THE KINGS |
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Épernon Under Henry III 1574 Jean-Louis de Nogaret de La Valette fought on the Catholic side during the French Wars of Religion, where he first was noticed by the duc d'Anjou, who would be the future King Henry III of France. 1578 He was accepted into King Henry III's most intimate circle of favorites, known as les mignons.
The article is very harsh as to the mignons of Henry III, as well it should be, I think. As for our Jean-Louis, I'm quite certain he was a "favourite" in the political sense of the word, as described in the second Wikipedia article. He was not participating in homosexual activities with Henry III or others at his Court. He was married twice, had numerous mistresses and children. Portraits of him do not portray him as a fop as some other portraits of other "favorites" do. He also was very busy with responsibilities, duties, and the wars, to spend all his time in leisure activities around the king or at his Court. 1581 In 1581, Henry III sold the town of Épernon to Jean-Louis.
Henry created for Jean-Louis the Duchy of Épernon, and he was made the first duc d'Épernon. He will hereafter be referred to as Épernon. In addition, as one of Henri's mignons, the king showered many favors and titles upon him:
It has been said that Épernon, was the model for the intrepid d'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. The duc (a Catholic) was very loyal to King Henry III (also a Catholic), and was very opposed to Henry of Navarre (a Protestant) becoming the next king. |
KING HENRY IV
1553-1610
A Protestant, then later a Catholic
Henri de Bourbon was born on 13 December 1553, in the Château de Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the southwest of France, former province of Béarn.
His father was Antoine de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, and descended in the 9th generation from the 13th-century king of France, Louis IX.
His mother was Jeanne d'Albret, was Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. Her mother was Marguerite of Navarre, a sister of King François I of France, making him a 2nd cousin of Kings François II, Charles IX and Henry III.
Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his strong-minded Calvinist mother, a leader of the French Protestant (Huguenot) movement, which during the 1560s became involved in a series of civil wars with the Catholics. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion.
On June 9 1572, upon Jeanne's death, he became King Henry III of Navarre.
Henry's wedding in 1572 to Margaret of Valois, sister of the reigning monarch, Charles IX, was followed by the massacre of thousands of Huguenots. This became known as the Saint Bartholomew's Day, Massacre.
When the childless Henry III, king of France, was assassinated, the French crown passed on 1 August 1589 to Navarre, and he was now King Henry IV, king of France, the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France.
It was to his father (a 10th-generation descendant of King Louis IX), however, to whom Henri owed his succession to the throne of France. The "Salic Law" disregarded all female lines, and Henri was the senior descendant of the senior surviving male line of the Capetian dynasty. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. Upon the death of Henri III of France, who had no son to succeed him, the crown passed to Henri IV. The new king, however, had to fight for some years to be recognized as the legitimate king of France by the Catholics, who were opposed to his Protestant faith.
Despite the endorsement of Henry III of France, many people would not accept a Protestant as their King, and Henry of Navarre had to continue to do battle with the Catholic League, which received strong support from Spain. Thus it was several more years before Henri could be crowned King of France.
On the 21st of September 1589, King Henry IV engaged the Duke of Mayenne at Arques, on the north coast near Dieppe. His force of a few thousand men, managed to repel the much larger forces of the Catholic League. Shortly after this Henri received reinforcements from Elizabeth I of England, as well as the Count de Soissons and others.
On the 14th of March 1590 Henri again did battle with Mayenne, this time at Ivry to the west of Paris. Again King Henry IV prevailed. However the Catholic League retained a strong grip on Paris.
Henri Converts and is Finally Crowned
On the 25th of July 1593, Henry III of Navarre converted back to the Catholic faith, which led to him being officially crowned as Henry IV of France at Chartres, on the 27th of February 1594. Henri is reputed to have said that "Paris is worth a Mass". It still took him until 22 March 1594 and the bribing of key officials before he was able to enter and claim Paris.
