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
growing greater seeing he had the Pyrenean Mountains for a Barriere and crossing that Chain of Rocks which Nature seemed to have laid to hinder the two most powerful Kings of Christendom from marrying together he found on the other side France so powerful in that part where it bordered on him that there was much greater cause to fear that it might take from him his Territories of Biscay Arragon and Catalonia if he attacked France than there was hopes of conquering Guyenne and Languedock in it He resolved then to weaken it before he attacked it and seeing it had got footing in Spain by the acquisition that the most Christian King Louis the Eleventh had made of the Counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne from whence it might easily seize Catalonia the places whereof were not at all fortified at that time he made it his whole care to recover them and succeeded therein by a way not before practised Christian Princes having not been as yet accustomed to cheat under a pretext of Religion Louis the Eleventh had bought of John King of Arragon the Father of Ferdinand In the Contract of Engagement the two Counties by a Contract of Engagement which bore that his most Christian Majesty should lend upon the Counties three hundred thousand Livers that both should be put into his hands for security of the debt That the King of Arragon should have full liberty to redeem them within nine years to be reckoned from the Date of the Contract upon payment of the Principal and Interest but that if he failed upon any cause or pretext whatsoever to do it within the limited time he should lose his reversion and the propriety of Roussillon and Cerdagne should remain to France The King of Arragon let the time clapse through a mere inability of redeeming the Counties and Louis the Eleventh perceiving the ninth year almost expired without any offer from the King of Arragon of repaying his Money observed a formality which was not necessary and served only to give him what in Law is called abundantiam Juris He caused the King of Arragon to be summoned by a Herald to redeem the Counties and that Prince not having done it his most Christian Majesty united them to the French Monarchy and left them at his death to Charles the Eighth his only Son. Charles had been already nine years in peaceable possession of them and seeing by the Law of his State what had been united ten whole years successively could not for the future be dismembred Roussillon and Cerdagne were no more alienable than the other Provinces of France seeing two most Christian Kings had enjoyed them without molestation during the space of thirty years But it had pleased Louis the Eleventh to bring up Charles the Eighth in such a gross ignorance that he had no knowledge of his own affairs and Ferdinand taking that young Prince on his weak side corrupted as they say by money Oliver Maillard a Monk of the observance his Confessor That Cordelier represented to Charles that Christian Charity allowed not Christians of what quality soever they were to take advantage from the misfortunes of others and that notwithstanding that was a thing which the late King had done and which his most Christian Majesty continued to do That when Louis the Eleventh had caused the late King of Arragon to be summoned to repay the money lent upon the Counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne he found him in an utter incapacity of satisfying him and that nevertheless his Majesty had therefrom taken all the advantages that are allowed by the Law of Nations That the King of Arragon was at that time pestered in a Civil War and a Foreign War both at once seeing on the one hand the King of Castile incomparably stronger than he had entered his Dominions with an Army and on the other hand the Catalonians had revolted That his Majesty of Arragon died before these Affairs were concluded and that Ferdinand his Son was no more in a condition than he to redeem the two Counties since he was forced to employ all his own Revenue and that of the Queen of Castile his Wife for driving the Mahometan Moors out of the Kingdom of Granada and that by consequent the prescription expired not in respect of him because he was taken up in a Holy War That his most Christian Majesty therefore was no less obliged in conscience to restore him the Counties and that though in the Court of Man he had a very good right to demand the Money and the Interest of the Debt which his Predecessor had lent yet he had not so in the Court of Heaven since France had recovered more out of the same Counties than amounted to the first Sum lent That he must not neither make deduction of the Expences that the late most Christian King was forced to be at in raising an Army of forty thousand men even according to the account of Spanish Authors and sending them into Roussillon for the reduction of the Town of Perpignan that had revolted That the Rebellion of that important place ought neither to be imputed to the late King of Arragon who had no hand in it nor to Ferdinand his Son that had neither directly nor indirectly countenanced it and that so Roussillon and Cerdagne ought without farther delay to be restored to him Charles who was not sharp-sighted enough to distinguish the truth from the falshood in this Discourse of his Confessour obeyed the Father but not so implicitely as the Cordelier pretended he should His Majesty indeed restored the Counties without receiving either Principal or Interest of the money disbursed by his Father but in return he required two conditions of Ferdinand which would have been no less troublesom to him than the payment of the money had they been as faithfully performed as they were stipulated in a solemn Treaty * In the last Treaty of France for the Counties The first was that Ferdinand should enter into no League offensive or defensive against France the other that he should not marry any of his four Daughters neither in Germany England nor Flanders and that he should not give them any Husbands without the consent of the most Christian King or his Successours but before a year was over Ferdinand broke the first condition and made no more scruple afterward to violate the second Six months after he entered into the Pyrenean League of Italy against Charles his Benefactor and had the greatest hand in robbing him of his Conquests Not long after he formed the project of hedging in France on the side of Picardy Champagne and Burgundy as he bordered it already on the side of Guyenne and Languedock and made account of bringing into his Family the Low Countries and the ten Hereditary Provinces of the House of Austria That House was reduced to Maximilian the First the Emperour the Archduke Philip and the Archdutchess Margaret his Children The Archduke was so tender and had cost so
from him whatever he should desire He was the first Spaniard that made his court to him and won so much upon him that none afterward could equal him in favour The Archduke upon his return into the Low-Countries took him not along with him and had no cause to repent of it seeing he served him incomparably better in Castile than he could have done in Flanders He was his spie during the sickness of Isabelle and discovered or at least thought so that the Testament attributed to that Queen was forged He gave the Archduke private notice of it supplied him with means to prove the forgery encouraged him to make haste back again into Spain and promised to gain him a great party among the Grandees What he wrote was not very probable and it was rationally to be presumed that the Catholick King would take the start of his Son-in-law and make sure of the Nobility of Castile before the Archduke could be in a condition to sollicite them to own him Nevertheless there was greater deference had to Manuel than he deserved The Archduke at his bare sollicitation set forth on his journey and extraordinary good luck covered the fault which he committed so very well that it was scarcely perceived He found that Manuel had acquired him the friendship of all the Grandees except the Dukes of Alva and Medina Sidonia who more for shame than affection would not abandon the Catholick King. The party was too unequal and maugre the opposition of those two Dukes the Archduke was declared King. The efforts of the Catholick King for maintaining the pretended Testament were too weak and he himself admired the inconstancy of human affairs when he saw his whole Court reduced to fifty persons It seemed at that time that Manuel's head turned round so pleased he was to insult over a Prince who had been so long his Master He thought it not enough to draw up the Articles which his Majesty was forced to sign but it 's said he also joyfully beheld him when mounted on a Mule without other Equipage he went to wait on his Son-in-law The reign of the Archduke was so short that nothing fell during it which Manuel thought worth the accepting but the Government of Burgos He obtained it and it was at the feast which he made for his Master to thank him therefore that that Prince as they say had the poyson given him of which he died There were some contemplative heads that thought it was given rather to put a stop to the prosperity of Manuel than to make away the new King Philip. Certainly the revolution was compleat and Manuel all of a sudden fell from the height of favour into the greatest abjection He supposed that the Catholick King would be revenged on him upon the same ground that he would have continued to persecute the Catholick King if the life of Philip had been longer and he Embarked for Flanders before he was apprehended The Archduke Charles and Chievres received him very well and it was none of his fault but that the Emperor Maximilian had deprived the Catholick King of the administration of Castile But the Emperour could not set out a Fleet to transport him into Spain and the Catholick King having setled his Authority wrote to the Archduke his Grandson and to Chievres that he would disinherit the former and ruin the latter if they did not punish Manuel That was a terrible threatning and he that made it was not of a humour to be appeased nor patiently to take a denial But on the other hand Manuel had obliged Philip who having been Father to the Archduke and Benefactor to Chievres required that there should be more consideration had for a Minister whom he had cherished than for the Catholick King that hated him The Expedient which Chievres found out to avoid those two Rocks was to put Manuel into prison during the life of the Catholick King with this qualification that he should have all the satisfaction that he could desire except his liberty He proposed to himself also besides to secure the person of Manuel who would have run the risk of being stab'd even though he had been environed with Guards But Politicians are nicer than other men in the offences which they pretend to have received Manuel who reasoned so quaintly about matters of State never thought of the motives which induced Chievres to do him a little hurt to preserve him from a greater mischief He conceived as great an aversion to him as he had entertained kindness for him before and was not at all moved at the pains which Chievres took to come in person and set him at liberty so soon as the Courier who brought the news of the death of the Catholick King was arrived at Bruxelles Chievres had not afterward a greater enemy than Manuel and the good offices he did him exasperated rather than sostened him The Archduke who could not be without either of them kept Chievres at Court and sent Manuel into Italy where he succeeded in two most difficult Intrigues The business was not only to perswade the Pope and Venetians to take from the Most Christian King Francis the First the Dutchy of Milan which he had recovered and to send the French beyond the Alpes but also to make them consent that the Spaniards who already possessed the Kingdom of Naples should also conquer that Dutchy that so they might enjoy two Thirds of Italy and that keeping it inclosed within the two extremities they might wait for an occasion of subjecting the rest There was no appearance that the Consistory and the Pregady would endure that so disadvantageous a proposal shall be made unto them but the industry of Manuel supplied the seeming impossibility of success He got a wonderful ascendant over the mind of Leo the Tenth and concluded with him in the year One thousand five hundred twenty and one the famous Treaty which gained the Spaniards the Territories which they still possess in Lumbardie His Eloquence had no less effect upon the Venetians and by two such brave Negotiations he ended his days THE Arguments Of the Several BOOKS Of the First BOOK THE Archduke Philip being resolved to go to Spain to take possession of the Kingdoms fallen to his Wife chose Chievres to govern the Low-Countries who fully answered the good opinion that he had of him The disposition of Charles of Austria Eldest Son of the Archduke is left by Will to Louis the Twelfth King of France for reasons which could neither be more just nor more urgent and Louis in that particular gives a mark of moderation which hath but one example in Antiquity in the person of Ildegerge King of Persia He nominates Chievres for Governour to the young Prince without any regard to the prejudice which it did to the French Monarchy Chievres discharges himself of his Commission by instructing his Pupil in his true interests and by obliging him to exercise of himself the chief functions of Soveraignty
