DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0055
AMBROGIO DI SPINOLA
f3
the Archduchess Isabella, at that time Governess of
the Netherlands, whilst Chausse, a police official,
was ordered to follow up the fugitives and prevent
their reaching Belgium. Chausse actually overtook
the Princess, who, having been obliged to leave her
carriage near the River Somme, had broken down
after a fifteen hours’ ride on horseback.
But we cannot digress here to pursue this love-
affair of Henri IV and Charlotte de Montmorency.
Suffice it to say that, transferred to foreign territory,
it immediately became a cause celebre, and even
threatened for a time to create serious political dis-
turbances between France and Spain. The fact that
the Regent of the Netherlands, in order to please
both parties, allowed the Princesse de Conde to pro-
long her visit to the Princess of Orange but at the
same time ordered her husband to leave the Nether-
lands within three days, was severely commented
upon by the Marchese Ambrogio di Spinola, at that
time representative at Brussels of the Spanish Court.
This valiant captain, originally a Genoese mer-
chant, had equipped 9,000 men at his own cost, and
with them had succeeded—where so many had
failed—in confronting Prince Maurice of Nassau and
terminating the siege of Ostend. Reduced after
this exploit to comparative inactivity, he hailed an
opportunity likely tojbring about a conflict between
personages of such importance as Henri IV of
France and the King of Spain.
There was, moreover, another motive for Spinola’s
pertinacity in retaining the Princesse de Conde in
f3
the Archduchess Isabella, at that time Governess of
the Netherlands, whilst Chausse, a police official,
was ordered to follow up the fugitives and prevent
their reaching Belgium. Chausse actually overtook
the Princess, who, having been obliged to leave her
carriage near the River Somme, had broken down
after a fifteen hours’ ride on horseback.
But we cannot digress here to pursue this love-
affair of Henri IV and Charlotte de Montmorency.
Suffice it to say that, transferred to foreign territory,
it immediately became a cause celebre, and even
threatened for a time to create serious political dis-
turbances between France and Spain. The fact that
the Regent of the Netherlands, in order to please
both parties, allowed the Princesse de Conde to pro-
long her visit to the Princess of Orange but at the
same time ordered her husband to leave the Nether-
lands within three days, was severely commented
upon by the Marchese Ambrogio di Spinola, at that
time representative at Brussels of the Spanish Court.
This valiant captain, originally a Genoese mer-
chant, had equipped 9,000 men at his own cost, and
with them had succeeded—where so many had
failed—in confronting Prince Maurice of Nassau and
terminating the siege of Ostend. Reduced after
this exploit to comparative inactivity, he hailed an
opportunity likely tojbring about a conflict between
personages of such importance as Henri IV of
France and the King of Spain.
There was, moreover, another motive for Spinola’s
pertinacity in retaining the Princesse de Conde in