The Counts of Gruyere Part 2

Rodolphe le Jeune, the long awaited heir of this story, did not live to inherit the rule of the domain whose fame his father had so sadly stained. Brilliantly educated at the court of Savoy, and later the councilor of the countess regent, he emulated his uncle's heroic example and joined the English armies under Buckingham in France, there winning praise and the offer of the chevalier's accolade. But he failed to fulfil the promise of his youth and died prematurely, leaving his young son Antoine, the last hope of the family, to succeed to his grandfather.

Count Antoine's overlord, the youthful count of Savoy, confided the education of his va.s.sal and protege to a venerable prelate of Lausanne; but heeding nothing of his pious instructions the young ruler wasted his revenues in extravagant hospitality, lived gaily with his mistresses, and celebrated the weddings of his two sisters with famous feasting and generous marriage gifts. Unlike his predecessors, who shared the rule of Gruyere with brothers or sons, he reigned alone, and gave himself wholly to the ambition of maintaining the pleasure-loving reputation of his house. More than ever under Count Antoine was Gruyere a court of love.

The numerous and beautiful children of his mistresses filled the castle with their youthful gayety and charm, and his two splendid sons, Francois and Jean, proudly acknowledged by their father and legitimized with the sanction of the pope, took their place among the young n.o.bles of the country as heirs of the Gruyere possessions. Again the gay Coraules of flower-crowned shepherds and maids wound over the valleys and hills. Again minstrels and chroniclers recorded and sang the lovely traditions of their pastoral life.

"Gruyere, sweet country, fresh and verdant Gruyere Did thy children imagine how happy they were?

Did thy shepherds know they lived an idyll?

Had they read Theocrite, had they heard of Virgil?

No, no! as in gardens the lilac and rose Grow in innocent beauty, their days drew to a close."

So in a fond ecstasy of recollection, sings a Romand poet, and thus in the famous lines of Uhland is related the Coraule of Count Antoine.

_The Count of Gruyere_

Before his high manor, the Count of Gruyere, One morning in Maytime looked over the land.

Rocky peaks, rose and gold, with the dawning were fair, In the valleys night still held command.

"Oh! Mountains! you call to your pastures so green, Where the shepherds and maids wander free, And while often, unmoved, your smiles I have seen, Ah! to-day 'tis with you I would be."

Then afloat on the breeze, there came to his ear, Sweet pipes faintly blowing--still distant the sounds---- As across the deep valley, each with his dear, Came the shepherds, dancing their rounds.

And now on the green sward they danced and they sang, In their holiday gowns, a pretty parterre, With oft sounding echoes the castle walls rang, To the joy of the Count of Gruyere.

Then slim as a lily, a beauteous maid, Took the Count by the hand to join the gay throng.

"And now you're our captive, sweet master," she said, "And our leader in dancing and song."

Then, the Count at the head, away they all went, A-singing and dancing, through forest and dell.

O'er valleys and hillsides, with force all unspent, Till the sun set and starry night fell.

The first day fled fast, and the second dawned fair, The third was declining, when over the hills Quick lightning flashed whitely--the Count was not there!

"Has he vanished?" they asked of the rills.

The black storm clouds have burst, the streams are like blood By the red lightning's glare, and dark night is rent, Oh, look! where our lost one fights hard with the flood, Until a branch saves him, pale and spent.

"The mountains which drew me with smiles to their heights, With thunders have kept me, their lover, at bay.

Their streams have engulfed me, not these the delights I dreamed of, dancing the hours away.

"Farewell, ye green Alps! youths and maidens so gay, Farewell! happy days when a shepherd was I, Stern fates I have questioned have answered me nay, So I leave ye, with smiles and a sigh.

"My poor heart's still burning, the dance tempts me yet, So ask me no longer, my lily, my belle!

For you, love and frolic, but I must forget, Take me back, then, my frowning castel."

