be disputed since the consent of the whole Province did intervene and that in all publique businesses all private rights must bow and yield to the publique good Salus populi suprema lex esto 3. Besides ever since John of Montford by the battell of Auray An. 1364. remained Master of the Dutchy and excluded Jane his Gosen-German Wife to Charles de Blois objecting that she was a woman and that women vvere not capable Heirs of Estates of that nature Since that time I say it may be affirmed that Females were excluded from the succession of Britain And that if Anne Wife to the two Kings Charles the VII and Lewis the XII was admitted to it it was by toleration For by right after the death of Francis the last Duke the Dutchy was devolved to the Crown And truly Francis the last Duke by his great revolts had given sufficient cause to the Kings of France his Soveraigns to deprive him of his Estate 4. The French also may here set up the right of Aubeine which excludeth strangers admitted none but regnicolae inhabitants of the Kingdom to successions Which must especially be observed in great Estates and most of all in those that owe a liedge homage For whereas the Duke of Britain did owe personal service to the King how can a woman born in Spain tyed with blood and interesse unto a house alwaies jealous and often declared Enemy of the State of France perform that part of her duty to the Crown a duty absolutely necessary for the preservation of the body of the State unto which the establishing of all Fees must have regard 6. The French may deale besides with the house of Austria by right of represals For since that house withholds so many Dutchies and Counties from the Crown of France without any recompence or satisfaction they think not themselves bound to give ear to their pretences upon so little ground Second Point Of the third Chapter The pretences of the house of France upon that of Austria A Book was publisht An. 1634. intituled Inquisition of the rights of the King and Crown of France upon the Kingdoms Dutchies Countries Towns and Countries usurped by forraign Princes upon the most Christian Kings composed by Cassan the Kings Advocate in the Presidial of Beziers wherein all that we have to say of this matter is fully and curiously set down Which though we will but summarily relate yet we hope to adde somthing to it both for order and matter Wee will stand here only upon those rights which are disputed against the house of Austria and the Empire both because it is our present businesse and because all other claims are stale and of small importance All the pretences of the French upon the possessions of the house of Austria are either antient and almost worn out as the pretences upon Castilia Portugal Arragon Catalonia or later and important upon Dominions to which they maintaine their rights and claim them from time to time to hinder a prescription joyning to their claim active prosecution by armes Though I might omit those first pretences as too stale yet I will here set them down among the rest for the information of curious Readers All the pretences either new or old of the French upon the Spaniard are either within or without Spain In that Peninsula called Spain inclosed within the great Ocean the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees since the invasion of the Saracens an 713. there hath been a great number of petty States under the Title of Kingdomes Dutchies Counties c. into which that great Province was divided either by the Moores when they conquered the Land or by the Christians when they reconquered it and it is but a hundred and fifty yeares since there was yet five remarkable distinct soveraignties in Spain Castilia Arragon Navarra Portugal and Granada four of which Castilia Arragon Navarra and Granads were united by Ferdinand the Catholique Portugal came to the House of Austria an 1580. under Philip the II. for here I speake not yet of the revolt of the Portugais and Catalans which hath cut off two considerable limbs of that great body of which we will say more before we have done This is not a fit place to examine how these severall States were founded and how united as they are now We consider onely that there be six pieces within Spain upon which the French have pretences Castilia Portugal Navarra Arragon Catalonia and the County of Roussillon And out of Spain they claim a right to the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily the Dutchie of Milan the Common-wealth of Genoa and the Counties of Flanders and Artois Paragraphe I. Of the Kingdome of Castilia The Saracens Moores having invaded Spain an 713 were manfully opposed by two Catholique Princes Inigo Imenes surnamed Arista Count of Bigorre who conquered upon them part of the Pyrenees and founded the little Kingdom of Suprarba called afterward Navarra The other Prince was Don Pelagus