disgusts that he had conceived against the Duke of Parma he would be graciously pleased to restore him to his former good grace and embracing him with paternall benevolence condescend to some agreement to their reciprocall satisfaction which courteous expressions being answered by the Pope in words testifying a very reall acceptation Monsieur de Lyonne proceeds to a further discourse importing that it was his Majesty's earnest desire and request to his Holynesse to Restore the Duke of Parma to all his goods and estates since he had so amply satisfied his reputation in the conquest of Castro and now to forget things past as his Majesty himselfe had dealt with the Duke of Lorrain in restoring him to astate of such advantage upon his humble submission only to his Majesty's clemency To this the Pope answered in these precise tearms Castro is already the Apostolicall See's There is nothing to be said of that If you will treat of Parma and Placentia which were now pretended to be forfeited somewhat may be done at the Kings intercession About Castro we will afterwards do justice Monsieur de Lyonne replies that that was not the grace which his Majesty had employed him to seek it being probable that the neighbour Princes would not suffer such disaster to befall the Duke of Parma nor such an acquisition to a mightier confinant as was the State Ecclesiasticall where the Pope apprehending a secret conceipt shadowed that the King of France would aid the Parmesan discovered great alteration saying that the Duke of Parma was a rebell and excommunicated and that whatsoever Princes should assist him were wicked and Impious in which case he would put his trust in God assuring himselfe that he would not abandon him in his most righteous cause That therefore he should not speak any more to him about Castro as a businesse not practicable but only of Parma and Placentia whereat de Lyonne not troubling himselfe replyed That if his Holynesse would do any grace to the King it must be about Castro for of the other he had no commission to treat any thing which more inflaming the Pope's displeasure he tooke his leave in time that he might reserve his further application for another audience which a while after he again obtaining with like successe tooke his course back to Parma to propound new overtures The French having bin before dealing with the Duke of Parma to draw his assistance towards Lombardy were now willing to degage him from any embroilments on the contrary side or otherwise to study how to serve themselves upon occasion The Spaniards though they longed to revenge the injuries of the Barberini were fain to mortify that passion with better councell holding it no good time to break with Rome any more then to joine with Parma The Republick of Venice The Duke of Tuscany The Duke of Modena being both allied in blood to Parma are yet but making long debates about a league in his favour Wherefore De Lyonne thinks best to propound some suspension for the present fearing least Parma should be over-powred which he being a Prince of great Courage and now if he followed not his enterprises likely to sink under great charges which the forces that he had gathered must needs put him to in his own countrey was very unwilling to hearken to so that entring with his forces into the ecclesiasticall state he brought great dammages terror to Rome it selfe till at last he was overperswaded to attend the issue of a treaty at Castel-Georgio wherein the Papalins to divert the present shock consented to deposite Castro in the Duke of Modena's hands for three or four months while affairs in difference should be treated The Ministers of France being all this while instant with the State of Venice first to mediate for and then to assist the Duke of Parma practising also at the same time with other Italian Princes on this subject cannot avoid jealousies on all sides interchangeable The Venetians though moved thereunto by the French Ministers yet are very cautious how they interpose their offices in this affaire least they should seem to deprive that Crown of the Honour of mediation whereupon they impart all their negotiations at Rome with exact diligence to the French Ambassadour passing one concurrence and correspondence in their treaties But for the matter of assistance however they were enclined to the joyning with their Neighbour Potentates to keep Italy still in the same Ballance yet the instances of the French in this regard they accounted no way free from suspicion now especially that the Princes of Savoy were turned to their service and away thereby opened to the heart of Lombardy They hold the old proverb good Have the French for thy Friend but not for thy Neighbour For although they had the Spaniards ambitious and troublesome Confinants which by their monies and intelligence had made them many chargable and unseasonable diversions yet the differences since a whole age had never come to a breach between them besids that they did not count them of so desultory an humour as other Ultramontans On another side the Spaniards seeing the French so busy in their treaties from the one side to the other and