sharp-sighted as to see at so great distance the mark he aimed at But it is a thing almost impossible long to conceal the manner how great Princes are Educated when it is not in all things conform to the Custom practised in their Age. The most Christian King Louis the Twelfth had an Affair to be concerted with the Archduke which required to be managed by so much the more skilful hands that the Emperour and Catholick King were concerned in it Hangist of Geulis one of the most noted and understanding Gentlemen of Picardy was chosen to negotiate it for two reasons one because his Person was acceptable to the Flemings and the other that being Chievres his Kinsman he might the more easily accord with him but Geulis was extremely surprised when he found himself obliged to treat hand to hand with Charles who was then but fourteen years old compleat He was glad of it nevertheless at first as hoping to make a better bargain of it but when he found that the Archduke at the Age and in the State he saw him in was already the ablest Prince of his time in the Art of Governing he began to suspect the evils that that might occasion to France and seeing it would not have been civil to have declared his thoughts as to that openly to Chievres he only told him that he did did not conceive why he put the Archduke upon so great an application to Affairs of State since it neither agreed with his tender age his quality constitution nor the profound Peace which the Low Countries enjoyed that the temper of that Prince was all fire and that his prodigious activity was a sufficient proof of it that nothing was so contrary to People of that constitution than a too long and serious meditation and seeing they spent incomparably more spirits than others in the exercise of their faculties they proportionably wore out the Organs they made use of and so hastened either their death or from a continual speculation ran into madness that the latter of these inconveniences was the more to be feared that in respect of Charles it was a Family distemper and that if his Mother was troubled with it without application he had reason to foresee that the excess of application might produce in him the most terrible and most ignominious of its effects Chievres gave Geulis an answer which the Spaniards have reason to match with the Apophthegms of Antiquity He replied that he had heretofore reflected upon all that he had said and often considered of it but that after all he was persuaded that it was the chief duty incumbent on him and to which he was most obliged in conscience according to the Commission given him to put Charles as soon as he could in a condition not to stand in need of a Tutor and nevertheless he must need one so long as he lived if he did not accustom him in his younger years to take cognizance of his own Affairs because if they expected till he was more advanced in age he would never apply himself to that so much as was necessary whether that he would find himself at first overcharged with the multitude of Affairs or that he would be discouraged by the pains he must take in determining them being but a novice therein and by the frequent impediments they would bring in the way of his pleasures and recreations However Chievres read in the thought of Guelis what care soever he took to conceal it that he feared the Archduke might become too knowing and laboured as much as he could to divert the prejudice that might redound to the Monarchy of France from the Education of the Prince Nay and at first he succeeded in it pretty fortunately and if after he was dead the affairs which he had well disposed changed countenance he is no more to be blamed for that than for the evils that hapned before he was born and those who out lived him gave him the testimony that if his life had been longer France and Spain had never engaged together in War. Louis the Twelfth had no Son and by consequent Francis Count of Angoulesm first Prince of the Bloud Royal was by the Law of the State next to succeed him This Prince was brought up at Coignac a Town of Angumeis but Louisia of Savoy his Mother was commonly at Court. She had quarrelled with the Queen for some reasons that make nothing for the clearing of this History and there could not be a greater misunderstanding betwixt two Princesses than when Louis was so ill that the Physicians despaired of his recovery His most Christian Majesty a few months before had concluded two Treaties the first with the Emperour Maximilian and the second with Ferdinand the Catholick King both Treaties carried in express terms That the Archduke Charles of Austria should marry Claudia of France eldest Daughter to the most Christian King. France in the present Juncture could not receive a greater prejudice than by that seeing the Marriage agreed upon would one day render it weaker than Spain and by consequent would infallibly expose it to succumb under the first War that might happen betwixt them Bretagne a Province of vast extent and important in situation had for many Ages been dismembred from the Monarchy of France and with extreme difficulty had been reunited to it again The Conduct of Philip Angust was signal in obliging the Dukes of Bretagne Princes of the Bloud and of the Branch of Dieux to perform a regular Homage to France and when the debate for that Fief arose betwixt John of Montfort and Charles of Blois King Charles the Fifth evocated the cause to his Parliament and decided it In a word when there was no Males in the House of Bretagne and that that Dutchy fell to Female France by an irregular Conduct of those who governed it under the Minority of Charles the Eighth was at the point of seeing that Dutchy fall into the House of Austria The French unseasonably declared War against the Bretons pressed them with extraordinary violence in a time when the Laws of War were as yet exactly enough observed attempted to seize the State of their Heiress without marrying of her and thereby constrained them to cast themselves into the Arms of Maximilian of Austria That young Prince by a strange good luck had married the Heiress of Burgundy and by that means deprived the French of their hopes of adding the Low Countries to their Monarchy His Wife lived no longer than was necessary to secure the property of the Low Countries to the House of Austria seeing she died within a few years after their Marriage leaving him only one Son and one Daughter He was therefore in a condition to engage in a second Marriage with the Heiress of Bretagne and again to border upon France by Normandy Maine Anjou Touraine and Poitou as he bordered upon it by Picardy Champagne and Burgundy That second Match the most considerable in Christendom
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
necessity that her Succession must devolve upon a German Family readily submitted to the orders of Divine Providence and with her own hand wrote to the Archdukes to hasten over to Castile there to receive the Allegiance of the People as next and immediate Heirs since she was past the age of having any more Children On the contrary King Ferdinand who was sixteen years younger than his Queen hoped to survive her marry again and of a second ventre have Male Issue that might exclude the Archdutchess from his Succession Upon that account he delayed as much as he could to desire her to come into Spain and did not do it till the last push when his Wife told him that she would of necessity see her eldest Daughter recognized by the Estates of Castile The Union formed betwixt that Monarchy and the Monarchy of Arragon required that the recognition should be made in the Capital * Sarragossa City of Arragon immediately after it had been made in the Capital †Burgos of Castile and the Catholick King who for reasons that shall be mentioned by and by would not break it at length consented to what his Queen desired The Archdukes passed through France and arrived in Spain about the end of February One thousand five hundred and two They were extremely well received by the Catholick Queen but the reception was not so frank on the part of the Catholick King. The pretext that Prince had to cloak his indifferency was that the Archduke his Son-in-law brought with him to the Court of Spain a man that he did not like That was the famous John Manuel of whom we shall speak at large in the sequel of this History His birth was not illustrious and he owed only to the sharpness of his wit and the extraordinary talent he had of writing well and fast the choice that Ferdinand had made of him for his Secretary in those dispatches that required expedition He had not served long in that Station before he gave proofs that he was capable of something greater and his Master sent him Embassadour into Germany to the Court of Maximilian the Emperour where he concluded the double Alliance of the two Children of his Imperial Majesty with the two Children of the Catholick Kings He went afterward in the same Character to the * In the causes of the banishment of Manuel Low Countries where he so dextrously managed the Archduke that he became his Favourite This success put it in his mind to devote himself to that young Prince immediatly after the death of the Infanto Michael He demanded leave to do so from Queen Isabella his Sovereign who thought she ought not to refuse it him because it was more ways than one convenient for him to have a Castilian about him since after her death he was to Reign in Castile But Ferdinand who at that time began to make a distinction betwixt his own Interests and those of his Queen liked not that a man who knew his secrets and who besides was born a Subject of the Catholick Queens should have the entire confidence of the Heirs of that Princess because he foresaw that the desire of governing in his own Country as well as in Flanders would encline him immediately after the death of Isabella to persuade the Archdukes not to delay their taking possession of Castile till the death of their Father-in-law In that prospect he omitted nothing that might oblige the Queen to recall Manuel from Flanders but the Queen persisted in it that he should continue there and Manuel on his part neglected nothing that might render his abode necessary at the Court of the Archdukes He behaved himself there to the full content of his Sovereign and Ferdinand thereupon conceived an aversion to him which grew to that height that he could no longer dissemble it He made it appear upon several occasions and Manuel who looked upon the enmity of that Prince as a torrent of no long duration that would not overslow unless means were used to stem it pretended not to take notice of the same He made it only his business to inform the Archduke in those thirteen months that he was in Spain of the Grandees of Castile and Arragon whom he might win over from his Father-in-law to himself and to teach him the means how he might gain them The Archduke had all that was necessary for improving the Councils of Manuel He was the most affable Prince of his age and was accustomed to carress all the Flemings almost equally of what condition soever they were if they had the honour to approach him However he never made himself so familiar as to render himself contemptible to the Nobility of Spain and on no occasion stooped so low as to lose that gravity which they so much esteem He so tempered his civilities that they had all the success which he expected and that they who were honoured with them preferred his rule before that of Ferdinand And the truth is he left Spain so generally beloved that it was no more in the power of his Father-in-law to discredit him though he might have had a mind to do it Ferdinand suffered him to stay there but as short a while as he could and though the Archdutchess was brought to bed in the City of Alcala of a second Son who was afterwards Emperour Ferdinand the First they stayed not till she was up again to give her Husband the satisfaction of returning in company with her They would have him go before and the pretext that was made use of for sending him back with so much precipitation was the Commission he was charged with to negotiate at Blois where Louis the Twelfth was an accommodation of the clashing that had happened betwixt the French and the Spaniards about the dividing of the Kingdom of Naples The Archduke as hath been said in the former Book treated like a Gentleman and took all the care he ought in an Affair that nearly concerned him since he was already assured to reap advantage from it So soon as he set foot in France his most Christian Majesty and he vied in generosity The King sent into Flanders eight chief Lords of his Court there to remain as Hostages that no prejudice should be done to the Archduke in his passage and the Archduke that he might testifie an entire confidence in the Kings word wrote into Flanders that they should send back the Hostages The accommodation betwixt the two Nations was concluded and signed but Ferdinand disowned the proceedings of his Son in-law and thereby put an affront upon him which in the Maximes of the World was too great and too publick to be pardoned It was to no purpose for Ferdinand to represent to the Archduke that it was he who would reap all the fruit of the perfidious action he complained of and that thereby he would have the Kingdom of Naples entire The Archduke was nothing the less offended thereat and Manuel finding him
the late Queen Isabella and that it was she that had given him the command of the Spanish Army which he had conducted with so much success it was to be thought that he would have preserved the Kingdom of Naples for the Heiress of that Princess as sixteen years before he would have had the Kingdom of Granada which he had conquered united to Castile the Infidels having been chiefly subdued by the Castillian Forces If any thing could hinder him from doing it it must be the presence of Ferdinand and that Prince upon that very account alone did not stand deliberating if he should go to Naples He departed from Barcelona with his new Queen and his Voyage was more prosperous than he expected He found not in Italy the resistance which he expected and the Great Captain instead of fortifying himself in the Kingdom of Naples against Ferdinand who carried not along with him Forces enough to drive him out of it preferred the Grandeur of the Monarchy of Spain before his own interests merely upon the consideration that he had enlarged it by the accession of two Crowns He foresaw that Ferdinand would have no more Children and that his Grandson Charles of Austria succeeding to him would become the most powerful Monarch of Europe He also foresaw that if he resisted Ferdinand Spain would lose the Kingdom of Naples because the obstinate humour of that Prince would make him rather abandon it to France than leave it in the power of a revolted Subject Upon two such Metaphysical Principles the Great Captain of his own accord laid down the Vice-royalty of Naples He stayed not till Ferdinand should constrain him but reduced himself to the condition of a private man He came out of the Kingdom of Naples where he could do any thing went as far as Genoa to meet the Catholick King received him at the Harbour of that City and wholly submitted himself to his discretion That unexpected adventure was not the passage of the Reign of Frederick that most affected him he had two others which supervened so pat that he could not have drawn greater advantage from them though he had been the Author of the same The one was the death of the King of Castile * Philip of Austria his Son-in-law and the other the madness of the Queen of Castile †Jane of Arragon his Daughter The King of Castile remaining peaceable possessour of that Monarchy by his Father-in-laws retiring into Arragon minded nothing but his diversions and lived in too great a freedom with his principal Subjects not to give them occasion of abusing it The Government of Burgos the Capital City of old Castile was fallen void and the King gave it to his Favourite Manuel Manuel had no sooner taken possession of it but he invited his Master to a magnificent Feast It is not known whether the King of Castile eat and drank more than was fit whether any of his Enemies or Manuel found a way to convey Poyson into the choicest dainties of the entertainment or whether the great exercise which the King used immediately after so extraordinary a Dinner without giving his stomach time to concoct ruined the health of that young Prince which from his Infancy had never suffered any alteration but it is certain that he played long at Tennis after he rose from Table and that the same Evening which was the