"The Emperor doth little yet," wrote Roger Ascham from Augsburg, "but the French be a great deal aforehand. He is wise enough, but hath many irons in the fire, and everyone alone to give him work enough, the Turk by land and sea, the French sitting on his skirts, beside Magdeburg and the rest."[446]
The discontent in Augsburg rose to the highest pitch when, one day in September, ten preachers were summarily banished. The imperial residence was besieged by crowds of furious women, clamouring to have their babes christened, and guards were doubled at every gate, while Charles sat within, enfeebled by gout and reluctant to face the coming peril.
In vain Mary of Hungary warned him of Maurice and Albert's intrigues with France, and told him that his incredulity was like to cost him very dear, and that if he did not take care he would lose, not only Germany, but also the Netherlands, which were not the meanest feather in his cap. Both he and Arras refused to listen. Instead of following his sister's advice and remaining at Worms or Spires to control Germany and protect Lorraine, Charles lingered on at Augsburg after war was declared, and persisted in taking refuge at Innsbruck. After protracted delays, he at length left Augsburg on the 21st of October, dragging the reluctant Ambassadors in his train, and crossed "the cold Alps, already," sighed Ascham, "full of snow," to descend on Tyrol.[447]
Meanwhile his niece was watching the course of events with increasing anxiety. All the French King's fine promises could not allay Christina's fears, as the autumn months went by, and the din of warlike preparations sounded louder in her ears. In her terror she clung to the Guises, hoping that their influence might save her son and his realm from ruin. On the 20th of July she went to Joinville to meet the Dowager Queen of Scotland and stand proxy for Queen Catherine at the christening of Francis of Guise's daughter, afterwards the notorious Duchess of Montpensier. When, in October, the young Duke of Longueville died suddenly, on the eve of his mother's departure, Christina once more went to condole with Antoinette on the loss of her "Benjamin."[448] Both she and Anne, who came to Nancy at her earnest request, were full of sympathy for the venerable Duchess in the trials that clouded her declining years. A fresh proof of Christina's anxiety to gratify her powerful relatives appears in a letter which she wrote to her uncle from Pont-à-Mousson on the 28th of October, begging him to grant a request of the Cardinal regarding the Abbey of Gorzes, which he had lately annexed to his vast possessions.
"I could not refuse this petition," she adds, "as my Lord Cardinal is so near of kin to my children, and has always treated me and my son with so much kindness and affection. And I humbly beg Your Majesty to show him favour, in order that he may see that I do all that is possible to please him and his house."[449]
Jan., 1552] FRENCH INTRIGUES
As the year drew to its close, the insolence of the French increased, and their incursions and depredations were a perpetual source of annoyance to the people of Lorraine. At the same time their intrigues fomented discontent among the nobles, some of whom were annoyed at the appointment of Monsieur de Montbardon to be the young Duke's tutor. This French Baron had originally followed the Constable of Bourbon into exile, and, after being for many years in the Emperor's service, had by his wish accompanied Christina to Lorraine. And both the Regents had good reason to doubt the loyalty of one of the Lorraine magnates, Jean de Salm, a son of the late Marshal, commonly known as the Rhinegrave, who had lately received the Order of St. Michel from Henry II. All Christina could do in this critical state of affairs was to keep Mary of Hungary and the Emperor fully informed of current events.
On the 7th of January the Sieur de Tassigny, an agent whom the Queen had sent to Nancy, received a command from a Court page to come to the Duchess's rooms that night, in order that she might tell him certain things which she dared not write. Tassigny obeyed the summons, and had a long talk with Christina in the privacy of her own chamber. She told him that the French were assembling in great force on the frontier, and that Lorraine would be the first country to be attacked. And she further informed him that certain great personages in Germany, the Marquis Albert, Duke Maurice, and others, were in secret communication with the King, and were about to take up arms against the Emperor, and join the French when they crossed the Rhine. The Rhinegrave had been often seen going to and fro in disguise between the King and Duke Maurice. Moreover, a German had lately told the Duchess that he had been at table with the Elector the day before, and had heard him vow that he would release his father-in-law, the captive Landgrave of Hesse, were he at the Emperor's own side! When another guest warned Duke Maurice to be more careful, lest his rash words should be repeated, he replied defiantly: "What I say here is meant for all the world to hear."
This confidential conversation was faithfully reported to Mary of Hungary by Tassigny, who concluded his letter with the following words: