little St. Anthonies being holy Thursday as she returned to her Lodging and being walking in the Garden she felt her self struck with an Apoplexy in the brain The first fury of it being passed she would no longer stay in that house but caused her self to be carried to that of Madam de Sourdis her Aunt near St. Germain of the Auxerrois And all the rest of that day and the morrow she was perplexed with Swoondings and Convulsions of which she died on the Saturday-morning The causes of her death were diversly spoken of but however it was a happiness to France since it deprived the King of an object for which he was about to loose both himself and his Estate His grief was as great as his love had been yet he not being of those feeble souls who please themselves in perpetuating their sorrows and in bathing themselves in their tears received not onely those comforts he sought but still conserved for the Children and particularly for the Duke of Vendosm that affection he had born the Mother All good French-men passionately desired that so good a King might leave legitimate Children They durst not press him to take a Wife capable to bring him forth such so long as Gabriella lived for fear lest he should espouse her and out of the same fear Queen Margaret would not give her consent to dissolve his marriage But when Gabriella was dead she willingly lent her hand to it and her self addressed a Request to the holy Father to demand the dissolution founding it principally on two causes of nullity The first was the want of consent for she alledged she had been forced to it by King Charles the ix her Brother The second the Proximity of Kindred found between them in the third degree for which she said there had never been any valuable Dispensation In like manner the Lords of the Kingdome and the Parliament besought his Majesty by solemn Deputations that he would think of taking a Wife representing to him the inconveniencies and the danger wherein France would be found if he should die without Children These Deputations will not seem strange to those who know our ancient History where it may be seen that neither the King nor his Children married but by the advice of his Barons and this passed in that time for almost a Fundamental Law of the Estate The King touched with these just supplications of his subjects addressed his request to the Pope containing the same reasons as that of Queen Margaret and charged the Cardinal d'Ossat and Sillery his extraordinal Ambassadour whom he had sent to Rome to pursue the judgement of the Pope concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces to sollicite instantly this Affair The cause reported to the Consistory the Pope gave Commission to the Prelates to judge it on the place according to the rights of that Crown which suffers not French-men to be transported for Affairs of the like nature beyond the Mountains whither it would be almost impossible to bring the necessary proofs and witnesses These Prelates were the Cardinal of Joyeuse the Popes Nuntio and the Archbishop of Arles who having examined both Parties seen the Proofs produced on one and the other and the Request of the three Estates of the Kingdom declared this marriage null and permitted them to marry whom they should think fit Queen Margaret who for many years had deserted the King and voluntarily shut her self up in the strong Castle of Usson in Auvergne had now permission to come to Paris money given her to pay her debts great Pensions the possession of the Dutchy of Valois with some other Lands and right to bear still the Title of Queen She lived yet fifteen years and built a Palace near du Pre-aux-Clercs which was after sold to pay his debts and demolished to build other houses She loved extreamly good Musitians having a delicate Ear and knowing and eloquent Men because she was of a spirit clear and very agreeable in her discourse For the rest she was liberal even to prodigality pompous and magnificent but she knew not what it was to pay her debts Which is without doubt the greatest of all a Princes fault because there is nothing so much against Justice of which he ought to be the Protector and Defender This marriage being dissolved Bellievre and Villeroy fearing lest the King should engage himself in new loves and be taken in some of those snares which the fairest of the Court stretched out for him perswaded him by many great Reasons of State to fix his thoughts on Maria de Medicis who was daughter to Francis and Neece to Ferdinand great Dukes of Toscany The Cardinal d' Ossat and Sillery made known his intention to the great Duke Ferdinand her Uncle and Alincour son to Villeroy whom he had sent to thank the holy Father for his good and brief Justice touching the aforesaid dissolution of his marriage had order to testifie to him that the King having cast his eyes on all the Daughters of the Soveraign Houses of Christendome had found no Princess more agreeable to him The business was managed with so much activeness and vigilancy by the diligence of those which had enterprized it that the King found himself absolutely engaged The contract of the marriage was signed at Florence by his Ambassadors the fourth of April in the year one thousand six hundred And Alincour in seven days brought him the news to Fountain-bleau He assisted at present at that famous Conference or Dispute between James David du Perron Bishop of Eureux afterwards Cardinal and Philip du Plessis Mornay where truth nobly triumphed over falsehood There are particular relations of the solemnities made at Florence the Magnificences of the great Duke the Ceremonies of the Affiancing and Marriage of this Queen of her Imbarking her being convoyed by the Gallies of Malta and Florence and her reception at Marseilles at Avignon and at Lions and therefore I shall speak nothing of it Whilst the Marriage of Florence was treating the King having a heart which could for no long time keep his liberty became enslaved to a new object It is to be understood that Mary Touchet who had been Mistress to Charles the ninth from whom came Issue the Count d' Auvergne had been Married to the Lord d' Entragues and had by him many children amongst the rest a very fair daughter named Henrietta who by consequent was sister by the mothers side to the Count of Auvergne This Count was about the age of thirty years and she about eighteen It is but too well known that Flatterers and wicked Sycophants ruine all in the Courts of great Men and corrupt likewise their persons These are they which sweeten the poyson which embolden the Prince to do ill which make him familiar with vice which seek and facilitate occasions for it and who act as we may say the mystery of
it apparent That it is another thing to assault a stranger equal in puissance over whom nothing is to be gained but by force of Arms then to have to do with rebellious Subjects and in ones proper Country where intrigues and intelligences make more then one half of the enterprizes This year the Cities of Beaune of Auton and of Aussonne reduced themselves under the Kings obedience Those of Mascon and Auxerre were returned the year before The City of Dijon followed their example and fortified it self against the Castle which Byron went to besiege But in the mean time the Constable of Castile descended with a great Army of Millanois into Bourgongne by the French County and passed the Saone at Gray with the Duke of Mayenne The King who was gone into that Country had the assurance to advance as far as Fountain-Franzoise it was there that with only fifteen hundred men he made head against that great Army and did an exploit of War scarce imaginable Villars-Oudan and Sanson two of the Principal Chiefs of the enemies Army charged furiously on his Troops Villars charged a body commanded by the Marshal of Byron and Sanson another on the side of it they made them both give ground and retreat flying within sight of that of the King It was reported that Villars knowing he was there so puissant is the name of a King durst not assault him but retired on the left hand but Sanson was not so happy for the King having with him but one hundred horse but all chosen Gentlemen of note and mounted to advantage with his sword in his hand mingled amongst them and cut them in pieces Sanson endeavouring to rally his people lost his life by acquitting no small honour The King was in so great danger in this fight that he said himself That in other occasions wherein he had been engaged he had fought for Victory but that in this he had fought for his Life Having therefore made the Constable by this occasion see in what manner he was to act he so much abashed his courage that he durst enterprize nothing but a little after retired The Duke of Mayenne likewise despairing at such ill success and not knowing longer where to hide his head had resolved to retire to Sommerive in Savoy from whence he would send to demand safe-conduct into Spain to give an account of his Actions to King Philip the second But the goodness of the King tooke care to divert him from this Precipice and to lay open to him ways of accommodation He to this effect sent to seek Lignerac his Confident entertained him of the good will he always had for that Duke testified to him that he pitied him and assured him that he would be always disposed to receive him into his favour permitting him to retire in all safety to Chalons on the Saone till they could finish a Treaty of Accord The Duke accepts this favour and having understood that the Pope was disposed to receive the King into the Church he demanded a general Truce for the rest of his party The greatest part of the Kings Council who considered the Delays and Artifices which he had for six years used having begun fifty Treaties without ever concluding any advised that the King should grant him no intermission but pursue him to the utmost But the prudence and goodness of the King conformed not with this Sentiment because he was not ignorant of two Maximes which are most true ones the one That Kings may always when they please reduce the most rebellious to their duty the other That it is very dangerous to make great persons despair especially persons of the quality of the Duke of Mayenne And for these Reasons of his proper motion contrary to the advice of his Council he grantted him a Truce That which followed after demonstrated well that this sage Prince had more knowledge then all his Ministers and how prejudicial it would have been to his interests to do the contrary In the mean time of those three Cities which we have said remained to the League in Picardy to wit la Fere Ham and Soissons the Governour of the first named Colas had delivered it to the Spaniards and d'Orvilliers had done the same with Ham. However this last remained not theirs Humieres one of the bravest Gentlemen of those times came and at the same hour so hotly assaulted it that after a long and bloody defence they were hewen in pieces but Humieres was killed and more then two hundred brave Gentlemen with him This loss did in such manner excite the indignation of the Loyal French against the Leaguers that the greatest part of them despairing fled into the Low-Countries and into Spain where they found at first a favourable Reception and good Employments by which they did very great mischief to France Amongst others was a valiant Captain named Rosny who imagining that they would extend their utmost rigour upon such who not being Governours had no places to buy their peace with resolved to make the War so well that the Spaniards should have cause to recompense him or the King to redeem him This was he who inspired the Count of Fuentes with the designe to besiege Cambray after he had forced Cattelet and who perswaded him to facilitate this great Enterprize to take Dourlens first to the end the French might not bring an Army to relieve it It was likewise by his counsel that Fuentes went to meet the Duke of Nevers the Marshal of Bouillon and the Admiral Villars who came to the relief of Dourlens that he fought them and defeated them with a great slaughter of the of the French Nobility and caused Villars to be slain in cold blood one of the bravest men of his time Afterwards returning to Cambray he took it by Famine and despoiled Balagny of his pretended Principality But News most important and long time expected comforted the King for these two great losses of Dourlens and Cambray which was that he received advice that the holy Father passing by all those difficulties which the Spaniards formed had granted his Absolution on the sixteenth of September by the Negotiation and pursuits of d'Ossat and du Perron his Procurers in the Court of Rome who were afterwards upon his Recommendation honoured with Cardinal Caps After this the Duke of Mayenne having no more Excuses nor more Hopes longer to subsist resolved to treat It was very late and he could not well expect other then an utmost rigour if the Generosity of the King had not been greater then his obstinacy It is most true that the fair Gabriella very officious to those who sued for his favour and being at present in hopes to create her self friends and supports to come to the marriage of the King to which she aspired did not a little assist to obtain a most favourable Accommodation Certainly the terms of the Edict which
both of the one and the other party into the Low-Countries made himself Mediator of the peace and obtained it by an Edict which was concluded after the Conference of Fleix This peace was the cause of almost as many evils to the Estate as all the former Wars had been The two Courts of the two Kings and the two Kings themselves plunged themselves in their pleasures with this difference however that our Henry was not so absolutely lull'd asleep with his delights but he thought sometimes of his affairs being awakened and lively reminded by the Remonstrances of the Ministers of his Religion and by the reproaches of the old Captains of the Hugonots who spoke to him with great liberty But Henry the third was wholly overwhelmed with softness and feebleness he seemed to have neither heart nor motion and his subjects could scarce know that he was in the world but because he dayly charged them with new Imposts all the money of which was disposed to the benefit of his Favorites He had always three or four at a time and at present he began to cast his graces on Joyeuse and the two Nogarets to wit Bernard and Jean-Lewis of whom the eldest died five or six years after and the youngest was Duke d' Espernon one of the most memorable and most wonderful Subjects that the Court had ever seen elevated in its favour and who certainly had qualities as eminent as his fortune In the mean time the excessive gifts which the King gave to all his favorites excited the cries of the people because they were trampled on and their monstrous greatness displeased the Princes because they believed themselves despised in such manner that they rendred themselves odious to all the world and the hate carried to them fell likewise upon the King whilst that violence which they obliged him to use towards his Parliaments to confirm his Edicts of Creation and Imposts augmented it yet more for if his Authority made his Wills pass as absolute he drew the peoples curses and if the vigour of the Soveraign companies as often happened stopt them he attracted their disdain The people who easily licentiate themselves to Rebellion against their Prince when they have lost for him all sentiments of esteem and veneration spoke strange things of him and his favorites The Guises whom the Minions for so the favorites were called opposed in all occasions endeavouring to deprive them of their Charges and Governments to re-invest themselves were not wanting to blow the fire and to increase the animosities of the people particularly of the great Cities whom favorites have always feared and who have always hated favorites These were the principal Dispositions to the aggrandizing the League and to the loss of Henry the third It is not to our purpose to recount here all the intrigues of the Court during five or six years nor the War of the Low-Countries from which Monsieur brought nothing but disgrace It is onely necessary to tell that in the year 1684. Monsieur died at Castle-Thierry without having been married that Henry the third had likewise no Children and that it was but too well known he was uncapable of ever having any by reason of an uncurable disease which he contracted at Venice in his return from Poland See here the reason why as soon as Monsieur was judged to death by the Physitians the Guises and Queen-Mother began to labour each on their side to assure themselves of the Crown as if the succession had been open to them for neither the one nor the other accounted for any thing our Henry so much the rather because he was beyond the seventh degree beyond which in ordinary successions is accounted no kindred and because he was not of that Religion of which all the Kings of France have been since Clouis and by consequence incapable to wear the Crown or bear the Title of Thrice-Christian Adde to this that he was two hundred Leagues distant from Paris and as it were shut up in a corner of Guyenne where it seem'd to them easie to ensuare him or oppress him The Queen-Mother had a design to give the Crown to the Children of her Daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain whom she would have treated as Princes of the bloud as if the Crown of France could fall under the command of the Spindle Nor was she carried to this onely out of the love she had for them but out of a secret hatred she had conceived against our Henry because she saw that contrary to all her wishes heaven opened him a way to come to the Throne Besides she was too much deceived for so able a woman to believe that the Duke of Guise would favour her in her design there was much appearance and after affaires sufficiently testified it that seeing himself persecuted by the Favorites and ill treated by the King himself for their sakes he had thoughts to assure the Crown for his own head For ill treatments work at least no other effect then to cast into extreme despaire Souls so Noble and Elevated as that of this Prince But he knowing well that of himself he could not arrive at so high a pitch and that specially because it would be difficult to divert the affection which the people of France naturally have for the Princes of the Bloud he advised himself to gain the old Cardinal de Bourbon who was Uncle of our Henry he promised him therefore that the death of Henry the third Arriving he would employ all his power and that of his Friends to make him King and that good man doting with age permitting himself to be flattered with these vain hopes made himself the Bauble of the Dukes Ambition who by this means drew to his party a great number of Catholiques who considered the house of Bourbon The Question was if the Uncle ought to precede the Son of the Elder Brother in the Succession and to speak truth the business was not without some difficulty because according to the Custome of Paris the Capital of the Realm and many other Customes collateral representation hath no place This point of right was diversly agitated by the Reverend Judges and many treats were had some in favour of the Uncle and others of the Nephew but these were but Combats of words the sword was to decide the difference It seemed to many great Polititians that the Duke of Guise acted contrary to his own interests and design by acknowledgeing that the Cardinal of Bourbon ought to Succeed to the Crown this being to avow that after his death which could suffer no long delay it would appertain to our Henry his Nephew Henry 3. knew well his design or rather was advertised of it by his Favorites who saw in it their certain ruine and therefore so much desired to bring back the King of Navarre to the Catholique Church to the end he might deprive the Leaguers of that specious Pretext they
