For various reasons the idea of the marriage was regarded with disapproval by quite a number of illustrious persons. The young Comte de Soissons, who wanted Mlle. de Montpensier for himself, was furiously indignant, declaring that Marie de’ Medici had promised him the lady’s hand during her regency; and his mother, the ambitious and meddlesome Anne de Montafié, supported his pretensions. The Condés naturally desired to see Monsieur remain unmarried, since he alone stood before them in the line of succession. The younger branches of the House of Guise viewed with jealousy the increased importance which the head of their family, who had married the widowed Duchesse de Montpensier, would derive from the elevation of his step-daughter. Finally, Anne of Austria, who had no children, saw in this alliance the last blow to her hopes, for, if her sister-in-law became a mother, she would efface her altogether. She accordingly determined “to do everything she could to stop the marriage,”[33] and applied to her customary confidante, the Duchesse de Chevreuse, for her advice and co-operation. That lady, the most inveterate and dangerous intrigante of her time, responded with all the energy of her character and forthwith began to pull the strings in every direction. Such was the origin of an affair which began by being merely an intrigue of the Court, and which ended by becoming, according to the saying of Richelieu, “one of the most frightful conspiracies of which histories have made mention.”
The object of Anne of Austria and Madame de Chevreuse was to persuade Monsieur to refuse the bride who was offered him. Well, Monsieur had all his life his favourites for masters, and to persuade him it was necessary to gain a man who at that time was in possession of his confidence, and almost of his person, his gouverneur, the Surintendant of his Household, and the chief of his Council—the Maréchal d’Ornano. It was therefore to him that they addressed themselves.
Ornano had, as we have mentioned elsewhere, been disgraced and imprisoned by La Vieuville, on a well-founded charge of developing ambition in his pupil. But, when Richelieu succeeded to the control of affairs, he was set at liberty, and restored to his offices, and at the beginning of 1626 created a marshal of France, in the hope of inducing him to lend his support to the Montpensier marriage. Richelieu, then, might reasonably have expected some gratitude from Ornano; but, unfortunately, gratitude found no place in the Corsican’s nature. Bold and ambitious, he urged without ceasing the vain and foolish young prince over whom he had acquired so great an ascendancy to assert his claims to the place in the State to which his birth entitled him. When Monsieur demanded a place in the Council, he demanded to accompany him, with the rank and title of Secretary of State; and the refusal he received had greatly incensed him against Richelieu, and determined him to seek some means of compassing the overthrow of the Minister who had thwarted his ambition.
Madame de Chevreuse had long been on friendly terms with Ornano, who had owed his fortune largely to the good offices of her first husband; and she was aware of the grudge which he cherished against Richelieu. She therefore anticipated little difficulty in gaining him over to the Queen’s cause; but, in order to leave nothing to chance, she summoned to her aid the Princesse de Condé, of whom Ornano, undaunted by the fact that he was “the ugliest man possible to imagine,” was a soupirant. The blandishments of Madame la Princesse served to dissipate any lingering scruples which the marshal might have entertained; he declared himself a devoted servant of the Queen, and promised to do everything in his power to dissuade Monsieur from making Mlle. de Montpensier his wife.
In this task he did not lack coadjutors, and every day the “Conspiration des Dames,” as the anti-marriage cabal was called, gathered fresh adherents. The Dowager-Comtesse de Soissons was beloved by Alexandre de Vendôme, Grand Prior of France, the younger of Henri IV’s two sons by Gabrielle d’Estrées, an unquiet spirit, with a positive passion for mischievous intrigue, who nursed a grudge of his own against Richelieu. She had no difficulty in persuading him to join the conspiracy, and the Grand Prior, in his turn and with equal facility, secured the adhesion of his elder brother, the Duc de Vendôme. The gay and foolhardy young courtiers—Du Lude, La Rivière, Louvigny, Puylaurens, Bois-d’Annemetz and others—who surrounded Monsieur, espoused the same cause, either from dislike of the Cardinal, or from the hope that a breach between their patron and the King might redound to their advantage.
