Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642). Letter signed « Le Card. de Richelieu », Paris, 24 July 1631, addressed to the Marquis de Brezé, Captain of the King’s Bodyguard and Governor of Saumur. 1 page in-folio (36 x 25 cm). Mounted on sturdy green paper, framed.
Following the ‘Day of the Dupes’ on 12 November 1630, King Louis XIII decided to retain Richelieu’s favour and to exile his mother to the castle of Compiègne.
The Cardinal recounts to his brother-in-law, Urbain de Maillé, 1st Marquis of Brézé (1598–1650), the future Marshal of France, of Marie de Médicis’s escape from the Château de Compiègne on the night of 18–19 July, recalling in passing her stubborn refusal to accept any compromise, Vardes’s skilful arrangements to bar her access to La Capelle, and the measures taken by Louis XIII.
« Mon frère, je prends la plume pour vous donner advis que la Reyne mère du Roy, après avoir témoigné comme vous scavez depuis qu’elle fut a Compiègne n’en vouloir point partir, en est sortie depuis 4 jours, et s’est retirée en Flandres. Elle pensoit aller à La Capelle, mais le s[ieu]r de Vardes le Père y a donné si bon ordre, qu’il a mis son fils hors de la place ou il avoit l’espoir de la recevoir. Le Roy a envoié tous les gouverneurs de Picardie chacun en leurs places pour pourvoir a leur sureté. Il fait effort de sacheminer bientôt à la frontière pour dissiper par sa présence tout ce qui voudroit causer du trouble a son Estat. On espère (avec l’aide de Dieu) de sa valeur et de l’heur qui l’accompagne, qu’il adviendra aussy glorieusement à bout qu’il a fait de toutes les affaires esprouvantes [?] qu’il a eues a demesler iusques icy. Aiant Dieu pour soy, et la justice il n’a rien à craindre à mon advis. Il n’y a chose au monde quon n’ait voulu faire pour destourner la Reyne Mère de l’union qu’elle a avec Monsieur, et l’Espagne. On luy a voulu rendre le gouvernement d’Anjou et les places qu’elle y avoit, mais elle a reffusé toutes les conditions honorables et sauves qu’on luy a proposées.
Vous n’avez que faire de bouger dou vous estes, si je ne songe qu’il soit de besoin que vous vous en reveniez je vous en donneray advis lorsquil en sera temps.
Cependant assurez vous toujiours de mon
affection et que ie suis
Mon frère Vostre très affectionné frère
a vous rendre service,
Le Card de Richelieu »
[We translate: ‘My brother, I am writing to inform you that the King’s mother, having, as you know, shown since her arrival in Compiègne that she had no wish to leave, departed four days ago and has retired to Flanders. She intended to go to La Capelle, but Monsieur de Vardes the Elder has given such firm orders there that he has removed his son from the place where he had hoped to receive her. The King has sent all the governors of Picardy back to their posts to ensure their safety. He is endeavouring to make his way to the border soon, so that by his presence he may dispel all that might cause trouble to his State. We hope (with God’s help), through his valour and the good fortune that accompanies him, that he will emerge just as gloriously victorious as he has done in all the trying affairs [?] he has had to resolve thus far. With God on his side and justice on his side, he has nothing to fear in my opinion. There is nothing in the world that has not been attempted to dissuade the Queen Mother from the alliance she has with Monsieur and Spain. They sought to restore to her the government of Anjou and the positions she held there, but she refused all the honourable and safe terms that were proposed to her. It matters not where you are; if I should think it necessary for you to return, I shall let you know when the time comes.]
As for the incident at La Capelle, “Marie de Médicis’s aim is to barricade herself inside La Capelle [-en-Thiérache, near Vervins] and summon the Spanish there by opening the border to them. She knows that the Marquis de Vardes, governor of the town, has temporarily handed over command to his son, and she can count on him. […] At the last moment, the old marquis, arriving on horseback, entered the town by trickery. He expelled his son, his daughter-in-law, the Bishop of Léon, and all those he deemed suspicious, and raised the drawbridges. It was then that those who had been expelled sent a horseman to Sains to warn Marie de Médicis and dissuade her from pressing further.” (P. Guynemer, L’Isolement de Marie de Médicis au château de Compiègne en 1631, son évasion : d’après des manuscrits inédits, Progrès de l’Oise (Compiègne), 1911, p. 25).
Marie de Médicis never set foot on French soil again and died in exile in Cologne in 1642.
Our document appears to be a forgery.
Indeed, it is written on vellum paper, yet this type of paper was not invented until the following century; letters of that period were generally written on laid paper, whilst official documents were written on parchment; our letter must therefore have been produced in the 19th century, as the ink is old and the paper shows spots. Furthermore, to our knowledge, this letter does not appear in Richelieu’s Correspondence, and moreover the folds are marked, sometimes split, the margins torn with some missing paper, as if intentionally. In short, one cannot help but suspect a forgery by Denis Vrain-Lucas, entirely in keeping with his style: poor-quality vellum paper, marked creases, tears and gaps in the margins. This letter from Richelieu regarding the escape of his enemy, the Queen Mother, addressed to his own brother-in-law, must have been most appealing to a collector of autographs at the time, and remains so even today… Vrain-Lucas is the author of nearly 30,000 forged documents and letters sold to the gullible mathematician Michel Chasles, as improbable as if they had been written by Alexander the Great, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Mary Magdalene, Vercingetorix, Montaigne, Pascal, Racine, Molière, and others. Autographs by the famous forger in private collections are extremely rare. Indeed, they were in principle destroyed, with the exception of those deposited by the Ministry of Justice at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
1 300 €