Uncle or Cousin to King Rodriguez dispossest before by the Saracens This Prince founded a Kingdom towards Asturia called Gallicia or Leon or the Kingdom of Oviedo He and his Descendants and people stretching themselves towards the plains recovered the Country as farre as the Strait of Gibralter and built many Castles upon their Frontier to keepe out the Saracens Whence the Country was called Gastilia which remained under the subjection of the Kings of Oviedo till the year 896. when the Castilians incensed against their King Frocla who had usurped the State of his Nephews cantonned themselves and chose two soveraign Judges The two first were Nugno Rasuro and Flavio Galvo But about 40 years after an 939. Sanchez King of Oviedo and Leon made himselfe Master of Castilia and reunited it unto the Kingdom of Oviedo where it remained till Dom Sanchez surnamed the Great King of Navarra who had Castilia by his Wife made that famous partage between his three Sons giving Navarra to Garcias his eldest Son to Ferdinando Castilia and Leon and to Ramires his bastard Arragon That partage was about the yeare 1036. which is the date of the birth and distinction of those three States in Spain From that Ferdinand King of Castilia descended long after Alphonsus the IX the Father of three Children one Son called Henry and two Daughters Blanch and Berengera Henry reigned after his Father and dyed without issue Blanch was married to Lewis the VIII King of Frances and was mother of St Lewis Berengerae was married to Alphonsus the IX King of Leon After the death of Henry Blanch as the eldest was the undoubted Heir of Castilia and Beringera had no right to it being the yongest Yet because Beringera was within the Country and Blanch lived in France very sarre she seized upon the state and with it invested her Son Ferdinand although many of the Grandees opposed it standing for the right of Blanch which caused great troubles till St. Lewis to whom Castilia belonged after his
alliance and ashamed of the harm which he had done to his Country Being then contented to agree with the King he met with him at Arras An. 1435. This was called the Treatie of Arras a fundamentall piece of the History of that age and the following By that Treaty after that King Charles the VII in as little dishonorable termes as might be had asked pardon for the killing of Duke John when he was Dolphin they agreed about many other Articles and the King gave many pieces belonging to the Crown The chief were these 1. He transported to the Duke and to his Heirs lawfully begotten the Towns and jurisdictions of Peronne Roye Mondidier to hold them by homage from the Crown and in Title of Peerdom to depend of the Court of Parliament of Paris 2. The County of Artois was restored unto him on the same Title with all the impositions amounting to fourteeen thousand Livers per an But of the rights of France upon the County of Artois we shall speak hereafter 3. He transported to the said Duke the Towns of Saint Quintin Corbi Amiens Abbeville Dourlans Saint Riquier Crevecoeur and all the other Towns Castles and Lordships seated upon the River of Somme on both sides together with the County of Ponthien and other Lands adjacent to the County of Flanders and Lands of the Empire All these Towns Castles and Lordships redeemable with the sum of 400000 Crowns Upon that Treaty all these Towns were delivered to the duke of Burgundy and all the time of Charles the VII nothing was altered in this agreement Lewis the XI came to the Crown An. 1461. who being unthankfull and malicious although he had great obligations to the house of Burgundy yet as soon as he came to the Crown he conceived a great aversion against Charles Count of Charolois Son and Heir to Philip le Bon and would recover all those pawned Lordships arguing the Treaty of Arras of nullity and invalidity maintaining that his Father could not alienate so many pieces belonging to the State against the fundamentall Laws To disingage these Lands he laid great impositions upon the people till he had raised the four hundred thousand Crownes which he caused to be brought to Abbeville and delivered unto the Duke who soon after delivered all those places unto him Charles Count of Charolois took that so heavily that he almost died for sorrow and conceived a mortall hatred against the Lord of Crovi whom he accused to have advised his Father to it And it was one of the causes of the War of the publique good which having been carried with various successe till the Treaty of Conflans near Paris 1465 the fourth Article whereof was that the King should give again to the Count of Charolois all the Townes seated upon the River of Somme lately redeemed with 400000. Crowns to enjoy them all his life time and besides that should give him the County of Guines for himself and his Heirs for ever This Charles who was since Duke