0* CALIF- IJW*BV "
QJLJEEN MARGOT
WIFE OF HENRY OF NAVARRE
BY
H. NOEL WILLIAMS
AUTHOR OF " MADAME RECAMIER AND HER FRIENDS " " FIVE
FAIR SISTERS " " QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE " " LATER
QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE " " MADAME DE
POMPADOUR " " MADAME DE MONTESPAN "
" MADAME DU BARRY " ETC.
" Vous voulez du roman ; que ne vous adressez-vous
a 1'histoire ? " GUIZOT,
WITH PORTRAIT
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
153-157 FIFTH AVENUE
1911
jto edition published iqob
TO
MY WIFE
2133708
PREFACE
AT no epoch in French history have women played a
more prominent part than in the sixteenth century.
Their influence pervaded religion, politics, literature, and
the arts. They protected Reformers, defied Popes, ruled
Kings, shared in every hazard and danger of war,
encouraged men-of-letters, patronised artists and sculptors.
What a galaxy of famous names do we find ! Marguerite
d'Angoulme, the Duchesse d'Etampes, Diane de Poitiers,
Renee de France, Duchess of Ferrara, Jeanne d'Albret,
Catherine de' Medici, Mary Stuart. Yet, if we except the
ill-starred Queen of Scotland, the last acts of whose life's
tragedy were played out on another stage than that of
France, none of these celebrated women furnish material
which is at once so acceptable to the student of history and
to the general reader as the subject of the present volume.
For not only does Marguerite de Valois typify perhaps
more completely than any woman of her time the society
of the latter part of the sixteenth century, but her career
is the very quintessence of romance. " Born in an evil
day," as Catherine de' Medici once remarked to her, this
daughter, sister, and wife of kings, though endowed with
every outward perfection and with intellectual gifts of an
unusually high order, was from her youth the sport of
Fortune. Forbidden by "reasons of State" to give her hand
to the man who possessed her heart, she was compelled to
vii
PREFACE
wed the young King of Navarre, to whom she was utterly
indifferent, and who regarded her with similar feelings.
:< Her marriage, which seemed to be the occasion for
public rejoicing and to be the cause for the reunion of the
two parties which divided the realm, was, on the contrary,
the occasion of a general mourning and of the renewal
of a war more cruel than the one that had preceded it :
the fete was the St. Bartholomew, the cries and the groans
of which resounded throughout all Europe ; the festival
wine was the blood of the massacred ; the viands, the
murdered bodies of the innocent pell-mell with the
guilty." 1 A union inaugurated under such tragic circum-
stances, and with no pretence of affection on either side,
could bring nothing but unhappiness ; and the young
queen, neglected by her husband and beset by temptations,
was quickly involved in the first of that succession of
amorous adventures which have earned for her so unenvi-
able a reputation. The King of Navarre's position, too,
which was practically that of a prisoner at the French Court,
rendered her own a most difficult and embarrassing one,
which the bitter hostility of her brother, Henri III., and
his insolent mignon, Du Guast, and political complications
combined to aggravate. Her husband succeeded in effect-
ing his escape in February 1576, but Marguerite remained
as a kind of hostage in the hands of Henri III., and it
was not until the summer of 1578 that she was permitted
to rejoin him in Gascony. In the interval, she had under-
taken her adventurous journey to Flanders, of which she
gives us such a vivacious account in her Memoires, in
order to further the interests of her younger brother, the
Due d'Anjou, and, on her return to Paris, had assisted
the duke to make his escape from Court.
1 Memoires du Cardinal de Richelieu.
viii
PREFACE
Three years were passed at that little Court of N6rac,
which, according to d'Aubign, " did not deem itself of
less importance than the other,*' a period marked by the
" Lovers' War," for which Marguerite herself was, in a
great measure, responsible, and more than one scandal, the
ill-assorted couple according one another a reciprocal in-
dulgence, of which they both had certainly great need.
But at the end of 158 1, the Queen of Navarre, irritated by
her husband's demands upon her complacency and the
intrigues of his mistress, Fosseuse, accepted an invitation
from Henri III. and Catherine de' Medici to pay a long
visit to the French Court.
This proved a most fatal step, for, after a brief truce,
the old animosity between Marguerite and the King
revived, and on August 8, 1583, his Majesty grossly and
publicly insulted his sister during a ball at the Louvre
and commanded her to " deliver the Court from her con-
tagious presence." The unfortunate princess obeyed, and
on the morrow set out for Vendome ; but, near Palaiseau,
the King, not content with the humiliation he had already
inflicted upon her, caused her and some of her people to
be arrested and conveyed to the Chateau of Montargis,
where he personally interrogated her ladies in regard to
the morals of their mistress.
On the intercession of the Queen-Mother, Marguerite
was set at liberty ; but the King of Navarre refused to
receive his wife until Henri III. had accorded him a
full and satisfactory explanation, nor was it until some
months later that matters were finally adjusted. The
princess returned to Nerac, only to find herself treated by
her husband with coldness and contempt, while Henri's
new mistress, the Comtesse de Gramont (" la belle Cori-
sande "), was continually intriguing against her. Finding
ix
PREFACE
her position becoming intolerable, in March 1585,
Marguerite quitted N6rac and proceeded to Agen, one of
the towns of her appanage, with the intention of estab-
lishing herself as a kind of independent princess. The
Catholic gentry of the neighbourhood quickly gathered
around her, and a cleverly-conceived coup d'etat gave
her possession of the town. But her attempt to extend
her influence over the adjacent districts ended in
complete failure ; and, in the following November, the
citizens of Agen, exasperated by her arbitrary treatment
of them, rose in revolt and admitted a body of troops
sent by the Governor of Guienne into the town. Mar-
guerite was forced to fly, and made her way to Auvergne,
where she took refuge at the Chateau of Carlat.
Here she spent some eighteen not uneventful months,
and then removed to the Chateau of Ibois, near Issoire,
only to fall into the hands of the Marquis de Canillac,
who had been charged by Henri III. to apprehend her.
The marquis conveyed her to the Chateau of Usson, a
mountain fortress which had been rendered almost im-
pregnable by Louis XI., who had used it as a State prison.
At Usson the queen was for a time kept in close captivity ;
but her charms, combined with the offers of the League,
prevailed over the loyalty of Canillac, and, in 1587, he
abandoned the Royalist cause and surrendered the fortress
to his erstwhile prisoner.
In this ark of safety, as she called it, Marguerite spent
the next eighteen years of her eventful life, and it was
here that she wrote the famous Mtmoires, " by reason of
which an enduring radiance will attach to her name." x
Very little is known of her life during these years, and in
consequence many legends have gathered round it ; her
1 Sainte-Beuve.
PREFACE
panegyrists representing Usson to have been " a Tabor
for devotion, a Parnassus for the Muses," while her
detractors compare it to the Capras of Tiberius. After
her husband's coronation, as Henri IV. of France, she
hastened to make her peace with him ; but the King's
advisers represented to their master the imperative
necessity of providing for an undisputed succession, and,
in the spring of 1593, Marguerite, recognising that, after
so compromising a past, she could never hope to be
Queen of France in anything but name, returned a
favourable answer to Henri's proposals for the dissolution
of their marriage, the payment of her debts and a hand-
some pension being offered her as the price of her com-
pliance. Various circumstances, however, the chief of
which was the King's passion for Gabrielle d'Estres,
delayed the completion of the affair, and it was not until
December 1597 that the marriage was finally dissolved,
Marguerite retaining the titles of Queen and Duchesse
de Valois.
The princess remained at Usson for some years longer ;
but, in the summer of 1605, she obtained Henri IV.'s
permission to take up her residence at the Chateau
of Madrid, at Boulogne-sur-Seine. Here, however, she
only remained a few months, when she removed to Paris,
and built herself a magnificent hotel on the left bank of
the Seine, facing the Louvre. In this sumptuous abode
she passed her remaining years, living on the friendliest
terms with Henri IV., the new Queen, Marie de' Medici,
and their children, patronising men-of-letters, dispensing
immense sums in chanty and among the religious Orders,
and flirting with youthful equerries to the great amuse-
ment of the Parisians. Towards the end of her life she
became exceedingly devout, and ended by attending as
PREFACE
many as three Masses a day. She survived Henri IV.
nearly five years, dying on March 27, 1615, within a few
weeks of completing her sixty-second year. She was
deeply regretted by all classes, for her kindness of heart
had endeared her to the Parisians and done much to
obliterate the memory of her faults and follies, which, as
I have shown elsewhere, have been grossly exaggerated
by mendacious chroniclers and the credulous historians
who have followed them.
In this volume, as in the earlier ones of the same series,
it has been my endeavour to give a full and impartial
account of the life of my subject ; and also, so far as the
space at my disposal has permitted, some account of the
historical events in which she was more or less directly
concerned, notably those which immediately preceded the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew. With this object in view,
I have consulted practically all the best contemporary
sources of information, and also a very large number of
modern works and review articles. Among the former,
may be mentioned Marguerite's own memoirs and letters,
in the excellent edition undertaken by M. Guessard on
behalf of the Societe de I'Histoire de France ; the histories
of de Thou, Davila, and d'Aubign ; the journal of
L'Estoile, and the memoirs of Brantome, Sully, and
Duplessis-Mornay. Among the latter, I must acknow-
ledge my indebtedness to Comte Lo de Saint-Poncy's
Histoire ae Marguerite de Valois^ Reine de France et de
Navarre, a very exhaustive work, which, notwithstanding
the marked predilections of the writer in favour of his
subject, is one of great interest and value ; M. Charles
Merki's la Reine Margot et la fin des Valois, which is
distinguished by a more judicial tone than the monograph
of M. de Saint-Poncy, and contains, besides, a good deal
zii
PREFACE
of information not hitherto accessible ; the charming
study of Marguerite in Comte Hector de la Ferriere's
Trots amour euses au XVI e . siecle ; M. Philippe Lauzun's
Itineraire raisonne de Marguerite de Valois en Gascogne ;
Mr. P. F. Willert's "Henry of Navarre and the Hugue-
nots in France ; " Miss Freer's <c Jeanne d'Albret ; "
Mr. A. W. Whitehead's " Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral
of France ; " the excellent biographical notes of " Violet
Fane" (Lady Currie), appended to her translation of
Marguerite's Memoires ; and the able articles by M.
Georges Gandy on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in
the Revue des Questions historiques, 1866.
H. NOEL WILLIAMS
LONDON, November 1906
zi u
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I . . . Fage I
II . . . . . '3
III '. . .. ..... ,, *8
IV ....... 46
V ...... 57
VI ........ 76
VII ..... . . 93
VIII . . . ... . i"
IX ..... . 124
X. .... j> '43
XI , . . ^57
XII . . . I 7 2
XIII ...... . 19
XIV . . . . . . . v 201
XV . . . > 2I 7
XVI . . . . . . ,,229
XVII . ...... 24S
XVIII . . ... . 256
XIX 269
XX , < . , 281
xxi , . .... 304
XXII . * 3M
XXIII . . . . . 343
XXIV . . '. .. . , 364
xv
CHAPTER I
Brantome's eulogy of Marguerite de Valois Characteristics
of the Valois family The three Marguerites Early years of
Marguerite de Valois Accession of Charles IX. Critical
condition of the kingdom Catherine de' Medici Her char-
acter and policy The Colloquy of Poissy Progress of Pro-
testantism at this period Endeavours of the Due d'Anjou to
persuade his sister to embrace the new religion Outbreak of
the first civil war Marguerite is sent to the Chateau of Saint-
Germain Her education Her mother summons her to
accompany the court on the " Grand foyage"
" To speak now of the beauty of this rare princess ; I
believe that all those who are, will be, or ever have been,
are plain beside it and cannot have beauty ; for the fire
of hers so burns the wings of others that they dare not
hover or even appear around it. ... It is believed, on
the advice of several, that no goddess was ever seen more
beautiful, so that, in order to suitably proclaim her charms,
merits, and virtues, God must lengthen the earth and
heighten the sky, since space in the air and on the land
is lacking for the flight of her perfections and renown." l
Thus wrote Brantome of Marguerite de Valois, eighth
child of Henri II. and Catherine de' Medici, and first wife
of Henri IV., the restorer of the French monarchy ; an
exaggerated description no doubt, and one which even
the object of his adoration seems to have found a trifle
highly-colouredj but which, so far at least as regards the
1 Dames illustres.
I
QUEEN MARGOT
princess's outward perfections, finds more than a faint
echo in the writings of other contemporary chroniclers.
A strange race were these Valois of Angouleme ; a
race which personified, in both their good qualities and
their defects, the epoch in which they lived ; brilliant,
frivolous, adventurous ; lovers of letters and patrons
of the arts ; generous, eloquent, quick-witted, and
courageous ; but bigoted and superstitious, cruel and
unscrupulous, dissolute, and deceitful. And, as the
Valois were typical of their age, so Marguerite may be said
to have been typical of her family, " the most attractive
figure, the most curious personality of that truly royal
race, which was distinguished by so many happy gifts,
whose destiny was marked by so many strange vicissitudes,
full of triumphs, uncertainties, and calamities." l
Marguerite was born on Sunday, May 14, 1553, ift
the beautiful Chateau of Saint-Germain, 2 overlooking the
winding course of the Seine, which had been the birth-
place of her father Henri II. and her brother Charles IX.,
and was one day to be the cradle of Louis XIV. The
name which she received had already been borne by two
celebrated princesses of her House. The first Marguerite
was that " paragon and phoenix of ladies, queens, and
princesses," the beloved sister of Francois I., who married,
firstly, the Due d'Alenc,on, and, afterwards, Henri d'Albret,
King of Navarre, and was the author, or compiler, of the
'* Heptameron " and a writer of charming verse. By her
second marriage, Marguerite d'Angouleme, as she was
called, became the mother of Jeanne d'Albret, who
married Antoine de Bourbon, Due de Vendome, and was
1 Comt Lo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois, Reine de France
et de Navarre (Paris : Gaume, 1887), i. 3.
* Some historians have erroneously placed her birth at Fontainebleau,
2
QUEEN MARGOT
the mother of Henri the Fourth of France and the Third
of Navarre. The second Marguerite was the second
daughter of Francois I., the sister of Henri II., and the
wife of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy. It was
during the festivities in honour of the marriage of this
princess and of her niece Elisabeth, eldest daughter of
Henri II., to Philip II. of Spain that the King of France
was fatally wounded in a tournament, by Gabriel de
Montgommery, Comte de Lorges, the Captain of his
Scottish Guard.
Of Marguerite's childhood we know little, for her
famous Mtmoires contain but scanty information about
this period of her life. Her early years were passed at
the Chateau of Saint-Germain, in the company of her
elder sisters, Elisabeth and Claude (married, in 1559, to
Charles II., Duke of Lorraine), and Marie Stuart, the
little Queen of Scotland, who became her sister-in-law, in
1558, by her marriage with the Dauphin (afterwards
Francois II.), under the care of Charlotte de Vienne,
Baronne de Curton, "a wise and virtuous lady greatly
attached to the Catholic religion," who, according to
Marguerite's eighteenth-century historian Mongez, had
been the gouvernante of seven queens and princesses. 1
After the marriage of her sisters and Marie Stuart,
Marguerite appears to have spent the greater part of her
time at the Chateau of Vincennes and to have had as her
companions in her studies and games her two younger
brothers, Henri d'Anjou and Francois d'Alenc.on, for the
latter of whom she early conceived a warm affection, which
1 She was the fourth wife of Joachim de Chabannes, Seneschal of
Toulouse and chevalier <?honneur to Catherine de' Medici. After
Marguerite's marriage with Henri II. of Navarre, she became her first
dame tfhohneur, a post which she held until her death in 1575.
QUEEN MARGOT
was returned and endured down to the time of the
prince's death in 1584.
In the meanwhile, great changes had been taking place
in France. The lance of Montgommery had cut short
the life of Henry II. and, after a brief reign of eighteen
months, Francois II., the youthful and sickly husband of
Marie Stuart, had followed him to the grave, leaving the
Crown to his younger brother, Charles.
Seldom has a reign opened under more unfavourable
auspices than that of Charles IX. The King was a boy
of ten ; several years must elapse before he could be
capable of exercising more than a nominal authority,
while never had a strong and energetic ruler been more
sorely needed. The condition of affairs in France was
indeed most critical. To the difficulties which invariably
beset a Regency were joined other troubles. Since the
death of Henri II., the authority of the Crown had
greatly declined ; rival factions, the Bourbons, the Mont-
morencies, and the Guises disputed the power ; the Court
was a hotbed of intrigue, the people oppressed and dis-
contented ; while the antagonism between the Reforma-
tion and the Old Religion had assumed a pronounced and
openly hostile character.
Such was the situation with which Catherine de'
Medici was called upon to deal, when, in the teeth of the
rival factions, she took up the reins of government.
During the reign of her husband, Catherine had perforce
remained in the background, the King being completely
under the influence of his mistress, Diane de Poitiers,
though once, for a brief period, when Henri II. was with
the army in Germany, she had acted as Regent of the
Kingdom. Under Francois II., the government had
fallen into the hands of Marie Stuart's uncles, the Due de
QUEEN MARGOT
Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine, and the Queen-
Mother had been, politically speaking, a mere cipher.
But the early death of Francois had given her the
opportunity which she so ardently desired for all her
life she had hungered for power and influence as a
starving man hungers for bread and she at once
assumed a quasi-absolute authority. And that authority
once in her hands, all her efforts were henceforth directed
to safeguarding it and enabling her to remain the first
the only personage in the State. She brought to the task
a remarkable knowledge of men and affairs, the fruit of
long years of quiet study and observation, a boundless
activity, an untiring vigilance, a charm of manner which
few who came into contact with her could resist, and a
soul depraved by a life of subjection and dissimulation.
Her master-passion was to govern through her sons, and
she dreaded every influence which might weaken by one
iota her personal authority. In State ceremonies, she
loved to be treated as on an equality with them ; at the
Estates of Orleans in 1560, her seat was placed on the
same level and under the same canopy as that of
Charles IX. When, in 1569, she visited Metz, she
desired to precede him into the town, with her own
cortege of ladies and officers, in order not to be
confounded with his suite. In fact, she governed during
the whole reign of her second son, resumed the Regency
after his death, while awaiting the return of Henri III.
from Poland, and her influence may be traced in almost
every important act of his reign down to the time of her
death.
By the majority of her contemporaries, particularly by
those who viewed her only from a distance, Catherine is
represented as a sinister figure, with little of the woman
5
QUEEN MARGOT
about her save her sex ; a creature of Machiavellian
subtlety, ambitious, cruel and unscrupulous. This
estimate would seem to be in great part erroneous.
Ambitious and unscrupulous she certainly was ; but she
was never cruel, except when it was impossible to gain
her ends by other means. Violent measures were
naturally alien to her character ; when she struck, it was
because bribery, cajolery and intimidation had failed.
Nor was she, by any means, the profound politician
which some would have us believe. The rapid changes
of front, the shifty expedients, to which she so constantly
resorted, so far from being part of any carefully-matured
scheme, were, in most instances, the manoeuvres of a
timid, irresolute woman, anxious at all costs to escape
from the difficulties of the moment and incapable of
perceiving any but the immediate consequences of her
actions.
If Catherine had really possessed the political sagacity
sometimes ascribed to her, she would most certainly, on
her assumption of the Regency, have pursued the course
suggested to her by her able and disinterested Minister,
Michel THopital. This was to adopt a strictly neutral
position, and, by the enforcement of toleration, of civil
reform, and of justice, to raise the Crown above the region
of controversy and prevent civil war. But the Queen only
followed this advice so far as to avoid siding definitely
with either party. She was incapable of any noble aim, while
it is also probable that she failed to fully realise, at any
rate until matters had gone too far to be remedied, the
gravity of the situation. " If one follows all her proceed-
ings," writes Chateaubriand, c< one perceives that in the
whole vast realm of which she was the sovereign, she
beheld only a large Florence, the broils of her petty
6
QUEEN MARGOT
republic, the risings of one quarter of her native city
against another, the quarrels between the Pazzi and the
Medici, in the struggle between the Guises and the
Chatillons." " To divide in order to reign " was the
principle upon which she acted ; to give a little
encouragement to the Huguenots, to instil a little
apprehension into the Catholics, and to accustom both
parties to regard her as the dominating factor in the
situation. The result was that she was distrusted by
both alike, and is more than any one responsible for the
thirty years of civil war that thenceforward devastated
France.
It must not be supposed, however, that Catherine
desired war. On the contrary, she was sincerely anxious
to maintain peace. War might mean a decisive victory
for the Huguenots, in which case she foresaw that the
turbulent nobles who would fight for their old feudal
rights under the banner of religious toleration would
require far greater concessions than that of freedom of
worship. Or it might mean the complete triumph of the
Catholics, and the consequent supremacy of the Guises.
Both results were equally to be feared.
And so she expressed her warm approval of the
Colloquy of Poissy, which took place in the early autumn
of 1561, in the hope of arriving at some settlement of
the chief points in dispute between the two religions, and,
in company with the King, assisted at its deliberations.
But the colloquy came to nothing, and, after long and
acrimonious discussions, the rival theologians parted more
divided in opinion than ever.
It was at the Colloquy of Poissy, and during the
months that followed, that Huguenotism reached its
7
QUEEN MARGOT
flood-tide, and made its supreme effort to capture France
and to found a new national Protestant Church. The
Court itself was the centre of the struggle. High-born
dames, like Rene de France, Duchess of Ferrara,
Jacqueline de Rohan, the Princesse de Porcien, and the
Comtesses de Mailly and de la Rochefoucauld, exerted
all the influence at their command to make converts.
Beza and other eminent divines expounded Calvinistic
doctrines, in the lodgings of Coligny and Cond, to con-
gregations largely composed of Catholics. The younger
members of the Court, particularly the ladies, began to
manifest a decided taste for the new heterodox works, and
took pleasure in reading the Holy Scriptures in French
and singing the Psalms of Marot. " The numbers and
boldness of the Protestants increase daily," wrote
Languet, " and the Catholics seemed to be disheartened,
little by little." 1 Fashion, ever so powerful in France,
was probably no stranger to the progress of Protestantism.
"It is with a morbid justice," remarks M. de Saint-
Poncy, that President Henault observes that " in seeking
the true causes of the progress of the Reformation in
different countries, one finds that in Germany it was
interest, 2 in England love, 8 and in France novelty." 4
Marguerite de Valois, in her Mdmoires, casts a curious
light upon the trend of opinion in Court circles at this
period, and shows us the aristocratic enthusiasts for the
1 Cited by Mr. A. W. Whitehead, " Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral
of France."
2 The desire of the minor princes of Germany to enrich themselves
with the spoils of the Church.
8 The love of Henry VIII. for Anne Boleyn.
4 Comte Lo de Saint-Poncy, Histoirc de Marguerite di Valois, Reine
de France et de Navarre, i. 26.
8
QUEEN MARGOT
latest fashionable craze carrying their zeal so far as to
endeavour to make proselytes by means more forcible
than persuasive. It is singular to find at the head of
this band of missionaries her brother, the Due d'Anjou,
one of the chief instigators of the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew.
Then, again, she says, " is the resistance I made in
order to remain faithful to my religion, at the time of
the Colloquy of Poissy (when the whole Court was in-
fected with heresy), to the arbitrary persuasions of several
lords and ladies of the Court, and even to those of my
brother of Anjou, since King of France, whose inexperience
had prevented him from escaping the influence of that
wretched Huguenoterie, and who never ceased conjuring
me to change my religion, very often throwing my Book
of Hours into the fire and giving me, in its stead,
Huguenot songs and prayers, which I used to hand over
at once to Madame de Curton, my gouvernante, whom
God had done me the favour to keep Catholic, and who
would often take me to M. Cardinal de Tournon, who
advised and strengthened me in the suffering of all things
for the maintenance of my religion, and gave me prayer-
books and rosaries, in the place of those which had been
burnt by my brother of Anjou. But when others of his
intimate friends who were bent upon my destruction dis-
covered that these were once more in my possession, they
reviled me angrily, saying that it was youth and stupidity
which caused me to act thus ; that it was easy to see that
I was possessed of no understanding ; that all intelligent
people, whatever their age or sex, hearing the doctrine of
Charity preached, had freed themselves from the trammels
of bigotry, but that I should become as foolish as my
gouvernante. And my brother of Anjou, adding threats
9
QUEEN MARGOT
thereunto, declared that the Queen my mother would
have me whipped. He said this, however, upon his own
responsibility, for the Queen my mother was ignorant of
the error into which he had fallen, and when she became
aware of it, she reproved him and his tutors as well, and,
after having had them instructed, induced them to return
to the true, holy, and ancient faith of our fathers, from
which she had never departed. I used to say in answer
to these threats, melting to tears as seven or eight, the
age I was then, is a somewhat sensitive period that
they might have me whipped or killed if they liked, but
that I would endure anything that could be done to me
rather than bring about my own damnation." 1
Marguerite, indeed, remained down to the day of her
death a most devout Catholic, that is to say, in the sense
of being a rigid observer of the forms and ceremonies of
her Church, a practice which was not in those days, and,
indeed, down to a very much later period, held to be in-
compatible with the most irregular of lives.
The enthusiasm of the Court for the new teaching was
not of long duration, for Protestantism, partly under the
stress of the persecution to which it was subjected at the
hands of the Guises and their partisans, and partly through
the influence of the ambitious nobles who exploited it for
their own selfish purposes, was rapidly passing from a
purely religious movement into a political one of a most
formidable kind. In March 1562, the massacre of Vassy
furnished the occasion for which both parties had been
waiting, and a few weeks later the first civil war broke
out.
At the commencement of hostilities, Catherine de'
Medici separated her children ; the young King and her
1 Memoirei tt lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard, 1842.)
10
QUEEN MARGOT
favourite son, Henri d'Anjou, she kept with her ; while
Marguerite and the little Due d'Alen^on were sent to the
Chateau of Amboise, so charmingly situated on the banks
of the Loire. Three years earlier, Amboise had been
the scene of tragic events ; but now it was peaceful, and
had been chosen by the Queen-Mother as being sufficiently
far removed from the theatre of war to prove a safe
retreat for her younger children. Here Marguerite and
her brother were able to continue their studies, undisturbed
by the turmoil in which the greater part of the country
was plunged ; the former under the direction of Madame
de Curton and the learned and pious Henri Le Maignan,
afterwards Bishop of Digne, the latter under that of his
gouverneur, Du Plessis.
Catherine de' Medici, belonging to a family in which
love for the arts was hereditary, exercised the most careful
supervision over the education of her children and spared
no pains to secure for them the services of the most
capable teachers of the day. The classics, grammar,
history, the Holy Scriptures from the study of which,
it must be confessed, they would appear to have de-
rived singularly little benefit all were carefully taught
them. The savant Amyot, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the
most profound scholars of his time, whose translation
of Plutarch enjoyed so great a vogue, was tutor to
Charles IX. and Henri d'Anjou, and gave lessons also to
Catherine's younger children. " It is not his least glory,"
remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, " to have cultivated the mind
of the young Princess of Valois and to have prepared, by
his learned instruction, one of the most eloquent writers
of this remarkable century. The perusal of Marguerite's
Memoires reveals the impression which Plutarch made
upon her ; one finds there many passages reminiscent of
ii
QUEEN MARGOT
this work, which had on its appearance an incomparable
success, confirmed by posterity." 1
Nor were other studies neglected ; music, singing,
painting, and dancing in which accomplishment the last
Valois seemed to have particularly excelled were taught
them by the best masters that could be procured.
Marguerite received instruction in music and singing
from the celebrated singer, Etienne Leroy, and Paul de
Rege, who had been the dancing-master of Marie Stuart,
gave her lessons in the choregraphic art.
At the conclusion of the first civil war, in the spring of
1563, Catherine, freed for a time from her dread of the
Guises, by the assassination of their chief, 2 decided that
her best chance of maintaining her influence, lay in placing
her eldest son at the head of the Catholic party, and
directing her efforts to the gradual ruin, by peaceful
means, of the Protestants, now become by far the most
formidable opponents of the royal authority. The King
had been declared of age, but the effective authority
remained in the hands of his mother, who now persuaded
him to undertake a grand progress through the various
provinces of his realm, and sent for Marguerite, who was
not yet twelve years old, to accompany her. Catherine
hoped much from this progress, which was intended to
make the young sovereign acquainted with the position of
affairs in the provinces, and to impose by his presence respect
for the edicts of toleration accorded the Huguenots, while,
at the same time, weakening their influence and rendering
it difficult for them to recommence hostilities.
1 Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, {Marguerite de Va/ois, Reine de France
et de Navarre, i. 17.
2 Frar^ois de Lorraine, Due de Guise, was assassinated by Poltrot de
while besieging Orleans, on February 18, 1563.
12
CHAPTER II
The " Grand Voyage" The interview ofBayonne Fete on the
Isle of Aiguemeau Huguenot excesses in Beam Marguerite
returns to Paris Beginning of the second civil war Attempts
of the Huguenots to seize the King at Monceaux Flight of
the court to Paris Battle of Saint-Denis The Due d'Anjou
proposes to Marguerite a political r61e Marguerite is ad-
mitted to her mother's confidence Arrival of the Court at
Saint- Jean-d'Angely Du Guast Anjou accuses Marguerite
of encouraging the attentions of the Due de Guise Catherine
de' Medici withdraws her confidence from her daughter
Marguerite's reason for denying her passion for Guise in her
Memoires.
THE Court quitted Paris on Monday, January 24, 1564,
and proceeded through Champagne and Lorraine to Bar-
le-Duc, where magnificent fe'tes were held in honour of
the baptism of Marguerite's nephew, the Prince of
Lorraine, son of her second sister Claude and Duke
Charles II. Burgundy and Dauphin6 were next visited,
jnd at the Chateau of Roussillon, Charles IX. signed the
celebrated Ordinance of that name, whereby it was enacted
that, for all official purposes, the year should henceforth
begin on January I, instead of, as heretofore, on Easter
Sunday, or, to be more exact, on Holy Saturday after
vespers. The winter of 1564-1565 was passed at Lyons,
where the Duke and Duchess of Savoy visited the Court
and were splendidly entertained. Then, at the beginning
of the spring, the progress was resumed, and the Court
13
QUEEN MARGOT
proceeded to Bayonne, which was the limit of the journey.
Here an interesting family meeting took place, the young
Queen of Spain, Catherine's eldest daughter, coming from
Madrid to greet her relatives, accompanied by the ill-
fated Don Carlos Philip II. 's son by his first wife and
the famous or infamous Duke of Alva, who was
charged to invest the King of France with the Order of
the Golden Fleece.
Alva's mission masked one of far greater importance,
nothing less than to endeavour to prevail upon Charles
and Catherine to enter into a treaty with Philip for the
extirpation of the Protestants both in France and the
Netherlands ; and some Protestant historians go so far as
to assert that it was here that the project of the Massacre
of St. Bartholomew was first determined on. But
contemporary documents, such as Alva's own letters and
the papers of Cardinal de Granvelle, clearly prove that
the proposals of the terrible general were very coldly
received by Catherine, and that he was given nothing but
the vaguest assurances ; while it should be remembered
that Alva, in marked contrast to his master, expressed
the strongest disapprobation of the horrors of the St.
Bartholomew, not, of course, on humanitarian, but on
political grounds, declaring it to be " a mad, fatuous, and
badly-conceived act."
If Alva failed in his mission, he had no reason to be
dissatisfied with the reception which he and his royal
mistress received at Bayonne. With Catherine de'
Medici, it was a point of honour to dazzle the eyes of
foreigners with the magnificence of the Court of France,
and the French nobles ably seconded her efforts.
Marguerite, in her Memoires, describes at length the
superb fete and ballet, which Charles IX. and the Queen-
QUEEN MARGOT
Mother gave on St. John's Eve, on the Isle of Aiguemeau,
in the Adour.
" The shape of a room," she writes, " was designed in
the middle of an island, as though by Nature, in a large
oval meadow, enclosed by stately trees, around which the
Queen my mother had arranged niches, in each of which
was placed a circular table for twelve persons, whilst that
of their Majesties was raised at the end of the enclosure
upon a dais, approached by four grass steps. All these
tables were served by different groups of shepherdesses
dressed in cloth-of-gold and satin, according to the
various costumes of all the provinces of France. Upon
our disembarking from the magnificent boats (in which,
all the way from Bayonne to the island, we were ac-
companied by several sea-gods, who sang and recited
verses to their Majesties), these shepherdesses were
discovered, each group apart, in meadows upon either
side of a grass valley, which led to the aforesaid enclosure,
dancing after the manner of their provinces the
Poitevines with the bagpipes, the Proven^ales with
shawms and cymbals, the Bourguignones and Cham-
penoises with small hautboys, round fiddles, and rustic
tambourines, the Bretonnes dancing the passe-pieds and the
branles-gaiS) and so on in respect of all the other
provinces. After the performances of these shepherdesses
and the feast itself were concluded, a band of musicians,
accompanied by a troupe of satyrs, entered that large
luminous grotto, which was even more brilliantly
illuminated by the radiant beauty and the precious stones
of a bevy of nymphs, who made their entry from above,
than by the artificial light. These nymphs and satyrs
descended and danced that beautiful ballet, whereof
Fortune waxed envious and unable to endure its glories,
'5
QUEEN MARGOT
brought about such an extraordinary storm of wind and
rain that the confusion of the retreat which took place,
in the dark, by boat, furnished material for more
diverting stories than even the fte had afforded.
After a brilliant series of entertainments : tournaments,
fetes, illuminations, and banquets, the two Courts
separated, and Elisabeth reluctantly bade farewell to her
family, which she was never to see again 1 and set out with
Alva and Don Carlos on her return journey ; while the
French Court proceeded to NeYac, the favourite residence
of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. Their journey
thither lay, in great part, through the dominions of that
estimable but bigoted princess, and the more devout
Catholics of the party were horror-struck by the signs of
the devastation recently committed by the Huguenots, in
Tevenge for the cruelties perpetrated on their co-religionists
in other parts of France. For Jeanne had proscribed
the Catholic religion and persecuted its adherents, and
luined monasteries, desecrated churches, broken crosses,
and mutilated images were to be seen on every side.
On their arrival at Nerac, Charles IX. and Catherine
1 Elisabeth de Valois died on October 3, 1568. It was firmly be-
lieved by many of her contemporaries that his Catholic Majesty had
caused his young wife to be poisoned ; and, according to Sully, it was to
avenge this supposed crime that Charles IX. desired to wrest from Spain
Flanders and Artois. " The King (Charles IX.)," he writes, " had
several causes of complaint against the King of Spain, and, among others,
the death, which he was well aware that he had procured, of his wife,
Elisabeth de France, owing to his jealousy of the good understanding
that she had with Prince Charles (Don Carlos), his eldest son, on account
of which he was resolved to make war upon him." The latest investiga-
tions of historical criticism, however, exonerate the much-abused monarch
from the crime imputed to him, and everything tends to the belief that
Elisabeth died a natural death.
16
QUEEN MARGOT
addressed a vigorous remonstrance to the Queen, and
ordered the immediate re-establishment of the Old
Religion. Jeanne was compelled to obey ; but the tolera-
tion thus extorted from her only lasted until the renewal of
the civil war, when the persecution of the luckless Catholics
of Beam and Navarre was resumed with more severity
than before.
The " grand voyage" as it is termed, concluded with a
visit to the central provinces, and after having assisted, in
company with their Majesties, at the celebrated Assembly
of Moulins, where Coligny was declared guiltless of all
responsibility for the assassination of the Due de Guise,
Marguerite returned with the Court to Paris, which was
reached on May i, 1566.
In September of the following year, civil war broke
out again. Although, as we have seen, Catherine had
rejected the drastic proposals of Alva, with regard to the
Protestants, the latter had drawn the worst inferences
from the Bayonne interview ; and the refusal of the
Government to disband a force of 6000 Swiss mercenaries,
which had been raised to protect the Eastern frontier
from any aggression on the part of the Spanish troops
marching from Italy to the Netherlands, alarmed and
exasperated them to the last degree. Their chiefs met in
council at Valery and Chatillon, and, though Coligny
pleaded eloquently for peace, he was overruled, and it was
resolved to seize the person of the King, to capture
some of the stronger towns, and to fall upon and
annihilate the Swiss. Rozoy, in Brie, was selected as the
rendezvous.
The first move in this desperate game was within an
ace of being successful. The Court was at the Chateau of
17 B
QUEEN MARGOT
Monceaux, in Brie, which belonged to Catherine, occupied
with ftes and hunting-parties, when the Sieur de
Castelnau, whom Charles IX. had despatched on a
political mission to Brussels, arrived with the news that
the Huguenots were everywhere preparing to rise in
arms. The King was at first incredulous, and 1'Hopital
declared that " it was a capital offence to give a false
warning to a prince, which might cause him to distrust his
subjects." l However, a few days later, word was brought
that armed men were patrolling all the roads in the
neighbourhood, and that a body of cavalry was encamped
in a wood in which his Majesty had announced his inten-
tion of hunting on the following morning. In great
alarm, Charles despatched messengers to Chateau-Thierry
to summon the Swiss, who were stationed there, to his
succour ; and on September 22, the Court quitted
Monceaux and threw itself into the town of Meaux.
The Swiss arrived at midnight on the 24th, and, on the
advice of their commander Pfeiffer, who pledged himself,
"to make a lane for their Majesties through the army of
their enemies," it was resolved to retire on Paris.
Accordingly, at daybreak on the 28th, they left Meaux,
the Swiss marching in the form of a square, with the Royal
Family in their midst, while the gentlemen of the Court
and their servants formed the advance- and rear-guards
of the cortege. At Lagny, they were met by the Huguenot
cavalry under Cond6 and Coligny ; but the latter were
not as yet in sufficient force to risk an engagement, 2 and
recoiled before the resolute attitude of the Swiss, who,
" lowering their pikes, ran at them like mad dogs, at full
1 {Memoires de Castelnau, vi. I.
2 Not more than five or six hundred horse, according to Protestant
writers.
18
QUEEN MARGOT
speed." And so, guarded by foreign mercenaries from
the wrath of his rebellious subjects, Charles IX. reached
his capital, burning with shame and indignation, at the
extremity to which he had been reduced.
The Huguenots followed and, having been reinforced,
encamped at Saint-Denis and proceeded to blockade
Paris, although their army does not seem to have
exceeded 6000 men, and they were without artillery ;
while the old Constable de Montmorency, with a vastly
superior force, lay within the city. The Constable, how-
ever, had grown cautious with age and was disinclined to
take the offensive, and it was not until the necessity of
opposing the advance of a Spanish corps from the Nether-
lands had compelled the Huguenots to despatch a consider-
able portion of their slender forces, under Coligny's
brother, Andelot, and Montgommery, in the direction of
Poissy, that he ventured to give battle. In the result,
the Protestants, who were outnumbered by as many as
five to one, were compelled to retreat, though all the
honours of the day were unquestionably theirs, and the
Constable himself was amongst the slain. Thus com-
menced the second stage of this sanguinary struggle,
which, save for the brief respite ensured by the Peace of
Longjumeau, was to ravage France for four years.
In the midst of these stirring events, history make?
little mention of Marguerite ; but the princess herself
relates a curious episode, which is a striking testimony to
the fear and respect in which Catherine de' Medici was
held by her children and to the intriguing character of
the future Henri III.
After the battle of Jarnac, in which a felon-shot had
QUEEN MARGOT
deprived the Huguenots of their gallant leader Cond^, 1
the Court proceeded to Plessis-les-Tours to join the
victorious Anjou. 2 One day, while Marguerite was
walking with her mother and brothers in the beautiful
park which surrounded the ancient chateau, Henri drew
her down a quiet alley and addressed her as follows :
" Sister, early association no less than close kinship,
constrains us to love one another, and you must have
been well aware that I, of all of your brothers, have ever
been the most solicitous for your welfare, while I have
remarked that you too were disposed to return me a like
affection. Until now, we have been naturally inclined
to this, without such intimacy having been productive of
any advantage to us, except the mere pleasure we have
derived from conversing together. During our childhood,
this was well enough ; but the time has gone by for
behaving like children. You see the great and important
posts to which God has called me and for which I have
been trained by the Queen our good mother. You may
rest assured that, since you are the one thing in the world
that I most love and cherish, I shall never possess either
honours or worldly goods in which you will not
participate."
After this insinuating preamble, Anjou frankly re-
quested his sister's aid. " Your intelligence and judg-
1 Conde was shot, after he had surrendered himself a prisoner, by the
Baron de Montesquiou, a creature of Anjou, very probably by that
prince's orders.
2 On the death of the old Constable de Montmorency, in the Battle
of Saint-Denis, Catherine had declined to fill the vacant office, but had
persuaded Charles IX. to give the command of the royal forces to
Henri d'Anjou, with the title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom ;
Marshal de Tavannes being chosen to direct the operations of the
youthful commander.
20
QUEEN MARGOT
ment," said he, " may be of service to me in influencing
the Queen our mother to retain me in my present fortune.
Now, my chief support consists in remaining in her good
graces. I dread lest absence may injure me, and yet the
war and my appointments oblige me to be almost always
at a distance. Meanwhile, the King my brother is con-
tinually at her side, flattering her and humouring her in
everything. I fear that, in the end, this will be prejudicial
to me, and that the King my brother, growing up and
being brave, as he is, may not always continue to amuse
himself with hunting, but may become ambitious and
substitute the chase of men for that of beasts and deprive
me of the post of King's lieutenant which he bestowed
upon me, in order that he may join the forces himself.
This would be so great an annoyance and humiliation to
me that I should prefer a painful death rather than endure
such a fall. In considering the means of dispelling this
apprehension, I find that it is necessary for me to have
some very faithful persons devoted to my interests, to
uphold my influence with the Queen my mother. I
know none so suitable as you, whom I look upon as my
second self. You possess all the requisite qualifications :
wit, understanding, and fidelity. If you will only add
obedience thereunto, by being always present in her cabinet,
at her lever and at her coucher, in short, continually,
this, combined with what I shall tell her of your capacity,
will constrain her to confide in you ; and I shall beg her
no longer to treat you as a child, but to make use of you,
in my absence, as of myself. This, I am assured, she will
do. Rid yourself of your timidity. Talk to her freely,
as you do to me, and, believe me, she will listen graciously.
It will be an honour and a happiness to you to be loved by
her. You will greatly advantage both yourself and me,
tt
QUEEN MARGOT
and 1 shall be beholden to you, after God, for the
maintenance of my good fortune."
Marguerite tells us that these overtures occasioned her
the most profound astonishment. She, a young girl of
sixteen, who had had not a thought beyond dancing
and hunting, was invited to become a political woman !
Moreover, she had been brought up to regard her mother
with such awe that not only did she never dare to address
her, but trembled when her Majesty so much as glanced
in her direction, for fear that she might have done some-
thing to offend her ; and, consequently, she felt inclined
to answer her brother as Moses replied to God, on
beholding the vision of the burning bush : " Who am
I ? Send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou
oughtest to send." However, when she had recovered
from the first surprise, she began to feel highly gratified
by her brother's words, and " it seemed to her that she
was transformed and had become something greater than
her former self." She, accordingly, hastened to assure him
that ff no one on earth loved and respected him as she
did," and that, when with the Queen, she would act
entirely in his interests.
A day or two afterwards, Catherine summoned
Marguerite to her cabinet, and then told her that she
had been informed by her son of the conversation he had
had with his sister, and that it was her intention to admit
her to her confidence and permit her to speak to her
freely.
Marguerite's life now underwent a great change.
Hitherto her time had been fully occupied with childish
games and the ordinary amusements of the Court ; but,
proud of being admitted to her mother's confidence, she
now affected a fine scorn for all these frivolities, " as
22
QUEEN MARGOT
things utterly vain and unprofitable," and began to devote
all her attention to politics the tortuous politics of that
strange epoch, when the friend of to-day might become
the enemy of to-morrow, and a man's deadliest foes were
often those who were loudest in their professions of
devotion. She made it her unvarying rule, she tells us,
to be the first at the Queen's lever and the last at her
coucher, in order to lose not a moment of this precious
intimacy ; and her mother sometimes conversed with her
for two or three hours at a time, though whether these
lengthy conferences were of quite so important a nature
as the princess intends us to believe, we are inclined to
doubt. Catherine de' Medici was never over-fond of
confidantes, least of all of young ladies of sixteen.
Matters continued on this footing until the late autumn
of 1569, when the Court arrived at Saint-Jean-d'Angely,
to join Anjou, who was laying siege to that town. Here
a mortification as bitter as it was unexpected awaited the
princess, which she attributes to the evil offices of a
favourite of her brother named Du Guast, who had
supplanted her in the confidence of the duke.
A member of a very old family of Dauphine, Louis de
Beranger, Seigneur du Guast or du Gast the name is
variously spelt had come when still a youth to the
Court of the Valois, where his courage, audacity, and wit
quickly brought him into prominence. 1 Having decided
that the patronage of one of the Royal Family might
1 A portrait of Du Guast is preserved among the sixteenth-century
drawings in the Cabinet des Estampes, " which shows us just such a
man as we should expect to find, with a convex forehead, a red beard,
worn short and cut to a point, and a thin, disdainful mouth. The
dominant expression of this countenance is audacity tempered by
craft." La Ferriere, Trots amoureuses du X^l e iilcle : Marguerite <U
Valois.
23
QUEEN MARGOT
facilitate his advancement, he insinuated himself into the
good graces of Anjou, and opens the list of that long
succession of favourites who exercised so deplorable an
influence over that prince. Determined to enjoy an
absolute authority over his master, he left no means
untried to discredit those who might be inclined to dis-
pute it with him, and " influenced him so entirely that
he saw only through his eyes and spoke only through
his lips." " This bad man, born to do evil," continues
Marguerite, " had at once fascinated his mind and filled
it with a thousand tyrannical maxims : * That one ought
only to love and trust oneself; that one should involve
no one else in one's own destiny, not even a brother or a
sister ' ; together with other fine Machiavellian precepts,
wherewith having become imbued, he set about putting
them into practice." *
The princess, who had come to Saint- Jean-d'Angely,
in confident anticipation of being received by her brother,
with all the demonstrations of affection and gratitude,
which the services she had rendered, or flattered herself
that she had rendered, him warranted, was speedily dis-
illusioned. "As soon as we had arrived," she writes,
" after the first salutations, my mother began praising
me and saying how loyally I had stood his friend with
her. He answered coldly that he was very glad that
what he had suggested had turned out so well, but that
prudence did not always permit one to make use of the
1 In contradiction to Marguerite and the majority of contemporary
chroniclers, her friend Brant6me describes Du Guast as a man of some
merit and asserts that when Henri d' Anjou became King, he exercised a
beneficial influence over him. " I have seen him," he writes, " remon-
strate with the King, when he perceived that he was doing anything wrong
or when he heard it reported of him. The King took it in good part,
and used to correct himself."
2*
QUEEN MARGOT
same expedients, and that what was necessary at one
time might be dangerous at another. She asked him
his reason for speaking thus. Upon which, seeing that
the moment had come for the invention he had fabricated
on purpose to destroy me, he replied that I was becoming
beautiful and that M. de Guise 1 was turning his thoughts
upon me, and that his uncles 2 aspired to make a marriage
between us ; that she was aware of the ambition of that
House [the House of Lorraine] and of how it had always
embarrassed ours ; and that, for this reason, it would be
as well that she should no longer talk to me of affairs,
and that she should gradually withdraw herself from all
intimacy with me.'*
Marguerite goes on to tell us that she omitted nothing
to convince her mother of her innocence, assuring her
that she had never heard of this report, and that if the
Due de Guise had had any such intention, she would
certainly have informed the Queen of it, the moment he
mentioned the subject to her. But her protestations were
vain, " for her brother's words had taken such possession of
the Queen's mind that there was no room in it for either
reason or truth ; " and from that moment Catherine ceased
to admit her daughter to her confidence.
The Memoires of Marguerite de Valois are deserving
of all that the greatest critic of modern times has said in
their praise ; 3 they are models of finesse, of skill, and of
diction ; but they are the work of a daughter of Catherine
de' Medici, and it would perhaps be too much to expect
to find there candour as well. They are, indeed, in
1 Henri de Lorraine, Due de Guise, assassinated at Blois, Decem-
ber 23, 1588.
2 The Cardinals de Lorraine and de Guise, and the Due d'Auma'le.
8 See the study by Sainte-Beuve, Cauteries du Lundi. vi. IQO et seq.
2;
QUEEN MARGOT
great part, an apology for the life of the writer, who
poses throughout as an injured woman, displays an in-
finite art in explaining away the scandals imputed to her,
and in guarding against any statement calculated to
injure her with those whom she desired to conciliate.
Such being her object, it is not surprising that she
should refuse to betray any predilection for the Due de
Guise, 1 and should be careful to conceal the nature of
the relation between them, since the Memoires were
written while she was a prisoner at the Chateau of
Usson, and the Guises had been the most bitter enemies
of her husband Henri IV. and his advisers, in whose
good graces she was above all things anxious to rein-
state herself. But the student of sixteenth-century
history will peruse her protestations with a smile of in-
credulity, for the love of Marguerite de Valois for
Henri de Lorraine, and even a project of marriage be-
tween them, so far from being inventions of Du
Guast and Henri d'Anjou, "fabricated for the pur-
pose of destroying her," are notorious facts, established
1 So anxious indeed is Marguerite to induce her readers to believe
that the suspicions of her brother were entirely unfounded that, almost
on the first page of her Memoires, she relates that, a few days before the
fatal accident to Henri II., she was sitting on her father's knee, watching
the Due de Guise (then Prince de Joinville) and the little Marquis de
Beaupr6au, only son of the Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, playing to-
gether, when the King laughingly asked her which of the two boys she
would like best for a sweetheart. " I replied," she continues, "that I
should prefer the marquis." " Why," said he, " he is not so handsome "
(for the Prince de Joinville was light-haired and fair, while the Marquis
de Beauprdau had a brown complexion and dark hair) ? " I replied that
it was because he was the bettei bay, whereas the other was never satis-
fied unless he was doing harm to somebody every day, and that he
always wanted to be master a true prophecy of what we have since
seen fulfilled."
26
QUEEN MARGOT
not only by the testimony of the pamphleteers, but by
writers the most worthy of belief and the least sus-
pected of partiality : President de Thou, Mathieu,
Davila and Mezeray, and also by the diplomatic
correspondence of the time.
CHAPTER III
Beauty, elegance, and intelligence of Marguerite Early career
and character of Guise Marguerite's illness at Saint-Jean-
d' Angely Perfidious conduct of Anjou His hatred of Guise
Nature of Marguerite's relations with the duke considered
Their intimacy the chief topic of conversation at Court
Interview between Catherine de' Medici and the Cardinal
de Lorraine An intercepted letter Charles IX. orders
Henri d'Angoule'me to assassinate Guise Intervention of
Marguerite And of the Duchess of Lorraine Angry
scene between Charles IX. and Guise The duke renounces
his pretensions to Marguerite's hand, and marries the
Princess de Porcien Anjou's threat Consequences of this
affair.
AND, indeed, it would have been difficult to find in all
France a better-matched pair of lovers. Marguerite,
then in her seventeenth year, was, if Brantdme and the
other historians and poets who have described her charms
are to be credited, exquisitely beautiful. She had " a
lovely fair face that resembled the heavens in their
sweetest and calmest serenity, so nobly formed as to
cause one to declare that Mother Nature, that very
perfect workwoman, had put all her rarest and subtlest
into the fashioning of it " ; a complexion of dazzling fair-
ness, beautiful blue eyes shaded by long lashes, which
shone with an unconscious desire to please and that native
coquetry which rendered her later so redoubtable, and a
superb iigure, " of a port and majesty more like to a
2*
QUEEN MARGOT
goddess of heaven than a princess of earth." Her hair,
which was very abundant, was black, but as golden
tresses were considered to harmonise best with her
complexion, she often concealed it beneath a coiffure of
pale-coloured curls. " Nevertheless," writes the enthu-
siastic Brantome, " I have seen this magnificent princess
wear her own hair without any additional contrivance in
the shape of a wig ; and, in spite of its being black, like
that of her father, King Henri, she knew so well how to
curl, frizzle, and arrange it, in imitation of her sister,
the Queen of Spain (who always wore her own, which was
black like a Spaniard's), that such head-dress became her as
well, or better, than any other she could invent." 1 A
beautiful girl indeed ! But " it was the beauty sensual
and appetising, which attracts and retains men ; the beauty
made ' to damn us,' as Don Juan of Austria will exclaim
later, on beholding her at the Louvre." 2
Unfortunately, Marguerite does not appear to have
been contented with the charms which a bountiful Nature
had bestowed upon her, and not only did she prefer to
conceal her own hair beneath borrowed tresses, but was
wont to appear with her lovely face, which had so little
need of artificial aid, " all bedaubed and painted." The
washes and cosmetics which she so freely employed, in
order to preserve the freshness of her complexion, had
the very opposite effect, and produced rashes and pimples,
which must have occasioned her great mortification.
Besides being the acknowledged Queen of Beauty,
1 Brantome, Dames illustres. Towards the end of her life, Marguerite
had no dark hair left and went to great expense in fair wigs. For this
purpose, she kept several " tall, fair-haired footmen, who were shaved
from time to time."
Ferriere, Trots Amoureuset du XVI' sihle : ^Marguerite de
Valois.
9
QUEEN MARGOT
Marguerite was the Queen of Fashion as well ; and it
was to the example set by her, so Brantome assures us,
that the ladies of the French Court were indebted for the
fact that they had become '* great ladies, instead of simple
mesdames, and so a hundredfold more charming and
desirable.''
" I remember (for I was present)," he writes, " that
when the Queen-Mother took the Queen her daughter to
her husband, the King of Navarre, she passed through
Cognac and abode there some days. While they were
there, came divers great and honourable ladies of the
neighbourhood to see them and do them reverence, who
were all amazed at the beauty of the princess and could
not praise her enough to her mother, she being lost in
joy. Whereupon, she prayed her daughter to array
herself most sumptuously in the fine and superb apparel
that she wore at Court for great and magnificent pomps
and festivities, in order to give pleasure to these worthy
dames. And this she did to obey so good a mother,
appearing robed superbly in a gown of silver tissue and
dove-colour, a la Boiilonnoise, with hanging sleeves, a costly
head-dress, and a white veil, neither too large nor yet too
small, the whole accompanied by such noble majesty and
perfect grace that one would have judged her rather a
goddess of heaven than a princess of earth. The Queen-
Mother said to her : * My daughter, that costume
becomes you admirably.* To which she made answer :
* Madame, I begin early to wear and to wear out my
gowns and the fashions that I have brought with me from
Court ; because when I return, I shall bring nothing with
me, save scissors and stuffs only, to dress myself there in
accordance with the current fashions. * Why do you
say that, my daughter ? ' inquired the Queen-Mother.
30
QUEEN MARGOT
' Is it not yourself who invent and produce these fine
fashions in dress, and, wherever you go, the Court will
take them from you, not you from the Court ; ' so well
did she understand how to invent in her daring mind all
kinds of charming things."
In fact, continues Brantome, whatever she chose to
wear, elaborate or simple, the effect was ever the same
all eyes were dazzled, all hearts ravished, so that it was
impossible to say which became her best and " made her
most beautiful, admirable and lovable." And then he
goes on to give us some details concerning Marguerite's
chief triumphs in this direction, which prove that the
Sieur de Brantome must have possessed a remarkably
observant eye, as well as a tenacious memory : " the
gown of shimmering white satin, a trifle of rose-colour
mingling in it, with a veil of lace cre"pe or Roman gauze
thrown carelessly round her head, making the goddesses
of olden times, and the empresses, as we see them on
ancient coins, look like chambermaids beside her " ; the
gown " of rose-coloured Spanish velvet, covered with
spangles, and with a cape of the same velvet, with plumes
and jewels of such splendour as never was," in which she
appeared at the Tuileries, at the fe" te given by the Queen-
Mother, in August 1 573, to the Polish envoys whohad come
to offer the crown of Poland to Henri d'Anjou, on which
occasion Brantome compared her to Aurora, and Ronsard,
who was with him, " finding the comparison very excellent,
made a beautiful sonnet thereon " ; the confection of
orange and black, " the black relieved by a multitude of
spangles," which she wore at the Estates of Blois, in
1576; and, finally, the marvellous "robe of crinkled
cloth-of-gold," which, together with the charms of the
wearer, made all the courtiers forget their devotions on
QUEEN MARGOT
Palm Sunday 1572, and of which we shall permit the
chronicler to speak at greater length in its place.
And this lovely and elegant princess was no insipid
beauty, without a thought in her pretty head beyond the
shape of a coiffure or the fit of a gown. She was a clever,
even a talented woman. A true grand-daughter of
Francois I., she had inherited the intellectual tastes of the
"Father of Letters "and read widely and with discrimination.
As she grew older, her love for books became so intense
that when once she had become interested in any work,
nothing could induce her to lay it aside until finished,
" and very often she would lose both her eating and
drinking." A complete mistress of her native tongue, as
her Memoires and letters prove, and well-acquainted with
more than one foreign language, she was also a sound
classical scholar. When Adam Kanarski, Bishop of Posen,
the head of the Embassy from Poland, already mentioned,
harangued her in Latin, she replied at once eloquently
and pertinently without the aid of an interpreter, to the
wonder and admiration of the learned prelate and his
colleagues. She would seem indeed to have been an
admirable speaker, since on the occasion of a visit to
Bordeaux, in 1578, we hear of her making three speeches
in succession ; one in answer to the bishop of the diocese,
the second to that of the governor of the province, and
the third in reply to an address presented her by the First
President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, " even changing
her words to each, without reiterating in the last speech
anything which she had said in the first or second,
although upon the same subject." So that the president
was afterwards heard to declare that, though her two
predecessors on the throne of Navarre, Marguerite
d'Angouleme and Jeanne d'Albret, had had in their day
32
QUEEN MARGOT
" the most golden-speaking lips in France," they were
" but novices and apprentices compared with her."
Her conversation, " grave and full of majesty and
eloquence in high and serious discourse," was on ordinary
occasions distinguished by a very pretty wit, without,
however, Brantome is careful to tell us, a suspicion of
malice, and a wonderful quickness of repartee which made
her the life and soul of any company she might happen
to be in.
It is indeed lamentable to reflect that a woman possessed
of so many natural advantages and so singularly gifted
should have been ruined by the vitiated atmosphere amidst
which she was brought up, and by that complete absence
of moral sense which distinguished the later Valois. But
at the time of her love-affair with the Due de Guise,
Marguerite was still only a girl, and the unpleasant side
of her character was as yet undeveloped. It will be time
enough to speak of that later on.
If Marguerite easily eclipsed all the women of the
Court, the Due de Guise exercised a like pre-eminence
over the nobles who adorned it, at least over those of
the younger generation. At the time of the assassination
of his father, the second Due de Guise, in February 1563,
Henri de Lorraine was in his thirteenth year, when, as the
eldest son of the celebrated soldier, 1 he succeeded to his
title and, at the dying duke's special request, to all his
1 By his marriage with Anne d'Este, daughter of Ercole d'Este, Duke
of Ferrara, Franois de Lorraine had five children, (i) Henri, Prince
de Joinville, third Duke de Guise, born December 31, 1550
(2) Catherine Marie, born July 1552, married to Louis Due de Mont-
pensier. (3) Charles, Marquis, afterwards Due de Mayenne, born
March 1554. (4) Louis, Cardinal de Guise, born July 1555. (5) Fran-
9ois, born December 1558, died October 1573.
33 c
I
QUEEN MARGOT
offices, which comprised those of Grand Master, Grand
Chamberlain, and Governor of Champagne and Brie.
Although so young, he had accompanied his father in his
last campaign, and at the siege of Orleans, where Francois
de Lorraine lost his life, had had more than one oppor-
tunity of giving proof of that cool intrepidity for which
he was subsequently remarkable. After the Peace of
Amboise, which brought to an end the first civil war, he
went to Vienna, in the hope of seeing service against the
Turks, and met with a very flattering reception at the
Imperial Court. But the inactivity of the Austrian
troops gave him no chance of earning the military renown
for which he craved, and, in the spring of 1567, he
returned to France. On the renewal of the Wars of
Religion, Guise was sent with his uncle, the Due d'Aumale,
to the North-Eastern frontier, where he was rash enough
to attack Coligny with a much inferior force, and to be
driven back with heavy loss. Nor was he more fortunate
at the beginning of the second civil war. Entrusted with
the command of a body of men-at-arms, in the royal
army under Anjou and Tavannes, the duke, burning to
distinguish himself, ignored the orders of both ; and the
disaster of Roche- Abeille (June 1 569) was largely due to
his insubordination. 1 However, the memory of these
failures was soon effaced, in the public mind at least, by
his heroic defence of Poitiers against Coligny, a feat which
recalled his father's historical defence of Metz in 1555 ;
and from that time Henri de Lorraine became a popular
hero, the idol of Catholic France.
" France was mad about this man," writes Balzac, " for
it is too little to say that she was in love with him. Her
passion approached idolatry ; there were persons who
1 fMemoires de Tavannes
54
QUEEN MARGOT
invoked him in their prayers, others who inscribed his
portrait in their books. His portrait, indeed, was every-
where ; some ran after him in the street to touch his mantle
with their rosaries, and one day, when he entered Paris by
the Porte Saint- Antoine, on his return from a journey to
Champagne, they not only cried : * Vive Guise ' / but
many sang : ' Hosanna filio ' 'David* / Large assemblies
were known to yield themselves at once captive to his
pleasant countenance. No heart could resist that face ;
it persuaded before he opened his mouth . . . And
Huguenots belonged to the League when they beheld the
Due de Guise."
That such should have been the case is not difficult to
understand, for Guise possessed in a pre-eminent degree
all those qualities which command the admiration and
affection of an impressionable people. To a commanding
stature and extraordinary physical strength he united " the
delicate beauty and the Southern grace of his Borgia
ancestors.'* 1 He excelled in all manly exercises : horse-
manship, swimming, fencing, tennis, the use of arms.
His manners were charming ; he had a smile and a
pleasant word for all, rich and poor alike, and would
converse as readily with the tradesman at his shop door or
the artisan at his toil as with the noble at the Court ;
while his liberality was such that it was said that he was
the greatest usurer in France, since every one was in his
debt, either for monetary assistance or for some favour
received.
Guise had undoubtedly great gifts : dauntless courage,
untiring energy, a remarkable keenness of perception, a
rare sagacity in estimating character, and a wonderful
aptitude for the management of affairs. But they were
1 Mr. H. C. McDowall, "Henry of Guise and other Portraits.'
35
QUEEN MARGOT
discounted by grave faults. His ambition was boundless, 1
and he was quite unscrupulous as to the means employed
to attain his ends ; he was wanting in patience and fore-
sight and, like his uncle, the crafty Cardinal de Lorraine,
carried dissimulation to its furthest limits.
So mortified was Marguerite de Valois by the accusations
of her brother, and the consequent withdrawal of the
confidence which the Queen-Mother had reposed in her,
that she fell into a state of the most profound depression,
and, while in this condition, was attacked by " a severe
and continuous purple fever" (" une grande fievre continue
et du pourpre"), which was then ravaging the camp of
the besiegers and had already carried off the two first
physicians of the King, Chapelain and Castelan, 2 as though
seeking, according to Marguerite's expression, " to do
away with the shepherds in order to make short work of
the flock."
The princess was seriously ill, and for more than a
fortnight her life was in danger. " Whilst I was in this
extremity," she says, *' my mother, who knew what was
partly the cause of my illness, omitted nothing which
could relieve me, taking the trouble to visit me at all
hours, regardless of danger. This alleviated my sufferings
considerably ; but they were correspondingly increased
by the duplicity of my brother (Anjou), who, after having
behaved thus treacherously towards me and shown me
1 According to an historian of the Guises, Rene de Bouilld, who,
however, does not give his authority, Francois de Lorraine had accu-
rately gauged his son's character, and had predicted that he would fall in
an attempt to subvert the kingdom.
2 It was probably to the skill of Castelan that Catherine de' Medici
owed her recovery from the fever with which she was attacked at Metz,
some months previously.
36
QUEEN MARGOT
such base ingratitude, never stirred from my bedside night
or day, attending to my wants as officiously as if we had
been at the period of our warmest affection. As I had
my mouth closed by command, I could only reply to his
hypocrisy by sighs as Burrhus did to Nero, whilst dying
by the poison which that tyrant had administered
showing him plainly enough that my illness had been
caused by the contagion of slander and not by that of
infected air." At length, the princess's vigorous con-
stitution triumphed over the disease, and when the Court
quitted Saint-Jean d'Angely, after its surrender at the
beginning of December 1 569, she was sufficiently recovered
to accompany it.
At Angers, whither they proceeded, they found the
Due de Guise and his uncles, which, Marguerite assures
us, occasioned her intense mortification, " as it gave colour
to her brother's inventions." However, Anjou, since the
beginning of his sister's illness, had treated her in a most
affectionate manner, and now, so far from throwing any
obstacles in the way of Marguerite's intimacy with Guise,
used to bring him to her apartments almost every day
" and would often exclaim, embracing him : ' Would to
God you were my brother ! '
It is very improbable that Guise allowed himself to be
deceived by this perfidious show of friendship, for he
could hardly fail to be aware of the profound aversion
which Anjou already entertained for him. From early
boyhood the young prince had cherished against the House
of Lorraine, whose ambition and audacity he had in-
stinctively divined, those sentiments of hatred and jealousy
which, nineteen years later, were to culminate in the
tragedy of Blois, and the youthful head of the family was
the object of his special antipathy. He had been intensely
37
QUEEN MARGOT
irritated by the duke's studied disregard of his orders
during the war, by the applause which had greeted his
exploits on the day of Jarnac, which, in his vanity, he
imagined ought to have been reserved for himself, and,
still more, by the enthusiasm aroused by his defence of
Poitiers. Moreover, the pale, thin, black-haired prince
could not but feel whenever he beheld this blonde giant,
a galling sense of his own inferiority inferiority in cour-
age, both moral and physical, in intellect and ability ; in
every accomplishment with the possible exception of
dancing and, worst of all, in personal appearance ; for
had not the Duchesse de Retz declared that " those
Lorraine princes had such an air of distinction that other
princes appeared plebeian beside them."
But Marguerite smiled on the handsome young duke
and, if the latter had his suspicions as to Anjou's motives,
he was careful not to permit them to be seen and, in the
meanwhile, gladly availed himself of every opportunity of
paying his court to the princess. That Marguerite was
completely fascinated by her brilliant admirer admits, as
we have said elsewhere, of no possible doubt, notwith-
standing her protestations to the contrary. " She had
lodged all the affections of her heart in this prince, who
possessed such attractive qualities," writes Dupleix. That
Guise loved her is not quite so certain. Some two years
earlier, it had been reported that he was paying marked
attention to Catherine de Cleves l the widow of Antoine de
Cr6y, Prince de Porcien ; 2 but whether or not the image
1 She was one of the three daughters of Francois de Cleves, Due de
Nevers.
8 The Prince de Porcien was one of the leaders of the Huguenot
party, and entertained the most violent hatred of the Guises. On his
death-bed, he is said to have thus addressed his wife : " You are young,
beautiful and rich ; you will have many suitors when I am gone. I
38
QUEEN MARGOT
of this lady had been effaced by Marguerite's superior
charms, it had ever been the practice of his family to
subordinate their affections to their interests ; and, we
may be sure, that he played the lover well enough to
satisfy the most exacting maiden. Several historians
have hinted that Marguerite had been the duke's mis-
tress; 1 but though there is no doubt that at a later
period she lived a very dissolute life, nothing authorises
such a supposition. The laws of etiquette, as one of her
biographers very justly remarks, were far too severe to
render it possible for a Daughter of France, especially one
watched by a prudent and suspicious mother, to commit
such a fault ; while it is in the last degree improbable
that Henri de Lorraine, who aspired to the princess's
hand, would have entertained the thought of dishonouring
her. 2
The young duke's pretensions found a warm supporter
in his uncle, the Cardinal de Lorraine ; indeed, it is
not improbable that that scheming prelate had himself
suggested the idea of such a marriage to his nephew.
Nor were these pretensions nearly so exorbitant as may
as first sight appear. Guise and his brothers, though, of
course, ranking below the Princes of the Blood, took
precedence of all the nobility, with the exception of the
have no objection to your marrying again, if only it be not the Due de
Guise. Let not my worst enemy inherit what, of all my possessions, I
have cherished the most."
1 Elk (Marguerite} wait eu avec lui (Guise} des privautes plus grands
qtfil ne fallait. Davila (French translation). The same historian
declares that " their intimacy was so public that there was even a report
that they had contracted a secret marriage ; but if this had been the case,
we should certainly have heard something about it at the time of Mar-
guerite's divorce from Henri IV."
2 Imbert de Saint-Amand, Lesfemmes de la Cour des derniers Galois.
39
QUEEN MARGOT
Montmorencies, by virtue of their descent from Louis XII.
through Ren6e de France, Duchess of Ferrara, whose
daughter Anne d'Este had married Francois de Lorraine.
Moreover, though the Daughters of France were destined
to be the consorts of kings and foreign princes, vassals
of the Crown had occasionally been honoured with their
hands. Thus, the Comte de Foix had married Madeleine
de France, daughter of Charles VII., while, to cite a more
recent instance, Marguerite's elder sister, Claude, had
married Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, head of the elder
branch of the family.
However that may be, the prospect of such an alliance
was very far from calculated to commend itself to the
Valois. Quite apart from the fact that the duke's
marriage with Marguerite would have destroyed the
equilibrium between the great nobles of the realm, which
it was Catherine de' Medici's chief object to maintain, and
restored to the ambitious Lorraine princes a great part of
the influence which they had wielded with such disastrous
results in the previous reign, negotiations had been for
some time past in progress for the marriage of the
princess to Dom Sebastian, the young King of Portugal.
It is, therefore, not a little singular that so shrewd a
politician as the Cardinal de Lorraine should have
encouraged his nephew in a course which had so small
a prospect of success, and could hardly fail to provoke
the greatest resentment in the Royal Family.
During the spring of 1570, Marguerite and the Due
de Guise met constantly, and by May the intimacy had
gone so far that it had become the chief topic of con-
versation at the Court ; and the Spanish ambassador wrote
to Philip II. that " there was nothing talked of publicly
in France but the marriage of Madame Marguerite with
40
QUEEN MARGOT
the Due de Guise ; " 1 while the Cardinal de Lorraine told
the Legate that "the principal persons concerned were
already agreed," and boasted openly that the head of the
elder branch of his family had married the elder sister,
and the head of the younger should have the younger.
These injudicious words were repeated to the Queen-
Mother, who went to visit the cardinal, who was ill in
bed, and angrily demanded an explanation. The prelate,
perceiving in which quarter the wind sat, protested that
he had been misrepresented, but without convincing
Catherine, who departed in a very ill-humour. However
Guise, encouraged secretly by Marguerite, declined to
abandon the field and, thanks to the complacency of the
Comtesse de Mirandole, one of the Queen's ladies of
honour, carried on a correspondence with the princess.
Marguerite added some very affectionate lines in her own
handwriting to the letters which the duke received from
Madame de Mirandole, and the duke replied not less
tenderly. About the middle of June 1570, one of these
epistles was intercepted by Du Guast, who carried it in
triumph to the Due d'Anjou, who, in turn, laid it before
the Queen-Mother and Charles IX. Catherine imme-
diately sent for her daughter, reproached her bitterly with
her conduct, and ordered her to break ofF all intercourse
with the duke, who, together with his brother, the Due
de Mayenne, was forbidden to approach her ; while the
Cardinals de Lorraine and de Guise received a peremptory
order to give public denial to the rumours of a betrothal
between their nephew and the princess.
As for Charles IX., his resentment, on learning the
news, was so artfully inflamed by the insinuations of
1 Bibliotheque Natiotta/e, Coll. Simancas, cited by Bouill6, Hiitoire ties
Dues de Guise, iii. 28.
41
QUEEN MARGOT
Anjou that he ended by falling into one of those
violent fits of excitement hardly distinguishable from
actual insanity to which he was subject. Vowing that
nothing but Guise's blood could atone for his intoler-
able presumption, he sent for his half-brother, Henri
d'Angoulme, Grand Prior of France, 1 and, when he
appeared, pointed to two swords and exclaimed : " You
see those two swords ; one is to kill you, if to-
morrow, when I go to the chase, you do not kill the
Due de Guise ! " a
The Grand Prior, though he had little stomach for
the business, being well aware that the duke's death would
most speedily be followed by his own, if not at the hands
of some of the murdered nobleman's friends, then at
those of the Paris mob, dared not refuse the commission ;
and it was arranged that on the morrow he and some
trusty retainers should surround Guise on his return from
the chase, and, under the pretext of some dispute, poniard
him.
But when the morrow came, M. d'Angoul^me's courage
would appear to have failed him, or possibly his intended
victim gave him no opportunity of putting his amiable
design into execution. Any way, the King learned, on
his return to the Louvre, that the duke had reached
Paris safe and sound.
Furious at the failure of the plot, Charles sent for his
half-brother, bitterly reproached him with his cowardice,
and repeated his orders, accompanied by terrible threats.
Angoulme promised obedience, and laid more than one
ambush for the duke ; but the latter, warned secretly by
d'Entragues, one of the King's confidants, according to
1 He was the son of Henri II. and a Scotch girl named Fleming.
* Mongez, Histoire de Marguerite de fa/ois, p. 31.
I*
QUEEN MARGOT
Mongez, by Marguerite herself, according to another
version, kept to his hotel, and all the Grand Prior's
schemes came to nothing.
In the meanwhile, Marguerite, who knew her family
too well to hope that they would ever sacrifice their
political calculations for the sake of her happiness, and was,
besides, greatly alarmed for the safety of the man she
loved, had bethought her of a means of putting an end
to this critical situation. Accordingly, she wrote to her
sister Claude, who, by her marriage with Charles II.
of Lorraine, had become a relative of the Guises, begging
her to use her influence with the duke to persuade him
to appease the King's anger, by renouncing forthwith
all pretensions to her hand and, as a pledge of his good
faith, to place a barrier between them by contracting
a marriage with his old love, Catherine de Cleves, Princesse
de Porcien.
Recognising from the tone of her sister's letter, that
there was not a moment to be lost, the Duchess of
Lorraine at once set out for Paris, where she sought out
Guise's mother, who had married, en secondes noces, the
Due de Nemours, and communicated to her the contents
of the princess's letter. Madame de Nemours was not
slow to perceive the danger of the situation in which her
son's imprudence had placed him, and that the course
suggested by Marguerite was the only one now open to
him, and she joined Madame Claude in urging it upon
the duke in the strongest possible terms.
An incident which had just occurred lent additional
force to their arguments. One night there was a ball at
the Louvre, at which Guise, in virtue of his office of
Grand Master of the Royal Household, had been com-
pelled to appear. It was the first time he had been seen
43
QUEEN MARGOT
in public since the hunting-party which had been chosen
for his assassination. Near the entrance to the ball-room
he encountered the King, who laid his hand on his sword
and, in an angry tone, inquired what he was doing there.
Guise replied he had come to serve his Majesty. " I have
no need of your services," replied the King, livid with
passion. The duke made a profound obeisance and
retired. His disgrace could not have been indicated in a
more significant manner, and convinced that banishment
from the Court and the loss of his offices, if not a
worse fate awaited him, unless he bowed to the
storm, he yielded to the entreaties of his mother and
the counsels of the Duchess of Lorraine ; and shortly
afterwards his betrothal to the Princesse de Porcien was
announced.
The duke's submission, as had been anticipated, had
the effect of appeasing the wrath of the King. Guise was
restored to favour, and when the marriage took place,
early in the following October, Charles presented the
happy pair with a dowry of 100,000 livres. Anjou, how-
ever, whose hatred of the duke grew every day more
bitter, was not so easily disarmed, and remarked one day
to some of his favourites that, " in case the Due de Guise
should cast his eyes on her (Marguerite), he would pro-
claim him a renegade and a miscreant, if he did not
poniard him to the heart and make him bite the
ground."
Thus ended the first romance of Marguerite de Valois's
life. How different would have been the course of that
life had she been permitted to yield to her inclinations
and to marry the one man whom she seems to have loved
with a passion equal to that which she often inspired !
How different, too, in all probability, would have been the
44
QUEEN MARGOT
course of French history ! Certain it is that to the
treacherous part played in this affair by the future
Henri III. may be traced the bitter hatred with which
Guise henceforth regarded him and most of the disasters
of the succeeding reign.
45
CHAPTER IV
Negotiations for Marguerite's marriage with Dom Sebastian
of Portugal Conduct of Philip II. of Spain Opposition of
Dom Sebastian's advisers to the match Project of marriage
between Marguerite and Henri of Navarre Peace of Saint*
Germain Question of the good faith of Charles IX. and
Catherine de' Medici in this matter considered Negotiations
between the Court and Jeanne d'Albret in regard to the
marriage of Marguerite to her son The Huguenot leaders and
the Council of Navarre overcome the Queen's objections to
the match.
WE have said that one of the chief reasons for the
hostility of the Royal Family to the pretensions of the
Due de Guise was the fact that negotiations had been,
for some time, in progress for an alliance between
Marguerite of Valois and Dom Sebastian, the young
King of Portugal. 1 This project dated back to the time
of Fran9ois II., when Nicot, the French Ambassador at
Lisbon, had made the first overture and remitted to Dom
Sebastian a portrait of the little princess, with which the
King appears to have been greatly impressed. 2 In July
1 According to Hilarion de Coste, the Emperor Maximilian II. had
demanded Marguerite's hand for his son Rudolph, King of Hungary ;
but if the Emperor had made any such overture, it is strange that the
princess should have failed to mention it in her Memoires. It is certain,
however, that there had been some talk of an alliance between Mar-
guerite and Don Carlos, the heir to the Spanish throne, whose death, in
1568, put an end to the project.
* " Madame's portrait," wrote Nicot to the Queen-Mother, " has so
46
QUEEN MARGOT
1569, Dom Sebastian being then seventeen, serious
negotiations were opened, and Fourquevaux, the French
Ambassador in Spain, received the necessary powers to
treat of the marriage with Philip II., uncle of the young
King of Portugal, who exercised a kind of protectorate
over his nephew's kingdom. Philip appeared at first
well disposed ; while the project was received with warm
approbation by Pius V., whose aim it was to bring about
a closer union between the Catholic Powers, in order to
oppose their united forces to the aggressions of the Turk
and the extension of Protestantism ; and the Portuguese
Ambassador at Madrid informed Fourquevaux that he
only awaited his instructions from Lisbon to conclude
the matter.
However, these instructions did not arrive, and, on
September 5, Fourquevaux sought an audience of Philip
and asked for an explanation of the delay. Philip attri-
buted it to the plague, which was then raging in Lisbon,
and which, he supposed, was retarding the despatch of
State, as well as of ordinary, business. The Ambassador
curbed his impatience for a week, and then again
approached the King. This time his Majesty ascribed
the delay to the fact that the Portuguese Council of State
was composed of young men, " not one of whom under-
stood the way in which to treat of the said marriage " ;
and Fourquevaux retired very dissatisfied. *"
In the light of subsequent events, there can be no
possible doubt that Philip II., in spite of his protestations
of good-will, was opposed to the marriage, and probably
did all in his power to hinder it, although no evidence of
pleased those of this Court that nothing could possibly be better. I
have been informed that, so soon as the King saw it, he kissed and
hugged it, and that since then he has declined to part with it."
47
QUEEN MARGOT
any active intervention on his part exists. The marriage
of Dom Sebastian was a matter of supreme importance
to his kingdom, for the only male heir of the House of
Aviz was his great-uncle Cardinal Dom Henry, and the
death of Dom Sebastian and of the Cardinal without
direct heirs would inevitably be followed by a civil war,
arising from the disputed succession. In that eventuality,
Philip himself, who had long coveted possession of his
little neighbour, fully intended to come forward as a
claimant to the throne, 1 and he had, therefore, no mind
that his nephew should have a wife, least of all, a French
wife, who, even if she were to bear her husband no
children, would give France an excellent excuse for
intervening in the affairs of Portugal.
As for Dom Sebastian, who was already dreaming of
that disastrous crusade which was to cost him his own life
and strike a last and final blow at the declining power of
Portugal, 2 the question of his marriage, and of all that it
meant to his kingdom, seems to have troubled him very
little. Moreover, although the towns of Portugal, when
consulted, had, with two exceptions, pronounced in
favour of the marriage with Marguerite, the king's
advisers were by no means so unanimous. " Some say,"
writes Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, " that he is
likely to have children ; others judge him incapable and
dissuade him from marriage ; for to marry would be to
shorten his life. All are in accord in believing that he
will not live." 8
1 Philip II. was accepted by the Portuguese Cortes as King on
April 3, 1581.
2 Dom Sebastian fell at the Battle of El-Kasir-el-Kebir, usually spelt
Alcazar Quibir, in Morocco, August 4, 1578.
3 In the same despatch, the Ambassador gives the Queen some inter-
esting details concerning Dom Sebastian : " He is sixteen or seventeen
48
QUEEN MARGOT
But the most serious opposition to the marriage came
from two Theatine monks, nephews of the Cardinal of
Portugal, who exercised an absolute dominion over the
mind of the young sovereign, and " had great fear of
losing their credit, if the king were once married to
Madame Marguerite." Pius V. who, as we have already
mentioned, was extremely anxious for the match, de-
spatched a special envoy, Don Loys de Torres, to
Lisbon, bearing a letter from his Holiness to Dom
Sebastian, urging him to conclude the matter. But the
influence of the monks was too strong, and the mission
failed. "They have made the King conceive a perfect
horror of women," said the disgusted Don Loys to
Fourquevaux, as he passed through Madrid on his return
journey to Italy. " It is they alone who stand in the way
of the marriage.'*
His patience exhausted, Charles IX. wrote to Fourque-
vaux: "If there is a prince who has the right to complain,
it is I, who see myself so unworthily treated, inasmuch
as they do not desire to hold to the promise they have
made me." And, after expressing his opinion that Philip
himself and not his nephew's entourage was responsible
for all the delay, he ordered Fourquevaux to acquaint his
Catholic Majesty that he was gravely displeased at the
continued delay and to demand an immediate explanation,
as, in the event of its proving unsatisfactory, he " pro-
posed to dispose of his sister's hand elsewhere."
