The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
Mademoiselle de Guise, negotiator
In 1656 Marie de Lorraine de Guise played a crucial role in resolving an issue that had been dragging on for three years: how to convince Gaston de France, Duke of Orléans, to abandon his proud stance and reconcile with his royal nephew and the Cardinal.
While there are brief allusions in Chéruel to the individual fates of the Frondeurs, no one has yet pulled together all the sources about the nearly decade-long exile, negotiations, and sometimes difficult re-integration into families and society of persons known to have openly rebelled against the King. What follows is a rare account of how a rebel prince, Gaston d'Orléans, supported and then abandoned those who had been in his household or elsewhere, and who had joined him in rebellion.
The content of the brief memo corroborates the assertion by the Grande Mademoiselle that Marie de Lorraine de Guise was one of the negotiators.
This document may be brief, but it is the decantation of hours, and probably weeks of parleys.
The document (Source: Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Collection Godefroy, ms. 483 )
Janvier 1656:
Extrait des Conditions du Traité de Monsieur [Gaston d'Orléans] arresté à Paris en janvier 1656 par l'entreprise de Mlle de Guise:
Monsieur [Gaston] viendra s'il veut à la Cour.
Louvière sera recompensé.
Quand l'on pourvoira au Gouvernement d'Anjou, le Roy satisfera les enfants du Duc de Rohan de [ce] quy leur sera deub.
S.A.R. [Gaston] pourra faire instance des exilés du Parlement quand
et tant qu'il luy plaira.
Sera pourveu au Comte de Rochefort de
l'Abbaye en question, en consequence du traité de Limours, mais par son
propre merite.
Rien pour Madame de Montbazon.
Le duc de Beaufort refuse d'aller à Paris, comme aussy les cent mille livres, n'ayant signé le Traité de Limours. Le Roy luy fera justice sur son bien de Provence et sur les droits d'ancrage.
Penis refusé.
Fontrailles oublié.
People and events mentioned in the document
The principal actors and events:
"Monsieur" (also known as "S.A.R.," Son Altesse Royale) Gaston de France, Duke of Orléans, the brother of the late king Louis XIII, was given to intrigues. For example, he was involved in the Affaire de Cinq-Mars and played a major role in the princely Fronde, which, in 1652, led to his being relegated to his apanage and to his signing of the "Traité de Limours"
Mlle de Guise Marie de Lorraine, known as "Mademoiselle de Guise," had been Gaston d'Orléans's sister-in-law for approximately a year, back in 1626-1627. By the time of the Fronde, she probably had already secretly wed Claude de Bourdeille, Count of Montrésor, who had long "belonged" to Gaston and had participated in the prince's different intrigues. From her exile at Saint-Fargeau, Mlle de Guise's niece, the Grande Mademoiselle, was following Léonard Goulas's negotiations on behalf of Gaston. She wrote: "Monsieur s'accommoda à la cour; mademoiselle de Guise et M. de Montrésor firent cette négociation. ... Son Altesse royale n'alla pas d'abord à la cour; elle abandonna M. le duc de Beaufort, madame la duchesse de Montbazon, les conseillers exilés pour amour de lui. Enfin il ne s'est jamais fait un si pauvre accommodement. On lui avoit promis une récompense pour Louvière, fils de M. Broussel, qui avoit le gouvernement de la Bastille dès la première guerre, pourvu du roi; il n'est pas encore payé maintenant... (Mémoires, ed. Chéruel, Paris, 1858, 3:378-379).
