Read Ebook: The life-story of Charlotte de la Trémoille Countess of Derby by Rowsell Mary C Mary Catherine

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Ebook has 412 lines and 47996 words, and 9 pages

Release date: December 28, 2023

Original publication: United Kingdom: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr?bner & Co., Ltd, 1905

The Life-Story

Charlotte de la Tr?moille

Countess of Derby

The Life-Story

Charlotte de la Tr?moille

Countess of Derby

Mary C. Rowsell

London

Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr?bner & Co., Ltd.

Dryden House, Gerrard Street, W.

Contents

PAGE

Birth. Parentage. Descent. Peaceful Times. A 1 Gallant Soldier. Huguenots and Catholics. More Storm-clouds. A Stately Home. The Idle Sword. A Royal Summons; and a Death Summons. A Troubled Wife and Mother. An Unfortunate Princess. A Doubtful Honour. Roundhand and Ruled Paper. A Naughty Little Girl. Sisters indeed. Happy Days. The Rubens Portrait

At the Hague. A Dreary Court. A Marriage of 16 Convenience. A Lady-of-Honour. Home. The Firstborn. Cloudy Sunshine

"Res Angusta Domi." A White Elephant. 32 Gathering Clouds. Keeping a Brave Heart. A Grand Function. Royal Gifts. Fresh Anxieties. Baron Strange. National Grievances. "Shortcoats." A Contract

Lathom House. Orm the Saxon. The Ancestry of 40 the Earls of Derby. A Family Legend. "Sans Changer." A Stately Old Home. The Royal Guest, and the Fool. The Baron's Retainers. A Goodly "Checkrowle." Public Troubles. The Siege of Rochelle. "The Villain has killed me." National Grievances. An Earnest Request

Manx Land. The Son of Leir. St. Patrick. 73 Prehistoric Man. King Orry and his Highroad. The House of Keys. Public Penance in Manx Land. A Fortunate File. Breast Laws and Deemsters. The Little People. A Haunted Castle. A Thorough Bad Dog. Cats' Tails. "A Ship in her Ruff." A Contested Prize. The Three Legs. The Lord of Man

A Fatal Choice. Strafford and Laud. Huguenots 84 and Anglicans. Royal Prodigality. Pleasant Hours in the Pillory. Ship-money. A Patriot. Moderate Men. No more Peaceful Days at Lathom. "The Red Horse of the Lord." Virgil under Difficulties. Edgehill. "Come like Shadows, so Depart"

The Fate of Kings. Only once again. The Crown 95 Jewels. A Loyal Vassal. "The Vain Shadow of a King." Slander. Temptation scorned. More Ardour than Discretion

No Rest. The Queen's Journey to Holland. A 107 Friend in Need. "Master, go on, and I will follow Thee." The Green-Eyed Monster astir. Through Good Report and Ill. An Indignant Refusal. Back at Lathom. A Boisterous Friend

Charlotte of Derby. A Journey to London in 114 Olden Days. Queen of her Home. Learned Ladies. "His Reverence." Lady Derby spells Lancashire. A Demand, and a Refusal. Defence, not Defiance. "A Nest of Delinquents." The Sermon Text. Orders to March. Demands and Terms. Surprises. Worthy of a Painter's Brush. The Astute Ecclesiastic and Roundhead Friend. More Conditions. "Look to your own Ways." A Day of Rest. No Surrender

False Move. "Do not reckon that Lathom will 133 be yours." A Letter from the Earl. Ineffectual Fires. At Prayers, or Asleep? A Sad Massacre. Hospital Nurses. Unwelcome Visitors. In the Eagle Tower. Brave Maidens. A Change for the Worse. Threats. The Countess's Answer. "Long Live the King!" A Terrible Monster, and his Ignoble End. Rigby's Irritation. Gleams. Good News. Decamping. Victory! And Prince Rupert's Homage

At Castle Rushen. An Honourable Surrender. 149 The Maudlin Well. Correspondence recommences. Disappearance of Lord Strange. A Price on Lord Derby's Head. Holmby House. Miss Orpe again. A Lawsuit. Divisions among the Parliamentarians. A Lull in the Storm. A Noble Author. At Knowsley. The Substance and the Shadow. The Sectaries. "A Good Exchange"

Bearing the Burden alone. The 180 Parliamentarians demand the Isle of Man. Lady Derby a Prisoner. Cast on Cromwell's Mercy. Fair-haired William and his Fate. The Tide turns. "I must depart." The King has his own again. Marriages, and Giving in Marriage. Peaceful Times at Knowsley. "Swift to its Close ebbs out Life's Little Day." Court Fairness. The Last Letter. An Honoured Memory

The Life-Story of

Charlotte de la Tr?moille

Countess of Derby

BIRTH. PARENTAGE. DESCENT. PEACEFUL TIMES. A GALLANT SOLDIER. HUGUENOTS AND CATHOLICS. MORE STORM-CLOUDS. A STATELY HOME. THE IDLE SWORD. A ROYAL SUMMONS; AND A DEATH SUMMONS. A TROUBLED WIFE AND MOTHER. AN UNFORTUNATE PRINCESS. A DOUBTFUL HONOUR. ROUND-HAND AND RULED PAPER. A NAUGHTY LITTLE GIRL. SISTERS INDEED. HAPPY DAYS. THE RUBENS PORTRAIT

Charlotte de la Tr?moille was born at Thonars in Poitou in 1601. The fine old ch?teau in which the first days of her eventful life dawned upon her was the heritage of her ancestors, and now by right of birth belonged to her father, Claude de la Tr?moille. The ch?teau is beautifully situated upon a hill, around whose base the river Thone runs so far as to give it the appearance of an island.

