in any his foreine attempts the prosperous successe whereof would but advaunce his greatnesse and the more enable him to vsurpe vpon their priviledges A second is betwixt the Free cities and the Princes these attempting to enthrall and make subject the Cities vnto their tyrannies the other againe to preserue their libertie and as it hapned amongst the Switzers by their aides and confederacies to set free the subjects of the Princes and to ioine them vnto their vnion of all others for this reason the most abhorring foreine warre and enmitie which could not but hinder their commerce and trade and for that the victories and conquests gained could not any wise profit them and but turne vnto their preiudice falling to the share of the Princes or of the Emperour of both whose power they stand a like iealous A third faction is that of Religion betwixt the Protestants and Papists the most hurtfull aud preiudiciall of all the rest each side in regard of their mutuall rancours and iealousies denying all aide against any prince or state of their owne profession but rather to the contrary in what they are able furthering their cause vpon whose generall further growth and prosperity countenance and good intelligence they especially depend and stand By these disvnions and imperfections the power and credit hereof hath irrecouerably declined vnto our times each bordering nation presumptuously nibling hereat and still lopping off some country or towne herefrom when like to some great naturall body encombred with sicknesses infirmities it can not any wise stirre help it selfe where to the contrary if these diseases and lamenes were not and that the whole as sometimes it was were vnited into one perfect monarchy for the sundry aduantages it hath it would doubtlesse beare great swaie in the Christian Commonwealth if not endanger the soueraignety and dominion thereof The country accompting only what is yet subiect to the Empire for it hath beene otherwise of late yeares further extended comprehendeth at this day some forty generall or greater names and divisions of Savoy the Free County of Burgundy Lorraine the district of Trier the Bishopricke of Luick the Land of Gulicke Cleueland the diocese of Colen the Lower Palatinate Elsatz Sungow Schwahen Bavaria the Bishopricke of Saltzburg Tirol Karnten Krain Steirmarcke Austria Bohemia Moravia Schlesi Lausnitz Franconia Hessen Duringen Meissen Ober Sachsen the Earledome of Mansfield and the countries of Brandenburg Pomeren Mecklenburg Holstein Bremen Lunenburg Brunswijck Meydenburg Freislandt and Westphalen whose descriptions succeed in their order after that first following mywonted methode I haue presented vnto your view the many successions changes of estates people and names which haue hapned here vnto our times beginning and occasioning the present names state and divisions OF THE STATE OF EVROPE The XII Booke COntaining the description of the more great and famous mountaines woods and rivers of Germanie Their ancient and present names The countries composing anciently the moderne Germanie The description of the Provinces of Rhaetia Noricum and Pannonia out of Ptolomie Plinie Strabo and others Their subiection and estate vnder the Romans Their conquest and plantation by the Almans and Boioarians and vniting to the language and name of Germanie The description of the ancient and more proper Germany out of Tacitus Ptolomie Strabo and the rest The many different and vncertaine interpretations of the first people or inhabitants hereof with the reasons The savagenes libertie and vndaunted fiercenesse of the ancient Germanes The number of Roman Legions attending their motions and guarding against them the shoares of the Rivers Rhijn and Danow The history seats and conquests of the Saxons French Almans Thuringians Boioarians Huns Longobards Avares Hungarians Danes Norvegians Suiones or Suethidi and Sclaves with the Kingdomes and States issuing from them The beginning and fortunes of the Kingdomes of Germanie Danemarke Norwey Bohemia Bavaria Poland and Hungary the Dukedomes of Saxonie Brunswijck Lunenburg Holstein Bergen Westphalen Schwaben Wirtenberg Zeringen Franconia Bavaria Austria Steirmarcke Karnten Pomeren Mecklenburg and Schlesi the Marquisates of Brandenburg Meissen Marheren and Baden the Lantgraueships of Duringen and Hessen and of the Earledomes of Habspurg Friburg Pfirt or Sungow and Tirol The present extent names and account of Germanie caused by so many successions and changes THE MOVNTAINES OF GERMANIE THE Landmarkes whereof we shall haue occasion to make vse in the Relation following are the Mountaines Rivers and Woods hereof The Mountaines of which wee finde mention in ancient