No attacks from feudal lords or from rival cities threatened Gruyere during the reign of Count Antoine, which came to its end in undisturbed tranquility. The kindly and _complaisant_ father, brother and lover essayed as he grew in years to correct some of the follies of his youth, and according to the opinion of Gruyere's princ.i.p.al historian married the mother of the children he had already legitimized. A pious and lamenting widower, he inst.i.tuted many ma.s.ses and anniversaries for the repose of the soul of his wife, the Countess Jeanne de Noyer of blessed memory; and erecting a chapel to his patron St. Antoine in the parochial church of Gruyere caused to be painted therein the kneeling portraits of himself and his countess, in perpetual testimony of his devotion to the rites of matrimony and religion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORTIFIED HOUSES--NORTH WALL]

CHAPTER V

THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Francois I)

The inheritance of the estates Count Antoine had so diminished by his improvident generosity was bitterly contested by the husbands of his two sisters, but the duke of Savoy did not hesitate to recognize the rights of his legitimized descendants, and Francois I of Gruyere and his brother Jean of Montsalvens entered without difficulty into the enjoyment of their inheritances. Count Francois, flower of the race of pastoral kings, presents one more historical example of the brilliant intellect, of the abounding vitality and extraordinary beauty with which nature--unheeding law--seems unwisely to sanction the overwhelming preference and inclination of unmarried lovers. A celebrated chronicler of Zurich who had seen the famous personage whom the historians describe as "the handsomest n.o.ble in Romand Switzerland," records in Latin how greatly he exceeded in his n.o.ble proportions and mighty stature the majority of mankind, and spoke also of his armor, fit for giants, which was long preserved in the chateau of Gruyere.

Becoming in his youth the favorite companion and support of Amedee IX, during his early years in Italy, he was entrusted by that gentle ruler, when he acceded to the ducal throne of Savoy, with every important office in his domain. Governor and Bailli of Vaud, "conseiller" and "chambellan" of the court, he was chatelain of Moudon and Faucigny, military governor of the great fortress of Montbeliard; and finally, as marechal of Savoy, became the general-in-chief of all his forces. When Amedee, resigning his flute playing and his many charities, returned to Italy and abandoned his throne to the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande--worthy sister of Louis the XI of France--Francois de Gruyere was still the princ.i.p.al support of the throne. The virtual governor by reason of his judicial and military administration of the whole duchy of Savoy, Count Francois of Gruyere did not neglect to continue and to strengthen the amicable relations of his house with Fribourg. Winning prizes in its tournaments, taking part in all its fetes and often dwelling in the imposing chateau which he had erected within its gates, he became a personage of the utmost importance and influence with the city authorities, and persuaded them to renounce their alliance with the dukes of Austria and swear allegiance to Savoy. In the triumphal entry which he made therein, on the occasion of the formal signing of its va.s.salage to its new suzerain, his splendid appearance as he advanced mounted and in armor, followed by the bishop of Lausanne, the court of justice and all the authorities of Fribourg, is recorded in the annals of the city. Equally respected at Berne, he indefatigably labored with the proud and stiffnecked council of its citizens until they also consented to form an alliance with Savoy. But although frequently residing at Fribourg or at the ducal court of Chambery, and absent for the most part in the administration of his multifarious offices, he did not forget Gruyere, where he wisely and economically regulated the finances, increased and improved the herds, and effectually restrained the people in their habitual depredations upon the possessions of Berne and Fribourg.

But Switzerland, the battlefield of so many warring powers, was now to become the scene of a European drama, of rival princ.i.p.alities and potentates avid of world control--a family tragedy of the related rulers of France, Germany, Burgundy and Savoy. By his delegated rule of the latter country, Francois de Gruyere, although playing his part only in the prologue, took his place beside the great figures of the Emperor Ferdinand of Germany, Louis XI of France, the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande and their magnificent cousin Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Sent by his father, Charles VII of France, at the head of the redoubtable Armagnacs, to help the German emperor to subdue the Confederated Cantons, the dauphin Louis XI had such a taste of the quality of the Swiss soldier as he was never afterwards to forget, when, at the battle of St. Jacques, fighting as heroes never fought before, s.n.a.t.c.hing the arrows from their bleeding wounds, battling to the last, fourteen hundred Swiss despatched eight thousand French and Austrians with eleven hundred of their horses. Such soldiers Louis XI preferred as allies rather than antagonists and, when he succeeded to the throne made haste to attach them to his cause. He was wiser in this than his sister Yolande, who a.s.sured of the precious alliance with the leading cities of the Swiss Confederates, lately so ably negotiated by the count of Gruyere, paid less attention to preserving their friends.h.i.+p, than to her ambitious designs upon the vast territories and untold wealth of Burgundy. These territories she dreamed of annexing to Savoy through a marriage with Marie, daughter and heiress of Duke Charles and her young son Philibert, and for this reason took sides with the duke against France and her treacherous brother. Taking Hannibal and Alexander as his models, the duke of Burgundy, already ruler of the Flemish provinces and the richest potentate in Europe, dreamed of a kingdom which should extend from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and as far as the borders of the Rhine. With the alliance of the German emperor, he saw the possibility of a still further extension of his power, and for this reason promised his daughter to the heir of the empire, Maximilian. With the pa.s.sing of her hopes for this coveted marriage alliance, the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande was content to maintain her alliance with Duke Charles, and to preserve her regency under his protection and support, little dreaming of the swift and terrible destruction which awaited him in the shadow of the Alps.

