Henri II: His Court and Times (27 page)

The troops of the Duke of Clèves defeated the Flemish
militia and overran Brabant, which they pillaged mercilessly.
They then marched into the duchy of Luxembourg to join Orléans, and their combined forces, amounting to some 33,000
men, stormed or reduced Damvilliers, Yvon, Arlon, Luxembourg and Montmédi. The folly and egotism of the youthful
commander-in-chief, however, not only prevented these successes from being followed up, but sacrificed the most
important of them. Bitterly jealous of his elder brother, and
learning that there was a prospect of a pitched battle being
fought in Roussillon, he disbanded the greater part of his
forces, and leaving only very weak garrisons to hold the
captured towns, posted off to Montpellier, where the King had
taken up his quarters. The Imperialists took prompt advantage
of this to recover the town of Luxembourg, and, but for the
courage and activity of Guise, the other places taken by the
French would have shared the same fate.

The news of the fall of Luxembourg followed closely upon the prince's heels,
in consequence of which he spent a very unpleasant quarter of an hour with his
royal father at Montpellier; nor was he able to redeem his reputation by knightly
deeds in Roussillon, since the blunders of François, the
Dauphin, and Annebaut had relieved the Emperor of the
necessity of risking a battle in order to save that province.

The army of the Dauphin had assembled at Avignon, with
the intention of deluding the enemy into the belief that Italy
was its destination, until Annebaut, who was on his way from
Piedmont with 15,000 men, had had time to join it. Annebaut,
however, appears to have been indiscreet — some chroniclers
declare intentionally, though this is probably a slander — and
when he began his eastward march, the Imperialists had no
longer any doubt as to the French designs against Roussillon.
Nevertheless, the main objective of the invasion — the taking
of Perpignan— might still have been achieved, if the Dauphin,
instead of awaiting Annebaut's arrival before taking the offensive,
had sent forward a strong advance-guard to occupy the
Pyrenean passes and cut off the communications of Perpignan
with Catalonia and the sea. This, however, he neglected to
do, though, as he was probably only carrying out the King's
orders to remain inactive, it would be unfair to blame
him.

Annebaut and the troops from Piedmont arrived towards
the middle of August, and the Dauphin immediately marched
on Roussillon by way of Nimes and Narbonne, where he was
reinforced by contingents from Languedoc and Guienne,
which raised the strength of his army to over 40,000 men, of
whom only about one-third were French, the rest being Swiss,
landsknechts
, and Italian mercenaries. No opposition was met
with, and on August 26 he arrived before Perpignan.

Here, however, a bitter mortification awaited him, for the
town, which he had been led to believe would prove an easy
conquest, was bristling with cannon, "like a porcupine which,
when provoked, shows its quills in every direction," and he
was saluted by a storm of shot from cannon and culverins "of
which the enemy were as liberal as they were of their arquebus
balls."
⁰¹
Taking advantage of the early information which
he had received of the designs of the French and the failure of
the Dauphin to occupy the mountain passes, the Emperor had
sent by sea all the artillery and ammunition which he had
saved from the Algiers expedition, and had caused the fortifications to be strengthened, with the result that Perpignan had
been converted into a fortress capable of bidding defiance to
an even more powerful army than the one which now lay
before it.

However, the Dauphin, who was burning to distinguish
himself, at once ordered the trenches to be opened, and sent
his light cavalry under the Sieur de Termes into the mountains
to occupy the passes and prevent reinforcements arriving from
Aragon. But the soil was so sandy that the works which the
French constructed were in a moment reduced to powder by
the artillery of the besieged; while Termes was too late to
prevent a considerable force under the command of Alva from
being thrown into the place.

