Duke of Angoulême

“ The manner, bearing, and gestures of the Duke of Angouleme cannot be called gracious, especially in contrast with his father's manners; doubtless it is not fair to ask that a prince, any more than another, should be favored by nature, but it is much to be desired that he shall have an air of superiority. ”

“ He appears to have retired from public life shortly after the death of Richelieu in 1643. His first wife died in 1636, and in 1644 he married Françoise de Narbonne, daughter of Charles, baron of Mareuil. She had no children and survived her husband until 1713. Angoulême himself died on the 24th of September 1650. By his first wife he had three children: Henri, who became insane; Louis Emmanuel, who succeeded his father as duke of Angoulême and was colonel-general of light cavalry and governor of Provence ”

“ On 10 April 1536 he obtained a grant from the crown of the manor of South, in Kent, which had been granted to Sir Thomas More (Patent Roll, 26 Hen. VIII, pt. 1, m. 32) . Soon after his services were once more employed in a mission to France, to qualify some of the conditions on which Henry had offered the hand of his infant daughter Elizabeth to the Duke of Angoulême (Herbert in Kennett, ii. 179) . This is the last we hear of him in any public capacity before his melancholy end. ”

“ Duchesse d'Angouleme = Marie Therese Charlotte (1778-1851) , the Dauphine, daughter of King Louis XVI and wife of Louis Antoine of Artois, Duke of Angouleme, eldest son of King Charles X—she lost her chance to become queen when her father-in-law abdicated the French throne in 1830—Napoleon said of her that she was "the only man in her family"}
It happened, while we lay in the bleaching grounds, that one half of the piece extended into a part of the field that came under the management of a legitimist, while the other invaded the dominions of a liberal. ”

“ The Regency have actually refused to treat with Cadiz, though there are many there who are much disposed to it. The force which occupies it is almost entirely militia, and, therefore, cannot be expected to hold out long when there shall be a naval force to co-operate.
Duc d'Angoulême is completely sick, and the present plan is, that if they can get the King at liberty, he is to convene a general Cortes, and the French are to leave them and him to make a constitution, withdrawing all their troops ... except 25,000, who are to form an echellon of communication between Bayonne and Madrid. ”

“ Its local distribution, too, is significant. The restless barons of Aquitaine, still smarting under their defeat of 1169, were but too eager, at the instigation of their duchess and their newly-crowned duke, to renew their struggle against the king. Foremost among them were, as before, the count of Angoulême, [660] the nobles of Saintonge, and Geoffrey of Lusignan, beside whom there stood this time his young brother Guy, now to begin in this ignoble strife a career destined to strange vicissitudes in far-off Palestine. ”

“ This Imperial document explicitly admits the right of feminine succession to a Lombard fief, [105] for Claude, it affirms, is the heiress to Milan through her father, the grandson of Madame Valentine. But it says nothing of the descent of Francis of Angoulême, although it provides that if Claude should die in childhood, and the King have no other children born to take her place, then Francis of Angoulême shall be recognized as in his own right Duke of Milan because he is the heir of the King of France. ”

“ A statement was accordingly drawn up, and sent by me when in Edinburgh, not to Charles X., but to her royal highness the Duchess of Angoulême; who immediately replied, requesting an interview on my part with one of the noblemen or gentlemen of her household, whom I met; and was informed by him from her royal highness, that such communications exceedingly distressed her, in recalling a past dreadful period of her life; for that there was no truth in them, and that her brother, the Duke of Normandy, died in the Temple. ”

“ Twenty-nine years before, Richard, as duke of Aquitaine, had vainly striven to wrest Angoulême from Ademar in behalf of Matilda, the only child of Ademar’s brother Count Vulgrin III. Matilda was now the wife of Hugh “the Brown” of Lusignan, who in 1179 or 1180 had in spite of King Henry made himself master of La Marche, [2002] and whose personal importance in southern Gaul was increased by the rank and fame which his brothers Geoffrey, Guy and Almeric had won in the kingdoms of Palestine and Cyprus. ”

