Concini immediately took the alarm, and hastened to confide his apprehensions to the ministers, whom he knew to be as anxious as himself to undermine the influence of the Duc d'Epernon and the formidable family to which he had allied his interests. In ridding themselves, by neglect and disrespect, of the Princes of the Blood, the discomfited confederates had anticipated undivided sway over the mind and measures of the Regent; and their mortification was consequently intense when they discovered that she had unreservedly flung herself into the party of their enemies.
The annoyance of the ministers was, however, based rather on public grounds than on personal feeling; but the case was far different with the Marquis, who had been reluctantly compelled to acknowledge to himself that he was indebted for his extraordinary fortune entirely to the influence of his wife, and that he was individually of small importance in the eyes of her royal mistress. This conviction had soured his temper; and instead of responding to the ardent affection of Leonora, he had recently revenged his outraged vanity upon the woman to whom he owed all the distinction he had acquired. The high spirit of the Marquise revolted at this ingratitude, and scenes of violence had consequently occurred between them which tended to increase the schism, and to render his position still more precarious. The tears of Leonora were universally all-powerful with the Queen, who did not hesitate to express her indignation at the unbecoming deportment of the aggrandized parvenu; upon which, unaccustomed to rebuke, he threatened to withdraw entirely from the Court and to reside at Amiens, a design which he, however, abandoned when he discovered that it met with no opposition.
The Duc de Guise and the other members of his family, rejoicing in these domestic discords, which they trusted would ultimately tend to the disgrace of the arrogant Italian whose undue elevation had inspired them with jealousy and disgust, warmly espoused the cause of Leonora, and exerted all their power to irritate the mind of the Queen against the offending Marquis. Nor was it long ere the ministers adopted the same line of policy; and finally, Concini found himself so harassed and contemned that he resolved to attach himself to the party of the Princes, and to aid them in their attempt to overturn the Government.[145]
The Maréchal de Bouillon had, as already stated, been despatched to England, in order to render James I. favourable to the alliance with Spain; and at the same time with strict instructions to induce him, should it be possible, to declare his displeasure at the recent conduct of the Protestants at Saumur, and especially at that of the Duc de Rohan. This was a mission which Bouillon joyfully undertook, his personal hatred and jealousy of the young Duke warmly seconding the instructions of the ministers. Rohan had, however, been warned in time of the intention of his enemies; and being in constant correspondence with Prince Henry, he hastened to entreat his interest with his royal father to avert the impending danger. Unaware of this fact, the Maréchal commenced his harangue by assuring the English monarch of the respect and attachment felt for his person by his own sovereign and his august mother, and their decided resolution that the alliance with Spain should in no way interfere with the good understanding which they were anxious to maintain with the Protestant Princes. To this assurance James listened complacently; and encouraged by his evident satisfaction, the envoy proceeded to inform him that he was moreover authorized to state that the Pope had no intention of exercising any severity against the reformed party in France, but would confine himself to attempting their conversion by means of the pulpit eloquence and good example of the Roman priesthood. The satisfaction of James increased as he listened, and when he had warmly expressed his gratification at the intelligence, Bouillon ventured to insinuate that the Regent had been deeply wounded by the fact of his having entered into the Protestant League of Germany; and besought him, in her name, to be favourable to his Catholic subjects.
At this point of the discourse James cautiously replied that the League involved no question of religion, but was purely a measure adopted for the reciprocal security of the confederated states; and that, as regarded the English Catholics, he would willingly permit the peaceable exercise of their faith in his dominions, so soon as they should have given pledges of their fidelity and obedience. Still undismayed, Bouillon then exposed what was to himself personally the most important feature of his mission, and urged his Britannic Majesty to express his disapproval of the proceedings of the Assembly at Saumur, and especially of the attitude assumed by the Duc de Rohan. Here, however, he was fated to discover that James had not for a moment been the dupe of his sophistical eloquence, ably as it had been exerted. A cloud gathered upon the brow of the English monarch, and as the Maréchal paused for a reply, he was startled by the coldness and decision with which it was delivered.
"If the Queen your mistress," said James with marked emphasis, "sees fit to infringe the edicts accorded to the Protestants of her kingdom, I shall not consider that the alliance into which I have entered with France ought to prevent me from assisting and protecting them. When my neighbours are endangered from a cause in which I am personally involved, I am naturally called upon to avert an evil that may extend to myself. Believe me, moreover, Marshal, when I say that you will be wise to effect a reconciliation with the Due de Rohan; and I shall cause him to understand that such is my wish."
The ill-success of his mission was a bitter mortification to M. de Bouillon, who, dispirited and crestfallen, returned to Paris to report his failure. He, however, met with no sympathy, the ministers declaring that he had failed through his neglect of their instructions, and of the express orders of the Regent; while the Maréchal complained on his side that he had been selected for this delicate embassy from the express intention, on the part of those who inveighed against him, of accomplishing his disgrace.
M. de Lesdiguières also, at this period, discovered that he had been the dupe of his own ambition, and the tool of that of others. The ducal brevet of which he had considered himself secure was refused to him upon the plea that MM. de Brissac and de Fervaques were both senior marshals to himself, and that such a favour could not be conferred upon him without exciting their indignation. Vainly did he urge the promise made to him by Henri IV; neither the Regent nor her ministers would yield; when, irritated by the part which he had been made to play while his co-operation was necessary to the accomplishment of their measures, and the after-affront to which he was thus subjected, he retired from the Court in disgust, and transferred his services to the Princes of the Blood.
As we have already stated, Concini had, although less openly, followed the same course; but, in the first instance, he had skilfully effected a reconciliation with his wife, and induced her to assist him in his endeavour to weaken the extraordinary influence which the Duc d'Epernon and the Guises were rapidly acquiring over the Regent, who willingly forgot, amid the constant amusement and adulation with which they surrounded her, the cares and anxieties of government. The Duc de Vendôme had also attached himself to the Court party, and this domestic league had consequently become more formidable than ever in the eyes of those who saw their interests compromised by its continuance.
Marie could not, however, conceal from herself the absolute necessity of conciliating the disaffected Princes before the arrival of the ambassador of Philip, who was shortly expected to claim the hand of Madame for the Prince of Spain; and she accordingly determined to pave the way towards a reconciliation by thwarting the ambition of the great nobles who were obnoxious to the Princes. The first opportunity that presented itself of adopting this somewhat ungenerous policy was afforded by the Duc de Vendôme, who demanded the royal sanction to preside over the States of Brittany, of which province he was governor; but his intention having been discovered by the Comte de Soissons and M. de Condé, they lost no time in warning their friends at Court against such a concession, and in reminding them that he had allied himself with the enemies of his royal father and the House of Bourbon; and that his influence might prove fatal to the tranquillity of the nation should he be permitted to exert it in a distant province, where his personal consideration and the enormous wealth of his wife must conduce to render him all-powerful. These arguments were impressed upon the Regent alike by the ministers and by the Marquis d'Ancre, who no sooner saw himself once more in favour than he exerted all his influence to undermine the power of the rival faction; and as her private views warmly seconded their representations, Marie instantly resolved to refuse the coveted favour.