Henri II: His Court and Times (25 page)

Serious illness of the King — Policy of Montmorency — Charles V
invited to pass through France on his way to the Netherlands — His magnificent
reception — His entry into Paris — His departure for Flanders — The illusions of
François I and Montmorency in regard to the cession of the Milanese rudely
dispelled — The new proposals of the Emperor received with indignation by the
French Court — Charles V invests his son Philip with the Milanese, and a fresh
rupture between the two sovereigns becomes inevitable — Affection of the Dauphin
for Montmorency — Increasing bitterness of the struggle between Madame d'Étampes and
Diane de Poitiers — Diane and the Constable procure the disgrace of Chabot de
Brion — Fury of Madame d'Étampes, who succeeds in alienating François from
the Dauphin, and in convincing the King that Montmorency has sacrificed his
interests to those of his eldest son — Disgrace of the Constable — Assassination of
Rincon and Fregoso — Failure of Charles V's expedition against Algiers — François declares war against the Emperor

T
HE
truce of Nice expired in its infancy, but not
until it had done much to weaken the position of
France in Europe. Soon after his interview with
the Emperor at Aigues-Mortes, François I was attacked by
a severe illness, which left him for a time a physical
wreck,
⁰¹
and affected his mind to some
degree as well as his body. Affairs now fell completely into the hands of
Montmorency, upon whom, in February 1539, was conferred the office of Constable,
vacant since the treason of Bourbon, and the external policy of France took a
fresh direction. Montmorency, giving free rein to his Catholic and Imperialist
predilections, broke off the friendly relations which had existed
with England, the German Protestant princes, the Duke of
Cleves, and the Turks, and not only persuaded the King,
dazzled by the chimerical hope of a voluntary restitution
of the Milanese, to reject the offer of the rebellious Ghent
burghers to acknowledge him as their suzerain, but to reveal
their proposals to Charles V, and to offer him a passage
through France to Flanders, when he journeyed thither to
reduce his revolted subjects to obedience.

Having first taken the precaution to secure letters of
invitation from the King and Queen, the Dauphin and his
brother, and the Constable and the Cardinal Jean de Lorraine,
and an undertaking that he should not be troubled with State
affairs during his sojourn in France, the Emperor accepted,
and on November 27, 1539, he crossed the Bidassoa, accompanied
by a small suite of some twenty to twenty-five
gentlemen, who included the Duke of Alva, of sanguinary
memory.

As the state of François's health prevented him from undertaking so long a journey, the duty of welcoming the illustrious
guest devolved upon his two sons and Montmorency. The Duc d'Orléans met the Emperor half an hour before he
crossed the frontier; while the Dauphin and the Constable,
with nearly the whole of the King's Household, awaited him
about a league from Bayonne.

Charles was suffering from a chill which he had caught while
crossing the Pyrenees, and was therefore anxious to complete
his journey as speedily as possible; but François had given
orders that he was to be received "like the Kings of France on
their joyous accession," and the fêtes which were given in his
honour greatly retarded his progress. In every town through
which he passed magnificent receptions awaited him, and the
luxury displayed by both nobles and citizens caused the parsimonious
Spaniards the most unbounded astonishment. At
Poitiers, his Majesty was met by the governor, the Duc de la
Trémoille, and the whole nobility of the province, and escorted
into the town by between four and five thousand gentlemen
superbly habited, and by two thousand citizens dressed in
velvet and satin, laced with gold and silver. At Orléans, his
escort was composed not only of all the local
noblesse
and
militia, but also of "a guard of ninety-two young merchants of
the town, well mounted on fine horses, all wearing black-
velvet surcoats, with doublets of white satin fastened with gold
buttons, velvet caps covered with gold embroidery and
precious stones, white morocco buskins, all pinked, and spurs
of gold. The value of a single cap was estimated at two
thousand crowns, and there was not one among them who
did not carry upon his person the value of more than two
thousand francs in jewellery."
⁰²