That destruction stealthily prepared by all the arts at the command of the most malevolently skilful monarch who ever wore a crown, was not at the outset so lightly defied by the great duke of Burgundy, who had no mind to alienate the country of Romand Switzerland, which had originally formed a part of his own domain, and was still allied to its divided half by a common language and centuries of amicable commercial relations. Supported by the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande, he was still more closely allied with his brother-in-law, the able Jacques de Savoy, who was count of Romont and ruler of the whole Savoyard country of Vaud. An early comrade of Duke Charles, he had been appointed marechal of his Flemish provinces, and by this office maintained the close relations between Romand Switzerland and Burgundy. But Louis devilishly and implacably planning his rival cousin's ruin, sowed dissension between the confederated cities and their lately acknowledged suzerain the d.u.c.h.ess of Savoy. Determined to attach to himself the indomitable Swiss soldiers, he bought with pensions and unlimited promises the alliance of Berne and Fribourg and the a.s.sociated cantons of German Switzerland.

Divided between French and German-speaking inhabitants, the French citizens in the two cities who were loyal to Savoy and sympathetic with their Burgundian cousins, were outwitted by Louis' agent, his former page Nicholas de Diesbach. In October of the year 1474, the adherents of Louis in Berne had so prevailed that war was formally declared against Burgundy by the confederates, and in November before the fortress of Hericourt, Louis' brother-in-law the Archduke Sigismund of Austria, with the a.s.sistance of the Bernois, inflicted the first b.l.o.o.d.y defeat upon Duke Charles. Messengers were then sent by Charles to Berne to treat for peace but with no result, and two months later the Bernois, who had already seized a Savoy fortress in the Jura, took possession of three chateaux in the Pays de Vaud belonging to Count Romont. Justly indignant at this invasion of the Savoy territory, the d.u.c.h.ess sent the Count de Gruyere to Berne to remonstrate against the infraction of the still existing alliance with her house. A strange reception was accorded him.

No penitence for the unwarranted attack upon the Savoy fortresses, but an insolent ultimatum, declaring instant war unless she immediately recalled Count Romont from his command in the Flemish provinces, and herself declared war upon Duke Charles. No more Lombard soldiers of Duke Charles were to be permitted to pa.s.s through the Bernese territories, but Swiss soldiers unarmed or armed should pa.s.s at their discretion.

Equally unsuccessful with Fribourg, the d.u.c.h.ess, wondering "whence came the evil wind which had blown upon the two cities," heeded no one of the commands which had been issued by Berne, and, as double-faced though far less skilful than her brother, still continued to negotiate with the two cities, still permitted the Lombard troops to pa.s.s. The result was that the Bernois addressed themselves directly to the count of Gruyere, whom they had already forbidden to take sides with Burgundy, holding him personally responsible for the pa.s.sage of the Lombards and threatening instant invasion of his estates. Count Francois now addressed his friends of Fribourg, a.s.serting that he had forbidden the pa.s.sage of the troops and so far influenced the city authorities that they sent their advocate to their allies of Berne, asking to be released from bearing arms against Duke Charles.

But this was the utmost that he could accomplish for his hesitating and untrustworthy mistress, and with the refusal of Berne to release Fribourg from a.s.sisting them in their war against Duke Charles, he permitted his subjects to form new treaties with the cities by which, though refusing to bear arms against Savoy, they were bound to join in the war against Burgundy.

That the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande could not fail to suffer in the defeat of her allies was no less plain to her than to her general, and threatened with reprisals, seeing the storm gather about his head, Count Francois, sick of heart and of body, retired to his chateau. There, fortunate in that he was spared the necessity of openly bearing arms against the duchy he had so long and ably governed, he died in the very moment of the outbreak of the impending conflict.

The most ill.u.s.trious of the sovereigns who presided over the destinies of Gruyere, Francois I has left an imperishable memory and bore a unique role in the history of the fifteenth century in Switzerland. By a personal force and ability surpa.s.sing any of the n.o.bles of his time, he justified the confidence of the suzerains he successively served.

