[864] Fortunately for Philip, a whim of passion helped the Spanish King’s purposes, and Catherine and the Guises failing to carry the match between Mary Stuart and the prince were content to keep the prince alienated from his party. The prince of Condé had become enamored of one of the queen mother’s maids-of-honor, Isabel Limeuil, while the court was at Roussillon, and had seduced her.
On this liaison see Corresp. de Cath. de Méd., II, 189, note; Louis Paris, Négociations, Introd. XXVI, XXVII; Nég. Tosc., III, 572, and especially La Ferrière, “Isabel de Limeuil,” Revue des deux mondes, December 1, 1883, 636 and the duc d’Aumale, Histoire des princes de Condé, I, Appendix, xix. A suggestion of the manners prevailing at court is found in the following information: “Orders are taken in the court that no gentleman shall talk with the queen’s maids, except it is in the queen’s presence, or in that of Madame la Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon, except he be married; and if they sit upon a form or stool, he may sit by her, and if she sits in the form, he may kneel by her, but not lie long, as the fashion was in this court.”—C. S. P. For., 1091, April 11, 1565.
[865] Unknown to Charles IX, the Spanish ambassador Chantonnay, whose recall Catherine had insisted upon for months past and who was finally replaced late in 1564 by Alava, traversed the provinces of France in disguise, in the interest of his master, journeying through Auvergne, Rouergue, Toulouse, Agen and Bordeaux, before he reported at Madrid for new duty.
St. Sulpice to Catherine de Medici, June 12, 1564; L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 711; Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 592. For some correspondence between Philip II and Granvella, and Granvella and Antonio Perez regarding Chantonnay’s recall see Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, I, 251-53. Upon Chantonnay’s successor, Alava, see L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 227, 228, 236; Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 393; Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, II, 359, 534; Poulet, I, 570, n. 1; Forneron, Histoire de Philippe II, II, 256.
On the secret service of Philip II, see Forneron, I, 218, 290, 334; II, 304, 305; Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 498, 499; VIII, 128, 182.
Alava exceeded his instructions in threatening France with war. Philip II, far from wishing war with France, repudiated his ambassador’s statements (R. Q. H., January, 1879, p. 23).
[866] Upon one of the fits of madness of Don Carlos see letter of the Bishop of Limoges to Catherine de Medici in La Ferrière, Rapport, 48, 49. The Raumer Letters from Paris, Vol. I, chap. xv, contain an interesting account of Don Carlos, with long extracts from the sources. The editor rightly says that Ranke in his treatise on the affair of Don Carlos, as acute as it is circumstantial, has adopted the only right conclusion for the solution of this mysterious episode of history. See also Wiener Jahrbücher, XLVI; Forneron, Hist. de Philippe II, II, 103 ff.; Louis Paris, Négociations, etc., 888; Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 317, note; L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 17, 29, 101, 597; Lea, in Amer. Hist. Rev., January, 1905; English Hist. Rev., XIV, 335.
[867] Cf. Papiers d’état du card. de Granvelle, VIII, 334 and note; cf. 215, 343, 344, 595, 596. Philip found a new prospective husband for Mary Stuart in the person of the archduke Charles. He had abandoned the idea of marrying Mary Stuart to his son even before the death of Don Carlos.
[868] See R. Q. H., XXXIV, 461.
[869] Catherine turned to her own advantage an almost forgotten wish of Philip II that he might see her, expressed in July, 1560, when his anxiety was great because of her lenient policy toward the French Protestants (R. Q. H., XXXIV, 458).