 |
| Henri II |
By this time
Henri’s sexual passions were beyond being slaked by Diane, who remained his
closest advisor. Instead Henri met with courtesans in a bedroom guarded by his
valet Griffon. Diane turned a blind eye to these sorties while the queen minded
more Diane’s continued hold over Henri.
On 24th
April 1558 the marriage between the Dauphin François and Mary, Queen of
Scotland was celebrated at Notre-Dame with the bride’s uncle François in charge
of the celebrations instead of the absent Constable, still a prisoner of the
Spanish.
The married
couple were a great contrast with the sickly stuttering bridegroom now allied
with a beautiful young lady taller than he was. The bride was clad in;
‘A robe white as a lily,
fashioned so sumptuously and richly that it would be impossible to describe it.
The train, which was of marvellous length, was borne by two young
demoiselles….on her head she wore a golden crown studded with pearls, diamonds,
rubies, sapphires, emeralds and other gems of priceless value.’[i]
 |
| Mary Queen of Scots |
The wedding
feast featured twelve man-made horses covered in gold and silver cloth[ii]
pulling coaches full of singers who entertained the bridal party. These were
accompanied by six silver-sailed ships that appeared to float over the floor.
These and other amusements would have even further exhausted the already
depleted treasury.
At court, Mary
was a favourite with everyone bar the queen. She learned to play lute and
virginals, she was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry and
needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek. Twenty
days before the wedding, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland
and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. This
success further bolstered the standing of the Guise family at court.
On 17th
November the ailing queen in England, Mary Tudor, died. That same month the
Scottish Parliament granted the crown matrimonial to François[iii],
a reminder to the English that Scotland, allied with France, was still a danger
on her northern borders.
 |
| Ghent |
Henri was
concerned about Montmorency’s continued imprisonment, he wrote the old man regularly,
assuring Montmorency of his love and friendship. Diane too was becoming
concerned about the preponderance of the Guise family in state affairs. The
Guise family were busy promoting their own interests The Venetian ambassador
wrote of Diane’s change of stance;
‘At present there is open
rupture and enmity between her and the Cardinal of Lorraine, she is being so
united with the Constable that they are one and the same thing.’[iv]
Montmorency
was able to use his enforced stay in Ghent to hold informal peace talks. Henri was not the only one who was short
of money; Philip was too. He knew Henri needed peace as badly as he did. Henri
too was irritated with François de Guise who he believed had talked him into
the last war in Italy.
In October
1558 Henri’s old mentor was finally released on a short parole and he met with
an emotional Henri. Montmorency shared the king’s bedchamber that night and the
two men spent their time denigrating the Guise tendency for ambition, greed and
general hawkishness. Henri was inconsolable when Montmorency had to return to
his imprisonment two days later.
It was not
until 3rd April 1559 that the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed; there were two treaties, one between
France and England
·
France
was to retain Calais for eight years and then pay an indemnity or return the
town to the English and sixteen cannon captured were to be returned to the
English
·
French
fortresses on the Scottish border were to be dismantled.
Cateau-Cambrésis Part Two
The other treaty
between France and Spain was more complex. Although the terms were not seen by
the French as advantageous for France, Henri did strengthen France
strategically, giving up possessions in northern Italy that would have been
expensive and difficult to defend in order to strengthen France’s borders.
·
All
Tuscan possessions were handed to the Duke of Mantua or the Duke of Florence.
·
Spanish
rights to Milan and Naples were recognised
·
France
kept the bishoprics of Toul, Metz and Verdun
·
Corsica
was given back to the Genoese
 |
| Elisabeth de Valois |
Queen
Catherine was horrified by the terms of the treaty and, on her knees, begged
Henri to refuse to ratify it; advice he wisely took no notice of. Catherine
blamed the treaty on Diane. Henri’s bosom friend François de Guise was also
horrified by the agreements made and left court at Christmas while the
negotiations were still ongoing. He told Henri;
‘I swear to you, Sire, that
there is evil in taking this road. For if you do nothing but lose for the next
thirty years you would not give up as much as now at a single stroke.’[v]
The treaty
also called for two marriages; one was of the Princess Elisabeth to Philip, now
a widower for the second time. Elisabeth was married by proxy on 22nd June; the Duke of Alva standing in
for his master. Elisabeth’s dowry was 400,000 livres[vi],
money her father could ill afford. The other marriage was between the Duke of
Savoy and Henri’s sister Marguerite. The Princess Claude married Duke Charles
of Lorraine on 22nd January 1559.
