Next came news of reverses in Italy and the loss of two battles, soon after which the King became very ill. The Queen nursed him untiringly, scarcely ever leaving his room; every one was in consternation, and the doctors gave up all hope of his recovery. Anne was in despair. Added to her grief for him was the dread of what would be the position of herself and her daughter in the event of his death and the triumph of Louise de Savoie and the hostile party, at the head of which was Pierre de Rohan, Maréchal de Gié, a Breton who had taken the side of France against Bretagne.
She therefore ordered the officers of her household to load two or three great barges on the Loire with all her treasure and take them down to Nantes. Then, if the King died, she could retreat with her child to Bretagne, where they would be safe among their own subjects.
But Gié, thinking the King’s death at hand, had the insolence to stop the Queen’s barges, placing 10,000 archers to watch the Loire and prevent the Princess Claude being carried out of France.[323] This attempt of one of her own subjects to take from her guardianship her daughter, the heiress of Bretagne, not of France, and to seize the property settled on her by two kings, was not likely to be forgiven by the Queen. Gié had overreached himself, for Louis suddenly recovered, and on hearing of his conduct, ordered his arrest. The judges who tried him hated him, and condemned him to death, but this sentence was quashed by the King, and Gié was heavily fined, deprived of his post, and banished from court for five years. Some French historians, who seem to think any means justifiable to gain a province for France, approve his conduct, and call Anne vindictive for insisting on its punishment; others will probably consider that he got what he deserved.
Gié retired to his magnificent château of Verger, and the _clercs de la Basoche_ gave a play called “_Trop chauffer cuit, trop parler nuit_” alluding to him. In another they said, “_Un Maréchal avait voulu ferrer une Anne (âne), mais elle lui avait donné un si grand coup de pied qu’elle l’avait jeté hors de la cour, pardessus les murailles jusque dedans le verger._”[324]
They were very witty, often impertinent. When the King was told that they had ventured to represent him, because of some necessary retrenchment, as Avarice, he said that the people might laugh, and he would rather be called avaricious than extravagant; but when they attempted any ridicule of the Queen he sternly forbade it, saying he would suffer no disrespect to his wife, nor for that matter to any woman in his kingdom.