nineteenth of September One thousand five hundred and six he was taken ill of a Fever Seeing there appeared a Comet at that time and that the great men as well as the common people are persuaded that such Stars are not only the signs but also the causes of the death of Sovereigns it made so deep an impression upon the imagination of the King of Castile that during his sickness which lasted but seven days he complained at every moment of the Comet Nor did he lose the fancy of it in the height of a hot fit that seized him two days before he expired and and when he became light-headed he cried out in French even to his last gasp with a lamentable tone Ah Comet ah Comet He died the five and twentieth of September One thousand five hundred and six at the age of twenty eight years when he had only reigned two years and though he was a German by extraction and a Fleming by birth and that the Spaniards have a natural aversion to a Foreign Dominion yet they never lamented the death of any of their Kings so bitterly as they did his The shortness of his Reign was probably the cause of it and there is ground to think by what follows that if he had lived longer he had neither been so much nor so universally regretted He gave by handfuls and without distinction of persons In the distribution of his favours he had not so much regard to merit and services as to the diligence of those who first presented him their * In his Elogy Petitions and it is reported of him that his Council having one day asked him if he had granted the gift that they mentioned to him he made answer that he did not remember but that they might easily know it of him who they thought had received it if he had asked the same seeing in that case he was sure he had granted it Jane Queen of Castile loved him with too great a tenderness to be free from Jealousie She understood whilst she was in Flanders that he loved and was beloved of a Lady of Brabant That was enough to set her upon a revenge which was the first sign she gave of a distraction of mind She went to the place where her Rival was and called her before her She ordered two or three of her Servants to secure her hand and foot She fell upon her cut off her lovely head of hair and with her Scissors so disfigured the lovely traits of her face that the most charming beauty of the Low Countries durst not shew her self any more abroad The Archduke was extremely vexed at it but he was constrained to dissemble his displeasure when he perceived that the more he upbraided her with it the more enraged and furious she grew He carefully afterward avoided the giving her the least occasion of Jealousie By her he had two Sons who were both Emperours and three Daughters who were the Queens of Hungary France and Portugal he left her with Child of a third who was also Queen of Portugal and whether her grief for his death overcame her reason or that it only stirred up in her the dispositions to madness which were transmitted to her with the bloud of her maternal Grandmother Isabella of Portugal it is but too true that she lost her Judgment in so dreadful a manner that she never recovered a moments use of it during the whole fifty years that she lived after We leave it to Philosophers and Physicians to examine how the mad Isabella of Portugal could communicate to Jane of Arragon her
more facility that Maximilian the Emperour the Father of their late King desired no better than to be called in to supply the place of his Son during the minority of his Grandchild Thus Ferdinand more fortunate than he expected was invited to retake the Government of Castile which two and twenty months before had been ignominiously taken from him and did not lose so favourable an occasion The conjecture that had been made of his moderation proved to be exactly true and that politick Prince was so far from revenging himself on those who had thrust him out that he made it his particular care to gain them and the first places that fell void as well as the favours that came to be distributed were all for them So rare and judicious a procedure had the effect that Ferdinand expected from it The Castilians being persuaded that he generously pardoned because he affected to seem unmindful of their fault on their part remembred it no more neither but only to make amends for it and lived afterward in so exact a submission that during the Reign of Ferdinand they forbore to demand as it was their custom to do the Convocation of the Estates for regulating the Government of the Monarchy and if thereafter they were assembled it was at his desire None but Manuel who being more politick and by consequent more distrustful than the rest was of a contrary opinion to that of the publick and would never trust Ferdinand He thought that he had too highly offended him to refer himself absolutely to his diseretion without passing for an imprudent man and the instance of the Great Captain * Gonsalvo whom his Friends proposed to him as a signal proof of the clemency of the Catholick King wrought nothing at all upon him He chose rather to banish himself from Castile than to live under an offended Master and quitted the great preferments that he owed to the liberality of Philip of Austria that he might go live without employment in Flanders with the Archduke Charles Chievres who intended to make use of him for the execution of the designs that shall be related in the sequel of this History received him as the services which he had rendered to their common Master deserved and made him his intimate friend Ferdinand was the more incensed at the retreat of Manuel because he knew him to be a man capable of forming and keeping on foot dangerous intrigues against him in Castile though he was in the Low Countries and used all means to hinder him from doing so Nevertheless his Catholick Majesty thought it not fit to persecute him directly lest the other Castilians might take umbrage thereat but thought it enough to attack him by such ways as concealed private revenge under a cloak of publick good However he deprived him of what he had purchased in Spain and endeavoured as much as in him lay to reduce him to his first state The pretext which he took to impoverish him without startling the Castillians deserves to be known The profuseness of Philip of Austria had been so great that it had encroached upon the Crown-Rents of the Kings of Castile which till then had never been alienated In the revocations of Ferdinand Ferdinand took the occasion he sought for to revoke all the Grants made by that young Prince for what cause soever and reserved to himself the liberty of confirming those which should appear to him to be just The Castillians took no exceptions at that order because it excused them from supplying the ordinary charges of the State and Manuel thereby lost the great settlements that he had in Castile He thought it not convenient to make any attempt for retaining them for besides that he foresaw it would be fruitless he would not give Ferdinand the satisfaction of refusing him He suffered himself to be stript of all without complaining and revenged himself afterwards according to the manner of the most refined Politicians that is to say by the help and under the name of another He seconded Chievres in his design of thrusting Ferdinand once more out of Castile by opposing the Emperour Maximilian the First to him and the measures that were taken to bring that about were so just that had it not been for France they had succeeded The Emperour rejected no proposition that gave him occasion of getting much money with little pains and upon that weak side Chievres and Manuel attacked him They caused it to be represented to him by men that seemed zealous for his Interests that the Catholick King had doubly offended him first in putting upon him so great an affront that no ordinary Gentleman would sit down with without venturing his life to have satisfaction for it next in doing him a notorious piece of injustice equally contrary to the right of private men and to that of Sovereigns The affront consisted in this that the Catholick King struck at the Emperours reputation in supposing him incapable of the guardianship of the Children of the late King of Castilē his Son seeing he had taken from him the administration of the best part of their Inheritance which was the Monarchy of Castile that the injustice regarded the exclusion of the noble Sex and the substitution of the more ignoble in the most important of civil actions which was the Regency of States That all the Laws and Customs of Europe called the Fathers of young Sovereigns to that Regency even when their Sovereignties came by the Mother and that if there were no Father the Grandfather for the same reason was preferred before the Grandmother and the Paternal Grandfather before the Maternal Nevertheless the Catholick King was gone into Castile had received the Oath of the People had put himself into possession of the Guardianship of the Children and converted their Revenues to his own use That the People of the Low Countries had so universally acknowledged that they could not lawfully frustrate the Emperour of the Guardianship of his Grand-children that the seventeen Provinces had by common consent referred it to him and that if the Castillians had not imitated them the blame must be cast upon the cunning of Ferdinand who had over-reached them That there was no more needful to force him once more out of Castile but to represent to them that they were outwitted by him and that if notwithstanding they persisted to own him as Regent it was easie for his Imperial Majesty to bring him to reason by sending German Forces into the Kingdom of Naples by the Gulph of Venice The Emperour was so much the more sensibly moved with this discourse that it opened him a way of enjoying almost the whole revenues of his Grandsons the eldest being maintained by the Flemings and the younger needing only a small pension for maintaining him in the Colledge of Alcala where he was His Imperial Majesty sent Embassadours to Ferdinand to bid him leave the administration of Castile and to declare War against him if
Austria in Germany it would be his own fault if he conquered not the Kingdom of France and that afterward the rest of Europe would make but a weak resistance whereas if the States to which the Archduke ought to succeed were divided and if the Testament of the Catholick King which continued him to the Inheritance of his Father and Paternal Grandfather held good in that particular If the Infanto Ferdinand had Spain and if by that means variance entred into the House of Austria not only the greatness of the Monarchy of Spain would be at a stand but also it would lose all that it held in Italy and in the Neighbourhood It was only then in that prospect and without any respect to the Archduke and his personal qualities that Zapata Carvaial and Vargas declared in his Favours and the advantage he reaped from it is no less singular for the causes of it than it is in it self The three Ministers represented to Ferdinand that seeing his Majesty thought fit that they should continue to speak to him with open heart as they had been wont to do He would still have the goodness to take in good part the liberty they took to tell him that he seemed to have changed his Conduct at the end of his life and by his last Will and Testament condemned his most considerable Actions and which had acquired him greatest Reputation That he had done them the honour to declare when he called them to his Council that his only intention in this World was the enlargement of his Territories and that though he had not expressed himself so plainly yet there needed no more but to study his past life to convince them of it That no Man in Europe was ignorant how Ferdinand the Catholick at the age of fifteen years had espoused the Party of the late Queen Isabella sister to Henry the fourth of Castile against the Infanta Jane the Daughter of that King in no other view but because Isabella by bestowing herself upn him had offered to unite the Crowns of Castile to those of Arragon and that if Jane had been so well advised as to have preferred his Alliance before that of the Prince of Portugal who sought her in Marriage her Party would not have succumbed and she had not past for a Bastard That after the union of Castile and Arragon for adding the Kingdom of Granada to them Division had been sown betwixt him who was King of it and his brother and the more powerful was so weakned by supporting the weaker against him that both at length were oppressed That for an accession also to Arragon by joyning thereto the Kingdom of Naples in the City of Tarento the Prince who carried the name of it and who was the only Son of the King of Naples was Besieged That he had been prevailed with to relie upon the Faith and Truth of the Spaniards whose General the Great Captain had sworn to him upon the Holy Sacrament to leave him in liberty and that notwithstanding he had been detained Prisoner and under a sure Guard sent into Spain where still he remained in Prison That in a word a pretended Bull from the Pope had been made use of for seizing the Kingdom of Navarre and for driving from thence John d' Albert who had Married the Heiress of it In the mean time his Catholick Majesty destroyed his own work by preferring the younger of his Grandsons before the elder and laid an everlasting impediment to the greatness that Spain began to be raised to by kindling betwixt the two Brothers a War which would not end but by the entire ruine of him that should be overcome and such a weakning of the Conqueror that Spain would be so far from expecting new Conquests under him that it would become a Prey to the first who should invade it That since the Spaniards had bestirred and delivered themselves from the Slavery of the Moors they had been oftener subject to Civil Wars than Foreign for no other reason but that the Nobles had been too powerful and more apt to give Laws to their Masters than to receive them from them That they had not behaved themselves more modestly nor reservedly under his Catholick Majesty but because after his Marriage with Queen Isabella the Nobility of Castile were apprehensive of succumbing under the Forces of Arragon which they doubted not but would pour in upon them and that the Nobles of Arragon had had a juster cause to fear their being run down by the Arms of those of Castile That if young Ferdinand were King one of the two would have time during his minority to take measures against him and would retain so little respect for his Person because he was but fourteen years of age and was not so well brought up as his elder brother that they would oblige him at least for some years to leave the publick administration to the Grandees of Castile and the chief of Arragon which would infallibly renew Civil Wars in Spain That if his Catholick Majesty suffering things to go according to their ordinary course called the Archduke to his Succession the Gentlemen of Castile and Arragon would want both a pretext and means of revolting A pretext in that the Archduke at sixteen years of Age was no less able to govern them than the wisest Kings of Spain have been And means seeing their Rebellion would instantly be crushed by the Forces which that Prince would raise in Flanders and Germany and might easily bring into Spain by occasion of the Treaty which he had ratified with the new King of France The Catholick King strangely surprized and nevertheless convinced with this discourse made answer that seeing he could not conveniently leave Castile and Arragon to the Infanto In the last Council given to Ferdinand He must at least resign to him the three great masteries of the Order of St. James Calatrava and Alcantara the Revenue whereof would be sufficient for the subsistence of a Prince of his quality That his Majesty at the same time he resolved to make him his Heir had written to the Court of Rome to have him invested into these three headships of Orders That the Affair had been negotiated first with Julius the second and since with Leo the tenth and that the chief difficulty that those two Popes had found in it proceeded from a Bull granted before by Julius to the Commander Padilla which assured him of succeeding to his Catholick Majesty in the great Mastery of Calatrava provided he outlived him That the Bull of Julius was insignificant since Padilla was dead and that so nothing now hindred the expedition of that which allowed his Majesty the resignation of the three Masteries in favour of the Infanto But the three Counsellors of State being encouraged by the success of their Remonstrances and perswaded that having obtained the chief point his Majesty would not long refuse to grant them what was but accessory replied to the Catholick