In the meanwhile the Peace of Saint-Germain, 1 which
years of age ; he is fair and stout ; he is thought to be untrustworthy,
bizarre, obstinate, and of the humour of the late Don Carlos [/.<?., half-
mad] ... he has been brought up a la portuguaise, that is to say,
nourished on superstitions and vanities.
1 This peace was wittily called " Paix bfyteusc ft malassise" from the
49 D
QUEEN MARGOT
brought to a close the third civil war, and granted far
greater concessions to the Huguenots than they could
possibly have hoped for after the disasters of Jarnac and
Montcontour, had been concluded (August 1570), and
had given great umbrage both to Philip II. and Dom Sebas-
tian, like his uncle, one of the most bigoted of Catholics.
The crafty Philip, we may well suppose, had not failed
to represent to his nephew the undesirability of his allying
himself with a house which had shown itself so lukewarm
in its opposition to heresy ; and, in October 1570, the
Court of Lisbon replied that the King was too young to
marry, and that Madame Marguerite was well able to
wait.
Charles IX. and the Queen- Mother were not of this
opinion. "A few days later," writes Marguerite, " there
was a talk of my marriage to the Prince of Navarre, who
is now our worthy and magnanimous king. 1 The Queen
my mother, discussed it one day at table for a long time
with M. de Meru, 2 the members of the House of Mont-
morency having been the first to suggest it. Upon rising
from the table, he told me that she had requested him to
royal plenipotentiaries who concluded it ; Biron, who was lame, and de
Mesmes, seigneur de Malassiss.
1 This project was by no means a new one ; indeed, it is said that
almost from the infancy of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite, the Court
of France had dreamed of their future union. Favyn, in his Histoire de
Navarre, relates that the little prince, when five years old, was presented
by his father to King Henri II., who, delighted with his precocity,
inquired if he would be his son. Turning towards Antoinede Bourbon,
the child replied in his Bearnais dialect : " Quet es lo feign pay ! (This is
Monsieur my father !) " The King, pleased with the jargon, asked
him : " Since you will not be my son, will you be my son-in-law ? " To
which the little prince replied promptly : " O be ! Yes, willingly ! "
1 Charles de Montmorency, third son of the Constable, afterwards
Due d'Amville and Admiral of France.
QUEEN MARGOT
speak to me about it. I told him that it was unneces-
sary, since I had no will but her own, although she
should certainly take into account how thorough a
Catholic t was, and that it would distress me exceedingly
to marry any one who was not of my religion. After-
wards, the Queen, having retired to her cabinet, sent for
me and told me that Messieurs de Montmorency had
suggested this marriage to her, and that she greatly
desired to ascertain my views. I replied that I had
neither will nor choice save her own, but that I implored
her to remember that I was a good Catholic." 1 The
question of religion, we may presume, troubled the
princess a good deal less than she would have us believe ;
she had no inclination for Henry of Navarre, nor did a
closer acquaintance bring any change in her disposition
towards him. However, Catherine's pretence of con-
sulting her daughter's feelings was a mere formality, since
both she and the King had decided that a marriage
between Marguerite and Henri of Navarre was absolutely
essential to the success of their policy.
What that policy was, has been the subject of inter-
minable discussion. Had the war just concluded been a
series of triumphs for the Huguenots, instead of a
campaign of disaster, which, but for the courage and
skill of Coligny, might have been followed by the
irretrievable ruin of their cause, the concessions granted
them by the Peace of Saint-Germain could hardly have
been greater. They received a general amnesty and the
restoration of their confiscated estates. They were
granted free exercise of their religion, save in Paris and
the royal residences. They were admitted upon equal
1 Memoires et lettret de Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Guessard,
1842).
51
QUEEN MARGOT
rights with their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects to the
benefit of all public institutions and declared eligible to
fill every post in the State. They were permitted to
appeal from the judgment of the notoriously hostile
Parlement of Toulouse to the Cour des Requetes in
Paris. Finally, they were permitted to retain possession
of four towns which they had conquered : La Rochelle,
Cognac, La Charite, and Montauban, as a guarantee of
his Majesty's good faith, on condition that the Prince of
Navarre and Conde bound themselves to restore them to
the Crown, two years after the faithful execution of this
edict of pacification.
Many historians, Catholic as well as Protestant, see in
this peace the snare which gathered the victims for the
St. Bartholomew. " A peace of such a nature," says the
Jesuit writer, Louis Maimbourg, " was not in reality
contemplated by Catherine de' Medici. This princess had
her designs in reserve, and she only granted the Huguenots
what they demanded in order to deceive them and to
surprise those on whom she desired to be avenged, and
particularly the Admiral [Coligny], on the first favourable
opportunity." Such, too, is the opinion of Pere Daniel,
of Papyre Masson, the historian of Charles IX., of
Fauriel, who denounces it as " the obvious product of
the blackest deceit and treachery," 1 of Davila, and of
Sully. On the other hand, Ranke, the Protestant writer
Schoeffer, Coquerel, Daniel Ramee, the author of les
Noces vermei/les, and M. Georges Gandy, whose erudite
study in the Revue des Questions historiques (1866), though
disfigured here and there by religious prejudice, is one or
the ablest summaries of the question we have read, are
1 Essai sur kt Ev&nements qu\ ont prepare et amene le Sainte-Bar-
thikmj.
5*
QUEEN MARGOT
persuaded that Catherine and Charles IX. were sincere in
their desire to pacify the realm.
The evidence which M. Gandy cites leaves, we think,
no doubt about the matter. He points to Charles IX. 's
repeated expression of a desire for a continuance of the
peace and of his determination to enforce the edicts of
toleration contained in his letter to Mandelot, Governor
of Lyons, and La Mothe Fenelon, the French Ambassador
in England ; to the King's response to the Ambassadors
who came to compliment him on his marriage with
Elizabeth of Austria, when " he felicitated himself on the
peace which God had re-established in his realm . . .
since there was nothing in this world which he had so
much at heart, nor would more constantly strive for
than to endeavour to bring about and to observe peace,
union, and tranquillity among his subjects, as the true and
only means of securing the prosperity of kingdoms and
states " (December 23, 1570) ; to the exemplary punish-
ment of those Catholics who transgressed the edict ; and
to the many concessions which were granted the Huguenots
between the peace and the St. Bartholomew : the per-
mission to retain possession of La Rochelle after the
two years mentioned at Saint-Germain had expired,
the withdrawal of the royal garrison from the towns
of the South, the taking away of their arms from the
bourgeois militia, and the payment of 150,000 ecus
to the German Reiters who had ravaged France as
their allies.
Again, if we look at the foreign policy of France at this
time, we find it altogether favourable to the Huguenots,
Catherine endeavoured to negotiate, first, the marriage of
the Due d'Anjou and, afterwards, that of the young Due
d'Alen9on with Elizabeth of England, as the counterpart
53
QUEEN MARGOT
of the union of her daughter with Henri of Navarre ;
while the relations of France with Germany, Flanders,
and Spain all indicate a policy of conciliation.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that the Peace of
1570 was really the work of the Third Party the
Politiques as they were called whose leaders, Montmorency,
Cosseo, and Biron, sympathised with many of the aspira-
tions of the Huguenots and were extremely hostile to the
Guises ; that it was bitterly resented by the Guises and
the High Catholic party, by the Pope and by Philip II.
Pius V., writing to the Cardinal de Lorraine, speaks of
the negotiations as infamous. " We cannot refrain from
tears,*' he concludes, " as we think how deplorable the
peace is to all good men, how full of danger, and what a
scource of bitter regret." And Philip II. offered to send
Charles a force of 9000 men to continue the war. Had
it been nothing but a snare, surely these potentates would
have been in the secret !
The hand of Marguerite was intended to consolidate
the peace ; to flatter the Huguenots and allay their
suspicions, while, at the same time, weakening their power
of offence, by bringing their nominal chief directly under
Catherine's own influence. From the beginning of 1571,
active negotiations were carried on between the Court and
the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle, and Biron,
Cosse, and Castelnau were in turn despatched thither to
confer with Henri's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, and the
Protestant leaders. Jeanne d'Albret received the overtures
of the Court with mixed feelings. She was intensely
ambitious for her idolised son and desirous of doing
everything in her power to promote the interests of her
party. But she hated Catherine and all the Valois, and
entertained the most profound distrust of their professions
54
QUEEN MARGOT
of friendship ; and had the decision rested with her alone,
the proffered alliance would most certainly have been
rejected. However, the Huguenot leaders were practi-
cally unanimous in urging her to consent ; Coligny,
who had divined the growing greatness of the young
prince, and augured much from the favour with which
Charles IX. had always regarded him, was particularly
insistent on the advantages which the party and the
kingdom generally would derive from the match ; and
ultimately, after long deliberation, the Queen agreed to
proceed to Pau and submit the matter to her Council of
State.
There can be no doubt that Jeanne hoped that the
nobility of her little kingdom would take a less favourable
view of the project than the leaders of the party. But,
carried away by the eloquence of the Chancellor, Fran-
cceur, who had been won over by the representations
of Coligny and the promises of the Court, they pro-
nounced with one accord for the marriage ; and the
prince himself joined in entreating the Queen to assent
to the alliance and to accept Charles IX. 's invitation to
proceed to Blois, where the Court then was, to settle the
preliminaries.
Finding further resistance impossible, Jeanne signified
her assent, though with a very bad grace " Helasl je compte
peu d'amis" she is reported to have said, on perceiving how
entirely the opinion of her advisers was against her and
wrote forthwith to the King to announce her approaching
departure for Blois. At the same time, no argument
could induce her to permit her son to visit the Court,
until his marriage with Marguerite had been finally
arranged and the contract signed ; while she directed
Biron, who had come to Pau to add his persuasions to
55
QUEEN MARGOT
those of her councillors, to inform his Majesty that she
absolutely declined to sanction the celebration of the
marriage in Paris, whose inhabitants, to use her own
expression, were " peuples mutins, ennemis cTelle et des siem" 1
Well would it have been for the Huguenots had the far
sighted Queen persisted in this decision !
CHAPTER V
Jeanne d'Albret's journey to Blois The King of Portugal,
through Cardinal Alessandrino, demands the hand of Mar-
guerite His alliance declined by Charles IX. Catherine de*
Medici and Marguerite visit the Queen of Navarre at Tours
Favourable impression which Jeanne forms of the princess
Conference between Jeanne and the Queen-Mother Cor-
dial welcome accorded the Queen of Navarre, by Charles IX.,
on her arrival at the Court She resumes her negotiations
with Catherine Her letter to Henri of Navarre She for-
bids him to follow her to Blois Brant6me's description of
Marguerite of Valois's appearance in the procession on Palm
Sunday, 1572 The negotiations between Jeanne and the
Queen-Mother at a deadlock Jeanne consults the Huguenot
divines and the English Ambassadors Letter of Walsingham
to Burleigh A commission appointed to settle the points in
dispute The King announces his intention to discard all
conditions Refusal of Pope Pius V. to grant the necessary
dispensation for the marriage of Henri and Marguerite
Terms of the marriage-treaty Jeanne d'Albret reluctantly
consents to the ceremony being performed in Paris Difficul-
ties raised by Gregory XIII., Pius V.'s successor, in regard to
the granting of the dispensation Demands of the Calvinistic
divines concerning the ceremonial to be observed at the
marriage acceded to by Charles IX. The Queen of Navarre
sets out for Paris.
THE Queen left Paii, early in January 1572, and pro-
ceeded to Nerac, to which she had summoned an
assembly of Huguenot nobles to confer with her. She
next visited Lectoure, the capital of her county of
57
QUEEN MARGOT
Armagnac, recently restored to her by Charles IX., to
receive a renewed oath of fidelity from its inhabitants.
Here she remained for some days, and then, having
taken an affectionate farewell of her son, whom she
was never to see again, she continued her journey north-
wards, accompanied by her daughter Catherine, then aged
thirteen, Biron, Louis Count of Nassau, brother of
William of Orange, and a number of Protestant nobles,
amongst whom were Rohan, La Rochefoucauld, Teligny,
La Noue, and Rosny, the father of the celebrated Due
de Sully. Between Poitiers and Tours she was over-
taken by Cardinal Alessandrino, the Pope's nephew,
despatched by Pius V. on a special mission to Charles
IX., who insolently traversed the Queen's train, without
bestowing upon her the customary salutation, " deeming
it a crime and an impiety to offer any greeting to an
excommunicated person." The cardinal has been charged
by his uncle to remonstrate in the strongest possible
terms against the marriage of his Most Christian
Majesty's sister with the son of so determined a heretic
and, at the same time, to exhort Charles to return a
favourable answer to the suit of the King of Portugal.
Thanks to the exertions of Pius V., alarmed beyond
measure at the rumours of the projected marriage between
Marguerite and Henri of Navarre, the views of Dom
Sebastian in regard to the French princess had during
the last three months undergone a remarkable change ;
and whereas, in the previous October, he had practically
declined the alliance, he was now intensely anxious for
its conclusion. Cardinal Alessandrino, who had journeyed
from Lisbon, was, in fact, the bearer of a letter from the
young sovereign to Charles IX., wherein he even offered
to accept the hand of Marguerite without a dowry, pro-
58
QUEEN MARGOT
vided that the king would join the Holy League which
the Pope was then forming against the Turks. 1
Charles IX. received the cardinal very graciously, but
positively declined the Portuguese alliance, remarking
that urgent reasons of State obliged him to conclude the
marriage of his sister with the Prince of Navarre. To
console the Legate, who could not conceal his chagrin at
the failure of his mission, the King drew a magnificent
diamond ring from his finger and begged him to accept
it, "as a pledge of his esteem for his person and of his
attachment to the Holy See " ; but Alessandrino was com-
pelled to decline, on the ground that the Pope had
expressly forbidden him to accept any presents from
sovereigns to whom he was accredited. 2
On her arrival at Tours, the Queen of Navarre was
met by a messenger from Charles IX., who begged her
to defer her visit to Blois until after the departure of
the Legate, and offered her her choice between the
Citadel of Tours and the Chateau of Plessis for a
residence. Jeanne preferred to remain at Tours, where,
a day or two later, she was visited by Catherine de'
Medici, Marguerite, the widowed Princesse de Conde,
and her future daughter-in-law, Marie de Cleves, and
other ladies of the Court. Marguerite seems to have
made a highly favourable impression upon the Queen of
Navarre, who wrote to her son : " Madame Marguerite
has paid me every honour and welcome in her power to
1 Letter of Dom Sebastian to Pius V., December 20, 1571, cited by
M. de Saint-Poncy, Histoire de Marguerite de Pa/ois, Reine de France et
de Navarre.
2 According to Davila, the Legate gave a very different reason for his
refusal, namely, that "as his Majesty had so unexpectedly deviated from
his zeal for the Catholic religion, his most precious jewels were no more
than dirt in the estimation of all good Catholics."
59
QUEEN MARGOT
bestow ; and she has frankly owned to me the favourable
impression which she has formed of you. 1 With her
beauty and wit, she exercises a great influence over the
Queen-Mother and the King, and Messieurs her younger
brothers." 2
The following day, the conferences between Jeanne
and Catherine respecting the marriage articles began.
" What a contrast between these two women ! " remarks
La Ferriere. " Catherine, with the big eyes of the
Medici, whose vivacity was tempered by a flash of Gallic
raillery, impudently denying in the morning what she
had said or promised the evening before ; and Jeanne,
with her austere, ascetic countenance and thin lips, whose
smile her cold Calvinism had frozen ; absolute, authorita-
tive, impassive in appearance, and yet concealing at the
bottom of her heart ferocious passions." 3
This marriage, settled in principle, presented in the
execution considerable difficulties and raised many thorny
questions. A mixed marriage was, at this period, a very
unusual occurrence, particularly on the steps of the
throne, hitherto so closely united with the Church. In
the sphere of crowned heads only one instance could be
1 Marguerite, in saying this, was probably acting under her mother's
instructions, for, according to Davila, she declared to her intimate
friends that she " would never resign herself willingly to the loss of the
Due de Guise, to whom she had given her affections and her faith,
neither would she of her own free will accept for a husband the duke's
greatest enemy."
2 At the same time, little Catherine de Bourbon wrote to her brother :
" Monsieur, I have seen Madame, whom I think very beautiful and I
greatly wish you could see her too. I talked well to her of you, and
asked her to hold you in her greatest favour, which she promised me to
do. She gave me a very cordial welcome and has given me a beautiful
little dog, that I love much (un bau petit chien que jeme bien)"
1 Trots amotireuses du XVI" siecle : Marguerite de Valois.
60
QUEEN MARGOT
cited : that of Marie Stuart and Bothwell. It was not
an encouraging one ! 1
The two royal ladies were soon at variance. Jeanne
proposed that her son should be married by proxy, and
that, after the ceremony, she should conduct Marguerite
to her husband at Pau. This was indignantly vetoed by
Catherine, who demanded : First, that the bridegroom
should attend in person and that, after the marriage, the
young couple should reside for at least a portion of each
year at the French Court. Secondly, that Marguerite
should not be compelled to attend the prayers, or preches,
of the Huguenots, but that, wherever she went, her
husband should provide her with a chapel, priests, and
other requisites for the celebration of Mass. Thirdly,
that the Prince of Navarre should refrain from the
public exercise of his religion while at Court.
It was now the Queen of Navarre's turn to be indig-
nant, and she declared that nothing would induce her to
accept these conditions. Indeed, had it not been for the
belief that Catherine was seeking to impose upon her
merely her own wishes and not, as she asserted, those of
the King, she would have cut short the negotiations there
and then ; a course to which she was strongly urged by
Rosny, who added : " Believe me, Madame, that if these
nuptials are ever celebrated in Paris, the liveries worn
will be blood-coloured ! "
The Legate having taken his departure, Jeanne pro-
ceeded to Blois, where she was received with every
imaginable honour and overwhelmed with caresses by
Charles IX., who called her " sa bonne tante^ son tout,
sa mieux amie" Her presence assured the triumph of
1 Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Va/ois, Reine de France
et de Navarre, \. 1 1 1 .
61
QUEEN MARGOT
Coligny, who had returned to the Court from which he
had been so long exiled in the previous September, and
had already gained a great influence over the mind of the
impressionable King, as well as over that of his younger
brother Alen^on, who seems to have been completely
fascinated by the genius of the intrepid soldier. " Per-
haps," remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, " it was Coligny who
first implanted in that weak and unstable mind those
seditious seeds which were later to bear fruit."
The two Queens resumed their interrupted confer-
ences, but, as neither would give way an inch, the affair
made little or no progress, and Jeanne complains bitterly
to her son of the manner in which she is being treated,
and particularly of the care which is taken to prevent her
having private interviews with Marguerite ; while she is
inexpressibly shocked at the morals of the Court.
"JEANNE D'ALBRET to HENRI OF NAVARRE.
14 Mon fits, I am forced to negotiate quite contrary
to my expectations and their promises. I am no longer
at liberty to speak to Madame Marguerite even, but only
to the Queen-Mother, qui me traite a la fourche, as my
messenger will inform you. As for Monsieur (the Due
d'Anjou), he likewise endeavours to domineer, though in
a very courteous manner, half in jest, half by deceit.
As for Madame (Marguerite), I only see her in the
Queen's apartments, from which she never stirs, and she
never returns to her own chamber, except during those
hours when it is impossible for me to visit her. She is
always attended by Madame de Curton (her gouvernante\
so that it is impossible tor me to utter a word which the
latter does not hear. I have not yet shown Madame
your letter, but she shall see it. I spoke to her, and she
62
QUEEN MARGOT
is very discreet, and replied, in general terms, of obedience
to you and to myself, in the event of her becoming
your wife.
"... I approve of your letter and will present it to
Madame on the first opportunity. As for her picture,
I will send to Paris and secure one for you. She is
beautiful, discreet, and graceful ; but she has been reared
in the midst of the most vicious and corrupt society that
ever existed. No one that I see here is exempt from its
evil influences, your cousin [the Marquise de Villars] is
so greatly changed that she exhibits no sign of religion ;
if it be not that she abstains from attending Mass (!) ; for
in all else, save that she refrains from this idolatry, she
conducts herself like other Papists, and my sister Madame
la Princesse sets an even worse example. This I write
you in confidence. The bearer of this letter will tell you
how the King emancipates himself; it is a pity. I would
not for any consideration in the world that you should
abide here. For this reason, I desire to see you married,
that you and your wife may withdraw yourselves from
this corruption ; for, although I believed it to be very
great, it surpasses my anticipation. Here it is not the
men who solicit the women, but the women the men.
If you were here, you would never escape, save by some
remarkable mercy of God. I send you a favour to wear
beneath your ear, since you are now for sale, and some
studs for your cap.
"... I entreat you to pray earnestly to God, for you
have great need of Him at all times, and that He will
help you. And I pray to Him for it, and that He will
give you, my son, what you desire. From Blois, from
your good mother and best friend
"(Signed) JEANNE."
63
QUEEN MARGOT
"Since writing the above, finding no means of deliver-
ing your letter to Madame (Marguerite), I have repeated
to her its contents. She made answer that, before these
negotiations began, you were well aware of the religion
that she professed and of her devotion to it. I told her
that those who had made the first overtures had repre-
sented the matter very differently and that, had it not
been for this conviction, I should not have consented to
the marriage ; nevertheless, while it was yet time, I
besought her to reflect well. At other times, when I
have spoken to her on the subject, she has never answered
so peremptorily and even rudely. I believe, however,
Madame speaks as she has been commanded to speak ;
also, that the story respecting her inclination for the
reformed doctrines was merely a device to lure me on to
this negotiation. I never miss an opportunity to draw
from her some avowal which may console me. I inquired
of her this evening whether she had any message to send
you. Madame for some time made no reply ; but at
length, upon my pressing her for an answer, she replied
that "she could not send you any message without
having first obtained permission ; but that I was to
present to you her compliments and to say you were to
come to" Court. But I, my son, bid you do quite the
contrary.*'
Catherine de' Medici was, above all things, anxious
to draw the young prince to Blois ; as she was probably
well aware that he had inherited his father's (Antoine de
Bourbon's) weakness for beauty, and did not doubt that,
once among the temptations of the Court, she would be
able to gain his consent to concessions which she might
seek in vain from his obstinate mother, if not through
64
QUEEN MARGOT
the good offices of his charming bride-elect, then through
those of one of the"^' creatures more divine than human "
who formed her renowned " escadron volant" Henri, how-
ever, who had the deepest veneration for his mother and
implicit confidence in her sagacity, preferred to follow
her instructions and remained at Pau, all the more readily
that he was at this time the slave of a fair lady of the
Court of Navarre, and far from disposed to leave his
mistress, even for "the hunting, banqueting and other
pleasures" mentioned by Charles IX., in a very pressing
invitation which he despatched to him.
If Henri had followed his mother to Blois, he would
have had an opportunity of seeing his bride-elect in
circumstances which might have caused him to quite
forget the beaux yeux of his mistress, for on Palm Sunday
1572, Marguerite appeared in the State procession and,
if we are to believe Brantome, ravished every one by
her marvellous beauty and the sumptuousness of her
attire.
" I saw her in the procession,'* he writes, " so beautiful
that nothing in the world could be seen so fair ; because,
besides the beauty of her face and form, she was most
superbly and most richly adorned and apparelled. Her
lovely fair face, which resembled the heavens in their
sweetest and calmest serenity, was adorned about the head
by so great a quantity of large pearls and costly jewels
and, in particular, by sparkling diamonds worn in the
form of scars, that people declared that the serenity of the
face and the arrangement of the jewels resembled the sky
when it is very starry. Her beautiful body, with its full
tall form, was robed in a gown of crinkled cloth-of-gold,
the richest and most beautiful ever seen in France. The
stuff was a gift made by the Grand Seigneur to M. de
65
QUEEN MARGOT
Grand -Champ, on his departure from Constantinople,
where he was Ambassador, it being the Grand Seigneur's
custom to present to those who are sent to him by the
great States a piece of the said stuff amounting to fifteen
ells ; which, Grand-Champ assured me, cost one hundred
crowns the ell, and it was a masterpiece. He, on his
coming to France, not knowing how to employ better or
more worthily the gift of so rich a stuff, gave it to
Madame, the sister of the king, who had it made into a
gown and wore it, for the first time, that day, and very
well it became her ; since from one grandeur to another
there is only a hand's breadth. She wore it all day,
although its weight was very great ; but her beautiful,
full, strong figure supported it well and aided her greatly,
since had she been a little dwarf of a princess or a dame
only elbow-high, as I have seen some, she would assuredly
have died under the weight, or else had been forced to
change her gown and take another. Nor is this all, for,
being in the procession, walking according to her high
rank, her face uncovered, so as not to deprive the people
of its kindly light, she seemed more beautiful still, by
bearing everywhere in her hand a palm-branch, as our
queens of all time have been wont to do, with royal
majesty, with a grace, half-proud, half-sweet, and in a
manner little common and so different from all the rest
that whosoever had never seen her and known her would
have said : * Here is a princess who is above the run of
all others in the world ! ' And we courtiers went about
declaring with one voice boldly : ' This beautiful princess
does well to bear a palm in her hand, since she bears it
away from all others in the world, and surpasses them all
in beauty, in grace, and in every perfection. Then I swear
to you that in this procession we forgot our devotions
66
QUEEN MARGOT
and did not make them, while contemplating and admir-
ing this divine princess, who ravished us more than
divine service, and yet we thought we committed no sin ;
for whoso contemplates and admires a divinity on earth
does not offend that of Heaven, inasmuch as He made her
such.' '
In the meanwhile, the negotiations between the two
queens had come to an absolute deadlock, for, in addition
to the points already in dispute, fresh difficulties had
arisen, relative to the manner in which the marriage was
to be solemnised. To discuss the momentous questions
involved, Jeanne, having received the king's permission
to consult whom she pleased, summoned to Blois three
prominent Huguenot divines, Merlin de Vaulx, Espinosa,
and Vinet, and also called into consultation the English
Ambassadors, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Thomas
Smith. Walsingham, in a despatch to Burleigh, gives the
following account of the interview :
" WALSINGHAM to BURLEIGH.
"Blois, May 29, 1572.
"Since I wrote last unto your lordship, there hath
fallen out nothing worthy of advertisement. The matter
of the marriage between the prince of Navar [sic] and
the Lady Marguerite continueth doubtful, whereof Sir
Thomas Smith and I have more cause so to judge, for
that the fourteenth of this month it pleased the Queen of
Navar [j/V] to send for us to dinner. Immediately upon
our coming, she showed unto us how, with the consent
of the Queen-Mother, she had sent for us (as the Ministers
and Ambassadors of a Christian Princess she had sundry
causes to honour) to confer with us and certain others,
in whom she reposed great trust, touching certain diffi-
67
QUEEN MARGOT
culties that were impeachments to the marriage, which
things she would communicate to us after dinner. She
said to us that now she had the Woolf by the ears, for
that in concluding or not concluding the marriage she
saw danger every way, and that no matter did so trouble
her as this, for that she could not tell how to resolve ;
amongst divers causes of fear, she showed unto us that
two chiefly troubled her.
"The first, that the king would needs have her son
and the Lady Margaret, the marriage proceeding, to be
courtiers, and yet would not yield to grant him any
exercise of religion ; the next way to make him become
an Atheist, as also thereby no hope to grow of the con-
version of the Lady Margaret, for that she would not
resort to any sermon,
" The second, that they would needs condition that,
the Lady Margaret, remaining constant in the Catholic
Faith, should have, whensoever she went to the country
of B6arn, her Mass, a thing which in no wise she can
consent to, having her country of Barn cleansed from all
idolatry. Besides, said she, the Lady Margaret re-
maining a Catholic, whensoever she shall come to remain
in the country of Beam, the Papists there will take her
part, which will breed division in the country, and make
her most unwilling to give ear to the gospel, having a
staff to lean to. After dinner, she sent for us into her
chamber, where we found a dozen others of certain Gent
of the religion and their ministers. She declared briefly
what had passed between the King, Queen-Mother, and
her touching the marriage, as also what was the cause of
the present stay of the same, wherein she desired us to
severally say our opinions and sincerely, as we would
answer unto God. The stay stood on three ooints : First,
68
QUEEN MARGOT
whether she might with a good conscience substitute a
Papist for her son's Proctor for the Fiansals, which was
generally agreed she might. Secondly, whether the
Proctor going to Mass after the Fiansals, which was
expressly forbidden in his letters procuratory, would not
breed an offence to the godly. It was agreed that this
would be no offence. Thirdly, whether she might
consent that the Fiansals might be pronounced by a
Priest in his priestly attire, with his Surplice and Stole.
This latter point was long debated, and for that, the
Ministers concluded that the same, though it were a
thing indifferent, could not but breed a general offence to
the godly. She protested that she would never consent to
do that thing whereof might grow any public scandal, for
that she knew, she said, she would so incur God's high
displeasure ; upon which protestation, it was generally
concluded that, in that case, she might not yield thereto,
her own conscience gainsaying the same, so that now the
marriage is held generally for broken. Notwithstanding,
I am of the contrary opinion, and do think assuredly
that hardly any cause will make them break, so many
necessary causes there are that the same should proceed.
By the next, I shall be able to advertise your lordship of
the certainty of the marriage. . ." 1
Walsingham's prediction was verified. Charles IX., who
was firmly resolved upon the marriage, losing patience,
determined to take the negotiations out of the hands of the
two queens and entrust them to a commission, half of
its members to be nominated by himself and the other
half by Jeanne d'Albret. The Commissioners chosen by
the king were Birague, the Keeper of the Seals, Biron,
1 Published by Bingham, " Marriages of the Bourbons," i. 163.
69
QUEEN MARGOT
the Comtes de Retz and de Mauleverier ; those appointed
by the Queen of Navarre were Francoeur, Chancellor
of Navarre, Count Louis of Nassau, La Noue, and
her secretary, Le Royer. The commissioners, however,
seemed no more able to agree than had the royal ladies ;
and, in despair, Charles suddenly declared it to be his
pleasure to discard all conditions whatever and to pro-
ceed forthwith to stipulate the articles of his sister's
marriage-contract, provided only that the Queen of
Navarre would consent to her son coming to receive the
hand of his bride in person, in place of the marriage
being celebrated by procuration. The King's proposal
was acceded to by Jeanne, though not, it would appear,
without grave misgivings.
There still remained, however, an obstacle to be sur-
mounted. Both Marguerite and Henri of Navarre were
descended from Charles of Valois, Comte d'Angouleme,
the father of Francois I. and were consequently cousins in
the third degree, a relationship which, remote though it
was, required the dispensation of the Holy See before a
marriage could be contracted. This dispensation had
been sought by Charles IX., through his Ambassador at
the Vatican, the skilful de Marie and the French cardinals.
But Pius V., who still continued to protest against a union
which not only offended his conscience but threatened
to ruin all his political combinations, indignantly re-
fused it, declaring that sooner than grant dispensation
of marriage to a heretic he would " lose his head."
In the meanwhile, on April n, 1572, without waiting
for the response of the Vatican, the treaty of marriage *
1 This treaty has been confounded by many writers with the marriage
contract which was signed in Paris on the following August 17. The
deed of April II was a kind of provisionally convention.
70
QUEEN MARGOT
had been signed in the great hall of the Chateau of Blois.
Charles IX. agreed to give his sister the sum of 300,000
golden ecus of 54 sols tournois each, in return for which she
was to renounce all her rights on the property of the
family, on both her father's and her mother's side ;
Catherine promised her 200,000 livres and the Dues
d'Anjou and d'Alen^on each 25,000 livres, which were to
be employed in the purchase of Rentes on the Hotel de
Ville in Paris. But all this was never paid, it appears,
or at least only a part of it. Jeanne d'Albret, on her
part, covenanted to surrender to her son on his mar-
riage the revenues of the country of Armagnac, 12,000
livres of dowry, which she had on the county of
Harle, and the lands ceded to her by the Cardinal de
Bourbon on her marriage with Antoine de Bourbon.
She also proclaimed him her universal heir. Marguerite's
dowry, in the event of her surviving her husband, was
fixed at the annual sum of 40,000 livres tournois, secured
on the revenue of the Duchy of Vendome, with the
Chateau of Vendome, furnished, as a residence. Prince
Henri, moreover, was to expend a sum of 30,000 livres
in furniture and decorations for the palace of his future
bride. Finally, the Cardinal de Bourbon promised his
nephew the sum of 100,000 livres on the estate of
Chateauneuf, in Thimerais, to renounce in his favour all
the rights which belonged to him as the head of the
family, and to recognise him as the real heir of the
House of Bourbon.
The questions of where the marriage was to take place
and the ceremonial to be observed on that occasion re-
mained to be decided. We have seen that, at the begin-
ning of the negotiations, Jeanne d'Albret had absolutely
refused to consent to the nuptials being celebrated in
7*
QUEEN MARGOT
Paris, and several of the Huguenot leaders were also
strongly opposed to a marriage in the capital. They
knew how rancorous was the hostility of the Parisians to
the reformed religion, how bitterly they resented the
Peace of Saint-Germain and the growing influence of the
Huguenot party, and how complete was the ascendency
of the Guises over the excitable populace. To trust
themselves in the midst of a city whose inhabitants
regarded them with such feelings, seemed to them
the height of imprudence, for, with all the good
will in the world, the king might be powerless to
save them, if once the frenzied fanaticism of the mob
were to be aroused. However, the King and Queen-
Mother had so many reasons to allege in favour of the
capital that it was impossible to gainsay them. They
pointed out that it was the immemorial custom of the
kings of France to marry the royal princesses in the
metropolis of their realm ; that it would be impossible
to hold the festivities proper to such an occasion in any
of the royal residences except the Louvre ; that to cele-
brate their marriage elsewhere would not only cause the
greatest disappointment among the nobility, but would
be deeply resented by the Parisians, who would regard it
as a reflection upon their loyalty; finally, that the import-
ance of the alliance, which was intended to proclaim to
France and to all Europe that the internal dissensions
which had so long distracted the realm were at length
appeased, imperatively demanded that it should be solem-
nised in the capital and with all possible magnificence.
Very reluctantly, Jeanne yielded to their Majesties'
desire ; but the Huguenot chiefs proposed that, since to
Paris they must go, they would proceed thither in such
force as to render any attempt against them on the part
72
QUEEN MARGOT
of the Guises and their partisans worse than useless.
This suggestion was strongly opposed by the Queen, as
being likely to provoke the very calamity which they
feared ; but, after her untimely death, her wishes were dis-
regarded ; a fatal error which, as we shall presently see,
was to be fraught with the most disastrous consequences.
Towards the end of April, Pius V. died and was
succeeded by Gregory XIII., a pontiff of a more pliable
disposition. Nevertheless, the new Pope did not at first
show himself any more favourably disposed towards the
marriage than had his predecessor, for, although he
promised to accord the necessary dispensation on account
of relationship, it was hedged in by such restrictions and
conditions as to make his consent little better than a
disguised refusal. Firstly, the Prince of Navarre must
make a profession of the Catholic Faith, in the presence
of Charles IX Secondly, the Prince of Navarre must
himself solicit, or cause to be solicited on his behalf, the
said dispensation. Thirdly, he must re-establish the
Catholic clergy, both regular and secular, of his dominions
in possession of all the benefices and property of which
they had been deprived. Finally, the marriage must be
solemnised according to the ritual of Holy Church,
without any alterations whatsoever.
Charles IX. flew into a violent passion when informed
of the attitude taken up by the new Pope ; and, on
Jeanne d'Albret, whose health had for some time past
been gradually failing, expressing a wish to retire to
Vendome, pending the settlement of the negotiations
with the Holy See, exclaimed : " No, no, ma tante ; I
honour you more than I do the Pope, and I love my
sister more than I fear his Holiness. I am not a
Huguenot, but neither am I a fool. If M. le Pape
73
QUEEN MARGOT
conducts himself too absurdly in this affair, I promise
you that I will myself take Margot by the hand and lead
her to be married in full preche." l
On their side, the bigoted Calvinistic divines, Merlin
de Vaulx, Espinosa and the rest, to whose counsel the
Queen of Navarre was wont to pay so much deference,
endeavoured to impose all kinds of vexatious conditions
in regard to the ceremony to be observed at the marriage.
They insisted that the Cardinal de Bourbon, who had
been chosen by the King to perform the ceremony,
" should array himself only in the vestments which the
said cardinal wears on ordinary occasions, such as when
he attends the Royal Council in the court of the Parle-
ment, and that during the ceremony he should content
himself with delivering the ring only to the parties,
without uttering the accustomed benediction ; that the
Prince of Navarre, though, if he received the express
commands of his Majesty, he might accompany the said
Majesty into the Cathedral of Notre-Dame (the marriage,
it should be mentioned, was to be celebrated on a platform
erected before the portal of Notre-Dame, according to
the ancient custom at the marriage of a daughter of
France), should quit the cathedral before the commence-
ment of the Romish service, by the same door as he
entered, the prince taking his departure in as conspicuous
a manner as possible, in the sight of all, that it may at
once be most evident that he appeared there with no
intention of assisting at Mass or at any other ceremony
whatever ; " and so forth.
The document embodying these conditions was pre-
sented to Charles IX. and the Queen-Mother by Jeanne
d'Albret, who expressed her intention of adhering to
1 L'Estoile
QUEEN MARGOT
them to the letter. The King, eager to get the affair
concluded, assented to her demands, and begged the
Queen to do all in her power to hasten matters, so that
the marriage might be celebrated so soon as the Cardinal
de Lorraine, who had been despatched to Rome, had
succeeded in overcoming the scruples of the Vatican.
This Jeanne promised to do and, a day or two later,
took leave of their Majesties and set out for Paris.
75
CHAPTER VI
Jeanne d'Albret arrives in Paris Her illness and death
Suspicions of poisoning Result of the autopsy An "amusing
incident" Grief of Henri of Navarre on learning of his
mother's death His entry into Paris Imprudent conduct of
the Huguenots who accompany the King of Navarre exasperates
the Parisians Growing influence of Coligny with Charles IX.
He urges the King to assist the revolted Netherlands against
Spain Jealousy and alarm of Catherine de' Medici Mar-
riage of the Prince de Condd and Henriette de Cleves
Marriage of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois
Festivities at the Louvre Allegorical entertainment at the
H6tel du Petit-Bourbon.
AT the beginning of the last week in May, Jeanne
d'Albret arrived in Paris and took up her quarters at the
Hotel de Conde, Rue de Grenelle-Saint-Honore. 1 Her
ostensible reason in preceding the Court to the capital,
was to make extensive purchases in view of the
approaching marriage ; jewels and other costly gifts for
her future daughter-in-law, suitable equipment for her-
self and her suite, and so forth ; but, in reality, to ascertain
the temper of the citizens towards the House of Bourbon,
ere trusting her beloved son to their hospitality ; for, as
we have mentioned, she entertained the most profound
dislike and distrust of the Parisians. On the evening of
June 4, on her return from a shopping exhibition, the
1 ScTeral historians state that the Queen went to reside at the hotel
of Jean Guillart, the excommunicated Bishop of Chartres, but this is
incorrect.
76
QUEEN MARGOT
Queen complained of feeling unwell ; during the night
she became much worse, and, on June 9, in spite of all
the efforts of her physicians, she died at the age of
forty-four.
Sinister rumours circulated among the little group of
Huguenots around the death-bed and quickly spread
through the city. A visit which the Queen had paid, on
the day of her sudden seizure, to the shop of Catherine
de' Medici's Florentine perfumer Rene (" a man," says
L'Estoile, " impregnated with all kinds of wickedness,
who lived on murders, thefts and poisonings ") was con-
sidered a most suspicious circumstance, and it was freely
asserted that she had been poisoned. "It was suspected,"
says La Planche, " that the Queen-Mother had had
recourse to Maitre Rene, her reputed poisoner, who, in
selling his perfumes and scented ruffs to the Queen,
contrived to administer poison to her, from the effects of
which she died shortly afterwards." Such writers as
L'Estoile, Othagaray, de Thou, and M6zeray have not
feared to add their testimony to the common prejudice ;
but there can be no question that Jeanne's health had
been gradually failing for some time past, and the most
trustworthy evidence, such as that of Palma Cayet,
Henry IV.'s tutor, Favyn, the historian of Navarre, and
the surgeons, Caillard and Desnceuds, who assisted the
Queen in her last moments, all goes to indicate that she
died a natural death.
At the autopsy, held by order of Charles IX., by his
first surgeon and Jeanne's medical attendants, in the
presence of certain officers of the deceased Queen's
household, all the organs were found to be healthy and
free from disease, with the exception of the lungs. " A
large abscess was there discovered, which had broken, the
77
QUEEN MARGOT
secretion being partially absorbed by the lungs, which
were besides very extensively diseased."
Several Protestant writers have declared that the
autopsy was valueless, "since the brain was not ex-
amined " ; but this is quite untrue. It appears that, some
time previously, Caillard had received special instructions
from the Queen that after her death an examination was
to be made of her brain, " in order to discover from what
cause proceeded the itching sensation which she so often
experienced on the crown of her head, so that if the
prince her son or the princess her daughter were afflicted
by the same, they might know what remedy to apply."
These instructions were duly carried out by Desnceuds,
under Caillard's directions ; and it was found that the
irritation proceeded " from certain vesicles full of water
lying between the brain and the membrane investing it.'*
Caillard distinctly stated that the Queen died from the
bursting of an abscess on the lungs, and Desnceuds was
of the same opinion. " Messieurs," said the latter,
addressing his colleagues, " if her Majesty had died, as
has been wrongly asserted, from having smelt some
poisonous object, the marks would be perceptible on the
coating of the brain ; but, on the contrary, the brain is
healthful and as free from disease as possible. If her
Majesty had died from swallowing poison, traces of such
would have been visible in the stomach, where we can
discover nothing of the kind. There is no other cause,
therefore, for her Majesty's decease but rupture of an
abscess on the lungs." l
" It may also be observed," remarks the Queen's
English biographer, Miss Freer, a writer by no means
disposed to leniency where Catherine de' Medici is
1 Palma Cayet, Chronologic norennaire.
78
QUEEN MARGOT
concerned, " that the symptoms attending Jeanne's malady
were not of a nature to be produced by poison ; also, that
the Queen herself, during an illness which lasted five days,
suspected nothing of the kind, or she would have
imparted her suspicions to Coligny, in the course of their
frequent confidential interviews, that he might warn and
protect her son against a similar fate. The Admiral,
on the contrary, insisted on the expediency of Henri's
journey to Paris to perform the contract negotiated for
him by his lamented mother. 1
The remains of Jeanne d'Albret lay in state for five
days, during which the principal personages of the Court
came to pay the deceased queen the formal visit which
etiquette required. " On this occasion," writes Mar-
guerite, " such an amusing incident took place that,
although it is unworthy to be recorded in history, it may
be privately mentioned between you and me. Madame
de Nevers, 2 whose disposition you know, went, with the
Cardinal de Bourbon, Madame de Guise, the Princess de
Conde, her sisters and myself, to the lodgings of the late
Queen of Navarre, in order to acquit ourselves of the
last tribute of respect due to her rank and to the relation-
ship we bore her ; not, however, with the pomps and
ceremonies which our religion sanctions, but with the mean
ceremonial permitted by Huguenoterie ; that is to say,
she was lying in her ordinary bed, the curtains of which
were drawn back, without tapers, priests, cross, or holy
water. Madame de Nevers, whom the Queen, in her
lifetime, had detested above every other person in the
world, and who paid her back by word and deed in the
1 Jeanne d'Albret.
* Henrietta de Cleves, wife of Ludovic de Gonzague, Due dc
Nevers.
79
QUEEN MARGOT
same coin for, as you are aware, she knew how to spite
those whom she hated stepped from among us and, with
sundry fine, humble, and low curtseys, approached the
bed and, taking the Queen's hand in her own, kissed it ;
then, with another profound reverence, full of respect,
returned to our side ; we, who knew of their hatred,
appreciating all this."
The deceased Queen had left instructions for her
interment in the sepulchre of her family, in the cathedral
of Lescar, near Pau ; but her wishes were disregarded
and, by the orders of Charles IX., her remains were
conveyed to Vendome and deposited near those of her
husband, Antoine de Bourbon.
Henri of Navarre, who had quitted Barn on his way
to Paris, in the early days of June, had arrived at
Chaunay, in Poitou, when the news of his mother's death
reached him. Already in somewhat indifferent health,
the blow, which was totally unexpected, completely
prostrated him and brought on a violent attack of fever,
so that Jeanne had already been laid to rest when he
arrived at Vendome. Here he remained for several days,
and appears to have had some thought of demanding that
the marriage should be indefinitely postponed and
returning to Beam, but Coligny, who fondly imagined
that the match was to be the dawn of a new era, wrote
letter after letter to induce him to continue his journey,
and eventually he yielded to the Admiral's representations,
and, on July 20, made his solemn entry into Paris,
accompanied by his cousin, the Prince de Conde, and
eight hundred Huguenot gentlemen, all wearing long
mourning mantles of black cloth.
In the Faubourg Saint- Antoine the young King was
80
QUEEN MARGOT
received by the Dues d'Anjou and d'Alen^on, the
Cardinal de Bourbon, the Dues de Guise and Montpensier,
the Marechaux de Montmorency, de Cosse, d'Amville,
and Tavannes, and about four hundred gentlemen of the
Court. The usual compliments having been exchanged
hollow enough in most instances, we fear the two parties
joined forces and proceeded to the Louvre, through
streets densely thronged with people, who applauded the
Due de Guise and the other Catholic leaders, and respect-
fully saluted the King of Navarre, but cast angry and
threatening glances at the formidable body of Huguenot
nobles and gentlemen who brought up the rear of the
procession. For all that was bravest and most distin-
guished in Protestant France rode there : The gallant La
Rochefoucauld, the grave and chivalrous Teligny,
husband of the Admiral's daughter Louise ; Mont-
gommery, the involuntary slayer of Henri II. ; the
Vidame de Chartres, negotiator of the Treaty of
Hampton Court ; Piles, the heroic defender of Saint-
Jean-d'Angely ; Montclar, Soubise, Renel, Duras,
Grammont, the two Pardaillans, Caumont, Guerchy,
and many others, few of whom were fated ever to see
their homes again.
While the preparations for the marriage were being
made with all that elegance and luxury with which the
Valois knew so well how to invest their festivities, and
the young King of Navarre was engaged in paying his
addresses to the reluctant princess destined to become his
wife, the Court was a hot-bed of intrigue, and the city
seething with suppressed excitement. It is unfortunately
seldom the practice of minorities which, after prolonged
and painful struggles, find power at length in their grasp,
to conduct themselves with tact and moderation, and of
81 F
QUEEN MARGOT
this rule the behaviour of the Huguenots affords a striking
illustration. Ignoring the fact that they were indebted
to the favourable position they now occupied, far less to
their own courage and devotion though, indeed, they
had been courageous and devoted enoughthan to the
exigencies of the Queen-Mother's tortuous policy, they
were at no pains to avoid shocking the susceptibilities of
the Parisians. Their truculent attitude as they passed
fully armed through the streets, the boastful tone of
their conversation, and still more their ostentatious dis-
regard of Catholic observances, combined to render them
intensely obnoxious to the citizens, taught to regard
these " half-foreigners " of the South with horror and
loathing, as despoilers of churches, contemners of the
Mass, and slayers of priests. Moreover, their numbers
roused the greatest apprehension among the more
timorous, who asked themselves, and with some apparent
reason, why, on the occasion of an event which was
supposed to be the pledge and proof of peace and amity
between the rival religions, the King of Navarre should
have chosen to enter Paris at the head of this formidable
array, and feared lest they should be "robbed and
despoiled in their houses."
And just as the conduct of the rank and file of the
Huguenots exasperated the populace of Paris, so did
the pretensions of Coligny cause alarm and resentment
at the Court.
We have said that the Admiral had, from the time or
his visit to the King at Blois, in the previous September,
acquired a great influence over Charles IX., and this
influence had steadily increased until it threatened to
completely eclipse that of the Queen-Mother. The
King was so entirely dominated by the Huguenot leader
82
QUEEN MARGOT
that he devoted to him entire days ; in his cabinet, at
the Louvre, the Admiral remained with him until a late
hour at night ; and, in his Majesty's absence, he presided
at the Council ; at his request, the Croix de Gastines, at
Paris, which was specially offensive to Huguenot senti-
ment, as commemorating the destruction of a house and
the execution of two of their number, was removed ;
many of the Huguenot grievances were listened to and
satisfaction promised; for the moment, he seemed master
of the situation.
It was the one healthy influence that had come into
Charles's life ; the Admiral bade him remember that he
was King of France and encouraged in him the desire to
be a great king a warrior like Charles VIII., like
Louis XII., like Francois I., his grandfather. And ever,
in season and out of season, he urged him to take part
openly in the struggle of the revolted Netherlands
against Spain. His object was a threefold one. In the
first place, he knew that, sooner or later, a conflict with
Spain was inevitable, unless France were prepared to sink
into a subordinate position in Western Europe. It were
surely better that that conflict should come while Philip
had his hands full than at the time of Spain's own
choosing. In the second, he naturally desired to assist
his co-religionists in the Low Countries to shake off the
intolerable yoke under which they had so long groaned.
But, most of all, he desired war, because he perceived
that a foreign war, which would unite all parties in one
common cause, was the surest, nay, the only guarantee
of internal peace.
Catherine's position was indeed an embarrassing one.
Distrusted by the extreme Catholics for her concessions
to the Huguenots, denounced as a second Jezebel by the
83
QUEEN MARGOT
bigoted Calvinists, and intensely unpopular with the
people, as a foreigner and for favouring the Italian
adventurers who infested the court, she now found
herself threatened with the loss of her son's confidence
and of that power which was the great object of her life.
" The Admiral was taking away from her her little one,
whom she had so well accustomed to obey her and to do
nothing save according to her will. A declaration of
war was to be risked without her sanction or approval." 1
She, who, by so many sacrifices, so many labours, such
sagacity and penetration, had monopolised the power and
guided the realm for nearly eleven years ! A war by
Coligny's orders, a war against Spain, the King at the head
of the troops, with the flower of France around him, and
the Admiral, instigator of everything, active and
ubiquitous ! What would she be then ? A woman in
the State, but no longer the Regent, no longer that great
Queen-Mother, so much dreaded and obeyed ! She saw
the danger ; and the Louvre saw it soon. We are on the
eve of her sanguinary work. 2
The marriage of the Prince de Conde with Marie de
Cleves preceded by some days that of his cousin. It
took place, with great rejoicings, on August 10, at the
Chateau of Blandy, near Melun, in the presence of
Charles IX., the King of Navarre, his fiancee, the two
queens, and a large number of noblemen of both reli-
gions ; and was celebrated tout-a-fait a la Huguenefe, a fact
1 The Spanish Ambassador relates that when the King proposed to
consult with Catherine on questions connected with the proposed war,
" the Admiral told him ve'y courteously that they were not questions to
be discussed with women and clerks."
1 Armand Baschet, D if lama tie venitiennc.
84
QUEEN MARGOT
which still further exasperated the fanatical Catholics of
Paris. The royal wedding had been fixed for Monday,
August 1 8 ; but on the Saturday the Papal dispensation,
to obtain which de Marie, the French Ambassador at
Rome, aided by the Cardinal de Lorraine, had been using
every possible means of persuasion for weeks past, had
not arrived. Charles IX. was beside himself with anxiety
and vexation. To postpone the marriage was impossible
without great inconvenience ; while to celebrate it with-
out the sanction of the Holy See would be to scandalize
the ultra-Catholic party, already sufficiently hostile to the
match, and to cause them to regard it as illegal. More-
over, the Cardinal de Bourbon would almost certainly
refuse to perform it. In their perplexity, the King and
the Queen-Mother resolved to have recourse to fraud, in
order to deceive the public and the cardinal. They
pretended to have received intelligence from Rome that
the dispensation had been duly granted and was on its way
to Paris. This assurance satisfied the scruples of the
cardinal, an easy-going and unsuspicious prelate, and,
much to the relief of his Majesty, he raised no objection
to performing the ceremony. 1
On Sunday, August 17, the marriage-contract was
signed at the Louvre, and Henri and Marguerite formally
betrothed by the Cardinal de Bourbon. After a magnifi-
cent supper, followed by a ball, the princess was conducted,
in great pomp, by the whole of the Royal Family to the
palace of the Archbishop of Paris, where she passed the
1 On the morrow of the marriage, Catherine de' Medici wrote to
Rome to excuse their action, representing that it would have been
impossible to defer the union longer " without danger of several incon-
veniences " ; and at the end of October, Henri of Navarre, having
in the meanwhile become a Catholic, the dispensation was granted.
85
QUEEN MARGOT
night ; such being the traditional custom on the occasion
of the marriage of a daughter of France. 1
The following day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a
brilliant cortege quitted the Louvre. The procession
was headed by a hundred gentlemen of the King's House-
hold, bearing halberds, the heralds-at-arms with their
tabards, emblazoned with the Arms of France, and the
Guards with their clarions, trumpets and cymbals. Then
came the King of Navarre, accompanied by the Dues
d'Anjou and d' Alenc.cn, the Prince de Conde and his
younger brother, the Marquis de Conti, the Due de Mont-
pensier and his son, the Dauphin of Auvergne, of whom
the four last-named belonged to the House of Bourbon,
and followed by Coligny, Guise, the Svlarechaux de France
and a distinguished body of nobles of the two religions,
of which this marriage was to seal the reconciliation.
Henri of Navarre had assumed the crown which the
recent death of his mother had placed upon his head, and
had discarded his mourning for " a costume of pale
yellow satin, covered with raised embroideries, enriched
with pearls and precious stones." Similar coats were
worn by the Dues d'Anjou and d' Alenc.cn. " M. d'Anjou,
amongst other jewels in his cap, had thirty-two pearls of
twelve carats, famous pearls bought for the occasion at
1 The marriage-contract was substantially the same as the treaty, signed
on the previous April 1 1, save that Henri, who now took the titles of
"King of Navarre, by the Grace of God, sovereign lord of Bearn,/<>
de France, Due de Vendome, d'Albret, de Beaumont, de Gaudie, de
Montblanc, et de Pegnafiel, Comte de Foix, d'Armagnac, de Marie,
Bigorre, et Rodez, Vicomte de Limoges, Marsan, et Lautrec ; governor
for the King of France and his lieutenant-general and admiral in Vienne,"
relinquished to his bride the revenues of the counties of Marie, Chatel-
lenies, de la Fere, Ham, Bohain and Beauvoir, with the right to dispose
of their offices and benefices.
86
QUEEN MARGOT
Gonella, at a cost of 23,000 golden ecus." 1 It was re-
marked that, with the exception of the bridegroom, all
the Protestant nobles affected a Puritan simplicity of
attire, while the Catholics displayed the greatest osten-
tation.
The cavalcade proceeded to the archbishop's palace,
from which presently emerged the bride, conducted by
the King, " whose cap, poniard, and raiment," says the
Venetian Ambassador, " represented from five to six
hundred thousand ecus, and followed by the Queen, the
Queen-Mother, the Duchess of Lorraine, and more than
one hundred and twenty ladies of the Court, " brilliant in
the most splendid stuffs, such as brocade, cloth-of-gold,
and velvet brocaded in gold and laced with silver," and
covered with diamonds, rubies and other precious stones.
Marguerite was attired in a robe of violet spangled with
fleurs-de-lys, " with the crown, and the couet of speckled
ermine, which was worn on the front of the body, all glit-
tering with the Crown jewels and the large blue mantle,
with a train four ells long, which was borne by three
princesses." 2 Thus dressed a la royale, according to her
own expression, " flashing with diamonds and jewels, but
more seducing still by the power of her own charms,
she advanced adorned for the sacrifice."
A magnificent amphitheatre, covered with cloth-of-gold,
with side-galleries, one of which, passing through the
nave, led to the choir, and the other to the episcopal
palace, had been erected before the porch of Notre-Dame.
Along the latter, the Court made its way, while an
enormous concourse of people thronged the windows and
1 Giovanni Michieli, Relazicne della corte a'i Francia, cited by Armand
Baschet, la Diplomatic venitienne.
* Me moires et lettret <U Marguerite de Valols (edit. Guessard).
87
QUEEN MARGOT
roofs of the adjoining houses, and surged and jostled one
another below the platform, in order to catch a glimpse
of the procession. That the marriage was intensely
unpopular among the Parisians was evident from the
behaviour of the spectators. There was an almost com-
plete absence of the enthusiasm usually manifested on
such occasions ; curiosity alone seemed to have brought
them together, and the King and the other members of
the Royal Family were suffered to pass by with hardly an
acclamation. At the far end of the amphitheatre, by the
door of the cathedral, the Cardinal de Bourbon was
awaiting the youthful pair, and the marriage was per-
formed according to the formula previously agreed upon
by the two parties. Davila relates that when the cardinal
asked Marguerite, whose deathly pallor and dejected air
appeared to many to augur but ill for the happiness of
the marriage, whether she accepted the King of Navarre
for her husband, she refused to reply, whereupon
Charles IX. gave her a little push at the back of her
head " to make her give that sign of consent, in lieu of
speech." l
After the marriage was concluded, the bridal pair,
with their suites, proceeded along a platform into the
cathedral, as far as the tribune separating the nave from
the choir. Here they found two flights of steps, one of
which led down to the choir, the other through the nave
out of the church. Marguerite and the Catholics
1 According to Mezeray, it was the Cardinal de Bourbon who
made the princess bow her head. " It was at this moment," adds
Mongez, " that the Duke de Guise, who had raised himself above the
other nobles to watch the face and eyes of Marguerite, received such a
threatening glance from Charles IX. that he well-nigh lost con-
sciousness."
88
QUEEN MARGOT
descended the former to hear the Mass ; while the King
of Navarre and the Huguenot nobles quitted the church
and made their way into the cloisters to wait until the
conclusion of the service.
Mass ended, Marechal d'Amville came to conduct the
King of Navarre back to his wife, whom he embraced in
the presence of her family. 1 The bridal cortege then
returned to the archbishop's palace, where a superb
banquet had been prepared, during which heralds-at-arms
flung gold medals among the crowd, some of which were
engraven with the initials of the bride and bridegroom,
interlaced and encircled by the motto : " Constricta hoc
discordia vinclo " ; while others bore a lamb and 'a cross,
with the device : " Vobis annuntio pacem."
When the Court returned to the Louvre, the people
were more demonstrative than they had been earlier in
the day. But the applause was not for the bridal pair,
nor for the King of France ; it was for the idol of the
Parisian populace, the Due de Guise, who bowed and
smiled repeatedly in .response to the acclamations of the
mob.
On his arrival at the palace, the king held a Court and
was extremely gracious to all who presented themselves,
notably to the deputations from the Parlement and
public bodies of the city, who came to offer him their
felicitations on his sister's marriage. In the evening,
there was a grand ball, in the great hall of the Louvre,
1 As they re-entered the church, d'Amville pointed out to Coligny the
standards captured from the Protestants at Jarnac and Montcentour,
which hung from the arches of the cathedral. " Those are mournful
trophies," remarked the Admiral, with a smile ; " but they will soon
give place to others more agreeable to us ; " the allusion being to those
which he hoped to capture from the Spaniards, in Flanders.
89
QUEEN MARGOT
which was attended by all the rank and beauty of France
The famous squadron of the Queen-Mother's maids-of-
honour was in full force, and their combined charms
quite overcame the Legate, who exclaimed to the King of
Navarre : " Cest bien k plus gracieux escadron du monde"
" Et le plus dangereux, Monseigneur" replied the Bearnais,
laughing. The ball was succeeded by a ballet, a form of
entertainment which in those days had all the charm of
novelty. Three chariots, entered "in the shape of rocks
of silver," full of musicians ; on one was the celebrated
singer Etienne Leroy, who delighted the company with
his melodious voice. Other chariots contained niches
" formed by four columns of silver and containing a
divinity of the seas " ; while others again represented sea-
lions, " the body ending in a fish's tail, which bore other
divinities dressed in cloth-of-gold and seated on silver
shells." Finally, appeared a gilded hippopotamus, on the
tail of which sat the King himself, attired as Neptune
with his trident in his hand ; while the King of Navarre
and the Princes of the Blood were distributed among the
other chariots. All these chariots traversed the great hall
of the Louvre, and when they stopped, musicians sang
verses composed by the best poets in the service of the
court. *
On the morrow, August 19, the Court proceeded to
the Hotel d'Anjou, where the King of Navarre had
caused a magnificent banquet to be prepared, at the
conclusion of which it returned to the Louvre, for a
second ball, which lasted until a late hour. On the
Wednesday, there was an allegorical entertainment,
devised by the Duke d'Anjou at the Hotel du Petit
Mongez, H'utoire de Marguerite de Pa/ait.
90
QUEEN MARGOT
Bourbon, 1 which aroused a good deal of comment.
" In the hall of the palace, a paradise or heaven had
been constructed, the entrance to which was defended
by the King and his two brothers, fully armed. On the
other side was hell, in which there were many devils
and little imps making a racket and playing monkey-
tricks, and a great wheel, entirely surrounded by little
wheels, revolving in the said hell. A river, traversed by
Charon's bark, separated hell from paradise. Beyond
the latter were the Elysian Fields, represented by a garden
adorned by foliage and all kinds of flowers, surmounted
by the empyrean heaven, that is to say a wheel bearing
the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the seven planets, and
an infinitude of little crystal stars. The wheel was in
continual motion and caused also the revolution of the
paradise, in which there were twelve nymphs simply
attired. Several knight-errants, led by the King of
Navarre, presented themselves and endeavoured to fight
their way into paradise and carry off the nymphs. But
the three knights who guarded its entrance repulsed
them. The latter, having broken their lances and fought
for some time with their swords, precipitated them into
Tartarus, where they were dragged away by the devils
and furies. The combat lasted until the attacking
knights had been led away and imprisoned in hell. Then
Mercury and Cupid descended from heaven, and made the
air resound with their songs. Mercury was represented
by Etienne Leroy, the celebrated singer. Having reached
1 The H6tel, or Palais, du Petit-Bourbon, which had been built by
Charles V., was situated between the Louvre and the Church of Saint-
Germain-l'Auxerrois. It was partially demolished in 1653, though the
last buildings, which were used by the Garde-Meuble, remained standing
for nearly a century longer.
9*
QUEEN MARGOT
the earth, they approached the guardians of paradise,
felicitated them on their victory, and ascended once more
to heaven. The knights went to seek the nymphs and
performed with them, around a fountain which occupied
the middle of the hall, a variety of dances, which lasted
more than an hour. After this, they yielded to the
prayers of the assembly and delivered the imprisoned
knights, fought pell-mell with them, and broke their
lances. The whole hall was filled with the sparks and
flames which spurted forth from the shock of their
weapons. But soon a great explosion was heard, accom-
panied by a whirlwind of flame, which, in a short
while, consumed all the scenery and brought this Gothic
spectacle to a close." 1
The festivities terminated on Thursday, August 21,
by a grand tournament in front of the Louvre. On one
side appeared Charles IX. and his two brothers, and the
Dues de Guise and d'Aumale, disguised as Amazons ;
on the other, the King of Navarre and several nobles of
his suite, dressed in Turkish costume, in robes of rich
brocade, with turbans on their heads. The three queens
and the Court watched the combat from balconies erected
on either side of the lists.
1 Mongez, Histoire de Marguerite de Valois.
CHAPTER VII
Suspicions and uneasiness of the Huguenots Coligny is
strongly urged to leave Paris, but is deaf to all appeals
Catherine determines to remove the Admiral from her path
Her coadjutors Her object Attempted assassination of
Coligny Indignation of Charles IX. The Huguenots,
exasperated, indulge in rash and threatening demonstrations
Catherine, fearful of her guilt being brought home to her,
determines on a massacre of the Protestant chiefs Arguments
by which she succeeds in obtaining the consent of the King,
which is given " on condition that not one Huguenot should
be left alive to reproach him" Preparations for the massacre
Marguerite de Valois's account of the night of August 23-24,
1572 The lives of Henri of Navarre and the Prince de
Conde are spared, on condition of their renouncing their
faith Magnanimous conduct of Marguerite in refusing the
Queen-Mother's offer to procure the annulment of her
marriage.
THE part allotted to the King of Navarre and his friends
in the mythological allegory at the Hotel du Petit-Bour-
bon had caused much unfavourable comment among the
Huguenots ; some regarded it as an insult ; others it was
a superstitious age as an evil omen. The Calvinists,
moreover, felt ill at ease in the midst of a city so fiercely
hostile to them, and which, even on the occasion of the
recent marriage, had scarcely troubled to disguise its
animosity ; while the more clear-sighted of them feared
the resentment of Catherine, who had the mortification of
seeing her once undisputed influence over her feeble son
93
QUEEN MARGOT
altogether overshadowed by that of Coligny, becoming
each day more firmly established in the King's favour and
more completely master of his mind. Suspicion and dis-
trust were everywhere. Marechal de Montmorency, who,
though a Catholic, was so closely in sympathy with his
kinsman Coligny as to be generally regarded as his ally,
pleaded illness and retired to Chantilly. Not a few of
the more prudent Huguenots followed his example. One
of these, Montferrand by name, who was commonly
accounted half-witted, took leave of the Admiral with
the following words ; " I am going, because of the good
cheer they are giving you. I prefer to be classed with
madmen than with fools ; you can cure the one, but not
the other." l
Coligny, indeed, received repeated warnings and was
strongly urged to leave Paris ; but, though he could
hardly fail to be aware of the danger of his position, he
was deaf to all appeals. To quit the field at such a
moment was to lose it, and he had far too much at
stake. Although, on August 9, the Council had pro-
nounced uncompromisingly against a breach with Spain,
and the King had sided with it, the Admiral had not
ceased his preparations for assisting the revolted Nether-
lands. Three thousand Huguenots were already on
the frontier ; twelve thousand foot and three thousand
horse were being raised. Should this formidable army
once enter Spanish territory, it would be hard indeed for
Charles to disavow the action of his subjects, and a
declaration of war on the part of Spain would almost
certainly follow.
And Catherine knew this knew, too, that war would
render Coligny indispensable, both as statesman and
1 D'Aubign6, Histoire universd/e, iii. 303.
94
QUEEN MARGOT
soldier, and reduce her own waning influence to vanish-
ing point. Tortured by jealousy and hatred of this
redoubtable rival, with whom she was determined never
to share the government, she decided to take the only
sure means of removing him from her path. And that
means was assassination ; a practice which had become
terribly rife since the beginning of the civil wars and the
spread of Italian manners, and no longer excited the
reprobation it had evoked in less troublous times.
" People kept assassins in their pay as they kept servants :
the Guises had them, the Chatillons had them, the kings
had them ; all those who could afford the expense had
them, and these assassins were seldom or ever punished." l
Who her coadjutors were is somewhat doubtful ; while
the identity of the person chosen for the dastardly deed
is also a matter for dispute. The Venetian Ambassador,
Michieli, declares that the affair was concerted by the
Queen-Mother and Anjou alone ; but almost all other
writers, both contemporary and modern, are convinced
that the Guises were parties to the crime, though there is
some difference of opinion as to whether the Duchesse de
Nemours, the widow of Francois de Lorraine, was impli-
cated. It is also probable that Catherine's confidants,
Retz, Nevers, Birague, and Tavannes, were in the secret
as well. As for the assassin, his name is variously given
as B6me, a Bohemian in the service of the Guises ;
Maurevert, or Maurevel, a gentleman of experience in
this metier^ a dependent of the same family, and Tosinghi,
a Florentine soldier of fortune, a creature of Catherine
and Anjou. Berne is indicated by the Florentine Ambas-
1 The foreign Ambassadors kept them, also, for the purpose of making
away with political refugees from their own countries who had taken
refuge in France.
95
QUEEN MARGOT
sador, Petrucci, and Tosinghi by Michieli, but the weight
of evidence seems to point to Maurevert.
What did Catherine hope would be the immediate
result of the Admiral's death, besides the removal of a
rival influence to her own ? Undoubtedly, she anticipated
a rising of all the Huguenots then in Paris and a san-
guinary fracas between them and the Guise faction ; for
Guise, whose undying hatred of Coligny was common
knowledge, notwithstanding their formal reconciliation,
would certainly be suspected of the crime. Whatever
the outcome of such an encounter might be, it could not
fail to materially strengthen the hands of her own party ;
for both factions would emerge from it with severe losses.
If, at one and the same time, she could rid herself of
both Coligny and Guise, to say nothing of a few of the
lesser lights of either party, the step she contemplated
would, indeed, be a master-stroke of diplomacy ! In any
case, Catherine's attempt upon the Admiral's life proves
conclusively, in the opinion of all impartial historians,
that the terrible tragedy of St. Bartholomew's Day was
in no sense premeditated, but was the result of a sudden
resolution, forced upon her, as we shall show, by the
failure of the lesser crime. " Why kill the chief before
the general massacre ? " asks Merimee, very pertinently.
" Would not such a step be calculated to alarm the
Huguenots and put them on their guard ? "
On Friday, August 22, between ten and eleven in the
morning, Coligny, after attending the Council, was pass-
ing, on foot, through the Rue des Poulies, on his way to
his lodging, 1 accompanied, by about a dozen Huguenot
1 It still appears to be the belief of most writers that the house occu-
pied by Coligny was in the Rue de B6thisy, next the corner formed by
that street and the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec. But M. Fournier, in his Parti
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QUEEN MARGOT
gentlemen, when an arquebus was fired from the window
of a house in the cloisters of Saint-Germain-rAuxerrois. 1
One ball broke the forefinger of his right hand, while the
same missile or another entered at the wrist of his left
arm and passed out at the elbow. The assassin, who,
following the example of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh,
the murderer of the Regent Murray, had taken the pre-
caution to have a fleet horse in readiness at the back of
the house, immediately took to flight and galloped off
through the Porte Saint-Antoine into the open country ;
the fact that none of the Admiral's following were
mounted, rendering pursuit hopeless ; while Coligny
was assisted to his lodging, and the famous surgeon
Ambroise Pare summoned.
Charles X. was playing tennis at the Louvre with the
Due de Guise and Teligny, the Admiral's son-in-law,
when news of the attempted assassination was brought
him. In a transport of fury, he dashed his racket to the
ground, exclaiming : " Mort de Dieu ! when shall I have
a moment's peace ? " and went to his room " with sad
and downcast countenance ; " upon which Guise, well
knowing that suspicion would point to him as the author
of the crime, promptly disappeared, and remained in con-
cealment for the rest of the day.
After dinner, Charles, accompanied by the Queen-
Mother and her allies, Retz, Nevers, Birague, and
Tavannes, went to visit the Admiral. " Mon fire" said
the King, ** the pain is yours, but the despite is mine ; "
demoli, maintains that it was in the Rue dcs Foss6s-Saint-Germain
1'Auxerrois, of which the Rue de Bethisy was a continuation, at the
Hotel de Ponthieu.
1 The house was tenanted by Piles de Villemar, a canon of Notre-
Dame, and formerly tutor to the Due de Guise.
97 o
QUEEN MARGOT
and he vowed to leave no stone unturned to discover the
authors of the outrage and mete out to them the most
exemplary punishment. He nominated a commission of
inquiry, begged the Admiral to remove to the Louvre,
where the apartments of the Duchess of Lorraine should
be placed at his disposal, and when the surgeons forbade
this, sent a detachment of guards to protect him, and
subsequently fifty arquebusiers, under Cosseins, who, two
days later, took a prominent part in the murder ot
Coligny. Finally, he assigned quarters to a number
of the Protestant nobles in the Rue de Bethisy, where
the Catholics were ordered to surrender their houses to
them ; invited the King of Navarre and Conde to summon
their intimate friends to the Louvre, and requested the
former to send some of his Swiss guards to Coligny's house.
But all this did not allay the anger and excitement
of the Huguenots. The dastardly attempt upon their
leader's life had roused them to the last pitch of exaspera-
tion. They openly accused the Guises of the crime,
paraded in crowds before the Hotel de Guise, brandish-
ing their swords and shouting anathemas, and insulted
and beat any of the duke's people whom they found in the
streets. Armand de Piles entered the Louvre, at the
head of four hundred gentlemen, demanding instant
vengeance on the assassin. The King of Navarre and
Conde supported his demand and announced their inten-
tion of quitting Paris, if it were not complied with. Soon
it began to be whispered that Catherine and Anjou had
been parties to the outrage. 1 A body of Huguenots
presented themselves before the King and Queen-Mother
while at supper, and indulged in the most threatening
1 The would-be assassin's arquebus, which he left behind him, was
found to belong to one of Anjou's guards.
98
QUEEN MARGOT
language. The elder Pardaillan, 1 addressing Catherine,
declared that if justice were not done, the Calvinists
would execute it themselves ; while another of their
leaders said to the King, alluding to the Admiral's
wound, that it was an arm which would cost more than
forty thousand arms.
That afternoon, and again early on the following
morning, a meeting of the Huguenot chiefs was held at
Coligny's house, in a room beneath that in which the
Admiral was lying. The Vidame de Chartres and the
minister Merlin urged that they should withdraw at once
from Paris, taking their wounded leader with them. 2
But Tligny, acting no doubt on instructions from his
father-in-law, strongly opposed such a step, declaring
that he himself would answer for the good faith of the
King, and eventually his counsels carried the day. It
was, however, decided to go in a body to the Louvre on
the Sunday morning, to formally accuse the Due de
Guise as the instigator of the crime, a resolution which
came to the Queen-Mother's ears.
Catherine and Anjou were terrified. Their machina-
tions had recoiled upon their own heads ; Coligny would
most certainly recover from his wound, and would
become more powerful than ever; while their own
complicity in the affair was within an ace of being dis-
covered. If an inquiry were instituted, it was probable
that Guise would not care to deny his complicity in an
act which would greatly enhance his popularity among
1 Hector Pardaillan, Baron de Gondrin and de Montespan, from whom
the Marquis de Montespan, the husband of Louis XIV. 's celebrated
mistress, traced his descent. He was killed at the Louvre in the massacre
of the following Sunday.
2 Marechal de Montmorency had written offering to come himself,
with five hundred horse, to escort Coligny to La Rochelle.
99
QUEEN MARGOT
the mob, but would seek to shelter himself, by pleading
the orders of Anjou, Lieutenant-General of the realm, and
their guilt once publicly brought home to them, nothing
could save them from disgrace and exile, if not from a
worse fate.
It was necessary to act and to act at once. Without
a moment's delay, Catherine called her advisers together
her three Italian favourites, Retz, Nevers, and Birague,
the unworthy successor of 1'Hopital in the office of
Chancellor, and Tavannes in the garden of the Tuileries,
then outside the city walls; and there she and Anjou
concerted with them the plan of a massacre of the
Huguenot chiefs, beginning with Coligny, in which
affair Guise should again be made to figure as the
principal agent.
But to plot and plan were useless, unless they could
obtain the consent of the King that feeble, neurotic,
passionate, though well-meaning creature, " half beast and
wholly a child," who was seldom for two days together of
the same mind. Great as was still Catherine's influence
over her son, she was very doubtful whether it would be
sufficient to induce him to execute so complete a volte-face^
since it appears to have been late in the afternoon ere she
ventured to approach him. Even then, if we are to
believe Marguerite, who, however, knew nothing of the
plot, and is only repeating what she was subsequently
told, the Queen- Mother did not herself broach the
matter to the King, but sent Retz, "from whom she
knew he would take it better than any one else," to pave
the way. Retz proceeded to explain that the King was
in error in supposing that the attempt against the
Admiral had been instigated by the Due de Guise alone,
since the Queen-Mother and his brother Anjou had been
100
QUEEN MARGOT
partners in the affair ; that their complicity was already
suspected, while his Majesty himself was believed to have
been a consenting party to thedeed,and that the Huguenots,
beside themselves with fury, intended to have resort to
arms that very night. Marguerite's account lacks con-
firmation the most dependable witnesses, such as Anjou
and the Venetian Ambassadors, Michieli and Cavalli, make
no mention of this interview ; but there can be no
question that when Catherine did approach her son, she
admitted the part which she and Anjou had taken in the
attempted assassination of Coligny, and pointed out the
danger which threatened, not only his mother and
brother, but himself, from the exasperation of the
Admiral's followers, to which their rash and warlike
demonstration on the previous day, their menaces, and
their numbers gave only too much colour. Then, with
diabolical ingenuity, she proceeded to recall to Charles's
mind all the insults and injuries, real and imaginary, he
had suffered at the hands of the Huguenots in general
and Coligny in particular ; of their attempt to seize his
person at Monceaux, and his humiliating flight to Paris
before Coligny's cavalry ; of the weeks during which he
had vainly besieged his own town of Saint-Jean-d'Angely ;
of the slaying of his faithful servant Charry, by Coligny's
friends upon the Pont Saint-Michel, nine years before, and
of the horrible atrocities committed on his defenceless
subjects by the German mercenaries whom the Huguenots
had called to their aid. She declared it to be the belief
of all Catholic France that he had allowed his royal
authority to be usurped by the Admiral, and taunted
him with being but a mere tool in the hands of an
arrogant and ambitious heretic, who carried his insolence
so far as to threaten the King with a renewal of the
101
QUEEN MARGOT
civil war, if he declined, at his bidding, to break with
Spain. 1
She insisted, and she called others to prove, that the
Huguenots were already plotting ; that Coligny had sent
to Germany to raise 10,000 of the dreaded Reiters, and
to the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland for a levy of
10,000 pike-men; that some of the Huguenot leaders
had left Paris to raise the kingdom, and that the time
and place of their assembling had already been decided ;
that the Catholic leaders, exasperated in their turn, and
despairing of any resolute action on the part of the King,
had met and resolved to form an offensive and defensive
league, and to appoint a captain-general, a course which
would, in all likelihood, eventually end in his Majesty's
deposition in favour of the Due de Guise. Finally, she
showed that out of the peril which menaced them there
was but one way of escape : to strike first and anticipate
the designs of the Huguenots, by putting Coligny and the
other leaders to death there is no evidence that Catherine,
at first, intended anything like a general massacre 2
now that he had them in his grip, " gathered
1 When, on August 9, the Council, largely through the influence of
Catherine, had decided against war, Coligny, turning to the Queen-
Mother, exclaimed : ** Madame, the King refuses to enter on one war ;
God grant that another may not befall him, from which perhaps he will
not have it in his power to withdraw ! " The Admiral's enemies were
not slow to interpret these words as a threat of civil war ; but, as
Coligny's English biographer, Mr. A, W. Whitehead, points out, it was
probably merely intended as a warning that William of Orange and his
followers would be thrown back on France, and that it would need force
to dislodge them.
1 Anjou says that she declared that " it would be sufficient to kill the
Admiral, chief and author of all the civil wars, and that the Catholics,
satisfied and contented wish the sacrifice of two or three men, would remain
in their obedience."
lot
QUEEN MARGOT
together and shut up, as in a cage, within the walls of
Paris." 1
For over an hour Catherine reasoned and implored in
vain. " The Queen my mother," writes Marguerite,
" had never experienced so much difficulty as in per-
suading the King that this counsel had been given for the
good of his realm, because of the friendship he bore
M. 1'Amiral, La Noue, 2 and Teligny." But the struggle
was an unequal one. The unhappy King was completely
unstrung by the events of the preceding day, exhausted
from want of sleep, and in no condition to resist the
importunities of the woman, obedience to whom was still
with him almost second nature. Slowly but surely
Catherine wore him down, and, on a sudden, honour,
compassion, every consideration which might have helped
to deter him were forgotten, and he was seized by an un-
governable frenzy. " We then perceived in him a strange
mutation, a marvellous and astonishing metamorphosis.
Rising and imposing silence upon us, he swore, by God's
death, that, since we would have the Admiral killed, he
gave his consent, on condition that every other Huguenot
in France was put to death as well, so that not one should
be left to reproach him, and he bade us hasten." 2
The preparations for the sanguinary drama were soon
made. Nothing, indeed, was more easy to concert, since
1 Giovanni Michieli, Relazione della Corte di Francia,
2 Marguerite forgets that La Noue was not in Paris at this time, but
shut up with Louis of Nassau in Mons.
3 Discours du roy Henri III. in the Mtmoires etEtat de PiHercy. By
an inversion of the usual order of things, the authenticity of this evidence,
which was first published in 1623, is disputed by several seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century historians, Prefixe, Mercier, Hnault, Millot, and
Voltaire, but accepted by the majority of modern authorities on the
period.
103
QUEEN MARGOT
it coincided with the desires of the population of Paris,
ready to rise spontaneously against the detested heretics.
Marcel and Charron, the former and present Provost of
the Merchants, were summoned to the Louvre, and asked
how many men they could provide for the service of the
king at a few hours notice. They answered, some twenty
thousand. They were then informed, under a pledge of
the strictest secrecy, that a Huguenot conspiracy had
been discovered, and that, in order to frustrate it, they
were to summon the city militia and every man whom
they could raise to assemble at midnight before the
Hotel de Ville, where they would receive further instruc-
tions. 1 Every man was to wear a white linen sleeve on
his left arm and a white cross on his hat, and a light was
to be placed in each window. The gates were to be
locked and guarded, the chain, which guarded the
approach to the bridges raised, and all boats securely
fastened to the banks, so that no one might cross the
river. To Guise, assisted by d'Aumale and Henri
d'Angoule'me, was entrusted the supreme task of slaying
the Admiral, which accomplished, the bell of the Palais de
Justice was to give the signal for the general massacre to
begin." a
1 " These orders," writes Giovanni Michieli, " were executed with
the greatest diligence and the utmost secrecy, to such a degree that every
one was in ignorance as to what his neighbour was doing, and, since no
one was able to ascertain for what purpose the orders had been issued,
each was so much more attentive to what was about to happen."
Relazione della Corte di Francia. \
2 As a matter of fact, Catherine, fearing that at the last moment
Charles might revoke the consent she had succeeded in wringing from
him, gave orders, just before daybreak, for the bell of Saint-Germain-
PAuxerrois to sound the tocsin, instead of that of the Palais de
Justice.
