Vigorous foreign policy of Richelieu--The recovery of the
Valtellina--His projected blow at the Spanish power in Northern
Italy frustrated by a fresh Huguenot insurrection--Bassompierre
sent to Brittany--Marriage of Charles I and
Henrietta-Maria--Bassompierre offered the command of a new army
which is to be despatched to Italy--He demands 7,000 men from the
Army of Champagne--The Duc d’Angoulême and Louis de Marillac, the
generals commanding that army, have recourse to the bogey of a
German invasion in order to retain these troops--Bassompierre
declines the appointment--Conversation between Bassompierre and the
Spanish Ambassador Mirabello on the subject of peace between France
and Spain--The marshal is empowered to treat for peace with
Mirabello--Singular conduct of the Ambassador--News arrives from
Madrid that Philip IV has revoked the powers given to
Mirabello--Bassompierre is sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the
Swiss Cantons to counteract the intrigues of the house of Austria
and the Papacy--His reception in Switzerland--Lavish hospitality
which he dispenses--Complete success of his negotiations.
Never had France stood more in need of such guidance than at the moment
when Richelieu assumed the direction of affairs. At home, there was for
the moment peace, though it was to prove but of brief duration; but
abroad the position of affairs had become so threatening that even the
dullest minds had begun to be alarmed. Spain and Austria, in closest
harmony of religious and political aims, were trampling on the liberties
of Europe; Germany seemed prostrate at the Emperor’s feet; Spain
dominated all Italy, with the exception of Venice and Savoy. All the
provinces which owed allegiance to the two Powers had been knit
together; the subjugation of the Palatinate and the Lower Rhine secured
their connection with the Netherlands and menaced the very existence of
the Dutch; the Valtellina forts commanded the road between the Spaniards
in the Milanese and the Austrians on the Danube and in the Tyrol.
Richelieu at once resolved to assail the Austro-Spanish power at both
critical points. In the North, he did not interfere in arms, but by
subsidies and skilful negotiations he organised a Northern League, under
the leadership of Christian IV of Denmark, and arrested the progress of
the Spaniards in the United Provinces. In the Valtellina, however, he
had recourse to more vigorous measures.
The Spaniards had ended by handing over the forts which had remained in
their possession to the Papal troops, but though the period during which
the Pope[25] was to hold them in deposit had long expired and he had
received all the guarantees he could desire for the security of the
Catholic religion, the Holy Father could not bring himself to hand over
the Valtellina to the heretic Grisons. The Spaniards, on their side,
believed themselves more assured of the Valtellina in the hands of Urban
VIII than in their own, and imagined that a cardinal would never venture
to make war on the Pope. They did not yet know Richelieu.
In November, Coeuvres, who had persuaded the Protestant Cantons to arm
for the recovery of the Valtellina, transformed himself from an
ambassador into a general and marched into the Grisons, at the head of a
small army of French and Swiss. The districts held by the Austrians at
once rose in revolt; the Grisons declared themselves freed from the
treaty which had been imposed on them, and the Imperialists hastily
withdrew. Having secured the Tyrolese passes, Coeuvres descended from
the Engadine by Poschiavo and entered the Valtellina. The entry of some
Spanish troops into Chiavenna served to cover the attack directed
against the soldiers of the Pope, and in a few weeks Chiavenna and all
the forts of the Valtellina had capitulated, although the French general
had no siege-artillery with which to reduce them. The Pope’s soldiers
and their standards were respectfully sent back to his Holiness.
Loud was the outcry, not only at Rome and Madrid, but even amongst the
High Catholic party in France, against the “State Cardinal” who was
trampling the Church beneath his feet.[26] The Pope made less noise than
his partisans; he recognised that a new power had arisen in France, and
he had no desire to suffer worse things at the hands of this redoubtable
Minister. He contented himself by sending his nephew, Cardinal Francisco
Barberini,[27] as Legate to France to lodge a formal protest and
endeavour to accommodate the affair, and hastened to despatch the
dispensation for the marriage of Henriette-Marie, which had been long
awaited. Richelieu had caused a gentle hint to be conveyed to the Holy
Father that, if his consent were any longer withheld, it might be
necessary to celebrate the marriage without it.
