the promise of England The Emperor who run no risk in following the counsel of Chievres sent the Count of Raeux to London with instructions drawn according to the reasons which we have now abridged The Count who was never before employed in any Negotiation succeeded in this which was his first Essay but not altogether because of his ability though it was already very conspicuous The King of England made no such account of the word which as was signified unto him he had past as to think himself obliged to keep it but he set before himself other considerations which were not in the Counts instructions He examined which of the two France or Spain he had most reason to be afraid of as affairs then stood and he found it to be France for though the Emperor was raised to a prodigious power and that there was none in the world comparable to it in extent yet it was not suspicious to England seeing the Emperor could not attack it by Land before he had conquered all France which could never be in the opinion of the English and as to the Sea England would be always superior to Spain Whereas if the French Monarchy having re-established its Authority in Italy by the recovery of the Dutchy of Milan should enlarge it self beyond the Pyrenees by conquering there the Country of the best Soldiers which lay along the River of Ebre it would not only not own the King of England for Arbitrator of the differences which it had with the Emperor but also might very well take the advantage of the first favourable occasion that should present and confine the English to their own Island by taking from them what they still retained in France Henry the Eighth concluded from that principle that it was his interest by all means to hinder the Spaniards from taking footing upon the Banks of the Ebre and upon that sole consideration signed a League Defensive and Offensive with the Emperor against the most Christian King which he would not have done as he many times declared afterward if Asparaut had stopt in Navarre or that if he would have continued his Conquests he had only carried them on along the Pyrenees without advancing at first into the very heart of Spain Before a fortnight was over the King of England found that his fear was vain and repented that he had declared so soon but the Count of Raeux having obtained what he desired was already gone from his Court when the news was brought to England that the French were driven out of Castille The Spaniards having joyned the Rebellious Troops as they called them to those whom they named Obedient made an Army of forty thousand men and marched in good order to the relief of Logrogno at the time when the number of the Besiegers was so diminished that it was no longer sufficient for guarding all the Avenues to the place The Enemy perceived it and took such good measures that they put into it four thousand Foot. Having done so with the rest of their Forces they cut off the Besiegers Provisions and forced them to raise the siege after they had made many unsuccessful assaults Asparaut repassed the Ebre and retreated in all haste to put himself under the cover of the Guns of Pampelona there being no Town nearer where he could lie safely and the Spaniards had almost suffered him to do it There happened amongst them upon their coming into Logrogno a debate which would have hindred them from recovering Navarre had it not been almost as soon ended as begun Their chief Officers agreed easily in a Council of War that the French must be close pursued in the Rear but at first they could not agree about the choice of him who should be their head after that they had passed the Ebre The Count of Haro who till then had commanded them pretended still to the command and alledged for his reason that he being declared General against the French his Commission could not expire till he had defeated them or sent them beyond the Pyrenees He added that that Commission was indeed no more but an Accessory of that which Chievres had procured him to pursue the Rebels by Arms and to resettle Spain in its former tranquillity He maintained that the French had first entred Navarre and then Castille through intelligence with the Rebels and from thence concluded that his command could not be taken from him without injustice until Navarre should be recovered or that the Emperor had given other orders The Duke of Najara on the contrary said that he was actually Viceroy of Navarre and that the Letters Patents which he had for it from the Emperor were not recalled That it was expresly mentioned in them that he should be General of all the Forces that acted in that Kingdom for his Imperial Majesty for what cause and upon what occasion soever they should be brought together and that there was no limitation made in that particular That the revolution which had since happened in Navarre could do no prejudice to his power and that in true policy it ought not to be considered but in the sence that Lawyers look upon Torrents which though for some time they overflow the Lands of private men yet do not deprive them of their possession nor so much as interrupt it when once it hath been lawfully established The Count of Haro had no ground to question the Letters Patents of the Duke of Najara but he alledged that the power thereby conferred had expired by the Dukes fault That he had