Cardinal de Richelieu

by Eleanor C. Price

Such fits of depression were nothing new. It is likely enough that Richelieu was in earnest, for the moment at least. But if his object was to measure the confidence and loyalty he might expect from his master through the difficult times he foresaw, the experiment succeeded. In a long and kind letter, Louis refused to let his Minister go.

“Mon Cousin,” he wrote, “... I have every confidence in you, and never has any one served me as well as you.... I desire and beg you not to retire, for my affairs would go ill.... I pray you to have no fear of the calumnies which in my Court no one can escape.... Be assured that I will protect you against every one, and that I will never abandon you. The Queen, my mother, promises you as much.... Be assured that I shall never change, and that, by whomsoever you may be attacked, you will have me for your second.”

As to the Cardinal’s health, the King promised to spare him as much as possible, to dispense him from all visits, and to give him frequent rest and relaxation. Following on these favours, he ordered him for his greater security a guard of a hundred men.

After the Fleury affair, Richelieu retired for some days to his house at Limours. Here, at the end of May, he received two important visits. One was from the Prince de Condé, tired of his isolation, alarmed by the fate of d’Ornano, and convinced at length that the man at the head of affairs would be safer as a friend than as an enemy. He was well received, for Richelieu had already given Louis XIII. the counsel which he now acted upon—the wise counsel given long ago by the Duke of Milan to Louis XI.—that the princes leagued against the King should be divided amongst themselves.

Monsieur le Prince slept at Limours, and remained the next day to dinner. He talked—Condé always talked much and plausibly—and the Cardinal, by his own account, listened respectfully and answered frankly. They discussed the affairs of Monsieur. It was Condé’s opinion that he should be kindly treated, but kept in his place: as to the Maréchal d’Ornano, his arrest had been “a master-stroke” and should be followed up by his trial. He recommended to the Cardinal more caution in dealing with powerful men, but would not hear of his retirement from the head of affairs. It would be the ruin of the State, he said. He told him that he had long desired his friendship; that France had never before seen so great or so disinterested a Minister, whose glorious deeds could not be denied, even by his enemies. All this and much more flattery ended in an alliance between the Prince and the Cardinal, which actually lasted their lives. Condé became a loyal subject of the King and a devoted adherent and admirer of Richelieu.

The other visit was from Monsieur himself. The consequences of this interview were not so lasting, though for the moment satisfactory. The royal boy was in a chastened frame of mind. He was ready to make his formal submission to the King, without any condition, even as to the safety of M. d’Ornano, who had thus a foretaste of the destiny of all Monsieur’s friends. Richelieu’s fatherly admonitions had their full effect. The next day, in Paris—Pentecost, May 31—the Prince vowed on the Gospels eternal love and loyalty to the King and to the Queen his mother. A solemn family compact was drawn up and signed: Louis, Marie, Gaston.

The Cardinal’s next step was the disgrace of M. d’Aligre, the Chancellor, who had failed to face Monsieur in the matter of d’Ornano’s arrest. The seals were transferred to Michel de Marillac. Then the Vendôme princes had their turn.

If the Duc de Vendôme—the “César-Monsieur” flattered and feared by Henry IV.’s Court—had been a man of character to match his position, no one of the great nobles could have equalled him in power and popularity. Even as a vain and vicious coward, few men in the kingdom were more dangerous to Richelieu’s plans and Louis XIII.’s government. From his province of Brittany, the Duke had watched the failure of the great conspiracy in which he and his brother were deeply engaged. They feared, and with reason, that their own ruin would follow that of the Maréchal d’Ornano. As the month of May passed, and nothing was done, César proceeded to fortify himself at Nantes, while Alexandre, a bolder man, watched events in Paris and sought, not without success, to discover the real mind of his half-brother the King.

Early in June came the startling news that Louis and the Court were setting out for Brittany. They were already on the road, and the Cardinal, lingering a few days at Limours for his health’s sake, was about to follow, when he was unexpectedly visited by Alexandre de Vendôme, hurrying post-haste to fetch his brother from Nantes to meet the displeased King.

From Richelieu’s own account, it was a characteristic interview. He had long distrusted these two young men, whom Henry IV. had indulged and exalted with the short-sighted idea that they would be Louis XIII.’s most loyal subjects. On the contrary, says Richelieu, both contributed to every effort that was made to shake the royal authority, and both—had they been able—would have done the kingdom irreparable harm. With grim satisfaction the Cardinal saw these royal birds now struggling in the net he had spread for them. It was not necessary to spare them as Gaston, legitimate prince and heir-presumptive, had been spared.