Henri II: His Court and Times (47 page)

This affair, ignored by many historians, nevertheless entailed
consequences of the first importance. Hitherto, as we have
said, Madame de Valentinois would appear to have employed
her influence somewhat sparingly on behalf of the Guises, with
the result that the Constable still continued to dominate the
policy of France. But, rightly or wrongly, Diane believed
that, out of jealousy of her ascendency over the King, Montmorency
had encouraged the amorous relations of his Majesty
and Lady Fleming, in the hope that the latter might succeed
in supplanting her in the royal favour. This conviction
exasperated Diane to the last degree; the smouldering antagonism
between her and the Constable leaped into flame;
and her entire influence was henceforth thrown on to the side
of the Guises.

"There was a moment," writes the omniscient Contarini,
"when the Court asked itself which of the two the King loved
the most — the Constable or Madame de Valentinois — but
now it is known, by many signs, that Madame is the best
beloved . . . for the attachment which the King entertains
for the Constable may be dependent on the need which he
has of him, while that which he feels for the duchess can
proceed from no other source than the most lively passion. I
say this, because, to the King's great displeasure, these two
personages, the Constable and Madame, are now declared
enemies. This hostility began three years ago, but it only
broke forth openly last year, when the duchess perceived that
the Constable had plotted to divert the King from the passion
he had for her, by making him fall in love with the governess
of the little Queen of Scotland, a very pretty little woman.
The affair, indeed, went so far that this governess became with
child by the King. Madame complained bitterly of this; the
King had to offer many apologies for it, and for a long time
the Constable and Madame were not even on speaking terms.
At length, at his Majesty's entreaty, they made a semblance
of a peace, but at bottom their hatred is as bitter as ever.
Hence have arisen the two parties which are like two
factions at the Court, and he who draws near to one knows
assuredly that he must expect nothing but hostility from the
other."
²⁶

The death of Duc Claude and of his brother, the Cardinal
Jean, in the spring of 1550, had left the direction of the Guise
family to François, Duc d'Aumale, who immediately assumed
his father's title of Duc de Guise; while Charles, Cardinal de
Guise, took that of his uncle — Cardinal de Lorraine — and
Diane's son-in-law, Claude, Marquis de Mayenne, became Duc d'Aumale and peer of France. The brothers shared the other
dignities between them. To François fell the offices of Grand
Huntsman and Grand Chamberlain of France, with the
governments of Dauphine and Savoy; to the second Cardinal
de Lorraine the innumerable benefices of the first, and to
Claude the government of Burgundy.

These changes greatly increased the importance of the two
elder brothers, and with it their arrogance. Because Lizet,
the First President of the
Parlement
of Paris, refused to
recognise their princely quality, on the ground that the body
of which he was the head recognised no princes in France
save the Valois and the Bourbons, they insisted on his dismissal,
and replaced him by a creature of their own, Le
Maistre, who was later to distinguish himself by his persecution
of the Huguenots. They next attacked the Chancellor
Olivier, and, on the plea that his health was no longer equal to
the discharge of his duties, he, too, was removed, though he
was allowed to retain the title. Flushed with success and
assured of the full support of Madame de Valentinois, they
now determined to seek a revenge for the Constable's military and diplomatic successes by forcing France into another
war with Charles V.

(1)
The phrase
in the original is too coarse to permit of a literal translation.

(2)
Lorenzo Contarini to the
Senate, in Armand Baschet.

(3)
"Services which it had remained for Henri II to discover and reward,"
observes Mr. T. A. Cook, in his charming book on the Châteaux of Touraine,
But Mr. Cook forgets the very real service which Louis de Brézé had rendered
to the Crown in the discovery of Bourbon's conspiracy.

(4)
The
seigneurie
of Valentinois, which was originally a simple county, had
already belonged to the
seigneurs
of Poitiers. Louis de Poitiers
had ceded it to Charles VII, then Dauphin, and Louis XII had erected it into a duchy for the
benefit of Cæsar Borgia, whom, however, he subsequently deprived of it, to
punish him for having allied himself with the enemies of France. Diane had
persuaded François I to restore to her the usufruct of the duchy, but she was not
able to obtain the title until the accession of Henri II.

