of arrogating to himself an amount of authority
wholly incompatible with his office, and it is impossible to suppress a
smile while contemplating the fact that this accusation was brought
against him by the very individual who, only a few months subsequently,
ruled both the monarch and the nation with a rod of iron.
The desired end was, however, attained. Weak and vain, as well as
personally incompetent, Louis XIII was easily led to fear those upon
whom he had himself conferred the power of lessening his own authority;
and as so many interests were involved in the overthrow of De la
Vieuville, it was soon decided. Fearful of betraying his own personal
views, Richelieu took no active measures in this dismissal, nor were any
such needed; as, in addition to his other errors, the finance minister
had, by a singular want of judgment, excited against himself the
indignation of Monsieur by committing his governor, Colonel d'Ornano, to
the Bastille, upon the pretext that he had instigated the Prince to
demand admission to the Council in order that he might obtain a
knowledge of public affairs, but with the sole intention of procuring
his own access to the Government. The jealousy of Louis was at once
aroused by this assurance; and the arrest of his brother's friend and
confidant had, as a natural consequence, resulted from the minister's
ill-advised representation, an insult which Gaston so violently resented
that he forthwith entered into the cabal against De la Vieuville, and
thus seconded the views of the Queen-mother, who was anxious to replace
the obnoxious minister by the Cardinal de Richelieu.
True to his character, on being apprised of the powerful faction formed
against him, De la Vieuville resolved to tender his resignation, and
thus to deprive his enemies of the triumph of causing his disgrace, for
which purpose he proceeded to declare to the King his desire to withdraw
from the high office which had been conferred upon him. Louis XIII
simply replied: "Make yourself perfectly easy, and pay no attention to
what is going forward. When I have no longer occasion for your services,
I will tell you so myself; and you shall have my permission to come and
take leave of me before your departure."
On the following day De la Vieuville accordingly presented himself as
usual during the sitting of the Privy Council, when the King abruptly
exclaimed: "I redeem the promise which I made to tell you when I could
dispense with your services. I have resolved to do so; and you are at
liberty to take your leave." The ex-minister, bewildered by so
extraordinary a reception, attempted no rejoinder, but hastened to quit
the royal presence. He had, however, no sooner reached the gallery than
he was arrested by the Marquis de Thermes, and conveyed as a prisoner to
the citadel of Amboise, whence he made his escape a year afterwards.[87]
The result of this arrest was a total change in the aspect of the Court.
M. de Marillac[88] succeeded to the vacant superintendence of finance;
the Comte de Schomberg was recalled to the capital, and made a member of
the Privy Council; D'Ornano was liberated from the Bastille, restored to
his position in the household of the Duc d'Anjou, and honoured with a
marshal's _bâton_; while, to complete the moral revolution, Richelieu
was appointed chief of the Council, and became, as the Queen-mother had
anticipated, all-powerful over the weak and timid mind of the King under
his new character of Minister of State.
Fully occupied as the Cardinal might have found himself by the foreign
wars into which his ambition ere long plunged his royal master, he was
nevertheless compelled to turn his attention to the intrigues of certain
great ladies of the Court, which threatened internal dissension, and in
which the two Queens ultimately became involved. The young Duc d'Anjou,
whose prepossessing manners and handsome person had rendered him
universally popular, began about this time to awaken the distrust and
jealousy of the King; a feeling which was heightened by the marked
preference evinced by Marie de Medicis for her younger son. The marriage
of the Prince with the wealthy heiress of Montpensier, whose mother had
espoused the Duc de Guise, had long been decided; but as Gaston had
hitherto evinced the utmost indifference towards his destined bride, the
subject had elicited little attention. Suddenly, however, this
indifference gave place to the most marked admiration; and it became
evident that he was seriously contemplating an alliance with the
Princess who had been designed for him by his father. In so trivial and
dissolute a Court as that of France at this period, it is needless to
remark to how many fears and regrets such a resolution immediately gave
birth; nor was it long ere two separate cabals were formed--the one
favouring, and the other seeking to impede, the marriage. Passion and
party-feeling overthrew every barrier of decency and dignity; and from
this moment may be traced that insurmountable aversion which Louis XIII
subsequently exhibited alike towards the Queen his wife and the Prince
his brother.
It no sooner became apparent to the Court circle that the Princesse de
Conti gave perpetual entertainments, in order to afford to Gaston
constant opportunity for conversing with Mademoiselle de Montpensier,
than the enemies of the Guises leagued together to inspire the King with
their own fears, declaring that such an accession of influence as must
accrue to that haughty house by an alliance with the heir-presumptive
threatened the stability of the throne; representations which were
rendered the more powerful by the extraordinary fact that the Duchesse
de Joyeuse, who was herself the wife of a younger brother of the Guises,
and the Marquise de la Valette, whose husband was a near relation of the
Princesse de Montpensier, were both loud in their entreaties that the
brother of the King should not be permitted to contract the alliance
which he contemplated. But while Louis was bewildered by this seeming
contradiction, Richelieu thoroughly appreciated its real motive, being
well aware of the enmity which existed between Mesdames de Joyeuse and
de la Valette and the Princesse de Conti, who had long ceased to
dissemble their dislike; and who were consequently overjoyed to oppose
any undertaking to which the adverse party was pledged.
The two former ladies, who were the most confidential friends of the
young Queen, found little difficulty in exciting her alarm, and in
inducing her to assist them in their endeavours to thwart a marriage by
which, as they asserted, her own personal interests were threatened; nor
did they scruple to remind her that in the event of the King's demise,
an occurrence which his feeble constitution and frequent indisposition
rendered far from improbable, it was necessary for her own future
welfare that the heir-presumptive to the Crown should remain unmarried
as long as possible.
