Duc d'Aiguillon

“ Yes, I am indeed a stranger to all that passes around me; my only support is the protection with which the king honors me. That is all-powerful, but I will not employ it unseasonably or improperly. I know that I need the counsels of an honorable, prudent, and well-informed man. I accept, therefore, of yours; I even ask them from you, if your friendship go along with them. Adieu, monsieur. My regards are due to your uncle, the maréchal, the first time you write to him.”
This letter filled the duc d’Aiguillon with joy. ”

“ This letter wrung from me some bitter tears, as well for the king, who had so lavishly bestowed his affections upon me, as for myself. What would now be my fate? Alas! I knew not; all my brilliant prospects were buried in the coffin of my late protector.
The duc d’Aiguillon arrived at Ruel about midnight; he, as well as the other ministers who had been about the late monarch during his last illness, being prohibited by etiquette from following the present monarch to Choisy, whither the whole of the royal family had retired for a few days. ”

“ The duc d’Aiguillon could not conceal his joy at being freed from de Broglie, his most troublesome colleague. It was a grand point gained for him, as he could now make sure of the post of secretary-at-war, the main object of his ambition. He wished to be placed in the duc de Choiseul’s position, and to effect this he redoubled his attentions towards the king, who, though not really regarding him, at length treated him as the dearest of his subjects. There are inexplicable mysteries in weak characters; obstinacy alarms them, and they yield because they hate resistance. ”

“ The folly of this exploit, the inhumanity of exposing gallant men to carnage for no end imaginable but to satisfy the obstinate ostentation of a Minister, who was as much determined to do something as he was really determined to do well, was contrasted, with great severity, on our nation, by the tender attentions, politeness, and good-nature of the Duc d’Aiguillon, who spared his victims the moment he dared to spare, and comforted and relieved the prisoners and wounded, as if he had been their own Commander. ”

“ He demanded the men of the Héros, who had escaped by a breach of faith. D'Aiguillon of course refused: it is, indeed, now recognised that a ship in the position of the Héros has a right to escape if she can; but in 1759 the victor's theory was that a ship, by striking her flag, surrendered, ‘rescue or no rescue.’ The severity of the French loss is illustrated by Hawke's letter to the admiralty (2 Dec.) : ‘As the number of men much wounded on board the Formidable was very great and very nauseous, I desired the Duc d'Aiguillon would send vessels to take them on shore. ... ”

“ Malo, ostensibly to pay her devotions at the famous shrine of the cathedral, it was more probably because the Duc d'Aiguillon had appointed as Governor and Commandant of St. Malo, the old Comte de Boisguiller—father of the chevalier—who, thirty years before, had been madame's most devoted though unsuccessful lover: and now as both were free, she was not without hope of kindling his passion again—hence the old lady's devotion to the blessed bones of St. Malo; but (added the soubrette, in the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau) who ever heard of a pair of grey-haired lovers sighing for each other? ”

“ After all it was a good thing the Duc d'Aiguillon had kept Madame du Barry at Versailles, for in the course of next day, May 4th, the King asked to see her once more with such eager insistance that the Duke at last admitted she was still at Versailles.
"Tell her to come here then, tell her to come here," cried the King excitedly,— and presently Madame du Barry entered the King's bedchamber for the last time. She left the presence bathed in tears.
The poor woman, a good-natured, light-hearted, amiable, easy creature, loved Louis XV. as a daughter loves a father. ”

“ At past seventy he still flattered himself with the vision of pleasing women7 and governing the King, because the King at near sixty had not done being pleased with women. The Duc d’Aiguillon8 was universally abhorred. His abominable tyranny and villany in his Government of Bretagne had made him dreaded; and his ambition being much superior to his abilities, he had betrayed the badness of his heart before he had reached the object to which he aspired.9 The Duc de Choiseul despised Richelieu, and had kept9 down d’Aiguillon. ”

