Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590

by Julia Cartwright

II.

This last phase of Christina's life was on the whole peaceful and happy. Brantôme pitied this great lady, a daughter of Kings and niece of Emperors, and the rightful Queen of three kingdoms, who, after reigning over Milan and Lorraine, was reduced to hold her Court in an insignificant Lombard town, and was known in her last years as "Madame de Tortone."[654] But after her troubled life Christina was grateful for the peace and repose which she found at Tortona, and would have been perfectly content if it had not been for the continual annoyances to which she was exposed by Philip and his Ministers. From the moment that she settled in her dower city, the King began to dispute her right to its sovereignty, and insisted that, since Tortona had been settled upon her as an equivalent for the dower given her "out of pure liberality" by the late Emperor, she was bound to surrender her claims on payment of the sum in full. Christina, on her part, maintained with good reason that her claim to the city had never before been questioned, and that it was settled on her at her marriage, and belonged to her and her heirs of the House of Lorraine in perpetuity. The assertion of this claim roused Cardinal Granvelle to the highest indignation. "So dangerous a thing," he wrote to Philip, "cannot possibly be allowed." But, as he confessed, what made the situation awkward was that Madame de Lorraine's claims were strongly supported, not only by her son, Duke Charles, but by the Emperor Rudolf, the Duke of Bavaria, the Archdukes Ferdinand and Charles, and all the Princes of the Empire.[655] A long wrangle ensued, which ended in a declaration on the King's part that he would consent to Tortona being retained by the Duchess for her life, and afterwards held by her son-in-law and daughter, the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick.

Dec., 1584] DUKE ERIC'S DEATH

Dorothea and her husband were, in fact, the only members of Christina's family for whom Philip showed any regard. In 1578 Duke Eric was summoned to Spain to join in the contemplated invasion of Portugal, and served in the campaign led by Alva two years later. Dorothea accompanied her husband, and spent most of her time at Court. The King evidently liked her, and when, after the successful termination of the war, the Duke and Duchess came to take leave of him at Madrid, Granvelle was desired to draw up a secret convention by which Tortona and the revenues were assigned to Eric in lieu of the yearly pension allowed him. But Dorothea was not to be outwitted by the Cardinal. She insisted, on the arrears due to her husband being paid in full, and Philip himself told Granvelle to see that two or three thousand crowns of the Duke's salary were given to the Duchess, since she was short of money, and this seemed to him only reasonable. He also gave Dorothea two fine horses, which she wished to send to her brother-in-law, the Duke of Bavaria, and granted her a patent for working certain gold-mines, which the Cardinal promised to forward either to her mother at Tortona, or else to the care of the Prince of Orange in Germany.[656] This last direction sounds strange, considering that the famous ban against the Prince, setting a price of 30,000 crowns on his head, had already been issued at Granvelle's suggestion.[657]

The Duke and Duchess now returned to Göttingen, after visiting Christina at Tortona, and remained in their own dominions for the next few years, among their long-neglected subjects. But Eric soon became restless, and in April, 1582, Dorothea wrote to beg Granvelle's help in obtaining the Viceroyalty of Milan or Naples for her husband. The Cardinal promised to do his best, and two years later actually recommended the Duke for the Viceroyalty of Sicily. But a few weeks afterwards, on the 15th of December, 1584, Eric of Brunswick died at Pavia, and was buried in the crypt of Bramante's church of S. Maria Canepanova, where his tomb is still to be seen.[658] The Duke's death released Philip from his promise regarding the succession of Tortona. But he had already taken the law into his own hands.

In June, 1584, when Christina and her ladies were enjoying the delights of the Marchese Stampa's beautiful villa at Montecastello, the Viceroy suddenly appeared on the scene, and presented her with two letters from His Catholic Majesty. These were to inform her that, after long and mature deliberation, the King and his Council had come to the conclusion that her rights to the sovereignty of Tortona were extinct, and reverted to him as Duke of Milan. But since Madame de Lorraine was closely bound to him by ties of blood, and still more by the singular affection which he had always borne her, His Majesty was pleased to allow her to retain the enjoyment of Tortona and its revenues for the remainder of her life, which he hoped would be long and prosperous. In vain Christina protested that her dowry had never been paid, and that this city was granted to her in its stead by the terms of her marriage contract. The Viceroy replied in the most courteous language that Madame was no doubt right, but that this was not his affair, and he could only recommend that on this point her claims should be referred to the Treasury.[659] He then proceeded to take possession of Tortona in the King's name, and hoisted the Spanish standard on the citadel and the Duchess's palace. Christina could only bow to superior force, but she forwarded a protest to the Catholic King and his Council, both of whom refused to receive it, on the flimsy pretext that the writer assumed the title of Queen of Denmark, which they could not recognize. Certainly, as Brantôme remarked, and as Polweiler and Silliers often complained, Philip showed his great affection for his cousin in a strange manner.[660]

