Henri II: His Court and Times (30 page)

The storming-party, among whom was Montluc, who has
left a long and vivacious account of the affair in his
Commentaires
, wearing their shirts over their armour, in order to
recognise one another in the darkness,
¹³
readily effected an
entrance, killed the sentinels, and broke into the neighbouring
houses, "taking ther a great sorte of sicke persones and women
in their beddes, whom without mercy they slew."
¹⁴
They
encountered little resistance, for the garrison was quartered
in the citadel on the higher ground, and there was no one to
oppose them but half-armed servants, labourers, and camp-followers, who were quickly cut down or put to flight, though
not before Tais had been severely wounded by an arrow.

So far the success of the camisado had been complete;
the lower town was in possession of the French, and in a
meadow near the ramparts Montluc saw all the artillery which
Henry VIII had left behind him, thirty casks full of corselets,
which the King had ordered from Germany for the equipment of his
troops, and a great convoy of provisions.

Had ordinary precautions been observed, all would have
been well; but Tais, suffering as he was, neglected to give any
orders; Fougerolles seems to have been quite incapable of
maintaining discipline, and, in the fond belief that the day — or
rather the night — was theirs, and that the garrison would not
venture to quit the citadel, and aware that there was a great
quantity of booty in the lower town awaiting removal to
England, the troops dispersed in all directions in search of
plunder.

While they were engaged in this congenial occupation, they
found themselves suddenly assailed by the camp-followers,
who, having obtained arms from the fortress, had returned,
thirsting for revenge, and, with shouts of "Kill! Kill!" flung
themselves furiously upon them. Dispersed as they were in
small parties, the French were cut down by scores, Fougerolles
being amongst the slain; while before Montluc and the other
officers could succeed in rallying them, Poynings and the
troops from the citadel came pouring down the hill. Thereupon the French, fearing that their retreat would be cut off,
gave way on all sides, and, followed by a murderous storm of
arrows, made a rush for the breaches and gates, leaving some
eight hundred dead and wounded behind them. Montluc was
the last to quit the town, with three arrows in his buckler and
a fourth through the right sleeve of his coat-of-mail, "which,"
says he, "I bore as my booty to my quarters."
¹⁵

In his
Commentaires
, Montluc lays the responsibility for this
fiasco, not upon the officers who commanded the camisado,
but upon the failure of the Dauphin to advance to their
support. "I do not know," he writes, "what was the reason
the Dauphin did not march, but I shall always maintain that
he ought to have done so; and I know also very well that he
was not the only one responsible. However, it would be to
engage in controversy to say more about the matter. Had
they arrived, the English would not have known which way to
turn. I discovered them to be men of very little courage, and
believe them to be better at sea than on land."
¹⁶

The Dauphin, on his part, was furious at the conduct of the
storming-party, and at once proposed to repair the disaster by
a general assault.
¹⁷
But it was pointed out to him that the day
was breaking; that it would be impossible to approach the
lower town without receiving the fire from the upper, and that
the army was entirely without provisions and many of the
soldiers so weak from starvation that they could scarcely carry
their arms.
¹⁸
The prince eventually allowed himself to be
dissuaded, and, after an attempt to surprise Guines had also
ended in failure, disbanded his army and returned to Court.

(1)
See his vivacious account of his interview with the King and the Council in
his famous
Commentaires
, which Henri IV used to call "The Soldier's Bible."

(2)
Martin du Bellay,
Mémoires;
Brantôme,
les Duels.

(3)
He had detached a
small corps under Vendôme to harass the English should they advance from Picardy.

(4)
Martin du Bellay.

(5)
Because, according to Beaucaire,
he had accepted a heavy bribe from Longueval.

(6)
Paradin,
Histoire de noire temps.

(7)
J. A. Froude, "History of England."

(8)
Mr. Edward Armstrong, "The Emperor Charles V."

(9)
Histoire de France.

(10)
Histoire des Francais
.