"Traité de Limours" an agreement signed by Gaston shortly before he set off for exile in his appanage in October 1652. In his Gaston d'Orléans, conspirateur et prince charmant (Paris: Fayard, 1959), pp. 411-412, 414-415, 419-421, this is how Georges Dethan recounts the events that gave rise to the Traité de Limours of 1652 and to the "Treaty" of January 1656 transcribed above:
The Fronde having come to an end, Gaston d'Orléans did what he could to protect his supporters. On October 20, 1652, his rebellion against his nephew having failed, Gaston obtained from the royal court a promise of general amnesty. The next day little Louis XIV and his army entered Paris, and early in the morning of October 22, Gaston left the Luxembourg Palace for his country estate at Limours, southwest of Paris. Later that day, a lit de justice was held in the Louvre; it exiled from Paris some of Gaston's supporters. (For the debates, see Jean Le Boindre, Débats du Parlement de Paris pendant la Minorité de Louis XIV, Paris: Champion, 2002, 2:609-618; and for the exiled councillors of the Parlement, see 2:614.) The Court offered Gaston a handful of guarantees, and he settled for that.
Dethan continues:
"[Gaston] avait dû batailler dans sa propre maison contre ceux qui lui déconseillaient de traiter. Il leur démontra que, loin d'abandonner les Frondeurs à leur sort, il ne cherchait qu'à leur obtenir sûretés et dédommagements et avait même obtenu pour certains la restitution ou la 'récompense' de leurs charges. Il n'avait demandé pour lui-même que la permission de vivre en paix dans son apanage [d'Orléans] et de continuer à jouir de ses pensions; en échange, il promettait de rappeler ses troupes de l'armée de Condé [who had not laid down his arms]. Après une 'image de négociation,' il signa donc, le 28 octobre 1652, à Limours, 'l'espèce d'accommodement' (comme écrit un nouvelliste frondeur) que lui proposait la cour. L'intention qui le guidait apparaît clairement dans le post-scriptum qu'il rajouta de sa main: 'Je ne désire pas que le présent traité soit exécuté en ce qui me regarde qu'après qu'il aura plu au roi de m'accorder les supplications que je lui ai faites pour ceux qui sont intéressés avec moi.'
Le lendemain, il donnait sa promesse écrite 'de ne point aller en la ville de Paris sans la permission et le consentement de Sa Majesté.' Et aussitôt, par Chartres et Orléans, il prit la route de Blois" accompanied by two other Frondeurs, the Duke of Beaufort and the Duke of Rohan." (See also, A. Chéruel, Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin (Paris: Hachette, 1882), 1: 356, 358.)
In the fall of 1655, Gaston began overtures to reconcile with the court. In October, Léonard Goulas, his longtime householder and fidèle, was sent to Paris to sound out Mazarin (who was said to have been "in despair" over Gaston's haughtiness). Mazarin insisted that Gaston accept his terms, but Gaston resisted, saying that "Quand [Mazarin] voudra s'accommoder avec moi, il m'accordera les choses que je désire. ... Il est bien aise de m'accorder les autres choses, car ce n'est rien. ..." What Gaston wanted most was the reestablishment of the banished councilors in the Parlement; but as this document preserved by the Godefroys shows unequivocally he could "speak out for them as often as he wished," the royal administration was determined not to listen! Mazarin would, Dethan continues, accept only "une confirmation du traité de Limours. Il acceptait de garantir à Monsieur le paiement de ses pensions, offrait des dédommagements à certains Frondeurs; mais, en marge des demandes de Gaston en faveur des exilés, il notait sèchement: 'Le roi ne peut accorder quant à présent ladite grâce ...'
Gaston sent Goulas the following instructions and emphasized that Mazarin had little reason to laud himself for his generosity in the Treaty of Limours. The Cardinal, he asserted, had only given him the things of which he could not be deprived. "Je ne vois pas," wrote Gaston, "qu'il y ait lieu de si grand compliment de ce que l'on me tient la parole que l'on m'a donnée à Limours sur les affaires que l'on ne me pouvait ôter sans une dernière injustice. ... Si l'on vous fait quelque proposition, dites que le rappel des exilés est la seule chose que je désire en quelque façon que ce soit ...."
