The marriages of the Bourbons

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Chapter I. Preliminary Remarks On Matrimonial Alliances In Early French History

There had been a considerable amount of rivalry

for more than a century between the kings of France

and England, and especially between Philip Augustus

and Kichard Coeur de Lion. At last, in the spring of

1200, Eichard being dead, negotiations were opened

between King John and the French monarch for the

conclusion of peace. Among other articles there was

one which set forth that Louis, the son of Philip,

should marry Blanche of Castile, daughter of Alphonso

VIII. and of Elenora, the sister of the King of

England. King John agreed to give his niece, by

way of dowry, all his possessions in Berri, and a sum

of 20,000 marcs in silver. It is supposed that this

dowry was merely a pretext for concessions which it

would have been repugnant to the feelings of the

British monarch to have made in any other way, and vol. i. B repugnant to the feelings of the British people to have sanctioned.

It has been remarked, that the marriage of Blanche de Castile was a strange combination, being the result of a treaty not with Spain, but with England. The ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, at the rendezvous of the two kings in Normandy, on the 23rd of May, 1200.

In 1193 Philip Augustus, his first wife being dead, had demanded the hand of Ingeburge, the sister of the King of Denmark. By way of dowry, the Danes were to help the French against the English. The demand of the French king Was received with favour, and Philip Augustus went as far as Arras to meet the bride. The marriage was celebrated at Amiens. The princess is said to have been lovely and virtuous, but for some reason, which has always remained a mystery, the king, on the day of his wedding, conceived an invincible aversion for his wife, and at once determined upon a separation. A servile assembly of bishops and barons was convoked at Compiegne, and, on the ground of relationship between the two parties, pronounced a divorce. The queen refused to submit to this decision, or to return to Denmark, but retired into a convent in the diocese of Tournai. The King of Denmark appealed to the Court of Eome, and the Pope threatened Philip Augustus with all the thunders of the Church,' in case he carried out his project of espousing Marie de Meran. In spite of bulls and legates the marriage took place. The Pope annulled

1215.] THE GREAT CHARTER. 3

the divorce, and excommunicated the French king, who revenged himself on Ingeburge, had her arrested, and shut up in the castle of Etampes. After a violent and obstinate quarrel, Philip was obliged to give way, to promise that . he would take back Ingeburge, and that he would drive Marie de Meran from the kingdom.

"The Church in the middle ages," says Sismondi,. " always showed great indulgence for the tyranny, perfidy, or cruelty of kings ; these she considered as venial sins not to be brought under her jurisdiction ; but she constituted herself the strict guardian of marriage. ..."

Once reconciled with the Pope the French king made war with England, and one of the results of this war was the Great Charter forced by the barons on King John. In quick succession came other events, such as the battle of Bouvines, the crusade against the Albigeois, and the offer of the crown of England made by the barons to Louis the son of Philip Augustus, an offer which was accepted in spite of the remonstrances of the Pope. Louis landed in England, and was recognized in London and throughout the greater portion of the kingdom, but after the death of King John he soon found himself obliged to conclude a truce with Henry III. The troops of Louis were defeated at Lincoln in May, 1217; a fleet which his wife sent to him met the same fate off Dover in the following June, and in September, in virtue of a treaty, he left our shores.

Here then we see two matrimonial alliances — that contracted by Philip Augustus with the daughter of the King of Denmark, with the view of attacking England, and that contracted by his son Louis with Blanche of Castille, with the view of consolidating peace with England.

In 1223 Philip Augustus died, and was succeeded by his son, who reigned in France as Louis VIII. for the space of three years, a debilitated Lion, as he has been called.

Louis. VIII. died in 1226, leaving behind him five young children, the eldest of whom was afterwards known as St. Louis. For the moment, Queen Blanche acted as Eegent, and before long she thought of marrying her son, at the time eighteen years of age, to Margaret, the daughter of the Count of Provence. She accordingly sent Giles de Flag^ac to the Count of Toulouse to exhort him not to slacken his persecution of the Albigeois, and secretly commissioned him to visit Provence, and see if Margaret would be a suitable daughter-in-law for the Queen of France.