Richelieu did not rest content with the recovery of the Valtellina. He
concerted with the Duke of Savoy a movement which, if successful, would
shake the Spanish power in Northern Italy to its foundations. A quarrel
between Charles Emmanuel and Genoa was to form the pretext for an
invasion of the territory of that republic; the Duke would attack, and
France would furnish an auxiliary army. Genoa was, not only the ally,
but the banker of Spain, and its capture would bring about a financial
panic in that country, and, at the same time, interrupt her maritime
communications with the Milanese.
At the beginning of 1625 all was in readiness; Charles Emmanuel had
mobilised his army; a considerable force under the command of
Lesdiguières was being collected on the frontier; and the Dutch had
promised to send a squadron to the Mediterranean to assist in the
blockade of Genoa. Suddenly, to the astonishment and indignation of
Richelieu, and, indeed, of all patriotic Frenchmen, came the news of a
fresh Huguenot insurrection. The Rochellois, angry and alarmed that
their repeated demands for the destruction of Fort Saint-Louis, the
bugbear of their town, had had no effect, had imagined the moment
favourable to secure by a recourse to arms what they despaired of
obtaining by any other means. They had appealed to Rohan and Soubise,
and the two brothers had been so blind to the interests both of their
country and their faith as to agree to co-operate with them. On January
17, Soubise, in command of a number of vessels fitted out by the
Rochellois, seized the Île de Ré, and captured in the harbour of Blavet,
on the Breton coast, seven royal vessels which lay there, after which he
laid siege to the fort which commanded the place.
On the news of Soubise’s proceedings, the Duc de Vendôme, governor of
Brittany, had raised all the noblesse of the province and what infantry
he could muster to oppose him; but a report reached the King that
Vendôme was actually in league with Soubise and the Rochellois, and that
they had attacked Blavet at his instigation, and with the intention of
handing it over to him. Upon this Louis XIII despatched Bassompierre to
Brittany, with full powers to take what action he considered necessary
against Vendôme, in the event of this information being correct. The
marshal left Paris on January 28 and proceeded to Angers, where he gave
orders that a regiment which was in garrison there should follow him to
Brittany so soon as possible, with four pieces of cannon. He then went
to Nantes, where he arranged with the governor to furnish him with as
many men as he could raise. On arriving at Hennebon, however, he learned
that Soubise had abandoned the siege of the fort at Blavet and sailed
away, carrying off with him six of the seven ships which he had seized;
the other he had been obliged to abandon, together with one of his own
ships, which had been damaged by collision with a jetty at the entrance
to the harbour.
The following day he proceeded to Blavet, where he found Vendôme with
the force which he had raised to oppose Soubise. The prince was greatly
distressed to learn that he was suspected of being in collusion with the
rebels, and wished to know whether Bassompierre intended to request the
Parlement of Rennes to hold an inquiry into his conduct. But the
marshal, having satisfied himself that, though “_César Monsieur_,” as he
was called, was not a person in whom much confidence could be reposed,
he was, on this occasion at any rate, innocent of the charge which had
been brought against him, assured him that he had no such intention.
About the middle of February he returned to Paris to render an account
of his journey to the King, and to assure him of the innocence of his
half-brother, at which his Majesty was doubtless much relieved. However,
before many months had passed, Louis XIII was obliged to place his
restless relative under lock and key.
