Henri de Gondi

## Évêque de Paris

Anonyme — l'Évêque de Paris, undated.

**Henri de Gondi**, **Évêque de Paris** (23rd August, 1572—present) was a French statesman and prelate of the Catholic Church. A frequent intriguer of the *politiques* during the rollercoaster reign of Jean VI & IV. As a member of the Gondi kith-and-kin renowned for their near-fanatical service to the Crown, he was frequently engaged in power bids in the Conseil du Roi against his sworn nemesis Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully and later on Nicolas IV de Neufville, Seigneur de Villeroy to be the king's advisor during the fidgety first few years of seventeenth-century France.

## Early Life

Born in Paris on the 23rd of August, 1572 to Albert de Gondi—Comte de Belle-Ile at that time— and his wife Claude-Catherine de Clermont during the blood-bathed hours of St. Bartholomew Day's massacre. The sixth child of the couple and second son, the Florentine-hailing dynasty was showered in the favors of the jack-of-all-trades and leading head of the realm, Catherine de Médicis. Still fairly small at the time of his birth, the scale of Albert's exploits showed in his meteoric rise from Comte to Duc and Peer of France all borne from the rampant French Wars of Religion and the infamous Charles IX and Henri III.

With a birth date as telling as one of France's most Machiavellian-schemes against Protestanism, his parents interpreted the symbolism as a career for the divine. Hardly leaguers, the hardline politique family sought after ways to enthrall as many routes to accumulated wealth and prestige as a single unified unit. Dowries sparing no expense and propelling careers with as much nepotism as one could imagine. A victim of the later, he was thrust into the hands of Albert's brother, bishop-turned-cardinal Pierre de Gondi, more closely aligned to the Lyonnais financier roots of the family than Albert ever would be. This turned into a series of pulling of strings to secure an adolescent Henri a post as chanoine as early as 1587. A stepping-stone for a future lifelong see, his parentage was astounded to find out the determination Henri showed in acquiring not any other see, but being his uncle's direct successor, going as far as throwing himself into La Sorbonne for this very purpose.

It was during his first enrolled year that the reign of Henri III reached a climax with the Guise-incited Day of the Barricades of 1588 where Henri was among those trapped in the city and a first-hand witness of the Duc de Guise's prowess at garnering such widespread support. Alarming to his relatives who were all-too-aware of Henri's outspokeness against authority, they were the first ones to be stunned to the core as he publicly joined their politique affiliation from that day on.

The Day of the Barricades had a double-meaning for the grey-eyed, brown-haired youth.

It turned the page on one notorious chapter of his life. Exaggerated or not, all sort of misdeeds did happen during Henri's authority-defying, handsome daredevil years to the embarrassment of familial prestige and bountiful resources were diverted both to sweep them under the rug and bring Henri back in line. Ultimately, it was his uncle Pierre who proved to be the solution and with the specific words lost to time, Henri was sold on pursuing the career he was chosen for. Though reined in, his juvenile ambitiousness transformed into ladder-climbing to the top on his terms. The irony of Pierre becoming one of Henri's familial opponents later on was not lost on Pierre.

In the decade prior to his consecration as bishop of France's crown jewel, a dreaded but inevitable chain of events were set in motion like clockworck with the accession of a far more notable individual: Jean VI & IV. At first a supporter of the monarch's ability to put his religion behind for national prosperity, the fervor transitioned into terror with the death of Henri's brother, Charles, while he was steadfastly dying on the Duc de Mercoeur's hill for personal acclaim (except it's Normandy)—presumably falling victim to an assasination plot leaving a 6-year-old heir to the kin's heritage. The situation worsened with the king's shapeshifting attitude that resulted in a conversion to Calvinism, to Henri and Pierre's horror. Unable to properly carry out the functions of his see properly, or for reasons that history lost to time, Pierre voluntarily gave up his see to Henri prior to the King's conversion and was installed as such on the 1st of March, 1598.

## Rise to Power

Thrust into a see of both symbolic and stately importance unparalleled throughout the Frankish realm at age of 26, Henri took the mantle with his sights set in stone. To the chagrin of Pierre who almost instantenously regretted the decision, Henri streamlined his way into the King's household and firmly subscribed to Gallicanism in full-force which was en-vogue during the public rupture of Jean with Pope Paul V as the 17th century made it's baby steps. A witness and hands-on agent of the installment of the Church of France in the belief that the eldest daughter of the church was to lead a bastion of Catholicism of it's own against papal overreach, his beliefs were quickly turned back at him with cataclysmic consequences.

   The Edict of Paris in response to Rome's call for outright rebellion from clergymen in French soil seemingly single-handedly doomed the career of Henri to new lows as an en-masse decapitation of the First Estate's rights was executed in flawless fashion. Adding salt to the injury, the Anglican-leaning route halted in exchange for a state policy of pro-Huguenot legislation to the shock of a majority of the populace leading to incensed resentment from a once-believed to be unifying figure turning to be a destructive one. An ally turned into the worst enemy.

Hardly a friend of pessimism, a firm believer of the only way being forward, a persistent Henri swapped strategies. His aim would no longer be a preaching bishop to faithful Catholics but that of an useful asset in a merciless France that left as many corpses as it needed to attain it's place on the international stage, through blood and iron. An invaluable asset with the precedent of the Day of the Barricades turning the parisiens whole into unanimous opposition to the King, and with Jean's personage chained inseparably from the Île-de-la-Cité complex he endeavoured expertly towards the King's circle of advisors. Once again to the dissaproval of Pierre who grew senile-er and as years passed depleted his personal funds to his sustainement depending on Henri's own climb to power.

Akin to a kettle close to boiling, the domestic panorama of the Kingdom appeared to crash down into unique and undesirable outcomes as the years passed. The reign of the catholic-turned-calvinist Jean VI had come a long way from the Battles of Ivry in Île-de-France's prairie or the frigid coasts of Calais, a prisioner of a hostile nation to his kin, a political move would be quintessential to kick the can down the road for just a few more years. In comes the Bishop of Paris, having spent 8 years in disgrace and busy at work—while not an official member of the government by any means, the bishop had created a mixed milieu of his own in countrywide circles to act as failsaves in case of continued disgrace. Adding onto his social interconnected web, was his profeciency as a man of the letters to mighty and the not-so-much, which came as a blessing in disguise to the flaky Jean.

The accolades the bishop had build with his family's personal fortune and years of trial & error resulted in a perfect candidate to be a chair-warmer in the council. A token of good grace to Catholics across the realm as, seemingly, they were represented in the royal council via Henri. A candidate who was loyal to the King first, religion second. The Huguenot-dominated bureaucracy revealed his actual official functions were virtually a rubberstamper, so as to prevent him from becoming a leading figure of any sort. His appointment as Sécretaire d'État des Affaires Étrangères was confirmed in early 1613.

### Minister of Foreign Affairs

> *(Main Article: War of the Montferrat Succession)*
>
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Although much of the reasoning was purely symbolical, a crisis was spiraling out of control, sucking like a vacuum all sort of realms. This was the sheer mayhem left in the wake of Francesco IV of Gonzaga's death, a duchy without a heir, a brother of Francesco hastily ditching the Holy See's College of Cardinals for a shot at consolidating his family's disparate possessions from Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy's claws. The Savoyard duke had gone from enemy to ally in the French spectrum, during Jean's reign and prior to Henri's appointment, he had been promised the time-immemorial crown of Lombardy in exchange for a pact of steel with his French foe.

While the Frankish foreign ministry was in disarray and leader-less, practically paralysed, the Savoyards stunned Europe to the core. The Habsburgia that was called the Spanish Empire was given a nasty surprise in the form of resolute Savoyard offensives and go-getter war doctrine which made headlines thanks to printing presses Europe-wide. Ascending to his ministry, Henri's ambassadors in the region at first sought an advantageous peace deal with the aforementioned succeses. A deadlock and outright refusal of the peace by the recent inheritor of Mantua, resulted in renewed hostilities and a stalemate to occur. Following the failure of the Treaty of Milan c. 1613, a year of more hostilities brought about the Treaty of Asti. c 1614 which stipulated a status quo ante bellum. In 1615 both the French and Spanish monarchies prepared for a showdown in the Po—to Henri's distaste as head-on confrontation with the Spanish seemed less and less attractive.

## Assessment

What was he like? This accomplished diplomatic and political entrepeneur. When in his first years at the court of Jean VI & IV, he was graced with avid charisma, clear-cut features, air of authority but the furthest thing from a monotonous robot-like bureaucrat. Quick to add his own spin to formalities while remaining in his place and by nature of his penmanship, he never stumbled on his words or fell short of them. In a court so fast-paced and riddled with plots and counter-plots, he was not one to take bribes, when informed he was stripped of his salary by the Edict of Paris he stated that he refused any state-pension, or replacement eclessiastic salary—relying on the family's accumulated wealth and appropiated benefits he himself obtained in large numbers as the years passed. He never kept money or influence away from his relatives, on the other hand, spent money rather generously with them and facilitated their careers, as custom.

His unfeeling cruelty in his dictats for his ministry was to him a necessity. In the diplomatic circus internationally he was human, longed for friendship, looking the other way when it came to religion—as the reign of Jean couldn't accept anything less—and focused solely on geopolitics benefitial to France. A clearer stance on the Habsburg issue came about with the Brothers' Quarrel and Philip III's octopus-like tentacles over Europa, the weakening of this Habsburgia and expansion of France at their expense would become his primary goal. The *cordon strangulaire* that held France in tandem, a pensioner of Spain by means of the Catholic League, disabled. He was never completely persuaded to join either extremist cause and dedicated himself solely towards the Crown, with his extensive web of personnel controlled by his puppet master self.

## Titles, Styles and Honours

### Styles

* *Monsieur*, le Baron du Plessis (23 August 1572—6 January 1587)
* *Monsieur*, le Chanoine de la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris (6 January 1587—27 April 1597)
* *Mon père*, Monsieur le Abbé-commandataire de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés et Quimperlé (27 April 1597—1 March 1598)
* *Sa Grâce Sainte,* Msgr. le Évêque de Paris (1 March 1598—present)

### Honours

* Chevalier de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit (1614)