104
QUEEN MARGOT
What followed has been told so often that it is needless
to recapitulate it here, and we shall therefore confine our-
selves to allowing Marguerite, "/ grand, le veritable
historien de la Saint-Barthelemy" to relate her own expe-
rience of that awful night :
" As for me, no one told me anything of all this. I
saw that every one was in a state of excitement. The
Huguenots regarded me with suspicion, because I was a
Catholic, and the Catholics, because I had married the
King of Navarre, who was Huguenot. So that no one
said anything to me until the evening, when, being present
at the coucher of the Queen my mother, seated on a chest
by the side of my sister of Lorraine, 1 who, I saw, was
very sad, the Queen my mother, while speaking to some
one, perceived me and told me to go to bed. As I was
making my curtsey, my sister takes me by the arm, and,
oursting into tears, exclaims : * Mon Dieu> my sister, do
not go ! ' which frightened me extremely. The Queen my
mother perceived it, and calling my sister, scolded her
soundly, and forbade her to tell me anything. My sister
replied that it was unseemly to send me to be sacrificed
like that, and that, without doubt, if they discovered
anything, they would avenge themselves on me. The
Queen my mother replied that, if it pleased God, I
should suffer no harm ; but that, however that might be,
it was necessary for me to go, * for fear, if I stayed, that
they should suspect something . . . I perceived that
they were arguing, but could not understand what they
said. She (the Queen- Mother) again commanded me
angrily to go to bed. My sister, melting to tears, bade
me good-night, without daring to say anything further ;
and I departed, all frightened and bewildered, without
1 Claude de Valois, Duchess of Lorraine.
105
QUEEN MARGOT
knowing what I had to fear. So soon as I reached my
cabinet, I began to pray to God that it would please Him
to take me under His protection and to defend me,
without knowing from whom or what. Thereupon, the
King, my husband, who had retired to rest, told me to
go to bed. This I did, and found his bed surrounded by
thirty or forty Huguenots. . . . All night long they did
nothing but talk about the accident which had befallen
the Admiral, 1 determining, so soon as it was light, to
demand of the King that M. de Guise should be brought
to justice, and that, if this were not granted them, to
execute it themselves. As for me, I had always in mind
my sister's tears and could not sleep, because of the fears
with which she had inspired me, although I knew not of
what. The night passed in this manner, without my
closing an eye. At daybreak, the King my husband told
me that he would go and play tennis, whilst waiting
until King Charles should be awake, having resolved to
demand justice of him at once. He quitted my
chamber, and all his gentlemen with him. I, perceiving
that it was daylight, supposed that the danger to which
my sister had alluded must be past, and, being overcome
with fatigue, told my nurse to fasten the door, in order
that I might sleep in peace. An hour later, as I was fast
asleep, comes a man, striking with hands and feet at the
door, and shouting ' Navarre ! Navarre ! * My nurse,
imagining that it was the King my husband, runs quickly
to the door. It was M. de Lran, 2 who had a sword-cut
1 It was no doubt a large four-poster bed, with thick curtains, which
enabled the King to converse with his friends without disturbing her
Majesty's privacy.
1 Brant6me alludes to him as Lerac, wkile Mongez calls him Tcy-
ran. His real name was Gabriel de Levis, Vicomte de Le"ran, and he
was one of the King of Navarre's equerries. Alexandre Dumas, in his
106
QUEEN MARGOT
on the elbow and a halberd-wound in the arm, and was
still pursued by four archers, who all entered the room at
his heels. He, seeking to save himself, threw himself on
my bed. I, feeling that these men had hold of me, flung
myself on the ruelle^ and he after me, still clasping me
across the body. This man was a total stranger to me,
and I did not know whether he came there to insult me
or whether the archers were against him or against me.
We were both of us screaming, and one was just as
much alarmed as the other. At last, God willed that
M. de Nan^ay, 1 Captain of the Guards, should come
upon the scene, who, finding me in this plight, could not
refrain from laughing, notwithstanding the compassion
he felt for me. He severely reprimanded the archers for
this indiscretion, ordered them out, and granted me the
life of the poor man who was holding me, whom I caused
to be put to bed and to have his wound dressed in my
cabinet until such time as he was fully cured. Whilst
I was changing my nightgown for he had covered me
all over with blood M. de Nan^ay acquainted me with
all that was happening, and assured me that the King
my husband was in the King's chamber and had suffered
no harm. Then, making me wrap myself in a bed-gown,
he conducted me to the chamber of my sister, Madame
de Lorraine, where I arrived more dead than alive. As
we entered the ante-chamber, the doors of which were
all open, a gentleman named Bourse was run through
by a halberd within three paces of me, as he was flying
celebrated romance, la Reine Margot, makes La M61e, of whom we shall
have something to say in the next chapter, the hero of this
adventure.
1 Gaspard de la Chatre, Seigneur de Nanjay. He had been Captain
of the Swiss Guards since 1568.
107
QUEEN MARGOT
from the archers who pursued him. I fell to one side,
well-nigh swooning, into M. de Nan^ay's arms, thinking
that the thrust would have impaled us both. When I
had somewhat recovered, I entered the little room in
which my sister slept. Whilst I was there, M. de Miossans,
first gentleman to the King my husband, and Armagnac,
his first valet- de-chambre, came in quest of me, to implore
me to save their lives. I went and threw myself on my
knees before the King and the Queen my mother, to
make intercession with them for their lives, which they
at length accorded me." 1
Brantome assures that Henri of Navarre himself owed
his life to Marguerite's intercession, but most historians
are agreed that there never was any serious intention of
putting either the young King or the Prince de Conde to
death, an act which it would have been impossible to
justify. On leaving his bedchamber, Henri and his
gentleman had been promptly arrested and conducted
to Charles IX. 's cabinet, where they found Conde, who
had been apprehended at the same time. " Take that
canaille away ! " cried Charles ; and the hapless followers
of Navarre were led out and mercilessly butchered in the
courtyard of the Louvre. Then the King, who was be-
side himself with passion, informed the princes that all
that was being done was by his orders, that they had
allowed themselves to be made the leaders of his enemies,
and that lives were justly forfeited. As, however, they
were his kinsmen and connections, he would pardon them,
if they conformed to the religion of their ancestors, the
only one he would henceforth tolerate in his realm. If
not, they must prepare to share the fate of their friends.
Cond courageously replied that he refused to believe the
8 Memoir et de Marguerite de Vatoif (edit. Guessard).
1 08
QUEEN MARGOT
King capable of violating his most sacred pledges, but
that he was accountable for his religion to God alone and
would remain faithful to it, even if it cost him his life.
Navarre, of a more politic and wary disposition, and be-
sides, somewhat indifferent on the subject of religion,
assumed a more humble and conciliatory tone, begging
the King not to compel him to outrage his conscience,
and to consider that he was now not only his kinsman,
but closely connected with him by marriage. Charles,
after indulging in terrible threats against Conde, finally
dismissed them, saying that he gave them three days for
reflection, and directing that they should be strictly
guarded.
However, Marguerite tells us that " those who had
commenced these proceedings " by which she means the
Guises and their partisans, though, as we have seen, the
responsibility really lay at Catherine's door were in-
dignant at the Princes of the Blood having been spared,
and " recognising that, as the King of Navarre was my
husband, no one would lift a hand against him, they set
to work to persuade the Queen my mother that my
marriage must be dissolved/' Catherine, for the moment,
at any rate, appears to have lent a favourable ear to this
sinister suggestion, and a few days after the massacre,
when her daughter presented herself at her lever, drew
her aside and commanded her to tell her upon oath it
was a Saint's Day and the whole Royal Family were about
to communicate whether the marriage had been con-
summated, adding that, if it had not been, she saw a
means of having it annulled. But Marguerite, although
she had no love for her husband, was far too generous-
hearted to deliver him into the hands of his enemies, and
perceiving the snare, skilfully avoided it. " I begged her
109
QUEEN MARGOT
to believe," she writes, "that I was not qualified to
answer her question ; but I said that, whichever way it
was, as she had placed me in this position, I would rather
abide in it strongly suspecting that they only desired to
separate me from my husband, in order to do him some
evil turn."
no
CHAPTER VIII
Henri of Navarre and Conde renounce the Protestant faith
Gregory XIII. sends a Bull ratifying the marriage of Henri and
Marguerite Unenviable position of the King of Navarre
He finds in his wife a valuable ally The Court of Charles IX.
Henri and Marguerite am ill-assorted pair Reprehensible
conduct of the King of Navarre Marguerite's liaison with Le
Mole Outbreak of the fourth civil war Rapprochement be-
tween the Huguenots and the " Politiques " Discontent of Due
d'Alen9on, who becomes the secret head of this confederacy
Edict of Boulogne ends the fourth civil war Visit of the
Polish envoys to Paris to offer the crown of Poland to Anjou
Departure of Anjou for Poland His unsuccessful endeavour
to become reconciled with Marguerite.
THE conversion of the two princes greatly occupied
the Court. Marguerite, a fervent Catholic, spared no
effort to induce her husband to return to the fold of the
Church, and found zealous auxiliaries in the Cardinal de
Bourbon and the Jesuit Maldonato, Queen Elizabeth's
confessor, who had been specially charged to instruct him.
The astute Barnais, who already seems to have had some
presentiment of the great part he was one day to play,
was not the man to sacrifice a glorious future to his
attachment to the Reformed doctrines, and accordingly
feigned to lend an attentive ear to the arguments of his
teachers. Conde was the object of like solicitations, to
which, however, he replied with anger and contempt.
His obstinacy so enraged Charles IX., that one day, when
in
QUEEN MARGOT
the prince had proved more than ordinarily contumacious,
he called for a sword, vowing that he would proceed to
Conde's apartments, with some of his guards, and slay
him with his own hand. Probably, he only intended to
intimidate him into submission ; but his queen, the gentle
and pious Elizabeth, convinced that he was in earnest,
threw herself at his feet, and besought him not to stain
his hands with his kinsman's blood. His Majesty yielded
to his consort's entreaties, and contented himself with
summoning Cond6, and, when he appeared, shouting in a
voice of thunder : " Mass, death, or Bastille ! "
The prince haughtily refused the first proposition, but,
shortly afterwards, he consented to abjure, and became, to
all appearance, so fervent a Catholic that the courtiers
laughingly declared that his devotion left him no time to
observe the love-passages between his wife and the Due
d'Anjou. Henri of Navarre also abjured, and, on
October 3, 1672, the two princes addressed to the Pope
a very respectful letter, begging him to accept their sub-
mission and admit them into the fold. It was only then
that Gregory XIII. consented to send a Bull ratifying
the marriage of Marguerite and Henri. The canonical
irregularities which vitiated it had up to that time ren-
dered a dissolution easy, which proves once more that it
depended entirely on Marguerite whether it should be
pronounced.
Notwithstanding their abjuration, Henri and Cond6
were still regarded with suspicion, and remained in a
sort of quasi-captivity. Their position, particularly that
of the young King, was far from a pleasant one, and it
must have needed all Henri's self-control to prevent
himself from openly resenting the sneers and taunts
which the Catholic nobles felt themselves safe in levelling
112
QUEEN MARGOT
at "this little prisoner of a kinglet." 1 After a while,
however, Charles IX., who had always entertained a strong
liking for Henri, recognising in him qualities of head and
heart in which his brothers were conspicuously lacking,
began to treat him with kindness and even affection ;
while in his wife he found a valuable ally. Although, as
we have said, Marguerite had no love for her husband,
she naturally resented, as a slight to her own dignity, the
want of consideration shown him by those who, under
other circumstances, would have been forced to accord
the prince the respect due to his rank, and held herself in
duty bound to aid him by every means in her power.
Thus, in grave crises, she invariably drew near him, and
more than once her timely counsel extricated Henri from
situations full of difficulty and danger.
It was a strange scene amidst which this youthful pair
had commenced their wedded life. No more singular
Court than that of the last years of Charles IX. which
Brantome, in all good faith, describes as " a true para-
dise and school of all honesty and virtue, the ornament
of France " is known to history. At its head, the
half-crazy King, with his tall stooping figure and beautiful
furtive eyes; already marked for death; tortured by
remorse ; distrusting all around him, and none more than
the mother whose baneful influence had corrupted his
whole nature, and forced him to exchange his dreams
of glory for eternal infamy, yet lacking the resolution to
free himself from her control. By L his side, his Queen,
1 " On All Hallows' Eve," writes L'Estoile, " the King of Navarre
was playing tennis with the Due de Guise, when the scant consideration
which was shown this little prisoner of a kinglet, at whom he threw all
kinds of jests and taunts, as though he were a simple page or lackey of
the Court, deeply pained a nunuer of honest people who were watching
them clay."
113
QUEEN MARGOT
the saintly Elizabeth of Austria, perhaps the one pure
and noble figure in the midst of that abominable Court,
" an angel astray in hell, who did not even suspect the
brutal passions, the ferocious hatreds, at work upon this
terrible and brilliant stage." * Behind them, the Queen-
Mother, freed at last from the dread which had haunted
her like a spectre for so many months ; placid, good-
humoured, exquisitely courteous ; surely the most gentle-
mannered woman who ever planned a deed of blood ;
always with a smile on her lips, whatever dark schemes
she might be revolving in her mind ; perpetually talking,
writing, reading, or entertaining ; a great gourmand,
"gluttonous even to the verge of ferocity," 2 to counteract
the effects of which, she took a great deal of exercise,
walking so fast that it was difficult for her ladies to
keep up with her. With her, her two younger sons
Arcades ambo : Henri d'Anjou, " her idol and contenting
her in everything she desired of him ; " who, like her,
" divided in order to reign," and after having reduced
France to a welter of anarchy, was to die by the poniard
of a crazy monk, hated and despised ; who had gifts
which, in another age or with a different training,
1 Imbert de Saint-Amant, des femmes de la Cour des derniers Valols.
1 In 1549, the sheriffs of Paris entertained Catherine to a " collation,"
at which figured peacocks, pheasants, swans, pullets, young rabbits, quails,
capons, pigs, pigeons, and leverets, and the Queen nearly died of an in-
digestion, in consequence of having partaken too freely of a " ratatouille
de cretei, rognons de coqs, et Jonds d'artichauds." Cimber et Danjou,
Archives curieuses de fh'istoire de France, cited by M. Charles Merki, La
Reine Margot et le fin des VaMs. One would have supposed that after
this unpleasant experience, her Majesty would in future have avoided
such dangerous delicacies, but such was not the case, since, twenty years
later, L'Estoile reports that Catherine had had another narrow escape,
her illness being attributed to over-indulgence in an almost precisely
similar dish.
114
QUEEN MARGOT
might have made of him a shrewd and capable king ;
but who is remembered only for his follies and vices :
his miserable effeminacy, his shameful debauchery, his
falseness, cruelty, and hypocrisy. And the puny, ill-
shaped, pock-marked Alen^on, " perhaps the basest of the
base Valois-Medici brood ; " lacking the generous in-
stincts and the cultured tastes of Charles and the personal
courage of Henri ; jealous, meddlesome, and ambitious,
and so false that his sister Marguerite, in spite of her
devoted attachment to him, was betrayed into declaring
that " if all treachery were banished from the earth, he
would be able to restock it."
Near the Royal Family, the Due de Guise, gay, debonair,
and surpassing all the nobles of the Court in elegance and
luxury, yet concealing beneath the exterior of a man of
pleasure, a devouring ambition, and ever on the watch for an
opportunity of restoring to his family their lost supremacy.
And in the background, a motley crowd of adventurers,
cutthroats, and courtesans, rubbing shoulders with the
greatest nobles and ladies in France, many of whom in
their unscrupulousness and depravity of life differed little
from them. The licentiousness which prevailed was
appalling, and not the smallest attempt was made to
conceal it. Vice was, indeed, the mode ; virtue, even
ordinary decency, was mocked and derided. " In that
Court, common sin seemed too near virtue to please, and
he was reckoned to show little spirit who was content to
be the gallant of but one adulteress." To laxity of
morals was joined a violence of manners difficult to credit ;
assassinations, duels, sanguinary brawls, were of daily
occurrence. In this respect the princes, and even the
King himself, set a shameful example, parading the streets,
accompanied by their favourites, ill-treating inoffensive
"5
QUEEN MARGO1
citizens, insulting women, and committing all kinds of
outrages. On one occasion, Charles IX., Anjou, the King
of Navarre, and their attendants stormed and sacked the
house of a gentleman who had offended Monsieur by
refusing to marry his cast-off mistress. On another, the
same illustrious personages, accompanied by Henri
d'Angouleme, invited themselves to dinner with Nantouil-
let, the Provost of Paris, and robbed him of all his silver
plate. Their visit, L'Estoile tells us, no less than their
conduct, greatly incommoded the worthy magistrate, who
happened to have chosen that very day for the removal
of a rival in love or business, for which purpose he had
concealed four bravos in his house. The bravos, hearing
the noise made by their employer's riotous guests,
imagined themselves discovered and were on the point of
rushing out of their hiding-place, pistol in hand.
If circumstances occasionally drove Marguerite and
Henri into close alliance, they were none the less an ill-
assorted pair and, as is so often the case with victims of
political exigency, far from happy , What more complete
contrast, indeed, could be imagined than these two persons!
The one, reared in the artificial atmosphere of the Valois
Court, spoiled from her cradle by over-strained flattery,
mobile, impressionable, irritable, capricious, greedy for
pleasure and admiration, constantly seeking diversions and
novelties ; the other, a child of Nature, " brought up
without delicacy and with no superfluities,'* trained from
early childhood to live on the simplest fare, to endure the
heat of summer and the frosts of winter, and to despise
fatigue and danger; as much out of place amid the
effeminate exquisites of the French Court as an eagle of
his own mountains among a troupe of peacocks.
Although Marguerite affected to despise the curled and
116
scented mignons who thronged the salons oir the Louvre,
there can be little doubt that the rough Bearnais, with his
slight, wiry figure, his piercing eyes, his long nose and
pointed chin, careless and even slovenly in his dress, dis-
daining the pretty compliments and speeches which sound
so pleasant to a woman's ear as m'ich as he did the
luxuries of the toilet, suffered by the very contrast he
presented to these gallants and seemed anything but a
desirable husband in her eyes.
And Henri, on his side, made no attempt to gain her
affection. However high an opinion we may hold of him
as a king of France, he plays a sorry part indeed in
Marguerite's history, and proved himself the worst of
husbands. One often sees men married to celebrated
beauties preferring women much less attractive. It was
so with the King of Navarre. From the very first days
of his marriage he neglected his wife and plunged into a
succession of amours, more or less discreditable, since the
genuine affection which redeemed, in some degree, the
liaisons of later years with la belle Corisande and Gabrielle
d'Estrees seems to have had little or no part in them.
Moreover, so far from seeking to conceal his irregularities
from Marguerite, he spoke of them freely in her pres-
ence, and did not hesitate to make her the confidante of
his gallantries.
United to a husband to whom she was utterly in-
different a d who treated her in this manner, unable to
turn for counsel and aid to her mother ana brorners, it
is scarcely surprising that Marguerite should have suc-
cumbed to the temptations which surrounded her, and
that she should have begun to indulge in highly dangerous
flirtations, which furnished abundant material for malicious
gossip.
QUEEN MARGOT
The most favoured of the young Queen's admirers
appears to have been a handsome young Provencal named
La Mole, in the service of her brother Alengon, who
enjoyed the distinction of being the most elegant dancer
at the Court. In the balls at the Louvre, he and Mar-
guerite might often be seen dancing together, with a grace
which aroused general admiration. A singular character
was this La Mole, a strange compound of accomplish-
ments and vices, debauchery and superstition. L'Estoile
tells us that he devoted most of his time to gallantry>
but never neglected attending Mass, not only once but
several times daily, being firmly convinced that, if he
permitted a single day to pass, even when campaigning,
without hearing it, he would most certainly be damned ;
and, on the other hand, that Mass devoutly listened to
expiated all sins and adulteries that he might commit. The
chronicler adds that Charles IX. used to remark that
one might keep a register of the debauches of La Mole
by counting the times he went to Mass.
M. de Saint-Poncy declares that " nothing proves that
their relations exceeded the bounds of the haute galanterie
in vogue at this epoch,'* but the majority of writers are
not of this opinion. However that may be, their con-
nection, as we shall presently see, was to furnish one of
the most tragic episodes of the end of the reign, and
poor La Mole to provide a striking illustration of the
truth of Don Juan's mot, that Marguerite's charms were
better calculated to ruin men than to save them.
In the meanwhile, the fourth civil war had broken
out a revolt of the Huguenot cities of the South and
West rather than a war. They made an heroic and
desperate resistance, and La Rochelle sustained a siege of
III
QUEEN MARGOT
nearly four months, which cost the besiegers nearly
20,000 men, including the Due d'Aumale. Finally,
through the mediation of La Noue, the citizens, in order
to save the dignity of Anjou, who commanded the royal
army, agreed to express regret for their conduct, and
the siege was raised.
The Court, indeed, was in no condition to carry on
the war. It was becoming daily more evident that the St.
Bartholomew had been not only a crime, but a blunder of
the most fatal kind. The moderate Catholics through-
out France were shocked and horrified ; while the
Montmorencies and the leaders of the Third Party were
convinced that the Queen-Mother intended their ruin
after that of the Bourbons and Chatillons. The result was
a rapprochement between the " Politiques " and the Hugue-
nots, which threatened serious danger to Catherine's
plans. The secret head of this confederacy was the Due
d'Alen^on, who had long chafed under the subjection to
which his brothers' dislike and his mother's indifference
had relegated him, and was determined tc assert himself
at all hazards. Alen(jon, who had taken no part in the
massacre of August 24, and had even openly censured it,
had been, since 157 1, a candidate for the hand of Elizabeth
of England, the suggested alliance meeting with much
apparent favour from the astute Queen, though she
probably never had the least intention of entering
into it. He had, at one time, conceived the project of
escaping from the Court and taking refuge in England ;
but his intentions were suspected and he was kept under
close surveillance. The King even opened the letters
which he received from Elizabeth and dictated the replies
to his brother, to the latter's intense mortification.
Compelled to betake himself, together with Navarre and
119
QUEEN MARGOT
Cond6, to the siege of La Rochelle, he there quarrelled
so violently with Anjou that they were with difficulty
prevented from coming to blows ; and, subject as he
was to constant restraint and humiliations, the young
prince was ripe for any mischief.
In the early summer of 1573, Elizabeth intimated to
the French Court that, unless peace were concluded, she
would break off the negotiations for her marriage with
Alen^on and send English troops to the assistance of the
Huguenots. This threat, coupled with the election of
Anjou to the Polish throne, induced Catherine to return
to a pacific policy, and, in July, the Edict of Boulogne
granted to the Protestants even greater concessions than
they had been promised by the Peace of Saint-Germain.
But Alenc.on and Henry of Navarre remained the secret
chiefs of the Huguenots and disaffected Catholics, and
during the remainder of the reign of Charles IX., there
were nothing but rebellions, conspiracies, arrests, and
executions.
On August 19, 1573, the Polish envoys charged to
offer the Crown to Anjou arrived in Paris and made a
sensational entry, by way of the Porte Saint-Antoine.
They numbered over one hundred and fifty gentlemen ;
some riding in chariots drawn by four and even six horses,
whose harness was ornamented with silver; others on
horseback, their saddles and trappings decorated with
gold and silver lace, while their bits were of silver and
their bridles set with jewels. Nearly all of them were of
great stature, with long beards, which added not a little
to their imposing appearance, and wore costumes of
cloth-of-gold and silver, tall sable caps decorated with
jewelled aigrettes, and high boots of yellow leather.
120
QUEEN MARGOT
Long scimitars hung by their side, and every one carried
at his back a bow and a quiver of arrows.
After having traversed the Rue Saint-Martin, in which
triumphal arches bearing inscriptions in their honour,
composed by the Court poet, Jean Daurat, had been
erected, they came to a halt in the Rue des Augustins,
at the Hotel of the Provost of Paris, Nantouillet, who
welcomed the chief of the embassy, the Bishop of Posen.
Thence they proceeded to the Louvre to salute the King,
the Queen, and Catherine, who came to meet them
dressed in cloth-of-gold and preceded by their pages
and equerries, bearing wands of iron four or five feet
long. Next they were conducted to the King and Queen
of Navarre, and the latter, who was arrayed in the con-
fection which we have described elsewhere, 1 made so
great an impression upon the susceptible Poles, that
one of them, Albert Laski, was heard to declare, as he
withdrew with his colleagues, that, after being privileged
to gaze upon such marvellous beauty, he did not wish to
behold any object again.
Later in the day, the Queen-Mother entertained the
envoys to a magnificent banquet in the garden of the
Tuileries, in which she had caused a " pavilion of verdure "
to be erected ; while in the evening there was a ball, in
which figured sixteen nymphs, representing the sixteen
provinces of France. These nymphs, after delighting
the company with their dancing, recited verses composed
by Ronsard and Daurat in praise of France and the new
King of Poland, and then presented to every one present
a gold medal " large as the palm of one's hand, on which
were engraved the products and singularities in which
each province was most fertile." 2
1 See p. 31 supra. Brant6m
121
QUEEN MARGOT
The new King of Poland seemed in no hurry to take
possession of his throne, and manifested very little enthu-
siasm for what he regarded as a kind of exile, far removed
from the Court of the Valois and the pleasures which he
held so dear. He was at this time desperately enamoured
of Marie de Cleves, the young Princesse de Cond6, whom
he had made his mistress, and the prospect of parting
from his beloved was extremely distasteful to him.
Moreover, the Court physicians had pronounced the
unhappy Charles consumptive, and it was obvious that his
days were numbered. In the event of his brother's death,
Henri's absence might entail, in the present troubled
state of the kingdom, serious consequences, and quite
possibly result in Alen^on seizing the throne. These
considerations led him to linger in Paris more than a
month after the visit of the Polish envoys, and he would
no doubt have postponed his departure still further, had
not Charles, who, since the St. Bartholomew, had re-
garded all the chief actors in that sanguinary drama, and
Anjou in particular, with loathing and hatred, informed
him one day that France was not large enough to hold
them both, and that, " if he did not go of his own free
will, he would make him go by force." To ensure the
departure of his detested brother, the King accompanied
him as far as Vitry, where he was attacked by fever and
unable to proceed further. Catherine parted from her
favourite son at La Fere. " Go, my son," said she,
as she bade him adieu. " Go ; you will not be long
absent."
On the eve of his departure for Poland, Anjou judging
it prudent to secure Marguerite's good-will, or, at any
rate, her neutrality, during his absence from France,
endeavoured to effect a reconciliation with his sister and
122
QUEEN MARGOT
' strove by every means to make her forget the evil
effects of his ingratitude." But her painful experience
during the Guise affair had taught Marguerite to know
her brother, and she did not allow herself to be deceived
by his protestations and promises.
T2?
CHAPTER IX
Attempt of Henri of Navarre and Alen9on to escape from the
Court revealed by Marguerite The conspiracy of the
"PoHtique$ " Failure of Guitry's coup de main at Saint-Germain
Marguerite's responsibility for this Panic-stricken flight of
the Court to Paris The two princes again endeavour to escape
They are arrested, together with their accomplices La Mole
and Coconnas Criminal proceedings commenced against
La Mole and Coconnas They are put to the " question "
Able iMimoire justicatif on behalf of her husband drawn up
by the Queen of Navarre Her generous offer to assist one of
the princes to escape from Vincennes Vigorous measures
adopted by Catherine against the rebels Execution of La
M&le and Coconnas Their behaviour on the scaffold
Marguerite's grief at the death of La M&le A curious story
Remorse of Charles IX. for the St. Bartholomew His
illness and death His funeral.
SCARCELY had Anjou departed than fresh troubles arose.
Alencon and Henri of Navarre attempted to escape from
the Court, with the intention of putting themselves
at the head of the " Politiques " and Huguenots. But
on the evening of the day fixed for their enterprise,
Miossans, the gentleman whose life Marguerite had
saved during the St. Bartholomew, informed the young
Queen of the intentions of her husband and brother
and she, in turn, hastened to warn Catherine. " The
Huguenots," she writes, " now proposed to them [Alen-
c,on and Henri] to escape, as the King and the Queen
my mother were passing through Champagne, and join
124
QUEEN MARGOT
certain troops, which, it was arranged, should come to
meet them. M. de Miossans, a Catholic gentleman, 1
having been informed of this project, which was pre-
judicial to the interests of the King his master, gave
me warning of it, to prevent consequences which would
have brought so many evils on themselves and on the
realm. I went at once to find the King and the Queen
my mother, and told them that I had something of the
greatest importance to communicate to them, but that
I would not divulge it, unless it pleased them to promise
me that it should bring no harm to those concerned,
and unless they would take precautions without appear-
ing to be aware of anything . . . This the King and
Queen vouchsafed to me ; and this affair was managed
with such discretion, that, without their being able
to ascertain whence the hindrance proceeded, they^could
never get an opportunity of effecting their escape." 2
It is not easy to understand Marguerite's motives
in thus betraying her husband and her favourite brother,
notwithstanding her protestation that she was really
acting in their interests, as well as in those of the State,
But we should remember that the conflicting ties of
birth and marriage placed her in a very embarrassing
position ; both parties had claims on her allegiance,
and it was practically impossible for her to be true to
the one without injuring the other ; while her marriage
had not emancipated her from the rule of her mother,
to whom she continued to render the most implicit
obedience. Probably, as her latest biographer, M.
Charles Merki, thinks, she sacrificed the hazardous
1 Miossans had no doubt reverted to the Old Faith, like his master,
from motives of prudence.
8 Memoires de Marguerite de Patois (edit. Guessard).
125
QUEEN MARGOT
projects of her husband and Alencon, partly through
a kind of esprit de famille, and partly through the fear
of being herself gravely compromised by their designs. 1
However that may be, all her conduct at this period
is very difficult to justify, and the means whereby she
brought about the failure of the conspiracy of the
" Politiques" of which we are about to speak, and caused
the death of the man who then possessed her affections,
reveal her in a very unfavourable light.
Favoured by the illness of the King and the departure
of Anjou for Poland, a vast conspiracy enveloped the
country. Montgommery, who had escaped from Paris
during the St. Bartholomew and had taken refuge in
England, was to make a descent on the Norman coast ;
Louis of Nassau to invade France from the Nether-
lands ; the Due de Bouillon to open the gates of Sedan ;
La Noue to occupy the fortresses of Poitou ; Mont-
brun to make himself master of Dauphine ; while
d'Amville, the Governor of Languedoc, which he ruled
with almost sovereign authority, had promised to main-
tain an attitude of friendly neutrality towards the
Huguenots of that province and of Guienne. Finally, a
bold Huguenot chief, the Sieur de Guitry Berticheres,
at the head of several hundred men, was charged to force
the gates of the Chateau of Saint-Germain, where the
Court had been residing since its return from Vitry, and
carry off Alencon and Henri of Navarre.
The plans of the conspirators were carefully laid ;
but Guitry's enterprise, on which the success of the whole
movement hinged, failed through his own precipitation.
Owing to some misunderstanding, Guitry anticipated
the day, and appeared with his men in the environs of
1 La Reine M argot et le Jin de Valois, p. 85.
126
QUEEN MARGOT
Saint-Germain, some time before he was expected.
Catherine's suspicion was at once aroused. She had a
consummate experience of intrigues and an unrivalled
skill in unravelling the tangled threads of even the most
intricate. Soon she was in possession of the whole plot.
Some writers assert that the pusillanimous Alencon,
fearing that he was on the point of being detected,
gave way to such terror that his confidant, La Mole,
under the impression that all was lost, and anxious
to purchase his own safety, revealed the conspiracy
to the Queen-Mother. This is the view adopted by
Marguerite's biographer, M. de Saint-Poncy, always
very reluctant to believe anything to the detriment of
the princess. But the most generally accepted version
is that Marguerite, urged on by Catherine, who did not
scruple to employ the most questionable methods to attain
her ends, prevailed upon the infatuated La Mole to tell
her everything, and immediately informed her mother.
Catherine acted with energy and decision. She sent
for Alencon, reproached him bitterly with his treachery,
and ordered him to make a full confession, which the
pusillanimous prince did forthwith. She also summoned
Henri of Navarre to her cabinet, and severely admonished
him. The gates of the chateau were closed ; the drums
of the Swiss and of the King's guards beat to quarters,
and preparations were made with all possible speed for
the departure of the Court for Paris.
It was nine o'clock in the evening of February 23,
1574, when Catherine learned of what was intended.
By two o'clock on the following morning, everything
was in readiness, and the Court set out for Paris. The
King travelled in a litter, surrounded by the Swiss in
battle array, as during the retreat from Meaux ; the
127
QUEEN MARGOT
Queen-Mother followed in her coach, and the King of
Navarre and Alenc/m, " whom," says Marguerite, " she
did not treat with quite so much tenderness as upon the
former occasion," had received preremptory orders to
accompany her ; while another coach contained the
Queens Elizabeth and Marguerite. The utmost con-
sternation prevailed, and the Catholic courtiers fled
terror-stricken, in the full belief that the avengers of
the St. Bartholomew were behind them. Some galloped
madly along the high road ; others hurried to the river
and took to the boats they found there ; every kind of
conveyance to be found in the neighbourhood was pressed
into the service of the fugitives, and those unable to
procure one travelled on foot, expecting every moment
to 'be overtaken by the Huguenots and cut to pieces.
The~Cardinals de Bourbon, de Lorraine, and de Guise,
the Chancellor Birague and the Minister Morvilliers,
escaped on horse-back, " clinging to their saddle-bows
with both hands, as frightened of their horses as of their
enemies."
This panic-stricken flight terminated at Paris, where
the King and Queen-Mother went to lodge at the Hotel
de Retz, believing that they would be in greater security
there than at the Louvre or the Tuileries. Early in
April, Charles left Paris to shut himself up at Vincennes,
with the Swiss as his guard, taking with him Alengon
and Navarre, who were kept under close observation.
Every day brought fresh intelligence of the troubled state
of the country, and soon Catherine, ever on the alert,
learned that the two princes, undeterred by the failure
of their previous efforts to escape, were planning yet
a third attempt, with the connivance of La Mole and
another of Alencpn's favourites, the Comte de Coconnas,
128
QUEEN MARGOT
a Piedmontese adventurer, who had earned an unenviable
notoriety by his atrocious cruelty during the St. Bar-
tholomew. 1
Both theprinces were promptly arrested and imprisoned
in the keep of Vincennes, while La Mole and Coconnas
were likewise apprehended, together with Cosmo Rug-
gieri, the Queen-Mother's astrologer, who was implicated
in their designs. A wax figure, said to resemble the
King, pierced through the heart and the eye by needles,
was found at La Mole's lodging, and this was made the
basis of a charge of attempting to procure Charles IX.'s
death by magic. " Make Cosmo tell everything," wrote
Catherine, on April 19, to the fr o cur eur- general La
Guesle, " that we may know the truth about the King's
illness." And, in another letter, she writes : " They
tell me that he (Cosmo) has fashioned an image of wax,
which he has pierced through the heart, and they say
that it is to injure the King." a
A commission composed of members of the Parlement
of Paris, was appointed to examine the princes, with
President de Thou at its head, while criminal proceedings
were commenced against the others. The Queen-
1 He is said to have promised several Huguenots their lives, on condi-
tion that they would renounce their religion ; and when his helpless
victims had performed what he required of them, to have poniarded them
with his own hands.
* In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, belief in sorcery was, of
course, practically universal. During the siege of Paris, in 1588, Guise's
sister, the Duchess of Montpensier, had a little image of Henri III. made,
which she pierced from time to time with a gold pin. The famous
Marshal de Biron practised sorcery with La Fin, and it was asserted, in
the course of his trial, that, in conjunction with this same La Fin, he
made waxen figures, to which he addressed the following formula :
" Impious King, you shall perish ; as the wax melts, so you shall waste
away !
129
QUEEN MARGOT
Mother was determined to leave no stone unturned to
discredit Henri of Navarre, Marguerite, and Alencpn
with Charles IX., in order that the claims of the King
of Poland might be strengthened. By ruining them,
she would assure her own power and that of her favourite
son.
La Mole, when interrogated, denied everything with
which he was charged. He was put to the " question"
the boot being used with merciless severity ; but he did
not cease to affirm that he had conspired neither against
the King's life nor his authority. All that he had done,
he said, was to favour the escape of the princes, the chief
responsibility for which, however, he threw upon Guil-
laume de Montmorency, the youngest of the four
brothers, who had prudently taken to flight. No witness
could wring from him any admission which might com-
promise his master or Henri of Navarre.
Asked for an explanation concerning the wax figure
found at his lodging, he declared that it was intended
to represent not the King, but a young girl of Provence,
and that he had pierced it to the heart, on the advice of
Cosmo Ruggieri, in order to gain the love of the said
damsel. 1
Coconnas was less firm, and, in the anguish of torture,
compromised a number of important personages, includ-
ing Conde, the Due de Montmorency, and Thevales,
the Governor of Metz.
The cor~ mission appointed to examine the princes
obtained from Alencpn a full confession of his part in
the affair. But Henri of Navarre showed more courage,
and made a deposition, drawn up with much address and
dignity, which he owed to his wife's skilful pen. In
1 D'Aubign, Histoire universellt, iv.
130
QUEEN MARGOT
this memoir, after having enumerated all the ill-usage
and injuries to which he had been subjected since the
St. Bartholomew, the marks of contempt and dislike
which the Queen-Mother had shown him, and the
perils which surrounded him in the midst of this troubled
Court, he admitted that he had really intended, in com-
pany with his brother-in-law, to seek safety in flight.
The preservation of his life, he contended, imperatively
demanded such a step. He defended himself, however,
energetically from ever having been concerned in any
conspiracy, and declared his unalterable attachment
to the person of the King. This skilfully conceived
document had the effect of placing Henri in the position
of an innocent victim ; it was, in fact, a recrimination
rather than a justification.
"The Memoire justificatif" remarks M. de Saint-
Poncy, " is worthy to be read, and will remain as a
masterpiece of luminous exposition, of finesse, of tact,
of dignity, and even of eloquence. It is one of the most
remarkable instruments of the French language at this
epoch, anticipating by twenty years the Memoires of
Marguerite, and anterior to the majority of important
works of the time, preceding the Essais of Montaigne,
the treatises of Charron, and the history of d'Aubigne.
But it is more than a piece of literature ; it is a good
action ! Marguerite, at this juncture, renders a signal
service to the prince whom, contrary to her inclination,
she had been forced to espouse ; she associated herself
with a noble devotion in the ill-fortune of her husband ;
and perhaps, for the third time, he was indebted to her
for his safety." l
1 This document was published by Le Laboureur, in his additions
to Castelnau's Memoires, and republished by Mongez, in his Histoire de
QUEEN MARGOT
Nor was the composition of this able memoir the only
proof of solicitude which the young Queen gave her
husband in his peril, for she conceived the project of
assisting one of the royal captives to escape, by a means
which has frequently been employed with success in
similar circumstances.
Notwithstanding the severe measures adopted in
regard to the prisoners, Marguerite, in her quality of
sister to Charles IX., enjoyed the privilege of free access
to the keep of Vincennes, where her husband and brother
were confined ; nor did the guards, out of respect to
her, examine the occupants of her coach, or make the
women of her suite raise the masks of satin or velvet,
which, according to the custom of the time, the ladies
of the Court wore when out of doors, less for the purpose
of concealing their features than through a belief
that the practice served to protect the freshness of their
complexions from sun and wind. This custom suggested
to her the idea of disguising as a woman one of the two
prisoners and making him accompany her out of the
chateau, leaving one of the ladies of her suite in his place.
However, her scheme came to nothing. " They were
too well watched by the guards for both of them to go,"
writes Marguerite. " It would have sufficed if one of
them had escaped, to guarantee the safety of the other ;
but, as they could never agree which this one was to be,
each desiring to go and refusing to be left behind, the
plan could never be put into execution." *
The conduct of Henri of Navarre and Alen^on in
this matter compares very unfavourably with that of the
Marguerite tU Valois. It is also given by Guessard in his edition of
Marguerite's Mfmoires.
1 Memtires et let ires de Marguerite de Galois (edit. Guessard).
132
yUEEN MARGOT
princess, who offered them an example of generosity
and devotion which neither had the courage to imitate.
But history ought to record with admiration the mag-
nanimity of Marguerite, who was willing to incur the
resentment of the King and the Queen-Mother, for the
sake of an unworthy brother and of a husband who had
so signally failed in the duty he owed her.
In the meanwhile, Catherine had accurately gauged
the extent of the danger which threatened her. The
"Politiques " and Huguenots had issued a manifesto de-
manding the reform of the government, the assembling of
the Estates, and the restoration of the national liberties.
But it was obvious that such demands were merely a
cloak for their real intentions, and that, should the rising
prove successful, the effect would be to deprive the King
of Poland of the succession to the throne, which must
speedily fall vacant, in favour of the more accommodating
Alen^on.
Invested with full powers by the illness of the King,
Catherine took prompt and energetic measures. The
two princes were more vigorously guarded than ever ;
the Marechaux de Montmorency and de Cosse, who had
had the temerity to come to Court, to endeavour to
justify themselves, were arrested and sent to the Bastille,
and three armies were despatched against the rebels of
Normandy, the South, and central France. In the North,
Matignon drove back Montgommery, and forced him to
throw himself into Saint-Lo ; the Due de Montpensier
took Fontenoy and Lusignan, and the third army, under
his son, the Dauphin of Auvergne, held Montbrun in
check in that province. " At least," exclaimed the dying
King, on his sick-bed at Vincennes, when informed of
QUEEN MARGOT
the turmoil into which his unhappy kingdom was once
more plunged, " they might have waited until my death.
But that is too much to expect ! "
In those days, the figurants generally suffered for the
misdeeds of the leading actors in dramas such as this,
and Marguerite's ill-starred lover, La Mole, and his
fellow-conspirator, Coconnas, had been condemned to
death. In 1571, the former had been sent by his master
to England to plead the duke's cause with Elizabeth,
and his handsome face and adroit compliments had, it
is said, so delighted the " Virgin Queen," as to seriously
alarm the reigning favourite, the ambitious Leicester.
However that may be, Elizabeth, through Valentine
Dale, her Ambassador at the French Court, intervened
actively on behalf of this fascinating gallant, and besought
Catherine, as a personal favour, to mitigate his punish-
ment. But the Queen-Mother detested La Mole, who
had been the intermediary between the Montmorencies
and Alenc/m, and replied that her son had pardoned his
subjects who had revolted for the cause of their religion,
but that such was not the case with La Mole, " who had
been nourished at the Court for years, had eaten of their
bread, and had been treated by the King not as a subject,
but as a companion." According to the English Ambas-
sador, Alenc/m also intervened on behalf of his two
favourites, and having been admitted to an audience by
the King, went on his knees to implore him to spare
their lives. All, however, was in vain, for, though
Dale succeeded in obtaining from Charles the concession
that the condemned men should not be subjected to
the ignominy of a public execution, and that a few days'
respite should be accorded them, the messenger des-
patched with these orders from Vincennes, found the
QUEEN MARGOT
Porte Saint-Antoine closed, and when he had at length
succeeded in obtaining admission, it was too late. Acting,
without doubt, under secret orders from Catherine,
who feared that the King might, after all, relent, the
First President of the Parlement had given instructions
for the execution to take place at an earlier hour than that
originally fixed ; and the condemned men were hurried
off to the Place de Greve, and beheaded immediately
on their arrival there, without even their sentence being
read, as was customary.
La Mole was the first to die, and his last words revealed
the singular and profane compound of devotion and
gallantry in which his life had been passed. " May God
and the Blessed Virgin have mercy on my soul ! " cried
he. And then, turning to the executioner and his
assistants, he added : " Commend me to the good graces
of the Queen of Navarre and the ladies ! "
In the torture-chamber, as we have seen, La Mole
had shown much courage and endurance, while Co-
connas had been very speedily induced to confess all he
knew. But on the scaffold their positions were reversed.
When the supreme moment arrived, and the cross was
handed to him by the priest in attendance, the Pro-
vencal trembled so violently that he was unable to carry
it to his lips, or even to hold it. The Piedmontese, on
the other hand, met death with a firm countenance,
" like the murderer that he was," remarking that " it
was necessary that great captains of great enterprises
should die in this fashion for the service of the great." 1
1 L'Estoile, edit. Michaud, i. 30. Charles IX., on hearing that he
was dead, observed : " Coconnas was a gentleman, a valiant man, and a
brave captain, but a villain, aye, I believe, one of the greatest villains in
my realm." The King had not forgotten that worthy's exploits during
135
QUEEN MARGOT
As for the astrologer, Cosmo Ruggieri, he escaped
with a shaven head the usual punishment of sorcerers
and a few months in the galleys, " for," says d'Aubigne,
" the Queen [Catherine] had favoured him, and made
use of those of that profession." *
Marguerite had been, in a great measure, responsible
for the death of La Mole, for, though Catherine had
pardoned him at Saint-Germain, she had never forgiven
him his share in the affair, and he had been from that
moment a suspected person, always under the closest
surveillance, and destined for exemplary punishment,
if detected in any fresh transgression. Fickle, but, never-
theless, sincere in her passing attachments, the young
Queen is said to have carried her grief to the verge of
absurdity. If we are to believe the Due de Nevers, or
rather Gomberville, the editor of the Memoires bearing
his name, Marguerite and her friend the Duchesse de
Nevers, by whom Coconnas had been " well treated,"
caused the heads of their hapless lovers to be perfumed
and embalmed in order to have always before them these
precious souvenirs of their amours. And the author of
the Divorce satyrique not, however, a chronicler very
worthy of credit makes Henri IV. say: "La Mole] left
his head at Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in company with that
of Coconnas, where, however, they did not moulder nor
remain long exposed to the gaze of the populace, since
the St. Bartholomew, of which he is said to have boasted, even in his
Majesty's presence.
1 Du Vair relates that Catherine had placed Cosmo Ruggieri in
Alen9on's household, under pretence of teaching the prince Italian, but,
in reality, to spy upon him. Everything goes to prove that the Floren-
tine was an agent-provocateur, and that his punishment was merely a
concession to public opinion, for which he was no doubt amply indem-
nified subsequently
136
QUEEN MARGOT
the following night my prudish wife Queen Margot
and her companion Madame de Nevers, the faithful
mistress of Coconnas, having caused them to be carried
off, 1 bore them in their coaches to inter them, with
their own hands, in the Chapel of Saint-Martin, which
stands at the foot of Montmartre. The death of La
Mole cost his mistress many tears, and, under the name
of Hyacinthe, she caused her regrets to be long sung, 2
notwithstanding the frequent and nocturnal consolations
of Saint-Luc."
The end of the troubled reign of Charles IX. was at
hand. Ever since the St. Bartholomew, the unhappy King
had been a changed man ; he himself was the most pitiable
victim of the foul deed which had been committed in
his name, a prey to agonies of shame and remorse, which
gave him no respite either by day or night. " His looks
have become sad," wrote the Venetian Ambassador,
Cavalli ; " in his conversation and in his audiences, he
cannot look those who address him in the face ; he bends
his head, closes his eyes ; then suddenly opens them,
and, as though that movement caused him pain, closes
them again with not less rapidity." 8 He declared to his
surgeon, Ambroise Pare, that he had always before him,
whether sleeping or awake, the vision of all those
1 A gentleman of Auvergne, Jacques d'Oradour by name, who at this
time occupied the post of maitre d hotel to the Queen of Navarre, and
was killed at the Battle of Issoire, in 1590, is mentioned as the person
who abstracted the severed heads of La Mole and Coconnas.
* According to Mongez, Marguerite, to console herself for the loss of
La M61e, engaged the famous Du Perron, afterwards cardinal, to cele-
brate his death in verse, and it is of him of whom he speaks, under the
name of Hyacinthe, in a chanson composed in 1574.
8 Cited by Armand Baschet, la Diplomatie vettetienne.
'37
QUEEN MARGOT
slaughtered corpses, "presenting themselves with hideous
faces and covered with blood." And he added : " I
would that the imbecile and the innocent had been
spared ! " D'Aubigni relates that, a week after the
massacre, a large flock of crows were observed perched on
the towers and gables of the Louvre ; and the conscience-
stricken King believed that their hoarse cries were a
demand for another such banquet as they had lately
tasted. That same night, two hours after retiring to
rest, Charles suddenly started from his bed, called upon
his attendants to rise, and sent for Henri of Navarre
and others, to listen to a confused noise, a concert of
shouts, shrieks, and groans, such as had echoed through
the streets of Paris on the night of the massacre. All
who were present beard the turmoil ; indeed, so loud
was it that the King, in the belief that some disturbance
had broken out in the city, under the leadership of the
Montmorencies and their partisans, ordered his guards
to hasten into the streets and quell it. But they returned,
declaring that the city was perfectly tranquil, and that
the air only was troubled. And this disturbance, we
are told, continued every night for a week, commencing
always at the same hour.
In the hope of escaping these nightmares, the King
sought relief in the wildest physical exertions. " He
wishes to tire himself out at all cost ; he remains on horse-
back for twelve or fourteen consecutive hours; he
proceeds thus, chasing and coursing through the woods
the same beast, the stag, for two or three days at a time,
never pausing save to partake of food, never reposing
save for a moment at night." 1 At other times, he would
enter a forge and, stripped to the waist, labour at the
1 Cavalli, cited by Armand Baschet, la Diplomatic vinetignne,
13*
QUEEN MARGOT
fashioning of helm or cuirass, until the perspiration
poured in rivulets down his body, and his attendants
gazed at him in horror, as at a man possessed.
But the only peace he found was death ; for, aided by
these physical excesses, the germs of consumption,
which had long lain latent within him, developed rapidly,
and soon he knew that his end was near. In the autumn
of 1573, he was attacked by small-pox, and, though he
recovered, his strength thenceforth failed completely,
and, in the early spring of the following year, he is des-
cribed by the English Ambassador as " no more than skin
and bone," and so weak as to be unable to stand. At
the beginning of May, he took to his bed, and never left
it again. In the night of the 22nd to the 23rd, he had
a violent attack of haemorrhage, which reduced him to a
pitiable state of exhaustion, and it was seen that the end
was only a question of days. On the 28th, he summoned
his chief physician, Mazillac, and pathetically inquired
whether it were not possible that he and all the other
great doctors in the realm could find some alleviation
for his sufferings, " since," he added, " I am horribly and
cruelly tormented." To which Mazillac replied, " very
wisely and piously that all that depended on their art
they had done, omitting nothing, and that only the
previous day, all those of their Faculty had met in con-
sultation to find some remedy ; but that, to tell the
truth, God was the great and sovereign physician in
such maladies, to whom one ought to have recourse, and
that it was His outstretched hand which he ought to re-
cognise, in order to humiliate himself beneath it, and await
pardon and relief." " I believe what you say is true,"
rejoined the King," and that you know no other remedy." 1
1 journal de UEstoile (edit. Michaud), i. 303.
139
QUEEN MARGOT
On the 29th, he dictated a letter to Matignon, who
was closely besieging Montgommery, bidding him obey
the orders of the Queen-Mother, since he himself was
no longer in a condition to issue them. That night
he became much worse, and Mazillac ordered all to leave
the sick-room, with the exception of two of his favourite
attendants and his old nurse, to whom, notwithstanding
that she was a Huguenot, Charles was greatly attached.
" As she, having seated herself on a chest, was on the
point of falling asleep," relates L'Estoile, " she heard
the King complaining, upon which she approached very
softly, and drew back his curtains. The King began to
say to her, heaving a great sigh and weeping so violently,
that the sobs choked his words : * Ah, nurse, ma mie,
nurse ! What bloodshed and what murders ! Ah !
what evil counsel I have had ! O my God, pardon me
for them, and have pity on me, if it please Thee ! I
know not where I am, so much do they perplex and
trouble me. What will become of all this ? What shall
I do ? I am lost ; I know it well.' Then his nurse
said to him : * Sire, let the murders and the blood be on
the heads of those who forced you to commit them,
and on those who gave you evil counsel. But, as for you,
Sire, you are not responsible, and, since you did not
approve of them, and since you regretted them, as you
have just protested, believe that God will never lay
them to your charge ; and that, in earnestly asking
pardon of Him, as you do, He will accord it you, and
will cover them with the mantle of His Son, to whom
alone you must have recourse.' '
The following morning, news reached Paris that Mont-
gommery, the involuntary murderer of Henri II., had
surrendered, Catherine hurried to the King's bed-side
140
QUEEN MARGOT
to inform him of the fact ; but Charles scarcely seemed
to hear her. " What," cried she, " is it nothing to you,
my son, that the man who slew your father is a prisoner ? "
To which the King replied that it was a matter of in-
difference to him, like all else, and, turning his face to
the wall, asked to be left in peace.
Later in the day, he roused himself, and sent for
Alenc.cn, the King of Navarre, the Cardinal de Bourbon,
the Chancellor, Birague, and some other Ministers
and gentlemen ; and having reminded them that the
Salic Law debarred his infant daughter l from the
succession, declared the King of Poland his lawful heir
and successor, and his mother Regent until his return to
France.
During the night, he was in great suffering, and it
was seen that he would not live through the following day.
He called Henri of Navarre, to whom he spoke for some
time, in a low voice, commending to his care his wife
Elizabeth and her little daughter, and also his son by
his beloved mistress, Marie Touchet, who afterwards
became Comte d'Auvergne and later Due d'Angoule"me.
" My brother," said the dying man to the Bearnais,
kneeling by his pillow, " you are losing a good friend.
If I had believed what I was told, you would be no longer
alive. Do not trust . . ." " Monsieur," hastily broke
in Catherine, who had been straining her ears to catch
her son's words, " do not say that ! "
Towards mid-day it was Whit-Sunday, May 30
he summoned his mother to his bed-side, and bade her
a brief farewell ; and at four o'clock in the afternoon
he died, within a little less than a month of completing
his twenty-fourth year.
1 Marie Isabella de France, died April 2, 1578.
141
QUEEN MARGOT
The pathetic end of Charles IX. was received with
regret both by Court and city ; for, notwithstanding
his violent and erratic temper, the deceased King had
enjoyed some measure of popularity with his subjects,
who infinitely preferred tobe ruled by him than by the
effeminate and dissolute prince whom his premature
death had called to the throne. But by no one was he
more sincerely mourned than by his sister, the young
Queen of Navarre, who tells us that she lost in him " all
that it was possible for her to lose," and saw herself
deprived of her chief support against her mother's tyranny
and her elder brother's enmity.
The obsequies of the hapless young monarch were
celebrated with the customary magnificence. But the
spirit of discord, which had made of his reign one
long succession of wars, conspiracies, and assassinations
followed him even to the grave. As the cortege emerged
from Notre-Dame to proceed to Saint-Denis, there arose
a violent dispute between the upper clergy and the chief
officials of the Parlement of Paris, on the question of
precedence. This ordinarily belonged to the clergy;
but the magistrates insisted that, on the present occasion,
it appertained to them, as the representatives of the absent
King. So acrimonious became the dispute, that, rather
than give way, both parties decided to take no further
share in the proceedings, and, accordingly, withdrew in
a body, being followed by nearly the whole of the nobility.
Brantome, Fumel, and the Italian soldier Strozzi, were
the only persons of note who accompanied the coffin
to Saint-Denis, where it was met by the monks of the
abbey, with the Cardinal de Lorraine, their abbot,
at their head, and lowered into the vaults in which slept
so many rulers of France.
CHAPTER X
Measures taken by Catherine to secure the succession for the
King of Poland Execution of Montgommery Flight of
Henri III. from Cracow He visits Vienna and Italy before
returning to France Meeting between the new King and
the Royal Family at Bourgoin His reception of Henri of
Navarre and Alen^on Impressions of Marguerite The
Queen of Navarre accused by Henri III. of" a very dangerous
form of benevolence" at Lyons Stormy interview between
Marguerite and the Q^ecn-Mother The Princess succeeds in
establishing her innocence Apparent harmony re-established
in the Royal Family Death of the Duchess of Savoy and of
the Princesse de Conde Extravagant grief of Henri III. at
the loss of his mistress The Court leaves Lyons for Avignon
Disaster on the Rh&ne At Avignon the King takes to
devotion and joins the Flagellants Death of the Cardinal de
Lorraine Coronation of Henri III. His marriage with
Louise de Vaudimont The King endeavours to compel
Franois de Luxembourg to marry a former mistress of his
Majesty The Court returns to Paris Death of Claude de
Valois, Duchess of Lorraine.
ON the morrow of the death of Charles IX., Catherine
wrote to the new King : " Do not delay your departure
on any consideration, for we have need of you. You
know how much I love you, and when I reflect that
you will no more budge from us, that makes me remain
patient. The late King, your brother, has charged me
to preserve this realm for you ; I shall spare no endeavour
in my power to transmit it to you intact and tranquil." l
1 Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds Dupuy, published by M. Charles Merki.
'43
QUEEN MARGOT
The Queen-Mother exhibited both energy and ability
in securing the succession for her favourite son. She
made overtures to La Noue, who was still in arms in
Poitou, opened negotiations with the Rochellois, and
succeeded in persuading d'Amville to return to his
allegiance. Her task was facilitated by the fact that
the leaders of the Huguenot-" Politique " revolt were
in her power ; the Marechaux de Cosse and de Mont-
morency being safe in the Bastille, and Alenc/m and Henri
of Navarre under watch and ward at Vincennes. Conde,
who, some time before the beginning of the rising, had
been permitted to retire to his estates, whence he had fled
in disguise to Germany, had alone escaped her clutches.
In one instance only did Catherine depart from the
conciliatory policy which she had determined to pursue.
The gallant Montgommery was brought from Nor-
mandy to Paris, tried by the Parlement for high treason,
and condemned to a traitor's death. Placed in a tumbril,
with his hands tied behind his back, he was conveyed to
the Place de Greve, and there beheaded and quartered.
The Queen-Mother herself, L'Estoile tells us, witnessed
the execution, " and was at length avenged, as she had
so long desired, for the death of the late King Henri, her
husband."
Although Henri de Valois had only occupied the
throne of Poland some nine months, he was already
heartily tired of his kingdom, both the people and the
customs of which were utterly distasteful to one of his
indolent and luxurious temperament, and had been
impatiently awaiting the event which should recall him
to France. So soon, therefore, as the n'ews of his brother's
death reached him, 1 he quitted his sombre palace at
* Chemerault, one of the couriers despatched by Catherine, travelled
'44
QUEEN MARGOT
Cracow, secretly, in the middle of the night, accom-
panied by some of his French attendants, and fled
ventre-a-terre till he had crossed the Austrian frontier,
while his people rose on all sides to bar his passage,
and his nobles galloped in pursuit, without being able
to overtake their fugitive sovereign. The explana-
tion he subsequently condescended to give of this
escapade, was that the condition of France was so
disturbed that even a week's delay might imperil his
succession. Nevertheless, instead of proceeding straight
to Paris, he preferred to travel by way of Vienna and
Turin, where he was magnificently entertained by the
Duke of Savoy, who retained him for two months. In
consequence, it was the beginning of September before
he bade farewell to the Duke, whose hospitality had been
extravagantly rewarded by the restoration of Pignerol,
the gate of Italy, and turned his steps towards the dis-
tracted kingdom which he had professed himself so
impatient to reach.
At Bourgoin, he was met by Catherine, with whom
were Marguerite and her husband, the Due d'Alencon,
and the greater part of the Court. The two princes
had been set at liberty, by Henri's orders, Catherine
having first exacted an oath from them that they would
" neither attempt nor originate anything to the detriment
of his Majesty the King, and the State of his realm."
The meeting between mother and son was very
affectionate ; both had obtained the summit of their
ambition. After greeting the King, Catherine beckoned
Henri of Navarre and Monsieur as Alen^on was now
called to approach. " Here," said she, " are two
with such expedition that he made the long journey between Paris and
Cracow in thirteen days.
'45 *
QUEEN MARGOT
fantastic persons, whom I have had great difficulty in
retaining ; I hand them over to you ! Deal with them
as you think fit." His Majesty, at first, received the
princes with extreme coldness, and his looks showed plainly
the resentment he cherished against them. They, on
their side, endeavoured to justify themselves, and warmly
protested their devotion. After a while, the King's
countenance relaxed, and he embraced the delinquents,
exclaiming : " Ah well, brothers ! you are free. Love
me only, and love yourselves enough to reject the per-
nicious counsels which will be given you to the detriment
of my service, and which will end by ruining you."
Marguerite had assisted at this family meeting, and,
in a curious passage in her Memoires, she relates the sen-
sations she experienced at the approach of her new
sovereign. " Whilst they [Henri III. and Catherine]
were embracing and exchanging greetings," she writes,
" although the weather was so hot that, in the crowd
in which we stood, we were well-nigh suffocated I
was seized with such a fit of shivering and with such
trembling from head to foot that my gentlemen-in-wait-
ing perceived it, and I had great difficulty in controlling
it, when the King, turning from the Queen, my mother,
advanced to salute me."
The young Queen, who had her full share of the super-
stition of her time, though she never carried it anything
like so far as her mother, regarded this sudden indis-
position as a warning of the sufferings she was to undergo
during the reign of her detested brother ; and it was
with a heavy heart that she accompanied the Court to
Lyons, into which city Henri III. made his entry on the
following day [September 6, 1574]. Nor was it long
before her forebodings began to be realised
146
QUEEN MARGOT
One afternoon, Marguerite, accompanied by the
Duchesses de Nevers and de Retz, Madame de Curton,
who, on the princess's marriage, had exchanged her post of
gouvernante for that of dame d'honneur, and several other
ladies and gentlemen, went to visit the Convent de Saint-
Pierre, where one of the party had a relative among the
nuns. While the Queen and her friends were in the
convent, her empty chariot, " easily recognisable from
its being guilt and of yellow velvet trimmed with
silver," remained in the neighbouring Place des Ter-
reaux, hard by the lodging of a gentleman, whom
Marguerite, in her Memoires, speaks of as Bide, but
who, according to Bassompierre, was the fascinating
Charles de Balzac d'Entragues, surnamed le bel
d'Entrygues, one of the young Queen's most devoted
admirers.
Presently, as ill-luck would have it, the King passed
that way, in company with Henri of Navarre, his
favourite Fran9ois d'O, and the Marquis de Ruffec, on
their way to visit another of his Majesty's favourites,
Quelus, who was ill. Henri III., recognising his sister's
chariot and perceiving that it was empty, thought the
opportunity to sow dissension between Marguerite and
her husband too good to be lost, and, turning to the King
of Navarre, observed with a malicious smile : " Look !
There stands your wife's chariot, and yonder is Bide's
lodging. I warrant she is there ! " And he ordered
Ruffec, " who, as the friend of Du Guast, was the proper
instrument for such malignity," to enter the house
and ascertain if his suspicions were correct. Ruffec
found no one, but, unwilling to baulk his master's
design, said to him, on his return : " The birds have been
there, but they are now flown."
H7
QUEEN MARGOT
Marguerite tells us that her husband " manifested on
this occasion the kindness and understanding which he
always displayed." As a matter of fact, the Bearnais
cared not a jot about his wife's gallantries, so long as
she left him free to pursue his own, and, moreover,
easily divined his Majesty's amiable intentions. But
Henri III. succeeded better with Catherine, whom he
lost no time in acquainting with her daughter's supposed
delinquency. The Queen-Mother, " partly because she
believed his story, and partly in order to gratify this son,
whom she idolised," became exceedingly angry, and
" spoke in a very extraordinary manner before some
ladies."
Presently, in blissful ignorance of what had occurred,
Marguerite returned, and was met by her husband, who,
so soon as he saw her, began to laugh and said : " Go
to your mother, and I am sure that you will return thence
in a fine rage." She inquired what he meant, to which
he rejoined : " I shall not tell you, but let it suffice you
that I believe nothing whatever of it, and that they are
inventions, in order to deprive me, by this means, of the
friendship of Monsieur your brother."
" Seeing that I could draw nothing further from him,"
continues Marguerite, " I repaired to the apartments
of the Queen my mother. On entering the reception-
room, I encountered M. de Guise, who, looking to the
future, was not sorry for the division which was threaten-
ing our House, hoping to gather up some spars from
the wreck. ' I was waiting for you,' said he, * to warn you
that the Queen credits you with a very dangerous form
of benevolence,' and he then repeated to me the fore-
going conversation, which he had learned from d'O. 1
1 True to the role which she had marked out for herselfj and ol
148
QUEEN MARGOT
I entered the chamber of the Queen, my mother, but
she was not there. I found Madame de Nemours and
all the other princesses and ladies, who cried out : ' Mon
Difu t Madame! the Queen your mother is terribly
enraged against you. I do not advise you to present
yourself before her.'
" ' No,' I replied, ( not if I had done what the King
has told her. But, since I am wholly innocent, I must
speak to her, in order to enlighten her upon the subject.' 3
She then relates how, fortified by the consciousness
of her innocence, she entered the Queen-Mother's cabinet,
which was only separated from the rest of the room by
a thin partition, so that every word that was spoken there
could be distinctly heard by those without. No sooner
did Catherine catch sight of her daughter, than she
" began to open fire, and to say everything that it was
possible for extreme and ungovernable anger to fling
forth." In vain the unfortunate princess protested
that she was the vicitm of a shameful calumny ; in vain
she invoked the evidence of the persons who had accom-
panied her to the Couvent de Saint-Pierre, and had not
quitted her during the whole of the afternoon. Catherine
" had no ears for either truth or reason," and continued
" scolding, raging, and threatening " ; and when Mar-
guerite boldly declared her conviction that it was the
King himself whom she must thank for this ill-turn,
she became more angry than ever, and asserted that " it
was one of her own lackeys who had acquainted her
with the facts."
Beside herself with grief and indignation, Marguerite
which we have spoken elsewhere, Marguerite here refuses to recognise
the kindly feeling towards the princess to whose hand he had once
aspired which had obviously prompted Guise's action.
149
QUEEN MARGOT
left her mother and returned to her own apartments.
Here she found her husband, who good-naturedly
endeavoured to console her, pointing out that she had
too many credible witnesses on her side not to be able to
establish very speedily her innocence. This was, indeed,
what happened ; for next day Catherine sent for her
daughter, and confessed that she had been misinformed,
throwing all the blame on the afore-mentioned lackey,
whom she had discovered to be a bad man, and had
decided to dismiss from her service. Then, perceiving,
by Marguerite's manner, that this stratagem was not
succeeding, she employed every means to disabuse her
of the idea that the King was the originator of the
slander. But the princess was still unconvinced, when
his Majesty himself entered, and proceeded to offer her
" all the excuses and protestations of friendship that were
possible." These demonstrations, though but little
sincere, were, of course, followed by a reconciliation,
which, at least, procured Marguerite a short respite from
the persecutions of her despicable brother. 1
On their side, the King of Navarre and Alenc.on were
received into some degree of favour, and Henri III. not
only ceased to treat them with suspicion, but even
assumed an affectionate attitude towards them, and
would frequently appear in public with the princes and
his sister, in order to encourage the belief that peace and
harmony were once more established in the Royal Family.
On All Saints' Day, the three princes communicated
publicly at the same Mass, and, before receiving the con-
secrated wafers, Alen^on and Navarre renewed the oath
which they had taken on their liberation, " protesting
to the King their fidelity, and swearing, by the place
1 Memtirei et lettres <te Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Guessard)
150
QUEEN MARGOT
to which they aspired in Paradise, and by the God whom
they were about to receive, to be faithful to him and to
his State (as they had ever been), to the last drop of their
blood." l But even the most solemn oaths counted for
very little in those days.
The festivities which marked the sojourn of the Court
at Lyons were interrupted by two sad events. The first
was the death of Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy,
the Queen of Navarre's aunt and godmother ; the
second, the untimely end of Marie de Cleves, the young
Princesse de Conde, who died in childbed in Paris.
Henri III. exhibited the most extravagant grief at the
death of his mistress, to whom he had written letters
from Poland in his own blood. 2 On learning the news,
he fell to the ground in a swoon, and was carried to his
apartments, which he caused to be draped in black velvet,
and where he remained shut up for several days, for the
first two of which he refused to touch either food or wine.
When he, at length, reappeared, he was clad in the
deepest mourning, and the points of his doublet and
even the ribbons of his shoes were garnished with little
death's-heads.
Shortly afterwards, the Court quitted Lyons for
Avignon, under the pretext of affording the grief-stricken
King some distraction, but, in reality, with the object
of opening negotiations with d'Amville, 3 Montbrun, and
* L'Estoile.
2 To such lengths did he carry his passion for this lady that during
the siege of La Rochelle, in the winter of 1572-1573, he is said to have
contemplated treating the poor Prince de Cond6 as David treated Uriah
the Hittite, in order that he might espouse his Bathsheba.
3 D'Amville, whom, on the death of Charles IX., Catherine had per-
suaded to return momentarily to her allegiance, had been again alienated
by the despicable conduct of the new King. During Henri's visit to
QUEEN MARGOT
the leaders of the Huguenots of Dauphine. The King,
the Queen-Mother, and most of the Court made the
journey, in barges, along the Rhone. This proved a most
unfortunate decision, for one barge, containing a large
part of the baggage of the Royal Family and a great
quantity of valuable plate and specie, was so absurdly
overloaded that it capsized and sank, and Alphonse de
Gondi, the Queen of Navarre's maitre d'botd, and more
than twenty persons were drowned.
The sojourn of the Court at Avignon was as gloomy
as that at Lyons had been pleasant. The sudden death
of the Princesse de Conde had occasioned a remarkable
change in the humour of Henri III., and whereas, since
his arrival in France, he had been the life and soul of
every fe'te and pleasure-party, he now plunged into the
most extravagant devotion. He was particularly struck
by the proceedings of the Flagellants, a sect very strong
in Avignon, who, dressed in sackcloth, nightly paraded
the streets of the papal city, by torchlight, chanting the
Miserere, and scourging one another with whips. Nothing
would content him but to become a Flagellant, too, and
he accordingly enrolled himself in the confraternity
of the " Blancs-JBattus" The Royal Family and the
Court were compelled to follow suit ; Catherine joined
the black penitents ; the Cardinals de Lorraine and
d'Armagnac, the blue ; while Monsieur, Marguerite,
Turin, the Duke of Savoy had urged him to conciliate the " Politiques "
and to re-establish peace by moderate concessions to the Huguenots, and
had invited d'Amville to come and confer with his sovereign. The
marshal came, and Henri tried to persuade his host to allow him to be
arrested. D'Amville, however, was warned to be on his guard, and
hastily returned to Languedoc, where he at once formed a closer alli-
ance with the Huguenots. In 1577 he finally threw in his lot with the
Royalist cause.
152
QUEEN MARGOT
and even Henri of Navarre, who lent himself with marvel-
lous suppleness to all the exigencies of his difficult role,
might have been seen in these lugubrious processions.
The appearance of the mocking little Bearnais in hood
and sackcloth proved, however, too much for Henri III.'s
sense of humour, and he could not restrain his laughter.
These ridiculous proceedings had one important
result. The Cardinal de Lorraine, unaccustomed to
such mortification of the flesh, was attacked by a fever,
which in a few days proved fatal, to the open joy of the
Protestants, and the secret relief of the King and Cather-
ine, who considered themselves well rid of a very embarras-
sing personality. On the day of his death, Avignon was
visited by a violent storm, which caused the Huguenots
to declare that the cardinal had been carried off by the
devil, " since something more violent than the wind
tore down and whirled off into the air the lattices and
window-bars of the house where he lodged."
On January 4, 1575, the Court left Avignon and took
the road to Rheims, where, since the time of Clovis,
the Kings of France had been crowned. Rheims was
reached on February n, 1575, and, two days later,
the coronation took place, in the ancient castle of Saint-
Remi. The superstitious and who was not super-
stitious in the sixteenth century ? observed that more
than one evil omen marked the ceremony. When the
crown was placed on Henri's head, by the Archbishop of
Rheims, the monarch was heard to exclaim that it hurt
him, and twice the diadem tottered and slipped from
his brow. It was also remarked that the Master of the
Ceremonies forgot the kiss of peace, and that the
choristers omitted to chant the Te Deum.
Three days after his coronation, Henri, who appears
153
QUEEN MARGOT
to have made a singularly rapid recovery from the grief
which the death of poor Marie de Cleves had occasioned
him, married the sweet and charming Louise de Lorraine,
daughter of Nicolas, Comte de Vaudemont, and Mar-
guerite d'Egmont, whom he had seen at Nancy, when he
was on his way to Poland. The King's choice created
some surprise, for not only was the rank of his bride
very far below his own, but her elevation considerably
increased the credit of her relatives, the Guises. How-
ever, in the eyes of the Queen-Mother, who had warmly
favoured the match, these disadvantages were more than
counterbalanced by the fact that the new Queen, like
Charles IX.'s consort, Elizabeth of Austria, was a simple-
minded girl, entirely without ambition, and not in the
least likely to dispute the empire which Catherine
exercised over her son's mind.
Although Mile, de Vaudemont or rather, her parents
had accepted with becoming gratitude the King of
France's gracious offer, her affections were engaged
elsewhere, Francois de Luxembourg being the man of
her choice. The prince in question had attended the
coronation and the marriage, a step which he speedily
had cause to regret ; for, a day or two after the latter
ceremony, Henri III. drew him aside and said : " Cousin,
I have married your mistress ; but I desire that, in
exchange, you should marry mine." And he commanded
him to espouse Renee de Chateauneuf, a bright and
shining light of the Queen-Mother's " escadron volant"
whose favours his Majesty had formerly enjoyed. Luxem-
bourg, making, very naturally, a distinction beween
the two senses attached to the word " mistress," thanked
the King for his thoughtfulness, but begged to be
excused. His Majesty, however, would take no refusal,
154
QUEEN MARGOT
and insisted that the marriage should take place that
very day. The unfortunate prince then " begged very
humbly that the King would grant him a week's respite."
To which Henri replied that he would give him three
days only, at the expiration of which, if he were not
prepared to marry the damsel, something exceedingly
unpleasant would probably befall him. Long before
the three days had passed, however, Luxembourg had
placed many a league between himself and the King's
wrath. 1
The Queen of Navarre assisted at the coronation
and marriage, and accompanied the Court to Paris, into
which the new King and his bride made their entry on
February 17, 1575. The rejoicings which followed
were interrupted by the news of the death of Claude de
Valois, Duchess of Lorraine, who fell a victim, as so many
unfortunate women did in those days, to the clumsiness
and ignorance of the surgeons who attended her in her
confinement. Marguerite sincerely mourned the loss of
her sister, between whom and herself there had always
existed a strong affection, which family dissensions had
been powerless to destroy. Of the ten children whom
Catherine de' Medici had borne Henri II., three only now
remained : the King, Marguerite, and the Due d'Alengon.
1 Before his departure for Poland, Henri had tried to marry Mile, de
Chateauneuf to Nant6uillet, the Provost of Paris. The provost, how-
ever, declined the honour, and persisted in his refusal, notwithstanding
a sound horsewhipping which the rejected beauty administered to him
in public. This lady finally succeeded in finding a husband in the
person of a Florentine named Antinoti, who was intendant of the galleys
at Marseilles, "and having detected him in a compromising situation
with another demoiselle, stabbed him bravely and manfully with her own
hand." L'Estoile, who relates this episode, entitles it; " Acte genertux
pour une dame de son metier"
155
QUEEN MARGOT
Her third son, Louis, and the twins, Victoire and Jeanne,
had died in infancy ; Francois II. in his eighteenth year ;
Elizabeth, the young Queen of Spain, and Charles IX.,
in their twenty-fourth, and the Duchess of Lorraine
in her twenty-eighth. And of the survivors, Marguerite
alone was destined to reach the prime of life.
156
CHAPTER XI
Character of Henri III. His follies and extravagances H'u
"mignins" Enmity between the Qusen of Navarre and Da
Guast Madame de Sauve Instigated by Du Guast, she works
to sow dissension between Monsieur and Henry of Navarre,
and between the latter and his wife Bussy d'Amboise^
Marguerite accused by Du Guast and Henri HI. of carrying
on a liaison with him Question of their relations considered
Du Guast, with the sanction of the King, lays an ambuscade
for Bussy, who, however, escapes unhurt The Queen-Mother
persuades Alen^on to advise Bussy to withdraw from Court
Violent quarrel between the King and Queen of Navarre.
" MJJOR privato visus, dum privates fait, et omnium con-
sensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset," so wrote Tacitus
of the Emperor Galba, and his words might be applied
with equal force to the last of the Valois kings. Henri III
had gifts which, as we have said elsewhere, might, in a
different age and with a different training, have made of
him a shrewd and capable ruler. He could become,
when it suited his purpose, almost as fine an " actor of
royalty " as was Louis XIV. ; he could apeak with weight
and dignity, and even with eloquence ; he had insight
into men and things, and some of his instructions to his
Ambassadors at foreign Courts are models of perspicacity
and sound reasoning ; while, on more than one occasion,
as, for example, when he rebuked the arrogant preten-
sions of Philip II., he showed a really high sense of bis
QUEEN MARGOT
kingly dignity. 1 But the baneful influence of his mother,
and the evil atmosphere amidst which he had been brought
up, had corrupted his whole nature and left him almost
entirely destitute of a moral sense ; and his reign is one
miserable record of lost opportunities, of abilities neg-
lected or misapplied, of puerile follies, of shameful
profligacy, and of devotional excesses scarcely more serious
or more decent than his debaucheries, of duplicity,
trickery, and senseless extravagance.
The conduct of the King astonished and irritated
his subjects ; soon he was not only disliked but despised.
What could be thought of a sovereign to mention only
his follies who, when his country was torn by internal
dissensions and hastening towards bankruptcy, could keep
his Council waiting for hours while he dressed his wife's
hair or starched her ruffs ; who appeared at a Court ball,
his face rouged and powdered, the body of his doublet
cut low, like a woman's, with long sleeves falling to the
ground, and a string of pearls round his neck, " so that
one did not know," says d'Aubigne, " whether it was a
woman-king or a man-queen " ; who gave audience to
Ambassadors with a basketful of puppies suspended from
1 In 1582, after Philip II. had usurped the throne of Portugal, he
insolently demanded that the Prior of Crato, his defeated rival for the
Crown, who had taken refuge in France, should be delivered up or at
least expelled from Henri's dominions. To which the French King
boldly replied that *' he was not less a king than Philip II., and in no
way dependent upon him ; that France was the asylum of the unfortu-
nate, and that the Prior of Crato should remain there so long as he
pleased." Not long afterwards, during a terrible storm, one of the
Spanish galleys was wrecked off the coast of France, and a number of
the slaves, who had escaped to the shore, implored the King's protec-
tion. Philip imperiously demanded their extradition, but was met
with the reply that " the soil of France liberated all those who touched
it"
158
QUEEN MARGOT
his neck by a broad silk ribbon ; who might be seen
playing Cup and Ball with his courtiers in the streets,
and who wasted immense sums, borrowed at usurious
interest from Italian bankers or wrung from his unhappy
people, on balls, fe'tes, and masquerades, 1 or in purchasing
jewellery and curios at extravagant prices ?
But it was the King's favourites his odious " mig-
nons " who especially exasperated the people, and ended
by changing their dislike and contempt into hatred and
disgust. The original idea of these mignons was to counter-
balance the power of the great nobles, whom Henri feared
and distrusted, by men who should owe their fortune
entirely to his favour, and, as such, had something to re-
commend it. But, though a few of his later favourites,
such as d'Epernon and Joyeuse, were men of considerable
ability, and rendered the King good service, the majority
of the earlier ones, chosen only for their good looks, their
elegance, and their personal courage, were men of evil
lives, who disgusted all classes by their insolence, violence,
and debauchery. " From 1576 their name of * mignonsj
says L'Estoile, " began to be heard in the mouths of the
people, to whom they were very odious, both on account
of their way of behaving and their effeminate and im-
modest dress ; but, above all, because of the immense
1 At the Carnival of 1577, Henri had given orders for festivities that
would have entailed the expenditure of some 200,000 livres, the equiva-
lent of nearly two million francs in money of to-day ; but the death of
his father-in-law, Nicolas, Comte de Vaudemont, threw the Court into
mourning and caused the fetes to be abandoned. In the spring of the
following year, his Majesty gave a banquet to his brother and the nobles
and gentlemen who had accompanied him to the siege of La Charite.
At this banquet, the guests were waited on by ladies, dressed, like men, in
costumes of green silk, which are said to have cost upwards of 60,000
livres.
159
QUEEN MARGOT
gifts and favours which the King lavished upon them,
which the people held to be the cause of their ruin. . . .
These fine mignons wore their hair long, curled, and
frizzled, under little velvet caps, as is the custom of the
courtesans ; and their ruffs starched and half a foot wide,
so that when one beheld the head above the ruff, it
resembled the head of St. John the Baptist on a charger.
. . . Their practices were gambling, blasphemy, dancing,
quarrelling, and wenching, and following the King
wherever he went." *
The most obnoxious of all Henri III.'s early favourites
was Du Guast, the gentleman who had been the author
of Marguerite de Valois's quarrel with her brother, and
of the rupture of her love-affair with the Due de Guise,
since which he had not ceased working to embitter his
master's mind against her. Du Guast had accompanied
Henri to Poland, 2 and since the latter had become King
of France, the favourite's influence over him seemed
greater than ever. Naturally insolent and haughty,
his good fortune seemed to have turned his head, and
rendered him insupportable to all save his royal patron.
" He dared to place himself on an equality with the
greatest personages," writes de Thou, " even going the
length of treating them sometimes as if they had been
beneath him, and did not spare the first ladies of the
Court, whose reputations he publicly assailed, often in
the presence of his Majesty ; and he even had the impu-
dence to turn his slanders in the direction of an illustrious
princess [Marguerite]."
1 The name of the mignons survived them ; the mistresses of Henri IV,
were known as the King's " mignonnes"
2 Marguerite says that he remained in France in order to keep her
brother's party together, but from the testimony of Brant6me and
other chroniclers, it is evident that her memory is here at fault.