Authors were the Alpes Abnobi Sudetae Melibocus Coecius and of the Sarmatae THE ALPES The name hereof Festus deriveth from their whitenesse called thus from their snowie tops Isidore from the word Alpas signifying with the ancient Gaules a Mountaine They containe all that long ridge of hills wherewith as with a wall Italy is encompassed and divided from the rest of Europe beginning at the Sea Mediterranean and the river Varo and extended betwixt that Province and the maine lands of Germanie and France vnto the countrie of Istria and the river Arsia falling into the sea Adriatique at the Gulfe Cornero where the most part of authours doe end the same They were distinguished into divers names for their large extent and their sundry famous passages of the Alpes Maritimae Coctiae Graiae Poeninae Lepontia Rheticae Iuliae and Carnicae THE ALPES MARITIMAE These bordered vpon the sea Mediterranean from whence came their surname They severed anciently Gaule Narbonensis from Liguria now Provence from the country of Genoa They were otherwise called the Ligurian Alpes for that they were neighboured vpon and inhabited by the people of the Ligures Their more noted top was the Mountaine Acema now Monte Camelione out of which the river Varo springeth COCTIAE They lay next vnto the Maritimae so named from Coctius King of the Allobroges They contained the tract of the Alpes betwixt Piedmonte and Daulphine and Savoy The more noted parts hereof were Mons Vesulus now Viso whence doe issue out the great rivers of the Poe and Durance in France Mont Genebre neere Briançon in Daulphinye where Hannibal by Acciaolus is thought to haue passed ouer now the ordinary way betwixt Piedmonte and Daulphinie and Mont S. Denis otherwise now called Mont Cenis and by the Italians Strada Romanae for that it is the ordinary roade betwixt Rome and France by the way of Lunebourg and Susa. GRAIAE They follow the Alpes Coctiae thus most probably named from Hercules and his Graecian followers reported by Plinie sometimes to haue this way passed over those Mountaines They are the part lying betwixt the towne and countrie of Tarantaise in Savoy and the vallie of Augsta in Italy Their more famous tops are the Lesser S t Bernard and the Mountaine Gales otherwise called the Greater Cines whereof this is the direct way betwixt Tarantaise and Ougstal or the vallie of Augsta PAENINAE These succeed vnto the Alpes
of Northerne Latitude or betwixt some 51 minutes on this side of the 15 or middle paralel of the sixt clime where the longest day hath 15 houres and an halfe and the 19 minute beyond the 21 or middle paralel of the 9 clime where it hath 17 houres It is therefore wholy seated in the Northerne halfe-part of the Temperate Zone and is for this cause much colder then the more Southerne parts before described yet of a more liuely and healthie temperature and more potent for generation bringing forth men cattell and plants whereof it is well capable in farre more abundance and of greater strength and larger proportion then the other the fatall nursery of those numberlesse swarmes of barbarous nations overwhelming the Roman Empire and new peopling the provinces of the West The soile is very fruitfull the mountainous parts of the Alpes Schwartzwald Otten-wald and other wild reliques of the old Hercynian forest excepted The Country is large and exceedingly populous stored with infinite Cities the best and fairest for any one Province in the world what by meanes of the industrie of the inhabitants and through the commodity of the situation thereof standing in the heart and center of Europe the ordinary way of all the merchandise and riches of the neighbouring Provinces The more happy parts are the Southerne betwixt the river of Meine and the Alpes yeelding plenty of very excellent wines especially the tract of the Rhijn of which the other is destitute The Northerne is generally more plaine but worse inhabited and accompted lesse fruitfull chiefly towards the Wixell and the Sea Baltique yet abounding in corne with other of the East-lands the garner and storehouse of Holland and the Lowe Countries and in time of dearth of Italie Spaine and of other countries The chiefer commodities which are transported from hence are Corne and Wines whereof these growe onely in the Southerne parts the other more abundantly in the Northerne It aboundeth also with all sorts of mettals as of Iron Lead Brasse and of other baser sorts so of Silver which the mines of Meissen Bohemia and Tirol doe very plentifully yeeld Salt is here in a sufficient quantity as boiled out of Salt springs so minerall extracted out of the earth It affordeth also store of Saffron in the vpper Austria and Bavaria