Sept., 1586] DEATH OF GRANVELLE

Before the Duchess left Montecastello, she received the news of the Prince of Orange's assassination at Delft on the 10th of July, 1584. The hero and patriot had fallen a victim to the plots of Philip and Granvelle, and had paid the price with his life. Three years afterwards Christina shared in the thrill of horror that ran through Europe when Mary, Queen of Scots, died on the scaffold. In that hour she could only be thankful that the good old Duchess Antoinette was spared this terrible blow, and had died four years before, at the advanced age of eighty-nine. To the last Antoinette kept up friendly relations with her niece, and in a letter written with her own hand in November, 1575, the venerable lady expressed her sincere regret that owing to her great age she was unable to welcome Christina in person on her return to Nancy, but that in the spring she quite hoped to come and see her once more before she died.[661]

In 1586 Christina's old rival, Margaret of Parma, and this Princess's stanch supporter, Cardinal Granvelle, both died. Friends and foes were falling all around, and young and old alike were passing out of sight. But the Duchess still enjoyed fair health and was so happy at Tortona that she often said she never wished to leave home. As a rule, however, she spent the summer months at the Rocca di Sparaviera, in the mountains of Monferrato, "more," writes the chronicler, "to please others than herself."[662] Each year she obtained permission from the Viceroy to send 250 sacks of wheat, free of duty, for the use of her household to the Rocca, and her maggiordomo went beforehand to prepare the rooms for her arrival.[663] The presence of the Duchess Dorothea, who joined her mother at Tortona after the Duke of Brunswick's death, was a great solace in these last years, and consoled Christina for many losses and sorrows.

Meanwhile the war of the League had broken out in France, and the three Henries were contending for the mastery. Since Henry III. was childless, Catherine now tried to put forward the claims of a fourth Henry, the eldest son of her daughter Claude and the Duke of Lorraine, and a party in France maintained his claims to be at least as valid as those which Philip II. advanced in virtue of his wife Elizabeth. Christina's heart was moved at the thought of her grandson succeeding to the throne of France, and in 1587 she sent a Lorraine gentleman, De Villers, to Rome to beg the Pope for his support in this holy cause. The Pope, however, merely replied that he advised the Duke to live at peace with his neighbours. The Duchess, nothing daunted, sent De Villers to Nancy with letters bidding her son be of good cheer and persevere in his great enterprise. Unfortunately, the messenger fell into the hands of Huguenot soldiers, who took him into the King of Navarre's camp. All that could be found on him was an almost illegible letter from Her Highness the Duke's mother, containing these words:

"I am very glad to hear of the present state of your affairs, and hope that you will go on and prosper, for never was there so fine a chance of placing the crown upon your head and the sceptre in your hand."[664]

The Béarnais smiled as he read this characteristic effusion, and bade his soldiers let the man go free. Charles, on his part, expressed considerable annoyance at his mother's intervention, which only aroused the suspicions of King Henry III., and made him look coldly on his brother-in-law. The Duchess's last illusion, however, was soon dispelled, and after the murder of the Guise brothers at Blois, and the assassination of the last Valois, Henry of Navarre was recognized as King by the greater part of France.