(11)
Recueil de Ribier
,
in Martin.

(12)
Froude says that Norfolk acted "through timidity or mistake." It is difficult
to understand how he could have mistaken such very positive orders.

(13)
Froude says that they wore their shirts in order to imitate the smock-frocks of
the English labourers who were engaged in repairing the fortifications, but this
is not confirmed by any French authority. The practice was a very common
one in night-attacks; hence the word "camisado."

(14)
"Hall's Chronicle."

(15)
Commentaires
.

(16)
The explanation offered for the Dauphin's inaction is that after the departure
of the storming-party a terrific thunderstorm came on, which rendered the road
between Boulogne and La Marquise, where the army lay, quite impassable.

(17)
According to Froude, the Dauphin was "smarting under the taunts of
Montluc," who "had accused him of cowardice." Well, the incident to which
Froude refers occurred not on the night of the camisado, but on the following
evening, as Montluc himself tells us. Moreover, Montluc's words can hardly be
interpreted as an imputation upon the prince's personal courage, which was
beyond dispute; and elsewhere in his
Commentaires
the writer declares that
"Henri II was the best king whom God ever gave the soldiers."

(18)
Martin du Bellay.

Strained relations between the King and the Dauphin — The Dauphin "sells
the bear's skin before the bear is killed," and is betrayed by the Court jester Briandas — Singular sequel to a dinner-party — François and the princes at the
siege of Boulogne — The plague breaks out among the besiegers — Mad freak of
the Duc d'Orléans — He is carried off by the pestilence, and the Peace of
Crépy is
rendered, to all intents and purposes, null and void — Refusal of the Emperor to
enter into a new treaty — François prepares for war, but cannot be persuaded to
take any definite action — Pitiful moral and physical condition of the King — The
accession of the Dauphin anticipated with hopefulness by both Court and people
— Portrait of Henri by the Venetian Ambassador, Marino Cavalli — Singular
reflections on the nature of the prince's relations with Diane de Poitiers — Death
of the Comte d'Enghien in a snowball-fight — Charges of foul play against the
Dauphin and the Guises considered — Effect upon the King of the death of Henry
VIII — Last days of François I — He falls ill at Rambouillet — His admonitions to
the Dauphin — His death

A
FTER
the Peace of Crépy, the relations of the Dauphin
with his father, which since the prince's infatuation
for Diane de Poitiers had been far from satisfactory,
became more strained than ever. François, his ambition
flattered by the brilliant alliance which Orléans was about to
contract, no longer made any attempt to disguise his preference
for his younger son, whose frank and open nature so closely
resembled his own, and whose gaiety and good-humour often
served to divert his hours of ennui or bodily suffering, and,
while lavishing upon him every mark of affection, treated his
heir with coldness and suspicion. The Dauphin, on the other
hand, indignant at what he considered the King's betrayal of
his interests in the recent treaty and the indifference and
distrust which he showed towards him, confined himself more
and more to his own circle of intimates, which was chiefly
composed of the friends and adherents of the exiled Constable,
seldom visited his father, save when the exigencies of etiquette
required, and, though usually so reserved, could not always
conceal his impatience to grasp the sceptre.

One day, the Dauphin had invited several of his favourite
nobles to dinner in his apartments. The wine seems to have
circulated pretty freely, for when presently the conversation
happened to turn upon the time now obviously fast approaching when François, whose health was steadily failing, should
exchange his throne for a gilded tomb at Saint-Denis, the
Dauphin observed that, "when he was King, he should name
such and such persons marshals or grand-masters, chamberlains
or masters of artillery," adding that "he should recall the
Constable, who had fallen into disgrace with the King."

