1629]

Final submission of the Huguenots

135

to watch over the Duke of Savoy, whose intentions were highly dubious, and to guard the interests of the Duke of Mantua.

The King was now at liberty to deal with the Huguenots. In his despair, Rohan had been forced to appeal to the enemies of France; English promises had proved delusive; and, about the time when England made peace with France, the King of Spain consented to accept Rohan's offer of service and promised him an annual subsidy. But the promise came too late. Operations began by the siege of Privas, at which the Cardinal joined the King, having left the Marshal de Créquy in command at Susa; and the conclusion of peace with England was announced (May). Deprived of this last hope, the Huguenots might yet have sold their liberty dear. But discord was rife in their party, and resistance was irresolute. Privas surrendered, and was pillaged and burnt contrary to the capitulation. The fortresses of the Cevennes were soon in the King's hands. Rohan was forced to treat. On June 28 peace was made; the Huguenots submitted; the fortifications of their remaining strongholds were razed; and the last remnants of independent military power given up. There could never again be a militant Protestant party in France. Rohan was treated with indulgence; the property of his family was restored; but he himself was sent into exile at Venice. On August 20 the Cardinal made his triumphal entry into Montauban, and the wars of religion in France were formally concluded. Toleration for Protestant worship was maintained; the chambres miparties of the Edict of Nantes continued to sit; but the conversion of the Huguenots, which had already begun, proceeded hereafter more rapidly, and was the object of the efforts of numerous Capuchin missions, in which Father Joseph took great interest.

At no time in his career did Richelieu manifest greater qualities of resolution, promptness, and resource than during the years which immediately preceded the landing of Gustavus Adolphus in Germany (June, 1630). While La Rochelle still held out, the Cardinal was preparing for an extension of the field of his activity and meditating plans of attack, direct and insidious, on the Habsburg power, then at its height. When La Rochelle had fallen, though armed rebellion was still on foot in Languedoc, Casale was hastily relieved. This accomplished, the Huguenots were taken in hand without delay. Meanwhile Christian IV of Denmark had been reduced to negotiating for the peace which he concluded in May, 1629. It was impossible for Richelieu to prevent this defection; but he felt that its consequences must be by some means counteracted. Charnacé, who was sent as an envoy to influence the peace negotiations, was also charged to visit Bavaria and endeavour to detach Maximilian from the Habsburg coalition, and finally to mediate if possible a truce between Sweden and Poland. This last part of his mission was successful (September, 1629); and the way was thus cleared for a new and more dangerous enemy

136

Richelieu and Louis XIII

[1629 of the Habsburgs in Germany. While this move was maturing, and while the final operations against the Huguenots were proceeding, the temporary settlement of the Mantuan affair had broken down. The Duke of Savoy did not fulfil his engagements, seeing better prospects of gain in the Habsburg alliance; the Imperial troops, freed by the favourable turn of events in Germany, entered the Valtelline in May, 1629. In October Spinola was in Milan, and shortly afterwards he led the Spanish troops into Montferrat, while Imperial forces invaded the Mantuan territory. Casale was besieged by Spinola, Mantua by Wallenstein's lieutenant Colalto; and the Duke of Savoy occupied his allotted share of Montferrat. The resistance of Casale and Mantua gave Richelieu a scanty respite, and enabled him to deal with urgent troubles at home.

No factor in Richelieu's career is more difficult to estimate than the exact influence of Louis' character on the Minister's policy. Louis was not a nonentity; he had a large share of obstinacy, his determination once formed had to be respected, his moods were variable and dangerous. Possessed of good average ability, some industry, and a sense of kingly duty, he could be convinced and influenced, but he could never be neglected. He appears to have long resisted the introduction of Richelieu into the ministry for fear of his commanding personality. To the end of his days he chafed under Richelieu's predominance. But he loved military glory and success; he hated to feel the burden of his functions pressing on his capacity. So long as Richelieu provided the King with success, so long as he made the burden seem light, so long as he showed him the way and found for him the means to meet every difficulty, so long in fact as Richelieu was indispensable so long he was safe. But, had events ever proved too strong for the Cardinal, had he ever failed to find the solution of the enigma, the magic for dispersing danger, the way to a conspicuous and intelligible end, then his day was over, his life was forfeited. For such a man could not be allowed to return to private life; he was too dangerous. Meanwhile Louis regarded him as a schoolboy regards his schoolmaster, with a certain awe, with a certain dislike above all, it may be guessed, with a certain humiliation as one who was greater than the King.