of Burgundy enjoyed these Lands though not without Wars and Divisions against Lewis the XI Finally Charles being dead before Nancy An. 1477. Lewis the XI did suddenly invade the Dutchy of Burgundy as a masculin apanage returning to the Crown and all the Townes upon the River of Somme which the French have kept ever since Neither can the house of Austria pretend any just right to them as Heir of the house of Burgundy both because Charles the VII had not power to alienate these parts of his State as his Son Lewis the XI alledged and because all these Townes had been alienated upon condition of redemption with a certain sum which was paid by Lewis the XI unto the Duke Philip. And if they were restored to the Count of Charolois it was for his life onely Wherefore Lewis did not seize upon them but after the death of Charles At which time also he took Arras of which we will speak hereafter Paragraphe VI. Of the Dutchy of Britain The right of the house of Austria to the Dutchy of Britain hath more ground then any of the former and gave matter to many disputes especially in the time of the League the King of Spain Philip the II. representing the rights of his Daughter Isabella both to the Kingdom and especially to that Dutchy And when the Duke of Mercoeur who had cantonned himselfe in it finding himself too weak to maintain his own pretence to it which was upon another ground threatned to give entrance to the Spaniards into the Dutchy La Guesle the Kings Atturney Generall made a long speech to defend the Kings right of which the summary is this 1. That Francis the II. the last Duke of Britain dying An. 1488. left two daughters Anna and Isabella The second died young The eldest Anne had the whole succession and was married first to Charles the VIII of France by whom though she had many children none outlived the Father Who being dead she was married with his successour Lewis the XII by whom she had two Daughters Claude married to Francis the I. who by her had Henry the II who was Father to three Kings Francis the II. Charles the IX Henry the III. and to Francis Duke of Alanson all which left no issue He was Father also of Elizabeth the Third Wife of Philip the II. King of Spain who by her had the Infanta Isabella Wife to Archiduke Albert and Princess of the Low-Countries died An. 1633 and Catherine Dutchesse of Savoy 2. By the death of Henry the III all the masculine Race of Valois was extinct and the next Heir of that house was Infanta Isabella daughter to Elizabeth the eldest Sister of Henry the III. So if there was any Estate in that house inheritable by women it belonged to Isabella without question Philip the II dealing for his daughter after he was once satisfied that his pretence to the Crown of France in her behalfe was ridiculous asked that at least the Dutchy of Britain should be restored to her as the Estate which her great Grandmother Anne of Britain had brought to Lewis the XII an Estate which often had past to Females saying as it was true that she was the next in blood To these allegations these answers are given 1. That the Dutchy of Britain had been inserapably united w th the Crown by the coming of Henry the II. to the Crown for it is a fundamentall rule among the French that a King coming to the Crown uniteth unto the same all his Estate both Paternall and Maternall 2. Besides that tacit and municipall right to which all contrary pretence must yield there was an expresse union made An. 1532. at the request of the States Generall of Britain by Francis the I. upon condition that the Dolphin should take the Title of Dolphin of Viennois Duke of Britain which was then practised in the person of the Dolphin Francis but was since neglected That authenticall union of Britain with the Crown cannot
Embassadors To which the French answered that they were sent by their King not to judge causes or to decide of the Rights of King Philip who was a good friend brother in law to their King Charles the IX but if any would take their place they were resolved to stand for it against all sorts of persons which if the Councill denyed them they had order to with draw with all the French Prelates and to protest of the nullity of the resolutions which should be taken in their absence To which the Legate answered nothing That declaration of the French though generous gave occasion to the affront which soon after was offered to them in the Councill for they are censured by posterity for not requiring absolutely that the Spaniards should fit under them An. 1563. The Legates fearing some division between the French and Spanish Doctors about their order in speaking gave order that without distinction of Nations every one should speak according to his seniority of Doctorship But because some among the French Divines had the seniority over the Spanish these made great complaints to the Legate