“ My presentation was, however, a matter of first-rate importance to me and to my partizans, and the duc de la Vrillière was gained over to my side, by making him believe that the king would yield to my desires, and that then I should remember all those who opposed my elevation. The duc d'Aiguillon also drew over to my party M. Bertin, who bore no love to the Choiseuls, and who saw that the preponderance of interest was on my side of the scale. When I was assured of a considerable number of defenders, I thought I might venture on the master stroke, and thus I went to work. ”

“ From this moment, and in spite of all that comte Jean could say against it, a new counsellor was admitted to my confidence. He was the chancellor. The duc d'Aiguillon and he were on very good terms, and these two, with the abbé Teray, of whom I shall speak to you presently, formed a triumvirate, which governed France from the disgrace of M. de Choiseul to the death of the king. ”

“ Among the adorers whom Adrienne rejected, and whose friendship she nevertheless succeeded in retaining through life, was the Marquis de la Chalotais, whose famous quarrel with Madame du Barry's protégé, the Duc d'Aiguillon, convulsed all France during the last years of Louis XV. The future Advocate-General of the Parliament of Brittany was, at the time when he made Adrienne's acquaintance, a gay young abbé and a great frequenter of the Comédie-Française, where he paid assiduous court to its chief divinity, but without obtaining anything save her friendship and esteem. ”

“ The noble firmness of sovereign courts is odious to people of this class; thus you may imagine the detestation in which they regard the candid and loyal conduct of the duke. I n the hopes of procuring the dismissal of my brother, they have chosen for his successor wretch loaded with crimes, a coward, an extortioner, a murderer—the duc d’Aiguillon. As for you gentlemen, who now constitute our parliament, your places will soon be filled by a magistracy drawn from the dregs of society; a troop of slaves, deaf and blind, except as he who pays them best will have them exercise those powers. ”

“ Have you any cause of complaint against him?"
"Quite the reverse; he has charged M. d'Argental to say to M. de Richelieu, that he was sorry that he could not come and prostrate himself at my feet."
"Ah," said the king, remembering the letter to the duc d'Aiguillon, "he persists in his coquetries towards you: that is better than being lampooned by him. But do not place too much confidence in this gentleman of the chamber: he weighs every thing in two scales ”

“ On the 11th of November 1765 La Chalotais, the procureur of the parlement, was arrested, but whether at the instigation of d’Aiguillon is not certain. The conflict between d’Aiguillon and the Bretons lasted two years. In the place of the parlement, which had resigned, d’Aiguillon organized a tribunal of more or less competent judges, who were ridiculed by the pamphleteers and ironically termed the bailliage d’Aiguillon. ”

“ Another King, I know, has had a little blow: the Prince de Soubise has beat some Isenbourgs and Obergs, and is going to be Elector of Hanover this winter. There has been a great sickness among our troops in the other German army; the Duke of Marlborough has been in great danger, and some officers are dead. Lord Frederick Cavendish is returned from France. He confirms and adds to the amiable accounts we had received of the Duc d'Aiguillon's [1] behaviour to our prisoners. ”

“ AIGUILLON, EMMANUEL ARMAND DE WIGNEROD DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU, Duc d’ (1720–1782) , French statesman, nephew of the maréchal de Richelieu, was born on the 31st of July 1720. He entered the army at the age of seventeen, and at the age of nineteen was made colonel of the regiment of Brie. ”

“ We all know, that your veto is absolute with his majesty, and it requires nothing more to obtain whatsoever you desire."
The duc de la Vauguyon was powerful, and represented the whole of a party—that of the religionists, which was still further supported by the princesses; but for this very reason the triumvirate, consisting of messieurs d' Aiguillon, de Maupeou, and the abbé Terre, would not have accepted his services at any price.
The good duke returned several times to the charge; sometimes endeavouring to move me by gentle intreaties and, at others, holding out threats and menaces ”

“ In 1620 she married a nephew of the constable de Luynes, Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, who died in 1622. In 1625, through her uncle’s influence, she was made a lady-in-waiting (dame d’atour) to the queen-mother, and in 1638 was created duchess of Aiguillon. She did not marry a second time, although Richelieu wished to marry her to a prince—either to the comte de Soissons or to the king’s brother. ”