as it doth of woolls in the land of Hessen of extraordinary finesse for those transmarine regions The ancient inhabitants hereof were the Rhaeti Vindelici Norici with parts of the PaÌ„nonij possessing the whole tract exteÌ„ded betwixt the Danow and the Alpes the Menapij Treveri Mediomatrices Lenci Vbij Eburones Nemeti Vangiones Triboci Raâ—raci and Sequani parts of Gaule Belgique and inhabiting the Westerne shore of the Rhijn the Germans contained anciently within the Rhijn the Danow the Wixel and the Ocean the Scâ—avi or Winithi succeeding in the left roomes of the Germans flitting into the Westerne Roman Provinces taking vp the moitie hereof contained betwixt the rivers Elb and Saltza the Wixel and the Sea Baltique the Huns Avares Lombards and Hungarians successiuely intruding amongst the Pannonij The rest of the Barbarians subdued and driuen out by this more strong and mighty nation the whole are now accompted and knowne only by the name of Germans The moderne Germans are commonly of a tall stature square and bigge by complection phlegmatique or rawe sanguine or where moisture hath the dominion over heat of haire yellow or light browne strong and thicke hauing great bones and much flesh with large ioints nerues and sinewes but for want of heat not so firmely knit neither abounding with such store of quicke and nimble spirits as might sufficiently weild so great a masse of body being for this cause of a dull and heavy disposition fitter to resist then execute and strong rather with a weighty sway of flesh then otherwise They are by nature plaine and honest simple without any mixture of deceipt haters of impostures and base dealing religious chast laborious constant stiffe or rather opinatiue and obstinate as suspitious of their owne weaknesse and hating to be circumvented rough or rather rude and vncivill in their carriage but nothing dangerous not notably giuen to any vice drunkennesse excepted common herevnto and to all the Northerne Nations not so much by ill habit and custome as by naturall inclination caused whither by a sympathie of their moister bodies or through a vehement appetite of their hotter stronger digesting and throat-scorching stomackes intended by their cold In handy-crafts and mechanicall inventions they haue alwaies much excelled the first inventers of Gunnes Gun-powder Printing Clocks strange water-works and other wittie devises to the no lesse benefit then admiration of the world In warres at this day they are not so well accompted firme and constant in their order but slowe and heavy better to receaue then to giue a charge and to fight a battaile in the open field then to assault a Town the ordinary warfare of those times fearefull dull and for this cause against dangers often mutinous as loath to haâ—ard subiect to disrout by false alarums and sudden feares and being once broken not easily brought to rally and gather head againe The languages here spoken are the French in Savoy Lorraine Luick and the Free county of Burgundie the Sclavonian amongst the Bohemians and Moravians and in some parts of Lausâ—its about the Elb and the High Dutch common in a maner to the whole province What was the ancient Religion of the nation see Tacitus in his description hereof The first who here preached the Gospell was S t Thomas surnamed Didimus if Dorothaus may be credited an author somewhat ancient but whose truth hath alwaies beene suspected The Magdeburgenses in their first Century and 2 booke and chapter muster vp S t Egistus one of the 70 Disciples of our blessed Saviour preaching at Bardewick vpon the river Elmenow nere Lunenburg S t Lucius of Cyrene in Rhaetia and Vindelicia S t Mark at Laureacum amongst the Norici S t Crescens at Ments S t Clemens at Mets and S t Maternus and Eucharius at Colen and Triers with others from the relations of Henricus de Erphordia Aventinus the Liues of the Bishops of the Tungri and some Histories of the Saints later authors or vncertaine and not backed with the authorities of more ancient Irenaeus of of much better authority liuing in the raigne of the Emperour Antoninus Verus and yeare 170 in his 1 booke and 3 chap. contra Haereses maketh mention of the German Churches but without naming their Apostles That Christianity during those primitiue times had taken good root in the parts lying without the Rhijn wee more certainely gather from the Catalogue and names of Bishops in the first Councell of Arles held about the yeare 326 and in the raigne of Constantine the Great where we finde mention of Maternus Bishop of Colen and Agritius of Trier but more manifestly from the Councell of Colen had in the