abandoned his Vice-royalty upon the approach of the Enemy and that he had so absolutely lost it that there was not so much as one Village in all Navarre where his Authority was owned That that Kingdom having wholly changed its Master the business was to conquer it of new and by consequence to take such measures as no more concerned the Duke than as he had never been Viceroy The reason and inclination of those who gave their Votes seemed to give the cause to the Count Nevertheless he lost it and the Duke was preferred before him by an effect of Spanish prudence which hath hardly ever failed in the signal occasions of sacrificing justice to interest when the good of the Monarchy was thought to be concerned The Army which had relieved Logrogno and earnestly desired to recover Navarre was so wholly made up of Voluntiers that there was not so much as one Company of Foot or Troop of Horse that had any pay from the Emperor The Duke of Najara was the Grandee of Spain who had brought most Soldiers to the Camp and it was to be feared that these Soldiers who only came upon his account would return back with him if he withdrew as he must be obliged to do in honour if he obtained not the General command His Son had gathered together five or six thousand men from the Provinces bordering upon the Mountains and Don Gaspar de Butron his
in extreme danger Nevertheless the Emperour abandons him not and his cause at length prevails The Spaniards who kept their allegiance defeat the rebels in an open battel and the Soveraign authority is restored to all its splendor Chievres who waited on the Emperour into Germany provided there so advantageously for the Infanto Ferdinand by procuring him the Marriage of the Heiress of Hungary and Bohemia that that young Prince thinks no more of complaining that his Elder Brother had done him injustice in giving him no share in the Dominions of Queen Jane their Mother He gives so good orders also in Navarre that it as easily again recovered to the Spaniards as it had been lost by them and taken by the French. Nothing withstands the Lord Asparant and he becomes Master of it in less than a fortnights time But his good fortune blinds his judgment and he imagins that the conquest of Castile will cost him no more than that of Navarre He enters it suffers himself to be straitned for provisions there The Spaniards expect till his Army was weakened through hardships and attack him presently after He is overcome loses his sight in the sight taken prisoner and lived only after to be an instance that conduct in War is as necessary as courage The Revolted Spaniards are reconciled to their Master but they turn all their fury against Chievres They poyson the Cardinal de Croy his Nephew and fifty days after serve him in the same manner A PATTERN FOR THE EDUCATION OF PRINCES The First BOOK CONTAINING The most memorable Affairs that passed in Europe from the beginning of the year One thousand five hundred and six to the middle of the year One thousand five hundred and fourteen THe House of Croüy acording to the Ancient or of Croy according to modern Orthography pretends to be descended â—n a right masculine Line from the ancient Kings of Hungary by one Stephen whom others call Andrew third Son to King Bela and Brother to St. Elizabeth Countess of Thuringe who being forced out of Hungary In Pontuc Huterus fled for refuge into France in the year One thousand one hundred seventy and three during the Reign of Louis the Young but his Son setled himself in Gallia Belgica by marrying Catharine Heiress of Croy whose name he took and left it to his Posterity This House was afterward in succession of time allied by William the First of Croy to the House of Guines by James the First of Croy to the House of Soissons by James the Second of Croy to the House of Perguigny by William the Second of Croy to the House of Kenti by John of Croy to the House of Curton by Anthony of Croy to the House of Lorrain and by Philip of Croy to that of Luxembourg John of Croy transplanted his Family from Picardy into Flanders when he became the Favourite of Philip the Hardy first Duke of Burgundy descended of the second Branch of the Bloud-royal of France The Historians of that time have not taken pains enough to give us the Character of this Lord nevertheless he must have been a man of extraordinary parts seeing that during the whole course of his life he governed two Princes the most contrary in temper and humour and the most difficult to be persuaded that ever were Philip the Hardy and John without Fear his Son Dukes of Burgundy He was their chief Chamberlain and by an extraordinary Conduct and Policy though Philip the Hardy and John without Fear were for most part in continual variance with the Kings of France yet John of Croy continued to be the constant Favorite of the Dukes of Burgundy without ever giving them the least umbrage or suspicion of his fidelity notwithstanding he stood so well all his life-time at the Court of the most Christian Kings that they made him great Master of their House and suffered him to discharge the duties of that important place without ever accusing him that he had managed the interests of the Dukes of Burgundy against their Majesties This particular ought the more to be remarked that it is singular and perhaps in its chief circumstances not to be