The Queen-mother was now wholly governed by the Cardinal of Loraine;
the Viscount de Chartres had no interest with her, and the passion he
had for Madam de Martigues and for liberty hindered him from feeling
this loss as it deserved to be felt. The Cardinal, during the ten days'
illness of the King, was at leisure to form his designs, and lead the
Queen into resolutions agreeable to what he had projected; so that the
King was no sooner dead but the Queen ordered the Constable to stay at
Tournelles with the corpse of the deceased King in order to perform the
usual ceremonies.
This commission kept him at a distance and out of
the scene of action; for this reason the Constable dispatched a courier
to the King of Navarre, to hasten him to Court that they might join
their interest to oppose the great rise of the House of Guise. The
command of the Army was given to the Duke of Guise and the care of the
finances to the Cardinal of Loraine. The Duchess of Valentinois was
driven from Court; the Cardinal de Tournon, the Constable's declared
enemy, and the Chancellor Olivier, the declared enemy of the Duchess of
Valentinois, were both recalled. In a word, the complexion of the
Court was entirely changed; the Duke of Guise took the same rank as the
Princes of the blood, in carrying the King's mantle at the funeral
ceremonies:
He and his brothers carried all before them at Court, not
only by reason of the Cardinal's power with the Queen-Mother, but
because she thought it in her power to remove them should they give her
umbrage; whereas she could not so easily remove the Constable, who was
supported by the Princes of the blood.
When the ceremonial of the mourning was over, the Constable came to the
Louvre, and was very coldly received by the King; he desired to speak
with him in private, but the King called for Messieurs de Guise, and
told him before them, that he advised him to live at ease; that the
finances and the command of the Army were disposed of, and that when he
had occasion for his advice, he would send for him to Court. The Queen
received him in a yet colder manner than the King, and she even
reproached him for having told the late King, that his children by her
did not resemble him.
The King of Navarre arrived, and was no better
received; the Prince of Conde, more impatient than his brother,
complained aloud, but to no purpose: he was removed from Court, under
pretence of being sent to Flanders to sign the ratification of the
peace. They showed the King of Navarre a forged letter from the King
of Spain, which charged him with a design of seizing that King's
fortresses; they put him in fear for his dominions, and made him take a
resolution to go to Bearn; the Queen furnished him with an opportunity,
by appointing him to conduct Madam Elizabeth, and obliged him to set
out before her, so that there remained nobody at Court that could
balance the power of the House of Guise.