CHAP. V.] NEGOCIATIONS FOR THE ENGLISH MARRIAGE. 527 the Catholic faith only till the age of ten, Richelieu prolonged the term till their thirteenth year 10: an important clause, which incidentally paved the way for the fall of the Stuart dynasty. The marriage contracts were completed in November 1624. Richelieu brought the Pope to grant a dispensation for the union, partly by threats and partly by the inducement of a secret understanding in favour of the Roman Catholics in England. But though Richelieu warmly advocated this marriage, and entertained the same views as the English cabinet with regard to Germany, he was not yet prepared for open interference in the affairs of that country, but had resolved to confine himself to granting secret subsidies, and conniving at French subjects entering the service of German Protestant Princes. His policy at this moment embraced four principal objects: to incite the English to recover the Palatinate for Frederick; to assist the Dutch in defending Breda against Spinola; to make an attack upon Genoa, the faithful ally of Spain; and to liberate the Valteline, now held by the Pope in favour of the Spanish Court. By this last stroke, and by the capture of Genoa, he intended to cut off the communication between Spain and Austria; by the restoration of the Palatine he would disturb the communications between Austria and the Spanish Netherlands; and by assisting the defence of Breda he would find employment for Spinola's arms. But, what was the most difficult part of his policy, he wished to effect all these things without provoking a declaration of war on the part of Spain, and without absolutely renouncing the engagements which France had entered into with the Duke of Bavaria. With regard to the Palatinate, it had been agreed with the English ministers that Count Mansfeld should be employed; he was to raise an army in England, and France was to advance six months' pay. Buckingham seems also to have received a promise that Mansfeld should be permitted to march through France with his army. Christian IV. of Denmark, who was now beginning to take a part in the affairs of Germany, was also to be subsidised. Mansfeld, when on his way into England, was received at Paris with the most marked distinction, although the King affected that he would not see him"; but, when in the winter of 1624 he appeared before Calais with a fleet containing 12,000 English troops, he was refused permission to land. The Marquis d'Effiat, the French ambassador, and Brienne then employed in England about 10 Aubery, Richelieu, liv. ii. ch. 2. Cf. Rushworth, pt. i. pp. 88 and 152; Dumont t. v. pt. ii. p. 476. 11 Le Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII, t. iv. p. 666 (ed. Amst. 1702). 528 ACCESSION OF POPE URBAN VIII. [Book IV. the marriage, struck with surprise and confusion at this breach of faith on the part of their government, repaired to Buckingham to explain and apologise 12; and the English minister, who had been completely outwitted, having no formal agreement to appeal to, was forced to content himself with a few excuses, and some vague promises of future assistance. The English fleet, after some weeks had been wasted in fruitless negociations for permission to land the troops, proceeded to Zealand, where it met with no better success; and two thirds of the army were carried off by a contagious disorder arising from the detention. Richelieu's Italian policy was more open and decisive, but yet coloured with such plausible pretences as might prevent Spain from having any casus belli. In October 1622 the Archduke Leopold had repressed a rising of the Grisons against the treaty imposed on them, and had reduced to subjection the greater part of one of the Three Leagues. The Duke of Savoy and Venice were even more vitally interested than France in this state of things; and in February 1623 an alliance had been concluded between these three powers in order to rescue the Valteline from the House of Austria. To avert the blow, Spain had proposed to place the fortresses of the district in the hands of the Pope, who was in fact acting in concert with that power, till the question should be decided; and in May the Valteline was occupied by 2000 pontifical troops. At the same time, however, the Austrians continued to retain their hold upon the Grisons; and La Vieuville, who then directed the counsels of France, had tamely submitted to this temporising policy. Shortly after this transaction Pope Gregory XV. died, July 8th 1623; and was succeeded by Cardinal Matthew Barberino, a Florentine, who assumed the title of Urban VIII. Barberino, then aged fifty-five, was a vain man, with a great conceit of his own abilities; hence he seldom convened the consistory; and when an argument was once advanced against him in that assembly from the old papal constitutions, he replied, that the opinion of a living Pope was worth more than the maxims of a hundred dead ones. He wished to be regarded as a temporal prince; he was more addicted to profane than spiritual learning; he studied fortification, read the newest poems; nay, pretended to be himself a disciple of the Muses, and turned the Psalms of David into Horatian metres! It was this Pope who made Cività Vecchia a free port; and the consequence 12 Brienne, Mémoires, t. i. p. 392; Richelieu, Mém. liv. xv. and xvi. CHAP. V.] THE FRENCH SEIZE THE VALTELINE. 529 was that the Barbary corsairs sold there the plunder of the Christians, 13 Such was the man with whom Richelieu had to deal respecting the Valteline. He determined to call on Venice and Savoy to act on the treaty of 1623. The Archbishop of Lyon, the French ambassador at Rome, was instructed to insist on the evacuation of the Valteline by the papal troops; and when that prelate, thinking Richelieu a novice, pointed out in a long letter the crooked and dilatory policy which it was necessary to pursue at that Court, the Cardinal laconically answered: "The King will no longer be amused; tell the Pope that he will see an army in the Valteline." And lest the ambassador, who was aspiring to the cardinalate, should play false, M. de Béthune, a Calvinist, was sent to supersede him. 14 For the attack on Genoa, which would not only engage the attention of the Spanish troops in the Milanese, but also stop the supplies of money furnished to Spain by that republic 15, France pleaded that she was bound to assist her ancient ally, the Duke of Savoy, in his quarrel with Genoa respecting the fief of Zucarello; but though Richelieu asserted, and pretends in his Memoirs, that this was a lawful cause of war, Jerome Priuli, the Venetian ambassador, at a conference at Susa, rejected the scheme with indignation, as both unjust and impolitic. 