Duke of Alençon

“ 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. ”

“ Catharine was equally disillusioned, and told Priuli, the Venetian ambassador in France, that although Alençon had given the Queen’s ring back again, she attached no importance to it, as the gift of a ring did not constitute a binding engagement. “Queen Elizabeth, she said, is very artful, and my son is very young. He has allowed himself to be drawn by her into this adventure, in spite of all our arguments and advice; he is being overwhelmed with entertainments, and he has just written to me that he still has hope.”148
François de Valois, Duke of Alençon. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When at length it was seen that Anjou would no longer act as a party to the game, but was looking to the possibility of a marriage with Mary Stuart or with a Polish princess, the idea of the marriage of Elizabeth with his youngest brother, the Duke of Alençon, was again very cautiously brought up by Sir Thomas Smith and Killigrew, who were acting as English Ambassadors in France during Walsingham’s illness. Alençon was only a lad as yet, and could be used without loss of dignity as a stalking-horse until the treaty of close alliance was finally agreed upon between the two countries. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At last she had the boldness to appeal for aid to the moderates, and released their chief, Montmorenci, from the Bastille for the purpose of influencing Alençon. By this time the Huguenots were in arms everywhere. Wilkes, the clerk of Elizabeth’s Council, was sent to Condé and Montmorenci’s son, Meru, at Strasburg, with a large sum of money, and thence across the Rhine to raise, through Duke Casimir, “one of the finest armies that for twenty years has issued from Germany” to enable Alençon to hold his own against Henry III. and the Guises. ”

“ Arrival of Alençon in the Netherlands—His investure as Duke of Brabant—Leicester’s suspicion and intrigues—Alençon’s ceaseless demands for money—Henry III. refuses aid to his brother—The Queen’s attempts to revive the marriage negotiations—Universal distrust of her—Attempted assassination of William of Orange—Danger of Alençon—-Elizabeth’s fear of a French and Spanish understanding—To prevent it she again declares she will marry Alençon—Her renewed efforts to pledge the King of France before the marriage—She threatens France that she will make friends with Spain unless her terms are granted. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Guillaume d’Estouteville: Enquiry of 1452.
211. See Appendix: Note on Documents of Rehabilitation Enquiry: p. 332.
212. Viz., the Twelve Articles.
213. Chronicles of the Dukes of Alençon.
214. Philip the Good, son of Jean Sans-Peur, the Duke murdered at the Bridge of Montereau in 1418 by the Armagnac faction; he was consequently an ally of England. Anne, his sister, married John, Duke of Bedford. Efforts were constantly made by both sides to secure the sympathies of so powerful an ally; but after the death of his sister in 1432, the Duke’s attachment to the English cause waned ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ The Duc d'Anjou received from the Huguenots themselves well-deserved compliments on the two battles of Jarnac and Montcontour, which he had gained before he was eighteen years of age, more precocious in that than either Cæsar or Alexander, to whom they compared him, of course placing the conquerors of Pharsalia and the Issus as inferior to the living prince. The Duc d'Alençon looked on, with his bland, false smile, while Queen Catharine, radiant with joy and overflowing with honeyed phrases, congratulated Prince Henry de Condé on his recent marriage with Marie de Clèves ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Alençon escaped from Paris in disguise, pursued by his mother, and, joining the Huguenots in arms, defied the king and the Guises. France was not big enough to hold both brothers in peace, and Catherine told Alençon that as Elizabeth seemed so ready to help him and his Huguenots, he ought to reopen the marriage negotiations. But Alençon was useless to England as a counterbalance to Spain unless France herself could be pledged as well, and Elizabeth considered it safest for the time, since that could not be done, to feign a new cordiality with Philip. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”