Many Protestants were disappointed, that the man they had supported, had renounced their faith for a second time. Many Catholics didn't believe his conversion was sincere. In the middle ground were men like Henri himself of both religions, who realized that for France to recover from the turmoil of the religious wars, the two religions needed to live peacefully side by side.
Henri used his new influence to draft the Edict of Nantes, which was signed in 1598, and which gave Protestants freedom to practice their faith in what was still predominantly Catholic France.
The war lasted several more years, as Catholic League diehards and Spanish troops continued to resist the reunification of France.
Reunification of France
But once those were dealt with, he was credited with brokering peace between Catholics and Protestants. His reign inaugurated a time of commerce and peace commonly regarded as a golden age. His long time trusted friend, the financially astute Duke of Rosny, was promoted in 1606 and from then on became known as the Duke of Sully, and helped Henri set about rebuilding the finances and infrastructure of the united Kingdoms of France and Navarre, which had been devastated by the lengthy wars of religion. He built Parisian landmarks including the Pont Neuf bridge and Place des Vosges.
King Henry IV was a man of good humor, and was much loved by his people, called "le bon roi" (the good king). A Protestant, he had converted to Catholicism to unite his subjects. He displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time.
And yet, there were over twenty assassination attempts during his reign, all unsuccessful until the 14th of May 1610.
Because Henri planned to be absent for long periods on state business, Marie d'Medici was crowned Queen on the 13th of May 1610, so that she could act in his place while he was away.
Quite oddly, the next day, the 14th of May 1610, the king was struck down in the streets of Paris by the blade of a Roman Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac. Ravaillac stabbed Henri to death while his coach's progress was stopped by traffic congestion for the Queen's coronation ceremony.
My page
Assassination of King Kenry IV
Henri was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.
The reign of Henry IV had a lasting impact on the French people for generations. A statue of him was built at the Pont Neuf in 1614, only four years after his death. Although this statue — as well as those of all the other French kings — was torn down during the French Revolution, it was the first to be rebuilt, in 1818, and it stands today on the Pont Neuf. He remains one of France's most beloved kings.
Link up to a song on YouTube from "chansons historiques de France": Vive Henri IV. Another rendition (with pictures) on YouTube: click here.
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Épernon Under Henry IV Épernon, had been a mignon of King Henry III and was very loyal to him, and opposed to Henry III of Navarre becoming the new king. After Henry III died, he attempted to install an independent government in Provence, which attempt failed. 1596 The duc was obliged to submit himself to King Henry IV, which he did. But he had not forgiven or forgotten. 1610 Épernon was, and always has been, under suspicion of complicity in the assassination of King Henry IV. This is also true regarding others close to the king, and to the duc. To read my page on the assassination, click here. Family Ties That Bind There were a few somewhat close relationships between the Nogaret de la Valettes and King Henry IV. These involved two of the king's mistresses.
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KING LOUIS XIII
1601-1643
A Catholic
Louis XIII of France was born in 1601 at Fontainebleu. He was the son of Henry IV and Marie d'Medici. He was the first of the Bourbon kings of France.
On the day in 1610 when his father was assassinated, Louis was nine years old and King of France.
Absolute monarchical power, started by Louis XI and advanced by Kings Francis I and Henri II, was expanded during his reign.
Queen Mother Marie is Regent
Since Louis was a minor, France, then would be governed by a Regent – in this case, the Queen Mother, Marie d'Medici. She allowed her favourites, Galigai and Concini, to do as they wished, thereby discrediting the monarchy after the exalted heights to which Henry IV had taken it.
Even after being declared of age in 1614, he was excluded from affairs of state by his domineering mother. From then on he became more and more influenced by Charles, duc de Luynes, who favoured an extension of royal absolutism.
Marriage
In 1615, Louis married Anne of Austria; daughter of Philip III, king of Spain.
The Queen Mother is Ousted
In 1617, Louis caused the assassination of his mother's favorite, Concino Concini, with the aid of his own favorite, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, and Marie d'Medici was exiled to a château at Blois and kept out of the royal court.