That force could not justly be employed against him who so far submitted himself to reason and the greatest part of the Nobility approved this generous procedure and proclaimed aloud that the Duke of Guise ought not to refuse so great an honour That Duke wanted no courage to accept the Defiance but he considered that drawing his sword against a Prince of the blood was in France accounted a kinde of Parricide that otherwise he could willingly have reduced the cause of Religion and of the Publick to a particular Quarrel He therefore prudently answered That he esteemed the person of the King of Navarre and would have no controversie with him but that he onely interested himself for the Catholick Religion which was threatned and for the tranquillity of the Kingdome which onely and absolutely depended on the unity of Religion His other Action was thus Having understood the noise of those paper-Thunder-bolts which the Pope had thrown out against him he dispatched one to the King to make his Complaints to him and to remonstrate to him That this procedure concerned his Majesty nearer then himself That he ought to judge That if the Pope took upon him to decide concerning his succession and should seize to himself a right to declare a Prince of the blood unable of the Crown he might afterwards well pass further and dethrone himself as Zachary is reported to have formerly degraded Childeric 3. Upon these Remonstrances the King hindred the publication of those Bulls in his Dominions But our Henry not contenting himself there with knowing himself to have friends at Rome proved so hardy as to fix his and the Prince of Condé his opposition at the corners of the chiefest streets of the City by which those Princes appealed from the sentence of Sixtus to the Court of Peerage of France giving the Lye to whoever accused them of the crime of Heresie offering to prove the contrary in a general Council and in the end professing that they would revenge upon him and upon all his successours the injury done their King the Royal Family and all the Courts of Parliament It could not but be supposed that this opposition would incense to the utmost the spirit of Sixtus the fifth and indeed at first he testified a very furious emotion However when his Choler was a little asswaged he admired the great Courage of that King who at such a distance had known how to revenge himself and fix the marks of his resentment even at the gates of his Palace in such manner that he conceived so great an esteem for him so true is it that Vertue makes it self be reverenced by its very enemies that he was often afterwards heard say That of all those who reigued in Christendome there was none but this Prince and Elizabeth Queen of Enland to whom he would have communicated those great things which agitated his spirit if they had not been Hereticks Nor could all the prayers of the League ever oblige him to furnish any thing towards the charges of this War which possibly overwhelmed the greatest part of their Enterprizes because their hopes in part depended on a Million which he had promised them Now as on their side the Chiefs of the League endeavoured to engage on their party all the Lords and Cities they could our Henry on his part re-united with him all his friends both of the one and the other Religion the Marshal of Damville-Montmorency Governour of Languedoc the Duke of Montpensier Prince of the blood who was Governour of Poictou with his Son the Prince of Dombes the Prince of Condé who held a part of Poictou of Xaintonge and of Angoumois the Count of Soissons and the Prince of Conty his brother Of these five Princes of the blood the three last were his Cousen-Germans the two first were removed one degree further and all professed the Catholick Religion save onely the Prince of Condé He had likewise on his part Lesdiguieres who from a plain Gentleman had by his Valour elevated himself to so high a point that he was Master of the Daulphinate and made the Duke of Savoy tremble Claudius de la Trimouille who possessed great Lands in Poictou and Brittany and was sometimes before turned Hugonot that he might have the honour to marry his Daughter to the Prince of Condé Henry de la Tour Viscount of Turenne who either out of complacency or true perswasion had espoused the new Religion Chastillon son to the Admiral of Coligny la Boulaye Lord Poitevin Rene chief of the house of Rohan George de Clermont d' Amboise Francis Count of Rochefoucaud the Lord de Aubetterre James de Caumontla-force the Seigneurs de Pons Saint Gelais-Lansac with many other Lords and Gentlemen of remark all or most of the new Religion At the same time he dispatched to Elizabeth Queen of England and to the Protestant Princes of Germany such able Agents that they joyned all together in a strong Union The One to maintain the Other so that all these being united all things arrived contrary to what the League expected and our Henry found himself fortified in such manner that he had no longer any apprehension of being oppressed without having the means to defend himself I shall not make here a particular Recital of the Actions either of the one or the other party during the years 1585. and 1586. because I have observed nothing very considerable King Henry the third was extreamly perplexed at this War which was maintained at his expence and to his great prejudice since they disputed the succession he yet living and well and already considered him as one dead He loved neither the one nor the other party but did so much cherish his Favourites strange blindness that he could have desired had it been in his power to have parted his Estate amongst them The League on their side pretended to have power enough to carry it and our Henry hoped to frustrate the designes both of the one and the other The Queen-mother having other wishes for the children of her Daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain promised the King to finde means to calm all these tempests To this purpose she procured a Truce with our Henry during which an Interview was agreed upon between him and her at the Castle of St. Brix near Coignac where both the one and the other met in the month of December There was some difficulty to finde security both for the one and the other but especially for the Queen-mother who was wonderfully distrustful Our Henry hereupon did an Action of great Generosity which he managed in this manner There had a Truce been agreed upon for the security of this Conference in such sort that if either party broke it they were in fault and might justly be arrested now some of our Henry's followers feigning to be Traytors had enticed some of the Catholick-Captains too greedy of the booty to Fontenay which they
would have let them take by this means the Catholicks would have remained convict of perfidy and he had had good pretence to arrest the Queen-mother but this generous Prince having understood the carriage of this foul play was extreamly troubled against those who contrived it and forbad them to continue it Was not this to have the true sentiments of honour founded in his Soul and not onely in his exteriour Carriage And as he testified his Generosity in that Rencounter so he made known his Constancy and the power of his Spirit in all the Discourse The Qeen demanding of him what it was he would he answered regarding those Ladies she had brought with her Madam there is nothing that I would have as if he would have said That he would not longer permit himself to be drawn away by such allurements She endeavoured above all things to disunite him with the other Chiefs of his party or to render him suspected offering all that he demanded as to his particular but he knowing well her stratagem held firmly to this point That he could not treat any thing without communicating it to his Friends After a long entertainment she once demanding him if the pains she had taken should produce no more fruit especially to her who onely wished for repose he answered her Madam I am not the cause of it nor is it I who hinder you from resting in your Bed it is you that hinder me from resting in mine That pains you take pleaseth and nourishes you for Repose is the greatest enemy of your life He made many other Replies very lively and full of spirit but above all that was observable which he made to the Duke of Nevers of the house of Gonzague who accompanied the Queen-mother This Duke advancing once to tell him that he might live much more honourably near the King then among those people who had no authority and that if he should have occasion for money at Rochel he would scarce have the credit to raise one impost he fiercely replyed Sir I do at Rochel all that I please because I shall please to do nothing but what I ought This Conference of St. Brix having produced nothing but new Exasperations and the Queen-mother being returned the Guises who endeavoured by all means possible to revenge themselves of the Favourites made offer of their service to our Henry and the Duke of Mayenne sent to tell him that there might means be found for an accommodation if he would understand them that he would come to finde him with four horse at whatever place he pleased and that he would give him his Wife and Children for Hostage This Negotiation had no success nor can I finde the cause why it was interrupted The rest of the Winter passed in the two Courts in Feasts and Dances for though among the miseries and troubles of the Kingdome Queen Katherine had introduced that custome of Dancing in all places and in all seasons which she did as it was said to amuse the great ones of the Court in those vain Divertisements there being nothing which more dissipates the powers of the spirit nor which is more capable if we may speak so to dissolve the forces of the soul then the ravishing sound of Violins the continual agitation of the body and Charms of Ladies After the Examples of the Court Dances and Maskes reigned in all the Realm Nor could the Remonstrances of the Ministers hinder these Dances among the greatest part of the Hugonot Lords though there were still some who could not suffer it In the Spring some Enterprises began both on one part and the other but they were nothing in comparison of what was done towards the end of the Summer The Protestant Princes of Germany sent an Army to the assistance of the Hugonots consisting of Five thousand Lansquenets or German Foot Sixteen thousand Switzers and Six thousand Reistres or German Horse They traversed Lorrain and Champagne afterwards passed the Seine and marched towards the Loire as if they would have passed it or coast along it in their re-advancing At the same time the King of Navarre had gathered his forces towards Rochel and endeavoured to come to meet them unto the Bankes of the Loire but he was hindred by an Army of the Kings commanded by the Duke of Joyeuse who had order diligently to pursue him The Duke of Guise having likewise gathered the forces of his party and though they were very small followed sometimes the German horse sometimes coasted them and oftentimes mixed himself amongst them without any great danger so much the rather because this too weighty body of strangers could not easily move being troubled with a great baggage not having a Chief either of any great Credit or sufficiently intelligent to Conduct and all its Captains being in discord and bad intelligence one with the other By reason of all these defaults this Army could never take any good Resolution The Loire was fordable in many places for it was about the end of September but nevertheless they would not pass it but came to spread themselves in the Champaines of Beaustre expecting News from the King of Navarre in stead of advancing amongst the Nivernois and gaining Burgongne The intention of the King of Navarre was to advance along Dordogna and from thence enter into Guyenne and after having gathered together all his Forces to meet the Protestant Army in Burgongne by the favour of those Provinces were his friends But the Duke of Joyeuse obstinately pursued him imagining he fled because in effect he avoided fighting having no other end then a Conjunction with the Germans This new Duke was much declined in his favour with the King who had received advice that he inclined much to the League not that he loved the Guises but because he had permitted it to be put into his head by his flatterers that he deserved to be Chief of that great party and he held the destruction of the Hugonots so certain that he had obtained from the Pope the Confiscation of all the Soveraign Territories of our Henry Desiring therefore to sustain his Reputation and Favour which were then tottering he pursued him so closely that he overtook him near to Coutras The Army of Joyeuse was as one may say all of Gold shining with Silver and Gold Laces with Damasked Arms with Feathers in great Plumes with Embroydered Scarfs with Velvet Coats with which every Lord according to the mode of the times had furnished his Companies but the Army of the King of Navarre was all of Iron having no other then Grizled Arms without any Ornament with great Belts of Buff and labouring Habits The first had the advantage in number having six hundred Horse and a thousand Foot more then the other the half of its Infantry Dragoons its Cavalry almost all Lances and most mounted on managed Horses it had besides for it the Name and
utmost parts of the Kingdom where he was like a banished man and led him by the hand to the fairest Theatre in France but only to make known his goodness and virtue and put him in an Estate to gain that Succession to which had he been absent he had never been called But on the other side when the multitude of his Puissant enemies which armed themselves against him are considered the small Treasure and few Forces he had the Obstacle of his Religion and a thousand other difficulties it could not be certainly judged whether the Crown was ordained for him to enjoy or fallen upon his head to crush him in Pieces and there might be reason to say that if this Conjuncture Elevated him it was upon a Throne trembling and erected on the brink of Precipices Whilst Henry the third was in his Agony our Henry held many Tumultuary Councels in the same lodgings with those whom he Esteemed his most faithful Servants So soon as he understood he was expired he retired to his quarter at Meudon and attired himself in the mourning Purple he was presently followed by a great quantity of Noblemen who accompanied him as well for Curiosity as affection The Hugonots with those Troops which he had led presently swore Allegiance to him but this number was very small Some of the Catholicks as the Marshal d' Aumâ—nt Givry and Humieres swore Service to him until death and that willingly without desiring any Condition of him but the greatest part of the others being either estranged by inclination or exasperated by some discontent or else believing now to have found the time to make their Services be bought kept at a greater distance and held several little Assemblies in divers places where they formed a number of Fantastick designs Each of these proposed to make themselves Sovereigns of some City or some Province as the Governours had done in the decadence of the house of Charlemagne The Marshal of Byron among others would have had the County of Perigord and Sancy not to reject him spoke to the King This Proposition was very dangerous for if he denied it he incensed him and if he accorded to his demand he opened the way to all others to make the like and so the Kingdome would be rent in Peices It was only his great spirit and understanding which could walk safely in so dangerous a path he therefore charged Sancy to assure him on his part of his affection of which he would willingly in time and place give him all the markes a good Subject could expect from his Sovereign but at the same time he furnished him with so many puissant reasons wherefore he could not accord to what he desired that Sancy being himself first perswaded found it not difficult to work the same effect on the spirit of Byron whom he obliged not only to renounce that pretence but likewise to protest that he would never suffer any peice of the Estate to be dismembred in favour of whomsoever We may without doubt conclude that the great Henry did reason puissantly and that he explained his reasons in the best manner since he could in occasions so important perswade such able Spirits against their proper interests Byron being thus gained went with Sancy to assure themselves of those Suisses which Sancy had brought to the deceased King but who being of the Catholick Cantons made some difficulty to bear Arms for a Hugonot Prince and that without new order from their Superiour As for the French Troops of the Defunct King it was not so easie to gain them The Lords who Commanded them or who had their Chiefs under their dependance had every one divers designs one would have one thing and the other another according to their several interests or Caprichio's There were six Princes of the house of Bourbon to wit the old Cardinal of Vendosme the Count of Soissons the Prince of Gonti the Duke of Montpensier and the Prince of Dombes his Son which in stead of being his firmest Prop gave him no little inquietude because there was none of them which had not his particular pretence which proved to him a continual Obstacle Many of the Lords which were in the Army were not very well intentionated particularly Henry Grand Prior of France Natural Son to Charles the ninth after Count of Auvergne and Duke of Angoulesme the Duke of Espernon and Termes Belle-garde who out of the fear they had formerly had lest he should deprive them of the favour of their Master had opposed him in divers Rencounters For the Courtiers as Francis d' O and Manou his brother Old-Castle and many others they knowing that our Henry detested their Villanous Debaucheries and that he would not prove a person of so ill management as to lavish out his Revenues to supply their Luxury had no great inclination for him Nevertheless hoping to find things better they resolved to declare in his favour but with such Conditions as should restrain and bridle him and in some manner oblige him to depend on them For this purpose there met an Assembly of some Noblemen at d' O's Palace a man Voluptuous Prodigal and by consequence not very scrupulous but who at present made Conscience a Cloak to render himself necessary who there resolved not to acknowledge him till he were a Catholick Francis d' O accompanied with some Noblemen had the confidence to carry to the King the Resolutions of this Assembly and added a studied discourse to perswade him to return to the Catholick Religion but the King who had already past over his greatest fears made them an answer so mixt with sweetness and gravity with spirit and reservedness that Couragiously repulsing them without too severely taunting them he testified to them that he desired to conserve them his but that after all he feared not much the loss of them Some time after the Nobility after divers little Assemblies held a great one with Francis de Luxembourg Duke of Piney There many Propositions being made at last the Dukes of Montpensier and Piney subtilly Matraged the Spirits and Steered the Opinions of the most importunate to this Resolution That they would acknowledge Henry for King upon these Conditions 1. Provided that he would cause himself to be instructed for they presupposed conversion must necessarily follow instruction 2. That he should not permit the exercise of any but the Catholick Religion 3. That he should neither give charge nor employment to the Hugonots 4. That he should permit the Assembly to depute Agents to the Pope to let him understand and agree to the Causes which Obliged the Nobility to remain in the Service of a Prince separated from the Romane Church The King had the knowledge of this Resolution from the Duke of Piney he thanked them for their zeal for the Conservation of the Estate and the affection they had for his person promising them that he would sooner