At Loches, which was reached on December 10, the august
traveller found the King and Queen awaiting him. The interview
was cordial, the reception magnificent. Thenceforward
François did not quit his guest, and they journeyed together
towards Paris by way of Amboise, Blois, and Orléans. On
December 31 they reached Vincennes, where the Emperor
was acquainted with the arrangements for his solemn entry
into the capital. This took place in the afternoon of New
Year's Day 1540, with great ceremony. Early in the morning,
Charles, accompanied by the Dauphin, the Duc d'Orléans, and
the Constable, proceeded to Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, where
a sumptuous pavilion had been erected for his accommodation.
Here De Thou, the Provost of the Merchants, came to offer
him the keys of the town, while, shortly afterwards, the
Parlement
,
with the First President at its head, arrived to present
him with an address of welcome. Then the state procession
was formed, headed by the
Parlement
, and, amid the ringing
of church bells and the firing of cannon, the Emperor made
his entry into the city.

On his right hand rode the Dauphin, on his left, the Duc d'Orléans; while the Constable, dressed in a robe of cloth of
gold and mounted on a magnificently-caparisoned charger, preceded
them with his sword of office unsheathed, as though he
were escorting his own sovereign. François himself, accompanied
by the Queen, watched the procession from the
windows of the Hotel de Montmorency, in the Rue Saint-Antoine.

As the Emperor passed through the city, the keys of the
several prisons were delivered to him, as they had previously
been in the provinces, and he declared the freedom of all
captives detained therein. At the Hotel de Ville, he was
harangued by the sheriffs, who presented him, on behalf of
the municipality, with "a Hercules of massive silver, draped
with a lion's skin of gold, the said statue being of the height of
a tall man." From the Hôtel de Ville he proceeded to Notre-Dame, where a
Te Deum
was sung, after which he was conducted to the Louvre, where a suite of apartments had been
newly decorated for his reception.

A week of magnificent fêtes followed, during which the
Emperor sought to confirm Montmorency in his good dispositions by overwhelming him with condescension, and to
conciliate Madame d'Étampes by flattery and presents; and
on January 7 his Majesty, accompanied by the King and the
Court, quitted Paris and proceeded to Saint-Denis, and thence
to Chantilly, where he was splendidly entertained by the
Constable. At Chantilly, François took leave of his brother-in-law,
⁰³
and Charles continued his journey under the escort
of the two princes and Montmorency, who did not quit him
until he reached Valenciennes, the first town in his Flemish
dominions (January 24). At parting, the Emperor presented
them with costly souvenirs of his visit; diamonds to each of
the princes, and a splendid emerald to Montmorency.

During the past twelve months the old bait of the Milanese had been dangled
very assiduously before the covetous eyes of François; and at the beginning of
February 1539 a provisional agreement had been arrived at between the King and
the Emperor in regard to a marriage between the Duc d'Orléans and the daughter of Ferdinand of Austria, Charles
promising that he would "dispose of the duchy and state of
Milan, in virtue and contemplation of the said marriage, in
such a manner that the said lord king would have reason to
be well contented with it."

