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Authors: Ida Ashworth Taylor

Tags: #Louis XIII, King of France, 1601-1643

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The state of the King's mind indicated by his action in these matters gave additional importance to the fact that, in these early years, the will of the Dauphin and that of his father were apt to come into sharp and direct collision, the comparison he had made between his two little sons, to the disadvantage of his heir, being thereby explained. The effect of training and discipline is quickly apparent, and already the poor child at Saint-Germain was showing it.

Confided to the care of a coarse-minded and violent woman, most unfit for her post, severity alternated with over-indulgence. Corporal punishment, intimidation, and menaces, were the means taken to enforce obedience. A mason would be introduced, who prepared to carry the child away in his hod ; a locksmith displayed the instruments of his craft, telling him that they were used to drive nails into those who were stubborn. Worse still, a bunch of birch rods were let down through the chimney, and he was given to understand that an angel had brought them from heaven. At the same time he was never permitted to forget that he was a person of importance, was encouraged to domineer over his brothers, sisters, and attendants; was flattered by all, and was the centre of attention. It was scarcely possible that he should not be self-willed, and bent upon having his own way ; if he was afraid of the whip, administered almost from the cradle, it could not be expected to exercise a moral influence, and served rather to rouse and strengthen his resistance than to reduce him to penitence. Heroard, combining with a dog-like devotion to his little master and an inordinate estimate of his gifts and qualities a clear perception of his faults and failings, displays from time to time regret for the methods in use ; but except in the matter of health his opinions were of small account, and Madame de Montglat reigned supreme.

The child and his usual surroundings being what they were, it was natural that when father and son were brought into close contact friction should ensue.

f de PalUs g&rJa lengutnutU Trtrf, £> tamii* qu'ellt vjut le Grec n sn eut la %n£ Ctpendatqut ia.France aura a (her Daulp'n-n La France aux eftragm nt ferula J< ^\-^-"

row an engraving by P. Firens, after a drawing by G. le Pileur.

LOUIS XIII. AS DAUPHIN, AT THE AGE OF THREE YEARS. ,62]

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King and Dauphin in Collision 63

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Both were strong-willed, both indisposed to yield. Henri's ideas of discipline were those of a soldier. Obedience must be prompt at the moment he was disposed to exact it; though, that moment past, his orders could be safely disregarded. " It will be observed," wrote Malherbe of some fresh court regulation, " in the same way as the command he issued lately that all the world, even in his absence, should be bareheaded in his chamber. An hour later everybody was covered there, including the servants themselves." In the same way, there were times when the Dauphin's ill-temper might be tolerated by ^his father, or even afford him amusement; whilst at others he would punish the child's defiance of authority with undue severity.

" The King comes to see him," wrote Heroard in January 1604, when the boy was not yet two and a half, "and plays with him gaily. The Dauphin is put into such a bad temper that he nearly bursts himself with screaming, and all was in so great confusion that I had not the courage to observe what he was doing, except that, crying very much, he wanted to beat all the world. Long afterwards, he is whipped." Again, in March, " Taken to the King's chamber, he threatens him with the whip. He grows stubborn, wishes to go to his own room. Brought to that of the Queen, he ntinues the same. The King orders him to be whipped. He is whipped by Madame de Montglat. nly quieted by preserve given him by the Queen, ving tried to beat and scratch the Queen. Taken the new buildings, he is roughly handled by the King."

To the mother, looking on and aware that the child, as well as herself, had a rival in his father's affections, scenes of this kind, unimportant in themselves, may have been invested with significance, and she may have felt that her boy's baby passions were working against him.

CHAPTER VI 1604

Recall of the Jesuits—The Queen and Madame de Verneuil — The Marquise's children placed at Saint-Germain — Discovery of the plot of d'Entragues —The King's clemency.

IN the winter of 1603-4 Henri-Quatre committed what has been widely regarded as a grave blunder. This was the readmission of the Jesuits to France.