“ The common people sadly discontented, and very seditious in their expressions. In the evening I received a note from Lady Mary Hill to say that they had seen the Duke de Sérent in good spirits; that the King of France would remain at Lille; that the Duke d’Angoulême was going about collecting troops, and that La Vendée was favourably disposed towards the Royal cause.
26th (Easter Sunday) .—I dined at Lord Rolle’s. ”

“ Edouart cut the likenesses that evening of the Duke d’Angoulême, the Duchesse d’Angoulême, the Duchesse de Berri, Mademoiselle Louise Marie, the Duke de Bordeaux, the Cardinal de Latil, and many of the suite. After this Edouart declares that he “was a daily visitor at Holyrood, and my exhibition was often honoured by Royalty.” The Duke de Bordeaux declared that if Edouart would become one of his suite, he should be called the Black Knight. ”

“ De Sèze is a lively, active man. The King sent him the other day a snuff-box, with the portrait of Louis XVI., and a note written with his own hand, telling him it was the only one worthy of him. The Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia, when they were here, gave him boxes set in diamonds.
27th.—Went by appointment to the Duchess d’Angoulême’s. She looked thin and ill, but was very gracious, and talked to me of the death of the Duke de Berri, of the providential birth of the Duke de Bordeaux, and of English affairs. ”

“ Anglare, the castle of, besieged by the lord de Barbasan, vii. 13
Angora, battle of, between Tamerlane and Bajazet, i. 107
Angoulême, the count of, pledged to the English, iii. 93
Angoulême, Madame d', mother of Francis I. is present at his coronation, xii. 175
Anjou is invaded by the earl of Somerset, viii. 348
Anne, duchess of Bedford, dies at Paris, vii. 100
Anne, duchess of Brittany, married to Charles VIII. xi. 371
is crowned and makes her public entry into Paris, xi. 378
dies, xii. 161
Anthony, duke of Limbourg, takes possession of that duchy and Maestricht, i. ”

“ Angoulême, Duke of, offered in infancy as a suitor for Elizabeth, 5. Anjou, Duke of (see also Henry III.) , proposal to marry him to Elizabeth, 114–43; personal descriptions of him, 120–1; is persuaded by the Catholics against the match, 122; formal offer of his hand, 128; proposed conditions, 129–30; his reported Huguenot leanings, 133, 137–8; the religious question to be omitted from the conditions, 134, 136; stands firm about religion, 140–1; refuses to marry Elizabeth, 143; renewed negotiations for his marriage, 145–9; besieges Rochelle, 169; elected King of Poland, 171, 175 ”

“ L’an mil neuf cent nonante neuf, sept mois,
Du Ciel viendra un grand Roy d’effrayeur,
Resusciter le grand Roy d’Angoumois,
Avant apres, Mars Regner par bonheur. English.
In the year a thousand nine hundred ninety nine, and seven months,
From Heaven a great terrible King,
To raise again the great King of Angoulesme,
Before and after, Mars shall Reign luckily. ANNOT. He that is called here King of Angoulesme was Francis the I. as gallant a Prince as ever France had, who before he was King went by the title of Duke of Angoulesme; the rest is easie.
LXXIII.
French. ”

“ Agriculture flourished, the arts of Italy came in, though (save in architecture) France could claim little artistic glory of her own; the organisation of justice and administration was carried out; in letters and learning France still lagged behind her neighbours.
The heir to the crown was Francois d'Angouleme, great-grandson of that Louis d'Orleans who had been assassinated in the bad days of the strife between Burgundians and Armagnacs, in 1407, and great-great-grandson of Charles V. of France. He was still very young, very eager to be king, very full of far-reaching schemes. ”

“ France will no longer suffer him, sir; France will no longer suffer him! If I free not the King from him and such as he is, the people will rise up and commit some foul attempt upon the royal authority. What," he continued, with fierce scorn, "What, though he be Baron of Caumont, Duke of Epernon, raised out of his place to sit near the princes of the blood, Governor of Metz and Normandy, of the Boulonnais, and Aunis, of Touraine, Saintonge, and Angoumois, Colonel-general of Infantry, and Governor of Anjou, a Knight of the order of the Holy Ghost! ”

