The making of a king (4 page)

Leonora, low-born, ill-favoured, and totally deficient in the qualities and gifts which would have fitted her to take the place accorded her, was, strangely enough, the one of the couple whose influence over Marie was paramount. The fact of her mistress's love for her was, it can scarcely be doubted, what had determined Concini upon making her his wife. The Queen's confidence in "cette femme de n£ant," to use the language of the angry Grand-duke, her uncle, was blind, her affection unchanging and tenacious. To the foreign Queen Leonora, associated with her childhood and youth, represented home and country.

Concini's antecedents were of a different nature. Of a good Florentine family, his career at the University of Pisa had been marked by no successes, and, extravagant and ill-conducted, he had become an outcast from the society of his native city at the time when the King's marriage was projected. Availing himself of the opportunity, an uncle who occupied at that moment the position of Secretary of State succeeded, in spite of opposition from the Grand-duke and others, in including his nephew in the train which was to accompany Marie to France; and the foundation of his future fortune

was thus laid. Such were the couple who ruled the Queen.

Had the element of discord supplied by the Concini been absent, any hopes of wedded happiness must, for Henri and Marie, have been small. The King's conduct was from the first a matter of public scandal. There had not been so much as a break in his intercourse with the Marquise de Verneuil. The very appointment of Leonora to her post in the royal household had been due to an interposition on the Marquise's part, prompted by a desire both to display her power and to gain a hold over so important an attendant on the Queen. It soon became known that she was expecting the birth of a child almost simultaneously with the King's wife. There is a degree of misconduct that the public taste finds it difficult, even in its idols, to condone, and Henri's popularity suffered a momentary eclipse.

Thus the first year of his marriage had gone by. As autumn approached he had been called away by worthier cares and duties. Spain was attacking Ostend ; and the presence of her troops so close to the French frontier rendered watchfulness and supervision necessary. Near the scene of action, at Calais and Boulogne, and within sound of the conflict, the King's finer instincts awoke, and he wrote kindly to his wife.

" You know, ma mie," he said, " where I am going ; but, with the help of God, I shall be back for your confinement. Go to Fontainebleau. Nothing will be lacking to you. You will have my sister, who is the best of company," and others whom he enumerated.

During his absence he kept Marie constantly

inl lik

King and Queen

informed of his movements, telling her of his warlike preparations, his occupations on the sea-coast, and taking thought for her welfare at home. By September 19 he had hurried back to the palace, lest he should fail to be present at the birth of his child. Eight days later the Dauphin was born.

CHAPTER III 1602

Babyhood — The Duchesse de Bar—Biron's conspiracy : its phases and development —The Queen and the Marquise de Verneuil — The King at Saint-Germain.

FOR the present it mattered little to the latest-born descendant of St. Louis whether predictions of disaster, such as those that had clouded the spirits of the King, were hazarded concerning him ; or whether, as by his father's old general, he was hailed as a new Messiah. It was true that no time was lost in pointing out his duties and responsibilities, and before he was three months old Heroard had explained to him that God had bestowed him on the world that he might be a good, just, and righteous sovereign, observing with satisfaction that the infant listened very attentively to the admonition and greeted the words with a smile. But Heroard took a favourable view of the Dauphin's capacities.

Under the care of his adoring attendants, and visited by those of his future subjects judged worthy of the honour, he grew and prospered. The Duchesse de Bar, as sister to the King, was privileged to give him, for the first time, his shirt, the rocker directing her to make the sign of the cross as she handed it to

him.

The Duchesse de Bar 25

" Make it for me," said the Duchess, smiling. " I do not know how."

Seriousness underlay the lightness of the words. The woman's injunction may not have been given without malice. Every one knew the position of the King's sister, and were aware that, in spite of the arguments of theologians and her brother's entreaties, Catherine had remained faithful to the precepts of their common mother, Jeanne d'Albret, and was firm in her refusal to follow Henri's example and abjure the creed of her childhood. If her religion was prejudicial to her husband's house—that of Lorraine—she offered, with tears, to return to her home at Berne. But to the King's threats that he, as well as the Duke, would abandon her did she not accede to their wishes, she replied that, were his Majesty and the whole world to forsake her, she would serve God -as the poorest lady upon earth rather than dishonour Him as a Queen.

Henri's menaces had been empty, and the sequel was to show that his affections were in no wise alienated by her obstinacy. On December 17 she went her way back to Lorraine, accompanied on the first stage of her journey by the King, " leaving the Catholic theologians ill-contented and the ministers well satisfied."

By the middle of November the Dauphrn had been removed to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, passing through Paris on his way, where he received visits of inspection from all the Princes and Princesses at Court.

At Saint-Germain the earlier years of his childhood were, with short intervals, to be passed. Built on a hill, on the edge of a wooded plateau, it may have been considered that the high air would be conducive to

health. The freedom of the country life that could be led there was an undoubted advantage ; and when, later on, the Dauphin was transferred to the Louvre, he is found longing to revisit his old haunts.

At Saint-Germain an early guest, probably by the King's desire, presented herself. u The Marquise de Verneuil," writes Heroard, " comes to see him. He looks at her with attention and laughs graciously. She was, as she said, much pleased at the honour he did her."