Everything possible was accomplished under his administration for the duchy of Savoy, torn between such powers as Burgundy and France. Gloved in velvet, the hand of Francois was of iron, but a rare judgment and discretion characterized him, so that whether as supreme judge, presiding as his suzerain's delegate over the tribunals of Fribourg, or as general holding the Savoy fortresses and the Savoy armies in readiness for defence, he supported the reign of law and justice in the land, and so long as he lived succeeded in keeping the Savoy rulers on their ducal throne. Never had Gruyere enjoyed such a rule, and greatly did it redound to his credit that his little pastoral domain was preserved in growing prosperity and independence between the threatening and ambitious republics of Berne and Fribourg. Even in the days of his brilliant youth when he brought his Italian bride, the n.o.ble Bonne da Costa, from among the ladies of the Piemontaise court of Savoy, to share with him the pleasures of his charming little domain, he showed how strong a defender he could be of its liberties and possessions. For when threatened by the Fribourgeois he sent them such a message, declaring that war if they wished it should be waged with "sword and fire," as sufficed effectually to calm the turbulent disturbers of the peace, and induce the city authorities to the pacific relations which thereafter were established. Again when the succession of a prince of Savoy was contested for the bishopric of Lausanne, he superbly cut short the deliberations of the council of prelates, saying, "Why bargain thus?

Whether they wish it or not, he shall be bishop."

The Savoy possessions suffered no curtailment during his administration, and no flower fell from the Gruyere crown while he so splendidly wore it, but many liberties harmonious with the growing republicanism of Switzerland were voluntarily granted to his beloved subjects, who inconsolably lamented their loss when the n.o.ble features and towering form of their incomparable ruler were shut forever from mortal sight in the church under the Gruyere hill.

CHAPTER VI

THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Louis)

Among the many benefits with which Count Francois' ability and sagacity had enriched his inherited estates were the acquisition of the seigneuries of Grandcour and Aigremont, and the repurchase of the beautiful castles of Oron and Aubonne. The two latter residences were a.s.signed during his life to his two sons Louis and Francois, Louis being early established at Aubonne, and Francois becoming seigneur of Oron.

Louis, worthy successor of his father, pa.s.sed at Aubonne by the sh.o.r.es of lake Leman a youth of peace and happiness. Writing from thence to his young wife Claude de Seyssel, a daughter of an ill.u.s.trious knight of Savoy, Louis showed in the following intimate little letter, the charming nature he had inherited from his parents.

Ma Mie,

I recommend myself to thee. I have thy letter sent by Gachet, and I think that my wish to see thee is as great as thine to see me, but I must still delay a little. Ma Mie, I recommend to thee the little one, my horse and all the household. Recommend me to our good Aunt Aigremont, to her sister and to M. Aigremont and the nurse, to the maid and Perrisont. Ma Mie, please G.o.d, to give thee a good and long life and all thy heart desires.

Written at Aubonne, the morrow of St. Catherine's day.

Louis de Gruyere, All thine.

A Ma Mie.

The joy of this happy household, of kind relatives and devoted servants, was soon broken by the early death of the child, their first-born son, Georges, who was taken from his parents six years before their accession to the rule and responsibilities of their estates. The birth of two other children, Francois and a daughter Helene, had consoled them, and it was a truly "_joyeuse entree_" which they made on a beautiful July Sunday in the year 1475 to the square before the Gruyere church, formally to take possession of their domain according to the ancient custom of their predecessors. The herald crying out the summons of the count, his subjects, who had collected from towns and villages and valleys, raised their hands and swore fidelity. Count Louis, with his hand on the holy book, promised to protect them; and the standard-bearer, waving the silver crane, declared that their flag should lead them against all their foes. Three months only were to pa.s.s before this banner took the field, for the storm clouds approaching from the neighboring kingdoms of Burgundy and France were thundering now over Switzerland, and the bitter rivalries of Duke Charles and his cousin of France had now reached the moment of collision on Helvetian soil.

