Henri II: His Court and Times (35 page)

As the Dauphin François and the Duc d'Orléans had not
been interred in state, Henri II decided to have their bodies
conveyed to Saint-Denis at the same time as that of his
father. No effort was spared to give all possible pomp and
magnificence to the ceremony, which cost the King more
than 500,000 livres, and perhaps as much to the Parisians.

On May 21, the three coffins, each surmounted by the
recumbent effigy of its occupant, were conveyed to the
Church of Notre-Dame-des-Champs, which was then outside
the city walls. Here they lay until the following morning,
when they were brought to the Porte Saint-Jacques, where
they were received by the Provost of the Merchants and the
other municipal officials, who, in accordance with their
ancient privilege, acted as pall-bearers. The funeral car of
the Duc d'Orléans headed the procession, then came that
of the Dauphin François, and lastly that of the King.
"Before and behind walked an infinitude of persons of all
conditions, for the most part with lighted torches in their
hands," while dense masses of spectators lined the streets.
All were in deep mourning, with the exception of the
Presidents and Counsellors of the
Parlement
, who appeared in
their scarlet robes, "they being exempted from wearing
mourning, because, under the authority of the King, they are
the first and sovereign administrators of justice, and the
Crown and Justice never die."
⁰¹

Thus, the procession proceeded to Notre-Dame, where the
funeral service was celebrated, the sermon being preached by
Pierre Chastel, Bishop of Maçon. Then the mourners
dispersed to dine, to reassemble again at mid-day and escort
the coffins to Saint-Denis.

Although it was not customary for the new King to appear
at the obsequies of his predecessor, Henri II desired to
witness the procession to Notre-Dame, in order to see that
everything was carried out in accordance with his wishes.
He accordingly gave orders for a room to be engaged for
him in a house in the Rue Saint-Jacques, to which he
repaired, accompanied only by Saint-André and Vieilleville.
As he, of course, did not wish to be recognised, he had
exchanged the violet costume which was the usual mourning
of the Kings of France for one of black, and gave
strict injunctions to his companions to avoid making any
gesture of respect and to address him as though he were
their equal.

When the King perceived the funeral cars approaching, "he
wished to withdraw from the window, for his heart was
beating violently, and he began to be very troubled and
grieved, even to the point of tears." Perceiving this,
Vieilleville approached and told him that he ought to be
more grateful to the Divine Providence, which had called him
to the throne before his time, and contrary to the course of
Nature, by the death of his elder brother in youth, and of his
father when still in his prime, and that, instead of mourning
for the late King, he should rather seek to imitate his
virtues. "As for M. d'Orléans, Sire," he continued, "you
ought not to permit a single regret on his account to enter
your heart, for there has not been for the last three hundred
years a prince more pernicious for France; and you may be
very sure that God has taken him away for the common
tranquillity of the State, since if he had lived to marry the
daughter or niece of the Emperor and to receive, on his
marriage, the Netherlands or the duchy of Milan, you would
have had in him a mortal enemy and greater than even
the Dukes of Burgundy were in former times. For I call
God to witness, and I swear to your Majesty, that he never
loved or esteemed you."

Notwithstanding these arguments, his Majesty seemed still
unable to master his emotion, whereupon Saint-André begged
Vieilleville to inform the King how M. d'Orléans had behaved
on a certain occasion, ten years before, at Angouleme. Henri
inquired what he had done, when Vieilleville said:

"Do you recollect, Sire, when, owing to the foolhardiness
of La Châtaigneraie, Dampierre, and Dandouin, the late
Dauphin and yourself fell into the Charente, and the boat
turned over upon you? Genlis rushed off to tell the King
that you were both drowned; the whole Court was in
consternation, and the King, overwhelmed with grief, retired
to his chamber. M. d'Angoulême — as the Duc d'Orléans was
then called — was seized with such joy that he was quite overcome by it. But, almost at the same moment, I myself
arrived in all haste, and knocking, without the customary
respect, at the King's door, told him that you were both alive.
The King, who nearly devoured me with embraces, ordered
me to convey the news at once to M. d'Angoulême. I
knocked at his door with the same freedom, and called out to
him: 'Good news, Monsieur! Your brothers are alive; you
will soon see them, for the Swiss are carrying them home.' If
I had come, Sire, to undertake something contrary to his
service, nay, against his honour, he could not have received
me worse. Having informed me very coldly that he was very
glad, and begged me to return and inform the King that
he would come and join him in giving thanks to God, he
turned to Tavannes,
⁰²
and, without giving me time to leave the
room, said: 'God's malediction on the news! I renounce
God; I shall never be anything but a nonentity!' He was
afterwards overtaken by a severe attack of fever, which very
experienced doctors attributed to the sudden transition from
joy to so profound a sorrow, these two contrary feelings
having waged a terrible war in his very entrails. The late
King and yourself watched over him, but, if you had known
the origin of his illness, perhaps you would not have felt so
much grief or shed so many tears."

Upon hearing this, Henri's grief gave way to anger. "Oh!
what an evil disposition and what a wicked heart my brother
must have had!" he exclaimed. "I assure you that my chief
regret was on his account, for the late King, as you know, was
so grievously tormented by his malady that I wept over him
hundreds and hundreds of times before his death. As for the
Dauphin, I should have been too morbidly inclined if I had
not forgotten his loss, seeing the long time that has elapsed
since his death. But, in regard to him [the Duc d'Orléans], I
could not, after not more than sixteen months, banish him from
my memory. Besides, he had assured me of his friendship,
and had sworn, too, that, when he had been invested with the
estates of his appanage and had gained the hearts of the
subjects of the dominions which his future bride would bring
him, we should share Christendom between us."

