and her noble duchy, which gave great temptations to his soul; and that
was why he repudiated his wife. His oath was believed and accepted by
the pope, who sent him the dispensation, which was received by the
Sorbonne and the parliament of Paris. In all of which this princess was
wise and virtuous, and made no scandal, nor uproar, nor appeal to
justice, because a king can do much and just what he will; but feeling
herself strong to contain herself in continence and chastity, she
retired towards God and espoused herself to Him so truly that never
another husband nor a better could she have.
3. _Madame Anne de France._
After her comes her sister, Anne de France, a shrewd woman and a cunning
if ever there was one, and the true image of King Louis, her father. The
choice made of her to be guardian and administrator of her brother,
King Charles [VIII.], proves this, for she governed him so wisely and
virtuously that he came to be one of the greatest of the kings of
France, who was proclaimed, by reason of his valour, Emperor of the
East. As to his kingdom she administered that in like manner. True it is
that because of her ambition she was rather mischief-making, on account
of the hatred she bore to M. d’Orléans, afterwards King Louis XII. I
have heard say, however, that in the beginning she loved him with love;
so that if M. d’Orléans had been willing to hear to her, he might have
had better luck, as I hold on good authority. But he could not constrain
himself, all the more because he saw her so ambitious, and he wished his
wife to depend upon him as first and nearest prince to the crown, and
not upon herself; while she desired the contrary, for she wanted to hold
the highest place and to govern in all things.
She was very vindictive in temper like her father, and always a sly
dissembler, corrupt, full of deceit, and a great hypocrite, who, for the
sake of her ambition, could mask and disguise herself in any way. So
that the kingdom, beginning to be angry at her humours, although she was
wise and virtuous, bore with them so impatiently that when the king went
to Naples she no longer had the title of regent, but her husband, M. de
Bourbon, received it. It is true, however, that she made him do what she
had in her head, for she ruled him and knew how to guide him, all the
better because he was rather foolish,--indeed, very much so; but the
Council opposed and controlled her. She endeavoured to use her
prerogative and authority over Queen Anne, but there she found the boot
on the other foot, as they say, for Queen Anne was a shrewd Bretonne, as
I have told already, who was very superb and haughty towards her
equals; so that Madame Anne was forced to lower her sails and leave the
queen, her sister-in-law, to keep her rank and maintain her grandeur and
majesty, as was reasonable; which made Madame Anne very angry; for she,
being virtually regent, held to her grandeur terribly.
I have read many letters from her to our family in the days of her
greatness; but never did I see any of our kings (and I have seen many)
talk and write so bravely and imperiously as she did, as much to the
great as to the small. Of a surety, she was a _maîtresse-femme_, though
quarrelsome, and if M. d’Orléans had not been captured and his luck had
not served him ill, she would have thrown France into turmoil; and all
for her ambition, which so long as she lived she never could banish from
her soul,--not even when retired to her estates, where, nevertheless,
she pretended to be pleased and where she held her Court, which was
always, as I have heard my grandmother say, very fine and grand, she
being accompanied by great numbers of ladies and maids of honour, whom
she trained very wisely and virtuously. In fact she gave such fine
educations (as I know from my grandmother) that there were no ladies or
daughters of great houses in her time who did not receive lessons from
her, the house of Bourbon being one of the greatest and most splendid in
Christendom. And indeed it was she who made it so brilliant, for though
she was opulent in estates and riches of her own, she played her hand so
well in the regency that she gained a great deal more; all of which
served to make the house of Bourbon more dazzling. Besides being
splendid and magnificent by nature and unwilling to diminish by ever so
little her early grandeur, she also did many great kindnesses to those
whom she liked and took in hand. To end all, this Anne de France was
very clever and sufficiently good. I have now said enough about her.