man in Spain seemed more remote than himself But at the very instant he intended to take possession of it the Dean opposed it in a manner that would have long perplexed the Ministers if he had not remitted after that it had been represented to him that an Affair of that importance so happily carried on till then would go near to be discomposed by the least resistance on his part However he shew'd them a Commission in ample form from the Archduke for governing in his name the Monarchies of Castile and Arragon in case the King his Grandfather should die and demanded at least that he might be allowed to execute one half of his Commission with the Cardinal seeing the occasion was come and that they would not suffer him to execute it alone But the Cardinal who was not a man to yield replied that it should cost him his life but that the Will of his Catholick Majesty should be fulfilled in its full extent The Council of Spain who knew him well had no hopes of bending him and did not indeed think it convenient to endeavour it They thought it better to apply themselves to the Dean and to tell him that in Spain they were so well satisfied with his great integrity that they could make him Judge in his own cause they were so well assured that he would condemn himself when he should be convinced of the badness of it That they thought it not strange that he who was a Fleming and by consequent born in a Country far distant from Spain was ignorant that Queen Isabella foreseeing the distemper of mind to which her eldest Daughter had some disposition had substituted the Archduke her eldest Son to her upon two conditions first that he should not reign in Castile before he were twenty years of age compleat and secondly that he could not during his Minority trust the administration of that Monarchy in the hands of any stranger whence it was necessarily to be concluded that seeing the Dean was debarred from the Government of Castile by so plain an Exclusion he could not as a man of honour pretend to it They further added that he was no less formally excluded from the administration of Arragon seeing the late Catholick King to whom it belonged as Castile had belonged to the Queen his Wife had left the Government of it to Cardinal Ximenes That if notwithstanding he undertook to make use of his Commission which he brought with him from Flanders he would raise a Civil War in Spain and must answer to God for all the murders and other crimes that might be committed in it as he himself had acknowledged beforehand in his excellent Commentary upon the Master of Sentences where he taught that a man raising troubles in a State when he could hinder them without injury to his Conscience or his Honour was answerable for all the evils that might thereupon ensue We have taken notice before that the Dean was an honest man and that he understood not fully the Trade he medled in He was so charmed with the deference that the Spaniards testified for him in referring to himself an Affair wherein he was a Party and with the honour they did him in citing the Writings which he had heretofore dictated in the University of Louvain and caused afterwards to be Printed that he promised to submit to what the Council of Spain should determine provided an expedient might be found to secure his reputation and might not expose the Commissions of the Archduke to be thought ridiculous The Council of Spain who did not expect that the Dean would condescend so far took him at his word and proposed to him to be satisfied with some share that the Cardinal should give him in the Government The offer was plausible in appearance but in effect was doubly captious For in the first place to share the Regency with a native Spaniard was to make him his Master seeing his Sentiments in the Council of Spain would always prevail over those of a Fleming and in the second place the reputation of the Cardinal so far surpassed that of the Dean that whatever might be his merit yet it was only to foresee that if there were two Regents it would happen in Spain as it commonly happens in the Heavens that the light of a higher Planet wholly obscures that of the lower Star and that the Dean would have no greater share in the Government than if he were not at all associated in it Nevertheless he condescended to the expedient on the terms proposed to him without desiring time to write about it to the Archduke and Chievres and without waiting for the resolution which the Council of Bruxelles might take upon an Affair of that importance And indeed he was the first that repented of his precipitancy because he had no sooner consented that the Cardinal should act joyntly with him in the administration of Affairs than that Prelate left him no more but the name of Regent He dispatched without him all Affairs that concerned not the Sovereign Authority and for the others he did indeed propose them in the Council where the Dean was present and they were exactly enough examined there If the resolution that was taken in Council were equally conform to the mind of the Cardinal and Dean In the Deans complaints to the Archduke it was the better for the Dean whose opinion was then followed But if the Cardinal and Dean were of contrary opinions as it hapned but too often the Dean must comply with the Cardinals opinion and if he did not yet the business still went as the Cardinal decided in it The Dean was then obliged to sign in the second place the Acts that passed against his advice and if he persisted to refuse to set his name to the resolutions which he had disapproved they were for all that put in execution It was to no purpose for him to take exceptions at it his complaints were patiently heard and that was all the satisfaction he had seeing after all there was no more regard had to them than if he had held his peace They shewed him a little more respect in the dispatches that were to be sent to the Low Countries and none were sent thither unless he had signed them but that Society was prejudicial instead of being advantageous to him since most of the Affairs that were treated there were not moulded as the Archdukes Council would have had them That Council instead of imputing all the fault to the Cardinal who alone was concerned in it attributed it to the Dean as thinking him sufficiently authorised to have prevented if he had pleased the Archduke from being importuned with such like dispatches Chievres nevertheless spied in the Cardinals Conduct that it aimed at fixing himself during life in an administration which was only given him during the time of a short minority and at rendering the Archduke contemptible upon his coming to the enjoyment of the two chief Monarchies
of Spain when he stood most in need of purchasing the esteem of his new Subjects It was evident that a condescension in that case would have been equally mean and dangerous and the expedient which Chievres devised to remedy it as quietly as he could was to counsel the Archduke to multiply the number of Regents in Spain The reason he gave for it was that so long as that dignity was only exercised by the Cardinal and Dean the first of the two would always carry it over the second because he had the better of him in all respects That nevertheless he must have a care not to recal the Dean seeing the Spaniards being generally too quaint and sharp-sighted in their conjectures would presently guess that the Council of Flanders were sensible of and endeavoured to repair the fault that they had committed in sending into Spain a man absolutely incapable of discharging the Commission that was put upon him but that if a new Colleague more cunning in intrigues and expert in business than himself were joyned with him the Cardinal durst not dare to refuse the admitting of him into the Councils and the Flemings having there two voices to one would become the absolute Masters of all the resolutions that might be taken there The chief difficulty that appeared was the choice of the Minister that should discharge the place of a third Regent and by this means it was mastered The Archduke had no sooner been informed of the death of his Maternal Grandfather but that by the advice of Chievres he went and took John Manuel of whom we have already spoken out of the Prison where he had lain so long through the obstinate resolution of the Catholick King that he should be kept there The pretext that was made use of for giving that Spaniard his liberty was the kindness that the Archdukes Father had had for him and the important services that he had rendered to him but the true cause was that Chievres intended to oppose Manuel to the Cardinal and by means of this man to hinder him from taking to himself greater Authority in Spain than it was convenient for the interests of the Archduke that he should have Chievres his conjecture was not ill-grounded seeing the Cardinal had crossed as much as lay in his power the promotion of Manuel He had attempted to have obliged Philip the First to turn him away he had since openly persecuted him and if he did not put the late Catholick King upon obliging his Grandson to commit and detain him long in Prison yet at least it was believed that he had been assistant in confirming his Majesty in the resolution he had taken about it Nevertheless Chievres changed his opinion afterward and thought he had reason to do so It would be hard to tell precisely whether he did well or ill in that particular but if he did well Posterity ought not to find fault with his Conduct and if he did ill his fault was lessened by the cause that Manuel gave him not to look upon him any more as his friend No men in the world are so impatient of imprisonment as those who are cut out for Intrigues because they then reckon for lost all the Minutes of their life which have not been employed in actions that are inconsistent with a Prison Manuel had been a Prisoner ten whole years and that was more than enough to put him out of humour and the rather that during so long a space he had lost all the acquaintance and correspondence that he had made and entertained in Spain and the Low Countries He knew not whom to blame for it and it was more for want of another object than the conviction of the pretended infidelity of Chievres that he suspected he had abandoned him He thought that if there was no malice on the part of that Governour yet at least there was negligence and that in either case he was to be blamed though nothing near so much for the latter as for the former The friendship of Politicians is more inconstant than that of other men because it is hardly ever proof against the least suspicion Manuel quickly added a second thought to his former much more disadvantageous to Chievres in supposing that he had suffered him to languish in a Prison for fear lest if he had taken him out or that if he had procured his deliverance he might have supplanted him by becoming the chief Minister and Favourite of the Archdukes as he had been of his Father So that when Chievres went to wait upon the Archduke when he set Manuel at liberty Manuel embraced him not so kindly as he used to do and that was the first mark of his indifference The second appeared in that he would have no particular correspondence with Chievres and the third in that that at the time when he was enlarged finding the Archdukes Court divided into two Factions one which stuck to Chievres and the other that had forsaken him and owned the Bishop of Badajos for chief Manuel having regained his liberty instantly took his Party and declared for the Bishop against his Benefactor That was enough to give Chievres cause to foresee that if Manuel were sent into Spain he would make his reconciliation with Ximenes He would second his opinions in the Council and render those of the Dean ineffectual That was the real cause of the Archdukes refusing to give him the Commission though he sollicited it with extraordinary importunity and the Archduke to comfort him told him that he thought him so necessary about his person to consult with concerning the dispatches that came to him from Spain and the Answers that he was to make to them that he could not resolve to part with him out of sight So that for a third Regent was chosen the Lord de la Chau of younger standing than the Dean in the Council of Flanders but more knowing in Politicks and more accustomed to dissemble than he La Chau was without difficulty received by the Cardinal and Dean for a Colleague but he was not the more advanced for that and Affairs went no better for the Flemings in the Council of Spain Ximenes was no less powerful there than he had been before and as his sole voice carried it from the Dean when he had no other Colleague but him so it carried it still notwithstanding he had two Flemings against him in most Affairs that came under debate The Dean was so well accustomed to that usage that he was scarcely any more scandalized at it and perhaps it was by that compliance that he obliged Ximenes to give him the Bishoprick of Torlosa in Catalonia But La Chau could not endure not to enjoy the full exercise of his Commission after that his Letters Patents for it were verified He complained of it next day after and upon the refusal of the Justice which he demanded he wrote to Chievres a full account of the affront which the Archduke received in his
