"Marked" Duke Henry de Guise. Antihero of Dumas' novels and leader of French Catholics
Duke Henry I "the Marked" in a portrait by an unknown artist, circa 1588.
В previous article we talked about the origin and youth of Duke Henry de Guise, and how on the night of August 24, 1572, he took revenge on the famous leader of the French Protestants, Gaspard de Coligny, for the death of his father. Today we will continue this story. And first, we will have to talk a little about the man who will order the murder of the hero of the article and his brother, as well as his mother. That is, about Henry III of Valois and Catherine de Medici.
"Black queen"
Catherine de Medici has a dark (and unfounded) reputation as a poisoner. However, it must be acknowledged that this foreigner tried her best to fulfill her duty to both her unloving husband and France. And in fact, she did not allow that country to fall apart.
Catherine de Medici in a portrait by an unknown master of the XNUMXth century
She tried to reconcile Catholics and Protestants, and the chancellor appointed by her, L'Hôpital, then addressed the people:
Forget these offensive words - "papist", "huguenot". Remember that we are all French, all subjects of the king.
Chancellor Michel l'Opital in a portrait by an unknown artist
However, the forces of fate were not on the side of this queen.
Catherine de Medici, daughter of Lorenzo II (Duke of Urbino, Captain General of Florence) and relative of the Roman Popes Leo X and Clement VII, largely civilized the still half-wild France. It was she who introduced her subjects to ballet, and since then artichokes, broccoli, choux pastry, ice cream, pasta and many sauces have been used in French cuisine. And thanks to Catherine, French ladies learned what high-heeled shoes, underwear and corsets are.
The 14-year-old girl who arrived in Paris really wanted to please everyone, but, alas, everyone immediately disliked her, calling her a "Florentine merchant" and even spreading dirty rumors that at the age of 9 she was raped by drunken soldiers. Her husband Henry II's long-term mistress was a woman who was 20 years older than him - Diane de Poitiers. And Catherine could not get pregnant for 11 years, although she tried her best to treat him - in full accordance with the recommendations of the best doctors of that time: she drank mule urine and wore cow dung and aurochs horns in her lower abdomen. This continued until Diane de Poitiers almost forcibly began to send the king to his wife's bedroom - and a miracle happened: one after another, Catherine gave birth to five sons and five daughters to boot. In general, Catherine de Medici fulfilled her maternal duty to the Valois dynasty, and it would seem that what could go wrong?
In 1559, Henry II died at a tournament held to celebrate the peace treaty with Spain: a piece of the spear of the captain of the Scots Guard, Gabriel de Montgomery, entered the king's eye. Until the end of her life, Catherine wore mourning for her husband, who did not love her, and therefore entered history under the nickname "The Black Queen".
Catherine de Medici with her children in a painting by F. Clouet
Since her sons were minors, Catherine became regent of France, leading that country during the difficult period of schism and the Wars of Religion.
And what about her sons? The eldest, Francis, grew up a weak and perpetually ill young man – to such an extent that he could not even get his wife, the famous Mary Stuart, pregnant. He died at the age of 16.
The fourth son, François, whom his brother Henry called "Monkey" and Elizabeth I of England, to whom he wooed, called "Frog", turned out to be a complete nonentity. He betrayed everyone he dealt with - from La Mole and Coconas, known to many from Dumas's novel "Queen Margot", to his Dutch allies. And even his mother, Catherine de Medici, once wrote to him:
It would have been better for you to die in your youth. Then you would not have caused the death of so many brave and noble people.
Her fifth son, Louis, died at the age of one and a half years.
But the second, Charles IX, grew physically strong - to such an extent that for fun he often went to work in the forge.
Portrait of Charles IX, engraving by Peter de Jode, XNUMXth century
However, he also died on May 30, 1774, just one day short of his 24th birthday. Ambroise Paré (the court surgeon of Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III) posthumously (after an autopsy) diagnosed him with tuberculosis complicated by pleurisy. And the throne was ascended by Catherine's third and favorite son, Henry, who had fled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for the occasion.
A. Grotter. Escape of Heinrich of Valois from Poland
Catherine de Medici called him "Little eagle" and even "my everything».
The last king of the Valois dynasty
Henry III in a portrait by Jean Decours
At first, Henry bore the title of Duke of Angoulême, then became Duke of Anjou. In addition to French, he knew Italian, was a good dancer and a good swordsman. In childhood, among the friends of this prince was Henry de Guise, who was brought up at the royal court and was one year older than him.
At the age of 9, the beloved son of the devout Catholic Catherine de Medici unexpectedly became interested in the ideas of Protestantism, but at 12 he was already a zealous Catholic.
The future Henry III was brought up in a very strange way: his mother and her ladies-in-waiting not only dressed him like a girl, but also painted his lips, blushed his cheeks, powdered his hair, sprayed him with perfume – in general, they had fun as best they could. The boy did not object at all, and the times in France were still “intolerant”: bad rumors began to spread around the capital, and Parisians began to call Henry “Prince of Sodom" But these were just the beginning: after becoming king, Henry ordered that he be referred to in the neuter gender, and the playwright Jean Racine wrote:
At court there is only talk about His Majesty: He is gone, He was, He will be.