160
QUEEN MARGOT
Du Guast, indeed, pursued the Queen of Navarre
with a persistent malignity for which it is difficult to
account, unless on the supposition that he had been an
unsuccessful admirer. In justice to him, however, it
should be mentioned that Marguerite had fully recipro-
cated his hatred, had treated him in public with the
utmost contempt, and had scornfully rejected all attempts
on his part to conciliate her. Brantome relates that,
shortly before the death of Charles IX., Du Guast,
entrusted by the King of Poland with some confidential
mission, arrived in France, and presented himself
before the princess, to hand her a letter from her
brother. Upon which the Queen of Navarre angrily
exclaimed : " This letter serves you as your safeguard.
Were it not for this, I would teach you to speak
differently of a princess such as I am, sister of two
kings, your sovereigns."
" I am well aware that you wish me ill," replied Du
Guast, " but be kind and generous, for love of my
master, and hear me." He then sought to excuse himself
and denied the slanders imputed to him, but without
being able to convince Marguerite, who dismissed him
with a gesture of disdain, exclaiming : " I shall always
be your mortal enemy ! "
Du Guast accepted this imprudent challenge, and no
sooner had Henri III. returned to France, than he com-
menced hostilities. His object was to put an end to the
good understandings which reigned between Marguerite
and her husband, and between the latter and Alenc, on, which
the Queen of Navarre used every endeavour to maintain.
By this means, he would not only gratify his own malice,
but serve the interests of his master, since it was of the
highest importance to the King and Catherine to prevent
161 L
QUEEN MARGOT
any concerted action between the chiefs of the Huguenots
and of the disaffected Catholics.
He found an invaluable auxiliary ready to his hand
in the person of Charlotte de Beaune, Baronne de Sauve, 1
lady-of-honour to the Queen-Mother, and perhaps, the
most corrupt woman of the Court. Inferior in beauty
to Marguerite, Madame de Sauve was greatly her superior
in knowledge of life and the conduct of her numerous
gallantries. " She exercised over all her lovers," says
Mezeray, " so absolute an empire that she never lost
one of them, but, on the contrary, constantly acquired
new ones." Though she possessed both beauty and
intelligence, she was capable neither of constancy nor
attachment ; loving through vanity, by calculation, and
often by the orders of the Queen-Mother ; for she was
" one of the most celebrated of those facile beauties
whom Catherine employed to seduce the chiefs of
faction, to retain them in a voluptuous idleness, or to
rob them of their secrets." 2 During the visit of the
Court to Lyons, she had become the mistress of Henri
of Navarre, though he was very far from being the sole
possessor of her charms. His brother-in-law, Alen^on,
was equally her slave ; while Guise, Du Guast, and
1 She was the wife of Simon de Fizes, Baron de Sauve, Secretary of
State under Charles IX. and Henri III. After the death of her first
husband, in 1579, she married Francois de la Tr^mouille, Marquis de
Noirmoutier. She retained her fascination until long past her first
youth, and it was with her that the Due de Guise spent his last night
on earth, before falling under the daggers of the " Quarante-Cittf." A
portrait of Madame de Sauve is preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes,
and has been reproduced in this volume. The face is pretty, but
sensual and cunning. " 11 y a de la chatte dans sa bouche mignonne" re-
marks La Ferriere.
* Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Margufrite de Valois, i. 192,
162
QUEEN MARGOT
Souvre, 1 another of the King's mignons, also participated
in her favours.
Instigated by Du Guast, this dangerous siren em-
ployed all her wiles to excite Navarre and Monsieur to
jealousy of one another, and succeeded but too well.
The former, in spite of his shrewdness, the latter, not-
withstanding Marguerite's warnings, fell into the snare
spread for them ; soon they were in open and declared
rivalry. " To such a pitch of violence," writes Mar-
guerite, " did she work up the passion of my brother
and my husband that, forgetful of every other ambition,
duty and object in life, the sole idea in their minds seemed
to be the pursuit of this woman. Moreover, they thereby
arrived at so great and furious a jealousy of one another,
that, although she was sought by several others, who
were all better beloved by her than they were, these
two brothers-in-law paid no attention to this, but only
dreaded each other's courtship."
Having contrived to embroil the two princes and thus,
for the time being, effectually prevent any concerted
action between them in the political arena, Madame de
Sauve, " aided by the diabolical cunning of Du Guast,"
devoted herself to the task of estranging the King of
Navarre from his wife. To this end, she persuaded him
that, stung by jealousy, Marguerite was favouring
Alen^on's suit, which so angered the enamoured prince
that not only did he withdraw all his confidence from
his wife, but " gave up speaking to her altogether."
Far from satisfied with the success which had attended
the machinations of himself and his ally, Du Guast had
meanwhile been keeping a watchful eye on Marguerite's
1 Gilles de Souvre, Marquis de Courtenvaux. In his old age, he was
gpuverneur of Louis XIII.
163
QUEEN MARGOT
conduct ; and his joy was great when he detected her in
a liaison with Bussy d'Amboise, immortalised by the elder
Dumas in one of the most celebrated of his romances,
la Dame de Montsoreau.
Robert de Clermont, Sieur de Bussy d'Amboise, is
one of the most perfect types of those elegant, audacious,
swashbuckling favourites in whom the Court of the last
Valois was so prolific. His handsome face, his haughty
bearing, the elegance of his dress, his caustic wit, his
duels, and his amours inspired positive enthusiasm. The
women adored him ; the men regarded him with mingled
fear and admiration. TheMemoires of the time are full
of his praises. To Brantome he is "le non-pair de son temps,"
the ideal knight, the model of paladins, the last represen-
tative of the chivalry of the Middle Ages. The austere
lawyer de Thou, and the rigid Calvinist d'Aubigne,
while censuring his morals, do not fail to render justice
to his brilliant qualities ; though the latter regrets that
he should have employed his valour " more in biting
the dogs of the hunt than the wolves." And L'Estoile
shows him to us animated by " an invincible courage,
proud and audacious, as valiant as his sword, and as worthy
to command an army as any captain in France." How-
ever, he reproaches him with having been " vicious and
with having little fear of God," and he would appear
to have been quarrelsome, debauched, avaricious, and
without any scruples worth mentioning. 1
Bussy had been originally a favourite of the King,
and had accompanied Henri to Poland. But, on the
latter's accession to the French throne, he took offence
1 During the St. Bartholomew, he profited by the general massacre
to murder his cousin, Antoine de Clermont, with whom he was engaged
in a law-suit.
164
QUEEN MARGOT
at some slight which he had received, and attached himself
to Alengon, who appointed him his chamberlain and,
according to L'Estoile, reposed such unbounded con-
fidence in him that he gave him the key of his coffers,
and allowed him to help himself to their contents when-
ever he pleased.
" When we were in Paris," relates Marguerite, " my
brother appointed Bussy to attend him, holding him in
the high esteem which his valour merited. He was
continually in my brother's company and, in consequence,
in mine ; my brother and I being almost always together,
and he having given orders to his attendants to honour
and obey me no less than himself. Du Guast, however,
putting a different construction upon it, thought that
Fortune offered him a fine opportunity, and having,
through Madame de Sauve, insinuated himself into the
good graces of the King my husband, he endeavoured
by every means in his power to persuade him that Bussy
was my lover."
The Bearnais, however, turned a deaf ear to Du
Guast, though not, in all probability, as Marguerite
would have us believe, because he did not credit the
accusation, but because it was a matter of supreme in-
difference to him whether his wife had one or a dozen
gallants. Thereupon, the worthy Du Guast carried his
tale to Henri III., " whom," says Marguerite, " he
found more easy to persuade, as much on account of the
little good-will he bore my brother and myself, our friend-
ship being suspicious and odious in his eyes, as because
of his hatred of Bussy, who having formerly been in his
service, had quitted it, in order to devote himself to
my brother."
The King lost no time in informing the Queen-Mother,
165
QUEEN MARGOT
whom he advised to remonstrate with Henri of Navarre
on his wife's conduct, and strove to incite to the same
indignation which she had displayed at Lyons. But
Catherine preferred to work in the shadow, and not to
enter into open hostility with any one, and had no mind
to risk a second mistake, which could not fail to exasperate
her daughter. She, therefore, declined to interfere,
and, if we are to believe Marguerite, said to the King :
" I know not who the mischief-makers are who put such
ideas into your head. My daughter is unfortunate to
have been born in such times. In our day, we spoke
freely to every one, and your uncles, M. le Dauphin a
and M. d'Orleans, were constantly in the bed-chamber
of your aunt, Madame Marguerite, 2 and myself ; and no
one thought it strange, nor indeed was there any reason
why they should. Bussy sees my daughter before you,
before her husband, and before her husband's people,
in her chamber, and before every one ; not in secret or
with closed doors. Bussy is a person of quality and your
brother's first gentleman-in-waiting ! What is there
to complain of in this ? Do you know anything further
concerning it ? By a calumny, at Lyons, you made me
offer her (Marguerite) a very great affront, which I very
much fear that she will resent all her life."
The King, continues Marguerite, was much dis-
concerted. " Madame," said he, " I only speak of this
after others." " Who are those others, my son ? "
replied the Queen-Mother. " They are people who wish
to set you at variance with all your relatives."
" The King, having taken his departure," continues
the princess, " she repeated everything to me, and said :
1 Elder brother of Henri II., who died August 10, 1533.
1 Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy, sister of Frai^ois I
166
QUEEN MARGOT
* You were born in an evil day ' ; and calling Madame
de Dampierre, she fell to conversing with her about the
pleasant liberty of action which they enjoyed in their
time, without being, like us, subjected to slander."
True to the role which she assumes throughout her
MJmoires, that of a cruelly maligned woman, Marguerite
has endeavoured to remove from the minds of her
readers any suspicion that Du Guast's accusation might
have had a basis of truth ; and it is difficult not to admire
the adroitness with which she places her own apology
in her mother's mouth. However, she speaks of Bussy
in terms too passionate, and takes his part with too much
warmth for her protestations of innocence to be very
readily accepted. " She is no longer mistress of her
pen, and one seems to feel by the extravagance of her
praises that her heart overflows." * " There was not one
of his sex and quality in this century," she writes, " who
was his equal in valour, renown, grace, and understanding ;
so much so that there were some who maintained that,
if one were to believe, like certain philosophers, in the
transmigration of souls, no doubt could exist that the
soul of your gallant brother Hardelay animated him." 2
While, elsewhere, she declares that he was " born to be
the terror of his enemies, the glory of his master, and the
hope of his friends."
Moreover, the testimony of the Queen of Navarre's
contemporaries is against her. Dampmartin, in his
Fortune de la Cour, relates that, venturing to speak one
day to Bussy about his friendship with the princess, his
1 Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, vol. vi. La Reine Marguerite, ses
memoires et ses lettres.
J Jean de Bourdeille, brother of Brant&me, to whom Marguerite'i
Memoires are addressed. Brant&me speaks of him in his lge ties
hemmes illustres fran^ois.
167
words " affected him and caused him to blush a little,
because he knew that he was something to her." And
Brantome, the common friend of Bussy and Marguerite,
and the latter's most devoted admirer, says that she aban-
doned one of her lovers " to accord her favours to a young
nobleman, brave and valliant, who bore on the point of
his sword the honour of his lady, without any one daring
to touch it."
This allusion, very justly observes M. Charles Merki,
is sufficiently clear, and, after it, when one remembers
the predilections of the writer, further evidence becomes
superfluous. 1 And we, therefore, fear that the efforts
of Marguerite's apologist, M. de Saint-Poncy, to prove
that the princess was Bussy's mistress only in the poetic
sense of the term are so much labour lost. 2
Foiled in his design to injure Marguerite, and fearing
that he might be called upon to answer to her lover for
his temerity, Du Guast, with the full approval of the
King, now resolved to get rid of Bussy, according to the
fashion of those days, not, of course, in fair fight, seeing
that he would have stood but a poor chance had he
ventured to measure swords with that doughty champion,
but by means of an ambuscade. Circumstances favoured
him, since Bussy a host in himself was for the time
being bars de combat, suffering from a wound in his
sword-arm, which he had received in a duel with Saint-
Phal, one of Henri III.'s mignons. Du Guast, who was
colonel of the King's guards, posted, one night, a number
of his men in a street through which his enemy must pass,
on his way from the Louvre to his lodging in the Rue de
Crenelle ; who, when Bussy appeared, accompanied
1 La Reine Mar got et la fin des Valois, p. 124.
* Marguerite de Palois, i. 300-302.
168
QUEEN MARGOT
by only some fifteen or twenty followers, discharged a
volley of arquebus and pistol-shots, " sufficient to
scatter a whole regiment," and then hurled themselves
upon him. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued,
in which one unfortunate gentleman, who, owing to the
fact that he, like Bussy, carried his arm in a sling, was
mistaken for him in the darkness, fell covered with
wounds. Bussy himself escaped unhurt, by stepping
through a door, which, by good fortune, had been left
ajar, and closing it in the face of his adversaries.
However, the news of the affray was carried to the
Louvre, by an Italian gentleman in Alencon's service,
who rushed, all covered with blood, into the palace,
crying out that Bussy was being assassinated. Alencon,
who had retired for the night, immediately sprang out
of bed, threw on his clothes, and, sword in hand, was about
to run to his favourite's assistance, when he was stopped
by Marguerite and the Queen-Mother, who besought
him not to expose himself to danger, pointing out that
the affair had very probably been concerted by his
enemies, for the express purpose of drawing him from
the Louvre and assassinating him under cover of the
darkness. Their prayers and remonstrances ultimately
prevailed, and Monsieur returned to his apartments,
though, fearing lest he might change his mind, Catherine
sent orders to the porters on no account to open the
palace gates. An hour or two later, Marguerite and her
brother learned, to their intense relief, that Bussy was
safe, and, the following morning, their hero presented
himself at the Louvre, " with as gallant and gay a de-
meanour," writes the princess, "as if the attack upon
him had been merely a passage of arms for his amusement."
Alencon, however, was none the less determined to
169
QUEEN MARGOT
take vengeance for the affront which, he considered,
had been offered him, " in seeking to deprive him of
as valliant and worthy a servant as ever prince of his
quality had known." The King was equally determined
to protect the offenders, and, urged on by Du Guast,
declared that Bussy had brought all the trouble upon
himself by his overbearing and quarrelsome behaviour,
and swore that he would no longer tolerate such a
ruffianly brawler at his Court. In the end, Catherine,
fearing an open rupture between her sons, persuaded
Alen^on to advise his favourite to withdraw for a while
from Paris and the Court. The duke reluctantly con-
sented and, one fine morning, Bussy was escorted by a
troupe of his friends and admirers to the Porte Saint-
Antoine, and retired to his government of Anjou, where
he remained until after the " Peace of Monsieur"
Marguerite was naturally much incensed by Bussy's
banishment, and her chagrin was accentuated by fresh
difficulties with her husband, who took offence at her
indiscreet championship of the exiled gallant. However,
they were momentarily reconciled, when the Queen came
to his assistance one night, " when he was seized with a
very serious indisposition, the result, I believe, of his
amorous excesses (Qui lui venoit, comme je crois, d'excez
qu'il avoit faits avec les femmei)"* This pleased him
so much, she tells us, that he praised her to every one,
declaring that, but for her timely succour, he would
certainly have died.
Taking advantage of this change in his disposition
towards her, Marguerite succeeded in bringing about a
better understanding between Henri and Alen^on, who
were beginning to suspect that the fascinating Madame
1 Memoiret et lettres de Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Guessard).
170
QUEEN MARGOT
de Sauve had been deceiving them both. The rap-
prochement between the two princes alarmed Du Guast,
who, " recognising that she (Marguerite) was the cause of
it, and that she acted as a kind of unguent, such as exists
in all natural objects, and which joins and cements their
severed parts," advised Henri III. to induce the King
of Navarre to dismiss Mile, de Thorigny, 1 his consort's
favourite maid-of-honour, on the ground that she had
assisted her mistress in her intrigue with Bussy. As
Du Guast had, of course, foreseen, a violent quarrel be-
tween the young couple followed ; and Marguerite's ex-
asperation against her husband reached such a pitch that
she refused to live with him any longer as his wife, or
even to speak to him.
1 Gillone Govion de Matignon, daughter of Jacques Je Matignon,
Comte de Thorigny, IMarechal de France. She married, en premieres noces,
Pierre d'Havcourt, seigneur de Beuvron, and, after his death, the Comte
de Nermont,
171
CHAPTER XII
Irksome position of Henri of Navarre and Alen^on at Court
Flight of {Monsieur Fury of the King on learning of his
brother's escape The Queen-Mother leaves Paris to negotiate
with Alenon Serious position of affairs Henri III. vents
his anger upon Marguerite and causes her to be placed under
arrest in her own apartments Attempt of Du Guast against
the life of Mile, de Thorigny Assassination of Du Guast by
the Baron de Viteaux Question of Marguerite's responsi-
bility for this crime considered Escape of the King of
Navarre Marguerite again subjected to a rigorous confine-
ment Henri III. compelled to treat with the rebels
Alen^on refuses to negotiate until his sister is set at liberty
The Queen of Navarre, at the request of the King and Cath-
erine, accompanies the latter to confer with the leaders of the
insurrection The Peace of Beaulieu ("Peace of Monsieur")
Marguerite returns to Paris.
IN the meanwhile, the position of Henri of Navarre
and Alen^on at Court had become even more irksome
than it had been during the preceding reign. Although
nominally at liberty, they were still subjected to the
closest and most vexatious surveillance. Navarre saw
his hereditary States a prey to disorder, his authority
declining, and his orders ignored by his subjects, who
considered themselves absolved from obedience to a
ruler who was little better than a prisoner ; from his
kingdom he received scarcely anything. His other fiefs
of the Armagnac, Perigord, Rouergue, Foix, and the
Limousin were ravaged by war and brought him but a
172
QUEEN MARGOT
meagre revenue. As for his salary as Governor of
Guienne, his pensions and those of his wife, these had
been for some time past in arrears ; and Du Guast took
care that his requests for payment should be met by
specious excuses or mortifying refusals.
Alenfon was in no better case. The revenues of his
appanage were insufficient to enable him to maintain the
dignity of his position, and he was deeply in debt. His
brother treated him with coldness and contempt ; while
his friends found themselves threatened with disgrace,
and were continually having quarrels thrust upon them
by the insolent favourites of the King.
Under stress of their common grievances, the two
princes agreed to forget their differences, and resumed
their projects of escape. This time success rewarded
tkeir efforts. On September 15, 1575, Alengon, muffled
in his cloak, 1 left the Louvre, about six o'clock in the
evening, followed by a single gentleman, and made his
way to the Porte Saint-Honore. Here Simier, his Master
of the Wardrobe, was awaiting him with a coach. Mon-
sieur entered it, and was driven to Meudon, where
Guitry, the Huguenot leader whose attempt to effect
his liberation eighteen months before had miscarried,
joined him with a body of cavalry. The fugitive prince
left his coach, mounted a horse, and rode to Dreux,
one of the towns of his appanage, which had been selected
as the rendezvous of his partisans. 2
Great was the consternation at the Louvre when it
1 D'Aubigne relates that, before setting out, he had put on the doublet
which La Mole had worn on the day of his execution, swearing to wear
it in the day of battle, and not to lay it aside until he had avenged his
ill-fated favourite.
2 De Thou gives a different account of Alenon's escape, but that of
Marguerite, which we have followed, is to be preferred. The princess
173
QUEEN MARGOT
became known that Monsieur had fled from Paris. " His
absence," writes Marguerite, " was not remarked until
nine o'clock in the evening, when the King and the
Queen my mother inquired of me, why he had not supped
with them, and whether he were ill. I told them that
I had not seen him since dinner-time. They sent to his
chamber to ascertain what he was doing, but were in-
formed that he was not there. They gave orders that
search should be made for him in all the ladies' apart-
ments which he was in the habit of frequenting. He
was sought for all over the palace and all over the town,
but was not to be found. The alarm increased ; the
King flew into a passion, stormed, threatened, sent to
summon all the princes and nobles of the Court, and
ordered them to take horse and bring him back, alive
or dead, declaring that he had gone to disturb his realm
and to make war upon him, and that he would teach
him the folly he was committing in attacking a King
as powerful as himself. . . . Some accepted this com-
mission, 1 and prepared to mount their horses. They
were unable, however, to be in readiness to start before
daybreak, for which reason they failed to overtake my
brother, and were obliged to return, not being equipped
for war."
From Dreux, Alencon issued a proclamation, " based,"
remarks L'Estoile, " as they all are, on the preservation
and re-establishment of the laws and statutes of the
realm," which greatly perturbed the King and the
Court. The Queen-Mother offered to endeavour to
bring back the fugitive, and, on September 21, she left
was in her brother's confidence and, therefore, better informed. More-
over, her version of the affair is confirmed by L'Estoile.
1 But others, like the Due de Montpensier, curtly refused.
QUEEN MARGOT
Paris, accompanied by the Cardinal de Bourbon and the
Bishop of Mende. But Monsieur, warned that Nevers
and Matignon were assembling troops to take the field
against him, did not await her arrival, but withdrew into
Touraine ; and it was not until October 5 that Catherine
contrived to overtake him at Chambourg. The prince,
however, refused to negotiate, until the two marshals,
Montmorency and Cosse, who were still in the Bastille,
had been released ; and Henri III. was compelled to set
them at liberty and beg them to use their influence in
favour of peace. Both the King and Catherine were
thoroughly alarmed at the turn which events were taking ;
for the escape of Alen^on had been the signal for the
" Politiques " and Huguenots to commence a vigorously
offensive warfare. Thore, the youngest of the Mont-
morency brothers, had advanced into Champagne, at
the head of 5000 Germans, who were only the advance-
guard of a large force of the dreaded Reiters, which
Conde had been for some time past employed in raising ;
d'Amville, in Languedoc, was preparing to support
Alengon with 14,000 men ; while John Casimir, brother
of the Elector Palatine, was threatening the Three
Bishoprics. The defeat of Thore, by Guise, at Dormans,
on October u, in which engagement the duke received
the wound in the face which earned him, like his cele-
brated father, the name of " le Balafre" checked the
advance of the Germans. But the Huguenots captured
Issoire, and the King was glad to purchase a truce of six
months, at Champigny, by surrendering to his brother
the towns of Angouldme, Niort, Saumur, Bourges, and La
Charite, as pledges of his, good faith (November 21, 1575)
At the Court, meanwhile, poor Marguerite, overcome
175
QUEEN MARGOT
by anxiety on her brother's account and by fear lest the
King should vent his resentment upon her, had fallen
into a violent fever, which confined her to her bed for
some days. Her apprehensions, as regarded herself,
were fully justified, for when she reappeared, Henri III.,
who, notwithstanding her protestations of innocence,
entertained no doubt that she had been an accomplice
of Alencon's flight, overwhelmed her with threats and
reproaches. " He was so inflamed against me," she
writes, " that, had he not been restrained by the Queen
my mother, I believe that his rage would have led him
to perpetrate some cruelty against me, to the endangering
of my life." The cautious Catherine pointed out to her
infuriated son that ere long they might be glad to avail
themselves of the princess's good offices, " for that,
as prudence enjoined that we ought to live with our
friends as though they might one day become our
enemies, so also did she ordain that when the ties of
affection were severed, we should behave to our enemies
as though they might one day become our friends." \.
This judicious counsel prevented the King from taking
any violent measures against his sister ; but he ordered
her to be placed under arrest in her own apartments, 1
and strictly prohibited every one from visiting or holding
any communication with her ; guards being posted before
her door to see that his orders were carried out. No one
1 In her Memoires, Marguerite places her imprisonment after the
escape of Henri of Navarre, which took place five months subsequent to
that of Alcncon, in February 1576. But, since she states, in another
passage, that it preceded the departure of the Queen-Mother for the
interview of Champigny and the death of Du Guast, of which we shall
presently speak, it is obvious, as her biographer M. de Saint-Poncy
points out, that either her memory is at fault, or she has knowingly
erred, through a desire to pose as the victim of conjugal devotion.
I 7 6
QUEEN MARGOT
ventured to disobey, with the exception of the gallant
Crillon, 1 who braved all prohibitions and loss of favour,
and came several times to visit the captive princess,
" astonishing so much thereby the Cerberi who guarded
her door, that they did not venture either to address
him or to deny him entrance."
Not content with subjecting his sister to a rigorous
confinement, Henri, at the suggestion of the amiable
Du Guast, determined to take vengeance upon her in
other fashion.
We have spoken, in the preceding chapter, of a Mile,
de Thorigny, maid-of-honour to Marguerite, whom the
King had persuaded Henri of Navarre to dismiss from his
wife's service, on the ground that she had been an in-
termediary between the young Queen and Bussy. This
Mile, de Thorigny, after leaving the Court, had retired
to the country-house of one of her relatives, a certain
Sieur de Chastelas. But, one fine morning, soon after
the flight of Alen^on, a party of soldiers belonging to
Du Guast's regiment rode up to the chateau, and
informed the trembling damsel that they had orders
from his Majesty to convey her back to Paris. They then
seized and bound her, and locked her up in her room,
the while they devoted themselves to the congenial task
of pillaging the house and making merry with the contents
of the Sieur de Chastelas's cellar.
If we are to believe Marguerite, the soldiers had secret
instructions to drown the unfortunate young lady in an
adjoining stream ; but, however that may be, it is
tolerably certain that some very unpleasant fate awaited
1 Louis de Berton des Balbes de Crillon, Knight of Malta, afterwards
one of the most celebrated captains of Henri IV. He was an intimate
friend of Bussy d'Amboise, whose life he had saved in Poland.
177 M
QUEEN MARGOT
her. Happily for Mile, de Thorigny, just as her captors
were on the point of carrying her off, a body of horse,
on their way to join Alen^on's army, appeared upon the
scene, under the command of Avantigny, one of Mon-
sieur's chamberlains, promptly charged and scattered
Du Guast's troopers, and rescued the lady. 1
The attempt upon Mile, de Thorigny was the last of
Du Guast's exploits, as, shortly afterwards, his career
came to an abrupt and tragic termination.
The mignon had many enemies, but the most implacable
of all was a certain Guillaume du Prat, Baron de Viteaux,
younger brother of Nantouillet, Provost of Paris, who had
declined the hand of Mile, de Chateauneuf, Henri III.'s
discarded mistress. This Viteaux, who was a notorious
brawler, had killed, in a duel, a gentleman named Allegre,
one of the King's favourites. The King would probably
have overlooked the offence ; but Du Guast, an intimate
friend of the ill-fated Allegre, gave him no peace until
he had disgraced and exiled Viteaux, who left Paris
vowing vengeance against the author of his punishment.
Nor were his threats idle ones. Towards the end of
October 1575, he returned secretly to Paris, accom-
panied by some trusty retainers, concealed himself in
the Couvent des Augustins, and sent his servants to gather
information concerning the movements of his enemy.
Du Guast, as a rule, was far from an easy person to
approach with any hostile intent, since, aware of the hatred
of which he was the object, it was his practice to go about
guarded by some fifteen or twenty of the men of his
regiment, who never left him during the day, and at
night posted themselves around his lodging. However,
he happened, just at that time, to be carrying on an
1 Mimoires et lettres de Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Gucssard).
178
QUEEN MARGOT
intrigue with a Madame d'Estrees, who resided in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain, and, in order to facilitate
their intercourse, had rented a small house adjoining
that of his mistress and communicating with it. More-
over, since the lady set rather more store by her reputa-
tion than was customary in those days, and the sight of
Du Guast's tall guardsmen on duty outside the house
could not fail to arouse gossip in the neighbourhood,
he confined his following on the nights when he visited
the Faubourg Saint-Germain to two or three confidential
servants.
Viteaux, duly informed of all this, laid his plans with
secrecy and promptitude. On All Saints' Eve (Novem-
ber i, 1575), Du Guast, according to his habit, was read-
ing in bed like so many men of pleasure in the sixteenth
century, the favourite made some pretence of culture
when the door was flung open, and Viteaux, followed by
two bravos, brothers of the name of Boucicaux, who,
on account of their courage and ferocity, he called " his
lions," rushed into the room. By some means, they had
succeeded in gaining admission to the house, and had
poniarded the servants before they had had time to give
the alarm.
Snatching up a sword, which stood beside his pillow,
Du Guast attempted to defend himself ; but the combat
was an unequal one, and in a few moments he was des-
patched. Throwing a coverlet over the corpse, Viteaux
passed into the adjoining house, where he found Madame
d'Estrees, who had not yet retired to rest, and, with
revolting cruelty, wiped his sword, wet with the blood of
her lover, upon the distracted woman's dress. Then,
since it was midnight, and the gates were closed, he and
his accomplices made for the city walls, down which they
179
QUEEN MARGOT
lowered themselves, by means of a rope, mounted horses
which were awaiting them, and escaped to the army of
Alenc/Dn.
We have dwelt upon this tragic affair at greater length
than it perhaps deserves, since it has been made the
occasion of a very serious charge against Marguerite de
Valois. Not only the scurrilous pamphleteers of the
time, but grave historians, like de Thou and Mezeray,
and, after them, a crowd of other writers, do iiot hesitate
to assert or to hint that Viteaux did not act on his own
initiative, but was the instrument of a more important
quarrel. With a wealth of detail, which does infinite
credit to their imaginative faculties, picturesque historians
relate how the young Queen of Navarre, having endured
the persecutions of Du Guast until her patience was
exhausted, resolved upon a sure method of putting an
end to them for ever ; how, having been informed that
the injured Viteaux was in hiding in Paris, she visited
him in his cloistral retreat, under cover of night, and,
by a pathetic relation of the wrongs she had suffered at
the hands of their common enemy, roused him to the
last pitch of fury. And that inimitable embroiderer of
historical fact, Michelet, adds that, the better to assure
her vengeance, she appealed to other passions, and sur-
rendered herself to the embraces of the bravo.
Now, what truth, if any, is there in all this ? None
whatever ! De Thou, the most reliable witness, does
not actually name Marguerite ; he merely says that a
woman of the highest rank went to seek Viteaux in his
hiding-place. It is by no means certain, as so many
later writers assume, that he intended to indicate the
young Queen ; for Du Guast's malignant tongue had
injured more than one lady of the highest rank. In
1 80
QUEEN MARGOT
L'Estoile's account of the affair, there is not a word
about Marguerite ; while Brantome refuses to admit
that she had any connection with the crime. " Although
he [Du Guast] had greatly injured her," he writes,
" she did not render him the like, nor avenge herself.
It is true that, when he was killed, and they came to
announce it to her, she merely said : * I am very vexed
that I am not quite cured, in order to have the joy of
celebrating his death.' But, moreover, she was so good,
that when any one humbled himself before her, in order
to seek her pardon and favour, she forgave and pardoned
everything, after the fashion of the generosity of the
lion, who never harms one who humbles himself."
However, as M. de Saint-Poncy points out, Marguerite
has really no need of the testimony of any chronicler
in her favour, since she would have been able to prove,
had she been required, the most incontestable of alibis.
When the murder was planned and executed, she was
in a position which made it impossible for her to visit
the Augustine convent or any other place, since she was
at that time a close prisoner in her apartments in the
Louvre, with guards stationed at her door to prevent
her leaving them or even receiving visitors. It was,
indeed, just at the moment of Du Guast's death that
her captivity was the most rigorous, nor was it relaxed
until after the truce signed at Champigny on November
21, 1575, three weeks later. Further, from the words
which Brantome attributes to her, it is clear that she
must have been ill and confined to her room, and probably
to her bed, by a rather slow convalescence. " I am
very vexed that I am not quite cured," she says, " in
order to have the joy of celebrating his death " ; a very
reprehensible speech no doubt, but also very natural,
181
QUEEN MARGOT
in the mouth of a young woman, who suddenly learns
that she has no longer to fear the most cruel of her
enemies. 1
Marguerite is then innocent of the crime imputed to
her, though it is not at all improbable that her brother
and ally Alen^on, who had a long score of his own against
M. du Guast, had been the instigator of the deed.
L'Estoile tells us that it was the general belief in Paris
that the murder had been committed " with his full
consent and by his orders, inasmuch as this proud and
audacious mignon had braved Monsieur, even to the
length of one day passing him in the Rue Saint-Antoine
without saluting him, or even pretending to know him,
and had several times declared that he recognised only
the King, and that, when the latter should order him to
kill his own brother, he would do it." And Mongez
writes : " That which completes this conviction, is the
refusal addressed to Monsieur by M. de Ruffec, Governor
of Angoul6me. This town had been given to the duke
for a surety, and when he pressed Ruffec to surrender
it, the latter excused himself, on the plea that, since he
had always been devoted to the service of the King, and,
in consequence, the enemy of Monsieur, he feared the
fate of Du Guast, whom his Majesty's favour had not
been able to protect against his (Alen^on's) blows." 2
1 Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois, i. 345. In her
Memoires, Marguerite makes no attempt to conceal her detestation of
" this instrument of hatred and dissension," who, she says, was " killed
by a judgment of God, as he was following a cure, his body being
ruined by all kinds of abominations and given over to the corruption
which had long possessed it, when his soul became the prey of the
demons to whom he had done homage by magic and all manner oi
wickedness."
2 Histoire de Marguerite de Valois.
182
QUEEN MARGOT
For the rest, Du Guast was well served ; ne was one
of the worst of the mignons of Henri III., and his attacks
upon women for not only did he wage war upon
Marguerite, but even ventured to traduce and persecute
the innocent and inoffensive Queen Louise shocked
and disgusted all who retained a vestige of chivalrous
feeling. The manner of his death, too, was singularly
appropriate, since he had been one of the most pitiless
of the assassins of the St. Bartholomew. "As he had
surprised some in their beds," writes L'Estoile " of
which he boasted so he himself was surprised and
slain."
After the death of Du Guast and the truce of Cham-
pigny, the Queen of Navarre found her position more
tolerable. Alenson had strongly protested against the
treatment to which his sister was being subjected, and
Catherine had not failed to represent to the King the
necessity of conciliating the duke by every means in
their power. Though Marguerite, therefore, still re-
mained under arrest, she was allowed a certain amount
of liberty. Nevertheless, her life was far from a pleasant
one, and soon the affairs of her husband came to aggravate
her situation.
Henri of Navarre, who both disliked and despised
Alen^on, though necessity had driven them into an
alliance, chafed to see him occupying a position which
he felt should be his, and waited impatiently for a chance
of escaping from the thraldom which he had now endured
for more than three years. Nevertheless, in order to
enable his friends to complete their preparations, he was
compelled to postpone his attempt until the end of
February 1576. In the meanwhile, he continued his
QUEEN MARGOT
apparently careless and trivial life, and, by cleverly
feigning disapproval of Alenc.on's conduct, succeeded in
quieting Henri III.'s suspicions and securing greater
liberty. However, on February 4, as he was returning
from a hunting expedition in the Forest of Senlis, he
met his faithful equerry, Agrippa d'Aubigne, and two or
three other attendants galloping at full speed from Paris.
" Sire," cried d'Aubigne, " we are betrayed ; the King
knows all. The road to Paris leads to dishonour and
death ; those to life and glory are in the opposite direc-
tion."
" There is no need of so many ^words," replied
Henri, " the die is cast."
The young King was, as was customary, escorted by
two gentlemen, who were responsible to Henri III. for
his safety. But them he dismissed, on some pretext
which they did not care to question, in face of the trucu-
lent attitude of d'Aubigne and his companions, and
then, turning his horse's head, made for Poissy, where
he crossed the Seine and reached the town of Alen^on
in safety. Here he stood sponsor at the christening,
according to Calvinistic ritual, of the child of one of his
adherents. As he entered the meeting-house, the con-
gregation were singing the 2ist Psalm. " The King shall
rejoice in Thy strength, O Lord ; exceeding glad shall he
be of Thy salvation. Thou hast given him his heart's
desire." Hearing that the psalm had not been specially
chosen, he said that he welcomed it as a good omen. 1
It is related that until Henri crossed the Seine, 2 he
1 Mr. P. F. Willert, " Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France,"
p. 108.
2 L'Estoilc and the many writers who follow him name the Loire.
But this is an obvious error, since, in journeying from Paris to Alen9on,
Henri had not to cross the Loire.
184
QUEEN MARGOT
maintained an absolute silence ; but the moment he
had left the river behind him, he gave a deep sigh of
relief, and, raising his eyes to Heaven, exclaimed :
" Praise be to God, who has delivered me ! They killed
my mother in Paris, the Admiral, and my best servants,
and desired nothing better than to treat me in the same
way, had not God preserved me. I will never return
there, unless I am dragged by force." Then, reverting
to his habitual gaiety of manner, he added : " I have
left in Paris only two things which I regret : the Mass
and my wife. The first I will make shift to do without ;
but the latter I cannot, and I shall be glad to see her
again."
From Alen^on, Henri proceeded to Saumur on the
Loire, where the Huguenot gentry of the neighbourhood
hastened to join him.
The flight of her husband brought upon the head of
the Queen of Navarre a renewal of Henri III.'s resent-
ment, and she found herself once more subjected to a
rigorous confinement ; indeed, if we are to believe
Mongez, his Majesty was so incensed against his sister
that, but for Catherine's intervention, he would have
chastised her with his own royal hands. 1 But posterity
ought to regard Marguerite's captivity as a singular
piece of good fortune, since it was during those long,
lonely hours that she ^acquired, or rather regained, those
habits of serious study, which had been impossible amid
the feverish gaiety of the Court, and the result of which
may be traced in almost every page of her Memoires.
Meanwhile, the King and Catherine found themselves
confronted by a coalition which grew every day more
* Hiitoire de Marguerite dt Valoit.
185
QUEEN M ARGOT
threatening. Conde and John Casimir, at the head of
a formidable army of Reiters, invaded Burgundy, took
Dijon, crossed the Loire, near La Charite, and effected
a junction with the forces of Alen^on on the Bourbonnais.
In Gascony, several important places had fallen into the
hands of the Huguenots ; and while " the bravest and
most chivalrous in France " flocked to Alen^on's standard,
the royal troops were half-hearted and mutinous, and
many of the nobles flatly refused to march against
Monsieur, " dreading," says Marguerite, " to get their
fingers pinched between two stones."
Under these circumstances, Henri III. had no choice
but to make overtures of peace to his rebellious brother,
and to Catherine once more fell the thankless task of
conducting the negotiations. Before leaving Paris, she
pointed out to the King that it would be advisable to
take Marguerite with her ; but Henri would not consent
to part with so valuable a hostage, and she was compelled
to leave her in his hands. However, as she had probably
foreseen, Alen^on declined to treat until his sister was
set at liberty. " The Queen my mother," writes Mar-
guerite, " having received this reply, returned and
informed the King of what my brother had said, adding
that it was necessary, if he desired peace, that she should
go back again, but that, if she went without me, her
journey would be again useless. She said, further, that,
if she took me with her, without having first conciliated
me, I should injure, rather than serve her cause, and that
it was even to be feared that she might experience some
difficulty in persuading me to return, and that I might
wish to rejoin the King my husband."
Henri III., compelled to admit the force of his mother's
reasoning, consented to what she proposed. Catherine
1 86
QUEEN MARGOT
at once sent for Marguerite, and requested her assistance
to induce Monsieur to come to terms with the Court,
begging her " not to allow the affront which she had
received to inspire her with sentiments of vengeance
rather than with a desire for peace, as the King was pre-
pared to make her every reparation in his power." Then
Henri himself entered and made his sister all kinds of
pretty speeches ; and the interview terminated by
Marguerite magnanimously declaring that she was pre-
pared to " sacrifice herself," for the welfare of her family
and the State.
Accompanied by the Queen of Navarre and her
" escadron volant" Catherine set out for the Chateau
of Chastenay, near Sens, the rendezvous she and Alencjon
had agreed upon. " My brother," resumes Marguerite,
" came thither, followed by the principal nobles and
princes of his army, both Catholic and Huguenot, and
the Duke Casimir, and Colonel Poux, who had brought
with him six thousand Reiters. The conditions of peace
were here discussed for several days, a good many disputes
arising respecting the articles, chiefly about those which
concerned ' the Religion.' " 1
The terms, which were finally agreed upon at Beau-
lieu (May 1576), were a complete triumph for the rebels,
and clearly prove the desperate straits to which the
insurrection had reduced Henri III. The Protestants
secured concessions greater than any which they had
hitherto obtained. They were granted complete freedom
of worship throughout the kingdom, except in Paris ;
the establishment of courts in all the Parlements com-
posed of an equal number of judges of both religionSj
and restoration to all their honours and offices ; while
1 Me 'moires et lettres de Marguerite de Valols (edit. Guessard).
187
QUEEN MARGOT
the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew was formally dis-
avowed and the property of Coligny and other prominent
victims restored to their heirs, 1 and eight fortresses handed
over to them, as security for the due observance of the
treaty. Alenc/m received the addition to his appanage
of the duchies of Anjou, Berry, Touraine, and Maine,
and other lordships, which raised his revenue to 400,000
cus. He now assumed the title of Due d' Anjou, which
had been that of Henri III. before his accession to the
throne, and by which we must henceforth refer to him.
Henri of Navarre was confirmed in his government of
Guienne and Conde in that of Picardy. Finally, a
large sum was paid to John Casimir for the wages of his
Reiters, and to compensate him for the trouble and
expense of his invasion of France, besides which he was
granted an annual pension of 40,000 livres, in order to
secure his friendship.
Monsieur had advised his sister to allow herself to be
included in the treaty, and to demand the assignment
of her marriage-portion in lands. But Catherine begged
her not to insist on this, assuring her that she could
obtain from the King whatever she desired ; and Mar-
guerite very unwisely yielded, " preferring to owe what
she might receive from the King and the Queen her
mother to their good-will alone, in the belief that it
would be thus more permanently assured to her." Nor
did she succeed in obtaining permission to join her
husband, who, so soon as peace was concluded, had
written, " inviting her to demand her conge." Catherine
pleaded, with tears in her eyes, that she had pledged her
1 The execution of Montgommery was also declared to have been a
miscarriage of justice, and, on the demand of Alen9on, that of La Mole
and Coconnas as well.
188
QUEEN MARGOT
word to the King to bring her daughter back to Paris,
and that, if Marguerite refused to return, his Majesty-
would imagine that she had induced her to rejoin her
husband, and that she (the Queen-Mother) would be
ruined. She added that she need only remain at Court
until Monsieur arrived, when she would immediately
obtain permission for her to depart. And so very re-
luctantly the Queen of Navarre returned to Paris.
189
CHAPTER XIII
Irritation aroused in the ultra-Catholic party by the Treaty of
Beaulieu Formation of the League Alarm of Henri III.,
who, to checkmate the Guises, resolves to place himself at its
head The King of Navarre demands that his wife shall be
permitted to return to him And sends the Vicomte de Duras
to conduct her to Beam Henri III. promises to send her
back, but breaks his word The States-General meets at Blois
The King signs the roll of the League and compels all the
principal persons of the Court to do likewise The Estates
vote in favour of restoring the unity of the faith by force, but
refuse to vote the supplies required to carry on an effective
war The King of Navarre sends Genissac to Blois to de-
mand his wife Henri HI., in spite of the reproaches of
Marguerite, refuses to allow her to depart Unpleasant posi-
tion of the princess at Court Intrigues of Mondoucet in
Flanders Under the pretext of taking the waters of Spa, it
is decided that Marguerite shall proceed to Flanders, to pave
the way for Anjou's enterprise.
THE Protestants would have been well advised, had they
been satisfied with less favourable terms than they had
demanded and obtained at the " Peace of Monsieur."
The concessions granted them aroused, as had been the
case after the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the greatest
irritation among the more zealous Catholics, who regarded
them in the light of a betrayal of their faith. The
Parlement of Paris refused to register the edict, and the
King had to hold a Bed of Justice to force it to
confirm it. The clergy of Notre-Dame declined to allow
190
QUEEN MARGOT
the cathedral choir to sing the 1e Deum, which was
eventually chanted by the choristers of Henri III.'s
private chapel, in the presence of only those officials of
the Court, the municipality, and the Parlement whose
duties compelled them to attend. The illuminations
at the H6tel-de-Ville were witnessed by a mere handful
of spectators ; and the reading of the edict by the
Herald-at-Arms in the court of the Louvre was listened
to in sullen silence, broken here and there by angry
murmurs.
Soon it became apparent that it would be impossible
to enforce the conditions of the peace. The Protestants
in various parts of the country were attacked, and their
worship disturbed by the populace, and, since the per-
sistent hostility of the Parlements prevented the estab-
lishment of the mixed tribunals, they were unable to
obtain redress. Jacques d'Humieres, the Governor of
Peronne, a friend of the Guises and a bitter enemy of
the Montmorencies, refused to deliver that fortress to
Conde, when, as Governor of Picardy, the prince de-
manded to be placed in possession of it, and formed
for his support a confederacy between the partisans of
the Guises and the bigoted Catholics of the province.
The movement spread with astonishing rapidity, espe-
cially among the fanatical population of Paris, and soon
grew into a general " Holy League," or association of
the extreme Catholic party throughout the kingdom.
The idea of the League was not new. It had been
conceived by the Cardinal de Lorraine at the time of the
Council of Trent, and the young Due de Guise had made
a tentative attempt to carry out his uncle's scheme, in
1568, in his government of Champagne. But it remained
in a state of conception until 1576, when the alarm and
191
QUEEN MARGOT
resentment of the bigoted Catholics, at the growth of
Protestantism and the impotence of the King to arrest
its progress, produced a vast association, which soon came
to be regarded by both priests and people as the chief
bulwark of the ancient faith.
Henri III., in consenting to the demands of the Hugue-
nots, had probably counted on the reaction which his
concessions would provoke, and was not ill-pleased at
seeing " the advantages which had been obtained by-
force and conceded with reluctance," re-dcred futile.
But the formation of the League whose members were
binding themselves to regard as enemies all who refused
to join it, to defend each other against any assailant,
whoever he might be, and to endeavour to compass the
objects of the association against no matter what opposition
alarmed him greatly, and, after an unsuccessful attempt
to obtain a promise from the Guises that they would
form no association calculated to lead to a breach of the
recent peace, he decided that the only course open to
him was to place himself at its head. This decision
rendered a new war inevitable.
Henri of Navarre had fared no better in his govern-
ment of Guienne than had his cousin Conde in Picardy ;
the gates of Bordeaux were closed against him, and he
soon found that his authority throughout the rest of the
province was little more than nominal. This effectually
removed any illusion which he might have entertained
as to the solidity of the recent treaty, and, instead of
laying down his arms, he began to make active prepara-
tions for war. Nevertheless, it did not prevent him
addressing energetic protests to the King in regard
to the treatment to which he had been subjected at
192
QUEEN MARGOT
Bordeaux ; while, at the same time, he demanded that his
wife and his sister, Catherine de Bourbon, who, like
her brother, had been detained in a kind of semi-cap-
tivity at the Court since the St. Bartholomew, should
be given up to him. His desire to get possession of his
wife proves the importance which he attached to her
presence in his camp ; but, though Catherine de Bourbon
was sent back, Henri III., on one pretext or another,
continued to keep Marguerite in Paris.
As time went on, the King of Navarre grew more
insistent, and, towards the end of September, despatched
the Vicomte de Duras, one of his chamberlains, to Paris,
with a request that Henri III. would give Marguerite
into his charge, in order that he might conduct her to
Beam. The princess, on her side, did not fail to second
Duras's efforts, for, though she had no particular desire
for her husband's society, to be Queen at Nerac or Pau
was to her mind an infinitely more pleasing prospect
than that of remaining as a hostage in Paris. " I earnestly
pressed the King to allow me to depart," she writes,
" there being no longer any reason for refusing me.
He replied, representing that it was his affection for me
and the knowledge of what an ornament I was to his
Court which made him desire to delay my departure as
long as possible, and that it was his intention to escort
me as far as Poitiers (the Court was then about to set out
for Blois, for the meeting of the States-General, which
had been one of the conditions of the Peace of Beaulieu) ;
and sent M. de Duras back with this promise.
As a matter of fact, Henri III. had not the smallest
intention of allowing Marguerite to rejoin her husband
and carry with her into the camp of the enemy all the
prestige and influence which attached to her in her
193 N
QUEEN MARGOT
quality of a Daughter of France ; and at the end of
November 1576, when the Estates met, the Queen of
Navarre found herself installed, with the rest of the
Royal Family, in the Chateau of Blois.
The day before the Estates opened, the King sum-
moned the Queen-Mother and some of his Council,
and, having explained to them the importance of
the League and the danger which it threatened to the
royal authority, particularly if the Guises were elected
its leaders, announced that " he had decided that the
only way of arresting this dangerous combination, was
to place himself at its head." He then, " to show his
zeal for religion and prevent the election of any other
leader," sent for the roll of the League, signed it himself,
as its chief, and summoning all the principal personages
of the Court, compelled every one, from his brother down-
wards, to follow his example. 1 The selfish and treacher-
ous Anjou, after obtaining by the Peace of Beaulieu all
that he desired, had been at little pains to conceal his
dislike of his Protestant allies, and now deserted them
without the smallest compunction.
The League, aided by the whole influence of the
Court, had exerted itself to the utmost to terrorise the
elections, and the Huguenots and " Politiques" seeing
how matters were going, had held aloof, with the result
that when the Estates met, they were altogether un-
represented. Anticipating that measures fatal to their
interests would be passed, they wished to leave no pretext
for describing the States-General of Blois as a full and
free meeting of the representatives of the nation. In
acting thus, they undoubtedly committed a grave error,
since, notwithstanding their abstention and the terrorism
1 Memolres et lettres de Marguerite de Falois (edit. Guessard).
194
QUEEN MARGOT
of the League, it was only after long and acrimonious
debates and by a bare majority that the Third Estate
voted in favour of the rupture of the edict, and to deprive
the Protestants of all exercise of their religion, both in
public and private. But to wage war effectively money
was required, and, as the Estates absolutely declined
to sanction any further alienation of the Crown lands,
or, indeed, any other expedient for raising supplies, their
vote was rendered valueless. Accordingly, they were
dismissed by the King, who reproached them bitterly
with their parsimony, but was probably well pleased
at the check which the League had received. 1
A few days before the opening of the States-General^
another emissary from the King of Navarre, in the
person of the Seigneur de Genissac, 2 arrived at Blois,
to remind his Majesty that his promise to restore Mar-
guerite to her husband was still unfulfilled. But the
prince who had just made up his mind to violate a treaty,
was not likely to attach much importance to a mere
promise, and drove Genissac from his presence " with
harsh and threatening words, telling him that he had
given his sister to a Catholic, and not to a Huguenot,
and that if the King her husband desired her presence,
he had better turn Catholic again." 3
Informed by Genissac of the rebuff which he had
1 Mr. P. F. Willert, " Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in
France," p. 126.
2 Bertrand de Pierrebuffiere, one of the most intrepid companions-in-
arms of Henri of Navarre. He figured, four years later, with Loignac,
as "second" in a singularly murderous duel between Charles de Gon-
taut-Biron and Claude d'Escars, Prince de Carency, who was assisted by
d'Estissac and La Bastide. Carency and both his seconds were killed.
8 The King of Navarre had been publicly readmitted into the
Calvinistic communion in June 1576.
195
QUEEN MARGOT
received, Marguerite hastened to the Queen -Mother's
cabinet, where she found both Catherine and the King,
and reproached the latter bitterly with the deceit he
had practised upon her and his broken promise. " I
pointed out to him," she writes, " that I had not married
for my own pleasure, nor at my own desire ; that it
had been by the desire and authority of King Charles,
of the Queen my mother, and of himself ; but that,
since they had chosen my husband for me, they could
not prevent me sharing his fortune ; that I wished to go
to him, and that, if they did not permit me to do so, I
should effect my escape and depart as best I could, at
the risk of my life."
" Now is not the time, my sister," said the King, " to
importune me about this promise. I admit what you
say, but I have procrastinated with the object of refusing
it you altogether ; for, since the King of Navarre has
turned Huguenot again, I have never approved of your
going to him. What the Queen my mother and I are
doing, is for your good. I intend to make war on the
Huguenots and to exterminate this miserable religion,
which has done us so much evil ; and it would be un-
seemly that you, who are a Catholic and my sister,
should be in their hands, in the position of a hostage
from me. And who knows whether, in order to offer
me an irreparable insult, they might not wish to avenge
themselves for the harm I intend them, by taking your
life ? No, no, you shall not go ; and if, as you say,
you attempt to escape, consider that you will have both
myself and the Queen my mother as your bitter foes,
and that we shall make you feel our enmity by every
means in our power." *
1 Memoircs tt lettres Je Marguerite <k Valols (edit. Guessard).
196
QUEEN MARGOT
The Queen of Navarre's position was now a most
unpleasant one. Although the refusal of the Estates
to vote supplies rendered any effective operations on
the part of the royal troops difficult, if not impossible,
hostilities began and were carried on with much ferocity
on both sides. Marguerite had the sorrow and morti-
fication of seeing her only allies, Anjou and Henri of
Navarre, waging war upon each other ; while she herself
was obliged to remain under the yoke of Henri III.
and Catherine, in the midst of a Court where her husband
was proclaimed traitor and rebel, and where the King's
favourites lost no opportunity of exasperating their
master against him, and even ventured to propose schemes
for his assassination. 1
In order to escape from this intolerable situation, the
Queen took counsel with some of her friends, " to dis-
cover some pretext for withdrawing from the Court,
and, if possible, from the kingdom, until peace should
be concluded, either under colour of making a pilgrimage,
or paying a visit to one of her relatives." Among those
whom she consulted, was the Princesse de la Roche-sur-
Yon, 2 who happened to be on the point of setting out
for Spa, to take the waters. Monsieur was also present,
and had brought with him Mondoucet, the French
representative in Flanders.
Mondoucet, who had but recently returned from a
residence of several years in the Netherlands, had estab-
1 On one occasion, Loignac, who, twelve years later, took the leading
part in the assassination of Guise, proposed to go to Guienne, with ten
trusty followers, and assassinate the King of Navarre. His offer, how-
ever, was not accepted
8 Philippe de Montespedon, widow of Charles de Bourbon, Prince
de la Roche-sur- Yon, Due de Beaupreau, and mother of the Marquis de
Beaupreau, already mentioned by Marguerite (see p. 26 supra).
197
QUEEN MARGOT
lished intimate relations with the leaders of the revo-
lutionary movement in the Catholic States, who had
charged him, " to make the King understand that their
hearts were entirely French, and that they were stretch-
ing out their arms towards him in welcome." Henri III.,
however, what with the League on one side and the
Huguenots on the other, had too much on his hands at
that moment to meddle with the affairs of his neighbours,
and showed no desire to avail himself of the invitation.
Mondoucet, an indefatigable intriguer, thereupon ad-
dressed himself to Anjou, " who, being possessed of a
truly princely nature, cared only to engage in impor-
tant enterprises, being born to conquer rather than to
retain." The prospect of wresting the lost Burgundian
fiefs from the Spaniard, and ruling them in the name
of France, appealed strongly to that prince, who was as
meddlesome and ambitious as he was treacherous and
incapable, and who, having obtained all that he was ever
likely to get in France by the recent treaty, was already
beginning to cast about him for some fresh field for the
exercise of his talents. He had, therefore, readily
entered into Mondoucet's views, and it had been arranged
that the latter should enter his service, and, under the
pretext of escorting Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon to
Spa, return to Flanders and continue his intrigues.
The astute Mondoucet was not slow to perceive the
immense advantage which Anjou might derive from the
presence in Flanders of his beautiful and fascinating
sister, whose charms and winning manner, combined
with the prestige which surrounded her, might do more
in a week to pave the way for Monsieur's enterprise than
the diplomatist could effect in a year. When, therefore,
it was suggested that Marguerite should find some
198
QUEEN MARGOT
excuse for quitting France until the war was over, he
turned to Anjou and said, in a low voice : " If, Monsieur,
the Queen of Navarre could feign some indisposition,
for which the waters of Spa, whither Madame de la
Roche-sur-Yon is bound, would be beneficial, it would
be extremely advantageous to your enterprise in Flan-
ders, where she would be able to strike an effective
blow."
Anjou was delighted with the idea and exclaimed :
" O Queen, seek nothing further ! You must go to the
waters of Spa, whither the princess is going. I have
remarked that you once had an erysipelas upon the arm.
You must say that when the doctors ordered you these
waters, the season was not so suitable for them, but that
now is the proper time, and that you beg the King will
permit you to go to Spa."
Marguerite, on her side, asked nothing better than to
undertake the mission proposed to her. She was, as
we have seen, tenderly attached to her brother, who,
though repulsive both in appearance and character, 1
seems to have possessed for her some unaccountable
attraction. Moreover, she had inherited the Valois
love of adventure, and not a little of her mother's fondnes3
1 L'Estoile says that the duke's face had been so disfigured by small-
pox that he appeared to have two noses, and that after his treacherous
attempt to seize Antwerp, in 1584, the Flemings made the following
quatrain about him :
" Flamans, ne soies etonne"s
Si a Fran9ois vole's deux nez,
Car par etoit raison et usage,
Faut deux nez a double visage."
The Due de Bouillon tells us that previous to being attacked by the
small-pox, Anjou was an extremely good-looking youth, but the disease
transformed him into one of the ugliest men possible to behold.
199
QUEEN MARGOT
for intrigue, and the enterprise was one which promised
an abundance of both. Greatly to her relief, Henri III.
and Catherine raised no obstacle in the way of her pro-
jected journey, though they must have had a shrewd
suspicion of what lay behind it. However, so long as
she did not rejoin her husband, neither of them cared
very much where she went, or how she employed her
time. As- for Anjou and his ambitious projects, if he
chose to pursue chimeras and perhaps get a few years
in some Spanish fortress for his pains, that was his own
affair, and the diversion of his meddlesome activity into
some other realm than France might not be without its
advantages. For which reason, Henri III. gave his
consent readily enough to his sister's departure, and
despatched a courier to Don Juan, who had lately suc-
ceeded Requescens as Governor of the Netherlands,
begging him to furnish the Queen of Navarre with the
passports she required to travel through Flanders, in
order to reach Spa, which was situated in the bishopric
of Liege.
200
CHAPTER XIV
The Queen of Navarre sets out for Flanders Her suite She
arrives at Cambrai, and seduces the commandant of the citadel
from his allegiance to his master Her reception at Mons,
where she gains over the Comte and Comtesse de Lalain to
her brother's cause Her meeting with Don Juan Her stay
at Namur as the guest of the prince She departs for Liege
and is in danger of being drowned, through an inundation of
the Meuse Her impressions of Liege She receives alarming
intelligence from Monsieur She sets out on her return to
France.
THE Queen of Navarre did not set out on her journey
immediately, but accompanied the Court to Chenon-
ceaux, where Henri III. established himself, in order to
be near Mayenne, who was laying siege to Brouage. At
Chenonceaux she remained until May 28, 1577, when,
after a final conference with Anjou, in regard to his
projects and " the service he required of her," she
started for Flanders. She was accompanied by the
Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon, Mesdames de Tournon, 1
and Castellane de Millon, Miles. d'Atri, 2 de Tournon,
and seven or eight other maids-of-honour, the handsome
Philippe de Lenoncourt, Bishop of Auxerre, afterwards
Cardinal, Charles d'Escars, Bishop of Langres, celebrated
1 Claudine de la Tour-Turenne, wife of Justus II., Seigneur de
Tournon, Comte de Roussillon.
2 Anne d'Aquaviva, daughter of the Duke of Atri, a Neapolitan noble.
She afterwards married the Comte de Chateaudun.
20 1
QUEEN MARGOT
for his eloquence, the Marquis de Mouy, and the chief
officers of her household.
Marguerite, who had inherited the sumptuous tastes
of the Valois and the Medici, delighted in pomp and
magnificence, and no princess of the time made a braver
show when travelling, since, if her train was inconsiderable
in comparison with those of the queens of the great States,
this was atoned for by the elegance of her coaches and
litters, the costly trappings of her horses and mules, and
the rich liveries of her servants. " I journeyed," she
writes, " in a litter fashioned with pillars, lined inside
with rose-coloured Spanish velvet, embroidered in gold
and having hangings of shot-silk adorned with devices.
The sides of the litter were of glass, each pane of which
was covered with devices, there being on the windows
or on the lining forty different ones altogether, with
mottoes in Spanish and Italian concerning the sun and
its influences. This was followed by the litter of Madame
de la Roche-sur-Yon, by that of Madame de Tournon,
my dame d'honneur, by ten young ladies on horseback,
accompanied by their gouvernantes, and by six coaches>
or chariots, containing the rest of the ladies in attendance
upon the princess and myself."
By easy stages, the Queen passed through Picardy,
" where the towns had orders from the King to receive
her with the honour due to her," and reached Catelet,
three leagues from the frontier. Here she received a
message from Louis de Barlemont, Bishop of Cambrai,
who sent to inquire the hour at which she proposed leav-
ing Catelet, in order that he might meet her at the
entrance of his State. 1 She answered that she would
1 The town of Cambrai and the country surrounding it, after many
ricissitudes, which caused people to declare that Cambrai did not know
2OZ
QUEEN MARGOT
arrive that same evening, but, according to a manuscript,
published by the 'Bulletin de la Societe d* Academique^ a very
opportune coach- accident compelled her to pass the night
at an inn on the road, where a gentleman, "afflicted,
doubtless through sympathy, with an erysipelas of the
face," had arrived that morning. The writer adds that
the gentleman in question was none other than Mar-
guerite's old lover, the Due de Guise, who had chosen
this pretext for concealing the scar on his cheek, which
he had received at the Battle ot Dormans, and which had
earned him the name of " la Balafre " ; and that, before
she resumed her journey, the princess gave him ample
proof that, if Fate had bestowed her hand on another,
her heart or at least some portion of it still belonged
to the duke. 1
At Cambrai, the Queen was received by the bishop,
" who was well-attended by persons having the dress
and appearance ot real Flemings, who, in this part of
the country, are very stoutly built" 2 The bishop enter-
tained his royal visitor to a supper followed by a ball,
to which he invited all the principal ladies oi the town.
But, " being of a formal and punctilious disposition,"
he did not apparently consider it quite consistent with
the character ol his sacred office to be present at the
whether it belonged to France, Spain, or the Empire, formed, at this
period, an independent state, governed by the bishop, but under the
protection of Spain. The town was definitely ceded to France, in 1678,
by the Treaty of Nimeugen.
1 Cited by M. Charles Merki, La Rime Margot et la Jin det Valois,
p. 154.
2 "/// sont fort grossiers" The word "grassier" is now generally
used in an uncomplimentary sense ; but, according to Mongez, it had
in the sixteenth century a different significance, and expressed only "la
hauteur et Fefaisseur du corps."
203
QUEEN MARGOT
latter entertainment, and, so soon as supper was concluded,
begged permission of the Queen to retire, leaving M.
d'Inchy, the commandant of the citadel of Cambrai,
to do the honours.
The prelate's retirement was an unexpected stroke
of good fortune for our fair intriguer, since the town of
Cambrai and its citadel was considered the key of
Flanders, and if, by any means, the commandant could
be won over to Anjou's cause, the duke would secure a
footing in the country of which it would be far from
easy to deprive him. The princess, accordingly, brought
every weapon in the arsenal of her charms to bear upon
the hapless d'Inchy, and to such good purpose that the
commandant was soon completely in her toils. " God
vouchsafed that I should be so successful," she says,
" and that he should take so much pleasure in my con-
versation that, after considering how he could contrive
to see as much as possible of me, he arranged to bear me
company so long as I remained in Flanders, and, with
this object, requested permission of his master [the Bishop
of Cambrai] to escort me so far as Namur, where Don
Juan of Austria was awaiting me, saying that he wished
to witness the splendour of my reception ; which permis-
sion this Spaniardised Fleming was so ill advised as to
accord."
Long before Namur was reached, the enamoured com-
mandant had confided to his enchantress that " his
sympathies were wholly French, and that he was only
longing for the day when he might have so gallant a
prince as her brother for lord and master." So that it
is little wonder that the delighted princess thought him
" a finished gentleman, entirely devoid of the ingrained
rusticity of the Flemings," and far superior to the
204
QUEEN MARGOT
41 Spaniardised Fleming," his master, " in both the graces
and accomplishments of mind and body."
From Cambrai, the Queen proceeded to Valenciennes,
near which town she was met by the Comte de Lalain,
Grand Bailiff of Hainault, his brother Emmanuel de
Lalain, Baron de Montigny, and a number of other
noblemen and gentlemen. Marguerite and her company
appear to have been much impressed by the fountains,
clocks, and " the handiwork peculiar to the Germans,"
which they found at Valenciennes, and which " inspired
our French folk with great astonishment, they being all
unused to behold clocks which discourse agreeable vocal
music."
After remaining a day at Valenciennes, Lalain escorted
the distinguished travellers to Mons, where his wife, and
his sister-in-law, the Marquise d'Havrec, " with at least
eighty or a hundred ladies belonging to the country or
the town," were waiting to welcome her, by whom she
was received " not like a foreign princess, but as though
she had been their rightful liege-lady."
Lalain, indeed, who was a personage of considerable
wealth and great influence in Flanders, was already
half-won over. He had, Marguerite tells us, always
been hostile to the Spanish domination, and had been
greatly incensed by the execution of his relative,
d'Egmont, in 1568. A devout Catholic, he had held
aloof from William of Orange and the Protestants ; but,
on the other hand, had refused to meet Don Juan or
allow him or any other Spanish representative to enter
his government. His countess, who exercised great
influence over her husband, was likewise strongly anti-
Spanish in her sympathies, and Marguerite was, there-
fore, encouraged to open her mind to her freely. She,
Oj
QUEEN MARGOT
accordingly, represented to her that, although, owing to
the pressure of internal troubles, it was impossible for
the King of France to engage in any foreign enterprise,
there was another deliverer ready and anxious to come
forward, in the person of her brother Anjou, of whose
valour, prudence, generosity, and military skill she then
proceeded to paint a most alluring picture, adding that
it would be impossible for them to appeal to a prince
whose assistance would be more valuable, " since he
was so near a neighbour, and had so large a kingdom
as that of France at his service, whence he could draw
the money and the material necessary for conducting
the war."
The princess seems to have put the case for her brother
with considerable skill ; the Comtesse de Lalain forth-
with became a devoted partisan of the duke, and had
little difficulty in persuading her husband to follow her
example. In consequence, when, at the end of a week,
Marguerite left Mons, Hainault was assured to Anjou
as well as Cambrai, and the road thus opened to the very
heart of Flanders. It had also been agreed that, on her
return from Spa, Marguerite should make a stay at her
chateau of La Fere, 1 in Picardy, where Monsieur should
join her, and that Lalain's brother, Montigny, should
repair thither to treat with the duke, on behalf of the
Catholic States.
Before leaving Mons, the Queen of Navarre presented
her host and hostess with magnificent tokens of her good-
will. To the Comtesse de Lalain she gave a casket
of jewels, and to her husband a chain and pendant en-
riched with precious stones, " which were accounted
1 The Chateau of La Fere belonged to the House of Bourbon, and
had been ceded by Henri of Navarre to his wife on their marriage.
206
QUEEN MARGOT
of great value, and were still further esteemed by them
as coming from one whom they loved as they did
her."
At Mons, Marguerite had been warmly welcomed by
those who regarded her as the representative of the House
and the nation, to whom they looked for their emanci-
pation ; at Namur, she was to meet the oppressors of
the people whose ally she had now become, and to be the
guest of a governor-general, whose mission it was to
discover and thwart any intrigues in which France might
be tempted to indulge with his subjects. After the death
of Requescens, Philip II. had sent his half-brother to
Flanders, not to fight but to treat ; and before entering
the country, the prince had been compelled to accept
the Treaty of Ghent the " Perpetual Edict " whereby
the liberties of the Netherlands were confirmed, and the
right of levying taxes restored to the Estates, who, in
return, promised to recognise Don Juan as their governor,
so soon as the last Spanish soldier should have left the
provinces. But the Treaty of Ghent was merely a truce ;
no sooner had the Spanish soldiers been sent away, than
Don Juan began to bring them back again ; and the
States, exasperated by this breach of faith, were already
on the point of open rebellion.
The Comte de Lalain, accompanied by a number
of Flemish nobles and gentlemen, escorted Marguerite
some distance beyond the frontier of Hainault. But
when Don Juan and his suite appeared in the distance,
the count and his friends bade her farewell, since, owing
to the very strained relations which existed betweea
the leaders of the States and the governor-general, their
meeting would have been exceedingly embarrassing for
both sides. D'Inchy, however, remained with the
207
QUEEN MARGOT
princess, as his master, the Bishop of C?mbrai, belonged
to the Spanish party.
Don Juan came attended by the Due d'Aerschot and
his son, the Marquis d'Havrec, of the House of Cr6"y,
and two brothers of the family of Rye, the Baron de
Balan^on and the Marquis de Varembon, the first of
whom was Governor of Franche-Comt, who had come
to Namur on purpose to meet the Queen. With the
exception of Ludovic de Gonzague, " who called himself
a relative of the Duke of Mantua," none of Don Juan's
own staff were of any particular note, and Marguerite
remarked the significant absence of the Flemish nobility
about the son of Charles V.
The hero ot Lepanto was then in his thirty-second
year, " le prince de V Europe le -plus beau et le mieux fait "
" endowed by Nature with a cast of countenance so gay
and pleasing that there was hardly any one whose good-
will and love he did not immediately win " ; very
sumptuous and fastidious in his attire, and reported to be
a great admirer of the fair. He was already acquainted
with the Queen of Navarre, having stayed for a few days
in Paris, on his way from Italy to the Netherlands, and
attended a ball at the Louvre, expressly, so Brantome
tells us, to have the pleasure of beholding the princess
of whose charms he had heard so much. And it was on
this occasion that he expressed the opinion, which we
have already cited, that, " although her beauty was rather
divine than human, it was more calculated to ruin and
damn men than to save them."
" Don Juan," continues Marguerite, " alighted from
his horse, in order to salute me in my litter. I saluted
him in the French fashion, 1 and the Due d'Aerschot and
1 Bv offering him her cheek to kiss.
208
QUEEN MARGOT
M. d'Havrec also. After a few complimentary speeches,
he remounted his horse, but continued to converse with
me until we came to the town, where we did not arrive
until after nightfall, since the ladies of Mons .had not
permitted me to depart until the last moment, and had
likewise amused me more than an hour, by examining my
litter, taking great delight in making me explain the
different devices. Everything at Namur was so ad-
mirably ordered since the Spaniards are excellent
managers in this respect and the town with its windows
and shops so well lighted, that it seemed as though
illuminated by a second day."
Don Juan had prepared for his guest a lodging worthy
of one who was, at the same time, a Daughter of France
and a sister of the Queen of Spain. " The house, in
which he installed me," she says, " had been specially
arranged for my reception. A large and beautiful salon
had been contrived, with a suite of apartments consisting
of bedrooms and cabinets, the whole of which were
furnished with the most beautiful, costly, and superb
hangings that I think I have ever beheld, being entirely
composed of velvet and satin tapestries, with representa-
tions of pillars in cloth of silk, covered with embroideries
in great rows and quiltings of gold, in the fullest and most
beautiful relief that it was possible to behold. And in
the midst of these columns, divers great personages were
depicted, habited in antique costume, and wrought in the
same kind of embroidery." The princess adds that
the Bishop of Auxerre, who had become on very friendly
terms with the Due d'Aerschot, learned from him that
the stuffs of which these hangings were composed, were
a gift to Don Juan from a wealthy Turkish pacha, in
recognition of the prince's magnanimity in restoring to
209 o
QUEEN MAR GOT
him, without ransom, his two sons, whom he had taken
prisoners at Lepanto. Don Juan sent the pacha's gift
to Milan, the taste of whose upholsterers was celebrated
throughout Europe, to have them made into the superb
tapestries which so delighted the Queen of Navarre ;
" and, in order to be reminded of the glorious manner
in which he had acquired them, he caused the bed and
tester which were in the Queen's chamber, to be em-
broidered with naval battles, representing the victory
that he had gained over the Turks." " Did ever more
perfect beauty," exclaims the enthusiastic M. de Saint-
Poncy, " repose on a more glorious couch ? "
In the morning, Don Juan escorted the Queen to hear
Mass, which was performed according to the Spanish
custom, with an accompaniment of violins and cornets.
Afterwards, he entertained her to a banquet, at which
Marguerite and the prince dined at a table apart from the
rest, Ludovic de Gonzague serving them with wine on
bended knee. " When the tables were cleared, dancing
began, which lasted all the afternoon. The evening was
passed in the same fashion, Don Juan continuing to
devote himself to me, and observing frequently that he
saw in me a resemblance to the Queen, * his Signore,' by
whom he meant the late Queen my sister, whom he had
greatly honoured, and showing, by all the respect and
courtesy in his power, the extreme pleasure he experienced
at seeing me there."
Marguerite had only intended remaining one night
at Namur ; but, as the boats by which she intended to
ascend the Meuse so far as Liege could not be made ready
so soon as she had expected, she was compelled to defer
her departure until the morrow. Don Juan took advan-
tage of the delay to arrange a water- picnic for his guest's
210
QUEEN MARGOT
diversion. A large boat gaily decorated with flags, and
accompanied by a number of smaller ones, filled with
musicians playing on hautboys, cornets, and violins,
conveyed the princess to an island in the Meuse. Here
the governor had caused a banquet to be prepared, " in
a spacious room fashioned and decorated with ivy,
around which were compartments occupied by musi-
cians, who played upon hautboys and other instruments
during the whole of supper time." After supper, the
company danced for about an hour, and then returned
to Namur.
On the morrow, the Queen bade farewell to Don Juan,
and continued her journey. If we are to believe Bran-
tome, brief as had been her stay in their midst, she had
succeeded in completely captivating all the Spanish
officers, who were heard to declare that " the conquest
of such a beauty was worth more than that of a kingdom,
and that happy would be the soldiers who could serve
under her banner." 1 It may, therefore, have been just
as well for the allegiance of Don Juan's followers that
his charming guest did not prolong her visit to Namur.
Hitherto Marguerite's journey had been a smiling odys-
sey ; but now disasters began. Mile, de Tournon, one of
her maids-of-honour, was suddenly taken ill, and died a few
days after their arrival at Liege, according to her mistress's
account, of a broken heart, caused by the indifference
to her charms of the Marquis de Varembon, already
mentioned, with whom the poor young lady was pas-
sionately in love. At Huy, the first town of the diocese
of Liege, they were surprised by an inundation of the
river, " and had barely time to spring on shore and run
with all speed to gain the summit of the hill, 2 before the
1 Dames illustres. a Huy is situated on the slope of a hill
211
QUEEN MARGOT
water had risen almost to the level of the house in which
they had taken refuge, and where they had to content
themselves for the night with what the master of the
house had to give them."
However, the party reached Liege in safety, where the
Queen met with a most cordial reception from the
bishop, 1 " an exceedingly virtuous, discreet, and amiable
nobleman," who insisted on surrendering to her his own
palace, which Marguerite found " handsome and com-
modious, possessing beautiful fountains, gardens and
galleries, the whole so richly painted and gilded, and the
interior decorated with so much marble that nothing
could be more magnificent."
The princess was as favourably impressed with the
famous old cathedral city as with its bishop. " The
town," she says, " is larger than Lyons, and resembles
it in point of structure, as the River Meuse flows through
its midst. It is very well built, and there is not a canon's
house which does not present the appearance of a noble
palace, 2 the streets long and broad, the squares spacious
and provided with beautiful fountains ; the churches
decorated with so much marble which is obtained hard
by that they appear to be entirely constructed of it ;
the clocks of German workmanship, chiming, and repre-
senting all kinds of instruments."
As Spa was only about six leagues from Liege, and was,
at this period, nothing but a small village, where it would
have been impossible for the Queen of Navarre and her
suite to have found suitable accommodation, Marguerite
and the Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon decided to remain
1 Gerard Groesbeck. He was made a cardinal in the following
year, and died in 1584.
2 The canons of Liege, Marguerite tells us, were all of noble birth,
the sons of great German nobles.
212
QUEEN MARGOT
at Liege, and have the waters brought to them, the
doctors assuring their distinguished patients that " it
would lose none of its strength or virtue, if it were
conveyed by night before the sun had risen."
In spite of the sad death of Mile, de Tournon, Mar-
guerite seems to have passed a very pleasant time at
Liege, where the bishop, his canons, the gentry of the
neighbourhood, and several distinguished foreign visitors
formed with her own suite a little Court, and vied with
one another in their efforts to amuse her. In the midst
of her gaiety, we may well suppose that she did not permit
herself to lose sight of the real object of her journey, and
that her brother's cause was strengthened by more than
one important accession.
Six weeks passed the time usually prescribed for the
Spa waters and Marguerite and her company were on
the point of setting out on their return to France, when
news arrived that the States had risen in revolt, and that
the whole of Flanders was being ravaged by fire and
sword. Hard upon this alarming intelligence, came a
gentleman named Lescar, bearing a letter from Anjou
to his sister, which contained still more disquieting
information. The duke wrote that, " although God
had given him the grace to serve the King so well in the
command of the army entrusted to him, that he had taken
every town which he had been ordered to attack, and driven
the Huguenots out of all the provinces which it had been
intended that his army should subdue," he was in worse
odour at Court than ever ; that Bussy, notwithstanding
his services in the field, 1 was also in disgrace, and as much
1 These services included the ravaging of some score or more square
leagues of country in Maine and Anjou, in which the enterprising
Bussy robbed Huguenot and Catholic with praiseworthy impartiality
QUEEN MARGOT
persecuted as he had been during the lifetime of Du
Guast ; that every day one or other of them was subjected
to some fresh indignity ; that the mignons by whom
the King was surrounded had contrived to seduce four
or five of his most trusted followers from their allegiance
to Monsieur, and persuade them to enter his Majesty's
service ; and, finally, that the King bitterly repented of
having permitted Marguerite to make this expedition
to Flanders, and that, out of hatred of his brother, he
had secretly warned the Spaniards of the true object
of her journey, in consequence of which, they intended
to seize her on her way back to France, while, even if she
were so fortunate as to escape falling into their hands,
she would probably be captured by the Huguenots, who
were burning to avenge themselves upon Anjou, for his
desertion of their cause.
This letter, Marguerite tells us, provided her with
abundant food for reflection, since, not only would she
be obliged, in order to gain France, to pass through
country occupied either by Spaniards or Protestants,
but the loyalty of her suite was far from being above
suspicion. Lenoncourt, though a bishop, was believed
to favour the Protestant cause, of which party her first
equerry, Salviati, and her treasurer, Hubanet, were also
secret adherents ; while, on the other hand, the Bishop
of Langres was known to be strongly Spanish in his
sympathies.
" In my perplexity," writes the princess, " I was only
able to confide in Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon and
Madame de Tournon, who, realising our danger and aware
that it would take us five or six days to reach La Fere
during the whole of which time we should be at the mercy
of one or other of these parties replied to me, with
QUEEN MARGOT
tears in their eyes, that God alone could save us in this
hour of peril; that I must commend myself to His care,
and then act as He should inspire me ; that, as for them-
selves, notwithstanding that one was ill and the other
old, I was not, on that account, to hesitate to travel by
long stages, as they would undertake anything in order
to deliver me from this danger.
Marguerite then confided her troubles to the sym-
pathetic ear of the Bishop of Liege, " who behaved
like a father to her," and offered her the services of the
grand-master of his Household, and horses to convey her
as far as she desired ; and, as a passport from William of
Orange would probably be respected by the Protestants,
she despatched Mondoucet to him to obtain one. Mon-
doucet, however, did not return, the fact being that
William, who had penetrated the mystery of Marguerite's
intrigues, and had no desire to see himself supplanted in
the direction of affairs by a foreign prince, declined
either to send the passport or to allow the envoy to
depart.
After waiting two or three days, the Queen of Navarre's
patience was exhausted, and she announced her intention
of taking her departure on the morrow. The Bishop of
Auxerre and her treasurer, Salviati, strongly urged her
to await the arrival of the expected passport, and when
they found their counsel unheeded, the latter declared
that there was not sufficient money in his hands even to
defray the cost of their stay in Liege, to say nothing of
the journey before them ; a statement which, when
Marguerite, on her arrival in France, examined her
accounts, was found to be false, " there being^'enough
to pay the expenses of her Household for more than
six weeks." The difficulty was eventually surmounted
215
QUEEN MARGOT
by the intervention of Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon,
who advanced the sum required, and, after having pre-
sented the hospitable bishop with a magnificent diamond
worth three thousand ecus, and his servants with rings
or gold chains, the princess bade farewell to the good
town of St. Hubert, and set out on her return to France,
" with nothing in the shape of a passport save her trust
in God."
sit
CHAPTER XV
Marguerite's adventures at Huy and Dinant Attempt of the
Spaniards to seize her at the latter town She outwits them,
with the assistance of the townspeople, and continues her
journey Perilous situation at Flcurines At Cateau-Cam-
brsis she learns that the Huguenots are lying in wait for her
on the French frontier She escapes them and proceeds to her
chateau of La Fere, where she is joined by Monsieur Visit of
the Flemish delegates to La Fre.
IF Marguerite's journey to Liege had resembled a royal
progress, her return thence was like the retreat of a beaten
army through a hostile country, with every stage marked
by some perilous adventure. Her first day's journey
brought her to Huy, the place where she and her party
had so narrowly escaped being drowned a few weeks
previously. This town was under the sovereignty of
the bishop, but, on the outbreak of the insurrection, it
had declared for the States, and refused any longer to
recognise the authority of its lord, who had announced
his intention of observing a strict neutrality. " In
consequence of this," writes Marguerite, " the townsfolk
paid no attention to the bishop's grand-master, who
accompanied us, but, having been alarmed, just as I
arrived, by the news that Don Juan had seized upon
the citadel of Namur, no sooner had we reached our
lodging, than they began sounding the tocsin, dragging
the artillery about the streets, and pointing it against
my lodging, before the entrance to which they stretched
QUEEN MARGOT
chains, in order to prevent our communicating with one
another. And in this state of disquietude they left us
all night, without giving us an opportunity of remonstrat-
ing with them, being all common persons, brutal and
unreasoning."
