Oct., 1556] FRUSTRATED WISHES
IV.
When her uncle and aunts were gone, Christina felt that there was nothing more to keep her at Brussels. She had already thought of retiring to her dower city of Tortona, but the castle was occupied by a Spanish garrison, and while the war lasted the Lombard city was hardly a safe place. This being the case, she asked Philip's leave to take up her residence at Vigevano, the summer palace of the Sforzas, which the Duke had bequeathed to her, but was told that this house was required for the Viceroy's use. After the Palatine's death she was seized with a longing to join Dorothea, and proposed to go to Heidelberg, and then on to Lorraine, in the hope that, now peace was signed, the French King would allow her son to enjoy his own again. But there were more difficulties in the way than she had anticipated.[513]
Simon Renard and the other delegates to the conference at Vaucelles were especially charged to include the Duke of Lorraine's restoration among their demands; but the French, while professing the utmost friendship for both the Duchess and her son, pointed out that her guardianship would expire in another year, and that the Regent Vaudemont and the Guises, who were the Duke's nearest kinsmen, agreed to his residence at the French Court. In vain Renard and Lalaing protested at the strange kindness shown to the Duchess in detaining her son. This only led to a long wrangle, which almost caused the rupture of peace negotiations, and eventually no mention was made of Lorraine in the articles of the truce.
In May Christina's alarm was aroused by an intimation from the French Court that the King was going to Nancy to celebrate his daughter Claude's wedding with the Duke, and occupy the capital of Lorraine. Fortunately, Vaudemont opposed this measure, saying that as Regent he had sworn never to give up his post until his nephew was of age, and begged the King to allow Charles to return to Nancy and take possession of his State before his marriage.[514] This unexpected firmness on Vaudemont's part produced the desired effect. Henry's journey to Lorraine was put off for a year, and at the Duchess's urgent request the Cardinal of Lorraine obtained the King's leave to bring the boy to meet her at the Castle of Coucy, near his own house at Péronne. But when Philip was asked to give the Duchess permission to cross the frontier, he made so many irksome conditions, that Henry withdrew his promise, and the long-desired meeting was again deferred. Christina was cruelly disappointed, and could only take comfort from Vaudemont's assurances that before long her son would be free from control and able to decide for himself.[515]
Oct., 1556] MARY'S JEALOUSY
Philip on his part was extremely anxious to keep the Duchess at Brussels. As Brantôme tells us, the King not only cherished great affection for his cousin, but relied implicitly on her tact and wisdom, and, in compliance with his entreaties, she consented to remain at the palace and do the honours of his Court.[516] Her popularity with the nobles made her presence the more desirable, while the King himself found her company far more to his taste than that of the faded and fretful wife who awaited him in England. Every post brought bitter reproaches and passionate prayers from the unhappy Queen, whose hopes of her lord's return were doomed to perpetual disappointment. Already more than a year had passed since he had left England, and there still seemed no prospect of his return. First the peace conferences, then the King of Bohemia's visit and the Emperor's departure, were pleaded as excuses for these prolonged delays. When the fleet that bore the Emperor to Spain was seen off Dover, the Admiral who visited His Majesty on board, brought back messages to say that the King would shortly cross the Channel. On hearing this, Mary's spirits rose, and it was only by Philip's express desire that she refrained from going to meet him at Dover. In October the royal stables and equerries arrived, but Philip himself wrote that the war which had broken out in Italy between Alva, the Viceroy of Naples, and Pope Paul IV., compelled him to return to Brussels. Then Mary broke into a passion of rage mingled with sobs and tears, and shut herself up in her room, refusing to see any visitors. The dulness of the Court had become intolerable; there were no fêtes and few audiences, and the Ambassadors with one accord begged to be recalled. The Queen's ill-temper vented itself on all who approached her presence, and even in public she occasionally gave way to paroxysms of fury.[517] Suspicions of her husband's fidelity to his marriage vows now came to increase her misery. When she heard of Philip going on long hunting-parties with the Duchess of Lorraine, and dancing with her at masques, she was seized with transports of rage, and, rushing at the portrait of her husband which hung over her bed, was with difficulty restrained from cutting it to pieces.[518]
Dec., 1556] THE DUCHESS OF PARMA
Meanwhile a rival to Christina appeared at Court in the person of the King's half-sister Margaret, Duchess of Parma. This Princess, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. and Margaret Van Gheynst, a beautiful maiden in the Countess Lalaing's service, was born at Oudenarde in 1522, and brought up under the eye of the Archduchess Margaret. At thirteen she was married to Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, with whom she led a miserable life until this worthless Prince was murdered by his cousin in 1537. Her second union, with Ottavio Farnese, Pope Paul III.'s grandson, proved little happier. Ottavio was an intractable boy of thirteen when he married her in November, 1538, and the quarrels of the young couple fill pages of the Emperor's correspondence in the archives of Simancas. After the Duke's return from the expedition to Algiers, a reconciliation was effected, and Margaret bore a son, who became the famous captain Alexander of Parma. But the Farnese were always a thorn in the Emperor's side, and, by joining with his foes at a critical moment, involved him in the gravest disaster of his life. Now harmony was restored in the family circle, and when the war with Paul IV. broke out, Philip secured Ottavio's alliance by giving him the citadel of Piacenza. Margaret and her young son came to the Netherlands to pay their respects to the King and thank him for this mark of his favour. They arrived at Christmas, in the depths of the severest winter that had been known for many years. The Scheldt was frozen over at Antwerp, and the Court was busy with winter sports, in which Philip and Christina took an active part, playing games and sleighing in the park, and attending a masked ball given by Count Lalaing on the ice.[519]