Alençon

“ The third house of Alençon sprang from Charles, second son of the count Valois, who was killed at the battle of Crécy in 1346. The countship of Alençon was raised to a peerage in 1367 and into a dukedom in 1414. John, 1st duke of Alençon, was killed at Agincourt on the 25th of October 1415, after having with his own hand slain the duke of York. ”

“ Alençon, the capital of the department of Orne, is a clean, open, well-built town, situated in a plain with woods in all directions, which entirely bound its prospects. The public promenades are remarkably fine, laid out with taste, and a great resource to the inhabitants, who consider them equal to those of Paris, comparing them to the gardens of the Luxembourg. The cathedral, once fine, is dreadfully defaced, and the boasted altars and adornments of the chapels are in the usual bad taste so remarkable at the present day. ”

“ Alençon is described to us as being small though well built but with coarse, crude features, with the temper and irritability of a woman and even greater cowardliness, likewise unreliable, ambitious and greedy. ”

“ The Duke of Alençon, eager to reconquer his duchy, was waiting for troops to accompany him into Normandy, across the marches of Brittany and Maine. He sent to the King to know if it were his good pleasure to grant him the Maid. "Many there be," said the Duke, "who would willingly come with her, while without her they will not stir from their homes." Her discomfiture before Paris had not, [Pg ii.84] therefore, entirely ruined her prestige. The Sire de la Trémouille opposed her being sent to the Duke of Alençon, whom he mistrusted, and not without cause. ”

“ With the knowledge of Elizabeth and her minister, all France was enveloped in a vast conspiracy, in which the Montmorencis and the “politicians” were making common cause with the Huguenots, of which combination Alençon was the figurehead. But Catharine de Medici was fully aware of the fact, and was determined to frustrate it. With Anjou for King she might still be supreme in France; whereas the rise of Alençon, under the tutelage of the Huguenots and the Queen of England, would have meant extinction for her. ”

“ Pour faire ces ouvrages il luy falloit enseigner plusieurs petites filles auxquelles elle montroit à faire ce point ... à présent je vous puis asseurer qu'il y a plus de 8,000 personnes qui y travaillent dans Alençon, dans Seèz, dans Argentan, Falaise....
"Monseigneur, c'est une manne, et une vraie bénédiction du ciel qui s'est espandue sur tout ce pays, dans lequel les petitz enfants mesmes de sept ans trouvent moyen de gaigner leur vie. Les vieillards y travaillent et les petites bergerettes des champs y travaillent mêmes."—Letter from Favier-Duboulay, intendant d'Alençon since 1644. ”

“ They are a skilful and strong people! A military people, a nation of soldiers, they choose a captain for their ruler. That is logical, plague it! D'Anjou is just the man for them. The hero of Jarnac and Montcontour fits them like a glove. Whom would you have me send them? D'Alençon? a coward! He would give them a fine idea of the Valois!—D'Alençon! ”

“ Biron is no doubt the man they mean. I mentioned in a former letter that Alençon had asked for him, and been refused by the King. People think, that when affairs are ripe, he will avail himself of the King’s absence to leave France secretly and join Alençon, by order of the Queen Mother (Catherine de Medici) , and moreover that his example will be followed by several regiments of royal cavalry which are quartered on the Netherland frontier; just as lately happened when Alençon was escorted to Cambrai. ”

“ The church is squat and ugly, but it is redeemed by the lace-like Gothic of its western porch, which, fearful lest it be not remarked, thrusts itself out into the street. In similar fashion, Alençon as a town has its commonplaceness condoned by reason of the beauty of its lace, a beauty which is constantly thrust upon your attention by its inhabitants. The glass to be noticed is around the nave clerestory. A most charming stone setting is provided for this sixteenth century glazing by the broad and high embrasures of six lancets each. ”