By the morning, the alarm of the good folk of Huy
had somewhat subsided, and they permitted the travellers
to depart, though not before they had taken the pre-
caution to line the sides of the street in which the Queen's
lodging was situated with serried rows of portly burghers
armed to the teeth, through which the travellers solemnly
defiled, and arrived the same evening at Dinant, where
a far more exciting and picturesque adventure awaited
them. As however, this is not only one of the most in-
teresting episodes of Marguerite's journey, but reveals the
princess at her very best as a writer, we cannot do better
than follow the example of her French biographers,
M. de Saint-Poncy and M. Charles Merki, and permit
her to relate it in her own words :
" We proceeded to Dinant, where we passed the night,
and where, by ill-chance, the townsfolk had that very
day elected their burgomasters, who are equivalent to
consuls in Gascony and sheriffs in France. The whole
place was that day given over to carousing, every one was
drunk, none of the magistrates obeyed, in short, there
was a veritable chaos of confusion. And, to make our
position worse, the grand-master of the Bishop of Liege
had formerly been at war with these people, and was
regarded by them as a mortal foe.
" This town, when in its right senses, is upon the
side of the States ; but now Bacchus reigned there
supreme ; the people had lost all self-control, and recog-
nised no one's authority. So soon as they perceived us
QUEEN MARGOT
approaching the outskirts with a numerous train, they
forthwith were seized with alarm. Leaving their glasses
they flew to arms, and, instead of opening the gates,
rushed tumultuously to close the barrier against us.
" I had despatched a gentleman in advance, together
with the foragers and the marechal-des-logis* to beg the
townsfolk to permit us to enter ; but I found they had
all been stopped at the barrier, where no attention was
paid to their demands. Finally, I stood up in my litter,
and, removing my mask, made a sign to one of the most
important persons that I desired to speak with him ;
and, on his approaching me, I begged that he would
enjoin silence, in order that I might make myself heard.
When this had with great difficulty been effected, I
informed them who I was, and of the object of my
journey, and that, far from desiring any harm to them
by my coming, I did not wish even to give them cause
for suspecting such a thing ; that I begged them to
grant admittance to my women and myself for that night,
together with as few of my male attendants as they
pleased, and that the rest should remain in the suburbs.
To this proposal they assented and granted my request.
" I entered their town thus, attended by the most
important persons of my company, amongst whom was
the Bishop of Liege's grand-master, who was unhappily
recognised just as I was entering my lodging, with all
this armed and drunken mob at my heels. Thereupon,
they began hurling insults at this worthy fellow, and
wished to set upon him, although he was a venerable
old man, with a white beard descending to his girdle.
1 The marechal-des-logis was an officer whose duty it was to preceds
the Court or the households of great personages when travelling, to make
arrangements for their accommodation.
ZI 9
QUEEN MARGOT
I made him enter my lodging, against the earthen
walls of which these drunkards directed a shower of balls
from their arquebuses.
" Upon perceiving this tumult, I inquired if the master
of the house were within. By good fortune, he happened
to be at home. I begged him to go to the window and
arrange for me to speak to the leading townspeople,
which he did everything possible to accomplish. At
last, having shouted for some time through the windows,
the burgomasters came to speak with me, so drunk that
they knew not what they were saying. I assured them
that I was quite unaware that this grand-master was their
enemy, and represented to them how serious a thing it
was to offend a person of my quality, who was a friend of
all the principal lords of the States, and that I was sure
that the Comte de Lalain and all the other leaders
would be greatly annoyed at the reception which they
had given me. At the mention of M. de Lalain's name,
they all assumed a different attitude, and evinced more
respect for him than for any of the kings to whom I
was related. The eldest among them inquired, smiling
and hesitating, whether I was indeed a friend of M. de
Lalain ; and I, perceiving that my relationship to him
was of more service to me than that of all the potentates
in Christendom, replied : * Yes, I am his friend and
likewise his kinswoman.' Upon this, they did me
reverence, kissed my hand, and became as courteous as
they had before been insolent, begging me to excuse their
behaviour, and promising that they would do no harm
to the worthy grand-master, and suffer him to depart,
with me."
But Marguerite was not yet out of her troubles.
" Upon the following morning," she continues, " as
220
QUEEN MARGOT
I was about to proceed to Mass, a person named Du
Bois the agent whom the King (Henri III.) had placed
near Don Juan, and who was strongly Spanish in his
sympathies arrived, and informed me that he had
received letters from the King, charging him to seek
me and conduct me safely on my homeward journey ;
that, for this purpose, he had begged Don Juan to place
Barlemont, with a troop of cavalry at his disposal, to
serve as an escort and to conduct me in safety to Namur,
and that I must request the townspeople to permit M.
de Barlemont, who was one of the nobles of the country,
to enter with his troops, to escort me out of the town.
" This had been planned with a double object ; first,
to seize the town for Don Juan, and, secondly, to cause
me to fall into the hands of the Spaniards. I found
myself in very great perplexity ; but, after taking counsel
with the Cardinal de Lenoncourt, 1 who was no more
anxious than I was to fall into Spanish hands, we decided
that we must ascertain from the townspeople whether
there were not some road whereby I might escape M.
de Barlemont's troop. I, therefore, left the little agent
Du Bois to entertain M. de Lenoncourt, and passed
into another apartment, whither I summoned some of
the townsfolk and informed them that, if they admitted
M. de Barlemont's troop, they would be lost, as they would
seize the town for Don Juan. I counselled them to arm,
and to hold themselves in readiness at their gate, in the
attitude of men who had been forewarned and had no
intention of allowing themselves to be surprised, and
only to permit M. de Barlemont to enter alone, without
any of his followers.
1 Lenoncourt, Bishop of Auxerre, was not created a cardinal until
1585.
221
QUEEN MARGOT
" As the effect of the wine of the preceding day had
passed off, they approved my reasons, and believing what
I said, offered to risk their lives in my service, and to
furnish me with a guide to conduct me out of the town
by a road which would place the river between myself
and Don Juan's soldiers, and leave them so far behind
that it would be impossible for them to overtake me ;
while I was to travel by way of such houses and towns
as were on the side of the States.
" Having arrived at this decision with them I sent
them to admit M. de Barlemont alone, who, so soon as
he had entered, endeavoured to persuade them to allow
his followers to enter likewise. But, upon that, they
turned upon him, and were like to have put him to death,
vowing that if he did not withdraw his men out of sight
of the town, they would fire upon them with their
artillery. This they did in order to allow me time to
cross the river before the soldiers could overtake me.
" After M. de Bariemont had been admitted into the
town, he and the agent Du Bois used every possible
persuasion to induce me to proceed to Namur, where
Don Juan was awaiting me ; and, after having heard
Mass and partaken of a hasty dinner, I left my lodging*
accompanied by two or three hundred armed citizens,
and, whilst continuing to converse with M. de Barlemont
and the agent Du Bois, took my way straight to the river-
gate, which was in the opposite direction to the Namur
road, where M. de Barlemont's men were drawn up.
They, summoning up their courage, told me that I was
not going in the right direction ; but I, holding them
still in conversation, continued my way until I arrived at
the gate of the town. I passed through it, accompanied
by a part of the townsfolk, and redoubling my speed
OUEEN MARGOT
towards the river, embarked on the boat awaiting me,
which I made all my suite enter as quickly as possible ;
M. de Barlemont and the agent Du Bois calling out to
me all the while from the water-side that I was not doing
right, since I was acting contrary to the wishes of the
King, who desired me to pass by way of Namur.
" In spite of their remonstrances, we promptly crossed
the river ; and, whilst our litters and horses were being
conveyed across, which necessitated two or three journeys,
the citizens, in order to enable me to gain time, enter-
tained M. de Barlemont and the agent Du Bois with
grievances and complaints, arguing with them, in their
patois, about the wrong Don Juan had committed in
breaking faith with the States, and putting an end to
the peace, and about the old quarrels relating to Comte
d'Egmont's death, threatening all the time that if
M. de Barlemont's soldiers appeared near the town, they
would open fire upon them with their artillery. They
thus gave me time to proceed so far that I had no longer
any cause to fear these soldiers, guided as I was by God
and by the man with whom they had provided me." x
In the evening, the Queen arrived at a chateau called
Fleurines, belonging to a nobleman of that name, a
zealous partisan of the States and a friend of the Comte
de Lalain. Marguerite had no doubt that she would
receive from the Seigneur de Fleurines a very cordial
welcome ; but, unfortunately, when she arrived, that
gentleman happened to be from home, and had left
his wife in charge during his absence. Apparently, he
had not failed to impress upon her the necessity of guard-
ing against one of those surprises so frequent during
these wars, for the moment the princess and her company
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
223
QUEEN MARGOT
had entered the outer courtyard of the chateau, the
gates of which had been left open, the good lady took
fright and fled to the keep, "raising the drawbridge,
and determined, however much they might entreat, not to
allow them to come in." Almost at the same moment,
a body of some three hundred Spaniards, whom Don
Juan had sent to intercept Marguerite and seize upon
the Chateau of Fleurines, where he had ascertained
that she intended to stay that night, appeared upon an
eminence about a thousand paces off.
The situation of the travellers was now a very pre-
carious one, for the outer court was defended only by a
wretched wall and a rickety door, which could be forced
with very little trouble, and the terrified chatelaine con-
tinued deaf to all entreaties to admit them into the
fortified part of the building. Happily, however, the
Spaniards were too far off to comprehend the situation
of affairs, and, having seen the Queen and her suite enter
the chateau, supposed them to be in safety, and, ac-
cordingly, quartered themselves on a village hard-by,
intending to seize them when they took their departure
on the morrow.
At night-fall, however, to the intense relief of the
whole party, M. de Fleurines arrived, having been
despatched by the Comte de Lalain to escort the Queen
of Navarre through Flanders, as the count himself was
unable to leave the army of the States, of which he had
been appointed commander. M. de Fleurines seems to
have brought with him a considerable following, for
when Marguerite and her party left the chateau, the
following morning, the Spaniards did not attempt to
molest them.
Their journey was pleasant and uneventful, and " they
224
QUEEN MARGOT
did not pass through any town in which she was not
honourably and amicably received." The princess's
only regret was that she was unable to travel by way
of Mons and see her friend, Madame de Lalain, again.
From Nivelles, she sent a letter to the countess to inform
her of her whereabouts and her disappointment at being
prevented from paying her a return visit, upon receiving
which that lady despatched " some persons of quality "
to escort the Queen to the frontier of Cambr6sis. On
taking leave of them, Marguerite begged them to take
to Madame de Lalain, as a souvenir of their friendship,
" one of her gowns, composed of black satin, all covered
with raised embroideries, which she had heard her
admire very much when she wore it at Mons, and which
had cost her twelve hundred crowns."
But the Queen had yet another adventure in store
for her. At Cateau-Cambresis, she received warning
that a band of French Protestants, rivalling in audacity
her foreign enemies, were lying in wait for her on the
frontier. Marguerite, however, displayed her customary
presence of mind, and, suspecting that her treasurer,
Salviati, and other members of her suite were in com-
munication with the Huguenots, gave orders that the
party should resume their journey an hour before day-
break. Upon sending for their litters and horses, how-
ever, " the Chevalier Salviati began procrastinating just
as he had done at Liege," whereupon, continues the
princess, " since I knew that he did this with an object,
I abandoned my litter, and, mounting on horseback,
followed by those of my people who were ready first,
succeeded in reaching Catelet by two o'clock in the
afternoon, having thus, through the mercy of God,
escaped all the snares and pitfalls of my enemies."
225 p
QUEEN MARGOT
From Catelet, Marguerite proceeded to her chateau
of La Fere, where she arrived on October 1, 1577. At
Le Fere, she found a messenger from the Due d'Anjou
awaiting her, with orders to return and inform his master
immediately the Queen arrived. The duke wrote that
peace had already been concluded, 1 and that the King
was on the point of return to Paris ; but that, as regarded
himself, " his condition had gone from bad to worse,"
and he and his friends were subjected to so many slights
and indignities that he had no desire to reside there,
and awaited her arrival at La Fere with extreme im-
patience, in order that he might join her. Marguerite
at once sent back the courier, and Monsieur, having
despatched Bussy to Angers, with the greater part of
his Household, set out for Picardy, accompanied by
only some fifteen or twenty attendants. 2
Marguerite assures us that it was one of the greatest
pleasures which she had ever experienced to receive
under her own roof " one whom she loved and honoured
so much," and that she devoted herself to his entertain-
ment with such success " that he would willingly have
exclaimed with St. Peter : ' Here let us raise our taber-
nacles,' had it not been that * the right royal courage
and generosity of soul which distinguished him incited
him to nobler deeds.' The tranquillity of our Court,"
she continues, " compared wth the agitations of the
one from which he came, rendered all the pleasures
which he tasted there so sweet, that he could not prevent
himself from perpetually exclaiming : * Oh, my queen,
1 At Bergerac, September 17, 1577.
* " Wednesday, gth October, Monsieur, brother of the King, arrived
in Paris . . . whence he set out on Saturday the I zth to go to La Fere,
in Picardy, to see the Queen of Navarre, his sister." L'EsroiLi.
226
QUEEN MARGOT
how sweet it is to be with you. Mon Dieu ! This society
is a paradise replete with all manner of delights, while
that from which I came is a hell filled with all kinds of
dissensions and torments.' '
It will be remembered that when Marguerite had
negotiated at Mons the alliance of the Comte de Lalain,
it had been agreed that on her return to France, she
should place Anjou in communication with the leaders
of the States, for which purpose, Lalain should send his
brother, the Baron de Montigny, to La Fere. Monsieur,
having expressed his approval of this arrangement,
towards the end of November, Montigny arrived at La
Fere, accompanied by four or five other Flemish nobles.
The delegates, who were received by the fair chate-
laine with that charming affability which gained all
hearts, assured Anjou of the devotion of a great part of
the nobility, and promised him, in Lalain's name, the
whole of Hainault and Artois, with their fortresses.
One of them, also, was the bearer of a letter from M.
d'Inchy, the gentleman whom Marguerite's charms had
so completely subjugated, offering to place the citadel
of Cambrai in the duke's hands After several con-
ferences, it was decided that Anjou should enter Flanders
with his troops in the following spring, and that, while he
occupied himself in raising men, his Flemish allies should
foment a movement in his favour. Montigny and his
colleagues then returned home, carrying with them, as
a pledge of the alliance just concluded, gold medals
bearing the portraits of the duke and the Queen of
Navarre ; while Monsieur forthwith set out for Paris, to
endeavour to obtain from Henri III. the necessary
assistance for his enterprise. 1
1 Memoires ft lettru de Marguerite de Valoit (edit. Guessard).
227
QUEEN MARGOT
Such was the conclusion of Marguerite's eventful
journey to the Netherlands, which, as one of her bio-
graphers very justly remarks, unites to the attraction
of a romance the importance of a political mission, 1
and in which, it must be admitted, the princess displayed
qualities but seldom found in one of her sex : great courage
and presence of mind, a rare tact, and considerable
diplomatic ability. If Anjou's enterprise was doomed
to failure, it was due to the ill-will of Henri III., and
because he himself was altogether unequal to the part
which he aspired to play, and was certainly not the fault
of his courageous and talented sister, for very seldom
have the initial difficulties of so important an under-
taking been overcome with so much skill and address.
1 Comte L6o dc Saint-Poncy, Marguerite dt Valois, i. 475.
223
CHAPTER XVI
The Queen of Navarre returns to Paris She demands and
obtains a new promise from the King and Queen-Mother to
permit her to join her husband, and also to assign her her
dowry in lands Henri III. opposed to Anjou's Flemish enter-
prise Quarrels of Bussy and the mignons Insolent behaviour
of the King's favourites towards Monsieur The latter seeks
permission to withdraw for a time from Court, but is arrested
by order of the King An extraordinary scene Monsieur is
set at liberty, but forbidden to leave the Louvre Aided by
Marguerite, he again escapes and retires to Angers Unsuc-
cessful effort of Catherine to induce him to return.
SHORTLY after her brother's departure, Marguerite, in
her turn, set out for Paris, where she had determined to
renew her request to Henri III. to permit her to rejoin
her husband in Gascony. At Saint-Denis, she was met
by the King, the Queen, the Queen-Mother, Anjou,
and the whole Court, and received with much cordiality,
" their Majesties taking great pleasure in making her
describe the splendour and magnificence of her journey
and sojourn at Liege, and the adventures consequent
upon her return."
Marguerite took advantage of the good-humour
which Henri III. and Catherine seemed to be in to make
her request to them that very evening, " entreating them
not to take it amiss, if she begged them to consent to her
going to rejoin her husband, since, as peace was now
concluded, there was nothing which could excite their
229
QUEEN MARGOT
suspicion, and it would be unseemly and injurious for
her, if she deferred her departure any longer." Both
their Majesties appeared to approve of her resolution,
and Catherine declared that she would herself accompany
her daughter to the South, as it was necessary that she
should visit that part of the country in the interests
of the King ; and she told Henri that he ought to furnish
his sister with the funds necessary for her journey ;
which he promised to do.
Emboldened by the success of her application, the
princess then reminded her mother of the promise she
had made her at the time of the Peace of Beaulieu ; that,
in the event of her returning to her husband, she should
have certain lands assigned her for her marriage-portion ;
and this their Majesties also promised should be arranged.
Marguerite was anxious to set out early in the following
January, as the approaching departure of Anjou for
Flanders made her more desirous than ever of quitting
the Court. But, " in spite of her daily solicitations,"
the King's promises were only fulfilled " in Court
fashion," and she was compelled to possess her soul in
patience for several months.
The same dilatory methods were employed in regard
to Anjou. It was in vain that he represented to the
King the advantages of his Flemish enterprise ; that it
was for the honour and aggrandisement of France ; that
it was a sure means of preventing a renewal of the civil
war, " since all such unquiet spirits as were desirous of
change would have an opportunity of going to Flanders,
to let off their steam and quench their thirst for war,"
whilst the expedition would provide the French nobility
with as valuable a military experience as they had formerly
found in Piedmont. Henri III. had no mind to lend
230
QUEEN MARGOT
himself to the aggrandisement of his brother, whom he
cordially hated, and though he did not formally forbid
the expedition, he threw every possible obstacle in its
way.
The sword of Viteaux had cut short the ascendency
of Du Guast ; but Maugiron, 1 his successor in the King's
favour, was no less presumptuous, insolent, and quarrel-
some, and did everything possible to incite Henri against
those whom he feared might be inclined to dispute his
influence. This Maugiron had formerly been in Anjou's
service, which he had deserted for that of the King, and
hated his old master with all the bitterness of a renegade.
In alliance with his fellow mignons, Quelus, Gramont,
Saint-Mesgrin, Livarot, Saint-Luc, and the rest, and
with the tacit approval of the King, he persecuted the
duke and his followers with the utmost rancour, and
" subjected them to a thousand insults." Bussy, as
Monsieur's chief champion, was perpetually having
quarrels thrust upon him, and would appear to have spent
the greater part of his time in giving and receiving
challenges to mortal combat. It must, however, be
admitted that the valiant Bussy was only too ready to
measure swords with the royal mignons, and, by the con-
tempt which he openly manifested for them, did not a
little towards provoking breaches of the peace.
" On Tuesday, January 10," writes L'Estoile, " Bussy ?
who, on the preceding Tuesday, had quarrelled with the
Seigneur de Gramont, sent to the Porte Saint-Antoine
three hundred gentlemen well-armed and mounted )
and the Seigneur de Gramont as many friends and parti-
sans of the King, to fight there and decide their quarrel
1 Louis de Maugiron, son of Laurent de Maugiron, Baron d'Ampuis,
Lieutenant-General of Dauphine.
231
QUEEN MARGOT
a-toute-outrance. . . .But they were prevented from fighting
that morning, by order of the King ; notwithstanding
which, in the afternoon, Gramont, who declared himself
insulted, went, with a considerable following, to seek
Bussy at his lodging, which was in the Rue des Prouvaires,
into which he forced an entrance, and, for some time, a
combat was waged between those within and those
without. His Majesty, having been advised of this,
despatched thither the Marechal de Cosse and Captain
Strozzi, Colonel-General of the French infantry, with
their guards, who conducted Bussy to the Louvre, to
which, soon afterwards, the Seigneur de Gramont was also
brought, and where they were retained each in a separate
room. Next morning, they were reconciled, by the advice
of the Marechaux de Montmorency and de Cosse, in
whose charge the King had placed them, instead of being
brought to trial, which would have been the proper course
to take, if justice had reigned in France and at the
Court."
The chronicler goes on to tell us that, the same day,
his Majesty profited by the occasion to deliver to the
courtiers assembled at his lever, " a fine and grave
remonstrance, touching the quarrels which daily took
place amongst them, even in his palace and near his
person (a capital offence, according to the laws of the
realm), for the most trifling reasons, and even for nothing
at all, and announced that, to obviate this scandal, he
had promulgated certain Ordinances, which dealt very
stringently with such brawlers."
The Ordinances, however, seemed to have troubled
the mignons very little ; for, soon afterwards, we hear of
another affray, near the Porte Saint-Honore, in which
Quelus and several of his friends attacked Bussy, who was
232
QUEEN MARGOT
on horseback and accompanied only by one gentleman.
According to L'Estoile, blows were exchanged, and
Bussy's companion severely wounded ; but Brantome
states that Bussy did not stop to meet his antagonists,
but galloped off and " wrote a very fine letter to the
King." Anyway, he demanded permission to fight a
formal duel with Quelus ; but this favour was refused
him, and, though the Council decided that Quelus, " as
the aggressor, should be made prisoner and brought to
trial," no steps were taken against him.
" My brother," writes Marguerite, " being of opinion
that these incidents were not calculated to accelerate
his expedition to Flanders, and being desirous of mol-
lifying the King rather than of irritating him, and
reflecting also that, if Bussy were away from Court, he
might the better advance the training of the troops he
required, despatched him to his estates. But Bussy's
departure did not put an end to the persecution, and it
was evident that, although his fine qualities had inspired
Maugiron and the other young men with a good deal
of jealousy, the principal cause of their hatred of him
arose from the fact that he was in my brother's service.
For, after he had gone, they continued to defy and annoy
him (Anjou) with so much insolence, and so openly,
that every one perceived it."
Marguerite assures us that, for a time, Anjou bore
these attacks with exemplary patience, " being resolved
to submit to anything, if thereby he could promote his
Flemish enterprise ; but, at length, matters reached a
climax. On February 9, 1578, the King's favourite,
Saint-Luc, was married with great eclat to Jeanne de
Cosse-Brissac, daughter of the Marechal de Cosse,
" ugly, hump-backed and crooked," and still worse,
233
QUEEN MARGOT
according to L'Estoile. But Monsieur and the Queen
of Navarre decided not to attend the ceremony, and went
with the Queen-Mother to dine at Saint-Maur. However,
in the evening, the duke consented to appear at the ball
wherewith the day's festivities concluded, Catherine
having represented to him that his absence would be
certain to displease the King. But no sooner did he
enter the ball-room, than the mignons who evidently
regarded his refusal to grace the wedding-ceremony with
his presence as a personal affront to their comrade and
themselves, " began taunting him with such cutting words
that any one, even of lesser degree than himself, would
have been offended at them, telling him that he might
have spared himself the trouble of changing his dress, and
twitting him with his ugliness and meanness of stature." *
Boiling with indignation, Anjou retired, and, after
taking counsel with his confidant, the Marquis de la
Chatre, decided to go into the country for a few days'
hunting, " believing that his absence would diminish
the animosity of these youths against him, and thus
facilitate his business with the King, relative to the
Flemish enterprise." He then went to find the Queen-
Mother, and informed her of what had occurred at the
ball, and of the resolution at which he had arrived.
Catherine expressed herself much annoyed at the treat-
ment to which the prince had been subjected, approved
of his decision to leave the Court for a time, and promised
to obtain leave of absence for him from the King, adding
that, while he was away, she would do everything in
her power to further his expedition to Flanders. She
then sent Villequier 2 to Henri III. to obtain the required
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valo'u (edit. Guessard).
2 Rene de Villequier, Baron de Clairvaux, one of the worst of
Henri III.'s unworthy favourites. During the preceding year, while the
234
QUEEN MARGOT
permission, and Anjou, looking upon his conge as already
granted, returned to his apartments, and having given
orders to his servants to make the necessary preparations
for his departure on the morrow, went to bed, little
imagining the storm which was brewing.
Villequier, meanwhile, had gone to the King with the
Queen-Mother's message. Henri III., at first, raised
no objection, but, having retired to his cabinet, " with
a Jeroboam's council of some five or six young men,"
he was induced to believe that Monsieur's desire to with-
draw for a time from Court was highly suspicious, and
that it would be advisable to have him arrested im-
mediately. Throwing on a dressing-gown, and summon-
ing the Sieur de Losse, Captain of his Scottish Guard,
and some archers to accompany him, the King hurried
to Catherine's apartments, " in a state of the utmost
agitation, as though there were some public panic, or
the enemy had been at the gate, exclaiming : ' How,
Madame, could you think of asking me to sanction my
brother's departure ? Do you not perceive, were he
to go, the peril to which you expose my realm ? Doubt-
less, this pretext of hunting is but the cover for some
dangerous design. I am going to arrest him and all his
people, and I shall cause his coffers to be searched. I
feel that we shall make some discovery of importance.' '
Catherine, fearing that, in his state of frenzied excite-
ment, the King might really attempt some act of
violence against his brother, declared her intention of
accompanying him, and " wrapping herself, as best she
could, in her manteau de nuit" followed him to Anjou's
Court was at Poitiers, he had murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy ; but,
as the King bore the unfortunate lady a grudge, the crime remained
unpunished and the murderer still in favour.
235
QUEEN MARGOT
apartments, at the door of which his Majesty began knock-
ing violently, crying out that it was the King who stood
without, and demanding instant admission.
" My brother,'* writes Marguerite, " woke up with a
start, and knowing that he had done nothing which
need give him cause for alarm, told Cange, his valet-
de-ckambre, to open the door. The King, entering in
his fury, began upbraiding him, declaring that he would
never cease plotting against his realm, and that he would
teach him what it meant to conspire against his King.
Thereupon, he ordered the archers to carry off his coffers,
and to drag his lackeys out of the room. He himself
searched my brother's bed, to see if he could discover any
papers there. My brother, having a letter from Madame
de Sauve, which he had received that very evening, held
it in his hand to prevent it being seen. The King insisted
on taking it from him. My brother resisted and implored
him, with clasped hands, not to look at it, which made the
King all the more anxious to get possession of it, believing
that it would be quite sufficient to bring my brother to
trial. At last, the King having opened it, in the presence
of the Queen my mother, they were as much embarrassed
as was Cato, who, having compelled Caesar, in the Senate,
to show the paper which had been brought to him, and
which, he declared, was something affecting the welfare
of the Republic, it proved to be a love-letter, which
Cato's own sister had addressed to him. The shame
of this misapprehension increased rather than abated
the King's wrath, and, refusing to listen to my brother,
who kept on demanding of what he was accused and
why he was being treated thus, he committed him to the
keeping of M. de Losse and the Scots, ordering them
not to allow him to speak to any one."
236
QUEEN MARGOT
When his infuriated brother and Catherine had taken
their departure, Monsieur inquired of Losse, " whose
eyes were filled with tears at seeing matters brought to
such a pass," what had happened to the Queen of Navarre,
and, on being assured that she was still at liberty, ex-
pressed himself greatly relieved, and sent Losse to beg
the Queen-Mother to obtain the King's permission for
his sister to share his captivity. This was granted, and
the princess, informed by one of the Scots of what had
occurred, hastily dressed and repaired to Anjou's apart-
ments. Although it was scarcely yet day, news of
Monsieur's arrest had already spread, and the courtyard
of the Louvre was thronged with people, " who," says
Marguerite, " were generally eager to see me and do
me honour, but now, perceiving that Fortune had turned
her face from me, like the courtiers that they were,
pretended not to see me."
Anjou seems to have been in great fear, " lest his
enemies, unable to compass his death, should cause him
to languish in the solitude of a long captivity." But,
in the course of the next day, the elder members of the
Council, " who were all extremely scandalised at the
bad advice that the King had received," addressed
a vigorous remonstrance to his Majesty, who, having
by this time recovered his senses, took it in good
part, and begged the Queen-Mother to smooth over
matters, and " arrange that my brother should forget all
that had occurred." Catherine, accordingly, proceeded
to Monsieur's apartments and " told him that he ought
to praise God for the mercy he had shown him in deliver-
ing him from so great a peril, since there had been
moments when she had scarcely dared to hope for his
life ;" and entreated him to do everything in his power
QUEEN MARGOT
to convince the King of his loyalty and his zeal for his
service. The prince was then set at liberty, and a formal
reconciliation took place between the brothers, in the
King's cabinet and in the presence of the principal
personages of the Court ; after which, Bussy, who had
returned to the Louvre to visit his master the previous
evening, and had been promptly arrested, was sent for,
together with Quelus, and the two enemies ordered to
embrace one another, " in order that no bone of conten-
tion should remain to occasion further quarrels."
But the wound to borrow Marguerite's expression
was only fomented externally and not really healed ;
and the mignons had little difficulty in persuading the
King that his brother would never forget the indignity
to which he had been subjected, and would be certain
to seek to avenge it. This idea so obsessed the sus-
picious monarch, that, though he did not venture to
have Monsieur rearrested, he caused him to be kept
under the closest surveillance, forbade him to leave the
Louvre, and gave orders that all his attendants should
be turned out of the palace every night, with the excep-
tion of those who usually slept in his bedchamber or
in his closet.
Exasperated beyond endurance by these renewed
mortifications, Anjou resolved to effect his escape and
withdraw to his estates, until the preparations for his
Flemish expedition were completed. He communicated
his intention to his devoted ally Marguerite, who,
" seeing that therein lay his only hope of safety, and that
neither the King nor the realm would suffer any preju-
dice in consequence," readily promised him her aid.
The project, however, presented serious difficulties.
To endeavour to escape by day was out of the question,
'238
QUEEN MARGOT
for the gates were carefully guarded, and Monsieur
was surrounded by spies ; while by night, the Louvre,
with its draw-bridges and its moats, was a feudal fortress,
which it was as difficult to leave as to enter. But Mar-
guerite's ingenuity was equal to the occasion. Her
apartments were situated in close proximity to those
of her brother, and, as Anjou was permitted to move
freely about the interior of the palace, and to visit his
sister whenever he pleased, it was decided that he should
escape by the window of the Queen's bedchamber, which
was in the North-East quarter of the Louvre, on the
second storey, overlooking the moat.
But for this a long and stout rope was required, an
article which could not be procured in the palace without
suspicion being aroused. Marguerite, thereupon, des-
patched a page, upon whose discretion and fidelity she
could rely, into the town, with a lute-box which required
mending. When he returned, a few hours later, a rope
had been substituted for the instrument.
February 14, the day decided on for the duke's escape,
was a fast-day, the first Friday in Lent, and, as the King
did not sup au grand convert, Marguerite supped with
the Queen-Mother in the latter's apartments As they
were on the point of rising from table, Anjou entered,
and, impatient to regain his freedom, whispered to his
sister to return as soon as possible to her apartments,
where he would be awaiting her. Matignon, " a danger-
ous and cunning Norman," l who happened to be present ?
and had either got wind of what was intended, or else
suspected it from the manner in which Monsieur had
spoken to the princess, stopped the Queen-Mother, as
she was leaving the room, and told her that " it was
1 Odet de Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, see pp. 133 and 140 supra.
239
QUEEN MARGOT
evident that my brother intended to make off ; that
by the morrow he would be gone, and that she ought
to prevent it."
1 Catherine, obviously much disturbed by Matignon's
words, told her daughter to follow her into her bed-
chamber, and, turning to her, said : " Are you aware
of what Matignon told me ? " Marguerite replied that
she had not heard what was said, but had perceived
that it was something which had pained her mother.
" Yes," rejoined Catherine, " it pained me very much,
for you know that I have pledged my word to the King
that your brother should not depart, and Matignon told
me that he is well aware that he will not be here to-
morrow."
Marguerite tells us that she " found herself in a double
dilemma, since she would either have to break faith with
her brother and place his life in jeopardy, or swear against
the truth (a thing which she would not have done to
escape a thousand deaths)." Eventually, she took
'refuge in a subterfuge, which completely satisfied her
somewhat elastic conscience, and which she appears to
have regarded as a direct inspiration of the Almighty,
although it is rather doubtful whether any of her readers
will agree with her on this point. " I composed my
countenance and my speech," she continues, " in such
wise that she [the Queen-Mother] could ascertain nothing
but what I chose, whilst, at the same time, I neither
offended my soul nor my conscience by the taking of
any false oath. I then inquired of her whether she were
not aware of the hatred which M. de Matignon bore
my brother, and said that he was a malicious mischief-
maker, who was annoyed at seeing us all agreed ; thatj
if my brother should depart, I would forfeit my life
240
QUEEN MARGOT
and that, since he had never concealed anything from
me, he would have informed me, if he had any such
design. This I said, being well assured that, once my
brother was in safety, no one would dare to injure me,
while, if the worst happened, I infinitely preferred to
pledge my life than to offend my soul by taking a false
oath."
Catherine, without seeking to probe the meaning of
her daughter's words, said to her : " Consider what you
are saying ; you will be my surety for it ; and will
answer to me for it with your life."
The princess smilingly assured her that that was what
she meant, and, bidding her good-night, repaired to her
own apartments, where she hurriedly undressed and got
into bed, in order to be able to dismiss her ladies and
maids-of-honour, none of whom she had admitted to
her confidence. As soon as she found herself alone, save
for three waiting-women, whom she could implicitly
trust, and the page who had brought the rope, Anjou
entered, accompanied by his confidant, Simier, who
had aided him in his previous escape, in 1575, and his
faithful valet-de-chambre, Cange.
Then began this adventure, which recalls to mind
the escape of the Due de Beaufort, the famous " Roi
des Halles" from Vincennes, seventy years later.
" Nothing," remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, " depicts more
vividly the disorder of this Court than this strange,
nocturnal escape, which takes place at the Louvre itself,
within two paces of the King. What a characteristic
tableau ! It is the first Prince of the Blood, heir-pre-
sumptive to the throne, who escapes through a window,
at the risk of breaking his neck, or of being arrested
as a malefactor ; it is a Daughter of France, Queen of
241 Q
QUEEN MARGOT
Navarre, who furnishes him with the means for this
flight, superintends this liberation in her own chamber,
procures the instruments for it, and adjusts them with
her own fair and royal hands ! " l
But let us allow Marguerite to give her own account
of the adventure.
" I then rose ; we adjusted the rope by means of a
stick, and, after we had looked into the moat, to see if
there was any one there, with the assistance only of
three of my women, who slept in my room, and of the
boy who had brought the rope, we let down, first, my
brother, who laughed and jested without being in the
least afraid, although the height was very great ; next,
Simier, who, pale and trembling, could scarcely hold
on through fear, and then Cange, my brother's valet-
de-chambre. God directed my brother so happily,
that, without being discovered, he reached Sainte-
Genevieve, where Bussy was awaiting him, who, with the
consent of the abbe, 2 had made a hole in the town
wall. 3 Through this he passed, and finding horses in
readiness, gained Angers without any mishap.
" Just as we were letting down Cange, who was the
last to descend, a man rose up from the bottom of the
moat, and set off running towards the apartment which
adjoins the tennis-court, which is the way leading to the
guard-room. I, who, in the midst of all this danger,
had never apprehended anything which concerned
myself, but only the safety or peril of my brother, was
1 Marguerite de Valois, Reine de France et de Navarre, i. 527.
2 Joseph Foulon. He took a very active part, on behalf of the League,
at the time of the siege of Paris. At this time, he was devoted to
Montieur's interests.
1 The Abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, situated on the south side of the
Seine, was built against the city walls.
242
QUEEN MARGOT
half-senseless with fear, supposing that this was some
one who, in accordance with M. de Matignon's warning,
had been placed there to watch us."
The waiting-women were as terrified as their mistress,
and, seizing the tell-tale rope, threw it into the fire.
This rope, however, which happened to be a very long
one, made such a blaze that the chimney caught fire,
and the archers of the guard came knocking at the door,
telling Marguerite's women to let them in, in order to
extinguish the flames. The women, however, induced
them to go away, saying that their mistress was asleep,
and assuring them that they were quite able to put out
the fire without their help This they succeeded in
doing ; but, two hours later, Losse, the Captain of the
Scottish Guard, arrived to conduct Marguerite to the
King and Queen-Mother. Their Majesties, it appeared,
had already been informed of Monsieur's escape by the
Abbe of Sainte-Genevieve, who, in order not to become
compromised in the affair, had, with Anjou's consent,
carried the news to the Louvre, so soon as he judged
the duke to be beyond reach of pursuit, declaring that
Monsieur had arrived at the abbey unexpectedly, and had
caused him to be detained as a prisoner, while his followers
made a hole through the wall.
The King was, of course, in a towering passion, and
both he and Catherine accused Marguerite of having
deceived them, and connived at her brother's escape.
The princess protested her innocence, declared that
Anjou had deceived her, as he had them, and announced
her willingness to answer to them with her life that his
departure would not result in any deviation from his
allegiance, and that he was only going to his estates to
conclude his preparations for his expedition to Flanders.
243
QUEEN MARGOT
Henri III., although well aware that he had been tricked,
pretended to believe his sister, not daring, as Marguerite
had foreseen, to complicate matters by taking any steps
against her, now that Anjou was at large again ; and
the princess returned to her apartments very well satisfied
with her night's work. "--'-'
Next day, Catherine started for Angers to endeavour
to induce the fugitive to return ; but this time the
great negotiator did not meet with any success ; and all
she brought back with her was a letter from Monsieur
to the King, in which the duke informed his brother
that his desire to be at liberty and the ill-treatment he
had received at Court had been the only reasons which
had determined him to retire to his government, and
that he had no intention of disturbing the kingdom.
With which assurance his Majesty was fain to be
content.
244
CHAPTER XVII
Catherine decides to accompany her daughter to Gascony to
rejoin the King of Navarre Marguerite receives her dowry
in lands Efforts of Henri III. to conciliate his sister De-
parture of the Queen-Mother and the Queen of Navarre for
the South Their suite Marguerite's entry into Bordeaux
Meeting with Henri of Navarre at Casteras "A little war of
ogling " Marguerite's reception at Agen, Toulouse, and
Auch Incident of La Reole and Fleurance The Queen of
Navarre enters Nerac, where politics are temporarily super-
seded by love Influence exercised by Marguerite at the
Treaty of Nerac Catherine returns to Paris.
THE flight of Monsieur deprived Marguerite of her chief
support at the Court ; but, on the other hand, removed
a subject of continual anxiety to her ; for, in point of
fact, she had given far more assistance to her brother
than she had received from the duke, who was naturally
inconstant, restless, and feeble, and " perpetually playing
the fool," to borrow Catherine's expression.
Nevertheless, after his departure, she was more than
ever anxious to quit the Court, and " continued to
importune the King at all hours to allow her to rejoin
her husband." This request Henri III. was no longer
in a position to refuse, as he was just then particularly
desirous not to irritate the King of Navarre, who was
making strong representations to the Government in
regard to the grievances of the Protestants, and was
not less importunate in protesting against the sequestra-
245
QUEEN MARGOT
tion of his estates in the North and centre of France. It
was, therefore, arranged that Marguerite should start
for Gascony, so soon as the Queen-Mother who, osten-
sibly to settle her son-in-law's claims and the points
still in dispute, but really in order to endeavour to sow
dissension between the King of Navarre and his most
influential followers, had decided to accompany her
daughter could leave Paris.
In the meantime, the King, " not wishing her to depart
bearing him ill-will, and likewise, desiring, above all
things, to divert her from her affection for her brother, en-
deavoured to conciliate her by every kind of benefit . . .
and took the trouble to visit her every morning, and to
point out how advantageous his friendship was to her,
whilst that of her brother would, in the end, bring about
her destruction, with a thousand other arguments to
the same effect."
Marguerite was not to be persuaded to renounce her
allegiance to Anjou, but she took advantage of this
sudden change in his Majesty's disposition towards her
to exact the fulfilment of the promise made her at the
time of the " Peace of Monsieur" and renewed on her
return from Flanders, to assign her her dower in lands ;
and received the sentchaussees of Quercy and the Agenais,
the more important to her, inasmuch as they adjoined
her husband's dominions, the royal domains of Con-
domois, Auvergne, and Rouergue, and the lordships of
Rieux, Alby, and Verdun-sur-Garonne. This rich appan-
age, which was conceded by letters patent dated March
1 8, 1578, made the young Queen of Navarre one of the
wealthiest and most powerful landowners in France.
Before setting out for Guienne, Marguerite accom-
panied her mother to Alenc/m to bid farewell to Monsieur,
246
QUEEN MARGOT
who was on the point of starting for Flanders. Then
they returned to the capital to complete their prepara-
tions for their own journey, the expenses of which,
L'Estoile tells us, were borne by the clergy, upon whom
the King levied a " tenth," at which, adds the chronicler,
" they all murmured loudly." * At the end of July,
the King escorted his relatives as far as Olinville, one of
his favourite country-seats, where they remained for
a few days, and, on August 2, bade his Majesty adieu,
and took the road to the south.
The two Queens travelled in full state, and Marguerite's
suite alone numbered close upon three hundred persons ; 2
there were ladies-of-honour and maids-of-honour, coun-
cillors and secretaries ; confessors and chaplains ; physi-
cians, surgeons, and apothecaries ; equerries and valets-
de-chambre, pages, waiting-women, and lackeys ; musicians
and mar6chaux-des-logis ; cooks, scullions, and laundresses;
coachmen, grooms, postillions, and muleteers, so that it
is small wonder that his Majesty preferred to burden the
clergy, rather than himself, with the expenses of the
journey. Among the distinguished persons who accom-
panied them, and whose attendants helped to swell the
cortege to the size of a veritable army, were the Cardinal
de Bourbon, the Due de Montpensier, and his son, the
Dauphin of Auvergne, the Prince de Conti, Matignon,
Brantome, and the learned Pibrac, 3 of whom we shall
have something to say hereafter. The " escadron volant"
1 Journal de Henri 7//.,July 1578.
2 M. Philippe Lauzun, Itineraire raisonne de Marguerite de Valoii en
Gascogne, d'apres set livrei des comptes.
8 Gui du Faur, Sieur de Pibrac. He had gained a considerable
reputation as an orator at the Council of Trent, and had accompanied
Henri III. to Poland. On his return to France, he was made President
of the Parlement of Paris, and had lately been nominated Chancellor
247
QUEEN MARGOT
too significant fact ! was on its war footing. For an
advance-guard, Catherine's maids-of-honour, Bazerne
and Dayelle, a beautiful young Greek, who had escaped
from the sack of Cyprus in 1571, the Italian, Anne
d'Atri, who had accompanied Marguerite to Flanders,
and Mile, de Rebours and de Fosseux, maids-of-honour
to the Queen of Navarre. And for the rear-guard, the
Duchesse de Montpensier, and the Duchesse d'Uzes,
of the caustic tongue, whom Catherine called " her
gossip," and Marguerite " her sibyl," and, finally, the
too-celebrated Madame de Sauve, who, although she
was but five-and-twenty, had achieved so many con-
quests that she must have seemed almost a veteran to
the young girls who were on their first campaign. 1
The royal travellers journeyed by easy stages, and,
after having passed through Etampes, and Artenay,
and traversed the environs of Orleans, they made a short
stay at the Chateau of Chenonceaux. From there they
travelled, by way of Tours, Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon,
Fontevrault, Poitiers, RufTec, and Cognac, into Guienne.
It was Catherine's policy that her daughter should
be received en souveraine in all the towns of her husband's
government, and Marguerite had a magnificent reception
at Bordeaux, the capital of the province, into which city
she made her entry " with all the magnificence that
could be desired, habited in an orange robe, her favourite
colour, covered with embroidery, and mounted on a
white horse." 8
of the Queen of Navarre. He was at this time fifty-four years of
age.
1 La Ferriere, Trots amoureuses au XVI. * siMe : Marguerite de falois.
D'Aubigne says that Catherine had brought Madame de Sauve and
Mile. Dayelle " expressly for the benefit of her son-in-law."
2 Brantome, Dames illustrei.
248
QUEEN MARGOT
After a stay of a few days, the two Queens left Bor-
deaux, on October I, and slept the night at Cadillac,
and the one following at Saint-Macaire. Here Pibrac,
who had been sent on in advance to announce their
coming, arrived with the news that the King of Navarre
would meet them at Casteras, half-way between Saint-
Macaire and La Reole, " a town which was still held by
those of the Religion, by reason of the mistrust which
yet possessed them the disturbed condition of the
country not having permitted of his coming any further." 1
The Queen arrived first at the rendezvous, and entered
the chateau to await the King. Henri appeared, an hour
later, bravely attended by a suite of six hundred gentle-
men, all richly dressed and well mounted. Followed by
the Vicomte de Turenne and his chief nobles, he entered
the chateau, saluted Catherine very cordially, kissed his
wife on both cheeks, and overwhelmed her with expres-
sions of joy and affection. At La Reole, to which the
united Courts proceeded, and where they remained for a
few days, Catherine had several interviews with her son-
in-law,and it was finally arranged that a special commission
should be appointed to enforce the concessions granted
to the Protestants at the Peace of Bergerac, and that
all the points in dispute between the Huguenots and
Catholics should be submitted to a conference.
In the meanwhile, " a little war of ogling " had begun.
Madame de Sauve endeavoured to resume her empire
over her royal lover, but she already belonged to ancient
history. The Bearnais preferred green fruit, and his
chief attentions were bestowed on Mile. Dayelle, the
1 Memolres etlettres de Marguerite de Valo'u (edit. Guessard). Le Re"ole
was one of the six surety-towns ceded to the Huguenots by the Peace
of Bergerac.
249
QUEEN MARGOT
beautiful Cypriote. On her side, Mile. d'Atri found a
malicious pleasure in rendering d'Ussac, the old governor
of La Reole, madly enamoured of her. The King of
Navarre and his younger nobles bantered the poor
governor unmercifully, and the veteran, wounded to the
quick, vowed vengeance on his ungrateful chief, and,
some months later, deserted to the Royalist side.
At Marmande, the two Courts parted ; the King of
Navarre setting out for Nerac to make arrangements
for the proposed conference, while Marguerite, accom-
panied by her mother, went to take possession of her
appanage. On October 12, she arrived at Agen, and
made a magnificent entry into the town, whither all
the nobles and gentry of the neighbourhood flocked to
do her homage. From Agen, they set out for Toulouse,
being met at the Chateau de Lafox by Henri, who escorted
them as far as Valence. Their official entry into Toulouse
took place on October 26, when the Queens, who were
accompanied by the Marechaux d'Amville and de Biron,
and a number of nobles, were received with great cere-
mony by the municipality, and conducted beneath
triumphal arches and through streets strewn with
flowers, to the archbishop's palace, where they lodged.
Soon after their arrival at Toulouse, the Queen of
Navarre fell ill, " seized with a violent attack of fever,"
in consequence of which she was compelled to receive
the members of the Parlement, when they came to
present her with their address of welcome, " in a great
bed of white damask," and was unable to leave the city
until November 10. Eager to expedite the meeting
of the conference decided upon by her and Henri of
Navarre, Catherine had already set out for Isle-Jourdain,
the rendezvous arranged between them. While she was
250
QUEEN MARGOT
at Bordeaux, Henri had sent to her, proposing that the
conference should be held at Castel-Sarrazin, on the
pretext of the lack of suitable accommodation at Isle-
Jourdain, but really because he wished to remain in a
Huguenot country. The Queen-Mother curtly replied
that she should hold him to his agreement ; but, though
she waited a week at Isle-Jourdain, neither the King
nor any Huguenot deputies appeared. In great disgust,
she ended by consenting to the conference being held
at Nerac, and proceeded to Auch, into which town she
made her entry on November 20. Marguerite arrived
the following day. On her journey from Toulouse,
she had stopped for a night at the Chateau of Pibrac,
belonging to her chancellor, renowned at that time for
its sumptuous furniture and decorations, and had been
magnificently entertained by its owner. Without as
yet daring to avow his feelings, Pibrac, like so many others,
had already succumbed to his beautiful mistress's charms ;
and this growing passion was to be followed by very
unfortunate consequences.
The municipal authorities came to receive Marguerite
at the Porte de la Trille. The young Queen was in a
litter, over which was spread a black velvet pall em-
broidered with her Arms ; trumpets sounded, cannon
fired salutes, and the children of the town chanted odes
in her praise. Two days later, her husband arrived,
and was also received with great ceremony, as the
Comte d'Armagnac, and handed the keys of the town.
It was while the King of Navarre and the two Queens
were at Auch, that a singular incident occurred. The
popular version, which, we observe, is accepted by Mr.
P. F. Willert, Henri's latest biographer, 1 is as follows :
1 "Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France," p. 129
251
QUEEN MARGOT
The evening of the King's arrival, while a ball was in
progress, a messenger entered to inform him that d'Ussac,
the Governor of La Reole, seduced from his allegiance
by the fascinating Mile. d'Atri, and infuriated by the
banter of his sovereign, had betrayed the town to the
Royalists. Henri's first impulse on learning the news
was to retaliate by arresting Biron and the Catholic chiefs
who had accompanied the Queen-Mother ; but, being
advised that the marshal had too strong a following to
render this practicable without bloodshed, he slipped from
the room, called some of his most trusty followers to-
gether, and before morning escaladed Fleurance, a small
town between Auch and Lectoure, held by a garrison of
French troops. Catherine, when she heard of the exploit
only laughed : " It is his revenge for La Reole," said
she, " cabbage for cabbage, but mine has the better
heart."
The truth, however, would appear to be somewhat
less picturesque. D'Ussac, as we have mentioned else-
where, did certainly desert the Huguenot for the Royalist
side, and in the next war held La Reole against his former
friends, " to the prejudice of his soul and his honour." l
But his defection did not take place until some months
later. The chateau and town of La Reole were not
betrayed by him to the Royalists, but were seized by
the townspeople, who rose in revolt, owing to the tyranny
of one of d'Ussac's officers named Favas, " who oppressed
and maltreated them." The town was subsequently
restored to the King of Navarre by order of Henri III.
As for the supposed coup de main at Fleurance, Cather-
ine's correspondence tells us what really occurred there.
Fleurance was an Armagnac town, and ought to have
1 Me moires du Due de Bouillon .
252
QUEEN MARGOT
admitted the King of Navarre, as Auch had done.
But when he appeared and demanded the keys, the
Catholic inhabitants refused to surrender them, flew
to arms, and occupied the towers of one of their gates,
from which they fired several arquebus-shots at their
ord and his followers, wounding a gentleman of Henri's
suite. However, the Queen-Mother sent orders to
them to evacuate the tower and admit the King, which
they eventually did. *
From Auch, the two Queens proceeded to Condom,
and, on December 15, Marguerite made her entry into
Nerac, the capital of the duchy of Albret, and the
residence of her husband's maternal ancestors. Here,
the two Courts remained a week, which was devoted to
ftes and amusements of all kinds. The King's troupe
of Italian players gave several performances, and Salluste,
du Bartas, the Ronsard of the Huguenots, 2 composed,
in the Queen's honour, a dialogue in three languages,
which was recited by three damsels, representing the
Gascon, Latin and French Muses. As was, of course,
to be expected, Marguerite awarded the palm to the
Gascon Muse, who had proclaimed her husband " leu
plus grand rey deu moun" and, in token of her satisfaction,
presented the young lady a certain Mile. Sauvage
with a gauze fichu which she happened to be wearing,
and which, M. de Saint-Poncy assures us, was for many
years cherished as a precious relic by the descendants of
the recipient.
1 M. Charles Merki, La Relne Margot et la fn du Valois, p. 212.
2 Guillaume Salluste du Bartas. He was born at Montfort, near
Auch, in 1544, and became a soldier while still very young. He was
entrusted by the King of Navarre with several diplomatic missions to
England, Scotland and Denmark, and fell, fighting by his side, at
Ivry.
253
QUEEN MARGOT
At Nerac, politics were for the moment relegated to
the background, and love reigned supreme. The pretty
girls whom the two Queens had brought with them
turned the heads of all the Protestant nobles, so much
so indeed that Marguerite tells us that there were
moments when her mother suspected that the delays
in holding the conference had been purposely arranged
by these enamoured gentlemen, " to the end that they
might the longer enjoy the society of her maids-of-
honour." Even the stern Calvinist, d'Aubigne, and
the grave statesman, Rosny, 1 caught the prevailing
infection ; for the former tells us that they were " all
lovers together," while Sully admits that he also became
a courtier and " took a mistress like the others." It
should be mentioned, however, that the Calvinist nobles
were, after all, only following the example of their sove-
reign, who had renewed his old liaison with Madame
de Sauve, and whose passion for Mile. Dayelle
had reached a very high temperature. " But," writes
his complacent consort, " this did not prevent the
King my husband from showing me great respect and
affection, as much, indeed, as I could have desired; since
he informed me, upon the very first day we arrived, of
all the devices that had been invented, while he was at
Court, to create bad feeling between us, and he expressed
great satisfaction at our reunion."
Catherine cut short these intrigues by removing with
her squadron to Porte-Sainte-Marie, where she remained
until the first week of February 1579, when she returned
to Nerac, for the conference. In these deliberations,
Marguerite took a prominent part, but in a sense very
much opposed to that which Catherine had expected of
1 Maximilien de Bethune, afterwards Due de Sully.
254
QUEEN MARGOT
her. That veteran intriguer had brought her fairest
auxiliaries with her, in the confident expectation that
her susceptible son-in-law would succumb to their
charms, and thus cause an estrangement between him
and his wife, by which she could not fail to profit. But
Henri and Marguerite seemed to have agreed upon a
policy of mutual tolerance, and the latter, thoroughly
well acquainted with the objects and methods of her
mother, was able to give her husband some very useful
advice, which greatly disconcerted Catherine's plans.
She also did not scruple to make use of her influence over
Pibrac, and the enamoured lawyer manceuvred so skil-
fully that the Huguenots obtained more favourable
terms than they had dared to hope for. The conference,
after some pretty sharp recriminations/ ended with a
promise of further securities to the Huguenots, in the
shape of eight additional surety-towns, and of the com-
plete redress of their grievances ; and, towards the end
of March, the Queen-Mother set out on her return to
Paris, having accomplished very little, save the sowing
of a few seeds of discord about the King of Navarre,
and the beguiling of two or three Catholic nobles from
their allegiance to him.
Marguerite and her husband accompanied Catherine
as far as Castelnaudary, where they took leave of her.
The parting affected his Majesty not a little ; for the
Queen-Mother carried away with her the fascinating
Mile. Dayelle.
1 The Huguenot deputies adopted a very arrogant and bellicose tone,
and Catherine felt obliged to address them " royally and very haughtily,
even going so far as to declare that she would have them all hanged as
rebels." Upon which the Queen of Navarre intervened and, with tears
in her eyes, implored her mother to give them peace.
255
CHAPTER XVIII
Mile, de Rebours becomes the King of Navarre's mistress
Difficulty of Marguerite's position at Pau, owing to the pro-
scription of the Catholic religion Incident on Whit-Sunday
1579, in the Queen's private chapel Marguerite nurses her
husband during an illness at Eauze Life at NeVac Amours
of the King A disappointed lover's revenge Henri III.
writes to his brother-in-law to warn him of the nature of his
wife's relations with the Vicomte de Turenne Anger of
Marguerite, who intrigues to bring about a renewal of
hostilities The " Lovers' War " The storming of Cahors
The Marechal de Biron blockades Nerac Marguerite uses her
influence to end the war Anjou sent to Gascony to negotiate
on behalf of the King The Treaty of Fleix.
" IT is the best menage that one could possibly desire,"
wrote Catherine to her confidante, the Duchesse d'Uzes,
who had preceded her to Paris; and, indeed, for some time
after their reunion, harmony appeared to reign between
the King of Navarre and his wife. On taking leave of
the Queen-Mother, the royal pair spent some time at
Mazeres and Pamiers ; but the end of May found them
installed at Pau, in the chateau in which Henri had been
born.
Mile. Dayelle having followed Catherine to Paris,
the King turned for consolation to Mile, de Rebours, 1
" a malicious girl," says Marguerite, " who disliked me
and endeavoured by every means in her power to preju-
dice me in his eyes." However, it was not on account
1 Daughter of Guillaume de Rebours, President of the Parlement.
256
QUEEN MARGOT
of this new mistress that the first domestic storm arose
but owing to a very different matter.
The position of Marguerite, a Catholic in the midst
of a Calvinist community, was a very difficult one ;
she had, at the same time, to consider the Court of France,
on which she depended for her revenues and the inter-
ests of her husband. Although the edicts of Jeanne
d'Albret, which interdicted on pain of death all exercise
of the Catholic religion, had been repealed by Henri,
in 1572, after his compulsory abjuration, his Huguenot
subjects had refused to obey the Ordinance extorted from
their captive sovereign, and, though, since the King's
return, the persecution to which the Catholics were
subjected was less cruel, it was quite as vexatious as in
the time of his mother. " Since there was no exercise
of the Catholic religion," writes Marguerite, " I was
only permitted to have Mass said in a little chapel four
or five paces long, and which, being extremely narrow,
was quite full when it contained only seven or eight
persons."
At the hour when Mass was to be celebrated, the draw-
bridge of the chateau was raised, lest the Catholics of
the country should come and hear it. But on Whit-
Sunday some Catholic peasants succeeded in entering
the chateau before the drawbridge was raised, and slipped
into the little chapel. They remained undetected until
the service was nearly over, when, the door being partly
opened to admit one of the Queen's suite, some Hugue-
nots, who were peeping in, perceived them and reported
the matter to Du Pin, the King's secretary, " who had
great influence with his master and great authority in
his Household, as he was accustomed to manage all the
affairs of those of the Religion."
257 R
QUEEN MARGOT
Du Pin, a bitter Calvinist, hastened to seize the oppor-
tunity of teaching this handful of refractory Papists a
severe lesson, and, at the same time, of proving to them
how powerless was the Queen to afford them protection.
He, accordingly, despatched a number of the King's
guards to the chapel, who seized the intruders, dragged
them forth, and beat them in her Majesty's presence,
after which they were thrown into prison, where they
remained for some time, in addition to being heavily
fined.
Marguerite, greatly incensed at the treatment of her
co-religionists, and not less at the slight to her own
dignity, lost no time in seeking her husband in order to
complain of it, and to beg him to set at liberty these un-
fortunate people, who, she pointed out, had not deserved
such punishment, merely for desiring, after having been
so long deprived of the exercise of their own religion,
to take advantage of her coming, and to attend Mass
on the occasion of so solemn a feast. But, before Henri
could reply, Du Pin entered the room, and, " ignoring
the respect due to his master, instead of permitting him
to answer, took up the conversation himself, telling her
not to worry the King her husband about such a matter,
since, whatever she might say would not alter the case ;
that the Catholics had been deservedly punished, and that
she should rest satisfied with being permitted to have a
Mass said for herself and such of her people as she wished
to attend it."
" The King my husband," continues the princess,
" perceiving my just indignation, ordered him to leave
my presence, and assured me that he was very much
annoyed by Du Pin's indiscretion, and that it was his
religious zeal which had carried him away ; while, with
258
QUEEN MARGOT
regard to the Catholic prisoners, he would consult with
his councillors in the Parlement of Pau, as to what
could be done to satisfy me."
The matter eventually ended in the triumph of
Marguerite and the dismissal of Du Pin ; but the King
was at no pains to conceal from his consort that he parted
from him with the greatest reluctance, and treated her
for some time very coldly. Nor was it long before he
found an excuse for restoring his presumptuous secretary
to his former office.
At the end of June, the Court, to Marguerite's great
satisfaction, quitted " this little Geneva of a Pau " for
Montauban, where a Huguenot assembly was about to
meet to discuss the future policy of the party. " On
the way thither," writes the Queen, " we had to pass
through a little village called Eauze, 1 where, upon the
night of our arrival, the King my husband fell ill of a
severe and continuous fever, accompanied by a violent
headache, which lasted seventeen days, during which
time he could obtain repose neither by day nor by night,
and it was necessary to change him continually from one
bed to another. I devoted myself so entirely to succour-
ing him never quitting him for a moment or even
removing my clothes that he began to find my service
agreeable, and to praise it to every one, particularly to
my cousin, M. de Turenne, 8 who, acting the part of a
kind kinsman, re-established me as firmly as ever in my
husband's good graces. According to Mongez, one ought
1 A very ancient town, now in the department of the Gers.
* Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, afterwards Due de Bouillon. Hi?
family had made several alliances with the House of Bourbon, on the
one side ; while, on the other, Catherine de Medici was a daughter of
Madeline de la Tour, Comtessc de Boulogne
259
QUEEN MARGOT
to attribute to this temporary reconciliation the in-
difference and the little credit which the King of Navarre
appeared to attach to the scandalous reports which soon
afterwards began to circulate about the conduct of his
wife and the viscount.
After a short stay at Montauban, the little Court
proceeded to Nerac and resumed the life of fe"tes and
amusements which had marked its former sojourn there.
Marguerite appears to have been very happy at Nerac,
where far more latitude was permitted her in religious
matters than had been the case at Pau, which town she
cordially detested. In both places the Protestants were,
of course, largely in the majority ; but men differ accord-
ing to their surroundings. At Pau, it was the bigoted
Calvinistic ministers who were in the ascendency. At
Nerac, the military nobility prevailed, and Marguerite,
d'Aubigne tells us, had quickly taught all these young
Huguenots " a derouiller leurs coeurs et a laisser rouiller
leurs armes." " Our Court," she writes, " was so brilliant
that we had no cause to regret that of France. Besides
myself, with a number of ladies- and maids-of-honour,
there were the Princesse de Navarre, 1 since married to
the Due de Bar, and the King my husband, with a goodly
following of nobles and gentlemen as gallant a company
as ever I remember to have seen at the French Court
the only drawback being that its members were Huguenot.
The difference of religion, however, was never alluded to.
The King my husband, and the princess his sister, went
off in one direction to the preche, while I and my suite
would proceed in another to hear Mass, in a chapel
situated in the park, after which it was our custom to
reassemble and walk together, either in a beautiful
* Henri's sister, Catherine de Bourbon.
260
QUEEN MARGOT
garden with long alleys planted with laurel and cypress,
or in a park, which I had laid out in avenues, three
thousand paces long, by the side of the river. And the
rest of the day was passed in all kinds of innocent diver-
sions, there being, as a rule, dancing both after dinner
and in the evening."
When the Court quitted Pau, Mile, de Rebours had
been left behind ill, and by the time she was sufficiently
recovered to rejoin it, her place in the King's affections
had been usurped by another of his wife's maids-of-
honour, Mile, de Fosseux, or " Fosseuse," as the Queen
had named her. 1 Fosseuse, a damsel of some fifteen
summers, " conducted herself with virtue and propriety,"
and, for some time, the affair remained in its preliminary
stages. At the same time that he flirted with this
ingenue, the Bearnais, who had not the smallest objec-
tion to carrying on two or three intrigues at once, cast
a favourable eye upon a soubrette in his wife's service
called Xaintes, " avec laquelle il familiarisait." Under
which circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that his
Majesty should have felt obliged to close his eyes to the
very marked attentions which Marguerite was receiving
from the Vicomte de Turenne, and that it should have
required a communication from his royal brother-in-law
to open them.
Shortly before this thunder-cloud made its appearance
in the smiling sky of Nerac, Marguerite's chancellor,
Pibrac, had returned to Paris, summoned thither by
his judicial duties in the Parlement, and carrying with
him a heart ulcerated by an unrequited love. Although
1 Frar^oise de Montmorency, fifth daughter of Pierre de Montmo-
rency, Marquis de Thury, Baron de Fosseux. She married Frai^ois
de Broc, Baron dc Cinq-Mars.
261
QUEEN MARGOT
some distance on the shady side of fifty, M. de Pibrac
had, as we have mentioned, very quickly succumbed
to his beautiful mistress's charms. Whether he had
dared to avow the passion which possessed him is some-
what doubtful judging from a letter which we shall
presently have occasion to cite, it would appear that he
had not 1 but, any way, he had sighed in vain, and was
consumed by a most violent jealousy of his successful
rival Turenne.
On his return to the capital, Pibrac was admitted to
an audience of the King, who, with fraternal solicitude,
questioned him closely as to how it fared with his dear
sister at the Court of Navarre, and soon learned from
this disappointed lover that which caused him to rub
his hands with gratified malice. Pibrac dismissed, his
Majesty repaired to his cabinet, and there, with his
sneering mignons about him, indited to his brother-in-
law a letter, wherein he informed him that he felt it
to be his most painful duty to warn him of the rumours
which were current concerning the relations existing
between his consort and his friend, the Vicomte de
Turenne, adding that it was the talk of the whole country,
and that it behoved the King of Navarre, if he valued
his honour, to put a stop to such a scandal without a
moment's delay.
His Majesty chuckled gleefully, as he affixed his seal
to the letter, reflecting that it was a coup worthy of a
student of Machiavelli. At one stroke, he would injure
Marguerite, whom he hated, put an end to the good
understanding between her and her husband, always
a menace to his own interests, and deprive the King of
Navarre of one of his most trusted and influential followers.
1 See page 272 injr*.
262
QUEEN MARGOT
And then, that nothing might be wanting to his content,
he entrusted this ill-omened epistle to Strozzi, who was
about to set out for Nerac, to claim the restoration of
the surety-towns from the Huguenots, and, on his own
account, to demand the hand of Turenne's sister in
marriage. The King disapproved of the Italian soldier's
matrimonial aspirations, thinking the heiress in question
a suitable match for one of his mignons, and judged that
poor Strozzi's suit was not likely to be very favourably
received by the lady's brother, when he inaugurated
his wooing in such fashion. Needless to say, Strozzi
was left in happy ignorance of the contents of the missive
with which he was charged.
But the coup failed, and, moreover, as such machina-
tions not infrequently do, recoiled on the head of him
who had contrived it. The King of Navarre, who
knew his brother-in-law, divined the snare, and avoided
it with his accustomed dexterity. Whether he believed
the charge matters little ; he had too much to be
forgiven not to forgive his wife, and certainly could not
afford to quarrel with Turenne. Laughing with well-
assumed incredulity, he laid the letter before the delin-
quents, who expressed their opinion of the King of
France's conduct in no measured terms. Marguerite
was mortally offended. Besides, she had a new grievance
against his Most Christian Majesty, who had lately
delivered the fascinating Bussy to the vengeance of
Montsoreau. 1 She vowed to make her malicious brother
1 Bussy, having seduced the Comtesse de Montsoreau, had had the bad
taste to boast of his conquest and wrote to Anjou that " he had cast
his nets over the hind of the Grand Huntsman (the Comte de Mont-
soreau had lately been appointed to that post), and held her fast in his
toils." Monsieur, to amuse the King, with whom he was now recon-
ciled, showed him the letter. Henri III., who hated Bussy, perceived a
263
QUEEN MARGOT
pay dearly for all the outrages she had suffered at his hands,
and could find no better way than to fan the still smoulder-
ing embers of the late war into a fresh blaze. To this
task, she devoted herself with characteristic energy and
ingenuity. Henri III., who believed that all the troubles
had been appeased by the treaty signed at Nerac, " ap-
peared to have no uneasiness in regard to Guienne, and
jested with his mignons about the King his brother-in-
law, whom he spoke of with the utmost contempt."
The Due de Guise also permitted himself to let fall some
biting gibes at the expense of his Majesty of Navarre,
incited thereto by Madame de Sauve, now his mistress,
who had not forgiven Henri for preferring the fresher
charms of Mile. Dayelle to hers. Informed of these
railleries, by letters from her friends in Paris, Marguerite
employed Fosseuse to repeat them to the King and incite
his wrath, and she also induced Xaintes to bestir herself
with the same object.
Following the example of her mother, the Queen of
Navarre had surrounded herself with ladies remarkable
for their beauty, but whose tastes for gallantry involved
her in many troubles, and, like Catherine, made use of
them when occasion arose, and caused them to espouse
her quarrels. Several of these ladies were beloved by
the King's councillors, and at the instance of their
mistress employed all their powers of persuasion to
fine opportunity for revenge. He kept the letter and handed it to the
injured husband, who forced his wife to give her lover a rendezvous at
the Chateau of Coutancere, in Anjou, and when the unsuspecting
gallant appeared, fell upon him with a band of bravos. Bussy fought
with his usual courage, and, after his sword was broken, defended him-
self "with tables, benches, chairs, and stools." But, though he killed
and wounded several of his assailants, the odds against him were too
great, and he was eventually overpowered and slain (August 19, 1579).
264
QUEEN MARGOT
induce their admirers to urge upon Henri a renewal of
hostilities. And to such good purpose did they carry-
out her orders that the war which shortly afterwards
broke out was called the " Lovers' War," " a name,"
observes Mongez, " which was the more appropriate,
since none of those who composed the Council of the
King of Navarre, with the single exception of Favas,
whom age had cured of the follies of love, was exempt
from this passion." 1
It is, however, probable that Marguerite's intrigues
did little more than precipitate matters, since recourse
to arms had been virtually resolved upon at the Huguenot
conference which met at Montauban in July 1579,
while the Catholics of the South were equally eager for
war.
The chief event of the desultory campaign which
followed was the storming of Cahors, which afforded
Henri of Navarre an opportunity for the display of that
obstinate courage, which made so great an impression
upon the imagination of his countrymen, and earned him
the admiration and respect even of his enemies.
Cahors was the capital of the district of Quercy, which
formed part of Marguerite's appanage, but which her
husband had never been able to obtain possession of.
It was an exceedingly difficult place to take by assault,
being built on a rock surrounded on three sides by a
bend of the River Lot, and garrisoned by nearly two
thousand men, under Jean de Vezins, Seneschal of
Quercy. Undaunted by the difficulties of such an
undertaking, in the night of May 5-6, 1580, the King
of Navarre, with some three thousand men, approached
the town, and, favoured by a violent storm, contrived
1 Histoire de Marguerite de Vahls.
265
QUEEN MARGOT
to get close to the walls without being observed. Two
of the gates were quickly blown in by petards, and the
Huguenots rushed into the town. They met, however,
with a furious resistance, for the townspeople, nearly
all fanatical Catholics,who had persecuted their Protestant
fellow-citizens with relentless cruelty, rallied to the
assistance of the garrison, and, in full belief that no
quarter was to be expected from their enemies, fought
with all the courage of despair. The steep and narrow
streets of the town were all in favour of the defenders,
and the assailants fell in scores beneath the fire of the
garrison and the missiles which rained upon them from
every housetop. Henri's followers urged him to abandon
the unequal contest and retire before reinforcements
could arrive for the garrison. But the King replied
that " the only retreat should be that of his soul from
his body," and insisted on continuing the fight. For
four days and nights the combat raged without inter-
mission, until, at length, Vezins, having been mortally
wounded and the greater part of the garrison having
fallen, Cahors surrendered.
But this brilliant feat of arms could not atone for the
King of Navarre's lack of resources, as the more sober
Protestants disapproved of a war so lightly undertaken,
and La Rochelle and several other towns had refused to
send assistance. Henri III., furious at the fall of Cahors,
took energetic measures, and despatched three armies
against the Huguenots. That which operated in Guienne
under the command of Biron, the King's lieutenant
in that province, was alone much superior in numbers
to any which Henri of Navarre could place in the field,
and, after taking Mont-de-Marsan and several other
towns, appeared before Nirac.
266
QUEEN MARGOT
At Marguerite's request, it had been arranged at the
commencement of hostilities, that Nerac should be con-
sidered neutral ground, unless the King of Navarre
should himself be there, in which case the neutrality was
to lapse, and the royal forces to be at liberty to attack
it. Unfortunately, almost at the same moment as
Biron's troops showed themselves on some rising ground
near the town, Henri, anxious to spend a few days in the
company of his beloved Fosseuse, returned to Ne"rac,
and the marshal, therefore, felt himself justified in
commencing offensive operations. The royal forces
blockaded the town for two or three days, and, at one
time, might have taken it, had they acted with a little
more vigour, as the King, deceived by some false in-
formation, had withdrawn nearly all his troops to oppose
the advance of some reinforcements for Biron, which,
as a matter of fact, had already effected their junction
with the besiegers.
Finally, the marshal " caused five or six volleys of
cannon-shot to be fired into the town," and marched
away, having previously despatched a trumpeter to the
Queen, " to present his excuses and assure her that, had
she been alone in the town, nothing would have induced
him to act as he had done." To which her indignant
Majesty returned answer that " he might perfectly
well have allowed her to enjoy the pleasure of seeing
the King her husband for those three days at Nerac ;
that he could not attack him, when in her presence,
without attacking her also, and that she was extremely
offended at his conduct, and should complain of it to the
King her brother."
After the blockade of Nerac, Marguerite appears to
have come to the conclusion that it was high time she
267
QUEEN MARGOT
extricated her husband from the very precarious position
in which she had placed him, and she, therefore, directed
her energies to bring about the conclusion of peace.
" I beg of you," she writes to Catherine's confidante,
the Duchesse d'Uzes, " to remind my mother of what
I am to her, and to beg her not to render me, whom she
brought into the world, so miserable as that I should
remain deprived of her favour and protection." 1 She
also wrote to Monsieur to request his good offices, to
which that prince readily acceded. Henri III., on his
side, with his finances exhausted, and harassed by the
intrigues of Spain and the Guises, had no desire to prolong
the war, and Anjou set out for Gascony, with full powers
to treat on his behalf
As the result of a conference held at Fleix, in Perigord,
a treaty was drawn up, which confirmed all previous
concessions to the Reformers, and secured to Marguerite
the enjoyment of her appanage. To satisfy the outraged
dignity of the Queen of Navarre, Biron was superseded
in his office of King's lieutenant in Guienne by the
Marechal de Matignon.
And so ended the " Lovers' War," and Marguerite
and her husband must have congratulated themselves
in getting very well out of what had promised to be an
exceedingly awkward predicament.
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
C63
CHAPTER XIX
Rivalry between the King of Navarre and Monsieur over
Fosscuse appeased by Marguerite Harlay de Chanvallon His
fiaisftt with the Queen of Navarre The Queen demands the
disgrace of d'Aubigne, charged with circulating scandalous
reports about her Departure of Anjou Passionate letters
addressed to Chanvallon by Marguerite Indiscretions of
Pibrac, whom the Queen dismisses from her service Fosseuse
becomes the mistress of the King and intrigues against Mar-
guerite The Queen goes to Bagneres-de-Bigorre Interview
between Marguerite and Fosseuse A Court scandal The
Queen accepts Henri III.'s invitation to visit Paris.
ANJOU remained in the South until the end of the follow-
ing April, notwithstanding that he was being urgently
pressed to succour Cambrai, which had been duly
delivered to him by d'Inchy, and was now closely besieged
by the Spaniards under Parma. Monsieur, who had a
marvellous aptitude for making mischief wherever he
went, did not fail to keep up his reputation in this respect.
He fell in love with the fair Fosseuse, and, for a time,
there reigned between him and his royal host almost as
bitter a rivalry as had existed in the days when they were
both at the feet of Madame de Sauve. Nor was this
all ; for the King conceived the idea that his consort,
through jealousy of Fosseuse, was favouring her brother's
equivocal attentions to the damsel, and began to treat
her with marked coldness. To remedy this painful state
of affairs, the Queen was forced to intervene and secure
to Henri the peaceable possession of his enchantress,
269
QUEEN MARGOT
by " pointing out to her brother the misery he would bring
upon her by this courtship." Whereupon that mag-
nanimous prince, " caring as he did more for her happi-
ness than his own, subdued his passion." 1
Anjou had brought with him his usual train of roues
and bravos, but, among his following, was a man of a
different stamp. This was his grand equerry, Jacques
de Harlay, Seigneur de Chanvallon, one of the handsomest
men of his time. He and Marguerite had met at La
Fere, during Anjou's visit to his sister after her return
from Flanders, and would appear to have been very
favourably impressed with one another. At La Fere,
however, the Queen had been too occupied in entertain-
ing her brother and discussing with him the prospect
of his Flemish enterprise to have had much time to spare
for his attendants, however fascinating. But at Cadillac,
to which the Court of Navarre proceeded after the con-
clusion of the Treaty of Fleix, their intimacy progressed
rapidly, and eventually Chanvallon avowed his passion.
Marguerite reciprocated it, and the handsome cavalier
does not seem to have long sighed in vain. 2
Sainte-Beuve, who bases his opinion on a perusal of
the letters which the Queen subsequently addressed
to her admirer, thinks that " she loved not with the
heart, but rather with the head and the imagination." s
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
2 Even Marguerite's ardent apologist, M. de Saint-Poncy, who will
not allow that La M&le, Bussy, and Turenne were anything more than
humble worshippers, is constrained to admit this, though he excuses his
heroine's conduct on the ground that she was " wounded in her wifely
susceptibilities and outraged in her dignity as Queen," and "tfune
complexion trep ardente ptur ne pas cider a la tentation "
3 Caustries du Lundi, vol. vi. La Reine Marguerite, jes me'moires et des
iettret.
270
QUEEN MARGOT
However that may be, she appears to have acted with
singular indiscretion, and, while at Cadillac, a report
spread that her Majesty and M. de Chanvallon had been
detected in a most compromising situation. The
originator of this rumour was the malicious d'Aubigne
the presumed author of the Divorce satyrique and the
infuriated princess hurried to her consort and demanded
his instant dismissal. Henri felt unable to refuse her
the satisfaction she demanded ; but, as he was naturally
very reluctant to part with his faithful equerry, he had
recourse to stratagem. D'Aubigne was ostensibly dis-
missed ; but it was arranged that he should remain in
hiding during the day, and when night fell, return to his
master's apartments in the chateau. This arrangement con-
tinued until her Majesty's wrath was sufficiently appeased
to admit of the delinquent's public restoration to his office.
At the end of April 1581, Monsieur took his departure,
and Chanvallon followed him. This enforced separation,
far from cooling Marguerite's passion, seems only to
have inflamed it, and she addressed to her absent lover
the most tender letters. " Absence, constraint," writes
she to him, " serves to increase my love, as much as it
would diminish that of a feeble soul inflamed by a vulgar
passion. ... Be sure that the hour when you change
will be that of my end. ... I live no more save in you,
mon beau tout, ma seule et farfaite beaute. ... I
kiss a million times those beautiful eyes, that beautiful
hair, my dear and sweet fetters ; I kiss a million times
that beautiful and lovable mouth ; " and so forth. 1
Very different in tone were the letters which Mar-
guerite addressed to her unfortunate chancellor, Pibrac.
The Queen was considerably indebted to Pibrac, who
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Vakis (edit. Guessard).
271
QUEEN MARGOT
had taken off her hands an hotel in Paris, which Henri III.
had given her the Hotel d'Anjou, situated near the
Louvre at a price considerably in excess of its market
value, and advanced her large sums of money, as much
as 35,000 ecus, according to one account. But she
suspected him of playing a double part and of slandering
her to Henri III., and was highly indignant. In March
1581, he wrote the princess a very imprudent letter, to
warn her that an astrologer in Paris had predicted that,
in the course of that month, her husband would slay her
with his own hands, and imploring her to take refuge at
Agen. And this he followed by another, wherein he
excused his interference on the ground of the love he
bore her. Marguerite, however, repulsed her grey-
haired admirer's homage with disdain. " You have
written," she replies, " an excuse not less indiscreet
and little becoming so wise a man, namely, that nothing
else had urged you to give me this warning, save the
extreme passion you entertain for me, which you had not
dared to confess. These are strange proceedings for
a man such as you are, and would be little to your advan-
tage, were they to come to any one's knowledge, which
I do not intend them to do ... since I desire no other
witness than your conscience, which will be your judge." 1
Nevertheless, she showed the letter to her husband,
and the matter soon became common knowledge, and
poor Pibrac the laughing-stock of Paris.
J'tais president
En la cour du Parlement,
Je m'en suis defait,
Reine Margot, Marguerite
Je m'en suis defait
Pour e'tre a vous tout A fait.
4 Metnoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
272
QUEEN MARGOT
So ran one of the numerous chansons that were made
about him.
Moreover, the indignant Queen ordered him to sur-
render his seals as her chancellor, and refused to pardon
him, though he sought to extenuate the inflammatory
expressions which had so offended her. " Our fashion
to-day," he writes, " is full of excess. One no longer
makes use of the words, ' to love ' and * to serve.' One
adds to them ' extremely,' ' passionately,' ' madly,' and
other similar expressions ; even so far as to invest with
divinity things which are less than human."
The Queen of Navarre had soon a more serious cause
for annoyance than the imprudent letters of her infatuated
chancellor. Mile. Fosseuse, who had, for some time, only
allowed the King " such familiarities as might with all
propriety be permitted," had ended, as might have been
foreseen, " in surrendering herself entirely to his will,"
with results of a very embarrassing nature. " Where-
upon," continues Marguerite, " finding herself in this
condition, her bearing towards me changed, and, instead
of being frank with me, as was her custom, and rendering
me all the good services in her power with respect to
the King my husband, she began avoiding me, and render-
ing me as many evil turns as she had formerly done me
good ones. She possessed so much influence over the
King, that, in a very short while, I perceived that he was
wholly changed. He became estranged, avoided me,
and no longer took the same pleasure in my society as
when Fosseuse had conducted herself with propriety."
On the return of the King and Queen to Nerac,
Fosseuse, either in order to conceal her condition, " ou
bien pour se dtfaire de ce qu'elle avait," put it into his
QUEEN MARGOT
Majesty's head to propose to his consort that they should
pay a visit to the baths of Eaux-Chaudes (Aigues-Caudes)
in the valley of Osseau, in Beam. " I begged the King
my husband to excuse me if I did not accompany him to
Eaux Chaudes," writes Marguerite, " as he knew that,
since the indignity to which I had been subjected at
Pau, I had made a vow never to enter Beam, unless the
Catholic religion were re-established there. He then
told me that ' his girl ' (for thus he designated Fosseuse)
required to take the waters, for the indigestion from which
she suffered. I told him that I was perfectly willing
that she should go there. He replied that it would not
be seemly for her to go without me ; that it would cause
people to imagine evil where none existed ; and he
became very much annoyed with me, because I did not
wish to take her."