In addition, the king and de Luynes concocted a trial that found the Queen mother's other favorite, Galigai, guilty of being a witch, a decision that led to her execution.
Once both of the Queen's former favorites were out of his way, de Luynes used his position to expand his power, but also the power of the king.
Louis and his mother reconciled in 1622 and he entrusted the government to her protégé, Cardinal Richelieu in 1624.
Cardinal Richelieu
Armand Jean Duplessis, Duc de Richelieu (1585-1642) was consecrated as a bishop in 1608. He later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. He soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a Cardinal in 1622.
The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known as King Louis XIII's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister." As a result, he is considered to be the world's first Prime Minister, in the modern sense of the term. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state.
His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
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| A stylised depiction of Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle by Henri Motte, 1881 |
Louis XIII Crowned by Victory (Siege of La Rochelle, 1628) by Philippe de Champaigne, 1635 |
As the de facto ruler of France from 1629 onward, his ultimate intent, however, was to break the power of the Huguenots. He did so in the 1628 Siege of La Rochelle when he starved them into surrender.
Day of the Dupes
Day of Dupes is the name given to the day in November of 1630 on which the enemies of Cardinal Richelieu mistakenly believed that they had succeeded in persuading Louis XIII, King of France, to dismiss Richelieu from power. The actual day is thought to have been either on the 10th, 11th, or 12th of the month.
In November 1630, the political relations between the cardinal and the queen mother reached a crisis. In a stormy scene on 10 November, in the Luxembourg Palace, Marie d'Medici and the cardinal met in the king's presence. The queen mother demanded the cardinal's dismissal, declaring that the king had to choose between him and her.
No immediate decision came from this conference, but the king retired to his hunting lodge in Versailles. Richelieu seems to have believed that his political career was over, but the intercession of influential friends saved the minister from impending disgrace. While the apartments of the Luxembourg Palace were thronged by the cardinal's enemies celebrating his fall, Richelieu followed the king to Versailles, where the monarch assured him of continued support. Marie was subsequently exiled to Compiègne. The "Day of Dupes", as this event was called, marks the complete restoration of the cardinal to royal favor.
Under Richelieu's anti-Habsburg foreign policy, in 1635, France entered the Thirty Years' War as an ally of Sweden and the Protestant princes of Germany. Louis's reign was marked also by occasional religious strife between Roman Catholics and the French Protestants, or Huguenots, and by the many conspiracies against Richelieu.
Richelieu strengthened royal authority and centralized government control, at the expense of the power of the nobility.
He remained in office until his death in 1642, and was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he had fostered.
Article on Wikipedia
Cardinal Richelieu
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Épernon Under Louis XIII 1610 When King Henry IV died in 1610, his eldest son, Louis, was only nine, and much too young to rule. Épernon played a large part in the immediate acceptance of Henri's widow, Marie d'Medici, as Regent. As a result he exercised a considerable influence upon the government. Cardinal Richelieu found in Épernon a rival whom he could not subdue. He wanted neither Épernon nor Marie d'Medici in his way. 1622 La Valette married Gabrielle-Angélique de Verneuil, the illegitimate daughter of King Henry IV and the Marquise de Verneuil. Her birth was legitimized upon her marriage. Épernon was named military Governor of Guienne. 1633 La Valette was inducted as a Chevalier du Saint-Esprit on 15 May 1633.
