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There are a few animal types that reoccur in the Sixains. I have found that when the Sixains are applied to only the House of Capet that there is a consistency in what the animal types are used to represent:
The Wolf: Almost always this refers to the Duc de Mayenne.
The Elephant: I have not seen this refer to anything or anyone other than Felipe III of Spain.
The Leech: Usually Felipe II of Spain, who was known in France as the Leech of the Midi.
The Griffon: Henri IV of France.
The Crocodile: A servant of Spain, especially when operating against France. It first stood for Alexander Farnesse, the Duke of Parma and a loyal servant to Spain. Later it stood for the Jesuit Order, an order that for a long while operated more in the interests of Spain than in the interests of the Catholic Church.
There is also a single term, medicin which also applies. Usually it is medicine but it here finds a better expression as Medician, i.e. Marie de Medici.
Durant le siècle on verra deux ruisseeux,
Tout un terroir inonder de leurs eaux,
Et submerges par ruisseaux & fontaines :
Coups & Monfrin Beccoyran, & ales,
Par le gardon bien souvent travaillez,
Six cens & quatre alez, & trente moines.
Monfrin Beccoyran may be a phonetic representation of an actual name. There is a Montfrin a small town between Avignon and Nimes in France. The two streams and the land flooding is either literal or it refers to the waters of religious upheaval. If the latter, it almost certainly refers to the Religious Wars, the streams of Protestantism and Catholicism working at cross purposes with the result being the inundation of the land in war. Just who the roach is I have no idea. The best guess is that it would be an individual who lives off the filth of others.
Six cens & cinq très grand nouvelle,
De deux Seigneurs la grand querelle,
Proche de Gevaudan sera,
A une Eglise âpres l’offrande
Meurtre commis, prestre demande
Tremblant de peur se sauvera.
Gévaudan is an ancient region of France, completely situated within the modern day French Department of Lozère in the Languedoc region. Of course, this would probably be considered small news, except inside France.
The only indication I have comes from Garenciéres, who writes that in this year, in the Gévaudan region, there was a very bitter quarrel between two lords. Meeting at a church at the time of the offering, they fought. One was killed. This terrified the priest who ran.
This, of course, would concern the house of Capet insofar as the lords were prime vassals of the King. No doubt the news of the fight and murder hit the court of Paris like a cannonball.
L’avanturier six cens & six ou neuf,
Sera surpris par fiel mis dans un œuf,
Et peu apres sera hors de puissance,
Par le puissant empereur general,
Qu’au monde n’est un pareil ny esgal,
Dont un chacun luy rend obeissance.
The year is given, either 1606 or 1609. The powerful general emperor is almost certainly Felipe III, king of Spain, parts of Italy, and controller of a vast empire in the Americas.
According to Garenciéres this concerns one of the chief allies of Spain. The Duca di Savoia had been surprised by the death of the Duke de Biron (the bile put in the egg). In part due to this, he was weakened with the court of Felipe. Henri had forced the Duke to exchange lands and cities, an exchange that ironically strengthened the defensive position of the House of Savoy, even as it gave the greater amount of lands to the French crown.
By 1608, however, Savoy was becoming a strong ally of France, so much so that the Duke was seriously considering marrying his son to one of Henri’s daughters. This infuriated Felipe, who sent Don Pedro de Toledo Ossorio, Marquis de Villa Franca and Duque de Ferandina, with a proposal for a triple marriage between Spain and France. The negotiations dragged on for a while, but by 1609, the embassy was perceived to have failed. The marriage between Savoy’s son and Henri’s daughter was therefore completed in 1609.
Au grand siege encore grands forfais,
Recommançans plus que jamais
Six cens & cinq sur la verdure,
La prise & reprise sera
Soldats és champs jusqu’en froidure
Puis apres recommencera.
The Assembly at Chatelherault was a crisis during the reign of Henri IV. In 1605, prominent Huguenots met at Chatelherault. The cause was the ending of a special dispensation that allowed them to keep certain places for worship until 1605. The time for the surrender of these places was approaching and the Huguenots were worried. The meeting had been called by the Duc de Bouillon, himself a prominent Huguenot. They were discussing proposals that would have effectively made them a state within the state of France. Henri got wind of this and realized the reason behind it, the fear that the Huguenots would be forced to live without their religious beliefs. In response, instead of sending a military force, he sent his financial minister, Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully, himself a Huguenot. The Duc talked for a great time with the assembly, arguing in his plane, blunt way, what a disaster they were trying to do. This averted the siege of warfare as the Huguenots agreed with the Duc, especially when Henri extended the time they could retain the special places by seven years.
Nouveau esleu patron du grand vaisseau,
Verra long temps briller le cler flambeau
Qui sert de lampe à ce grand territoire,
Et au quel temps armez sous son nom,
Joinctes à celles de l’heureux de Bourbon,
Levant, Ponant, & couchant sa memoire.
The fifth line is the key to this one. Clement VIII was the one who reached an accord and understanding with Henri IV that allowed Henri to “return” to the Catholic Church. The happy one of Bourbon is, of course, Henri IV.