Every imaginable argument was employed to dissuade Monsieur from a marriage which threatened so many interests. They appealed in turn to his love of pleasure, his vanity, and his ambition. They pointed out that the joyous, irresponsible life which he had led hitherto would no longer be possible when he had taken unto himself a wife, since the King would then insist on his conducting himself with decorum. They deplored the docility which gave him the air of being a child in the hands of his mother, his brother, and the Cardinal, and urged him to assert his independence by refusing to allow a wife to be chosen for him. They reminded him that, although Mlle. de Montpensier was undoubtedly a great heiress, she was one of his brother’s subjects, and that in marrying her he would fall into greater subjection than ever to the King’s authority; and they dangled before his eyes the prospect of a brilliant foreign alliance, such as that with the Infanta Maria Anna, formerly the betrothed of Charles I.
The Duchesse de Chevreuse was indefatigable in her efforts to secure recruits for the cause, and made use of all her charms to overcome their scruples. She was but too successful.
There was at this time in the King’s Household, and very near his Majesty’s person, in virtue of his office as Master of the Wardrobe, a young noble of twenty-seven, Henri de Talleyrand, Comte de Chalais, a member of an ancient sovereign house of Périgord and, through his mother, a grandson of the Maréchal de Montluc, author of the celebrated Commentaries to which Henri IV gave the name of “The Soldier’s Bible.” “M. de Chalais,” writes Fontenay-Mareuil, “was young, well-made, very adroit at all manly exercises, but, above all, very agreeable, which rendered him a favourite with the ladies, who ruined him.” Brave to rashness, he had distinguished himself on both the field of battle and that of honour, and a duel he had fought with the Comte de Pontgibault, in which the latter had been killed, was long talked of. Chalais was so fortunate as to be a favourite of both the King and his brother, which would make his support of peculiar value to the cabal, since he would be able to add his persuasions to theirs to induce Monsieur to refuse the hand of Mlle. de Montpensier, and, at the same time, serve their interests with the King by misleading him as to the intentions of the malcontents. It was considered, however, very improbable that he could be persuaded to follow Monsieur’s fortunes, since he was known to “ambition” the post of Colonel of the Light Cavalry, and to have an excellent chance of securing it. But, unhappily for Chalais, there was something that he desired still more than the command of the Light Cavalry: he had been for some time past madly enamoured of Madame de Chevreuse, and when that siren, who had not as yet condescended to accept his devotion, began to show signs of relenting, it was all over with him; and, oblivious of everything but this fatal passion, the unfortunate young man allowed her to lead him whither she willed. The consequence was that, before he had fully realised his position, he found himself drawn into the very thick of the conspiracy which was to bring him to his doom.
Madame de Chevreuse and Ornano were the soul of this league, which was becoming extremely formidable, from the importance of the persons implicated and the far-reaching character of their schemes. For the coalition against the marriage of Monsieur was only the starting-point of a conspiracy which aimed at a complete change in the Government, and whose ramifications extended far beyond the borders of France. Several of the foreign ambassadors had entered it, and it was known and more or less approved in England, Spain, Holland, and Savoy. The conspirators were determined to demand for Gaston and Ornano the entry to the Council, and afterwards to insist on the disgrace of Richelieu. If they failed, it was their intention to persuade Monsieur to retire from Court, to take up arms and to appeal for foreign and Huguenot aid. In the event of revolt, the most resolute proposed that the Cardinal should be assassinated—a suggestion which was warmly supported by the Abbé Scaglia, the ambassador of Savoy.
Richelieu, though he had eyes and ears everywhere at his service, had not yet received more than vague warnings as to the designs of his enemies. However, these had been sufficient for him to divine that some plot hostile to the existing order of things was in progress, and that Monsieur was concerned in it.