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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
* * * * *
BLACKWOOD'S
Edinburgh
MAGAZINE.
VOL. LXVIII.
JULY-DECEMBER, 1850.
[Illustration]
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH;
AND
37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
1850.
BLACKWOOD'S
EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
NO. CCCCXVII. JULY, 1850. VOL. LXVIII.
CONTENTS.
THE HOUSE OF GUISE, 1
MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. CONCLUSION, 20
CHATEAUBRIAND'S MEMOIRS, 33
THE GREEN HAND--A "SHORT" YARN. PART XI., 48
THE JEW BILL, 73
THE PICTURES OF THE SEASON, 77
THE YEAR OF SORROW.--IRELAND--1849, 93
LONDON AND EDINBURGH CHESS MATCH, 97
THE INDUSTRY OF THE PEOPLE, 106
EDINBURGH:
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SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
BLACKWOOD'S
EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
NO. CCCCXVII. JULY, 1850. VOL. LXVIII.
THE HOUSE OF GUISE.[1]
[1] _Histoire des Ducs de Guise._ Par RÉNÉ DE BOUILLÉ, ancien
ministre plénipotentiaire. Volume the First. Paris: 1849.
Upon the page of history are inscribed the names of many great men,
uncrowned, but more illustrious than most kings, whose biography
essentially involves the records of their country and times. The
cases are very rare in which this occurs of an entire lineage;
when through several successive generations the same extraordinary
qualities are transmitted, and the hero or statesman who perished
yesterday, to-day and to-morrow seems to start again to life in the
persons of descendants who rival and even eclipse his fame. These
remarkable and most unfrequent instances are exemplified in the
house of Guise, those puissant nobles of Lorraine, immigrant into
and naturalised in France, who for eighty years led the armies and
directed the councils of their adopted country. Great warriors, bold
and profound politicians, unscrupulous and interested champions of
Rome, alternately defenders of and competitors for thrones, they
upheld their power and pretensions by the double lever of religious
enthusiasm, and of skilful appeals to the sympathy of the people.
Rich in glory, in wealth, in popularity, they were alternately
indispensable and formidable to their sovereigns, and were virtually
the last representatives of that energetic, able, and arrogant
aristocracy, whose services to the state were often limited by
the jealousy their power inspired, and whose patriotism was not
unfrequently tarnished by their factious temper and unbounded
ambition. From an early period of the sixteenth century, the
influence of Guise was felt in France, for the most part paramount
to that of royalty itself; until the might and glory of the house
sank and disappeared beneath the daggers of assassins, and before
the conquering sword of the Fourth Henry.
The history of France during the sixteenth century necessarily
comprises the public acts of the family of Guise, and the memoirs
of the time abound in personal details of the members of that
renowned house; but a work especially devoted to them was still
a desideratum, until the appearance of that which M. Réné de
Bouillé has just produced. One of the chief difficulties of his
task must have been to avoid including the history of the century
in that of the extraordinary men so intimately connected with its
chief events. Whilst confining himself as much as possible to his
immediate subject, he has yet, as he himself says, found his horizon
of necessity extensive. And in order to assemble in one frame the
various members of that celebrated family, he has been compelled
to admit with them a host of other personages, who in their turn
have brought a retinue, and have insisted on at least a corner of
the canvass being allotted to their deeds. The manner in which M. de
Bouillé has treated this great historical picture, whose magnitude
and difficulty must have deterred a less zealous and persevering
artist, is most judicious. "I have been as sparing as possible of
discussion," he says, "prodigal perhaps, on the other hand, of
cotemporary evidence, of faithful quotations, of such details as
bring facts into a stronger light, exhibit the actors on the stage
in a more animated manner, and display and make known, of and by
themselves, the personages, parties, manners and spirit of the
times, and the character of the situations." M. de Bouillé claims,
as a matter of justice, credit for conscientious application, and
declares his whole aim will have been attained if his work be
admitted to possess historical interest and utility. No impartial
critic will refuse it these qualities. It is at once substantial
and agreeable; valuable to the student, and attractive to those who
consider histories of the Middle Ages as fascinating collections of
strange adventures and romantic enterprises.
Réné the Second, reigning duke of Lorraine--the same who fought and
conquered with the Swiss at Morat, and defeated Charles the Bold at
Nancy--desired to see one of his sons settled in France. He selected
the fifth, Claude, to whom he left by will his various lordships in
Normandy, Picardy, and other French provinces, causing him to be
naturalised a Frenchman, and sending him at a very early age to the
court of France, where he was presented as Count de Guise, a title
derived from one of his domains. The young count found immediate
favour with Louis XII., to the hand of whose daughter Renée he was
considered a likely aspirant. But he fell in love with Antoinette
de Bourbon, daughter of Count de Vendôme, (the great-grandfather of
Henry IV.,) asked and obtained her in marriage, and celebrated his
wedding, when he was but sixteen years of age, in 1513, at Paris,
in presence of the whole French court. The following year another
wedding occurred, but this time youth was on one side only. In his
infirm and declining age, Louis XII. took to wife the blooming
sister of Harry VIII. of England, and honoured Guise by selecting
him to go, in company with the Duke of Angoulême and other princes
of the blood, to receive his bride at Boulogne. The wedding was
quickly followed by a funeral, and Francis I. sat upon the throne.