The longer the Cardinal's ascendancy lasted, the safer he became by proved success, by indispensable competence, by use and wont. But the King's moods were always to be feared. The Cardinal had seen him with his favourites, exacting as a woman, inconstant, petulant, intolerable. He was careful not to become a favourite, but to preserve a certain distance and austerity, to avoid the friction of intimate relations. But yet he could never feel secure against a sudden act of temper, a momentary betrayal. His rivals helped him here. Their incompetence was conspicuous, their exactions harassing, their claims humiliating. Above all others, the Queen-Mother had become his rival. Richelieu

1629-30]

Mary de' Medici.

Gaston of Orleans

137

had climbed to power by her aid; he intended to wield it alone. Moreover, there were differences of policy. The Queen-Mother represented the Catholic party, with whom the interests of religion came first. Richelieu followed the tradition of Henry IV, and with him the interests of the State were at all times paramount. This difference began to be marked from the first. The English marriage, the temporising treatment of the Protestants, the Dutch alliance-these showed the spirit of the Cardinal. The Queen-Mother, after one knows not what scenes and recriminations with her former favourite, broke definitely with him, and threw herself into the arms of the Cardinal de Bérulle, the founder of the Oratory, the leader of the Catholic faction. From the time of the siege of La Rochelle, her enmity could never be ignored. Fortunately for Richelieu, Mary de' Medici was neither practical nor tactful. She could not show an alternative to his policy, or find a substitute for his guidance. She wearied the King with her complaints, her assertion of maternal authority, her tempers, and her reproaches. But she was a danger.

Gaston of Orleans was another danger, to the King no less than to the Minister. Louis was childless as yet; his wife's hopes of offspring had been twice frustrated. His own excellent health had been ruined by harassing medical treatment. Gaston, as his heir, looked forward to the succession, and meanwhile made opposition after the fashion of heirsapparent. In himself he was not a dangerous opponent, and the preference shown to him by the Queen-Mother weakened their joint influence. Dissolute, inconsequent, faithless, he had a name and a position, and could hazard rebellion without risking his life; nor had his followers yet realised that he could not and did not care to confer similar immunity upon them. In 1627 he had lost his first wife in child-bed. He turned his eyes on a Mantuan Princess, resident at the French Court. This match did not please the Queen-Mother, who disliked the Mantuan House; and, while the King and Cardinal were in Piedmont (1629), she thought it necessary to imprison Mary di Gonzaga. Foiled in his whim, Gaston thought to take revenge upon the Cardinal. He intrigued and gathered adherents; and in September, 1629, he left the Court and retired to Lorraine, whose Duke had already shown some willingness to take advantage of the difficulties of France, and to join her enemies. Time which should have been given to preparations for intervention in Italy had to be spent in quieting this malcontent. He was at length persuaded to accept the government of Orleans, and an increase of pension. In December the Cardinal was able to turn his mind to the Italian war, though Gaston was not formally reconciled to his brother until April, 1630.

The Cardinal's personal supervision was needed to forward the lagging military preparations. The army was ready in March, 1630; after negotiations had failed the Cardinal led it into Piedmont; on March 25,

138

War in Piedmont.

The "

Day of Dupes

[1630-1 by an unexpected stroke, Pinerolo was seized, and the approaches to this important fortress were then occupied in force. In May the King invaded Savoy. Chambéry was taken, and the whole of Savoy was occupied by the end of June. In July his forces passed Mont Cenis, and joined the army of Piedmont. On July 26 Charles Emmanuel died; his son and successor had married a French Princess, and might be expected to be more favourable to French projects. But on July 18 Mantua was occupied by the Imperial forces, while Spinola had occupied the town of Casale and was pressing the citadel hard. Complicated negotiations followed, during the course of which Spinola died. Father Joseph had been sent to the Diet of Ratisbon (June, 1630) to influence the Electors against the proposed election of Ferdinand's son as King of the Romans. In this he was successful; but as a proof of good faith he agreed to a treaty dealing with the Mantuan question (October 13). This treaty stipulated that France should give no aid, direct or indirect, to the enemies of the Emperor, and Richelieu rejected it as made in excess of powers; eventually, by the intervention of Giulio Mazarini, the papal envoy, an arrangement was made by which Casale was to be evacuated by the Spaniards, while the French troops were withdrawn from the citadel. The last provision was secretly evaded, and four hundred Frenchmen were retained as garrison in the pay of the Duke of Mantua. The French troops in Savoy and Piedmont remained to secure the restitution of Mantua, and the formal investiture of Duke Charles.

