Private outrages, and breaches of common courtesy and decency,
frequently arose amongst the first persons in the realm. The great
Condé gave a slap in the face to the Comte des Rieux in the presence of
the Duke of Orleans, when the Count returned the blow with interest;
for which retaliation he was sent for a few days to the Bastille. This
Comte des Rieux was the son of the Duke d’Elbeuf; and it had been
jocosely observed, “that the cheeks of that nobleman’s family had
been selected as the field of battle in the wars of the Fronde.” On
this occasion it is related, that the Duke de Beaufort, the son of a
bastard of Henry IV, and who from his vulgarity and brutal excesses was
nicknamed the _Roi des Halles_, or what we might translate the _King of
Billingsgate_, asked the President de Belliévre, if he did not think
that a slap on the cheeks of the Duke d’Elbeuf might change the _face_
of affairs. The president replied, that he apprehended the only change
it might produce would be in the _face_ of the duke.
Shortly after, in 1652, this same Duke of Beaufort, having a quarrel
with his brother-in-law, the Duke de Nemours, on a point of precedence,
killed him in a pistol duel, at which four seconds were present,
who, according to the laudable practice of the times, kept company
with their principals; the Marquis de Villars shooting his adversary
D’Héricourt, whom he had then the honour to meet for the first time.
Madame de Motteville, in her Memoirs, states that this said nobleman,
his Grace of Beaufort, accompanied by six of his worthy companions,
went to insult in the most brutal manner the Duc de Candalle, upsetting
the table at which he was seated at dinner with several noble guests;
and when the Duke thus outrageously insulted demanded satisfaction,
declined meeting him, on the plea of consanguinity, as he was his
cousin-german. Despite his unruly conduct, this worthy was soon after
selected by his sovereign as chief of the admiralty.
De Beaufort was one of the principal leaders of “la Fronde,” and the
most active partisan of Cardinal de Retz, who, although a dignitary of
the church, knew the use of his sword as well, if not better, than his
breviary; he fought two duels, alleging as a precedent his predecessor
the Cardinal de Guise, who was ever ready to wield either a sword or a
crucifix.
It was during this reign that arose the celebrated quarrel between the
beautiful Duchess de Longueville, sister of the great Condé, and the
Duchess de Montbazon, the mother-in-law of Madame de Chevreuse; these
three ladies being concerned in all the intrigues of the busy court of
Anne of Austria, then Regent of the kingdom.