Dethan concludes his account as follows:
"[Gaston] dut céder et se satisfaire des conditions qui lui furent octroyées. Elles étaient assorties des compliments emphatiques de Mazarin, qui parlait de son 'ravissement' d'être à nouveau honoré de la bienveillance de Monsieur." In early February 1656 news reached Gaston that "la paix était faite." His official face-to-face reconciliation with Louis XIV took place at La Fère on August 5, 1656. Gaston subsequently visited Paris a few times, but the coolness with which he was greeted made him prefer Blois, where he died on February 2, 1660.
People mentioned in the treaty of 1656:
Louvières Hierosme de Broussel, seigneur de Louvières was the son of Pierre de Broussel, the Frondeur conseiller in the Parlement, who had been named prévot des marchands by the Frondeurs. The father appointed his son to be governor of the Bastille but surrendered the fortress to the King in 1652. He was expecting a "recompense."
Rohan Henri de Chabot, son of the Baron of Jarnac and himself seigneur of Sainte-Aulaye, married the only child of the Duke of Rohan and was named royal governor of Anjou. He was elevated to the rank of "duke and peer" ("Duke of Rohan") during the princely Fronde (Le Boindre, 2:508). During the lit de justice held in the Louvre on October 22, 1652, Rohan was banished from Paris. The decree did not give him the rank of "duke"! (Chéruel, 1:361; and Le Boindre, 2:614).
Rochefort Because an entry about Mme de Montbazon directly follows the allusion to the "Comte de Rochefort," this may well be Louis de Rohan, the son of Mme de Montbazon's husband by his first wife. Louis succeeded his father (Hercule de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon) as Duke of Montbazon and peer of France (d. 1667). It is however possible that at the time the title "Count of Rochefort" was borne by Mme de Montbazon's own child by Hercule de Rohan: François de Rohan, later Duke of Soubise.
Montbazon The beautiful Marie de Bretagne-Avaugour, Duchess of Montbazon (she was the second wife of Hercule de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon), went from one political intrigue to another, among them the Cabale des Importants. As such, she was exiled several times. During the Fronde she was close to the Duke of Beaufort.
Beaufort François de Bourbon-Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, a cousin of the young King (he descended from a bastard of Henri IV), was an active and charismatic Frondeur. In 1640 he had been made royal governor of Provence. During the lit de justice held in the Louvre on October 22, 1652, Beaufort was banished from Paris (Chéruel, 1:361; and Le Boindre, 2:614). There is a splendid portrait of him in the Baltimore Museum of Art!
Pénis Gautier de Pénis (or Pény), trésorier de France à Limoges, was a maître d'hôtel du roi. He was a close relative of elderly Pierre Broussel. Pénis had raised Frondeur armies during the troubles in Paris. During the lit de justice held in the Louvre on October 22, 1652, he was banished from Paris (Chéruel, 1:361; and Le Boindre, 2:614 and 469-470).
Fontrailles Louis d'Astarac, Count of Fontrailles, a Gascon, was part of Gaston's "little court" at Blois, having long been one of Gaston's companions in revels. Dethan describes him thusly: "démon vif et difforme, page de Monsieur et déjà duelliste (en 1633), esprit fort et terrible ferailleur, qui donnait chasse aux filous dans le quartier du Marais, c'est lui qui avec une folle témérité portera en Espagne, en 1642, le traité des conjurés établi par Cinq-Mars. Il est curieux de le voir, quelques années plus tard, partager son temps entre le jeu et l'amour et se plaire 'dans une indolence et une fainéantisme si agréables.'" During the lit de justice held in the Louvre on October 22, 1652, Fontrailles was banished from Paris (Chéruel, 1:361; and Dethan, p. 157-158, 268-271, 441). He did not benefit from treaty of January 1656. His memoirs, Relation des choses particulières de la cour pendant la faveur de M. le Grand, were published in Recueil de plusieurs pièces servant à l'histoire moderne, Cologne, 1663; they focus on the plots against Richelieu.