“The King was at a window watching his arrival and there is no doubt that he and his courtiers made merry over him and said that it was too much for a little Duke of Valence.”
The château of Chinon had been selected for the Duke’s residence and there the King, accompanied by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, called upon him. When the Duke was about to kneel the King restrained him; a few words were exchanged and then the Cardinal of Rouen informed his Majesty that Monseigneur, the Duke, had not yet dined, whereupon the King replied: “Very well, then let his Highness go to dinner”—thus ending the interview; Louis evidently was bored and not greatly impressed. After dinner the King received Caesar and the following day they took a walk together. A few days later the King went to Nantes to meet the Queen and the marriage was celebrated. Caesar’s fopperies and extravagance in dress caused general amusement and disgust and the King and his courtiers ridiculed the “vain glory and stupid pomposity of this little duke of Valentinois.” Louis, however, wished to use Caesar in his schemes, consequently he was careful not to offend him.
The Duke had brought the King a letter from the Pope in which he said: “In order that your Majesty may see how great is our desire to please you in all things we are sending you our heart, that is our beloved son, the Duke of Valentinois, and we beseech your Majesty to treat him in such a way that all may know how dear this Caesar, whom I entrust to your kingly good faith, has become to you in all ways.”
Thus far but one of the articles of the agreement between the Pope and the King had been carried out. By letters patent, dated August 13, 1498, Caesar had been created Duke of Valentinois and he had been received as such at the Court of France. The negotiations, however, which were intended eventually to make him the heir to a crown had failed. Louis had undertaken to secure the marriage of Caesar and Carlotta of Aragon, daughter of the King of Naples, but Frederic opposed it and the young woman herself absolutely refused to consent to the union.
The brilliant entry into Chinon therefore was a fiasco, as Giuliano della Rovere, in a letter dated January 18, 1499, informed the Pope, who shortly after complained to the cardinal that the King had exposed him to ridicule, as it was known everywhere that Caesar had gone to France expressly to marry.
Caesar, however, had displayed the astuteness and cunning that never deserted him, for when obstacles began to be interposed in the way of marrying Carlotta he pretended that he did not have the dispensation permitting Louis XII. to marry Anne of Bretagne.
The King, however, had been informed by the Pope himself that the dispensation had been granted, consequently he had proceeded with his plans and the decree of divorce had been obtained.
The political interests of the King of France in Italy were, however, more important than the purely personal question of his marriage with the widow of Charles VIII.; consequently it was greatly to his interest to find some way to gratify the Pope’s wishes, therefore he made another effort to overcome the opposition of Frederic and his daughter, but in vain. Louis thereupon decided to substitute his own niece, the daughter of the Count de Foix, but she, too, declined.
Caesar, however, treated the matter in a cavalier manner, saying that if the King of Naples would have none of him because he was a natural son, Frederic himself was also illegitimate, merely a king’s bastard, while he himself—and he was proud of it—was the bastard of a pope!
Among the demoiselles who had come from various parts of France to acquire the graces of the polished Court of the Queen was Charlotte d’Albret, sister of Jean d’Albret, King of Navarre, and daughter of Alain, Duke of Guyenne. While Charlotte was still a child she had been placed under the care of Anne of Bretagne, and she had grown into a beautiful young woman, gracious and intelligent, and Louis decided to endeavour to bring about a union between her and Caesar. Alain, the father, looked with little favour upon the proposed marriage, but the political interests of the House of Navarre were such that he decided to consent, provided, of course, he could drive a good bargain—for in the days of chivalry fair women were exceedingly valuable pieces in the great game of politics. Throughout the negotiations Charlotte’s father showed himself to be cold, calculating, avaricious, and suspicious, but as Louis felt that everything depended upon securing a wife for Caesar, and as he himself was anxious to set out for Italy he granted all of Alain’s demands. The negotiations were protracted, almost interminable, but finally the marriage contract was drawn up at the château of Blois, May 10, 1499, in the presence of the King, Queen Anne, the Cardinal d’Amboise, Chancellor of France, the Archbishop of Sens, the proxies of the Duke of Guyenne, and numerous other dignitaries. By its terms Alain d’Albret was to give his daughter a dowry of 30,000 livres Tournois. The marriage was celebrated May 12, 1499, and the bride was said to be the most beautiful woman of France, while Caesar was described as possessing fine features and a most elegant bearing; one writer said that, like the Emperor Tiberius, he was the handsomest man of his century. Charlotte d’Albret must have known that the marriage was purely a political one. Burchard records that May 23rd a courier arrived from France with a letter to the Pope from Caesar in which he made a brutal confession with regard to his wife.