Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Britany. Richelieu, dissembling his suspicions, enticed them. to repair to the court at Blois, where both were instantly arrested. The imprisonment of all his friends, and the danger of some, would have roused to serious resistance a prince of more energy than Gaston. The young duke was not wanting in indignation; but Richelieu had prepossessed the monarch's mind, and had taught Louis to believe that his royal life had been aimed at as well as his minister's; that the young queen, Anne of Austria, was privy to the plot; and that she was to have married the duke of Orleans on his accession to the throne, These accusations hardened and enraged the mind of Louis XIII. Gaston, in the power of the court, was forced to espouse mademoiselle de Montpensier; the count de Chalais perished on the scaffold; the queen was publicly reproached by her husband with having sought a second marriage, to which she indignantly replied, "That there was not so much to be gained by the change." Her friend, madame de Chevreuse, was banished from court. Thus Richelieu, triumphant over his foes, amongst whom the queen and the king's brother were numbered, showed how fatal it was to provoke his enmity, how fruitless to resist his

power.

No sooner had this storm blown over, than another assailed the cardinal, from England. The dismissal of some ecclesiastics attached to queen Henrietta had caused Bassompierre to be sent to London. Buckingham proposed to proceed himself to Paris, and conduct negotiations for an alliance: the duke was moved by a desire to re-behold the queen, Anne of Austria, the object of his adiniration. By humoring the gallant whim of the British minister, Richelieu might have secured the friendship of England, most valuable whilst Rochelle remained in the power of the Huguenots; but the cardinal, himself enamored of the queen, at least detesting Buckingham and his pretensions, peremptorily forbade the proposed visit of the latter to Paris. "I will see the queen in his despite!" exclaimed the duke. The first pretext for reaking with France, and of thwarting its proud minister was hence seized by Buckingham. Soubise was then in London, smarting from his recent defeat, and from the thought that his rash expedition against Blavet and the Isle of Rhé had enfeebled the Protestant power. The Catholics and royalists had taken that opportunity to fortify themselves in the isle, which blockaded and menaced Rochelle. Soubise urged Buckingham to break with France, to openly uphold the Huguenots, and to commence the war by driving their enemies from the Isle of Rhé. The headlong Buckingham

1627.

SIEGE OF ROCHELLE.

31

flung himself and the country into the scheme, and fitted out an expedition, of which he took the command himself. Neither Soubise nor the duke had tarried for the necessary preliminary of consulting the Huguenots. The inhabitants of Rochelle were in doubt and suspense on beholding the English fleet, and by neither opposing nor supporting it, they affected to observe a kind of neutrality. Buckingham landed in the isle of Rhé: inept as rash, he allowed the cominander of its only fortress time to strengthen himself; he undertook the siege, which lingered unsuccessfully and ingloriously. The royal army approached Rochelle; the king himself and Richelieu were in its ranks. The neutrality and forbearance affected by the town were disregarded by the cardinal, who ordered it to be instantly invested; whilst a reinforcement dispatched to the Isle of Rhé kept Buckingham in check, and converted the besiegers into the besieged. It was then that the Rochellois exhausted their store of provisions, of which they were soon to stand in need, by supplying the English. Their efforts served no purpose: Buckingham evacuated the island, and sailed for England.

Richelieu then turned all his efforts to reduce the Huguenot strong-held. For this purpose he imagined to throw a mole across the harbor, so as to shut out all succor. This gigantic attempt he commenced on the last day of November, thus braving all the elements. A winter's storm scattered in one night the mass of his labors; the only thought of Richelieu was to recommence. He had taken the idea from a similar attempt of Alexander to shut up the harbor of Tyre; but here was the ebbing and flowing ocean to contend with, in lieu of the still waters of the Mediterranean. Richelieu, with the volume of Quintus Curtius in his hand, directed the works, overruled the objections of the engineers, and the jealousies of commanders. The latter dreaded the ascendency of Richelieu, should he prove victorious. "We shall be mad enough to take Rochelle," said mareschal Bassompierre. In despite of all these obstacles, the mole was terminated; the English fleet, which arrived in spring with succors, came merely to recognize the impossibility of penetrating into the harbor, and then retired. The besieged, aiready wasted by famine, watched with despair the retiring sails of their allies: still they refused to surrender. England surely, said they, will not abandon us, will not forsake the cause of reform; which, if Rochelle be subdued, must inevitably perish in France. The feelings of the English nation were indeed with the brave Rochellois. Buckingham was about to lead a powerful expedition to their aid, when he fel

[ocr errors]

by the hand of Felton; the expedition sailed, nevertheless, came in sight of the beleagured town; and that was all. Attempts to break through the mole were found impracticable; and, after a fruitless cannonade, Rochelle was abandoned to its fate; a melancholy example how insecure and treacherous is foreign aid. Had Rochelle been left to itself, been unexcited by Buckingham, she would not have commenced war until prepared for it, or until the encroachments of Richelieu had roused the Huguenots to arm and take the field, as they had done under Henry IV. They, however, relied upon the strength of Rochelle, Rochelle relied upon the English and Reform, that in France had fought so many battles, and survived so many defeats, fell almost ignominiously before the arm of a churchman.

"the

Richelieu, however, was not a bigot: he showed himself clement towards Rochelle: there was no vengeance taken no victims sacrificed. The town lost its independence, which was, indeed, incompatible with the idea of sovereignty: but its worship and its religious opinions were left free; only avowed and open toleration," says Hume, "which at that time was granted in any European kingdom." Rochelle surrendered on the 28th of November, 1628. In a few days after, the sea broke through the mole and opened the harbor; an event that, to superstitious minds, proved the great good fortune of the minister, and the favor shown by Providence to his cause and his designs.

