Duc d'Alençon

“ Duc d'Alençon gave for his freedom 200,000 crowns, and actually sold part of his estate to the Duc de Bretagne to pay it. Caprice often caused the detention of men in captivity, from their inability to comply with the absurd demands of their captors. ”

“ The last of the four is alone of any real importance.
Just as the Peace of La Rochelle was concluded, the Duc d’Anjou, having been elected King of Poland, left France; it was not long before troubles began again. The Duc d’Alencon was vexed by his mother’s neglect; as heir presumptive to the crown he thought he deserved better treatment, and sought to give himself consideration by drawing towards the middle party; Catherine seemed to be intriguing for the ruin of that party—nothing was safe while she was moving. The King had never held up his head since the St. Bartholomew ”

“ Nor would he listen to her entreaties [pg 018] that she might be permitted to follow her husband, declaring that "she should not live with a heretic"; and thus her days passed on in a gloomy and cheerless monotony, ill suited to her excitable temperament and splendid tastes. Meanwhile, the Duc d'Alençon, weary of his voluntary exile, and hopeless of any successful result to the disaffection in which he had so long indulged, became anxious to effect a reconciliation with the King ”

“ 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. ”

“ But I have no son, and therefore the throne belongs to D'Anjou, who is absent. To make D'Alençon regent is to invite civil war. I have therefore chosen the fittest person for regent Salute him, madame; salute him, D'Alençon. It is the King of Navarre!"
"Never," cried Catherine, "shall my race yield to a foreign one! Never shall a Bourbon reign while a Valois lives!"
She left the room, followed by D'Alençon.
"Henry," said Charles, "after my death you will be great and powerful. D'Anjou will not leave Poland--they will not let him. D'Alençon is a traitor. You alone are capable of governing. ”

“ The greatest anxiety is felt throughout France, and it is indeed a critical time, for Alençon’s death will be a most serious matter to the kingdom. For some time past the King has been estranged from his wife; people trace this estrangement to the rivalry between the Duke of Mercœur, brother to the Queen, and the Duke of Joyeuse, husband to the Queen’s sister. The latter has been appointed by the King Admiral of France with220 very extensive powers; while the Duke of Mercœur has been made Governor of Brittany. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Pope, through his Nuncio, offered the young prince a great pension if he would retire, his brother alternately threatened and cajoled, Catharine de Medici held out the bait of a marriage with one of the infantas, and Alençon himself was already disappointed at the failure of the States to fulfil their promises to him and place some strong places in his hands. In fact, the French prince was looked upon by the northern Dutchmen as coldly as Mathias had been, and if he could bring neither the national support of England or France he would be as useless as the Austrian had been. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ If matters go on as they have begun, the Palace will be as full of dissension as the rest of France. Every day the discords between the Princes increase, even between those who ought to be most closely united by the ties of blood and kindred. Alençon cannot keep quiet: he is on the watch for an opportunity to upset the Government, and will probably end by attempting some notable coup d’état. Some suspect him of even aspiring to the throne. It is all the Queen Mother can do to keep him from throwing off his allegiance. ”

“ I am not, I say, certain that he will give it to the Duke of Joyeuse, since a most handsome provision has been made for him in the governorship of Normandy, which was refused to Alençon himself. But perhaps ere long we shall learn the truth. ”

“ As to the second point, that the duke [Pg 5] d'Alençon was related to the king, he should answer, that so much the more was he bounden to guard the preservation and welfare of the king and his crown.
As to the third point, touching the services done by the duke's ancestors to the crown of France, &c. he should say, that he had not in these instances followed their steps: and since children should not suffer for the evil deeds of their fathers, neither ought they to claim any merit from their services. ”

“ The fact is that Henry III. had shown his hand.250 Alençon’s levies had been attacked by the King’s troops, and it was evident that unless he consented to forego his ambition and again become the laughing-stock of the mignons he must cleave to the Queen of England, marriage or no marriage. This she knew better than any one, and it was this for which she had been playing. If the French under Alençon went to the Netherlands to weaken Spain, they would go in her interest and at her behest, and not in those of France. ”

