not out-live two months Most frequently they were forced to labour and the inhumanity of constraining them in this manner to shorten their days for the profit of others obliged Chievres to look out for means of easing them He hit upon a great many and that which he most approved because it was least chargeable to the Spaniards was to procure them other slaves at a cheap rate The greatest traffick on the Coast of Guinee consisted in Men whom they went to buy from all parts of the World. Fathers sold their Children and the Husbands their Wives And these Slaves being Blacks they were called Negroes They were strong labour how hard soever was no strange thing to them because they were accustomed to it from their youth They were subject to few diseases and though they were exposed to all the injuries of the Seasons yet they lived long and by consequence enriched those who bought them for a Crown a head provided they were not used with too much severity But if they were so used they immediately destroyed themselves by stopping their own breath upon no other account but to vex their pitiless Masters Chievres caused six hundred of them to be bought and sent into America where the Spaniards who lived in that new part of the World were informed of the advantage they might have in making use of those Black Slaves seeing they might have them so cheap But Cardinal Ximenes found a great deal to be said against it and pretended that if the Spaniards by not making use of the Slaves of Guinee had the displeasure to see their Works many times unfinished they had to make amends for that the satisfaction to be assured that the West-Indians whom they brought into their Houses would never wrong them by conspiring and rising against them Whereas the Negroes who were as malicious as strong would no sooner perceive themselves to be more numerous in the new World than the Spaniards but that they would lay their heads together to put the Chains upon them which now they carried for them Ayala was sent back to the Court of Bruxelles to exaggerate that inconvenience but Chievres was not satisfied with it He thought it was something else that set Ximenes at work and attributed to him a more refined consideration He drew it from the jealousie of the Spaniards for the Indies which went so far as not to suffer any other Nation but themselves to set footing there lest they might have a mind to divide the Wealth thereof with them Nevertheless if Negroes were transported thither there was ground to foresee that they would encrease and multiply much hard labour and bad usage not hindring that people from being extraordinarily fruitful and it being the interest of those who bought them to marry them together thereby to augment the number of their Slaves It would no longer then depend on the prudence of Spain to resist the multitude of Negroes They would no sooner know their own strength but that they would think of recovering their liberty and if their Insurrection prospered in one Region of America it would soon become universal by the assistance that those who had freed themselves would give to the rest to make them revolt after their example Besides the Spaniards were not sit for transporting of Slaves from one extremity of the World to the other and had not shipping enough to supply America and Peru with sufficient numbers whence it followed that in that case they stood in need of the Flemings and Hollanders the Subjects of the Catholick King and that so those People getting more knowledge in the Indies than it was fit they should would infallibly labour to settle there However the Catholick King notwithstanding the Remonstrance of Ximenes sent to the Island of Hispaniola the Negrees which Chievres had caused to be bought But sive years after he had occasion to repent of it because the Negroes revolted and had infallibly taken the Island if by singular good fortune just when their Rebellion broke out two Spanish Captains Melchior de Castro and Francis d' Avila had not come and more by cunning than strength put them again into Chains That irregularity of Chievres was probably the cause that he afterwards seconded the Cardinal in the execution of a design which appeared not to be much juster nor less interested and of which nothing but humane malice hindred the success The Indians complained that they were used by the Spaniards like Beasts and the complaint was but too true There was no Justice nor Magistrates for them They preached the Gospel to them in a manner that might make them abhor it No great care was taken to Baptize them nor were they more kindly used after they had received it Ximenes proposed the sending of Commissioners to them Louis de Figueroa Alphonso of St. John Monks of the Order of St. Jerome and the Alcaide Manzanedo for setling amongst the Indians Subjects of the Monarchy of Spain a Policy much like to that of the Pesants in Spain as if the three persons named had been sufficient for a work of that importance In the relation of the Fathers of St Jerome However Chievres got it to be approved in the Council of Bruxelles and the Commissioners set fail from the Coast of Andalusia They arrived without any hinderance in America but there they found so great opposition from their Country-men that they put hardly any thing of the Order which they had received from Ximenes in execution those who ought to have aided them by their Authority being the first that constrained them to Embark again and return back to the place from whence they came John d' Albert had no success in the recovery of his Kingdom of Navarre though the Treaty of Noyon had facilitated his entry into it and indeed it must be acknowledged for the justification of Chievres in the juncture we are to speak of that it was not his fault that that dispossessed King was not restored The measures that had been taken for that great design were so just that nothing hindred them from succeeding but the ill luck or bad conduct of John d' Albert. King Francis the First had suffered him to raise in the Provinces lying betwixt the Loire and the Pyrenean Hills an Army almost all old Soldiers and so much the better disciplined that they were punctually paid out of the moneys borrowed upon the Jewels of the Crown of Nâ—varre If it had marched into that Kingdom the Towns and Forts would have striven who should first have opened their Gates because four years subjection to the Monarchy of Castille was sufficient to make those of Navarre come to themselves again and find their deplorable mistake in delivering themselves up to their ancient and irreconcileable Enemies They could not endure that their Kingdom should be reduced into a Province and as it was the Faction of Beaumont which had been the cause of it so they also were the first that
that they with whom he had to do should â—…eak promise to him so neither no more than he was he a slave to his own word Not that the perfections and defects which we have now mentioned and which have been since objected to Charles were already observed in him or indeed that he was so soon capable of them but that the penetrating Judgment of Chievres could even distinguish in the Soul of that young Prince his natural inclination towards the good things that charmed him and towards the bad which were the effects of original sin and that perspicacity was in some measure like the light which directs Philosophers in discovering effects in their causes and Astronomers in finding out the insluences in the Stars Chievres observed that Charles loved glory and that it was enough many times to make him amend his faults to threaten him with divulging of them From thence he concluded that the study and reading of History were absolutely necessary for cultivating the good seeds we have mentioned and for choaking the bad In the first of those two prospects he searched in the Colledge of Louvain for a Tutor to the Archduke and pitched upon Doctor Adrian who was in great reputation there and who notwithstanding his want of Politeness was nevertheless since promoted to the Papacy but in the other prospect he was more reserved and there might be ground to doubt of the truth of what we are about to write if the Spanish Writers did not therein agree with the Flemings Chievres looked upon History to be of so great importance for forming of his young Prince that he durst trust none but himself to teach it him For every thing else he assigned him Masters but as for that he would have â—o foreign aid but taught him himself The truth is he did it with this circumpection that to hinder his Scholar from being tired out with the tediousness of the â—abour and from pressing him from time 〈◊〉 time to break off he pretended to stuâ—…y it with him that he might regulate â—s he said his life at the expence of another The order that he followed in it could â—…t be more methodical because he beâ—…n by giving Charles a notion of History 〈◊〉 general and then applied him to the â—…istories of the People of Europe with â—…hom one day he was to have affairs to â—…anage but seeing his chief business was 〈◊〉 be in Spain and France it was his Goâ—…rnours care to acquaint him thoroughly with the History of those two Monarchies â—nder that of France the History of the â—ow Countries was at that time compreâ—…nded He would have Charles also read every Author in his own Language and Stile and not to be discouraged by the barbarisms of most of them nor by the superfluity of three parts in four of the things contained therein He convinced him at first of this maxim That to speak properly there is nothing useless in matter of History and that the matters of fact which serve for nothing at all in the notion that one hath in reading of them will early or late serve for something or other in the notions that one may have hereafter In the mean time the Spanish Authors were already too numerous and those who have examined them in the Library of Cardinal Mazarin know that the reading of them is not very pleasant to say nothing more slightingly of them The number of French Historians was not less they had no Charms for that young Prince whose mind was affected with nothing but what glittered to his eyes Nevertheless he run them over and it is to be observed in several passages of his life that he cited them to purpose when occasion offered and that he had retained what was most important in them To make a deeper impression of them in his mind his Governour failed not to make him observe that for the most part all the good and bad actions of his Ancestors met with even in this life the recompense or punishment which they deserved And for instance that Philip the Hardy Duke of Burgundy because of his dissimulation in all great actions and his pretending to have followed the Counsels of others though no man was more possessed than he of the infallibility of his own had fallen into a quarrel with the King of Sicily his Brother and the Duke of Orleans his Nephew and left the same to his Posterity which had a long time employed and at last overwhelmed him The Excess of his complaisance to the Heiress of Flanders his Lady because of the Portion she brought him made that Princess who was already but too haughty altogether insupportable and he himself was even often constrained to bear her slights and affronts without daring to complain He was so very revengeful and nevertheless affected to appear so far from it that on such occasions he always employed the hands of some unknown Assassins who knew neither who employed them nor what was the reason of it and God Almighty suffered his Son to be killed almost by the same measures That John without fear was so persuaded that Fortune would change her inconstancy in his favours that he bragged he had married her nevertheless she so far forsook him as to suffer him to mount a Scaffold * After Bajazet took him Prisoner He admired the simplicity of those who trusted to his promises and he died for having trusted to the promises of another He had no more of Religion but an outside enough to amuze good men and he had not time enough to repent of so prodigious an impiety By extraordinary means he courted the affection of the Common People and lost that of the Nobles That Philip the good aspired to real Grandeur and never any Sovereign under the degree of a King received so much honour as he seeing he restored Popes Emperours of Germany and of Constantinople Kings of England and of the East By several Mistrisses he had nine Boys and five Girls and by two Wives successively during the space of above fifty years he could have but one Son who was the last of his Family That in fine Charles the Terrible sometimes reproved the Clergy of his Territories when he saw them perform Divine Service negligently and God Almighty in acknowledgment of the care that he took of his Glory rendred him one of the most famous and powerful Princes that never was King. He executed Justice amongst his Subjects with an exactness that cannot sufficiently be praised and his Subjects conceived such veneration for him that they could not believe that he died miserably before Nancy as they were told but expected him six years much after the manner that the Jews expect the Messias However on the other hand he was so cruel in War as to be reckoned in the judgment of Posterity the first Christian Prince in these last Ages who limited the Law of Nations at that time of larger extent in Military affairs than it is at present resusing