This chivalrous and warlike monarch at once took his young cousin of
Guise into high favour, to which he had a fair claim, not only by
reason of his birth, and of his alliance with the house of Bourbon,
but on account of his eminent capacity, and of the martial qualities
whose future utility Francis doubtless foresaw. To his triumphs in
the field, Guise preluded by others less sanguinary, but in their
kind as brilliant, in the lists and in the drawing room. His grace
and magnificence were celebrated even at a court of which those were
the distinguishing characteristics, thronged as it was with princes
and nobles, most of them, like the king himself, in the first flush
of youth, and with keen appetites for those enjoyments which their
wealth gave them ample means to command. He gained great credit by
his prowess at the jousts and tournament held at Paris on occasion
of the coronation, and his conduct in another circumstance secured
him the favour of the ladies of that gallant and voluptuous court.
"One night," says his historian, "he accompanied Francis I. to the
queen's circle, composed of those ladies most distinguished by their
charms and amiability. Struck by the brilliancy and fascination of
the scene, unusual at a time when custom, by assigning to women a
sort of inferior position, or at least of reserve, interdicted their
mingling in the conversation, and to a certain extent in the society
of men, Guise communicated his impression to the king, who received
it favourably, and at once decided that, throughout the whole
kingdom, women should be freed from this unjust and undesirable
constraint." It will easily be conceived that such an emancipation
insured Guise the suffrages of the fair and influential class who
benefited by it. From his first arrival at the French court he seems
to have made it his study to win universal favour; and he was so
promptly successful that, at the end of a very few months, he had
conquered the goodwill of both nobility and army. He took pains to
study and adapt his conduct to the character of all with whom he
came in contact, thus laying the foundation of the long popularity
which he and his successors enjoyed in France.
But courtly pleasures and diversions were quickly to be succeeded
by the sterner business of war. At his death, Louis XII. had left
all things prepared for an Italian campaign; and Francis, eager
to signalise his accession by the recovery of the Milanese, moved
southwards in the month of August 1515, at the head of the finest
troops that had yet crossed the boundary line between France and
Italy. His army consisted of fifteen thousand excellent cavalry,
twenty-two thousand lansquenets, fourteen thousand French and
Gascon infantry, besides pioneers and a numerous artillery. The
Constable of Bourbon led the van, the Duke of Alençon commanded the
rear; Francis himself headed the main body, accompanied by Duke
Anthony of Lorraine, (eldest brother of Guise,) with Bayard for his
lieutenant, and by the Duke of Gueldres, captain-general of the
lansquenets, whose lieutenant was the Count de Guise. If the army
was good, none, assuredly, ever reckoned greater warriors amongst
its leaders. Guise, during the passage of the Alps--accomplished by
extraordinary labour, and which completely surprised the enemy--made
himself remarkable by his constancy and activity, by the wisdom of
his counsels, and by his generosity to the soldiers, thus further
augmenting the affection they already bore him. Bayard and other
illustrious officers formed his habitual society; and in him they
found the most cordial and affable of comrades, as well as the most
zealous advocate of their interests with the king. Devoted to his
sovereign, Guise, when Francis somewhat over-hastily promised the
Swiss an exorbitant sum of money as the price of the Milanese, nobly
offered to contribute to it to the extent of all he possessed. The
treaty, however, was broken by the Swiss. Steel, not gold, was to
settle the dispute; and the plains of Marignano already trembled at
the approach of the hostile armies. At the age of eighteen, Guise
found himself general-in-chief of twenty thousand men. The Duke of
Gueldres, having been recalled to his dominions by an invasion of
the Brabanters, transferred his command to his young lieutenant, at
the unanimous entreaty of the lansquenets, and in preference to all
the French princes there present. In the quickly ensuing battle,
Guise showed himself worthy of his high post. In the course of the
combat, when the Swiss, with lowered pikes and in stern silence,
made one of those deadly charges which in the wars of the previous
century had more than once disordered the array of Burgundy's
chivalry, the lansquenets, who covered the French artillery, gave
way. Claude of Lorraine, immovable in the front rank, shamed them
by his example; they rallied; the guns, already nearly captured,
were saved; the battle continued with greater fierceness than
before, and ceased only with darkness. Daybreak was the signal
for its resumption, and at last the Swiss were defeated. After
breaking their battalions, Guise, over eager in pursuit, and already
twice wounded, had his horse killed under him, was surrounded,
overmatched, and left for dead, with twenty-two wounds. Nor would
these have been all, but for the devotedness of an esquire, whose
name Brantôme has handed down as a model of fidelity. Adam Fouvert
of Nuremberg threw himself on his master's body, and was slain,
serving as his shield. After the action, Guise was dragged out
from amongst the dead, and conveyed by a Scottish gentleman to the
tent of the Duke of Lorraine. He was scarcely recognisable, by
reason of his wounds; he gave no sign of life, and his recovery was
deemed hopeless. He did recover, however, thanks to great care,
and still more to the vigorous constitution and energetic vitality
which distinguished all of his house, and without which the career
of most of them would have been very short. Scarcely one of the
prominent members of that family but received, in the martial
ardour of his youth, wounds whose severity made their cure resemble
a miracle. A month after the battle of Marignano, Guise, although
still suffering, was able to accompany Francis I. on his triumphant
entry into Milan, "as captain-general of the lansquenets, with four