lose his life then the remembrance of those good services they had rendred him and granting them easily all the points they demanded only the second In stead of which he promised them to re-establish the exercise of the Catholick Religion through all his Territories and to remit the Ecclesiasticks into the possession of their Estates and of this he caused a Declaration to be ingrossed which after all the Lords and Gentlemen of Note had signed he sent to be confirmed by that part of the Parliament which was at Tours There were many who signed it with some regret and others who absolutely refused it among whom were the Duke of Espernon and Lewis d' Hospital Vitry This last disturbed as it was said by a scruple of Conscience cast himself into Paris and gave himself for some time to the League but first of all he abandoned the Government of Dourdan which the Defunct King had given him Such were then the Maxims of persons of true honour in the Civil Wars that in quitting one party which ever it was they quitted likewise those places they held and returned them to those had conferred them The Duke d' Espernon protesting that he would never be either Spaniard or Leaguer but that his Conscience would not permit him to stay with the King demanded leave of him to retire to his Government The King after having in vain endeavoured to retain him gave him leave with many Carresses and prayses but so much was he in his heart troubled at his abandoning him that it hath been believed he conserved against him a secret resentment so long as he lived The Duke of Mayenne was not a little troubled in Paris what resolution he should take he saw that all the Parisians even those who had held of the party of the Defunct King had fully resolved to provide for the security of Religion But that however they would all have a King contrary to some of the Sixteen who imagined they might form a Republick and turn France into Cantons like to the Suisses but those were neither sufficiently powerful in Number Riches or Capacity to Conduct such a design So that the most part of his friends counselled him to take the title of King but when he went about to sound this Gulfe he found that this proposition was neither agreeable to the people nor yet to the King of Spain from whom he received and was to receive his Principal stay and means of Subsistence Hereupon two other Counsels were given him the one to accord willingly with the new King who without doubt in the conjuncture wherein things were would grant him most advantagious conditions The other that he should by Declaration publish to the Catholicks of the Royal Army that all resentments remaining Extinct by the Death of Henry the third he had no other interest then that of Religion That that point being of Divine obligation and regarding all good Christians he summoned and conjured them to joyn with him to exhort the King of Navarre to return to the Church upon which they promised to acknowledge him immediately for King but if that he refused to do it they protested to Substitute in his place another Prince of the blood This advice was the best And indeed it was proposed by Jeannin President of the Parliament of Burgongne one of the wisest and most Politick heads of his Councel and who acted in his affairs without Sleights or Stratagems but with great judgement and singular Honesty The Duke of Mayenne equally rejected both these advices and took a third to wit the causing the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was at present detained prisoner by order of our Henry to be proclaimed King still reserving to himself the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Crown He published after several Declarations one of which he sent to the Parliament the other to the Provinces and the Nobility inviting them to endeavour to deliver their King and defend their Religion At the same time the King tried by divers Negotiations and caused him to be exhorted rather to seek his advancement by his friendship then by the troubles and miseries of France But to this the Duke answered that he had engaged his Father in the Publick cause and given Oath to King Charles the tenth for so they called the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was named Charles to whom according to the sentiment of the League the Crown appertained as to the nearest Kinsman of the Defunct And in the mean time he entertained Plots and Conspiracies in the Royal Army where his emissaries from day to day debauched many persons even of those whom the King believed most assured There were many Generous enough to resist the temptations of Silver but nothing was proof against the intrigues of the Ladies of Paris who cunningly attracted the Gentlemen and the Officers in the City sparing nothing to engage them The King knowing that there daily remained some catch'd in these snares and having just reason to fear that those which returned tempted by their Mistresses might bring back some perâ—itious designs and the Duke of Nemours being upon the advance with his Troops to joyne with the Duke of Mayenne the Duke of Lorrain being likewise to send his having cause to doubt his retreat might be cut off on all sides found it convenient to discamp from before Paris But before he dislodged he writ to the Protestant Princes to give them an account of what he did and to assure them that nothing should be capable to shake his Constancy or separate him from Christ and he spoke at present according to his thoughts and Conscience not having any desire to change which yet the Ministers of his Religion would not believe but watched him so close on this Subject that they became importunate It was oertainly an unspeakable trouble which continually for three or four years he was forced to undergo to hear on one side the exhortatious of those people and on the other the most instant Remonstrances of the Catholicks for it was necessary he should allay the distrust of the first and entertain the second with continual hopes of making himself be instructed How much prudence had he need of how much patience with how much jugdement and policy must he manage such great differences Certainly he could not do it without imploying all the powers of his Spirit and experience And he well knew how far it was necessary for a Prince to have his Spirit happily exercised and to be well instructed how to Negotiate and Speak well to be able at his necessity to serve himself of his talent Without falsity he might well at present praise those who having had the care of bringing him up had formed him in his youth to the Management of affairs to Treating with men and to the gaining the affections of all the world Those last devoirs he desired to render his Predecessor served as a fair
himself easily to yeild to grant them his Favour but those of his Council opposed it so strongly that for fear to disgust them he was at first constrained to send back those miserable People His Clemency nevertheless could not for any long time suffer their violence for having understood by many who fearing death less then Famine had leapt from the Walls the pitiful estate of the City and they having truely represented unto him what they had beheld of their horrible necessities with the incredible obstinacy of the Leaguers his heart was in such manner overburthened with grief that the tears start out of his eyes and having a little turned himself away to conceal that emotion he cast forth a great sigh with these words O Lord thou knowest who are the causes of this but give me the means to save those whom the obstinate malice of my enemies would make perish In vain did the most averse of his Councel and especially the Hugonots represent to him that these Rebels merited no favour he resolved to open a passage to the innocent I wonder not at all said he if the Chiefs of the League or if the Spaniard have so little compassion on those poor people they are only Tyrants but for my self who am their Father and their King I cannot bear the recital of these calamities without being touched to the bottome of my soul or without ardently desiring to remedy them I cannot hinder those whom the fury of the League possesses from perishing with it but for those who implore my clemeney and who are only guilty of the Crimes of others I will stretch forth my armes to them This said he commanded that they should permit those miserable people to depart There were some who crawled and others were fain to be carried There came out at this time more then four thousand who all with great and unanimous shouts cryed out Long live the King After that day since they knew it offended him not the Captains that kept the Guards let daily great bands escape and likewise took the boldness to send victuals and refreshments to their friends and to their ancient hosts and particularly to the Ladies For Paris being the common Country of the French there are few people who love it not and who have not there some gage of friendship which forbids them from procuring its loss and utter ruine After the example of the Captains the Souldiers licensed themselves to convey to them meat bread and barrels of wine over the walls receiving in Exchange some rich goods at a vile price and making themselves brave at the expences of the Merchants that which these were in some manner constrained to tolerate because the others had no money wherewith to pay them This made Paris subsist near a month longer then it would have done but it is almost impossible but this should always happen in like occasions as hath been seen not long time since God be pleased for ever hereafter to preserve France from so great ills After all the King knew certainly that that great City could not long subsist and he desired to gain absolutely their hearts to the end he might undermine the very foundations of the League For this reason he combated their Obstinacy with an excess of Indulgence He gave Passe-ports to the Scholars not able to refuse them to their Parents who were with him after to the Ladies and to the Ecclesiasticks and in the end to those who had shewed themselves his most cruel enemies In the mean time to hasten a little the Chiefs of the League to come to a Capitulation it was agreed in his Councel that he should render himself master of the Suburbs The evening of the 27. of July he caused them all to be assaulted at once They were forced in less then an hour and all the gates blocked up his Souldiers having first fortified their quarters and thrown down the houses nearest the ditch By this last action he took the Parisians by the throats and pressed them in such sort that they could scarce breath for which cause their Chiefs apprehending that neither their defences exhortations or fear of punishments would be longer capable to retain them concluded after ten or twelve deliberations to enter into conference with the King not out of a cordial intention to treat with him but only to spin out things to a length that they might give time to the Duke of Mayenne to make an attempt to succour them They received intelligence from that Duke twice every week and each time he promised them that he would be with them with a puissant Army in five or six days Having fed them with these hopes for five or six weeks he advanced in the end to Meaux where Vitry was Governour and from thence gave them some greater hopes of relief however he was too weak to hazard it The Duke of Parma who had order from Spain to go joyn with him and not to spare any thing for the relief of Paris came with great unwillingness He feared lest during his absence the Council or Cabinet should appoint a Successour in his Government and that he should loose more in the Low-Countries then he should gain in France Notwithstanding he received Commands so express that he was constrained to obey He parted therefore from Valencienne on the sixth of August and arrived at Meaux on the two and twentieth He brought along with him onely twelve thousand Foot and three thousand Horse but Artillery and Ammunition for an Army thrice as great and fifteen hundred Waggons of Provisions to refresh Paris He was without doubt the greatest Captain amongst strangers of the Age he lived for all Exploits which depend on profound Reason and judicious Conduct he had so well laid the Model of his Designe in his Head so well taken his Measures by the exactest Mapps of the Country and so well meditated on all that could arrive him and all that he could do that he held himself assured of success Those who were about the King had always made him believe that this Duke would not leave the Low-Countries and said That if he did either that he could not raise so great a power as to dare engage in the heart of France or that if he raised any great Army he would not arrive time enough to deliver Paris The King suffered himself to be a little carried away with these false Reasons but when he understood he marched in this manner he began already to fear that which arrived and the danger appeared so much more because he had less foreseen it In these Apprehensions he was well content to renew the Negotiation with the Duke of Mayenne who on his side feigned to desire an Accommodation more then ever to the end he might amuse him for fear he should assault Paris by plain force and to entertain the Parisians with the pregnant hopes of their Delivery for the
of his Conversion and in the mean time they would continually keep him as it were besieged by those strangers forces In effect Elizabeth who had zeal for the Protestant religion interested her self very strongly in the cause of this King daily generously assisted him and strenuously sollicited the German Princes to coâ—cur with her At the same time the Hugonots pressed with all their force that he would grant them an Edict for the Free exercise of their Religion they pursued it so strongly that he was forced to accord it them and they sent it to the Parliament sitting at Tours but they could never obtain it to be confirmed by them but with these words by proviso only shewing themselves as much enemies to this false Religion as they were to the factions of the League During this time Pope Sixtus 5. died leaving in the Treasury of the Church Five Millions of gold which he had heaped up He was much disgusted at the League and stretched forth his armes as much as he could to our Henry to recal him into the Church whilst the League endeavoured to shut the gates against him that they might exclude him from his Royalty To Sixtus succeeded Urban 7. who held the Seat only thirteen daies and to that Urban Gregory the 14. who being of a violent spirit and a Spaniard by inclination zealously embraced the party of the League as we shall see hereafter I silently pass over divers enterprizes made both by one party and the other The Parisians made one upon St. Denis The Cavalier d' Aumale one of their Chiefs whom they called the Lion Rampant of the League was killed in the midst of the City when he had made himself almost master of it The King on his side made an other attempt upon Paris It was called the battail of the Flour because he was to surprize the City under pretext of a Convoy of Flour or Meal carried thither but it was discovered and obliged the Duke of Mayenne upon the vehement cries of the Sixteen to receive four thousand Spaniards into the Garrison which retarded for more then a year the reduction of Paris It is convenient to understand that neither the one nor the other party having any foundation to keep continually their Armies on foot they only as we may say made War by intervals When they had been three months together they retired and then re-assembled again and according as they were stronger or weaker made their enterprises The King having Rendezvouzed his besieged the City of Chartres where la Bourdaisiere commanded There was but a small Garrison within yet however the siege was long difficult and bloody It s length gave subject to the third party to continue many dangerous intrigues but the taking of that place repressed them for some time He restored the Government to Chiverni Chancellour of France who had had it before the League seized it After this the Duke of Mayenne who beheld himself in no very good Estate following the Counsel of the Duke of Parma renewed a Conference for peace which ending without doing any thing the Princes Lorrains and the Principal Chiefs of the League held a general Assembly at Reims It was resolved that they being altogether too weak to resist the King and wanting money it was absolutely necessary to unite themselves more firmely with Spain then they had formerly done and to this Effect they dispatched the President Janin to Philip the second This President was a man of a strong brain and a good French-man who laboured for the League and for the Duke of Mayenne but who would save the Estate by saving the Religion so that he well endeavoured to serve himself of the Spaniard but he would not serve them or procure their advancement Yet we cannot doubt but as he had his ends they had likewise theirs and that they designed to make good their expences laid out for the League on the Kingdom of France The Spaniard had for Aid and Second in his design the new Pope Gregory the 14. who yet went on more swiftly and with more heat then he for without having regard either to the Letters which Monsieur de Luxembourg after Duke of Piney writ to him on the part of the Princes and Catholick Lords which were in the Kings party or to the submissions and three humble Remonstrances made him by the Marquis of Pisany who was there at Rome deputed from them he strenuously embraced the party of the League entertained correspondence with the Sixteen receiving Letters from them and writing to them and which is more he prodigally wasted that treasure which Sixtus 5. had heaped up to raise an Army of twelve thousand men giving the Command to Count Hercules Sfondrato his Nephew whom he made expresly Duke of Montmarcian to authorize him the more by this new title He accompanied this Army with a Monitory or Bull of Excommunication against the Prelates which followed the King and sent it by Marcelin Landriano his Nuntio with great quantity of Silver to the Sixteen of Paris to be distributed among them and the Chiefs of the Cabals in the great Cities The Parliament at Tours having had advice of this Monitory caused it to be torn by the hand of the Common Scavenger and decreed an Arrest against the Nuntio That at Paris on the contrary annulled that Arrest as being said they by persons without power and commanded that the holy Father and his Nuntio should be obeyed After all these Bulls produced no great effect at present and the Cardinal of Bourbon tormented himself in vain to make the assembly of the Clergy which was held at Chartres declare against the Arrest at Tours Nor did the Army of the Pope do any great exploits but was almost quite dispersed ere it came to render any Service The same arrived not to those Troops the King had caused to be raised in Germany by the Viscount of Turenne They served the King well in his affairs and gained him notable advantages In recompence he honoured this Lord with the Staff of Marshal of France to render him the more capable to Espouse Charlotta de la Mark Dutchess of Bouillon and Sovereign Lady of Sedan who though a Hugonot had been puissantly sought to both by friendship and force by the Duke of Lorrain who desired to marry her to his Eldest Son the Marquis du Pont. The King made this Match to oppose a man to the Duke of Lorrain who helped to sustain the League Of which the new Marshal acquitted himself having among other fair exploits surprized Stenay the night preceding his Nuptials The King had another great Captain in the Daulphinate which was Lesdiguieres who held that Country having reduced the City of Grenoble and who saved Provence for him of which the Duke of Savoy thought to seize himself and dismember that piece from the Crown This Duke being Son-in-law to Philip the second King of