read in Iornandes de Regn Tempo Successione accompanying the Gothes in their inroades excursions into Pannonia That originally they were Germans their distinctions of Ostro-gothes Wisi-gothes signifying in their language as now with the Dutch the Easterne Westerne Gothes names of Alaric Theodoric Reccared with others the same or alike terminated with the auncient French doe almost make certaine The name succession hereof Iornandes by nation a Goth continueth from the times before the Troian warres beyond the report of other prophane histories But whose relation grounded only vpon vnknowne barbarous authours we reject as fabulous Their first certaine expresse mention in approved authours wee finde to haue beene in the raigne of the Emperour Antoninus Caracalla overcome hereby in certaine tumultuary fights in his way towards Persia and the East Their mention after this is familiar and common In the raigne of the Emperour Maximinus vpon occasion of his parentage whose mothers was of this nation Of Decius then ransacking Thrace overthrowing in battaill killing this Emperour Of Galienus wasting Greece Pannonia Pontus Asia Of Claudius the second after their 15 yeares spoile of Illyriâ—um and Macedonia slaine and overthrowne by him with great slaughter Of Iulianus accompanying ayding him in his vnfortunate warre against the Persians Of Valens with the Taifali and other Barbarians driven then by the Huns from beyond the further shore of the river Ister into the Roman Provinces afterwards in fight overcome slaine by them Of Theodosius the first overthrowne by him in sundry battails Of Honorius Arcadius vnder their kings Alaricus Radagaisus invading Italy and at Pollentia putting Stilico the leiftenant of Honorius vnto flight Of Honorius Theodosius the second then taking Rome Of the same Emperours vnder their king Athaulphus vpon a composition made with Honorius seating in Gaule Spaine After this time we reade of a continuall succession of them in the French Spanish histories and vntill their finall ouerthrow extirpation Their country since their expresse name was Dacia or the further shore of the river Ister quarting vpon the other side Pannonia Maesia or Thrace the common Rendez-vous of the many successions of barbarous nations Driven over that river by the more fierce and barbarous Huns they had Thrace permitted vnto them to inhabite in by the Emperour Valens with condition to serue vnder the pay of the Romans and to become Christians the cause of their Arrian infection wherewith so long time after they troubled the Christian Common-wealth vnto which Haeresie that Emperour was addicted A little before their comming into Italy and the West they enlarged their bounds as farre as Pannonia In the raignes of Arcadius and Honorius denyed their accustomed pay of the Romans by the treason of Stilico Protectour and Lieftenant to Honorius vnder their kings Rhadagaisus and Alaricus they drew into Italy in two Armies the former whereof at Fesulae was slaine and his Army discomfited by Stilico the other by the treachery hereof permitted to liue and by iniuries provoked to the taking of the city of Rome to the ruinating of the Westerne Empire After this their invasion we finde the nation distinguished and more famously knowne by the names of Ostrogothes and Wisigothes Of both which seuerally THE OSTRO-GOTHES THE Ostrogothes and Wisigothes signified in their language the Easterne and Westerne Gothes and argument of their Dutch descent Mariana yet whom I finde not backed by the authority of auncient authours would haue them to haue beene thus named from their more Easterne and Westerne situations in Scandia before their comming to the Ister Roman confines Paulus Diaconus in his additions to Eutropius with better authority from such their positions in Dacia or beyond the Ister in the raigne of the Emperour Valens at what time vnder their Captaines Athalaricus and Fridigernus first dividing into two plantations or companies those which with Fridigernus inhabited the more Westerne Countreyes were from hence in their natiue language named the Wesegothi or the Westerne Gothes the other vnder Athalaricus planted in the East the Ostrogothi Trebellius Pollio notwithstanding long before those times nameth the Austro-gothi in the raigne of the Emperour Claudius the second But whether by these were vnderstood the Easterne or Ostrogothes or rather as the Latin word more properly doth signifie the Southerne Gothes we can not determine Ammianus Marcellinus in his 31 booke and raigne of the Emperour Valens and Gratianus maketh often mention of Fritigernus and the Gothes but in whom we finde no where the distinctions of Ostro-gothes and Wisigothes In Ablavius in Iornandes we heare of the Wesegothae and Ostrogothae vnder