Montmorency
married his son Henri[vii] to Diane’s granddaughter Antoinette
de la Marck a few days after the wedding of Princess Claude. The wedding was
celebrated at the Constable’s chateau at Écouen. The previous year Henri had married his
illegitimate daughter Diane to Montmorency’s eldest son François.
The Tournament of Death
 |
| Hotel des Tournelles |
Marguerite’s
marriage was scheduled for 4th July and her dowry fixed at 300,000 livres[viii].
To honour his sister and daughter’s marriages Henri ordered a magnificent five
day tournament to take place in the Rue Saint-Antoine in front of the Hôtel des Tournelles.
On the third
day of the tournament Henri appeared in the lists riding a Turkish stallion
given to him by Emanuel-Philibert. He wore, as usual, an outfit in black and
white to honour Diane. Having vanquished his first two opponents Henri rode
against Gabriel de Montgomery, Seigneur de Lorges and captain of
the Garde Écossaise.
Losing
against de Lorges resulted in Henri demanding another bout against the advice
of his wife and courtiers. The two men broke their lances and, under tournament
rules, should have immediately dropped them. Instead de Lorges held onto his
and the lance glanced upwards and slipped under the king’s visor. Several
splinters of needle sharp wood pierced Henri’s head just over his right eye.
 |
| The tournament |
Henri was
taken off his horse and carried into the Hôtel des Tournelles where Queen Catherine held vigil by
his bed. There he was attended by the famous physician Vesalius who had hurried from Brussels. Vesalius, after experimenting
on the head of a murder victim proclaimed that Henri’s brain was undamaged.
For three
days Henri was able to talk and even attended to some state business but on 4th
July he developed a fever. The next day, as her brother lay dying, Marguerite
was married elsewhere in the palace. At 1 pm on 10th July Henri
died; the post-mortem found that a splinter of bone had pierced the brain.
The Protestants
believed that his death was divine punishments for Henri’s attacks on their
religion. Nicholas Throckmorton, the English ambassador, wrote;
‘The noblemen, gentlemen and
ladies did lament the misfortune, the townsmen and people did rejoice, and let
not openly to say that the king’s dissolute life and his tyranny to the
professors of the Gospel had procured God’s vengeance.’[ix]
France was
left with a callow youth as king, and the country ruled by a woman who detested
heresy and was determined to do all she could to stamp it out.
Bibliography
Martyrs and
Murderers – Stuart Carroll, Oxford University Press 2009
Catherine de
Medici – Leonie Frieda, a Phoenix Paperback 2003
Philip of
Spain – Henry Kamen, Yale University Press 1997
French
Renaissance Monarchy – RJ Knecht, Longman Group 1996
The Rise and
Fall of Renaissance France – RJ Knecht, Fontana Press 1996
Catherine
de’ Medici – RJ Knecht, Pearson Education Ltd 1998
A History of
France – David Potter, The MacMillan Press 1995
Henri II – H
Noel Williams, Methuen and Co 1910 (reprint 2016)
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
Henri II - Williams
[iii]
After his marriage to Mary François was known as the Roi-Dauphin and Mary as
the Reine-Dauphine
[iv]
Catherine de Medici - Frieda
[v]
Ibid
[vi]
In 2015
the relative: historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is 136,800,000.00 labour earnings of that income or wealth is
£2,012,000,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £4,934,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or
wealth is £58,270,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[viii]
In 2015
the relative: historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is £102,600,000.00 labour earnings of that income or wealth is
£1,509,000,000.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £3,701,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or
wealth is £43,700,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[ix]
Henri II - Williams
A grieving wiow with a hobby-horse is a dangerous thing
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