Encouraged by the arrival of Alva, the garrison made
continual sorties, in repelling which the besiegers suffered
severely. Having one day observed that several batteries were
very insufficiently guarded, the Spaniards sallied out in force,
stormed the batteries, and were about to overturn the cannon
into the trenches, when Brissac,
⁰²
who commanded the French
infantry, hurried up at the head of the few troops he had
been able to get together, and charged the enemy so fiercely
that they were compelled to retire. The Dauphin, who had
been a witness of this gallant action, paid the victor a graceful
compliment. "If," said he, "I were not what I am, I should
have wished this day to be M. de Brissac."
⁰³

Towards the end of September, the King despatched the
Comte de Saint-Pol and Chabot de Brion, who, in the preceding
spring, had, thanks to the intercession of Madame
d'Étampes, been rehabilitated and restored to all his offices and
dignities,
⁰⁴
to ascertain how the siege was progressing. They
reported that the investing army had failed to make the
slightest impression on the place; that provisions were failing;
that dysentery had broken out among the troops, and that the
mountain torrents, swollen by the autumn rains, were overflowing their banks and threatening to render the camp
untenable and cut off the army's communications with
France. François thereupon sent orders to the Dauphin to
raise the siege, which was done on October 4, the army retiring in excellent order and repulsing with considerable loss
an attempt of the Spaniards to fall upon their rear. It was
certainly time to retreat, for three days later the whole valley
of the Têt was under water, and several soldiers of the rearguard were drowned in crossing the swollen streams on their
line of march.

Thus, the expedition from which so much had been expected
ended in total failure, and the only trophies which the invaders
had to show were a number of Spanish women, whom the
Italian mercenaries had carried off, with the intention of
compelling their husbands and fathers to ransom them. The
Spaniards sent envoys to the King to complain bitterly of this
wholesale abduction as an infringement of the laws of civilised
warfare, and to demand the liberation of the captives; but the
condottieri
retorted that such complaints came very badly from
a nation who at the sack of Rome had held not only women
but infants in arms to ransom, and declined to surrender
them. Finally, if we are to believe Jovius, François, moved
by the sight of beauty in distress, settled the matter to the
satisfaction of all parties, by paying the money demanded
himself and ordering the women to be restored to their
homes.

In Piedmont, Guillaume du Bellay and his brother Martin
bravely held their ground against the superior forces of the
Imperialists; but his exertions proved too much for the former,
whose health was already shattered, and he died at the
beginning of the following January, while on his way back to
France.

At the beginning of the following year, an event took place
at Fontainebleau which must have gone some way to console
the Dauphin for the Roussillon fiasco. On January 19, 1543,
after nearly ten years of marriage, Catherine de' Medici gave
birth to the first of her ten children, a son, the future
François II.
⁰⁵

Catherine's sterility had been a grievous disappointment to
all concerned, and the cause of sore trouble to herself. For
some time, indeed, she had lived in constant dread of being
repudiated, and to this fear is, no doubt, attributable the fact
that she appears to have made it her first study to remain as
much as possible in the background, to avoid giving offence to
any one, and to live on amicable terms with both the ladies
whose rivalry divided the Court; while, at the same time,
deferring in every way to her husband and losing no opportunity
of insinuating herself into the good graces of the King.

She had need of all her diplomacy, for, some months before
she became enceinte, François had all but decided on taking
steps to get the marriage annulled.
⁰⁶
Learning, however, of
what was in the wind, Catherine lost not a moment in seeking
the King, and, bathed in tears, threw herself at his feet,
declaring that she was ready to sacrifice herself for the good
of France, and would either retire to a convent or remain in
his service, just as he might be pleased to order.

François, who was seldom proof against a woman's tears
and was genuinely attached to the girl, was touched, and,
raising her up, assured her that, "since God had willed that
she was to be his daughter-in-law and the Dauphin's wife, he
would not have it otherwise," adding that "perchance it might
please Him to accord them the grace which they desired more
than anything else in the world."

And so, thanks to Catherine's politic move, the evil day was
postponed, and when her son was born, the danger passed
away altogether, and, for the first time probably since her
marriage, she was able to regard the future with a tranquil mind.