knowing how much they were oblieged to respect them both now they saw also the Duke of Parma proceed so prosperously in the state Ecclesiasticall without foot or artillery began to confirme themselves in a former suspicion that some mystery was under those enterprises and that the Pope was indeed of some agreement with the Duke of Parma the King of France and the Princes of the League against the Kingdome of Naples whose Vice-roy was allied to That Duke which apprehension might have bin the more justified by an overture of Monsieur De Lyonne if at least it did not escape the inquisitivenesse of the Spaniards made to the Duke of Parma about the leaving of Castro to Don Tadco and accepting of the Pope and King of France his assistance to invest him in the Kingdome of Naples To which the Duke roundly answered Nay but rather let them restore me my Dutchy and bestow their Kingdome on Don Tadco However this conceipt especially the League being now formed and his Neighbours in armes round about him made the Spaniard keep him on his guard to his great charges and leave those forces on his frontiers of Naples which he needed elswhere being also as before was intimated not a litle troubled at such a league made with his exclusion The Pope and the Barberini are no lesse satisfied of the French Negotiations as too too partiall to the interests of Parma and otherwise suspected to aime only at embroiling all things The other Princes are jealous of the Duke of Parma least he should be brought to cast himselfe onely on the French assistance and to bring a formidable guest to their doores whereupon they are willing rather to assist him themselves that he might enter on no course prejudiciall to their common Interests And
nominate him as his pleny-potentiary for the Generall peace which was no lesse then to entrust him with the interests of the Crowne and of its confederates and accordingly Richelieu now treats with him disjoining every spring and parcelling every implement of his breast to discover to him and the quality of this employment might allow time for it for it was not presently to be entered on In the interim this new creature to commend his Services the more dearly to the Crowne undertakes two famous treaties to reduce the Princes of Savoy from the interests of Spain to the contrary of France The first was concluded and signed but the sudden breaking out of the Counts of Soissons and Bouillon hindred the effect and gave the Cardinall leisure as some would have it being now nigh upon the place to gaine also the Prince of Monaco whose accession afterwards was accounted of great consequence The second treaty brought the first to an issue reuniting those Princes at the same time to the side of France and to the head of their house the then Infant-Duke of Savoy an union whereunto the most part of the places conquered in Piemont and Montferrat is ascribed After his returne from these affaires he accompanies the Cardinall of Richelieu in that voyage which brought Cincmars the grand Escuyer and his competitor in the Kings favour his designes to the light and his head to the block but while the Cardinall Duke is urging still his jealousies to greater envie in this businesse this other Cardinall finds himselfe a better worke to perswade the Duke of Bouillon one of the Complices to deliver up his soveraignty of Sedan to the Kings power as a ransome for his treason which accordingly he obtained and the King seized This was the gate by which Mazzarini entered equally into Richelieu's and the King's favour but especially by the douceur and gentlenesse of his proceeding which made the King desire his imployment being inwardly weary of Richelieu's excessive and now more intemperate rule by reason of his malady so that that favorite could not comply better with the King's pleasure in any other suit then this of serving himselfe of Mazzarini in whose person both might find their private ends as well as their publick The Cardinall might raise in him a Protector of his house and kindred against their most incensed emulators and the King find a subject by whom to ballance the Princes of the Blood when he was gone especially the Duke of Orleans against whose sway he devised all means possible to provide The Cardinall of Richelieu had tooke his fortune as it were to farme putting his terme of life into the lease which was therefore to be circumscribed with his Master's for had he outlived him it is a question whether all his admirable expedients could have served to represse a harder fate which being instigated by much envy would faine have stetched a long arme to reach him And the sense of this while the King's health seemed to decay faster then his owne had cast the Cardinall into many pangs of contrivances how to make his estate good when his plea in chiefe was gone Sometimes to reconcile himselfe with his grand enemies especially the Queene whom he had highly disobliged Sometimes to get the King's children to his owne power and wardship sometimes to ruine or at least how to ballance the Duke of Orleans and sometimes to retire for which purpose he had layed up a vast summe of readie gold at