paralleled in the lives of â—he illustrious men of these last Ages and besides it is so advantageous to John of Croy that it seems nothing can be said greater in his favour In so happy a state he did not forget but that he might more easily tumble down than he had mounted up and foreseeing that at length the Kings of France and Dukes of Burgundy would become irreconcilable enemies and that in that case the House of Croy would be forced to declare for the one side or other he so disposed his Inheritance and the Purchases which he made that he had as much in the Dominions of the Kings of France as in the Territories of the Dukes of Burgundy to the end that to what side soever he might incline he should retain one half of his Estate and be in a condition of making the figure of a great Lord in either of the two Courts which he might prefer before the other Anthony of Croy his Son was so happy as to succeed him in the favour and to dispose so absolutely of Philip the Good third Duke of Burgundy that this Prince relished no Counsels nor Designs but what had either been proposed or approved by that Favorite But Philip of Croy the Son of Anthony fell into the disgrace which his Grandfather John of Croy had apprehended by an accident which is fit we should unfold in this place because it conduces to the understanding of the matters following Seeing Philip the good had from his Father John without fear received Anthony of Croy both for his chief Minister and Favorite without the least shew of repugnance whether he thought himself obliged to have as to that an implicite deference to his Fathers Will or that his inclination suited with the Person that was presented to him he imagined that his Son Charles the Terrible would comply no less with him and that he would gladly admit of Philip of Croy to the same rank with him that John and Anthony of Croy had held with his Father Grandfather and great Grand-father But the dispositions were not alike on both sides as they ought to have been for cementing a new confidence and favour There was nothing wanting on the part of Philip of Croy for the worthy discharge of the two places in question about Charles the Terrible But Charles was prepossessed with an opinion that his â—ather demanded too much of him and that he stretched the Prerogative of Nature farther than it ought to be That to take things aright a Minister and Favorite were no more in relation to a Sovereign than what a Steward is in respect of great men and an intimate Friend to any private person and for the same reason that great men and private persons have the liberty of chusing their Stewards and Friends a young Prince ought
Monastery of St. Just he commonly read the Works of S. Bernard that were not then translated which shews that at least he understood Latine it being unlikely that he would lose the time which he set apart wholly for working out his own Salvation and which he had bought with the price of so much worldly greatness willingly forsaken nor that he would pretend to jeer a Father of the Church in the sense of St. Jerom St. Jerom said on one Non vis intelligi neque ego te intelligere by reading him constantly without understanding him To be short That Juncture mentioned by the Spaniards where Charles was put to a stand in Germany for want of Latine and could neither conceive what was said to him nor make a positive answer to it bears more than one character of falshood For in the first place we see that he understood Latine In the second place they who bring him in conferring immediately with a German about important affairs know not that he never stooped the Imperial Majesty so low and it is so far from being true that he abased it as is pretended by positive answers given upon the spot and face to face in any matter of consequence that he carried it incomparably higher than any of his Predecessors had ever done before him or any of his Successors since He heard all sorts of business in the publick and private Audiences which he gave in Germany without any other answer at the time than that he would examine them and in truth he took time to speak of them to his Council or to resolve by himself what he was to do there being no instance that ever he did otherwise Afterward the answer was brought or sent in his name in writing to such affairs as could in that manner be dispatched and for others that required answers by word of mouth the Emperour sent for those who expected his answer and made his Chancellour always give it them even when he himself thought it convenient to be present If the Chancellour was absent or indisposed the Vice chancellour spake for him and both failing he employed a Counsellor of State. So that the passage related by the Spanish Writers would have been not only irregular but singular in its kind and seeing it is not mentioned in any Author of other Nations and that it hapned as they would have it in a Country far distant from theirs they ought not to think it strange if we question the truth of their information In the third place there is no instance in latter Ages that Emperours have spoken Latine when they treated of affairs and on the contrary it is very well known that Maximilian the Second who spake that Language as freely as high Dutch yet never made use of it in publick Affairs In a word all the Panegyricks of