was punctually informed of all and seeing her Son was under age and that she expected to be Regent if at that time he had hapned to be King she thought she might lawfully anticipate the function in a Juncture that could not be more important All the Courtiers who were of the humour to prefer the rising Sun before the setting were her friends and amongst these was the Mareschal de * Rene of Rohan Gie. Gie was a compleat Courtier and the Favourite of two successive Kings Charles the Eighth and Louis the Twelfth which was rare and without losing the good opinion which the Publick conceived of his probity during his twofold favour which is rarer still He was a great lover of his Country and if heretofore he was the cause that the French at the Battel of Fornona did not cut in pieces all the Italian Forces who attempted to hinder their passage it was because he thought the Conquerours could not gain so much by far in obtaining a total Victory as they might lose in the sequel of the fight by reason of the person of Charles the Eighth who was too deeply engaged in the Conflict He knew that the Queen designed her Daughter for the Archduke and was sensible of what consequence it would be for the Kingdom to frustrate the accomplishment of it So the Countess had no sooner given him notice that Madam was embarked and sollicited him to stop her as she passed through his Government of Anjou but that he consented to it though he foresaw the troublesom consequences of so bold an enterprise in their full extent He omitted nothing that might sweeten the bitterness of it His respects were most profound in diverting Madam from prosecuting her Journey He used her and those of her retinue with extraordinary civility he contracted debts to defray her charges with greater Magnificence which afterwards encumbred his Estate but to be short if he served the Countess in what she most desired he provoked the Queen in the point she was most sensible in and rendered her irreconcilable to him Her Majesty took it so ill that a Breton born her Subject and descended of a Family so often allied to the House of Dreux should dare to oppose what she most ardently desired that at the very instant she swore she would be his ruine and endeavoured to be as good as her word upon the first occasion that offered The King contrary to all expectation recovered and by incessant importunities she forced that good Prince to abandon his Favourite Gie was brought to a trial In the Memoires of Bretagne and it appears in the Papers of the Chamber of accounts of Bretagne that the Queen laid out 35000 Livers for carrying on his Process which at that time was a vast Sum in the mean time she had but half of her revenge and the Mareshal was only sentenced to be banished and to end his days in the lovely House of Verger seated in the same Province of Anjou where he had the unhappiness to displease the Queen The Countess nevertheless obtained her ends seeing the chief Persons of the Kingdom being assembled by the King's permission presented to his Majesty a most humble and judicious Petition They earnestly begg'd of him to grant his loyal Subjects the favour which they most ardently and with great Justice desired which was the marriage of Madam his Daughter with the Count of Angoulesm to the end that that Princess being one day to inherit in full the Dutchy of Bretagne and her younger Sister having no claim but to a very little share in the other Estates of her Mother which might be valued at a Sum of Mony the whole Province might be so incorporated with the French Monarchy that for the future it could not be dismembred from it though the most Christian Kings should leave none but Daughters The Juncture was favourable seeing the French demanded nothing of Louis the Twelfth but what he could honestly and with a good conscience grant The Emperour and Catholick King were the first that had violated the Treaty which promised Madam to their Grandson and their prevarication in that point was so evident that all the Potentates of Europe were convinced of it So his most Christian Majesty being discharged of his Oaths listened to the Address with his accustomed goodness and pass'd his word that Madam should marry the Count of Angoulesm and that the Marriage should be consummated so soon as she was of age The Queen who could neither break nor defer a resolution which was so odious to her promised her self to frustrate the accomplishment of it and they who knew how easily the King had sacrificed to her his Favourite thought that she proposed nothing in that beyond her power but the Countesses good fortune levelled that difficulty when at Court it seemed to be insuperable The Queen who in all appearance and according to all the Rules of Physick was like to out-live the King and to hold out to an extreme old age nevertheless died before him at the age of thirty seven years The Countess found no more opposition to her designs at Court The Friends of the Queen courted her favour and she was presented with what fitted her best of the Furniture and Rarities of the House of Bretagne Her Son married Madam and that Princess entertained as great an affection for her Husband as possible could be though like that of most part of other women it bordered not upon Jealousie Most of the particulars we have now related hapned before Chievres was Governour to Charles and those who before him were about that young Prince failed not to represent to him upon all occasions according to the Orders they had received from his two Grandfathers that the Count of Angoulesm in taking his Wife from him had done him an irreparable injury That it was an affront not to be suffered without infamy nor revenged but by the bloud of him that had given it That the truth was the Count was at that time below the anger of the Archduke being but as yet a private person but that he would not be always so and that the Monarchy of France look'd upon him as Heir apparent That when once he was King he ought to call him to an account by the way of Arms which was the only course Sovereigns had when they intended to reduce Persons of their own quality to reason and that in the mean time it would be a disgrace to the Archduke to entertain any communication with him That he ought not to propose to himself the Example of Maximilian his Grandfather who shewed no resentment but in word when King Charles the Eighth robbed him of his Wife Anne of Bretagne for it was not for want of courage that Maximilian suffered it but out of an absolute impossibility of revenging himself in that he was under the power of a Father when the injury was done to him That the Emperour Frederick the Third his
in that disposition contributed not a little as they say to keep him in it being assured to render himself necessary to his Master so long as it lasted There was no more Commerce betwixt the Father and Son in law but what could not civilly be discontinued and the Archduke to make a closer Union with the most Christian King against his Catholick Majesty made three agreements for the marriage of his eldest Son with Claude of France eldest Daughter to his Majesty But the Alliances which are most securely contracted in writing are not those which most frequently succeed best The death of Queen Isabella which happened the seventeenth of November One thousand five hundred and four was the cause or pretext that the three Contracts of marriage were not fulfilled and Ferdinand for all he was so politick a Prince could not ward a blow that was so disadvantageous to him and so favourable to his son-in-Son-in-law * In the Testament of Queen Isabella There was indeed a Testament of Queen Isabella found which ordained that the King her Husband during life should have the administration and Revenues of Castile but the Testament was no sooner examined than the Courtiers and Lawyers agreed in suspecting it to be forged The Archduke who had a mind to reign and saw himself excluded for a long time and perhaps for his whole life by an Act so inconsistent with Motherly affection had no regard to it and indeed it was hard to be believed that it could have been dictated and signed by Queen Isabella considering her humour all her life time in relation to her Husband for there hapned to that Princess what is but too common to Women who out of a Maxim of State marry Husbands as young again as themselves When Ferdinand and Isabella were married Ferdinand was but sixteen years old and Isabella two and thirty Her Jealousie of Ferdinand appeared soon after their marriage and it ought to be said here for her excuse that it was not without ground Ferdinand had slighted her and been often unfaithful though she was very beautiful and besides no woman living more scrupulous in the point of Chastity than her self He had loved other Ladies by whom he had the Archbishop of Sarragossa Don Alphonso d' Arragon and other Bastards who will be more properly mentioned in another place of this History Isabella had not therefore behaved her self the worse towards him but Injuries of that nature which are most patiently born with are not those for all that which make the smallest impressions in peoples minds and are soonest blotted out If Isabella had so much command over her self as during her life to dissemble the ramblings of her Husband it is not very likely that at her death she would reward him for them that is to say in a Juncture when there is no time for counterfeiting and when she was no longer to observe measures with him nor that she would have deprived her eldest Daughter of the enjoyment of the Kingdom of Castile which Nature Law Reason and the Custom of Spain gave to her to leave it to a fickle Husband who would not fail so soon as he should be a Widower to marry again nor to employ all sorts of means not only to secure to the Children of the second Marriage the Crowns of Arragon but also if possible to procure for them the Kingdoms of Castile in prejudice of the Children of his former bed Isabella had cause to fear it since the Father