Miss Pardoe

The Life of Queen Marie de Medicis


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of the intended treachery; and Du Terrail together with a companion whom he had associated in the enterprise were imprisoned in the castle of Yverdun, and thence conveyed to Genoa, where they were both decapitated, in the year 1609.

      [95] Charles de Créquy was the representative of one of the most ancient families in France, which traced its descent from Arnoul, called the Old, or the Bearded, who died in 897. The elder branch of the house became extinct in the person of Antoine de Créquy, Cardinal and Bishop of Amiens, born in 1531, and who at his death, which occurred in the year 1574, left all his personal wealth, together with the family possessions which he inherited from his brothers, to Antoine de Blanchefort, the son of his sister, Marie de Créquy, on condition that he should bear the name and arms of his mother. The son of Antoine was Charles de Créquy, de Blanchefort, and de Canaples, Prince de Poix, Governor of Dauphiny, peer and marshal of France, who became Duc de Lesdiguières by his marriage with Madelaine de Bonne, daughter of the celebrated Connétable de Lesdiguières, in 1611. His duel with Don Philippino, the bastard of Savoy, in which he killed his adversary, acquired for him a great celebrity; but he secured a more legitimate and desirable reputation by his gallantry in the taking of Pignerol and La Maurienne, in 1630. Three years subsequently he was sent as ambassador to Rome; in 1636 he conquered the Spanish forces on the Ticino; and in 1638 he was killed by a cannon ball, at the siege of Bremen, in Hanover.

      [96] Péréfixe, Histoire de Henri le Grand, vol. ii. pp. 329–33.

      [97] Saint-Edmé, vol. ii. pp. 211, 212.

      [98] Montfaucon, vol. v. p. 402.

      [99] L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 534–537.

      [100] Hist. des Reines et Régentes de France, vol. ii. p. 28.

      [101] Malherbe, the favourite poet of Marie de Medicis, profited by the tediousness of her voyage to make it the subject of an allegory, in which he represents that Neptune

      "Dix jours ne pouvant se distraire

       Au plaisir de la regarder,

       Il a, par un effort contraire,

       Essayé de la retarder."

      A specimen of his godship's gallantry, with which the young sovereign would, in all probability, most willingly have dispensed.

      [102] L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 537.

      [103] Valadier, year 1600.

      [104] M. de Sillery.

      [105] Henri I. de Montmorency, duke, peer, marshal, and Constable of France, Governor of Languedoc, etc., was the second son of the celebrated Anne de Montmorency. He rendered himself famous, during the lifetime of his father, under the name of the Seigneur de Damville, and made prisoner the Prince de Condé at the battle of Dreux in 1562. Having subsequently incurred the displeasure of Catherine de Medicis, he retired to the Court of the Duke of Savoy, and became the leader of the malcontents in Languedoc during the reign of Henri III. Henri IV restored him to all his honours, and made him Constable of France, and a knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost, in 1593. He died at an advanced age, in the town of Agde, in 1614.

      [106] Charles Amédée de Savoie, Duc de Nemours, was the son of Jacques de Savoie and of Anne d'Este, whose first husband was the Duc de Guise. This lady made herself very conspicuous during the League. Charles Amédée married Elisabeth, the sister of César de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort, and during the Fronde attached himself to the party of the princes; but having quarrelled with his brother-in-law, he was killed by him in a duel, in the year 1652.

      [107] Anne de Levis, Duc de Ventadour, was the representative of one of the most ancient and illustrious families of France, which derived its name from the estate of Levis, near Chevreuse, where his ancestor, Guy de Levis, a famous general, founded in the year 1190 the abbey of La Roche.

      [108] Valadier, year 1600.