After his descent upon Blavet, Soubise seized the Île d’Oléron, and by
the spring, thanks to the exertions of Rohan, the Huguenots in Upper
Languedoc, Quercy, and the Cévennes were in revolt. It is true that even
in these districts many stood aloof and refused to embarrass the
Government at a time when it was engaged in hostilities with the most
implacable enemies of their faith; but the insurrection was sufficiently
formidable to cause great uneasiness, and to necessitate the retention
at home of troops which might otherwise have been employed beyond the
Alps. In these circumstances, it was impossible for Richelieu to push
the war in Liguria with the vigour which he had intended. “It was then,”
writes Bassompierre, “that the Cardinal de Richelieu said wisely to the
King that, so long as there was a party established within his realm, it
would never be possible to undertake anything outside it; and that he
ought to think of exterminating it before meditating other designs.” On
April 9 the Duke of Savoy defeated the Genoese and Spaniards before
Voltaggio, and a fortnight later the Constable took Gavi. But, acting
doubtless in accordance with the orders of the French Government,
Lesdiguières declined to undertake the siege of Genoa without a fleet,
and Charles Emmanuel pressed him in vain.
The death of James I, which occurred on March 27, 1625, did not delay
the marriage of his son--now Charles I--and Henriette-Marie, which was
celebrated in Notre-Dame on May 11, the Duc de Chevreuse acting as proxy
for the King. On the 24th Buckingham arrived unexpectedly to escort the
bride to England, and caused, Bassompierre tells us, a great sensation,
“both by his person, which was very handsome, and by his jewels and
apparel and his great liberality.”
Buckingham tried to persuade Richelieu to sign the League of the North
and couple the restoration of the Palatinate with the Valtellina
question; but the Cardinal was disinclined to surrender France’s liberty
of action, besides which, the presumptuous and frivolous favourite did
not inspire him with any confidence.
Bassompierre was one of the nobles appointed to escort the new Queen of
England to Boulogne, where she embarked on June 22. But, unfortunately,
he preserves a discreet silence concerning certain incidents which
occurred _en route_, as it would be interesting to have his version of
the romance of “M. de Bocquinguem” and Anne of Austria, which so
profoundly irritated Louis XIII against his consort and laid the
foundations of that ill-will which for a time prevailed between England
and France.
In September the islands of Ré and Oléron were retaken, and the fleet of
the Rochellois defeated by Montmorency, who commanded the King’s ships.
But in Liguria things were going badly for France. The Swiss had allowed
more than 20,000 Austrians to pass into Italy to the assistance of the
Spanish and Genoese, who had carried the war into Piedmont and laid
siege to Verrua, while the Valtellina was also threatened.
Reinforcements were urgently demanded, and one morning, while the Privy
Council was sitting, Louis XIII sent for Bassompierre, offered him the
command of the new army which he proposed to despatch into Italy, and
asked what troops he would require. The marshal “spoke as well as God
wished to inspire him on this matter,” and answered that if his Majesty
would permit him to choose 6,000 foot and 800 horse from the Army of
Champagne, he would send at once into Switzerland to raise 4,000 men,
who would join him at Geneva, and that with these forces he would
engage, not only to force the enemy to raise the siege of Verrue, but to
capture some places in the Milanese.
To this Louis XIII agreed, and gave instructions to Michel de Marillac,
Chief of the Finances, to furnish the marshal with the funds he
required. But Marillac, not only did not execute this order, but sent in
all haste that same evening a courier to warn his brother who, with the
Duc d’Angoulême, commanded the army of Champagne, that it was intended
to break up their army and send the greater part of it into Italy. These
two nobles, who had no desire to be deprived of their command, promptly
had recourse to the bogey of a German invasion, and wrote to the King
that they had the most positive information that the Imperialists were
about to enter France at two points, from Lorraine and the Palatinate;
that, in consequence, M. d’Angoulême was about to throw himself into
Metz, which he would preserve for the King or die; while M. de Marillac
had gone to Verdun, with the intention of defending it to his last gasp;
but, as they feared that the forces at their disposal might be
insufficient to withstand the invaders, they must entreat his Majesty to
send them four regiments of foot and 500 horse with all possible
despatch.
“Upon this,” says Bassompierre, “the King and his Council, who took
all this for Gospel truth, told me that they were unable to
withdraw any troops from the Army of Champagne, to which, indeed,
they were obliged to send reinforcements; and I, after having
endeavoured to make them comprehend that it was an imposture
invented to perpetuate the employment of these gentlemen and to
involve the King in useless expense, excused myself and refused the
troops which they proposed to give me to go to the relief of
Italy.”
