Henri II: His Court and Times (17 page)

About ten o'clock that night, François I, attended only by
a few gentlemen, came to Marseilles and paid a secret visit
to the Pope. Next day (October 13), his Majesty made his
own State entry, upon the splendours of which and that of
the Queen, which was the event of the 14th, we shall not
dwell here. Finally, on the 23rd, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, "the Duchess of Urbino, coming from Aubagne,
where she had dined that day, made her entry into the town
of Marseilles, mounted on a roan horse covered with brocade,
and having six led horses following her, who were caparisoned
in scarlet and gold brocade, extremely pompous. She was
accompanied by twelve demoiselles on horseback, and
escorted by the guards of the Pope and the King. Afterwards,
came a coach draped in black velvet, with two pages on
horseback, and the pages of the Cardinal de' Medici,
¹¹
who rode splended chargers caparisoned likewise."
¹²

Five days later (Tuesday, October 28), the marriage was
celebrated, with great splendour, the Pope himself officiating,
to give greater importance and solemnity to the event.

An English historian of François I speaks of "the extreme
personal beauty of the young couple,"
¹³
and, though this description is certainly not borne out either by their portraits
or by the testimony of impartial contemporaries, they were
far from an ill-looking pair.

C
ATHERINE DE
M
EDICI
AFTER A DRAWING IN THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE

Henri, indeed, who, it maybe mentioned, had been knighted
by his royal father a few days before, might almost have been
called handsome. He had inherited the fine dark eyes and
straight nose of his grandmother, Louise of Savoy; his hair
was black, his complexion very pale. In stature, he appears
to have been rather tall for his age, with a well-knit frame,
hardened and developed by tilting, fencing, tennis, and other
manly exercises, in which he was already so proficient that
few at the Court could hold their own against him.
¹⁴

Of Catherine at the time of her marriage there is no authentic portrait in
existence, for the painting of the happy event by Vasari is an allegory. There
is, however, a painting of her at Versailles by an unknown artist, executed
in all probability some three or four years later, which
shows us a rather plain young girl, with full lips, a receding
chin, and hair frizzled at the temples. On the other hand,
Reumont speaks of another portrait of the future Queen
of France, which, he thinks, must have been painted not
long after her marriage, and which seems to be more
flattering to its subject. "Without being beautiful," he says,
"the face is at least agreeable, with features which, though
rather strongly marked, are not irregular. She wears flowers
in her hair, which is drawn back from her forehead, a high
gown, a
ruche
of rich lace round her neck, and her sleeves are
embroidered with pearls." Singularly enough, Reumont does
not tell us in what collection he found this portrait.

Shortly after the ceremony, the King and Queen, the whole
Royal Family, and the princes and princesses of the blood
came to the Pope's residence and conducted Catherine to that
of the King; François himself, "dressed in white satin, with
a royal mantle of gold spangled with pearls and precious
stones," escorting the bride, who was covered with brocade,
her corsage being of ermine filled with pearls and diamonds,
with a
coiffe
embroidered with pearls and precious stones on
her head, surmounted by the crown of a duchess."
¹⁵

At the royal lodging a sumptuous banquet had been prepared.
There were three tables. At one sat the Pope and the Queen,
Clement having decided to relax for the nonce the severe
etiquette which his position imposed upon him; that in the
centre was for the King and the Cardinals de' Medici and
Rodolfi; while the third was occupied by the bride, the
young princes, the princes and princesses of the Blood,
the King of Navarre, the Duke of Albany, the Marchese di
Saluzzo, and the Cardinal Salviati, Catherine occupying the
place of honour. In the evening, there was a grand ball,
which, however, was interrupted just before midnight, when
the King conducted his daughter-in-law to the nuptial
chamber, in which stood a state bed of such magnificence
that it was reported to have cost more than half the bride's
dowry.

Splendid fêtes followed the wedding, and the rejoicings were
prolonged for nearly a month, greatly to the satisfaction of
the worthy citizens of Marseilles, who must have reaped a
bounteous harvest. Before the two Courts separated costly
presents were, of course, exchanged. Among others, François
gave the Pontiff a magnificent Brussels carpet, the pattern of
which represented the Last Supper. To Ippolito de' Medici,
who refused to accept any valuable presents, he gave "a tame
lion, which he had received from Barbarossa."
¹⁶
What the Cardinal did with this somewhat alarming kind of pet, History
does not record. Among the gifts of the Pope to François,
was "a piece of the horn of a unicorn,"
¹⁷
beautifully
mounted by the Milanese goldsmith Tobio, which was said to
possess the power of destroying the effects of poison mixed
with food. It seems a pity that his Holiness did not bestow
this potent charm upon Ippolito, who needed it much
more than the King of France, since not long afterwards his
Eminence was poisoned by an emissary of his amiable kinsman Alessandro.