of Mayenne dismissed the Deputies who the most part returned ill satisfied into their Provinces where they served not a little to dispose them to reduce themselves under the Obedience of their Legitimate Soveraign There rested now no other pretext to the League except that the King had not received Absolution from St. Peter's Chair that therefore he was not yet in the bounds of the Church and that they could not acknowledge him until he was entred at the great Gate He had sent the Duke of Nevers to Rome to Negotiate this affair with the Pope who was very much incensed that the Prelates of France had enterprized to absolve him though they had not absolved him but by provision ad Cautelam only for he said that he alone had authority to restore a relapsed person as having the only Sovereign power to bind and to loose and for this cause he appeared so difficult nor could ever be bended till he saw the party of the League quite overthrown Now since the life and actions of the King made it appear that his conversion was not feigned the League having no other valuable pretext was dug up as we may so say by the very foundation so that before the end of the year it fell to the ground and there remained to it only a very small number of places in the utmost parts of the Realm the other Chiefs not being willing to run to the end the fortune of the Duke of Mayenne This Prince was very irresolute and knew not what he ought to do as well because of his natural slowness as out of the regret he had to quit the Sovereign authority which he had in his hands and out of fear likewise not to find safety with the King In the mean time Vitry desiring to be the first should re-enter under his obedience as he had been the first had separated from it brought back the City of Meaux The Count of Carces delivered that of Aix in Provence Lyons surrendred of it self of which the Duke of Mayenne was in part cause by having endeavoured to make himself master of that City and snatch it from the Duke of Nemours his brother by the mothers side who intended to establish a small Sovereignty in that Country That he might compass his design he had by secret contrivances made the Burgesses rise against that young Prince so that they having seized of his person had made him a prisoner in the Castle of Pierre-Encise But he found that in this he more laboured for the King then for himself for the Burgesses who had made prisoners the Duke of Nemours fearing lest the brothers should agree among themselves to their prejudice treated secretly with Colonel Alfonso d' Ornano Lieutenant-General for the King in the Daulphinate and being well fortified took the White-scarfe and cried Vive le Roy. The Castle likewise returned to its duty with the Cities of Orleans and Bourges The reduction of Paris happened on the two and twentieth day of March The Parliament the Provost of the Merchants and the Sheriffs having disposed this great City received the King maugre the vain endeavours of some remnant of the faction of the Sixteen The Duke of Mayenne was gone into Picardy and Brissac to whom he had confided the Government of Paris for some months past having taken it from the Count of Belin broke his faith with him believing he ought it rather to the King then him The King had a little before caused himself to be anointed at Chartres with the Cruse of St. Martin of Tours The City of Reims was yet in the hands of the League but he would not longer defer his Coronation because he knew that that Ceremony was absolutely necessary to confirm to him the affection and respect of his people It was almost a miracle how that there being four or five thousand Spaniards Engarisoned in Paris and ten or twelve thousand factious persons remaining of the Cabal of the Sixteen who all cruelly hated the King he could nevertheless render himself master of it without striking stroak or without shedding blood except that of five or six Mutineers who came into the streets to cry to Arms. His Troops having by intelligence seized on the gates ramparts and publick places he entred triumphantly into the City by the new gate by which Henry the third had unhappily fled six years before and went directly to Nostredame to hear Mass and cause Te Deum to be sung afterward he returned to the Loâ—vre where he found his Officers and his Dinner ready as if he had always remained there After Dinner he gave the Spanish Garison a saâ—e-Conduct and a good Convoy to conduct them as far as the tree of Guise in all security for so those had desired who brought them into the City The Garison departed about three a Clock the same day of his entrance with twenty or thirty of the most obstinate Leaguers who chose rather to follow strangers then obey their Natural Prince He would needs see them depart and regarded them passing from a window by St. Denis gate they all saluted him with their hats very low and with a profound inclination he returned the salutes to their Chiefs with great courtesie adding these words Recommend me to your Master go in a good hour but return no more The same day that he entred into Paris the Cardinal de Pelleve Archbishop of Sens a passionate Leaguer expired in his Palace of Sens. The Cardinal of Placentia Legat from the Pope had safe-Conduct to retire home but he died by the way Brissac for recompence had the Staff of Marshal and a place of Honourable Counsellor to the Parliament a favour very rare in that time D' O was re-placed in his government of Paris which he had had under Henry the third but he enjoyed it not long dying soon after That part of the Parliament which was at Tours was recalled and that which was at Paris re-enabled for it had been interdicted and both re-united to serve conjoyntly the King By noon of that day on which our Henry entred Paris the City was every where peaceable the Burgesses in a moment grew familiar with the Souldiers the Artificers worked in their shops In a word the Calme was so profound that nothing interrupted it but the Ringing of the bells the Bonfires and the Dances which were made through all the streets even till midnight It is certain that that which caused this joy and wonderful tranquillity was the great opinion which the people had conceived of the generous goodness of this Prince and the Commands he gave for the orderly government of his Souldiers There were two actions which he did the same day he entred Paris worthy observation proceeding from an admirable Justice Goodness and Policy The first was that he suffered the Baggage of la Noue one of his principal Chiefs to be Arrested at his entring
Satan and of the Tempter It is impossible to purge Courts from these plagues they insinuate maugre the utmost endeavours into the Palaces of great ones they render themselves agreeable by new divertisements gain the ear by flattering prayses by pleasant and well-devised Fables and Stories and when they have gained their entrance they make their venome slide into the heart and impoison the souls of the most innocent Our Henry though so great a Prince as he was had these people near him who knowing his weakness as to women in stead of fortifying him against it and restraining him like true friends they spurred him as it were forward in his wickedness and made their fortunes from his faults It was these who by commending the Beauties the Carriage the Spirit and the divertizing and pleasant discourse of Madamoiselle d' Entragues made him first have a desire to see and to love her They could never have done a worse Service for their Master then this She had certainly many Charms nor had she less spirit and cunning Her refusals and modesty did more and more provoke the Kings Passion Though he was not prodigal he caused an hundred thousand crowns to be carried her at once She refused them not and reciprocally testified much love and impatience for so great a King but she cunningly caused her Father and Mother to observe her so near that she could not give him a full conveniency to speak to her Hereupon she let him understand that she even dispaired that she could not keep her word with him that it was necessary to have the consent of her Father and Mother for which on her part she would labour Afterwards after many delays and put offs she told him that they could not be brought to so delicate a point except were it onely to secure their consciences towards God and their honour towards the world his Majesty would make her a promise of Marriage That she had no desire to serve her self of such a writing and that if she would do it she knew well there was no Officer who durst cite a Man who had fifty thousand men of war at his command but that these good people desired it should be so and that he need make no difficulty to please their fancy since he did but give her a little bit of paper in Exchange of the most precious thing she had in the world In fine she knew so well how to work his spirit that he gave her a promise under his hand by which he obliged himself to espouse her in a year so that in that time she brought forth a Male-child All this intrigue may be seen in the Memoires of Sully where he says that the King having led him alone into the first Gallery of Fountain-bleau shewed him this promise written under his hand and demanded his advice That in stead of formally answering him concerning it he tore it in two pieces That the King remained quite astonished and speaking angerly How now I believe that you are a fool and that he answered It is true Sir that I am a fool and could wish I were more so so that I alone in France were one That at his departing from the Gallery the King entred into his Closet and demanded a pen and inke and that he believed it was to write another However it were this promise caused much trouble afterward for the Lady would have made it valid as we shall speak At the same time that the King pusued the dissolution of his first marriage at Rome he made likewise instance to the holy Father that he would decide the difference concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces the Decision of which had been referred to him by the Treaty of Vervin To understand this well it must be known that this Marquisate was a Fief dependant of the Daulphinate of which King Francis the first had seized himself by right of reversion for default of heirs Males in the Succession of the Lords that held it Now in 1588. during the Estates of Blois the Duke of Savoy having advice that the League became very strong in France and that apparently that Monarchy would dismember snatched this Marquisate without having any subject of quarrel he cloaked only this unjust usurpation with this fair pretext that he seized it out of fear lest Lesdiguieres should possess himself of it and by this means establish Hugonotism in the midst of his Territories Seven years after to wit in the year 1595. the King being gone to Lyons after the battail of Fountain-franzoise the Duke who foresaw well he would again have this Marquisate proposed to him some accommodation for it The King offered to give it to one of his Sons to hold it at faith and homage with some other conditions but the Duke demanded it without any dependance and so this Negotiation was broken Our Ambassadors treating the general peace at Vervin were not wanting instantly to demand the restitution of that Fief Those of the Duke who assisted alledged in favour of their Master that piece appertained to him as being a Fief dependant of Savoy and that he had more essential titles to prove that dependancy which it was necessary to see to decide the difference with knowledge of the cause Now it would have taken up too much time to cause them to come from Savoy And the Popes Nuntio pressed the peace for fear lest during these delays some accident might happen to break it quite so that not to retard it it was judged convenient to refer to the Pope the decision of this affair on condition that he should terminate it in a year The French during that time sollicited strongly at Rome to have it decided The Savoyards defended it onely at extremity and that for fear to lose their cause by default Both the one and the other produced their Titles Those of the French were the best and moreover they had had a peaceable possession of more then sixty years which was more then sufficient to gain prescription The year being expired the Pope demands of the King the prolongation of two months to give in his sentence of Arbitration and that in the mean time the Marquisate should be sequestred in his hands The King willingly consents but the Duke enters into a mistrust that the Pope would have it for one of his Nephews so that his Ambassador having testified this mistrust the Pope refuses to meddle any farther either with the Gage or with the Arbitration The Duke imagined that his best way was to use delays since it might happen that either the French King would grow weary of following of this business or that some other more important affair might divert his thoughts otherwhere Moreover knowing that there were many melancholy spirits who could not be recovered out of that opinion that the King was still in his heart a Hugonot and with them many concealed and
dangerous enemies so that no year passed but with many conspiracies against his person he hoped that in the end some of them might succeed In effect that year there had been three discovered of which that which made most noise was of a woman who offered to the Count of Soissons to poison him but the Count discovered it and she was buried alive in the Greve To the end therefore to gain time he desired to come himself into France having so good an opinion of his own cunning and slights that he assured himself he should obtain of the King the gift of this Marquisate or at least he pretended to make such propositions and to employ so many artifices that there should pass more then a year before he should untangle them He said that his Ambassador had sent him word that he had heard the King say that if they were together they would decide this difference like friends and that it was this good word had set him on his voyage But many suspected and that with some appearance that he had a design to gain some people in the Kings Council to sound the affections and observe and watch the discontented to cast abroad seeds of corruption and division and renew that intelligence might be useful to him at Court Others imagined that he was discontented with Spain because Philip the second having given the Low-Countries in Dower to his youngest Daughter he had left to the eldest wife of this Duke only a Crucifix and an Image of our Lady Moreover he had indeed received some displeasures from the Ministers of Spain and he spread a report abroad were it true or not that he had undertaken this voyage without communicating any thing to Philip the third his Brother-in-law In fine every one judged according to his fancy and possibly none divined the secrets of his thoughts there being never any Prince more close or less penetrable then he And some said his Heart was covered with mountains as well as his Country that is because that he was Hulch-back't as Savoy was mountainous He brought with him a Train which well set forth his degree for he had with him twelve hundred horse but all his Officers were clad in mourning by reason of the death of his Wife which many took as an ill presage The King desiring to receive him according to his dignity commanded all the Cities and the Governours to render him the same honour as if he were there in person He came to Lyons by the River of Roan and was received by la Guiche Governour of that City But the Chapiter of St. John would not give him the place of Canon and Count of that Church because he no longer possessed the County of Villars by virtue of which the Counts of Savoy had been at other times received Adding to this that he had not his Titles nor would give time to make proof of his Nobility of which the Chapiter dispences not with any whatsoever beside our Kings From Lyons he came to Roanna descended by water to Orleans and after came post to Fontain-bleau where the King was He arrived the twentieth of December accompanied with seventy horse and presently to acquist confidence with him he lamented highly against the Spaniards discovered or feigned to discover to him his most secret thoughts and a designe he had to drive them out of Italy He told him his friends his ways and his intelligences for that he would make him believe that he would open his heart to him that he was an absolute French-man and desired to fix himself to the interests of France without reserve The King hearkned to him with attention and thanked him for his good thoughts but after all he finished with this I am of opinion that we should decide first those affairs between us and then talk of others Three days after the King went to Paris where they were to discourse more amply on the subject had brought him into France Now was the beginning of the last year of the fifteenth Age which is counted the One thousand six hundredth celebrated for the Centenary Jubilee which was opened at Rome There were found there four and twenty thousand French some moved by devotion others by curiosity among which there was a good number of Hugonots who went to see the great Ceremony They might do it with all security for during the great Jubilee the Inquisition ceases at Rome where at other times it is much less rigoâ—ous then in Spain The Duke of Bar was in a concealed habit at this Jubilee he went to demand absolution of the holy Father but his submission how great soever could not obtain it nor had he it till the death of Madam Katherine his Wife The beginning of this year beheld the King and the Duke of Savoy live with so much familiarity and so many proofs of friendship that it was believed that they had both but the same heart The French Courtesie and Civility obliged the King to give the Duke all sorts of good Treatments and the desire which the Duke had to obtain from him the Marquisate moved him to a great Complacency and to seek all means to render himself agreeable to so great a King The Court of France avowed it had never seen a more perfect Courtier the Ladies a more pleasing Gallant and the Officers of the King and the great ones a Prince more liberal He knew how to govern himself in such manner with the King that he neither acted his Companion nor his Servant and if he would appear inferiour to him in Grandeur he endeavoured to be superiour to him in Generosity and Liberality he gave with full hands especially to the principal men of the Court The King permitted them to accept his presents and on his side gave very great ones to the Duke he treated him and made the Chiefs of the Court treat him every day shewing him some new subject of divertisement Among other things he desired that he should see his Parliament which our Kings have usually shewn to strange Princes as a Compendium of their greatness and the place where their Majesty sits with the greatest splendour They went together into the Lantern of the great Chamber where they with great delight heard pleaded a very singular Cause chosen of purpose and the sentence or agreement pronounced by Harlay first President a Personage so grave and so eloquent that all which came from his mouth seemed to come from that of Justice her self There was no Civility or Courtesie which the King shewed not to the Duke but after all he released not to him the Marquisate The Duke tryed the business all ways possible sometimes he offered to hold it in homage from the Crown sometimes he proposed to the King his great Designes on the Milanois and on the Empire sometimes he laid before him the platform of a puissant League to destroy