an entire satisfaction to the most Christian King And that in fine when the Catholick King were once assured of obtaining what he desired by proposing it the matter should be varnished over with so plausible colours that if it were not frankly consented to yet at least it should pass in Form and without Sedition That the Catholick King expected an happy success in this provided he were suffered to take his own way in Negotiating it and that Chievres durst undertake for it upon two conditions one that his Master were allowed time to go to Spain and there to dispose the minds of the People and the other that the promise of restoring in convenient time the two Kingdoms to the most Christian King and John d' Albert should be kept so secret that no Spaniard might dive into it The discourse of Chievres if rightly taken was captious seeing he demanded a present and most important favour such as the security of the Low-Countries during the absence of Charles for hopes so much the more uncertain that the fulfilling of them was remote and would absolutely depend upon the faithfulness of his Catholick Majesty who having obtained beforehand all that he could have desired perhaps would not take much care of performing his promise Nevertheless whether it was that Gouffier did not sufficiently reflect upon that or that he yielded to the importunities of inferiour Ministers who were appointed to Negotiate under him whom Chievres had charmed with his caresses the Court of France committed an irreparable fault and suffered themselves to be choused by a man whom then they had but too great ground to distrust They consented that Gouffier and Chievres should confer together about finding out an expedient that might a little more bind the Catholick King and nevertheless leave him as much liberty as he desired for disposing his new Subjects to satisfie France Several were proposed and that which the two Plenipotentiaries at length agreed upon was that there should be two Treaties of Noyon of the same date one which should be kept secret by the Parties concerned until the time of its execution and another which should be made publick so soon as it was signed By the first In the two Treaties of Noyon Charles obliged himself not to lose any time in the restitution of the Kingdoms of Naples and Navarre after he had taken possession of his maternal Crowns and to do it himself by his own absolute Authority if he could not obtain the consent of the Spaniards But the second only contained that the most Christian and Catholick Kings should agree upon Arbitrators who within a prefixed time should declare whether the Crowns of Arragon and Castille had any right or not to Naples and Navarre That if these Arbitrators decided in favour of Spain the two Kingdoms should remain united to it and that if their Sentence were to the disadvantage thereof the Catholick King should instantly restore them The other Articles of the two Treaties were in all things alike which may have given occasion to think that there was but one The three most considerable were that until the Arbitrators should decide to which of the two France or Spain the Kingdom of Naples belonged the Catholick King should pay to the most Christian King one hundred thousand Crowns a year as a quit-Rent That the Catholick King should espouse Lovisia of France who was yet but a year old and that if that young Princess died before the Marriage were consummated the Catholick King should Marry another of the most Christian King's Daughters in case he had more and that if he had none the Marriage of the Catholick King with Renee of France Sister-in-law to his most Christian Majesty should be accomplished as it was agreed upon in the former Treaty That in fine the Emperor Maximilian should restore to the Republick of Venice the City of Verona with this caution that he should put it into the hands of the French who should immediately after deliver it over to the Venetians and that the Senate of that Republick should pay to the Emperor two hundred thousand Crowns to reimburse the charges he had been at in Conquering that City Gouffier in this matter concluded the Treaty of Noyon and Politicians judged that he lost in it as much reputation as Chievres had acquired And truly if we may judge of the satisfaction of the two Kings with their Plenipotentiaries by the reward which they gave them it is certain on the one hand that Gouffier received none of Francis the First and on the other that Chievres was so well recompenced by Charles that he became the richest Subject in Christendom Maximilian the First and Philip had already given him the forfeiture of the Estate of the house of Gaure the Government of Nivelle the Collar of the Golden Fleece the great Bailliage of Haynault and two thousand Crowns for his extraordinary Embassy in France in the year One Thousand Five Hundred and One where he had made himself known to Louis the Twelfth according to his value though there was nothing concluded in the Peace which he went to Negotiate betwixt his most Christian Majesty and Ferdinand the Catholick King. Charles added to these by his Letters Patents of the twenty third of June Câ—e Thousand Five Hundred and Seventeen the charges of High Admiral of the Kingdom of Naples of Captain General of his Armies by Sea of alâ— the Kingdoms Territories and Principalities of his Catholick Majesty oâ— High Chamberlain and of chief Minister of State and by other Letters Patents of the fifteenth of December the same year the Dutchies of Sovia and Atri iâ— the Kingdom of Naples the particulaâ— Government of the Town of Escluse it Flanders the erection of the Barony oâ— Arscot into a Marquisat a Company oâ— an hundred Armed men maintained iâ— time of Peace as well as War and lastly the erection of the Lands of Beaumont into a County The multitude of these favours is upoâ— two accounts remarkable First because Charles was not liberal and that besides he had the more reason to dividâ— his bounty amongst several persons thaâ— never Prince was so well served as he was and by consequence was obliged to give so many Rewards as he and secondly because Chievres as hath been observed before never begg'd any thing of him neither for himself nor his Relations and thought it enough to deserve from a grateful Prince the Favours that he heaped upon him Seeing the accommodation of Noyon had surmounted all the obstacles that could obstruct Charles in taking possession of his maternal Estates he had not so great cause any more to fear the excess of Authority which Cardinal Ximenes took to himself in Spain and Chievres was of the opinion that he should be let alone to do so provided his actions struck neither directly nor indirectly at the personal advantages of his Catholick Majesty The Cardinal on his side vied in gratitude and served Charles with as
practised most unseasonably as to them that is to say at the time when they are most exasperated Giron whom Ximenes punished more severely by neglecting him than if he had put him in prison resolved to have his turn and to be even with him by a third way He told before some who he knew would acquaint the Cardinal with it the true cause why he had not gone to see that Prelate saying that it was to put a difference betwixt the Catholick King and those who had the honour to represent his person because the Grandees of Castille as often as they passed by the place where their King was were accustomed to visit him and if they did so in respect of the Cardinal the Catholick King might have cause to find fault with them for it That was reported to Ximenes who wondering no more at that than at all the rest forced Giron to attack him in a fair way by making a great party against him upon the old pretexts of discontent which the high Nobility had against him The Constable of Castille was the first that engaged in it because there was a talk of taking from him a Royal right which he had upon the Coasts of Andalusia The Duke of Bonevento was drawn in next out of spight because he had been hindered to finish a Fort which he had begun in the Territory of Cigalez The Duke of Albuquerque and the Duke of Medina Coeli followed their example because of Rents which they had out of the Crown Lands and the Bishop of Signensca was the fifth upon the account that being born in Portugal he apprehended to lose his Bishoprick lying in Castille supposing the Cardinal might be inclined of himself or might be desired to re-establish the Castillians in the possession of one of their fairest Priviledges which consisted in that neither their Offices nor Benefices could be held by strangers There remained no more to raise the other Heads of the high Nobility but to gain the Duke of Infantado the chief of the Family of Mendosa to whom the other Lords of Spain yielded in Birth Estate Riches and Merit It seemed no difficult thing to dispose him to a Revolt by reason of what had passed betwixt Ximenes and him He had heretofore courted the Alliance of that Cardinal and had offered to him notwithstanding the extream disproportion of their Families to marry Diego de Mendosa his Brothers Son with Isabelle of Cisnero the Cardinals Niece It is not known whether or no the Duke was tempted with ambition or that he only intended to unite more closely with that Favorite or lastly if he acted in prospect of augmenting the vast Estates of his Family by joyning thereto the great Treasure which the Cardinal was thought to have with his Heiress But it is certain that the Duke himself one day made the proposition to the Cardinal and that he surprised at the honour that was done â—im incomparably greater than he durst â—ave hoped for and wanting time to â—…ok upon the reverse of the Medal which was shown him by the fair side granted the Duke's desire But he reâ—ented it so soon as going into his Closet â—nd calling to mind what had befallen â—im he found that he had made too much haste and that self-love had so far â—linded him as to make him guilty of a â—ross fault against the maxims of quainest policy He had exposed himself by â—iving his consent too soon to the jealouâ—e which Ferdinand the Catholick King â—is Master who was then alive had alâ—eady conceived of him when his Majesty â—hould perceive that he renounced his â—ncient maxims and that instead of â—ontinuing to declare himself against the â—igh Nobility he began at long run to Ally with them by giving his Niece â—nd Heiress to the Nephew and Heir of â—he Duke who had all the Lords of Spain for his Kinsmen or Allies Whence Kimenes concluded In the Elogies of the House of Mendosa that if is Majesty had endeavouâ—ed to depose him when he â—ad no reasonable cause for it he would for the future set about it with so much the more ground that all the Spaniards were perswaded that if the Treasure of the Cardinal which was given out to be sufficient to raise and maintain a formidable Army were joyned to the power and credit of the Duke of Infantado the Heirs of both together might render themselves Masters of Castille if they had the ambition That was enough to make the Cardinal eat his words and seeing he never wanted ways to retrieve a false step when he had time to do it he excused the irregularity of his word in so many different manners that if the Duke was noâ— fully satisfied yet he had no sufficient occasion to break with him They were then to speak properly neither Friend nor Enemies when Giron's party proposed to have the Duke to head them and the six afore mentioned Grandees wenâ— upon that design to wait on him in the Town of Guada Caira where he past the Winter in the year One Thousand Five Hundred and Seventeen They represented to him that the Spanish Nobility had gained a great reputation in the World by delivering their Country from the Tyranny of the Mores but that they were about to lose it iâ— they persisted in the insensibility that at present they were in That they had already suffered but too long a man of base birth who had judged himself so incapable of commanding that he had made a vow of obedience so long as he lived and who having only learnt to govern in the Cloisters where Authority is wholly absolute imagined that the Grandees of Spain were to be Ruled as absolutely as Cordeliers of the strictest observance That if the power he took to himself had any ground in the Laws of Spain it ought to be submitted unto but that these Laws favoured not a Monk who had only raised and did maintain himself by violating them That he could shew no other title for his pretended Regency but the Article of the last Will and Testament of the late Catholick King which bequeathed it to him but that there were three things to be found fault with in that Article the least whereof was sufficient to evacuate the execution thereof First that it was suggested by Carvaial the Counsellor of State to whom the Cardinal for reward had promised the Bishoprick of Siguença so soon as he had outed the Portuguese Prelate who was provided to it contrary to the custom of Castille Secondly that the Cardinal stretched his power infinitely beyond what he said was given him which stood in need of no proof seeing it was a thing so publick that no body was ignorant of it and lastly that granting it were true that the late Catholick King had granted him the Regency in the full extent that he exercised it in yet he ought not to be suffered to enjoy it seeing by the fundamental Laws of the Monarchy of Castille the Royal
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-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