and Mother of Ferdinand had done as much for him and that the unfortunate Charles Prince of Vienne the Son of the first Wife of John King of Arragon had been poysoned to make way for the same Ferdinand who was only the Son of the second Be it as it will the Archduke was not amused by the Couriers whom his Father in law sent to stay him in Flanders under pretext that it might be prejudicial to the Archdutchess his Wife ready to lie in of a Daughter which was Mary Queen of Hungary He nevertheless departed with her for Spain in the month of January One thousand five hundred and seven and the new Queen of Castile had no prejudice by it Chievres was left Governour of the Low Countries and Manuel accompanied the Archduke Ferdinand was so ill informed of the course his Daughter and Son-in-law took that he went to wait for them at one end of Spain whilst they landed at the other All the great men of the Kingdom except two declared for them they were solemnly Crowned the People swore Allegiance to them without respect to the Testament of the late Queen and Ferdinand finding himself not to be the stronger caused an Accommodation to be proposed to his Son-in-law seeing he confided far more in his own management than in that of his Agents he sollicited with so much perseverance an interview with the King of Castile that he obtained it but it cost him dear and he must first pass through mortifications that were so much the more sensible to him as that he was the less accustomed to the like He was constrained to go to his Son-in-law trust himself in his hands to be satisfied with his bare word for a safe Conduct and to present himself in the posture of a Supplicant He appeared indeed in that manner accompanied with a small Retinue without Arms and mounted on Mules He could not have a private Conference with his Son-in-law and Manuel who was the man in the world he hated most because he imputed to him all the harshness he found in the King of Castile towards him made always a third person in the Conference Ferdinand at first lost his hopes of retaining the administration left him by his Wife and condescended at length to accept one half of the Revenues But he was positively denied any share and sent back extremely vexed that he had humbled himself in vain Cardinal Ximenes who was no less his Friend though he owed not his advancement to him mediated for him another interview with his Son-in law in the Vestry of the Church of Remedo a League from Vailladolid The two Kings discoursed alone without any other Witness but the Cardinal who kept the door They concluded at length that Ferdinand should absolutely renounce the administration of Castile upon two conditions The one that he should enjoy during life the three great Masteries of the Orders of St. James Callatrava and Alcantara The other that his Son-in-law should pay him yearly at Sarragossa whither he should immediately after the interview retire a moderate Pension which amounted but according to some to three Counts of Maravedis or to eight Counts at most according to others Ferdinand was no sooner in Arragon but that he laboured to be revenged for the pretended indignities received from his Son-in-law He supposed that the personal charms of that young Prince would indeed preserve to him the affections of the Castillians in time of Peace but he doubted that that
if he persisted resolute in the execution of a Treaty which he might break without being thought unfaithful since not only he was cheated in it more than the half of the just value but also he reserved not thereby the hundredth part of what belonged to him and would ruine the Family by dividing it in such a manner as it could never be re-united again That all Europe was persuaded that Ferdinand loved the younger Son incomparably better than the elder and that there were such evident marks of that preference that it could not be doubted seeing he had given his name to the younger That he took a particular care of his education that he visited him time after time in the Colledge of Alcala where he studied and that he brought him up in the hopes of being one day King of Castile and Arragon That it would be very hard to hinder that odd design if the Catholick King reigned in CAstile till the Archduke were five and twenty years of age compleat because that long space of time would be sufficient to settle the young Ferdinand so firm in Spain that though his elder Brother had a mind to force him thence yet he could not be able to do it and the hatred of the two Brothers would become indelible in that the elder would always lay claim to the Monarchies which his younger Brother had usurped from him and the younger would still be upon his guard against his elder Brother in the sole prospect of maintaining his Usurpation whereas if the Emperour had the administration of Castile during the Minority of the Archduke he would preserve that Monarchy for him and his Ministers would from thence so carefully watch all the actions of the Catholick King that it would be almost impossible for him to raise young Ferdinand to the Throne of Arragon If contrary to all appearance the Affair might still succeed yet young Ferdinand could not long sit on the Throne to which his Benefactor had raised him and there would be so little proportion betwixt his Forces and those of his elder Brother that he would be soon subdued which could not befall him if he possessed the two Monarchies of Castile and Arragon seeing in that case his elder Brother must cross over all France to which the most Christian King would never consent Maximilian had no more regard to the Remonstrances of Margarite of Austria than the most Christian King had to those of the Countess of Angoulesm whether it was that the word of his Imperial Majesty was already too far engaged or that he apprehended not the inconveniences which Chievres foresaw His Accommodation with the Catholick King was concluded he had his fifty thousand Crowns a year that were promised him duly payed and Ferdinand reigned so long as he lived with as much authority in Castile as Arragon though he had no right over the Castilians and was lawful King of the Arragonese But it seldom happens that private men concern themselves in the quarrels of their Sovereigns scotfree for if the Party they adhered to get the better of the other they seldom obtain a reward proportionable to the greatness of their services and if they succumb the unfortunate Prince for whom they declared abandons them to the discretion of the happy Prince whom they have offended or at least takes no care to comprehend them in his Articles of Agreement which is almost the same as if he abandoned them There was no mention neither of Chievres nor of Manuel made in the reconciliation of the Emperour and Catholick King but the Archdukes Governour sustained no prejudice thereby and all the storm broke upon the Favourite of his Father Ferdinand durst not attempt to remove Chievres from his Grandson Charles because Louis the Twelfth who had placed him there would have been concerned in honour to have maintained him and besides the People of the Low Countries would not have suffered him to have been deposed with what pretext soever that change had been coloured But Manuel who had not so good a back remained without a Protector Maximilian sacrificed him without scruple and Ferdinand made it a Principle of policy to drive him to the utmost extremity By that means he thought to over aw the more restless spirits of Castile and to render them so tractable that they would trouble him no more in the administration of their Monarchy It happened however that the People of the Low Countries where Manuel had taken sanctuary seconded but in half the violence of his Catholick Majesty They consented indeed that Manuel should be committed to Prison but they would not comply with Ferdinand to bring him to a Trial before the Supreme Court of Flanders In vain his Catholick Majesty declared himself Plaintiff and offered to make it out in lawful form that he had been the only cause of the mis-understanding that had been betwixt himself and the late King of Castile his son-in-son-in-law They shifted his Proposition by sending him this positive answer That it belonged not to the Subjects of the Archduke Charles such as were the Judges of the Low Countries to try an Affair that concerned another Subject of that Prince born in a Country far remote from theirs and over whom they had no Jurisdiction the Crimes in question not having been committed in Flanders That they were willing to believe upon the word of his Majesty that Manuel was guilty because he had been so unhappy as to give him occasion to think him so and that it was only upon that account that they had made sure of his Person that they would keep him in safe custody and be answerable for him But that seeing the Archduke was concerned in the Affair by reason of his Fathers reputation which might be blemished there was a necessity of staying till he was of age and that the Laws of Castile gave him Authority to assist at the Judgment of a Castilian Ferdinand was not satisfied with that excuse But it being impossible for him to obtain any more against Manuel he did not complain and the Flemings denied Manuel nothing which he desired to ease the irksomness of a Prison He continued there until the death of Ferdinand and came out immediately after * In the last Negotiation of Manuel His gratitude to the Archduke who went in Person with Chievres to take him out of Prison was such that thereafter he stirred up in his favours all the Princes of Italy against the French and gave him the occasion of taking from them the Dutchy of Milan The big belly of the Queen Germana was more than sufficient to comfort Ferdinand for that the sole Castilian whom he had proposed to undo had escaped from his revenge His Catholick Majesty had in the year One thousand five hundred and nine a Son who without dispute ought to disappoint the Archduke of the Kingdoms of Arragon Valencia Majorca Minorca Naples and Sicily The late King of Castile agreed to that and the