thrown down forty years before and gave a considerable sum of money to rebuild it All France during this holy Jubilee had instantly demanded of Heaven that it would be pleased to give them a Daulphine to deliver them from those misfortunes wherein they should be plunged if the King should die without Male-children Their vows were heard and the Queen happily brought to bed of a Son at Fontainbleau on the day of St. Cosmo being the twenty seventh of September They gave him at his Baptism the Name of Lewis so sweet and dear to France for the memory of the great St. Lewis and of the good King Lewis xii Father of the people Afterwards was appropriated to him the surname of Just and we at present believe his having been the Father of Lewis the wise and victorious none of the least worthy of his Titles His Birth was preceded by a great Earthquake which happened some days before The Birth was very hard and the infant laboured till he was all of a purple-colour which possibly ruined within the principal Organs of Health and good Constitution The King invoking on him the Benediction of Heaven gave him likewise his and put his Sword in his hand praying to God That he would give him the grace to use it onely for his glory and for the defence of the people The Princes of the Blood which were with him in the Chamber of the Queen all of them saluted the Daulphine one after another I omit how express Curriers carried this News into all the Provinces the publick rejoycings throughout the whole Kingdome particularly in the great City of Paris who as much loved Henry the great as they had hated his Predecessor the Complements the King received on his part from all the Potentates of Europe and the accustomed Present of the holy Father in like occasions to wit the blessed swathling bands which he sent by Seigneur Barbarino who was afterwards Cardinal and Pope named Urban the viii Five days before the Queen of Spain was brought to bed of her first Childe which was a Daughter whom at the Font of Baptism they named Anne The Spaniards rejoyced no less then if it had been a Son for in that Country the Females succeed to the Crown Those amongst the French who penetrated farthest into things to come took likewise part in this joy but for another reason which was that this Princess being of the same age with the Daulphine it seemed that Heaven had made the one be born for the other and that she ought one day be his Spouse as in effect Lewis xiii had this happiness and France still possesses it admiring in all occasions the rare Wisdom the exemplary Piety and heroick Constancy of this great Princess In acknowledgement of the grace which God had done to the King in giving him a Daulphine which was the sum of his wishes he redoubled his care and diligence to acquit himself well of what he ought to his Estate to better as he said the succession of his Son We will here recount some Establishments and Orders he made to that purpose Need of monies having obliged him during the Siege of Amiens to create Triennial Officers in his Revenues when it was passed he knew that there was no need of so many people to rifle his purse and that it was impossible but some little should every day remain in the hands of every one of these and therefore he suppressed these new Officers and commanded that the ancient and Alternative ones should re-imburse the Triennial From this suppression were excepted the Treasurers of the Exchequer and those of casual Forfeitures or Fines Rosny had so well bridled both the Gatherers and the Farmers that they could no longer devour those great Morsels they did heretofore But this was not yet enough they were in such manner gorged before he was Superintendent that the King with infinite justice ordained a Tribunal composed of a certain number of Judges chosen out of the Soveraign Courts and called it The Chamber-Royal whom he charged to make an exact search of the misdemeanours of those who had managed the Kings monies This Chamber made a great many disembogue however a great part found the means to escape them some out of a Consideration of their Alliances others by force of money gaining those who were near the King principally his Mistrâ—sses and corrupting the Judges themselves So much is it true that Gold pierces every where and that nothing is proof against this pernitious Metal We need not then wonder if those people filled their Coffers as full as they could since the fuller they heaped them the more facile was their justification I have already said it and I say it again for it cannot be too often nor too much observed that there is no remedy to hinder this disorder which is the greatest of all disorders in the Estate and the cause of all others save onely the vigilance and exactness of the King He must himself hold the strings of his purse have his eye still upon his Coffers know punctually what is in them what comes out of them what ways his monies accrue to what uses they are employed who are they that manage them and above all he must make them give a good account as our Henry did that if they be honest men they cannot be corrupted and if they are knaves not have the means to act their knavery He was made to know that there were two other disorders in his Realm which extreamly impoverished it and drew from it all the Gold and Silver The one was the transportation of it to strange Countries into Italy Germany and Switzerland where the little Potentates melted it and made money of a â—aser Alloy The other was the Luxury which consumed likewise a great quantity in Embroyderies Silver and Gold Lace on Cloaths and no less in the gilding of Wainscots and Chimnies and divers Moveables He made two severe Edicts which prohibited these two abuses For the first he renewed the ancient Orders concerning the transport of Gold and Silver adding the punishment of the Halter to the Transgressors and commanding all Governours to watch diligently the Observation of these his Prohibitions and not to give any Pass-ports to the contrary otherwise he declared them partakers in such Transports By the second he prohibited under the penalty of great Fines for the first time and of imprisonment for the second the wearing of Gold and Silver upon Cloaths or employing it in Gildings This Edict was rigorously observed because it excepted no person the King himself submitting to the Law he made and having looked with an ill Countenance on a Prince of the Blood who obeyed not this Reformation There was likewise expended a prodigious quantity of money in Silks by the buying of which all our money was gotten into strangers hands The King seeing that and considering that the use of these Stuffs
the true Religion The King answered plainly and prudently to those that made him these reports That he knew the heart of Byron that it was faithful and affectionate that in truth his tongue was intemperate but that in favour of those good actions he had done he could pardon his ill discourses Now two things compleated his loss and obliged the King to search into the very bottom of his wicked designs The first was the too great number of his friends and the affection of the Souldiery which he made boast of as if they had been absolute dependants on his Command and capable to do whatever he would The second the most particular friendship he had with the Count d' Auvergne brother by the Mothers side to Madamoiselle d' Entragues who was called the Marchioness of Verneuil For by the one he begat a jealousie in the King and made himself be feared and by the other he rendred himself odious to the Queen who imagined and possibly not without cause that he would make a party in the Kingdom to maintain that Rival and her Children to her prejudice Now the King desiring to search the farthest he could into this affair sends for Laffin who comes to Fountain-bleau more then a month before the King departed towards Poictou He had at first some very secret entertainments with him afterwards very publick ones and gave him great quantities of Papers amongst other those Memoires or Notes written by Byrons own hand of which we have before spoken That which Laffin revealed to the King begat great inquietudes in his spirit so that in all the voyage of Poictiers he was observed extremely pensive and the Court after his example was plunged in a sad astonishment though none could divine the cause of it At his return from Poictiers to Fountainbleau he sent for the Duke of Byron to come to him The Duke at first doubted to go and excused himself with many weak reasons He presses him and sends to him some of his Esquires afterwards the President Janin brought him word that he should receive no harme which was provided he put himself into an estate to receive grace and aggravated not his crime by his pride and by his impenitence Byron knew that Laffin had made a voyage to Court but he was more assured of that man then of himself Moreover the Baron of Lux his confident who was then there had told him that Laffin had without doubt kept his Counsel and not revealed any thing which might hurt him De Lux believed so because the King after having entertained Laffin had told him with a merry countenance I am glad I have seen this man he hath eased me of many distrusts and suspitions of spirit In the mean time the friends of Byron writ to him that he should not be such a fool as to bring his head to the Court that it would be more secure for him to justifie himself by Attorny then in person But notwithstanding this advice and against biting of his own conscience after having some time deliberated he took post and came to Fountain-bleau now when the King no longer expected him but prepared to go seek him The Histories of that time and many other relations recount exactly all the circumstances of the imprisonment process and death of that Marshal I shall content my self to relate onely the chief The insolence and blindness of this unhappy man cannot be sufficiently admired at nor on the contrary the goodness and clemency of the King be enough praised who endeavoured to overcome his obstinacy Confession of a fault is the first mark of repentance The King taking him in private instantly conjured him to declare all those intelligences and Treaties he had made with the Duke of Savoy engaging his faith that he would bury all in an eternal oblivion That he knew well enough all the particulars but desired to understand them from his mouth swearing to him that though his fault should be greater then the worst of crimes his confession should be followed by an absolute pardon Byron in stead of acknowledging it or at least excusing himself with modesty as speaking to his King who was offended insolently answered him that he was innocent and that he was not come to justifie himself but to understand the names of his back-biters and demand justice which otherwise he would do himself Though this too haughty answer aggravated much his offence the King ceased not sweetly to tell him that he should think farther of it and that he hoped he would take better counsel The same day after supper the Count of Soissons exhorted him likewise on the part of the King to confess the truth concluding his Remonstrance with that sentence of the Wiseman Sir know that the anger of the King is as the Messenger of Death But he answered him with more fierceness then he had done the King On the morrow morning the King walking in his Gardens conjured him the second time to confess the Conspiracy but he could draw nothing from him but protestations of innocency and threatnings of his accusers Upon this the King felt himself agitated even at the bottom of his soul with divers thoughts not knowing what he ought to do The affection he had born him and his great services withheld his just anger on the other side the blackness of his crime his pride and obstinacy gave reins to his justice and obliged him to punish the criminal Besides that the danger with which both his Estate and Person were threatned seemed impossible to be prevented but by cutting off the head of a conspiracy whose bottom was scarce visible In this trouble of spirit he retired into his Closet and falling on his knees prayed to God with all his heart to inspire him with a good resolution He was accustomed to do thus in all his great affairs esteeming God as his surest Counsellour and most faithful assistance At his coming from prayers as he said afterwards he found himself delivered from the trouble wherein he was and resolved to cast Byron into the hands of Justice if his Council found that the proofs they had by writing were so strong that there need no doubt be made of his Condemnation He chose for this purpose four persons of those which composed it to wit Bellievre Villeroy Rosny and Sillery and shewed them the proofs They all told him with one voice that they were more then sufficient Yet after this he would make a third trial on this proud heart He employed this last time Remonstrances Prayers Conjurations and assurances of pardon to oblige him to acknowledge his crime but he answered still in the same manner adding that if he knew his accusers he would break their heads In fine the King wearied with his Rhodomontadoes and obstinacy left him giving him these for his last words Well then we must learn the truth in another place Farewel Baron
several Petitions of complaint against them accusing them of a great number of Exactions and Cruelties The Duke d' Espernon who without doubt sustained these Burgesses at the Court was sent by the King to accommodate this difference The Soboles who had offended him no longer trusted him they would not permit him to enter into the strongest Citadel nor let the Garison go out to meet him so that being justly incensed he envenomed the plague instead of healing it and animated the inhabitants in such a manner that they Barricadoed themselves against them The King who knew that the least sparkles were capable to kindle a great fire was not content to send La Varenne but went himself being moreover willing to visit that Frontier Sobole gave the place into his hands and he gave it to Arquien Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment of Guards with the Quality of Lieutenant of the King to command in the absence of the Duke d' Espernon Governour who had no great power so long as the King lived The King passed the Feast of Easter at Mets. Whilst he was there he hearkned to the request which the Jesuites made for their re-establishment He referred the doing them Justice till he should come to Paris and gave leave to Father Ignatius Armand and Father Coton to come to sollicite their cause They were not wanting to do it and Father Coton being of a sharp and witty discourse and a very famous Preacher gained so soon the favour of all the Court and pleased the King so well that he obtained from his Majesty the recalling of the Society into the Kingdom contrary to the opinion and advice of some of his Council He then re-established them by an Act which he caused to be confirmed in Parliament and caused to be thrown down that Pyramide which had been erected before the Palace in the place of the house of John Castel where there were many writings in Verse and Prose very bloody against these Fathers Thus was their banishment gloriously repaired and after all the King kept with him Father Coton as his Chaplain in Ordinary and Confessor and Director of his Conscience This was not accomplished till the year 1604. In these two years of 1602 and 1603. we have yet three or four important things to observe The first that the King at his departure from Mets went to Nancy to visit his Sister the Dutchess of Bar who died the year following without Children The second that he renewed the Alliance with the Suisses and some months after with the Grisons notwithstanding those Obstacles by which the Count of Fuentes endeavoured to oppose it The third was that in returning to Paris he received news of the Death of Elizabeth Queen of England one of the most Illustrious and most Heroick Princesses that ever Reigned and who Governed her Estate with more Prudence and Power then any of her Predecessors had ever done She was Daughter to King Henry the eighth and to that Anne of Bullen for whose love he had left Katherine of Arragon Aunt to Charles the fifth Emperour his first wife There was nothing wanting to the happiness of her Kingdom save the Catholick Religion which she banished out of England And we might give her the name of good as well as great if she had not dealt so inhumanely as she did with her Cousin-German Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland whom she kept eighteen years prisoner and after beheaded induced to it by some conspiracies which the Servants and Friends of that poor Princess had made against her person The Son of that Mary named James the sixth King of Scotland being the nearest of the blood-Royal of England as Grandchild to Margaret of England Daughter to King Henry the seventh and Sister to Henry the eighth married to James the fourth King of Scotland succeeded Elizbeth who had put his Mother to death He caused himself to be called King of Great Britain to unite under the same title the two Crowns of England and Scotland which indeed are but one Island formerly called by the Romans Magna Britania The Alliance of so powerful a King might make the balance incline to which side soever it were turned either of France or Spain For which reason both the one and the other immediately sent Magnificent Ambassadors to salute him each endeavouring to draw him to his side It was Rosny who went on the part of Henry the Great he obtained all the favourable Audience he desired and the confirmation of the ancient Treaties between France and England The Ambassador of Spain found not such facility in his Negotiation the English appeared resolute The Spaniards were forced to yeild that the place of the Treaty should be appointed in England and to grant the English free Taffick in all their Territories even in the Indies and give them liberty of Conscience in Spain so that they should not be subject to the Inquisition nor obliged to salute the holy Sacrament in the streets but onely turn from it France was in a profound peace as well without by the renewing of the Alliances with the Suisses and with England as within by the discovery of the Conspiracies which were quite dissipated the King enjoyed a repose worthy his labours and his past travail made his pleasure more sweet However he was not idle but was seen daily employed for he endeavoured with as much diligence to conserve peace that divine daughter of heaven as he had used courage and valour in making War He was often heard say That though he could make the house of France as powerful in Europe as that of the Ottomans was in Asia and conquer in a moment all the Estates of his neighbours yet he would not do so great a dishonour to his word by which he was obliged to the keeping of the Peace His most ordinary divertisements during this time were Hunting and Building He at the same time maintained workmen at the Church of the holy Cross at Orleans at St. Germain in Laye at the Louvre and at the Place Royal. The Nobility of France during this peace could not live out of action some passed their time in Hunting others with Ladies some in Studies of Learning and the Mathematicks others in travelling into Forraign Countries and others continued the Exercise of War under Prince Maurice in Holland But the greatest part whose hands as it were itched and who sought to signalize their valour without departing from their Countries became punctilious and for the least word or for a wry look put their hands to their swords Thus that madness of Duels entred into the hearts of the Gentlemen and these Combats were so frequent that the Nobility shed as much blood in the Meadows with their own hands as their enemies had made them lose in Battails The King therefore made a second and a most severe Edict which prohibited Duels confiscating the