“ Freely exposing his own life throughout, the earl received, by one of the last cannon shots fired, a severe wound in the leg, necessitating amputation. Five days later the prince regent created him marquess of Anglesey in recognition of his brilliant services, which were regarded universally as second only to those of the duke himself. ”

“ Under these circumstances, if the continental dominions of the Angevin house were to be redistributed among the three surviving brothers, there was only one possible mode of redistribution. Geoffrey could not give up Britanny, for he was now actually married to its duchess; [1105] but Richard, in consideration of his prospects as future king of England, duke of Normandy and count of Anjou, might fairly be asked to surrender to his youngest brother the duchy of Aquitaine. So at least it seemed from Henry’s point of view. ”

“ Marie Thrse Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulme, was the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. She was born in 1778, and, after the execution of her father and mother she was detained in captivity in Paris until December, 1795, when she was delivered up to the Austrians in exchange for certain French prisoners of war. in 1799 she married her cousin, the Duke of Angoulme, son of Louis XVI's brother, the Count d'Artois, (afterwards Charles X. of France) . ”

“ You are still plain Comte d’Angoulême, and never King of France, as you do hope to be. The King her husband is old, and cannot now make her children. You must needs meddle and go with her, you with your young hot blood, and she the same, and by the Risen Lord! the end will be she will just catch on like a limed bird, conceive you a child, and there you are! After that you’ve only to say, ‘Goodbye! my chance of the fair Kingdom of France!’ Wherefore I say, reflect. ”

“ If our Angevin king sometimes looks like a stranger amongst us, he was never anything but a stranger among the fellow-countrymen of his wife. Nowhere throughout his whole dominions was a spirit of revolt and insubordination so rife as among the nobles of Poitou and its dependencies; but it was a spirit utterly unlike the feudal pride of the Norman baronage. The endless strife of the Aquitanian nobles with their foreign duke and with each other sprang less from political motives than from a love of strife for its own sake ”

“ Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême [325] , aged eleven, drew all eyes through a virginal pride; beautiful through nobility of birth and maidenly innocence, she seemed to say, like Corneille's orange-blossom in the Guirlande de Julie:
J'ai la pompe de ma naissance [326] .
Marie Antoinette.
[Pg 157]
The little Dauphin [327] walked under his sister's protection, and M. Du Touchet followed his pupil; he noticed me, and obligingly called the Queen's attention to me. Casting a smiling look in my direction, she gave me that gracious bow which she had already made me on the day of my presentation. ”

“ A partisan of Rome, and consequently
Intolerant of all the new opinions.
JULIA.
I should not like the Duke. These silent men,
Who only look and listen, are like wells
That have no water in them, deep and empty.
How could the daughter of a king of France
Wed such a duke?
MICHAEL ANGELO.
The men that women marry
And why they marry them, will always be
A marvel and a mystery to the world.
VITTORIA.
And then the Duchess,--how shall I describe her,
Or tell the merits of that happy nature,
Which pleases most when least it thinks of pleasing? ”

“ At the close of their first revolt, in 1175, the young king was but just entering his twentieth year; Richard was in his eighteenth and Geoffrey in his seventeenth year; and although the one had been titular duke of Aquitaine and the other titular duke of Britanny since 1169, the realii.192 government of both duchies, as well as that of Normandy and Anjou, had been until now in the hands of their father. For the purposes of our story there is only one part of these continental possessions of our Angevin king into whose internal concerns we need enter at any great length ”

“ The duke of Anjou, then in his twentieth year, had been brought up, like his brother, by Gondi, who had taught him to violate faith and to feast himself with spectacles of blood. He was already given up to those unbridled debaucheries, and to those ignoble superstitions, which made him a modern Heliogabalus, and the most abject prince ever seen upon the throne of France. “As for me,” said Charles IX. to Coligny, “I am a Frenchman and king of the French; my brother, the duke of Anjou, speaks only with his head, his eyes, and his shoulders; he is an Italian.” ”