Feb., 1589] AN INTERESTING MARRIAGE

Christina did not live to see the end of the civil war, and the union of Henri Quatre's sister with her own grandson. But the last year of her life was cheered by the marriage of her granddaughter Christina with the Grand-Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. Several alliances had been proposed for this Princess since she had gone to live at the French Court with her grandmother. Catherine was very anxious to marry her to Charles Emanuel, who in 1580 succeeded his father as Duke of Savoy; but Spanish influences prevailed, and the young Prince took the Infanta Catherine for his wife.[665] In 1583 the Queen-mother planned another marriage for her granddaughter, with her youngest son, the Duke of Alençon, who had left the Netherlands and lost all hope of winning Queen Elizabeth's hand; but, fortunately for Christina, the death of this worthless Prince in the following June put an end to the scheme.[666] When, in October, 1586, the King of Navarre divorced his wife Margot, Catherine proposed that her son-in-law should marry her granddaughter; but this plan fell through, as Henry refused to abjure the Huguenot religion. On the death of the Grand-Duke Francis in 1587, his brother Ferdinand exchanged a Cardinal's hat for the ducal crown, and made proposals of marriage to the Princess of Lorraine. Catherine was overjoyed at the thought of her beloved Christina reigning in Florence, the home of her ancestors, and promised her granddaughter a dowry of 600,000 crowns, with all her rights on the Medici estates in Florence, including the palace of the Via Larga. Orazio Rucellai was sent to France to draw up the contract, which Bassompierre signed on the Duke of Lorraine's part, on the 20th of October, 1588.[667] But the state of the country was so unsettled that the Queen would not allow her granddaughter to travel, and the fleet which sailed to fetch the bride was detained for months in the port of Marseilles. The murder of the Duke of Guise at Blois in December threw the whole Court into confusion, and a fortnight later Catherine herself died, on the 5th of January, 1589. It was not till the 25th of February that the marriage was finally celebrated at Blois. In March the bride set out on her journey, attended by a brilliant company of French and Florentine courtiers. Dorothea of Brunswick came to meet her niece at Lyons, and accompanied her to Marseilles, where Don Pietro de' Medici awaited her with his Tuscan galleys, and on the 23rd of April Christina at length landed at Leghorn. Ferdinand met his bride at the villa of Poggio a Caiano, and conducted her in triumph to Florence.[668] When the prolonged festivities were over, Monsieur de Lenoncourt, whom Charles of Lorraine had sent to escort his daughter to Florence, went on, by his master's orders, to Tortona, "to kiss the hands of the Duke's mother, the Queen of Denmark, and receive her commands."[669]

CHRISTINA OF DENMARK	CLAUDE OF FRANCE	CHRISTINE OF LORRAINE
DUCHESS OF LORRAINE	DUCHESS OF LORRAINE	GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY

(Madrid)

To face p. [508]

Aug., 1590] DEATH OF CHRISTINA

Unlike her mother and grandmother, the Grand-Duchess Christina enjoyed a long and prosperous married life, and after her husband's death was Regent during the minority of both her son and grandson. There is an interesting triptych in the Prado at Madrid, with portraits of the bride, her mother and grandmother, painted by some Burgundian artist at the time of the wedding. The young Grand-Duchess, a tall, handsome girl of four-and-twenty, wears a high lace ruff, with ropes of pearls round her neck and a jewelled girdle at her waist. She carries a fan in her hand, and the Medici palle are emblazoned on her shield with the lilies of France and the eagles of Lorraine. Her mother, the shortlived Duchess Claude, bears a marked resemblance to Catherine de' Medici, but is smaller and slighter in build, and altogether of a gentler and feebler type. She too holds a fan, and wears a gown of rich brocade with bodice and sleeves thickly sown with pearls. Christina, on the contrary, is clad in mourning robes, and her white frilled cap and veil and plain cambric ruff are without a single jewel. But the fine features and noble presence reveal her high lineage. Instead of a fan, she holds a parchment deed in her hand, and on her shield the arms of Austria and Denmark are quartered with those of Milan and Lorraine, while above we read the proud list of her titles—Queen of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, Duchess of Milan, Lorraine, Bar, and Calabria, and Lady of Tortona.

This was the last portrait of Christina that was ever painted. In the following summer she went as usual to the Rocca of Sparaviera with her daughter Dorothea, to spend the hot days of August in the hills. But she had not been there long before she fell dangerously ill. In her anxiety to return home, she took boat and travelled by water as far as Alessandria. There she became too ill to go any farther, and died on the 10th of August, 1590, in the house of her friend Maddalena Guasco.[670]

The Duchess's corpse was borne by night to Tortona, where a funeral service was held in the new Duomo, after which the body was embalmed and taken by her daughter Dorothea to Nancy. The news was sent to King Philip in Spain, and he and his greedy Ministers lost no time in laying hands on her city and revenues. "We are informed," wrote the Viceroy to the President of the Senate, two days after Christina's death, "that Her Most Serene Highness Madame de Lorraine has passed to a better life, and accordingly we claim the pension of 4,000 crowns assigned to Her late Highness, on the quarter of the Castello, and enclose a list of the revenues of Tortona, which now revert to the Duchy of Milan."[671]