City of Paris (Aldermen)

The City of Paris, represented by its aldermen, was the municipal authority that organized the grand ball at the Hôtel de Ville on the night of October 3, 1628. This event was not merely a civic celebration but the carefully chosen stage for Cardinal Richelieu's trap to expose Queen Anne of Austria's alleged infidelity with the Duke of Buckingham. The ball became the decisive public confrontation between the king, the queen, and the cardinal, where the fate of the queen's honor and the political balance of the court were determined.

The Ball as a Political Stage

The aldermen of Paris prepared for this important evening for eight days. City carpenters erected scaffolds for the invited ladies, and the city grocer decorated the chambers with two hundred flambeaux of white wax, a luxury unheard of at that period. Twenty violins were ordered at double the usual rate, on condition that they should be played all night. The scale of the preparations reflected the political significance of the event, which was intended to honor the king and queen while simultaneously serving as the backdrop for the cardinal's machinations. The aldermen, clothed in their cloth robes and preceded by six sergeants each holding a flambeau, personally attended upon the king when he arrived at midnight, and the provost of the merchants delivered a speech of welcome to which the king replied with an apology for coming so late, blaming the cardinal for detaining him with affairs of state.

The King's Demand and the Queen's Dilemma

At the ball, King Louis XIII, following the cardinal's prompting, confronted Queen Anne of Austria about her failure to wear the diamond studs he had given her. The king, in full dress and accompanied by his royal Highness, the Comte de Soissons, the Grand Prior, and other nobles, approached the queen with an altered voice and demanded, "Why, madame, have you not thought proper to wear your diamond studs, when you know it would give me so much gratification?" The queen, seeing the cardinal behind the king with a diabolical smile, replied falteringly that she feared some accident might happen to them in such a crowd. The king, trembling with anger, insisted she send for them immediately, as the ballet was to commence within an hour. The queen bent in token of submission and followed her ladies to her room, while the king returned to his apartment, leaving the assembly in a state of troubled confusion.

The Cardinal's Trap and Its Failure

Cardinal Richelieu, dressed as a Spanish cavalier, watched from a small gallery whose curtain had been drawn. His eyes were fixed upon the queen, and a smile of terrible joy passed over his lips when he saw that she did not wear the diamond studs. He then approached the king and placed in his hand a small casket containing two diamond studs, suggesting that if the queen had only ten studs, the king should ask who had stolen the two that were now in the cardinal's possession. However, when the queen reappeared in a huntress costume, wearing a beaver hat with blue feathers and a surtout of gray-pearl velvet fastened with diamond clasps, she had all twelve studs sparkling on her left shoulder. The king trembled with joy and the cardinal with vexation. The ballet lasted an hour with sixteen entrées, and at its end, the king approached the queen, thanked her for her deference, and presented her with the two studs the cardinal had given him. The queen, affecting surprise, replied that she would then have fourteen, and the king, counting them, found all twelve on her shoulder. The cardinal was forced to claim that he had merely wished to present the queen with the two studs himself, a transparent lie that the queen acknowledged with a smile that proved she was not his dupe.

The Aftermath and Significance

The ball at the Hôtel de Ville thus became the site of the cardinal's failed public humiliation of the queen. The aldermen's elaborate preparations provided the ceremonial framework for this high-stakes confrontation, but the outcome was a triumph for the queen and a defeat for the cardinal. The event demonstrated the aldermen's role as instruments of royal pageantry, their festivities serving as the stage upon which the most critical political and personal dramas of the court were played out. The ball also marked the culmination of d'Artagnan's secret mission to retrieve the studs from Buckingham, a feat accomplished just in time to save the queen's honor. The aldermen, though unaware of the intrigue, had inadvertently hosted the decisive scene in the ongoing struggle between the queen and the cardinal.