The report of De Flageac was favourable, and Louis and Margaret were married at Sens in May, 1234. The husband was nineteen and the wife thirteen years of age. " The queen mother," says Sismondi,1 " charged herself with the task of preventing them from living together until they grew stronger by years. Margaret did not have a child until she had been married for six years, and even then the Queen 1 Sismondi, Histoire des Fran$ais, t. 7, p. 136.

1234.] ST. LOUIS AND MARGARET. 5

Blanche kept a close watch upon the domestic life of their majesties. Jealous of her daughter-in-law, jealous of the influence which she might acquire over her husband, Blanche still endeavoured to keep Louis at a distance from his wife." "The harshness which Queen Blanche exhibited towards Queen Margaret," says Joinville, "was such that the Queen Blanche would never permit her son to be in company with his wife except in the evening, when they went to bed. The residence in which the king and the queen preferred to live was at Pontoise, where the king had a room up-stairs, and the queen a room downstairs, which communicated by a turning staircase, where they could converse together. They ordered the ushers when they saw Queen Blanche approaching the chamber of the king her son, to strike the door with their rods, and then the king ran into his room, so that his mother might find him there ; and the ushers did the same thing when Queen Blanche went to see Queen Margaret. Once when the king was with the queen his wife, and when she was in great peril of death, owing to a bad confinement, Queen Blanche came and took her son by the hand, saying, ' Come along ; you have nothing to do here.' When Queen Margaret saw that the king was being taken away by his mother, she cried, ' Alas ! will you not let me see my lord dying or living ? ' and then she fainted, and they supposed that she was dead ; and the king, who thought that she was dying, returned, and it was with great trouble that she was brought round." The same historian then adds — " The marriage of Louis seemed to give increased activity to political negotiations having marriages for their object. Since women had been permitted to succeed to large fiefs, and even to most monarchies, few treaties were so important as marriage treaties ; they often carried with them the union of two states — union which could not have been accomplished by twenty years of war or political intrigue, and populations were thus handed over to the lottery of the nuptial couch."

Henry III. of England, who was eight years younger than Louis IX., also | thought of marriage. He had successively desired to espouse princesses of Brittany, of Austria, of Bohemia, of Scotland, and of Ponthieu. If one is to believe Filleau de la Chaise,1 Louis IX., or rather Queen Blanche, constantly interfered with those marriages, causing them to fail one after the other. The treaty with Jeanne de Ponthieu was more advanced than any of the others. Henry III. had already married her by proxy, when, as Gregory IX. attested, a degree of relationship was discovered between the pair, for which he would not accord a dispensation. Henry III. then cast his eyes on Eleanora of Provence, the sister of the French queen. In October, 1235, he despatched his ambassadors to Provence to demand the hand of Eleanora, even without a dowry. Eleanora was brought to England by these ambassadors, was married to Henry III. at 1 Histoire de St. Louis, t. iv. p. 156.

1235.] HENRY III. OF ENGLAND. 7

Canterbury, and the following Sunday was crowned with him at Westminster.1

" Henry III. in this way became the brother-in-law of the King of France, and this alliance exercised a great influence on the policy of both kingdoms ; but at this epoch the King of England had not renounced the idea of recovering by force of arms the provinces which Philip Augustus had conquered from King John ; and that same year he strengthened by another marriage an alliance which might turn out prejudicial to France. Frederick II., who had • already lost two wives, demanded the hand of his sister, Isabella of England, undertaking to aid him in the war for which he was preparing. In spite of the influence which Queen Blanche exercised over the Court of Eome, Gregory IX. made no difficulty about granting a dispensation for this marriage. The bride left England and passed through the Low Countries ; but between Antwerp and Cologne care

1 Miss Strickland says in her Queens of England, vol. ii. p. 80, that " though Henry's age more than doubled that of the fair maid of Provence, of whose charms and accomplishments he had received such favourable reports, and he was aware that the poverty of the generous count, her father, was almost proverbial, yet the king's constitutional covetousness impelled him to demand the enormous portion of 20,000 marks with this fairest flower of the land of roses and sweet song." No dowry in reality appears to have been exacted. No matter how covetous Henry may have been by nature, he spent enormous sums over his marriage and coronation. " In fact," adds Miss Strickland, vol. ii. p. 87 — " so great was the outlay beyond the king's resources, that Henry expended the portion of his sister Isabella, just married to the Emperor of Germany, for the purpose of defraying them."

was taken that she should be accompanied by a strong escort, lest the French should be tempted to snap her up. She was married to the Emperor Frederick II. at Worms, in July, 1235."