Charles and the most biting Satyrs against his Memory agree in giving him the testimony that if he did not gratisie Chievres as much as he deserved yet he rewarded him after his way by praising him upon all occasions and that he never let fall a word to his prejudice which wholly confutes the matter objected When Chievres by instructing the Archduke in History had given him those general lights that he needed for the conduct of his life he descended to particular Maxims in laying out to him his true Interests in relation to all the Powers of Europe He proposed to him two sorts of them which he represented as not only very different in themselves but likewise in some manner so opposite that he would run the risk of undoing himself by mistaking the one for the other That he had present interests and future and that the furure were the same with those of his Grandfathers by the Father and Mothers side which one day he was to inherit but that the present were directly contrary to them in that neither the Emperour Maximilian I. nor Ferdinand the Catholick King lived in good correspondence with Louis XII and that if Charles favoured them abroad he would draw into his Territories the Arms of France which would infallibly dispossess him of them before he could be succoured the Catholick King being too remote and the Emperour having neither Money nor Credit enough for the speedy raising of an Army in case of necessity Chievres drew from so true a Principle this Consequence that the Friendship of the French was absolutely necessary to Charles so long as he was no more but what he was that is so long as he enjoyed no more but the Succession of Burgundy That he ought to rest satisfied with external demonstrations of honour and civility respect and submission in reference to his Grandfathers in all affairs that they might have to dispute with France but at the bottom he should continue closely united with his most Christian Majesty That he should carry fair with the Emperour Maximilian because he could not succeed to him in the Empire if by his means he preserved not the long setled interests which the House of Austria had with the several Members that composed the body of the German Empire and that seeing the friendship of that Prince was to be bought and sold it was better his Grandson should purchase it than another That he should not therefore fail to send him as much money as he could and that his liberality would not be unprofitable provided it were managed with three precautions First That it should be frequent because of the continual need of him that received it Secondly That it should only consist in small Sums at a time seeing his Imperial Majesty was put into as good an humour by giving him but a little as by giving him much And lastly That it should be secret because it would be to be feared â—hat the People of the Low-Countries might mutiny if they came to know that what was raised from them served for no â—ther end but to feed and entertain the â—rodigality of Maximilian whose temâ—er they knew to be such that their moâ—ey would encrease rather than cure the â—isease of that Prince Chievres added â—hat since Charles had much more cause to â—e afraid of Ferdinand the Catholick King than of the Emperour he ought likewise to carry to him with greater Judgment and Policy That the young Ferdinand of Austria younger Brother to Charles was born in Spain and seemed to bring with him from his Mothers Womb all the Spanish Inclinations That the Catholick King was his Godfather and had given him his name that he loved him tenderly and that it was known from good hands that he had a design to make him King of Arragon and perhaps of Castile also That the Spaniards would the more willingly consent to it that they pretended to have a King who might constantly live in Spain In the mean time if Charles were their King the multitude of urgent Affairs that would happen to him in all parts of Europe would oblige him to lead his life
maternal Grandfather and alledged for his reasons that Alvaro de Gusman his Uncle was illegitimate that he was the odious off-spring of a monstrous conjunction That Divine and Humane Laws equally condemned the Marriage of two Sisters and that if they had been sometimes suffered in Christian Religion it was only for causes that concerned the publick certain and present good of the State and Royal Persons That there was no such thing in the case in question and that by consequence the Dispensation obtained from Rome was null But for all that the Catholick King gave his Grand-daughter to Alvaro Gusman and made answer to those who would have disswaded him from it that it belonged not to Pedro Giron to quarrel at the Dispensation obtained by his Grandfather and that though there might be ground to find fault with it yet the presence of his Majesty and of the Queen Isabelle who signed the contract had supplied all defects of Law and Fact that would have intervened The Duke of Medina Sidonia died sometime after the Marriage of Alvaro his Son who took possession of all the Estate of the Family without any other opposition than that of some protestations in writing made in behalf of Pedro Giron But after the death of the Catholick King when Alvaro had lost in him his greatest supporter Pedro Giron thought the time was come for him to take possession