Louvre and demanding his opinion of it The Escurial is much another thing said Don Pedro. I believe it replyed the King but has it a Paris about it like my Gallery One day Don Pedro seeing at the Louvre the Kings Sword in the hands of one of his followers advanced to it and putting one knee on the ground kissed it rendring this honour said he to the most glorious Sword in Christendom During the truce of eight months of which we have spoken the President Janin incessantly laboured for a Treaty There were two great difficulties one that the King of Spain would not treat with the United Provinces but as with Subjects and they would have him acknowledge them to be free and independent the other that the Prince of Orange whose power and authority would be extremely weakned by the Peace opposed it by a thousand Artifices being sustained in it by the Province of Zealand who ever desired War and by some Cities of its faction These two obstacles were in the end surmounted The Spaniard yeilded to the first and acknowledged that he owned the States for Free States Provinces and Countries and about the second the King spoke so high to the Prince of Orange that he durst not stop the course of the Treaty It ended no longer however in a Peace but onely in a Truce of twelve years which was free and assured Commerce on one part and on the other The renown of this accommodation carried the Kings glory throughout all Europe The Duke of Venice told our Ambassador in the Senate That that Signory entred into new admiration of the prudent conduct of our King who never deceived himself in his undertaking nor never gave blow in vain that he was the true upholder of the repose and felicity of Christendom and that it had nothing of happiness to desire but that he might reign for ever An Elogie so much the more worthy and glorious because we may say with truth that Venice hath still been the Seat of Politick wisdome and that the prayses which came from that Senate are as so many Oracles The Friendship and Protection of this great King was sought on all sides all was referred to his Arbitration and all implored his assistance And as he was equally powerful as wise feared as loved there was none who durst contradict his judgement or assault those whom he protected But he was so just that he would not enterprize any thing upon the Rights of another nor maintain the Rebellions of Subjects against their Soveraign A certain proof of which he gave to the Maurisques It is known how heretofore the Moores or Sarazins invaded all Spain towards the year 725. The Christians with the aid of the French had regained it from them by little and little so that there remained no more then the Kingdom of Granada which was little in Extent but very rich and extremely populous because all the remnants of that infidel Nation were retired into that little space Ferdinand King of Arragon and Isabella Queen of Castile finished the Conquest of that Kingdom in the year 1492. and so put an end to the Government of the Moores and to the Mahumetan Religion in Spain constraining the Infidels to take Baptism or to retire into Affrica Now as those who had thus professed the Christian Religion had done it perforce they for the most part remained Mahumetans in their hearts or Jews for there were many Jews amongst them and secretly brought up their children in their incredulity To which likewise the Spanish Rigor did much contribute putting great distinction between the new Christians and the old For they received not the new ones either to Charges or Sacred Orders they allied not themselves with them and which is worse made a thousand avanies upon them and oppressed them with excessive â—mposts So that these unfortunate people seeing themselves thus trampled on and being too weak of themselves to loosen themselves from their Yoak they resolved to address themselves to some strange power but which should be Christian because that of the King of Morrocco or the other Princes of Affrica would have appeared too odious To this effect they had secret recourse by Deputies to our Henry when he was then but King of Navarre Afterwards in the year 1595. when they saw that he had overcome the League and had got the upper hand in his affairs they again implored his Protection He hearkned favourably to their propositions sent disguised Agents into Spain to see the Estate of their affairs and made them hope that he would assist them And truly he might have done it since then he was in War with the King of Spain and it is lawful to make use of all sorts of Arms to defend our selves against our enemies But now being returned this year 1608. to sollicite him instantly to accept their propositions and offers and to hear the answer from his own mouth he plainly let them know that the quality of thrice-Christian King which he bore permitted him not to undertake their defence so long as the peace of Vervin lasted but that if the Spaniard should first openly infringe it he should have just cause to receive them into his Protection Their Deputies having lost all hopes on this side addressed themselves to the King of England whom they found yet less disposed then he to lend them assistance In the mean time their plots having taken wind in the Court of Spain caused both fear and astonishment for they were near a million of souls and were possessed of almost all the Traffick particularly that of Oiles which is very great in that Country King Philip the third found no other secure way to hinder the dangerous effects of their conspiracies but banishing them quite out of his Territories which he did by an Edict of the tenth of January in the year 1610. which was executed with much cruelty Inhumanity and Treachery For in Transporting these unfortunate people into Affrica as they had demanded part were drowned in the Sea others despoiled of all they had so that those who remained to depart perceiving the ill Treatment of their Companions fled towards France one part by land to St. John de Lus to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand others in French Vessels who brought them into divers ports of the Kingdom But to speak truth those who came by land were not much better treated by the French then the others had been by the Spaniards for in crossing the Countries they were almost all robbed and stript and their Wives and Daughters ravished so that finding so little safety in a Country wherein they believed they might find refuge they embarqued by the Kings permission in the Ports of Languedoc and crossed over into Affrica where they are become implacable and most cruel enemies to all Christians There remained some families in the Maritime Cities of the Kingdom
when I am in one be assaulted with tremblings and be fearful in despite of my self They counselled him to shun these ill Prophecies to depart on the morrow and leave the Instalment to be done without him but the Queen was extreamly offended and he good and obliging remained onely to content her The Instalment was made at St. Denis on the 13 of May and the Queen on the 16 of the same moneth was to make her entrance into Paris where there were erected Magnificent Preparations to honour this Feast Already had the forces of the King met at their Rendezvouz on the Frontiers of Champagne Already had the Nobility who were come from all parts sent their Equipages The Duke of Rohan was gone to gather together the six thousand Swisses and there were gone fifty piece of Cannon out of the Arsenal Already had the King sent to demand of the Arch-duke and the Infanta in what manner they would that he should pass their Country either as a Friend or an Enemy Every hour of delay seemed to him a year as if he had presaged some misfortune to himself and certainly both Heaven and Earth had given but too many Prognosticks of what arrived A very great Eclipse of the whole body of the Sun which happened in the year 1608 A terrible Comet which appeared the year preceding Earthquakes in several places Monsters born in divers Countries of France Rains of blood which fell in several places A great Plague which afflicted Paris in the year 1606 Apparitions of Fantosms and many other Prodigies kept men in fear of some horrible event His Enemies were at present in a profound silence which possibly was not caused onely by their Consternation and by the fear of the success of his Arms but out of the expectation they had to see succeed some great blow in which lay all their hopes It must needs be that there were many conspiracies against the Life of this good King since from twenty places advice was given of it since both in Spain and Milan a report was spread of his death by a printed Paper since there passed a 〈◊〉 eight days before he was assassinated through the City of Liege that said that he carried News to the Princes of Germany that he was killed since at Montargis there was found a Billet upon the Altar containing the prediction of his approaching death by a determinate blow since in fine the report ran through all Prance that he would not out-live that year and that he would die a tragick death in the fifty seventh year of his Age. Himself who was not over-credulous gave some faith to these Prognosticks and seemed as one condemned to death So sad and cast down he was though naturally he was neither melancholy nor fearful There had been at Paris for about two years a certain wicked Rogue named Francis Ravaillac a Native of the Country of Angoumois red haired down-looked and melancholy who had been a Monk but after having quitted the Frock he before professed was turned Sollicitor of businesses and come to Paris It was not known whether he was brought hither to give this blow or whether being come out of some other designe he had been induced to this execrable enterprize by those people who knowing that he had yet in his heart some leven of the League and that false perswasion that the King was about to overturn the Catholick Religion in Germany judged him proper for the blow If it be demanded who were the Devils and Furies who inspired him with so damnable a thâ—â—ght and who spurred him forward to effect his wicked disposition the History answers that it knows nothing and that in a thing so important it is not permitted to make pass suspitions and conjectures for assured truths The Judges themselves who examined him durst not open their mouths nor ever spoke but covertly But see here how he executed his wicked designe On the morrow after the Instalment being the 14 of May the King went forth of the Louvre about four a Clock in the Evening to go to the Arsenal to visit Sully who was indisposed and to see as he passed the preparations made at the Bridge of Nostre-dame and the Hostel de Ville for the reception of the Queen He was at the bottom of his Coach having the Duke of Espernon by his side the Duke of Montbazon the Marshal of Lavardin Roquelaure La force Mirebeau and Liancour chief Esquire were before and in the Boots His Coach entring out of the street of St. Honorio into that of the Ferronnerie or Ironmongers found on the right hand a Cart laden with Wine and on the left another laden with Hay which causing some trouble he was constrained to stop for the street is very narrow by reason of the shops builded against the wall of the Church-yard of St. Innocents King Henry the second had formerly commanded them to be beaten down to render that passage more free but it was not executed Alas that one half of Paris had not rather been beaten down then it have seen this great misfortune which hath been the cause of so many infinite other miseries The Foot-men being passed through the Church-yard of St. Innocents to avoid the trouble and no person being near the Coach this wicked person who for a long time had obstinately followed the King to give his blow observing the side on which he sate thrust himself between the shops and the Coach and setting one foot on one of the spokes of the wheel 〈◊〉 the other against a stall with an enraged resâ—â—â—tion gave him a stab with a knife between the second and third Rib a little beneath the heart At this blow the King cryed out I am wounded But the Villain without being affrighted redoubled it and struck him in the heart of which he died immediately without so much as casting forth a sigh The Murderer was so assured that he yet gave a third blow which light only in the sleeve of the Duke of Montbazon Afterwards he neither took care to flee nor to conceal his knife but stood still as if to make himself be seen and to glorifie or boast in so fair an exploit He was taken on the place examined by the Commissioners of Parliament judged by the Chamber of Assemblies and by sentence drawn by four horses in the Greve after having had the flesh of his breasts his arms and thighs drawn off with burning Pincers without his testifying the least emotion of fear or grief at so strange tortures Which strongly confirmed the suspition had that certain Emissaries under the mask of Piety and Religion had instructed and inchanted him with false assurances that he should die a Martyr if he killed him whom they made believe was the sworn enemy of the Church The Duke d'Espernon seeing the King speechless and dead caused the Coach to turn and carried his body to the Louvre where he caused
accord the party had by this means conserved its bonds together and not been overthrown but appeased When he had got the upperhand in his Affairs and was reconciled to the Pope and that his subjects were reconciled with him the ill counsel of the Hugonots who desired always to see him in trouble perswaded him to declare a War against Spain It was now that he thought he should fall into a worse Estate then ever They took from him Dourlens after the gain of one battel Calais and Ardres by storm and Amiens by surprize The rest of the League which lay hid under the cinders began to rekindle the discontents of the great ones to be discovered Conspiracies were formed on all sides his servants were amazed his enemies emboldened But his Vertue which seemed to sleep in prosperity rouzed it self in adversity he encouraged his friends re-took Amiens and forced the Spaniard to make peace by the treaty of Vervin The Duke of Savoy thinking to deceive him in the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces and to raise factions in his Realm which should hinder the King from demanding reason of him found that he had to do with a Prince who knew as well how to over reach him in his designes as to conquer his forces for he forced him among those rocks where he boasted he had nothing to fear but the thunder-bolts of Heaven and made him shamefully restore what he had unjustly usurped At the same time the King had thoughts as well for the security and tranquillity of France as for his own to generate Children of a lawful marriage Heaven gave him six and with them a peace of ten years which was onely lightly troubled by the conspiracy of Byron by the devices of the Duke of Bouillon and by some popular risings against the Pancarte or Sol pour livre During all this he laboured principally for two things the one his great designe of which we have spoken for which he made friends and allies on all sides cleared his revenues paid his debts with as good credit as if he had been a Merchant gathered monies and pacified all differences which were between those Princes with whom he would associate The other was to repair the damages and ruines of France which a forty years civil War had caused remove those causes which imbittered and divided spirits reform those disorders which disfigured the face of the Estate make it flourishing and rich to the end his subjects might live happily under the wings of his protection and his justice In the mean time himself was not free from troubles perplexities and disgusts his Mistresses caused him a thousand vexations in the midst of his pleasures he found thorns even in his Nuptial-bed and in the ill humour of his wife and Conchini was causer of griefs to him just as a little but vexatious Mouse may furiously trouble and turmoile the noble Lyon As he was ready to mount on horse-back to begin his great designe by the assistance of his Allies he lost his Life by the most detestable Parricide was ever known Thus he whom so many Pikes so many Musquets and Cannons so many Squadrons and Battalions of men could not hurt in the trenches and in the field of battel was killed with a Knife by a wicked and trayterous Rogue in the midst of his capital City in a Coach and on a day of publick Joy Unhappy blow which put an end to all the