The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume I Part 3

[10] Gillone Goyon, dite de Matignon, demoiselle de Torigni, was the daughter of Jacques de Matignon, Marshal of France, and of Francoise de Daillon, who was subsequently married to Pierre de Harcourt, Seigneur de Beuvron.

[11] Levi Alvares, _Hist. Clas. des Reines et Regentes de France_, p.

185.

[12] Dupleix, _Hist. de Louis XIII_, p. 53.

[13] Sully, _Memoires_, vol. i. p. 45.

[14] Catherine de Bourbon, Princesse de Navarre, and sister of Henri IV, was born at Paris in 1558. After his accession to the throne of France, Henry gave her in marriage to Henri de Lorraine, Duc de Bar. She refused to change her religion, even when her brother had done so, and died, without issue, in 1604, at Nancy.

[15] _Memoires de Marguerite_, pp. 176, 177.

[16] Anne, Duc de Joyeuse, Admiral and Peer of France, first gentleman of the bedchamber, and Governor of Normandy, was born in 1561. He was one of the _mignons_ of Henri III, who, in 1582, gave him in marriage Marguerite de Lorraine, the sister of the Queen Louise de Vaudemont. He commanded the troops in Guienne against the Huguenots, where he exercised the greatest cruelties; and having been defeated at the battle of Coutras in 1587, he was put to death by the conquerors.

[17] This child, called by Ba.s.sompierre _le Pere Archange_, and by Dupleix _le Pere Ange_, was the son of Jacques de Harlay de Chanvallon, known at Court as "the handsome Chanvallon," and was the individual who, as the confessor of the Marquise de Verneuil, became one of the most active agents in the conspiracy which was formed against Henri IV and the French Princes.

[18] Dreux du Radier, vol. v. p. 176.

[19] Mezeray, vol. iii. p. 546. Varillas, _Histoire de Henri III_, book vii.

[20] D'Aubigny, _Hist_. vol. ii. book v. ch. iii. (1583). _Confession de Sancy_, ch. vii. p. 447. Duplessis-Mornay.

[21] Duplessis-Mornay, _Mem_. p. 203.

[22] Jacques Govon de Matignon, Prince de Mortagne, was the representative of a family of Brittany which traced its descent from the thirteenth century, and had been established in Normandy towards the middle of the fifteenth. Born at Lonray in 1526, he was appointed Lieutenant-General of Normandy in 1559, where he made himself conspicuous by his persecution of the Huguenots. Henri III recompensed his services, in 1579, by the _baton_ of a marechal, and the collar of his Order. He subsequently became Commander-in-Chief of the army in Picardy, then Lieutenant-General of Guienne, and finally, Governor of that province. He died in 1597.

[23] Levi Alvares, p. 187.

[24] Governor of Auvergne.

[25] The fortress of Usson, which had been a state prison under Louis XI, was demolished by Louis XIII, in 1634.

[26] Brantome, _Dames Ill.u.s.tres, Marguerite de France, Reine de Navarre_, Dis. v. p. 275.

[27] "There are three things," Henri IV was wont to say, "that the world will not believe, and yet they are certainly true: that the Queen of England (Elizabeth) died a maid; that the Archduke (Albert, Cardinal and Archduke of Austria) is a great captain; and that the King of France is a very good Catholic."--L'Etoile, _Journ. de Henri IV_, vol. i. p. 233.

[28] Diane d'Andouins, Vicomtesse de Louvigni, dame de l'Escun, was the only daughter of Paul, Vicomte de Louvigni, Seigneur de l'Escun, and of Marguerite de Cauna. While yet a mere girl, she became the wife of Philibert de Grammont, Comte de Guiche, Governor of Bayonne, and Seneschal of Bearn. The pa.s.sion of Henri IV for this lady was so great that he declared his intention of obtaining a divorce from Marguerite de Valois, for the purpose of making her his wife; a project from which he was dissuaded by D'Aubigny, who represented that the contempt which could not fail to be felt by the French for a monarch who had degraded himself by an alliance with his mistress, would inevitably deprive him of the throne in the event of the death of Henri III and the Duc d'Alencon.

