II.
Oct., 1559] MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
Christina's return to Lorraine took place at an eventful moment. The death of Henry II. and the accession of Francis II. placed the supreme power in the hands of the Guise brothers. As the saying ran, "So many Guise Princes, so many Kings of France." The elder branch of the House of Lorraine shared in the triumphs of the younger. The reigning Duke, Charles, had grown up with the young King and Queen, and was tenderly beloved by them. Francis could not bear his brother-in-law to be absent from his side, and after his coronation at Reims, on the 18th of September, he and Mary accompanied the Duke and Duchess on a progress through Lorraine. The festival of the Order of St. Michel was held at Bar, where Charles kept open house for a week, and his aunt, Anne of Aerschot, came to join the family party and meet the daughter of her old companion, Mary of Guise. The charms of the young Queen won all hearts in her mother's native Lorraine, and Francis indulged his passion for sport in the forests of Nomény and Esclaron.[587]
Here, at this favourite hunting-lodge of the Guises, the royal party were joined by the Duke's mother. Christina reached Esclaron on the 11th of October, and was received with every mark of respect and affection. At first, if Brantôme is to be believed, the Duchess-mother was inclined to stand on her dignity, and refused to yield precedence to the youthful Queen; but Mary's grace and sweetness soon dispelled all rivalry, and Christina became the best of friends with both the King and Queen. General regret was expressed at the absence of the young Princesses, whom their mother had left at Brussels; but Christina was aware of the Cardinal's anxiety to arrange a marriage between Renée and the Prince of Joinville, and had no intention of consenting to this arrangement.
"She left her daughters behind her," wrote Throckmorton, the English Ambassador, "because she is unwilling to satisfy the hopes of the House of Guise, and makes not so great an account of their advances as to leave the old friendship of King Philip and his countries. The French, in fact," he adds, "are doing all they can to make the Duchess Dowager a good Frenchwoman, but they will not find it as easy as they think."[588]
At the end of the week Christina went on to Nancy with her son and daughter-in-law, leaving the King and Queen to proceed to Joinville, where Mary was anxious to see her beloved grandmother. She had already appointed Antoinette and her three daughters-in-law to be her ladies-in-waiting, and, as a further proof of affection, had given her grandmother the present which she received from the city of Paris on her state entry. From Blois, where the royal pair spent the autumn and winter, Francis II. sent his brother-in-law the following letter, which throws a pleasant light on the happy relations existing between the two families:
"My dear Brother,
"I am longing for news of you and my sister, and have not heard from either of you since you reached Nancy. Next week I take my sister, the Catholic Queen, to Châtelhérault on her way to Spain, after which I shall return to Blois, and not move again before Easter. As you may imagine, I cannot be in this house without missing you very much. I shall await your return with the utmost impatience, and wish you were here to enjoy the fine rides which I have made in my forest. I must thank you for the good cheer that you are giving my sister, which is the best proof of your perfect love for me. And I am quite sure that in this you are helped by my aunt your mother, Madame de Lorraine, for whom I feel the deepest gratitude, and whom I should like to assure of my readiness and anxiety to do her every possible service. And I pray God, my dearest brother, to have you in His holy keeping."[589]
Dec., 1559] CHRISTINA RETURNS TO NANCY
The young Duke and Duchess were both of them longing to accept this pressing invitation and return to the gay French Court. Charles as yet took little interest in public affairs which required serious attention. Confusion reigned in every department. In many instances the ducal lands had been seized and their revenues appropriated to other uses, while the whole country had suffered from the frequent incursions of foreign troops, and famine and distress prevailed in many districts. Under these circumstances the help of the Duchess-mother was sorely needed. Vaudemont, having neither health nor capacity to cope with these difficulties, had retired into private life, and by degrees Christina resumed most of her old functions. She applied herself to reforming abuses and restoring order in the finances, and at the same time helped her son and daughter-in-law in entertaining the nobles who flocked to Nancy to pay them homage. Her daughters came to join her at Christmas, and she settled once more in her old quarters in the ducal palace. In March the Duke returned to the French Court, and his mother was left to act as Regent during his absence.[590]
After visiting Remiremont and Bar, Charles and his wife went on to spend the summer with the King and Queen at Amboise, where they gave themselves up to hunting and dancing, and enjoyed suppers at Chenonceaux and water-parties on the Loire. But this joyous life was rudely disturbed by the discovery of a Huguenot conspiracy, which was put down with ruthless severity, and was followed by continual alarms. The King and Duke had to be escorted by 500 men-at-arms on their hunting-parties, and the Cardinal of Lorraine never left his room without a guard of ten men bearing loaded pistols. On the 10th of June Mary of Guise died in Edinburgh Castle, and her remains were brought back to her native land and buried in her sister's convent church, St. Pierre of Reims. The whole Court went into mourning, and Throckmorton was so moved by the young Queen's tears that he declared "there never was a daughter who loved her mother better."[591] Meanwhile the aspect of affairs grew daily more threatening. There were riots in the provinces, and rumours of plots at Court. The Duke of Lorraine was present at the Council held at St. Germain for the defence of the realm, but left for Nancy when the Court moved to Orleans in October.