"What must be your fate, Madame," they insidiously urged, "should his
Majesty die without issue? Should you be willing to retire to a cloister
while Mademoiselle de Montpensier took your place upon the throne? Or,
even supposing that the King survives, and that you continue childless
while the Prince becomes the father of a son, whom all France will
regard as its future sovereign, how will you be able to brook the
comparative insignificance to which you must be reduced? You will do
well to consider these things; and to remember that, in the event of
your widowhood, your interest requires that the successor of your
present consort should be in a position to secure to you the same
station as that which you now hold."
These artful representations produced the desired effect upon the mind
of Anne of Austria, who, alike haughty and vain, could not brook to
anticipate any diminution of her dignity; and she accordingly lost no
time in impressing upon Louis the danger to which he would expose
himself by allowing his brother to form an alliance that could not fail
to balance his own power in the kingdom. Naturally jealous and
distrustful, the King listened eagerly to her reasoning; and while the
young Prince continued to pay his court each day more assiduously to
the noble and wealthy heiress, the adverse faction, under the sanction
of the sovereign, were labouring no less zealously to contravene his
views. In conjunction with the Queen, there were not wanting several
individuals who, moreover, pointed out to the monarch that should Gaston
be permitted to accomplish the contemplated marriage, he would be thus
enabled to gain over the still existing leaders of the League, and the
party of the Prince de Condé, who, already disaffected towards his own
person, would not fail to embrace the interests of his brother. More and
more alarmed by each succeeding argument, Louis forthwith summoned M.
d'Ornano to his presence, and peremptorily commanded him to put an
immediate stop to the intrigues which were going on upon the subject of
the projected alliance; and to forbid the Prince, in his name, to form
any engagement with Mademoiselle de Montpensier.[89]
Few orders could have been more agreeable to the governor of Gaston,
who, aware that both Richelieu and the Queen-mother ardently desired the
accomplishment of a marriage which, while it must greatly enrich the
Prince and augment his influence, would nevertheless still render him
amenable to their authority, was on his side eager to effect his
alliance with a foreign princess, for the express purpose of
emancipating him from a dependence which interfered with his own
influence, and threatened his personal ambition. Meanwhile the Prince
himself was divided between his affection for the beautiful heiress and
his desire to shake off the yoke of the Cardinal-Minister, to which he
submitted with ill-disguised impatience; and thus, although less
ostensibly, each faction continued to intrigue as busily as ever.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] _Mercure Français_, 1621. Bernard, book v.
[62] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 221, 222.
[63] Richelieu, _Mém_. book xii. pp. 118-128. Rohan, _Mém_. book ii. pp.
183-185. Bazin, vol. iii. pp. 132-138.
[64] Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol. ii. pp. 493, 494.
[65] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 421. Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 492, 493.
Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol. ii. p. 358.
[66] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 421. _Mercure Français_, 1621.
[67] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 497, 498.
[68] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 230-232.
[69] Marguerite de Souvré, Marquise de Sablé, was the wife of Philippe
Emmanuel de Laval-Montmorency. She died in 1678, in her
seventy-sixth year.
[70] Motteville, _Mém_. vol. i. pp. 340-342.
[71] Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol. ii. p. 376. Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 499,
500.
[72] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 232, 233. Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_,
vol. xxii. p. 501.
[73] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 457.
[74] Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol. ii. p. 389.
[75] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 504-506.
[76] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 510-512. Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 238-240.
[77] Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol. ii. p. 492. Brienne, _Mém_. vol. i. p.
371. Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 242, 243.
[78] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 525.
[79] Louis Le Febvre, Marquis de Caumartin, President of the Privy
Council, and Keeper of the Seals in 1622, died in the following year at
the age of seventy-two. He was a man of great talent, and an able
politician.
[80] Charles de la Vieuville, subsequently created duke.
[81] Etienne d'Aligre was a native of Chartres, and owed his advancement
in life solely to his great talents. He became successively steward of
the household to the Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, Councillor of State,
Keeper of the Seals, and subsequently, on the death of M. de Sillery,
Chancellor of France. Two years afterwards, having resigned the seals,
he retired to one of his estates, where he died on the 11th of December
1635, at the age of seventy-five years.
[82] Brienne, _Mém_. vol. i. pp. 373, 374. Bassompierre, _Mém_. vol.
iii. p. 6. Le Vassor, vol. ii. pp. 546, 547.
[83] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 260-263. Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 534.
[84] Richelieu, _Mém_. book xv. pp. 284-286.
[85] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 615. Siri, _Mém. Rec_. vol. v. pp. 595, 596.
[86] Richelieu, _Mém_. book xv. p. 296.
[87] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 267-269. Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 621.
[88] Michel de Marillac was born in 1563. He was successively Councillor
in the Parliament of Paris, Master of the Court of Requests, Councillor
of State, Superintendent of Finance, and Keeper of the Seals (1626).
Four years subsequently he was involved in the disgrace of his brother
the Maréchal de Marillac, and was compelled to resign the seals (1630).
He was then conveyed to the fortress of Caen, whence he was finally
removed to that of Châteaudun, where he died of grief on the 7th of
August 1632. He was the author of the _Code Michau_, a translation of
the Psalms into French verse, and several other works.
[89] Le Vassor, édit. 1717, vol. v. pp. 110-112. Bassompierre, vol. iii.
pp. 13-15. Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 12. Fontenay-Mareuil, vol. ii. p. 4.