1634
Increasing trials of the exiled Queen--Her property is seized on the
frontier--She determines to conciliate the Cardinal--Richelieu remains
implacable--Far-reaching ambition of the minister--Weakness of Louis
XIII--Insidious arguments of Richelieu--Marie de Medicis is again urged
to abandon her adherents--Cowardly policy of Monsieur--He signs
a treaty with Spain--The Queen-mother refuses to join in the
conspiracy--Puylaurens induces Monsieur to accept the proffered terms of
Richelieu--He escapes secretly from Brussels---Gaston pledges himself to
the King to "love the Cardinal"--Gaston again refuses to repudiate his
wife--Puylaurens obtains the hand of a relative of the minister and
becomes Duc de Puylaurens--Monsieur retires to Blois.
The early months of the year 1634 were passed by Marie de Medicis in
perpetual mortification and anxiety. The passport which she had obtained
for the free transport of such articles of necessity as she might deem
it expedient to procure from France was disregarded, and her packages
were subjected to a rigorous examination on the frontier; an insult of
which she complained bitterly to Louis, declaring that if the Cardinal
sought by such means to reduce her to a more pitiable condition than
that in which she had already found herself, and thus to bend her to his
will, the attempt would prove fruitless; as no amount of indignity
should induce her to humble herself before him.
The unhappy Princess little imagined that in a few short weeks she
should become a suppliant for his favour! Meanwhile[204] the struggle
for pre-eminence continued unabated between Puylaurens and Chanteloupe;
and the life of the former having been on one occasion attempted, the
faction of Monsieur did not hesitate to attribute the contemplated
assassination to the adherents of the Queen-mother; whence arose
continual conflicts between the two pigmy Courts, which rendered
unavailing all the efforts of the Marquis d'Ayetona to reconcile the
royal relatives. Moreover, Marie was indignant that the Marquis
constantly evinced towards her son a consideration in which he sometimes
failed towards herself; and, finding her position becoming daily more
onerous, she at length resolved to accomplish a reconciliation, not only
with the King, but even with the minister, on any terms which she could
obtain. In pursuance of this determination she gave instructions to M.
Le Rebours de Laleu, her equerry, to proceed to Paris with her
despatches, which consisted of three letters, one addressed to the
sovereign, another to the Cardinal, and the third to M. de
Bouthillier,[205] all of which severally contained earnest assurances of
her intention to comply with the will and pleasure of the King in all
things, and to obey his commands by foregoing for the future all emnity
towards Richelieu. In that which she wrote to the minister himself she
carefully eschewed every vestige of her former haughtiness, and threw
herself completely on his generosity. "Cousin"--thus ran the letter of
the once-powerful widow of Henri IV to her implacable enemy--"the Sieur
Bouthillier having assured me in your name that my sorrows have deeply
affected you, and that, regretting you should for so long a time have
deprived me of the honour of seeing the King, your greatest satisfaction
would now be to use your influence to obtain for me this happiness, I
have considered myself bound to express to you through the Sieur Laleu,
whom I despatch to the King, how agreeable your goodwill has been to me.
Place confidence in him, and believe, Cousin, that I will ever truly be,
etc. etc."
In addition to this humiliation, the heart-broken Queen at the same time
gave instructions to her messenger to declare to the King that, "having
learned that his Majesty could not be persuaded of her affection for his
own person so long as she refused to extend it to the Cardinal, he was
empowered to assure his Majesty that the Queen-mother, from
consideration for the King her son, would thenceforward bestow her
regard upon his minister, and dismiss all resentment for the past."