Footnote 1:

Now the Mairie.

Charlotte was the second child of her parents, whose style and title are thus described in their contract of marriage signed at Chatelh?raut in 1598:--

Thus the noblest blood of France and of Nassau ran in the veins of the child who was destined to play such an heroic part in the land of her adoption, and whose romantic story stands enshrined in England's historic annals.

The effect was magical, restoring tranquillity to distracted France. The ravaged fields and hillsides were once more clothed with growing grain and vines. "Husbandry and pastures," said Sully, "were the true treasures of Peru, and the paps which nourished the kingdom."

Claude de la Tr?moille, a Huguenot by birth, had always concerned himself less about politics and polemics than fealty to his royal master. A certain sturdy, loyal singleness of mind seems to have been a distinguishing characteristic of his race. The Duke was a born soldier. From the moment he could wield a sword, it had been employed for France and the King. Henri had need of his valiant subject, and did not forget to reward his services. It was after his brave fighting at Fontaine-Fran?aise, 1595, that the King raised the territory of Thonars to the rank of a peerage; and three years later, Claude de la Tr?moille married the daughter of William the Silent.

Still, though peace and prosperity once more smiled upon the face of the country, the bitterness of religious difference rankled. Mutual jealousy further aggravated the soreness. The Catholics were arrogant in their triumph, and never lost sight of the fact that it was Henri's policy which had drawn him into their ranks. The Protestants, on the other hand, lost their inspiration when the King became a Catholic. Their allegiance to the sovereign remained; but their devotion to the man cooled. Theoretically, civil prerogative might be extended to them; but practically, their advice in the guidance of the State was not sought. The Court party was not slow to let them understand this fact, in defiance of the King's goodwill and affection which he never lost for his old co-religionists. Already the clouds of the sad and troubled future were beginning to gather for the Huguenots. Sullen and disappointed, their leaders retired from the Court, and with them went the Duke de Thonars, to occupy himself exclusively with the affairs of his own estate and the interests of his family.

He had four children--two sons and two daughters. He lived in great state at Thonars; and when Monsieur de Rosny, the Duke de Sully, came to Poitou to assume the governorship of the province, he received him with great magnificence.

Still, though he had hung up his sword, the Duke regarded it longingly, and at the smallest incitement was ready to take it down. The chance came before a very few years had passed. The great Protestant leader, the Duke de Bouillon, who, by his second marriage with a daughter of William the Silent, was the brother-in-law of the Duke de Thonars, had compromised himself in the matter of the Mar?chal Biron's treasonable correspondence with Spain; and Biron's consequent disgrace with the King sorely troubled the peace of the family at Thonars.

The minister Sully, as full of goodwill towards de Thonars as of a desire to secure the services of so brave and tried a soldier, sent de Thonars a message to come to Paris. "The King," he wrote, "contemplates war, and has need of you to fight against the Spaniards."

De Thonars, who was still a young man of barely thirty-eight, had let fall to Sully a few words of dissatisfaction at his enforced inactivity, when the minister had been his guest at Thonars; and Sully now reminded him of these expressions. "Henri," he wrote, "liked to see his Protestant servants about him, and objected to such powerful lords remaining long at a time in their own provinces. They might be lending themselves to the hatching of plots."

Monsieur du Plessis Mornay, the great Huguenot leader and governor of Saumur, of which he had made a powerful Protestant stronghold, did his utmost to dissuade de la Tr?moille from going to Court. "Excepting," he said, "for those words which escaped you, I see no reason for your going."

"But if I can be employed?" rejoined the more than willing de la Tr?moille.

Du Plessis replied only by a stern, half-scornful silence, and went back to his ch?teau at Bonmoy near Saumur; but hardly had he arrived there, than he received a letter from Madame de la Tr?moille, informing him that her husband had been seized with gout in the arm, and praying that if there should be no speedy improvement in his condition, du Plessis would come to him. On the following night, she further wrote that if he desired to see his friend alive, he must come quickly.

Du Plessis immediately hastened to Thonars, to find Monsieur de la Tr?moille exhausted with fever, and gasping with semi-suffocation. He, however, rallied sufficiently to evince great pleasure at the sight of Monsieur du Plessis, "uttering with effort a few words, in which he displayed all his ordinary sense and judgment." He was further able to recommend to his friend's care his wife and four children, who were thus losing him while still so young. But the distractions of this life were fast slipping away from the dying man, and it was chiefly upon his soul's welfare that Du Plessis conversed with him.

"It is not for me," said de la Tr?moille, "to speak of anything but that"; and, unheeding all else, he mustered his remaining strength and speech to discuss the life to come--replying always with words that showed his courage in the face of death, the assurance of his faith in Christ, and displaying the sound judgment which had distinguished him in the days of his health.

While de la Tr?moille was thus struggling in the agonies of death, his daughter Charlotte lay ill with an attack of smallpox; and the distracted Duchess only left her husband's bedside to tend the suffering child.

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