1634 Cardinal Richelieu arranged for La Valette, to marry his niece, Marie du Cambout, under the pretext of bringing about a reconciliation. This was not a happy marriage and no children ensued. In the southwest of France, the relationship between Épernon, and Henri de Sourdis (brother and successor of Cardinal François de Sourdis), led to a public altercation in which Épernon struck Sourdis. Furious, Sourdis demanded the duc's excommunication. 1635 La Valette was charged by Louis XIII with restoring the order which had been disturbed by lifting of taxes and religious passions. 1636 La Valette, fought in Picardy, in Guyenne, and finally against the Spaniards. 1637 La Valette repressed the Peasants' Revolt (Révolte des Croquants). Richelieu believed that La Valette and his elder brother (Count de Caumont and Candale) had taken counsel from the Huguenots, and had accused them of such. 1638 Charged by the Prince de Condé to lead the assault at the siege of Fontarabie (Hondarribia), La Valette refused, believing that the breach was not broad enough. He yielded his post to Vice-Admiral de Sourdis who launched an ill-fated attack which resulted in heavy losses. Saint Simon wrote in his memoirs that Cardinal Richelieu had placed Épernon and all his sons, in the command of various sections of the army, hoping to rid himself of them all. It had particularly grieved the old duc when even his youngest son, Louis (the Cardinal de la Valette and archbishop of Toulouse), had forsaken his books and study to go at Richelieu's request in command of a wing of the army. Richelieu had hated and been life-long rivals of both the old duc and his son, the La Valette. With that incentive, he had capitalized upon the occasion of the defeat at Fontarabie to rid himself of the Épernons. The "reconciliation" between La Valette and Richelieu had failed. Richelieu and Louis XIII attributed the defeat at Fontarabie to La Valette and accused him of complicity with the enemy (treason). La Valette had had nothing to do with it and, in fact, deserved praise for rejoining the remains of the army and leading it to Bayonne. 1638 Épernon gave up his post at Guienne. A summons was sent to La Valette, "to come render his Majesty an account" of his actions. At the time of the defeat at Fontarabie, the old duc was in Bordeaux. When the news reached him, he at once foresaw the disgrace his son would suffer at court and resolved to hurry toward him. Scarcely had he begun this journey when the King ordered him to turn back and go to his château at Plassac and not to move until his Majesty's further pleasure. Thus he was kept a prisoner in his own château. When La Valette heard that the Court was unfriendly and that they determined his ruin, he dispatched a request to his father, "to send him opinion concerning his journey to the King." The old duc replied that he "durst not give counsel to go to Court, knowing to what degree it was animated against him, so likewise could he not advise him to depart the kingdom, perhaps never to see him again; and should he resolve to draw himself out of France he was by no means to come to take his leave of him." In other words, if La Valette should decide to leave France, he was not to make a detour to take leave of his father. 1639 Cardinal Richelieu had La Valette, tried in front of an extraordinary court chaired by the king himself. The court returned a sentence of death. La Valette’s two brothers tried to intercede for him, but without success. La Valette knew Richelieu quite well, and prudently departed for England. The penalty was carried out in effigy. La Valette left behind his children and his wife, the duchesse de La Vallette [Richelieu's niece]. Soon after he left, his elder brother (Count de Caumont and Candale), was stricken with a malady and died suddenly. And then, the youngest brother, the Cardinal, "fell into a melancholy that put him at last into a desperate disease. The beginning of this distemper was as light as it had been in that of the Duke of Candale, his brother, and the issue of it as fatal". A conflicting account of the cardinal’s death is that portrayed by Guizot in his Histoire de France (Vol. 4). He stated that the Pope "refused the customary funeral rights to the Cardinal de la Valette who died fighting at the head of the Army of the king." During all this family chaos, Épernon, was still being held a virtual prisoner at his château de Plassac. When he heard of the loss of his sons, he cried, "O Lord since thou hast reserved my old age to survive the loss of my three children be pleased withal to give me strength wherewith to support the severity of the judgments." Three years later, he was ordered by the King, from Plassac to Loches, a desolate, most uncomfortable castle. 1642Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, le duc d'Épernon, died in the Château de Loches in January, 1642, at the age of 88. Only one source states he died in the dungeon of Loches. All other sources indicate he died in the château of Loches.
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KING LOUIS XIV
1638-1715
A Catholic
Louis XIV was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was the third monarch of the Bourbon family, and ruled for 72 years (1643-1715), the longest reign in European history.