to excuse himself for not carrying him the Letter and kept it full five days He sent in the mean while to the houses of all the Grandees in Spain to give them the false news that the King was at Sea because it was the custom of the Spanish Lords to make Presents to those who told them the news of any extraordinary good fortune that concerned the State. That buffle-head to heighten his imprudence on the fifth day carried not the Letter directly according to its address but delivered it to the Bishop of Tortosa thinking that Ximenes who whilst he was in health communicated to him none of the principal affairs of the Regency would not take it ill that he were acquainted with them during his sickness were it only to ease himself of so much pains The Bishop instead of acknowledging the obligation which he had to Ximenes for the Cardinals Hat which he had procured him in the promotion of one and thirty Cardinals made by Leo the Tenth thought it not enough to open the Letter but besides show'd it to the Infanto who on that sad occasion reflected with trouble upon all the displeasures he had received since the death of his Grandfather and was convinced that he was about to be totally deprived of the infallible hopes and even of the certain Inheritance which he had by Birth He communicated the matter to his four principal Servants who having greater interest â—n the affair than himself and resolving â—o animate him for their own preservatiâ—n as much as he could be thought it not enough to confirm him in the opinion he had already and which was so faâ—ourable to them They added that the â—lteration in hand must not of necessity have come first neither into the thoughts of the Catholick King nor of Chievres â—or of the Counsellors of State of Madrid because if the matter had happenâ—d any of these three ways the order for â—utting it in execution would not have â—een solely sent to the Cardinal but to â—he two other Regents with him or at â—east to one of the two that an alteratiâ—n of such importance might not be left â—o the ministery of a dying man. They concluded that the overture came from Ximenes and that he had made it to Chieâ—res his Correspondent in terms that intimated that none but he was capable of putting it in execution That he could not give a more evident proof than that of his terrible aversion to the Infanto seeing instead of employing in the works of Repentance the little time he had to â—ive he lost it for ever by spending it in reducing a young Prince born and bred up to Reign to the condition of a private man. The Infanto by this discourse conceived the greatest indignation imaginable and went instantly to make his grievances known to Ximenes He resolved to have two at least to accompany him who might serve for witnesses of what past in the conference and seeing his Governour was sick he took his Tutor and sent to pray the Cardinal of Tortosa to bear him company The Cardinal declined it and to say the truth he wanted confidence to appear before Ximenes having so offended him though it was only by a mistake He had opened the Packet and shew'd it to the Infanto without foreseeing the advantages which the Servants of that young Prince might draw from that previous light in engaging their Master in their interests and so soon as he was sensible of his fault he had sent the Packet to Ximenes with most humble excuses for having opened it So that the Infanto having by all means essayed to get the Cardinal of Tortosa to accompany him In the Life of Adrian the Sixth was forced to go with his Tutor without him to the house of Ximenes He hardly had the patience to salute him but made his complaint with Tears in his Eyes of the wrong he did him by depriving him at an unseasonable time and without cause of his good and faithful Servants He added that he would not have thought such a procedure so strange if it had come from Chievres or the other Ministers of Bruxelles seeing he was born in Spain and that it was but too well known in the World what Antipathy there was betwixt the Flemings and Spaniards but that it was insupportable to him to find himself ill used by Ximenes whom he had till then lookt upon as his best friend He prayed him to leave those about him who were men without reproach and with whom he was fully satisfied and adjured him to do so by the memory of Queen Isabelle his Grandmother to whom he had so often acknowledged that he was solely indebted for his Fortune Ximenes carried it high proportionably as the Infanto humbled himself For besides that he was perswaded that the affair must be managed with the height of Authority and that he would spoil all if he abated in the least he was also of the opinion and the event shewed that he was not mistaken that if in so nice a juncture the Infanto was treated with as much severity as the other Subjects of the King his Brother he would think on 't so long as he lived and that he would begin betimes to obey him as implicitly as if he were infinitely above him in birth And indeed Ximenes spent no time in telling the Infanto the reasons why his Catholick Majesty would have him part from his Servants He pretended that that young Prince ought as all other Spaniards to suppose that all the resolutions flowing from his Majesties Counsel were just and upon that ground alone made him answer with a firm and sedate voice that his condition was not so deplorable as he gave it out to be and that what he judged at that time to be bad insupportable would one day redound to his Glory and advancement provided he chearfully gave the other Subjects of the King his Brother an example of perfect submission and taughâ— them that as he had the honour to be the first Subject of the Monarchy of Spainâ— so also he gloried in obeying his Monard more implicitly than the rest That hâ— was not sensible of any injury done untâ— him by taking from him his old Servants and giving of him new That hâ— was old enough and had sufficient experience in such kind of Politick affairs and that he ought not to be blamed for it more than a great many others who were not so much concerned as he for the real greatness of the Infanto That the kindness he shew'd to his Servants would be commendable on other occasions but that it was not to be put into the balance with the submission which he â—ought to have to the most powerful King of Christendom In the relation of that conference whose Orders it was neither reasonâ—ble nor safe to resist and â—hat in short if he persistâ—d to complain out of time and shew his â—iscontents at the last Order come from â—landers he
Emperor but as he held it of a woman who was his Mother so it was preserved to him by another woman the Countess of Medina She was the near Kinswoman of Pedro Giron and upon that pretext desired a Conference with him Giron did not think he could civilly refuse the interview and having consulted those of his party granted it The Countess represented to him that all her Estate lay about Medina and that the Army of the League would utterly ruine it if they stayed a few days longer in the place where they were That to prevent beggary it had come into her mind to propose an accommodation which she judged to be too reasonable not to be accepted That the Town of Medina was no way considerable but for the Army which defended it and that it would always receive the Law from him who should be Master of the Field That if the League had no other intention in seizing it but to take from the contrary party a place of so small importance the Town offered to submit to them provided they would suffer those who had retreated thither to march out That in the mean time they could not force them out and that there was no instance of a Town defended by an Army of all old Soldiers that ever was taken by Storm Giron who had not experience enough for the Generalship that he undertook suffered himself to be over-reached by the ambiguity that lay in the proposition of the Countess of Medina For it is true indeed that Towns defended by Armies were not exposed to the danger of being lost when these Armies found abundance of Provisions in them or could have them from other places But they were not so when the Armies were in want and so straitly block'd up that they could neither enlarge their Quarters nor receive Convoys and nevertheless that was exactly the case of the Imperial Forces in Medina They neither had nor could make Magazines there for want of money They were invested by the Army of the League stronger by one half than they they expected no relief and Provisions and Forrage being equally wanting they must have been forced within a few days to render upon discretion Nevertheless Giron looked upon the proposition of the Countess as most advantageous to his party He spake of it to the Bishop of Zamorra who being no greater Captain than himself was no less taken with it These two got it to pass in the Council of War of the League that the Confederate Army should draw off to Villalpando provided the Imperialists marched out of Medina and left it in its own possession and that was the cause of their ruine for the Imperialists so easily delivered from the danger that their weakness in number had put them into made extraordinary good use of the neglect of their Enemy They marched streight to the Town of Tordesillas being perswaded that if they could get the Queen out of the hands of the Rebels they would deprive them of the best thing they had and they proceeded with this circumspection that they stopt and carried along with them all that they met upon the way So they hindred the Rebels from having any intelligence of their design which they might easily have disappointed if they had discovered it The Garison of the Town and Castle of Tordesillas consisted chiefly in the Bishop of Zamorra's Priests and in some of the Trained bands of the City of Vailladolid They were in no preparation to maintain the assault that was made about break of day the fifth of October one thousand five hundred and twenty Nevertheless it lasted from morning till night and never was there before that any place attacked with greater heat nor defended with more obstinacy than Tordesillas was though it was one of the weakest places of Castille The Count of Haro an expert General who commanded the Imperialists perceiving his Infantry disheartened because they had been thrice beaten back made his Cavalry alight and led them himself to the Assault The Rebels startled not at all at it and resisted with no less vigour nor order A Priest one of the best marks-men amongst them had placed himself behind a Parapet from whence he never missed any of the Assailants who clambered up on his side when he saw them within distance to fire at them He made the sign of the Cross upon them with the But of his Musquet and thereby pretended that he gave them the Absolution of their sins and lessened one half at least of the crime he was about to commit Then he took aim at them and turned them down dead into the Ditch In this manner he had killed eleven of the boldest Imperialists but as he was performing his ridiculous ceremony towards the Twelfth he received an Arrow-shot in the right Eye of which he died begging that the same favour might be done to him which he had done to others About noon the Count of Haro despairing to carry the place at that part which he thought was the weakest removed the Attack to the opposite side His Infantry disdaining that the Horse should perform their duty behaved themselves with greater eagerness and in better order than before Nevertheless both were beaten off till night when a Navarrese Soldier of Cadaorra perceiving at the bottom of the Ditch a little door ill guarded In the relation of the second taking of Fordesillas show'd it to his Comrades who helpt him to break it open with Bars and Levers and by it entred the Town The respect which the Victorious owed to the presence of the Queen having bragged that they were only come to deliver her out of the hands of Rebels hindred neither the plundering of Tordesillas nor the other cruelties that commonly attend it and that Princess took no great exceptions at it though on all hands she heard most dreadful noise because care was taken not to divert her from her ordinary pastime which was to pursue and run after Cats In the mean time there was never a more sensible proof than at this time that it is reputation which most frequently decides the quarrels in Civil Wars as well as in Foreign For the Spaniards who strove who should first declare for the League whilst they knew that their Queen was with the Confederates no sooner came to understand that she was taken from them but that they fell off in all places where they could safely do it The example went even from the small to the great and Pedro Giron publickly renounced the League upon a quarrel that he had with the Bishop of Zamorra in which he obtained not that fatisfaction which he expected from the Council of the Party His desertion quite broke the League and there was hardly any doubt made on 't but that he had raised the Siege of Medina with a design to betray those whom he forsook so soon afterward They were confirmed in an opinion so disadvantageous to him by the manner how the Emperor used him
might not be able to contravene the condition of the safe-conduct though he might have a mind to do it But Chievres knew not that Sturmie was the unsittest person of the Emperor's Court for the employment he designed him for and that he was in Judgment and Inclination a Lutheran though he had till then dissembled his change of Religion The Emperor's and Duke of Saxony's Letters to Luther were no sooner expeded but Sturmie parted from Wormes with a very Magnificent Train having for that end added mony of his own to that which was given him for the discharge of his Commission Luther who would not have budged if they had sent one less affectionate to conduct him or who at least would not have undertaken the journey but with fear and trembling and as a Criminal led to execution joyfully set out upon the word of Sturmie and travelled as in Triumph his Conductor having intimated to him privately that a more favourable occasion could not be offered of spreading his doctrine in a trice all over Germany by publishing it himself with that extraordinary eloquence which was natural to him in the most August Theatre in Europe That he had so little cause of fear to appear there that his enemies dreaded nothing so much as to see him there That they had used all manner of artifices to divert the Emperor from sending for him but that at length the Solicitations of the Elector of Saxony and the obligation which the Emperor had to that Prince had carried it over the Officers of the Court of Rome That the safe-conduct was such as it ought to be and that Luther should not boggle at the condition therein inserted That it was indeed granted to the importunity of the Papists but that it bound no more than as he thought convenient and that he assured him before hand that he himself would not be called to an account for not having observed him In this confidence Luther parted from Wittemberg with Sturmie and took along with him three of the most famous Divines of that City whom he had engaged in his party He boldly travelled over the greatest part of Germany and in all places found the road full of curious people who came out to see a Monk who was so variously talked of in the world and with so much heat The croud consisted of persons of quality as well as of those of inferiour rank and both sorts took notice that he loved Musick and good Cheer He never eat in publick without one of the two and most frequently without both together After dinner sometimes he took his Lute on which he plaid exquisitely well He sailed not to Preach in the Towns where he made any stay and by one Sermon he turned the Town of Ausdors wholly Lutheran His Preaching in Erford was a continued Satyr against the Court of Rome upon occasion of Merit and the satisfaction of Good Works and that it might produce the greater effect it was no sooner preached but that with Sturmie's consent it was Printed which was a manifest contravention of the Orders he had received Next day after Luther arrived at Wormes he had Audience of the Emperor who received him well but his Majesty sent him word afterwards that he should precisely Answer the Interrogatories that were to be put to him in full Diet and not to enlarge as his usual way was in superfluous discourses Luther obeyed that order no more than he had complied with the condition of the safe-conduct He came into the Diet the Sixteenth of April 1521 and the Adversary that was to encounter him was Ekius Provisor of the Archbishoprick of Treves Ekius told him that he was sent for for two things the one to know from his own