I.
Jan., 1477] KING RENÉ
The ducal house of Lorraine, into which Christina had now married, was one of the oldest and proudest in Europe. The duchy took its name of Lotharingia from Lothair, a great-grandson of Charlemagne, who reigned over a vast kingdom stretching from the banks of the Scheldt and Rhine to the Mediterranean. After this monarch's death, his territories became the object of perpetual contention between the German Empire and France, and were eventually divided among a number of Counts and Barons who owned the Emperor or the French King as their suzerain. Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first Crusade, was one of many illustrious Princes who reigned over Lorraine; but Gerard d'Alsace, who died in 1046, was the ancestor of the ducal house to which Christina's husband belonged.[317] From him descended a long line of hereditary Princes, who were loyal vassals of France and took an active part in the wars against England. Raoul, the founder of the collegiate church and Chapter of St. Georges at Nancy, was killed fighting valiantly at Crécy, and his son John was taken prisoner with the French King by the Black Prince at Poitiers. Duke John's second son, Ferry, Count of Vaudemont and Joinville, fell at Agincourt. In 1444 this Prince's grandson, Ferry II., the representative of the younger branch of the House of Lorraine, married Yolande, daughter of René of Anjou, King of Provence, Jerusalem, and Sicily, and Duke of Lorraine in right of his wife, Isabella, the heiress of Duke Charles II. Yolande, whose sister, Margaret of Anjou, married Henry VI., became Duchess of Lorraine after the death of her nephew in 1473, and united the two branches of the family in her person. But she renounced the sovereignty in favour of her son, René II., who still bore the proud title of King of Sicily and Jerusalem, although, as the English Ambassador, Wotton, remarked, he had never seen either the one or the other. René had a fierce struggle for the possession of Lorraine with Charles of Burgundy, who defeated him completely in 1475, and entered Nancy in triumph. But in January, 1477, King René recovered his duchy with the help of the Swiss, and Charles was defeated and slain in a desperate battle under the walls of Nancy.[318]
Ten years later René married Philippa of Egmont, sister of Charles, Duke of Guelders, and, together with his admirable wife, devoted the rest of his life to the welfare of his subjects and the improvement of the capital. During his reign the ducal palace, founded by his ancestors in the fourteenth century, was enlarged and beautified, and the neighbouring church and convent of the Cordeliers were built. Here René was buried after his early death in 1508, and his sorrowing wife reared a noble monument in which he is represented kneeling under a pinnacled canopy crowned by a statue of the Virgin and Child.[319]
Dec., 1519] QUEEN PHILIPPA
Six stalwart sons grew up under Philippa's watchful eye, to bear their father's name and maintain the honour of his house. The eldest, Antoine, succeeded René as Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and the second, Claude, became a naturalized French subject, and inherited the family estates in France, including Joinville, Guise, and Aumale. Both Princes were educated at the French Court, where Claude became the friend and companion of the future King Francis, and in 1513 married Antoinette de Bourbon, the Count of Vendôme's daughter. This lovely maiden was brought up with her cousins, Louis XII.'s daughters, the elder of whom married Francis of Angoulême, the heir to the Crown. When, in 1515, this Prince succeeded his father-in-law on the throne, he promised the young Duke of Lorraine the hand of Louis XII.'s widow, Mary of England; but the fair Dowager had already plighted her troth to Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Antoine consoled himself with another Princess of the blood royal, Renée de Bourbon, daughter of Gilbert de Montpensier and Chiara Gonzaga. The wedding was celebrated at Amboise on the 26th of June, 1515, and Antoine and Claude both left their brides in Lorraine with Queen Philippa while they followed Francis to Italy. There they fought gallantly by the King's side at Marignano. Antoine was knighted on the field of battle, while Claude received a dangerous wound, and a third brother was slain in the mêlée. Two of Philippa's younger sons lost their lives in the French King's later campaigns. One was killed at Pavia, and Louis, the handsomest of all his handsome race, died of the plague in Lautrec's army before Naples. A sixth son, Jean, Bishop of Metz, was made a Cardinal at twenty, and, like his brother, Claude of Guise, became a prominent figure at the French Court.