"It was all the more treacherous," interrupted Saint-André,
"to beguile you with such a promise, because he had formed
a league with the Prince of Spain to attack you after your
fathers
⁰³
were dead,
and, if he had lived, he would have had abundant means to do it."

The King inquired who had been the intermediary between
his brother and Philip. "Madame d'Étampes and the Comtesse
Arenberg,"
⁰⁴
replied
Saint-André, "who, under the pretext
of the marriage, maintained a correspondence and were, so to
speak, the bankers of these two princes." And he promised
that that very day he would show the King the cypher which they had employed in
this correspondence, and which he had obtained from one of the late duke's
secretaries named Clairefontaine. He added that Orléans had promised to make
Madame d'Étampes, who had made a will in his favour,
Governess of the Netherlands, in the event of his marrying
the Infanta. "If," observed he, laughing, "M. d'Orléans
were still alive, the Duc d'Étampes would not now be holding
his wife a prisoner, and you, Sire, would not have taken from
her those diamonds worth 50,000 écus, so celebrated all over
France, since the Emperor's daughter would be wearing
them."

"By these and similar arguments," writes Carloix, who has
probably drawn upon his imagination a little freely in recording
the above conversation, though its substance is no doubt
true enough, "Saint-André and Vieilleville, who were called
two fingers of his hand, consoled their master and dissipated
his grief so effectually that he resumed his place and looked
without flinching at the three effigies as they passed by. But
when that of the Duc d'Orléans, which was the first, passed, he
was unable to refrain from observing, as if in disdain, 'See,
there is the nonentity who leads the advance-guard of my
felicity!' making allusion to the three cars, which represented
the advance- and rear-guard of a battle."

Between the obsequies of François I and the coronation of
his successor, which had been fixed for July 25, occurred
one of the most dramatic episodes of the sixteenth century —
the celebrated judicial duel of Jarnac and La Châtaigneraie.

The quarrel which led to this combat dated from the last
years of François I and was an echo of the enmities which the
rivalry of the Duchesse d'Étampes and Diane de Poitiers had
aroused; indeed, the duellists were regarded as the respective
champions of the old and new Courts, rather than as persons
meeting to decide a private affair of honour. Some account
of the principals may not be without interest.

François de Vivonne, Seigneur de la Châtaigneraie, was the
second son of André de Vivonne, Grand Sénéchal of Poitou,
and was at this time about twenty-six years of age. The
Vivonnes were a branch of the House of Brittany and bore the
ermine on their coat-of-arms. At the age of ten, La Châtaigneraie
had been appointed page of honour to François I and had
quickly succeeded in gaining the favour of that monarch, who
called him "
mon filleul
," or "
mon nourrisson
."
The Dauphin was even more attached to him than the King, for, with an eye
to the future, La Châtaigneraie paid assiduous court to both
the prince and Diane; and in the campaign of 1543 he had
the honour of bearing Henri's banner, which, when there was
any fighting to be done, "he detached from its shaft and
wrapped round his body like a scarf, in order that he might
be at liberty to use his hands."

From his childhood, La Châtaigneraie had shown a remarkable
aptitude for martial exercises. He had studied at Rome
under the celebrated
maître-d'armes
, Patenostrier,
and at Milan under Tappe, and had become one of the best swordsmen of
his time. He also excelled in wrestling and "could throw the
best Breton wrestler"; and in the several duels in which he
had taken part he always endeavoured to close with his adversary,
when he would seize him round the body, so as to render
it impossible for him to use his sword, and then bear him to
the ground and poniard him through the joints of his armour.
He was an excellent soldier and had served with distinction
in Italy and the Netherlands, and he appears to have been a
good-natured, open-handed man, always ready to do a friend
a service; but he was a terrible braggart, perpetually boasting
about his achievements and ever ready to pick a quarrel with
those who refused to accept him at his own valuation, so that
he was as much feared as he was loved.

"My uncle," writes Brantôme,
⁰⁵
"was very much feared, for he had a very good and very ready sword. He was extremely
strong, neither too tall nor too short, and of a very fine figure,
vigorous and a little fleshy. Although he was rather dark, he
had a very fine complexion, delicate and very agreeable, and
for this in his time was he beloved by two very great ladies.
In order that he might be able to succeed in life, his father,
who loved him tenderly, was accustomed in his infancy to
make him to take with everything that he eat powdered gold,
steel, and iron. This diet had been recommended to the
Sénéchal by a famous doctor of Naples, when he was there
with King Charles VIII."

Guy de Chabot, eldest son of Charles de Chabot, Seigneur de
Jarnac, de Monlieu, and de Sainte-Aulaye, and brother-in-law
of Madame d'Étampes, one of whose sisters, Louise de Pisseleu,
he had married, was a very different kind of man. Like La
Châtaigneraie, whose senior he was by some ten years, he had
been brought up in the King's Household, had gained the
favour of François I, who called him familiarly Guichot, and
had served with distinction in the wars. But, although his
courage was undoubted, he had nothing like the reputation in
the use of arms and in bodily exercises which the other had
acquired, and was of a quiet and reserved disposition, fond of
study, and very punctilious in the discharge of his religious
duties. In person, he was tall and slight, with pleasant,
regular features, and enjoyed considerable popularity with
the ladies — a fact of which he did not fail to take advantage,
insomuch that "love-affairs formed his almost exclusive
occupation." He bore at this time the title of Seigneur de
Monlieu, and did not assume that of Jarnac until after the
death of his father, some years later; but as historians almost
without exception refer to him by the latter title, we shall
follow their example.

G
UY
C
HABOT
, S
IEUR DE
J
ARNAC
FROM THE DRAWING BY FRANÇOIS CLOUET IN THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE