[Régence de Marie de Médicis et États Généraux de 1614] Discours de Maître Guillaume

Regency of Marie de Médicis and Estates General of 1614.

Speech by Mr. Guillaume and Jacques Bonhomme, peasant, about the defeat of 35 hens & the rooster in a supper by 3 soldiers. S.l., s.n., 1614; [1] leaf, 6 pages.
The Awakening of Master Guillaume to the Noises of These Times. S.l., s.n., 1614; 32 pages wrongly numbered 33.
The Metempsychosis or Second Life of Master Guillaume. S.l., n.d. (c. 1614); pages 3-48.
The New Moon of Master Guillaume. On the happy return of the Princes. S.l., s.n, 1614; 14 pages, 1 blank leaf.
Letter from Guillot the Dreamer, steward of Vaugirar. S.l., n.d, (c. 1614); 8 pages.
The Cabinet of V[ulcan]. S.l., n.d, (c. 1614) ; 7 pages.
The Speech of Alexander the Blacksmith, delivered at the Conclave of Reformers. S.l., s.n., 1614; 16 pages.
The Good Frenchman. S.l., s.n., 1614 ; 24 pages.
The Old Gaul to the Princes. Paris, Jean le Bègue, 1614 23 pages.
The Frank Taupin. [The ungrateful deceivers of the God of nature. And to my King Henry, & his offspring, are already devising a reformed wolf: But if King Louis wages war on them. I want to lose my name of brave Frank Taupin If he does not send them all to the center of the earth.], Paris Pierre Buray, 1614; 8 pages.

Together ten pieces gathered in one 12mo volume. Full green morocco, triple gilt fillets framing the covers, smooth spine decorated with gilt designs, inner dentelle, gilt edges, small marginal restoration to 1 leaf. 18th-century binding by Derôme le Jeune.

162 x 99 mm.

Poignant and extremely rare first editions of satires inspired by the departure and subsequent return of the Princes opposed to the regency of Marie de Médicis.

The assembly of the Estates General in Paris on October 27, 1614 demonstrates the extreme weakening of the French monarchy under the regency of Marie de Médicis, widow of King Henry IV.

After the assassination of Henry IV on May 14, 1610, his widow, Marie de Médicis, secured the regency, thanks to the support of the Duke of Épernon. With the woman that Henriette d'Entragues called the "fat Florentine banker", the kingdom "was about to fall into strange hands", in Sully's words.

After discouraging Sully from staying in government and sidelining Épernon, the regent actually entrusted the reins of power to her foster sister, a Florentine woman she had brought with her to France, Leonora Dori, known as Galigaï, and to her husband, Concino Concini, who was made Marquis d’Ancre and even Marshal and Admiral without ever having fought or commanded a ship.

This clan shamelessly plundered the Treasury, and Marie de Médicis indulged her passion for jewelry and astrology without limits. As a patron, she also commissioned a series of paintings from Rubens and had the Luxembourg Palace built in 1624 by Solomon de Brosse, to rival the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Unsurprisingly, the great lords of the kingdom felt an uncontrollable hatred for Concini. The people of Paris joined in, as witnessed by this song that circulated in the streets:

If the Queen were to have
a baby in her belly
he would be very dark
for he’d be d’Ancre's

The Prince of Condé and Duke of Nevers took the lead of the discontent. Criticizing the plan to marry the young King Louis XIII (age 13) to a Spanish Infanta—which would mean victory for the rival Guise faction—they withdrew to border strongholds and raised troops. The Regency Council prepared for armed conflict before concluding a compromise with the promise to convene the Estates General.

The 1614 assembly included 140 clergy deputies, including the future Cardinal Richelieu, 132 representatives of the aristocracy (of whom the princes' supporters were in the minority), and 192 deputies of the Third Estate (neither clergy nor nobility). Most of these were prosperous bourgeois, judicial officers or parliamentarians.

The princes intended to manipulate the Estates deputies to gain provinces and rewards. To their great disappointment, the Estates General were rendered powerless by rivalries between clergy, nobility, and third estate. The government dismissed the deputies with vague promises of fiscal reform, and above all, without allowing the princes to impose their will. The main result of this meeting was that the regent noticed the intervention of a young churchman, the bishop of Luçon Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, during the closing session on February 23, 1615. She would keep him close, to the monarchy’s great benefit.

The Estates General, having lost their credibility, would not be called again until 1789. Meanwhile, through patient reorganization, Richelieu would enable the monarchy to overcome the aristocracy and pave the way for the illustrious reign of Louis XIV. Note that in England at the same time, conflict between the king and the privileged classes would result in the latter's victory and in the emergence of a primitive democracy.

As the regime crisis dragged on, the Duke of Luynes persuaded the young Louis XIII to take action. Summoning his courage, the king had Concini assassinated in the Louvre courtyard on April 2, 1617, then had his wife burned at the stake for witchcraft.

In February 1619, as an act of defiance, the Queen Mother joined the revolt of the Duke of Épernon. After the Day of the Dupes (1630), which led to her final exclusion from affairs of state by her son Louis XIII, she fled to her daughter Henrietta's home in London, then to Cologne, where she died on July 3, 1642, shortly before Richelieu and her son.

Very fine copy bound in green morocco of the eighteenth century by Derôme le Jeune, from the libraries of P. Descq and the Count de Lignerolles (Cat. III, 1894, no. 2881).