Finally, on the 1st of August, the bride and bridegroom set out on their journey, attended by a brilliant company, which included the Prince and Princess of Orange, the Duke of Aerschot, the Prince and Princess of Chimay, the Counts of Berghen, Büren, and Brederode. They travelled by slow stages, resting at Namur, Luxembourg, Thionville, and Metz. Triumphal arches were erected over the gates of each city, and the burghers came out in procession to greet the bride. At Metz Christina was presented with an illuminated book on "Marriage," by the Regent of the University, Édmond du Boullay, and the Chapter of Toul offered her a gold cup, filled with 300 crowns, while the city gave her 200 crowns and ten barrels of choice wine.[313]
On the 8th the wedding-party reached Pont-à-Mousson, and found a large family gathering waiting to receive them. A few days before the Cardinal of Lorraine had joined the Duke and Duchess of Guise at Joinville, and had accompanied them to Pont-à-Mousson, as Antoinette wrote,
"in order to give our new Lady her first greeting and conduct her to Nancy. Great preparations have been made to welcome her, and there is to be some fine jousting. I will tell you if there is anything worth writing, and must confess I am very curious to see if the Marquis makes a good husband. At least the country rejoices greatly at the coming of so noble and excellent a lady."[314]
The Duchess of Guise had collected most of her family for the occasion, and brought four of her sons—Aumale, Mayenne, Charles, Archbishop of Reims, and Louis, Bishop of Troyes—to Pont-à-Mousson, as well as her little grandson, the Duke of Longueville, the Queen of Scotland's son by her first marriage. Duke Antoine and his younger son, Nicholas de Vaudemont, Bishop of Metz, were also present, together with all the chief nobles of Lorraine.
It was a strange meeting. Guise and his sons had often crossed swords with the Prince of Orange and Aerschot, and the Duke had refused to meet the Emperor on his memorable visit to Chantilly. Now he was engaged in repairing the forts along the frontier in view of another war, an occupation which had at least one merit in his wife's eyes, and kept him longer at home than he had been for many years. All alike, however, friends and foes, joined in giving the new Duchess a hearty welcome, and drank joyously to the health and prosperity of the illustrious pair.
At Pont-à-Mousson Francis took his bride to the convent of Poor Clares, to see his grandmother, Philippa of Guelders, who had taken the veil twenty years before, but still retained all her faculties, and was the object of her sons' devoted affection. The Duke of Guise and his wife constantly visited the good old lady, whose name appears so often in Antoinette's letters, and who now embraced her new granddaughter tenderly and gave the bridal pair her blessing. The next day Christina entered Nancy, where immense crowds assembled to receive her, and choirs of white-robed maidens welcomed her coming at the ancient gateway of La Craffe. One quaint medieval practice which had lasted until this century was dispensed with. It was the custom for a band of peasants from the neighbouring village of Laxou, to beat the pools in the marshes under the palace walls all through the night when the Princes of Lorraine brought their brides home, to drive away the frogs, whose croaking might disturb the ducal slumbers. But instead of this, the peasant women of Laxou stood at the palace gates as the Duchess alighted, and presented her with baskets of flowers and ripe strawberries and cherries.[315]
Aug., 1541] REJOICINGS AT NANCY
A grand tournament was held the following morning, on the Place des Dames in front of the ducal palace, in which many of the Flemish nobles took part, and was followed by a state banquet and ball—"all very sumptuously done," wrote Lord William Howard, the English Ambassador.[316] Then the wedding festivities came to an end, the gay party broke up, and the old city which was henceforth to be Christina's home resumed its wonted air of sleepy tranquillity.
FOOTNOTES:
[243] Papiers d'État. 82. 20, Archives du Royaume, Bruxelles.