(5)
Histoire et description du Château d'Anet
(Anet, 1875).

(6)
Roussel,
Histoire et description du Château d'Anet
;
Miss Hay, "Madame Dame Dianne de Poytiers."

(7)
"The Renaissance of Art
in France."

(8)
Roussel,
Histoire et
description du Château d'Anet
; Lady Dilke, "The Renaissance of Art in France."

(9)
"Diane had collected at Anet a very rare collection of books on the chase.
The most remarkable of all is 'The Chase' of Oppian, in the original Greek,
which had been copied in its entirety by Ange Vergèce, a celebrated Hellenist of
the time. Diane has caused it to be bound in one of those mosaic bindings,
whose compartments, skilfully combined, cross and intersect one another with
an infinite grace. Grolier first, then Catherine, had introduced the type from
Italy. On the face of the book Diane has placed, with a kind of pride, the three
golden
fleurs-de-lis
, flanked on either side by the crowned 'H' and her initial
interlaced with that of Henri II. On the reverse of the book, in an oval
medallion, she has caused herself to be represented under the traits of Diana
of mythology. Attired in a simple Greek tunic, short enough to allow one to
perceive the cothurnus, the arms bare, the quiver on her shoulder, the softest
blond hair massed on her head and surmounted by a crescent, she holds in hand
a beautiful white greyhound with a golden collar round its neck, and follows
with her glance a stag which flees in the distance. It is a happy reduction of
the portraits of Primaticcio." — La Ferrière,
Les Grandes chasses
au XVI
^e
siècle
.

(10)
Les Grandes chasses
au XVI
^e
siècle
.

(11)
Cited by La Ferrière.

(12)
Pickering to the
Council, March 22, 1552, "State Papers (Foreign), Edward VI."

(13)
This and the following
letter are undated, but they probably belong to the autumn of 1547.

(14)
See
p.
272
infra
.

(15)
The cathedral at Chartres possessed a chemise, supposed to have belonged to
the Virgin, which had been brought from Constantinople in the ninth century
and presented to the church by Charles-le-Chauve. This miraculous relic was
credited with having assured the safety of the town on several occasions when
besieged by enemies, and, by a natural consequence, those who wore metal
representations of it were preserved from dangers in war. They were sold at
Chartres, and Diane had sent thither to procure some for the King.

(16)
"These verses," observes Guiffrey, "are entirely in the handwriting of
Henri II. The form of the letters, the erasures which accompany them, can
leave no doubt as to their authenticity; they are certainly the work of the King,
and no Court poet appears to have had a hand in them. It is probable that they
were neither the first nor the last of the royal poet, but if any other exist, they
have escaped our researches. As the epoch of their composition, we should be
disposed to take the year 1552. In fact, Henri II speaks in these verses of
regrets for the time lost in his youth, before possessing the desired mistress. He
must then have been already of a certain age. Further, the liberty with which
he expresses himself authorises the belief that he was King and freed from the
impediments which his father had placed in the way of his first inclinations.
Finally, the departure to which he alludes is quite consistent with the year 1552.
It is, in fact, the date of his triumphal promenade across Alsace and his bellicose
attempts against the duchy of Luxembourg."

(17)
If we are to believe
Brantôme, Catherine had caused a hole to be bored in
the floor of her apartments at Saint-Germain, which were immediately above
those of Diane, so that she might see and hear what went on below.

(18)
Guiffrey,
Lettres
inédites de Dianne de Poytiers
.

(19)
La Diplomatie
vénitienne.

(20)
Catherine de' Medici
to Bellièvre. April 25, 1584, La Ferrière,
Lettres de
Catherine de Médicis
.

(21)
Balcarres MSS., published
by Miss J. T. Stoddart, "The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots."

(22)
Balcarres MSS., published in
Maitland Club "Miscellany," 1834.

(23)
Brantôme.