evident a thing that it would have served to confound the Enemies of Chievres but the words of the Institution must exactly be stuck to and it was maintained that Chievres was guilty in not having exactly observed them Upon this these Cases of Conscience were proposed to several Divines of Spain Whether Chievres by disposing his Pupil to give the Order to such kind of Persons had not mortally sinned against God Whether there were not three different sorts of Injustice in the sin he had committed first in regard of his Divine Majesty who is jealous that the Ordinances authorised by his Church should be punctually observed secondly against the Order of the Golden Fleece of which the most important Statute was violated and lastly against the Nobles of Flanders accustomed to draw the chief proofs of their Nobility from those of their Ancestors who had had the honour to receive the Order of the Fleece Whether Chievres was not obliged to make restitution of the Salaries paid to those undeserving Knights and lastly whether he was not an accomplice in the false proofs of Nobility which they had produced before they were received into the Order The Divines decided all the Cases to the disadvantage of Chievres and their resolutions were immediately sent into Flanders to the Ambassador of the Catholick King who shewing them to the Archduke pressed him on the part of his maternal Grandfather that he would at least send the guilty person home to his house seated in the Province of Haynauld if the Services which he had rendred him protected him from being punished in a more exemplary manner The Archduke instead of having any respect to the Proposition of the Ambassador and the authority of the Casuists that back'd it defended his Governor upon the spot by two reasons first that if there had been any fault committed in the creation in question he was as much to be blamed as Chievres seeing they had examined the proofs together and that if they had been surprised in it the surprize was no less common to both Secondly that though Chievres were more guilty than he yet it followed not that he ought to be banished the Court and that a little mistake should make him forget the long and indefatigable pains of his Education The Catholick King who managed the whole Intrigue though he acted only by such instruments as seemed to have no concerns with him being unsuccessful in his first essay changed Battery and applied himself to Henry the Eighth King of England his Son-in-law He represented to him that the greatest interest of his English Majesty consisted in opposing by all means the Alliances betwixt the French and the Flemings That the wisest of his Predecessors had laid down that maxim as a fundamental in their Politicks That they found the advantage of it so long as they practised the same and that on the contrary they lost all for having neglected it That the late King Henry the Seventh had exactly observed it in the beginning and towards the middle of his Reign but that he had omitted it towards the end when old age and the extraordinary infirmities it had brought upon him had rendred him unable to apply himself long to business that nevertheless that was the Juncture when he ought to have eluded the Article of the last Will and Testament of Philip of Austria which entreated Louis XII King of France to take the care of the education of his eldest Son That his Majesty had opposed it with all his might because he foresaw the dangerous consequences thereof but that he could not prevail for want of the assistance of England That the most Christian King had placed Chievres about the Archduke and that Chievres being in that nature obliged to France strove to shew himself but too grateful That it was not enough for him to adjust all the affairs of the Archduke to the Interests of Louis his Benefactor so long as that Prince lived but that after his death he had continued the same conduct in regard of Francis the First his Successor That the Treaty of Marriage of the Archduke with Renée of France was an undeniable proof of it That there was no doubt to be made but that that Marriage would be accomplished and that by consequence France and the Low Countries would act joyntly so long as Chievres were about the Archduke That his Catholick Majesty had made it his business to oblige the Archduke to remove him and that there wanted only the Offices of the King of England for succeeding in it Henry the Eighth with extreme trouble understood that Francis the first for his first Essay had recovered the Dutchy of Milan He imputed the easiness of that young Prince's Success to his having employed all the Forces of France in Italy without being obliged to leave Troops for the Guard of his Frontiers of Picardie and Champaigne The last Negotiation of Chievres with his most Christian Majesty was in his Judgment the cause of it and the Marriage of the Archduke with the sister-in-Sister-in-law of Francis the First was like so to secure him in his Conquest that neither Spain Germany nor Italy could snatch it out of his hands These four considerations inclined his Majesty of England to send to the Archduke and to represent to him by the Ambassador which he had at his Court that seeing he had more wit for his age than any Prince mentioned in History ever had had and that he was already capable of Reigning alone by himself it was not only useless but also disgraceful to him to retain at his Court such a man as Chievres who so long as he continued there would ecclipse his Reputation That Politicians who could not call to mind that ever they had seen or read of a Prince that at the age of fifteen years had more prudence readiness of wit address and experience than the eldest Monarchs of Europe had would never believe that the Judicious Councils taken in Flanders about the nicest matters of State came immediately from him That they would always imagine Chievres to be the Author of them that he suggested them found out proper expedients for putting them in execution and that being now satisfied with the glory which he had already acquired in Governing the Low-Countries during the non-age of the Archduke with so great wisdom that the Flemings had found no effects of the minority of their Prince he acted like a compleat Courtier in endeavouring to procure by times a high Reputation to his young Master by attributing to him all the projects and important resolutions that came from himself whereas if Chievres were consined to his House in Haynauld whereof he carried the name there to spend the rest of his days in quietness or if it were thought fitter to send him to the Emperors Court there to manage the German Princes for the future Election of his Pupil to the Empire Men would do Justice to the Archdukes merit and nothing would
all sorts of fire-Arms ready to discharge He had no sooner given the signal but they who expected it fired and during the space of more than a quarter of an hour nothing was to be heard but a terrible noise Ximenes and the Grandees changed countenance then and the Cardinal looked as if he had been all on fire He uttered not one word but the sparkling of his eyes sufficiently supplied the use of his tongue and made them sensible that they had provoked him as much as possibly he could be The Grandees on the contrary were as low as they had been high before They spake no more than the Cardinal did but their silence proceeded from another cause They had declared themselves his enemies forced him out of patience come to his House to threaten him and they judged their death the nearer that they had heard the most astonishing forerunners of it But when the noise was over Ximenes reassured them by telling them in a Magisterial tone that the Artillery which they saw was the amplest power that he had to shew them That they who would suffer him to act with that extent of power which was necessary for the good of Spain in general and for the interests of the Archduke in particular should have no cause to be affraid but that he was willing to let them know and give them notice beforehand that the Artillery whereof they had now heard the roaring was designed to thunder against those who having no sufficient title to ask him a reason of his Conduct were nevertheless so pragmatical as to do it He thereupon dismissed the three Grandees and such a bold action of a man bred up amongst Cordeliers as cannot be paralelled by any other in the History of Spain was of no hurtful consequence to its Author The other mortification that the Archduke and Chievres thought fit to give to Ximenes was to render his Regency ridiculous by dividing it amongst too many We have already mentioned that the Bishop of Tortosa and La Chau were put upon him for Colleagues and these two Ministers being neither able to counterpoise his Authority nor to lessen it by sharing therein they gave him a fourth Colleague more daring than they and less reserved when it came to the push of putting himself into the possession of the full power that might be given him His name was Amerstorf descended of one of the most ancient and illustrious families of Holland He was a man of wit and the humour of his Country inclined him never to give over what once he had undertaken His arrival at Madrid was acceptable to Ximenes instead of being troublesom to him because he furnished him with the pretext which he had been long looking out for of ridding himself of the Bishop of Tortosa and La Chau. The truth is these two Ministers though they were more submissive than he durst have promised himself were nevertheless very uneasie to him seeing it was still to be feared that they would shake off the yoke He received then Amerstorf with as much civility as he had received the other two and brought him into the Council of Spain but afterward he took his time privately to represent to all the Spanish Ministers of State who had the honour to sit there That the Archduke who was not as yet their King began to strike at the most considerable root of their Priviledges which consisted in not being governed by strangers That already two Flemings and a Hollander were slipt into the Council and if that encroachment were not instantly opposed others would be sent over in so great number that they would exceed the native Spaniards That the inconvenience could not be avoided but by hindering the Council of Flanders for the future from introducing into that of Spain as many persons as they pleased which could not be accomplished but by two means First not to communicate Affairs of greatest importance to the three foreign Regents and secondly not to suffer them to sign dispatches That the first might easily be brought about by referring the most important matters to be adjusted in secret meetings which should be held in the Cardinals Palace and by reserving only smaller businesses for the Council of State. For the second there needed no more but to make the Castilians complain of the multitude of persons who must sign all that was granted them in favour or in justice and to put them in the head of grounding their grievances upon the opâ—…sition that their Predecessours made to the designs of the Catholick King when after he had married Queen Isabella he would have signed with her the Grants and Expeditions that concerned the Monarchy of Castile The Council of Spain acknowledged the expedients proposed by Ximenes to be necessary and consented that there should be Cabinet Councils in the Cardinals Palace Soon after the Castilians were heard to murmur about the tediousness of expeditions which they imputed to the number of those who were to sign them and thereupon Ximenes was prayed to sign them alone None but the Bishop of Tortosa and Amerstorf opposed it but the Council baffled their resistance by asking them the question if they were willing alone to bear the blame of an insurrection which was like to happen all over Spain in case the people of that vast Country were refused the satisfaction which they desired The Archduke and Chievres being informed of the attempt of Ximenes and of the affront they received in Castile bethought themselves a long time of means how they might punish the first and revenge the second But having reflected upon the matter as seriously as so nice an Affair deserved they thought best at that time to wink at it seeing all the threatnings that could be imployed without having power in hand to force them would only serve to confirm the Spaniards in their bad intentions if they had any and make them more remiss in the good which they might have Immediately after an occasion offered wherein the Court of Flanders had so much need of the Cardinals wisdom and of the authority which he had acquired and retained in spight of them that though they had made a publick rupture with him they must have been forced to have courted his friendship It ran in Chievres his head that so long as the Archduke was satisfied with the Title of Heir apparent of the Monarchies of Castile and Arragon he would not be sure of succeeding to them and that the Spaniards might think themselves in right to prefer his younger brother before him founded upon this that the case had not as yet hapned since they had shaken off the yoak of the Moors that a stranger had reigned over them That it was convenient then to ply them on the side of conscience and to oblige them to the Archduke by a particular Oath engaging them to acknowledge him for their King before he was actually so by the death of his Mother the Queen That could not