Both the verbal and written declarations addressed to Louis on this
occasion were, as will at once be evident, a mere matter of form, and
observance of the necessary etiquette. It was not the monarch of France
whom Marie de Medicis sought to conciliate, but the Cardinal-Duke, who,
as she was conscious, held her fate in his hands. It was before him,
consequently, that she bowed down; it was to his sovereign pleasure that
she thus humbly deferred; for she felt that the long-enduring struggle
which she had hitherto sustained against him was at once impotent and
hopeless. Alas! she had, as she was fated ere long to experience, as
little to anticipate from the abject concession which she now made,
bitter as were the tears that it had cost her. The most annoying
impediments were thrown in the way of her messenger when he solicited an
audience of the sovereign, nor was he slow in arriving at the conviction
that his mission would prove abortive. Nevertheless, as the command of
Marie de Medicis had been that he should also deliver the letter to
Richelieu in person, and, as he had already done in the case of the
King, add to its written assurances his own corroborative declarations
in her name, and even communicate to him the offer of Chanteloupe to
retire to a monastery for the remainder of his life in the event of his
exclusion from the treaty, he was bound to pursue his task to its
termination, hopeless as it might be.[206]
When the envoy of the Queen-mother had delivered his despatches, and
fulfilled the duty with which he had been entrusted, the embarrassment
of the Cardinal became extreme. That the haughty Marie de Medicis should
ever have compelled herself to such humiliation was an event so totally
unexpected on his part that he had made no arrangements to meet it; and
it appeared impossible even to him that, under the circumstances, the
King could venture to refuse her immediate return to France. The crisis
was a formidable one to Richelieu, who, judging both his injured
benefactress and himself from the past, placed no faith in her
professions of forgiveness; for, on his side, he felt that he should
resent even to his dying hour much that had passed before she fled the
kingdom, as well as the libels against him which she had sanctioned
during her residence in Flanders. He had, moreover, as he asserted, on
several occasions received information that Chanteloupe meditated some
design upon his life; and that the Jesuit had stated in writing that he
could never induce the Queen-mother to consent to separate herself from
him, although he had entreated of her to leave him in the Low Countries
when she returned to France.[207] Despicable, indeed, were such alleged
terrors from the lips of the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu--the first
minister of one of the first sovereigns of Europe. What had he to fear
from a powerless and impoverished Princess, whose misfortunes had
already endured a sufficient time to outweary her foreign protectors; to
subdue the hopes, and to exhaust the energies of her former adherents;
and to reduce her to an insignificance of which, as her present measures
sufficiently evinced, she had herself become despairingly conscious?
Even had Louis XIII at this moment been possessed of sufficient right
feeling and moral energy to remember that it was the dignity of a mother
which he had so long sacrificed to the ambition of a minister--that it
was the widow of the great monarch who had bequeathed to him a crown
whom he ruthlesssly persecuted in order to further the fortunes of an
ambitious ingrate--all these trivial hindrances might have been thrust
aside at once; but the egotistical and timid temperament of the French
King deadened the finer impulses of honour and of nature; and he still
suffered himself to be governed, where he should have asserted his
highest and his holiest prerogative.
It is impossible to contemplate without astonishment so extraordinary an
anomaly as that which was presented by the King, the Queen-mother, and
the Cardinal de Richelieu at this particular period. An obscure priest,
elevated by the favour of a powerful Princess to the highest offices in
the realm, after having reduced his benefactress to the necessity of
humbling herself before him, and so unreservedly acknowledging his
supremacy as to ask, as the only condition of his forgiveness, that he
would do her the favour to believe in the sincerity of her
professions.--The widow of Henry the Great, the mother of the King of
France, and of the Queens of Spain and England, in danger of wearing out
her age in exile, because Armand Jean du Plessis, the younger son of a
petty noble of Poitou, who once considered himself the most fortunate of
mortals in obtaining the bishopric of Luçon, feared that his
unprecedented power might be shaken should his first friend and
patroness be once more united to her son, and restored to the privileges
of her rank.--And, finally, a sovereign, who, while in his better
moments he felt all the enormity of his conduct towards the author of
his being, now fast sinking under the combined weight of years and
suffering, was yet deficient in the energy necessary to do justice alike
to her and to himself.
Such, however, was the actual position of the several individuals; and
the fate of Marie de Medicis was decided.
A desire of repose, consequent upon his failing health, self-gratulation
at his triumph over an inimical and powerful faction, and a desire to
exculpate himself from the charge of ingratitude, would have led the
Cardinal to accede to a reconciliation with his long-estranged
benefactress; but he soon silenced these natural impulses to dwell only
upon the dangers of her reappearance in France, which could not, as he
believed, fail to circumscribe his own absolute power--a power to which
he had laboriously attained not more by genius than by crime--which had
been cemented by blood, and heralded by groans. Nor was this the only
consideration by which Richelieu was swayed when he resolved that the
Queen-mother should never again, so long as he had life, set foot upon
the soil of France. His high-soaring ambition had, within the last few
weeks, grasped at a greatness to which even she had not yet attained.
