one for himself, and he even appears to have continued
in the enjoyment of his government despite this obstinacy;
but having been convicted, during a period of profound
peace, of maintaining an intelligence with the Spaniards,
he was made prisoner by a stratagem, by Nicolas Rapin,
provost of the connetablie (or constable’s jurisdiction),
as an accomplice of the Duc de Biron, as he was on
the point of delivering up both the fort and the island
to his dangerous allies.
[204] L’Etoile, vol. x.
pp. 36, 37.
[205] Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Mayenne, was the
second son of Francois de Lorraine, Duc de Guise,
and was born in 1554. He distinguished himself
at the sieges of Poitiers and La Rochelle, and at
the battle of Montcontour, and fought successfully
against the Calvinists in Guienne and Saintonge.
His brothers having been killed at the States of Blois
in 1588, he declared himself chief of the League,
and assumed the title of lieutenant-general of the
kingdom and crown of France; and by virtue of this
self-created authority, caused the Cardinal de Bourbon
to be declared King, under the name of Charles X.
Having inherited the hatred of his brothers for Henri
III, and his successor Henri IV, he marched eighty
thousand men against the latter Prince, but was defeated,
both at Arques and Ivry. He annihilated the faction
of the Sixteen; and was ultimately compelled to effect
a reconciliation with the King in 1599, when Henri
IV, with his usual clemency, not only pardoned his
past opposition, but bestowed upon him the government
of the Isle of France. The Duc de Mayenne died
in 1611, leaving by his wife, Henriette de Savoie,
daughter of the Comte de Tende, one son, Henri, who
died without issue in 1621.
[206] Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, born in 1571,
was the son of Henri, Duc de Guise, who was assassinated
at the States of Blois in 1588. At the period
of his father’s death he was conveyed to the
castle of Tours, where he was retained a prisoner
until August 1591, when he effected his escape, a
circumstance which materially changed the fortunes
of the League. The general impression in the capital
had been that he would become the husband of the Infanta
Isabel, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, who would
cause him to be proclaimed King, an arrangement which
the Duque de Feria, the Spanish ambassador, proposed
to the League in 1593. The Legate, the Sixteen,
and the doctors of the Sorbonne, alike favoured this
election, and the negotiations proceeded so far that
the Spaniards and Neapolitans in Paris rendered him
regal honours. The young Prince, who had at this
period only attained his twenty-second year, expressed
great indignation at being made the puppet of so absurd
a comedy, feeling convinced that neither the Duc de
Mayenne nor the Duc de Nemours, both of whom coveted
the crown, would finally favour his accession; and
there can be little doubt that the state of extreme
poverty to which he was reduced at the time caused
him to consider the project as still more extravagant
than he might otherwise have done, it being stated
(Mem. pour l’Hist. de France) that his
servants were, on one occasion, compelled to pawn one
of his cloaks and his saddle-cloth in order to furnish
him with a dinner.