to meet in the City of Compostella in Galicia there to hold a Chapter for receiving him in quality of Great Master conform to the Bulls sent him from the Pope The chief Commanders were his Kinsmen or Allies and besides it was so much their interest that the Great Mastery should be cut off from the Crown that they made no scruple to obey him seeing in that case there was none of them who might not hope to be raised to it either by merit or faction whereas they must all be frustrated if it continued united to the Crown However the Assembly could not be kept so secret but that the Cardinal had notice of it and since there was a necessity of carrying high to chastize the attempt of Porto Carero or not at all to meddle in it he sent the Alcaide Villafanno with Forces to put a stop to the Chapter by fair means or foul The Commanders who were not prepared to fight separated so soon as the Alcaide had signified to them the Orders of the Cardinal and pretended to submit willingly to the Authority which they would not have regarded if it had been unarmed The Cardinal having sent them back to their several Commanderies caused them to be so narrowly observed there that it was impossible for them afterwards to meet again till the new Catholick King had obtained from the Pope the three great Masteries as vacant by the death of his Grandfather But the counter-blows in Politicks are sometimes more dangerous than the blows The Nobility of Castille took it ill that the Cardinal had so imperiously dispersed the Assembly of Galicia and accused him for having in that particular usurped a power which was not given him neither by the Testament of the late King nor by the Laws of the Monarchy whereof he was the Regent The Grandees made it a point of honour not to suffer the continuance of a procedure so unsuitable to a Priest and Monk and took the first occasion that they found to shake off a yoke which they called Tyrannical The occasion was this It had come into Ximenes his mind at an unseasonable time to endeavour the reformation of three abuses which in all likelihood ought to have been born with in the absence of the Sovereign if the Maxims of common Politicks had been followed The first was of some Officers of Court who by favour had obtained an augmentation of their Salaries the second of Pensions granted to Courtiers of Castille and Arragon who were known not to be deserving or not to have merited them by honest courses and the third consisted in recovering Crown Lands that had been alienated upon occasion of the Conquests of Grenada Naples and Navarre Before Ximenes put his design in execution he had demanded the advice of Chievres who counselled him to stay till the Catholick King were come into Castille But whether it was that he thought himself strong enough to bring about so bold a project without the assistance of his Master or that he imagined Chievres envied him the glory which he might thereby obtain he went on still with his work He moderated at first with pretty good success the new augmentations of Salaries and the Grandees of Spain were very well pleased with the reduction of Wages to the Ancient standard because on the one hand the high Nobility had hardly any concern in that and on the other those who were prejudiced by the Cardinals regulation were satisfied to repine at it in secret The retrenching of Pensions caused him more trouble by reason that the murmuring was more universal and more publick But the recovery of the Crown Lands reached too high not to meet with terrible impediments at the very first step It was pretended that the Catholick King must not only enter again into the Lands sold at an under-rate or given in gratuities but also into those which the detainers could not make out to have been alienated by good Contracts and for lawful causes There were but few Lords of the high Nobility who possessed not some of this nature and if they had no favour shew'd them it was almost certain they would be excited to a Revolt Nevertheless they were summoned as well as others and a shortenough time assigned them for making good their Titles The indignation that this wrought in them gave occasion to Pedro Giron eldest Son to the Count of Vregna to think that the time was now come for recovering the Dutchy of Medina Sidonia which he had been turned out of For understanding this Affair which raised all Spain almost we must know that Don Juan de Gusman Duke of Medina Sidonia Espoused in first marriage the eldest Daughter of the Duke of Bejar by whom he had a Son called Henry and a Daughter named Mentia Henry was importent and Mentia married to the Count of Vregna had by him Pedro Giron The Duke of Medina Sidonia enjoyed not long his first Wife having lost her the third year after their Marriage He was still young and his first alliance had given him often occasion of seeing the second Daughter of the Duke of Bejar his Sister-in-Law He had been extreamly much taken with her and if the inclination that he had for her remained within the bounds of a bare respect so long as he was married to her Sister it degenerated into love so soon as he became a Widower He was without contradiction the richest Lord of Andalusia had lived very well with his former Wife offered to marry her Sister upon the same conditions that is to say without a portion The great men of Spain minded not much at that time the proximity of bloud in their Alliances and the Duke of Bejar had a numerous Family These five considerations moved Bejar to condescend to accept of Medina Sidonia for his Son-in-Law a second time and seeing all ways were taken for obtaining a dispensation from the Holy See in the most favourable Form that then was in fashion In the History of Medina Sidonia it was at length granted Of the second Marriage he had a Son famous in History by the name of Alvaro de Gusman and the Duke his Father bred him up as the next lawful Heir of his vast Estate so soon as the impotency of Henry de Gusman the only Son of his first Bed came to be known Alvaro grew to be so accomplished a Lord that the Catholick King Ferdinand pitched upon him for a Husband to Anne of Arragon lawful Daughter to Alphonso of Arragon his Majestie 's Natural Son But there are few signal Incests amongst Christians which wholly escape unpunished till the other World and God commonly begins in this by dreadful chastisements to shew his aversion to such promiscuous mixtures which he only suffered in the beginning of the World and for the multiplication of Mankind Pedro Giron eldest Son of Mentia Daughter by the first Marriage to the Duke of Medina Sidonia claimed to be sole and universal Heir to his
that she saved her Husbands person and Estate Nevertheless she was so strongly perswaded that he would never pardon the offence that she had given him in discovering the Conspiracy whereof he was the Head that she left him presently after she had revealed it and went to her Brothers house where she continued till she died without ever suffering any motion to be made to her of returning to her Husband It appeared by the sequel that her fear was not ill grounded seeing the Constable having one day met Vilalva near his Castle of Lerin which they had been demolishing and silling up the Ditches of invited him to dinner in his House Vilalva at that time stood in extream need of such an invitation and besides he could not in civility refuse it He was but half way on his journey and had still a long way to go before he could come to the Castle of Eteille whither he was going He therefore accepted the Constables offer and dined in the Castle of Lerin But he had quickly cause to repent it seeing he died upon his arrival at the Castle of Eteille in the opinion of being poisoned There was no great care taken in sifting the matter and the Constable was thought sufficiently punished by the inability he and his Faction were reduced to of any more rising against the Castillians for want of places of retreat Thus Navarre was preserved to the Catholick King and neither his Majesty nor Chievres had any hand in it and Ximenes thinking nothing impossible for him after the success of such an enterprize thought he might take his own course and do his worst to the Queen Dowager Germana de Foix by wholly depriving her of what rendred her considerable in Spain after the death of King Ferdinand her Husband It hath been mentioned before that that Prince sent her to hold the Estates of Arragon and the certain advice that she received of the extremity to which he was reduced had obliged her to make all hast back again unto him She came only a few hours before he expired and nevertheless timely enough to represent to him that she was in great danger of being miserable and even of wanting necessaries for her subsistence if he provided not against it before his death That he was obliged to do so in Conscience seeing she was upon no other account deprived of the Estate which belonged to her Family in France but because she had married him That the late most Christian King Louis the Twelfth her Mothers Brother who had promised himself great advantages by marrying her to his Majesty had on the contrary found that that Alliance was more than one way fatal to him and that Francis the First his Successor looked upon her as another Helena who had brought Fire into her Country That the last of these Monarchs had given all the Estate which she ought to inherit to the younger Brothers of the * Lautrec Asparant and Lescun House and that there was no more support for her in France * Lautrec in the dâ—nations of Francis the First That all the Friends she had in her own Country were dead with Gaston de Foix her only Brother and that if his Catholick Majesty were taken from her she could find none neither in Spain under the Reign of young Charles seeing he would not look upon her but with horror when he should call to mind that she was within an Ace of depriving him of the Succession of Arragon and perhaps also of that of Castille which he would not have obtained if the Son she was brought to Bed of had lived to whom besides the Succession of Navarre was due That in fine to put so unwelcome an object out of her sight she earnestly besought her dear Husband to leave her in the remotest corner of his Kingdoms which was that of Naples an alimentary Pension sufficient to maintain her in Widowhood for the rest of her days according to her quality That there she would prepare to follow him to Heaven by praying incessantly night and day for him and by leading a life as much as lay in her power suitable to the purity of the Gospel So pathetick a discourse prevailed with Ferdinand to leave the Queen Germana besides her Dowry thirty thousand Ducats a year upon the Kingdom of Naples and the Article of the Testament as it was changed came immediately after that which gave Castille and Arragon solely to Charles But the three Ministers whom we mentioned before were not pleased with it though they thought it not proper at that time to oppose it the thing being but a trifle in comparison of what they had obtained of King Ferdinand which was the preferring of the elder of his Grandsons before the younger not only as to the Monarchies last named but also as to the three great Masteries Ximenes who had approved no more than they that Pension for life saw himself no sooner in a condition to revoke the grant made to Queen Germana by a Husband who otherwise had never been liberal but that without any scruple he both attempted and performed it It is true it was not done after his way that is to say openly and without fetching a compass seeing he thought it enough at first to pray Chievres to represent to the Catholick King that the Kingdom of Naples had been a long time French and that the Faction of Anjou was not as yet wholly extinct in it That it was too dangerous to suffer a French Queen to have any Revenue there because she might foment discontents in it and encrease the number of his Majesties Enemies That the thirty thousand Ducats ought to be allotted her upon another Fund and that Fund to be pitched upon in the middle of Castille That in all times the Towns of Arevalo Olmedo Madrigal and St. Mary of Nieva which came to the same Revenue had served for Dowry to the Dowagers of Castille That by good fortune they were not engaged to any Grandee of Spain and that Queen Germana could have no cause to find fault that they were given her in exchange for her Pension out of the Kingdom of Naples Chievres thought Ximenes was in the right and was confirmed in his opinion when he understood that Queen Germana weary of Widowhood thought of marrying the unfortunate Prince of Tarento the only Son of Frederick King of Naples whom the Great Captain had made prisoner and sent into Spain after he had sworn upon the Holy Sacrament to leave him in liberty The occasion that offered was the most favourable that could be desired because it was unseemly for the Catholick King to meddle with the Testament of his Grandfather which was so advantageous to him and for Chievres to propose it since he had Negotiated the Treaty of Noyon whereby the Kingdom of Naples was to return to France Whereas the Cardinal acting immediately of himself and of his own proper motion would solely also procure the envy to