For a time, as is asserted by contemporary historians, he indulged
visions of royalty in his own person, and had in imagination already
fitted the crown of one of the first nations in Europe to his own brow;
but the dream had been brief, and he had latterly resolved to transfer
to one of his relatives the ermined purple in which he was not permitted
to enfold himself. That relative was his niece and favourite, Madame de
Comballet, whose hand he had offered to the Cardinal-Duc François de
Lorraine, when that Prince succeeded to the sovereignty of the duchy on
the abdication of his unfortunate brother Charles; but to avoid this
alliance the new Duke had contracted a secret marriage with his cousin
the Princesse Claude; a disappointment which the minister of Louis XIII
was desirous of repairing by causing the dissolution of the marriage of
Gaston d'Orléans with Marguerite de Lorraine, and making Monsieur's
union with his own beautiful and unprincipled niece the condition of
his restoration to favour.
Aware that the Queen-mother would resent such an indignity even to the
death, Richelieu was consequently resolved to put at once a stop to a
negotiation of which the result could not be otherwise than fatal to his
project, should the King in some moment of piety and contrition suffer
himself to remember that it was a mother as well as a Queen who appealed
to his indulgence; and who, however she might have erred, had bitterly
expiated her faults. Thus then, the Cardinal no sooner saw the agitation
of Louis on reading the letter of the exiled Princess, and marked the
flashing of his eyes as he became aware that she promised, as he had
required of her, to restore the Cardinal to her affection, than the
latter hastened to remind him that he must not overlook the fact that he
was a sovereign as well as a son; and that the safety of the state
required his attention no less than the gratification of his
natural feelings.
This was a point upon which Richelieu knew his royal master to be
peculiarly susceptible; for the more thoroughly the weak monarch
suffered himself to be stripped of his actual authority, the more
anxiety did he evince to retain its semblance, and the argument thus
advanced instantly sufficed, as the minister had anticipated, to change
the whole current of his feelings. It was, moreover, easy to convince
Louis that the professions of Marie de Medicis were hollow and unmeaning
words so long as she refused to deliver up to his Majesty the obnoxious
members of her household; for, in truth, as the Cardinal did not fail to
remark, had not Monsieur abandoned his adherents when required to do so
as a pledge of his sincerity? And as he asked the insidious question,
the distrustful Louis, trembling for his tranquillity, forgot, or did
not care to remember, that the egotism and cowardice of his brother in
thus building up his own fortunes on the ruin of those who had confided
in him, had deeply wounded the dignity of the Queen-mother.
The result of the conference between the King and his minister was an
order to the envoy of Marie de Medicis to repair to the residence of the
Cardinal at Ruel, where he was informed that he would have an audience,
at which both Louis XIII and Richelieu would personally deliver to him
their despatches for his royal mistress. On his arrival at the château,
however, he was surprised to find the Cardinal alone, and to learn that
his Majesty was not expected. To counteract this disappointment, De
Laleu was received with such extraordinary distinction that he could not
avoid expressing his astonishment at the honours which were lavished
upon him, when Richelieu, with one of those bland smiles which were ever
at his command, declared that the respect due to the illustrious
Princess whom he served demanded still greater demonstrations on his
part had it been in his power to afford them on such an occasion. He
then proceeded to inform the envoy that the Queen-mother could never be
otherwise than welcome, whenever she might see fit to return to France,
but that, in order to be convinced that she would never again suffer
herself to be misled by those who had so long induced her to oppose his
wishes, the King desired that she would previously deliver up to him the
Jesuit Chanteloupe, the Abbé de St. Germain, and the Vicomte de
Fabbroni,[208] as his Majesty could not place any confidence in the
stability of her affection so long as those individuals were still
alive. On his own part, the Cardinal declared his extreme gratification
at the proof afforded by the letter of the Queen-mother to himself that
his enemies had been unable to undermine her regard for him, and
earnestly urged her to comply with the pleasure of the King on the
subject of her above-named servants, by which means she could not fail
to convince every one that she had disapproved of their disloyalty and
evil designs.
"Nor can I forbear reminding her Majesty," he concluded, "with the same
frankness as I formerly used towards her, that, after what has passed,
it would be impossible for the King not to feel great distrust, which it
will be expedient to exert all her energies to overcome, in order to
build up the desired reconciliation on a solid foundation. This once
effected, she will soon receive sufficient evidence that she possesses
one of the most affectionate sons on earth, and she will become aware
of the sincere attachment of one of her servants, although he is unable
under the present circumstances to urge her cause more zealously than he
has already done without incurring the serious displeasure of his
sovereign. The difficulties which I have now explained, however, are
mere clouds which her Majesty can readily disperse, and the King will
further declare to you to-morrow at St. Germain-en-Laye, where you will
be admitted to an audience, whatever he may deem it expedient to
communicate to his august mother."