      [109] Guillaume du Vair, ultimately Bishop of Lisieux, and Keeper of the Seals, was the son of Jean du Vair, knight, and attorney-general of Catherine de Medicis and Henri de France, Duc d'Anjou. He was born at Paris on the 8th of March 1556, and was successively councillor of parliament, master of requests, first president of the Parliament of Provence, and finally (in 1616) keeper of the seals. He subsequently embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and was elevated to the see of Lisieux in 1618. He was a man of consummate talent; and his works, which were published in folio in Paris, in 1641, are still highly esteemed. Guillaume du Vair died at Tonnoins, in Agénois, in 1621, at the age of sixty-six years.

      [110] Chronologie Septennaire, p. 184.

      [111] François Suarés, a celebrated scholar and theologian, was born at Granada in 1548, and in 1564 became a Jesuit. He taught theology, with great success, at Alcala, Salamanca, Rome, and Coimbra; and died at Lisbon in 1617. His collected works were published in twenty-three folio volumes, and are principally treatises on theology and morals. His treatise on the laws was reprinted in England.

      [112] L'Etoile, Journal de Henri IV, vol. ii. p. 589.

      [113] Cayet, p. 187. L'Etoile, vol. i. pp. 539, 540.

      [114] Rambure, MS. Mém. vol. i. pp. 276, 277.

      [115] Albert de Bellièvre was the second son of the celebrated Chancellor Pomponne de Bellièvre and of Marie Prunier, demoiselle de Grignon. He was a distinguished classic and an elegant scholar. Having become Archbishop of Lyons, he subsequently transferred that dignity to his younger brother Claude, and retired to his abbey of Jouy, where he died in 1621.

      [116] Antoine de Roquelaure, Seigneur de Roquelaure in Armagnac, de Guadoux, etc., marshal of France, grand-master of the King's wardrobe, knight of the Orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost, perpetual mayor of Bordeaux, etc., was the younger son of Geraud Roquelaure, and the representative of an illustrious house. He was highly esteemed both by Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, and by Henry IV, who loaded him with honours and distinctions in requital of his faithful and zealous services. He subsequently became governor of several provinces, and was created a marshal of France by Louis XIII, in 1615. He restored to their allegiance Clérac, Nérac, and several other revolted fortesses; and died at Lectoure in 1625, at the age of eighty-two years.

      [117] Daniel, vol. vii. p. 398.

      [118] Duc de Bellegarde.

      [119] François de Joyeuse was the second son of Guillaume, Vicomte de Joyeuse, Marshal of France. He was born in the year 1562, and received a brilliant education, by which he profited so greatly as to become celebrated for his scientific attainments. He was successively Archbishop of Narbonne, of Toulouse, and of Rouen; and enjoyed the entire confidence of three monarchs, by each of whom he was entrusted with the most important state affairs. Highly esteemed, alike for his wisdom, prudence, and capacity, he died full of honours at the age of fifty-three years, at Avignon, where he had taken up his abode as senior cardinal. He left, as monuments of his piety, a seminary which he founded at Rouen, a residence for the Jesuits at Pontoise, and another for the Fathers of the Oratory at Dieppe.

      [120] Pierre de Gondy (or Gondi), Bishop of Langres, and subsequently Archbishop of Paris, who was called to the Conclave by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. He died at Paris in February 1616, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The Cardinal de Gondy was the first Archbishop of Paris, the metropolis having previously been only an episcopal see.

      [121] François d'Escoubleau, better known under the name of Cardinal de Sourdis, was the son of François d'Escoubleau, Marquis d'Allière, and was of an ancient and noble house. He distinguished himself so greatly by his mental and moral qualities as to secure the confidence and regard of Henri IV, who, in 1598, obtained for him a cardinal's hat; and in the following year he was created Archbishop of Bordeaux, in which city he died in 1628.

      [122] Cayet, p. 191.

      [123] L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 546.

      [124] Bassompierre, Mém. p. 25.

      [125] L'Etoile, vol. ii. p. 549.

      [126] Jerome (or Albert) de Gondy, peer of France, knight of the King's Orders,