In addition to these royal marriages several matrimonial alliances were formed among the great vassals — alliances which led Mathieu Paris to say in his History of England, p. 349 — " Several magnates were indignant that this kingdom of kingdoms, called France, should be governed by a woman ; and those who rose up against this state of affairs were grave and famous men, skilled in the use of arms from their youth, to wit — the King of Navarre, Comte de Campagne, the Comte de la Marche, the Comte de Bretagne, and several other great lords, who are bound together by a federation and by an oath." And, we may add, who were in league with the King of England.

In August, 1270, the best of the Capets died in his camp near Carthage, and several of his family were attacked by the disease which had proved fatal to the king. One of his sons, the Comte de Nevers, preceded him to the grave. His brother, the Comte de Toulouse, his son-in-law, the King of Navarre, and many of his chief barons succumbed shortly afterwards, while there was little hope that his eldest son Philip, who now succeeded him, would long survive. Before leaving Carthage Philip made his will. He entered Paris in February, 1271, accompanied by five coffins — those of his father, his brother, his brother-

1256.] THE SONS OF ST. LOUIS. 9

in-law, his wife, and his daughter. A few years later, and we find that of the six sons left by St. Louis only three remained — Philip, Pierre, Due d'Alencon, and Robert, Comte de Clermont. It was from Robert, the sixth son of St. Louis, that the illustrious house of Bourbon derived its royal title. Robert was born in 1256, and at the age of sixteen became Sire de Bourbon, owing to his marriage with Beatrice de Bourbon, heiress of the rich barony of that name.

Chapter II. Origin Of The Bourbons

As for the origin of the Bourbons, it is enveloped in mystery in spite of the volumes which have been devoted to the subject. According to some ancient authors, it is descended from Witikind, who so long defended his oppressed country against the arms of Charlemagne. Other authorities give the Bourbons the kings of Lombardy, the dukes of Bavaria, or a prince of Saxony for ancestors. Desormeaux tells us that this house had for ancestor Robert le Fort, a prince whose lofty origin is lost in the night of centuries. He adds —

" But, no matter how illustrious the birth of Robert le Fort, did anything ever approach the splendour and glory of his posterity ? .... It is not only to this country that the race of Robert le Fort has given kings, it has filled, and still fills, the first thrones in Europe.1 At present one counts among his descendants, including Eudes and Robert, who reigned before Hugh Capet, thirty-five kings of France, twenty-three kings of Portugal, thirteen kings of 1 Desormeaux wrote in 1772.

BOURBON BRANCHES. 11

Sicily, eleven kings of Navarre, four kings of Spain and the Indies, four kings of Hungary, Croatia, and Sclavonia, two kings of Poland, one king of Scotland, seven or eight emperors of Constantinople, nearly one hundred dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, Anjou, Lorraine, &c. Several subjects and vassals of the House of France have reigned in England, Castile, Scotland, Armenia, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Naples, and Constantinople : tu, regere imperio populos, o galle memento. Hence that deep veneration on the part of all the people of the universe for the august blood from which sprang so many sovereigns. Is it a question of marrying Ladislas, King of Hungary and Bohemia ? the barons of the two kingdoms throw their eyes upon Magdeleine of France as the most noble match in the. universe .... Charles V. (of Germany), that monarch so powerful and so enlightened, issue himself of so many emperors, counted among his most august titles that of being descended from the first house of the universe through Marie of Burgundy. ' I consider it a great honour,' he said, ' to be descended, on the maternal side, from that fieuron which is worn and upheld by the most celebrated crown in the world.'