He was the unexpected child of King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, who had not had children in their 22-year marriage. He was christened Louis Dieudonné (literally, “gift of God”).
In 1643, before his fifth birthday, his father died, and Louis inherited the crown of France, which was internally divided, militarily exhausted, and nearly bankrupt.
While a child, his mother served as regent, ruling France in his place. She was assisted by Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the Italian financier who had been the principal minister of Louis XIII. Mazarin had guided the nation through the later stages of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
Marriage
Out of diplomatic necessity, Louis married Marie-Thérèse, the eldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain. The marriage was arranged via a treaty that explicitly excluded Marie's heirs from inheriting the Spanish crown once Philip had paid her dowry. But the full dowry was never paid. Consequently, Louis refused to relinquish his family's claim to the Spanish inheritance, a claim that was to influence French policy later in his reign.
After Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661 [the same year our La Valette died], Louis declared that henceforth he would rule France without a chief minister, something no French king had done in living memory. He intended to rule as an absolute monarch, believing that his power as king was derived from God and that he was responsible to God alone. He took the sun as his emblem and connected himself to its radiant image. Portraits, woodcuts, and engravings of the king portrayed as the Greek sun god Apollo poured from Parisian workshops.
On the domestic front, Louis strengthened the central government's control over the diverse regions of France, incorporating his territorial gains into a united state.
On the other hand, he provoked controversy when he restored Catholic religious unity by revoking the Edict of Nantes and repressing Protestantism.
Unfortunately many of Louis's policies, both domestic and foreign, caused great hardship to ordinary people, many of whom suffered starvation, fled their homeland, or lived in terror of persecution.
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Épernon Under Louis XIV 1642 While in exile in the United Kingdom, La Valette, had been bestowed with England's highest honor, the Order of the Garter.
Jean-Louis, the 1st duc d'Épernon died in January of 1642 at Loches. With him at the time were his grandchildren, La Valette's children, and their step-mother, Marie du Cambout. Upon his death, his son, La Valette, became the 2nd duc d'Épernon. Cardinal Richelieu died on 4 December 1642. He had hated the Nogaret de La Valettes, especially Jean-Louis and Bernard, and was the foremost cause of their fall from power. 1643 King Louis XIII died. La Valette (Bernard) was now the 2nd duc d'Épernon, and returned to France upon the death of the Cardinal Richelieu. The Parliament of Paris cancelled the judgment against him. 1648 Épernon was also responsible for transporting artillery of the Château du Hâ to arm the Château-Trompette to put down unrest resulting from the Parliament of Bordeaux's refusal to allow the departure of a shipment of corn, for fear of famine. 1654-1660 Épernon served as Governor of Burgundy. He guarded the theatre company of Charles Dufresne (whose most famous member was Molière).
According to another gem historian, the Sancy was sold under different circumstances. During the Civil War, Queen Henrietta Maria took it to the Continent and pledged it, together with other diamonds, to Duke of Epernon for 460,000 livres. In 1657, Cardinal Mazarin paid off the Duke and, with the Queen's consent, took possession of the gems and bequeathed them with other fine stones to Louis XIV.
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RESOURCES
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES
Cardinal Richelieu
Catherine d'Medici, mother of Henry III
Henry III of France
Les Mignons - of King Henry III.
François Ravaillac, assassin of King Henry III, 1610
War of the Three Henries
Wives and Mistresses of King Henry IV
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
Henry III of France, king from 1610-1643
Henry IV of France, king from 1589-1610
MISCELLANEOUS
Article about: Jean-Louis de Nogaret de la Valette (in French).
See especially, half-way down, regarding the assassination of King Henry III.
Article re: French kings Henry III, Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV on the Girouard Family website (a good article).
Galliawatch Blogspot article: The Head of King Henry IV
Wives of Henry IV - (a good site)
"Esoteric Curiosa" Blogspot article on King Henry IV (a good article).
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