4. _Madame Claude de France._
I must now speak of Madame Claude de France, who was very good, very
charitable, and very gentle to all, never doing any unkindness or harm
to any one either at her Court or in the kingdom. She was much beloved
by King Louis [XII.] and Queen Anne, her father and mother, being their
good and best-loved daughter, as they showed her plainly; for after the
king was peaceably Duke of Milan they declared and proclaimed her, in
the parliament of Paris with open doors, duchess of the two finest
duchies in Christendom, to wit, Milan and Bretagne, the one coming from
her father, the other from her mother. What an heiress, if you please!
These two duchies joined together made a noble kingdom.
Queen Anne, her mother, desired to marry her to Charles of Austria,
afterwards emperor, and had she lived she would have done so, for in
that she influenced the king, her husband, wishing always to have the
sole charge and care of the marriage of her daughters. Never did she
call them otherwise than by their names: “My daughter Claude,” and “My
daughter Renée.” In these our days, estates and seigneuries must be
given to daughters of princesses, and even of ladies, by which to call
them! If Queen Anne had lived, never would Madame Claude have been
married to King François [I.] for she foresaw the evil treatment she was
certain to receive; the king, her husband, giving her a disease that
shortened her days. Also, Madame la regente treated her harshly. But she
strengthened her soul as much as she could, by her sound mind and gentle
patience and great wisdom, to endure these troubles, and in spite of
all, she bore the king, her husband, a fine and generous progeny,
namely: three sons, François, Henri, and Charles; and four daughters,
Louise, Charlotte, Magdelaine, and Marguerite.
She was much beloved by her husband, King François [I.], and well
treated by him and by all France, and much regretted when she died for
her admirable virtues and goodness. I have read in the “Chronique
d’Anjou” that after her death her body worked miracles; for a great lady
of her family being tortured one day with a hot fever, and having made
her a vow, recovered her health suddenly.
5. _Madame Renée de France._
Madame Renée, her sister, was also a very good and able princess; for
she had as sound and subtle mind as could be. She had studied much, and
I have heard her discoursing learnedly and gravely of the sciences, even
astrology, and knowledge of the stars, about which I heard her talking
one day with the queen-mother, who said, after hearing her, that the
greatest philosopher in the world could not have spoken better.
She was promised in marriage to the Emperor Charles, by King François;
but the war interrupting that marriage, she was given to the Duc de
Ferrara, who loved her much and treated her honourably as the daughter
of a king. True it is they were for a time rather ill together because
of the Lutheran religion he suspected her of liking. Possibly; for
resenting the ill-turns the popes had done to her father in every way,
she denied their power and refused obedience, not being able to do
worse, she being a woman. I hold on good authority that she said this
often. Her husband, nevertheless, having regard to her illustrious
blood, respected her always and honoured her much. Like her sister,
Queen Claude, she was fortunate in her issue, for she bore to her
husband the finest that was, I believe, in Italy, although she herself
was much weakened in body.
She had the Duc de Ferrara, who is to-day one of the handsomest princes
in Italy and very wise and generous; the late Cardinal d’Est, the
kindest, most magnificent and liberal man in the world (of whom I hope
to speak hereafter); and three daughters, the most beautiful women ever
born in Italy: Madame Anne d’Est, afterwards Mme. de Guise; Madame
Lucrezia, Duchesse d’Urbino; and Madame Leonora, who died unmarried. The
first two bore the names of their grandmothers: one from Anne de
Bretagne on her mother’s side; the other, on the father’s side, from
Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander [VI.], both very different
in manners as in character, although the said lady Lucrezia Borgia was a
charming princess of Spanish extraction, gifted with beauty and virtue
(see Guicciardini). Madame Leonora was named after Queen Leonora. These
daughters were very handsome, but their mother embellished them still
more by the noble education that she gave them, making them study
sciences and good letters, the which they learned and retained
perfectly, putting to shame the greatest scholars. So that if they had
beautiful bodies they had souls that were beautiful also. I shall speak
of them elsewhere.