Henry's "minions" ("favorites", "cuties") were no less impressive.
Lucas de Heer. Triple portrait of the minions of Henry III, between 1574-1588.
"Isle of Hermaphrodites" - a caricature of the court of Henry III
About one of the king's minions, Roger Bellegarde, it is said in Tallemant des Reaux's "Entertaining Stories":
He doesn't even need to think about moving forward: he's just being pushed from behind.
Roger de Bellegarde in a portrait by Daniel Dumoustier
Later, in the summer of 1589, Duchess Catherine-Marie de Montpensier, sister of Henry de Guise, declared to the king's ambassador, who in his letter threatened to burn her upon entering Paris:
Sodomites like him should burn.
Nevertheless, in February 1575, two days after his coronation, Henry married Louise of Vaudemont-Lorraine. However, during their 14 years of marriage, he never got around to having a single child with this woman.
Now let's talk about the people of the other camp - the three de Guise brothers and their sister, the above-mentioned Catherine-Marie de Montpensier.
The de Guise family
The heir of François de Guise, who was killed in February 1563 near Orleans, was his 13-year-old eldest son Henry, the hero of the article. We talked about the beginning of his military career and his revenge on Admiral Coligny for the death of his father on the night of August 23-24, 1572 in first article. He also held the title of Prince de Joinville and was a peer of France. In 1576, he became the leader of the powerful Catholic (Holy) League, the initiator of which is considered to be his mother Anne d'Este, who received the titles of Duchess of Nemours and Geneva in her second marriage.
Anna d'Este in a portrait by an unknown artist
The League's allies were Pope Sixtus V, the Spanish King Philip II and the Jesuit Order. Trying to seize the initiative, Henry III declared himself the head of the Catholic League, but the hero of the article remained the actual leader of the French Catholics.
Henry de Guise's younger brother was Charles (Karl), born in March 1554, who at the age of 18 took part in the siege of La Rochelle, and in the following year of 1573 received the title of Duke of Mayenne and accompanied Henry of Anjou, who had been elected king of that country, to Poland. In 1577 he fought in Poitou, and in 1585 he received the post of governor of Burgundy, which became one of the strongholds of the Catholic League.
Duke Charles of Mayenne in a portrait by Etienne Dumoustier, circa 1580.
The third of the Guise brothers, Louis of Lorraine, was born in July 1555. At the age of 19, he became Archbishop of Reims and Abbot of Saint-Denis, and at 23, a cardinal. For some time, he was the Pope's legate in Avignon.
Cardinal Louis of Lorraine
In July 1552, their sister was born – the above-mentioned Catherine-Marie of Lorraine, who at the age of 18 became the wife of 57-year-old Louis Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier – a cousin of the grandfather (!) of Henry of Navarre. It is not surprising that there were no children in this marriage.
Leonard Limozen. Portrait of Catherine-Marie de Montpensier
This woman's lameness was compensated by her passion, and in January 1588, when expelling her from Paris, Henry III said that she had done more for the Catholic League than any army.
"The King of Paris"
In 1576, another Huguenot War (the sixth in a row) began, which ended a year later with another compromise treaty that did not satisfy either side. And Henry III now turned all the radical Catholics of France against himself. The situation worsened in 1584 after the death of the king's younger brother François. As we remember, the "sweet handsome" Henry III had no children, and now, according to the law of succession, the Protestant Henry of Navarre was to become the heir to the throne of France. Under pressure from the leaders of the revived Catholic League, the king issued the Edict of Nemours, depriving the Navarrese of his rights to the throne. And in 1585, the War of the Three Henrys began – the longest of all, in which the King of Navarre was supported by English and German Protestants, the Holy League of Henry of Guise by the Spaniards, and Henry III was mainly engaged in hunting and carnal pleasures with his favorites. The northern part of the French kingdom was then controlled by those who headed the Catholic League of Guise, the Protestant south sided with Henry of Navarre, the king's possessions were limited mainly to the Loire Valley region.
It was at this time that Henry III began to be guarded by a detachment of 45 poor Gascon nobles. The king's authority was rapidly declining, and on May 12, 1588, unrest began in Paris, which went down in history as the "day of the barricades": the townspeople demanded that Henry de Guise be appointed commander-in-chief of the royal army. The next day, the king managed with great difficulty to escape from the Louvre to his castle in Blois. The Parisians offered de Guise the crown, but he did not dare to accept it and proclaimed himself the king's viceroy. Under pressure from the Catholics, on July 21, Henry III signed the Edict of Unity in Rouen, which prohibited peace and even a truce with the Huguenots, the appointment of Protestants to government positions, and the transfer of the throne to persons who did not profess Catholicism. To defuse the situation, Henry III decided to convene the Estates General, whose delegates included the leaders of the Catholic League.
Pierre-Charles Comte. Henry III meets the Guises at Blois
It seemed that here he could give the order for the arrest of the Duke of Guise, but everyone understood that no court in France would recognize the hero of the article as a traitor.