The future Maréchal de Vieilleville, in whose
Mémoires
the anecdote is related, endeavoured to check this highly dangerous
conversation. But the prince, in the belief that he was surrounded
by none but friends, continued in the same strain,
upon which Vieilleville, unwilling to be a party to his
Royal Highness's indiscretion, requested permission to
withdraw, telling the Dauphin that "he was selling the skin
before the bear was killed." Soon afterwards, another person
quitted the room; one who, though unobserved, or, at least,
unheeded by the company, had heard every word that had been
said. It was Briandas, one of the King's jesters, whose office
gave him the privilege of wandering at will about the palace,
and who had been sitting in the recess of a window. Hastening
to François's apartments, where he found his master at table
with Madame d'Étampes, the Cardinal de Lorraine, the
Comte de Saint-Pol, Grand Chamberlain, Tais, Grand-Master
of the Artillery, and several of the other grand officers of the
Crown, and dropping the title of King, by which he was
accustomed to address him, he exclaimed:

"God save you, François de Valois!"

"Hey, Briandas! Who has taught you that lesson?"
inquired the King sharply.

'"Sblood! Thou art King no longer. I have just seen it
proved. And thou, M. de Tais, art no longer Grand-Master
of the Artillery; Brissac is appointed. And thou," turning
to Saint-Pol, "art no longer Grand Chamberlain; Saint-André
⁰¹
is." And thus, one after another, he transferred all the grand
offices of the Crown, when, once more addressing the
astonished King, he added: "Zounds! thou wilt soon see
Montmorency back; he will make thee do his will, and will
teach thee to be a fool. Begone! I call God to witness, thou
art a dead man!"

The King, more and more astonished, took the jester aside
and bade him, as he valued his life, explain the meaning of his
words. Briandas obeyed, and named all who had been present
at the Dauphin's dinner. François, beside himself with wrath,
summoned the captain of his Scottish Guard, bade him bring
thirty or forty of his archers, and set off at their head for his
son's apartments. But the Dauphin and his friends, warned
that they had been betrayed, had prudently made their escape,
and when the enraged monarch arrived upon the scene, he
found only a number of the prince's attendants, who were
engaged in removing the remains of the feast. Upon them and
upon the plate and furniture, if we are to believe the Vieilleville
Mémoires
, the royal wrath expended itself. The terrified pages
and lackeys were obliged to save themselves by leaping from the
windows into the courtyard below, to be speedily followed by
plate, glass, cutlery, tables, chairs, mirrors, tapestries, beds, in
short, everything which the Dauphin's apartments contained.
The King himself entered with zest into the work of destruction,
and snatching a halberd from one of the guards, laid about
him lustily.
⁰²

The Dauphin did not dare to appear before his father for
more than a month after this affair, and it was only with great
difficulty that François could be persuaded to pardon him;
while all his guests on the occasion in question were banished
from the Court.

The war with England continued for nearly two years after
the Peace of Crépy, its chief incidents being a descent by
the French on the Sussex coast and the Isle of Wight,
and a second and equally unsuccessful attempt to recover
Boulogne.

The operations round Boulogne, during which, it may be
mentioned, François de Guise received the terrible wound
which earned him the name of "
le Balafré
," had one
important result: they delivered the Dauphin from the rivalry
of his younger brother, and rendered the Peace of Crépy, to
all intents and purposes, mere waste parchment.

The two princes had accompanied their father to Picardy,
for François, notwithstanding his feeble health, wished to be
in touch with the investing army, and had established himself
for that purpose at the Abbey of Forêt-Moutiers, between
Abbeville and Montreuil. In the last days of August, the
plague broke out with fearful virulence among the besiegers;
whole companies were swept away; and soon the men
were dying in such numbers that it was no longer possible to
bury them. Terror reigned among the survivors; but Orléans
laughed at their fears, and one day, in a spirit of bravado,
entered, with some young nobles as thoughtless as himself, a
house in which several persons had recently succumbed to the
pestilence, slashed open the beds with his sword, and scattered
the feathers over himself and his companions, observing that
"never yet had a Son of France died of the plague."

The sequel was a grim commentary on the boasted immunity
of the Royal House. That same evening, the prince was taken
ill. Three days later, he was dead.