During Antoine's absence his duchy was governed wisely and well by his mother, Philippa; but when he no longer needed her help, the good Queen retired from the world, and on the 8th of December, 1519, entered the Order of the Poor Clares at Pont-à-Mousson. Here she spent the remaining twenty-seven years of her life in works of devotion, and edified her family and subjects by the zeal with which she performed the humblest duties, going barefoot and wearing rough serge. But she still retained great influence over her sons, who were all deeply attached to her and often came to visit her in the convent. By a will which she made when she forsook the world, she left her furniture, jewels, and most of her property, to her second son, Claude, "pour aider ce jeune ménage,"[320] and the Duke and Duchess of Guise went to live at her dower-house of Joinville, the beau châtel on the heights above the River Marne, which had once belonged to St. Louis's follower, le Sieur de Joinville. Here that remarkable woman, Duchess Antoinette, the mother of the Guises, reared her large family, the six sons who became famous as soldiers or prelates, and the four beautiful daughters who were courted by Kings and Princes. Antoine's wife, Renée, had not the ability and force of character which made her cousin a power at the French Court, as well as in her own family, but she was greatly beloved in Lorraine, and inherited the cultivated tastes of her Gonzaga mother—the sister of Elizabeth, Duchess of Urbino, and sister-in-law of the famous Isabella d'Este. Renée brought the graces and refinement of the Mantuan Court to her husband's home, and the blossoming of art which took place at Nancy during Antoine's reign was largely due to her influence.
GRANDE PORTERIE. PALAIS DUCAL, NANCY
To face p. [260]
Aug., 1541] THE DUCAL PALACE
A whole school of local architects and painters were employed to adorn the ducal palace, which under his rule and that of his immediate successors became, in the words of a contemporary, "as fine a dwelling-place for a great Prince as could possibly be desired."[321] King René had rebuilt the older portions of the house; his son now added the noble gateway known as "La Grande Porterie," with his own equestrian statue carved by Mansuy Gauvain, and the magnificent upper gallery called "La Galerie des Cerfs," from the antlers and other trophies of the chase which hung upon its walls.[322] A wealth of delicate sculpture was lavished on the façade. Flowers and foliage, heraldic beasts and armorial bearings, adorned the portal; "le bœuf qui prêche"—an ox's head in a pulpit—appeared in one corner, and on the topmost pinnacle, above the busts of René and Antoine, a monkey was seen clad in a friar's habit. Within, the vaulted halls were decorated with stately mantelpieces and richly carved friezes. Without, the roofs glittered with gilded copper fretwork and a tall bronze flèche, bearing the cross of Lorraine and the thistle of Nancy, crowned the "Tour du Paradis," which enclosed the fine spiral staircase leading to the Galerie des Cerfs. Another round tower, containing an inclined way broad enough for a horse and chariot, stood in the older part of the palace, and led up to the Treasury, where the Crown jewels were kept. Here, too, were the apartments occupied by the ducal family. On one side they opened on to the "Cour d'Honneur," where tournaments and pageants were held. On the other the windows looked down on the gardens, with their cut yews and box hedges, their arbours and bosquets, and in the centre a superb fountain adorned with putti by Mansuy Gauvain; while beyond the eye ranged across the sleepy waters of the moat to green meadows and distant woods.[323] The grand portal and state-rooms at the new end of the palace looked down on the Grande Rue, and were only divided by a narrow street from the shops and stalls of the market-place. The fact that the Duke's house stood in the heart of the city naturally fostered the affection with which he was regarded by the people of Nancy. The citizens were familiar with every detail of the ducal family's private life, and took the deepest interest in their comings and goings, their weddings and funerals, in the guests who arrived at the palace gates, and in the children who grew up within its walls.
Duke Antoine was especially beloved by his subjects. Early in life he had learnt by experience the horrors of war, and all through his reign he tried manfully to preserve a strict neutrality between the rival powers on either side, with the result that Lorraine enjoyed an unbroken period of peace and prosperity. The burden of taxation was lightened, trade and agriculture flourished, and the arts were encouraged by this good Prince, who was justly called the "father of his people." When his beloved wife Renée died, in June, 1539, his sorrow was shared by the whole nation.