The baptism of the royal infant, which took place on the
evening of February 10, 1543, must have been an impressive
ceremony. Let us listen to Paradin:

"Three hundred torches were given to as many persons of
the Guards of the King and of the Dauphin, and the Swiss
Guard, who were stationed from his Majesty's chamber to the
Church of the Mathurins, passing the little gallery, where these
lights made everything so plainly visible that it seemed as
though it were the middle of the day. Afterwards, came his
hundred gentlemen of the Household. Then the Chevaliers
of the Order (of Saint-Michel), among them being the King of
Navarre, the Ducs d'Orléans, de Vendôme, d'Estouteville,
de Guise, de Nevers, and the Comte d'Aumale, and also the
Venetian Ambassador. The Legate [Cardinal Farnese], with
several other cardinals and prelates, was also present.

"Next came the Queen and all the princesses who were
then at Court, namely, Madame Marguerite, the King's
daughter, who has married the Duke of Savoy, the Princess of
Navarre [Jeanne d'Albret], Madame de Saint-Pol, the two
Duchesses de Nevers, Madame de Montpensier, Madame
de Guise, the Duchesse d'Étampes, and several other ladies,
who were all very sumptuously attired in cloth of gold and
silver with an infinitude of precious stones, which had a
dazzling effect; and in the midst of this crowd was the child
who was being carried to be baptized.

"In this order and magnificence they entered the aforesaid
Church of the Mathurins, whither the King proceeded
immediately. It was decorated with the most costly Crown
tapestries and divers other ornaments. In the middle there
was a circular daïs, on which one saw a great covering of cloth
of silver. This was the place where the baptismal ceremony
was performed, the duty being undertaken by the Cardinal
de Bourbon.

"The godfathers were the King, who gave the child his own
name of François, and the Duc d'Orléans, third Son of France
and paternal uncle of our little prince,
⁰⁷
and the godmother
was Madame Marguerite, of whom mention has already been
made.

"All this ceremonial being thus completed, the child was
carried back in the same order in which he had been brought
thither; and they at once sat down to the banquet which the
King had caused to be made ready in what now bears the
name of the
Salle du Bal
; and, after this banquet, there were divers
ballets, dances, and other similar rejoicings, which continued for several days.

"A large and splendid bastion had been erected near the
Kennels, on the ground which is now occupied by the
Allée
Solitaire
and the
Allée des Muriers blancs
, and on the pond
were three galleys decorated with their banderoles. All being
thus arranged, on Thursday, the 14th of the said month,
several skirmishes took place between two parties of princes
and nobles, one party defending the said bastion, and the
other attacking it, by land, and by water with the said galleys.
In this fashion these splendours concluded."

Two years later (April 2, 1545), also at Fontainebleau,
Catherine presented her husband with a daughter, Elisabeth
de Valois, the future Queen of Spain. The little girl's
baptism appears to have been celebrated with as much pomp
and magnificence as that of her brother, for Henry VIII had
consented to stand as godfather to the young princess, and
the French King wished to show Cheney and Dudley, who
represented their master, that his Court could still make as
brave a show as in the days of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

The war in 1543 was confined to Italy and the Netherlands.
In the Low Countries, Fortune at first smiled upon the French
and their allies; at the end of March the troops of the Duke
of Clèves defeated the Imperialists at Sittard, while in June
François and the Dauphin invaded Hainaut, at the head of
35,000 men, and took Landrecies, on the Sambre, which they
proceeded to fortify. While this work was in progress, the
army encamped at Marolles, to cover the engineers, but, so
that it might not remain altogether idle, François detached the
Dauphin and a small force to reduce the Château of Émery,
Barlemont, Maubeuge, and Binche. The first three places
surrendered with scarcely a pretence of resistance, but at Binche
the prince found the same ill-fortune awaiting him as he had
experienced at Perpignan the previous autumn; for, having
received warning of his approach, the Imperialists had thrown
a strong force of
landsknechts
into the citadel and provisioned
it for a long siege. In a rather rash attempt to take the fortress
by storm, the French suffered considerable loss, and Gaspard
de Coligny, the future Huguenot leader — "a young noble full
of fire, who sought only opportunities for distinction" — received
an arquebus-ball in the chest, which nearly cut short his
career.
⁰⁸