pretending that this preference of the French would be a prejudice against the dispure which the Countide Luna was forming against the French Embassadours The Legats rebuked them shewing that the Doctors though sent by the Princes did not represent their persons as the Embassadors did and that the question was onely of the seniority of the degree not of the preference of the Nations Notwithstanding these satisfactory Reasons the Spaniards were angry and threatned the Councill of their Kings displeasure who should take off his protection from them The French seeing that the Spaniard stood upon points in such a clear business and that of Doctors they would make Embassadours did obstinate themselves also to have the preference even in the disputes of the Divines And because the Popes delegates spake first without contradiction the French asked to be admitted to speak next after them which the Legates were constrained to grant and it was decreed that after the Jesuite Salmeron the Popes Divine Nicolas Maillart Dean of the faculty of Paris should speak and that after that all should speak according to the seniority of their degree which was followed Yet to content the Spaniards it was enacted in the Register of the Councill that the French Doctor had spoken the first by the right of his seniority in the degree of Doctor not by the preference of his Nation The same year 1563. upon Easter-day the Count of Luna was received at Trent and in his entry mached between the Embassadors of the Emperour and of France This Ceremony past with much honour and civility between the two Nations And at the same time the Cardinal of Lorrain writ to the Emperour Ferdinand who was at Insprugh in the County of Tirol three dayes journey from Trent upon divers affaires of the Councill and in the end of the Letter desired him to find some temper to lay down the dispute about the preference between the two Crowns so that it might not appear in the Councill But his Country-men blamed him for it saying that he ought not to have taken notice of a dispute so ill grounded Or if he had spoken of it it should not have been to have desired a temper but to maintaine his Kings right The Emperour answered him that it belonged not to him to decide the disputes between the Kings of France and Spain but since he had desired him to speak his sense about it if your Embassadours said he maintaine their rank after mine and that none take that place from them what does it import you what place be assigned unto the Spaniards A verdict ill taken by the French who held it to be of a dangerous consequence For in an order of sitting who so leaveth his place say they is thought to despise it and to ask a higher which cannot be done without moving a dispute against those that sit in a higher seat The Count of Luna after that solemn entry was hidden forty dayes and appeared not in any ceremony of publique action being in great perplexity how to behave himself sometimes he had a mind to enter into the assembly in the midst of the two Embassadors of the Emperor who were injoyned to bear him company and after they had taken their place stand by them till his Commission had been verified by the Councill and then retire to his house But considering that this would not be a generous maintaining of his Masters honour he made means that the French Embassadors should be desired not to appeare in the Assemby that day which being denyed him he sent some Spanish Bishops to the Legates to propound unto them that the secular Embassadors of Princes should not enter into the generall Congregations but the day of their reception but should content themselves to be present at the Ceremony the day of the Session maintaining that it had been so observed in the Councells before But all the Embassadors of Princes having opposed that motion he could obtain nothing Again he caused some Bishops to propound some point to the Congregation at the discussion whereof the French ought not to be present as interessed parties for example to represent what damage would result to the whole Church by a peace of the King of France with the Hugonots or some such thing But all that being rejected and the Congregation being put off from day to day by his obstinacy in the end that the businesses of the Councell might not be retarded the Cardinall of Lorraine and the French Embassadors declared to the Legates that if they might keep their place immediately after the Emperours Embassadors they did not care what place the Embassador of Spain should take The French to this day exclaim against that action of the Cardinal and the French Embassadors saying that it was a great weaknesse and that they had betrayed their Masters honour Yea the Fathers of the Councell disliked it And when the Cardinal de la Bourdesiere Resident for the King of France by the Pope complained to him of that