On the following day the equerry of Marie de Medicis accordingly
proceeded to the Palace of St. Germain, where he found Louis with a brow
so moody, and an eye so stern, that he was at no loss to discover the
utter futility of all hope of success. The promised communication proved
indeed to be a mere repetition of what had already been stated by the
Cardinal; but, contrary to custom (his difficulty of articulation
rendering the King unwilling on ordinary occasions to indulge in much
speaking, diffuse as he was on paper), he enlarged at greater length,
and with infinitely more violence than Richelieu had done, upon the
misdemeanours of the three individuals whom he claimed at the hands of
the Queen-mother, as well as on the necessity of her prompt obedience,
which alone could, as he declared, tend to convince him that she had
been guiltless of all participation in their crimes.
As the mission of the envoy was accomplished, he commenced his
preparations for leaving France; but before they were completed he
received fresh despatches from Marie de Medicis, in which she confirmed
her former promises both to her son and his minister, in terms still
more submissive than those of her previous letters, and requested a
passport for Suffren, her confessor, in order that he might plead
her cause.
Richelieu was, however, too well aware of the timid and scrupulous
nature of the King's conscience, and of the eagerness with which the
able Jesuit would avail himself of a similar knowledge, to suffer him to
approach the person of Louis; and he consequently replied that "it would
be useless for the Queen-mother to send her confessor, or any other
individual, to the French Court, unless they brought with them her
consent to the condition upon which his Majesty had insisted; as the
King had come to an irrevocable determination never to yield upon that
point, and to refuse to listen to any other envoy whom she might
despatch to him, until she had afforded by her obedience a proof of
submission which was indispensable alike to her own reputation, the
tranquillity of the royal family, and the welfare of the kingdom."
While awaiting the reappearance of De Laleu, all the household of Marie
de Medicis, with the exception of Chanteloupe and one or two others,
began to anticipate a speedy return to France. The concessions which she
had made were indeed so important and so unforeseen, that it seemed idle
to apprehend any further opposition on the part either of the King
himself, or of his still more obdurate minister. Great, therefore, was
their dismay when they discovered that their unhappy mistress had
sacrificed her pride in vain, and that she still remained the victim of
her arch-enemy the Cardinal. But among the murmurs by which she was
surrounded not one proceeded from the lips of the persecuted exile
herself. Never had she so nobly asserted herself as on this occasion.
Her resignation was dignified and tearless. In a few earnest words she
declared her determination never to abandon those who had clung to her
in her reverses; and, as a pledge of her sincerity, she appointed the
Abbé de St. Germain to the long-vacant office of her almoner.[209]
From Monsieur she experienced no sympathy; while Puylaurens openly
expressed his gratification at a failure which could but tend to render
the negotiations then pending between the Prince his master and the King
more favourable to the former. One serious impediment presented itself,
however, in the fact that Gaston had, at the entreaty of the Princesse
de Phalsbourg (in order to counteract the attempt of Richelieu, who
sought to contest its legitimacy), consented to celebrate his marriage a
second time, in the presence of the Duc d'Elboeuf, and all the principal
officers of his household. He had also solicited the Queen-mother to
confirm the approval which she had given to the alliance when it had
been originally celebrated at Nancy, and to affix her seal to the
written contract; but Marie de Medicis, who was aware that the King
would deeply resent this open and formal defiance, declined to comply
with his request, having, as she assured him, resolved to abide by the
pleasure of the sovereign in all things, and to avoid every cause
of offence.
As the Prince still continued to urge her upon the subject, she said
coldly, "You persist in vain. You have evinced so little regard for me,
and you reject with so much obstinacy the good advice which I give you,
that I have at length determined never again to interfere in your
affairs. My decision is formed, and henceforward I shall implicitly obey
the will of the King."
This circumstance was immediately reported to Richelieu, who, delighted
to maintain the coldness which had grown up between the mother and son,
hastened to insinuate to Marie de Medicis that Louis had expressed his
gratification at her refusal, and to assure her that should she suffer
the Prince to extort her consent to such an act of wilful revolt against
the royal command she would inevitably ruin her own cause.
Having publicly ratified his marriage by this second solemnization,
Monsieur next proceeded to have it confirmed and approved by the doctors
of the Faculty of Louvain; to write to the Sovereign-Pontiff, declaring
that the alliance which he had formed was valid; and to entreat of his
Holiness to disregard all assurances to the contrary, from whatever
quarter they might proceed.
