Photo. Giraudon.
GUILLAUME DE MONTMORENCY.
Attributed to J. Perréal.
Musée Condé.
Guillaume, son of Jean de Montmorency, who married the heiress of Chantilly, joined in an expedition to Italy under Charles VIII of France. There are portraits of him in the Louvre, and at Lyons, whilst a fine crayon drawing representing him in his younger days is to be found in the portfolios of the Musée Condé. He it was who, in 1515, constructed the Chapel of the Château, obtaining from Pope Leo X a bull for its foundation. He married Anne de Pot, and their eldest son was the famous Anne de Montmorency, known as the Grand Connétable. Queen Anne of Brittany held him at the baptismal font, conferring upon him her own name, and he was educated with the Duc d’Angoulême, afterwards King Francis I.
Anne de Montmorency in early youth distinguished himself by artistic taste, probably acquired at the Court of Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I. No sooner had he succeeded his father as Lord of Chantilly than he endeavoured to create a mansion more in accordance with the refined taste of his time. Without demolishing the fortifications and the stately towers of the Orgemonts, he succeeded in introducing more light into the mediæval chambers by piercing their walls with large windows. He hung the interior of the castle with tapestries, and furnished it richly with the artistic spoils of his expeditions into Italy. He also commenced the formation of the famous Library, subsequently continued by the Condés until it reached the fame which it enjoyed under its latest owner, the Duc d’Aumale.
Under the Grand Connétable’s directions were executed the forty-four painted glass windows still at Chantilly. They illustrate the legend of Cupid and Psyche after cartoons by the school of Raphael, and were produced in France about 1546 by Jean Mangin and Leonard Gautier.
Montmorency’s artistic tastes, however, did not prevent him from being the greatest warrior of his time. Together with his maternal uncles, Gouffier de Boissy and Gouffier de Bonnivet, he was numbered among the so-called Preux who fought victoriously by the side of King Francis I, at the Battle of Marignan. He followed the King to Pavia, where he was made a prisoner with his Royal master, and in 1530 he was at Bayonne, to negotiate the release of the young Princes of Valois, who had been kept as hostages by the Emperor Charles V. After the Peace of Madrid he again fought against the Imperial troops in Picardy, and it was upon this occasion that he received the title of “Great Constable” of France.
In spite, however, of his great prowess he fell into disgrace with the King through the intrigues of Madame d’Estampes. As in the case of the Connétable de Bourbon, Francis I, ever fickle in his friendships, became so jealous of Montmorency’s fame that the latter was obliged at last to retire to Chantilly; where he employed his time in improving this favourite abode. He constructed on an island close to the older feudal castle, the fine Renaissance palace known as the Petit-Château, which by some miracle has remained almost intact to this day. It is probable that Jean Bullant, the architect of Ecouen, was consulted with regard to this Petit-Château at Chantilly, for the style of its architecture marks the transition between the mediæval Gothic and the period of the French Renaissance, and ranks it with buildings such as the châteaux of Chambord, Chenonceaux, d’Azay le Rideau, and Langeais.[1]
Plate III.