The jest will have veiled no little bitterness. She must have thought, as she watched the Queen's son, of her own boy, born a few days later, and whom she was accustomed boldly to term her Dauphin. Had her hopes been fulfilled, her child would have been heir to the throne. And storms were imminent.

Fortified by the possession of a son, Marie de Medicis had resolved at this time upon abandoning the attitude of submission she had at first adopted with regard to the Marquise. Indignant at her rival's insolence, she told the King that she refused for the future to admit her to her presence. It was the opening of a struggle which, though intermittent, was carried on till the end.

Henri was beginning to reap, in discord and strife, what he had sown. Nor were domestic troubles the only ones by which he was threatened. If the Dauphin's birth and the presence in the Saint-Germain nurseries of an heir to the throne was a source of joy and comfort to him, it was sorely needed. Outwardly, peace might have succeeded to conflict, rest to struggle. The storms and tempests by which the life of the Bearnois

I. HEROAKD. S. D:\AVGRIGNEVSE P'MEDECIN ovRoY Lovis xm.

From a contemporary engraving.

JEAN HEROARD,

Physician to I,ouis XIII. P. 26]

had been hitherto tossed had subsided ; but none knew better than the victor how precarious was this tranquillity. Though Spain, his inveterate and relentless enemy, might have owned herself defeated, he was not ignorant that she was merely biding her opportunity, and, in league with domestic foes, was gathering strength for a final attack.

Henri was always ready for a struggle with an open foe. War was his natural atmosphere, his delight. It was a different matter when the antagonist was a veiled one. To know that all around him was treachery, that in his household, amongst his intimate associates, in the men who stood nearest to the throne, he had secret enemies, on the watch to take advantage of an unguarded moment, was to lead a life of strain and tension trying to the boldest spirit. Proof might as yet be wanting, but Henri, shrewd and sagacious, appraised the situation correctly. Who were numbered amongst the traitors, how far the infection of treason had spread, he might still be uncertain. Nevertheless, as he waited the development of events he must have felt that a crisis could not be far off.

The most powerful men in the kingdom were, in fact, drawn into the nets of a conspiracy which had been for years secretly maturing. The Constable of France, Montmorency, Epernon, Bouillon — all of them possessing the greatest influence in different parts of the country—were in their several degrees involved in it. The Comte d'Auvergne, Charles IX.'s illegitimate son, half-brother to the Marquise de Verneuil, as well as the Marquise herself, were likewise implicated in the plot. Above all, one man was steeped in guilt.

That man was the Marechal de Biron, owing more to the King than perhaps any other of his servants.

The story of his treason is a strange one—or would be strange, were it not that, the obligations of friendship and loyalty once forgotten and the downward path entered, he who has most to be forgiven becomes the man most reckless in his^ crime. Biron had been the King's brother-in-arms ; had fought by his side on battle-field after battle-field; had twice owed to him his life ; and, it must be added, had for his part sheltered Henri with his own body on more than one occasion. He had done good service, attested by thirty-two wounds ; and he had had his reward, good measure, pressed down, and running over. He had been made in turn Marshal, General-in-chief, Duke, and Governor of the most important province of France, Burgundy. More than this, he had been repaid by his master's strong affection. Yet all had not availed to keep him true. Inordinately vain, proud of his exploits, and ambitious, his estimate of the services he had rendered made it impossible to satisfy him, and he lent a not unwilling ear to the King's enemies when they sought to seduce him from his allegiance.

An adventurer named La Fin, in the King's service, was the chief channel of communication between Biron and the politicians at Madrid, Brussels and Turin, who were plotting Henri's ruin — a man who, after the fashion of his kind, was in the end to deliver up to justice the dupes who had trusted him. Bribes were offered to the Marshal. He was to be given in marriage a daughter of the Duke of Savoy, richly

Biron's Conspiracy 29

dowered ; and to be placed in a position of power and influence. On the other hand, half-measures were not to suffice. With Henri living, no successes would have been assured. The King was to die ; and when, later on, his son was born, the child was included in the murderous plot. How it was to be carried out was of less importance. Biron might kill his master out hunting ; the Comte d'Auvergne might contrive his death through his sister, the Marquise ; a ball might settle the business on the battle-field.

To what extent Biron was a party to the darker features of the scheme is doubtful. He was said to have listened to it favourably. He may have been slandered ; he certainly had opportunities of performing the deed assigned him, and did not make use of them. It seems clear that he had his moments of repentance, times when he would have drawn back from the path he was treading. " Since God has given him a son/' he is quoted as saying after the birth of the Dauphin, "let us forget our dreams." But he did not forget them. It is proverbially difficult for a man to retrace his steps; and, though perhaps flinching from the thought of actual assassination, he was falling deeper and deeper into the mire.

Madame de Verneuirs share in the scheme remains likewise unproved. When the facts were in course of being disclosed, and their proper degrees of guilt brought home to the several participants in the conspiracy, Henri did what he could to shield the woman he loved from exposure. So far as she is concerned, therefore, it is difficult to form a clear judgment. That she was in some measure an accomplice does