lieutenants, all dressed in cloth of gold and white velvet." One
of his arms was in a scarf, one of his thighs had to be supported
by an esquire, but still, by his manly beauty and martial fame, he
attracted the admiring gaze of both army and people. Francis, in his
report to his mother of the battle, named Guise amongst the bravest,
as well he might; and thenceforward his great esteem for the young
hero was testified in various ways--amongst others, by intrusting to
him several important and delicate diplomatic missions. At Bologna,
on occasion of the interview between Francis and Leo X., the Pope
addressed to Guise the most flattering eulogiums. "Your holiness,"
replied the ardent soldier, in a prophetic spirit, "shall see that
I am of Lorraine, if ever I have the happiness to draw sword in the
Church's quarrel."
Master of the Milanese, Francis I. returned to France and beheld
his alliance courted by all the powers of Europe, when suddenly the
death of the Emperor Maximilian (15th January 1519) proved a brand
of discord. Francis and Charles were the only serious candidates
for the vacant dignity. Guise, with a secret view, perhaps, to
the crown of Jerusalem for himself, strained every nerve, exerted
all his influence, on behalf of the French King. But Charles, the
more skilful intriguer, prevailed; and Francis, deeply wounded and
humiliated by his failure, revolved in his mind projects of war.
In these the king did not lose sight of the great assistance he
might expect from Guise, brave, skilful, and prudent as he was; and
the esteem in which the young chief was held at court increased so
greatly, that the French nobles came to consider him almost the
equal of the members of the royal family. Guise, on the other hand,
by reason of his enormous fortune and high birth, and in his quality
of a foreign prince, spared no effort to place himself on the
footing of an ally rather than of a subject of the King of France.
Pretexts for hostilities were not wanting; and soon we find Guise,
at the head of his lansquenets, fighting victoriously over the
very same ground upon which, in our day, French armies contended
with very different results. Maya, Fontarabia, and the banks of
the Bidassoa witnessed his prowess; he himself, a half-pike in his
hand, led his men through the river, with water to his armpits,
dislodging the enemy by the mere terror his audacity inspired. When
he returned to Compiègne, where the court then was, the King hurried
forth from his chamber to meet him, embraced him warmly, and gaily
said, "that it was but fair he should go out to meet his old friend,
who, on his part, always made such haste to meet and revenge him
on his enemies." His summer triumphs in the Pyrenees were followed
by a winter campaign in Picardy, where he succeeded in preventing
the junction of the English and Imperialists, besides obtaining
some advantages over the former, and harassing their retreat to the
coast. He thus added to his popularity with the army, and acquired
strong claims to the gratitude of the Parisians, deeply alarmed by
the proximity of the enemy to the capital, and who viewed him as
their saviour.
The year 1523 opened under menacing auspices. Germany, Italy,
England, were leagued against France, whose sole allies were
Scotland, the Swiss, (the adhesion of these depending entirely
on regular subsidies,) and the Duke of Savoy, whose chief merit
was that he could facilitate the passage of the Alps. Undeterred,
almost foolhardy, Francis, instead of prudently standing on the
defensive, beheld, in each new opponent, only a fresh source of
glory. Unhappily for him, at the very moment he had greatest need
of skilful captains, the Constable of Bourbon, irritated and
persecuted in France, courted and seduced by the astute Charles V.,
entered into a treasonable combination with the Imperialists. It was
discovered; he fled, and effected his escape. Out of France, he
was but one man the less, but that man was such a leader as could
hardly be replaced, and Charles gave him command of his troops in
the Milanese. The Constable's misconduct brought disfavour on the
princes of the house of Bourbon, (of that of Valois none remained,)
and this further increased the credit and importance of the Count
of Guise. He was already governor of Champagne and Burgundy,
provinces the Emperor was likely to attack. This command, however,
was not the object of his desires; he would rather have gone to
Italy, and applied to do so; but the King, rendered suspicious by
the Constable's defection, began to consider, with some slight
uneasiness, the position acquired by the Count of Guise; and it
was probably on this account only that he would not confer on the
Lorraine prince the direction of the Italian war. The glory of Guise
lost nothing by the refusal, although that of France grievously
suffered by the army of Italy being confided to the less capable
hands of Admiral Bonnivet. Fortune soon afforded the younger general
one of those opportunities of high distinction, of which no leader
ever was more covetous or better knew how to take advantage. A large
body of Imperialist infantry having made an irruption into Burgundy,
he assembled the nobility of the province and about nine hundred
men-at-arms, with which force he deemed himself able to keep the
field against the twelve thousand lansquenets that Count Furstemberg
led to meet him. By an odd accident, he had no infantry, his
adversary no cavalry. By dividing his horsemen into small parties,
and maintaining an incessant harassing warfare, Guise prevented
the Germans from foraging; and at last, compelled by famine, they
prepared to recross the Meuse, abandoning two forts they had
captured, and carrying off a large amount of spoil. Thus encumbered,
and vigorously pursued, their rearguard was cut to pieces, and
their retreat converted into a rout. "With a feeling of chivalrous
gallantry," says M. de Bouillé, "Guise desired to procure the
duchess his sister-in-law, Antoinette de Bourbon, and the ladies of
the court of Lorraine, then assembled at Neufchâteau, the enjoyment
of this spectacle, (the battle), to them so new. Warned by him, and
stationed at windows, out of reach of danger, whence they looked out
upon the plain, they had the pastime, and were able to recompense,
by their applause and cries of joy, the courage of the troops whom
their presence animated."