"Since I sent my last letter," wrote the Duchess of Guise to her daughter in Scotland, "you will have heard of the death of your aunt—whom God pardon—a fortnight ago. The attack—a flux de ventre—which carried her off only lasted nine days, but she was enfeebled by long illness. Nature could no longer offer any resistance, and God in His good pleasure took her to Himself. She died as a good Christian, doing her duty by all and asking forgiveness of everyone, and remained conscious to the end. After Friday morning she would not see her children, or even her husband, but, as this distressed him greatly, she sent for him again after she had received God. On Sunday she was anointed with holy oil, and died at ten o'clock the next evening. It was the tenth of June. It is a heavy loss for all our family, but your uncle bears up bravely. He sent for us, and I set out for Nancy at once, but only arrived there after her death. Your father, with whom I have been in Picardy, followed on Saturday. I have just returned to Pont-à-Mousson, where I came to see my mother-in-law, the good old Queen. The funeral will be on St. John's Day, and your aunt will be buried in the Cordeliers, opposite the tomb of the late King" (René II.).[324]
Four days after his wife's death, Antoine himself sent these touching lines to his niece, the Queen of Scotland:
Aug., 1541] FRANCIS OF LORRAINE
"I was glad to hear from you the other day, Madame, and must tell you the great sorrow which it has pleased God to send me, in calling my wife to Himself. She died on the morrow of Pentecost. God be praised, Madame, for the beautiful end which she made, like the good Christian that she was. Commend me to the King your lord; and if there is any service which I can render you or him, let me know, and I will do it gladly.
"Your humble and loving uncle,
"Antoine."[325]
Renée bore the Duke a large family, but only three of her children lived to grow up: Francis, Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson, born in 1517; Anne, the Princess of Orange, who was five years younger; and Nicolas, Count of Vaudemont, born in 1524, who took Deacon's Orders, and became Bishop of Metz when the Cardinal of Lorraine resigned this see. Francis had the French King for his godfather, and was sent, as a matter of course, to be educated at the Court of France with the Dauphin. This Prince inherited the tall stature and regular features of his father's family, together with his mother's love of art and letters. His studious tastes and quick intelligence made him the delight of all his teachers, and King Francis was heard to say that the Marquis du Pont was the wisest Prince of his age. But although he could ride and tilt as well as any of his peers, he was never robust, and the strain of melancholy in his nature increased as years went by. In 1538 the young Marquis accompanied his father to meet the Emperor at Aigues-Mortes, and made a very favourable impression on Charles, who proposed that he should marry one of King Ferdinand's daughters. Several other alliances had been already suggested for this promising Prince.[326] In 1527, while he was still a boy, the fateful marriage between him and Anne of Cleves had been arranged; and when this was abandoned, King Francis first offered him one of his own daughters, and then his cousin, Mary of Vendôme, whom the King of Scotland had deserted for the fair Duchess of Longueville. At the same time Henry VIII. asked Castillon to arrange a marriage between his daughter Mary and the heir of Lorraine.[327] But from the moment that Francis of Lorraine saw the Duchess of Milan at Compiègne his choice never wavered, and his constancy triumphed in the end over all difficulties.
The lamented death of Duchess Renée, and the marriage of her only daughter, Anne, in the following year, had left the palace at Nancy without a mistress, and rendered Christina's presence there the more welcome. The old Duke was as proud of his daughter-in-law as his subjects were of their young Duchess, and Christina's frank manners and open-handed generosity soon made her very popular in Lorraine. She received a cordial welcome from Antoinette and the Guise Princes at Joinville, and was on the best of terms with her young brother-in-law, Monsieur de Metz. Above all, she was adored by her spouse, whose devotion to Christina quickly dispelled the Duchess of Guise's fears lest this grave and thoughtful Prince should not prove a good husband. His love satisfied every longing of her heart, and filled her soul with deep content. After all the storms of her early youth, after the lonely months at Milan and Pavia, after the disappointment of her cherished hopes, the young Duchess had found a happiness beyond her highest dreams. As she wrote to her old friend Granvelle a few months later: "My husband treats me so kindly, and has such great affection for me, that I am the happiest woman in the whole world."[328]
Nov., 1541] A VISIT TO FONTAINEBLEAU