But Henry de Guise despised the king and did not consider him capable of decisive action. The behavior of the Duke and his relatives was provocative, and yet spies reported to the King about every step they took. They also reported that the Duchess of Montpensier wore scissors on her belt, with which she was going to cut the tonsure on Henry III's head (an act necessary for taking monastic vows). And during dinner on December 17, 1588, she said directly to her brother:
You hold him, and I'll give our brother Valois a new haircut.
And Cardinal Louis of Lorraine raised a toast:for the health of the King of France", after which the guests burst into shouts:
Long live Henry de Guise! Glory to the heir of Charlemagne!
Apparently, this was the last straw: Henry III realized that there was no time to waste and gave the order to kill the Duke of Guise.
The Assassination of Henry de Guise
The task of killing the Duke was entrusted to the nobles of the "Forty-five Squad". These Gascons owed everything to the King, but even some of them hesitated. One of the King's unconditional supporters, Captain Crillon, for example, declared that he was ready to challenge de Guise to a duel, but would not participate in his murder under any circumstances. However, the required number of "killers" was still found.
But there were also people in the king's entourage who sympathized with de Guise and tried to warn him. The Spanish ambassador told him the same thing, and even suggested not waiting for an assassination attempt, but to strike first.
In order to "test" the king's mood, Henry de Guise asked him to resign on December 21, 1588. Henry III refused and assured his rival of his unwavering favor and even love. And the next day he suggested that they visit the ailing Catherine de Medici together. Oddly enough, it worked, and Henry de Guise told his brother Louis:
He is a simpleton, and his soul is not evil.
That evening, during dinner, a letter was found under a napkin stating that the Duke would be killed the following day. Henry de Guise showed astonishing levity: after declaring that the King “would not dare,” he calmly went to bed – along with the Marquise de Noirmoutier (also known as Charlotte de Sauve).
On the morning of December 23, the Duke was invited to the King, and was informed that the nobles of the “45th Detachment” were not receiving their allowance and would therefore turn to him with a request for intercession.
The night spent in the company of the Marquise de Noirmoutier was apparently quite stormy: the Duke looked very tired, moreover, he suddenly started to have a nosebleed - and he asked for dried plums, which at that time were considered a good way to restore strength. Some authors claim that they brought him grapes, but this is not essential. With a plate in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, the Duke headed towards the king's office - and then the royal bodyguards of the "Detachment of 45" pounced on him. The first blow to the chest with a dagger was delivered by a certain Sieur de Montserriaque, then the Duke received about 10 more blows. The only thing that de Guise managed to do to protect himself was to smash a porcelain plate on the face of one of the killers. He was so strong that he remained on his feet and, shouting: "What treason! Gentlemen, what treason!" - took a few steps towards the captain of the detachment of Forty-Five de Laugnac, who pushed him away with his scabbard. Only after this did Henry de Guise fall, and the above-mentioned minion of Henry III, Roger de Bellegarde, said to him:
Monsieur, while the spark of life still glimmers within you, ask forgiveness from God and the King.
The Duke managed to whisper, "Have mercy on me, Lord."
At this time the king came out of the office and said, pointing to the duke’s corpse:
My God, he's so huge! Even bigger dead than alive!
Paul Delaroche. The Assassination of the Duke of Guise at the Château de Blois in 1588.
That same day, Henry de Guise's brother, Cardinal Louis of Lorraine, was arrested and killed the following day. The Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, said of this:
You have cut it out well, my son, now we need to sew it.
She was wrong. France was shocked and appalled, Pope Sixtus V cursed the last Valois.
In the early spring of 1589, France was divided into three parts, which were under the control of Henry III, the Catholic League and the Protestants. The king's power extended only to Tours, Blois and Beaujany, and he decided to enter into an alliance with Henry of Navarre. The troops of the two Henrys besieged Paris, which was defended by the younger brother of the murdered Guise, Duke Charles of Mayenne and his sister Catherine de Montpensier. It was then (June 27, 1589) that this duchess declared to the ambassador of Henry III, who threatened to burn her after the capture of the capital:
Sodomites like him should burn, and I will do everything possible to prevent him from entering the city.
This lady did not throw words to the wind, and on August 2, Henry III was killed by the Dominican Jacques Clemont.
Engraving depicting the assassination of Henry III
The supporters of the Catholic League, who were supported by Pope Sixtus V, later quite seriously raised the question of the canonization of this Dominican.
In the end, Henry of Navarre won, becoming the French king Henry IV and the founder of the Bourbon dynasty. After years of war, he suddenly came to a surprisingly simple conclusion:
Paris is worth the Mass.
The new king made peace with the leaders of the Catholic League. The Duchess of Montpensier, the sister of the murdered Henry, who waged war for another 5 years and after the defeat even asked her supporters to kill her, then lived peacefully in Paris and died in May 1596. And the younger brother of the hero of the article, Charles of Mayenne, received from Henry IV the governorship of the province of Ile-de-France (excluding Paris) and 2 million 640 thousand livres. He outlived this king by a year and died in October 1611.
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