Such troops as could be spared were accordingly entrusted to the Comte
de Vignolles, whom Bassompierre says did not arrive at Verrua until the
siege of that town had been raised, but this is incorrect.[28]
On the evening of the King’s birthday--September 27--the Court being
then at Fontainebleau, the Spanish Ambassador, the Marquis de Mirabello,
approached Bassompierre and invited him to come and watch the fireworks
with him. So soon as they were alone, the Ambassador, speaking in
Spanish, told the marshal that it seemed to him greatly to be regretted
that Louis XIII had not authorised him [Bassompierre] to negotiate a
settlement of the Valtellina question, as he had done in 1621. “You
would undoubtedly have accomplished it,” said he, “and, if you are
willing, you will accomplish it yet; and this I promise.” “Monsieur,”
replied Bassompierre coldly, “I am not fortunate in the making of
treaties. You see that that of Madrid, which was of my making, has
already cost the contracting parties twenty millions of gold to break it
or maintain it. And, besides, it is not pleasant to treat with people
or for people who do not keep their promises, should it not please them
to do so.” Mirabello, however, was proof against this rebuff, and
persisted that he and the marshal would soon be able to arrange terms of
peace satisfactory to all parties concerned, provided that Louis XIII
would furnish Bassompierre with the same powers with which the Catholic
King had already entrusted him. The marshal thereupon told him that he
would “esteem himself very happy to contribute to the best of his
ability to so good and holy an affair,” and that he would speak to the
King on the matter and inform his Excellency of the result.
It was not, however, to the King to whom Bassompierre first addressed
himself, but to Marie de’ Medici and Richelieu, who, when the fireworks
were over, had retired into the Queen-Mother’s cabinet. For it was these
two, in close alliance for the time being, who now directed all things,
and to venture to approach Louis XIII on a matter of State, save by
their gracious permission, would have been the height of imprudence. The
Queen-Mother and the Cardinal approved of Mirabello’s proposition, and
told Bassompierre to go and inform the King, warning him, however, not
to allow his Majesty, whose _amour-propre_ was easily wounded, to
suspect that he had spoken to them. The next morning the matter was
submitted by Louis XIII to the Council, and it was decided that the
marshal should be given full authority to treat with the Ambassador of
Spain; but Bassompierre asked that Schomberg should be associated with
him, and his request was granted.
Some days later the first conference took place at Saint-Germain,
whither the Court had removed. It lasted more than four hours, and when
it terminated they were “not without great hope of concluding a great,
good and stable pacification between the two kings.” Mirabello returned
to Saint-Germain the following day, and the negotiations progressed so
smoothly that there was every appearance that the next session would
see their task accomplished. But next morning the Ambassador sent to
excuse himself on the ground that his wife had been taken ill, and for
two days they heard nothing further from him. Meantime, a courier
arrived from Du Fargis, the French Ambassador at Madrid, with the news
that Philip IV, although it had been his intention to negotiate peace
through his Ambassador, had revoked the powers with which he had
entrusted him, without giving any reason for this sudden change. The
Council thereupon decided that Bassompierre should go to Paris, and, on
the pretext of inquiring after the health of the Ambassador’s wife,
endeavour to ascertain the reason for Mirabello’s singular conduct. This
the marshal did, when the Ambassador complained of the want of
confidence which the French Government had shown him, by negotiating
with him when they had instructed Du Fargis to treat with the Court of
Madrid. Bassompierre reported what Mirabello had said to the Council,
who all expressed great astonishment, since Du Fargis had been given no
power to treat with the Spanish Government. However, the explanation of
this apparent mystery was to be forthcoming a little later.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, disquieting reports were arriving from the French agents in
Switzerland, who represented that the Cantons were falling away from
their old attachment to France, as was proved by the fact that they had
granted a passage to the German troops who had been sent to the
assistance of the Spaniards, and by other ominous incidents. It was
greatly to be feared, they wrote, that, unless immediate steps were
taken to counteract the persistent intrigues of the House of Austria and
the Papacy in Switzerland, and to reassure the Swiss in regard to the
discharge of France’s financial obligations towards them, the old
alliance would be practically destroyed. And they suggested that the
Maréchal de Bassompierre, who, as the much-beloved Colonel-General of
the Swiss troops in the French service, would be sure of a cordial
welcome, who spoke both French and German with equal fluency, and who
had already given proof of his diplomatic capabilities, should be sent
on a special embassy to the Cantons, when it was quite possible he might
be able to re-restablish everything. This proposal was warmly supported
by the Venetians and the Duke of Savoy, who undertook to instruct their
representatives in Switzerland to second all his negotiations; and
though Bassompierre would not appear to have been at all anxious to
undertake the mission, which would entail his absence from the winter
gaieties of the Court and Paris, “the King insisted, and he yielded out
of pure obedience.”