of the Estate of the Family of Medina Sidonia He got of his Friends what money they thought fit to lend him he implored the assistance of his nearest Relations his Father excusing himself to engage in the quarrel because of his great Age He found a great many young men who had known him in the Armies disposed to assist him and from those three stocks he procured Forces enough to lay a regular Siege before St. Lucar one of the most noted Towns of Andalusia because of the commodiousness of its Harbour Seeing it properly belonged to the Dukes of Medins Sidonia and that it was part of the Entail of their eldest Sons which could neither be sold nor morgaged the Kings of Castille had no Garrison in it and only kept one in the Castle which commanded the place nor had they done so till first they gave the Dukes of Medina Sidonia authentick Declarations that it was not for any pretensions they had to it but only for the security of the Coast of Andalusia the most important of their Monarchy Alvaro put himself into the Town to defend it and received there so great a re-inforcement by Pontio d'Arâ—os his Cousin German that Pedro Giron despairing to take it in a long time by the usual ways endeavoured to corrupt Gonez de Solis who commanded the Castle Solis was inflexible and all that Pedro Giron could draw from him was that â—he late Catholick King when he put â—im in St. Lucar had commanded him â—o live in good correspondence with the Duke Alvaro and to act joyntly with â—im in all things that were not contrary â—o the interest of the Monarchy of Spain â—n general and of Castille in particular He told him that he could not excuse himself from obeying that Order until â—e had another from Flanders or that â—he Cardinal commanded him to obey Pedro Giron and that there was no other â—xpedients but these for entering into St. Lucar unless he thought it better to â—orce his way in Thus the Siege drew in length and Kimenes being perswaded that the disposition of the late King must by all means â—e maintained wrote to Chievres that â—hat was the only way to hinder the Nobility of Spain from rising and that as â—hey were naturally inclined to Idleness so they would infallibly betake themselves to it again when they saw their first attempt suppressed with as much authority in the absence of the Catholick King as if his Majesty were present and acted in person The Cardinal then prayed Chievres to procure what he was about to do to be approved in the Council of Bruxelles and enclosed a Letter for the King In the Letters of Ximenes to Chievres which contained the same thing expressed only in more respectful terms and without any other caution in a few days he mustered together the old Troops which he kept in several places in a readiness and senâ— them so suddenly to St. Lucar that they fell upon Pedro Giron before he had notice that they were in the field The consternation which seized the Besiegeâ— at the sight of them in a moment broke all the measures that had been taken for carrying the Dutchy of Medina Sidoniâ— Don Pedro was abandoned of all his Soldiers and himself forced to flie to a Country-house where he was noâ— known to be there to continue till his Friends should make his peace with Ximenes The cause of so odd an adventure was because most of the Besiegers were Voluntiers and only served in hopes as they were made believe that the Cardinal would approve what they did They knew him to be extraordinarily jealous of his Authority and inexorable when once he had been constrained to come to force From thence they concluded that if the Besiegers were defeated those of them that remained would suffer by the hand of the Executioner By their small number in comparison of those who came to the assistance of Duke Alvaro they judged that the match was not equal and thereupon disbanded themselves expecting till Pedro Giron could make his party stronger They were not altogether mistaken in their conjecture and the Enemies of Ximenes laboured with so much application and success to make him receive an affront in the affair of Medina Sidonia that Giron thought having got his Uncle the Constable of Castille and many other Grandees to League with him that he had no more to fear and that he might securely brave the Cardinal He went to Madrid supposing that that Prelate extraordinarily nice in matter of offence and easie to be provoked by slights offered to his Dignity would send him Orders to be gone with all expedition thereby furnish him with a pretext as he desired to complain of him But the Cardinal who saw into Giron's thoughts carried himself as if he had not known of his arrival at Madrid or as if he had not been concerned at it He gave him time to try his patience and Giron finding his first trick baffled by the affected insensibility of Ximenes invented a second He sent word to the Cardinal that he was come to Madrid upon no other design but to visit his Relations and Friends and that he would return immediately after He expected that the Cardinal would have replied to the Gentleman who brought him that word That Giron was not so great a man but that he might have come himself and given him the first notice of his arrival But the Cardinal dissembled still and made no other reply but In a good time Nothing so much displeases those that seek for a quarrel as a moderation