Now, if Madame Renée was clever, intelligent, wise, and virtuous, she
was also so kind and understood the subjects of her husband so well that
I never knew any one in Ferrara who was not content or failed to say all
the good in the world of her. They felt above all her charity, which she
had in great abundance and principally for Frenchmen; for she had this
good thing about her, that she never forgot her nation; and though she
was thrust far away from it, she always loved it deeply. No Frenchman
passing through Ferrara, being in necessity and addressing her, ever
left without an ample donation and good money to return to his country
and family; and if he were ill, and could not travel, she had him
treated and cured carefully and then gave him money to return to France.
I have heard persons who know it well, and an infinite number of
soldiers who had good experience of it say that after the journey of M.
de Guise into Italy, she saved the lives of at least ten thousand poor
Frenchmen, who would have died of starvation and want without her; and
among the number were many nobles of good family. I have heard some of
them say that never could they have reached France without her, so great
was her charity and liberality to those of her nation. And I have also
heard her _maître d’hôtel_ assert that their food had cost her more than
ten thousand crowns; and when the stewards of her household remonstrated
and showed her this excessive expense, she only said: “How can I help
it? These are poor Frenchmen of my nation, who, if God had put a beard
on my chin and made me a man, would now be my subjects; and truly they
would be so now if that wicked Salic law did not hold me in check.”
She is all the more to be praised because, without her, the old proverb
would be still more true, namely, that “Italy is the grave of
Frenchmen.”
But if her charity was shown at that time in this direction, I can
assure you that in other places she did not fail to practise it. I have
heard several of her household say that on her return to France, having
retired to her town and house of Montargis about the time the civil wars
began to stir, she gave a refuge as long as she lived to a number of
persons of the Religion [Reformers] who were driven or banished from
their houses and estates; she aided, succoured, and fed as many as she
could.
I myself, at the time of the second troubles, was with the forces in
Gascoigne, commanded by MM. de Terridès and de Montsalès, amounting to
eight thousand men, then on their way to join the king. We passed
through Montargis and went, the leaders, chief captains, and gentlemen,
to pay our respects to Madame Renée, as our duty commanded. We saw in
the castle, as I believe, more than three hundred persons of the
Religion, who had taken refuge there from all parts of the country. An
old _maître d’hôtel_, a very honest man, whom I had known in Ferrara,
swore to me that she fed every day more than three hundred mouths of
these poor people.
In short, this princess was a true daughter of France in kindness and
charity. She had also a great and lofty heart. I have seen her in Italy
and at Court, hold her state as well as possible; and though she did not
have an external appearance of grandeur, her body being weakened, there
was so much majesty in her royal face and speech that she showed plainly
enough she was daughter of a king and of France.
6. _Mesdames Charlotte, Louise, Magdelaine, and Marguerite de France._
I have said that Madame Claude [wife of François I.] was fortunate in
her fine progeny of daughters as well as of sons. First she had Mesdames
Charlotte and Louise, whom death did not allow to reach the perfect age
and noble fruit their tender youth had promised in sweet flowers. Had
they come to the perfection of their years they would have equalled
their sisters in mind and goodness, for their promise was great. Madame
Louise was betrothed to the Emperor when she died. Thus are lovely
rosebuds swept away by the wind, as well as full-blown flowers. Youth
thus ravished is more to be regretted than old age, which has had its
day and its loss is not great. Almost the same thing happened to Madame
Magdelaine, their sister, who had no great time allowed her to enjoy the
thing in all the world she most desired; which was, to be a queen, so
proud and lofty was her heart.
She was married to the King of Scotland; and when they wanted to
dissuade her--not, certainly, that he was not a brave and handsome
prince, but because she thus condemned herself to make her dwelling in a
barbarous land among a brutal people--she replied: “At least I shall be
queen so long as I live; that is what I have always wished for.” But
when she arrived in Scotland she found that country just what they had
told her, and very different from her sweet France. Still, without one
sign of repentance, she said nothing except these words: “Alas! I would
be queen,”--covering her sadness and the fire of her ambition with the
ashes of patience as best she could. M. de Ronsard, who went with her to
Scotland, told me all this; he had been a page of M. d’Orléans, who
allowed him to go with her, to see the world.