“ An able man, in spite of his incurable levity, M. de Maurepas soon sacrificed the Duke of Aiguillon to the queen’s resentment; the people attached to the old court accused her of despising etiquette; it was said that she had laughed when she received the respectful condolence of aged dames looking like beguines in their coifs; already there circulated amongst the public bitter ditties, such as,
The Duke of Aiguillon, always hostile to the Choiseuls and the House of Austria, had lent his countenance to the murmurs ”

“ I shall never be in too violent a hurry to part the King from those who love him."
"Thank you, Duke, but it has to be; take the poor Countess and conduct her quietly to your country estate of Rueil. I shall be grateful to Madame d'Aiguillon for any kindness she will be good enough to show her." ”

“ Naval officers had less inducement to visit Paris, yet a number of them figure on the register. One of them, moreover, was a claimant to a French dukedom. Philippe d’Auvergne, a Jersey man, son of a navy lieutenant, had been adopted in 1788 by the last Duc de Bouillon, a descendant of Turenne, as a remote kinsman and heir (his only son being an [72] idiot) , in preference to nearer relations whom he disliked. ”

“ No two men could probably have been selected throughout the whole nation more fitted to endanger the stability of the royal authority. Both were marshals of France, and alike celebrated for their talent as military leaders, as well as for their insatiable ambition. Of the two, perhaps, however, the Duc de Bouillon was likely to prove the most formidable enemy to the sovereign; from the fact of his being by far the more able and the more subtle politician, and, moreover, gifted with a caution and judgment which were entirely wanting in the impetuous and reckless Biron. ”

“ I profited by his coming to slip out of the room into my boudoir, from which I despatched the following note to M. d’Aiguillon:
“MY DEAR DUKE,—Victoria! We are conquerors; master and man quit Paris to-morrow. We shall replace them by our friends; and you best know whether you are amongst the number of them.”
When I returned to the drawing-room, the king exclaimed,
“Come, madam., you are waited for; the prince de Soubise has a very curious anecdote to relate, which befell a lady of his acquaintance ”

“ Her name raised some curiosity in the Countess’s boudoir, as it was well-known from her having been sponsor at the presentation of the favorite to the court. No other lady of title would do this office and she only accepted the shameful mission of go-between on her own conditions. Duke Aiguillon was plotting with the favorite when Chon asked a hearing for Countess Bearn.
“I should like you to stay by,” said she to the duke, “in case the old beggar tries for a loan. You will be useful as she will ask for less.” ”

“ The lords therefore advised him to send the Constable of France and the Earl of Tancarville to Paris, to inform King Philip of the state of the siege, and to know if the king wished the Duke of Normandy to continue before Aiguillon until he had through famine made himself master of it, since he could not gain it by force.
The King of England, having heard how much pressed his people were in the castle of Aiguillon, determined to lead a great army into Gascony. ”

“ Besides, even if she were persuaded to go to Chateau-Thierry instead of England, do you think she would yield to the prince?"
"Why not?"
"She does not love the duke."
"Bah! not love a prince of the blood."
"But if Monseigneur the Duc d'Anjou suspects my mistress of loving M. du Bouchage, or M. de Joyeuse, how did he come to think of carrying her off from him she loved?"
"My good man," said Aurilly, "you have trivial ideas, and I fear we shall never understand each other; I have preferred kindness to violence, but if you force me to change my plans, well! I will change them." ”

“ When the duke knew that King Edward had landed in Normandy, he was anxious to make a truce with the earl, and as this was refused raised the siege of Aiguillon on 20 Aug. Lancaster being thus rid of the duke's army marched into Agenois, took Villeréal and other towns and castles, occupied Aiguillon, and strengthened the fortifications. Marching again to La Réole, he gathered the Gascon lords of the English party, and after dividing his forces into three bodies led one into Saintogne, and on 12 Sept. ”