their king Ostrogotha inhabiting then in Sâ—ythia vpon the shore of the sea Euxinus But whose narration wee haue before accompted as fabulous That the Gothes had these distinctions giuen them before their descent into the Westerne Roman Provinces it is manifest out of the 2 d booke in Eutropium of the Poet Claudian liuing in the time of the Emperour Honorius where he mentioneth the Ostro-gothi when as yet onely these were in the East The iust time and place in the East where these names begun is vncertaine They grew more famous after the plantation of the nation in the Provinces of the Westerne Roman Empire the Italian Gothes being distinguished in the histories of those times by the name of Ostrogothes and those of Spaine or Gaule by the name of Wisigothes The Ostrogothes then to speak more certainly were a remainder of the Gothes in the East after the departure of Alaricus and Rhadagaisus towards Italy Gaule and the West In the raigne of the Emperour Valentinian the third these accompanied Atilas and the Huns invading the Westerne Roman Provinces partakers of their ouerthrow in the plaines of Chaalon giuen by the valiant Aetius the Wisigothes French and other barbarous confederates Shortly after this in the raigne of Marcianus they returned againe to their wonted pay and service of the Romans by the leaue of this Emperour seating themselues in Pannonia In the raigne of the Emperour Zeno threatning war against the Grecians by the policy and persuasion hereof they turned vpon the Heruli then possessing Italy the Westerne Empire being at that time troden vnderfoote by barbarous nations whom after sundry battailes hauing slaine their king Odoacer they finally vanquished inhabiting and taking vp their left roomes and extending their conquests there ouer Italy Rome Illyricum Dalmatia Sicily and the neighbouring Iles together with the part of Gaule Narbonensis contained betwixt the Alpes and the riuer Rhosne now called Provence vsurped vpon the Wisigothes By Amalasiunta daughter to Theodoricus then Governour of the kingdome for her yong son Athanaricus fearing a tempest of warre from the Grecians to make their better peace with the potent French Nation their part of Gaule Narbonensis was surrendred to Theodebert the French king of Mets or Austrusia By Iustinian the first Roman Emperour of
the Great and his son Lewis the Godly were Sole commaunders of all Gaule of Germany vnto the rivers Eydore Elb Saltza of Pannony of a great part of Italy and of Barcelona or Catalonia in Spaine Since the vsurpation of Capet he for a long time held subject in the Low-countries the great Earledome of Flanders with that other of Artois held alwayes by the Princes thereof vnder the fief and soveraignety of this Crowne by the late league of Cambray in the raignes of Henry the second French King and Philip the second King of Spaine quitted from all right and acknowledgment hereof At this day he onely retayneth moderne France limited as aboue together with the bare title of Navarre the countrey ever since Ferdinand the fift being witheld from him by the Spaniard The greater causes of the declining hereof haue beene 1 that improvident devision of the French Empire by the sons of the Emperour Lewis the Godly whereby not only Gaule or France within the Rhijn became parted into divers lesser seigneuryes but Italy and Germany quite rent herefrom their kingdomes with the honour and title of Roman Emperour being translated to forraine stranger families 2 The monstrous alienations of many the chiefer provinces hereof graunted by former Kings with a bare reservation of homage vnto themselues by which meanes the great Dukedomes of Aquitaine and Guienne Bretaigne Normandy and Burgundy the Earledomes of Champaigne and Provençe with others contayning aboue one halfe part of the whole France became for a long time free and loose from the immediate commaund and jurisdiction hereof which by marriages otherwise comming into the hands of straungers or of some not so well affected to this Crowne haue much disabled him for any great performance and oftentimes turning their armes here-against haue much endangered the ruine of the whole kingdome a no small advaÌ„tage of the English cause of the many victories which they atchieved in times past against this Nation 3 The infinite factioÌ„s wherevnto this vnconstant and stirring people haue beene still subject and from the which they haue beene almost never cleare whereof their wiser neighbours haue still knowne to make good vse 4 The jealousies of neighbouring princes especially since the great attempts and conquests vpon Milan and Naples by Charles the eight and Lewis the twelth bending their leagues and setting