The following are the more important particulars, supplied by M. Jules
Roman, with reference to President Charles of Grenoble:--
Jeffroy Charles was an Italian, born in the marquisate of Saluzza, where
his father, Constant, had been a distinguished jurisconsult. The hero
of Queen Margaret’s xxxvith tale always signed his name Jeffroy Charles,
but his descendants adopted the spelling Carles. Doubtless the name had
originally been Caroli. Before fixing himself in France, Jeffroy Charles
had been in the service of Luigi II., Marquis of Saluzza, who had
appointed him to the office of “Podesta” and entrusted him with
various diplomatic missions to the French Court (see _Discorsi sopre
alame famiglie nobili del Piemonte_ by Francesco Agostini della Chiesa,
in MS. in the State Archives, at Turin). At the time when Charles VIII.
was planning his expedition to Naples, he gave a cordial greeting to all
the Italians who presented themselves at his Court, and, securing
the services of Jeffroy Charles, he appointed him counsellor of the
Parliament of Grenoble (October 5, 1493), and entrusted him with various
secret missions, the result being that he sojourned but unfrequently in
Dauphiné. On the death of Charles VIII., Jeffroy secured the good
graces of his successor, Louis XII., and was appointed (June 16, 1500)
President of the Senate of Turin, and some months later Chief President
of the Parliament of Grenoble. Charles spent the greater part of that
year on missions, both to the Court of the Emperor Maximilian and that
of the Pope. It was he who obtained from the former the investiture of
Louis XII. as Duke of Milan, which afterwards led to so much warfare.
Most of the following years he spent at Milan, seeking to organise the
government of the duchy, and contending against the rapacity of both
the French and the Italian nobles. In 1508 he was sent by Louis XII.
to Cambrai, in company with Cardinal d’Amboise, to conclude an alliance
with the Emperor against Venice, and he also repaired the same year
to Rome with Marshal Trivulzio to negotiate the Pope’s entry into this
league.
On war being declared, he set aside his judicial robes, and took an
active part in the campaign against Venice, fighting so bravely at
Agnadel that Louis XII. knighted him on the battlefield. His last
diplomatic mission was to the Court of Leo X. in 1515, in which year he
was, on account of his great learning, appointed to direct the education
of the King’s younger daughter, the celebrated Renée of Ferrara. But
it is doubtful whether he ever even entered upon these duties, since he
died soon after he had been entrusted with them. His family remained in
Dauphiné, where it died out, obscurely, during the seventeenth century.
Only one of his sons, Anthony, evinced any talent, becoming counsellor
of the Rouen Parliament (1519), and ambassador at Milan (1530). Lancelot
de Carles, Bishop of Riez, was not, as some biographers assert, a son
of Jeffroy Charles, nor was he, it would seem, in any way connected with
the Saluzza family.
Jeffroy Charles’s wife, Margaret du Mottet, had borne him eight children
before he surprised her in adultery. After the tragical ending of his
conjugal mishaps he adopted as his crest the figure of an angel holding
the forefinger of one hand to his mouth as if to enjoin secrecy. (1) In
the seventeenth century this “angel of silence” was to be seen, carved
in stone, and serving as a support of the Charles escutcheon, on the
house where the President had resided in the Rue des Clercs at Grenoble
(Guy Allard’s _Dictionnaire du Dauphiné, &c_, Grenoble 1695). Escutcheon
and support have nowadays disappeared, but on certain of Charles’s
seals, as well as in books that belonged to him, now in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris, the emblem of the angel will still be found. The
earliest seal on which we find it is one affixed to a receipt dated from
Milan, July 31, 1506. Assuming that he adopted this crest in memory of
the events narrated by Queen Margaret, it is probable that the latter
occurred in the earlier part of 1506 or the latter part of the previous
year. (2)
1 The suggestion here presents itself that, apart from the
question of any crime, this emblem of secrecy was a very
fitting one for a diplomatist to assume.--Ed.
2 That is, twenty years after the _Cent Nouvelles
Nouvelles_, from which some commentators think the
_Heptameron_ story to have been borrowed, was first printed.
--Ed.
Three copies of a medal showing Charles’s energetic, angular profile,
with the inscription _Jafredus Karoli jurisconsultus preses Delphinatus
et Mediolani_, are known to exist; one in the Grenoble museum, one in
that of Milan, and one in my (M. Roman’s) collection. Three MS. works
from the President’s library are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The frontispiece of one of these (MSS. Lat. No. 4801) is a miniature
painting of his escutcheon, surmounted by the half-length figure of the
“angel of silence,” who is clad in dark blue, with wings of red, green
and blue feathers. On folio 74 of the same MS. is a full-length figure
of the angel, clad in light blue and supporting Charles’s escutcheon
with one hand, whilst the forefinger of the other is pressed to
his lips. In the libraries of Lyons, Grenoble and Turin are other
richly-illuminated works that belonged to the President, who was a
distinguished bibliophilist and great patron of letters, several learned
Italian writers, and among others, J. P. Parisio, J. M. Cattaneo and
P’ranchino Gafforio, having dedicated their principal works to him.
He it was, moreover, who saved the life of Aldo Manuzio, the famous
Venetian printer, when he was arrested by the French as a spy in 1506.
From the foregoing particulars it will be seen that
President Charles was alike learned, brave and skilful. But
for the Queen of Navarre’s circumstantial narrative it would
be hard to believe that a man with so creditable a public
record killed his wife by means of a salad of poisonous
herbs.--Ed.