On November 18, taking with him 200,000 crowns “to facilitate his
negotiation,” he left Paris with an imposing suite, and travelled by way
of Sens, Dijon, and Besançon to Basle, where he arrived on December 8.
At Basle he was received with great honour; cannon fired salutes,
several thousand soldiers or armed burghers marched in front of him or
lined the streets, and so soon as he reached the house where he was to
lodge, the Senate came in a body to salute him and “to make him a
present of fish, wine, and oats, the most ample that could be made to
anyone”; after which a score of them sat down to supper with him.
On the following morning Bassompierre proceeded to the Town Hall, where
the Senators were assembled, and delivered the first of the many
harangues which he was to make during his stay in Switzerland. He then
returned to his house, to which shortly afterwards all the Senate came
to deliver the reply which they had drawn up, and to bring him another
present of fish and wine, which they assisted him to consume. After
dinner they took him to see the Arsenal, the natural history collection
of the celebrated Swiss doctor Felix Plater, and the other sights of
their town.
On the 10th, after having again entertained the Senate to dinner, he
took his departure and proceeded by way of Liestall and Balstall to
Soleure, where he was received with the same honours as at Basle.
At Soleure he had several conferences with the French Ambassador, the
Comte de Miron, and received deputations from various towns and Cantons,
whom he entertained very sumptuously.
A few days before Christmas he sent despatches to the Cantons convening
a General Diet at Soleure for January 7, which, however, at the request
of the Protestant Cantons, was postponed until the 12th. In the interval
Bassompierre and Miron lost no opportunity of ingratiating themselves
with the Swiss, and gave several banquets and balls.
“On Tuesday, the 6th [January], the Day of the Kings, I gave a
solemn feast to the Council of Soleure, at the Ambassador’s house,
and after a great deal of liquor had been consumed, the ball took
place.”
A day or two before the Diet opened, the Papal Nuncio Scapi, Bishop of
Campagna, arrived at Soleure. Bassompierre had invited him to be
present, although he was aware that he would do everything in his power
to prevent the Catholic Cantons from coming to a resolution favourable
to France. But he was a pompous, irascible and bigoted ecclesiastic, who
was unlikely to make a favourable impression on the deputies, and,
anyway, the marshal would be afforded an opportunity of confuting his
arguments.
The Diet assembled on the 12th, and its first business was to pass a
resolution that the deputies should go in a body, preceded by their
beadles, to salute the Maréchal de Bassompierre. This, Bassompierre
tells us, was an honour which had never been paid to anyone before. The
following day the deputies sent six of their number to escort the
Ambassadors of the King of France to the Diet, where Bassompierre laid
his proposals before them and addressed them at considerable length.
“Then the same deputies came to escort me back, and, when the
assembly rose, they all came to my house in a body to thank me, as
they had done the previous day, and from there we all went to the
banquet which I had caused to be made ready for them in the Town
Hall, where all the deputies, ambassadors, colonels and captains,
to the number of 120 persons, were magnificently entertained, and
afterwards 500 other persons. Then we went to the house of the
Ambassador-Ordinary, where a ball took place.”
