Christina of Denmark - Duchess of Milan and Lorraine (Illustrated) by Julia Cartwright

Author:Julia Cartwright
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Didactic Press
Published: 2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

BOOK IX: CHRISTINA, REGENT OF LORRAINE 1545-1552

I.

The premature death of her husband left Christina in a position of exceptional difficulty. Everything combined to add to her distress. She herself was in delicate health, expecting the birth of another child in a few weeks, her only son was an infant of two years and a half, and she had not a single near relative or tried Minister to give her the help of his counsel and experience. The Duke had appointed her Regent of Lorraine during his son's minority, but even before he breathed his last, her claims to this office were disputed. Although Christina herself was popular with all classes of her son's subjects, there was a strong party in Lorraine which dreaded the influence of her powerful uncle. At the head of this party was the Rhinegrave, Jean de Salm, an able nobleman who had always been French in his sympathies, and who now seized the opportunity of the Duke's last illness to advance the claims of Monsieur de Metz, seeing that this young Prince would be an easy tool in his hands. At ten o'clock on the Fête-Dieu, when the Duke had received the last Sacraments, the Count de Salm entered his room with Nicolas de Vaudemont, and thus addressed him: "Monseigneur, if it please God to call you to himself, do you wish that Monsieur de Metz, your brother, should have a share in the administration of your State and the care of your children, without prejudice to the arrangements which you have already made, by word and in writing, with your august wife the Duchess?" The dying Prince, who was hardly conscious, murmured a faint "Yes," upon which the Count summoned a notary to write down the Duke's last wishes, and proceeded to read the document to the Duchess in the presence of her servants.Christina, in her bitter distress, paid little heed to this interruption, and was only anxious to return to her dying husband's bedside; but immediately after his death she found herself compelled to face the question. Owing to her delicate state of health, she decided to put off the Duke's funeral, as well as that of his father, until the following year. A week after his death she joined her young children at her dower-house of Denœuvre, and at the same time the Duke's body was removed by Count de Salm, as Marshal of Lorraine, to the collegiate church of this place, and buried in a temporary grave, after lying in state during three days.

The Emperor was at Worms with the Elector Palatine and his wife when the news of the Duke of Lorraine's death reached him, and sent Montbardon at once to his niece with letters of condolence. Christina availed herself of this opportunity to ask her uncle's advice regarding the deed drawn up by Jean de Salm. Charles, realizing the critical nature of the situation, immediately sent one of his most trusted servants, François Bonvalot, Abbot of Luxeuil, to Nancy, with

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