She did not live long a queen before she died, regretted by the king and
all the country, for she was truly good, and made herself beloved,
having, moreover, a fine mind, and being wise and virtuous.
Her sister, Madame Marguerite de France [the second of the three
Marguerites], afterwards Duchesse de Savoie, was so wise, virtuous, and
perfect in learning and knowledge that she was called the Minerva, or
the Pallas, of France, and for device she bore an olive branch with two
serpents entwining it, and the words: _Rerum Sapientia custos_:
signifying that all things are ruled, or should be, by wisdom--of which
she had much, and knowledge also; improving them ever by continual study
in the afternoons, and by lessons which she received from learned men,
whom she loved above all other sorts of people. For which reason
they honoured her as their goddess and patron. The great quantity of
noble books which they wrote and dedicated to her show this, and as they
have said enough I shall say no more about her learning.
[Illustration: François I]
Her heart was grand and lofty. King Henri wished to marry her to M. de
Vendôme, first prince of the blood; but she made answer that never would
she marry a subject of the king, her brother. That is why she was so
long without a husband; until, peace being made between the two
Christian and Catholic kings, she was married to M. de Savoie, to whom
she had aspired for a long time, ever since the days of King François,
when Pope Paul III. and King François met at Nice, and the Queen of
Navarre went, by command of the king, to see the late Duc de Savoie in
the castle of Nice, taking with her Madame Marguerite, her niece, who
was thought most agreeable by M. de Savoie, and very suitable for his
son. But the affair dragged on, because of the great war, until the
peace, when the marriage was made and consummated at great cost to
France; for all that we had conquered and held in Piedmont and Savoie
for the space of thirty years, was given back in one hour; so much did
King Henri desire peace and love his sister, not sparing anything to
marry her well. But all the same, the greater part of France and
Piedmont murmured and said it was too much.
Others thought it very strange, and others very incredible, until they
had seen her; and even foreigners mocked at us: and those who loved
France and her true good wept, and lamented, especially those in
Piedmont who did not wish to return to their former masters.
As for the French soldiers, and the war companions who had so long
enjoyed the garrisons, charms, and fine living of that beautiful
country, there is no need to ask what they said, nor how they grumbled
and were desperate and bemoaned themselves. Some, more Gascon than the
rest, said: “Hey! _cap de Diou!_ for the little bit of flesh of that
woman, must we give back that large and noble piece of earth?” Others:
“A fine thing truly to call her Minerva, goddess of chastity, and send
her here to Piedmont to change her name at our expense!”
I have heard great captains say that if Piedmont had been left to us,
and only Savoie and Bresse given up, the marriage would still have been
very rich and very fine; and if we could have stayed in Piedmont that
region would have served as a school and an amusement to the French
soldiers, who would have stayed there and not been so eager after civil
wars,--it being the nature of Frenchmen to busy themselves always with
the toils of Mars, and to hate idleness, rest, and peace.
But such was now the unhappy fate of France. It was thus that peace was
bought, and Madame de Savoie could not help it; although she never
desired the ruin of France; on the contrary, she loved nothing so much
as the people of her nation; and if she received benefits from them she
was not ungrateful, but served them and succoured them all she could;
and as long as she lived she persuaded and won her husband, Monsieur de
Savoie, to keep the peace, and not combine, he being a Spaniard for
life, against France, which he did as soon as she was dead. For then he
stirred up, supported, and strengthened secretly M. le Maréchal de
Bellegarde to do what he did and to rebel against the king, and seize
upon the marquisate of Saluces (which I shall speak of elsewhere); in
which certainly his Highness did great wrong, and ill returned the
benefits received from the Kings of France his relatives, especially our
late King Henri III., who, on his return from Poland, gave him so
liberally Pignerol and Savillan.