But such partial successes, however glorious to him by whom they
were achieved, were all insufficient to turn the tide of disaster
that had set in against the French arms. The defeat of Bonnivet,
the invasion of Provence by the Constable, were succeeded by that
terrible day before the walls of Pavia, when Francis I., vanquished,
wounded, made prisoner by a rebellious subject, beheld his army
destroyed, and the battle-field strewn with the bodies of his best
generals, whilst, bleeding at his feet, slain in his defence, lay
Francis of Lorraine, a younger brother of the Count of Guise, the
second of that brave brotherhood who had fallen in arms under the
_fleur-de-lis_.[2] When the brave but most imprudent monarch was
carried into captivity, his mother, regent in his absence, placed
her chief trust and dependence in Guise. Of these he proved himself
worthy. He checked the ambition of the Duke of Vendôme, who, as
first prince of the blood, showed a disposition to seize upon the
regency; he advised the ransoming of the French prisoners taken
at Pavia, and exercised altogether a most salutary influence upon
the circumstances of that critical time. His good sword, as well
as his precocious wisdom, was soon in request. A large body of
German fanatics, proclaiming the doctrine of absolute equality,
and the abolition of all human superiority, had swept over Suabia,
Wurtemberg, and Franconia, burning churches and slaying priests, and
threatened to carry the like excesses into Lorraine and Burgundy.
By aid of his brothers, at much expense and with great difficulty,
Guise got together ten thousand men, four thousand of whom were
cavalry. The double cross was the rallying sign of this little
army. The time was come for Guise to perform his promise to Pope
Leo, to fight stoutly in defence of the Church. And truly his hand
was heavy upon the unfortunate and half frantic Lutherans, although
to a certain extent he tempered its weight with mercy. Besieged
in Saverne, the fanatics put to death the herald who summoned
them to surrender. Learning that reinforcements from Germany were
at hand, Guise hurried to meet them with three thousand men, and
encountered them at the village of Lupstein, into which the Germans
retreated, after a terrible conflict outside the place, and threw
up a barricade as best they could, of carts, casks, and gabions.
From the cover of these, and of the adjacent hedges, they kept up
so obstinate a defence, that Guise, whose men fell fast, caused
fire to be applied to the houses. But hardly had the flames begun
their ravages, when the Count, seized with compassion, threw himself
from his horse to assist in extinguishing them, and succeeded, at
imminent risk to his own life, in saving upwards of four thousand
persons of all ages. Nearly double that number perished; as many
more at Saverne and in the mountains, to which the unfortunate
Germans fled; and about fifteen thousand in a final engagement
at Chenouville, which broke the strength of the fanatic host,
and finally closed the campaign. During one of these battles,
the soldiers of Guise beheld in the air the image of the Saviour
attached to the cross, a phenomenon in which they saw assurance of
victory.
[2] Francis of Lorraine was eighteen years old when slain at Pavia.
One of his brothers had fallen, at about the same age, at the battle
of Marignano.
"Once more," says M. de Bouillé, "Guise had rendered a most
important service to the kingdom; he had also assumed a peculiar
and marked position, and had fixed a point of departure for himself
and his descendants, by striking, of his own accord, and without
instructions from the Government, the first blows that Protestantism
received in France: a circumstance often recalled, with more or less
exultation, by the panegyrists of that family, and which procured
Claude de Lorraine the nickname of the _Great Butcher_, given him
by the heretics, who were exasperated by the loss of nearly forty
thousand men, caused them by his arms in that fatal expedition."