In order to give additional weight to these declarations, Gaston sent
them by an express to the Papal Court; but his messenger, having been
arrested on the frontier, was conveyed to Paris, and committed to the
Bastille; upon which a second envoy was despatched, who succeeded in
accomplishing his mission.[210] This obstacle to the coveted
establishment of his niece enraged the almost omnipotent minister, while
Gaston, in his turn, encouraged by the representations of his favourite,
communicated to the Marquis d'Ayetona the conditions of the treaty which
had been proposed to him, and declared that he would enter into no
engagement without the sanction of the Spanish sovereign. The past
career of Monsieur had by no means tended to induce an unreserved
confidence in those whom he affected to regard, and the able Governor
accordingly replied, with an equal degree of sincerity, that he strongly
advised the Prince to terminate a struggle which could only tend to
distract the kingdom over which he would, in all probability, soon be
called upon to rule; but at the same time to insist upon the royal
recognition of his marriage, as well as upon holding a fortified town as
a place of refuge, should he thereafter require such protection. He,
moreover, pointed out Chalon-sur-Saône as an eligible stronghold; and
having thus indicated conditions which he was well aware would never be
conceded, the Marquis flattered himself that he had, for a time at
least, rendered a reconciliation between the royal brothers
impracticable.[211]
He was greatly encouraged in this belief when Monsieur, who affected to
regard his return to France as a mere chimera, subsequently consented to
sign a treaty with Spain, by which he pledged himself not to enter into
any agreement with Louis XIII, be the conditions what they might; and,
in the event of a war between the two nations, to attach himself to the
cause of Philip, who was to place under his orders an army of fifteen
thousand men.[212]
This treaty was signed by the Duc d'Orléans and the Marquis d'Ayetona,
and countersigned by the Duque de Lerma and Puylaurens; and the
Spaniards had no sooner succeeded in obtaining it, than both the Marquis
and the Prince of Savoy, who had recently entered the Spanish service,
urged the Queen-mother to join the faction. Marie, however, rejected the
proposition without the hesitation of a moment, declaring that she could
not permit herself to form any alliance so prejudicial to the interests
of the King her son; an act of prudence and good feeling on which she
had soon additional cause to congratulate herself, as the Marquis
d'Ayetona, immediately on its completion, forwarded the treaty to
Madrid, where it was ratified and returned without delay; but the vessel
by which it was sent having been driven on shore near Calais, the
despatches fell into the hands of the French authorities, by whom they
were forwarded to the minister, whose alarm on discovering the nature of
their contents determined him to lose no time in effecting the recall of
the false and faction-loving Prince.
A second attempt which was made upon the life of Puylaurens at this
precise period admirably seconded his views, as the favourite, who
persisted in attributing the act to the friends of the Queen-mother,
declared that he would no longer remain at Brussels, where his safety
was constantly compromised; and Gaston, who was equally unwilling to
consent to a separation, accordingly resolved to waive the conditions
upon which he had previously insisted--namely, the recognition of his
marriage, and the possession of a fortified place--and to submit to the
degrading terms which had been offered by Richelieu.
On this occasion, however, Monsieur was careful not to seek advice
either from his mother or his wife. For once he had self-control enough
to keep his secret, although the constant passage of the couriers
between the two Courts of Paris and Brussels did not fail to alarm the
Spaniards; but as the anxiety of the Cardinal to secure the person of
the Prince had induced him to insist that the prescribed conditions
should be accepted within a fortnight, and that Gaston must return to
France within three weeks, little time was afforded to Ayetona for
elucidating the apparent mystery; and on the 1st of October the treaty
of reconciliation was signed by the King at Écouen.
[Illustration: GEORGE VILLIERS 1ST DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.]
It would appear, moreover, that the Prince and his favourite were as
little desirous of delay as the Cardinal himself, for on the 8th of the
same month, profiting by the temporary absence of the Marquis, Monsieur,
pretexting a fox-hunt, left Brussels early in the morning, accompanied
only by a few confidential friends; and so soon as they were fairly
beyond the city, they set spurs to their horses, and never drew bridle
until after sunset, when they reached La Capelle, the frontier town of
France, not having taken the slightest refreshment throughout the
day.[213] For some time previous to his flight Gaston had estranged
himself not only from the Queen-mother, but also from Madame; and their
astonishment was not unmingled with indignation when they became aware
that he had thus heartlessly abandoned both in order to secure his own
safety. A hurried and brief letter in which he solicited the protection
of Marie de Medicis for his ill-requited wife was the only proof which
he vouchsafed of his continued interest in their welfare; and this
despatched, he pursued his rapid journey to St. Germain-en-Laye, having
previously apprised the King of his approach to the capital.