Apart from some allusions by members of the Court to the
prospective cession of the Milanese, the question had not
been raised during the Imperial visit, and, in their conversations, the King and the Constable had treated only of the
general affairs of Europe.
⁰⁴
It had been arranged, however,
that after Charles had reduced the Gantois to submission and
had seen his brother Ferdinand, who was to join him in
Flanders, Montmorency and the Cardinal de Lorraine should
proceed to Brussels, when his Majesty would make a definite
pronouncement with regard to the Milanese. By the end of
February, Ghent had made its submission and the King of the
Romans had arrived at Brussels; but Montmorency waited in
vain for the Imperial summons. None came, and when the
French Ambassador at Brussels reminded Charles of his
promises with regard to the Milanese, he answered that he
had never made any which could be considered binding upon
him. Finally, at the beginning of April, he submitted,
through his Ambassador at the French Court, Saint-Vincent,
an entirely new proposition, which showed that, while anxious
to avoid a breach with France, he was resolved not to share
Italy with a rival. François was to renounce all claims on
the Milanese, to abandon all rights of suzerainty over
Flanders, to restore the States of the Duke of Savoy, and to
evacuate Hesdin; while the Emperor would renounce all
pretensions to Burgundy and give his eldest daughter in
marriage to the Duc d'Orléans, with the Netherlands, Franche-Comté, and the Charolais for her dowry. The Netherlands
and Franche-Comté were to be erected into a kingdom, of
which the young couple would enter into full possession
after the death of the Emperor, and the King of France
would accord his younger son an appanage worthy of so great
an alliance, in proximity to the territory ceded to the bride.
To bind yet closer Hapsburg and Valois by ties of common
interest, Charles's son, Philip, was to wed Jeanne d'Albret,
only daughter of Marguerite d'Angoulême, and purchase her
rights over Lower Navarre and Béarn.

This project, which, if accepted, would have created a new House of Burgundy
under the protection of Spain and the Empire, and inevitably have caused a feud
between the Duc d'Orléans and his elder brother, already on sufficiently bad
terms, was very ill received by the French Court. François
was profoundly mortified to find that he had once more
sacrificed the substance for the shadow and permitted Charles
to subdue his Flemish subjects, come to an understanding
with the German Protestant princes, and re-establish his
authority in the whole Empire, while deluding him with
promises which he had not the remotest intention of fulfilling.
Montmorency, indignant at having allowed himself to be
made the dupe of the Emperor, was as strongly opposed as
the King to the new proposals, and urged his master to
continue to insist on the cession of Lombardy. The
negotiations dragged on for several months, but the favourable moment had been lost, and on October 11, 1540 the
Emperor dissipated the last lingering hopes of François and
the Constable by formally investing his son Philip with the
duchy of Milan. From that moment, a fresh rupture
between the two sovereigns was plainly inevitable, though
both announced their intention of respecting the truce of
Nice.
⁰⁵

A
NNE
, D
UC DE
M
ONTMORENCY
, C
ONSTABLE OF
F
RANCE
FROM THE PAINTING IN ENAMEL IN LÉONARD LIMOSIN IN THE LOUVRE

The bestowal of the Milanese upon Philip of Spain proclaimed to Europe the total failure of Montmorency's policy,
and was the signal for his disgrace, though the intrigues of
the palace rather than the humiliation into which the
Constable's almost pathetic trust in the Imperial justice and
friendship had led his sovereign seem to have been the
principal cause of his fall.

Ever since the campaigns of 1536 and 1537, the affection
of the Dauphin for Montmorency had continued to increase,
and the close friendship between the prince and the Constable,
combined with the latter's strong Catholic convictions, had,
as we have seen, caused the Constable to become one of the
staunchest supporters of Diane de Poitiers in the unceasing
struggle which she waged with the King's mistress, Madame
d'Étampes. As time passed, this struggle became more and
more envenomed, and both François and his elder son found
themselves involved in it.

The two ladies began active hostilities in the person of
their partisans, "seeming to regard one another as kings
upon a chessboard, who are not attacked until the principal
pieces have been taken."
⁰⁶
The Admiral, Chabot de Brion,
Madame d'Étampes's principal champion and long Montmorency's sworn enemy, was accused of enriching himself in
various ways at the expense of the State. The King, already
irritated against the Admiral by the friendship a little too
tender which Madame d'Étampes testified for him, ordered
him to be arrested and imprisoned in the Château of Melun
(February 1539), and in November 1540 he was tried by a
commission presided over by the Chancellor, Poyet, a creature
of Diane and the Constable. Poyet, notwithstanding the
reluctance of some of the judges, succeeded in securing the
condemnation of the accused, who was deprived of all his
dignities, banished from the Court, and mulcted in a fine of
1,500,000 livres.