Fortified by a renewal of his alliance with the German emperor, the duke of Burgundy, eager to chastise the Confederates who had dared to defy his imperial ally and who had humiliated him at Hericourt, prepared to invade Switzerland. But Louis, the _diabolus ex machina_, who had secretly fostered the discord between Burgundy and the Confederates, hastily signed a nine-years' truce with Charles, and remarking with his usual sardonic smile that his "fair cousin did not know his foes," left him and his sister to the tender mercies of the enemies he had arrayed against them. A clause in the treaty which preserved Louis from all partic.i.p.ation in the impending conflict, stipulated that Savoy and the Confederates should be included in the peace, provided that they committed no single act of depredation or hostility for a period of three months. Secretly subsidized by Louis with ample funds to prosecute the war, the Confederates immediately sought a pretext for the attack upon the possessions of Savoy, and found one ready to their hand in the confiscation by Count Romont of the celebrated contraband load of German sheepskins carried illegally through his country by some Bernese carters. Calling to their aid the inhabitants of the Valais, who had long resented the suzerainty of Savoy, they prepared to march against the d.u.c.h.ess and Count Romont. The frightened d.u.c.h.ess now again attempted to negotiate with this strong combination, when the news of Duke Charles' advance with a splendid army dissipated her fears, and she openly declared for Burgundy and sent her forces to join those of Charles. Another cause involving the count of Gruyere precipitated the internal quarrels of Savoy and the Confederates. Count Romont, incited by the jealousy of the family of de Vergy, which (through their alliance with the sisters of Count Antoine de Gruyere, had disputed the inheritance of his legitimized successor Francois) pillaged and captured the Gruyere chateaux of Oron, Aubonne and Palezieux, and Duke Charles sent a force of Burgundian and Savoyard soldiers to invade Gruyere itself. Calling his friends the Fribourgeois to his side, Count Louis met and conquered this army, capturing a banner which is still preserved in the church at Lessoc. No further hesitation was thereafter possible for the ruler of Gruyere, who was thus compelled to take sides against the d.u.c.h.ess if he wished to preserve his country from dismemberment and the cruel and ferocious devastation which the Confederates were now inflicting upon the beautiful country of Romand Switzerland, and particularly upon the country of Vaud, the apanage of Duke Charles'

marechal, Count Romont. For, fully supplied with funds by Louis, nothing could arrest the German inhabitants of Fribourg and Berne, who, in a three-weeks' campaign of murder, violence and pillage, utterly devastated and conquered the above provinces, burning the chateaux, decapitating their defenders and soiling the reputation of the Swiss soldier by inexcusable acts of cupidity and ferocity. Never was so venal and brutal a war waged at the will of a foreign and detestably traitorous king, and the coming of the great Duke Charles was awaited by all the inhabitants of the Romand country as a welcome deliverance from the hated Bernois. Postponing his Italian campaign, Duke Charles, deaf to his advisers and eager to chastise the cruel depredations of the "insolent cowherds" he so despised, started from Nancy with his magnificent army in midwinter of the year 1476 as for a brief pleasure excursion, and laid siege to Grandson which had been captured by the Bernois. After a stubborn resistance the Bernois garrison, promised pardon by a venal German volunteer of the Burgundian cause, surrendered only to suffer the same cruel fate which they had dealt to the defenders of the Savoy fortresses. But now flocking to the aid of their confederates came the unconquerable victors of the Austrian dukes, the Waldstetten; and the horn of the Alps with the same fatal clarion led the mountaineers from the heights above Grandson to their old victory over the n.o.bles, and to the surprising defeat of such an army of wealth and kingly power as the world had not seen since Xerxes. Ma.s.sed in his jeweled tents and golden chapel were the treasures of the richest potentate in all Europe; harnesses and habiliments of gold and velvet, tapestries and gemmed crowns and orders, ropes of pearls, rubies and diamonds (which still glorify the tiaras of the pope and emperors)--all these were sold for a few sous or were trampled in the snow by the ignorant shepherds and cowherds of the Alps. After such an unimaginable tragedy, Duke Charles, like a beaten child, weeping with rage and sick with despair, at last roused himself to send with the consent of the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande a deputation to treat with the Confederates; and this deputation was sent to Count Louis of Gruyere. Announcing this extraordinary event to the authorities at Fribourg, he wrote: "It is true that I received last Sat.u.r.day a letter from M. de Viry, with a sauf-conduit, to take me to Vauruz, to talk of peace. When asked what authority I had to act for you, Gentlemen of Fribourg, I replied that I had none whatsoever. I said, moreover, that I could not engage to approach you without the written consent of M. de Bourgogne, but that I would, with this guarantee, work body and soul in the matter. These gentlemen a.s.sured me on their honor that they would not have spoken without his consent, but I answered that trusting them in all else, I would have nothing further to do with their propositions without this writing from the Duke. Whereupon, it was agreed that M. de Viry, who was to dine with Madame (the d.u.c.h.ess Yolande) to-day at Lausanne, would send me news by this Tuesday or Wednesday."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CITY ON THE HILL]