Renée de France was born October, 1509. Amidst the general disappointment at not getting a Dauphin, the King and Queen rejoiced that this child lived. She was afterwards the celebrated Duchess of Ferrara.
The Queen from this time entertained the project of leaving Bretagne to Renée, if she could not break off Claude’s marriage, and constantly endeavoured to gain the consent of the King; but, although, dreading the outcry which would be the consequence, he would not agree to her wishes, it seems very possible, considering her great influence over him, that had she lived longer she would have succeeded in carrying out one or other of these plans. During her lifetime she would never allow the marriage of Claude to take place.
Anne was extremely fond of music; amongst other musicians in her household were four Bretons minstrels. About six months after the birth of Renée, being at Chartres, she was so struck with the voice of a chorister boy in the cathedral that she asked the chapter to give him to her, and in return for their doing so she said, “You have given me a little voice and I will give you a large one,” and accordingly presented them with a great bell, named “Anne de Bretagne” to be rung every day from Easter to Trinity, and 3,000 livres.[343]
{1510}
She rather prided herself upon her conversational powers, indeed, writers of her day assert that nobody could talk better, either in society or on State affairs. The King, who liked to have her opinion about everything that went on, always sent the ambassadors to her after an audience with him.
One day she was going to receive the Spanish ambassador, and not understanding Spanish she asked her chamberlain, the Prince de Chalais, who understood several languages, to teach her some sentences to say to him. Chalais, who had a mania for playing practical jokes, without considering whether the Queen was a proper subject for one, taught her some words not possible in any decent society. Fortunately for himself he was so delighted with his trick or so doubtful of the result of it that, just before the audience, he told it to the King. He laughed but hastened to warn the Queen, who was, of course, exceedingly angry, would not receive Chalais for some days, and would have dismissed him had not the King dissuaded her, assuring her that he would never have allowed her to say the words to the ambassador.[344]
In 1510 Louis and Anne sustained an irreparable loss by the death of the Cardinal d’Amboise.
As usual, the French successes in Italy had been short lived. The Venetians under their famous Doge, Loredan, had reconquered nearly all their territory, and the members of the league of Cambrai had turned against France, the Milanese was lost, and the King of Spain seized the Spanish side of Navarre including Pampeluna. Catherine de Foix, heiress of the gallant Princes of Navarre and Queen in her own right, remarked to her husband, Jean d’Albret, “Dom Jean, if you had been born Catherine and I Dom Jean, we should never have lost Navarre.”[345]
{1511}