On the 14th the Nuncio had an audience of the Catholic deputies, in
which he made a very bitter harangue against France, in the hope of
putting a spoke in Bassompierre’s wheel. The marshal, however, had taken
the precaution to invite the Catholic deputies to dine with him, and the
good cheer he provided would seem to have gone far to neutralise the
effect of the Nuncio’s eloquence. In the evening he entertained the
representatives of the Protestant Cantons to supper, and sent them away
equally well pleased.
Next day the Diet waited upon Bassompierre and informed him that they
had decided to follow the advice which he had given them, namely, to
demand the restoration of the Valtellina to the Grisons and “to refuse
to whomsoever declined to acquiesce in this aid succour or passage
through their country.” The marshal thanked the deputies very heartily,
and, after they had taken their departure, could not resist the
temptation of paying a visit to the Nuncio, who, having already been
informed of the resolution of the Diet, was in a very bad temper and
“quarrelled with him two or three times.”
On the 16th the marshal sent to demand audience of the Catholic
deputies, as he desired to have an opportunity of refuting the
statements which Scapi had made to them two days before, “for the honour
and interest of the King his master.” The Catholic deputies did him
“the peculiar and unusual honour” of coming to his house to hear what he
had to say to them, when he addressed them at great length and wiped the
floor, so to speak, with the unfortunate Nuncio. This speech seems to
have had a very good effect, for in the evening the Diet sent a
deputation to inform him that they were prepared to offer a levy of
15,000 men to the King of France.
Two days later the Nuncio, thoroughly discomfited, took his departure
“in great anger,” and Bassompierre celebrated his victory by giving a
sumptuous banquet to all the deputies of the Diet, during which “the
gentlemen of Soleure came to perform a war-dance before his house.”
After the banquet, a deputation from the Diet interviewed him on the
vexed question of the debts which the Very Christian King owed the
Swiss, upon which their spokesman, the _avoyer_, or chief magistrate, of
Berne, waxed very eloquent. However, as this gentleman and his
colleagues were all pretty mellow, Bassompierre succeeded in satisfying
them perhaps more easily than he would have otherwise done, and the day
concluded most harmoniously with a ballet, a ball, and “a very splendid
collation” at the house of the French Ambassador.
On the 21st the Diet dispersed, in high good-humour, since Bassompierre
had not only defrayed all the expenses of the deputies on a very liberal
scale, but liquidated a part of France’s debt to the Cantons, and a
year’s arrears of all private pensions.
A few days later Bassompierre paid a visit to Berne, into which he made
a magnificent entry, and, after being shown all the sights of the town,
was entertained to a most splendid banquet at the Hôtel de Ville. “Three
hundred persons sat down to table,” he says, “and we remained there all
day.”
On leaving Berne, the marshal returned to Soleure, where he remained
until the end of February, for there was much business still to be
transacted and many deputations to be received. On the 22nd of the
month he received a despatch from Louis XIII directing him to leave
Switzerland and proceed to Nancy on a mission to the new Duke of
Lorraine, Charles IV, that eccentric prince who was to cause France so
much trouble in years to come. On the following day, therefore, he took
leave of his many friends at Soleure and crossed the Jura to Basle,
where he was again received with great honours; and on the 25th arrived
at Mulhausen.
If we are to believe an anonymous poet of the time, the success of
Bassompierre’s mission to Switzerland was largely due to the hospitality
which he dispensed with so lavish a hand:
“Quis Marti Bacchum, pateram quis non preferat ensi,
Helveticæ gentis si nova pacta manent?
Plus facit in mensa Bassumpetreus et inter
Pocula, quam reliqui seva per arma duces.”
But if good cheer played a not unimportant part in facilitating his
negotiations, it is evident, from the despatches and speeches of the
marshal which are to be found in the account of his embassy which he has
left us,[29] that he had handled a difficult situation with rare skill
and tact. His speeches, admirably arranged, forceful, and at times even
eloquent, and brightened by amusing quips and sallies, make very
interesting reading, and his ready courtesy and imperturbable
good-humour served to surmount what might otherwise have proved serious
obstacles.