Appendix: Details of the careers of members of the Marillac family.
The careers of Michel de Marillac and Louise, Comte de Beaumont, held glory, but also great misfortune.
We are told that Michelwas a mystic, melancholy, passionate and impetuous. At the age of twenty-two he was Advocate to the Parlement and Master of Pleas. He threw himself, with passionate religious conviction, into the adventure of the League, and his courage gained for him the post of Advocate General to a new Parlement, purged of its Huguenot elements. When le B6amais became a Catholic, Michel was sufficiently agile and practical to follow his conscience and prevail upon his colleague to open the gates of Paris to the King of Navarre. Michel was a favourite of the queen, Marie de Medici, as well as of Richelieu, so that his rise to power was continuous and led him leisurely upwards towards the highest post in the state: first, superintendent of finances; chancellor in 1626; keeper of the Seals in 1630. His probity, his ability, and his capacity for work enabled him to wield a strong influence in public life.
There then occurred to Michel de Marillac the great and dangerous idea of reforming and unifying the law of France, and to this end he ordered and supervised the compilation of the legal code known as the ‘Code Michau’, and imposed it by royal consent. Those who had long profited by the old abuses of the Law did not forgive him this forward step.
His absolute devotion to Marie de Medici, his attachment to his half-brother, Louis, the Marshal, and his personal ambition drew Michel into a conspiracy against Richelieu— a conspiracy which very nearly succeeded. For forty-eight hours in November 1630 Michel was actually the King’s first minister of state, in place of the Cardinal. But Richelieu returned to power, and clapped the ephemeral minister into prison. It was the end of Michel’s public life and he found it hard to resign himself to this stroke of fortune, but lie never ceased to be a man of prayer, and now his faith restored him to stability in the midst of his troubles. In his prison at Chateaudun, this man, who was both Christian scholar and political intriguer, absorbed himself in translating into French the Penitential Psalms and the Imitation of Christ. The tcacliing he drew from these texts sustained his courage. He died in 1632, a Frenchman in the grand manner, enigmatic by reason of the contradictory’ elements, wliich are really no more than contrasts, in his character.
His half-brother, Louis, comte de Beaumont, was a man of a different stamp. Handsomest of all the Marillacs—and all were famed for their good looks—he followed the profession of arms, though with audacity rather than competence. He was a dare-devil captain of light horse, and this good- looking, bold young man soon began to make conquests in the highest quarters. It was not long before he attracted the notice of Catherine de’ Medici, daughter of Duke Cosimo and aunt of Queen Marie. With a king for witness, he married Catherine in the Louvre. The way was at once opened for the entire Marillac family to be received into royal favour, and to be given some of the highest posts in the state. The Marillacs therefore began to move with great resolution into the orbit of the Queen, ranging themselves with those Italian families already in possession and acquiring a name for themselves—the Cocini, the Gondi, and many another.
Louis Marillac de Beaumont had a share in all the campaigns, and though envied for his growing influence at Court, he was sustained by his courage, and in the end betrayed by’ his own imprudence and the Marillac ambition. It began to be whispered that he was in secret correspondence with the Queen his niece, Marie de Medici, and was conspiring against Richelieu, whom she detested. It was true.
On his return to power, Richelieu had Louis de Beaumont arrested in Italy, where he was serving. His trial began, inspired by personal hatred and political intrigue. He defended himself with bitterness. He was charged with speculation and misappropriation of the public funds. His hands were certainly not clean, yet such faults were very common ones in his profession. He was condemned and beheaded in the Place de Greve. The affair made a great stir. Windows were rented for a view of the handsome Marshal’s death, and a hundred thousand people were present at his execution. But when Richelieu died, Marillac de Beaumont was solemnly rehabilitated by the Parlement of Paris. He was, like his brother Michel, a Frenchman in the grand manner.
Valence de Marillac, sister of the Marshal, was beautiful. In 1598 she married Octavin Doni d’Attichy, a man highly esteemed at Court who became superintendent of Finances to Marie de Medici. Doni d’Attichy died young, leaving his widow with five children.
End.