May, 1561] LA REINE BLANCHE
Two months later the young King died there very suddenly. He fainted at vespers one evening, and passed away at midnight on the 5th of December, 1560. His brother Charles, a boy of ten, was proclaimed King in his stead, and his mother, Catherine de' Medici, assumed the Regency. Three days afterwards Throckmorton wrote that the late King was already forgotten by everyone but his widow, who, "being as noble-minded as she is beautiful, weeps passionately for the husband who loved her so dearly, and with whom she has lost everything." The young Queen behaved with admirable discretion. On the day after the King's death she sent the Crown jewels to her mother-in-law, and, as soon as the funeral had been solemnized, begged leave to go and visit her mother's grave at Reims. After spending three weeks with her aunt, Abbess Renée, Mary went to stay with her grandmother at Joinville, where she was joined by Anne of Aerschot, the one of all her mother's family to whom she clung the most closely, calling her "ma tante," and consulting her in all her difficulties.[592]
Christina herself was full of sympathy for this young Queen, whose early widowhood recalled her own fate, and she joined cordially in the invitation which the Duke sent Mary to pay a visit to Nancy. "The Queen of Scotland," wrote Throckmorton to Elizabeth on the 1st of May, 1561, "is at Nancy with the Dowager, whom here they call Son Altesse." Christina rode out with her son to meet their guest on the frontiers of Lorraine, and her uncles, the two Cardinals, Aumale, Vaudemont, and the Duchess of Aerschot, all accompanied her to Nancy.
The touching beauty of the young widow created a profound sensation at the Court of Lorraine. Brantôme describes her as "a celestial vision"; Ronsard sang of the charms which transfigured son grand deuil et tristesse, and made her more dangerous in this simple white veil that rivalled the exquisite delicacy of her complexion than in the most sumptuous robes and dazzling jewels; and Clouet drew his immortal portrait.[593] The Duke arranged a series of fêtes to distract the young Queen's mind and help to dry her tears. There were masques and dances at Nancy, hunting-parties and banquets at Nomény, where Mary stood godmother to the Count Vaudemont's youngest child; and the Court was gayer than it had been for many years. But intrigue was once more rife at the French Court, and all manner of proposals were made for the young widow's hand. The King of Denmark, Frederic III., the Prince of Orange, the Archduke Charles, the Dukes of Bavaria and Ferrara, were all suggested as possible husbands. The fascination which Mary had for the boy-King Charles IX. was well known, and Catherine de' Medici, who had never forgiven Mary for calling her a shopkeeper's daughter, was secretly plotting to keep her away from the Court, and yet prevent her marriage to Don Carlos, whom she wished to secure for her youngest daughter, Margot. The Cardinal of Lorraine was known to be eager for the Spanish marriage, and both Christina and Anne did their best to forward his scheme, which was the subject of many letters that passed between Granvelle, the Duchess of Aerschot, and Mary herself. But Philip, without actually declining the offer, always returned evasive answers, whether he shrank from placing his sickly and wayward son in an independent position, or whether he feared the power of the Guise faction.[594]
Mary Stuart as Queen of France
in widow's dress
From the drawing in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.
May, 1561] CORONATION OF CHARLES IX.
In the midst of the festivities at Nancy, Mary fell ill of fever, and as soon as she was fit to travel returned to Joinville, to be nursed by her grandmother; while Christina accompanied her son and his wife to Reims for the new King's sacring on the 15th of May. The magnificence of the Duchess-mother's appearance on this occasion excited general admiration. Grief and anxiety had left their traces on her face, but, in spite of advancing years and sorrow, Christina was still a very handsome woman. Among all the royal ladies who met in the ancient city, none was more stately and distinguished-looking than Madame de Lorraine. As her chariot, draped with black velvet fringed with gold, and drawn by four superb white horses of Arab breed, drew up in front of the Cardinal's palace, a murmur of admiration ran through the crowd. The Duchess sat at one window, clad in a long black velvet robe, and wearing a jewelled diadem on her head, with a flowing white veil and cap of the shape that became known at the French Court as à la Lorraine, and was adopted by Mary, Queen of Scots, for her habitual use. At the other sat her lovely young daughter Renée, the coveted bride of many of the Princes who were present that day, while on the opposite seat was the Princess of Macedonia, an august white-haired lady, with the chiselled features of the proud Greek race to which she belonged. The Queen-mother, Catherine de' Medici, stood at a window of the Archbishop's palace to watch the entry of the Lorraine Princes, and as she saw the Duchess alight, she exclaimed: "That is the finest woman I know!" Then, descending the grand staircase, she advanced to meet Christina with a stately courtesy, and thanked her for the honour she was doing her son.
"Herself a very proud woman," writes Brantôme, "she knew that she had her match in the Duchess, and always treated her with the highest honour and distinction, without ever yielding one jot of her own claims."[595]
The Duke of Lorraine bore the sword of state at the great ceremony on the morrow, while Francis of Guise held the crown on the boy-King's head, and his brother, the Cardinal, anointed his brow with the holy chrism. "Everything," as Charles IX. wrote to the Bishop of Limoges, "passed off to the great satisfaction of everyone present;"[596] and when all was over, Madame de Lorraine and her children accompanied the King and his mother to a country-house belonging to the Cardinal in the neighbourhood, and enjoyed a week's repose in delicious spring weather. Then the Court went on to St. Germain, where the Queen of Scots came to take leave of her husband's family, and with many tears bade farewell to the pleasant land of France, which she had loved all too well for her own happiness.