A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Louisa of Savoy
LOUISA of SAVOY, Countess of Angoulesme, Mother of Francis the First,
Who succeeded to the throne of France A. D. 1515, on the demise of Louis XII. his great uncle, and with whom expired the elder branch of the house of Orleans. Immediately on his accession, he raised Angoulesme into a duchy, from motives of filial affection. Louisa had been in person eminently beautiful, and even then the hand of time had scarcely been able to diminish the splendour of her charms, while the gifts of nature had been carefully improved and embellished by the acquisitions of art. Born with strong talents, and a mind active, vigorous, penetrating, and decisive, she aimed at the acquisition of power, and braved unappalled the most furious storms of adversity. But, unhappily for the nation, her virtues were greatly overbalanced by her vices; her passions were strong and impetuous, and to their gratification she sacrificed all that a woman should hold dear in life: vain, avaricious, intriguing, and jealous, implacable in her resentments, impatient of controul, and insatiate in her avarice, she thwarted the best concerted projects of her son, and occasioned the greatest distress to the nation. When Francis on his Italian expedition left his mother regent of the kingdom, and after his return from it, when his duchy of Milan was threatened to be invaded by the pope, and Lautrec was appointed its governor, Louisa, partly through avarice, and partly from the inveterate dislike she had conceived to Lautrec, who had been rather too free in his remarks on the numerous adventures to which her disposition had given rise, seized the three hundred thousand crowns, which had been raised for the pay of the Milanese troops, and appropriated them to her own use. Lautrec performed prodigies of valour, but the Swiss mercenaries, who formed the greater part of his army, enraged at not receiving their pay, left him and retired to their own country, and Lautrec was obliged to return to France. The king was so enraged at the loss of the Milanese, that at first he refused to see him, but having at length obtained an audience, he justified himself by imputing the disasters of the campaign to the want of the promised money. Francis, who was ignorant of his mother's conduct, flew into a violent passion with Semblancy, superintendant of the finances, peremptorily insisting on knowing what was become of the money, which he had ordered to be sent to Italy? the minister, a man of integrity and virtue, who had grown grey in the service of his country, confessed he had been obliged to pay it to the Duchess of Angoulesme, who had taken the consequences upon herself; but that infamous woman, sacrificing every principle of honour to avarice and revenge, had the presumption to deny the fact, and though Semblancy, in his own defence, produced her receipt, she still persisted in the denial, maintaining that receipt was given for another sum of the same amount. Though Semblancy was justified in the eyes of his sovereign, and continued to enjoy his place a little longer, yet the vindictive Louisa soon suborned one of the clerks to accuse him of peculation, he was committed to the Bastile, tried by partial judges, and at length expired on a gibbet. Her affections had long been fixed on the Duke of Bourbon, but finding her love rejected by a prince sincerely attached to his wife, her love was converted into hatred, and she prejudiced the king against him. But the death of the duchess of Bourbon revived her former tenderness, she sacrificed her resentment to love, and offered her hand to the disconsolate duke. This offer being rejected with contempt, the insult was deemed irreparable; the resentment of slighted love and wounded vanity raged with increased violence, and Bourbon was doomed to destruction by this implacable princess. A law suit was commenced against him, to recover some possessions he held in right of his deceased wife, and the criminal judges, over-awed by Louisa's authority, pronounced a sentence, by which his estates were sequestered. Bourbon, inflamed by a repetition of injuries, and driven to desperation, entered into a treaty with Henry VIII. of England, and Charles V. of Germany, against the King of France.
At first, Francis was successful in repelling the confederated Princes, which encouraged him to attempt in person the recovery of the Milanese; in vain did his mother and his wisest ministers dissuade him from it, he was determined, and leaving the Duchess regent of the kingdom departed. After the fatal battle of Pavia, at which, after the most valorous exertions, he lost both his army and liberty, he addressed Louisa in this laconic, but expressive note, "Madame, all is lost, except our honour." The kingdom was now reduced to a situation pregnant with dangers; the captivity of the king, the loss of a flourishing army, added to a discontent prevailing through the kingdom, seemed to threaten a general insurrection. The people murmured, the parliament complained. In this trying emergency the magnanimity of Louisa was eminently displayed, and that kingdom which her passions had endangered, her abilities were exerted to save; she assembled at Lyons, the princes of the blood, the governors of the provinces', and notables of the realm, who came to the generous resolution of immediately paying the ransom of the officers and soldiers taken at the battle of Pavia. The army and garrisons were recruited, and enabled to repel an attack of the Imperialists, whilst Louisa conciliated the favour of the king of England, whom she disengaged from the confederacy; and to her mediation Francis acknowledged himself indebted for his liberty, which he recovered in March 1526, and was joyfully received by his mother and the whole nation. The terms of his liberation by the emperor were so exorbitant, that he never intended to fulfil them, and the Pope absolved him from his oaths. Hostilities continued, till at length, Margaret of Austria and the Duchess of Angoulseme met at Cambray, and settled the terms of pacification, whence the peace derived the name of "The ladies' peace." Louisa died 1571, delivering Francis from a counsellor whose passions had frequently endangered the kingdom which her wisdom and magnanimity had contributed to protect. Mindful of her counsel, he completed her favorite project, of annexing the duchy of Britanny to the crown.