[29] Gabrielle d'Estrees was the daughter of Antoine d'Estrees, fourth of the name, Governor, Seneschal, and first Baron of Boulonnois, Vicomte de Soissons and Bersy, Marquis de Coeuvres, Knight of the Orders of the King, Governor of La Fere, Paris, and the Isle of France; and of Francoise Babou, second daughter of Jean, Seigneur de la Bourdaisiere, and of Francoise Robertet. She married at an early age, by the desire of her father, who was anxious to protect her from the a.s.siduities of the King, Nicolas d'Armeval, Seigneur de Liancourt, who was, alike in birth, in person, and in fortune, unworthy of her hand. This ill-a.s.sorted union produced the very result which it was intended to avert, for Henry found means to separate the young couple immediately after their marriage, and to attach Gabrielle to the Court, where she soon became the declared favourite. On the birth of her first child (Cesar, Duc de Vendome), Madame de Liancourt abandoned the name of her husband, from whom she obtained a divorce, and a.s.sumed that of Marquise de Monceaux, which she derived from an estate presented to her on that occasion by the King; and on the legitimation of her son in January 1595, she already aspired to the throne, and formed a party, headed by M. de Sillery, by whom her pretensions were encouraged. She was subsequently created d.u.c.h.esse de Beaufort, and became the mother of Catherine-Henriette, married to the Duc d'Elboeuf, and of Alexandre de Vendome, Grand Prior of France, who were likewise legitimated. She died in childbirth, but not without suspicion of poison, on Easter Eve, in the year 1599.

[30] Henri de la Tour, Vicomte de Turenne, Duc de Bouillon, Peer and Marshal of France.

[31] Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigny was the son of Jean d'Aubigny, Seigneur de Brie, in Xaintonge, and of Catherine de Lestang, and was born on the 8th of February 1550. At the age of six years he read with equal facility the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; and eighteen months afterwards translated the _Crito_ of Plato. The persecutions of the Huguenots, which he witnessed in his early youth, and the solemn injunctions of his father to revenge their wrongs, rendered him one of the most zealous and uncompromising reformers under Henri IV. He died at Geneva on the 20th of April 1630, aged eighty years, and was buried in the cloisters of St. Pierre. D'Aubigny left behind him not only his own memoirs, which are admirably and truthfully written, but also the biting satire known as the _Aventures du Baron de Foeneste_, and the still more celebrated _Confession de Sancy_.

[32] Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, was the second daughter of Philip II. She was the Gouvernante of the Low Countries; and although no longer either young or handsome, she possessed an extraordinary influence over her royal father, who was tenderly attached to her.

[33] Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles, Earl of Lennox, the grandson of Margaret of Scotland, sister to Henry VIII.

[34] Isabeau de Baviere, Queen of Charles VI.

[35] Maurice of Na.s.sau, Prince of Orange, second son of William, and of Anne, the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony.

[36] Marie de Medicis was the daughter of Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and of Jane, Archd.u.c.h.ess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand.

[37] Louise-Marguerite de Lorraine was the daughter of Henri, Duc de Guise, surnamed _le Balafre_, and of Catherine of Cleves, subsequently d.u.c.h.esse de Nemours. She was celebrated alike for her extreme beauty, her brilliant wit, and her great intellect. She wrote admirably for that age, and was the author of the _Histoire des Amours du Grand Alcandre_, and of some _Court Chronicles_, which she published under the patronymic of Dupilaust. Mademoiselle de Guise married Francois, Prince de Conti, son of the celebrated Louis, Prince de Conde, who was killed at Jarnac.

[38] Catherine de Lorraine, daughter of Charles, Duc de Mayenne, and of Henriette de Savoie-Villars, who became in February 1599 the wife of Charles de Gonzague, Duc de Nevers, and subsequently Duke of Mantua. She died on the 8th of March 1618, at the age of thirty-three years; and was consequently, at the period referred to in the text, only seventeen years old.

[39] Anne, daughter and heiress of Charles, last Duc d'Aumale, by whom the duchy was transferred to the house of Savoy.

[40] Mademoiselle de Longueville was the sister of Henri d'Orleans, first Duc de Longueville.

[41] Catherine de Rohan, second daughter of Rene II, Vicomte de Rohan, and of Catherine, the daughter and heiress of Jean de Parthenay, Seigneur de Soubise. When she had subsequently become the wife of the Duc de Deux-Ponts, Henry IV was so enamoured of her as to make dishonourable proposals, to which she replied by the memorable answer: "I am too poor, Sire, to be your wife, and too well-born to become your mistress."

