Kitabı oku: «Old Court Life in France, vol. 1», sayfa 19
NOTES TO VOLUME I
Note 1, p. 4
Francis I., born at Cognac, was the only son of Charles d’Orléans, Duc d’Angoulême. After the death of two sons, born to Louis XII. by his wife, Anne de Bretagne, he created his relative, Francis, Duc de Valois, married him to his daughter, Claude, and selected him as his successor to the throne.
Note 2, p. 20
Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, one of the oldest churches in France, dedicated to St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, by Chilperic. Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Saint-Etienne du Mont, the Hôtel de Clugny, and the Hôtel de Sens, all dating from a very early period, still remain.
Note 3, p. 21
Gentille Agnès plus de loy tu mérite,
La cause était de France recouvrir;
Que ce que peut dedans un cloître ouvrir,
Close nonnaine? ou bien dévot hermite?
Note 4, p. 30
The Duc d’Alençon, husband of Marguerite de Valois, sister of Francis, who commanded the left wing of the French army, was the only man who showed himself a coward at Pavia. He turned and fled, with his whole division.
Note 5, p. 45
Triboulet had been court fool to Louis XII., who first discerned his good qualities, and rescued him from a most forlorn position. Triboulet’s sayings are almost a chronicle of the time, so much was he mixed up with the life of the two sovereigns he served. Brusquet, who compiled the “fool’s Calendar,” succeeded him in the office of jester to Francis.
Note 6, p. 54
Francis’s exact words, according to Du Bellay, were – “Les Guises mettront mes enfans en pourpoint et mon pauvre peuple en chemise.” This prophecy was poetised into the following verse: —
“François premier prédit ce mot,
Que ceux de la maison de Guise,
Mettraient ses enfans en pourpoint,
Et son pauvre peuple en chemise.”
Note 7, p. 58
The Palace des Tournelles (so named from its many towers) stood in the Rue Saint-Antoine, opposite the Hôtel de Saint-Paul, upon the site of the Place Royal. Charles VI. was confined here when insane, by his wife, Isabeau de Bavière. The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France for Henry VI., a minor, lodged here. After the expulsion of the English from Paris, Charles VII. made it his residence. Louis XI. and Louis XII. inhabited it. The latter monarch died here.
Note 8, p. 64
Another contemporary says that the Queen of Navarre was invited to Marcel’s, the Prévôt of Paris, where, having eaten some confitures, she fell sick, and died five days afterwards.
Note 9, p. 68
Charles de Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine, was Minister under Francis II. and Charles IX. He endeavoured, without success, to introduce the Inquisition into France.
Note 10, p. 95
No sooner had Catherine de’ Medici built the Tuileries, than she left it to inhabit the Hôtel de Soissons (then called Hôtel de la Reine), in the parish of Saint-Eustache, in consequence of a prediction that she would die at Saint-Germain. The Hôtel de Soissons, as well as the Hôtel de Nesle, is now amalgamated into the Halle aux Blés. At the Hôtel de Soissons, Catherine lived for some years before her death.
Note 11, p. 124
Coligni was prosecuted as accessory to the murder of Francis, Duc de Guise, by his widow, Anna di Ferrara, but no sentence was pronounced.
Note 12, p. 126
Henri de Navarre then went to le prêche, Marguerite to mass.
Note 13, p. 128
Memoirs and Letters of Marguerite de Valois published by the Société de l’Histoire de France, by M. Guessand, 1842.
Note 14, p. 144
Coligni’s head was cut off, embalmed, and sent to Rome as a trophy. His remains were collected and buried by his friend, Montmorenci, at Chantilly. Before their removal from Montfaucon, Charles and all his court rode to see them. One of the courtiers observed “that the body smelt foul.” “Nay,” replied Charles, “the body of an enemy always smells sweet.”
Note 15, p. 135
SULLY’S ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
“I felt myself awakened at three hours after midnight by the loud ringing of all the bells, and the confused cries of the populace. My governor, Saint-Just and my valet went out. I never heard any more of them. I continued alone in my chamber, dressing myself, when in a few moments I saw my landlord enter, pale and astonished. He was of the reformed religion. He came to persuade me to go with him to mass. I did not think proper to follow him, but resolved to try if I could gain the College of Burgundy, where I studied, notwithstanding the distance it was from the house where I lodged, which made the attempt very perilous. I put on my scholar’s robe, and taking a large prayer-book under my arm, I went out. Upon entering the street, I was seized with horror at the sight of the furies who rushed from all parts, and burst open the houses, bawling out ‘Slaughter, slaughter – massacre the Huguenots!’ the blood which I saw shed before my eyes redoubled my terror. I fell into the midst of a body of guards; they stopped me, questioned me, and were beginning to use me ill, when, happily for me, the book that I carried was perceived, and served me as a passport. At last I arrived at the College of Burgundy, when a danger far greater than any I had yet met with awaited me. The porter having twice refused me entrance, I remained in the midst of the street, at the mercy of the Catholic furies, whose numbers increased every moment, and who were evidently in quest of their prey, when I bethought myself of calling for the principal of the college, La Faye, a good man, who loved me tenderly. The porter, gained by some small pieces of money which I put into his hand, did not fail to make him come at once. This honest man led me into his chamber. Here two inhuman priests, whom I heard make mention of the Sicilian Vespers, wanted to force me from him, that they might cut me in pieces, saying: ‘The order was to kill to the very infants at the breast!’ All that La Faye could do was to conduct me secretly to a remote closet, where he locked me up. I was there confined three days, uncertain of my destiny, receiving succour only from a domestic belonging to this charitable man, who brought me from time to time something to preserve my life.”
Note 16, p. 138
According to Dufresnay, Tables Chronologiques, vol. ii., seventy thousand Huguenots perished in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which lasted seven days and seven nights. One man boasted that he had killed four hundred with his own hand.
Note 17, p. 139
It was the renown of these victories that gained for Henry the crown of Poland.
Note 18, p. 149
Comte d’Auvergne, son of Charles IX. by Marie Touchet, illegitimate nephew of Henry III. and half-brother of Henrietta d’Entragues.
Note 19, p. 158
Henry IV. was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duc de Vendôme, and of Jeanne d’Albret, only daughter of Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre, married to Marguerite Alençon, sister of Francis I., the widow of the Duc d’Alençon.
Note 20, p. 162
Chicot was a Gascon, jester to Henry IV. His specialité was intense hatred to the Duc de Mayenne, whom he constantly attempted to attack. During an engagement at Bures, he made prisoner the Comte de Chaligny, and carried him into Henry’s presence. “Tiens!” said he, “this is my prisoner.” Chaligny was so enraged at having been captured by a buffoon, that he poniarded Chicot on the spot.
Note 21, p. 253
Marie de’ Medici died in poverty at Cologne, aged sixty-nine.
Note 22, p. 255
The Duchesse de Montbazon died suddenly at Paris of measles. De Rancé was in the country at the time; no one dared tell him what had happened. On his return to Paris he ran up the stairs into her rooms, expecting to find her. There he found an open coffin, containing the corpse of Madame de Montbazon. The head was severed from the body (the coffin having been made too short), and lay outside on the winding sheet. Such is the story according to the Véritable Motifs de la Conversion de l’Abbé de la Trappe. Other authorities contradict these details.
Note 23, p. 283
Now the military hospital of the Val de Grâce, 277, Rue Saint-Jacques. Anne of Austria having been married twenty-two years without issue, vowed that she would build a new church within the convent, if she bore an heir to the throne. After the death of her husband, Louis XIII., she fulfilled her vow. The first stone of the present church was laid in 1645, by her son, Louis XIV.
