The Life of Marie de Medicis (Vol. 1-3) - Biography of the Queen of France (Complete Edition)

CHAPTER II

1599

Sully resolves to hasten the King's marriage--Ambassadors are sent to Florence to demand the hand of Marie de Medicis--The marriage articles are signed--Indignation of Madame de Verneuil--Revenge of her brother, the Comte d'Auvergne--The Duke of Savoy visits Paris--His reception--His profusion--His mission fails--Court poets--Marie de Medicis is married to the French King by procuration at Florence--Hostile demonstrations of the Duke of Savoy--Infatuation of the King for the favourite--Her pretensions--A well-timed tempest--Diplomacy of Madame de Verneuil--Her reception at Lyons--War in Savoy--Marie de Medicis lands at Marseilles--Madame de Verneuil returns to Paris--The Duc de Bellegarde is proxy for the King at Florence--He escorts the new Queen to France--Portrait of Marie de Medicis--Her state-galley--Her voyage--Her reception--Henry reaches Lyons--The royal interview--Public rejoicings--The royal marriage--Henry returns to Paris--The Queen's jealousy is awakened--Profligate habits of the King--Marie's Italian attendants embitter her mind against her husband--Marie reaches Paris--She holds a court--Presentation of Madame de Verneuil to the Queen--Indignation of Marie--Disgrace of the Duchesse de Nemours--Self-possession of Madame de Verneuil--Marie takes possession of the Louvre--She adopts the French costume--Splendour of the Court--Festival given by Sully--A practical joke--Court festivities--Excessive gambling--Royal play debts--The Queen's favourite--A petticoat intrigue--Leonora Galigaï appointed Mistress of the Robes--Reconciliation between the Queen and Madame de Verneuil--The King gives the Marquise a suite of apartments in the Louvre--Her rivalry of the Queen--Indignation of Marie--Domestic dissensions--The Queen and the favourite are again at war--Madame de Verneuil effects the marriage of Concini and Leonora--Gratitude of the Queen--Birth of the Dauphin--Joy of the King--Public rejoicings--Birth of Anne of Austria--Superstitions of the period--Belief in astrology--A royal anecdote--Horoscope of the Dauphin--The sovereign and the surgeon--Birth of Gaston Henri, son of Madame de Verneuil--Public entry of the Dauphin into Paris--Exultation of Marie de Medicis.

The infatuation of the King for his new favourite decided M. de Sully to hasten by every means in his power the marriage of the sovereign with some European princess worthy to share his throne, and he accordingly instructed the royal agents at Rome to demand forthwith the hand of Marie de Medicis for the French monarch; while Henry, absorbed in his passion, permitted him to act as he saw fit, offering neither assistance nor impediment to a negotiation on which his domestic happiness was in future to depend. Nor was it until the Duke urged upon him the necessity of selecting such of his nobility as it was his pleasure to entrust with the management of the affair in conjunction with the ambassador whom the Grand Duke, her uncle, was about to despatch to Paris, that, by dint of importunity, he was induced to name M. de Sully himself, the Constable, the Chancellor, and the Sieur de Villeroy,[76] whose son, M. d'Alincourt, had previously been sent to Rome to offer the acknowledgments of Henry to his Holiness for the dissolution of his marriage with Queen Marguerite, and to apprise him of that which he was desirous to contract with Marie de Medicis. This duty performed, M. d'Alincourt solicited the permission of the Pope to accompany Sillery to Florence to pay his respects to the Princess and to negotiate the alliance; and having obtained the required sanction, the two nobles set forth upon their embassy, quite unaware that the preliminaries were already nearly concluded.[77] So determined, indeed, had been the minister that no time should be afforded to the King to redeem the pledge which he had given to the favourite that Joannini, the agent of the Grand Duke, had not been many days in Paris before the articles were drawn up and signed on both sides, and Sully was commissioned by the other contracting parties to communicate the termination of their labours to his royal master. The account given by the minister of this interview is highly characteristic.

