The Three Musketeers and the Queen's Studs: What the Historical Records Reveal<

In the spring of 1625, Anne of Austria, Queen of France, strolled through the gardens of the Archdiocese of Amiens in the company of an English gentleman. His cries for help suddenly arouse turmoil. Madame de Motteville, one of her ladies-in-waiting, explained in her memoirs that the queen was "troubled by some excessively passionate sentiment of the duke [...], cried out and, calling her squire, blamed him for having left her. ".

The gentleman in question was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, with whom the Queen had arranged a secret meeting. Buckingham had gone to the court of France to pick up Princess Henriette-Marie, sister of Louis XIII, to escort her to England where her marriage to King Charles I was to be ^celebrated . As for Anne of Austria, according to tradition she accompanied her sister-in-law's retinue to the place of embarkation for the British Isles. Rumors of a possible romance between the attractive 32-year-old duke and the 25-year-old sovereign have been circulating within the court since the arrival in France, a few months earlier, of George Villiers.

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A LEFT QUEEN

The two met in Spain when Anne was only a teenager living at the court of her father, Philip III. The ardent aristocrat did not hide his fondness for the Infanta, an authentic beauty of her time: white complexion, blond hair, large blue eyes and round shapes. Qualities of little use when she married Louis XIII. From the start, the sovereign ignored the queen, preferring the company of young soldiers from his guard, and in particular the Constable of France, Duke Charles d'Albert de Luynes. It is moreover the latter who, in the face of the king's indifference for the ladies, must drag the sovereign to the nuptial bed in order to silence the voices which have made the consummation of the royal marriage a matter of state. .

Time confirms the King's disinterest in marital duty and the difficulties this entails in giving an heir to the Crown. A problem that the entourage of the queen would not have hesitated to solve by pushing her into arms other than those of her husband. In this affair, the Duchess of Chevreuse, Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, wife of the Duke of Luynes and superintendent of the queen, plays an essential role, because the company of this frivolous woman compromises the good reputation of the sovereign. She first introduces the Duke of Montmorency to the Queen, then organizes the secret meeting of Amiens with the Duke of Buckingham. She probably didn't imagine that the duke would overstep the bounds, or that the queen would resist him.