16 Richelieu, however, steadily pursued the plans he had formed for the liberation of the Valteline, in justification of which the alliance with the Grisons was also appealed to; and it was alleged that France, in assisting them against their rebellious subjects, afforded neither Spain, nor any other power, a reasonable cause of offence. An attack upon the papal troops did not inspire the Cardinal with any scruples: it was as often his method to plead the reason of state with the Pontiff, as to weigh the respect and forbearance due to the Holy See. Already in June 1624 M. de Cœuvres had been sent into Switzerland, and succeeded in arming the Protestant cantons in favour of the Grisons. The ambassadorial functions of De Cœuvres were suddenly converted into those of a general; .4000 Swiss and Grisons were joined by 3000 French infantry and 500 horse; in November he received from M. de Béthune at Rome the concerted signal, entered the Valteline, and soon drove out the papal troops; whose 530 MARRIAGE OF CHARLES I. AND HENRIETTA. [Book IV. captured standards were returned with marks of great respect to the Pontiff. Loud was the outcry, not only at Rome and Madrid, but even amongst the ultra-Catholics in France, against the "State Cardinal." The Pope, however, who feared Richelieu as much as he hated him, was less noisy than his partisans; and, instead of the censures with which the Cardinal had been threatened, it was precisely at this time that the dispensation arrived for the English marriage. Urban had received a gentle hint that, if it were not forwarded, it would be itself dispensed with. The expedition against Genoa was interrupted by a Hugonot insurrection. The French government had not faithfully fulfilled the treaty of Montpellier. Fort Louis, near La Rochelle, instead of being demolished had been strengthened; Rohan, yielding to the impulse of the inhabitants, made advances to the Spanish ambassador, and a monstrous agreement was effected, by which the Hugonots received the money of Spain, just as France assisted the Dutch. In January 1625, Rohan's brother, Soubise, seized the Isle of Rhé, and, surprising the French fleet at Blavet in Bretagne, carried off four vessels. The revolt gradually spread into Haut Languedoc, Le Querci, and the Cevennes. Nevertheless the old Constable Lesdiguières, and Charles Emmanuel, invaded Liguria in March with 28,000 men, and most of the places in it were captured. Lesdiguières, however, declined to attempt Genoa itself without the assistance of a fleet; the ships furnished according to treaty by the Dutch being required against the French rebels. It is probable, that the Constable acted according to secret instructions from Richelieu, who wished not to see Genoa fall into hands of the Duke of Savoy, and was only intent on diverting the Spaniards from the Valteline.18 An Austrian army, passing through the Swiss Catholic cantons and over the St. Gothard, compelled the French and Piedmontese to evacuate Liguria, and even assumed the offensive against Piedmont and the Valteline; which, however, with the exception of the fortress of Riva, the French succeeded in retaining. It was in the midst of these affairs that the marriage of Charles and Henrietta was completed. The unexpected death of James I. after a short illness, March 27th 1625, compelled the royal bridegroom to celebrate his nuptials by proxy; which were solemnized, May 11th, by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, on a scaffold erected before the principal entrance of Nôtre Dame, with the 17 Ranke, Französische Gesch. B. ii. S. 285. 19 See a Letter from Marshal Créqui to Louis XIII., quoted by Le Jay, Hist. du Ministère du Cardinal de Richelieu, t. i. p. 54, note. CHAP. V.] BUCKINGHAM AND ANNE OF AUSTRIA. 531 same ceremonies as had been observed at the marriage of Henry IV. and Margaret of Valois. The English King was represented by the Duke de Chevreuse. Buckingham afterwards arrived in Paris for the purpose of escorting Queen Henrietta Maria into England; when that handsome, vain, and insolent favourite inspired many with astonishment and admiration at his magnificence, a few with disgust and aversion at his presumption.19 Buckingham had given offence in Spain by making love to the wife of the prime minister; in France he was presumptuous enough to address the Queen herself. Anne of Austria, now twenty-four years of age, was tall and well-shaped, with an air at once majestic and engaging. Her eyes were full and soft; her nose rather too large perhaps for perfect beauty; her mouth small and ruby, with just enough of the Austrian feature to give it additional charms. Her bright chestnut hair fell in luxuriant tresses. But her distinguishing attraction was the dazzling whiteness of her skin; more remarkable, however, in her neck and hands than in her face; as she never wore a mask, as was the custom in those days, to preserve her complexion. She had little of the gravity of a Spanish education, and what she had brought with her had not been increased by the manners of the French Court, then abounding with coquettes, among whom the handsome and intriguing Duchess of Chevreuse shone conspicuous. All Anne's charms, however, had made but little impression on the cold and apathetic Louis, who did not live with her like a husband. The dominant passions of that monarch, after the chace, seem to have been an inordinate penchant for gingerbread, and an almost morbid aversion to red hair. Louis XIII., his brother, the Queen-mother, and the Queenregnant accompanied the royal bride some way on her road to England. The King went no further than Compiègne; and at Amiens the three Queens were detained some days by the illness of Mary de' Medici. It was here that Buckingham carried his audacity to extremes. As the town afforded but little accommodation, the three Queens lodged in separate houses. To that of Anne of Austria a large garden was attached, skirting the banks of the Somme, in which the Court was accustomed to promenade. One fine evening, Anne of Austria, who was fond of prolonging her walks till a late hour, was strolling in this garden attended by Buckingham, whilst the handsome but effeminate Lord Holland 19 They who are curious in such matters may see in the Mémoires d'un Favory, by Bois d'Annemets, an account of the impression Buckingham produced, and a de scription of one, and that apparently not the most splendid, of the twenty-seven suits which he took with him. (Archives Cur. t. iii. p. 293, 2de sér.) |