joys of France and which opened a wound which to this day hath left its scar. Henry was of a middle stature disposed and active hardened to labour and travel His body was well formed his temperament able and strong and his health perfect onely about the age of fifty years he had some light assaults of the Gout but which soon passed away and left behinde them no weakness He had his forehead high his eyes lively and assured his nose Aquiline his complexion ruddy his countenance sweet and noble and yet withal his presence Warlike and Martial his hair brown and very thin He wore his beard large and his hair very short He began to grow gray at the age of thirty five years upon which he was accustomed to say to those who wonder'd at it It is the wind of my adversities hath blown me this Indeed to consider well all his life from his very birth few Princes will be found who have suffered so much as he and it will be difficult to tell if he had more crosses or more prosperities He was born the Son of a King but of a King despoiled of his Estates He had a Mother generous and of a great courage but a Hugonot and an enemy of the Court He gained the battel of Coutras but he lost a little after the Prince of Conde his Cousin and his right hand The League stirred up his vertue and made him know it but it thought to overthrow him It was the cause that the King having called him to his assistance he found himself at the gates of Paris as if God had led him by the hand but Paris armed it self against him and all his hopes were almost dissipated by the scattering of the Army which besieged that City It was without doubt a great happiness that the Crown of France fell to him there having never been a succession more distant in any hereditary Estate for there were ten or eleven degrees between Henry the third and him and when he was born there was nine Princes of the blood before him to wit King Henry 2. and his five sons King Anthony of Navarre his father and two sons of that Anthony eldest brothers of our Henry All these Princes died to make room for his succession But he found it so embroyled that we may say he suffered an infinity of labours pains and hazards before he could gather the fair flowers of this Crown Young he espoused the sister of King Charles which seemed a match very advantagious for him but this marriage was a snare to entrap both him and his friends Afterwards that Lady in stead of being his Consort became his trouble and in stead of being his honour became his shame His second Wife brought him forth fair children to his no little joy but her grumblings and disdains were the causers of a thousand discontents He triumphed over all his enemies and became Arbitrator of Christendom but the more powerful he made himself the more was their hatred envenomed and the more means used they to destroy him so that after having plotted an infinite number of conspiracies against his life they found in the end a Ravaillac who executed in the end what so many others had failed in Now it must be acknowledged that all these adversities which he suffered ought to whet his spirit and his courage and that in fine he should be the greatest of Kings because he came to the Crown through so many difficulties and in an age very mature And certainly it is
sends forth enlivenings and joy into the eyes of all that behold it To continue the Metamorphosis I will yet say that so many wise Laws which he made for Justice for Policy and for his Revenues so many good and useful Establishments of all sorts of Manufactures which produced to France the yearly profit of many Millions so many proud buildings as the Galleries of the Louvre the Pont-neuf the Place Royal the Colledge Royal the Keys for Merchants of the River Seine Fontain-bleau Monceaux St. Germain so many publick works Bridges Causwaies Highwaies repaired so many Churches rebuilded in many places of the Realm should be as the Ingravements and Imbellishments Let us Crown then with a thousand prayses the immortal memory of that great King the love of the French and the terror of the Spaniards the Honour of his age and the Admiration of Posterity Let us make him live in our hearts and in our affections in despite of the rage of those wicked persons deprived him of life Let us shout forth as many Acclamations to his glory as he hath done benefits to France He was a Hereules who cut off the Head of the Hydra by overturning the League He was greater then Alexander and greater then Pompey because he was as Valiant but he was more Just he gained as many victories but he gained more hearts He conquered the Gaules as well as Julius Caesar but he conquered them to give them liberty and Caesar subjugated them to enslave them Let his Name then be raised above that of the Hercules the Alexanders the Pompeys and the Gaesars Let his Reign be the Model of good Kings and his Examples the clear Lights to illuminate the eyes of other Princes Let his Posterity be Eternally Crowned with the Flowers de Lis Let them be alwaies happy alwaies Triumphant And to compleat our wishes let Lewis the Victorious his Grand-child Resemble or if it be possible Surpass him FINIS The Life of Hen. the Great divided into three parts The first The second The third His Genealogie Who Antho. de Bourbon his father was a Peter sixth Son to Lewis le gross espoused Isabella Heiress of Courtnay and took both Name and Arms a fault very prejudicial to his posterity b The branch of Bourbon produced many among others that of Vendosme Charles Duke of Vendosme had Anthony and six other sons Who Jane d' Albret his Mother was 〈◊〉 of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and Jane d' Albret married at Moulins 1547. 1552. Henry the Great conceived at la Fleche 1553. His mother sings at her delivery of him He cries not at his birth So soon as born his grandfather carries him into his chamber he rubs his lips with Garlick makes him taste wine The Spaniards Raillery concerning the birth of his mother Her fathers Reply to it 1554. Baptism of Hen. 4. His godfathers and godmother He was hard to bring up He had for Governess Madam de Miossens His grandfather permits him not to be nourished delicately * It hath been said that he was ordinarily nourished with coarse bread beef cheese and garlick and that oftentimes he was made to march with naked feet and brre headed The death of Henry d' Albret 1555. His daughter son-in-law succeed him and retire from the Court. 1557. 1558. 1559. Death of King Henry the second Francis 2. succeeâ—s Divisions at Court 1560. Death of Francis 2. Charles 9. succeeds Queen Katherine declared Regent and the King of Navarre Lieutenant-General of the Realm 1562. He is killed before Rouen 1562. The Queen his wife returns to Bearn and embraces Calvinism 1566. She taâ— her son from the Court and gives him a Master instructs him in ill Doctrine 1567. Henry Prince of Navarre declared chief of the Religion 1569. Louys Prince of Condé his Uncle his Lieutenant with Admiral Coligny A judicious action when yet an infant b This Duke of Anjou was King after Hen. 3 Another action very judicious at the battle of Jarnac Lewis Prince of Condé slain After his death the Admiral commands all He hazards the battle of Montcontour Our Prince impatâ—ent to engage but hindred Gives marks of his judgement 1570. He with the Admiral continues the War The peace of Arnay-le-Duc 1571. A Resolution to entrap the Hugonots and exterminate them Death of Jane d' Albret Her son takes the quality of King of Navarre He marries the King of France his sister Massacre of St. Bartholomew The grief and fear of our young King He is constrained to turn Catholick 1572. His great dangers troubles at Court His wise prudent conduct He contracts friendship with the Duke of Guise He shuns contention with Duke d' Alenzon but lets himself be overcome by the beauty of Ladies which was his greatest weakness 1572. He fell not into any other of the horrible Vices of the Court. 1573. The Duke of Anjou besieges Rochel and carries the King with him The siege raised by the election of Duke d' Anjou to the Kingdome of Poland 1574. Charles 9. falls mortally sick at Bois de Vincennes A league made at Court into which Henry enters The Queen-mother discovering it causes him the Duke Alenson c to be arrested and la Mole Coconas Tourtray to be put to death The Chancellour would examine the King of Navarre Charles 9. near his death sends for him 1574. Queen Katherine alarm'd would affright him After the death of Charles 9. she seizeth on the Regency The two Princes set at liberty The Prince of Condé was in Germany The King of Navarre cannot escape as he desires He falls in love with a Lady The Queen-mother alluminates all the factions and civil wars 1575. Conspiracy against Henry 3. who confides in our Henry Henry 3. anointed and espoused to Louis de Lorrain Familiarity between our Henry and the Duke of Guise The Queen-mother breaks this union Henry 3. falls very sick a Francis 2 died of an Aposthume in his ear which was believed to come of poyson A noble and generous action of our Henry 1575. 1576. Monsieur departs from Court and joyns with the Hugonots Our Henry could not soon follow him but at length saves himself at Alenzon Peace made with Monsieur and the Hugonots 1576. Our Henry again turns Hugonot He is received into Rochel and after goes into Guyenne The gates of Bourdeaux shut against him The birth of the League These Leagues a fair path for the ambitious to rise by The Duke of Guise makes himself chief of the League The War of Monsieur his joyning with the Hugonots the cause of the League The Cities of Picardy begin it and why Christopher de Thou hinders its procedure at Paris The Leaguers oblige the King to call the Estates They assemble at Blois War resolved against the Hugonots Henry 3. declares himself chief of the League 1577. He raises three or four Armies against the Hugonots The Queen-mother obliges him to grant them peace 1578. She makes a voyage to Guyenne
Counsels given him He rejects them and causes to be Proclaimed the old Cardinal of Bourbon The King tries in vain several Treaties with the Duke He raises his League from Paris and why He writes to the Protestant Princes to justifie himself His troubles for 4. years to content both Catholicks Hugonots He had need of infinite prudence address eloquence Hee carries the Corps of Henry the third to S. Cornille de Compeigne Three advices touching the place to which he should retire 1590. He follows the last which was to march into Normandy Rolet brings him the Keyes of Pont d' Arche and Chattes of Diepe He would besiege Rouen but the Duke of Mayenne coming to its suecour drives him to Diepe and invests him The Duke reports he cannot escape him The Parliament at Tours counsel him to associate the Cardinal of Bourbon in the Royalty Others counsel him to retire to England He derides both one and t'other The Duke of Mayenne besieges Diepe Batâ—ail of Arques The Duke raises the siege retires goes into Picardy and why What hindred the success of his enterprize He knew not how to take his advantages Thâ—eeâ— auses for 〈…〉 which the great body of the League prospered not in their designes The distrust between the Spaniards and Duke of Mayenne The jealousie among the Chiefs of the League The sloth and negligence of the Duke of Mayenne Great activity and vigilance of Henry 4. Officers servants resemble their masters This History recounts onely the chief affairs The Parisians made believe the King was taken They arâ— much astonished to understand him marching towards them He takes the Faubourgs of St. Germain c. His moderation in this rencounter The Dukes of Nemours Mayenne post thither The King retires to Montlehery He takes Estampes Vendosm le Man 's Alenzon Want of mony stops his progress In what manner he made his Troops subsist He reduces almost all Normandy and besiegeth Dreux The Duke marches to succour Dreux The King advances to fight him Two reasons oblige him to it What causes engage the Duke of Mayenne to the Battail Battail of Yvry March 14 Wonderful intelligence of Henry the fourth His prayers to God His exhortation to his Souldâ—ers The battail won by the King Great loss of the Leaguers The Duke of Mayenne escapes to Mantes and thence to Paris The King too much exposes his person which Byron freely remonstrates to him His Clemency aâ— Generosi â— after the Victory His Acknowledgements and Justice A Noble Action he did Another worthy Action What hindred the King to go directly to Paris Devilish counsel The widow of Montpensier amuses the people The King departs from Mantes takes some Cities and goes to block up Paris The Duke of Mayenne was gone to meet the Duke of Parma and had left the Duke of Nemours at Paris The death of the old Cardinal of Bourbon troubles him The Spaniards the Sixteen â—â—â—â—s him to make a King he assignes the Estates to Paris He keeps to himself the Title of Lieutenant-General Nemours takes order for the defence of Paris Number of the inhabitants of Paris It proves not so easie to take it by famine The Hugonots would have it taken by force but the King will not Useless mouths starve Paris Great Clemency of the King to let the miserable people go forth His generous words Those of the Army send victuals into Paris Which makes them subsist The King takes all the Suburbs in one night The Duke of Mayenne advances to Meaux but dares not relieve Paris The Duke of Parma comes to joyn with him with an Army from the Low-countries He had so well contrived all things that he was assured to raise the siege of Paris The King never believed he would quit the Low-Countries He renews the Negotiation with the Duke of Mayenne who feigns to entertain it to amuse him The Kings Council mech ironbled The King would take a place of battel and not raise the siege Byron advises to raise the siege and carries it The Duke of Parma takes Lagny in the sight of the King relieves Paris Abundance of Victuals carried to Paris The Army of the King constrained to separate Duke of Parma besieges Corbeil and takes it He returns to Flanders Corbeil regained by storm The Duke of Parma counsels the King of Spain to become chief Master of the League The King of Spain no longer considers the Duke of Mayenne but thinks to render himself Master of the great Cities by factions The King endeavours to re-gain the Duke He endeavours likewise to regain the people Three means by which Henry 3. lost the affection of his subjects His negligence and inapplication The wasting his Revenues His ill keeping his word Three other ways quite contrary by which Henry 4. gained the esteem and affection of his subjects His activity and greatness of soul. His care of his Revenues Francis d' O Superintendant of the Revenues a great expender The King constrained to suffer him in this charge but pares his nailes His constant keeping his word and freedom His goodness He pardoned injuries and never knew vengeance This reconquered his kingdom rather then his sword 1591. Divisions and Jealousies in the party of the League and that of the King In the party of the King three factions of Hugonots Catholicks and Servants of Henry the third The Hugonots solicite the Protestants to send Henry 4. powerful assistance to hinder him from turning Catholick An Edict granted to the Hugonots Death of Pope Sixtus 5. Election of Gregory 14. Enterprize of the League on S. Denis where the Cavalier d' Aumale is killed Enterprize of the King on Paris called the battail of the Flour Chartres besieged and taken by the King President Janin sent to Spain on the part of the League The Spaniards design to profit themselves by the ruine of France Gregory 14. sends an Army to the League And a Bull of Excommunication against those Prelates follow the King and money to the Sixteen Oâ—r Henry well served by the Count of Turenne And by the Duke Lesdiguieres He becomes passionate of the fair Gabriella The Duke of Guise escapes from prison The judicious reasoning of Hen. 4. on his escape The Duke of Mayenne becomes jealous of his nephew The Sixteen lean to the Duke of Guise and would lose Mayenne They write to the King of Spain They drive the Cardinal of Gonde many others from Paris By a horrible attempt they cause to be hanged the President of Brisson and two Counsellours * The publick place of execution in Paris Some would likewise kill the Duke of Mayenne but want heart to do it Upon this the Duke comes to Paris and hangs four which quite quells the faction of the Sixteen He makes four Presidents of Parliament 1592. The King besieges Rouen where Villars was Governour Great and memorable Sally The City pressed Parma comes to relieve it The King raises his Siege and
