{1499}
The question of the King’s divorce was heard before an ecclesiastical tribunal, and the marriage dissolved by Alexander VI. (Borgia).
Louis made Jeanne Duchesse de Berry and gave her a splendid appanage of lands and money. She retired to Bourges, founded the order of the Annonciades, became Superior of it, and died in 1500, after a life of charity and devotion. The dissolution of a marriage to which he had always had an unconquerable repugnance cannot be considered surprising, but at first many of the people were indignant and pointed at the judges, saying, “There is Caiaphas, there is Herod, there is Pontius Pilate; they have judged against la haute dame that she is not Queen of France.”[305]
Alexander VI.,[306] of the noble Spanish family of Borgia, had in his youth a natural daughter, the famous Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, and four sons. The eldest and youngest he married to daughters of the King of Naples, the second, Giovanni, Duca di Gandia was supposed to have been murdered by his next brother, the Cardinal Cesare, or Cæsar, who had become a soldier and who surpassed most of his contemporaries in the enormity of his crimes. The Pope now sent him to France with a Cardinal’s hat for George d’Amboise, the King’s favourite minister, and the bull for the dissolution of his marriage, Louis promising him the duchy of Valentinois, a large pension and one of his relations in marriage.
BOURGES.
The court was at Chinon when he arrived. His followers, horses, and mules were covered with silk, velvet, and cloth of gold. The horse he rode had trappings of cloth of gold covered with precious stones; he himself wore a dress of red satin and cloth of gold bordered with pearls and gems; his hat was trimmed with a double row of rubies as big as beans, which shed a strange light; even his boots were covered with gold cords and edged with pearls. Around his neck was a necklace or collar worth 30,000 ducats.[307] He gave the cardinal’s hat to the King, telling him that the bull was not ready, although he had it with him, as he hoped to be able to extort something more from Louis. The Pope’s nuncio however told the King that the dispensation had been made out long ago, and that Cæsar had got it. He was therefore obliged to deliver it up, but he invited the nuncio to dinner, and, as he was foolish enough to accept, he died of poison shortly afterwards.
The wife upon whom Borgia fixed his choice was Charlotte d’Aragon, daughter of Frederic III., King of Naples and Sicily, called Princesse de Tarente at the French Court, where her mother, the niece of Queen Charlotte de Savoie, had been brought up. When she died, as Frederic, engaged in perpetual strife, could not look after his daughter, she had been adopted by Charles VIII. when about ten years old, and lived at court ever since.[308] She had a complete household, a litter, mule, and several horses, being treated as a royal princess,[309] and was demoiselle d’honneur to the Queen. She grew up into a most attractive girl—pretty, clever, amusing, kind-hearted; the favourite of the whole court. The Queen, who was extremely fond of her, when, after the death of Charles VIII., she returned to Bretagne, gave her a silver toilette service and parted from her reluctantly.
{1500}
When Charlotte heard that Cæsar Borgia wanted to marry her she was very much alarmed, very much horrified, and very angry. She declared that she would not marry that abominable man, and entreated her father and every one she knew to protect her. Borgia, who had set his mind on her, and also hoped to get hold of the principality of Tarentum, pressed for an answer. Charlotte positively refused, declaring that she would not have for her husband a priest, the son of a priest, and a fratricide, whose birth and conduct were alike, infamous. Cæsar revenged himself by getting up a league against Frederic, who fled to Ischia and thence to France. The Queen was delighted with her courage, and in 1500 married her to Guy de Laval, a handsome young Breton noble, very rich and a cousin of her own, so that Charlotte not only became still more nearly connected with the Queen, but remained at court.