Catherine De Medici. Оноре де Бальзак
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Catherine De Medici - Оноре де Бальзак страница 7
Название: Catherine De Medici
Автор: Оноре де Бальзак
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
isbn: 4057664152527
isbn:
the place appointed for his lodging, every one retired; and all
this, being well-ordered, took place without disorder or tumult.
While the Pope was thus making his entry, the king crossed the
water in a frigate and went to the lodging the Pope had just
quitted, in order to go the next day and make obeisance to the
Holy Father as a Most Christian king.
“The next day the king being prepared set forth for the palace
where was the Pope, accompanied by the princes of the blood, such
as Monseigneur le Duc de Vendomois (father of the Vidame de
Chartres), the Comte de Sainct-Pol, Messieurs de Montpensier and
la Roche-sur-Yon, the Duc de Nemours (brother of the Duc de
Savoie) who died in this said place, the Duke of Albany, and many
others, whether counts, barons, or seigneurs; nearest to the king
was the Seigneur de Montmorency, his Grand-master.
“The king, being arrived at the palace, was received by the Pope
and all the college of cardinals, assembled in consistory, most
civilly. This done, each retired to the place ordained for him,
the king taking with him several cardinals to feast them—among
them Cardinal de’ Medici, nephew of the Pope, a very splendid man
with a fine retinue.
“On the morrow those persons chosen by his Holiness and by the
king began to assemble to discuss the matters for which the
meeting was made. First, the matter of the Faith was treated of,
and a bull was put forth repressing heresy and preventing that
things come to greater combustion than they now are.
“After this was concluded the marriage of the Duc d’Orleans,
second son of the king, with Catherine de’ Medici, Duchesse
d’Urbino, niece of his Holiness, under the conditions such, or
like to those, as were proposed formerly by the Duke of Albany.
The said espousals were celebrated with great magnificence, and
our Holy Father himself wedded the pair. The marriage thus
consummated, the Holy Father held a consistory at which he created
four cardinals and devoted them to the king—to wit: Cardinal Le
Veneur, formerly bishop of Lisieux and grand almoner; the Cardinal
de Boulogne of the family of la Chambre, brother on the mother’s
side of the Duke of Albany; the Cardinal de Chatillon of the house
of Coligny, nephew of the Sire de Montmorency, and the Cardinal de
Givry.”
When Strozzi delivered the dowry in presence of the court he noticed some surprise on the part of the French seigneurs; they even said aloud that it was little enough for such a mesalliance (what would they have said in these days?). Cardinal Ippolito replied, saying:—
“You must be ill-informed as to the secrets of your king. His Holiness has bound himself to give to France three pearls of inestimable value, namely: Genoa, Milan, and Naples.”
The Pope left Sebastiano Montecuculi to present himself to the court of France, to which the count offered his services, complaining of his treatment by Antonio di Leyva and Ferdinando di Gonzago, for which reason his services were accepted. Montecuculi was not made a part of Catherine’s household, which was wholly composed of French men and women, for, by a law of the monarchy, the execution of which the Pope saw with great satisfaction, Catherine was naturalized by letters-patent as a Frenchwoman before the marriage. Montecuculi was appointed in the first instance to the household of the queen, the sister of Charles V. After a while he passed into the service of the dauphin as cup-bearer.
The new Duchesse d’Orleans soon found herself a nullity at the court of Francois I. Her young husband was in love with Diane de Poitiers, who certainly, in the matter of birth, could rival Catherine, and was far more of a great lady than the little Florentine. The daughter of the Medici was also outdone by Queen Eleonore, sister of Charles V., and by Madame d’Etampes, whose marriage with the head of the house of Brosse made her one of the most powerful and best titled women in France. Catherine’s aunt the Duchess of Albany, the Queen of Navarre, the Duchesse de Guise, the Duchesse de Vendome, Madame la Connetable de Montmorency, and other women of like importance, eclipsed by birth and by their rights, as well as by their power at the most sumptuous court of France (not excepting that of Louis XIV.), the daughter of the Florentine grocers, who was richer and more illustrious through the house of the Tour de Boulogne than by her own family of Medici.
The position of his niece was so bad and difficult that the republican Filippo Strozzi, wholly incapable of guiding her in the midst of such conflicting interests, left her after the first year, being recalled to Italy by the death of Clement VII. Catherine’s conduct, when we remember that she was scarcely fifteen years old, was a model of prudence. She attached herself closely to the king, her father-in-law; she left him as little as she could, following him on horseback both in hunting and in war. Her idolatry for Francois I. saved the house of the Medici from all suspicion when the dauphin was poisoned. Catherine was then, and so was her husband, at the headquarters of the king in Provence; for Charles V. had speedily invaded France and the late scene of the marriage festivities had become the theatre of a cruel war.
At the moment when Charles V. was put to flight, leaving the bones of his army in Provence, the dauphin was returning to Lyon by the Rhone. He stopped to sleep at Tournon, and, by way of pastime, practised some violent physical exercises—which were nearly all the education his brother and he, in consequence of their detention as hostages, had ever received. The prince had the imprudence—it being the month of August, and the weather very hot—to ask for a glass of water, which Montecuculi, as his cup-bearer, gave to him, with ice in it. The dauphin died almost immediately. Francois I. adored his son. The dauphin was, according to all accounts, a charming young man. His father, in despair, gave the utmost publicity to the proceedings against Montecuculi, which he placed in the hands of the most able magistrates of that day. The count, after heroically enduring the first tortures without confessing anything, finally made admissions by which he implicated Charles V. and his two generals, Antonio di Leyva and Ferdinando di Gonzago. No affair was ever more solemnly debated. Here is what the king did, in the words of an ocular witness:—
“The king called an assembly at Lyon of all the princes of his
blood, all the knights of his order, and other great personages of
the kingdom; also the legal and papal nuncio, the cardinals СКАЧАТЬ