During this lull the relations between Richelieu and the QueenMother reached their crisis. In September Louis had fallen seriously ill, and it appears that during his illness his wife and mother had persuaded him to hold out hopes of the Cardinal's dismissal. On November 10, 1630, the Queen-Mother and Richelieu met in the King's presence. A violent scene followed with no decisive result; but when on the following day the King retired to Versailles the Cardinal's enemies were convinced that his fall was certain. However, whether spontaneously or by arrangement, the Cardinal followed him, and, before the "Day of Dupes" was ended, was completely restored to favour. On this day the Cardinal's ultimate victory became certain, but a final blow was still needed. Meanwhile the Garde des Sceaux, Michel de Marillac, who had lent himself to the cabal, was dismissed and exiled. His brother, Marshal Louis de Marillac, was arrested in the midst of the army of Piedmont, in which he held a command, brought to trial for malversation, condemned, and executed. No plot against the Cardinal was allowed to pass without a victim.

In the course of 1631, by treaties concluded at Cherasco, the affairs of Mantua were brought to a satisfactory settlement. The Duke of Mantua received his investiture and recovered his duchy. The Duke of Savoy received a small territorial compensation. Montferrat was

1631-2] Mantuan settlement.

Gaston and Lorraine 139

evacuated, and the French troops were withdrawn from Savoy and Piedmont. France, however, retained Pinerolo and its approaches — the gateway of Italy - by arrangement with the Duke of Savoy, who became her ally. This favourable settlement of a question, in which the honour and credit even more than the material interests of France were involved, was an indirect result of Gustavus' successes in Germany; for events at home would have prevented Richelieu from acting vigorously beyond the Alps, had his opponents in northern Italy been in a position to raise serious difficulties.

In January, 1631, Gaston took up his mother's quarrel, and acting in concert with her left the Court for Orleans. Richelieu determined to proceed to extremities. The King left Paris for Compiègne, and ordered his mother to follow him thither. On arriving at Compiègne, she was asked to sign a written engagement to give no countenance to opponents of the established authorities. On her refusal, the King sent orders for her to retire to Moulins. This she declined to do; and, after remaining for some months under supervision at Compiègne, she escaped (July) to the Spanish Netherlands. Here she received honourable entertainment, and remained for eight years. She then removed to Holland, and afterwards to England, and died in 1641 at Cologne, to the last a bitter though impotent enemy of the man whom she had raised to power. Meanwhile the King had moved towards Orleans (March, 1631); and on his approach Gaston once more fled to Lorraine, where he remained for some months courting the Duke's sister, Margaret. A warfare of manifestos and pamphlets followed; and the Parlement of Paris, which protested against the summary condemnation of Gaston's adherents without form of trial, was made to feel that no constitutional or legal safeguards could prevail against the King's will. But other measures were also needed; and in December the King was at Metz with an army; while Gustavus, having in his victorious progress reached Mainz, was said to have thought of invading Lorraine, whose Duke had raised men for the Emperor's service and had allowed Imperial troops to occupy and fortify Moyenvic in the bishopric of Metz. But France reserved to herself the right of coercing her neighbour, and invading Lorraine drove the garrison from Moyenvic. The Duke hastened to make peace (January 6, 1632), ceding Marsal to France; but on January 3 Gaston had been secretly married to Margaret of Lorraine. He was not, however, safe in the proximity of a French army, and was thus obliged to leave his bride and join his mother in the Netherlands.

In June, 1632, he was again in Lorraine, whence he entered France with a scanty force, and marched through Burgundy, Bourbonnais, Auvergne, Rouergue, to Languedoc, where at length he found an important supporter in the Duke of Montmorency (August). The arrival of Gaston coincided with an injudicious attempt of the Cardinal to abolish the ancient privileges of Languedoc and to take the collection