Monsieur. Second Sons in the Monarchy of France, 15501800 by Jonathan Spangler;

Author:Jonathan Spangler; [Spangler;, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367761936
Publisher: TaylorFrancis
Published: 2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

To compensate, Richelieu advised the King that Monsieur should indeed be given the requested command of the army heading for Italy. On 27 December, this wish was granted, and Gaston was given 150,000 livres to support himself and these troops on this venture.

At the start of 1629, it seems Cardinal Richelieu’s policy for domestic harmony was to keep the two royal brothers united, in particular to counterbalance the pro-Spanish faction at court led by the Queen Mother. She, who had once been his patron and promoter, was now his chief opponent.138 Richelieu was thus surprised and dismayed when the King changed his mind in January and decided to lead his troops to Italy himself. The Cardinal offered to resign, and yet Gaston – this time incorrectly – blamed him for this new humiliation. News of the death in prison of another friend (and his half-brother), the Grand Prior, Alexandre de Vendôme, only further fuelled his resentment. Gaston took refuge for much of this period in his apanage capital of Orléans or at his country residence at Montargis.139 His letters to a family friend, Cardinal de Bérulle, are full of plans to leave France, or requests for a provincial government, far from court intrigues, where he might exercise some independent authority.140 Gaston also wrote directly to Louis, by this time travelling with the royal army in the south of France, saying, in an echo of letters we have seen written by the duke of Alençon, that his stay in his apanage was not an act of disloyalty, but to ‘console his grief’. ‘I am certain that in the depths of your heart you know very well the inclinations that I have to love and honour you as a father…it is my strongest consolation during my worst times.’141 Louis’s answer was sharp, criticising his brother for a lack of respect for their mother, for frequently breaking his word, for keeping himself far away from court and for leading a debauched life.142

Louis was not mollified. Soon after this exchange, Gaston learned that his brother was returning swiftly from the south, and he feared for his safety. In July he wrote to the Queen Mother that he was unwell and had decided to visit the healing waters at Spa in the Ardennes, and by September, he had crossed the frontier into the independent duchy of Lorraine. He was goaded on, as before, by the younger noblemen in his suite, notably Jacques Le Coigneux and Antoine de Puylaurens, who remembered the outcome of the Chalais affair and certainly feared for their own heads.143 As seen in Chapter 3, Monsieur and his entourage were well received by the duke of Lorraine, Charles IV, and an idea was generated to link their causes closer together through marriage to his younger sister, Marguerite de Lorraine. Sensing the danger of such a union, Richelieu’s agents were negotiating within a month for Monsieur’s return. Gaston indicated that he would agree to the Queen Mother’s plans for his remarriage in return

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