mouth if he had written and if he owned for his the Books that were Printed in his name and the other if he was ready to maintain all the Propositions contained in them and if he intended not to retract any of them The Demand seemed too wide to one of the three Divines whom Luther had brought with him from Wormes and he said that the Books out of which the Propositions were taken ought to be specified to the end that Luther might make a more Categorical Answer Ekius thought the Objection reasonable and seeing he foresaw that it would be made to him he took out of his Pocket a Catalogue of Luther's works with the date of the Edition the name of the Towns and Printers He read it distinctly and with a loud voice and then turning to Luther pressed him to explain himself without ambiguity Luther then made Answer that he could not but own for his all the books that had been reckoned up to him That the truth was he had composed them that he would never deny it and that that was all that he had to say to the first interrogatory of Ekius but that as to the second which concerned the Revocation of what he had written he adjured all his Auditors to consider that his rashness would be insupportable if he complied with it upon the spot and without convenient reflection upon the Subjects which he had handled seeing the Salvation of Souls and the Power of the Word of God was concerned From thence he concluded that he ought to be allowed time to Revise what had dropt from his Pen during the space of four years and that then he promised to answer with all necessary sincerity for the discharge of his own Conscience and giving the glory which belonged to God. Luther's answer perplexed the Diet and the general murmur that followed upon it was a proof of the same The Emperor was but too sensible of it when the matter was put to the Vote and he found the Voices so divided that he had much a do to bring them to his own opinion which nevertheless at length carried it The zealous Catholicks would have had Luther explain himself at the very instant because they understood that he should be condemned and punished immediately after he had spokn The Lutherans on the contrary being perswaded that the best of Luther's talents was his Eloquence were for having him display it to the Diet in its full extent and would by consequence have his answer delayed until the conclusion of the Diet to the end he might have time to prepare his harangue and to render it more efficacious The Emperor's opinion held a mean betwixt the two that we have mentioned and contained all that was good in either of them without running to extremes in the point which was thought dangerous His Majesty thought that Luther might have ground to complain that he was too rigorously dealt with if he were forced to explain himself instantly concerning so many novelties of which he was accused but it seemed to him also that a day might suffice him to come to a final resolution about matters which he could not but many times have thought on and that if a longer time were granted him he
He endeavours in conjunction with Gouffier Governour to the Count of Angouleme to root out of the hearts of their two Pupils the seeds of aversion which the Marriage of the Count with the Heiress of Bretagne who was promised to Charles had sow'd there and in the extreme difficulty that presented of remaining united with the Emperour or Catholick King Chievres wisely prefers the German before the Spaniard Of the Second BOOK Chievres takes all necessary measures for governing in the Low-Countries during the absence of the Archduke Philip of Austria who was gone to Spain to take possession of the Kingdoms of Castile fallen to his Wife But the Archduke dies not long after he had been Crowned King and Chievres is by the King of France made Governour of the Archduke Charles Eldest Son to Philip. He labours but in vain to hinder his Maternal Grandfather from the administration of Castile He endeavours to have it given to Maximilian the Paternal Grandfather of that Prince But Louis the Twelfth opposes it contrary to his own interests and thereby augments the power of his most dangerous enemy Manuel Secretary to Philip is persecuted by Ferdinand the Catholick King because he had too well served his Son-in-law Manuel withdraws to Flanders and Chievres receives him well in hopes that he 'll hinder Ferdinand from disposing of Castile at his pleasure But Ferdinand sets so many Engines at work that at length Chievres is forced to abandon the protection of Manuel and even to commit him to prison where he continues during the life of Ferdinand Cardinal Ximenes is no better treated for his having remained Neuter betwixt the Father-in-Law and Son-in-law Ferdinand resolves to take from him the Archbishoprick of Toledo and the Cardinal hath his recourse to Chievres who makes the Archduke his Pupil interpose He offers Ximenes a retreat in the Low-Countries and Ferdinand is so much afraid of it that he lets the Cardinal alone Of the Third BOOK FErdinand sets the Governour and Tutor of his Grandson against one another He perswades Dean Adrian that he will frustrate the Archduke of the Monarchies of Spain if Chievres be not deposed and the Dean possessed with the fear of that signs a Treaty whereby he engages himself to bring Chievres into disgrace But Chievres is informed of it and guards himself equally both against the Catholick King and the Dean He negotiates with the French a Treaty at Noyon and gives it so cunning a cast that he turns the accessory into the principal and the principal into the accessory He thereby secures to the Archduke the Succession of Spain and Ferdinand is so vexed at it that he joines with England for undoing him But in that particular the Archduke has no more regard to the offices of the King of England than to the exhortations of his Maternal Grandfather and Chievres remains in greater favour with him than before This puts Ferdinand out of all patience A dangerous design is formed against the life of Chievres He hath notice of it He acquaints the Archduke with the same and at the same time advises him most prudently to keep the thing secret The event made appear that the Council was good and Ferdinand at his death puts not in execution the design which he had formed of disinheriting the Archduke Of the Fourth BOOK CHievres being informed of the death of King Ferdinand resolved to have his Pupil declared King of Castile and Arragon during the life of the Queen his Mother and begins so difficult an Intrigue by obliging first the Emperour Maximilian and then the Court of Rome to give him the title of King. He writes immediately after to Cardinal Ximenes to assemble the States of the two Monarchies and there to cause the Archduke to be declared King jointly with the Catholick Queen Ximenes finds many more difficulties in it than he imagined but at length he overcomes them partly by policy and partly by his haughty way of acting There remains no more then but to take possession of the two Monarchies and the Archduke could not go thither without being in agreement with France He mediates a negotiation in the Town of Noyon where the Governour of Francis the first and of the Archduke in quality of Plenipotentiaries labour to unite their Pupils Gouffier Plenipotentiary of France acts sincerely but his candour succeeds not with him and Chievres signs a Treaty with him ambiguous enough to give the Archduke pretext of waving the execution of it when he might have a mind Francis provoked that his Governour had been over-reached favours the arming of John d' albert for the recovery of Navarre but the imprudence of that dispossest King makes him lose the occasion of re-establishing himself His forces having been unseasonably divided are cut in pieces and he loses his hopes of remounting the Throne by losing his life Chievres is moved at the oppression of the Indians whom the Spaniards forced to dig in the Mines He offers to perswade them to employ Negro-slaves in that toilsom labour but Cardinal Ximenes opposes it upon interest of State and the matter continues in suspence Of the Fifth BOOK XImenes having obliged the Catholick King to share with him his power in Castile enjoys not long the advantage of his Politicks The Grandees support him with so much the less patience that he continued to carry towards them with extraordinary haughtiness and not being able to dispatch him by open force they have recourse to artifice They give him a slow poyson and he takes it a minutes time before he who came to warn him of it arrived He takes Antidotes which do not serve his turn but only prolong his life for some Months For all he saw himself so near his end yet he undertook one of the boldest of all his actions by removing from the Infanto all his servants only one excepted The matter was carried on without tumult and the Catholick King arrives fortunately in Spain The Courtiers of his Majesty of whom Chievres was the most considerable resolve to acquire and preserve the friendship of Ximenes but his sternness makes it impossible for them He persists obstinately in solliciting the King his Master to exclude them all out of the Council of Spain and by that means obliges them to unite for procuring his disgrace They obtain it of the Catholick King and the news that the Cardinal received of it affects him so sensibly that a few hours after he expires After his death the weight of affairs lyes upon Chievres who discharges himself of his trust to a wonder in two occasions the one by all means to get the Infanto Ferdinand removed out of Spain and sent into Germany and the other in disposing the Emperour Maximilian who would have yielded the Empire to the Infanto to change his design and chuse the Catholick King for his Successor Of the Sixth BOOK THE greatest part of Spain conspire together for the disgrace of Chievres and this great man is
in extreme danger Nevertheless the Emperour abandons him not and his cause at length prevails The Spaniards who kept their allegiance defeat the rebels in an open battel and the Soveraign authority is restored to all its splendor Chievres who waited on the Emperour into Germany provided there so advantageously for the Infanto Ferdinand by procuring him the Marriage of the Heiress of Hungary and Bohemia that that young Prince thinks no more of complaining that his Elder Brother had done him injustice in giving him no share in the Dominions of Queen Jane their Mother He gives so good orders also in Navarre that it as easily again recovered to the Spaniards as it had been lost by them and taken by the French. Nothing withstands the Lord Asparant and he becomes Master of it in less than a fortnights time But his good fortune blinds his judgment and he imagins that the conquest of Castile will cost him no more than that of Navarre He enters it suffers himself to be straitned for provisions there The Spaniards expect till his Army was weakened through hardships and attack him presently after He is overcome loses his sight in the sight taken prisoner and lived only after to be an instance that conduct in War is as necessary as courage The Revolted Spaniards are reconciled to their Master but they turn all their fury against Chievres They poyson the Cardinal de Croy his Nephew and fifty days after serve him in the same manner A PATTERN FOR THE EDUCATION OF PRINCES The First BOOK CONTAINING The most memorable Affairs that passed in Europe from the beginning of the year One thousand five hundred and six to the middle of the year One thousand five hundred and fourteen THe House of Croüy acording to the Ancient or of Croy according to modern Orthography pretends to be descended â—n a right masculine Line from the ancient Kings of Hungary by one Stephen whom others call Andrew third Son to King Bela and Brother to St. Elizabeth Countess of Thuringe who being forced out of Hungary In Pontuc Huterus fled for refuge into France in the year One thousand one hundred seventy and three during the Reign of Louis the Young but his Son setled himself in Gallia Belgica by marrying Catharine Heiress of Croy whose name he took and left it to his Posterity This House was afterward in succession of time allied by William the First of Croy to the House of Guines by James the First of Croy to the House of Soissons by James the Second of Croy to the House of Perguigny by William the Second of Croy to the House of Kenti by John of Croy to the House of Curton by Anthony of Croy to the House of Lorrain and by Philip of Croy to that of Luxembourg John of Croy transplanted his Family from Picardy into Flanders when he became the Favourite of Philip the Hardy first Duke of Burgundy descended of the second Branch of the Bloud-royal of France The Historians of that time have not taken pains enough to give us the Character of this Lord nevertheless he must have been a man of extraordinary parts seeing that during the whole course of his life he governed two Princes the most contrary in temper and humour and the most difficult to be persuaded that ever were Philip the Hardy and John without Fear his Son Dukes of Burgundy He was their chief Chamberlain and by an extraordinary Conduct and Policy though Philip the Hardy and John without Fear were for most part in continual variance with the Kings of France yet John of Croy continued to be the constant Favorite of the Dukes of Burgundy without ever giving them the least umbrage or suspicion of his fidelity notwithstanding he stood so well all his life-time at the Court of the most Christian Kings that they made him great Master of their House and suffered him to discharge the duties of that important place without ever accusing him that he had managed the interests of the Dukes of Burgundy against their Majesties This particular ought the more to be remarked that it is singular and perhaps in its chief circumstances not to be paralleled in the lives of â—he illustrious men of these last Ages and besides it is so advantageous to John of Croy that it seems nothing can be said greater in his favour In so happy a state he did not forget but that he might more easily tumble down than he had mounted up and foreseeing that at length the Kings of France and Dukes of Burgundy would become irreconcilable enemies and that in that case the House of Croy would be forced to declare for the one side or other he so disposed his Inheritance and the Purchases which he made that he had as much in the Dominions of the Kings of France as in the Territories of the Dukes of Burgundy to the end that to what side soever he might incline he should retain one half of his Estate and be in a condition of making the figure of a great Lord in either of the two Courts which he might prefer before the other Anthony of Croy his Son was so happy as to succeed him in the favour and to dispose so absolutely of Philip the Good third Duke of Burgundy that this Prince relished no Counsels nor Designs but what had either been proposed or approved by that Favorite But Philip of Croy the Son of Anthony fell into the disgrace which his Grandfather John of Croy had apprehended by an accident which is fit we should unfold in this place because it conduces to the understanding of the matters following Seeing Philip the good had from his Father John without fear received Anthony of Croy both for his chief Minister and Favorite without the least shew of repugnance whether he thought himself obliged to have as to that an implicite deference to his Fathers Will or that his inclination suited with the Person that was presented to him he imagined that his Son Charles the Terrible would comply no less with him and that he would gladly admit of Philip of Croy to the same rank with him that John and Anthony of Croy had held with his Father Grandfather and great Grand-father But the dispositions were not alike on both sides as they ought to have been for cementing a new confidence and favour There was nothing wanting on the part of Philip of Croy for the worthy discharge of the two places in question about Charles the Terrible But Charles was prepossessed with an opinion that his â—ather demanded too much of him and that he stretched the Prerogative of Nature farther than it ought to be That to take things aright a Minister and Favorite were no more in relation to a Sovereign than what a Steward is in respect of great men and an intimate Friend to any private person and for the same reason that great men and private persons have the liberty of chusing their Stewards and Friends a young Prince ought