clean to the end no offence might be given to their Eyes and Noses That they must be received by her in great pomp and by consequence with good company That her Majesty gave access but to too few people about her and that she must admit of a more numerous Train That she ought to Eat in publick at least once a day and that that was the time when the Musicians desired by their harmony to dispose her stomach to a more quick and easie digestion He made her afterwards accept of certain pleasant companies of both Sexes instructed to imitate her extravagancies and above all things to contradict her in nothing directly and not to cross her humours indirectly but by making her believe that they suited not with the Majesty of the greatest Queen in the World. He so tamed her by that means that she was checked with the least wink of an eye of Ferdinand Talavera whom the Cardinal placed about her instead of Leo Ferriera too old and grave for the discharge of the Commission of Governing her which the late King had given him and at length they accustomed her on Sundays and Holy-days to hear Mass in a Church at some distance from Tordesillas upon pretext that she would receive by the way and on the place the acclamations of God save the Queen from people who were drawn thither out of curiosity to see her or who were desired to be there on purpose to the end her weak mind might be convinced that these were undoubted signs that she was acknowledged for their Sovereign Ximenes received for this more acknowledgments of gratitude than for any other of his actions though it was not the most important of all The Catholick King thanked him for it in writing Chievres complemented him in the same manner Spain resounded his praises and the Grandees were so satisfied with it that they were not heard to murmur any more against him But shortly after there happened a revolt in the Kingdom of Granada the more difficult to be quelled because the Council oâ— Bruxelles fomented it when they thought of no such thing It was the Law oâ— Spain that the Admirals of each Kingdom which reached to the Mediterranean Sea or to the Ocean should have their Judicatures fixed in the most frequented Ports of their Coasts and that their Judges should there try all Criminal and Civil Causes that happened to Sea-men Soldiers on board of Ships Passengers and to the Militia appointed for the guard of the Sea-ports But in process of time an abuse had crept in which grew daily more and more insupportable The Coasts of Spain upon the Mediterranean Sea were not now so much exposed to the incursions of the Infidel Pirats after that Ximenes had taken Oran and the other places on the Coast of Barbary which we have mentioned and by consequence had no more need of so many Vessels nor Soldiers to guard them So the number of Justiceable persons in the Admiralties was diminished and the multitude of their Officers not having been proportionably supprest their Courts for most part had nothing to do They were therefore reduced to seek for practice if they had a mind to exercise their Jurisdictions and they found some by a means that tended to the establishment of Impunity for all sorts of Crimes in the Towns where it was in use Those who had been guilty of enormous Crimes and were by Royal Justice condemned to Death found ways to prove that they had been Seamen Soldiers Passengers or Coastguards and under that pretext demanded to be referred to the Courts of the Admiralty It durst not be refused them because the Admiral would have immediately interposed in the affair for the preservation of his Priviledges and would have had it examined in the Supream Council of Castille and Arragon Nevertheless so soon as the Prisoner was removed unto the Prisons of the Admiralty he was almost sure of his life seeing a little money could always bring him off In the complaints of the Malaguins The Town of Malaga in the Kingdom of Granada had the greatest Traffick of any because of its excellent Wines and as strangers came there in greatest numbers so the Officers of the Admiralty there absolved also more Criminals The Burghers had often complained of it to King Ferdinand and had besought him entirely to abolish the Courts of Admiralty or to diminish the number of the Judges But his Majesty had had no regard to their petitions whether he feared to disoblige all the Admirals of Spain whose cause in that particular was common with the Admiral of Granada or that he thought the Burghers of Malaga would be too free and by consequence grow insolent if the Court they complained of were abolished But after his death the Burghers of that Town applied themselves immediately to the new Catholick King without first addressing themselves to Ximenes They demanded of him no more the alternative of the suppression of the Offices of the Admiralty or of their reduction to a smaller number but purely the total suppression and by their Deputies whom they sent to the Court of Bruxelles maintained that since the reasons which heretofore obliged the Kings of Spain to enlarge the priviledges of Admirals ceased these priviledges ought to be reduced to Common Law. The new King caused their â—proposition to be examined in his Council and Chievres thought it not convenient either absolutely to grant their petition or yet to defer the answering of it The first seemed to him to be too severe and mortifying and the next too uncivil He gave advice to answer the Malaguins that his Majesty at such a distance could not determine what was to be reformed in the Admiralty of Granada but that he would quickly be upon the places and there endeavour to give satisfaction to his good Subjects of Malaga The advice was followed and the Cardinal had no sooner learnt it but he wrote positively to Chievres that he had committed a considerable Error and that it would not be long before he had cause to repent it That he was not well enough acquainted as yet with the Genius of the Spaniards and that that Nation haughty towards all kinds of men became infallibly insolent towards their Superiors when they seem to be afraid of them by managing them with too much circumspection That he thought he had only written a complement in the last words of his answer to the Malaguins but that he would sooâ— see them explain those words as seriously as if they were part of the chief Article of a Treaty nay and give them a more ample signification than he had intended The event was more troublesome that Ximenes had predicted and the Malsguins imagined that they had obtained what they desired for this only reason that on the one hand it had not been refused them and on the other that they had been civilly answered They thereupon made an Insurrection banished the Officers of the Admiralty they
converted to other uses the places of Judicature threw down their Gibbets and left neither in their City nor Precincts any mark of the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty Ximenes made an offer of reclaiming them by mildness sending peaceful men to represent to them that seeing the Council of Bruxelles had reâ—erred them to the arrival of the Cathoâ—ick King in Spain they ought not till then have made any innovation but the Malaguins perswaded that the Cardinal sent messengers to him meerly out of jealousie for the favour which they pretended to have obtained grew more â—utragious and made their Rebellion publick They took Arms against the Government chose Commanders mounted upon their walls what Artilleâ—ry they had and cast a new Piece of a prodigious size and length with this Inscription In the relation of that Insurrection The defenders of the Liberties of Malaga will speak by my mouth The Cardinal who at first had only used lenitive medicines to convince the Council of Bruxelles that they would encrease rather than cure the evil sent strict orders to the Militia of the Kingdom of Granada to draw together into a Body and under the Command of Anthony de la Queva an experienced Commander march instantly to reduce the revolted Malaguins The Militia drew out into the Field with as much expedition as if they had been a Body of old Troops separated for a week or a fortnight into quarters of refreshment They advanced as far as Antequerra in so good order that the Malaguins all of a sudden changed from the extremity of presumption in their strength into a general despair of being able to defend themselves They prayed La Queva to put a stop to his march and to permit them to send two Deputies to Ximenes for imploring his mercy and freely submitting to his discretion La Quevâ— was for some time irresolute what to do seeing on the one hand the Cardinal was of an inflexible temper and on the other it concerned the Monarchy of Spain not to ruine the richest Town of Traffick it had at that time the Indies not having as yet enriched Seville Nevertheless he enclined to clemency and stopt till he should be informed of the effect of the Deputation The two wretched Malaguins who in a most humble posture presented themselves before the Cardinal expected to be made Sacrifices for their Country and in that prospect cast themselves at his feet They begged his pardon in a discourse mingled with sighs at every word and that he would vouchsafe at least to preserve Malaga from violence bloud fire and plunder The Cardinal who pretended to use indulgence thought it enough to give the Deputies a severe reprimand and sent them back to Malaga with Orders to repeat the same to their fellow Citizens Immediately after he wrote to La Queva to enter the Town and after he had caused five of the most guilty Burghers to be hanged and the Jurisdiction of the Admiral fully restored to proclaim a general pardon there La Quiva acted his part incomparably well and the blessings of the Malaguins was not the only advantage that Ximenes got by remitting severity in such a juncture He took besides the liberty to represent to Chievres and afterwards to his Catholick Majesty that it was the interest of the Monarchy of Spain to support him in all things that were not contrary to the service of the King. He