Many well-advised persons believe that if Madame de Savoie had lived she
would have died sooner than allow that blow, so grateful did she feel to
the land of her birth. And I have heard a very great person say that he
thought that if Madame de Savoie were living and had seen her son seize
upon the marquisate of Saluces (as he did in the time of the late king),
she would have strangled him; indeed, the late king himself thought so
and said so. That king, Henri III., felt such wrath at that stroke that
the morning when the news reached him, as he was about to take the
sacrament, he put off that act and would not do it, so excited, angry,
and scrupulous was he, within as well as without; and he always said
that if his aunt had lived it would never have happened.
Such was the good opinion this good princess left in the minds of the
king and of other persons. And to tell the truth, as I know from high
authority, if she had not been so good never would the king or his
council have portioned her with such great wealth, which, surely, she
never spared for France and Frenchmen. No Frenchman could complain, when
addressing her for his necessities in going or coming across the
mountains, that she did not succour and assist him and give him good
money to help him on his way. I know that when we returned from Malta,
she did great favours and gave much money to many Frenchmen who
addressed her and asked her for it; and also, without being asked, she
offered it. I can say that, as knowing it myself; for Mme. de
Pontcarlier, sister of M. de Retz, who was Madame de Savoie’s favourite
and lady of honour, asked me to supper one evening in her room, and gave
me, in a purse, five hundred crowns on behalf of the said Madame, who
loved my aunt, Mme. de Dampierre, extremely and had also loved my
mother. But I can swear with truth and security that I did not take a
penny of it, for I had enough with me to take me back to Court; and had
I not, I would rather have gone on foot than be so shameless and
impudent as to beg of such a princess. I knew many who did not do like
that, but took very readily what they could get.
I have heard one of her stewards say that every year she put away in a
coffer a third of her revenue to give to poor Frenchmen who passed
through Savoie. That is the good Frenchwoman that she was; and no one
should complain of the wealth she took from France; and it was all her
joy when she heard good news from there, and all her grief when it was
bad.
When the first wars broke out she felt such woe she thought to die of
it; and when peace was made and she came to Lyon to meet the king and
the queen-mother, she could not rejoice enough, begging the queen to
tell her all; and showing anger to several Huguenots, telling them and
writing them that they stirred up strife, and urging them not to do so
again; for they honoured her much and had faith in her, because she gave
pleasure to many; indeed M. l’Amiral [Coligny] would not have enjoyed
his estates in Savoie had it not been for her.
When the civil wars came on in Flanders she was the first to tell us on
our arrival from Malta; and you may be sure she was not sorry for them;
“for,” said she, “those Spaniards rejoiced and scoffed at us for our
discords, but now that they have their share they will scoff no longer.”
She was so beloved in the lands and countries of her husband that when
she died tears flowed from the eyes of all, both great and small, so
that for long they did not dry nor cease. She spoke for every one to her
husband when they were in trouble and adversity, in pain or in fault,
requesting favour or pardon, which without her intercessions they would
often not have had. Thus they called her their patron-saint.
In short, she was the blessing of the world; in all ways, as I have
said, charitable, munificent, liberal, wise, virtuous, and so accessible
and gentle as never was, principally to those of her nation; for when
they went to do her reverence she received them with such welcome they
were shamed; the most unimportant gentlemen she honoured in the same
way, and often did not speak to them until they were covered. I know
what I say, for, speaking with her on one occasion, she did me this
honour, and urged and commanded me so much that I was constrained to
say: “Madame, I think you do not take me for a Frenchman, but for one
who is ignorant who you are and the rank you hold; but I must honour you
as belongs to me.” She never spoke to any one sitting down herself, but
always standing; unless they were principal personages, and those I saw
speaking to her she obliged to sit beside her.
To conclude, one could never tell all the good of this princess as it
was; it would need a worthier writer than I to represent her virtues. I
shall be silent, therefore, till some future time, and begin to tell of
the daughters of our King Henri [II. and Catherine de’ Medici], Mesdames
Élisabeth, Claude, and Marguerite de France.
7. _Mesdames Élisabeth, Claude, and Marguerite de France._