Haure de Grace and had purchased in the King's name and licence but with his owne mony A soverainty on the Meuse with Chastean Reynaud and a territory adjacent whereby he doubted not but to render himselfe considerable both to France and the neighbour Princes without any feare of his enemies But all this was in vaine for death tooke him at the best time at the bound of his glory The newes of the taking of Tortona in the state of Milan coming to Paris the same day to bring new Laurells to his hearse But when he was about to die he may seeme to have over-reached his fortune and driven her beyond her intention in leaving her favours to his successors in a way scarce before observed for besides his leaving a creature of his owne to survive in he bequeathed the most important charges of the Kingdome under the King's good pleasure who accordingly allowed of his disposall in all but a few church livings and that only to save the prerogative which the Kings of France claime in such causes to his owne kindred which proved a great disappointment to his enemies for they soone found that they could not pluck up his residue without the danger of the whole Then he recommended to the King the Officers and Ministers of state as he was to leave them particularly the Secretaries de Chauvigny and de Noyers wherein he promised his majesty he might continue to prosper as he had thither to The King accepts well of his advice resolves to use the same instruments that he had before but never to admit the like partager in his royall authority as the Cardinall of Richelieu had been For the Cardinall Mazzarini he forth with makes him president of his councell committing the Secretaries of state to his orders which in effect was to make him his prime Minister My purpose is to digest some memorialls from this period yet I cannot leave that great subject before mentioned till I have brought him to his funerall Not that I intend any long digression to bring in the Ceremonies of his interring but only to note one or two circumstances on this occasion which have respect to some ensuing passages The first was the composing of an ancient difference betweene Cardinalls and the Princes of the blood about precedencie which before was only regulated by the Kings favour Now they agree with mutuall satisfaction that in the Churches and Ecclesiasticall functions the Cardinall should have priority in other places the Princes and in other things should treat one another with equality Whereupon the Prince of Condè and his sonne the Duke of Enguien come to visit the Cardinall Mazzarini The second is this There was a chaire covered with velvet and somewhat raised set for the Cardinall Mazzarini in the church of Nostre-dame in Paris where the obsequies were to be solemnized which occasioned a hot dispute about the manner of being seated betwixt the said Cardinall and the Bishops these pretending that he should stand in the same ranke with them and among these the Arch-Bishop of Rheims and Bishop of Beauvais were most earnest breaking out into high words in saying That with other Cardinalls for dignity birth and merit more regardable then he there never fell the like pretension This offence the Cardinall was faine to digest at that time not without straining a dissimulation but found opportunity afterwards to turne it on the authors to a greater jacture of their reputation Richelieu is now covered the court
so at last concluding and conjoyning in one league rendred no lesse jealousy to the French themselves then they had done to the others least it should tend to contravene their designes now ready against the State of Milan But let us now returne to the Court and thence take our licence to some other Quarter We left the Duke of Orleans a moneth since shadowed with a dismall and thick cloud but as mighty offices were not wanting to dispell it particularly of the Secretary de Chauvigni a creature of the late Cardinall and speciall Confident of the present Whereupon on the 12th of January he arrives at Paris and next morning presents himselfe to the King in his Cabinet at St Germans with one knee on the ground in expression of reverence and humiliation protesting hereafter never to deviate from that loyaltie which on so many respects he owed to his Majesty from whom he had this answer That it was now high time the effects should agree in perfect harmony with his words in which case he might expect the fruits of a loving brotherhood knowing that he could not from any other hand then that of his royall bounty hope for any advantage The King had reason considering his owne health and the high interest 's of the person not to leave him in such disgusts as were likely to fall heavy on his Infant-successor But Monsieur to use this grace the more nobly disdains not a while after to visit the Dutchesse of Ayguillon the neece of his great adversary of Richelieu to whose rigidnesse his slips were imputed his generosity not allowing him to imitate a vulgar spleen which hates for malice though the obstacle be removed wrecking it selfe with aemulation on all that belong's to the person or his memory The arms of France by confederacie