Determined foes to the Reformed faith as both of them were, a
distinction must yet be made between the Count of Guise assailing
and slaughtering, with far inferior forces, a formidable body of
armed and aggressive foreigners, and the fierce _Balafré_, wielding
a murderous sword against his defenceless and inoffensive Huguenot
countrymen, on the terrible night of St Bartholomew. If the amount
of bloodshed at Saverne and Chenouville appears excessive, and
implies that little quarter was given, it must yet be remembered
that greater clemency to the vanquished might have had the most
disastrous consequences to the handful of conquerors. The Council
of Regency disapproved of Guise's conduct in the affair; taxing him
with rashness in risking the whole of the small number of regular
troops disposable for the defence of the kingdom. But there could
hardly have been more pressing occasion to expose them; and Francis
I., on returning from exile, recognised and rewarded that and other
good services by elevating the county of Guise into a duchy and
peerage--further enriching the newly-made duke with a portion of
the crown domains. Such honours and advantages had previously been
almost exclusively reserved for persons of the blood-royal. The
Parliament remonstrated in vain; but Francis himself, before very
long, repented what he had done. He took umbrage at the increasing
popularity of the Duke of Guise, and gave ear to the calumnies
and insinuations of the French nobles, who were irritated by the
haughty bearing, great prosperity, and ambitious views of the house
of Lorraine. The manner in which Francis testified his jealousy and
distrust was unworthy of a monarch who has left a great name in
history. He showed himself indulgent to those of his courtiers and
officers who organised resistance to the influence and pretensions
of the Guises. "One time, amongst others," says M. de Bouillé, "the
Duke of Guise, governor of Burgundy, wishing to visit the castle
of Auxonne, whose governorship was a charge distinct from that of
the province, the titulary, Rouvray, a French gentleman, refused
him admittance, which he would not have dared to do had Guise been
recognised as prince. When the Duke complained of this treatment,
the King, delighted, whilst taking advantage of his services, to see
his pride and ambition thwarted, lauded the conduct of Rouvray, and
laughed at him who had wished to play the prince of royal blood."
For annoyances of this kind Guise sought compensation in popularity,
thus tracing out for his descendants the line they should most
advantageously follow.
The partial disfavour into which the Guises had fallen, during
an interval of peace when their services were not indispensable,
was dissipated by the zeal and talents exhibited by the Duke's
brother, John Cardinal of Lorraine, in a most difficult and delicate
negotiation with Charles V., and by the prompt good-will with
which, when negotiation failed and war broke out, the Duke hurried
to the relief of Peronne, accompanied by his eldest son, the Count
of Aumale, then scarcely nineteen years old. Peronne la Pucelle
was hard beset by the Count of Nassau, who pounded its ramparts
with seventy-two pieces of cannon, and was defended with equal
valour by Fleuranges, Marshal de la Marck, who repulsed an assault
made simultaneously by two breaches, and destroyed a mine on which
the enemy reckoned for his discomfiture. Want of supplies, and
especially of powder, must soon, however, have compelled him to
yield, but for a stratagem practised by Guise. That able commander
selected four hundred resolute soldiers, loaded each of them with
a bag containing ten pounds of powder, and set out, at six in the
evening, from his headquarters at Ham, with the Count of Aumale,
whose first experience of war this was, and to whom Guise, as he
wrote to the King, "intended soon to give up his sword, as capable
of doing better service in his young hands than in his own." Two
hundred horsemen escorted them as far as the edge of the marshes of
Peronne, and at midnight Guise, who had brought with him a large
number of drummers and trumpeters, distributed these at different
points around the besiegers' camp. Whilst they sounded and beat
the charge, and the Imperialist generals, believing themselves
attacked on all sides, hastily formed their troops for the combat,
the powder-bearers, guided by a soldier of the garrison who had
borne news of its distress from Fleuranges to Guise, crossed the
marshes by means of a number of little roads and bridges, which the
enemy himself had made to maintain his communications, and reached
the moat, whence by means of ropes and ladders they entered the
fortress. The last of them were just getting in when day broke, and
the Count of Nassau discovered the trick that had been played him,
and detached a body of cavalry to pursue Guise, then retreating with
his drums and trumpets, and whose steady array discouraged attack.
A few days later the Imperialists raised the siege, and Paris,
which had been in consternation at the danger of Peronne, its last
bulwark against the advancing foe, knew no bounds in its gratitude
to the man to whom it thus, for the second time, was indebted for
its salvation. Guise's great services in this and the following
campaign rendered Francis I. indulgent to his still-recurring
pretensions; to the arrogance which led him frequently to refuse
obeying orders that did not emanate directly from the King, and
to assume a sort of independence and irresponsibility in the
exercise of his government. Looking back, through the clarifying
medium of history, upon the character and conduct of Claude of
Lorraine, we are disinclined to think that Francis had ever serious
cause for mistrusting the loyalty of his powerful subject; whose
encroachments, however, it cannot be denied, were sufficient grounds
for jealousy and uneasiness. And on more than one occasion we find
the royal anger--perhaps complete disgrace--averted from him only
by the interest of his brother the Cardinal, to whom Francis could
refuse nothing.
