Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/155

 VIII.] POWER OF THE CROWN. 131 accept the mediation of the Pope, Urban VIII., and to leave Charles of Nevers to enjoy his duchy of Mantua. 2. Rebellion of Gaston of Orleans, 1632. — Richelieu's power over the king was hateful to all. The queen mother Mary de' Medici, the king's brother Gaston, Duke of Orleans, called Mojtsieur, and Henry, Duke of Alont- mo7-e7icy, all were bent on overthrowing it. But the car- dinal's strength lay in the king's helplessness, and, when Mary bade her son choose between his mother and his servant, she found herself forced to go into banishment, and died in great poverty. Her son Gaston had lost his wife, the heiress of Montpensier, at the birth of a daughter, and, being offended at a refusal to let him marry one of the Gonzaga family, he bound himself and Montmorency, with other foes of the cardinal, to rise and free the king. Help was looked for from both branches of the House of Austria. Gaston then fled to Lorraine, and there married Margaret, daughter of Duke Charles III. He then entered Burgundy with a hired force, and put forth a manifesto calling on the people to rise against the tyranny of the cardinal. Not a single person joined him till he reached Languedoc, where Montmorency thought his honour pledged to rise in his cause. There was no time for aid to come from Spain ; a French army watched t-he borders of Lorraine, and Gaston and Montmorency fought a hopeless battle at Castebiaudry with the royal forces. Montmorency was taken, severely but not mortally wounded, so that he was made a signal instance of the cardinal's severity. He was beheaded on the 30th of October, 1632, and was much mourned, for this rebellion had been his only crime, and he w-as the last of a brave family. Gaston, who was still heir to the crown, was spared, but was allowed to live in retirement with crippled means. He withdrew for a while to the Netherlands. He was too weak and cowardly ever again to do much mischief, and in 1639 the birth of a dauphin, and two years later of another prince, relieved France from the fear of falling into his Lands. 3. Share of France in the Thirty Years War, 1638. — All this time Germany was rent by the Thirty Years War. Richelieu followed the old policy of siding with the foes of the House of Austria, but as yet without taking up anns. But when the campaigns of Gustavtis Adolfi/ms, followed up by the successes of Bernhard of Saxe- Weimar and the defection of IVallenstein, had weakened the Emperor K 2