Spanish ambition and novelty introduced against all ancient orders the Pope it was Pius the IV. answered that he should complaine to the French Embassadors whose weakness he condemned saying that although he had been solicited before and after the entry of Count de Luna into Trent to favour that designe he had remained constant and inflexible and that he wondred how the French had so easily yea so freely yielded The day of the Congregation being come and each Embassador having taken his place the Count of Luna enters stands over against the Legates somewhat far from the Embassadors seat presents his Orders and declares his Masters will Then he protested that although the first seat was due to him next to the imperiall Embassadors as representing the greatest Prince of Christendome the greatest Prop of the Church c. yet that he should
and Spain intervened to make them friends And this was done without prejudice to the peace betweene the two States Valteline is a vally seated between Germany the Venetians the Dutchy of Milan the Grisons It was in old time a part of the Dutchy of Milan or at least an appurtenance of the same And was engaged to the Grisons by Lewis the XII for foure hundred thousand pounds arrear due to them for their service in the conquest of Milan since which time it was subject to the Grisons But the differences of Religion intervening and the Grisons being turned Protestants for the most part Valtolina kept for the most part the Religion of Milan Which made them desire to shake the yoke of the Grisons and returne under the subjection of Milan invited to it by the Spaniards So that an 1619. the great revolt began and the Valtolins expell the Grisons their Masters Who had recourse to the protection of France by whom they held that Countrey King Lewis the XIII sends Monsieur de Bassompierre into Spaine to Philip the IV. for Philip the III. was lately dead who granted according to the Treaty of Madrid that all garrisons of strangers should depart out of Valtolina and that order should be taken for the maintaining of the Catholique Religion The Duke of Feria having refused to execute that command and the Valtolins unwilling to returne to the obedience of the Grisons King Lewis exhorted the Switzers and Grisons to maintaine their rights and sent them an Embassadour the Marquis de Coenures whom he made afterwards General of their army and Marshall of France known by the name of Marshall d'Estree Then did the French and the Spaniards fight yet without breaking the Treaty of Vervins because both acted for their confederates Pope Vrban the VIII having made himselfe Depositary of the principal places of Valtolina sent his nephew Cardinal Barbarini into France an 1625. who not being able to make an accommodation as pretending to deliver Valtolina from the obedience of the Grisons war began in Italie by the aliance made betweene the French and the Duke of Savoy against Genoa which was assisted by the Spaniard Thus these quarrels upon the by came very neer to an absolute rupture betweene the two Nations For at the same time some Spanish ships passing from Barcelona to Genoa and driven upon the coasts of Marseille were arrested by the Duke of Guise Of which the Genoese complained to the King of Spaine whose Councel irritated with these wars and with the taking of many places about Genoa gave order that all French ships in the havens of Spaine should be arrested and all the goods of the French trafficquing in Spaine seized upon The Councell of France to bee even with them made two Edicts the one to forbid all traffick with Spaine the other to seize upon all ships of Spain Portugal Naples and other places of the Spanish dominions yet onely by right of represalls and for restitution of the goods taken from the French War continued in Piemont all that while till the winter of that yeare 1625 when the armies retired into garrisons That winter Du Fâ—rgis the French Emassadour in Spain began a Treaty which was called the Treaty of Monson in Arragon whereby without any Commission from his Master or his principall Minister of State the Cardinal de Richelieu as it was pretended he did greatly derogate to the right of the Grisons over Valtolina making the Valtolins well nigh Soveraines taking from the Grisons all power to refuse the Iudges and that forme of Government which the Valtolins would set up among themselves That Treaty was disavowed by King Lewis and the Cardinal who commanded the Embassadour to reforme it Wherein so much tedious protraction was used that Lewis was in the end constrained to take upon him the protection of the Valtolins and sent them the Duke of Rohan who there continued the war even after the rupture between the two Crownes In the yeare 1628 Vincent the II. Duke of Mantua being dead Charles Duke of Nevers the next heire male succeeded but the Emperour made some