with the Swedes and by joining the troops of the late Duke of Weimar to the forces of the Count of Guehriant were now high in Germany they urging all their power to make the Electour of Saxony and these the Electour of Bavaria desist from aiding of the Emperour and embrace a neutrality Wherefore Guebriant to comply with the hardy Swedes to whom the rigour of the winter did but seeme to facilitate their warfare in plaining the passes over rivers and giving them the nigher accesse to any ramparts opposite abandons his quarters in Franconia to conduct his Army into the Dutchy of Wittemberg where he harassed all the Country betwixt Hailbrun and Ulm that he might thereby give deeper apprehensions to the Electour of Bavaria and hold his and the imperiall forces still in distraction while Generall Tortenson accredited with his late victory at Leipsick was overrunning of Moravia and striking terrour into Austria In the meane time the Baron of Oysonville that was left in command with the forces of Alsatia having somewhat drained Brisach and Rhin-feld with the other garrisons conducts them to Uberlinghens a place situated on the lake of Constance and without any great opposition possesseth himselfe of it to the great griefe of the Electour of Bavaria because it flanked on his estates and no lesse jealousy of the Switzers because their confines were terminated here Whereupon they take alarmes despeede souldiers to their borders and raise new works for more security about the fort of Stein and because the like dangers were imminent on the County of Burgundy which on that side also distermined their countrey from so powerfull a neighbour they call a diet at Baden and thence notwithstanding the offers of the French to give them a fair partage in that Country they dispatched their Deputies to the Court to make their humble remonstrances for the indemnity of that province with protestations of being bounden to defend it as an ancient confederate of the Helvetian body in case of invasion which would oblige them most unwillingly to draw their sword's against those in whose cause they were ready to brandish them on another occasion which offices had made no breach in the King's mind being most determined to begin his next campagne with the attaquing of Salins that so intercepting the communication 'twixt Germany and Dola the whole country might fall into his power without any further trouble if his languishing health had not inclined him to think rather of the mean's of the generall peace then of incurring new enemies whereupon Neutrality was granted to that Province paying only some contribution to the Kings troops The affairs of Catalonia were yet more importunate with the Court as indeed more important for having lost their old friend that never failed them in their need they began now to doubt of their wonted aids and upon the sense of that apprehension to be handled more warily by the French who first publishing an Edict through all the principality to declare the constant applications and intentions of their crown to uphold the fortunes of those people to the uttermost did afterward enjoyne all those that possessed any feif in Catalogne to appeare at a time appointed in Barcelona to swear allegence to the King of France in the hands of their Viceroy the Mareschal de la Mothe Houdan court Which was a greivous Edict to some of the Catalans that in their hearts did not wish ill to their old Master and to others of them that were loath to engage so publikely to the King of France desiring rather as neutrall spectators to follow the aire only of that fortune which otherwise would overwhelme them But no palliating will serve their turne the French Ministers and the Catalans that sided with them are resolved to know whom to trust to and by sequestring the estates of the rest to strengthen their owne and weaken the Spanish party Only the Ecclesiasticks and especially the Bishops whose authority bears high in this Countrey were at closer guard to wave this stroke pretending conscience and necessity of a dispensation to be first obtained from their former oath given to the Catholicko King for which some of them encounter a speedy Chastisement for the Bishop of Barcelona is hereupon forced to take his leave only with faire promises which afterwards he did not find observed that he should enjoy the revenues of his Bishoprick in any place by him assigned which rigor of proceeding against their Prelates effected no small passion in the people as was seene a while after more evidently in expelling the Bishop of Girona a person counted of great worthinesse in his Charge with whom when the Viceroy and the royall Ministers could availe nothing they send the Count of Argenc'on and Don Joseph Margarita one of the principall in the late revolutions to the Pope's Collectour Generall who in his name was resident in that principality to receive the revenues of vacant Bishopricks as is also used in all the other Kingdomes of Spain to acquaint him what matter of just suspicion they had against the Bishop and that they came by order from the Vice-Roy to communicate thus much to him as an Apostolicall