Note 92 — Chapter VII

The three girls were co-heiresses to the great wealth of the Duc de Nevers, as he had left no son. The eldest, Henriette, Duchesse de Nivernais, married Ludovico di Gonzaga, brother of the Duke of Mantua; the second, Catherine, married Antoine de Croy, Prince de Porcien, who died in 1564; and, six years after her husband’s death, became the wife of Henri de Lorraine, Duc de Guise. The Prince de Porcien had been one of the leaders of the Huguenots and had entertained the most violent hatred of the Guises. On his death-bed, he is said to have thus addressed his wife: “You are young, beautiful, and wealthy; you will have many suitors when I am gone. I have no objection to your marrying again, if only it be not the Duc de Guise. Let not my worst enemy inherit what of all my possessions I have cherished the most.”