difficulty about it because he was borne in France and because he did not come personally to him to render his homage But besides his right of lapse for want of homage he set up the right of Duke Guastullo of the same house of Mantua which yet appeared at the first to be weake and of no force At the same time the Duke of Savoy renewed his rights to Montserrat So the new Duke of Mantua saw himselfe almost swallowed up by the Emperour the Spaniard and the Duke of Savoy Yea Don Gonzales de Cordova besieged Cazal the old apple of discord between the houses of Mantua and Savoy King Lewis resolved to maintaine his subject and confederate sends Bevron and Guron to defend Cazal Himselfe passeth into Italie forceth Le pas de Suze driveth the Spaniard from the siege of Cazal and compelleth the Duke of Savoy to let the Mantuan be in peace The Protestants in France being in armes Rochel besieged and their party brought low some say that the Duke of Rohan sent Clausel from Montpellier to Madrid to put the Protestant party under the protection of the King of Spain The History of Dupleix sets downe the whole Treaty betweene the King of Spain and the Duke of Rohan whereby the Spaniard promiseth to assist Rohan with men and money But Lewis returning victorious out of Italie suddenly overcame the Protestant party and forced them to receive peace The Spaniard thought he might as lawfully assist the Protestants of France as the French assisted those of Holland Whilst Lewis was busy about the pacification of his owne State the Duke of Savoy reneweth his pretence to Montserrat the Emperour sends Colalâ—o against the Duke of Mantua and the Marquesse ef Spinola besiegeth Cazal but in vaine being well defended by Toiras since Marshal of France Lewis repasseth into Italie makes himselfe Master of Savoy and Piemont The Imperial Army takes Mantua but all is pacified by the Treaty of Queyras an 1631. and the Duke of Mantua is setled in his Estate In that yeare 1631. Mary the Queene Mother of France retireth into Flanders The next yeare 1632. the Duke of Orleans her sonne doth the like Where getting some Dutch and German troopes he makes an inrode into France and in the yeare 1633. he makes a Treaty with the Spaniard to enter into France with an Army All this without absolute rupture betwixt the two Crownes Onely the Spaniard fomented the divisions of the Royal house of France Gustavus Adolphus King of Sueden after a long war against Poland comes into Germany an 1631. for the restitution of the Dukes of Meckelburg his kinsmen into their Estates out of which the Emperour had expelled them and to restore liberty to the Cities of Germanie Lewis jealous of the greatness of the house of Austria and having causes enow to ressent the wrongs offered to him
by the Emperour made a Covenant with the King of Sueden for the defence of their common friends opprest the safety of the commerce upon the Sea the liberty of the States of the Empire The King of Sueden promist the assistance of his armes and his person and the King of France a million of livers per annum Hence followed the great victories of Gustavus till he was slaine at the battell of Lutzen in Novemb 1632. An. 1634. the Duke of Orleans leaveth Flanders and returnes to the King his brother III. Paragraphe From the Rupture of the peace till now These mutuall offences being accumulated in the end brake into open war It was declared by the French by a Herald in Flanders in May 1635. That declaration was grounded upon that old complaint that the Spaniard aspires to the universal Monarchy of Europe and to devoure all the Princes thereof and because the Spaniard vexed the confederates of France with wars but more particularly by reason of the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Treves who had put himselfe under the protection of King Lewis To all the complaints of the French the Spaniards have their answers and have enough on their part to complaine Howsoever this war hath produced many great exploits on both sides in Germany in Italy in Flanders in Spaine And though the fortune of war have alternative successes yet France had hitherto the advantage of that bloody game having stretcht her dominions beyond the Rhine united Lorraine to the French Crowne got many townes in Flanders and Artois Perpignan and the County of Roussillon and got a good footing in the Dutchy of Milan Besides Catalonia which hath submitted her self to the Soveraignty of France The greatest losse of the Spaniard is that of Portugal by the practices of France whereby the King of Spain hath lost Brasill and the East-Indies AN APPENDIX To the foregoing DISCOURSE Shewing the Dispute about the precedence at the Councell of Trent betweene the Embassadors of France and Spaine IT is certaine that before the formation of that great Colossus of the House of Austria about the year 1520. the