No sooner had the French monarchy thus got the better of its domestic enemies, than an opportunity was presented for measuring its power with Spain and the house of Austria, its great European rival. The duke of Nevers, having married the daughter and heiress of the duke of Mantua, succeeded to his dominions: Spain opposed the establishment of a French prince in Italy, and disputed the succession. Olivarez, the Spanish minister, had recourse to arms: the duke of Nevers shut himself up in Casal, and sent to claim the aid of Louis XIII. Great debates ensued in council, whether the duke should be supported or abandoned, and Richelieu was foremost of those who insisted on a bold and warlike policy.

.

He was opposed by the queen-mother, and for selfish reasons, which we must explain. The wife of Gaston, duke of Orleans, had expired, in giving birth to a daughter, who was afterwards the celebrated mademoiselle de Montpensier. Mary of Medicis, anxious to see heirs to the throne descended from her, and despairing of offspring from the king, turned her exertions to re-marry Gaston: she fixed upon a Florentine princess, one of her own blood; but the widower prince

1629.

INTRIGUES OF THE QUEEN-MOTHER.

33

had already given his preference to Mary of Gonzaga, daughter of the duke of Nevers: hence the hatred of the queenmother to the duke of Nevers and his cause. Richelieu, in his lofty and patriotic views, despised the petty motives of Mary of Medicis; and, though he endeavored to soothe her anger, urged the king to war. Mary was indignant that th minister whom she had raised should prove disobedient, an she vowed vengeance: hence arose the feud betwixt Riche lieu and the queen-mother. The cardinal's advice prevailed The army was ordered to march into Italy to the relief or Casal: Gaston was at first appointed to the command; but Louis, in a fit of jealousy against his brother, crossed the Alps as his own general, delivered the duke of Nevers and Mantua from the siege of the Spaniard, and compelled his recognition by that power.

Thus was Richelieu's triumph complete. The army, on its return from Italy, completed the defeat of those Huguenots who still remained in arms, and utterly annihilated them as an independent party. Peace was at the same time concluded with them and with England. But nothing could soothe the resentment of the queen-mother. Unable as yet to strike Richelieu, she wreaked her vengeance upon Mary of Gonzaga, daughter of the duke of Nevers, whom the duke of Orleans persisted in seeking to espouse. She caused the unfortunate princess to be seized, and immured in the Bastile: an order from the king released her, a fresh mortification which Mary attributed to Richelieu. Shut up in her palace of the Luxembourg, this queen brooded over the ingratitude, the wrongs, she experienced from the cardinal. A weak, selfish woman, she could not comprehend how great public motives could come into competition with private interests and obligations. The chief confidant of her hate was Marillac, chancellor and finance minister, and his brother, who was marshal of France. They took Richelieu for an ordinary minister; and hoped, by the usual means of court intrigue, to remove and supersede him. On the king's return to Paris, Mary made trial of her influence. She commenced hostilities with the cardinal by a step certainly neither unjust nor arrogant. Richelieu held the office of superintendent of her household: she sought to displace him; but Richelieu, who had no moderation in his despotic ideas, determined to keep the place, and, by the king's express interference, did so; thus reserving the command of the domestic servants of his enemy, and that enemy a queen :-one instance, which shows that feudal despotism can be even more tyrannical and absura than its oriental rival.

The late pacification of the quarrel in the north of Italy, proved but momentary. No sooner was the royal army with drawn, than the duke of Savoy displayed his old hatred to France. A Spanish force under Spinola invaded the duchy of Mantua, and again laid siege to Casal. The resolution of Richelieu was instantaneous to march another army to the Alps. The cardinal had been just declared prime minister; he now assumed the title of generalissimo (a word by the by of his own special invention), and at the head of 40,000 men, armed with superb cuirass and sword, a page bearing by his side a plumed casque, the prelate-warrior advanced to humble the pride of Austria. Louis followed in his minister's suite, as did the queen-mother, who now determined to keep near her son, and to make use of every opportunity to underInine the great usurper of authority. At first the war proved successful: Pignerol was taken; the duc de Montmorency defeated the enemy in action; but to succor Mantua required concentrated force, as well as the undistracted attentions of the minister and leader. The king fell dangerously ill at Lyons: Richelieu had reason to tremble for his personal safety. The monarch, on his bed of sickness, showed a generous solicitude for the safety of his minister. "Should I expire," said Louis to Montmorency, "do you promise me to protect the cardinal of Richelieu to a place of safety." Montmorency promised. Louis, however, recovered; but it was too late to prosecute the war with vigor. Marillac, who had commanded during the illness and the occupation of Richelieu, had held back, owing, it was said, to the traitorous wishes of the queen-mother. Mantua, the duke's capital, was taken by storm and pillaged; and Casal was surrendered, after a long defence, by the brave Thoyras. The powerful diversion, caused by the arms of Gustavus Adolphus in Germany, alone saved France and Richelieu at this time from the disgrace of a dishonorable peace, including the loss of Mantua to the duke their ally. The pope interfered, and negotiated a treaty: his envoy on the occasion was Giulio Mazarini, a name afterwards famous. He showed himself most active, and at one time personally interfered betwixt the French and Spaniards, who, on account of a doubtful interpretation of a certain article of the treaty, were about to proceed to fresh hostilities. After all the ill success of the campaign, Mantua and Montserrat were ceded by the emperor to the duke of Nevers.

[ocr errors]

The termination of war was the commencement of new perils for Richelieu. He foresaw the fresh efforts of his enemies, and on the return of the court to Paris, he used all the

« ZurückWeiter »