Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590

CHRISTINA OF DENMARK

                     DUCHESS OF MILAN AND LORRAINE

                               1522-1590

[Illustration: _Christina, Duchess of Milan_]




                          CHRISTINA OF DENMARK
                         DUCHESS OF MILAN AND
                               LORRAINE

                               1522-1590


                          BY JULIA CARTWRIGHT
                              (MRS. ADY)

        AUTHOR OF "ISABELLA D'ESTE," "BALDASSARRE CASTIGLIONE,"
                   "THE PAINTERS OF FLORENCE," ETC.

      "Dieu, qu'il la fait bon regarder,
    La gracieuse, bonne et belle!
    Pour les grans biens qui sont en elle,
    Chacun est prest de la louer.
      Qui se pourrait d'elle lasser?
    Toujours sa beauté renouvelle.
    Dieu, qu'il la fait bon regarder,
    La gracieuse, bonne et belle!
      Par deça, ne delà la mer,
    Ne sçay Dame ne Damoiselle
    Qui soit en tous biens parfais telle;
    C'est un songe que d'y penser,
      Dieu, qu'il la fait bon regarder!"

                          CHARLES D'ORLÉANS

                                NEW YORK
                       E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
                                  1913




PREFACE


Christina of Denmark is known to the world by Holbein's famous portrait
in the National Gallery. The great Court painter, who was sent to
Brussels by Henry VIII. to take the likeness of the Emperor's niece,
did his work well. With unerring skill he has rendered the "singular
good countenance," the clear brown eyes with their frank, honest gaze,
the smile hovering about "the faire red lips," the slender fingers of
the nervously clasped hands, which Brantôme and his royal mistress,
Catherine de' Medici, thought "the most beautiful hands in the world."
And in a wonderful way he has caught the subtle charm of the young
Duchess's personality, and made it live on his canvas. What wonder
that Henry fell in love with the picture, and vowed that he would
have the Duchess, if she came to him without a farthing! But for all
these brave words the masterful King's wooing failed. The ghost of his
wronged wife, Katherine of Aragon, the smoke of plundered abbeys, and
the blood of martyred friars, came between him and his destined bride,
and Christina was never numbered in the roll of Henry VIII.'s wives.
This splendid, if perilous, adventure was denied her. But many strange
experiences marked the course of her chequered life, and neither beauty
nor virtue could save her from the shafts of envious Fortune. Her
troubles began from the cradle. When she was little more than a year
old, her father, King Christian II., was deposed by his subjects, and
her mother, the gentle Isabella of Austria, died in exile of a broken
heart. She lost her first husband, Francesco Sforza, at the end of
eighteen months. Her second husband, Francis Duke of Lorraine, died in
1545, leaving her once more a widow at the age of twenty-three. Her
only son was torn from her arms while still a boy by a foreign invader,
Henry II., and she herself was driven into exile. Seven years later she
was deprived of the regency of the Netherlands, just when the coveted
prize seemed within her grasp, and the last days of her existence were
embittered by the greed and injustice of her cousin, Philip II.

Yet, in spite of hard blows and cruel losses, Christina's life was
not all unhappy. The blue bird--the symbol of perpetual happiness in
the faery lore of her own Lorraine--may have eluded her grasp, but
she filled a great position nobly, and tasted some of the deepest and
truest of human joys. Men and women of all descriptions adored her, and
she had a genius for friendship which survived the charms of youth and
endured to her dying day. A woman of strong affections and resolute
will, she inherited a considerable share of the aptitude for government
that distinguished the women of the Habsburg race. Her relationship
with Charles V. and residence at the Court of Brussels brought her
into close connection with political events during the long struggle
with France, and it was in a great measure due to her exertions that
the peace which ended this Sixty Years' War was finally concluded at
Câteau-Cambrésis in 1559.

Holbein's Duchess, it is evident, was a striking figure, and her
life deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Brantôme
honoured her with a place in his gallery of fair ladies, and the sketch
which he has drawn, although inaccurate in many details, remains true
in its main outlines. But with this exception Christina's history has
never yet been written. The chief sources from which her biography
is drawn are the State Archives of Milan and Brussels, supplemented
by documents in the Record Office, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the
Biblioteca Zelada near Pavia, and the extremely interesting collection
of Guise letters in the Balcarres Manuscripts, which has been preserved
in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.