Clement’s election was in 1592. The great vessel is the Catholic Church. The brilliance of his reign was signified by the fact that his was the first papacy in a long time who was not elected on the whim of Spain. Spanish influence in the curia was in the decline and a group of Italian cardinals stood firm and refused to agree to be pressured by Felipe II of Spain. Clement was an able Pope who took the church away from Spanish influence, eventually recognized Henri IV’s conversion to Catholicism (much to Spanish displeasure but only when France was strong enough to justify it), helped to negotiate a peace treaty between Spain and France, and presided over conferences that helped to determine the Church’s position on the controversy between grace and free will. Ponant means the West. During his time, the English and French began serious colonization in North America, Spain’s colonization reached its peak, and Portugal continued its expansion in Brazil. He also had strong influence in Western Europe, i.e. Spain and France
En Octobre six cens & cinq,
Pourvoyeur de monstre marin,
Prendra du souverain le cresme,
Ou en six cens & six, en Juin,
Grand joye aux grands & au commun,
Grands faits apres ce grand baptesme.
The baptism could refer to the baptism of Christine Marie of France, who was born the 10th of February 1606. However, that does seem like a long wait for the baptism of the child, which is normally done as quickly as possible. The marine monster is most likely an individual, though what individual I am uncertain.
Louis the Dauphin, the future Louis XIII, was babtized the 14th of September 1605, so it cannot refer to him.
Au mesme temps un grand endurera,
Joyeux mal sain, l’an complet ne verra,
Et quelques uns qui seront de la feste,
Feste pour un seulement, à ce jour,
Mais peu apres sans faire long sejour,
Deux de donront l’un à l’autre de la teste.
Garenciéres attributes this to Alessandro Ottaviano de Medici, a distant cousin of Marie de Medici, which made him a relative by marriage to the French royal house. He was elected to the Papacy on the 1st of April, 1605. Henri IV reputedly spend over 300 ecus to secure the elevation of Alessandro, against the wishes of Felipe III. Almost immediately after he assumed the Papal throne, he came down with an illness and had to take to his bed, dying the 27th of April, so he definitely was in bad health for most of his very brief papacy. He was succeeded by Paul V who had a long reign and was definitely contrary to the wishes of Felipe.
Considerant la triste Philomelle
Qu’en pleurs & cris sa peine renouvelle,
Racour fissant par tel moyen ses jours,
Six cens & cinq, elle en verra l’issue,
De son tourment, ja la toille tissue,
Par son moyen senestre aura secours.
The sad lover is Henriette d’Entragues, who by all accounts had the soul of a whore. She had become Henri IV’s lover before he married Marie de Medici and was constantly plotting to become the Queen of France. The plot of 1604 involves her, her father, and the Comte d’Auvergne. Henriette, who was pregnant, would flee to Spain. If she produced a son, then the Spanish would declare him the King of France and get Henri IV killed. Henri got wind of this treachery and had the Comte and Henriette’s father executed. Henriette herself was confined to a convent. However, true to the sixain and to Henri’s own nature, which was both forgiving and lustful, he forgave Henriette and allowed her to move back into the Louvre and resume her role as his mistress.
Six cens & cinq, six cens & six & sept,
Nous monstrera jusques à l’an dix-sept,
Du boute feu l’ire, hayne & envie,
Soubz l’olivíer d’assez long-temps caché.
Le Crocodril sur la terre a caché,
Ce qui estoit mort, sera pour lors en vie.
Though some questions remain to be answered, this almost certainly refers to Marie de Medici, wife of Henri IV of France.
It was an open secret that the king and queen did not like each other. Henri made Marie raise his children by his true love, Gabrielle d’Estrées, strong evidence indicates he would have married had she not died. Henri’s newer main mistress, Henriette d’Entragues, was an intriguer who was involved in several plots against the crown; one of these occurred in 1606. Marie had to put up with all of it.
Marie was no saintly victim though. When Henri died in 1610, she became regent of her son, Louis XIII. Though he attained his majority in 1613 at the age of 13, she was still defacto ruler until Louis was the age of 17. At that time he got attached to Charles d’Albert, duc de Luynes, who got Marie exiled to Blois.
Louis was an ineffectual ruler who had only one positive trait: he could determine which people would make excellent ministers and had enough strength of will to stand by his decissions. The defining appointment of his reign was the appointment of Cardinal Richelieu to be Prime Minister of France. All the while, until her death, Marie would scheme to get back the power she had lost. She would be reconciled with her son, but eventually she would be banished from the country.
And the part about the Crocodile? That was no less than Marie de Medici. After Henri had died, Marie tied France's fortunes to Spanish interests. She also had servants who were excessively friendly to Spain and to Felipe. This would have future reprecussions but at that moment it made Marie more of an agent of Spain than a defender and supporter of France.
Celuy qui a par plusieurs fois
Tenu la cage & puis les bois,
R’entre à son premier estre
Vie sauve peu apres sortir,
Ne se sçachant encore cognoistre,
Cherchera suiet pour mourir.
I cannot figure this one out.