vp enabling the Spaniard against him But as his power and auncient greatnes haue beene hereby much abated so yet neither haue they beene so empared but that for solide true strength he remayneth now nothing inferiour to any Christian prince of Europe Indeed he is not Lord of such huge and spacious dominions as some others are Yet if we consider the generall fertility and riches of his countries their compaction and vnitednes not broken into diverse kingdomes or parted by Sees or the intervening of forraine states his store of strong and well fortified cites and townes in every province the infinite number of his French subjects in regard of the extraordinary populousnes of the countrie the substance of war the wall of kingdomes estimated at 15 millions of inhabitants and that harmony and good agreement which should be amongst a people of the same law nation countrey and language wee shall finde him to haue sundry advantages aboue many of his neighbours firme strong great and not easily to be endangered by the mainest combination of his adversaries An especiall strength and advantage of the present aboue the former kings hath beene the incorporation of the many alienated great Dukedomes and Estates before mentioned thorough the great wisedome of his Predecessours still as they were gotten in by warre or marriage being inseparably vnited to the crowne hereof What his revenues might be from so rich a kingdome we wil not define Monsieur Froumenteau in his book entitled les Secrets des Finances accompteth them for 31 yeares space during the late raignes of Henry the second of the three brethren kings at 15623655 17 31 Escus or French Crownes one yeare with an other but whereof a great part being then made by the confiscation of Protestants goods alienations of their demaines by the like casualties incident to troubled States cannot be accompted ordinary The country conteineth now 24 greater divisions or Provinces of Bretaigne Normandy Picardy Champaigne Brie France Special Beausse Poictou Engoulmois Berry Bourbonois Forest Beauiolois Lionois Auvergne Limousin Perigort Guienne Gaiscoigne Quercy Rovergne Languedoc Provençe Daulphine and Bourgogne divided amongst 8 iuridicall resorts or Parliaments of Paris Roven Renes Bourdeaux Tholouse Aix Dijon and Grenoble whose descriptions follow hauing first set downe the auncient estate hereof with the sundry changes and successions people nations and gouerments hapning vnto our times occasioning the present names state and divisions THE NINTH BOOKE COntayning the description of the more famous Mountaines and Rivers of France Their auncient and moderne names The auncient name and Etymologie of Gaule The distinction hereof into Gaule on this side and beyond the Alpes The beginning and occasion of the name of Gaule on this side the Alpes The bounds situation and auncient estate of Gaule on this side the Alpes before the subiection thereof to the Romans and revnion with Italy The auncient limits and extent of Gaule beyond the Alpes The first inhabitants of Gaule beyond the Alpes The intrusion of the neighbouring Germans and of the Greekes Phocenses The foundation of the auncient and noble city of Marseilles The conquest of Gaule beyond the Alpes by the Romans The description and face hereof during the Roman government out of Ptolemy Pliny Antoninus and others The history invasion and conquests of the Britons VVisigothes Burgundians Almans and Frenchmen The conquest of the whole by the French The large extent aunciently of the French dominions The reestablishment of the Roman Empire of the VVest in Charles the Great and the French nation The name of France The distinction hereof into the parts and names of Oosten-reich and VVest-reich The division of the grand Monarchy of the French by the sons and posterity of the Emperour Lewis the Godly The French kingdomes of Germany and Italy Their rent from the nation and name of the French The kingdomes of Burgundy Lorraine and VVest-France The Dukedomes of Lorraine Iuliers Cleue Brabant Luxemburg Limburg and Gelderlandt the Palatinate of the Rhijn the Bishopricks of Liege and Vtreicht the Lantgraueship of Elsatz the Earledomes of Namur Hainault Holland and Zealandt parts sometimes of the auncient French kingdome of Lorraine The vniting of Brabant Luxemburg Limâ—urg Gelderlandt Namur Hainault Holland Zealandt Vtreicht vnto the Netherlands and family of Burgundy and of the rest to the Empire of the Germans The Dukedomes of Savoy and of Burgundy on this side the Soasne and beyond the Iour the Earledomes of Lions and Mascon the free counrye of Burgundy the kingdome of Arles the Earledome of Provence Daulphiny and the Common-wealth and League of the