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
On my return from Portugal and from Pignon de Belis [Penon de Velez], a
fortress which was taken in Barbary, she welcomed me very warmly, asking
me news of the conquest and of the army. She presented me to Don Carlos,
who came into her room, together with the princess, and to Don Juan [of
Austria, Philip II.’s brother, the conqueror of Lepanto]. I was two days
without going to see her, on account of a toothache I had got upon the
sea. She asked Riberac, maid of honour, where I was and if I were ill,
and having heard what my trouble was she sent me her apothecary, who
brought me an herb very special for that ache, which, on merely being
held in the palm of the hand, cures the pain suddenly, as it did very
quickly for me.
I can boast that I was the first to bring the queen-mother word of Queen
Élisabeth’s desire to come to France and see her, for which she thanked
me much both then and later; for the Queen of Spain was her good
daughter, whom she loved above the others, and who returned her the
like; for Queen Élisabeth so honoured, respected, and feared her that I
have heard her say she never received a letter from the queen, her
mother, without trembling and dreading lest she was angry with her and
had written some painful thing; though, God knows, she had never said
one to her since she was married, nor been angry with her; but the
daughter feared the mother so much that she always had that
apprehension.
It was on this journey to Bayonne that Pompadour the elder having killed
Chambret at Bordeaux, wrongfully as some say, the queen-mother was so
angry that if she could have caught him she would have had him beheaded,
and no one dared speak to her of mercy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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