In 1527 Marguerite de Valois, the charming young sister of François I., was married to Henri d’Albret of Béarn. She not only obtained architects from Italy to remodel the castle on the Renaissance style, and made what was then considered the most beautiful garden in Europe, but attracted to her Court the leading artists, poets, and savants, as well as the best of the nobility of her time. Further than this, Marguerite encouraged the Reformation movement so warmly that Calvin and Clément Marot, whose psalms were sung by the Huguenots, found a refuge with her at Pau. Marguerite’s daughter was the famous Jeanne d’Albret, who became the mother of Henry of Navarre, the great Protestant champion who eventually became Henri IV. of France. Jeanne’s husband, Antoine de Bourbon, died in 1562, leaving her the ruler of Béarn and Navarre; and being free to act as she chose, Jeanne made a public declaration of her belief in Protestantism, and then made the mistake of endeavouring to force her people to take the same step. It therefore became necessary for Charles IX. to send an army against Béarn; but Jeanne d’Albret, assisted by the Prince of Condé and the English, raised a strong force, commanded by Montgomery, and defeated the Catholics. These victories, as already mentioned in connection with Orthez, were marred by the savage treatment of the Catholics, including a massacre at a feast held on August 24, 1569, of ten lords whose lives Montgomery had promised to spare. The apartment of the château in which this bloody deed was carried out is hung with tapestry, and is called the Grand Salon de Réception de Henri II. (of Navarre).
Under Louis XIII. Navarre and Béarn were made into a province, and Pau, no longer possessing a royal Court, soon dropped into an obscurity in which it remained until English visitors began, in 1850, to draw attention to the attractions of the climate and scenery.
The Château (open every day between 10 and 5 from April 1 to September 30, and between 11 and 4 from October 1 to the end of March). The fourteenth-century keep of red brick, built by Gaston Phœbus, as already mentioned, stands to the left on entering the courtyard through the open arches of the east side. On the left—that is, overlooking the river—is the beautiful façade restored by Henri d’Albret (Henri II. of Navarre). It contains the grand salon where the massacre mentioned above took place, and also the Chambre de Henri IV., where the Protestant king was born on December 13, 1553. His cradle, in the shape of a large tortoiseshell, is still preserved in the room.
An interesting story concerning the birth of the child is told by Miss Sichel in her work on Catherine de Medici.
‘His birth was the occasion ... of Jeanne’s [his mother’s] winning of a bet by a song.... Henri II. [Jeanne d’Albret’s father] knew full well that Jeanne felt great curiosity about his will. Suddenly he rose and opened a coffer, from which he took a long neck-chain fastened to a small gold box. “Ma fille,” he said, “you see this box? Well, it shall be your own, with my last will, which it contains, provided that, when your child is about to enter the world, you will sing me a Gascon or a Béarnais song. I do not want a peevish girl or a drivelling boy.” Jeanne was charmed, and her father ordered his faithful servant Cotin to sleep in her dressing-room, and to fetch him at the eventful moment. When it came, between two and three on a bleak winter morning, she remembered to keep her promise, and despatched Cotin to her father. Not long after she heard King Henri’s step upon the stair, and in a strong sweet voice she began to sing the ballad of the country-side, “Notre Dame du bout du pont, aidez moi à cette heure”—an invocation to the miraculous image of the Virgin, the patron-saint of matrons, which stood in the chapel at the end of the Bridge of Pau. Henri was in time to receive the baby into his arms. With great circumspection he wrapped it in the skirts of his robe, and then conscientiously placed the gold box in his daughter’s hand. “There! that is thine, my girl,” he said, as he did so; “but this”—pointing to the child—“is mine.” With these words he carried it away to his own apartments, where the nurse awaited him. But before he gave it to her he fulfilled the old custom of Béarn, and first rubbed its little lips with clove of garlic; next offered the new-comer wine in a golden cup. Legend says that the precocious Prince smelled the wine, and raised his head joyously with other “signs of satisfaction”—that he swallowed the rich red drops which his grandfather put upon his tongue. “Va, tu seras un vrai Béarnais!” exclaimed the delighted Henri.’
It is a pity that the château has been so much restored. The work was chiefly carried out, with poor taste, under Louis Philippe.
In No. 5, Rue Bernadotte, which is marked with an inscription, Bernadotte, King of Sweden, was born on January 26, 1764.[H] He was a lawyer’s son, who entered the army, and, at the early age of thirty years, had become General of Brigade. When the heir to the throne of Sweden died, Bernadotte was chosen, in 1810, as his successor, Napoleon thinking that his late General would submit to his wishes. Bernadotte, having no friendly feeling towards Napoleon, acted with complete independence, and in the fatal Battle of Leipsic the Swedish troops under him had a large share in Napoleon’s defeat. The lawyer’s son became Charles XIV. of Sweden in 1818.
THE ROAD TO TARBES
goes as straight as an arrow, except where it ascends and descends from the high ground that encloses the plain of Tarbes. The chief features are the huge views of the Pyrenees and the roadside houses, which very often have curiously thatched roofs.
At Soumoulou a turning to the right goes, through Pontacq, to the Roman Catholic Mecca of Lourdes.