" But of all the branches of this fruitful tree which has spread its shade over all the thrones of Europe, none has been so fertile in heroes and great kings as that of Bourbon ; it is to the Bourbons that France owes all her splendour, success, and prosperity for the last two centuries."

Desormeaux then gives us a short biographical sketch of some of the most remarkable members of this illustrious family, beginning with Eobert le Fort, Duke of France, and Count of Anjou, Orleans, and Blois. He earned the name of Great and Machabeus for having prevented the Normans from subduing the country. He was proclaimed duke in 861, and was killed in the moment of victory in 866.

Robert le Fort married the sister of the Comte de Laon, and had four children — first Eudes, who became King of France, and after having reigned for ten years died without posterity. Eobert, his second son, married the daughter of Pepin I., came to the throne in 922, and was killed the year following in battle. Robert was succeeded by his eldest son Hugues, surnamed the Great ; he married successively Judith, the niece of King Louis the Stutterer, Ethile, the daughter of Edward, King of England,1 and Avoie of Saxony, daughter of Henry I., King of Germany ; was succeeded by his eldest son, Hugues Capet, who came to the throne in 957, married the daughter of the Due de Guienne, and died in 996. Hugues Capet was succeeded by his eldest son Robert, who reigned for thirty-five years, married the daughter of the Due de Provence, and died in 1031. Robert was succeeded by Hugues, his eldest son, who left no heir ; and was succeeded by his brother, Henri I., who married Agnes de Rouci, and died in 1060. Henri was succeeded by Philippe I. ; then came, in regular 1 This was Edward the Elder, of the Anglo-Saxon line.

1256.] DESCENDANTS OF ROBERT LE FORT. 13

succession, Louis VI., Louis VII., — whose daughter Marguerite married the eldest son of Henry II. of England,1 — Philippe II., Louis VIII. , the Louis IX. who married Margaret de Provence, and had eleven children — the sixth being Eobert de France, Comte de Clermont, Baron de Bourbon, de Charolois, Lord of Creil, St. Just, and Gournai, born in 1256, died in 1317.

1 Henry II. had married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII., and his son when only five years of age was betrothed to the daughter of Louis when she was only one year old.

CHAPTEB III.

GENEALOGY OP THE HOUSE OF BOURBON.

After remarking that it was owing to the total extinction of the direct branch, and of all the collateral branches, issues of Philip the Bold, that the Princes of Bourbon, issues of St. Louis, came to the throne, Desormeaux gives us the genealogy of the House of Bourbon.

We may first of all observe, that Philip the Bold had three sons, and was succeeded by Philip the Handsome, who was the father of the last three kings of the line of Capet — Louis X., Philip V., and Charles IV. When Charles IV. died the French throne was claimed by Edward III., King of England, who had married Isabella, the sister of the three deceased kings. The French parliament, however, founding its decision on the Salic law, gave the throne to Philip of Valois, the cousin-german of Charles IV., and for many a long year the race of Valois ruled in France.

It would be too long and too tedious to wade through all the matrimonial alliances of the prolific Bourbon race with its numerous branches, legitimate and illegitimate ; we shall therefore simply give a sketch of some of the most important marriages which tended to raise the House of Bourbon to the position it acquired, commencing with the sixth son of St. Louis.

Eobert de France, Comte de Clermont, born in 1256, married Beatrix de Bourgogne, only daughter and heiress of Jean de Bourgogne, Baron of Charolois, and of Agnes, Dame de Bourbon.

At an early age Robert de France received a severe blow on the head at a tournament, which affected him both physically and mentally for the remainder of his life. He, however, survived this accident for forty years, and died at the age of sixty-one ; left behind him six children, and was succeeded by his eldest son, who assumed the style and title of Louis L, Due de Bourbon, Sec, &c.

" No one," says Desormeaux, " is ignorant of the fact that the posterity of Eobert de France and of Beatrix de Bourgogne took the name of Bourbon."