As a diplomatist and patron of the arts, Cardinal John of
Lorraine occupies almost as elevated a pedestal in the gallery
of distinguished Frenchmen of the sixteenth century, as does his
brother Claude in his more active capacity of general of armies
and administrator of provinces. His courtly qualities, and a
congeniality of tastes--some of which, although they might be
held excusable in a king, were scarcely to be palliated in a
prelate, even in that age of lax morality--endeared him to Francis,
who associated with him on a footing of great familiarity. His
generosity and charity were on such a scale as at times to resemble
prodigality and ostentation; his love of pleasure and addiction
to gallantry were in like manner excessive. "He was," says M. de
Bouillé, "a very lettered prince, a splendid patron of learned men,
whom he treated as friends, and in whose labours he associated
himself. A writer named Bertrand de Vaux, having presented and
read to him a critical work, containing low personality, awaited,
notwithstanding its base character, the recompense which the
Cardinal always granted to those authors with whose productions he
was satisfied. The prelate accordingly handed him a golden etui.
'Take this, friend Bertrand,' he said; 'it is to pay the fatigue and
salary of the reader. The writer must seek payment from some more
malignant man than myself.'" The celebrated Erasmus, Clement Marot
the poet, and Rabelais the satirist, all benefited by the patronage
or enjoyed the intimacy of the Cardinal, who, conjointly with his
nephew the Cardinal Charles of Lorraine, is believed by some to
have been indicated by the witty priest of Meudon in the character
of Panurge. Passionately fond of art, the prelate-prince gathered
around him the men of genius whom the largesses and magnificence
of Francis I. seduced from Italy to France. He showed particular
favour to Benvenuto Cellini, who presented him with some of his
works and received from him costly gifts. "When in full blaze of
fortune and favour, he caused to be built and decorated, with blind
prodigality, after the designs of Primaticcio and by the pupils
of that famous artist, the superb chateau of Meudon, in whose
park was constructed, amongst other costly ornaments, a grotto,
'excellently fine and pleasant to save oneself from being wetted
by the rain.' He had musicians in his service, and Arcadelt, a
distinguished composer, some of whose works are still preserved and
esteemed, was his _maître de chapelle_." His charity, although often
too indiscriminate, sprang from real kindness of heart. Numerous
children, belonging to poor families, were educated at his expense
in the Paris schools. And his good grace in conferring favours
doubled their value. The farmer of his abbey of Fécamp, having made
the same receipt serve for three separate payments, and endeavouring
to make it pass a fourth time, the Cardinal's receivers refused
to admit it, and the case was referred to the prelate himself,
who, having examined and recognised his signature, merely said,
"Since John is there, John shall be believed," and ordered it to
be definitively admitted. When he went abroad, "he usually," says
Brantôme, "carried a great pouch, which his _valet-de-chambre_, who
had charge of the money for his petty expenses, failed not to fill
each morning with three or four hundred crowns: and as many poor
as he met he put his hand into the pouch and gave, without stint
or consideration, whatever he drew forth." The story is well known
of the blind mendicant, who, having implored an alms of him in the
streets of Rome, exclaimed, on receiving a handful of gold: "_O tu
sei Christo, o veramente il cardinal di Loriena_." By the light
which these details throw upon his character, it is not difficult
to discern that the magnificent cardinal must have been a welcome
courtier to the sumptuous Francis, who, during the period of his
favour, made him his constant companion and delighted to do him
honour. He sat upon the King's left hand on occasion of the _lit
de justice_ held at Paris on New Year's day 1537, at which Francis
declared Charles of Austria attainted of rebellion and felony, and
deprived of Artois, Flanders, and all the domains that he held _en
mouvance_ of the crown of France--a sentence more easily pronounced
than enforced, and which of course entailed a war. Peace again
concluded, in great measure by the diplomacy of the Cardinal, he it
was, according to Du Bellay, who alone accompanied the King and
Queen at dinner, on the day of Charles V.'s entrance into Paris.
The friendship borne him by Francis, was the cause of his being
charged to break to that monarch the death of his son, the Dauphin
of France. Of the familiarity with which the King treated him, M.
de Bouillé gives a specimen in a curious anecdote: "One day, at
mass, the Cardinal did not perceive that a thief, who had managed to
enter the chapel, had picked his pocket. The rogue, observing that
the King had his eyes fixed upon him, with extraordinary coolness
and audacity put his finger on his lips, looking at the same time
significantly at Francis I., who took the hint and said nothing,
in order not to spoil what he imagined to be an adroit practical
joke. Service over, however, he made an observation which induced
the Cardinal to put his hand in his pocket, when he discovered his
loss. When the King had amused himself at his surprise, he ordered
that what had been stolen should be restored; but the thief, who
was perfectly serious in his intentions, had made his escape, which
greatly increased the mirth of the monarch, thus cleverly duped. 'On
the word of a gentleman,' he exclaimed, 'the rogue has made me his
accomplice!'"