Louis was at table when the arrival of his brother was announced, but he
instantly rose, and hastened to meet him at the door of the palace.
When he alighted and recognized the King, Gaston bowed low, but did not
attempt to bend his knee. "Sir," he said reverently, "I know not if it
be joy or fear which renders me speechless, but I have at least words
enough left to solicit your pardon for the past."
"Brother," replied the King, "we will not speak of the past. God has
given us the happiness of meeting once more, and the moment is a joyful
one to me."
The two Princes then embraced each other with every appearance of
sincerity and goodwill, after which Louis led Monsieur to his private
closet, where they were shortly joined by the Cardinal.
As the latter was announced Louis XIII exclaimed earnestly: "Brother, I
entreat of you to love M. le Cardinal."
"I will love him," was the reply of the Prince, "as I love myself, and I
will follow his advice in all things."
Richelieu fell on his knees, and kissed the hands of Monsieur.
Gaston d'Orléans was, for the moment, gained.[214]
The first few days of this royal reunion were entirely devoted to
festivity, after which the minister endeavoured to induce the Prince to
consent to the annulment of his marriage with the Princesse de Lorraine;
but upon this point Gaston evinced a firmness which astonished all those
who were able to appreciate the recklessness and instability of his
general character, and, finding himself pressed beyond his power of
endurance, he retired, accompanied by Puylaurens, to Blois, whence he
wrote to remonstrate against the delay which had taken place in the
fulfilment of the promises made to his favourite. Uneasy lest the
restless spirit of the Prince should induce him once more to revolt if
his claims remained disregarded, Richelieu caused him to be informed
that M. de Puylaurens was awaited in Paris in order that his marriage
might be concluded with the younger daughter of the Baron de
Pontchâteau, on the same day that the Duc de la Valette was to espouse
the elder; while the Comte de Guiche, son of the Comte de Grammont, was
also to give his hand to Mademoiselle du Plessis-Chivray, another
relative of the Cardinal-Minister. This intelligence caused the greatest
satisfaction to Monsieur, who forthwith proceeded to the capital with
Puylaurens; and on the 19th of November both the Prince and his
favourite were magnificently entertained at Ruel, whence they
subsequently departed for St. Germain, in order to sign the contract in
the presence of the King.
On the 26th of the same month the triple ceremony of betrothal took
place at the Louvre. A full and unreserved pardon was publicly declared
in favour of all the adherents of Monsieur, and two days subsequently
the several marriages were celebrated with great pomp at the Arsenal.
The lordship of Aiguillon, which had been purchased from the Princesse
Marie de Gonzaga for six hundred thousand livres, was erected into a
duchy-peerage under the name of Puylaurens, upon whom it was conferred,
and who took his seat in the Parliament on the 7th of December as Duc de
Puylaurens; after which Gaston once more returned to Blois, in order to
avoid the persevering persecutions of the minister on the subject of
his marriage.
FOOTNOTES:
[204] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 143, 144.
[205] Léon Bouthillier, Comte de Chavigny, the son of Claude
Bouthillier, Superintendent of Finance, was in 1634 Secretary of State.
Louis XIII, in his will, appointed him Minister of State, and Member of
the Council of Regency, but he was some time afterwards dismissed from
office, together with his father. Léon Bouthillier died in 1652.
[206] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160.
[207] Siri, _Mém. Rec_. vol. vii. p. 761.
[208] Luc, Vicomte de Fabbroni, was a celebrated astrologer, who
attached himself to the fortunes of Marie de Medicis, to whom he had, on
several occasions, predicted the early death of Louis XIII, the
accession of Gaston d'Orléans, and her own restoration to regal power.
[209] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 158-163. Siri, _Mém. Rec_. vol. vii. pp.
763, 764. Le Vassor, vol. vii. p. 360.
[210] Gaston d'Orléans, _Mém_. pp. 155, 156.
[211] Siri, _Mém. Rec_. vol. vii. p. 756.
[212] Capefigue, vol. v. p. 216. Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 241. Le Clerc,
vol. ii. pp. 166, 167. Mézeray, vol. xi. p. 443.
[213] Siri, _Mém. Rec_. vol. viii. pp. 101, 102. Gaston d'Orléans,
_Mém_. p. 169. Le Vassor, vol. viii. p. 307.
[214] Capefigue, vol. v. pp. 228, 229.