The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume II Part 4

"Je bois a _toi_, Sully; Mais j'ai failli; Je devois dire a _vous_, adorable d.u.c.h.esse, Pour boire a vos appas Faut mettre chapeau bas."

_Dictionnaire des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres_.

[27] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 72.

[28] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. p. 55.

[29] Extracted from the Parliamentary Registers in the Memoirs of Phelipeaux de Pontchartrain, Secretary of the Orders of Marie de Medicis.

[30] L'Etoile, vol. iv. p. 49.

[31] _Mem. pour l'Hist. de France_, vol. ii. p. 359.

[32] _Mercure Francais_, 1611, p. 17.

[33] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. p. 56.

[34] Charles de Cosse, Comte de Brissac, Governor of Paris, in the year 1594 delivered up that city to Henri IV, by whom he was on that occasion raised to the dignity of Marshal of France. In 1626 Louis XIII erected his estate into a duchy-peerage, and in the following year he died Duc de Brissac.

[35] Urbain de Laval, Marquis de Bois-Dauphin, was one of the four Marshals of France created by the Duc de Mayenne whose rank was subsequently confirmed by Henri IV. He was one of the original chiefs of the League.

[36] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, 1610, pp. 446-453.

[37] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem._ p. 72.

[38] Sully, _Mem._ vol. viii. p. 30.

[39] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem._ p. 72.

[40] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 57-59.

[41] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 83, 84.

[42] L'Etoile, vol. iv. p. 155.

[43] _Mercure Francais_, 1610, vol. i. p. 492.

[44] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 454.

[45] _Mem. de Henri, Duc de Rohan_, edit. Pet.i.tot.

[46] The Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, born in 1579, was descended from an ill.u.s.trious Bolognese family, who had formerly been the sovereigns of that state, and had produced alike great warriors, renowned poets, and celebrated prelates. He was himself a distinguished diplomatist and an able writer. Literature is indebted to his pen for the _History of the Civil Wars of Flanders_, sundry _Memoirs_, and a _Narrative of Flanders_. He died in 1644.

[47] _Mem. de la Regence de Marie de Medicis_, pp. 5-14. D'Estrees, _Mem_., edition Michaud, pp. 375, 376.

[48] _Hist. de la Vie du Duc d'Epernon_, pp. 248, 249.

[49] _Mem. de la Regence_, pp. 6-8. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 7, 8.

D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 376.

[50] M. de Souvre was the governor of Louis XIII.

[51] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 97, 98.

[52] Stefano Galiga, known from his extreme ugliness as "the baboon of the Court." When he went to take possession of his abbey the monks refused to receive him as their abbot, alleging that they had been accustomed to be governed by princes, and not by carpenters like himself, who had been seen to handle the plane and the saw. Stefano Galiga withdrew into Italy after the execution of his relatives.

[53] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 143, 144.

[54] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 5.

[55] Rambure, unpublished _Mem_. vol. vi. pp. 44, 45.

[56] L'Etoile, vol. iv. p. 157.

[57] Rambure, MS. _Mem_. vol. vi, p. 79.

[58] Jacques Auguste de Thou was the representative of an ancient family of Champagne, celebrated alike in the magistracy and the Church. One of his ancestors, Nicolas de Thou, clerk of the parliamentary council, and Bishop of Chartres, performed the coronation service of Henri IV in 1594, and died in 1598. Christophe de Thou, the brother of Nicolas, was first president of the Parliament of Paris, chancellor to the Ducs d'Anjou and d'Alencon, and a faithful servant of Henri II, Charles IX, and Henri III, whom he served with untiring zeal during the intestine troubles of the kingdom. He died in 1582. His son, the subject of the present note, embraced the legal profession, and became, from parliamentary councillor, president _a mortier_. In 1586, after the day of the Barricades, he left Paris, and entered the service of Henri III, who confided to him several missions in England and Italy. On the accession of Henri IV, De Thou eagerly embraced his interests, and by this sovereign he was also employed in negotiations of importance. At the death of Amyot he was appointed grand master of the King's library.

