The book of the ladies: Illustrious Dames: The Reign and Amours of the Bourbon RégimeBrantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
History
The book of the ladies: Illustrious Dames: The Reign and Amours of the Bourbon Régime
Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
France -- Biography; France -- Court and courtiers; Queens; Women -- Biography
Our Queen Élisabeth never did like that. She was born great in herself,
great in mind and very able, so that a royal grandeur could not fail
her. She had, if she had wished it, double cause over Germaine de Foix
to be haughty and arrogant, for she was daughter of a great King of
France, and married to the greatest king in the world, he being not the
monarch of one kingdom, but of many, or, as one might say, of all the
Spains,--Jerusalem, the Two Sicilies, Majorca, Minorca, Sardinia, and
the Western Indies, which seem indeed a world, besides being lord of
infinitely more lands and greater seigneuries than Ferdinand ever had.
Therefore we should laud our princess for her gentleness, which is well
becoming in a great personage towards each and all; and likewise for the
affection she showed to Frenchmen, who, on arriving in Spain, were
welcomed by her with so benign a face, the least among them as well as
the greatest, that none ever left her without feeling honoured and
content. I can speak for myself, as to the honour she did me in talking
to me often during the time I stayed there; asking me, at all hours,
news of the king, the queen her mother, messieurs her brothers, and
madame her sister, with others of the Court, not forgetting to name
them, each and all, and to inquire about them; so that I wondered much
how she could remember these things as if she had just left the Court of
France; and I often asked her how it was possible she could keep such
memories in the midst of her grandeur.
When she came to Bayonne she showed herself just as familiar with the
ladies and maids of honour, neither more nor less, as she was when a
girl; and as for those who were absent or married since her departure,
she inquired with great interest about them all. She did the same to the
gentlemen of her acquaintance, and to those who were not, informing
herself as to who the latter were, and saying: “Such and such were at
Court in my day, I knew them well; but these were not, and I desire to
know them.” In short, she contented every one.
When she made her entry into Bayonne she was mounted on an ambling
horse, most superbly and richly caparisoned with pearl embroideries
which had formerly been used by the deceased empress when she made her
entries into her towns, and were thought to be worth one hundred
thousand crowns, and some say more. She had a noble grace on horseback,
and it was fine to see her; she showed herself so beautiful and so
agreeable that every one was charmed with her.
We all had commands to go to meet her, and accompany her on this entry,
as indeed it was our duty to do; and we were gratified when, having made
her our reverence, she did us the honour to thank us; and to me above
all she gave good greeting, because it was scarcely four months since I
had left her in Spain; which touched me much, receiving such favour
above my companions and more honour than belonged to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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