Finally, it was arranged that Fosseuse, accompanied
by two of her colleagues, Henri's former flame, Mile, de
Rebours, and a Mile. Villesave, and their gouvernante^
should go to Eaux-Chaudes, while the Queen was to
betake herself to Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
It would appear that, at this time, Marguerite enter-
tained some hope of presenting her fickle husband with
an heir, for we find her writing to Catherine : " I am
at the baths of Bagneres, whither I have come to see
whether I shall be so fortunate as to increase the number
of your servants. Several persons have found them very
beneficial. I shall not fail, on my return to Nerac, to
acquaint you with the benefit I have received." 1
In this, however, she was doomed to disappointment,
1 Lettres incites de Marguerite de Valot$ t Archives Historiques of
Gascony, cited by M. Charles Merki, La Relne Margot et la Jin aes
Valois, p, 247.
274
QUEEN MARGOT
nor was his chagrin diminished by the fact that she was
receiving daily reports from Mile, de Rebours " a
corrupt and deceitful girl, who was only desirous of
ousting Fosseuse, in order that she might supplant her
in the good graces of the King my husband " that Fos-
seuse was using every endeavour to estrange his Majesty
from his wife, " and was persuading herself that, if she
had a son, and could get rid of her, she might marry
the King." 1
In consequence, the Queen's sojourn at Bagneres
seems to have been a very mournful one, and she assures
us that " she shed tears as numerous as the drops of
water which the King and his companions were drinking
at Eaux-Chaudes, notwithstanding that she was sur-
rounded by all the Catholic nobility of those parts,
who used every endeavour to make her forget her
troubles."
After a stay of four or five weeks at Eaux-Chaudes,
Henri and the maids-of-honour returned, and the Court
proceeded to Nerac, where the condition of Mile. Fos-
seuse became the chief topic of conversation, not only at
the Court, but in all the country round. The Queen
determined to put a stop to the scandal, and, summoning
her rival to her cabinet, addressed her as follows :
" In spite of your having for some time estranged
yourself from me, and of people having endeavoured
to induce me to believe that you are making mischief
between the King my husband and myself, the friendship
that I have borne you, and that which I entertain for
the honourable persons to whom you are related [the
1 It would appear that Henri, in accordance with the practice he
adopted with several later enchantresses, had promised the lady that,
if she bore him a son, he would repudiate the Queen and marry her.
275
QUEEN MARGOT
Montmorency family], does not admit of my refusing
you assistance in the unfortunate position in which you
find yourself. And this, I beg, you will not deny me,
nor desire to ruin both your reputation and my own ;
for, since you are in my service, I have as much interest
in the matter as you have. You may rely on my acting
towards you like a mother. I have found means to go,
under the pretext of the plague, which, as you are aware,
is in this country, and even in this city, to Mas d'Agenais,
a house belonging to the King my husband, situated in a
very lonely spot. I will take with me only such following
as you may choose. Meanwhile, the King my husband
will go hunting in another direction, and will not return
until after your delivery, and we shall thus put an end
to the scandal, which concerns me no less than yourself."
Instead of being grateful for her Majesty's magna-
nimity, Fosseuse answered, with a fine assumption of
injured innocence, that she would give the lie to all
those who spoke ill of her, and accused Marguerite of
seeking a pretext to compass her ruin. Then she left
the Queen's cabinet in a rage, and went to inform the
King of what had passed. Henri was no less incensed
than his mistress, declared that she had been shamefully
maligned, and did not fail to show Marguerite how much
he resented her interference.
However, one night, some three or four months after
the conversation just related, there came a doctor knock-
ing at the door of the royal bedchamber, with tidings
of a very urgent nature for his Majesty's ear alone.
" My husband," writes Marguerite, " was greatly em-
barrassed as to what he should do, fearing, on the one
hand, that she (Fosseuse) might be discovered, and,
on the other, that she might not receive proper
276
QUEEN MARGOT
attention, for he loved her dearly. Finally he decided
to confess everything to me, and to' implore me to go
to her assistance, being assured, notwithstanding what had
happened in the past, that he would always find me
ready to serve him. He therefore drew aside my bed-
curtains, and said to me : * M'amie, I have concealed
something from you that I must now avow. I entreat
you to pardon me, and not to bear in mind what I have
said to you on the matter ; but to oblige me by rising
at once and going to the assistance of Fosseuse, who is
very ill. I am sure that, seeing her in this state, you will
not harbour resentment for what has passed. You
know how much I love her ; I entreat you, therefore,
to do me this favour."
The Queen replied that " she honoured him too much
to take anything amiss that he proposed," and that she
would hasten to Fosseuse, and " behave to her as though
she were her own daughter." At the same time, she
advised her husband to go away on a hunting expedition,
so as to minimise the danger of the affair getting about.
Marguerite kept her word, and " God willed that
Fosseuse should give birth to a daughter, who, moreover,
was still-born." If a son had been born and had survived,
who could have foreseen the unpleasant consequences
that might have ensued ? But " in spite of employing
the greatest discretion," the news of the event was soon
all over the chateau, and when the King returned from
the chase, he begged his wife to pay a second visit to
Fosseuse, thinking by this means to silence the rumours
that were afloat.
Her Majesty, however, not unnaturally, considering
that, in consenting to act the part of a mother to her
husband's mistress, she had carried her complacency
277
QUEEN MARGOT
far enough for one day, declined. " I replied," she writes,
" that I had visited her when she had need of my assist-
ance, but that now she no longer required it, and that,
if I went to her, I should be revealing rather than conceal-
ing what had occurred, and that every one would point
the finger of scorn at me. He was extremely angry with
me, which displeased me very much, since I did not
consider that, after what I had done in the morning,
I deserved such a reward." And Marguerite adds :
" She (Fosseuse) often incited him to get into these
tempers against me."
These domestic annoyances caused Marguerite to
conceive a decided aversion for the little Court of Nerac,
which she had once found so pleasant, and to inspire
her with a desire to leave it for a time, and return to
Paris. During her residence in Beam and Gascony, she
had received more than one invitation from Henri III.
and Catherine to visit them, and soon after the Fosseuse
affair, it happened that another and particularly pressing
one arrived. Henri III., who was kept well informed
by his agents at Nerac of all that went on at that Court,
and had been duly acquainted with the details of the
recent scandal, judged that, after what had occurred,
the indignant Queen would not be averse to a temporary
separation from her husband. And that she might not
delay her departure from need of the necessary funds,
he transmitted to her the sum of 15,000 ecus,
It must not be supposed that, in sending this invitation,
his Majesty was actuated by any motive of affection. On
the contrary, since the " Lovers' War," he had detested
his sister, if possible, more cordially than ever. But he
had found, to his cost, that she was a force to be reckoned
278
QUEEN MARGOT
with, and desired to make one more effort to disarm
her hostility and make her his ally. That he would
be successful in this, he probably entertained but slight
hope. Nevertheless, to separate her and her husband
could not fail to be of advantage to him (" It would
.prove like the breaking of the Macedonian phalanx,"
says Marguerite) ; while if he could contrive to put an
end to the good understanding on political matters,
which, in spite of their domestic differences, had always
existed between them, it would be a great point gained.
Several reasons contributed to determine Marguerite
to accept the invitation. The revenues of her appanage
were in arrears, and she was deeply in debt ; a visit to
the capital was absolutely necessary to restore her affairs
to some degree of order. She had grown tired of Nerac,
and looked forward with all the zest of an exile to the
gaieties of the Louvre ; while " she also thought that
her departure might serve to turn the King her husband
from his passion for Fosseuse whom she was taking
with her and that once she (Fosseuse) was out of his
sight, he might possibly take up with some one else,
who would be less hostile to her." Finally and this
probably had more weight with her than anything
she cherished the hope of meeting le beau Chanvallon
again, and renewing with him their interrupted
romance.
The King of Navarre, for some time, strongly opposed
his wife's resolution, being unwilling to resign himself
to the loss of his Fosseuse. " He became, in consequence,
much kinder to me," says Marguerite, " and was anxious
that I should abandon my intention of returning to
France. But, since I had already given my promise
in my letters to the King and the Queen my mother,
279
QUEEN MARGOT
and had even received the aforementioned sum [the
15,000 ecus for the journey], the evil fate which was
luring me to Court prevailed over the scanty desire that
I felt to proceed thither, now that the King my husband
was beginning to treat me with more affection." *
1 Memoirtj et lettra de Marguerite tie Vabis (edit. Guessard).
280
CHAPTER XX
The Memoires of Marguerite de Valois terminate at the date
of her return to Paris Question of their continuation con-
sidered Henri III. accords his sister a very gracious reception,
and consents to the augmentation of her appanage Mar-
guerite purchases the H6tel de Birague Her correspondence
with her husband Fresh rupture between them, owing to the
Queen of Navarre's dismissal of Fosseuse from her service
Letters of Marguerite and Catherine de' Medici to the King
of Navarre Marguerite's mortification at the marriage of
Chanvallon Total failure of Anjou's Flemish enterprise
Strained relations between the Queen of Navarre and
Henri III. Renewal of the liaison between Marguerite and
Chanvallon A courier bearing a letter from the King to the
Due de Joyeuse murdered and robbed Henri III. publicly
insults his sister at a ball at the Louvre, and orders her to
return to her husband Between Palaiseau and Saint-Clair, she
and some of her attendants are arrested and conveyed to
Montargis Henri III. interrogates Mesdames de Duras and
de Bethune Marguerite and her attendants liberated, through
the intervention of Catherine The King of Navarre refuses
to receive his wife, until his brother-in-law accords him a
satisfactory explanation of these proceedings Marguerite's
letter to her mother After long negotiations between the
two Courts, a reconciliation is affected.
THE Mtmoires of Marguerite de Valois unfortunately
terminate at the date when she left Nerac to return to
Paris, that is to say, at the end of January 1582, a cir-
cumstance which is the more to be regretted, since the
latter part of her life was not less interesting than that
281
QUEEN MARGOT
which, we have already recounted, and contains many
incidents which she alone could have satisfactorily
explained. However, if the Memoires fail us, we have,
on the other hand, a number of her letters, which serve
in some degree to supply the omission. 1
Marguerite, accompanied by her husband, left Nerac
on January 26, 1582, and proceeded, by way of Jarnac,
Saint-Jean d'Angely, Saintes, and Saint-Maixent, to
La Mothe Saint-Heraye, where, on March 31, they were
met by Catherine. The interview was a very cordial
one, and Catherine would fain have persuaded the King
of Navarre to accompany his wife to Paris. But the
astute Bearnais courteously excused himself ; having
enjoyed the sweets of liberty and independence so long,
he had no mind to return to the cage from which he
had experienced so much difficulty in escaping. He,
therefore, accompanied the two Queens as far as the
Chateau of Montreuil-Bonnin, in Vienne, and then made
his way to La Rochelle and thence to Montauban, where
a Huguenot convention was about to meet.
L'Estoile, by some extraordinary error which is
repeated by M. de Saint-Poncy reports the Queen of
1 Many historians are of opinion that the manuscript which has come
down to us forms only a portion of Marguerite's work, and that the
Memoires were continued at least down to the time of her installation
at the Chateau of Usson, in November 1 586, if not considerably beyond
it. It certainly seems to have been the Queen's intention to continue
them, for, in her dedication to Brantome, she informs him that she will
rectify certain details of his iloge of her, notably, concerning what
occurred at Agen and her departure from Usson, that is to say, events
which happened in the years 1585 and I 587. If then the Memoires were
continued, what became of the continuation ? Possibly it was lost, but,
far more probably, it was deliberately suppressed, since it must have
contained not a little that was far from palatable to certain persons in
high places.
28*
QUEEN MARGOT
Navarre's arrival in Paris on March 8 ; but, as a matter
of fact, she did not reach the capital until May 28, after
having made a short stay at Chenonceaux and one of
some length at Fontainebleau, where she found the
King.
Marguerite met with a very gracious reception from
Henri III., who, for his own purposes, was extremely
anxious to conciliate her, and he readily gave his consent
to Catherine's proposal to make over to her daughter
the duchy of Valois, of which she was dowager, and the
counties of Senlis, Clermont, and Etampes, in exchange
for those of Quercy and Gaure. This addition to her
appanage considerably increased the princess's revenues
and importance.
As the suite of the Queen of Navarre was too numerous
to be accommodated in the Louvre, and she had been
compelled to dispose of the Hotel d'Anjou, it was neces-
sary for her to find a residence, and she, accordingly,
purchased for 28,000 ecus the house of the Chancellor
Birague, situated in the Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine.
With her husband, Marguerite maintained an active
correspondence, and showed herself, as she always was,
keenly alive to his political interests. " We shall see
the King at Fontainebleau in four days' time," she writes
to him on the way to Paris; "and the day following,
I will despatch a gentleman to acquaint you with what
has happened ; and five or six days later, I will send
another to inform you what, after the first greetings,
which are commonly marked by constraint and dis-
simulation, I shall be able to discover in respect of their
wishes concerning us." She warns him that the King
is reported to be much displeased with the conduct of
two of the King of Navarre's followers, one of whom had
283
QUEEN MARGOT
been waging a little war on his own account, while the
other had Defused to surrender a town which the Hugue-
nots had occupied during the last war. Catherine was
urging Henri III. to visit the South, in order to re-
establish order there, and Marguerite begs her husband
to set matters right himself, " so that the King may be
satisfied and his desire to come thither removed."
In another letter, written shortly after her arrival in
Paris, she points out that he might greatly strengthen
his position were he to visit the capital. " If you were
here," she writes, " you would be the man on whom
both sides would depend. You would regain the servants
whom you have lost, owing to the length of these troubles,
and would acquire more of them in a week than you
would in all your lifetime in Gascony." But nothing
could induce Henri to venture into the lion's den again.
She gives him, too, all the news of the Court. " M.
de Nemours has become so remarkably stout that he is
quite deformed ; M. de Guise has grown thin, and seems
much aged. . . . The King has been hunting for three
days, not without wishing that you were there, and to
a concert at the Louvre, which lasted all night. If I
dared to tell you of it, you would abandon agriculture
and Timon's humour to come among men." 1
But this good understanding between husband and
wife was not of long duration ; and it was Fosseuse who
was again the cause of the rupture.
Yielding to the urgent representations of Catherine
and of the pious Queen, the latter of whom was in-
expressibly shocked at seeing a lady of such unenviable
notoriety in attendance upon her sister-in-law, Mar-
guerite had dismissed that errant damsel from her service,
1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
284
QUEEN MARGOT
although, by wayof compensation, she, shortly afterwards,
arranged for her a very advantageous marriage with
Francois de Broc, Baron de Cinq-Mars. Henri, on learn-
ing that his favourite had received her congt, was highly
indignant, and despatched Frontenac, one of his gentle-
men, to his wife to acquaint her with his displeasure.
Marguerite, on this occasion, was unable to restrain
her feelings, and, in answer to her husband's remon-
strances, sent the following spirited reply :
MARGUERITE to the KING OF NAVARRE.
" You say that there will be nothing for me to be
ashamed of in pleasing you. I believe it also, judging
you to be so reasonable that you will not command me
to do anything which may be unworthy of a person of
my quality ; nor which affects my honour, in which
you have too much interest. And, if you demand that
I shall keep near my person a girl whom you, in the opinion
of every one, have made a mother, you will find that
that would be to put me to shame, both by reason of the
insult to which you subject me, and on account of the
reputation that I should thereby acquire. You write
to me that, in order to close the mouths of the King,
the Queens, and those who speak to me about it, I should
tell them that you love her, and that, for this reason, I
love her too. This reason would be a good one, if I
were speaking of one of your servants, whether male or
female, but of your mistress ! If I had been born in
a condition unworthy of the honour of being your wife,
this answer would not be an unbecoming one for me ;
but, being such as I am, it would be very unseemly.
Also, I shall hinder myself from advancing her interests.
I have suffered what, I will not say a princess, but a
285
QUEEN MARGOT
simple demoiselle l does not suffer, having succoured
her [Fosseuse], concealed her fault, and always kept her
near my person. If you do not call that being desirous
of pleasing you, I know not what you can expect." 2
This admirable letter ought to have convinced the
infatuated King that he had gone too far, and drawn
an apology from him. But, unhappily, Catherine took
upon herself to interfere, and wrote her son-in-law a
sharp reprimand, which deeply offended him and incensed
him still further against his wife.
CATHERINE DE' MEDICI to the KING OF NAVARRE.
"... You are not the first husband, young and with
little prudence in such matters ; but I certainly find
you the first and the only one, who, after an affair of
this nature, holds such language to his wife. I had the
honour to marry the King [Henri II.] my lord and your
sovereign . . . and when Madame de Flemming 8 was
with child, he considered it very fitting that she should
be sent away. With regard to Madame de Valentinois *
and also Madame d'Etampes, he behaved in a perfectly
honourable manner. This is not the way to treat women
1 She means the wife of an ordinary citizen. The wives of the
bourgeoisie, at this period, did not take the titles of dame or madame,
which were reserved for the wives of the nobility or daughters of noble
parents who had married citizens. They were called demoiselle or
mademoiselle. This custom prevailed for more than a century longer.
Thus we find the mother of La Bruycre described in a legal document
as a " demoiselle veuve" while La Fontaine, in his correspondence, in-
variably speaks of his wife as " mademoiselle"
2 Me 'moires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard).
8 The mother of Henri d'AngoulSme.
4 Diane dc Poitiers,
286
QUEEN MARGOT
of condition and of so distinguished a family, and to
expose them to the insults of a licentious public, for
every one is aware of the child whom she has had ; and
to send your complaint by a little gallant, presumptuous
and imprudent to have accepted such a command from
his master ! I cannot believe that it comes from you.
since you are too well-born not to know how you ought
to live with the daughter of your King, and the sister of
him who commands in all the realm, who, moreover,
honours you and loves you, as a woman of condition
ought to do. And, if I knew her to be different, I should
not wish to support her or to write anything to make
you recognise the wrong that you have done her. . . .
I have caused this pretty fool [Fosseuse] to be sent away,
for, so long as I live, I cannot endure to see anything which
may hinder or diminish the affection which those who
are so near to me, as she [Marguerite] is, ought to bear
one another ; and I entreat you that, after this fine
messenger of a Frontenac has said the worst he can to
estrange you and your wife, to consider the wrong that
you have done her, and return to the right path." *
Hard upon this new rupture with her husband came
a fresh source of chagrin for Marguerite. In seeing
Chanvallon once more and in resuming possession of
this fascinating gallant, she had believed herself secure
against any infidelity on his part. Such, however, was
not the case. Whether it was that he feared the resent-
ment of Henri III., or saw in his liaison with the Queen
of Navarre an obstacle to his advancement at Court,
Chanvallon sought to free himself, by taking a wife, whose
1 Biblioth^que Nationale, Coll. Dupuy, cited by La Ferriare, Trots
amoureuses an XVI*. tieck : Marguerite de Valoit.
a8 7
QUEEN MARGOT
rank and wealth might serve as a stepping-stone to For-
tune, and, in August 1582, married Catherine de la Mark,
daughter of Robert de la Mark, Due de Bouillon. During
her visit to Bagneres-de-Bigorre, Marguerite had herself
proposed to give him a wife, " a widow, beautiful, an
honest woman, with an income of 30,000 livres and
200,000 livres in the bank." But then this lady had
been one of her own choosing, who could be trusted to
efface herself whenever the Queen required, and her
anger and mortification at Chanvallon having dared to
wed without consulting her knew no bounds. " There
is then no longer justice in Heaven nor fidelity on earth,"
she writes to him. " Triumph, triumph over my too
ardent love ! Boast of having deceived me ; laugh and
mock at it with her, concerning whom the only consola-
tion that I receive, is that her lack of merit will be the
just penalty of the wrong that you have committed . . .
When you receive this letter, the last, I beg you to return
it to me, since I do not desire that at this fine interview,
to which you are going this evening, it serves for a topic
of conversation to the father and the daughter."
The total failure of Anjou's Flemish enterprise was
perhaps as great a blow to Marguerite as the defection
of her lover. Monsieur, who had accepted the govern-
ment of the States, with the title of Duke of Brabant,
had been waging war against the Spaniards with indiffer-
ent success throughout the summer and autumn of 1582.
Distrusted by the States, he had little effective power,
and this and his jealousy of the Prince of Orange, deter-
mined him, when winter caused the cessation of hostilities,
to make a coup d'etat, and capture, with his French troops,
the chief towns of Flanders. At Dunkerque, Ostend,
288
QUEEN MARGOT
and several other places the plan was successful. But
at Antwerp, where the prince in person made the attempt,
it signally failed. When his troops, some four thousand
in number, entered the town, they found themselves
attacked on all sides by the infuriated citizens, and nearly
half of them were killed in the streets or drowned in the
Scheldt. Anjou, with the remainder, retired in disgrace
to Termonde, and afterwards to Dunkerque, whence
he returned to France in the following summer.
The news of " la folie tfAnvers " reached Paris on
January 28, 1583, and created general indignation and
grief, for members of some of the noblest families in
France were amongst the slain. " Would to God that
you had died young ! " exclaimed Catherine bitterly,
when she and Anjou met, some months later. " You
would not then have been the cause of the death of so many
brave gentlemen." Henri III., however, secretly rejoiced
at his brother's discomfiture, since, according to the Vene-
tian Ambassador, he feared him more, once he should
be master of the Netherlands, than he feared Philip II.
In the meanwhile, the relations between the Queen of
Navarre and Henri III. had again become very strained.
Marguerite had refused to lend herself to his political
schemes, had scoffed at the ridiculous mummeries, where-
by the King believed that he was making atonement
for the disorders of his life, and, worst of all, was at
daggers drawn with his two chief mignons, d'Epernon 1
and Joyeuae. 2 The princess, whose temper had perhaps
1 Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, born in 1554 ; created Due
d'Epernon in 1581. He played an important part under the Regency
of Marie de' Medici. Died in 1642.
3 Anne d'Arques, born in 1561 ; created Due de Joyeuse in 1581 ;
killed, in 1587, at the Battle of Coutras,
289 -J
QUEEN MARGOT
not been improved by Chanvallon's defection, indulged
in biting sarcasms at the expense of these arrogant young
men, who retaliated by circulating very injurious reports
about her Majesty's private life, and doing everything
in their power to embitter their master against her.
A visit which the King paid to Mezieres, in June
1583, brought about a momentary truce. But, as
ill-luck would have it, during his absence, Chanvallon,
who had fallen into disgrace with Anjou, returned
unexpectedly to Paris. The cause of his disgrace is un-
certain ; some writers assert that he had betrayed the
duke's confidence ; but, if we are to believe Varillas,
the reason was that he had " boasted of his bonne fortune
with one of the greatest ladies of the kingdom." 1 Any-
way, to Paris he came, and without his wife.
Marguerite no sooner beheld her faithless lover than
all her passion revived; she forgave him and hastened to
resume with him their old relations. But alas ! Chan-
vallon proved himself wholly unworthy of her clemency ;
for, after a week or two of bliss, the Queen's old rival,
Madame de Sauve, not content with the adoration of
both d'Epernon and Guise, conceived a fancy to subdue
Chanvallon likewise ; and succeeded.
Deeply mortified, the Queen determined to leave
Paris, and return to Gascony ; but funds for the journey
were not immediately available, and she was compelled
to postpone her departure. At the end of June, she
fell ill, and her illness furnished a pretext for the most
damaging reports. " The Queen of Navarre is enceinte,
or suffering from the dropsy," wrote Busini, the Tuscan
Ambassador to his Court.*
1 Histoire de Henri III.
2 Negotiations diplomatiqua avec la Toscane, iv. 466, cited by La Ferridre.
290
QUEEN MARGOT
Henri III. returned to Paris. Catherine, who always
exerted her influence to prevent scandals in the Royal
Family, was absent, having gone to Chaulnes, in Picardy,
to administer reproaches and consolation to the dis-
comfited Anjou. Marguerite, conscious of the danger
which threatened her and Chanvallon, determined to
send the gallant away. " Please God," she writes to
him, " that on me alone this storm may expend itself.
But to place you in danger ! Ah, no, my life ; there is
no suffering so cruel to which I would not prefer to
submit. I offer you a conclusive proof of it, by depriving
myself of the pleasure of seeing you, which I hold to be
as necessary to me as that of the sun to the spring
flowers." *
From this letter, it is evident that, in spite of Chan-
vallon's infidelity, Marguerite had not had sufficient
strength of mind to break off her relations with him.
The Queen of Navarre's fears were soon realised.
Acquainted with the injurious reports that were in
circulation about his sister, Henri III. suborned one of
Marguerite's waiting-women, who furnished his Majesty
with a full, true, and particular account of the Chanvallon
affair, together with many piquant details concerning
his predecessors in her mistress's affections. The King
smiled grimly and waited for a favourable opportunity
of making use of the knowledge he had gained.
An unexpected incident precipitated the crisis. In
the previous May, the Due de Joyeuse had set out on a
journey to Italy. His object, he announced, was to
discharge a vow he had made to Our Lady of Loretto,
on behalf of his sick wife, and to keep up this fiction,
the King and Queen had entrusted him with gifts to
1 Mimoiret et lettra dt Marguerite de Valoit (edit. Guemrd).
291
QUEEN MARGOT
present at the same shrine, in their names. But his real
goal was Rome, where he had been charged, by Henri III.,
with some very important negotiations with the Holy
See. At the beginning of August, the King wrote a
long letter to his favourite, containing, if we are to believe
Varillas, " odious things about his sister's conduct."
But this epistle the duke never received, for the courier
who bore it, had not proceeded many leagues on his
journey, when he was attacked by four masked men, who
left him dead on the road, and carried off his Majesty's
letter.
This outrage was commonly attributed to agents of
the Queen of Navarre, though in all probability, unjustly.
As both M. de Saint-Poncy and M. Merki point out,
the correspondence of the King with Joyeuse was of far
greater interest to the Guises than to Marguerite ; and
the leaders of the League were naturally extremely
anxious to learn what was happening at Rome ;* while
the fact that Henri III., who was on his way with Queen
Louise to the waters of Bourbon-Lancy, immediately
turned back, on learning what had occurred, and showed
great agitation, would appear to indicate that the letter
must have contained something of much greater import-
ance than scandalous gossip about his sister. However
that may be, the King affected to believe the rumour
which was current, and made it the pretext for a scan-
dalous scene.
On the evening of August 8, there was a ball at the
Louvre, and, as Queen Louise was at Bourbon-Lancy,
and Catherine in Picardy, the King begged his sister to
1 Busbecq, the Austrian Ambassador, in a letter to his Court, ascribes
the outrage to the " malcontents," by which he presumably means the
League.
QUEEN MARGOT
do the honours. Suspecting nothing, Marguerite con-
sented and took her place on the royal dais. But, when
the gaiety of the evening was at its height, followed by
d'Epernon and several other favourites, Henri III.
approached the throne where his sister was seated, and
there, before the whole company, and in a voice which
could be heard by every one in the room, he upbraided
her with her amours with Chanvallon, accused her of
having had a child by him, and enumerated all the lovers
whom she had had since her marriage, " naming so pre-
cisely dates and places," says the Austrian Ambassador,
Busbecq, " that he seemed to have been a witness of the
incidents of which he spoke."
Stupefied with horror and amazement, the unfortunate
princess listened, silent and motionless, unable to utter
a single word in her justification. Her malevolent
brother, however, scarcely gave her time to reply, but
terminated his denunciation with an imperious order
to her to quit Paris, and " deliver the Court from her
contagious presence."
During the night, a number of masked men entered
Chanvallon's lodging, and ransacked it from cellar to
attic. They had orders to apprehend that gentleman,
but, warned in time, he had fled to Beaumont, and taken
refuge in the house of his cousin, Achille de Harlay,
President of the Parlement.
On the following morning (August 9), a coach drawn
by four horses drew up before the Hotel de Birague.
Dressed in a plain black gown, and with her features
concealed by a mask, Marguerite entered it, accompanied
by two of her confidantes, Mesdames de Duras and de
Bethune, and a favourite waiting-woman named Barbe,
whose mother had filled the post of nurse to the princess.
293
QUEEN MARGOT
Several gentlemen of her suite and a few servants had
orders to follow her on horseback. The poor Queen
was in a pitiable state of agitation, and, as she turned to
bid farewell to those of her Household who remained
behind, she remarked that she was as unfortunate as
Marie Stuart, and that she would be grateful indeed to
any one who would have the courage to poison her.
It was Marguerite's intention to proceed to the
Chateau of Vendome, which belonged to Henri of
Navarre, and remain there until she had ascertained
what kind of reception she was likely to receive at Nerac,
since she could not doubt that the news of the scene at
the Louvre would very soon reach her husband's ears.
But the animosity of Henri III was not yet satisfied.
About four leagues from Paris, between Palaiseau and
Saint-Clair, the Queen's coach was stopped by sixty
archers of the King's guard, under one Larchamp de
Grimonville, who roughly tore the masks from the faces
of her Majesty and her ladies. " Miserable wretch ! "
exclaimed the outraged princess, " do you dare to lift
your hand against the sister of your King ? " "I am
acting by his orders," replied the officer, drily. He
then proceeded to arrest Mesdames de Bethune and de
Duras, the Queen's equerry, secretary, and physician,
and several other members of her company, and conducted
the prisoners to the Chateau of Montargis, where they
were placed in separate chambers. 1
The following day, Marguerite's attendants were
rery closely interrogated, first, by a magistrate sent by
the King, and, subsequently, by his Majesty himself ; his
object being to discover what truth there was in the
1 There are several versions of this episode. D'Aubign6 places it at
the Barriers Saint-Jacques, in Paris, and L'Estoile at Palaiseau itseK
QUEEN MARGOT
report which he had affected to believe that their mistress
had secretly given birth to a child by Chanvallon, with
the connivance of Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras.
The two ladies in question were subjected to an especially
rigorous examination by the King, " who delighted in
doing evil " ; but, to his intense mortification, they per-
sisted in denying the accusation, and neither threats nor
cajolery could wring anything from them to incriminate
the Queen. The evidence of Marguerite's other attend-
ants proved equally unsatisfactory, from his Majesty's
point of view ; and there can be little doubt that the
charge was nothing but a malicious slander, started and
propagated by the princess's enemies. 1
The news of the indignity inflicted on her daughter
threw the Queen-Mother into the greatest consternation,
and she wrote to her confidant, Villeroy, that she was
" beside herself with affliction." She immediately des-
patched the Bishop of Langres to expostulate with the
King ; and Henri, having failed to discover anything
further, liberated the prisoners, and permitted Marguerite
to continue her journey, having, however, first insisted
that she should dismiss Mesdames de Bethune and de
Duras from her service.
This unworthy censor of his sister's morals found
1 "The Queen was innocent of that which was imputed to her,"
remarks Brantome, " as I happen to know " On the other hand,
Dupleix declares that Marguerite gave birth to a son by Chanvallon.
" He is still living," continues the historian ; " he is a Capuchin called
Friar Ange ; I was formerly acquainted with him." (Histoire de Henri IV.,
p. 595.) Apart from the fact that Dupleix is quite unworthy of belief
where Marguerite is concerned, M. de Saint-Poncy points out that
this Friar Ange must have been born some years before the intrigue with
Chanvallon began, since in 1603 he was a full-fledged monk and con-
fessor to Henriette d'Entragues, Henri IV.'s mistress.
295
QUEEN MARGOT
himself in a distinctly embarrassing position. His
hatred of Marguerite had led him to support a charge
which could not be upheld, and, in so doing, to offer a
serious affront to her husband, whose resentment might
assume a very unpleasant form ; and his Majesty had
no desire to have another " Lovers' War " on his hands
at that moment. He, therefore, resolved to forestall
Marguerite's complaints, and wrote to his brother-in-
law, informing him that the scandalous lives led by
Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras had obliged him to
dismiss them from the Queen of Navarre's service, " as
most pernicious vermin, not to be endured about the
person of a princess."
The King of Navarre was hunting at Saint-Foix-
sur-Durdogne when he received the letter, which Henri
III., with characteristic impertinence, had entrusted to
one of his valets of the Wardrobe. Unaware as yet
of the actual facts, he replied, thanking his Majesty,
a little ironically, for his solicitude for his wife's reputa-
tion. " The rumours of the evil and scandalous lives
of Mesdames de Duras and de Bethune," he writes,
" reached me a long time ago. But I considered that
my wife, having the honour to be near your Majesties,
I should be wronging your natural goodness were I to
take upon myself to be more solicitous from a distance
than your Majesties close at hand. I was resolved
that, when my wife should set out on her journey
to return to me, to beg her to get rid of them with
as little scandal as possible. I am extremely anxious
to have her here ; she can never come too soon."
But, a day or two later, the truth was known, and very
1 Lettres missives de Henri W. La Ferriere, Trots Amoureusei au
* iiecle : Marguerite de Valois.
296
QUEEN MARGOT
unpalatable it was, even to one so indifferent to his
own and his wife's honour as the King of Navarre ; for
the affair had become common knowledge, and all France
was debating it, while the foreign Ambassadors had not
failed to send lengthy accounts to their respective
Courts.
Matters were further complicated by a second letter
from Henri III., in which he begged his brother-in-law
not to attach any importance to the reports which had
reached him, but to receive his wife back, as a most
regrettable mistake had been committed, and the charge
against her had been found to be false and calumnious.
Uncertain how to act, the King of Navarre, on the
advice of his councillors, finally decided to despatch
the brave and accomplished Duplessis-Mornay to Henri
III., to demand an explanation. The " Pope of the
Huguenots, " as the Catholics had dubbed Mornay,
found the King at Lyons, on his way to join Queen Louise
at the waters of Bourbon-Lancy ; and, on being admitted
to an audience, demanded, in the name of his master,
the reason of the treatment which the Queen of Navarre
had received. " It is an affront," said he, " which no
princess of her rank has ever before received. It is
impossible to conceal it ; the incident took place, in the
day time, on a high-road ; all Europe is discussing it.
The King of Navarre has reason to fear that the Queen
his wife has committed some very criminal act, since you
yourself, Sire, whose kindness is so well known, have
been able to treat thus your own sister. Of what then
is she guilty to be so cruelly humiliated ? What action
ought her husband to take in such trying circumstances ? "
The King, evading the question, sought to throw the
blame on Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras, whose
297
QUEEN MARGOT
conduct, he declared, had been scandalous ; but Mornay
stopped him, observing coldly : " I am not here to
plead their cause. The King of Navarre would not
send an Ambassador on such a mission, and I respect
myself too much to undertake it. The question at issue
concerns the Queen his wife. If she has deserved the
affront, he demands justice from you against her, as the
master of the house, the father of the family. But, if
she is the victim of false reports, he begs you to punish
openly those who have calumniated her."
Henri III., much disconcerted, declared that matters
had been greatly exaggerated, and had not passed in
the way the King of Navarre had been led to believe.
But Mornay boldly replied that there could be no possible
question in regard to the facts, as the affront had taken
place in broad daylight and on the high-road. " Your
Majesty," added he, " has done either too much or too
little : too much, if no fault has been committed, or if
it be a venial one ; too little, if the fault merited such a
punishment."
" From whom do you obtain all these mischievous
reports ? " inquired the King. [And Mornay forthwith
proceeded to adduce evidence which showed that his
master was but too well-informed.
Henri, completely nonplussed, fell back upon the
absence of the Queen-Mother and Anjou. Their honour,
he declared, was as much concerned as his own ; it was
his wish, nay his duty, to consult them before taking
any further steps in the matter. " That will entail a
considerable delay," replied Mornay ; " the arrow is in
the wound ; you do not extract it. The Queen your
sister is on her way to rejoin the King her husband.
What will Christendom say, if he receives her thus
298
QUEEN MARGOT
besmirched ? " " What can it say ? " snapped Henri,
" save that she is the sister of your King."
Finally, in order to get rid of Mornay, his Majesty
offered to send a " person of consideration " to his brother
of Navarre with a satisfactory explanation, and promised
to give the Ambassador a letter in his own hand to carry
to his master. 1
Marguerite, meanwhile, was at Vendome, where her
distress of mind was augmented by the fact that she
was almost entirely without resources. From Vendome
she wrote to her mother the following piteous letter :
THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE to CATHERINE DE MEDICI.
" MADAME, Since my unfortunate destiny has brought
me to such misery that I know not if you can desire the
preservation of my life ; at least, Madame, I am able
to hope that you desire the preservation of my honour ;
it being so bound up with yours, and with that of all
those to whom I have the honour to be related, that no
shame can touch me in which they do not have part.
Which causes me, Madame, to implore you very humbly
to be unwilling to permit that the pretext of my death
be used at the expense of my reputation, and to be
willing to do so much, not for my own sake, but for the
sake of those to whom I am so nearly related, that it
may please you that I have some lady of quality and worthy
of trust, who may be able, while I am alive, to bear witness
to the condition in which I am, and who, after my death,
may be present, when my body is opened, in order that
she may be able, through her knowledge of this last
1 Mimoires de Duplessis-Mornay.
299
QUEEN MARGOT
injustice, to make every one aware of the wrong which
has been done. I do not say this in order to hinder the
execution of my enemies' design, and it is unnecessary
for them to fear that, on this account, a pretext for
causing my death will fail them. If I receive this favour
from you, I will, while I am alive, write and sign every-
thing that will be required of me." x
Touched by her daughter's distress, Catherine sent
her 200,000 livres, which enabled Marguerite to continue
her journey. From Vendome, she proceeded, by easy
stages, to Plessis-les-Tours, thence to Poitiers, and the
end of September found her at Cognac. At this last
town, she received a letter from her husband, forbidding
her to enter his dominions, until a full and satisfactory
explanation had been accorded him by Henri III. The
King of Navarre, truth to tell, was by no means anxious
for the return of his wife, as he was now desperately
enamoured of Diane d'Andoins, Comtesse de Gramont
(" la belle Corisande "), widow of Henri III.'s mignon,
who had gained such ascendency over his Majesty that
she was commonly reported to have bewitched him.
However, he was in honour bound to continue to
press the King of France for an explanation, and, on
Henri III.'s return from the Bourbonnais, sent to Saint-
Germain-en-Laye a second Ambassador, in the person
of Agrippa d'Aubigne. But this bluff warrior only
succeeded in making matters worse, declaring that his
master absolutely refused to receive his wife until the
matter was cleared up and justice done. The King,
exasperated by his arrogance, replied with threats, to
which the Huguenot retorted that " the King of Navarre
1 Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, published by La Ferriere.
300
QUEEN MARGOT
would not sacrifice his honour for his Majesty or any
prince living, so long as he had a foot of steel in his hand."
And when Catherine, anxious to cast oil upon the
troubled waters, promised that the " scoundrels and
robbers " who had insulted her daughter should be
punished by death, audaciously observed that noble
victims were required, " since swine were not sacrificed
to Diana." D'Aubigne appears to have narrowly escaped
paying dearly for his bravado, for the King's mignons
laid an ambush for him on his return journey, but,
warned by some friends of the Queen of Navarre, he
evaded them and reached the Loire in safety.
Nevertheless, Henri III. was anxious to settle this
miserable affair, if this could be effected without com-
promising himself, and, in the middle of October 1583,
on the advice of Catherine, despatched Pomponne de
Bellievre, 1 one of his most prudent councillors to Nerac,
with a letter, wherein he imperiously commanded his
brother-in-law to receive his wife immediately, and
declared that he had no satisfaction to give him, since
it was his kingly privilege to act as he pleased towards
his subjects. At the same time, he begged him not to
take the matter so much to heart. " Kings," he wrote,
" are often liable to be deceived by false reports, and
calumny has not always respected the conduct and morals
of even the most virtuous princesses, as, for example,
the Queen your mother. You cannot be ignorant of
all the evil that was said of her." " His Majesty,"
remarked the Bearnais ironically to Bellievre, " does
me too much honour by all these letters. In the first,
1 Born in 1512 ; Councillor of State 1570 ; Surintendant des finances
1575 ; President of the Parlement of Paris 1576. In 1599, Henri IV.
appointed him Chancellor.
301
QUEEN MARGOT
he calls my wife a wanton, and in the last, tells me that
I am the son of one."
Irritated by Henri III.'s refusal of justice, the King of
Navarre had already taken up arms and had seized Mont-
de-Marsan ; while Matignon, the King's lieutenant in
Guienne, had retaliated by reinforcing the garrisons of
Agen, Condom, Dax, and Bazas. Bellievre, therefore,
came at an inopportune moment, and wrote to Marguerite
that " all the words that the King of Navarre addressed
to him were complaints." However, another emissary
from the Court, Charles de Birague, one of those supple
Italians with whom Catherine loved to surround herself,
met with more success, and Henri was induced to believe
that the attitude taken up by the King of France was
that of a man who does not know how to make reparation,
but is willing to confess his error. His best friends, too,
counselled accommodation, and, at length, he consented
to see Bellievre again, and wrote very kindly to his wife,
who was now at Agen, informing her that he did not
believe a word of the charge against her, and that he
would be perfectly willing to receive her, so soon as he
had made it plain to every one that he was not acting
under compulsion. " That ma mie" he concludes,
" is all that I can tell you at present. Were it not for
the meddlers who have troubled our affairs, we should
have the pleasure of being together at this hour." *
But the final solution of the affair was still some distance
off, for the King of Navarre reposed but little trust in
the pacific intentions of his royal brother-in-law, and
until he had received a definite promise that the garrisons
which had been placed in the frontier towns should be
withdrawn, so that it might not be supposed that he
1 L'Estoile, Journal & Henri HI.
JO*
QUEEN MARGOT
was receiving his wife under compulsion, the negotiations
made little progress. Pibrac, whom Marguerite, feeling
the need of a friend in Paris, had pardoned and received
into favour again, exerted himself to the utmost to
facilitate matters, and delivered before Henri III. an
eloquent harangue, in which he recapitulated all the
complaints of the King of Navarre. But the condition
of Monsieur, who was slowly dying of consumption
at Chateau-Thierry, and whose death would leave Henri
of Navarre heir-presumptive to the French throne, did
more than anything else to bring about a settlement.
Henri III. desired a reconciliation with his brother-in-
law, hoping to prevail upon him to embrace the Catholic
faith again, and thus avert the troubles which otherwise
must inevitably follow the death of Anjou. " I recognise
your master as my sole heir," said he to Mornay, who,
at the beginning of the spring of 1583, had been sent
on a second embassy to the Court of France. " He is
a prince of exalted birth and good parts. I have always
loved him, and I know that he loves me. He is somewhat
choleric and brusque ; but good at bottom." 1
Mornay lost no time in informing his master of his
Majesty's words, and urged him strongly to be recon-
ciled to his wife. 2 His wise counsels prevailed, and at
the beginning of April 1583, Marguerite, who was
still at Agen, received an intimation from her husband
that he was prepared to receive her
1 Memoir es de D uplessis-Mornay .
2 He added some excellent advice for his Majesty's future conduct.
"The eyes of all are fixed on you," he writes ; "in your Household
some splendour ought to be seen ; in your Council, dignity ; in your
person, gravity ; in your serious actions, consistency ; in even the least,
justice. The love-affairs, which are carried on so openly, and to which
you devote so much time, are no longer seasonable. It. is time, Sire,
for you to make love to all Christendom, and especially t France."
303
CHAPTER XXI
Reunion of the King and Queen of Navarre Impressions of
Michel de la Huguerye Difficult position of Marguerite at
Nerac The death of Monsieur makes Henri of Navarre heir-
presumptive to the throne of France Mission of the Due
d'Epernon to Gascony Letter of Belhevre to Marguerite
The King of Navarre refuses to abjure the Protestant faith
Treaty of Joinville Henri III., compelled to give the League
his countenance and support, signs the Treaty of Nemours
Strained relations between Marguerite and her husband A
secretary of the Queen accused of attempting to poison the
King Marguerite retires to Agen Letters of Bellievre to
Catherine de' Medici The Queen of Navarre executes a
coup Etat at Agen and gets possession of the town She
embarks upon a war of conquest, but meets with reverses
The Agenais, exasperated by her exactions and tyranny, appeal
to the Marchal de Matignon for assistance Revolt of the
town and flight of Marguerite to Auvergne.
THE reunion between the King and Queen of Navarre
took place at Porte-Sainte-Marie, on April 13, 1584.
Marguerite was the first to arrive at the rendezvous,
where she was soon joined by her husband, who embraced
her without saying a word. They then entered the
house at which the Queen was staying, mounted to a
room on the first floor, and showed themselves, for a few
moments, at a window to the people gathered below.
Half an hour later, they descended ; Marguerite entered
her litter, and the King followed her on horseback.
" Are you satisfied with me ? " inquired Henri, of
304
QUEEN MARGOT
Charles de Birague, who had accompanied him to the
interview. " I am always satisfied with what is able to
please your Majesty," was the diplomatic answer.
Nerac was reached at four o'clock in the afternoon,
and until supper-time, the reunited pair promenaded
the long gallery of the chateau. No one overheard what
passed between them ; but Michel de la Huguerye,
a follower of Conde, who had been despatched by that
prince on a mission to his cousin, relates that the Queen
was " bathed incessantly in tears." The supper which
followed was a dismal meal for the unfortunate Marguerite,
sitting, with tear-stained face and quivering lips, next
her husband, " who," continues the chronicler, " carried
on I know not what frivolous conversation with the
gentlemen about him, without either he himself or any
one else addressing the princess, which caused me to
judge that he had received her back under compulsion."
And he concludes by expressing his opinion that " this
reconciliation would not be of long duration, and that
such treatment would cause this princess to take a
new part in the trouble which was about to rise." 1
La Huguerye had gauged the situation but too
accurately. Marguerite, who had returned to Nerac
as a pledge of peace, resumed nominally her former
position ; but she did not find there the same considera-
tion nor the same security. The happy days when she
had declared the Court of Nerac so pleasant that she had
no reason to regret that of France were gone, never to
return ; nor was it long before she experienced how
futile are rehabilitations such as hers. She could not
forget the unwillingness of her husband to receive her,
the bitter humiliation of those long months which she
1 Me moires de Michel de la Huguerye,
305 u
QUEEN MARGOT
had spent eating out her heart amid the discomfort and
monotony of dull provincial towns, the scorn and mockery
of all France. On his side, the King of Navarre, careless
and good-natured though he was, where morality was
concerned, had been deeply incensed by the odious
scandal that had assailed his wife's reputation, by the
pressure which had been brought to bear upon him to
induce him to reinstate her under the conjugal roof,
and by the threats into which his resistance had provoked
the French Court. This combination of circumstances
constituted a false position, which political and religious
complications helped to aggravate.
On June II, 1584, the Due d'Anjou expired at Chateau-
Thierry, regretted by none, save his sister and, possibly,
by his mother. His death, which deprived Marguerite
of her only support, made the King of Navarre heir-
presumptive to the French crown, and, as Henri III.
had, for some time past, abandoned all hope of his consort
bearing him children, the question of the succession at
once became of paramount importance. But the acces-
sion of a heretic to the throne was repugnant to the
whole Catholic population, and was certain to be violently
opposed by a considerable section of it. The intimate
connection of the State and the orthodox Church was
held to be a fundamental law of the monarchy ; it was
impossible to depart from it without shaking the social
edifice to its very foundations, overthrowing all traditions,
and outraging the public conscience. Even men of
moderate views, who were willing enough that the
Huguenots should be tolerated, were alarmed at the
prospect of their domination.
Very intelligent, whenever he could contrive to free
himself for a time from his idle and voluptuous habits,
306
QUEEN MARGOT
Henri III. had foreseen this, and, in the middle of May,
that is to say, about three weeks before Monsieur's death,
had despatched the Due d'Epernon to the King of Navarre,
" bearing him letters, in which he admonished, exhorted,
and entreated him, seeing that the life of the Due d'Anjou,
his brother, was despaired of, and that the news of his
death was daily expected, to come to Court and go to
Mass, because he desired to recognise him as his true
heir and successor, and to give him such rank and dignity
near his person as his qualification of brother-in-law
and heir to the throne deserved. There was a report
that he was sent with 200,000 ecus, which the King had
given him to defray the cost of his journey ; and he
went accompanied by more than one hundred gentlemen,
to the majority of whom the King gave sums of one,
two, or three hundred ecus, to render him good and
faithful service and make a suitable appearance." 1
Henri of Navarre received the " demi-roi " of France
and his sumptuous retinue, at Pamiers, with every mark
of honour and esteem, to the great satisfaction of Henri
III., but to the profound annoyance of Marguerite.
The princess could not forget the campaign of calumny
which this arrogant mignon had carried on against her
during her fatal visit to Paris, and, especially, that when
she had been forced to submit to her brother's insults
at the Louvre, he had been by his master's side. The
King of Navarre, after their first interview, had invited
the duke to visit him at Nerac ; but Marguerite warned
her husband that " she intended to absent herself, so
as not to disturb the festivities." Advised of her inten-
tion, Catherine wrote to her daughter to remonstrate,
and charged Bellievre, who had accompanied d'Epernon
1 L'Estoile, Journal de Henri III.
307
QUEEN MARGOT
to Gascony, to transmit her letter, and to use every per-
suasion to bring the princess to a different frame of mind.
The Minister obeyed, and, in despatching her Majesty's
letter, wrote as follows :
" BELLIEVRE to the QUEEN OF NAVARRE. -
" MADAME, It is, and will be to me all my life, a
cause of extreme regret to write to you on an occasion
which is to me, and to all the servants of this crown,
so difficult to support. You have lost your brother,
whom you loved with a unique affection, but God has
preserved your mother, to whom you are dearer than her
own life. She has commanded me to submit to you
the letter which she has written you concerning your
refusal to receive M. d'Epernon. If the King your
brother, in sending him, had not commanded him to
visit you, it would have appeared to this people that he
did not intend you to occupy the place in his affection
which all honest men desire him to give you. I write you,
by command of your mother, to beg you to conform to
her instructions. Give me orders to inform the Due
d'Epernon that you are prepared to give him a cordial
reception." 1
The King of Navarre, too, besought his wife to forget
her resentment, " for love of him," and assist at
d'Epernon's official reception, to which he attached great
importance, and, tired of argument, Marguerite eventually
yielded. " Ah well ! Monsieur," said she, " since it
pleases you to command me, I will remain and will make
him welcome, out of the respect and obedience I owe
you." But she added : " The day on which he arrives,
1 Bibliotheque Nationale, Lettres de Bcllievre, published by La Ferricre.
308
QUEEN MARGOT
and so long as he remains, I shall dress myself in garments
which I shall never wear again : those of dissimulation
and hypocrisy." She kept her word, and the duke's
visit passed off without any unpleasantness, to the great
astonishment of the curious, who maliciously scrutinised
the countenances of the Queen and her guest.
D'Epernon, however, effected little. The Catholics
about Henri of Navarre, and two or three of his more
moderate Protestant advisers, had been, for some time
past, urging him to remove by his conversion the only
obstacle to his recognition as heir-presumptive to the
throne. But the great mass of the Huguenots were bitterly
opposed to such a recantation, and, lightly though he
held by his creed, he felt that the moment had not yet
come when he could afford to offend them. He feared,
too, the versatility of Henri III., and knew that the
Guises' zeal for the Old Faith was but a cloak for their
ambition. As a Catholic, he would have only partisans ;
as chief of the Calvinists, he could command armies of
devoted followers. And so d'Epernon was answered with
protestations of gratitude and loyalty. The King of
Navarre, he was informed, was indeed deeply sensible
of his Majesty's goodness, but " a man's religion could not
be put on and off like his shirt," and, though he was
perfectly willing to receive instruction or to submit to
the decision of a free and universal council, he could
not see his way to accept the invitation to Court, and,
atill less, to go straightway to Mass. In other matters,
he held himself entirely at his Majesty's orders, and was
prepared to come to his assistance with all the forces of his
party, in the; event of the King breaking with the League.
The fact that the legitimate heir to the throne was a
heretic, made the renewal of the civil war inevitable,
309
QUEEN MARGOT
and on the death of Anjou, the Guises and the League
at once began to organise their forces for the coming
struggle. The ultra-Catholic party, who had long lost
all confidence in their vacillating sovereign, turned
towards Henri de Lorraine, as to their champion and
true leader; and the King spoke the truth when he
declared that, though he himself wore the crown, it was
the Due de Guise who reigned over the hearts of his
subjects. Philip II., fearful that Henri III. might
unite with Elizabeth in intervention in the Netherlands,
spared no pains in urging the Guisards to take action,
and on January 16, 1585, a formal treaty was signed at
Joinville, by the Dues de Guise and de Mayenne, and by
representatives of the Cardinal de Bourbon and the
King of Spain, whereby it was agreed that, in the event
of the death of Henri III., the Cardinal de Bourbon
should be proclaimed King, and that the contracting
parties should use every endeavour to extirpate heresy
in both France and the Netherlands.
No means were left untried by the League to in-
timidate Henri III. into giving their proceedings his
countenance and support. The printing-presses of the
capital rained pamphlets, libels, and manifestoes, in
which the King was held up to odium as a second Herod,
the very incarnation of all the corruption of the age.
In spite of his devotion, his pilgrimages, his penances
and his confraternities, his orthodoxy was suspected,
and the parochial clergy, the friars, and the Jesuits,
vied with one another in denouncing him as a traitor
to the Faith, a blasphemer, a hypocrite, and an evil
liver."
1 L'Estoile reports that the preachers accused him of leading in his
penitential processions " hypocrites and atheists " who, on Good Friday
310
QUEEN MARGOT
The Pope gave the League his solemn approval, -and,
encouraged by this, the confederates, on March 30, 1585,
published their manifesto, wherein they declared that they
were prepared to draw the sword to restore the dignity
and unity of the Church, to secure to the nobility their
ancient privileges, to expel unworthy favourites and
advisers from the Court, to prevent further troubles by
settling the succession, and to provide for regular meet-
ings of the States-General. And until these objects
should be attained, they swore to hold together, and
persevere, " until they should be heaped together upon
one another in the tomb reserved for the last Frenchman
fallen in the service of his God and country."
For some weeks, Henri III., exasperated by such
insolent defiance of his authority, declined to yield,
while the Leaguers occupied several towns, the Press
continued to pour forth pamphlets, and a hundred
preachers lavished upon him their choicest invective.
But, counselled by Catherine, who had not grown less
pusillanimous with age, 1 he eventually gave way, and, on
July 15, 1585, signed the Treaty of Nemours, which
marked the triumph of the Guises and the " Holy Union,"
and was, for himself, a virtual abdication. 2
1582, had partaken of a hearty meal, to refresh themselves after their
exertions. He was also accused of indulging in blasphemous remarks
concerning an image of Our Lord, and of visiting convents, in order to
make love to the nuns.
1 Catherine seems to have made up her mind that Henri III. would
not live long, and that she would survive him, though in the latter ex-
pectation she was disappointed. In the event of his death, it would
appear to have been her intention to support the claim of the Marquis
de Pont-a-Mousson, son of the Duke of Lorraine and her daughter
Claude, and to govern through him.
2 By the Treaty of Nemours, Henri III. interdicted throughout his>
QUEEN MARGOT
While these momentous events were happening, the
position of Marguerite at Nerac was becoming increas-
ingly difficult. She had derived no advantage from her
surrender to her husband's wishes on the occasion of
d'Epernon's visit, and continued to remain isolated in
the midst of a Court, of which she was Queen only in
name. So long as his wife had been of use to him in
his political schemes, the King of Navarre had shown
her at least those outward marks of respect and con-
sideration to which her rank entitled her. But now
she had lost her credit, and could no longer serve as an
intermediary between him and the French Court ;
nay, more, he had come to regard her in the light of
a possible rival, for there was a party in the nation,
which, too orthodox to accept a heretic sovereign and,
on the other hand, too fervently Royalist to desire a
change of dynasty, meditated, in the event of Henri III.'s
death, putting Marguerite forward as claimant to the
throne, in defiance of the Salic Law. 1
In consequence, Henri began to neglect her entirely,
realm any other religion save the Catholic, on pain of death, and en-
joined the same penalty on all Protestant ministers who should not quit
the country within one month, while all other Huguenots were to
abjure within six. War was to be declared on all those who, at the
expiration of this period, had not made their submission, and the con-
duct of the war entrusted to the chiefs of the League. It is said that
when the King of Navarre learned that Henri III. had surrendered to
the League, he remained for a long while in thought, with his chin
resting on his hand, and that when at last he roused himself from his
reverie, his beard had turned grey.
1 M. de Saint-Poncy, who, however, does not give his authority,
asserts that, previous to her forced reconciliation with her husband,
Philip II. had offered Marguerite an asylum in Spain, with the inten-
tion of supporting her claim to the throne. But it seems scarcely prob-
able that Philip, whose daughters by Elisabeth de Valois, the Infanta
Isabella, had, if the Salic Law were to be violated, superior claims to
Marguerite's, would have looked further for a candidate.
312
QUEEN MARGOT
passing nearly all his time at Pau with the Comtesse de
Gramont, and paying only brief and infrequent visits
to Nrac. La belle Corisande, too, seems to have lost
no opportunity of sowing dissension between the royal
pair, and the breach grew wider and wider.
At length matters came to such a pass that each party
believed, or affected to believe, that the other cherished
the most sinister designs, and was only awaiting a favourable
opportunity to put them into execution. Marguerite
imagined that she had everything to fear from the ascen-
dency of the Comtesse de Gramont, and declared that
there was a plot to carry her off and retain her captive
at Pau. On his side, Henri caused a man named Ferrand,
who was, or had been until very recently, one of the
Queen's secretaries, to be arrested, on a charge of attempt-
ing to poison him, 1 though it subsequently transpired
that he had done nothing worse than carry on a very
active propaganda on behalf of the Guises. Nevertheless,
before his innocence of the criminal charge was estab-
lished, Henri, urged on by the Comtesse de Gramont,
seems to have seriously contemplated repudiating his
wife, on the ground that she had been an accomplice
of Ferrand, and took the advice of his Council on the
matter. If we are to believe d'Aubigne, he went even
further than this, and deliberated whether she could
not be brought to trial and executed. D'Aubigne
takes great credit to himself for having dissuaded the
King from such a step, having regard to the hostility
which had always existed between him and the Queen.
1 An attempt to poison Henri had certainly been made about this
time. Under date March 6, 1585, the Austrian Ambassador, Busbecq,
writes to his Court : " A villain has endeavoured to poison the King of
Navarre ; but either because the poison was not sufficiently virulent, or
because the prince's constitution was too strong, the venom did not
take effect. The wretch attempted to kill himself with a pistol."
3'3
QUEEN MARGOT
An open rupture between the ill-assorted couple was
now inevitable ; and Marguerite determined to quit
Nerac, which, had become as intolerable to her as it had
once been agreeable, and to seek an asylum in the estates
of her appanage which bordered on the dominions of
her husband. It was her intention to maintain herself
there, with the support of the League, as a kind of in-
dependent sovereign, and set both her husband and her
brother at defiance. Accordingly, about the middle of
March, she requested the King of Navarre's permission
to spend Holy Week at Agen. Suspecting nothing
and glad of a momentary truce, Henri readily consented.
" That is a good plan, ma mie" said he, ironically " Go
and pray to God for me."
Agen, it will be remembered, was the town in which
Marguerite had spent the latter part of the time between
her banishment from the French Court and her return
to Nerac. During her stay, she had made herself very
popular with the inhabitants, the great majority of whom
were zealous Catholics, by her liberality, and still more
by having obtained the removal of the governor, a certain
d'Oraison, who held the town for Henri III., and had used
his position to rob and oppress the citizens.
Without being a stronghold, Agen was far from an
easy place to invest, being protected, on the South, by
the Garonne, and, on the East, by ravines, and defended
by stout mediaeval ramparts and towers, and by earth-
works and gabions at its more exposed points. More-
over, since the withdrawal of d'Oraison and his troops,
the townspeople, who lived in constant dread of being
surprised by the King of Navarre, had formed themselves
into a civic guard, and made every preparation for a
vigorous defence. 1
1 M. Charles Merki, La Reine M argot et la fin des Palais, p. 319.
3H
QUEEN MARGOT
Marguerite arrived at Agen on March 19, 1585,
accompanied by a few of her ladies and two or three
gentlemen of her suite, and took up her residence at the
house of a wealthy widow named Camberfort, whose
husband had been one of the principal citizens. The
rest of her Household joined her the same evening, and
on the morrow and following days, the Catholic gentry
of the neighbourhood flocked into the town, with the
result that the Queen soon found herself surrounded by
a little Court.
Her arrival excited no surprise among the good folk
of Agen, for the ill-feeling between her and the King of
Navarre was common knowledge, and they thought it
only natural that she should desire to escape from a
husband who was not only a heretic, but a notorious
evil-liver. Marguerite, too, was popular ; she was
very regular in the performance of her devotions, dis-
tributed alms with a lavish hand, spent money freely,
and seemed likely to make their town quite a gay and
fashionable resort. They welcomed her with open
arms.
The French Court, at first, was under the impression
that the Queen of Navarre's retirement to Agen was
merely a measure of precaution, due to the fear with
which the influence of the Comtesse de Gramont had
inspired her, and Bellievre was of the same opinion.
" I have not failed to speak to M. de Clervant," he writes
to Catherine, on April 18," of the wrong that the King of
Navarre is committing in preferring the friendship of
the countess [de Gramont] to that of his wife, who has
been constrained to return to Agen, to protect herself
from the countess, who is plotting against her life."
But, some days later, he began to grow suspicious, and
3'5
QUEEN MARGOT
wrote again, advising the Queen-Mother to beg the
Duke of Lorraine to dissuade the Guises from lending
assistance to the Queen of Navarre in a war which, he
very much feared, she was about to undertake contrary
to the wishes of the King. 1
This warning, however, came too late, for Marguerite
had already despatched her secretary, Choisnin, with a
letter and secret instructions for the Due de Guise.
Choisnin gave the duke the letter, but kept the instruc-
tions, which, as we shall see, he made use of later.
For some weeks, nothing of importance occurred at
Agen. Marguerite continued to win golden opinions
from the townspeople by her piety, liberality, and
charming manners ; and when she represented to the
consuls that she desired to form a guard, in order to
secure her person against any attempt on the part of
the King of Navarre, they allowed her to organise two
companies of men-at-arms, which she placed under the
command of two of her most devoted followers, the Sieurs
d'Aubiac and Ligardes. Her party, too, was being
constantly augmented by the arrival of Catholic gentle-
men and their retainers from the surrounding country,
and by the middle of May, she found herself strong
enough to attempt the coup d'Jtat she had long been
meditating.
On May 15, she convoked, at the episcopal palace, a
meeting, at which were present the bishop, the prior
of the Convent of Saint-Caprasy, the consuls, the officers
of the civic guard, and all the principal citizens, and
informed them that the Marechal de Matignon, the
King's lieutenant in Guienne, was conspiring against
1 Bibliotheque Nationale, Lettres de Bellievre, published by La
Ferriere.
316
QUEEN MARGOT
her ; that she had much to fear from the enmity of her
husband, and that, as war was on the point of breaking
out, she must request them to hand over to her the keys
of the town and the citadel.
The consuls feebly protested, declaring that the town
was strong enough to defend itself, and that the Queen
was in perfect security. But Marguerite rejoined that
she was the mistress of the district ; that the Agenais
was her appanage, and that she intended to govern it
henceforth as she deemed necessary. The citizens gazed
at one another in dismay ; but a glance out of the window
revealed the fact that the square in front of the palace
was full of soldiers, and that her Majesty intended to
resort to force, if persuasion failed. They, therefore,
decided to yield, handed over the keys, and took the
oath of fealty, which Marguerite caused to be adminis-
tered to them before they separated. The rest of the
townspeople, intimidated or indifferent, offered no
opposition, and the Queen's authority was established
without any disturbance. Once mistress of the town,
Marguerite immediately replaced the civic guard by her
own troops. Her partisans flocked to her from all sides,
and in a few days she had quite a little army assembled
in and around Agen. Among those who came to offer
her their services was Lignerac, 1 Governor of Aurillac
and Bailiff of Upper Auvergne, who arrived at the head
of a body of cavalry which he had raised in Quercy.
To him the Queen of Navarre entrusted the command of
1 Frai^ois Robert de Lignerac, Seigneur de Pleaux. He was a warm
partisan of the League, and during the siege of La Fere, in 1596, was
charged by Mayenne to carry his proposals to Henri IV. He made his
peace with the King at the Treaty of Folembray and served him with
distinction.
317
QUEEN MARGOT
her troops, while the Vicomte de Du Ras, husband of the
confidante whom Henri III. had compelled her to dis-
miss from her service, was charged with the conduct of
political matters. Nor was it long before his wife arrived
upon the scene, accompanied by her friend, Madame de
Bethune, and at once proceeded to assume the position
of Prime Minister to her royal mistress.
Henri III. and the Queen-Mother were furious when
news of Marguerite's escapade reached them. I per-
ceive," wrote Catherine, " that God has left me this
creature for the punishment of my sins, by the afflictions,
which every day she occasions me ; she is my scourge
in this world. I assure you that I am so afflicted that
I know what remedy to seek." l Henri III., on his side,
sent orders to Matignon to make war upon his adventu-
rous sister and ravage her possessions ; but the marshal
preferred to stir up disaffection among her partisans
before having recourse to arms.
The King of Navarre, on the other hand, is reported
to have been much amused at his consort's proceedings,
and made jokes about her with the Comtesse de Gramont.
Nevertheless, he was fully alive to the danger of allowing
her a free hand in the Agenais and surrounding districts,
and he determined to crush her before she had time to
become really formidable.
Meanwhile, Marguerite, far from satisfied with her
easy success at Agen, had embarked upon a war of con-
quest. She had decided, that, in order to secure her
independence, she must compel not only Agen but the
whole of the Agenais and the Armagnac to acknowledge
her authority. But outside Agen, the Huguenots pre-
dominated, and were very far from inclined to tamely
2 Catherine to Bellievre, June 15, 1585.
318
QUEEN MARGOT
submit to her rule ; and the success of her campaign
did not answer her expectations.
At first, however, Fortune seemed to favour her arms.
In July, she surprised Tonneins, a town situated on the
Garonne, and placed a garrison there. But her success
was short-lived ; for her husband promptly marched upon
the town, and drove out the Queen's troops, with heavy
loss.
Impatient to repair this check, Marguerite made an
attempt upon Villeneuve-d'Agen, leading her troops
in person, if we are to believe Mezeray. This town
was divided into two parts by the River Lot. The
Queen's forces succeeded in occupying that situated
on the left bank, but deferred their assault on the rest
of the town till the following day. At daybreak, the
citizens sent out a number of men furnished with trum-
pets, who posted themselves on the Perigord road and
rent the air with martial strains. The besiegers, in the
belief that the King of Navarre was advancing to the
succour of the town a report to that effect had already
been spread by some men who had joined them during
the night, representing themselves to be deserters
immediately evacuated the part already in their hands
and retreated in confusion to Agen, harassed all the way
by the townspeople, who had sallied out in pursuit.
Attempts upon Valence d'Agen and Saint-Mazard,
a small town of the Armagnac, met with no better
success ; while three companies of men-at-arms, who,
on the advice of Duras, had been sent into Beam to
foment a rising in the Queen's favour, were attacked
by Henri of Navarre and annihilated.
Disheartened by these reverses and fearing to be herself
attacked, either by her husband or by Matignon, or possibly
QUEEN MARGOT
by both in conjunction, since they had, for the nonce,
laid aside their own quarrels, in order to checkmate the
adventurous princess, Marguerite, towards the end of
August, reluctantly abandoned aggressive warfare, and
shut herself up in Agen, there to await the assistance she
was expecting from the League. But of the six months'
respite granted the Huguenots by the Treaty of Nemours
only one had passed, and until the full term had expired,
the Leaguers were very unlikely to take the field. The
question was whether she could maintain herself at
Agen until the inevitable war began, and the Guises
were at liberty to come to her aid. Unfortunately for
Marguerite, it was not men so much as money of which
she stood in need. The garrison, strong and ably com-
manded, was quite capable of defending the town for
some months, even against the combined forces of the
King of Navarre and Matignon. But she sadly needed
money, to pay the soldiers and for the expenses of her
Court, which her accounts for the year 15 85 show numbered
no less than 235 persons, exclusive of the pages. 1 Money
had been promised by Spain, but it did not arrive, and it
was to no purpose that the Due de Guise entreated
Philip II. to send assistance to the Queen without delay,
" in order that she whom we have established as an
obstacle to her husband, may not be abandoned by her
people." 2 Philip was evidently of opinion that, in
granting the League a subsidy of a million crowns he
had done enough for one year.
At her wits' end for money, Marguerite was ill-advised
enough to listen to the counsels of her intimates, of whom
Madame de Duras was the guiding spirit, and levy addi-
1 M. Charles Merki, La Reine Margot et la Jin des Valois, p. 328.
3 Archives Nationales, published by La Ferriere.
320
QUEEN MARGOT
tional taxes on the townspeople. This aroused great
irritation amongst all classes, which was increased by
the drastic measures adopted to enforce payment, those
who refused to contribute what was demanded being
punished by having soldiers billeted on them, imprison-
ment, or the sale of their goods. The plague, which
that year ravaged nearly the whole of the South of France,
broke out at Agen, and destroyed in six months over
fifteen hundred persons. A number of the wealthier
citizens entreated the Queen to permit them to depart
with their families from the stricken town ; but this
permission was refused them, at the instigation of Mar-
guerite's advisers, who pointed out that the withdrawal
of so many of the principal citizens would materially
weaken her cause. But the exasperation of the Agenais
reached its height, when the Queen determined to build
a second citadel overlooking the Garonne, in order to
strengthen the defences of the town and, at the same
time, to enable her to defend herself against her subjects,
should occasion arise. For this purpose, she forthwith
began to demolish a number of the best houses in the
town, and in a few days upwards of fifty were levelled
with the ground, vague promises of compensation at
some future time being all that their luckless owners
received in return for the destruction of their homes.
Ruined, plundered, and oppressed, the citizens sighed
for their former liberty, and turned willing ears to the
agents of Matignon, who had been busily intriguing in
the town for some time past. In response to a deputa-
tion which waited upon him at Bordeaux, the marshal sent
a curious document, which is still preserved in the
Archives of Agen, authorising the citizens " to capture
and seize the forts, drive out and expel, by force of arms,
321 x
QUEEN MARGOT
if necessary, the captains, soldiers, and all men of war
who were there, and give him admission to the town, to
hold it in obedience to his Majesty." And the document
concludes with an injunction, which sounds somewhat
ironical under the circumstances, that in everything
they might do, they should " treat the Queen of Navarre,
her ladies, and maids-of-honour with the honour, respect,
and very humble service which was their due."
In the early morning of September 25, the citizens
rose in arms, seized one of the gates, and admitted a
strong force, which Matignon (who, mindful of the fate
of his predecessor, Biron, sacrificed to the Queen of
Navarre's resentment, did not care to appear personally
in the affair) had despatched to their assistance, under
the command of one of his officers, Etienne de Nort.
The garrison, surprised and outnumbered, fought bravely
enough, but were eventually overpowered, and scattered
in all directions, pursued by the infuriated townspeople.
Marguerite herself escaped capture, thanks to Lignerac,
who, seeing that all was lost, hastened to her house and
compelled her to mount behind him, while one of his
officers carried off Madame de Duras in similar fashion.
They were accompanied by a part of the Queen's entour-
age^ about eighty gentlemen, and a body of Lignerac's
men-at-arms, and made their way out of the town
without encountering any opposition.
It had been arranged that, in the event of the Queen
of Navarre being compelled to quit Agen, she should
make her way into the viscounty of Carlat in Upper
Auvergne which formed, like the Agenais, part of her
appanage, and seek safety at the Chateau of Carlat, which
was then held by a brother of Lignerac, Robert Gilbert,
Seigneur de Marses or Marce. Thither the fugitives
322
QUEEN MARGOT
directed their course, though not with the extraordinary
precipitation described by some chroniclers, since Mar-
guerite's account-books show that they occupied six
days in covering a distance of some forty leagues.
However, the journey was not altogether uneventful,
as, some distance from Agen, they found their progress
barred by a strong body of arquebusiers, whom Matignon
had placed there to intercept them ; and it was only after
a sharp skirmish, in which several men fell, that they
succeeded in cutting their way through. On the frontier
of Auvergne, between Entragues and Montsalvy, the
Queen was met by Gilbert de Marses, at the head of
five hundred gentlemen and men-at-arms, who escorted
her to Carht, where she arrived on Monday, September
30, 1585.
3*3
CHAPTER XXII
Marguerite at the Chateau of Carlat Dishonesty and inso-
lence of her secretary, Choisnin, whom she dismisses from her
service In revenge, he reveals to Henri III. her negotiations
with the Due de Guise Illness of the Queen of Navarre
Her situation at Carlat little better than that of a prisoner
Her relations with d'Aubiac A tragic episode in her Majesty's
bed-chamber Marguerite, finding herself no longer in security
at Carlat, removes to the Chateau of Ibois She is arrested by
the Marquis de Canillac, acting under the orders of Henri III.
Letters of the King to Villeroy Execution of d'Aubiac
Canillac conducts Marguerite to the Chateau of Usson, where
she " makes her gaoler her captive " Sinister designs attributed
to Henri III. and Catherine in regard to the Queen of Navarre
Canillac joins the League and delivers the chateau to Mar-
guerite Her life at Usson Her Memoires Her financial
embarrassments.
THE Chateau of Carlat was one of the most ancient
fortresses in France, and traced its history back to the
time of Clovis, who, according to a local tradition, had
once vainly besieged it. It was of immense size and
strength, situated on a plateau environed by precipices,
which, says the author of the Divorce satyrique, " gave
it more the appearance of a robber's den than the resi-
dence of a Queen." Several illustrious personages had
at different periods in its history resided there, among
them, Jacques d'Armagnac, Due de Nemours, executed
for high treason under Louis XL, the Duchesse Anne
de Beaujeu, and Susanne de Montpensier, her daughter.
324
QUEEN MARGOT
The chateau was nominally Marguerite's property, but
during the Wars of Religion it seems to have been
occupied by whoever was strong enough to seize and
defend it. Thus, shortly before the Queen of Navarre's
arrival in Auvergne, it had been held by a Huguenot
chief, a certain La Peyre-Teule, who had been expelled
by Gilbert de Marses, acting presumably under Mar-
guerite's orders. The princess had decided to take
refuge at Carlat, because it was situated in her appanage,
and she counted on the assistance of the Catholic gentry
of the province. A movement in her favour was success-
ful, and she entered Carlat as a sovereign.
If we are to believe the pamphleteers of the time,
and the writers who have followed them, Marguerite
arrived at Carlat, " without her State bed, without
money, and without even a change of linen," l and des-
patched Duras into Spain, to solicit help from Philip II.
But although, in her hurried flight from Agen, she had
been compelled to leave behind her the greater part
of her Household, together with all her coaches, litters,
furniture, jewellery, plate, and so forth, the Agenais
made no attempt to detain either her servants or her
property, and her account-books for 1585 show that
by December 4, everything had arrived even the State
bed. 2
Her treasurer, Charpentier, and her comptroller,
Francois Rousselet, were among the last of her Household
to reach Carlat, and, during their absence, their duties
were discharged by the secretary, Choisnin, whom, it
will be remembered, Marguerite had despatched to the
1 Divorce satyrique.
3 An entry shows that the Queen paid 24 6cus to the Sieur Victor,
who had brought it from Miossac to Carlat.
3*5
QUEEN MARGOT
Due de Guise, shortly after her arrival at Agen, and
who had kept the secret instructions which his mistress
had given him for the duke. When, at length, the
treasurer and comptroller put in an appearance, Choisnin
presented his accounts and declared that he had dis-
bursed on behalf of the Queen and her Household between
14,000 and 15,000 ecus in six weeks ! Marguerite was
highly indignant, as well she might be, and her anger
was increased when the unabashed Choisnin demanded
an exorbitant sum for his services. The Queen flatly
refused to pay it, upon which Choisnin behaved in a
most offensive manner, and addressed to his mistress
a pasquinade, " the most disgusting and villainous that
ever was seen." For this, he was dismissed from her
service and expelled from the chateau, after first receiv-
ing a sound flogging at the hands of some of her gentle-
men. He departed, " vowing to leave nothing undone
to ruin the Queen," and was as good as his word, since
he set off for Paris, and placed the secret instructions for
Guise in the hands of Henri III.
Marguerite was, for the time being, in safety at Carlat,
but she was sadly in need of money. She endeavoured
to procure a loan from a Florentine banker, who had
a banking-house at Lyons, on the security of a portion
of her jewellery ; but the Italian shamefully abused her
confidence. She subsequently parted with some valuable
jewels to Lignerac, to cover an advance of 10,000 livres
which he had made her.
Early in the spring of 1586, she fell ill, and her malady
would appear to have caused her people considerable
anxiety, since she was attended by doctors from Moulins,
Aurillac, Villefranche-en-Rouergue, and Murat, as well
as by her own physicians. In May, however, she had
326
QUEEN MARGOT
recovered, and was able to visit several of the neighbour-
ing nobility and to attend a mountaineers' fe 1 te, organised
by Lignerac in her honour.
Meanwhile, she had made numerous changes in her
Household, and had taken several of the gentry of
Auvergne into her service. She had also quarrelled
with the Vicomte de Duras, who had departed in high
dudgeon. The cause of their quarrel is uncertain, but,
very probably, Duras had taken exception to the position
in which the Queen had allowed herself to be placed,
for, though treated ostensibly as a sovereign, she was,
to all intents and purposes, a prisoner in the hands of
Lignerac and Marses. The former had been appointed
Superintendent of the Queen's Household, while the
latter commanded in the chateau, and without their
consent and that of another adventurous noble, Jean
de Rive or de Rieu, civil and criminal lieutenant of the
district, she did nothing, and was merely the instrument
of their ambition.
Marguerite had, however, bestowed her friendship and
confidence, if not her love, on a fourth person, a young man
named d'Aubiac, who, as we have mentioned, had been
given the command of one of the companies of men-at-
arms which she had organised at Agen, and with whose
assistance she had secured possession of the town. Who
this person really was is a matter of dispute. According
to one account, he was a certain Jean de Larte de Galart,
second son of Antoine de Galart, Seigneur d'Aubiac ;
while M. de Saint-Poncy asserts that he was a son of
Begot de Roquemaurel, Seigneur d'Aubiat, a member
of one of the oldest and most illustrious families of
Auvergne, and a relative of the Due d'Albany, uncle of
Catherine de' Medici. There is a similar difference of
327
QUEEN MARGOT
opinion as to his personal appearance ; for, whereas the
Divorce satyrique describes him as having " red hair,
freckled skin, and a rubicund nose," the Tuscan Ambassa-
dor, Cavriana, speaks of him as " young and handsome,"
though audacious and indiscreet. 1
Whatever his social position and appearance may have
been, he seems to have fallen violently in love with the
Queen of Navarre, though the author is probably roman-
cing when he declares that, on beholding her for the first
time, at Agen, the enamoured young man exclaimed :
" Ah ! the admirable creature ! If I were fortunate
enough to find favour in her eyes, I should not regret my
life, were I to lose it an hour afterwards ! " These
words, the writer tells us, were reported to Marguerite,
who, far from being offended at them, gave him the com-
mand of one of the companies of men-at-arms, and
subsequently made him her equerry. Whether he was
her lover, as several writers assert, is difficult to say
M. de Saint-Poncy, of course, will not allow that he was
anything but a humble worshipper but, any way, he
was one of the most devoted of her partisans at this
period, and enjoyed her full confidence.
In the early autumn of 1586, the situation of the
Queen of Navarre at Carlat began to grow very unpleasant.
The commandant of the chateau, Gilbert de Marses,
died, 2 and violent and acrimonious disputes immediately
1 Negotiations avec la Toscane, iv. 669.
* The Divorce satyrique accuses Marguerite of having caused Marses to
be poisoned, partly in order to revenge herself on his wife, who had dis-
covered the nature of the relations existing between her and d'Aubiac,
and partly to make herself mistress of the chateau. But no attention
need be paid to so foul an accusation made by a writer of this class, and,
in all probability, Marses fell a victim to the plague, which was then
ravaging Auvergne.
328
QUEEN MARGOT
began between d'Aubiac and Lignerac on the subject
of the military authority. Then a most tragic event
occurred. Lignerac, who, it would appear, possessed
or, at any rate, aspired to the Queen's favours, took
umbrage at the interest which she was taking in " the
son of her apothecary," and finding him one morning
in her Majesty's chamber, was seized with so violent
an access of jealousy, that he poniarded the hapless youth
to death before the eyes of the horrified princess. 1
Apart from these annoyances, Margueite no longer
felt herself in security at Carlat. Henri III., more than
ever incensed against her by the proofs of her dealings
with the Guises which the treacherous Choisnin had
placed in his hands, had sent orders to her to leave the
chateau, threatening her, in case of refusal, with " the
most rigorous punishment " ; and the arrival of Joyeuse,
at the head of a Royalist army, on the frontier of Auvergne
had caused many of her supporters among the Catholic
gentry of the province to desert her cause. She seems,
indeed, to have been in hourly dread lest the chateau
should be attacked and taken, and she herself delivered
over to her detested brother. Accordingly, she resolved
to leave Carlat, and take refuge at the Chateau of Ibois,
a league from Issoire, in which Catherine had offered
her an asylum, shortly after her flight from Agen. Thither
she set out on October 14, 1586, accompanied by d'Aubiac,
Robert du Cambon, another of Lignerac's brothers, and
a part of her Household. A certain Seigneur de Chateau-
1 M. de Saint-Poncy characterises this episode as an " atrociously
ridiculous story." But it was sufficiently well authenticated for the
Spanish Ambassador, Mendoza, to report it to Philip II., in a letter
which is preserved in the Archives Nationales, and has been published
by M. Philippe Lauzun in his Itineraire raisonnc de Marguerite de Valo'u
en Gascogne.
329
QUEEN MARGOT
neuf, whom she had admitted to her confidence, had
promised to convey the Queen and her suite across the
Allier, and to furnish her with an escort as far as Ibois.