Their expulsion from the kingdom had been the consequence of the attempt made, in 1594, upon the King's life, ascribed, rightly or wrongly, to their influence. It is clear from the circular letter written by Henri after his escape that he, no less than others, held the Order responsible for the danger he had run. No information, he observed, had been extracted from the culprit, save the fact that he had passed three years at the Jesuit college, where it was to be presumed that he had received this good instruction. The King, the Parlement, the Sorbonne, and the University of Paris were agreed in their determination to make use of the opportunity to expel the Society from France, and for close upon ten years Henri had been firm in resisting the endeavours made to induce him to reconsider his decision and to consent to their return. If he had two lives, he once said lightly, he would

willingly sacrifice one of them to satisfy his Holiness. Having but one, he must preserve it for the Pope's service and for the welfare of his people.

In the years that had elapsed since Jean ChUtel's blow had been struck the King's attitude had undergone a notable change, and, in the teeth of the opposition offered to the measure, he had now determined upon readmitting the Society. His motives in doing so were doubtless mixed. Those to whom, judging him by the change of creed by which he won a throne, he pre-eminently represents the principle of indifference or opportunism in religious matters, will naturally regard his action as a concession to political expediency. Yet there may have been another explanation. By the testimony of contemporaries, confirmed by the evidence afforded by his life and language, the desire he testified to reconcile conflicting parties was combined not only with a simple faith in God, but with unquestioning and unwavering loyalty to the Church of his adoption. His correspondence, says the editor of his " Lettres Intimes," proves that he was very religious ; in familiar intercourse he displayed sentiments that were never paraded. His boy was carefully and strictly trained in the observance of the rites of the Church and in the knowledge of its tenets, was taken to confession when still walking in leading-strings, the King himself listening to his repetition of the Paternoster. Henri was moreover curiously anxious to make converts. His endeavours to induce his sister to follow his example have been seen. Upon Sully, too, he brought to bear all the pressure possible alike as master and friend ; whilst a few days before

his death he was apparently engaged in controversy with M. de la Force, also a Huguenot.

" My friend," he is quoted as saying, " the Roman religion is not so full of idolatry as I formerly believed."

With loyal adherence to the Church he had joined a strong spirit of religious toleration was combined. The Edict of Nantes proved it on the one side ; and if policy and diplomacy had their share in determining his present line of conduct, there is no reason to disbelieve his own assertion that he was actuated by worthier motives. A Jesuit, named Cotton, had also acquired considerable influence over him ; giving rise to the mot that, now that the King had his ears full of cotton, he listened to no one.

From whatever cause, he was resolute in carrying out his purpose ; his reply to the protests of the Parlement being made in a tone proving that remonstrance would be useless. It contained an emphatic and curious vindication—coming from the ex-Huguenot— of the Order so generally unpopular. How could men, he demanded, be charged with ambition who were pledged to refuse dignities or bishoprics ? The opposition offered to them by ecclesiastics was due to the quarrel existing from all time between ignorance and knowledge. Two classes of men, in particular, were adverse to the proposed measure—Churchmen of evil life and those belonging to the Protestant religion : a fact, added the King, increasing the estimation in which he held the Order. If the Sorbonne had condemned them it was without knowing them. The University had occasion to regret their absence, since it had become a desert in consequence of it ; and scholars, in

spite of all decrees to the contrary, had sought them, both in France and abroad. If one Jesuit had been involved in the attempt upon his* life, was that a reason that all should suffer ? Should every one of the apostles have been driven away because of a single Judas ? It was said that they were employed by Spain. France also shouLJ make use of them, and God had reserved for him the glory of effecting their re-establishment.

To Rosny, strongly adverse to the proposed measure, Henri adopted another line of argument. Two courses, he told his friend, lay before him : either he should admit the Order on the strength of their protestations of loyalty, or he must exclude them with greater severity than heretofore, using all possible rigour so as to keep them at a distance, " in which case there is no doubt that they will be rendered desperate, and will make attempts upon my life, rendering it so wretched and languishing, always in dread of poison or assassination . . . that I should be better dead."

Rosny yielded. His judgment might be against the re-establishment of the Order as a political step, but he loved his master. Rather than that the King should be reduced to the condition he described, he said, let the Jesuits or any other sect be established in the realm ! The Council submitted to the King's will, and the thing was done.

That he acted not without a knowledge of perils to which the measure might give rise is indicated by the instructions he is said to have given the Queen as to her conduct with regard to the Society in case of his death. She was to treat them well, but was

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