[42] Diane de Luxembourg, who, in 1600-1, gave her hand to Louis de Ploesqueler, Comte de Kerman, in Brittany.

[43] Mademoiselle de Guemenee was the daughter of Louis de Rohan, Prince de Guemenee, first Duc de Montbazon.

[44] Sully, _Mem_. vol. iii. pp. 162-174.

[45] Denys de Marquemont, Archbishop of Lyons, and subsequently cardinal (1626). He did not, however, long enjoy this dignity, to obtain which he had exerted all his energies, as he died at the close of the same year.

He was a truckling politician, and an ambitious priest.

[46] Arnaud d'Ossat was born in 1536 at Ca.s.sagnaberre, a small village of Armagnac, near Auch. His parents lived in great indigence during his infancy, and at nine years of age he became an orphan, totally dest.i.tute. He was placed as an attendant about the person of a young gentleman of family, whose studies he shared with such success that, from the fellow-student of his patron, he became his tutor. After some time he accompanied his employer to Paris, where by persevering industry he completed his education, and was enabled to give lessons in philosophy and rhetoric. He then proceeded to Bourges, where he studied legal jurisprudence under the famous Cujas. Paul de Foix, Archbishop of Toulouse, when about to proceed as amba.s.sador to Rome, engaged him as his secretary; and while there, he embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and rendered himself perfectly conversant with the whole policy of the Papal Court. Henri III bestowed upon him the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Varennes, but, as his claim was contested, he immediately resigned it. Subsequently he was raised to the bishopric of Rennes, was created a cardinal in 1598, and some time afterwards was appointed to the see of Bayeux. His untiring devotion to the interests of France was ultimately recognized by his elevation to the dignity of minister under Henri IV.

[47] Jacques Davy Duperron was born at Berne in 1556, and being learned in mathematics, Greek, Hebrew, and philosophy, he became a professor of those sciences in Paris, where he obtained the appointment of reader to Henri III. Having embraced the ecclesiastical profession, he received from Henri IV (in 1591) the bishopric of Evreux, as a recompense for his devotion to the interests of Gabrielle d'Estrees. It was Duperron who obtained from the Pope the removal of the interdict fulminated against France. He ultimately became a cardinal, and Archbishop of Sens, and died in 1606.

[48] Henri de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney, was the descendant of the celebrated Comte de Saint-Pol, and that branch of the family became extinct in his person. He died in 1616.

[49] Nicolas Brulart, Seigneur de Sillery, was the elder son of Pierre Brulart, president of the Court of Requests at Paris. He obtained the office of court-councillor in 1573, and subsequently that of master of the Court of Requests. Henry IV, after his accession to the throne of France, appointed him amba.s.sador to Switzerland; and on his return from that country, made him sixth president, that dignity having become vacant by the death of Jean Le Maitre. In 1598 he was one of the deputies by whom the peace of Vervins was concluded; and from thence he proceeded to Brussels with the Duc de Biron, to be present when the Archduke swore to the observance of the treaty. He next visited Italy as amba.s.sador extraordinary to the Pope, where he negotiated the marriage of the King with Marie de Medicis. In 1604 Henri IV created in his favour the office of keeper of the seals of France; and finally, on the death of the Chancelier de Bellievre, he became his successor.

[50] Sully, _Mem_. vol. iii. pp. 189, 190.

[51] "Comme s'il fut revenu d'extase," says Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 300.

[52] In April 1599.

[53] Bernard de Montfaucon. _Les Monumens de la Monarchie Francaise_, Paris, 1733, in folio, vol. v. p. 396.

[54] Horace del-Monte.

[55] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 123.

[56] Maintenon, _Mem_., Amsterdam, 1756, vol. ii. p. 115.

[57] Roger de St. Larry, Duc de Bellegarde, was the favourite of three successive sovereigns. Henri III appointed him master of his wardrobe, and subsequently first gentleman of the chamber, and grand equerry.

Henri IV made him a knight of his Orders in 1595; and ultimately Louis XIII continued to him an equal amount of favour. The preservation of Quilleboeuf, which he defended with great gallantry during the s.p.a.ce of three weeks, with only forty-five soldiers and ten n.o.bles, against the army of the Duc de Mayenne, acquired for him a renown which he never afterwards forfeited.

[58] Henri, Comte, and subsequently Duc, de Lude, was the last male representative of his family. He was appointed grand-master of the artillery in 1669, and died without issue in 1685.