(24)
Catherine de' Medici makes an interesting reference to this affair in a letter
which she wrote in 1582 to her son-in-law, Henri of Navarre, to remonstrate
with him at the indignation he had displayed over Queen Margot's dismissal of
his mistress,
la belle Fosseuse
(Françoise de Montmorency) from her service.
(For a full account of the Fosseuse scandal and the singular part played therein
by Marguerite de Valois, see the author's "Queen Margot" (London, Harper;
New York, Scribner, 1906.) "My son," she writes, "I was never in my life so
astounded as when I heard the words which Frontenac has been repeating
everywhere as being those which you ordered him to convey to your wife. I
should never have believed that this was true, if he had not himself assured me
of the fact. . . You are not, I am aware, the first husband who is young and of
little prudence in such matters, but I believe that you are the first, and the only
one, who, after an affair of this nature, would venture on such language to his
wife. I had the honour of marrying the King, my lord and your sovereign, but
the thing which annoyed him the most in the world was to discover that I had
heard news of this kind; and when Madame de Flamin (
sic
) was with child, he
considered it very fitting that she should be sent away, and never showed any
temper, nor spoke an angry word, about it. As for Madame de Valentinois, she,
like Madame d'Étampes, behaved in a perfectly honourable manner; but when
there were any who made a noise and a scandal, he would have been very
displeased had I kept them near me." — La Ferrière,
Lettres de Catherine de Médicis
.

(25)
W. Hunter, "Biggar and the House of Fleming" (1862). This ingenuous
historian has some observations on Lady Fleming's French experiences, which,
in view of the evidence before us, are distinctly entertaining: "Lady Fleming
was much respected and caressed at the French Court. The attentions paid her
gave a handle to the English Ambassador to make an attempt to injure her
reputation, by alleging, in a letter he sent to the English Council, that an improper intimacy existed between her and the French King. The story appears
to have been a mere fabrication, got up for the purpose of gratifying certain
parties in England. It is certain, however, that Henri II, King of France, held
Lady Fleming in very high estimation."

(26)
La Diplomatie vénitienne.

Critical relations between the Houses of France and Austria — Julius III and
Ottavio Farnese — Henri II supports the latter against the Pope and Charles V —
The War of Parma — Unpopularity of the Emperor in Germany — Revival of the
League of Schmalkalde — Maurice of Saxony — Intrigues between France and the
Lutheran princes — Treaty of Chambord — Bed of Justice of June 12, 1552 —
Henri II, having decided to take the field in person, appoints Catherine Regent,
but with very restricted powers — The King reviews his army at Vitry —
French plan of campaign — The Constable takes Metz by stratagem — Henri II
advances to Nancy, deposes the Regent of Lorraine, the Duchess Christina,
and sends the young Duke Charles III to France — The King joins the Constable
at Metz and invades Alsace — Refusal of Strasburg to admit the French — Flight
of Charles V from Innspruck — The French fall back from the Rhine — The King
in the trenches before Ivoy — Termination of the "Austrasian expedition" — Its
results

F
OR
some time past it had been increasingly evident
that nothing short of a miracle could avert a fresh
rupture between the Houses of France and Austria:
the only question was how long would the inevitable struggle
be delayed. In addition to those old subjects of dispute, the
retention of the States of the Duke of Savoy by France, and of
Navarre by the Spaniards, each cherished several other grievances.
The French Government complained of encouragement given
by the Spaniards to the insurgents at Bordeaux;
of the hostile attitude adopted by the Emperor during the war
of Boulogne, when he had despatched a herald to forbid
Henri II to attack Calais;
⁰¹
of his attempts to thwart the royal
negotiations in Switzerland,
⁰²
and of the punishment he had
inflicted on the captains of
landsknechts
who had served in
France, one of whom, named Vogelsberger, a particular friend
of the Constable, he had caused to be executed for high treason.

Charles V was irritated against France by her refusal of his
demand for the extradition of those captains who had taken
refuge there, by the voyages of French vessels to the Indies,
and by the incessant intrigues of the French agents in Italy.