"He had not," says the chronicler, "anticipated such expedition; and thus when I had answered his question of where I had come from by 'We come, Sire, from marrying you,' the Prince remained for a quarter of an hour as though he had been stricken by thunder; then he began to pace the chamber with long strides, biting his nails, scratching his head, and absorbed by reflections which agitated him so violently that he was a considerable time before he was able to speak to me. I entertained no doubt that all my previous representations were now producing their effect; and so it proved, for ultimately recovering himself like a man who has at length taken a decided resolution: 'Well,' said he, striking his hands together, 'well, then, so be it; there is no alternative, since for the good of my kingdom you say that I must marry.'" [78]

Such was the ungracious acceptance of the haughty Florentine Princess at the hands of her future bridegroom.

The indignation of Madame de Verneuil was unbounded when she ascertained that she had for ever lost all hope of ascending the throne of France; but it is nevertheless certain that she was enabled to dissimulate sufficiently to render her society indispensable to the King, and to accept with a good grace the equivocal honours of her position. Her brother, the Comte d'Auvergne, was, however, less placable; he had always affected to believe in the validity of her claim upon the King, and his naturally restless and dissatisfied character led him, under the pretext of avenging her wrongs, to enter into a conspiracy which had recently been formed against the person of the King, whom certain malcontents sought to deprive alike of his throne and of his liberty, and to supersede in his sovereignty by one of the Princes of the Blood.[79] Among others, the Duke of Savoy,[80] who, during the troubles of 1588, had taken possession of the marquisate of Saluzzo, which he refused to restore, was said to be implicated in this plot; and he was the more strongly suspected as it had been ascertained that he had constant communication with several individuals at the French Court, and that he had tampered with certain of the nobles; among others, with the Duc de Biron.[81] He had also succeeded in attaching to his interests the Duchesse de Beaufort; and had, during her lifetime, proposed to the King to visit France in person in order to effect a compromise, which he anticipated that, under her auspices, he should be enabled to conclude with advantage to himself. Henry had accepted the proposition; and although after the death of the Duchess, M. de Savoie endeavoured to rescind his resolution, he found himself so far compromised that he was compelled to carry out his original purpose; and accordingly, on the 1st of December, he left Chambéry with a train of twelve hundred horse, accompanied by the greater part of his ministers, his nobles, and the most magnificent members of his Court.[82] As the French King had issued orders that he should, in every city through which he passed, be received with regal honours, he did not reach Fontainebleau until the 14th of the same month, where he arrived just as his royal host was mounting his horse to meet him. As he approached Henry he bent his knee, but the King immediately raised and embraced him with great cordiality; and during the seven days which he spent at Fontainebleau the Court was one scene of splendour and dissipation. Balls, jousts, and hunting-parties succeeded each other without intermission, but the Duke soon perceived that the monarch had no intention of taking the initiative on the errand which had brought him to France, a caution from which he justly augured no favourable result to his expedition;[83] while on his side the subject was never alluded to by Sully or any of the other ministers without his giving the most unequivocal proofs of his determination to retain the marquisate.[84]

Meanwhile his conduct was governed by the most subtle policy; his bearing towards the monarch was at once deferential and familiar; his liberality was unbounded; and his courtesy towards the great nobles and the officials of the Court untiring and dignified.

On the eighth day after the arrival of the Duke at Fontainebleau the Court removed to Paris, where Henry had caused apartments to be prepared for his royal guest in the Louvre; but M. de Savoie, after offering his acknowledgments for the proffered honour, preferred to take up his abode in the house of his relative the Duc de Nemours, near the Augustine convent. The whole of the Christmas festival was spent in a succession of amusements as splendid as those with which he had been originally received; and on the 1st of January 1600, when it is customary in France to exchange presents, the Duke repaid all this magnificence by a profusion almost unprecedented. To the King, his offering was two large bowls and vases of crystal so exquisitely worked as to be considered unrivalled; while he tendered to Madame de Verneuil, who did the honours of the royal circle, and whom he was anxious to attach to his interests, a valuable collection of diamonds and other precious stones. Nor did his liberality end here, for there was not a great noble of the Court who was not enriched by his munificence save the Duc de Biron; who, from policy, declined to accept some magnificent horses which were sent to him in the name of the Prince; and Sully, who,...