“ At the same time the gates of Paris were closed and no one was permitted to pass out with any horse or weapon. La Mole, one of the gentlemen attached to Alençon, was suddenly arrested, and with him another gentleman of Alençon’s entourage, the count Coconnas. Both were imprisoned in the Conciergerie, and refused converse with the duke. The prince of Navarre, Alençon, and Montmorency, however, still were suffered to go abroad but “with such company as might be masters.” [1639] Things now rapidly passed from farce to tragedy. ”

“ The manufacture of the most sumptuous of the points de France was established by the minister at the town of Alençon, near his residence. Venetian point in relief was made in perfection in this place before his death, 1683. In all the points of this century the flowers are united à bride (Fig. 2) , but in the eighteenth century the network ground was introduced, and soon became universal. The name point de France for French point-lace was after a time dropped, and the different styles took the name of the towns at which they were made, as point d'Alençon and point d'Argentan. ”

“ Alençon. Catherine, however, invested with full powers by the illness of the King, took prompt and energetic measures to meet the danger. Three armies were despatched against the rebels of Normandy, the South, and Central France; Navarre and Alençon, who were found to be planning an attempt at escape, with the connivance of two of the latter’s favourites, La Môle and Coconnas, were shut up in the keep of the Château of Vincennes, and a commission appointed to examine them; while the two gentlemen were brought to trial on a charge of high treason, condemned and executed ”

“ Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 156; Odolant Desnos, Mémoires historiques sur la ville d'Alençon, ii. 285, apud Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. français, viii. (1859) , 68. The truth of the story as to Alençon seems to be proved by the circumstance that when, in February, 1575, Matignon marched against Alençon, in order to suppress the conspiracy which the duke, Charles's youngest brother, had entered into to prevent Henry of Anjou from succeeding peaceably to the throne of France, the grateful Protestants at once opened their gates to him. Ibid., 305, Bulletin, ubi supra. ”

“ His presence saved the lives of several Frenchmen, among whom was Fervaques, one of Alençon’s favourite officers. But here in France this gentleman’s life is in danger in quite another way. They declare that the scheme of seizing the citadel was his suggestion, and wish him to be tried and executed. It is thought that a reconciliation between Alençon and the citizens of Antwerp will be brought about by the intervention of the King, who will send men of note to conduct the negotiations; the names of Bellièvre and Pibrac are mentioned as members of the commission. ”

“ The collapse of Alençon was the precursor of a comprehensive conspiracy. Before the Raid of Ruthven (August 1582) , the Guise faction in France had contemplated a descent on Scotland in conjunction with Lennox's friends there, with a view of course to raising England in favour of Mary. Alençon's relations with Elizabeth had not made the French King or his mother, neither of whom loved the Guises, particularly favourable to the scheme. ”

“ The reason for Alençon’s tardy resistance to further surrender about his religion must be sought in the fact that the Catholic Flemings were still in active negotiations with him for his assuming the sovereignty of the States, and any wavering on his part in religion would at once have made him an impossible candidate for them. The fact of the Prince of Orange and the Huguenots being in his favour was already rather against his chances with the Walloons, and it was necessary for him to assume a devotion to Catholicism, the sincerity of which may well be doubted. ”

“ D'Alençon kept going to Senlis urging Charles to come up with the main army. He went on September 1—the king promised to start next day. D'Alençon returned to the Maid, the king still loitered. At last d'Alençon brought him to St. Denis on September 7, and there was a skirmish that day.
HOW THE MAID WAS WOUNDED IN ATTACKING PARIS, AND HOW THE KING WOULD NOT LET THE ASSAULT BEGIN AGAIN
In all descriptions of battles different accounts are given, each man telling what he himself saw, or what he remembers. As to the assault on Paris on September 8, the Maid herself said a few words at her trial. ”

“ In the town of Alençon, during the lifetime of Charles, the last Duke, (2) there was a Proctor named St. Aignan, who had married a gentlewoman of the neighbourhood. She was more beautiful than virtuous, and on account of her beauty and light behaviour was much sought after by the Bishop of Sees, (3) who, in order to compass his ends, managed the husband so well, that the latter not only failed to perceive the vicious conduct of his wife and of the Bishop, but was further led to forget the affection he had always shown in the service of his master and mistress. ”