Kings of France were acknowledged the first of Christendom next to the Emperours The pieces wherewith the greatnesse of Spain is made up are Provinces most of them feudatary of the Empire or of France or of the Pope all these lately gathered up But France is of an ancient entire and independent greatnesse The Embassadours of Charles the V. had the precedence every where before those of France because he was Emperour But in the year 1555. when he resigned that quality of Emperour to his Brother and his other qualities and states to his Son perceiving that his Son wanting the quality of Emperour could not keep that preheminence he used this artifice A little before his retirement from the world he recalled from Venice his Embassador Francisco de Vargas who being an Embassador of the Empire had a precedence before the French Embassador Then after the resignation of his States he sent the same Vargas to Venice again as Embassadour for himselfe and his Son joyntly although in effect Charles being devested of his dignities Vargas was Embassadour of his Son onely hoping thereby to deceive the Venetians and others by sending the same man Vargas demanded of the Senate of Venice the same precedence which he had before To which Dominique Bishop of Lodeva Embassadour of Henry the II of France made opposition representing to the Senate that Charles was no more considerable in the world that when the Embassadours of the Emperour Ferdinand should appear he would yield to them but that he would not yield to the Embassadour of Philip but in all occasions of audience ceremony visits and the like he would take the first place till the coming of the Imperial Embassadors The Senate fearing some ill issue of this dispute gave order that the two Embassadours should not present themselves at the ceremonies of the Feast of St Mark and so the matter remained undecided all the year 1557 by the irresolution of that Common-wealth and the simplicity of the French Embassadour But in the year 1558. Francis de Novailles Bishop of Acs having succeeded that of Lodeva renewed the dispute and the Embassadours of the Emperour Ferdinand being come he demanded to be maintained in his Rights and to have the first place after the Emperours Embassadour and couragiously took it before Vargas who seeing that the policy of Charles who dyed at the same time took no effect and that he was considered onely as Embassadour of Philip began to extoll his Masters greatness and number his States and Soveraignties which he possessed in farre greater number then the King of France Saying that these customs of honour and precedence must alter according to the time That his Master was the greatest King of the world farre more able to assist the Common-wealth with Arms Men and Money then the King of France The Bishop of Acs stoutly resisted him and obtained of the Senate an Order whereby the precedence was adjudged unto him above the Embassadour of Spain About which when the Spaniard expostulated very earnestly it was answered him that the Common-wealth would not undertake to examine the greatnesse of their Majesties but that they found in their Records that in all Acts both publique and private Ceremonies Visits and Audiences the Embassadours of France had preceded those of Spain and to that received custome they would keep This answer offended Philip who upon that called back his Embassadour But Micael Surriano the Venetian Embassadour in his Court defended the decree of the Senate of Venice and in some sort mitigated the displeasure of Philip who yet in all occasions renued that dispute His greatest effort was four years after in the Councill of Trent To understand the right of precedences of Ambassadours we must know that in the Councill there was three sorts of Assemblies particular Congregations generall Congregations and Sessions In the private Congregations the Doctors assisted with some Bishops examined the questions of Faith and Reformation and there no Ceremony of precedence was heeded In the general Congregation all the Prelates assembled the Legats were Presidents every one kept his place of honour It was a publique action where questions were resolved the Legates propounded that which was to be examined in the particular Congregations every Prelate had right to speak and to vote Embassadors of Princes had audience after their Commission was examined and that which was to be promulgated in the following Session was there concluded Embassadors kept their place there according to their rank The Session was the solemne day upon which after a Mass of the Holy Ghost and a Sermon of a Prelate or some eminent man upon the matter in question the Prelate officiating pronounced with a loud voyce the Decrees resolved which the Father 's approved with a Placet In these Sessions Embassadors had also their place of honour and at the Mass