But he failed to keep his promise, and the party had to
cross the river by a ford, where Marguerite had a very
narrow escape of being drowned. They reached Ibois
in safety on October 16, and were duly admitted by the
governor of the chateau, Louis de la Souchere. Scarcely,
however, had they arrived, when a troop of horse was
observed approaching. It proved to be commanded
by the Marquis de Canillac, Governor of the Chateau
of Usson, and one of Joyeuse's lieutenants. 1 Chateauneuf
had betrayed them !
Canillac peremptorily demanded admission to the
chateau, and the Queen, recognising the futility of
resistance, ordered the gates to be opened, having first
concealed d'Aubiac, in the chimney, according to Du
Vair, or " between the walls," according to an un-
published manuscript cited by M. Charles Merki. The
marquis informed Marguerite that he had orders from
the King to arrest her, and then demanded the where-
abouts of d'Aubiac, concerning whom, it appeared, he
had special instructions. Her Majesty's reply not being
satisfactory, he ordered a search to be made, and the
hapless d'Aubiac' s hiding-place was speedily discovered.
The same day, Canillac despatched a gentleman to
Henri III., to inform him of his sister's arrest, and to ask
for further instructions. In reply, his Majesty wrote
to Villeroy as follows :
1 Jean Timoleon de Beaufort-Montboissier, Vicomte de Lamothe,
Marquis de Canillac. He was the son of Marguerite's gouvernante and dame
tThonneur, Madame de Curton, by her first marriage with Jacques de
Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac.
QUEEN MARGOT
HENRI III. to VILLEROY.
" Tell Canillac not to budge until we have made the
necessary arrangements. Let him convey her to the
Chateau of Usson. Let, from this hour, her estates
and pensions be sequestrated, in order to reimburse
the marquis for his charge of her. As for her women and
male attendants, let the marquis dismiss them instantly,
and let him give her some honest demoiselle and waiting-
woman, until the Queen my good mother orders him
to procure such women as she shall think suitable. But,
above all, let him take good care of her. It is my inten-
tion to refer to her in the letters patent, only as ' my
sister,' and not as * dear and well-beloved.' The Queen
my mother enjoins upon me to cause d'Aubiac to be hanged,
and that the execution takes place in the presence of this
wretched woman, in the court of the Chateau of Usson.
Arrange for this to be properly carried out. Give orders
that all her rings be sent to me, and with a full inventory,
and that they be brought to me as soon as possible."
This letter was followed by another not less severe
in tone.
HENRI III. to VILLEROY.
"The more I examine the matter, the more I feel
and recognise the ignominy that this wretched woman
brings upon us. The best that God can do for her and
for us, is to take her away. I have written to the Marquis
de Canillac concerning her women ; that he leaves her
two waiting-women and her maids-of-honour ; since I
judged them to be better able to endure captivity than
those who have not deserved it. As for this Aubiac,
331
QUEEN MARGOT
although he merits death, both in the eyes of God and
men, it would be well for some judges to conduct his
trial, in order that we may have always before us what
will serve to repress her [Marguerite's] audacity, for she
will always be too proud and malignant. Decide what
ought to be done, for death, we are all resolved, must
follow. Tell the marquis not to budge until I have
furnished him with Swiss and other troops." l
In conformity with the King's orders, d'Aubiac was
taken to Aigueperse, and there, after a mockery of a trial,
hanged on the Place Saint-Louis, " kissing until the last
moment of his existence," according to the Divorce
satyrique, " a blue cut-velvet sleeve," all that remained
to him of the favours of his beloved mistress. A grave had
been dug beneath the gibbet, and, while still breathing,
the hapless young man was cut down and flung into it. 2
On what charge he had been condemned is unknown.
Some writers pretend that he had been concerned in
the death of Gilbert de Marses ; but, whatever may have
been the charge, there can be little doubt that what
M. de Saint-Poncy calls the " tender sympathy " which
existed between him and Marguerite was the real cause
of his terrible fate. 3
As for the Queen of Navarre, Canillac conducted her,
by way of Saint-Amant and Saint-Saturnin,to the Chateau
of Usson, where she arrived on November 13, 1586.
Like Carlat, Usson formed part of Marguerite's ap-
panage. The Chateau was situated on the summit of
1 Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, published by La Ferriere.
* Negotiations avec la Toscane t iv. 669.
8 M. de Saint-Poncy says that Marguerite composed some stanzas " to
consecrate and avenge the memory of this touching figure, who, in the
Middle Ages, would have inspired the songs of troubadours."
332
QUEEN MARGOT
an inaccessible rock, at the foot of which nestled a tiny
village, and had been built, according to an old legend,
with the materials of a pagan temple. Purchased by
the Due de Berry from Jean II., Comte d'Auvergne,
Usson had passed to Charles VI. and his successors.
Louis XI. had used it as a kind of State prison, " keeping
his prisoners a hundred times more securely there," says
Brantome, " than at Loches, Vincennes, or Lusignan."
Marguerite was at first very unhappy at Usson,
" treated," writes the Tuscan Ambassador, Cavriana,
" like the poorest and most abandoned of creatures."
However, this state of things did not last long. M. de
Saint-Poncy indignantly denies that his heroine employed
her wiles to transform her gaoler into her prisoner, and
seduce him from his allegiance to the King. But this
" fable " as he characterises it, does not rest upon the
testimony of the Divorce satyrique l and other works of
a similar character, but is supported by two of the
Queen of Navarre's most enthusiastic panegyrists, Pere
Hilarion de Coste and Brantome. " The Marquis de
Canillac," writes the former, " carried her (Marguerite)
off, and brought her to Usson. But, soon afterwards,
this lord of a very illustrious house saw himself the
captive of his prisoner. He thought to have triumphed
over her, and the mere sight of her ivory arms triumphed
over him, and henceforth he lived only by the favour of
the victorious eyes of his beautiful captive." And
1 " Her manners it is Henri IV. who is supposed to be speaking
were so insinuating that it was difficult to defend oneself when she
chose to exert them. She made so many advances to Canillac that he
could not avoid becoming aware of them; he preferred a fleeting gratifi-
cation to the duty he owed his master, and suffered himself to become
enslaved by her whom he had captured."
1 /ag e des bommfs ft dames illuttres au XW. et XVII*. siecles : Paris 1625.
333
QUEEN MARGOT
Brantome says : " Poor man ! What could he do ?
To wish to keep prisoner her who, by the power of her
eyes and her beautiful face, could rivet her chains upon
the rest of the world, as though they had been galley-
slaves ! "
It is probable, however, that interest had at least
as much to do with the subjugation of Canillac as had
love. In guarding Marguerite for the King, he might
naturally expect some substantial recompense ; but
Henri III. 's sceptre was rapidly slipping from his grasp ;
his authority was becoming each day more feeble ; and
the marquis decided that the League might prove a
better paymaster. He, accordingly, entered into com-
munication with the Guises, and submitted to them a
memoir, in which he informed them that Henri III. and
the Queen-Mother, in order to checkmate the designs of
the League, had agreed to cause Marguerite to be assas-
sinated, and to marry the King of Navarre to Christine,
daughter of the Duke of Lorraine.
It seems difficult to believe that Henri III. and Cather-
ine, unscrupulous though they both undoubtedly were,
could ever have seriously contemplated so monstrous
a crime ; but that such a design was credited to them
by well-informed persons is evident from the following
letter, which the Due de Guise addressed to Mendoza,
after terms had been arranged between him and Canillac.
THE Due DE GUISE to DON BERNARDINO MENDOZA.
'* February 14, 1 587.
" I do not intend to fail to advise you that the negotia-
tions begun by me with the Marquis de Canillac have
happily succeeded, and I have persuaded him to cast in
his lot with our party, and, by this means, assure the
334
QUEEN MARGOT
person of the Queen of Navarre, who is now in full
security. And I rejoice at this, as much on her account
as for the acquisition that it has brought us, of a very great
number of places and chateaux, which renders the
Auvergne country perfectly assured to us, and frustrates
the tragic designs they are founding on her death, the details
of which will cause your hair to stand up. You can under-
stand how this matter has affected the King of France,
seeing that the Marquis has dismissed the garrison which
his Majesty had placed there, which is the first proof of
his good faith that I demanded of him." l
Canillac, in fact, had dismissed the Swiss, whom Henri
III. had placed at Usson, to guard his sister, and perhaps
with a more sinister intention, after which he handed
over the fortress to Marguerite. 2 It would appear,
however, that the princess was obliged to purchase her
chateau and her liberty, and at a very high price, too,
since, in the Library of Clermont-Ferrand, a deed is
preserved, wherein the Queen of Navarre, " in considera-
tion of the very signal and very acceptable services
which she has received and hopes to receive from Jean
de Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac, gives, cedes, and
transfers to him and his all the rights that she may
possess over the county of Auvergne and other estates
1 Archives Nationales, coll. Simancas, published by M Charles Merki.
And the Tuscan Ambassador, Cavriana, wrote to his Court : " The King
intends to cause his sister to be put to death and to re-marry the King
of Navarre."
* There appears to be no truth in the story that the Queen of Navarre
profited by the absence of Canillac at Lyons, whither he had gone to
negotiate with the Guises, to seize the chateau, with the assistance of a
body of Leaguers from Orleans, though it is accepted by M. de la
Ferriere, who has a weakness for the picturesque.
335
QUEEN MARGOT
and lordships in the said county of Auvergne . . . also
the sum of 40,000 ecus, payable as soon as it will be possible
to discharge it ... and the first vacant benefices in our
estates up to the annual value of 30,000 livres." l
This document is dated September 1588, but M.
Merki is of opinion that it was intended to replace, or
perhaps supplement, some previous donation of the
princess in favour of Canillac. The marquis, however,
did not live to enjoy the reward of his " very signal
and very acceptable services," as, in April of the follow-
ing year, he was killed while directing the artillery of
the Leaguers at the siege of Saint-Ouen.
Marguerite was now once more a free woman ; but
she prudently decided to remain at Usson, whither
Guise had sent a body of troops from Orleans for her
protection, and view in safety from its inaccessible rock
the sanguinary drama which was being enacted around
her. Here, she learned of the Huguenot victory at
Coutras, when the Due de Joyeuse was killed ; of the
Day of the Barricades and the ignominious flight of the
King from his capital ; of the assassination of Guise,
by her brother's myrmidons, that dark December morn-
ing at Blois ; of the death of Catherine (January 5, 1589)
whom Henri III. had persuaded to disinherit her daughter
in favour of Charles de Valois, the natural son of Charles
IX. and Marie Touchet ; of the death of her most bitter
enemy beneath the poniard of Jacques Clement, and of
the heroic struggle her husband was making against the
forces of intolerance and anarchy.
Of Marguerite's life at Usson but little authentic
information is, unfortunately, forthcoming, and, in
i Published by M. Charles Merki, La Reine Margot et la fn des Valois^
P- 357-
336
QUEEN MARGOT
consequence numerous legends have gathered around it.
If we are to listen to Pere Hilarion de Coste, it was " a
Tabor for devotion, a Libya for retirement, an Olympus
for the arts, a Parnassus for the Muses, a Caucasus for
the afflictions." " Usson," continues the good Father,
" Usson ! crowned by the royal castle, sacred and holy
abode ! Sweet hermitage, where Majesty meditated.
Thou rock, thou art a witness of the voluntary seclusion
of thy peerless princess Marguerite ! Usson ! earthly
paradise of delights, where sweet and harmonious voices
combine to soothe the only spot where Royalty en joyed
the repose and contentment which blessed souls find in
another world ! " 1 Mongez compares it to Noah's Ark,
a sacred temple and a devout monastery ; 2 while a
third writer describes it as " the honour and wonder of
Auvergne." 3
If, on the other hand, we are to credit her detractors,
it was " a Cythera for her amours," 4 the counterpart of
the Capri of Tiberius ; and the author of the Divorce
satyrique gives many unedifying details of the debauchery
of which he declares it to have been the theatre. 5 '
Both sides have, of course, travestied the truth. The
Marguerite de Valois of Usson was probably neither
1 filoges des hommes et dames illustres.
z Histoire de Marguerite de Vakls.
8 Jean d'Arnalt, let Antlqmtes Agen (Paris, 1606).
4 Pierre Mathieu, Histolre de France.
5 According to this scandalous chronicler, the Queen's favourites at
Usson occupied, for the most part, somewhat lowly positions in the social
scale : Pomini, a tenor from the cathedral at Clermont ; Julien Date,
the son of a carpenter at Aries, whom she ennobled, " avec six aunet
fetoffe" and who forthwith blossomed into Date de Saint-Julicn (this
young man met with a very tragic end, of which we shall have some-
thing to say hereafter) ; Resigade, a shepherd ; Le Moyne, a valet-de~
chambre ; Comines, a strolling musician, and so forth.
337 Y
QUEEN MARGOT
better nor worse than the Marguerite de Valois of Paris
and Nerac. A born coquette, to whom admiration was
as the breath of life, she could never have existed without
a train of admirers, and, as even her ardent apologist,
M. de Saint-Poncy, admits that her Majesty was " dune
complexion trop ardente f>our ne pas ceder a la tentation"
we shall probably be safe to assume that not all of them
sighed in vain. On the other hand, the princess seems
to have been throughout her life so strict an observer
of the ritual of her Church, and had, moreover, so
marked a predilection for literature and the arts, that
a casual visitor to her mountain home, mindful of her (
stormy past, might well have fancied himself in the
presence of a penitent, whose only pleasures, when not
occupied with her devotions, were music, books, and the
conversation of learned men, and departed with very
much the same impressions which her panegyrists have
formed.
Although Usson had little to commend it to a woman
accustomed to the bustle and gaiety of Courts, Mar-
guerite seems to have been happy enough, since, for the
first time in her life, save for those mad months at Agen,
when she had lived in constant dread of being attacked
and dragged back to her husband, she found herself
independent, and declared to one of her visitors that it
was the /' chateau 'par excellence" She seldom left its
walls, but was far from remaining inactive, since she was
in constant communication with the chiefs of the League
in Auvergne : the Comte de Randan, Saint-Chamond,
Saint- Vidal, and others, and is said to have been the soul
of the resistance in that province. Several of them
came to Usson to confer with its chatelaine, among them
Honore d'Urfe, the author of that sentimental romance,
QUEEN MARGOT
Astree, whom some writers have given a place in the list
of the Queen's lovers, though, it would seem, without
sufficient justification. His two brothers, Anne, Grand
Bailiff of Forez, and Antoine, Bishop of Saint-Flour,
were also among Marguerite's visitors, and the former
dedicated to her his Hymne de Sainte-Suzanne, in which
he calls her " la Perle de France."
To Usson also came Loys Papon, Prior of Marcilly,
who expresses his admiration for the Queen in a long
poem, entitled VHymne a tres illustre princesse Mar-
guerite de Valois, reine de France ; Joseph Scaliger,
" the phoenix of learning," who speaks of her with
enthusiasm as " liberal and learned, and possessed of
more royal virtues than the King " ; and, finally, Bran-
tome, who came to submit to Marguerite the eulogium
which is found in his Dames illustres, and who seems to
have first suggested to her the idea of writing her
Memoires.
These Memoires^ " ceuvres d'un apres-dtner" according
to her own expression, are generally believed to have been
written, at Usson, about 1595 or 1596; certainly not
earlier than 1594, the date of her eloge by Brantome,
to correct and amplify certain statements in which was
one of the writer's objects ; nor later than 1597 or 1598,
as is indicated by the comparison of various passages.
(We have discussed elsewhere the question whether the
Memoires were continued beyond her departure for Paris
in 1582.) So much has been written in their praise
by historians and critics, from Pellisson, who tells us
that he read them through from beginning to end twice
in a single night, with the result that they converted him
from a contemner into a passionate admirer of his mother
tongue, and contributed more than any other work to
339
QUEEN MARGOT
form his style, to Sainte-Beuve, who declares them to be
" an epoch in the language, by reason of which an endur-
ing radiance will attach to her name," that it would be
almost superfluous for us to discuss them here. But we
may be allowed to make one observation, which is, that
the insinuation made by some writers, notably by Bayle
and Villemain, namely, that the Memoires are more
pleasing than veracious, does Marguerite an injustice.
A study of the writings of the best-informed of her
contemporaries proves that, so far as regards historical
facts, she is, in the main, singularly accurate ; the pictures
which she traces of the St. Bartholomew, the palace
intrigues under Henri III., and the condition of Flanders
are, as M. de Saint-Poncy very justly remarks, not less
true than admirably drawn. As for those which chiefly
concern herself, it is certainly true that since, as we have
observed elsewhere, the Memoires were intended, in great
part, as an apology for the life of their author, Marguerite
seeks to place the most favourable construction she is
able on her actions ; but, save in the case of one or two
of her affairs of the heart, there seems to be no attempt
to tamper with facts.
Marguerite's Memoires were published, for the first
time, in 1628, thirteen years after her death, by Auger
de Mauleon to whom we are also indebted for those
of Villeroy and the letters of Cardinal d'Ossat who
committed the error of asserting that they were addressed
to Charles de Vivonne, Baron de la Chateigneraie, Sieur
de Hardelay, who had been chamberlain to the Due
d'Anjou.
Between 1628 and 1713, the work was several times
reprinted, but without any alterations, until in the latter
year, Jean Godefroy issued a new edition, printed at
34
QUEEN MARGOT
Brussels, explaining that it was to Brantome, and not to
Charles de Vivonne, that the Memoires were addressed
and furnishing some useful biographical and historical
notes. Godefroy's edition also included Marguerite's
ttoge by Brantome, that of Bussy by the same writer,
and Pierre Dampmartin's Fortune de la Cour. In the
first half of the nineteenth century, three fresh editions
appeared, the work being included in the collection of
memoirs edited by Petitot and in that arranged by
Michaud and Poujoulat. These reproduced many of
the faults of those which preceded them ; but the third
edition, which was undertaken by M. Guessard on behalf
of the Societe de 1'Histoire de France, and included a
number of Marguerite's letters and the Memoire justicatif,
cleared away the old errors and was an excellent piece
of work. Since then, two other editions have appeared,
both enriched by notes, one edited by M. Ludovic
Lalanne, the other by M. Caboche.
Maguerite's chief trouble at Usson seems to have
been want of money, for, though nominally possessed
of large revenues, the state of anarchy into which the
country was plunged, made it very difficult for her agents
to collect even a small part of them. According to
Hilarion de Coste, the little Court was often exposed
to want, and, in order to raise money, the Queen was
obliged to pledge the rest of her jewels and to melt down
her plate. 1 These sacrifices proving insufficient, she
appealed to her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, widow of
1 The troubles of the time often reduced the greatest personages to
extreme want. In the winter of 1594, Henri of Navarre found himself
without sufficient money to buy fodder for his horses, while his linen
was reduced to five handkerchiefs and a dozen shirts, most of them torn !
" I shall have to go en foot and naked," he remarked.
QUEEN MARGOT
Charles IX., who possessed in France a rich dowry
This estimable princess, who, after the death of her hus-
band, had retired to Austria, responded generously, and
continued to assist Marguerite, until her death in January
1592.
Always lavishly generous, Marguerite, in spite of her
financial troubles, disbursed large sums in charity, and,
on this account, enjoyed great popularity among the
peasantry of Auvergne. When she finally quitted Usson
in May 1605, her last thought was for the poor, and she
signed a deed perpetuating the alms which she had been
accustomed to distribute.
342
CHAPTER XXIII
Defeat of the League in Auvergne Marguerite abandons the
cause of the rebels and makes her peace with Henri IV. Be-
ginning of the negotiations for the dissolution of her marriage
with Henri Visit of Erard to Usson Marguerite's letter to
Duplessis-Mornay Correspondence between the parties
Slow progress of the negotiations-^Gabrielle d'Estre'es The
King anxious to marry her, in spite of the impolicy of such a
step Marguerite unwilling to make way for " a woman of
impure life" Opposition of Clement VIII. to the divorce
Death of Gabrielle Negotiations for the King's marriage to
Mane de' Medici The divorce is pronounced Letters of
Henri and Marguerite The King's passion for Henriette
d'Entragues raises new difficulties Marriage of Henri IV. and
Marie de' Medici.
FROM 1589 to 1592, Auvergne was a prey to all the
horrors of civil war. The League, however, was the
stronger party in the province, and, thanks to the good
understanding which existed between Marguerite and
its leaders) she remained undisturbed at Usson. During
these years, the princess shared the hopes and fears of
the rebels, was the confidante of their plans, and sent
or, at any rate, permitted some of her servants, notably
her seneschal at Clermont, Jacques d'Oradour, and her
chevalier d'honntur, Jean de Lastic, to fight in their
ranks. But on March 14, 1592 the same day which
saw Henri of Navarre victorious in the plain of Ivry
the Leaguers of Auvergne were utterly routed at the
343
QUEEN MARGOT
Battle of Cros-Rolland, near Issoire, and from that
moment their fortunes rapidly declined, and the royal
power was gradually re-established.
The King of Navarre's abjuration of Protestantism
at Saint-Denis (July 25, 1592) deprived the League of
the pretext which had been its main source of strength,
and Marguerite lost no time in abandoning the sinking
ship. When her husband was crowned at Chartres,
she wrote to felicitate him on his accession, and hence-
forth devoted all the influence she possessed in Auvergne
in favour of peace. " It is to the credit of the Valois
princess," says her devoted admirer, M. de Saint-Poncy,
" to have disengaged herself from the League, so soon
as Catholic interests were safeguarded by the return of
her husband to the Church of Rome, and to have com-
prehended the character of this great act of reconciliation,
which gave satisfaction to two fundamental principles,
to wit, hereditary monarchy and national religion."
It certainly does infinite credit to the lady's intelligence
that she should have so quickly comprehended how
this great act of reconciliation was likely to affect her
interests, and that she should have endeavoured to make
her peace as speedily as possible with the husband with
whose enemies she had so actively intrigued and against
whose troops her servants had fought.
But the Bearnais was the last man in the world to
bear malice, besides which, if he had much to forgive
he had also much to be forgiven. Finally, he was
becoming increasingly anxious to obtain his wife's consent
to a step to which his advisers had been for some time
urging him, and the political importance of which could
scarcely be exaggerated.
It had long been evident that Henri's position would
344
QUEEN MARGOT
be immensely strengthened if he were the father of legiti-
mate children. The young Prince de Conde, the heir-
presumptive to the throne, was a boy of feeble health
and irresolute character, the legitimacy of whose birth
was very much a matter of opinion. In the event of
the King's early death, even should Conde's claims
be undisputed, trouble would be certain to arise in regard
to the Regency, since his mother, a woman of loose life,
and strongly suspected of complicity in the murder of
her husband, was obviously unfitted for such a post.
On the other hand, a reconciliation between the King
and Marguerite held out little or no hope of the heir
so much desired ; a woman on the threshold of her fortieth
year can scarcely be expected to bear the children who
have been denied to her vigorous youth. The only
course, therefore, to consolidate the new dynasty and
assure peace to the distracted kingdom, was for Henri
to obtain a divorce from his unfruitful consort and
marry again.
Duplessis-Mornay would appear to have been the first
of the King's advisers to impress upon his master the duty
of providing for an undisputed succession. One day,
he happened to be representing to him " all the dangers
that he ran in his frivolous attachments, and to which he
exposed his soul and his reputation." " Why then, don't
you think of marrying me ? " remarked Henri. " Marry
you ! " exclaimed Mornay. " There is a double diffi-
culty ; we must first unmarry you. But if you are really
in earnest and I believe you are, since you know well
enough the need there is for strengthening your State I
will venture, by your command, to undertake the affair."
Mornay lost no time in approaching Erard, Mar-
1 Mftnoirfs du Duplessis-Mornay.
345
QUEEN MARGOT
guerite's maitre des requetes, and, in the spring of 1593,
despatched him to Usson, to ascertain his mistress's
views on the subject. In exchange for the crown
matrimonial, he was empowered to offer her a sum of
250,000 ecus to pay her debts, which, by this time,
amounted to an enormous sum, a pension of 12,000 ecus
and a residence suited to her rank, to be subsequently
decided upon. In return, he was to request the Queen
to give him a blank procuration, and to declare before
a notary that she had been married without her consent,
within the prohibited degrees, and without the papal
dispensation. Mornay hoped that the King would have
no need to have recourse to the Pope, and that the eccle-
siastical and secular courts would be competent to
pronounce a divorce .
Marguerite received her husband's proposals in very
good part. She was growing somewhat weary of Usson
and of a retirement which did not protect her from the
importunities of her creditors, more clamorous than
ever now that Elizabeth of Austria was dead, and she
could no longer turn to her for assistance ; and was
well aware that, after so compromising a past, she could
never hope to be Queen of France in anything but name.
Moreover, by giving her consent to what was demanded
of her, she would establish claims on her husband's
gratitude, and would be able to pose for the remainder
of her life as one who had sacrificed herself to the welfare
of the State. She, therefore, decided that the very
substantial advantages which the dissolution of her
marriage promised her far outweighed the loss of dignity
which she would thereby sustain, and wrote to Mornay
the following letter :
346
QUEEN MARGOT
THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE to DUPLESSIS-MORNAY.
dpril 1593.
" MONSIEUR DUP LESS is, Although I attribute only
to the goodness of God and the kindly disposition of the
King my husband, the honour which it has pleased him to
do me, in assuring me of his favour, the possession in the
world which I hold the most dear ; being aware, never-
theless, how much the counsels of persons endowed with
such ability and loyalty as yourself are able to accomplish
with a great man who esteems and trusts them, as I know
the King my husband does, I do not doubt that your
good offices have been able to serve me. Wherefore I
should have esteemed myself to be too ungrateful,
were I not to thank you by this letter. The Sieur
Erard will communicate everything to you. If you will
oblige me by assisting in the carrying through of what
has thus begun so well, on which depends all the repose
and security of my life, you will place me under an
immortal obligation, and I shall be very desirous of show-
ing myself, by every means, your most affectionate and
faithful friend."
And to stimulate Mornay's zeal, and in proof of her
gratitude, Marguerite sent him, some months later, a
present of 14,000 livres.
On his return, Erard had a conference with some of
the King's Council, when it was decided that his Majesty
ought to send his accommodating consort a letter of
thanks ; and this Henri, accordingly, did, informing her
of "his extreme satisfaction at the resolution at which
1 Memoires ft lettres de Marguerite de Valo'u (edit. Guessard)-
347
QUEEN MARGOT
she had arrived to do everything which depended upon
her to assist in the furtherance of his affairs, " and
promising to arrange " for the payment of her debts and
pension as speedily as possible."
During the next eighteen months, Erard was con-
tinually travelling backwards and forwards between the
King's camp and Usson, and a great deal of correspond-
ence passed between the parties and their representatives,
chiefly, it must be confessed, of a rather sordid character.
In a letter dated November 10, 1593, we find Marguerite
thanking her husband for confirming her in the possession
of the property and privileges which she had enjoyed
under the two previous reigns, and for the donation of
the promised 250,000 ecus for the payment of her debts.
But, two days later, she writes to Mornay, demanding
that the proposed pension of 12,000 ecus should be
increased to one of 14,000. " That means nothing to
his Majesty," she writes, " but a good deal to me, who
am left with such slender means. In surrendering all
that I surrender, it will be almost impossible for me to
maintain a suite in accordance with my rank."
In the autumn of 1 594, she writes to the King, request-
ing to be confirmed in the possession of Usson. Henri IV.,
however, demurred, since he did not approve of feudal
fortresses of this kind being in the hands of any one
upon whose loyalty he could not implicitly rely ; upon
which his wife returns to the charge : " The King ought
rather to trust me," she writes, " than those who desire
to deprive me of it." Tired of war, his Majesty yielded,
and was informed by Marguerite that " she considered
this hermitage to have been built to serve her as an ark
of safety."
Then, Henri did not always keep his promises ; her
348
QUEEN MARGOT
pension fell into arrears, and, in a letter of July 29, 1594,
Marguerite reproaches him with having broken his word ;
while in another, dated November 8, she demands that
in place of a part of her pension which had been assigned
her on certain Crown property at Clermont, she should
have a vacant office in the Parlement of Toulouse ;
by selling it, she says, she will, at any rate, be able to
procure some resources. The King, in his answer, seeks
to pacify her, pleading extenuating circumstances,
attributing the delay to the troubles of the time rather
than to any unwillingness on his part to discharge his
obligations, and assuring her that he will " testify by
his deeds the truth of his promises and words." In the
same letter, he asks for the procuration, which the
Queen had not yet sent ; and Marguerite, in spite of
her indignation, complied with the request, and sent it
en blanc, as she had been desired to do.
Nevertheless, matters made but slow progress ; the
divorce, in fact, was subordinated to the reconciliation
of the King of France with the Vatican. There had been
some thought, at first, of invoking certain " Gallican
liberties," in virtue of which the French bishops might
be able to declare the marriage annulled. But, after
his abjuration at Saint-Denis, Henri comprehending
the danger of such an expedient, which exposed the
legitimacy of a second marriage to the risk of being
disputed, modified his plans. " Some authors," observes
M. de Saint-Poncy, " have demanded why the King
addressed himself to the ecclesiastical authority, instead
of causing his marriage to be annulled by lay authority,
in employing for the purpose either the Parlement or
the States-General. The reason of this is very simple ;
it is that, except by abandoning orthodoxy, he could not
349
QUEEN MARGOT
free himself from a religious tie, save by the religious
power. On her side, Queen Marguerite felt herself
unable to give her consent, except to a dissolution
sanctioned by the Pope. Henri IV. had not only to
reckon with this legitimate demand, but also with public
opinion, which would have seen in a second marriage,
contracted without the consent of Rome, only an illicit
union. ' Reasons of State ' as well as religious considera-
tions obliged him to have recourse to the Court of
Rome. For a King, whose authority was only partially
established, to attempt to disperse with the pontifical
authority would have been very dangerous, if not im-
practicable. Thus the first aim of a divorce without the
intervention of the Holy See, being judged impossible,
it was only after the absolution accorded by the Pope
to his royal penitent, on September 16, 1595, that the
negotiation was able to be effectively pursued." *
Notwithstanding that Clement VIII. had consented
to remove the ban of excommunication launched against
Henri ten years before, he showed himself anything
but favourably disposed to the divorce. Although the
marriage had been performed without a dispensation,
this irregularity had been subsequently condoned by
Gregory XIII., when he confirmed the marriage in the
following October. 2 Clement was naturally reluctant to
admit that his predecessor had acted beyond his powers,
since to do so would be to create a dangerous pre-
cedent. Moreover, he perceived that, so long as the
question remained unsettled, he possessed a hold over
the King of France, which he might utilise to curtail
the concessions which Henri desired to grant to the
1 Histoire de Marguerite de Valois, v, 353.
2 See pp. 85 note and 1 1 ^ supra
35
QUEEN MARGOT
Huguenots, and to strengthen the influence of the Holy
See in France.
Nor was the reluctance of the Vatican the only obstacle
to a settlement. Henri's most trusted advisers, Mornay
and Sully, who had at first so strongly urged the divorce,
no longer advocated it with their former enthusiasm,
fearing that its only result would be to legitimate a love
intrigue.
In 1 590, la belle Corisande had been succeeded in the
King's affections by a new mistress, who had gained
over her royal lover an ascendency even greater than that
which her predecessor had enjoyed. This was the
celebrated Gabrielle d'Estrees, the " model mistress,"
one of the six daughters of Antoine d'Estrees, Grand
Master of the Artillery, and of Franchise Babou de la
Boudaisiere. Both mother and daughter were notorious
for their gallantries, and the girls and their brother were
known as the " seven deadly sins." * Gabrielle had been
presented to Henri by her lover, the Due de Bellegarde,
one of the King's favourites. His Majesty fell violently
in love on the spot, and though the fair Gabrielle at
first rejected his suit, and told him to his face that " she
found him so ugly that she was unable to look at him,"
he made her such brilliant promises, including, of course,
the customary offer of marriage, that she eventually
relented. To save appearances, the King married his
new enchantress to Nicole d'Amerval, Seigneur de Lian-
court, a widower with fourteen children, who, however,
1 In 1592, Gabrielle's mother left her hu.band and went to live with
Yves d'Alegre, Governor of Issoire. But her conduct and that of her
lover so exasperated the townspeople that, on the following New Year's
Eve, they rose in revolt, stormed the governor's house, and murdered
them both.
QUEEN MARGOT
was not permitted to be her husband in anything but
name. In 1593, she bore the King a son, baptized
Cesar, and, shortly afterwards, at Henri's instigation,
began an action for nullity of marriage before the eccle-
siastical courts, " fondee sur Vincapacite conjugate de
M. de Liancourt" Her suit was successful, and the child,
who was the cause of these proceedings, was duly acknow-
ledged and legitimated by his royal father, and created
Due de Vendome.
After her emancipation, Gabrielle was successively
created Marquise de Monceaux and Duchesse de Beau-
fort, and installed triumphantly as maitresse en litre.
She bore the King another son, called Alexandre and
also legitimated, and a daughter, Catherine Henriette,
afterwards married to the Due d'Elbceuf ; and Henri's
attachment to her grew stronger as time went on, though
Bellegarde, at any rate, continued to be a not unfavoured
rival. " Good-bye, sweetheart," writes the King to
her, from Saint-Denis, on the evening before his abjura-
tion ; " come in good time to-morrow, for it seems to
me a year since I saw you. A thousand kisses for the
hands of my angel and the lips of my dear mistress."
And again : " I am writing to you, my dear love, at the
foot of your picture, which I worship, because it is meant
for you, not because it is like you. I am a competent
judge, since you are painted in all perfection in my
soul, in my heart, and in my eyes."
The portraits of Gabrielle scarcely justify the ex-
travagant terms in which her contemporaries celebrate
her beauty ; but she was undoubtedly a very pretty
woman, with a dazzling complexion, golden hair, and blue
eyes shaded by long lashes. Moreover, she was sweet-
tempered, kind-hearted and affectionate, and probably
35*
QUEEN MARGOT
sincerely attached to the King, notwithstanding her
occasional infidelities. She used her influence with
moderation and to the advantage of others rather than
to their detriment, and conducted herself with such
decorum that even austere Calvinists declared that her
behaviour was " that of a wife rather than of a mistress."
At last, Henri began to entertain serious thoughts
of marrying his Gabrielle, so soon as his inconvenient
consort could be got rid of. Sully relates that at the
time of the Peace of Vervins (May 2, 1598), the King
one day drew him into a garden, and, after carefully
closing the door, approached the delicate subject of
his divorce and re-marriage. The Pope, he was assured
by his Ambassador at Rome, and those about the Papal
Court, was anxious to serve him in the matter of a divorce,
and it therefore behoved him to find a wife without delay.
He then proceeded to enumerate all the marriageable
foreign princesses and French girls of high rank, to each
and all of whom, however, he contrived to discover some
fatal objection as a possible Queen.
" Ah well, Sire," said Sully, " cause all the most beau-
tiful girls in France from seventeen to twenty-five to
be brought together ; converse with them, study their
hearts, study their minds, and finally place yourself in
the hands of matrons of experience in such matters."
The King laughed, and accused his Minister of jesting
at his expense. " What would people say of such an
assembly of girls ? " he remarked. " But be sure that
the wife I seek must, above all, be a sweet-tempered
woman, of good appearance, and likely to bear me
children. Do you know of one who unites all these
qualities ? " The cautious Sully replied that he had
not considered the matter. " Well ! what will you
353 z
QUEEN MARGOT
say if I name her in whom I have found them all ? "
cried the King. " That could not be, unless in the case
of a widow," rejoined the Minister. " Ah ! big fool
that you are, confess that all the conditions I desire I
find in my mistress ! " exclaimed Henri.
Towards the end of 1598, it was generally known that
the King, in spite of the strenuous opposition of Sully
and Mornay, intended to marry the Duchesse de Beaufort.
Such a resolution aroused universal alarm. Gabrielle
had many friends and few enemies, but not even her most
devoted partisans could maintain that her birth and
previous life fitted her to be the Queen of France ; while
it was obvious that the opposing claims of her legitimated
sons, and of those who might be born in wedlock, would
add another element of discord to those already existing.
But it was necessary for Marguerite to sign a new pro-
curation, for the old one was no longer valid. The King,
accordingly, despatched to Usson, Martin Langlois, a
confidant of the Queen, whom she had nominated as
one of her procurators in 1594. '^ > ^ ie favours heaped
on the head of Gabrielle, however, had irritated Mar-
guerite, who had already, it appears, hinted that she
was but little inclined to make way for a mistress, for
Langlois carried with him a letter from Henri IV. " I
always believed," he wrote, " that you would by no
means fail me in what you promised, and that you would
not alter the resolution at which you had arrived. On
my part, I shall not fail in anything which I have promised
you."
Notwithstanding this letter, Langlois experienced
great difficulty in persuading Marguerite to do what
was required of her. " It is repugnant to me," said
she, " to put in my place a woman of such low extraction
354
QUEEN MARGOT
and of so impure a life as the one about whom rumour
speaks." * However, on February 7, 1599, she at length
consented to sign the procuration, and, by a singular
caprice, desired that it should contain a declaration
that her marriage had never been consummated ; but
on this she was, after some difficulty, induced not to
insist.
So soon as the procuration was signed, Henri IV.
despatched an envoy to Rome ; but Clement VIII.
disapproved of his Majesty's choice, less probably on
account of Gabrielle's obvious unsuitability to share a
throne as because she was the intimate friend of the
King's sister Catherine, now Duchesse de Bar, and also
of Louise de Coligny, Teligny's widow, who had married
en secondes noces William the Silent, Prince of Orange.
These two ladies were among the most stubborn heretics
in Europe, and his Holiness did not doubt that, urged
by them, Gabrielle would use all her influence with the
King in favour of their co-religionists. He, therefore,
still refused to dissolve the marriage, sheltering himself
behind the difficulties regarding the succession in which
such a marriage must involve France.
This paternal solicitude for his kingdom did not
deceive Henri IV., who, impatient at the delay, instructed
his representatives at the Vatican to hint that, if the Holj
Father continued contumacious, the Eldest Son of the
1 But she had, nevertheless, condescended to ask favours of " the
woman of impure life " and to regard her as a sister. " I speak to you
freely," she writes to Gabrielle, on February 24, 1597, "as to one
whom I wish to keep as a sister. I have placed so much confidence in
the assurance that you have given me that you love me, that I do not
desire to have any protector but you near the King ; for nothing that
comes from your beautiful mouth can fail to be well received." She
had also, shortly before Langlois's visit, transferred to Gabrielle her
duchy of Etampes.
2S5
QUEEN MARGOT
Church might be tempted to behave in an exceedingly
unfilial manner, and follow the example of his last name-
sake on the throne of England. Whether, with this
threat hanging over him, Clement would eventually
have yielded is a matter of opinion ; but an unexpected
event came to relieve the tension.
At the beginning of April 1599, the Duchesse de
Beaufort, who was enceinte for the fourth time, left
Fontainebleau, where the Court then was, to spend
Easter in Paris. She lodged at the Deanery of Saint-
Germain 1'Auxerrois, with her aunt, Madame de Sourdes,
but on the 6th supped at the house of an Italian financier,
named Zamet, who had risen from a very humble station
to great wealth. The next day, she attended the Tene-
brce at the Couvent du Petit Saint-Antoine, then re-
nowned for its fine music. During the service, she was
taken ill, and was carried to Zamet's house, which was
close to the convent, where she recovered sufficiently
to return home. Next day, although still feeling unwell,
she attended Mass at Saint-Germain-!' Auxerrois. Here,
however, she was again taken ill, and on returning to
her relative 's house, fell into violent convulsions. On
the 9th, she gave birth to a still-born child, after which
the surgeons, who attended her, proceeded to bleed the
unfortunate woman four times ! The consequence was
that poor Gabrielle died the following morning (April 10);
the only wonder is that she did not die before ! The
public, learning that she had taken ill shortly after supping
with Zamet, persisted in the belief that she had been
poisoned Italians bore a sinister reputation in those
days, and, indeed, down to a very much later period
but this theory is now generally discredited.
The King was prostrated with grief at the loss of his
356
QUEEN MARGOT
mistress. " My affliction," he wrote to his sister Cather-
ine, " is incomparable, like the subject which is the cause
of it. Regrets and tears will accompany me to the tomb.
The root of my love is dead, and will never put forth
another branch." However, as we shall presently see,
he was not long in finding consolation.
When with Gabrielle had disappeared the great obstacle
to a divorce, petitions poured in from all parts of the
kingdom, begging the King to marry again. Deputations
from the Parlements, the municipal bodies, and the
religious corporations waited upon his Majesty to present
addresses, in which were pointed out the advantages of
a new union, which might procure him successors, and
thus assure the tranquillity of the realm. While Henri's
representatives at Rome redoubled their efforts to induce
Clement VIII. to annul his marriage with Marguerite,
his Ministers, undeterred by the many evils of which a
Florentine marriage had before been the cause, opened
negotiations with the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the
hand of his niece, Marie, daughter of his brother and
predecessor, Francisco de' Medici. Marie de' Medici was
twenty-five, with a sufficiency of good looks to satisfy
a not too exacting husband, and the prospect of a rich
dowry. Moreover, she was the niece of the Pope, a
circumstance which would doubtless induce his Holiness
to expedite the divorce.
Matters, for a time, went smoothly. On July 29,
1599, Marguerite ratified the procuration of the previous
February, and nominated as her procurators, Martin
Langlois and Edouard Mole, councillor to the Parle-
ment. She further declared that, for reasons already
known, she neither believed that she had contracted a
357
QUEEN MARGOT
valid marriage, nor regarded the King as her husband ;
that, moreover, she was no longer young enough to give
him successors, and begged his permission to address
herself to the Pope and to other ecclesiastical judges to
cause their union to be annulled. This document was
at once despatched to Rome, and, on September 24,
Clement, having no longer to fear the influence of
Gabrielle d'Estrees and her Huguenot friends, delegated
the Cardinal de Joyeuse, the Bishop of Modena the
Papal Nuncio at the French Court and Horace Montan,
Archbishop of Aries, " to inquire into the affair."
On October 15, the inquiry was opened at the Louvre,
in the presence of La Guesle, the <pTOcureuT-general, and
the two procurators appointed by the Queen, when
Henri IV. was interrogated. Marguerite, at her own
request, was examined at Usson, not by the commissioners,
but by Berthier, the syndic of the clergy. " Never,"
said she to him, " did I consent willingly to this marriage.
I was forced into it by King Charles IX. and the Queen
my mother. I besought them with copious tears ; but
the King threatened me, that if I did not consent, I
should be the most unhappy woman in his realm.
Although I had never been able to entertain any affection
for the King of Navarre, and said and repeated that it was
my desire to wed another prince, I was compelled to obey."
And she added, " To my profound regret, conjugal
affection did not exist between us during the seven
months which preceded my husband's flight in 1575 ;
although we occupied the same couch, we never spoke
to one another." *
If we are to believe the historian Dupleix, a writer,
however, very hostile to Marguerite, Henri IV., on
1 Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Frar^ais, published by La Ferriere.
35*
QUEEN MARGOT
receiving the report of his wife's interrogatory from
Berthier, was unable to restrain his tears. " Ah ! the
wretched woman," cried he, " she knows well that I
have always loved and honoured her, and that she
cared nothing for me, and that her bad behaviour has
for a long time been the cause of our separation." l
On November 10, 1599, the Papal commissioners
declared the marriage of Henri and Marguerite null and
void, d,e facto et de jure ; on December 17, the dissolution
was confirmed by the Parlement, on account of blood
relationship, " spiritual affinity," 2 violence, and the
failure of one of the parties to consent to it, and on the
22nd, the decree was proclaimed "solemnly and publicly,"
with open doors, in the Church of Saint-Germain
1'Auxerrois.
On the day following the confirmation of the divorce
by the Parlement, Henri IV. despatched the Comte de
Beaumont to Usson to announce the fact to Marguerite,
and to hand her the following letter :
HENRI IV. to MARGUERITE.
" MY SISTER, The persons delegated by our very holy
father to decide upon the nullity of our marriage, having
at length pronounced their decision to our common
desire and satisfaction, I did not wish to defer longer
visiting you on such an occasion, both to inform you
of it on my part, and to renew the assurances of my
affection for you. Meanwhile, I am sending to you
1 Histoire de Henri IV. , p. 384.
2 Henri II. 's, Marguerite's father, had stood godfather to Henri of
Navarre, in 1554. The argument was that this spiritual affinity had
required a special Papal dispensation, and that that sent by Gregory XIII.,
in October 1572, only applied to the blood relationship.
359
QUEEN MARGOT
the Sire de Beaumont expressly to perform this service,
whom I have commanded to tell you, my sister, that if
God has permitted the tie of our union to be dissolved,
His divine justice has done it as much for our private
repose as for the public welfare of the realm. I desire
you also to believe that I do not intend to cherish and
love you the less, on account of what has taken place,
than I did heretofore ; but, on the contrary, that I
intend to exercise more solicitude than ever in regard to
everything which concerns you, and to make you recognise,
on all occasions, that I do not intend to be henceforth
your brother merely in name, but also in deed. . . .
Further,! am very satisfied with the frankness and candour
of your prudence, and I trust that God will bless the rest
of our days, by a fraternal friendship accompanied by
a public felicity, which will render them very happy.
Console yourself then, I beg you, my sister, in the ex-
pectation of both, with the assurance that I give you
of contributing on my side everything which you have
the right to expect, and which will be in the power of
your affectionate brother."
To which letter Marguerite replied :
MARGUERITE to HENRI IV.
" MONSEIGNEUR, Your Majesty, in imitation of the
gods, does not rest content with overwhelming his
creatures with benefits and favours, but designs further
to consider and console them in their affliction. This
honour, which is the proof of his benevolence, is so great
that it cannot be equalled, except by the infinite willing-
ness wherewith I have devoted myself to his service. I
do not require, on this occasion, less consolation, for,
360
QUEEN MARGOT
although it may be easy to console oneself for the loss
of some of Fortune's benefits, respect alone for the
merit of a King so perfect and so valorous must deprive
one of all consolation ; and it is the mark of the generosity
of a noble soul to preserve an eternal regret, such as
would be mine, were it not that the happiness which it
pleases him to make me feel, in assuring me of his favour
and protection, did not banish it, to transform my com-
plaining into praise of his goodness, and of the favours
which it pleases him to confer upon me, wherewith your
Majesty will never honour any one who acknowledges
them with so much reverence, by the very humble and
very faithful services, which render me worthy to be
deemed by your Majesty his very humble and affectionate
servant, sister, and subject."
By letters patent, dated December 29, 1599, Henri IV.
preserved to Marguerite the title of Queen and Duchesse
de Valois, and confirmed her and her successors in the
enjoyment of tke domains of the Agenais, Condom ois,
and Rouergue, and, in short, in all the lands that con-
stituted her dowry and the donations of 1582.
The King was divorced, but he was not yet re-married.
While his Ministers were haggling with the Duke of
Tuscany over the price at which their master should sell
his hand, his Majesty had once more lost the heart which
he had fondly imagined was buried in poor Gabrielle's
grave. Scarcely two months after his mistress's death,
his love to borrow his own expression had " put forth
another branch," and one that threatened to bear fruit
of a most embarrassing kind.
On his way from Fontainebleau to Blois, in June 1599,
361
QUEEN MARGOT
Henri had broken his journey at the Chateau of Males-
herbes, where resided Francois de Balzac d'Entragues,
Governor of Orleans, who had married Marie Touchet,
the mistress of Charles IX., and the mother of Charles
de Valois, Comte d'Angoule'me, to whom Catherine de'
Medici had bequeathed her county of Auvergne, to
the exclusion of Marguerite. By her marriage with
d'Entragues,' Marie had three children, of whom one, a
daughter, named Henriette, made so great an impres-
sion on the quasi-widower that he was quite unable to
tear himself away, and when at length he quitted
Malesherbes, it was to accompany his new charmer and
her mother to Paris.
Henriette was not strictly beautiful ; but she was
witty, vivacious, and charming. Though but eighteen,
she was very much alive to her own interests, and, coun-
selled by her parents, determined that the brilliant destiny
of which death had deprived her predecessor in the royal
affections should be hers. The enamoured monarch
loaded her with costly gifts, and employed every argu-
ment he could think of to overcome her resistance ;
but the lady was adamant, until, in despair, he placed
in her hands the following remarkable document :
" We, Henri, by the Grace of God, King of France
and Navarre, promise and swear before God and by
our faith and kingly word to Monsieur Francois de
Balzac, Sieur d'Entragues, &c. &c., that he, giving us
to be our consort (pour compagne) demoiselle Henriette
Catherine de Balzac, his daughter, provided that within
six months from the present date she become pregnant
and bear us a son, that forthwith we will take her to wife
and publicly marry her in the face of Holy Church, in
accordance with the solemnities required in such cases."
362
QUEEN MARGOT
The document given to Henriette was not the original
copy. That had been submitted by the King to Sully,
who promptly tore it up before his Majesty's eyes. " I
think you must be mad ! " exclaimed Henri, astonished
at such boldness. " Would to God, Sire, I was the only
madman in France ! " exclaimed the privileged Minister.
He then proceeded to give his master some very wholesome
advice, to which Henri listened somewhat crestfallen.
However, it had no effect, for, the moment Sully had
finished, the King gathered up the torn pieces of paper
and retired to his cabinet to draw up a fresh promise,
which he duly handed to his enchantress, who carried
it about in her pocket, and triumphantly exhibited it
to all her friends.
Once more, however, the unexpected came to save
the situation. One night, the room in which the sultana
now become Marquise de Verneuil lay was struck
by lightning. The shock caused a miscarriage, and the
King, holding himself released from his promise, there-
upon decided to formally demand the hand of Marie
de' Medici. On October 6, 1600, Bellegarde, acting as
proxy for his master, married her at Florence ; at the
beginning of the following December, she arrived in
France, and on September 27, 1601, gave birth to the
much desired Dauphin, the future Louis XIII.
363
CHAPTER XXIV
Last years of Marguerite at Usson Conspiracy of the Comte
d'Auvergne and the d'Entragues Marguerite commences a
lawsuit against the count, over the estates bequeathed to him
by Catherine She leaves Usson to take up her residence at
the Chateau of Madrid, at Boulogne-sur-Seine Her arrival
in Paris Interview with the King at the Chateau of Madrid
She receives a visit from the Dauphin Her reception by
their Majesties at the Louvre Her relations with the Royal
Family She takes up her residence at the H6tel de Sens
Assassination of her favourite, Saint-Julien She removes to
Issy, gains her lawsuit, and builds a magnificent h6tel in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain Her patronage of men-of-letters
She organises fetes for Marie de' Medici Her toilettes
criticised from the pulpit Her favourite, Bajaumont Her
charity Her benefactions to the Augustines Coronation of
Marie de' Medici Assassination of Henri IV. by Ravaillac
Marguerite's discreet conduct during the Regency Splendid
ball given by her in August 1612 Her last years and death
Her character variously estimated.
FOR nearly five years after her divorce from Henri IV.,
Marguerite remained at Usson, although the King had
given her permission to reside where she pleased, with
the exception of Paris and its environs, doubtless being
of opinion that, both for political and domestic reasons,
it might be as well if his discarded consort did not appear
in the capital, at least for some time to come. During
these years, she and Henri corresponded frequently,
and always in affectionate terms, addressing one another
as brother and sister. There were, however, occasional
364
QUEEN MARGOT
little misunderstandings on financial matters, and Mar-
guerite was highly indignant when Aiguillon was erected
into a durhy, for the benefit of the Due de Mayenne,
and to the prejudice of her own rights as Comtesse
d'Agenais. " To my superior, to whom I owe every-
thing, I have surrendered everything," she writes.
" To my inferiors, to whom I owe nothing, I surrender
nothing." In consequence of her protests, a compromise
was effected ; Aiguillon remained a duchy, but the
princess retained all the rights and privileges she had
formerly possessed there.
As the years went by, Marguerite began to grow weary
of her mountain chateau, whose isolation, so great an
advantage during the turmoil of the civil wars, now
appeared to her in quite another light, and to cast about
her for a pretext for returning to Paris and the gay world
from which she had been so long separated. Nor had
she far to seek. Implicated in the conspiracy of Biron, 1
the cowardly and cunning Charles de Valois, Comte
d'Angouleme, who, since Catherine's bequest, had
assumed the title of Comte d'Auvergne, had been par-
doned, but, two years later, he, together with his step-
father, d'Entragues, and his half-sister, Madame de
Verneuil, were actively intriguing with Spain. All three
were arrested (June 1604), and a voluminous corre-
spondence between the conspirators and the Court of
Madrid discovered, containing proposals for the assassina-
tion of Henri IV. and a promise signed by Philip III.
to recognise Henriette's son as heir to the French throne,
in the event of the King's death. To save his life,
1 Charles de Gontaut, son of the old marshal who had blockaded
Ne"rac during the " Lovers' War." He was beheaded in front of the
Bastille, July 31, 1602.
365
QUEEN MARGOT
d'Entragues surrendered the famous promise of marriage
which Henri IV. had given his daughter five years before,
and, though found guilty of high treason, he was released,
as was Henriette, while the Comte d'Auvergne was sent
to the Bastille, where he remained eleven years.
Marguerite, who had conceived a not unnatural
antipathy to the nephew who had supplanted her, had
watched that gentleman's proceedings in Auvergne very
closely, and, as early as March 1600, had written to the
King, warning him to be on his guard against him. She
now seized the occasion of his disgrace to beg Henri's
permission to lay claim before the Parlement of Paris
to the estates which Catherine had bequeathed him.
Catherine, it appeared, had really had no power to
alienate her property from her family, since one of the
clauses of her marriage-contract stipulated that, on her
death, her estates should pass to her sons, and, in default of
sons,. to her daughters. The King authorised Marguerite
to plead, and, in return, she promised that, if successful,
she would bequeath the property to the Dauphin.
Under the pretext of being near at hand during the
progress of her suit, she next sought Henri's permission
to leave Usson and take up her residence at the Chateau
of Madrid, at Boulogne-sur-Seine. 1 This request was
also granted, the more readily, since she had warned
the King that she was in possession of some important
information affecting the welfare of the State. As a
matter of fact, Marguerite, with a skill and persistency
not unworthy of her mother, had contrived to penetrate
1 The Chateau of Madrid was a residence of the Valois family
iituated on the banks of the Seine, on the borders of the Bois de
Boulogne. It had been built by Fran9ois I., from designs by Bernard
de Palissy, on the King's release from his captivity in Spain. Hence
its name.
366
QUEEN MARGOT
the designs of her old admirer, Turenne, now Due de
Bouillon, whose conspiracy was the continuation of
those of Biron and the Comte d'Auvergne.
The princess quitted Usson, which had been her home
for nearly twenty years, at the beginning of July 1605,
escorted to the boundary of the province by nearly all
the chief nobles of Auvergne. At Cercottes, near
Orleans, she was met by Sully, on his way to preside over
a Huguenot assembly which was about to meet at Chatel-
lerault. Marguerite acquainted him with what she
had learned concerning Bouillon's intrigues ; but the
Minister appears to have been somewhat incredulous,
and wrote to the King that what she had told him
" contained as much falseness as truth." 1 However, the
princess's information was confirmed from other quarters,
and Henri lost no time in taking energetic measures
against Bouillon, who was forced to sue for pardon.
The King, still somewhat uneasy as to the effect of
the return of his first wife to the capital, would have
preferred if she had stopped at Chenonceaux and there
taken up her residence, in which case he expressed his
willingness to purchase it from the Duchesse de Mercoeur,
to whom the chateau belonged. 2 But Marguerite had
set her heart on Boulogne ; and, after the proofs of her
zeal for his service which she had just given, Henri felt
that it would be ungracious to refuse her, and determined
to give her a reception worthy of her rank. On hei
arrival at Longjumeau, on July 15, she was met by
Diane de France, natural daughter of Henri II. and
1 Sully, (Economies royales.
2 Chenonceaux had been bequeathed by Catherine to Henri III.'s
Queen, Louise de Vaudemont, who bestowed it on the Due de Vendome,
but it had lately passed into the possession of the Duchesse de
Mercocur.
367
QUEEN MARGOT
Philippe des Dues, and widow en second.es noces of Francis,
Marechal de Montmorency, who accompanied her as
far as the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. In crossing from
the left to the right bank of the Seine, the Queen appears
to have been much struck by the improvements which
had been executed in Paris since that August day, twenty-
two years since, when she had quitted it in such an agony
of shame, at the bidding of her malevolent brother.
What a change had taken place in the fortunes of her
family since then ! Henri, Anjou, and Catherine were
dead ; a new dynasty dwelt in the palace of her ancestors,
and she re-entered Paris as the last legitimate repre-
sentative of the once great House of Valois !
A link with the past awaited her on the steps of the
Chateau of Madrid. It was none other than her old
lover, Harlay de Chanvallon, who had come with the
young Due de Vendome, Henri IV.'s eldest son by
Gabrielle d'Estrees, and the Seigneurs de Roquelaure
et de Chateauvieux, Marie de' Medici's chevalier d'honneur,
to bid her welcome in the name of their Majesties.
Dupleix declares that the presence of Chanvallon, " lequel
elle avoit autrefois plus aime qu? elle ne devoit" coupled
with that of a natural son of the King, was not considered
in good taste. But, however that may be, Marguerite
seems to have been very pleased with her reception,
and the following day wrote a very flattering letter to
Henri IV., thanking him for his attentions, and expressing
herself greatly delighted with M. de Vendome. " It
is easy to see," she writes, " that he is of royal birth,
since he is as beautiful in person as he is in advance of
his age in intelligence. I believe that God has given
him to your Majesty, in order that you may receive from
him some great service and satisfaction. I was never
368
QUEEN MARGOT
more enchanted than whilst admiring this marvel of
childhood, so full of wisdom and of serious conversation.
In truth, this royal creation is worthy of your Majesty,
wko never produces anything, either animate or inanimate,
which is not out of the common way." 1
A week later, Henri IV. himself came to visit the
princess. " If," remarks M. de la Ferriere, " he had not
expected to see Marguerite again, he would have been
able to ask the same question as that Russian diplomatist,
the Baron de M . . . who, separated from his baroness,
who had resided in Paris for more than twenty years,
and seeing her enter a drawing-room in St. Petersburg,
whispered to the lady of the house : ' Who is that fat old
woman ? ' ' That is your wife,' was the smiling reply."
Time, indeed, had dealt hardly with Marguerite de
Valois. When she had parted from her husband at Nerac,
in March 1585, she had been still almost in the zenith
of her beauty ; now when they met again, after their
long separation, she was in her fifty- third year, and nothing
was left of the charms which had captivated so many
hearts, save her magnificent eyes, which still sparkled
with all their old-time vivacity. In place of her abundant
locks, dark as the raven's wing, which she had prematurely
lost, she wore an enormous coiffure of flaxen hair " half
a foot higher than the coiffures then in vogue " As
for her figure, once so slender and graceful, though
Tallemant des Reaux is probably guilty of exaggeration
when he describes her as " horribly stout," a portrait
painted of her in the autumn of that same year, shows
that she had developed a very decided tendency to
embonpoint, while her features had become distinctly
coarse.
The King, who had arrived at seven o'clock in the
1 Memolres et lettres de Marguerite de Valo'u (edit. Guessard).
369 2 A
QUEEN MARGOT
evening, remained until after ten L'Estoile reports
that, before taking his leave, he made two requests of
his " sister " : the first, that, for the sake of her health,
she should cease turning night into day, and day into
night ; the second, that she should place some bounds
to her liberality and be a little less lavish in her expendi-
ture. To which the princess replied that, at her age, it
was difficult to change her habits, and that her generous
instincts were inherited, and that it was impossible for
her not to yield to them.
Marguerite, having expressed herself very anxious
to see the Dauphin, the King sent him to visit her on
August 6. She was taking the air in her litter on the
Rueil road when the little prince appeared in Marie de'
Medici's coach. On perceiving the Queen's litter,
he alighted, while Marguerite did the same. When they
were a few paces from one another, the Dauphin raised
his hat, and exclaimed : " Vous soyez la bien venue^
maman ma fille ! " by which title he had been instructed
to address her. Then, hastening forward, he embraced
her, and Marguerite, in returning his kiss, said : " How
handsome you are ! You have certainly the royal air
of commanding, as you will do one day." On the
morrow, Madame de Lansac, her dame d'honneur, brought
to the Dauphin, from her mistress, a little figure of a
Cupid, with diamond eyes, seated on a dolphin made
of emeralds, and a little scimitar, the hilt of which was
studded with jewels. She offered, at the same time,
to Henri's little daughter Elisabeth (afterwards Queen
of Spain), a head-band of diamonds, and a gilded vase
and basin to the Dauphin's nurse. 1
On August 28, Marguerite was received by their
Journal de J. Heroard.
370
QUEEN MARGOT
Majesties, at the Louvre, in the midst of a crowd of
curious courtiers. Henri IV. advanced to the centre of
the courtyard to meet his ex-consort, and led her by the
hand to present her to Marie de' Medici, who had re-
mained at the foot of the grand staircase. Regarding,
as she did, her predecessor with far from a friendly eye,
the Queen had declined to advance any further, although
the King had reminded her sharply that to a princess
of Marguerite's illustrious birth the very highest honours
were due
The meeting between these two women invested
with the same title, must have been decidedly piquant,
and provoked inevitable comparisons. These, it would
appear, were altogether to Marguerite's advantage,
for while the Medici seemed confused and ill at ease,
the Valois princess exhibited the perfect dignity and
charming courtesy which were naturally hers ; and public
sympathy was almost entirely on her side.
Henri IV., as we have mentioned, had been somewhat
doubtful as to the wisdom of permitting Marguerite
to return to the capital, but none of his fears were
realised. On the contrary, far from seeking to foment
discord, the princess came with an olive branch in her
hand, and it was largely due to her influence that several
of the old nobility who had hitherto held aloof from
the new dynasty became reconciled to it.
Shortly after her reception at the Louvre, the King
invited Marguerite to spend some days with the Royal
Family at Saint-Germain. She accepted, and a friendly
intimacy was quickly established between her and the
new menage. Now that they were no longer husband
and wife, Henri and Marguerite were the best of friends,
and the King, who had always entertained a very high
37i
QUEEN MARGOT
opinion of the princess's intelligence, would seem to
have consulted her frequently on important matters.
Marie de' Medici, too, finding that she had nothing
to fear from the woman she had supplanted, yielded to
the charm of Marguerite's society, and Heroard relates,
in his Journa 1 ^ that one morning he saw the ex-Queen
on her knees beside her successor's bed, on which sat
Henri IV. with the Dauphin, who was playing with a
little dog.
The Princes of the Blood, the Ambassadors of all the
Powers, and the great nobles came to the Bois de Boulogne
to pay homage to the princes* ; but Marguerite soon
grew tired of the Chateau of Madrid, and, profiting by
the amicable relations she had established with the King
and Queen, demanded and obtained permission to take
up her residence in Paris itself. In December 1605,
she rented the Hotel de Sens, 1 situated in the Rue du
Figuier, at the corner of the Rue de la Mortellerie, where
she surrounded herself with a little Court of poets,
musicians, savants, and theologians.
But here, too, her sojourn was but a brief one ; for,
i This h&tel, which had been built, in 1475, by Tristan de Salzagar,
and enlarged, under Francois I., by Cardinal du Prat, was the official
residence of the Archbishop of Sens, Metropolitan of Paris, until
Paris was made an archbishopric in 1622. At this period, it was occu
pied by Renaud de Baune, Primate and Grand Almoner of France
L'Estoile tells us that the piquancy of a princess with so great a re
putation for gallantry installing herself in an archbishop's palace did
not escape the notice of the rhymesters of the day ; and one fine
morning, the following verses were found posted on the door :
" Comme reine tu devras etre
En ta royale maison ;
Comme putain, c'est bien raison
Qu tu loge au logis d'un pretrc."
372
QUEEN MARGOT
in less than four months, a most tragic event decided
her to quit the Hotel de Sens.
Among the members of Marguerite's suite was a
youth of some twenty summers, the son of one Date,
a carpenter of Aries, who, as we have mentioned else-
where, had, since entering her Majesty's service, blos-
somed into a Sieur de Saint-Julien. This Saint-Julien,
if we are to believe the chroniclers of the time, was
passionately beloved by his royal mistress, 1 though
perhaps, as a charitable biographer suggests, her affection
for him may have been " merely platonic and maternal."
However that may be, he stood on the very pinnacle of
favour, and was regarded with envy and hatred by his less
fortunate colleagues. One of these rivals, Vermont by
name, either because he was jealous of the privileges
which Saint-Julien enjoyed or, more probably, because
he believed that the favourite had used his influence
with the Queen to procure the disgrace of certain mem-
bers of his family, suspected of having aided the Comte
d'Auvergne's intrigues, swore to be avenged. Nor was
his vow an idle one, for, on the morning of April 5, 1606,
at the very moment when Saint-Julien was assisting Mar-
guerite to alight from her coach, on her return from
hearing Mass at the Celestines, he stepped forward, and,
levelling a pistol, shot him dead.
The assassin endeavoured to escape, but was pursued
and overtaken near the Porte Saint-Denis. The bereaved
princess, beside herself with rage and grief, vowed that
she would neither eat nor drink until justice had been
done, and forthwith wrote to the King the following
letter :
1 " . . . Saint Julien, kquel ladite Roine aimoit paaionement?
L'Estoile.
373
QUEEN MARGOT
MARGUERITE to HENRI IV.
April 5, 1606.
" MONSEIGNEUR, An assassination has just been com-
mitted, at the door of my hotel, before my eyes, opposite
my coach, by a son of Vermont, who has shot with a pistol
one of my gentlemen named Saint- Julien. I beg your
Majesty very humbly to order justice to be done, and
not to be pleased to pardon him. If this crime is not
punished, no one will be able to live in security. I beg
your Majesty very humbly to be pleased that the assassin
should be punished."
The King sent orders for Vermont to be brought to
trial without an hour's delay ; and he was condemned
to death, and executed the following morning, in front
of the Hotel de Sens, " declaring aloud," writes L'Estoile,
" that he cared not about dying, since he had accom-
plished his purpose."
From a window of her hotel Marguerite witnessed
the execution ; but she had presumed too much upon
her strength, and, being taken ill during the night,
resolved to leave without delay the Hotel de Sens, which,
she felt, must henceforth hold for her such tragic memo-
ries. Accordingly, a day or two later, she removed from
the Rue du Figuier to a house at Issy, belonging to a
wealthy goldsmith named La Haye, pursued by the
malicious verses in which the Parisians of those days
took so much delight .
" La Reine Venus demi-morte
De voir mourir (levant sa porte
Son Adonis, son cher amour
Pour vengeance a devant sa porte
Fait d6faire en la meme place
L'assassin presque au me'me jour."
374
QUEEN MARGOT
Soon after the tragic end of Saint-Julien, 1 the princess
gained her lawsuit against the Comte d'Auvergne, and
was adjudged the rightful owner of the counties of Au-
vergne and Clermont, and the rest of the estates of
Catherine. She at once executed a deed conveying
them to the Dauphin, with the condition, however,
that the estates in question should be reunited to the
Crown, and should never again be alienated. She
reserved the revenues to herself during her life-time,
but, shortly afterwards, surrendered them, in return for
a handsome pension.
This augmentation of her income enabled her to
purchase the house at Issy, where she caused a good
many improvements to be executed, and laid out some
charming gardens. But, though she remained at Issy
until late in the following winter, through fear of the
plague, which was devastating Paris, she used it hence-
forth merely as a summer residence, and acquired on the
left bank of the Seine, facing the Louvre, a large plot
of jiland, part of which belonged to the University,
and part to the " Freres de la Charite," 2 where she
proceeded to construct a magnificent hotel. She also
purchased part of the old Pre-aux-Clercs, the scene
of so many duels, which she converted into an immense
park, extending as far as what is now the Rue des
Saints-Peres.
In this hotel, which was finally completed in 1608,
the old Queen spent the last years of her life, paying
1 She commissioned the poet Francois Maynard to commemorate
Saint-Julien's death in verses, wherein the ill-fated youth figures under
the name of Damon.
* Founded by Jean de Dieu. They devoted themselves to minuter-
ing to the sick poor, ami were skilled in surgery and medicine.
375
QUEEN MARGOT
however, occasional visits to Issy, her chateau at Boulogne
sur-Seine, and the royal residences around Paris. The
friendship which she showed for men-of-letters, savants,
and musicians, drew many of them around her, amongst
whom may be mentioned Francois Maynard whom
she made her secretary Porcheres, Garnier, and the
moralist Pilhard. It was her custom, Etienne Pasquier
tells us, to invite three or four of her literary proteges
to dinner or supper almost every day, propose to them
some subject of discussion, and encourage each to state
his views at length ; she herself joining freely in the
debate, as she delighted to show that her intellect had
lost none of its keenness. 1 Her hotel, however, resembled
a Court far more than the residence of a private individual,
for she always lived en souveraine, and abated nothing
of the ceremonial to which she had been accustomed.
She does not seem to have regretted the place which
she had ceded to another, and remained on the best
of terms with Marie de' Medici. It was to her predeces-
sor, who remembered the magnificent fetes given by
Catherine, that the new Queen had recourse when she
intended to organise some particularly great reception.
Thus her Majesty begged Marguerite's assistance when
she wished to receive, according to the etiquette of the
Valois Court, Don Pedro de Toledo, Constable of
Castile and Ambassador of Philip III., and, in January
1609, we hear of a great Court reception being post-
poned for a week, owing to the illness of Queen Mar-
guerite, " Vorganisatrice et la maitresse veritable" When
it took place, after a ball at the Arsenal, their Majes-
ties adjourned to Marguerite's hotel, where they were
1 Etienne Pasquier, Lettres, ii. 761. M. Charles Merki, L-a Reine
Margot et la Jin det Vahis, p. 421.
376
QUEEN MARGOT
entertained to a superb " collation," which was said to
have cost 4000 ecus, and at which appeared three silver
dishes, " one of which bore an orange-tree, another a
lemon-tree, and a third a pomegranate-tree, so dex-
terously and cleverly imitated and disguised that no
one could tell that they were not real plants."
The princess stood godmother to Henri's second son
Gaston, Due d'Orleans, and seems to have been much
attached to the royal children, and, in particular to
the Dauphin. Writing to Henri IV., during his absence
from Paris, in May 1606, she informs him that she has
had the honour of kissing the hand of Monsieur le
Dauphin, and that he and Mesdames [the princesses]
are growing in stature and beauty, especially the Dauphin,
"who bears upon his countenance, and in all his royal
actions, the true imprint of what he is."
Although her figure had become so unwieldy that,
according to Tallemant des Reaux, " it y avait bien
des portes ou elle ne pouvait passer," she still desired
to be young, and refused to renounce the toilettes of
her youth ; and such had once been her fame as a leader
of the mode that she still found imitators. " To-day,"
writes L'Estoile, under date March 10, 1610, " the
preacher at Notre-Dame, Suffren by name, a Jesuit, dis-
coursing in his sermon on the dissoluteness and licentious-
ness of women, declared that there was not in all Paris
one so little coquettish, that she did not show her bosom,
following the example of Queen Marguerite." Then,
as though desirous of taking back his words (which were
judged for a man of intelligence, such as he was, to have
been spoken with too little discretion), having paused for
a moment, he went on to say, that he " had no intention
to criticise Queen Marguerite, and that many things
377
QUEEN MARGOT
were permissible for queens which were forbidden to
others." l
And she still continued to have her favourites. The
succession to the post of the defunct Saint-Julien was
for some little time in dispute, but, at length, victory
remained with a youth named Bajaumont. Marguerite,
however, appears to have brought misfortune to those who
basked in her smiles, and, like the mignons of Henri III.,
they nearly all met with premature and violent deaths :
La Mole and d'Aubiac on the scaffold ; Bussy, Guise,
the hapless apothecary of Carlat, and Saint-Julien at
the hands of the assassin ; though in the case of Bussy and
of Guise their tragic ends were, of course, unconnected
with their intimacy with the Queen. The new favourite
was more fortunate, but, nevertheless, had to defend
his life with his sword against one Loue, the son of an
advocate of Bordeaux, who, one day, made a murderous
attack upon him in the Church of the Augustines. Fearful
lest Bajaumont might share the fate of his predecessor
in her affections, Marguerite caused his assailant to be
arrested and shut up in For I'Eve'que, to cool his blood.
But soon death threatened Bajaumont in another form,
and he fell dangerously ill. The old Queen was in
despair, and Henri IV. came to comfort her. It would
appear that his ex-consort had contrived to extract from
him considerable sums for the construction of her hotel,
for when, on taking his departure, the King passed
through a room where several of Marguerite's maids-of-
honour were sitting, " he begged them all to pray for
the convalescence of Bajaumont, and that he would give
them New Year's gifts. ' For, if he were to die/ said
he ; ' venire Saint-Gris ! it would cost me a great deaj
1 Journal de Henri IV.
378
QUEEN MARGOT
more, since I should have to buy her [Marguerite] a
new house, in place of this one, where she would never
consent to remain.' " l
Bajaumont recovered, but, instead of being grateful
for the solicitude of his royal mistress, would appear to
have presumed on her favour, for, on May 10, 1607, we
find Henri IV. writing to Marie de' Medici : " I have
no news, save that yesterday Marguerite chastised Bajau-
mont, and that he intends to leave her." However,
they were reconciled, and in September 1609, L'Estoile
reports that Bajaumont had again been taken ill, but had
recovered, " more owing to the kindness of his mistress
than the skill of his doctor."
Notwithstanding these follies they were probably
nothing worse Marguerite seems to have spent much of
her time in serious reflection and devotion, while her
charity was boundless. She dispensed large sums in
founding and endowing hospitals, convents, churches,
and colleges. Mathieu de Morgues estimates her gifts
to the religious Orders at 120,000 livres a year, without
counting her private alms, which she distributed with
lavish hand, though with, it is to be feared, more generosity
than discretion ; " because," says Richelieu, " she pre-
ferred to give to an undeserving person than to fail to
give to one who was deserving." 2 Each year she devoted
a considerable sum to providing poor girls with the
1 L'Estoile, Journal de Henri IV. M. de Saint-Poncy is very angry
with L'Estoile, whom he accuses of shamefully maligning his heroine ;
and there can be no doubt that the worthy diarist was rather prone to
jot down picturesque anecdotes without troubling himself to verify
them.
2 Me moires du Cardinal de Richelieu.
379
QUEEN MARGOT
indispensable dot, another to assisting struggling artists
and men-of-letters, political refugees, and indigent
foreigners. At Easter, on Ascension Day, on Whit-
Sunday, at Christmas, and on her birthday (May 14),
she distributed a hundred gold crowns and as many
loaves of bread to a hundred poor persons. She supported
entirely eleven hundred poor, and forty refugee Catholic
priests from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and dis-
tributed money every day, at the gate of her hotel, on
her return from Mass ; while each Holy Week she made
a tour of the hospitals of Paris, and distributed between
three and four thousand coverlets. 1
Although all the religious Orders participated in her
bounty, the Augustines were her favourites. In the
park attached to her hotel in the Faubourg Saint-
Germain, she built a chapel for the Augustins dechausses?
and employed the best artists of the time in the
decoration of its interior. The first stone was laid by the
princess on March 21, 1608, and in July 1610, she
commenced building them a convent and a large church.
But the Augustins dechausses did not fulfil certain
conditions which their benefactress had imposed upon
them, so, early in the year 1613, Marguerite, having
appealed to the Pope, ejected them, in spite of their
protestations, and replaced them by the Petits- Augustins ,
though she did not live to see the completion of her
work. The Petits- Augustins occupied their convent
* Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Histoire de Marguerite de Valois, ii. 511,
et seq.
* There were at this period in Paris four Augustine convents, two on
the right and two on the left bank of the Seine : the Vieux Augustins,
on the Quai Saint-Eustache ; the Augustins dechausses, called the Petlts-
Peres; the Grands Augustins in the Quartier Saint-Andre des Arcs, and
the Petits Augustins.
380
QUEEN MARGOT
until the Revolution, when they were expelled. In
1820, the cloister, which had, in the meanwhile, been
converted into a museum, was demolished. Its site
is now occupied by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
In the spring of 1610, the preparations for a general
attack on the possessions of the House of Austria,
which Henri IV. had so long been meditating, were
completed. The King himself intended to take com-
mand of the army which was to operate on the Rhine,
in conjunction with the Protestant princes of Germany
and, on March 20, he signed an Ordinance appointing
Marie de' Medici Regent of the kingdom during his
absence. To add to the security and dignity of her
position and make her claim to the Regency, in the event
of her husband's death, more indisputable, Marie urged
him to allow her to be crowned Queen of France. To
this Henri consented, and the coronation took place
at Saint-Denis, with great splendour, on May 13.
Marguerite was invited to assist at the ceremony.
She would have preferred to absent herself, for it was
difficult for her to view without some heartburnings
the final triumph of the woman who had supplanted
her. But Henri, being of opinion that her presence
would be regarded, so to speak, as the consecration of
the new dynasty, pressed her so hard that she finally
consented to attend. Her dignity was, however, somewhat
ruffled by the fact that, though she was permitted to
wear a crown, her claim to a mantle entirely covered
with fleurs-de-lys, similar to that worn by Marie de'
Medici, was not allowed, and, still more, when
Henri IV.'s little nine-year-old daughter Elisabeth
was given precedence of her in the Queen's procession.
Both princesses were attired as Daughters of France,
381
QUEEN MARGOT
in bodices of cloth-of-silver, with tippets of ermine
ornamented with jewels, and royal mantles of violet
velvet lined with ermine and bordered by two rows of
fleurs-de-lys. The train of Marguerite's magnificent
mantle, which she subsequently presented to the Church
of Saint-Sulpice, to form the dais, which is raised above
the Holy Sacrament on great occasions, was borne by
the Comtes de Curson and de la Rochefoucauld.
That afternoon Marguerite proceeded to Issy, where,
on the following day (May 14), she gave, according to
her custom, a fete in honour of her birthday. Dupleix
relates that, in the evening, he had been talking with the
old Queen of the many great events which had taken place
on the fourteenth day of the month, which had often been
very favourable for France, citing the Battle of Agnodel,
gained by Louis XII. over the Venetians (May 14,
1509) ; that of Marignano, won by Francois I. (Septem-
ber 14, 1515) ; that of Cesirolles (April 14, 1544) ; the
raising of the siege of Metz by Charles V. (January 14,
1553) ; and the victory of Ivry (March 14, 1590). A
few minutes later, a messenger arrived with the news of
the death of Henri IV., assassinated by Ravaillac, that
afternoon, in the Rue de la Ferronerie.
Marguerite appears to have sincerely mourned her
former consort. She was too intelligent not to have
appreciated his great qualities, and the irreparable loss
which France had sustained by his death ; too generous-
hearted not to have long since forgiven him his conjugal
failings ; and indeed, since the divorce, Henri seems
to have treated her with unvarying kindness. "The
same day [May 22, 1610]," writes L'Estoile, " Queen
Marguerite caused a beautiful service to be sung at the
38.
QUEEN MARGOT
Augustines, for the repose of the soul of the deceased
King, whose affectionate wife she had been for twenty-
two years, and who voluntarily agreed, with the dis-
pensation of the Pope, to the dissolution of the marriage,
chiefly because the Lord had not blessed her with happy
offspring, which was greatly desired by good Frenchmen."
Nor did she confine herself to regrets. She used
every endeavour to obtain a fair hearing for a woman
Comans, or d'Escomans, who had formerly been in her
service, and who came to her, declaring that she had
proofs that Ravaillac had been but the instrument of
d'Epernon, Madame de Verneuil, and other highly-
placed persons. But Marie de' Medici declined to
credit the statements of Comans, who was brought to
trial for slander and condemned to perpetual imprison-
ment as a lunatic.
Marguerite survived Henri IV. nearly five years.
" Apart from the folly of love, she was very sensible,"
remarks Tallemant des Reaux ; and just as she had
always declined to take any part in the quarrels between
the King's last mistresses, Madame de Verneuil and
Jacqueline de Beuil, Comtesse de Moret, she held aloof
from the acrimonious disputes which marked the first
years of the Regency. She remained on the friendliest
of terms with Marie de' Medici and the young King, and
was a constant attendant at Court functions, where she
was always treated with the utmost consideration. In
her hotel in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, she gave several
magnificent fetes, the most important of which was
the grand ball which she gave on August 26, 1612, in
honour of the Duke of Pastrana, son of Ruy Gomez
and of the celebrated Princess of Eboli, when he came
383
QUEEN MARGOT
to demand the hand of Elisabeth de France for the
future Philip IV. of Spain.
The ball-room was encircled by steps " in the form
of an amphitheatre," on which the ladies of the Court
took their places ; in the centre, under a dais of cloth-
of-gold, sat the young King, with the Queen-Mother
on his right hand and Madame Elisabeth on his left.
Close to the little princess sat Marguerite, a vision of
splendour which must have dazzled all eyes, her ample
person encased " in a robe of silver cloth, with long open
sleeves, sewn all over with rose diamonds, as was also
the front of her corsage " ; strings of pearls and diamonds
adorned her head-dress, and a flashing riviere encircled
her neck.
According to custom, the ball began at half-past six
in the evening, when Louis XIII. opened the proceed-
ings by dancing a branle with his eldest sister. After
one or two other distinguished couples had performed
solemn evolutions before the respectful gaze of the
assembly, the Duke of Pastrana approached the royal
dais, and, on bended knee, solicited the honour of tread-
ing a measure with his future Queen. Rigid Spanish
etiquette forbade him to begin the dance, or to take her
hand, so the princess had to precede him, and when
they approached one another, the duke merely touched
with the tips of his fingers the long hanging-sleeve of
the royal dancer. At the conclusion of the ball, Mar-
guerite entertained the distinguished company to a
collation " les raretes et les sumptuosites " of which the
chronicler describes in glowing terms. 1
1 Le grand bal de la Relne Marguerite faict devant le < K^oy t Id l^tine, et
Madame, le Dimanche, 26 Aoust, 1612. A copy of this very rare little
brochure is in the possession of the British Museum.