“ Alençon has divided the army which he already had in the Netherlands into garrisons for different places. Thus he has quartered some in Brussels, some in Mechlin, some in Vilvorde, and some also in Gelderland and Friesland.
The Spanish Ambassador having sent one of his people with despatches to the Prince of Parma, the man had but just left the first stage, when he fell in with some horsemen, whose names I do not know, and was compelled to surrender his papers. As the man was a Netherlander, he was allowed to escape unharmed. ”

“ On the other hand, they say that Bouchain, a small but strongly fortified town in Hainault, near Cambrai, has fallen into Alençon’s hands through the treachery of the commandant appointed by the Prince of Parma.
Alençon proclaims himself a great champion of the Catholics, and in many places has restored their churches to them. Hence some surmise that his reign in those parts will not be a long one, as no dependence can be placed in an alliance between parties of different religious opinions ”

“ The guards were again ordered to watch Alençon’s door, and after three days of semi-imprisonment, on the 14th of February, his sister contrived his escape with Simier, from her chamber on the second floor of the Louvre, by a rope into the moat. Bussy was awaiting him in the abbey of St. Généviève, where, by connivance of the abbot, a hole had been knocked in the city wall, through which they escaped, and swift horses carried them to Angers, where they were safe.98
All France was in a turmoil. Huguenots and “malcontents” raised their heads once more, and all the South was up in arms. ”

“ I told her that the King of France my brother was averse to engaging in foreign war, and the more so as the Huguenots in his kingdom were too strong to admit of his sending any large force out of it. "My brother Alencon," said I, "has sufficient means, and might be induced to undertake it. He has equal valour, prudence, and benevolence with the King my brother or any of his ancestors. He has been bred to arms, and is esteemed one of the bravest generals of these times. ”

“ At the time when France was negotiating Alençon’s marriage with Elizabeth, and a Franco-English alliance (January-July, 1572) , in a wild maze of international, personal, and religious intrigue, while Catherine de’ Medici was wavering between massacre of the Huguenots and alliance with them, it is far [Pg 200] from inconceivable that La Forest’s copies of the Letters were either overlooked, or not critically and studiously compared with the copies now published. ”

“ France could therefore not afford to quarrel with England, but Anjou and Charles IX. took care to hold Alençon tight, that he might not escape and strengthen the Protestant cause in union with Elizabeth, whilst they still kept up the appearance of marriage negotiations. Elizabeth was ever on the alert to serve her cause, and in March 1573, said she would go no further in the Alençon match unless the Protestants in Rochelle were allowed fair terms and the siege raised. ”

“ Alençon,” he says, “is not so tall or fair as his brother, but that is as is fantasied. Then he is not so obstinate, papistical, and restive like a mule, as his brother is. As for getting children, I cannot tell why, but they assure me he is more apt than the other.”70
In the meanwhile the “rough hewing” of the treaty of alliance went on, but to all attempts to draw him about the Alençon proposals Smith was dumb until he could receive instructions from England, which did not come; so the indispensable Cavalcanti was sent over to broach the matter there. ”

“ People say that Alençon was advised to make sure of Joyeuse and Epernon, through whose eyes the King sees everything, if he wanted his brother to help his party, and interfere in the affairs of the Netherlands. The King could be led to anything, if they chose to exert their influence. This advice he seems inclined to adopt.
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The ambassadors of Brabant and Flanders have now arrived; people say that they have offered Alençon the right of placing garrisons in any of their cities with the exception of two, viz., Antwerp and Ghent. ”

“ While technically all the territories so concerned were regarded as appanages, [1743] it is plain that a distinction may easily be made between the duchies of Alençon, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and La Roche—which had originally been given him as a prince of the blood—and places like Bourges, Moulins, Loches, Saumur, La Charité, Pont-de-Sel, Amiens, Moulans, and Mantes. These latter possessions were practically a class apart of security cities intrusted by compromise to the duke. ”