During the regency of Marie de Medicis he became director-general of finance, and was deputed, in conjunction with Cardinal Duperron, to reform the University of Paris, and to aid in the construction of the Royal College. Posterity is indebted to De Thou for a _History_ of his time, in one hundred and thirty-eight books, embracing sixty years, from 1545 to 1607. His style is terse, elevated, and elegant, and the work is full of elaborate and most minute detail. De Thou died in 1617.

[59] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 164-169.

[60] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 9, 10.

[61] Antoine Arnaud was the elder son of Antoine Arnaud, captain of the light horse, and subsequently attorney and advocate-general of Catherine de Medicis. The younger Arnaud embraced the legal profession, and became an advocate of the Parliament of Paris, where he distinguished himself by his probity and eloquence. Henri IV rewarded his merit by the brevet of councillor of state, and Marie de Medicis appointed him advocate-general. When offered the dignity of secretary of state, he resolutely refused to accept it, representing to the Regent that he could more effectually serve her as advocate-general to the King than in the secretarys.h.i.+p. His able and erudite speech in the celebrated Jesuit cause tried at Paris in 1594, in the presence of Henri IV and the Duke of Savoy, and his work ent.i.tled _The Plain and True Discourse against the Recall of the Order to France_, are well known. At the conclusion of the trial named above the University offered him a handsome present; which, however, he declined, declaring that he required no recompense, and had given his services gratuitously; whereupon that learned body pa.s.sed a solemn act pledging itself to eternal grat.i.tude alike towards him and his posterity; an obligation which it would, however, appear to have forgotten in 1656, in the case of his son. His great talents and high character procured for him an alliance with the first president, who bestowed upon him the hand of his daughter Catherine, by whom he became the father of twenty children. Although adverse to the League, Arnaud was a member of the Romish Church.

[62] Pierre Cotton, subsequently so famous as the confessor of Henri IV, was born at Neronde, in the department of the Loire, in 1564, and was received into the Order of the Jesuits in 1585 at Arona, in the Milanese, whence he was sent to Milan to study philosophy. Thence he was removed to Rome, where he remained twelve months engaged in the same pursuit; and finally he proceeded to Lyons, where he completed his education, and began to preach. During a sojourn at Gren.o.ble he was presented to the Duc de Lesdiguieres, in whom he inspired so much confidence that it was to his good offices that he was indebted for his selection as confessor to the King. The Duke having represented him as a sound and eloquent preacher, he was instructed to proceed to Paris, where his sermons having realized the report of his patron, Henri IV at once adopted him as his director. After the death of that monarch, he was for some time the confessor of Louis XIII. In 1617 he abandoned the Court, and travelled through the southern provinces as a missionary-apostle. He was the author of several controversial and religious works, and died in 1626.

[63] Sully, _Mem_. vol. viii. pp. 36, 37.

[64] Sully, _Mem_. vol. viii. p. 37.

[65] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 10.

[66] Sully, _Mem_. vol. viii. p. 81 _note_.

[67] Henri II, Duc de Longueville, was still a mere youth, having been born in 1595. Appointed plenipotentiary at the Congress of Munster in 1648, as well as Governor of Normandy, he threw himself into the party of the Fronde, on the pretext of mortification at being refused the government of Havre, but in reality in compliance with the entreaties of his wife. As the result of this concession he, in 1650, shared the imprisonment of the Princes de Conde and de Conti; but having recovered his liberty during the following year, he renounced all partisans.h.i.+p, and died peaceably in 1663.

[68] Fines paid for the commutation of offences.

[69] Instruction de M. de Schomberg, Comte de Monteuil, conseillier du Roi en son conseil d'etat, lieutenant-general de sa Majeste es pays de Limosin, haute et ba.s.se Marche, pour son voyage d'Allemagne, 1617.

_Pieces Justificatives;_ signed by Richelieu.

[70] Lorenzo Balthazar de Figueroa y Cordova, Duque de Feria, who in 1618 was appointed Governor of the Milanese.

[71] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 17. Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. xi. pp. 106, 107. D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 379.

[72] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 105-107.