Secretary His punishment The Ambassadours Secretary arrested Several discourses concerning Ambassadours priviledges The King forbids any process against the Secretary The Ambassadour makes a great noise and threatens his Kings resentment Treason of the Luquisses A fool makes an attempt on the Kings person Those who desire war whet the Kings spirit upon these Conspiracies Character of Philip 3. of Spair A good profitable reflection In what the courage of a Soveraign principally consists The goodness of Henry the Great But the King hastens not the War He makes himself Arbitrator of the differences of Christendom 1606. After the death of Clement 8. he causes to be chosen Leo xi who soon dies and Paul 5. succeeds A great difference between Paul 5. and the Venetians The Venetians had made a law to bound the Acquisitions of the Clergy They make other Decrees Paul 5. offended at these Decrees He sends Briefs to revoke them He Excommunicates the Senate They declare his sentence of Excommunication null and abusive 1607. Henry the great undertakes to accommodate the difference He sends to this purpose Cardinal Joyeuse who concludes an accommodation The Pope absolves the Signory There was nothing but the reestablishment of the Jesuites not obtained 1608. The King endeavours an accommodation between the Hollander and Spaniard He underhand assists the Hollander with men and money Janin sent for this accommodation They come presently to an eight months truce The King makes an offensive and defensive League with the Hollander The Spaniards Alarm'd at this League Don Pedro de Toledo makes great complaints to the King Things very curious which passed betwixt the King and Don Pedro. Their entertainments Lively and quick replies Don Pedro kisses the Kings Sword Two obstacles in the Treaty of the Hollanders surmounted by the King The Treaty ends in a twelve years Truce Great praise given by the republick of Venice to our Henry All desire his friendship and protection He will not protect Subjects against their Soveraign What the Maurisques were The Spaniards treat them ill * An avanie is when by a false accusation money is forced from any person They demand assistance of Henry the Great He refuses it The King of Spain banisheth them all They are horribly ill Treated by the Spaniards and by the French They are carried into Affrica but some stay in France The great designe of Henry 4. for the extent of the Christian Religion in the Levant He sends some to spy the Country He seeks means to raise mony without burthening his people He would disengage his demain * The Greffes is a due to the King of 63 â— 9 d. Tours upon the sale of wood in several places and take off the Impost by buying the Salt-Marishes He is constrained to acquit himself of old scores to make some new imposts creations He makes not always use of innocent means Inquisition of the rents of the City-house cause disturbance * Hostel de Ville is the same at Paris as Guild-hall at London Miron Provost of the Merchants sustains the interest of the people Some would incense the King against him The people rise to defend him The King counselled to take him by force The Kings wise answer worthy a great Polititian He will not pursue this business of the Rents Establishment of the Paulete Justice formerly administred in France by Gentlemen How it fell into the hands of the Plebeians who made profit of it The Parliament of France meddle with particular affairs and is made sedentary at Paris They make all other Judges subalternate to them The number of the Officers of Parliament small How Offices became vendible under Francis 1. * He had often said that fat Boy would spoile all and Henry 2. How this might be remedied But on the contrary is made incurable by the Paulete Which causes great abuses 1609. Marriage of the Prince of Conde And of the Duke of Vendosme What were the Kings divertisements He loved Play too much He was extremely given to women This passion made him do shameful things Three or four of his Mistresses This causes often contentions with his wife And hinders his great design What that was The means with which he served himself to put it in Execution To this purpose he grants an Edict to the Hugonots and pays his debts Which regains the reputation and credit of France He joyns to him all Christian Princes by promising his conquests He reunites them by accommodating their differences The Princes he made his friends How he would have accommodated the Protestant Princes with the Pope He treats with the Electors With the Lords of Bohemia Hungary Poland With the Pope Model of the designe of Hen. 4. He would part Christendome into fifteen equal Dominions To wit eleven Kingdoms and four Republicks What the Pope had had The Signory of Venice The Italian Common-wealth Duke of Savoy Republick of the Swisses The Low-Countries Kingdome of Hungary The Empire with free election Bohemia Hungary elective A general Council of sixty persons Three others of each twenty Order to hinder tyranny and rebellion and to assist the Provinces adjoyning to Infidels Three general Captains two by Land and one by Sea to war against the Turks What forces what train None but the house of Austria had suffered by this establishment In Italy the Pope Venetians and Savoyard would consent In Germany many Electors and had chosen the Duke of Bavaria Emperour In Bohemia and Hungary the Lords and Nobility The business of Cleves happens to give a beginning to the great designe The Cities of Flanders should revolt The Kingâ— Army should have lived in great order The King would have reserved nothing of his Conquests He had with other Princes prayed the Emperour to rerestore the Cities of the Empire to liberty Bohemia Hungary Austria had made the same request The Duke of Savoy had demanded the Dower of his wife from the Spaniard The Pope and Venetians to become mediators of the difference of Navarre Naples Savoy c. And the King had yeilded his right They had perswaded the King of Spain or else forced him The great Prudence and moderation intended by the King in the pursuit of his design The preparations he made The forces he had The Prince of Oranges Army That of the Electors German Princes That of the Venetians and Savoyard His Exchequer for defraying this great designe He would make the War powerfully that it might be short Great appearance it might have succeeded having no Princes to oppose it but the Dukes of Saxony and Florence What was the business of Cleves and Juliers Death of John Duke of Juliers without issue His succession disputed by many particularly by Brandenbourg and Newbourg The Emperour said it was devolved to the Empire He invests Leopold of Austria who whilst Brandenbourg and Newbourg dispute seizes Juliers They implore the Kings assistance who promises to march in person But tells him he intended to conserve the Catholick Religion in that Country Answer made to the Ambassador of the Empire He establishes good order in the Kingdom before his departure Leaves the Regency to the Queen but gives her a good Council He establishes little Councils in the Provinces who refer to the great one 1610. Some put it into the spirit of the Queen that she should be installed before the Kings departure He though unwillingly consents The instalment of the Queen Many Prognosticks which seemed to presage the death of Henry 4. Advice from several places that his life should be attempted He seems to believe them and fear Who Ravaillac was He is induced to kill the King but it is not known by whom The King departs the Louvre to go to the Arsenal What persons were with him His Coach stopt in the street of the Ferronnerie Ravaillac killeth him He is torn with burning pincers and drawn in pieces by four horses The Kings body opened and found that he might yet live 30 years He is buried at St. Denis The Queen made Regent The great desolation in Paris when they knew of the Kings death His age and the time of of his reign His two wives Margaret and Mary He had three Sons by Mary and three Daughters He had eight Natural children of divers Mistresses Two Sons and a Daughter of Gabriella A Son and a Daughter of the Marchioness of Verneuil Of the Countess of Moret one Son Of Madam d' Essards two daughters He loved all his children and would have them call him Papa Summary recital of the Life of Henry the Great Parallel of his adversities and prosperities * There are more then fifty conspiracies against his person His adversities whet his spirit and courage Why Princes who come young to the Crown seldome learn to govern well Those who come to a Crown at greater distance and a more ripe age are more capable and better The reasons of it A mystick Crown to the glory of Henry the Great
bodies and goods of those who went thus into the field For the present this prohibition made the ardor of the most violent a little relent but because he often pardoned this crime not being able to refuse it to those who had faithfully served him in his need it happened that in a little time this mischief regained its course almost as strong as before His receiving from all persons all advices that might accommodate and in rich his Kingdom made him understand that there were in divers places of France very good Mines both of Gold and Silver Copper and Lead and that if they were wrought there would be no need to buy of strangers That likewise though there should accrue no great profit in digging them yet by them many idle persons might be employed and likewise those criminals who deserved not death might be condemned for so many years to work in them He made therefore an Act which renewed the ancient orders concerning the Officers Directors and Workers of Mines And they began to work in the Pyrenees where it is most certain that formerly there hath been Gold and that there still is In such manner that had they continued this labour they might in all appearance have gained notable advantages but either through the negligence of the Overseers or through the little intelligence or rather impatience of the French who cast by any thing that presently seconds not their desires this work was discontinued Another very great conveniency for Paris was enterprized which was the joyning of the River Loire to the Seine by the Chanel of Briare Rosny laboured in this with much expence employing in it near three hundred thousand crowns but the work was interrupted I know not wherefore It was renewed again in the Reign of Lewis the thirteenth and brought to perfection There was proposed likewise another which was to make a conjunction of the two Seas the Ocean and the Mediterranean by uniting together the Garonne which runs into the Ocean and the Aude which fals into the Mediterranean Sea below Narbonne by Channels which were to be drawn along little Rivers which run between these great ones The Country of Languedoc offered to contribute but there were difficulties found which hindred this enterprize Navigation was established by the good order which the King had taken to keep his Coasts in security and to punish Pirates severely when they catcht them Our ships were not content to Traffick to the ordinary places but enterprized likewise to go to the new world which they had almost forgot since the time of Admiral Coligny A Gentleman of Xaintonge named du Gas began with the Kings Commission the voyage of Canada where afterwards was established the Commerce of Castors or Beavers which are the skins of a certain amphibious creature much like the Otters of this Country Among all these establishments we must not forget a great quantity of new Religious Companies which were made in Paris There was first seen the Recollects which were a branch of the Order of St. Francis of a new Reformation Capuchins and Feuillantines Carmelites who were brought from Spain Barefooted Carmes who came likewise from that Country of the Brothers of Charity vulgarly called the ignorant brothers who came out of Italy and all had soon built them Convents out of the Almes and Charity of Devout persons In the midst of this fair Calme at which the King rejoyced and during all these fair occupations which were worthy of him he was not left without troubles and vexations which perplexed his Spirit He had none more piercing nor more continual then those which came on the part of his Wife and his Mistresses We have already said how Madamoiselle d' Entragues had engaged him He had given her the land of Verneuil near Senlis and for the love of her had made it a Marquisate After that he was married he ceased not to have the same passion for her and to carry her with him in his Progresses and lodge her at Fontain-bleau These scandalous disorders extremely offended the Queen and the Pride of the Marchioness more furiously incensed her for she spoke alwaies of her in terms either injurious or disdainful sometimes not forbearing to say that if she had Justice she should hold the place of that fat Banker The Queen likewise on her side was with reason transported against her and made her complaints to all the world But this was not the way to gain the spirit of the King she had done better had she wisely dissembled her displeasure and by her kindnesses made her self master of that heart which of right belonged to her The King loved to be flattered he loved sweet and compliant discourse and was to be gained by tenderness and affection The band of love is love it self this was that she ought to employ with him and not grumblings disdains and ill countenances which serve onely more and more to disgust a husband and make him find more pleasure in the allurements of a Mistress who takes care to be alwaies agreeable and alwaies complacent But in stead of holding this way she was alwaies in contention with the King she exasperated him continually by her complaints and by her reproaches and when he thought to find with her some sweetness to ease the great labours of his spirit he encountred nothing but Gall and Bitterness She had belonging to her Chamber a Florentine woman Daughter of her Nurse named Leonora Galigay a creature extreme ugly but very spiritual and who knew so perfectly how to insinuate into her heart that she had in such manner seised on it that she absolutely commanded her It hath been said that this woman fearing that the Queen her Mistress would love her less if she perfectly loved the King her husband kept her from it as much as she could that she might possess her with more ease Afterwards to the end she might have a second in her designs she Married and Espoused her self to a Florentine a domestick of the Queens named Conchini of a little better Extraction then her self being grand-child to Baptista Conchini who had been Secretary to Cosmo Duke of Florence The Common opinion was that these two persons conjoyntly laboured so long as the King lived to conserve a spleen in the spirit of the Queen and to make her always troublesome and humoursome towards him in such manner that for seven or eight years together if he had one day of peace and quiet with her he had ten of discontent and vexation In this truly the Kings fault was the greatest because he gave the occasion of these troubles and the husband being as St. Paul saith the head of the wife ought to give her example and keep a more strict union with her We have observed this once for all But we cannot too often make this Reflexion That sin is the cause of all disorder and that for a little
pleasure it causes a thousand troubles and a thousand mischiefs even in this world it self The King being now but just fifty years of age began this year to have some small feelings of the Gout which possibly were the doleful effects of his excessive voluptuousness as well as of his labours To return to the Marchioness it happened one day that the Queen being very much offended at her discourse threatned her that she should know how to bridle her wicked tongue The Marchioness upon this seemed sad and grieved shunn'd the King and let him understand that she desired that he would no more demand any thing of her because she feared that the continuation of his favours would be too prejudicial both to her and her children Her design was to inflame more his passion by shewing her self more difficult But when she saw that her cunning had not all the effect she hoped and that the Queens anger was encreased to such a point that indeed there was some danger for her and hers she advised her self of another thing D' Entragues her Father demanded permission of the King to carry her out of the Kingdom to avoid the vengeance of the Queen The King granted her demand easier then she thought he would wherewith being excessively enraged her Father and the Count d' Auvergne her Brother by the Mothers side began to Treat secretly with the Ambassador of Spain to have some retreat in the Territories of his King casting themselves absolutely they and their children into his Arms. The Ambassador believed that this business would be very advantagious to his Master and that in time and place he might serve himself of that promise of marriage which the King had given to the Marchioness he therefore easily granted them all that they demanded and added all the fair promises with which weak and feeble spirits might be entoxicated The King had granted them permission to retire themselves out of France but yet without the Children out of a belief he had that they would go into England to the Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Aubigny of the house of the Stuarts who were their near kinsmen but when he understood that they consulted of a retreat into Spain he resolved to hinder them but to employ fair means to do it He sends therefore for the Count d' Auvergne who was then at Clermont so much beloved in the Province that he believed he might securely stay there He refused to come before he had his Pardon Sealed in good form for all that he might have done This was a kind of new crime to capitulate with his King however he sends it him but with this Clause That he should make his immediate appearance His distrust permitted him not to obey on this condition he stayed still in the Province where he kept himself on his Guard with all precautions imaginable Nevertheless he was not so cunning but the King could entrap him and by an Artifice very gross He being Colonel of the French Cavalry was desired to go see a Muster made of a Company of the Duke of Vendosmes He went well mounted keeping himself at a good distance that he might not be encompassed Nevertheless d' Eâ—â—â—re Lieutenant of that Company Nerestan approaching him to salute him mounted on little Hobbies for fear of giving him suspition but with three Souldiers disguised like Lacquies cast him from his horse and made him prisoner They led him presently to the Bastille where he was seized with a great fear when he saw himself lodged in the same Chamber where the Marshal of Byron his great friend had been Immediately after the King caused d' Entragues to be Arrested who was carried to the Conciergerie and the Marchioness who was left in her lodgings under the Guard of the Cavalier de Guet After desiring to make known by publick proofs the ill intention of the Spaniards who seduced his subjects and excited and fomented conspiracies in his Estate he remitted the prisoners into the hands of the Parliament who having convicted them of having complotted with the Spaniard declared by a sentence of the first of February the Count of Auvergne d' Entragues and an English man named Morgan who had been the Agent of this fair Negotiation guilty of Treason and as such condemned them to have their heads cut off The Marchioness to be conducted with a good Guard into the Abby of Nuns at Beaumont near to Tours to be there shut up and that in the mean time there should be more ample information made against her at the request of the Attorny-General The Queen spared no sollicitations for the giving of this sentence believing that the Execution would satisfie her resentment but the goodness of the King surpassed her passion The love which he had for the Marchioness was not so far extinct that he could resolve to Sacrifice what he had adored he would not permit them to pronounce the Sentence and two months and a half afterward to wit on the fifteenth of April he by Letters under his Great Seal changed the penalty of Death on the Count of Auvergne and the Lord d' Entragues into perpetual Imprisonment Some time after he had likewise changed the prison of Entragues into a Confinement to his house of Malles-herbes in Beausse He likewise permitted the Marchioness to retire to Verneuil and seven months being passed without the Attorney-Generals procuring any proof against her he caused her to be declared absolutely innocent of the crime whereof she was accused There rested onely the Count of Auvergne who being the most to be feared was the worst treated for the King not onely kept him prisoner at the Bastille where he lay for twelve whole years but likewise deprived him of his propriety in the County of Auvergne He had bore the title and enjoyed it by vertue of the Donation of King Henry the third Queen Margaret newly come to the Court sustained that this Donation could not be valuable because the contract of the Marriage of Katherine de Medicis her Mother to whom that County appertained allowing Substitution of her goods and that Substitution said she extending to Daughters in default of Males that County was to come to her after the death of Henry the third nor could he give it to her prejudice The Parliament having hearkned to her reasons and seen her proofs annulled the Donation made by Henry the third and adjudged her this County In recompence of which obligation and many others she had received from the King she made a Donation of all her Estates after death to the Daulphin reserving to her self onely the fruits of them during life The Count of Auvergne thus despoiled remained in the Bastille untill the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen when Queen Mary de Medicis having need of him during the troubles delivered him from thence and caused him to be justified She