protested that so long as he were Regent his Authority should go along with the Royal Authority That the rebound of the one would infallibly glance upon the other That his own and Masters Reputation went hand in hand and that having so signally re-established it in regard of the Malaguins he had reason to hope that if at any other time it were to be put into the balance they would consider a little better on 't first in Flanders He went farther in the following Order which he received from the Catholick King and it was upon so nice an occasion that he let fall one of the best sayings that is to be found in the Chronicles of Spain though those that have read them know they are full of such His Catholick Majesty ordered him to reduce the expences of the Crowns oâ— Castille and Arragon to their ancient state that is to say to the rate they were at be fore they were united He found it to be very hard and complained of it with the more reason that thereby he was rendred the object of all the Courtiers hatred and constrained to fall out with those Friends he had still remaining iâ— both Monarchies by cutting them short of what they yearly received out of the Royal Exchequer Nevertheless he punctually obeyed but before he set about it he thought fit to acquaint the Catholick King that it was not the want of foresight that made him so implicitly obedient to his commands He wrote to his Majesty That he did with him as God did with the Devil and that he always made use of him when people were to be afflicted and punished In the collection of his sayings but never employed him when there was a design to save or bestow favours upon them He still continued for all that to Govern â—fter his own way in rewarding merit â—ven when he discovered it in those â—hom he did not take to be his friends He procured a Cardinals Hat for the Bishop of Tortosa who was afterwards â—ope by the name of Adrian the Sixth â—nd desired Doctor Mota for his Co-adâ—tor in the Archbishoprick of Toledo â—hough he was perswaded that both of â—hem were in Spain upon no other acount but to spy his actions and thwart â—hem which to speak sincerely was â—…ue enough The Order is still to be â—…en which Chievres for that end expeâ—ed to the Bishop by command of the Catholick King and as for Mota he was a Spaniard born in the City of Burâ—os of no Estate but by his parts caâ—…able of acquiring one There was not â—n Castille a more profound Divine than â—…e nor a Preacher more generally followed He spake his own Language eleâ—antly and neatly and that was princiâ—ally the reason why Philip of Austria Father to the Catholick King who aspiâ—ed to the purity of the Spanish Tongue â—ook Mota for his Preacher and for conâ—ersing familiarly with him at his leisureâ—hours King Ferdinand Philip's Father-in-Law consented to it and received no prejudice thereby so long as Queen Isabelle his Wife was alive But after the death of that Princess he had cause to repent of it seeing Mota was one of those who most zealously seconded Philip in the design of sending Ferdinand his father-in-Father-in-Law home to Arragon That design was fully put in execution but Mota who had most contributed thereto though only in secret had not time to make his advantage of it Philip died before he had done any considerable thing for him and Ferdinand returned again to the administration of Castille Mota finding himself exposed to his resentment
the rest they forced through with Sword in hand and so saved themselves in the mountains of the Asturias Ximenes having missed the prey which had escaped from him turned his anger against Villa-fratre which he caused to be demolished to the very foundations By his orders the place where it stood was Ploughed up and Salt sown therein Seven of the chief Burghers were whipt for having affronted the Messenger whilst they were a beating of him and a Servant of the Admiral of Castille was served in the like manner for having carried Soldiers to his Masters Son. The Grandees of Spain incensed at this rigour wrote both publickly and privately to their King in Flanders importuning him by all means to deliver them from the tyranny of Ximenes They prayed Chievres to joyn his credit to their requests and this is a proper place to convict the Historians of Castille and Arragon of falshood who pretend that the Cardinal had not a greater Enemy at the Court of Bruxelles than Chievres Certainly if his aversion had been such as they set it forth to have been Chievres found the most favourable occasion that he could have wished for for supplanting of Ximenes seeing he needed not so much as to be seen in the disgrace of that Cardinal He had no more to do but to stand aside and leave him alone to defend his Cause against so many Enemies combined for his ruine He would infallibly have lost it and the Catholick King seeing himself reduced to the necessity of discontenting irreconcileably the Nobility of Castille or of sacrificing Ximenes unto them would have preferred the second before the first But Chievres forsook not the Cardinal at such a pinch where he absolutely stood in need of assistance to save him from an utter disgrace He represented to his Catholick Majesty that now it was his true interest more than ever to support Ximenes and if he yielded but the least in that point he would immediately have cause of repenting it That so long as the Cardinal was protected the Royal Authority was in no danger in Spain seeing on the one hand he would keep the Nobles in their duty by a strict observation of the Laws and on the other hand the People loved him too well and were too much obliged to him for the Justice he rendred them against the Nobles to make any Insurrection or to second the discontents of the great men But if it appeared that the Cardinal were no more in so great favour at Court the Nobility would instantly rise in Arms under pretext of deposing him but in reality to raise the Infanto Ferdinand to the Throne and the People beginning to despise the Regent as they commonly do those who are out of favour what way soever their misfortune befal them would be less reserved in following the example of the Gentlemen Chievres's discourse had the effect which he promised himself In the Letters of Charles the Fifth to Ximenes and the young King approved the Cardinals conduct so stedfastly that the Grandees of Castille having in vain solicited the Citizens of Leon Burgos and Vailladolid who remained in obedience were forced to receive the Law which the Cardinal was pleased to impose upon them It appears not neither by the Orders which at that time he received from the Court of Bruxelles nor by the Letters that Chievres wrote to him that he was enjoyned to manage the affair that then was upon the stage with more moderation than he was wont to do Nevertheless he did it and the clemency which he used was the more admired that he had never till then practised the like nor did ever any more for the future He at first rejected the overtures of accommodation which his friends made to him in favour of the four Criminals and seemed so inflexible to those who spake to him of pardoning that they despaired of disposing him to it The Criminals were forced by their own Fathers to go and deliver themselves up to prison in Vailladolid and to submit to what the Magistrate should order concerning their persons The Sentence of the Judges was conform to the severity of the Laws but Ximenes who had the Royal Authority in his hands grew milder when it was least expected He not only suspended the execution which would have drawn tears from all Castille but gave them an absolute pardon and did it in so noble a manner that the severity whereof he had given so many instances appeared not to be natural to him and that if he used not indulgence often it was because he thought it not possible to keep the Castillians from abusing it under a Regency He had the better on 't also of the Duke of Alva in a controversie they had together about the richest Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem that was in all Spain Anthony of Zuniga had been provided to it in the usual forms but King Ferdinand had taken it from him by his own absolute power and given it to Diego of Toledo third Son to the Duke of Alva by reason of the services which that Duke had done him in the Conquest of Navarre Ximenes so much hated Injustice that he could not suffer it even in his Master though otherwise he was extreamly obliged to the Duke He heard favourably the complaint that Zuniga made to him of being contrary to all right turned out of his Benefice and promised to do him justice The Duke of Alva who was sufficiently perswaded that the Cardinal would be as good as his word would not suffer his Son to appear before the Council of Madrid at the day to which he was cited by his adverse party He evaded the decision of the Process by all the tricks of Law and in the mean time made friends with the Catholick King to have the Cause evocated to the Council of Bruxelles He could not indeed obtain it because his Majesty as hath been said was engaged to Ximenes not to allow any more evocations from Spain to Flanders But notwithstanding there was so great a faction for the Duke of Alva that the Kings of France and England wrote to the Catholick King in his favours and their Ambassadors in their Masters names solicited Chievres to use his interest that Diego of Toledo might not be molested The same Kings pressed Ximenes also to suspend the decision of the Suit till the arrival of King Charles in Spain But the Cardinal who made no doubt but that Zuniga as being the weaker would be cast by the Catholick King caused the Process to be tried before his Majesties coming and represented so strongly to the Judges that they ought to consider nothing but right that the Son of the Duke of Alva was cast by unanimous voice However it was not so easie a matter to put the Sentence in execution as to pronounce it because the Son of the Duke of Alva gathered together Forces and took the Field to preserve his Priory But the Militia