“ A new pacification was entered into, but the peace of France was again disturbed by a coalition betwixt the heads of the Huguenots and the Marshals Montmorency, De Cossé, and Damfont, the Papal leaders called the Politicians. This league was formed to get possession of the king, whoso health was now fast failing, remove Catherine and the Duke of Guise from power, and proclaim Alençon as the successor to the crown in the absence of Anjou in Poland. Elizabeth was actively engaged in all these movements, especially in advising Alençon to place himself at the head of affairs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 Spanish ambassador thought, and he was no doubt right, that Alençon’s pressure and covert threats were for the purpose of forcing the Queen to help him in his designs in Flanders as some solatium for the slight she had put upon him and his family by throwing him over in the marriage negotiations; and colour is given to this view by the fact that envoys arrived simultaneously from La Noue, the Huguenot chief, who was now in the service of the States, from Orange, and the Prince of Condé, to beg the Queen to send help to establish Alençon in the Netherlands. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But Elizabeth herself was somewhat short of money, and still not without suspicion, besides which she had no intention whatever of defraying the whole expense of Alençon’s army, and would send him no more money. Things went from bad to worse. The French troops deserted in bodies and fell to pillage; the young noblemen slipped back over the frontier by hundreds. By the first week in September Alençon had retired to Chatelet, leaving a garrison in Cambrai; only 3,000 of his men remained with him, and he sent again de Bex to the Queen to beg for more help before they were all gone. ”

“ Bussy d’Amboise had not been idle outside in the meanwhile. He had sent the fiery cross through the provinces, and men-at-arms and nobles were flocking to the Flemish frontier to join the standard of Alençon when it should be raised. The gates of Paris, it is true, were closely guarded, and Alençon himself, with his sister Margaret (who herself tells190 the story so racily) , were not allowed out of the sight of the Scottish archers. But the Court was full of nobles who were disgusted with the King’s mode of life, and plans were rife to rescue the captive. ”

“ The Maid unfurled her standard, and fully armed, wearing on her head one of those light helmets known as chapelines, [1209] she went down into the trenches with the King's men and the train-bands, well within reach of arrows and cannon-balls. She kept by the Duke of Alençon's side, saying: "Forward! fair duke, to the assault."
The Duke, who was not so courageous as she, thought that she went rather hastily to work; and this he gave her to understand.
Then she encouraged him: "Fear not. God's time is the right time. When He wills it you must open the attack. ”

“ That star which aspires to follow in the track of Alençon—I know it well, Ruggieri. It is that of the ambitious favourite of my youngest son, of Philip de la Mole. It is he who pushes him on. It is he who would see his master on the throne, in order to throne it in his place. He has that influence over Alençon which the mother possesses no longer; and were [Pg 757] Alençon king, it would be Philip de la Mole who would rule the destinies of France, not Catherine de Medicis. Beneath that exterior of thoughtless levity, lie a bold spirit and an ardent ambition. He is an enemy not to be despised ”

“ Elizabeth had aided the Protestant Hollanders bravely, but the Catholic Flemings did not wish to be merged in and governed by the Dutch States, and had to seek help from a Catholic prince. Conciliation they had tried, and they had been betrayed. A prince of the house of Austria had been chosen, and had turned out useless. Where, then, could they look but to a prince of France, unfettered by Spanish sympathies? So Alençon was approached, and expressed his willingness to raise his friends, the moderate Catholics and the Huguenots to aid the Flemings in their resistance. ”

“ The corpse is to come to Paris. The King has put on black; this is unusual, for on former occasions it has been the custom for Kings of France to wear violet when in mourning. Some prognosticate that Alençon’s death will give rise to great changes in France, and I think they are not far wrong, for the 222chief provinces and cities of the kingdom will not be disposed to accept any Sovereign whose religion differs from theirs, neither will they lack leaders when they rise, for the governors of the provinces will come forward, and others to boot. ”

“ Sir John Fastolf was coming from Paris, and it would be well to be off with the old foe before they were on with the new.
Suffolk, naturally enough, refused these terms. The French heralds sounded the assault.
"Forward, gentle Duke!" cried the Maid. "To the assault!"
Alençon hesitated. Was the breach definitely practicable?
"Doubt not!" cried the Maid. "It is the hour that God has chosen. The good Lord [Pg 166] helps those who help themselves. Ah! gentle Duke," she added, with the pretty touch of raillery that was all her own; "are you afraid? ”

“ Charles IX. was sinking fast, and the next heir was Anjou. With Alençon for heir-presumptive of France, the position would be changed; and once more the queen began to get doubtful about those unfortunate pock-marks on her lover's face. Once Alençon planned with Henry of Navarre to escape from his mother's custody and make a dash for England on his own account, but Catherine held him firmly.
Both the Huguenots and the French king wished for the marriage, but each party frustrated the other because their objects were different. ”