Louis I. was twenty-seven years of age when he married Mary of Hainault in 1311. On this occasion the prince received from his father the gift of all his property. The marriage was celebrated at Pontoise with great magnificence, in presence of the king and all the court. Louis I. greatly distinguished himself in the field and in diplomacy. The Due de Bourbon, in fact, after receiving from the hands of King Philip himself the ducal crown as a reward for his courage in battle, was sent on a very difficult mission to

King Edward III. According to Froissart, the duke, was accompanied by the Bishops of Chartres and Beauvais, by the counts of Harcourt, Tancarville, and Clermont, and by a great number of lords and knights. " Also, as it was a question of the glory and the most delicate interests of the crown, he took with him the most enlightened lawyers. The Duke met in London the reception due to a grandson of France, uncle of the Queen of England, still more illustrious by his virtue than by the splendour of his birth and his rank. This prince, skilled in the arts of pleasing and persuading, triumphed over all obstacles; he obtained from Edward a solemn declaration by which that monarch admitted that he owed allegiance to the King of France in his quality of Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Ponthieu. . . . The success of this difficult negotiation was hailed with universal applause ; it appeared to have removed for ever the clouds of that tempest which threatened both France and England ; the rights of the French monarch and the duties of the King of England were clearly defined, recognized, and confirmed."

Like his father, Louis I., Due de Bourbon, died at the age of sixty-one. Eight children were born to him, and he was succeeded by his eldest son, Pierre I., in 1341.

The House of Bourbon had now acquired such renown that two kings sued for the hands of two of the duke's daughters. "But," as Desormeaux says, " of all these alliances, which give so high an idea of the power and wealth of the Due de Bourbon, none pleased him more than that of the Comte de Clermont, his eldest son, with Isabelle de Valois, sister of the king, one of the most accomplished princesses of the century. Perhaps it may not be useless to observe, that the dowry of the sister of the first monarch in Europe was only 25,000 livres; but Charles V., grand-nephew and son-in-law of Isabelle, afterwards loaded her with gifts."

Pierre I. married Isabelle de Valois in 1336. It was thought for some time (ten years later) that he had been slain at Crecy, where he was merely wounded. However, he escaped slaughter at that battle merely to fall afterwards at Poitiers at the feet of the king his master, in the forty-fifth year of his age, leaving behind him eight children.

"The body of the Due de Bourbon was taken to the Jacobin convent at Poitiers," says Desormeaux, "and there it remained in deposit, as no one dared to render it the last rites. Pierre I., handsome, well-made, brave, and gallant, had carried luxury and magnificence too far ; he died overwhelmed with debts and anathemas. To oblige him to pay his debts, his creditors, according to the custom of the time, had recourse, but in vain, to the thunders of the Church ; he was treated after his death as a person excommunicated.- Perhaps this prince, greatgrandson of St. Louis, brother-in-law- of the King Philippe de Valois, of the Emperor Charles IV., of the King of Bohemia, father of the Queens of France

VOL. I. 0 and Castile, who died fighting for his country, would even have been deprived for ever of the honours of sepulture but for the piety of his son. Louis II,, Due de Bourbon, only eighteen years of age, hastened to offer to Innocent VI. all his property, in order to satisfy the creditors of his father. It was at this price alone that he could obtain from the Pontiff the revocation of the anathema launched against the author of his existence. . . ."

Jacques de Bourbon, the third son, became Constable of France, and founded the branches of Bourbon la Marche and Bourbon Vendome, from which descended all the branches of the House of France.

Beatrix de Bourbon, the third daughter, married Jean de Luxembourg, the blind king of Bohemia, who was killed at the battle of Crecy ; she received from her husband fifteen silver marks a week to support her dignity. Although she married a second time, she preserved the title and honours of queen.

Marie de Bourbon, the fourth daughter, married Gui Prince of Galilee, eldest son and heir of the King of Cyprus. Left a widow, she married Robert of Sicily, titular Emperor of Constantinople.

Louis II., who succeeded Pierre I., married Anne of Auvergne, a lady who brought immense wealth into the House of Bourbon. He was surnamed the Good, and he died at the age of seventy-three, after having devoted his faculties and courage to the service of. his country.