Powerfully supported at court by his brother, Claude of Lorraine
was no less ably seconded in the field by his son Francis, Count
of Aumale, a young hero destined ultimately to surpass even him in
glory, and to raise the name of Guise to its apogee of splendour.
The constantly-recurring wars with the Emperor yielded him abundant
opportunities to display his prowess. In the campaign of 1543 he did
good service, until, at the siege of Luxemburg, he was dangerously
wounded above the ankle by an arquebuse ball. "Carried, almost
without hopes--on account of the fracture of the bones and the
injury to the nerves--first to his tent and then to Longwy, five
leagues in rear, he owed his recovery to the attention of the King,
who sent him his own physicians, and to the care bestowed upon him
by his father. And nevertheless, when he suffered signs of pain
to escape him during the dressing, the Duke of Guise addressed
to him reproaches by which it will be seen that he subsequently
profited, saying to him--a noble and stoical maxim--'That persons
of his rank ought not to feel their wounds, but, on the contrary,
to take pleasure in building up their reputation on the ruin of
their bodies.'" It was in no feather-bed school that the Guises were
educated. Nearly at the same time that the Count d'Aumale was hit
before Luxemburg, Gaspard de Coligny-Châtillon, then his rival in
valour, and at a subsequent day his deadly foe, was severely wounded
in the throat at the siege of Binche.
In the war in which these incidents occurred, England was allied
with the Emperor against France. Personal motives combined with
political irritation to dispose the violent and uxorious Henry VIII.
to a rupture with Francis I. Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke
of Guise, and widow of Louis of Orleans, duke of Longueville, had
been given in marriage to James V. of Scotland, in preference to
Henry, who, inflamed by the report of her beauty, had solicited her
hand as a pledge of perpetual alliance with France. Dazzling as
was the offer of so powerful a sovereign, his anti-catholic acts,
and his evil reputation as a husband, deterred the Guises from
entertaining it; and Francis I., obeying the dictates of feeling
rather than those of prudence, extricated them from a dilemma by
alleging a previous promise to the Scottish king. It is said that
Henry would then gladly have espoused Louisa, second daughter of the
Duke, and that, means being found to elude his pursuit, this second
disappointment further augmented his rancorous feelings towards
Francis and the house of Guise. However this may have been, the
war with England continued subsequently to the conclusion of peace
between Francis and Charles--chiefly in Picardy, around Boulogne,
which Henry held, and in whose neighbourhood his army was encamped.
Some severe skirmishes and partial engagements occurred, and in one
of these the Count of Aumale received a wound, probably the severest
ever survived by mortal man, from the lance of an English officer.
The weapon, according to the description of Ambrose Paré, entered
"above the right eye, declining towards the nose, and piercing
through on the other side, between the nape and the ear." So violent
was the blow that the weapon broke in the head, into which it had
penetrated more than half a foot, the entire lance-iron and two
fingers' breadth of the staff remaining in the wound. Paré explains
the possibility of such a wound, in an age when helmets and visors
were in use, by mentioning that the Count always went into action
with his face bare.
"Terrible as was the shock," says M. de Bouillé, "it did not unhorse
d'Aumale. He still made head against his foes, succeeded in forcing
a passage through them, aided by his young and valiant brother
Claude, and by de Vieilleville--who, alone of all, had not abandoned
him--and rode gloriously into camp. His appearance was frightful;
his face, armour, and clothes were deluged with blood. The surgeons,
stupified by the depth and gravity of the wound, despaired of cure,
and refused to inflict useless sufferings upon the patient. But
Ambrose Paré, the King's surgeon, sent by Francis with orders to
try every means of saving the hero's life, was not discouraged.
Confiding in his skill, and in the firmness of the wounded man, he
resolved to attempt an operation, terrible indeed, but admirable for
those days, and worthy alone to insure celebrity to him who imagined
it. The lance-head was broken off so short, that it was impossible
to grasp it with the hand. Taking then a blacksmith's pincers, to
draw it out with great force, and assisted, amongst others, by
Master Nicolle Lavernan, a very experienced surgeon, he asked the
Lorraine prince, in presence of a crowd of officers shuddering
with horror, if he would submit to the employment of such means,
and would suffer him to place his foot upon his face. 'I consent
to everything; proceed,' replied d'Aumale. Nor did his fortitude
abandon him for an instant during this cruel operation, which was
not effected without fracture of bones, nerves, veins, and arteries,
and other parts, and which he endured as if they had only pulled out
a hair. The agony extorted from him but the single exclamation--'Ah!
my God!' Transported afterwards in a litter to Pecquigny, he
remained for three days in a hopeless state: early on the fifth day
more favourable symptoms declared themselves, and nature made such
powerful efforts, that the cure was completed without leaving the
Count d'Aumale any trace of this astonishing wound, except a scar,
equally glorious for him and for Ambrose Paré. That skilful surgeon
was wont modestly to say, when speaking of the marvellous cure of
Francis of Lorraine--'I dressed it, and God healed it.' As soon as
he began to get better, the Count d'Aumale hastened to write to the
King, with a hand still unsteady, the following note, characterised
by a calmness remarkable in such circumstances:--'Sire, I take the
liberty to inform you that I find myself well, hoping not to lose an
eye. Your very humble servant, LE GUIZARD.'" Admiring his energy,
and in recompense of his services, Francis I. made him governor
of Dauphiny; whilst the numerous partisans of the house of Guise
attributed his cure to a miracle wrought by the prayers of his pious
mother, Antoinette of Bourbon. This princess carefully preserved
till her death the lance-point which had penetrated her son's head.