384
QUEEN MARGOT
In these last years, the old Queen became exceedingly
devout, and ended by hearing three Masses every day,
one high and two low ones. Nevertheless, she continued
her flirtations, and, in place of Bajaumont, who is believed
to have died young, took into favour a young singer
named Villars, who, Tallemant des Reaux tells us, was
surnamed " le Roi Margot" " She [Marguerite] brought
Villars into the garden of the Tuileries, to allow the Queen
to hear him sing," writes Malherbe to Pereisc, under date
May 14, i6l4. x
At the end of that same year, Marguerite attended the
procession and opening of the States-General, when
she contracted a severe chill, which she was unable to
shake off. Early in March 1615, she was dangerously
ill, and though, towards the end of the month, she was
so much better that hopes were entertained of her ulti-
mate recovery, this improvement was quickly followed by
a relapse, and, on the 26th, her Grand Almoner, the
Bishop of Grasse, warned her that her end was at hand.
The following day, she signed a codicil in favour of her
proteges, the Augustines, and at eleven o'clock that night,
after having received the last Sacraments, " avec la 'plus
edifiante componction," she died, being within a few
weeks of completing her sixty-second year.
" On March 27," writes Pontchartrain, " there died
in Paris, Queen Marguerite, the sole survivor of the race
of Valois ; a princess full of kindness and good inten-
tions for the welfare and repose of the State, and who
was only her own enemy. She was deeply regretted." *
After lying in state in the Chapel of the Augustines,
1 Cited by La Ferriere, Trots Amoureutes au XF1' siecle : Margtterite
de Valoii.
z Memolres de Pontchartrain.
3*5 2B
QUEEN MARGOT
her body was conveyed to Saint-Denis and interred in
the superb mausoleum of the Valois, erected by Catherine
de' Medici. The advocate, Louis Servin, who had
successfully conducted her lawsuit against the Comte
d'Auvergne, composed a lengthy Latin epitaph, which
was engraved by the Augustines, to whom she had
bequeathed her heart.
Her superb hotel was sold on May II, 1622, for the
benefit of her creditors, for, though her charity was
boundless, she seldom paid her debts, which were reported
to exceed 200,000 ecus. No trace of it now remains;
but her house at Issy is still standing, and, increased
by two wings, has become the succursale of the Seminary
of Saint-Sulpice.
" Never," says M. de la Ferriere, in his interesting
study of Marguerite de Valois, " have more contradictory
judgments been passed on the same woman. In the
camp of the defence, all the great poets of the Renais-
sance, from Ronsard to Desportes, have chanted her
praises ; Bran tome has extolled her to the skies ; the
three brothers d'Urfe and Loys Papon are her passionate
admirers ; Hilarion de Coste, that enthusiastic pane-
gyrist of the women of the sixteenth century, has made
of her a victim and a saint ; Bassompierre has energetically
defended her against Dupleix, 'that dog which bit the
hand that fed him.' In the camp of the attack, d'Aubigne,
under the double pressure of religious and political
passion, has dragged her in the mud ;* Dupleix, an
i M. de La Fcrrie're is evidently of opinion that d'Aubigne is the
author of the Divorct iatyrique, but this is by no means certain ; and,
though it is included in the (Euvres completes of d'Aubigne, edited by
Reaume and de Cauwade, in 1877, the editors give it under all reserve.
386
QUEEN MARGOT
ingrate ; Bayle, a cold sceptic ; Tallemant des Reaux,
a recorder of licentious anecdotes ; Mathieu, Mezeray,
grave historians, have judged her severely. What are
we to conclude ? It is that history, readily indulgent
towards women who have loyally and sincerely loved,
is but little so for those whose lives have been mainly
occupied with gallantry."
But was Marguerite really so " gallant " as her de-
tractors assert, and as M. de la Ferriere seems to imagine ?
We are inclined to think, with her two most recent
biographers, M. de Saint-Poncy and M, Merki, that her
failings in this respect have been greatly exaggerated ;
and certainly the more discreditable of the intrigues laid
to her charge rest on very unsatisfactory evidence ;
some passages from L'Estoile, a worthy man, but one of
the most credulous of chroniclers, two or three anecdotes
of Du Vair, Dupleix's Histoire de France, and the scurri-
lous Divorce satyrique.
Still, after allowance is made for all possible exag-
geration, there can be little doubt that Marguerite is
only too well entitled to be described as an " amoureuse ">
but, at the same time, in justice to her, it should be borne
in mind that never had woman better excuse for her
irregularities. Brought up in one of the most licentious
Courts the world has ever seen, married for " reasons
of State " to a husband to whom she was not only in-
different, but who was utterly indifferent to her, who
made not the slightest attempt to win her affection, but
flaunted his innumerable gallantries before her eyes, and
showed a cynical indelicacy in the demands that he made
on her complacence, she would have been something
more than human had she not yielded to the temptations
which beset her, and, following the example of all the
387
QUEEN MARGOT
other neglected wives she saw around her, sought com-
panionship and affection elsewhere. To judge her by
ordinary standards of morality would be not only unjust,
but absurd.
But, apart from the irregularities of her life, the last
of the Valois has many claims to our admiration and
respect. She showed a most praiseworthy loyalty to
her husband's interests under very difficult circumstances,
and continued to do so, until the persecution to which
she was subjected by her malevolent brother, and the
scandals which followed, had changed his indifference
and neglect into dislike and contempt. She was un-
selfishly devoted to her younger brother, Anjou, for
whose sake, as we have seen, she readily braved persecu-
tion and disgrace at the Court and the risk of capture
and imprisonment by the Spaniards in Flanders. She ex-
hibited real magnanimity on her return to Paris in 1605,
when, instead of seeking to embarrass the woman who had
usurped the place which was rightfully hers and the
husband who had discarded her, she lived on the friend-
liest terms with them, and used all her influence to recon-
cile the old nobility to the new dynasty. One of the
most charming writers of her time, as her Memoires
and correspondence show, she was " the refuge of men-
of-letters, and loved to hear them talk," and did all
in her power to exalt their calling. But perhaps her best
claim to our regard is her abounding charity. " True
heiress of the House of Valois," says Richelieu, to whose
calm and dispassionate judgment it is pleasant to turn
after the almost hysterical panegyrics of Brantome
and Hilarion de Coste and the shameful calumnies of
the Divorce satyrique, " she never made a gift to any
one without excusing herself for giving so little, and the
388
QUEEN MARGOT
present was never so large that there did not always
remain to her a desire to give more. ... In short, as charity
is the queen of virtues, this great queen crowned hers
by that of her alms, which she dispensed so abundantly
that there was not a religious house in Paris which did
not experience it, nor a poor person who had recourse
to her without obtaining assistance. Moreover, God
recompensed with usury that which she exercised
towards His people, giving her the grace to make so
Christian an end, that if she had been a subject to pro-
voke envy among others during her life, one had the more
cause to envy her at her death." *
Marguerite de Valois's brothers called her Margot,
and by that name she is best known to history.
i Memoir ei du. Cardinal de Richelieu,
389
INDEX
AERSCHOT, Due d', 208, 209
Aldgre, Yves (Governor of Issoire),
3Si
Alen9on, Francois de Valois, Due
de. See Anjou
Alessandrini, Cardinal, 59 and note,6i
AllSgre, Antoine (favourite of Henri
III.). 178
Alva, Duke of, 14, 16
Amville, Due d', 50 and note, 81,
89 and note, 126, 151 and note
Amyot, Jacques (Bishop of Aux-
erre), u
Andelot, 19
Ange, Friar (reputed son of Mar-
guerite de Valois and Harlay de
Chanvallon), 295 note
Angouleme, Henri d' (Grand Prior
of France), 41, 104, 116
Angoule'me, Marguerite d'. See
Marguerite d' Angouleme, Queen
of Navarre, 3
Anjpu, Fran9ois de Valois, Due d'
his warm affection for his sister,
Marguerite, in their childhood, 3 ;
sent to the Chateau of Amboise
at the beginning of the Wars of
Religion, 10 ; fascinated by Co-
ligny, 62 ; his costume at the
marriage of his sister and Henri
of Navarre, 86 ; takes part in an
allegorical entertainment at the
Hotel du Petit-Bourbon, 90-92 ;
his character, 115; the secret
head of the " Politiques," 119 ; a
suitor for the hand of Elizabeth
of England, 119; quarrels vio-
lently with his brother, Henri,
1 20 ; attempts to escape from
Court, 124, 125 ; his pusillani-
mous conduct on the discovery
of Guitry's scheme for the libera-
tion of himself and the King of
Navarre, 127 ; imprisoned in the
Anjou, Francois de Valois, Due d'
continued
keep of Vincennes, 128, 129 ;
Marguerite's offers to enable him
to escape, 132, 133 ; entreats
Charles IX. to spare the lives of
La M61e and Coconnas, 1 34 ;
present during the last hours of
Charles IX., 141 ; his reception
by Henri III.- on the lattet'a
return from Poland, 145, 146 ;
takes a solemn oath of fidelity to
the new King, 150, 151 ; joins
the processions of the Flagellants,
152 ; rivalry between him and
Henri of Navarre over Madame
de Sauve, 162. 163 ; his affection
for Bussy d' Amboise, 164, 165 ;
wishes to hasten to his assistance
when attacked by Du Guast's
followers, 169 ; advises Bussy
to retire to Anjou, 170; his irk-
some position at Court, 172, 173 5
makes his escape and places him-
self at the head of the rebels, 173
and note, 174 ; issues a procla-
mation, 174 ; refuses to negotiate
until the Marechaux de Mont-
morency and Cosse are set at
liberty, 175 ; concludes the truce
of Champigny, 175 ; his respon-
sibility for the assassination of
Du Guast considered, 182, 183 ;
protests against the King's treat-
ment of Marguerite, 183 ; meets
the Queen-mother and Mar-
guerite at the Chateau of Chas-
tenay, 187 ; secures great ad-
vantagesfor himself by the Treaty
of Beaulieu, 188 ; advises his
sister to allow herself to be in-
cluded in the treaty, 188 ; deserts
his Protestant allies, 194 ; deter-
mines to wrest Flanders from
391
INDEX
Anjou, Francois de Valois, Due d'
continued
Spain, 198 ; persuades Mar-
guerite to go to Flanders to fur-
ther his interests, 198, 199 ; his
repulsive appearance, 199 note ;
"in worse odour at Court than
ever," 213; warns Marguerite of
the dangers awaiting her, 214 ;
visits her at La Fdre, 226, 227 ;
confers with the Flemish dele-
gates, 227 ; returns to Paris, 227 ;
Henri III. opposed to his Flemish
enterprise, 230, 231 ; " subjected
to a thousand insults," 231 ;
grossly insulted by the King's
mignons, 234 ; requests per-
mission to leave the Court for a
while, 234. 235 ; extraordinary
scene between him and Henri III.
235-237 ; formally reconciled to
his brother, 237, 238 ; under
close surveillance, 238 ; effects
his escape from Paris, 238, 243 ;
writes to the King, 244 ; in-
directly responsible for the assas-
sination of Bussy, 263 note ; uses
his influence to put an end to
the " Lovers' War," 268 ; visits
Gascony, 268 ; rivalry between
him and the King of Navarre
over Fosseuse, 269, 270 ; returns
to Paris, 271 ; total failure of his
Flemish enterprise, 288, 289 ;
dismisses Chanvallon from his
service, 290 ; visited by his
mother, 291 ; slowly dying of
consumption, 303 ; his death, 306
Antoine de Bourbon, King of Na-
varre (father of Henri IV.), 2, 64
Arnalt, Jean d' (cited), 337
Atri, Mile, d', 201 and note, 248,250
Aubiac, d'
placed in command of one of the
companies of men-at-arms orga-
nised by Marguerite de Valois at
Agen, 316 ; enjoys her friendship
and confidence, if not her love,
327, 328 and note ; quarrels with
Lignerac at the Chlteau of Carlat,
329 ; accompanies the Queen of
Navarre to tne Chlteau of Ibois,
330 ; arrested by the Marquis de
Canillao, 330 ; Henri III. gives
orders for him to be put to death,
33 1 - 33 2 ' hanged at Aigueperce,
332 ; stanzas composed by Mar-
guerite, " to consecrate and
avenge his memory," 332 note
Aubigne, Agrippa d', 131, 184, 271,
300, 301, 386 and note
(cited), 136, 254, 260, 294, 313
Auger de Mauleon (first editor of
Marguerite de Valois's Memoires),
340. 341
Augustmes, the, Marguerite de
Valois's benefactions to, 280, 381,
385. 386
Aumlle, Claude de Lorraine, Due
d', 25 and note, 34, 92, 104, 119
Auvergne, Charles de Valois, Comte
d' (son of Charles IX. and Marie
Touchet), 141, 336, 362, 365, 366,
367- 385
Auvergne, Dauphin of, 86, 133, 247
Avantigny (Chamberlain to the
Due d' Anjou), 178
BAJAUMONT (favourite of Mar-
guerite)
succeeds Saint-Julien in her affec-
tions, 378; murderous attack upon
him in the Church of the Augus-
tines, 278 ; falls dangerously ill,
378; chastised by Marguerite,
379; believed to have died young t
385
Balancon, Baron de, 208
Balzac d'Entragues, Charles de
(" le bel d'Entragues "), 147
Balzac d'Entragues, Franois de
(father of Henriette d'Entragues),
362, 365, 366
Balzac d'Entragues Henriette de.
See Verneuil, Marquise de ,
Bar, Due de, 355
Barbe (waiting-woman to Mar-
guerite de Valois), 293
Barlemont, Louis de (Bishop of
Cambrai), 202-205, 2O 7
Barlemont, Comte de, attempts to
capture the Queen of Navarre at
Dinant, 221-223
Baschet, Armand (cited), 84
Bassompierre (cited), 147, 386
Bayle (cited), 340, 387
Beaufort Gabrielle d'Estrees,
Duchesse de
becomes the mistress of Henri IV.
351 ; married to the Seigneur de
Liancourt, 351 ; bears the King
a son, 352 ; obtains the dissolu-
tion of her marriage, 352 ; created
Marquise de Monceaux and
Duchesse de Beaufort, 352 ; her
other children, 352 ; Henri's
letters to her, 352 ; her appear-
ance and character, 352, 353 ;
39 2
INDEX
Beaufort, Gabrielle d'Estrees, Duch-
ese de continued
the King resolves to marry her,
353' 354 : her relations with Mar-
guerite de Valois, 354 and note ;
her elevation dreaded by the
Pope, 355 ; her illness and death,
356, 357
Beaulieu, Peace of, 187-189, 230
Beaupreau, Marquis de, 26 note
Bellegarde, Due de, 351, 352, 363
Bellievre. See Pomponne de Belli-
evre
B6me (one of the assassins of Co-
ligny), 95, 96
Bergerac, Peace of, 226, 249
Berthier (syndic of the clergy), 358
Bethune, Madame de, 293, 294, 295,
296, 297, 318
Beza, 8
Bide (a gentleman towards whom
Marguerite de Valois is charged
with " a dangerous form of bene-
volence "), 147. See also Balzac
d'Entragues, Charles de
Birague (Chancellor), 67, 95, 100,
128, 141, 283
Birague, Charles de, 302, 305
Biron, Armand de Gontaut, Mare-
chal de, 49 note, 54, 58, 69, 266,
267, 268, 367 note
Biron, Charles de Gontaut, Mare-
chal de, 1 29 note, 365 and note.367
Boleyn, Anne, Queen of England,
8 note
Bouillon, Henri de la Tour d'Au-
vergne, Due de, 249, 259 and
note, 260, 262, 263, 270 note, 367
(cited), 199
Bourbon, Cardinal de, 71, 74,79,81,
85, 88 andnote, 128 ,141, 247, 310
Brantome, 142, 167, 247, 282 note,
339. 340, 34L 386, 388
(cited), i, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 65-
67, 106 note, 121, 160 note,
161, 164, 168, 181, 208, 2ii,
333, 334
Busbecq, Austrian Ambassador at
French Court (cited), 293, 313
Bussy d'Amboise, Robert de Cler-
mont, Sieur de
immortalised by Dumas pere,
164 ; his character, 164 and note ;
leaves Henri III.'s service for
that of Monsieur, 165 ; Mar-
guerite de Valois charged by Du
Guast and Henri III. with carry-
ing on a liaison with him, 165,
1 66 ; question .of his relations
Bussy d'Amboise, Robert de Cler-
mont, Sieur de continued
with the princess considered, 167'
1 68 ; escapes unhurt from an
ambush laid for him by Du Guast,
1 68, 169 ; compelled to retire
from Court, 169 ; ravages Anjou
and Maine, 213 note ; in disgrace
at Court, 213, 214; his quarrels
with Henri III.'s mignons, 231-
233 ; again compelled to quit the
Court, 233 ; returns and is
arrested, 238 ; ordered to be
reconciled to Qu61us, 238 ; assists
Monsieur to escape from Paris,
242 ; assassinated, 263 and note
CABOCHE, M., his edition of Mar-
guerite de Valois's Memoires, 341
Cahors, storming of
Caillard (surgeon), 77, 78
Cange (valet-de-chambre to Due
d' Anjou), 236, 241, 242
Canillac, Marquis de
arrests Marguerite de Valois 'at
the Chateau of Ibois, 330 ; Henri
III.'s instructions to him con-
cerning her, 331, 332 ; conducts
her to the Chateau of Usson, 332 ;
succumbs to her charms, 333 and
note ; goes over to the League,
334, 335 ; surrenders Usson to
Marguerite, 335 ; donation made
by her in his favour, 335, 336 ;
killed at the siege of Saint-Ouen,
336
Carlos, Don (son of Philip II. of
Spain), 14, 16 and note
Castelan (physician), 36 and note
Castelnau, 18, 54
Catherine de Bourbon, Duchess de
Bar (sister of Henri IV.), 58, 60
note, 193, 355
Catherine de' Medici, Queen of
France
assumes the Regency, 4 ; her
character, 4, 5 ; her policy, 6, 7 ;
attends the Colloquy of Poissy,
7 ; reproves Anjou for his Hu-
guenot tendencies, 10 ; sends her
younger children to the Chateau
of Amboise, 10, n ; sets out on
the "grand voyage," 12, 13;
confers with Alva at Bayonne,
14 ; gives a magnificent fete on
the Isle of Aiguemeau in the
Adour, 14-16 ; remonstrates
with Jeanne d'Albret in regard
to the treatment of her Catholic
393
INDEX
Catherine de' Medici. Queen of
France continued
subjects, 17 ; regarded with awe
by Marguerite de Valois, 22 ;
admits her to her confidence, 22,
23 ; but withdraws it on learning
of her intimacy with the Due de
Guise, 25 ; begs Marguerite " to
array herself most sumptuously,"
in order to please the ladies of
Cognac, 30 ; indignant with the
Cardinal de Lorraine for en-
couraging his nephew's preten-
sions to Marguerite's hand, 41 ;
orders her daughter to break off
all intercourse with the duke, 41 ;
resolves to marry her to Henri of
Navarre, 50 ; her political aims
at this period considered, 51-54 ;
meets Jeanne d'Albret at Tours,
59 ; confers with her in regard to
the marriage articles, 60, 61 ;
treats her " A la fourcke," 62 ;
anxious to draw Henri of Na-
varre to Blois, 64, 65 ; promises
Marguerite a dower of 200,000
livres, 7 1 ; insists on the marriage
taking place in Paris, 72 ; sus-
pected of having caused Jeanne
d'Albret to be poisoned, 77 ;
alarmed at the increasing in-
fluence of Coligny over Charles
IX., 140, 141 ; has recourse to
fraud in regard to the papal dis-
pensation for Marguerite's mar-
riage, 85 ; writes to Gregory XIII.
to excuse her action, 85 ; deter-
mines on the assassination of
Coligny, 94-96 ; fearful of her
guilt being brought home to her,
98-100 ; plans the massacre of
St. Bartholomew, 100 ; argu-
ments by which she succeeds in
obtaining the King's consent,
100-103 I gives orders for the
bell of Saint-Germain-rAuxerrois
to give the signal for the mas-
sacre, 104 ; suggests to Mar-
guerite the dissolution of her
marriage, no; her habits, 104
and note ; adopts a pacific policy
towards the Huguenots, 120 ;
entertainment given by her to
the Polish envoys, 121 ; her
adieu to her son, Henri, on his
departure for Poland, 122 ; re-
ceives information from Mar-
guerite concerning the projected
escape of Alen9on and Henri of
Catherine de' Medici, Queen of
France continued
Navarre, 124, 125 ; acts with
promptitude and decision on
learning of Guitry's intended
coup-de-mnin at Saint-Germain,
127, 128 ; believes in the efficacy
of sorcery, 129 and note ; takes
energetic measures to crush the
conspiracy of the " Politiques,"
133 ; refuses to allow Charles IX.
to pardon La M61e, 1 34 ; gives
secret instructions for the execu-
tion of La M61e and Coconnas to
be hurried on, 135 ; present
during Charles IX.'s last hours,
140, 141 ; her letter to the King
of Poland, 143 ; measures taken
by her to secure his succession
to the throne of France, 144 ;
causes Montgommery to be exe-
cuted, 144 ; meets Henri III. at
Bourgoin, 145, 146 ; believes, or
affects to believe, the King's
charge of misconduct against
Marguerite at Lyons, 148-153 ;
admits that she has been misin-
formed, 1 50 ; favours the mar-
riage'of Henri III. and Louise de
Vaudemont, 1 54 ; ill-fate which
pursues her children, 155, 156;
declines to interfere in Mar-
guerite's liaison with Bussy d' Am-
boise, 165-167 ; goes to negotiate
with Monsieur after his flight
from Paris in 1575, 174, 175 ;
intervenes to protect Marguerite
from the wrath of Henri III., 176;
effects a reconciliation between
them, 1 86 ; goes with Marguerite
to arrange terms of peace with
Alenfon, 137 ; prevails upon her
to return to Paris, 189; raises
no obstacle to Marguerite's jour-
ney to Flanders, 200 ; promises
to accompany her daughter to
Gascony, 229 ; seeks Henri III.'s
permission for Monsieur to leave
the Court for a while, 234, 235 ;
present at an extraordinary scene
between her sons, 235, 236 ;
reconciles them, 237, 238 ; warned
by Matignon of Anjou's intention
to escape from Court, 239, 240 ;
her conversation with Marguerite
in regard to this matter, 240, 241 ;
goes to Angers to endeavour to
persuade Monsieur to return to
Court, 844 ; sets out with Mar-
394
INDEX
Catherine de Medici, Queen of
France continued
guerite for Gascony, 246-248 ;
her meeting with Henri of Na-
varre at Casteras, 249 ; makes a
State entry into Toulouse, 250 ;
indignant at the King of Na-
varre's refusal to accede to her
wishes, 250, 251 ; visits Auch,
251 ; her part in the affair of
La Reole and Fleurance, 252,
253 ; visits Nerac, 253 ; disap-
pointed at the results of the
Treaty of Nerac, 255 and note ;
returns to Paris, 255 ; invites
Marguerite to visit the French
Court, 278 ; meets the King and
Queen of Navarre at La Mothe
Sainte-Heraye, 282 ; makes over
to the latter her duchy of Valois,
283 ; reprimands Henri of Na-
varre for his conduct towards his
wife, 286, 287 ; indignant at " la
folie d'Anvers," 289 ; goes to
Picardy to visit Anjou, 291 ;
" beside herself with affliction "
on learning of Marguerite's arrest
near Palaiseau, 295 ; sends the
Bishop of Langres to expostulate
with Henri III., 295 ; Mar-
guerite's pathetic letter to her
from Venddme, 299, 300 ; sends
her daughter 200,000 livres, 300 ;
present at the interview between
Henri III. and d'Aubigne at
Saint-Germain, 301 ; urges Mar-
guerite to receive the Due d'Eper-
non on his visit to Nerac, 307,
308 ; counsels Henri III. to give
his countenance and support to
the League, 311 and note ; letters
of Bellidvre to her, 315, 316 ;
declares that Marguerite is " her
scourge in this world," 318 ; offers
her an asylum at the Chateau of
Ibois, 329 ; urges Henri III. to
cause d'Aubiac to be hanged in
Marguerite's presence, 331 ; sinis-
ter designs attributed to her in
regard to her daughter, 334, 335
and note ; her death, 336 ;
disinherits Marguerite in favour
of Charles de Valois, 336 ; her
bequest contested by the Queen
of Navarre, 366 ; and set aside,
375
Cavalli, Venetian Ambassador at
the French Court (cited), 101,
138
Cavriana, Tuscan Ambassador at
the French Court (cited), 328,
333. 335 note
Chanvallon, Jacques de Harlay,
Seigneur de
accompanies Anjou to Gascony,
270 ; his liaison with Marguerite
de Valois, 270 and note, 27 1 ; her
passionate letters to him, 271 ;
marries without consulting her,
287, 288 ; dismissed by Monsieur
from his service, 290 ; returns to
Paris and resumes his intimacy
with Marguerite, 290, 291 ; his
relations with her revealed to
Henri III., 291 ; orders issued
for his arrest, 293 ; escapes to
Beaumont, 293 ; scandalous re-
ports concerning him and the
Queen of Navarre, 295 and note ;
welcomes Marguerite on her
return to Paris in 1605
Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, 13,
40, 41, 43, 311 note
Charles V., Emperor, 208, 382
Charles VI., King of France, 333
Charles VIII., King of France, 83
Charles IX., King of France
critical condition of France at
his accession, 4 ; attends the
Colloquy of Poissy, 7 ; sets out
on the "grand voyage," 13;
confers with Alva at Bayonne,
14 ; gives a magnificent f6te on
the Isle of Aiguemeau in the
Adour, 14-16 ; believes his sister
filisabeth, Queen of Spain, to
have been poisoned by Philip II.,
1 6 note ; remonstrates with
Jeanne d'Albret in regard to her
treatment of her Catholic sub-
jects, 17 ; attempt of the Hugue-
nots to seize him at Monceaux,
1 8 ; his flight to Paris, 18, 19;
orders Henri d'AngoulSme to
assassinate the Due de Guise, 41,
42 ; angry scene between him
and the duke at the Louvre, 43-
44 ; his wrath appeased by
Guise's marriage with the Prin-
cesse de Porcien, 44 ; his des-
patch to Fourquevaux in regard
to the projected marriage between
Marguerite de Valois and Dona
Sebastian of Portugal, 49 j deter-
mines to marry Marguerite to
Henri of Navarre, 50, 51 ; his
political aims at this period con-
sidered, 51-54 ; invites Jeanne
395
INDEX
Charles IX., King of France con-
tinued
d'Albret to Blois to settle the
preliminaries of the marriage, 55 ;
refuses Don Sebastian's demand
for his sister's hand, 59 and note ;
his cordial reception of Jeanne
d'Albret on her arrival at Court,
6 1 ; falling under the influence of
Coligny, 62 ; " emancipates him-
self," 63 ; invites Henri of Na-
varre to Blois, 65 ; places the
marriage negotiations in the
hands of a commission, 69, 70 ;
declares it to be his pleasure to
discard all conditions, 70 ; pro-
mises his sister a dowry of 300,000
ecus, 71 ; flies into a passion at
the attitude of Gregory XIII.
towards the marriage, 73 ; con-
sents to the demands of the
Huguenot divines, 74, 75 ; orders
an autopsy to be held on the
body of Jeanne d'Albret, 77 ;
dominated by Coligny, 82-84 ;
has recourse to fraud in regard
to the papal dispensation for the
marriage, 85 ; his magnificent
appearance on the day of the
marriage, 87 ; represents Nep-
tune in a ballet at the Louvre, 90 ;
takes part in an allegorical enter-
tainment at the H&tel du Petit-
Bourbon, 90-92 ; and in a tour-
nament, 92 ; his conduct on
learning of the attempted assas-
sination of Coligny, 97, 98 ;
threatened by the Huguenots,
98, 99 ; induced to give his con-
sent to the Massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew, 100-104 I gives orders
for the followers of the King of
Navarre at the Louvre to be put
to death, 108 ; threatens Na-
varre and Conde with death, if
they refuse to abjure their reli-
gion, 1 08, 109 ; exasperated by
Conde's obstinacy, in, 112 ;
beginning to treat his brother-in-
law with kindness, 113; character
of his Court, 113-116; receives
the Polish envoys, 121 ; compels
his brother, Henri, to hasten his
departure for Poland, 122 ; at-
tacked by fever, 122 ; his flight
from Saint-Germain to Paris,
127, 128 ; shuts himself up at
Vincennes, 128 ; invests his
mother with full powers, 133 ;
396
Charles IX., King of France con-
tinued
prevented by her from sparing the
lives of La Mole and Coconnas,
134, 135 ; his remorse for the
St. Bartholomew, 137-139; his
illness and death, 139-141 ; his
funeral, 142
Charron (Provost of the Merchants),
104
Chartres, Vidame de, 81, 99
Chastelas, Sieur de, 177
Chateaubriand (cited), 6
Chateauneuf, Seigneur de, 349, 350
Chateauneuf, Renee de (mistress of
Henri III.), 154, 155 and note,
178
Chateigneraie, Charles de Vivonne,
Baron de, 340, 341
Chatre, Marquis de la, 234
Claude de Valois, Duchess of
Lorraine, 3, 43, 44, 86, 105, 107,
r $5
Choisnin (secretary to the Queen of
Navarre), 316, 326
Clement VIII., Pope, 350, 353, 355,
356, 358
Clement, Jacques (assassin of Henri
HI.), 336
Clermont, Antoine de, murdered by
Bussy d'Amboise, 364 note
Coconnas, Comte de, 128, 130, 134
and note, 136, 137, 188 note
Coligny, Gaspard de, Admiral of
France
declared guiltless of all complicity
in the assassination of Fra^ois
de Lorraine, Due de Guise, 17 ;
pleads eloquently for peace, but
is over-ruled by the other Hu-
guenot leaders, 17 ; threatens
Charles IX. on his flight from
Meaux to Paris, 18, 19 ; his
courage and skill during the third
civil war, 51 ; divines the grow-
ing greatness of Henri of Navarre,
55 ; strongly urges his marriage
with Marguerite de Valois, 55 ;
his growing influence over Charles
IX., 61, 62 ; present during
Jeanne d'Albret's last illness, 79 ;
presses the King of Navarre to
come to Paris, 80 ; dominates
Charles IX., 82, 83 ; urges him
to assist the revolted Nether-
lands against Spain, 83 ; Cathe-
rine de' Medici's jealousy of him,
83 ; his remark on perceiving
the captured Huguenot stan-
INDEX
Coligny, Gaspard de, Admiral of
France contin tied
dards at Notre-Dame, 89 note ;
receives repeated warnings to
leave Paris, but is deaf to all
appeals, 94 ; his removal deter-
mined on by Catherine, 94-96 ;
his attempted assassination, 96-
97 ; visited by Charles IX. and
the Queen-mother, 97, 98 ; mea-
sures taken for his security, 98 ;
Charles IX. inflamed against him
by Catherine, 101, 102 and note ;
his assassination entrusted to the
Due de Guise, 104 ; his property
restored to his heirs by the Treaty
of Beaulieu, 188
Coligny, Louise de. See Louise,
Princess of Orange
Comines (favourite of Marguerite
de Valois), 337 note
Conde, Louis, Prince de, 18, 20 and
note
Comans, or Escomans, her evidence
in regard to the assassination of
Henri IV., 383
Conde, Henri I., Prince de, 80, 84,
108, 109, in, 112, 144, 146, 305
Cond6, Henri II., Prince de, 345
Conde, Marie de Cleves, Princesse
de . 59. 79. 84, 112, 122, 151 and
note, 152, 154
Conde, Catherine Charlotte de la
Tremouille, Princesse de, 345
Cosse, Marechal de, 54, 81, 133, 144,
232, 233
Cosse-Brissac, Jeanne de, 232
Coste, Pere Hilarion de, 387, 388
(cited), 333, 337, 341
Coutras, Battle of, 336
Crillon, 177 and note
Cursun, Comte de, 38
Curton.Baronne de (gouvernanteand,
later, dame d'honncur, to Marguerite
de Valois), and note, 9, 6 1 , 3 3Onote
DALE, Valentine (English Ambas-
sador at the French Court), 134
Dame de Montsoreau, Dumas p&re's
Dampierre, Madame de', 167
Dampmartin, 341
(cited), 167
Daniel, Pere, 52
Daurat, Jean, 12 i
Davila (cited), 27, 38 note, 52, 59,
60
Dayelle, Mile, (maid-of-honour to
Catherine de' Medici), 248, 249,
255, 256, 264
Desnoeuds (surgeon), 77, 78
Desportes (poet), 386
Divorce satyrique, le, 271, 337, 386
and note, 387
(cited), 136, 324, 328 and note,
333 and note
Du Bois (agent of Henri III. in
Flanders), 221, 222, 223
Du Guast, Louis de Beranger,
Seigneur
his character and personal appear-
ance, 23 and note, 24 ; his in-
fluence over Henri III., 24 and
note ; informs Henri of Mar-
guerite's intimacy with the Due
de Guise, 26 ; intercepts a letter
from the duke to Marguerite, 41 ;
enmity between him and the
princess, 160, 161 ; engages
Madame de Sauve to sow dissen-
sion between Monsieur and the
King of Navarre, and between the
latter and his wife, 162, 163 ;
accuses the Queen of Navarre of
a liaison with Bussy d'Amboise,
164, 165 ; lays an ambush for
Bussy, 1 68, 169 ; causes Mar-
guerite's favourite maid-of-hon-
our to be dismissed, 173 ; his
attempt upon Mile, de Thorigny,
177 ; assassinated by the Baron
de Viteaux, 173-183
Dumas, Alexandre, pere, 106 note,
164
Du Perron, Cardinal, 137 note
Du Pin (secretary to the King of
Navarre), 257, 259
Duplessis-Mornay, 297-299, 303
and note, 345, 346, 347, 348, 351,
386, 387
Dupleix, Scipion (cited), 295 note,
368
Duras, Vicomte de, 193, 318, 319,
325, 327
Duras, Vicomtesse de, 283, 294,
295, 296, 297, 318, 320, 322
Du Vair, 387
(cited), 136 note
EGMONT, Comte d', 205, 223
Elisabeth de Bourbon (daughter of
Henri IV. and Marie de' Medici),
. 370, 381. 384
Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of
Spain, 3, 14, 16 and note
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 53,
119, 120, 134
Elizabeth of Austria, Queen of
France, 112, 114, 128, 341, 346
397
INDEX
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy,
3, 145, 151 note
Entragues, Fra^ois d'. See Balzac
d'Entragues
Entragues, Henriette d'. See Ver-
neuil, Marquise de
fipernon, Due d', 159, 289 and note,
290, 293, 307, 308, 309, 312
Estrees, Antoine d' (father of Ga-
brielle d'Estrees), 351
Estrdes, Gabrielle. See Beaufort,
Duchesse de
firard (ntattre des requites to Mar-
guerite de Valois), 345, 346, 347,
348
Escars, Charles d', Bishop of Lan-
gres, 201, 295
FAVYN (cited), 50 note, 77
Ferrand (secretary to Marguerite
de Valois), suspected of an at-
tempt to poison the King of Na-
varre, 313 and note
Fleix, Peace of, 268, 269
Flemming, Madame de, 286
Fleurance and La Reole, affair of,
251-253
Fleurines, Madame de, 223, 224
Fleurines, M. de, 223, 224
Fosseux, Mile, de (" Fosseuse ")
accompanies Marguerite de Valois
to Gascony, 248 ; beloved by
Henri of Navarre, 261 ; but
conducts herself " with virtue
and propriety," 261 ; rivalry
between the King of Navarre and
Monsieur over her, 269, 270 ;
becomes Henri's mistress, 273 ;
goes to Eaux-Chandes, 274 ; in-
trigues against the Queen of Na-
varre, 274 ; a subject for scan-
dalous talk, 275 ; her conversa-
tion with Marguerite, 276 ; gives
birth to a child, 277, 278 ; accom-
panies the Queen of Navarre to
Paris, 279 ; dismissed from her
service, 284 ; married to the
Baron de Cinq-Mars, 285 ; indig-
nation of the King of Navarre on
learning of her dismissal, 285 ;
letters from Marguerite and
Catherine de' Medici to him on
this matter, 285-287
Foulon, Joseph (Abbe of Sainte-
Genevidve), 242 and note, 243
Fourquevaux (French Ambassador
in Madrid), 47, 48 and note, 49
Francesco de' Medici. Grand Duke
of Tuscany, 357
Francoeur (Chancellor of Navarre),
55. 7.0
Fran9ois I., King of France, 2, 3,
32, 83, 366 note, 372 note, 382
Fran9ois II., King of France, 3
Freer, Miss (cited), 78, 79
GANDY, M. Georges (cited), 52, 53
Genissac, Bertrand de Pierrebufftere,
Seigneur de, 195 and note
Godefroy, Jean, his edition of
Marguerite de Valois's Memoires,
340, 34i
Gonzague, Ludovic de, 208
Grand-Champ (French Ambassador
in Constantinople), 66
Gramont, Comte de, 231, 232
Gramont, Corisande, Comtesse de
("la belle Corisande "), 300, 313,
315. 351
Granvelle, Cardinal de, 14
Gregory XIII., Pope, 73, 85 and
note, 112, 350
Groesbeck, Gerard (Bishop of LiSge),
212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 219
Guessard, M., his edition of Mar-
guerite de Valois's Memoires, 131
note, 341
Guillart, jean, Bishop of Chartres,
76 note
Guise, Anne d'Este, Duchesse de
(wife of Fran9ois de Lorraine).!
See Nemours, Duchesse de
Guise, Catherine de CISves (wife of
Henri de Lorraine), 38, 39, 43,
44. 79
Guise, Fran9ois de Lorraine, Due
de, 4, 12 and note, 33 and note
Guise, Henri de Lorraine, Due de
" turning his thoughts upon Mar-
guerite de Valois," 25 ; her pre-
dilection for him denied by Mar-
guerite in her Memoires, 25, 26
note ;' his early career, 33, 34 ;
his character, 34-36 ; hatred
with which he is regarded by
Henri de Valois, 37 ; aspires to
the hand of Marguerite, 38-40 ;
his intimacy with her the chief
topic of conversation at Court,
41 ; his correspondence with her
intercepted, 41 ; forbidden to
approach her, 41 ; Henri d'An-
goulfeme ordered by Charles IX.
to assassinate him, 42 ; urged
by his mother and the Duchess of
Lorraine to renounce his preten-
sions to the princess's hand, 43 ;
stormy scene batween him and
398
INDEX
Guise, Henri de Lorraine, Due de
continued
Charles IX. at the Louvre, 44 ;
marries the Princesse de Porcien,
44 ; consequences of his love
affair with Marguerite, 44, 45 ;
at the wedding of Marguerite and
Henri of Navarre, 88 note ; the
idol of the populace of Paris, 89 ;
takes part in a tournament in
front of the Louvre, 92 ; a party
to the attempt upon the life of
Coligny, 95, 96 ; undertakes to
superintend the assassination of
the Admiral, 104 ; his insolent
behaviour towards the King of
Navarre, 113 note ; warns Mar-
guerite that she is credited with
" a very dangerous form of bene-
volence," 148 note, 149 ; defeats
Thore at Dormans and earns the
sobriquet of " le Bnlafre," 175 ;
makes a tentative attempt to
carry out the Cardinal de Lor-
raine's scheme of the League, 191 ;
said to have followed Marguerite
to Flanders, 203 ; ridicules the
King of Navarre, 264 ; " grown
thin and much aged," 284 ; in
communication with Marguerite
after her flight to Agen, 316 ;
entreats Philip IL to send her
money, 320 ; his dealings with
her revealed to Henri III., 326 ;
his letter to Mendoza, 334, 335 ;
sends a body of troops to Usson
for Marguerite's protection, 336 ;
assassinated at Blois, 336. See
also Guises and League
Guises, the, 4, 26, 109. 191, 192,
268, 310, 311, 320, 334
Guitry Berticheres, Sieur de (Hu-
guenot leader), 126, 173
HAMILTON of Bothwellhaugh (assas-
sin of the Regent Murray), 97
Hardelay, Jean de Bourdeille, Sieur
de, 167 and note
Harlay, Achille (President of the
Parlement of Paris), 293
Havrec, Marquis d', 208, 209
Havrec, Marquise d', 205
Henault, President (cited), 8
Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre
(father of Jeanne d'Albret), 2
Henri II., King of France, i, 2, 81,
140, 141, 155, 287, 359 note
Henri III., King of France
persecutes Marguerite to induce
Henri III., King of France cow-
tinned
her to embrace Protestantism, 9,
10 ; proposes to her a political
r6le, 20-22 ; appointed Lieu-
tenant-General of the Kingdom,
20 note ; lays siege to Saint-
Jean d'Angely, 23 ; influence of
his favourite Du Guast over him,
24 and note ; accuses Marguerite
of encouraging the attentions of
the Due de Guise, 24, 25 ; his
perfidious conduct, 37 ; his ha-
tred of Guise, 37, 38 ; hands an
intercepted letter from the duke
to Marguerite to the King and
Catherine, 41 ; utters threats
against Guise, 44 ; " endeavours
to domineer " over Jeanne d'Al-
bre , 62 ; magnificence of his
attire on the day of Marguerite's
wedding, 86, 87 ; devises and
takes part in an allegorical enter-
tainment at the Hotel du Petit-
Bourbon, 90-92 ; plots with his
mother the assassination of Co-
ligny, 95 ; suspected by the Hu-
guenots of the outrage, 98 ; terri-
fied by fear of his guilt being
brought home to him, 99 ; plans
with Catherine and her confidants
the Massacre of St. Barttio-
lomew, 100 ; compelled to raise
the siege of La Rochelle, 119;
elected King of Poland, lao ;
visit of the Polish envoys to Paris
to offer him the crown, 120, 121 ;
leaves France, 122 ; vainly en-
deavours to effect a reconciliation
with Marguerite, 123 ; declared
by Charles IX. his lawful heir
and successor, 141 ; Catherine's
letter to him, 143 ; his flight
from Cracow, 144, 145 ; visits
Vienna and Italy, 140 ; his
meeting with the Royal Family
and the Court at Bourgoin, 145,
146 ; calumniates Marguerite,
147-150; his extravagant grief
at the death of his mistress, the
Princesse de Conde, 151 and note;
his despicable conduct towards
the Due d'Amville, 151 note;
joins the Flagellants at Avignon,
152 ; his coronation, 153 ; his
marriage with Louise de Vaude-
mont, 154 ; endeavours to com-
pel Franois de Luxembourg to
marry his discarded mistress.
399
INDEX
Henri III,, King of France con-
tinued
Renee de Chftteauneuf, 1 54, 155
and note ; his character, 157,
185 ; his follies and extrava-
gance, 158, 159 and note ; his
mignons, 159, 160 ; accuses Mar-
guerite of a liaison with Bussy
d'Amboise, 165, 166; persuades
Henri of Navarre to dismiss Mlle^
de Thorigny from his wife's ser-
vice, 171 ; his contemptuous
treatment of Monsieur, 173 ; his
fury at his brother's escape, 174 ;
places Marguerite under arrest,
176, 177 ; disgraces the Baron de
Viteaux at the request of Du
Guast, 179 ; subjects Marguerite
to a rigorous confinement after
the flight of her husband, 185 ;
alarmed at the coalition formed
against him, 186 ; invites Mar-
guerite's co-operation in favour
of peace, 187 ; concludes the
Treaty of Beaulieu, 187, 188 ;
alarmed at the formation of the
League, 194 ; refuses to allow
Marguerite to return to her hus-
band, 195, 196 ; declines Loig-
nac's offer to assassinate the
King of Navarre, 197 note ; gives
Marguerite permission to go to
Flanders, 200 ; warns the Span-
iards of the true object of her
journey, 224; receives her very
cordiafiy on her return to Paris ;
promises to permit to return to
her husband, and to assign her
her dowry in land, 229, 230 ;
opposed to Anjou's Flemish
enterprise, 230, 231 ; intervenes
to prevent an affray between his
mignons and Bussy and his friends,
232 ; enacts Ordinances against
duelling, 232 ; his extraordinary
behaviour towards Monsieur, 235,
236 ; formally reconciled to him,
2 37. 2 38 ; causes him to be kept
under close surveillance, 238 ;
his anger on learning of his
brother's escape, 243 ; assigns
Marguerite her dowry in lands,
246 ; restores La Reole to the
King of Navarre, 252 ; accuses
Marguerite of a liaison with
Turenne, 262, 263 ; informs the
Comte de Montsoreau of Bussy's
relations with his wife, 263 note ;
acts with vigour against the Hu-
Henri III., King of France con-
tinued
guenots, 266 ; glad to make
peace, 268 ; invites Marguerite
to Court, 278-280 ; receives her
cordially and consents to an in-
crease of her appanage, 283 ; his
relations with her again very
strained, 289, 290 ; subornes one
of her waiting-women to inform
him of her amours, 291 ; grossly
insults her at a ball at the Louvre
and orders her to leave Paris, 293;
causes her and some of her people
to be arrested near Palaiseau,
294 ; interrogates Mesdames de
Duras and de Bethune in regard
to his sister's conduct, 294, 295 ;
releases Marguerite, 295 ; his
letter to the King of Navarre,
296 ; refuses to give him a satis-
factory explanation of his treat-
ment of his wife, 297-300 ; sends
Bellievre to him, 301 ; " does
him too much honour," 302 ;
praises him to Duplessis-Mornay,
303 ; sends d'Epernon on a
mission to him after the death
of Monsieur, 307-309 ; coerced
into giving the League his coun-
tenance and support, 310-311 ;
signs the Treaty of Nemours, 311
and note ; his anger on learning
of Marguerite's coup d'etat at
Agen, 318 ; orders her to leave
the Chateau of Carlat, 329 ; causes
her to be arrested by the Mar-
quis de Canillac, 330 ; his letters
to Villeroy concerning her, 331,
332 ; sinister designs attributed
to him in regard to her, 334, 335
and note ; compels Catherine to
disinherit her in favour of Charles
de Valois, 336 ; his flight from
Paris, 336 ; assassinated by
Jacques Clement, 336
Henri IV., King of France
project of marriage between him
and Marguerite de Valois, 50-56 ;
Jeanne d'Albret's letter to him
from Blois, 62-64 ; declines
Charles IX.'s invitation to Court,
65 ; difficulties in the way of his
marriage with Marguerite, 67-
75 ; his grief on learning of his
mother's death, 80 ; his entry
into Paris, 80, 81 ; his marriage,
85-90 ; takes part in an alle-
gorical entertainment at the
400
INDEX
Henri IV., King of France con-
tinued
Hdtel de Petit-Bourbon, 90-92 ;
sends his Swiss'guards to protect
Coligny, 98 ; determines to de-
mand justice of Charles IX. for
the attempt upon the Admiral's
life, 106 ; butchery of his fol-
lowers at the St. Bartholomew,
108 ; ordered to abjure his reli
gion on pain of death, 109 ;
receives instruction in the Catho-
lic faith, in ; abjures Protes-
tantism, 112; his unenviable
position at the French Court, 112,
113 and note ; neglects his wife
and indulges in numerous gallan-
tries, 117 ; remains the secret
chief of the Huguenots, 120 ; his
attempt to escape from Court
revealed by Marguerite to the
King and Catherine, 124, 125 ;
failure of Guitry's plan to effect
his liberation, 126, 127 ; arrested
and imprisoned in the keep of
Vincennes, 128, 129 ; able me-
moir in his defence drawn up by
Marguerite, 130, 131 and note ;
her proposal to enable him to
escape, 132, 133; his conversa-
tion with the dying King, 141 ; his
reception by Henri III., on the
latter's return to France, 146 :
does not believe the King's
charge against his wife at Lyons,
147, 148 ; takes an oath of
fidelity to Henri III., 150, 151 ;
joins the processions of the Fla-
gellants at Avignon, 153 ; in-
fatuated with Madame de Sauve,
163 ; " seized with a very serious
indisposition," 170 ; quarrels
with his wife, 171 ; his position
at the French Court becoming
increasingly irksome, 172, 173 ;
makes his escape, 182-184 ; re-
fused admission to Bordeaux,
192 ; demands that Marguerite
and his sister, Catherine, shall
be sent back to him, 193 ; sends
the Vicomte de Duras to Henri
III. to demand his wife, 193 ;
and the Seigneur de Genissac,
195, 196 ; proposal of Loignac to
assassinate him, 197 note ; meets
his wife and Catherine de' Medici
at Casteras, 249 ; in love with
Mile. Dayelle, 249, 250 ; refuses
to hold a conference at Isle-
Henri IV., King of France con-
tinued
Jourdain, 251 ; joins his wife
and Catherine at Auch, 251 ; his
part in the affair of La Reole and
Fleurance, 252, 253 ; his gallan-
tries at Nerac, 254 ; makes
Mile, de Rebours his mistress,
256 ; annoyed with his wife for
intervening on behalf of her co-
religionists, 258, 259 ; falls ill at
Eauze, 259 ; in love with Fos-
seuse, 261 ; " on familiar terms "
with a waiting-woman of his
wife, 261 ; feigns to disbelieve
Henri III.'s charge against Mar-
guerite and Turenne, 263 ; in-
duced to resume hostilities, 268 ;
storms Cahors, 265, 266 ; block-
aded by Biron in Nerac. 267 ;
rivalry between him and Mon-
sieur over Fosseuse, 269, 270 ;
compelled by Marguerite to dis-
grace ostensibly d'Aubigne, 271 ;
makes Fosseuse his mistress, 273 ;
follows her to Eaux-Chaudes
275 ; takes her part against his
wife, 276 ; compelled to seek
Marguerite's assistance, in order
to avoid a scandal, 276-278 ;
opposed to his wife visiting the
French Court, 279, 280 ; meeting
with Catherine de' Medici at La
Mothe-Sainte-Heraye, 282 ; Mar
guerite's letters to him, 283, 284 ;
indignant at her dismissal of
Fosseuse from her service, 284,
285 ; letters of Marguerite and
Catherine to him in reference to
this matter, 285-287 ; informed
of his wife's arrest near Palaiseau,
296, 297 ; sends Duplessis-Mor-
nay to Henri III. to demand an
explanation, 297-299 ; sends
d'Aubigne to Saint-Germain,
with the same object, 300, 301 ;
declines to receive his wife, pend-
ing a satisfactory explanation
from the King, 302 ; in love with
the Comtesse de Gramont (" la
belle Corisande "), 302 ; recon-
ciled to Marguerite, 303 ; his
reception of his wife on her
return to Nerac, 304, 305 ; be-
comes heir-presumptive to the
throne of France, 306 ; d'Eper
non's mission to him, 307-309 ;
refuses to visit the Court or to go
to Mass, 309 ; treats Marguerite
401 2 c
INDEX
Henri IV., King of France con-
tinued
with indifference and contempt,
312 ; suspects her secretary,
Ferran, of an attempt to poison
him, 313 ; contemplates severe
measures against his wife, 313 ;
gives her permission to visit Agen,
314 ; drives her troops out of
Tonneins, 319 ; destroys the
force sent by her into Beam, 319 ;
hard pressed for money, 341
note ; gains the Battle of Ivry,
343 ; felicitated by Marguerite
on his accession to the throne of
France, 344 ; determines to pro-
cure the dissolution of their
marriage, 344, 345 ; his corres-
pondence with his wife, 347-349 ;
finds himself compelled to appeal
to the Vatican, 349, 350 ; his
passion for Gabrielle d'Estrees,
351-353 ; desires to marry her,
353. 354 : attempts to intimi-
date the Pope, 355, 356 ; his
grief at Gabrielle's death, 356,
, 357 ; negotiations for his mar-
riage with Marie de' Medici, 357 ;
his marriage with Marguerite
dissolved, 357, 358 ; his letter to
her, 359 ; his passion for Hen-
riette d'Entragues, 361, 362 ;
gives her a conditional promise
of marriage, 362, 363 ; marries
Marie de' Medici, 363 ; corres-
ponds with Marguerite, 364, 365 ;
gives her permission to leave
Usson for the Chateau of Madrid,
366, 367 ; sends the Due de Ven-
dflme and Harlay de Chanvallon
to greet her on her arrival, 368,
369 ; his visit to her, 369, 370 ;
receives her at the Louvre, 370,
371 ; the best of friends with her,
371, 372 ; jests at her expense,
378, 379 : prepares for a general
attack on the possessions of the
House of Austria, 38 1 ; appoints
Marie de' Medici Regent, 381 ;
urges Marguerite to attend the
Queen's coronation, 381 ; assas-
sinated by Ravaillac, 382
Heroard, J. (cited), 372
Hopital, Michel del', 6, 18
IMBERT de Saint-Amand, Baron
(cited), 38, 114
Inchy,M.d' (commandant of the cita-
del of Cambrai), 204, 205, 207, 269
Isabella, Infanta (daughter of
Philip II. and Elisabeth de
Valois), 312 note
Ivry, Battle of, 253 note, 343, 382
JARNAC, Battle of, 19, 89 note
Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre
(mother of Henri)
her religious intolerance, 16, 17 ;
disapproves of the proposed mar-
riage between her son and Mar-
guerite de Valois, 54 ; but yields
to the representations of Coligny
and her councillors, 55 ; her
journey to Blois, 57, 58 ; favour-
ably impressed by Marguerite,
58, 59 ; confers with Catherine
de' Medici respecting the marriage
articles, 60, 61 ; warmly wel-
comed by Charles IX. on her
arrival at Court, 61 ; her letter
to Henri of Navarre, 62-64 ;
consults the Huguenot divines
and the English Ambassadors,
67-69 ; dowers her son, 71 ;
reluctantly consents to the mar-
riage taking place in Paris, 72 ;
supports the demands of the
Huguenot divines in regard to
the ceremonial to be observed,
74, 75 ; visits Paris, 76, 77 ; her
death, 77 ; suspicion of her
having been poisoned unjustified,
77-79
Joinville, Prince de. See Guise,
Henri de Lorraine, Due de
Joyeuse, Anne d'Arques, Due de,
159, 289 and note, 291, 292, 336
Juan of Austria, Don
his opinion of Marguerite de
Valois, 29 ; becomes Governor-
General of the Netherlands, 207 ;
meeting between him and the
Queen of Navarre, 208 ; his per-
sonal appearance, 208 ; enter-
tains Marguerite magnificently
at Namur, 208-211 ; attempts
to capture her at Dinant and
Fleurines, 220-224
KANARSKI, Adam (Bishop of Posen),
32, 121
LA FERRIERE, Comte Hector de
(cited), 23 note, 29, 60, 335, 369,
386 and note, 387
La Fin, 129 note
La Guesle (procureur-gintral), 129,
358
La Huguerye (cited), 305
402
INDEX
Lalain, Comte de (Grand Bailiff of
Hainault), 205-207, 220, 223,
224, 225, 227
Lalain, Comtesse de, 205, 206, 225
Lalanne, M. Ludovic, his edition of
Marguerite de Valois's Memoires,
34i
La M61e
his liaison with Marguerite de
Valois, 181 ; his singular charac-
ter, 181 ; betrays Guitry's scheme
for the liberation of Henri of
Navarre and Alen9on to Mar-
guerite, who informs her mother,
127 ; arrested with the Comte
de Coconnas, 129 ; accused of
practising sorcery against the
life of Charles IX., 129 ; put to
the question, 1 30 ; condemned to
death, 134 ; futile intercession
of Elizabeth of England and the
Due d'Alen9on on his behalf, 134 ;
executed, 135 ; Marguerite's grief
at his death, 136, 137 and note ;
his execution formally declared
to have been a miscarriage of jus-
tice, i 88 note
Langlois, Martin (one of Marguerite
de Valois's procurators in the
divorce proceedings), 353, 354
and note, 357
La Noue, 70, 103 and note, 126, 144
La Peyre-Teule (Huguenot chief),
3 2 S
La Planche (cited), 77
Larchamp de Grimonville, arrests
the Queen, of Navarre near Palai-
seau, 294
La Reole and Fleurance, 251-253
La Souch6re, Louis de (Governor
of the Chateau of Ibois) 330
Lastic, Jean (chevalier d'honneur to
the Queen of Navarre), 343
Lauzun, M. Philippe, 329 note
League, the, 191, 192, 310, 311,
314, 320, 334, 338, 343
Leicester, Earl of, 134
Le Maignan, Henri (Bishop of
Digne), n
Le Moyne (favourite of Marguerite
de Valois), 337 note
Lenoncourt, Philippe de, Bishop of
Auxerre, 201, 215, 221
Leran, Vicomte de, saved by Mar-
guerite de Valois at the Massacre
of St. Bartholomew, 106 and note
Leroy, Etienne (singer), 12, 89 note
Le Royer (Secretary to Jeanne
d'Albret), 70
L'Estoile, 379, 387
(cited), 77, 113 note, 116, 140,
144, 155, 159, 160, 165, 199 note,
231, 232, 233, 247, 282, 294,
307, 310 note, 370, 371, 377,
379- 382
Liancourt, Nicolas d' Amerval, Seign-
eur de (husband of Gabrielle
d'Estrees), 351, 352
Lignerac, Fransois Robert de
entrusted by the Queen of Na-
varre with the command of her
troops at Agen, 317 ; assists her
to escape from Agen and con-
ducts her to the Chateau of
Carlat, 322, 323 ; becomes Super-
intendent of her Household, 327 j
assassinates a young man in the
Queen's bedchamber, in a fit of
jealousy, 329 and note
Livarot (mignon of Henri III.),
231
Loignac, 195 note, 197 note
Lorges, Gabriel Montgommery,
Comte, 3, 4, 10, 81, 126, 133, i**-
144, 188
Lorraine, Cardinal de, 5, 37, +.
128, 142, 152, 153, 191
Losse, Sieur de (Captain of the
Scottish Guard), 235, 236, 237
Louis XL, 333
Louis XII., 83, 382
Louis XIII., 363, 370, 375, 377
Louis XIV., 2, 157
Louise de Coligny, Princess of
Orange, 81, 355
Louise de Vaudemont, Queen of
France, 154, 158, 183, 284, 291,
292, 367 note
" Lovers' War," the, 264-268, 278
Loys de Torres, Don (envoy of
Pius V.), 49
Luxembourg, Franois de, 154, 155
MACHIAVELLI, 262
Maimbourg, Louis (cited), 52
Maldonato, Pere, in
Malherbe, 614
Marie de' Medici, Queen of France
negotiations for her marriage
with Henri IV., 357 ; married at
Florence, 363 ; gives birth to a
Dauphin, 363 ; receives Mar-
guerite de Valois at the Louvre,
371 ; on friendly terms with her
predecessor, 372 ; begs her to
superintend the organisation of
her files, 376, 377 ; appointed
Regent during Henri IV.'s in-
403
INDEX
Marie de' Medici, Qneen of France
continued.
tended absence, 381 ; her coro-
nation, 381, 382 ; declines to
credit the statements of the
woman Comans in regard to the
assassination of the King, 383 ;
present at the ball given by Mar-
guerite de Valois in honour of the
Duke of Pastrana, 384
Marguerite d'Angoulfime, Queen of
Navarre, 2, 32
Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of
Savoy, 3, 13, 166 and note
Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Na-
varre
her charms described by Bran-
t6me, I ; typical of the Valois,
2 ; her birth, 2 ; early years, 3,
4 ; persecuted by her brother,
Henri, for the sake of her religion,
9, 10 ; sent to the Chateau of
Amboise, n ; her education, u,
12 ; accompanies the Court on
the " grand voyage," 12-17 ; poli-
tical rdle proposed to her by her
brother Aniou, 20-22 ; becomes
her mother s confidante, 22, 23 ;
accused by Henri d'Anjou of en-
couraging the attentions of the
Due de Guise, 24 ; denies her
predilection for Guise in her
M&moires, 25, 26 ; her beauty,
elegance, and intelligence, 28-
33 ; falls ill at Saint-Jean-d'An-
gely, 36, 37 ; her love-affair with
Guise, 37-45 ; negotiations for
her marriage to Dom Sebastian of
Portugal, 46-49 ; project of
marriage between her and Henri
of Navarre, 50-56 ; her hand
demanded by Dom Sebastian,
but refused by Charles IX., 58,
59 ; makes a favourable impres-
sion upon Jeanne d'Albret, 59,
60 ; not permitted any private
conversation with the Queen of
Navarre, 62 ; " speaks as she
has been commanded to speak,"
64 ; Brantdme's description of
her appearance on Palm Sunday
at Blois, 65-67 ; obstacles to her
marriage to Henri of Navarre,
67-75 I relates an " amusing in-
cident," 79, 80 ; her marriage,
85-89 ; her account of her ad-
ventures during the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew, 105-108 ; mag-
nanimously refuses Catherine's
Marguerite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre continued
otter to have her marriage an-
nulled, 109, no; urges her
husband to abjure Protestantism,
in ; constitutes herself his ally,
113; unhappy in her married
life, 116, 117; her liaison with
La M61e, 1 1 8 ; refuses to be
reconciled to her brother, Henri,
122, 123 ; warns Charles IX. and
Catherine of her husband and
Alen9on's intended escape, 124-
126 ; persuades La M61e to
reveal to her the conspiracy of
the " Politiques," and informs
the Queen -Mother, 126, 127 ;
draws up an able memoir on
behalf of her husband, 130, 131 ;
offers to assist Alen9on and her
husband to escape from Vin-
cennes, 132, 133 ; her grief at
the execution of La M61e, 136,
137 and note ; regrets the death
of Charles IX. ; meets Henri III.
at Bourgoin on his returnjfrom
Poland, 145, 146 ; accused by
him of " a very dangerous form
of benevolence," 146-148 ; has
a stormy interview with her
mother, 149 ; succeeds in estab-
lishing her innocence, 158 ; takes
part in the processions of the
Flagellants at Avignon, 152 ;
enmity between her and Henri
III.'s favourite, Du Guast, 161,
162 ; endeavours to save her
husband and Alen9on from the
wiles of Madame de Sauve, 163 ;
accused by Du Guast and Henri
III. of a liaison with Bussy d'Am-
boise, 164-167 ; betrays her pre-
dilection for Bussy in her Mi-
moires, 167 ; assists her husband
when seized with a sudden illness,
170 ; violent quarrel between her
and the King of Navarre, 171 ;
placed under arrest in her apart-
ments, after the escape of Mon-
sieur, 175-177 ; question of her
complicity in the assassination of
Du Guast by the Baron de Vi-
teaux considered, 178-182 ; sub-
jected to a rigorous confinement
after the escape of Henri of
Navarre, 185 ; accompanies her
mother to negotiate with Alen-
9on, 187; wishes to rejoin her
husband, but is persuaded by
404
INDEX
Marguerite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre continued
Catherine to return to Paris, 188,
189 ; retained at Court by Henri
[II. against her will, 193-196 ;
determines to proceed to Flanders
to promote the interests of her
brother, Anjou, 197-200 ; accom-
panies the Court to Chenonceaux,
201 ; her journey to Flanders,
201-203 ; arrives at Cambrai
and seduces the commandant of
the citadel from his allegiance,
203, 204 ; wins over the Comte
and Comtesse de Lalain to her
brother's cause, 205, 206 ; her
reception by Don Juan at Namur,
207-211 ; nearly drowned, 211,
212 ; her stay at Lidge, 212,
213 ; receives alarming news
from Monsieur, 213, 214 ; sets
out on her return journey to
France, 215, 216; her adven-
tures at Huy and Dinant, 217-
220 ; outwits the attempt of the
Spaniards to seize her at the latter
town, 220-223 ; in a critical
situation, 223, 224 ; escapes an
ambush laid for her by the Hu-
guenots and reaches La Fere in
safety, 225 ; entertains Mon-
sieur at La Fre, 226 ; visited
by the Flemish delegates, 227 ;
returns to Paris, 229 ; obtains a
promise from Henri III. to permit
her to return to her husband and
to assign her her dowry in lands,
229, 231 ; shares Anjou's cap-
tivity, 237 ; assists him to escape,
238-244 ; receives her dowry,
245 ; sets out with Catherine for
Gascony to rejoin her husband,
247, 248 ; her entry into Bor-
deaux, 248 ; her meeting with
her husband at Casteras, 249 ;
visits Agen, Toulouse, and Auch,
251 ; her reception at Nerac, 253;
uses her influence on behalf of
her husband at the Treaty of
Nerac, 255; difficulty of her
position at Pau, 257 ; intervenes
in favour of her co-religionists,
2 S8, 259 ; nurses her husband
during an illness at Eauze, 259;
her life at Nerac, 260, 261 ; her
relations with the Vicomte de
Turenne, 261 ; beloved by her
chancellor, Pibrac, 261, 262 ;
accused by Henri III., in a letter
Marguarite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre continued
to the King of Navarre of a
liaison with Turenne, 262, 263 ;
her responsibility for the " Lovers
War," 263-265 ; her indignation
at Biron's blockade of Nerac,
267 ; uses her influence on behalf
of peace, 267, 268 ; induces
Monsieur to subdue his passion
for her husband's enchantress,
Fosseuse, 269, 270 ; her liaison
with Harlay de Chanvallon, 270 ;
demands the disgrace of d'Au-
bigne, 271 ; rebukes the indis-
cretions of Pibrac and dismisses
him from her service, 271, 272
alarmed at the influence of Fos-
seuse over the King of Navarre,
273, 274 ; entertains hope of
bearing a child, 274 ; goes to
Bagneres-de-Bigorre, 274, 275 ;
proposes to take Fosseuse away,
276 ; " behaves to her as though
she were her own daughter," 277 ;
accepts Henri III.'s invitation to
visit Paris, 278-280 ; question of
the continuation of her Mtmoires
beyond this date considered, 281,
282 and note ; meets her mother
at La Mothe Saint-Heraye, 282 ;
cordially received by Henri III.,
283 ; purchases the H6tel de
Birague, 283 ; her letters to her
husband, 283, 284 ; dismisses
Fosseuse from her service, 284,
285 ; her spirited letter to the
King of Navarre in answer to his
remonstrances, 285, 286 ; highly
indignant at Chanvallon's mar-
riage, 287, 288 ; mortified at the
failure of Anjou's Flemish enter-
prise, 288, 289 ; on bad terms
with the King and his mignons,
289, 290 ; resumes her tender
relations with Chanvallon, 290 ;
dreads the resentment of the
King, 291 ; question of her re-
sponsibility for the outrage upon
a royal courier considered, 291,
292 ; grossly insulted by Henri
III. during a ball at the Louvre,
and commanded to leave Paris,
292, 293 ; sets out for Venddm^,
293, 294 ; arrested by the King's
orders near Palaiseau, and con-
veyed to the Chateau of Mon-
targis, 294, 295 ; released on the
intercession of Catherine, 295,
45
INDEX
Marguerite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre continued
296 ; her pathetic letter to her
mother, 299, 300 ; refusal of the
King of Navarre to receive her,
pending a satisfactory explana-
tion from Henri III., 300 ; nego-
tiations in regard to this affair,
300-303 ; returns to her husband,
304, 305 ; her difficult position
at Nerac, 305, 306 ; refuses to
assist at the reception of the Due
d'Epernon, but ultimately con-
sents, 307-309 ; her situation in
regard to her husband becomes
intolerable, 312, 313; I' affaire
Ferrand, 313 and note ; resolves
to leave her husband and estab-
lish herself as an independent
princess, 314 ; her arrival at
Agen, 314-316 ; sends her secre-
tary, Choisnin, to the Due de
Guise, 316 ; executes a coup
d'ttat at Agen and obtains posses-
sion of the town, 315-318 ; em-
barks upon a war of conquest,
but meets with reverses, 318,
319 ; shuts herself up in Agen,
320 ; urgently in need of money,
320 ; exasperates the Agenais
by her exactions and tyranny,
320, 321 ; compelled to fly by a
revolt of the town, and takes
refuge at the Chateau of Carlat,
in Auvergne, 322-325 ; dismisses
her secretary, Choisnin, for dis-
honesty and insolence, 325, 326 ;
her dealings with Guise revealed
by him to Henri III., 326 ; parts
with a portion of her jewellery,
326 ; quarrels with the Vicomte
de Duras, 327 ; little better than
a prisoner, 327 ; her relations
with d'Aubiac considered, 327,
328 ; tragic episode in her bed-
chamber, 329 ; removes from
Carlat to the Chateau of Ibois,
near Issoire, 329, 330 ; arrested
by the Marquis de Can iliac, acting
under the orders of Henri III.,
330 ; letters of the King to Vil-
leroy concerning her, 330 ; con-
veyed to the Chateau of Usson,
33 2 - 333 I " makes her gaoler her
prisoner," 333, 334 ; sinister
designs in regard to her attri-
buted to Henri III. and Catherine,
334. 335 ; Usson surrendered to
her by Camllac, 335 and note ;
Marguerite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre continued
her donation in his favour, 335,
336 ; disinherited by Catherine,
in favour of Charles de Valois,
336 ; her life at Usson, 336-339 ;
her MSmoires, 339-341 ; receives
financial assistance from her
sister-in-law, Elizabeth of Aus-
tria, 341, 342 ; makes her peace
with her husband after his coro-
nation, 344 ; opening of the
negotiations for the dissolution
of her marriage, 344-346 ; her
letter to Duplessis-Mornay, 347 ;
her correspondence with her hus-
band, 348, 349 ; unwilling to
make way for the elevation of
Gabrielle d'Estrees, 354 and note,
355 ; interrogated at Usson by
Berthier, the syndic of the clergy,
358 ; her marriage annulled, 359 ;
Henri IV.'s letter to her, 359,
360 ; her answer, 360, 361 ; her
last years at Usson, 364, 365 ;
begins a lawsuit against the
Comte d' Auvergne, 366 ; obtains
permission from the King to
reside at the Chateau of Madrid,
at Boulogne-sur-Seine, 366, 367 ;
her arrival at the Chateau of
Madrid, 368, 369 ; her interview
with Henri IV., 369, 370 ; visited
by the Dauphin, 370 ; received
by their Majesties at the Louvre,
371 ; reconciles several of the old
nobility to the new dynasty,
371 ; on friendly terms with the
Royal Family, 371, 372; rents the
H6tel de Sens, 372 and note ;
assassination of her favourite,
Saint-Julien, 373 ; her letter to
the King demanding justice on
the assassin, 374 ; witnesses his
execution, 374 ; leaves the H6tel
de Sens for Issy, 375 ; builds a
magnificent hdtel in the Fau-
bourg Saint-Germain, 375 ; her
patronage of men-of-letters, 376 ;
organises fttes for Marie de'
Medici, 376, 377 ; her toilettes
criticised from the pulpit, 377 ;
her favourite, Bajaumont, 378,
379 ; her charity, 379, 380 ; her
benefactions to the Augustines,
380, 381 ; assists at the corona-
tion of Marie de' Medici, 381, 382 ;
sincerely mourns the death of
Henri IV., 382, 383 ; endeavours
406
INDEX
Marguerite de Vallois, Queen of
Navarre continued
to obtain a fair hearing for the
woman, Comans, 383 ; her dis-
creet conduct during the Re-
gency, 383 ; gives a magnificent
ball in honour of the Duke of
Pastrana, 383, 384 ; becomes
exceedingly devout, 385 ; her
favourite, Villars, 385 ; her ill-
ness and death, 385 ; her burial,
386 ; her character variously
estimated, 386-389
Marcel (Provost of the Merchants),
104
Marie (French Ambassador to the
Vatican), 70
Marot, 8
Marses, Gilbert de (Governor of
Carlat), 323, 325, 327, 328 and
note, 332
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 3,
4, 12, 61, 294
Mathieu, Pierre (cited), 27, 337, 387
Matignon, Marechal de, 133, 239 and
note, 240, 247, 268, 316, 318, 319,
320, 321, 322, 323
Maugiron, Louis de (mignon of
Henri III.), 231 and note
Mauleverier, Comte de, 69
Maurevert, or Maurevel, attempts
the assassination of Coligny.95,96
Mayenne, Charles de Lorraine, Due
de, 33 note, 41, 201, 310, 365
Maynard, Fran9ois (poet), 375 note,
37.6
Mazillac (physician to Charles IX.),
139
Mendoza (Spanish Ambassador at
French Court), 329 note, 334
Mercosur, Duchesse de, 367 note
Merki, M. Charles, 218
(cited), 126, 168, 292, 336, 387
Merlin de Vaulx (Huguenot Minis-
ter), 67, 99
Mezeray, 387
(cited), 27, 77, 88 note, 180
Michelet (cited), 180
Michaud and Poujoulat, their edi-
tion of Marguerite de Valois's
Memoir es, 341
Michieli, Giovanni, Venetian Am-
bassador at the French Court
(cited), 86, 101, 102, 104 note
Miossans (equerry to the King of
Navarre), 108, 124, 125 and note
Mole, Edouard (one of Marguerite
de Valois's procurators in the
divorce proceedings), 357
Mondoucet (French Minister in the
Netherlands), 197, 198, 215
Mongez, 131
(cited), 42, 91, 92, 106 note,
137 note, 203 note, 259, 264,
337
Montaigne, 131
Montbrun, 126
Montcontour, Battle of, 89 note
Montesquiou, Baron de, 20 note
Montigny, Baron de, 205, 227
Montgommery, Gabriel de. See
Lorges, Comte de
Montmorency, Anne, Connetable
de, 10, 20 note
Montmorency, Diane de France,
Duchesse de, 367, 368
Montmorency, Fra^ois de, Mare-
chal de, 54, 81, 99 note, 133, 144,
232. 367, 368
Montmorency, Henri de. See
Amville, Due d'
Montmorency, Guillaume de, 130,175
Montpensier, Due de, 33, 86, 133,
174 note, 247
Montpensier, Duchesse de, 33, 248
Morgues, Matthieu (cited), 379
Montsoreau, Comte de, 263 and note
Montsoreau, Comtesse de, 263 note
Mouy, Marquis de, 202
Murray, Earl of (Regent of Scot-
land)
NAN^AY, Gaspard de la Chatre,
Seigneur de, 107 a"nd note, 108
Nantouillet (Provost of Paris), 116,
121, 155 note, 178
Nassau, Louis, Count of, 58, 70, 103
note
Navarre. See Henri IV., Jean
d'Albret, Marguerite de Valois
Nemours, Due de, 43
Nemours, Anne d'Este, Duchesse
de, 33 note, 43, 44
Nemours, Treaty of, 311 and note
Nerac, Treaty of, 254, 255 and note
Nevers, Ludovic de Gonzague, Due
de, 79 and note, 136
Nevers, Henriette de Cleves, 79 and
note, 80, 95, loo
Nicot (French Ambassador at Lis-
bon), 46 and note
O, FRANCOIS d', 147, 148
Orange. See William the Silent,
Prince of
Oradour, Jacques d' (mattre d'h6tel
to the Queen of Navarre), 137
and note, 343
407
INDEX
Oraison, d' (Governor of Agen), 314
Orleans, Gaston, Due', 377
Ossat, Cardinal d', 340
Othagaray (cited). 77
PALISSY, Bernard (architect), 366
note
Palma Cayet (cited), 77
Papon, Loys, 339, 386
Pardaillan, Hector de, 99 and note
Pare, Ambroise (surgeon), 97, 137
Parma, Alexander Farnese, Prince
of, 269
Pastrana, Duke of, 383, 384
Pellisson (cited), 339
Pereisc, 385
Petitot, his edition of Marguerite
de Valois's Memoir es, 341
Pfeiffer (colonel of the Swiss mer-
cenaries in Charles IX.'s service),
1 8
Philip II., King of Spain, 3, 14, 40,
46-49, 157, 158 and note, 207,
310, 312 note, 320, 325, 329 note
Philip III., King of Spain, 365
Philip IV., King of Spain, 384
Piles, Armand de, 81, 98
Pibrac, GuiduFaur, Seigneur de, 247
and note, 248, 251, 255, 201, 262,
272, 273, 303
Pius V., Pope, 47, 49, 58, 70, 73
Poissy, Colloquy of the, 7
" Politiques," Conspiracy of the, 126
Pol trot de Mer6 (assassin of Fran
9ois, Due de Guise), 12 note
Pomini (favourite of Marguerite de
Valois), 337 note
Pomponne de Bellidvre, 301 and
note, 302, 308, 309, 315, 316
Pont-a-Mousson, Marquis de, 311
note
Pontchartrain (cited), 385
Porcien, Prince de, 38 and note
Porcien, Princesse de. See Guise,
Duchess of
Poux, Colonel, 187
QUELUS (favourite of Henri III.),
231, 232, 233
RAMEE, Daniel (cited), 52
Randan, Comte de, 338
Ranke (cited), 52
Ravaillac (assassin of Henri IV.),
382
Rebours, Mile, de (maid-of-honour
to the Queen of Navarre), 248,
256 and note, 261, 274, 275
RSge, Paul de (dancing-master), 12
Rene (Florentine perfumer), 77
Reine Margot, la, Dumas pere's,
i 06 note
Renee de France, Duchess of Fer-
rara, 8
Resigade (favourite of Marguerite
de Valois), 337 note
Retz, Due de, 69, 95, 100
Retz, Duchesse de, 38
Richelieu, Cardinal de (cited), 379,
388, 389
Roche-sur-Yon, Prince de la, 26
note
Roche-sur-Yon, Princesse de la, 197
and note, 201, 202, 214, 215, 216
Ronsard, 31, 121, 386
Rosny. See Sully
Ruffec, Marquis de, 147, 181
Ruggieri, Cosmo (astrologer), 129,
136 and note
ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Massacre of, 9.
J 4> S 2 ' 53' 99-109. 122, 129, 136,
137, i6"4note, 181, 183, 188, 193
Sainte-Beuve (cited), 167, 339, 340
Saint-Denis, Battle of, 19
Saint-Germain, Peace of, 49, 51, 52,
53, 72, 120, 190
Saint- Julien (favourite of the Queen
of Navarre),337note, 373, 374, 378
Saint-Luc (mignon of Henri III.),
231, 233
Saint-Mesgrin (mignon of Henri
HI.), 231
Saint-Poncy, Comte Leo de, 218
(cited), 8, ii, 62, 126, 168, 176,
181, 210, 241, 253, 270 note,
282, 292, 295, 312 note, 328
note, 329 note, 332 note, 333,
338, 340, 344, 349, 350, 379
note, 387
Salluste du Bartas (Huguenot poet),
253 and note
Salviati, Chevalier (treasurer to
the Queen of Navarre), 215, 225
Sauve, Charlotte de Beaune.Baronne
de
her character, 162 ; her personal
appearance, 162 note ; becomes
the mistress of Henri of Navarre,
162, 163 ; works to sow dissen-
sion between Monsieur and the
King of Navarre, and between
the latter and his wiie, 163 ; a
love-letter from her to Monsieur
read by Henri III., 236 ; accom-
panies Catherine and the Queen
of Navarre to Gascony, 248 ; the
King of Navarre prefers Mile.
408
INDEX
Sauve, Charlotte de Beaune, Baronne
de continued
Dayelle to her, 249 ; resumes her
tender relations with him, 254 ;
mistress of the Due de Guise,
264
Savoy. See Emmanuel Philibert
and Marguerite
Schoeffer (cited), 52
Sebastian, King of Portugal, 39,
46-50, 58
Servin, Louis (advocate), 385
Simier (chamberlain to the Due
d'Aniou), 173
Smith, Sir Thomas (English Ambas-
sador at the French Court), 67
Sully, Maximilien de Bethune, Due
de. 351. 353- 354. 363. 367
(cited), 16, 52, 254
Strozzi, Marechal, 142, 232, 263
Suffren (Jesuit), censures the Queen
of Navarre's coquettish gowns,
377. 378
TALLEMANT des Reaux, 387
(cited), 369, 377, 383, 385
Tavannes, Marechal de, 20 note,
34, 8 1, 95, 100
Teligny, Charles de, 58, 81, 99, 103
Thorigny, Mile, de (maid-of-honour
to the Queen of Navarre), 173
and note, 177, 178
Thou, J. A. de (cited), 27, 77, 160,
173, 180
Toledo, Don Pedro of (Spanish Am-
bassador at French Court), 376
Touchet, Marie, 141, 336, 362
Tournon, Cardinal de, 9
Tournon, Madame de, 201 and note,
202, 214, 215
Tournon, Mile, de, 201, 211, 213
Turenne, Vicomte de. See Bouil-
lon.
URFE, Honore d', 338, 339
Urfe, Anne d', 339
Urfe, Antoine d', 339
Urfe, the brothers d', 386
Uzes, Duchesse d', 248, 256
VALENTINOIS, Diane de Poitiers,
Duchesse de, 286
Valois, the, 2, Si, 202, 368
Varembon, Marquis de, 208, 211
Vaudemont, Nicolas de Lorraine,
Comte de, 154, 159 note
Venddme. Alexandre de (son of
Henri IV. and Gabrielle d'Es-
trees), 352
Venddme, Cesar, Due de (son of
Henri IV. and Gabrielle d'Es-
trees), 352, 368, 369
Vermont, assassinates Marguerite's
favourite, Saint-Julien, 373, 374
Verneuil, Henriette de Balzac d'En-
tragues, Marquise de
infatuation of Henri IV. for her,
362 ; extracts a conditional
promise of marriage from the
King, 362, 363 ; has a miscarriage,
which renders the promise void,
363 ; conspires against Henri
IV., 365, 366 ; arrested, but
released, 365, 366
Vervins, Peace of, 353
Vezins, Jean de (Seneschal of
Quercy), 265, 266
Villars (favourite of the Queen of
Navarre), 385
Villemain (cited), 340
Villeroy, Marquis de, 295, 330, 331,
340
Villequier, Rene de, 233 and note,
234
Villesave, Mile, de (maid-of-honour
to the Queen of Navarre), 274
Viteaux, Baron de, assassinated
Du Guast, 178-180
WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, 67-69
Whitehead, Mr. A. W. (cited), 102
note
Willert, Mr. P. F. (cited), 251
William the Silent, Prince of
Orange, 102 note, 205, 215, 288,
355
XAINTES (waiting-woman to the
Queen of Navarre), 261, 264
ZAMET (Italian financier), 356
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