Clement also created four new French cardinals, one of
whom was Odet de Coligny — brother of the celebrated Gaspard
— who subsequently embraced the Reformed faith; while the
King invested four of the Papal dignitaries with the Order of
Saint-Michel.

On November 27, the Pontiff was escorted in solemn state
to his galley and sailed for Civita Vecchia, and a few days later
the French Court set out for Amboise.

While the fêtes and rejoicings were engaging the attention
of the two Courts, Clement and François had not forgotten the
real object of the former's journey to Marseilles, and had been
frequently closeted together in earnest conference. The outcome of their deliberations was a secret understanding which
threatened to bring the armies of the King and the Emperor
once more into the already desolated plains of Lombardy.
"The dowry is not such a poor one after all," observed
Filippo Strozzi to the Treasurer of France, as the first instalment
was being paid over, "if you reckon the three jewels
which the Pope will presently give to his cousin: Genoa,
Milan, and Naples. Do not such jewels appear to you worthy
of a king's daughter? This was to rate the results of the
Pontifical alliance rather too highly, for Clement had had the
address not to take any positive engagements against the
Emperor. In fact, his dread of incurring the Imperial displeasure was so great that in the following March he allowed
himself to be intimidated into sanctioning the decree which
pronounced Henry VIII's first marriage good and valid,
thereby occasioning the formal revolt of England against the
authority of the Papacy. That, on the death of Francesco
Sforza, in October 1535, he would have supported François
in the war which then broke out is, however, quite probable.
But he did not live to see that day, as on September 25, 1534
— ten months after he had quitted the shores of France — his
career of duplicity and prevarication came to an end.

And so François I gained nothing by the marriage which he
had been at such pains to bring about, and lost even the final
instalment of Catherine's dowry, as the new Pope, Paul III,
naturally refused to be bound by the obligations of his
predecessor.

Early married life of Henri and Catherine de' Medici — Unpopularity of the
marriage — Diplomacy of Catherine, who contrives to secure the favour of
François I and the friendship of Marguerite d'Angoulême and the King's
mistress, Madame d'Étampes — Sketch of the last-named lady — Execution of
François's agent, Maraviglia, at Milan — The King prepares to invade the
Milanese, but the death of Clement VII and the expedition of Charles V against
Tunis cause him to suspend operations — Death of Francesco Sforza — François
demands the Milanese for the Duc d'Orléans — The French occupy Savoy and
Piedmont, but the King allows the Emperor to delude him with negotiations
— Charles's speech to the Pope and the Sacred College — Treachery of the
Marchese di Saluzzo — The Emperor invades Provence — Devastation of the
country by Montmorency — Death of the Dauphin François makes Henri heir to
the throne — Grief of the King — The Conte Sebastiano Montecuculli arrested on
a charge of having poisoned the prince — He confesses, under torture, to having
been instigated by the Imperialists to poison the King and his three sons — His
execution — The Imperialists repudiate the charge and accuse Catherine de'
Medici

T
HE
first three years of
the married life of Henri and Catherine present few features of interest. In the
case of the former, the event which had required so much tortuous diplomacy to
bring about made comparatively little change. It is true that he now possessed a
wife — a luxury with which he would no doubt have been very willing to dispense,
if he had been allowed any voice in the matter — and was required to give her
the benefit of his society at stated times; but, since he was a younger son, and
his elder brother was still unmarried, he was not allowed an establishment of
his own, but shared that of the Dauphin and the Duc d'Angoulême, as he had before his marriage. In like manner,
the ladies and officers attached to Catherine's person were also
the attendants of her sisters-in-law, Mesdames Madeleine and
Marguerite, and the three young princesses were placed on a
footing of equality.

The restless crowded existence of the Court afforded the
young couple small opportunity of understanding one another.
The Valois Kings did not, like those of later times, reside
in one spot; they were continually on the move from one
royal Château to another: from les Tournelles, in Paris, to
Fontainebleau, from Fontainebleau to Amboise, and from
Amboise to Blois, while visits were often paid to the country-seat of some great noble whose forests afforded unusual facilities for sport. Thus, the newly wedded pair enjoyed little
privacy, nor is it probable that they had any great desire for a
closer companionship. Henri saw before him a plain, unformed
girl, who was reputed to be clever, a fact which made
him feel awkward and constrained in her presence; Catherine,
a morose, tongue-tied boy, who resisted all her efforts to draw
him out, or even to bring a smile to his lips. We may here
observe that for some time after her marriage Catherine's
health was too delicate to permit of her being a wife in the
true sense of the word, a circumstance which no doubt goes
far to explain why she so signally failed to gain the affections
of a husband "
de nature plus corporelle que spirituelle
."
⁰¹