favours â—he Catholick King who would not â—…at the Spaniards should suspect him of gratitude and foresaw not the hatred at he was about to draw upon Chievres â—earfully bestowed the Benefice in the â—astle of Tordesillas where he was gone out of a desire of seeing his Mother He was there almost alone and would see no body because nature inclined him to hide as much as he could the extravagances of a Princess of whom he held his life and Crowns Nevertheless his Uncle came thither being impatiently perswaded that he could not be soon enough Primate of all Spain in general as he was already of Arragon in particular because of the Archbishoprick of Sarragossa But he was denied entry into Tordesillas with the same severity that all others were treated whom the Catholick King had not brought along with him and he was bid as well as the rest to go and expect his Majesty at Vailladolid where the States were in a few days to be opened He loudly complained of this and pretended that his Birth had deserved some preference in that particular Nevertheless he obeyed and took his journey to Vailladolid and his Majesty was no sooner come thither but that hâ— begg'd of him the Archbishoprick of Tâ—ledo He answered him that he haâ— given it to the Bishop of Cambray anâ— that the Brief of it was expeded at Tordâ—sillas where the Grandees of Castille haâ— solicited him for that Bishop The vexâ—tion that that reply put the Archbishop of Sarragossa into made him entertain two thoughts equally false The one was that Chievres desiring to procure his Nephew the same Ascendant over the Clergy of Spain that he himself had at Court and not daring to do it directly because his ambition would thereby have been too visible had for that end employed the Marquess of Villena and the other Grandees who were with the King And the other that the entry into the Castle of Tordesillas had only been denied him by the intriegue of Chievres who needed all the time that the King spent there to dispose his Majesty to name his Nephew to the Archbishoprick and who foresaw that the presence of the Archbishop of Sarragossa would have been enough to have broken all his measures if he had appeared at Court before the expedition of the Brief What favours a designed revenge easily gets place in ones mind and the King's Uncle was so much comforted in his misfortune that he found the person he was to aim at that he gave himself no more trouble in examining whether his conjecture was well grounded or not He took his leave of the Catholick King so soon as he had been refused and the same day left Vailladolid upon pretext that he could stay no longer with honour since he had neither place nor rank in the Estates of Castille He went back Post into Arragon where his complaints against the Government were heard in all parts at the same time that the report was spread at Vailladolid that the Nephew of Chievres was Archbishop of Toledo The Deputies of the Towns and Commonalty of Castille who were come thither for the opening of the Estates were the more surprised at it that it was without example that the best Benefice of the Country should be conferred upon a stranger At first however they thought it enough to exaggerate their amazement to those who had a mind to hear them But afterward as there is no Nation in the World that trouble their heads more with what is to come than the Spaniards so through much reasoning about the future they apprehended that the Flemings encouraged by the success of their first essay would take a liking to the other Benefices of Spain and beg them as fast as they fell How to hinder them was a very great difficulty because on the one hand there was no standing Law against it and on the other there was no appearance that they could impose upon the new King a restraint from which his Predecessors had been exempted For understanding this mystery of Policy which employed the prudence of Chievres for six whole weeks it is to be supposed that the Kingdom of Castille having been at first one of the least of Spain had not thought fit to take measures to hinder strangers from enjoying the Benefices thereof seeing strangers went only thither to serve in the Armies as being Crossed and to return home again to the several Provinces of Europe from whence they came when the time was expired wherein they had made a vow to Fight if they stayed in the Country they were no more looked upon as strangers but as Castillians because they lived and commonly died there and their Children without contradiction enjoyed all the priviledges of Native Castillians Matters had continued in that state when Castille was enlarged because their conquests were made upon the Mores who if they would change their Religion became Castillians and if they persisted in the belief of the Alcoran were forced to go and live elsewhere The Lands which they left were given to Native Castilliâ—ns and it could not be taken ill that these should enjoy the Benefices of the conquered places because they themselves or their Ancestors had founded them In fine the disposition of Benefices had not been changed there when Isabelle married Ferdinand because that Queen had reserved it wholly to her self by her contract of Marriage and named none but Native Castillians to fill them But after that Charles of Austria had joyned the Low-Countries to Castille he two ways contravened the custom established in Castille concerning Offices and Benefices He provided Arragonese to Magistracies and Church-revenues lying in Castille with the same liberty as he reciprocally gave to the Castillians the Ecclesiastical and Secular dignities of Arragon and he nominated sometimes Flemings to Offices and Benefices of Castille and Arragon The Castillians received two prejudices by that Innovation one in that their Offices and Benefices being more numerous and of greater Revenue than the Offices and Benefices of Arragon for two Castillians that profited of the Ecclesiastical and Secular Revenues lying in Arragon twenty Arragonese profiteâ— of those of Castille The other prejudicâ— was that the reciprocal liberty established betwixt the Castillians and Arragonese concerned neither of the two Nations in regard of the Flemings seeing it was certain that the Catholick King durst nominate no Spaniard to the Offices and Benefices of the Low-Countries and if he had attempted to do it the Seventeen Provinces would sooner have revolted than suffered it The Castillians who were nothing short of the Flemings in haughtiness and far surpassed them in cunning resolved to maintain themselves as well as they in their ancient custom and there could not be a more ingenious device than they invented for accomplishing it They resolved to confound their ancient customs with their priviledges and amongst these they inserted that no stranger for what cause and under what pretext it might be should hold any
Magistracy or Benefice in Castille Nay their forecast went a little farther and seeing they knew that the Arragonese and Flemings aspired only to their Offices and Benefices that they might convert the vast Revenues that belonged to them into ready money and transmit it into their own Country They revived one of their ancient Laws which upon pain of death prohibited the Exportation of Gold or Silver out of their Country without the consent of the States They inserted both these into the Articles which the Catholick King was to swear before he was owned for Monarch of Castille and presented them to him altogether He examined them with Chievres who immediately made his Master observe the cunning of the Castillians He represented to him that they intended to oblige him to conditions unknown to his Predecessors and that if he condescended to them the consequences thereof would be very bad for the house of Austria in general and in particular for him who ought to be the head of it That that house indeed was in a fair way of making the most powerful Monarchy that ever was in Christendom since the Family of Charlemagne but that that Monarchy would have a defect to which that of Charlemagne was not subject seeing the Territories of the house of Austria would be too remote one from another to afford mutual assistance in time of urgent necessity That there was no other remedy for that but to do in the Monarchy of Spain with some proportion what God hath done in the making of the Body of man wherein the parts are engaged by their own interest for the preservation one of another That if the Flemings and Arragonese were frustrated of the Magistracies and Benefices of Castille they would not put themselves to the trouble of assisting the Castillians against the Turks and Mores as if the Castillians enjoyed not the same priviledges in Arragon they would not vigorously oppose the French who threatned to take Arms again for restoring the posterity of John d' Albert to the Throne of Navarre That it was not the same in respect of the Flemings who could not indeed neither assist nor be assisted by Spain by Land France lying betwixt them But passage was open by Sea and as the Maritine Forces of the Low-Countries infinitely surpast those of Spain so Spain had incomparably more need of the Low-Countries than the Low-Countries had of it That the custom of giving Offices and Benefices to the Flemings in Castille must not be broken off then though the Castillians might not reciprocally have the like priviledges in Flanders and by consequence his Catholick Majesty ought not to engage himself in any thing to the contrary The Council approved the Arguments of Chievres who was afterwards Commissionated to adjust with the Deputies of Castille the manner how the King before he was acknowledged should take his Oath to maintain the priviledges of the Country The first conference was not over before Doctor Zumel who in quality of Deputy of the City of * Burgos was as yet the capital City of Castille Burgos was the chief of the rest and by consequence had right to speak before them perceived that Chievres was so well informed of the Laws and Customs of Castille that it would be impossible to impose upon him For Chievres made appear by a discourse no less eloquent than solid that the Kings of Castille had never engaged themselves neither not to bestow the Offices and Benefices of the Country upon strangers nor yet to hinder the Transportation of Gold and Silver out of the Kingdom He added that there had been no ground neither on the Castillians part to impose that obligation upon their Kings nor on the part of their Kings to charge themselves with it and proved it invincibly because Castille was neither delivered from the Tyranny of the Mores nor erected into a Monarchy nor enlarged at the cost of the Insidels but by the assistance of the French English and other Nations which the Croisadoes had drawn thither and the Castillians were so far from discouraging them by Laws and Customs which frustrated them of the Offices and Benefices of the Country that on the contrary there was a famous example of Alphonso the beloved who to hinder Henry of Burgundy from returning into France gave him his Daughter and Portugal That that Prince whose memory was so precious to the Spaniards and the other wise Founders of the Monarchy of Castille would have gone directly contrary to their own interests if they had acted otherwise seeing their Subjects not sufficing to inhabit the Countries which from time to time they recovered from the Mores nor to maintain them if they had reserved the Magistracies and Revenues of the Church for the Native Castillians they would have encouraged but a few to become their Country-men Whereas by admitting indifferently to the Offices and Benefices of Castille strangers as well as Natives they engaged them to their Country by the same bonds that they themselves were engaged to it That the same conduct was no less necessary in respect of Silver and Gold seeing it was known that most part of the excessive summs which the Kings of Castille had spent in their Conquests were not drawn neither from the Revenue of the Crown nor out of the purses of their subjects but had been furnished by the voluntary contributions of strangers concerned in the enlargement of the Christian Religion and that these strangers would not have continued as they did for many Ages their liberalities if the Castillians who received so much Gold and Silver from other people had been so ungrateful as to suffer none of it to return back into the places from whence it came By this discourse Zumel found that the Mine had taken vent and spent no more time in maintaining that the Articles in question were not novel He turned the affair another way and only told Chievres that if the thing were rightly taken neither he nor his Nephew were any way concerned in it That a long while ago their Letters of Naturalization had past in Castille and that his great places of high Chamberlain high Treasurer Steward of the Kings House and Head of the Council were in no danger no more than the Archbishoprick of Toledo to which his Nephew was provided That Castille being for the future to be the Center of the Monarchy of the house of Austria it were fit that it should have some priviledge more than the other Dominions which in respect of it would only be lookt upon as Provinces and that it desired no other but that the Native Castillians might be assured of their Offices Benefices their Gold and Silver and the wealth that might come to them from the Indies Chievres could not endure the opinion that the Spaniards had of him as if interest were capable to sway him He cunningly replied to Zumel that he well knew that neither he nor his Nephew had any way solicited for the Letters