Jeanne de Bourbon, the eldest sister of Louis, married Charles V. of France, and is said to have been the most accomplished queen who had existed up to that period. Writing on this subject Desormeaux observes — <

" It was in the midst of so many disasters that Philippe de Valois, whose throne had for support two sons and four grandsons, lighted for the second time the torch of Hymen. Work, incessant care, grief, and reverses had shattered his mind and impaired his body ; but at the sight of Blanche de Navarre, fifteen years of age, he experienced all the flames of love, and kept for himself a princess destined for the Duke of Normandy, his son. If the marriage of this monarch was the work of passion, that of Charles of France, his grandson, with the Princess Jeanne de Bourbon was a masterpiece of wisdom and policy : it gave Dauphiny to France."

Jeanne de Bourbon, who was united to the heir presumptive to the throne at the age of fourteen years, is said to have possessed beauty, gentleness, modesty, and other virtues, and to have well deserved the love and constancy of her husband, who as Charles V. became the greatest king of the Valois line. It is related that Humbert, the last Dauphin of the illustrious and ancient family of Tour-du-Piu, sought the hand of Jeanne de Bourbon, but he was forestalled by the king, who bestowed the princess upon his grandson. Upon this the Dauphin1 abdicated

1 The eldest sons of several great families in France tore the title of Dauphin.

in favour of his more fortunate rival, and buried himself in a Jacobin monastery.

The Queen Jeanne died at forty years of age, after a confinement, to the great grief of her husband, whose health was seriously affected by her loss. " She shared," says D'Orronville, "not only the bed, the table, and the throne of the king, but the duties of government ; and," adds the historian, " the genius, the talent, and the prudence of this great queen contributed not a little to the splendour of the reign of the most glorious of the Valois." This splendour " fatigued " Charles the Bad, King of Navarre ; he conspired against the life of Charles V. The discovery of his crime cost him dear; the Constable on one side and the Due de Bourbon on the other fell upon the vast domains which he possessed in Normandy ; they seized on his towns, on his treasures, and his children, and deprived him of all the property which remained to him in France with the exception of the town of Cherbourg, which he sold to the English.

Blanche de Bourbon, the second daughter of Pierre L, celebrated by her beauty, her misfortunes, and her tragic end, became the wife and victim of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile. Peter sent an embassy to the Due de Bourbon to demand the hand of his daughter, and the duke, highly flattered by the proposal, not only consented to the marriage, but gave Blanche an immense dowry. The kino-, cousin-german of the bride, added a considerable

1353.] MARIE PADILLA. 21

sum ; she was married as if she were a princess of the blood.

According to Desormeaux the birth and rank of Blanche de Bourbon contributed less to her elevation than her beauty and grace, in which she was superior to all the women of her century. The King of Castile, young, ardent, and intoxicated with passions which the possession of the throne enabled him to satisfy, was madly in love with Marie Padilla. The mother of the king and his guardians thought that Blanche de Bourbon would make him forget his mistress, but in this they were mistaken. The marriage was performed at Valladolid in June, 1353, and is said to have resembled rather a funeral than a nuptial ceremony. Two days afterwards the king returned to the arms of Marie Padilla, and the unfortunate queen was sent to the castle of Arevallo, and placed under the care of the Bishop of Segovia. The indignation of the Castilians reached such a pitch that Peter considered it prudent to take back his wife, but he soon deserted her once more, and never saw her again. Though still in love with Marie Padilla, the king — whose life, ably recounted by Prosper M^rimee, was one long series of crimes — married Juana de Castro, but only to abandon her almost immediately. This new and adulterous marriage raised all the nobility against him, and drew down upon him the excommunication of the Pope. Suffice it to add here, that in 1361 Blanche de Bourbon, one of many noble victims, was poisoned

22 MARRIAGES OF TEE BOURBONS. [1361.

by the orders of her husband, and that eight years later Peter was stabbed to death by his natural brother Henry of Transtamare.