The extent of the wound, as described by Paré, would be scarcely
credible, but for the testimony of that learned and excellent man,
and of other cotemporary writers quoted by M. de Bouillé. In a
short time the heroic Count had forgotten his hurt, and was again
in arms against the English, with whom, however, peace was shortly
afterwards concluded.
Notwithstanding the frequent uneasiness occasioned him by the power
and ambition of the family of Guise, Francis I. continued, almost to
the close of his reign, to enrich and aggrandise them. The magnitude
of their services, and their many great qualities, at intervals
elicited his gratitude and generosity, to the oblivion of mistrust
and apprehension. Thus, only three years prior to his death, he
erected into a marquisate certain lands and lordships of the Duke
of Guise, and immediately afterwards elevated the marquisate to a
duchy, in consideration, said the letters patent, of the great,
virtuous, and commendable services that the Duke of Guise had long
rendered to king and country, without sparing his own person, his
children, or goods; "and also that our said cousin Duke of Guise
is of the house of Lorraine, descended by wife and alliance from
the house of Anjou, and from our predecessors, kings of France."
Thus was the title of Duke of Mayenne provided for a younger son of
Claude of Lorraine. Such laudatory declarations as the one above
cited were concurrent, however, with the systematic restriction of
the Guises' direct influence on state affairs. And on his deathbed,
when dividing his last hours upon earth between religious duties and
sage counsels to his son, Francis enjoined this prince not to recall
the Constable of Montmorency, or to admit to a share of government
the princes of the house of Guise. Montmorency had incurred disgrace
and banishment by exciting the King's conjugal jealousy. Henry II.
showed slight regard to his father's dying injunctions. Scarcely
had the earth closed over the deceased monarch, when those he had
recommended to his son's favour were removed from their posts;
Montmorency was recalled, and the Guises were taken into favour;
the Count of Aumale, and Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, dividing
between them Henry's whole confidence. It must be admitted, that the
means to which they resorted to secure and preserve this favour,
were not of the most delicate description, although, doubtless,
they would be very differently estimated then and now. They
sustained their credit with Henry II. by their attentions to Diana
of Poitiers, his all-powerful mistress, whose eldest daughter one
of the brothers, Claude, Marquis of Mayenne, had just married. From
this discreditable alliance Châtillon, afterwards the Admiral de
Coligny, had tried to dissuade them, by pointing out, says Brantôme,
in his Life of the Admiral, "that it was not very honourable for
them, and that an inch of authority and favour with honour was
better than an armful without." The Count of Aumale, up to that
time the inseparable companion of Coligny, was but ill-pleased by
the freedom of this advice, which, he said, was less that of a
friend than of one envious of the good fortune such an alliance
insured to his family. This difference, however, cast but a slight
cloud over the intimacy which thereafter was exchanged for so
bitter an enmity. Meanwhile the royal favour, lavished on the young
Guises, was not extended to their father, who was excluded from the
government which his sons freely exercised, and who, immediately
after the coronation of Henry, left the court, to live in retirement
in his castle of Joinville. The prudence and moderation of the
elder Guise were probably less welcome to the young king than the
bolder and more impetuous counsels of his sons. There were six of
these, all pretty well provided for when Claude of Lorraine retired
into private life: Francis, Count of Aumale; Claude, Marquis of
Mayenne; Charles, Archbishop of Rheims; Louis, Bishop of Troyes, and
Francis, Chevalier of Lorraine, afterwards grand-prior and general
of the galleys of France. "During his stay at Paris, after the
campaign of 1544, the Duke of Guise frequently went, accompanied
by his six young sons, to pay his devoirs to the King, who always
graciously received and congratulated him, saying 'that he was six
times fortunate in seeing himself live again, before his death, in
a posterity of such great promise.' One day Charles, the second
brother, who was intended for the church, presented to Francis
I. some moral and theological theses, accompanying them with an
eloquent and tasteful harangue. His promotion to the archbishopric
of Rheims, the richest benefice in France, was, it is said, the
munificent reward of this precocious ability." Henry II. received
his crown from the hands of this youthful archbishop, upon whom the
Pope, five days after the ceremony, conferred a cardinal's hat.
Charles of Lorraine can have been but thirty or thirty-one years
old, when he thus attained to the highest dignities of the church.