Le Voyage de la France a S. Germain: Avec ses plaintes a la reine, contre le cardinal Mazarin: Et ses prieres pour la paix, & le retour de leurs majestez a Paris. Paris: private publisher, 1649.
Call Number: SpC. 944.033 L111v1649
The Fronde had two phases: the Fronde Parlementaire (1648-1649) and the Fronde of the Nobles (1650-1653). Both phases were fought over the expansion of royal power at the expense of the traditional liberties of the Parlement of Paris and the nobility.
In late 1648 tensions between the Crown and the Parlement of Paris mounted. In the first days of 1649 the young king, his mother, and Cardinal Mazarin fled the city to Saint Germain-en-Laye. They would not return for eight months. Mazarin blockaded Paris, and planned to starve it into submission. The parliamentary forces settled in for a long siege. The faubourgs (early suburbs) surrounding Paris, including the faubourg Saint-Denis, where Saint-Lazare was located, were subject to the ravages of marauding troops.
As these events unfolded in front of his eyes, Vincent de Paul took the highly unusual step of involving himself in a political dispute. On January 14, 1649 he left Saint-Lazare and traveled to the court at great danger to himself. In an audience with the Queen he strongly urged her for the sake of peace to dismiss Cardinal Mazarin, even if only temporarily. He also spoke with the Cardinal, whom he urged to resign, again for the sake of peace. Vincent attributed his failure to the strong language he had used to make his case: “I have, never, never succeeded when I have spoken with the faintest suspicion of harshness; I have always noted that if one wishes to move the mind, one must be ever on one’s guard against embittering the heart.”1 His mission a failure he left Saint-Germain on January 17th. Conditions in Paris would prevent his return there until June.
The bitterness of the Fronde was heightened by anti-Mazarin pamphlets which poured forth from Parisian printers. These so-called “Mazarinades” framed the conflict as resistance to Cardinal Mazarin, whom had misled the young king with his evil advice. The present broadside was issued in Paris in January 1649 just as the events that have been described were unfolding.
1Coste, Pierre, The Life and Works of St. Vincent de Paul, 2:448.
__________
St. Vincent’s Reading List is recurring blog series exploring texts known to have been read and recommended by St. Vincent de Paul, those which can be presumed to have been read by him, and important works published during his lifetime (1581-1660). All materials discussed are held by DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives. The entire series may be viewed here.