not have suffered her to take one in France Marquess George of Brandenbourg Brother to that Elector and the Elector of Mayence had courted her in the usual form but she refused him because that Prince being a younger Brother and by consequence poor could not have maintained a quarter of the Train she had and besides she dreaded the rigour of the German Climat having been brought up in the mild Climats of Guyenne and Spain No other Lover presented and in all probability she had died a Widow if Chievres had not perswaded the Catholick King to give her a Husband who thought as little of being her Husband as she thought of being his Wife It was already eighteen years since the unfortunate Ferdinand of Arragon Duke of Calabria only Son and Heir of the last King of Naples of the bastard branch of Arragon had been detained in Spain in a kind of Prison which though it was gentile was nevertheless strict enough They who had deprived him of his Crown and liberty so carefully observed his person and actions that he would not have failed of being shut up close upon the first sign he gave that he remembred the condition wherein God was pleased to send him into the world It is not clear whether his long abode in Spain under the constraint he was kept had cow'd his Spirit or that knowing the temper of the Spaniards who watched him he acted in all things with so great circumspection that nothing escaped him that could give them the least suspicion But it is certain that he had all along carried himself like a man who had wholly forgot what he was and minded nothing but to satisfie himself in two things the one never to engage in any affair that was in the least troublesome and perplexing and the other to take his pleasure as often as ever he found occasion for it Chievres who perceived him too much taken up in an easie and soft way of living to fear that he would change his course was of the opinion that he should be married to Queen Germana His reasons were that they would make the best matched couple in Spain and that the Queen would be so far from taking the Duke off of his pleasures that she would engage him more deeply in them That she would spare the publick the charges of Spies about him and that he might safely be left upon his word if once he had such a Wife That they would live together free from cares and that neither of them would ever think of troubling the publick peace provided their Pensions for life on which they subsisted and which were all their Revenues were duly paid them That it was thought strange all over Europe that Ferdinand the Catholick and Cardinal Ximenes should have obliged the Duke whether he would or not to lead a single life and that for avoiding the same reproach he ought to give him a Wife by whom there was no fear that he would have any Children The Catholick King approved the proposition and Chievres had orders from his Majesty to move it to the parties The Duke was ravished at it and the Queen seemed only to scruple the matter for fear of losing her rank But that was removed by assuring her she should not and the expedient that was used for that end was that the Cathoâ—ick King was at the wedding and after the celebration of it called Queen Germana Mother as he did before The Courtiers durst not but imitate their King and Germana thought her self so much obliged for it to Chievres that she â—referred him before all her kindred in a particular case too rare to be forgotâ—en She had an Estate in France And did â—ot think that Francis the First would â—ive her leave to dispose of it at her pleaâ—re since she had married the Duke of â—alabria without acquainting his most Christian Majesty with it so she made it over to Chievres by a free donation upon this supposition that none at the Court of Spain deserved it better than he and that if the King of France would condescend in favours of any stranger it would certainly be in favour of him The End of the Fifth Book BOOK VI. Containing the most remarkable Affairs that past in Europe during the Year One Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty and part of the Year One Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty One. THOUGH the Kings of France and Spain who stood Candidates for the Empire in their competition transgressed not the terms of civility it was nevertheless to be seared that it would breed ill bloud and sow the seeds of enmity betwixt Francis the First and Charles the Fifth which might last as long as themselves and trouble the repose of Europe at least during the life of one of the two if they descended not to their posterity Francis by being baffled in his pretensions received the rudest check of Fortune that could befal him and what care soever he took both in his actions and by Letters to his Ambassadors in Courts abroad to disguise it In the Letters of Francis I. in 1519. it was nevertheless discernable that it would not be long before he measured the length of Swords with his Competitor for no other reason than that he had been more fortunate than himself The truth is Charles had not the same causes of discontent but he had others of jealousie that no less animated him to the ruine of Francis. He wanted nothing now at Nineteen years of Age but Reputation and his design was to acquire it He could not do it by declaring War against Solyman Emperor of the Turks For besides that he must have absolutely left residing in Spain and fixt his setled abode in Germany to which the Spaniards would never have consented it was to be feared that the most Christian King and Henry d' Albert might have recovered from him the Kingdoms of Naples and Navarre when they saw him engaged with the Infidels It was then more difficult for the Emperor to refrain from exercising his Warlike disposition against France and that Prince was the more inclinable to it that he expected a more easie success therein seeing if good fortune wherewith he flattered himself proved so favourable to him as to bring France under his subjection it would have been nothing to him to conquer the rest of Christendom and afterward the Turks Whereas beginning with the Turks he would give the French leisure to render themselves so powerful that it would be in vain for him to attack them thereafter Gouffier and Chievres were the two who knew the inclinations of Francis and Charles the best They were too sharp-sighted not to foresee the effects thereof in their full extent and too religious not to use their endeavours to prevent them And indeed they procured from their Masters unlimited Commissions not only to maintain them in good correspondence concerning the differences that were betwixt them about Naples and Navarre but also to prevent all
causes of misunderstanding which the change of time and the malice of men might for the future raise to disturb their friendship They met in the Town of Montpellier in Languedock in the beginning of Autumn one thousand five hundred and nineteen and it is not doubted but that they would have concluded a Peace of long duration betwixt the two Monarchies if God who thought fit to chastise the French by the Spaniards and the Spaniards by the French had not broken up the Negotiation by the death of Gousfier The Spanish writers who here do double their calumnies against the memory of Chievres have not been sensible that they wronged themselves more than him They blame him in the first place for having accepted a French Town for the interview and for not having stood upon it that the Conferences should be held upon the Frontiers of the two Kingdoms But it is easie to answer them that a neutral place had been good if there had been open War betwixt the two Crowns But seeing at that time they were in Peace and that a rupture betwixt them was only to be feared for the future it was not the custom to use any caution for the place of the Assembly and though it had been the question was decided in the preceding Negotiation The same Plenipotentiaries met in the Town of Noyon in Picardie for the same reason that obliged Henry the Fourth of Castille to pass the River Bidasloa and Treat in Guyenne with Louis the Eleventh of France that is to say by reason of the pre eminence of the French Monarchy before that of Spain and nothing had supervened since that which exempted Gouffier and Chievres from that rule For Charles was only Emperoâ— Elect and not Crowned and though he had the Imperial Dignity hindering not but that he held the Counties of Flanders Artois and Charolois in Fee of the most Christian King the least thing he owed to his Lord superior was to send his Plenipotentiary into his Country The same writers in the second place accuse Chievres of having imprudently trusted himself in a Town of Languedock where he was not in full liberty to Negotiate as was necessary But they mention not that Chievres could not take more security than he did and that it was so far from being violated that the Bishop of Badajox and Doctor Carvajal who seconded him in the Negotiation of Montpellier never complained of it Lastly they find fault in the third place that Chievres put himself in danger of being stopt when the Conferences ended by the death of Gouffier and their blindness in that particular is the more ridiculous that they see not that the fault which they impute to Chievres reflects upon Charles the Fifth who twenty years after put himself into the hands of Francis the First by crossing over all France upon the word of that Prince upon no other motive but the appeasing of the tumult of Ghent What the same writers add that Chievres had been Arrested in Montpellier if he had not left it at the very instant that he heard of the death of Gouffier and escaped with all diligence to Roussillon is no truer than the rest For it appears by the Journal of the Conferences written by the Secretary Robertet who was present at them that Chievres stayed in Montpellier some days after the death of Gouffier that he paid his last duties to his friend That he did not break up the Conferences but because the power of concluding for France was committed solely to Gouffier who was dead and that before he departed he took leave of Poucher Bishop of Orleans Robertet and the rest of the French who were concerned in the Treaty of Montpellier as Subaltern Ministers He had one cause to regret the death of Gouffier which he had not foreseen and which all the advantages that Charles obtained afterwards over France were not able to repair Gouffier promised Chievres to procure for him from the most Christian King peaceable possession of the Estate of Gaston de Foix which Queen Germana had made over to him and the thing had infallibly been accomplished after the separation of the Plenipotentiaries and the signing of the Articles But these well-grounded hopes so totally evanished by the death of Gouffier that whatever Chievres could do afterward the Estate that Gaston had possessed was given to his three Cousin-germans by the Fathers side Lautrec Asparant and the Mareschal de Foix without any recompence made to the Heirs of Chievres The unsuccessfulness of the Negotiation of Montpellier obliged the Catholick King to use as great caution before he departed out of Spain as if the French had already declared War against him He appointed a whole Army for the Guard of the Pyrenees and hastened his Voyage for Germany that he might engage in his interests Henry the Eight his Uncle by touching at England He durst not leave a Grandee of Spain to govern the Country in his absence for the same reasons which diverted his Grandfather upon his death-bed from chusing one of them and seeing he had occasion to make use of Chievres in England and Germany whither he was going and that he had already as hath been said cast his eyes upon the Cardinal of Tortosa for discharging that office in conjunction with Ximenes he thought it his best to continue him both in gratitude and civility He had no regard in that particular to the Remonstrances which were made to him thereupon by the Castillians on the one hand and the Arragonese on the other when he assembled them with design to bid them farewel and the Agents whom he entertained at the Court of England having given him advice that Henry the Eight would be at Calais the first of June one thousand five hundred and twenty for an interview with Francis the First near the Town of Ardres he apprehended and not without reason that these two Monarchs might unite against him In that case England would have cast the balance to the side of France and upon the account only to take the King of England off of that he hastened his departure out of Spain He embarked in the Port of Corugna the twentieth of May and was so happy as to make his Voyage into England with so much expedition as was necessary to break the most Christian Kings measures with Wolsey Cardinal of York the Favourite of Henry A favourable Wind in six days time brought him in the very nick to Dover where he found the Court of England making ready to go over into France He conferred two whole days with Henry none being present but Chievres and the Cardinal of York the two chief Ministers of the two Princes and the effects of extraordinary civilities in interviews appeared as much in that rencounter as ever It seemed that the Catholick King had forgot that he was chosen Emperor so respectful he was to his English Majesty and his complaisance condescended so far as to call the Cardinal