against the Infringers even to the killing them in the very Churches which served as a Sanctuary to all other the most enormous Criminals William the Conqueror had Establish'd this Law in England and in Normandy Anno 1080. Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna in his Country Anno 1060. the Council of Clermont had confirmed it Anno 1096. and that of Rome Anno 1102. Now as these Truces were but ill observed and Languedoc and a part of Guyenne principally upon occasion of that War betwixt the King of Arragon and Raimond Earl of Toulouze were most miserably tormented with Factions Murthers and Robberies a certain Carpenter named Durand who seemed a plain simple Fellow Year of our Lord 1183 found the Remedy against these Calamities and a Means to enrich himself He asserted that God had appeared to him in the City du Puy in Auvergne commanding him to proclaim Peace and for proof of his Mission had given him a certain Image of the Virgin which he shewed So that upon his Veracity the Grandees the Prelats and the Gentry being Assembled at Puy on the day of the Feast of the Assumption agreed amongst themselves by Oath upon the Holy Evangelists to lay down all Animosities and the remembrance of former Injuries and made a Holy League to reconcile Mens Spirits and entertain Love and Peace which they named the Peace of God Those who were of it wore the Stamp of this Image of our Lady in Pewter upon their Breasts and Capuches or Hoods of white Linnen on their Heads which this Carpenter sold to them Which had such power over their Minds and had made such Impression that a Man with those Badges was not only in security but likewise in Veneration amongst his most mortal Enemies Year of our Lord 1184 Whether the three Princes of Champagne Brothers to the Queen Mother had gotten the upper hand at Court and put the King out of conceit with the Earl of Flanders or for some other cause the King summon'd him to surrender up Vermandois which Louis the VII had given him only as was pretended for a certain time The Earl being very Potent would maintain the possession passed the Somme with a great Army and came as far as Senlis But upon tidings of the Kings march he turns back the way he came and went and besieged Corbie from whence he decamped again immediately for the same cause The King not being able to overtake him besieges Boves the two Armies drew near to engage Some Mediators put a stop to their impetuous haste and made up the Peace The Earl yielded all Vermandois excepting Peronne and Saint Quentin which they let him enjoy during Life Year of our Lord 1184 To this Agreement the King called all the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons that served in his Army with their Vnder-Vassals And such was then the Rights of the French The Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Prior of the Hospital of St. John's deputed on the behalf of the Christians from the Holy-Land brought the Keys of the Holy City to King Philip imploring his assistance and representing to him the extream danger it was reduced unto Whereupon having held a great Assembly of Prelats and Lords at Paris he enjoyned them to Preach the Cross or Croisade and to publish it every where and in the mean time sent at his own Expence a considerable Relief of Horse and Foot into that Country The Complaints of the Clergy of Burgundy whom Duke Odo had plundred and the Year of our Lord 1184 Lord de Vergy whose Castle that Prince besieged ingaged the King to march that way and besiege Chastillâ—n on the Seine the strongest Bulwark belonging to that Rebel Who finding his Fort taken by Assault came humbly to submit to his Commands promised to pay 30000 Livers for Reparation to the Clergy and gave up four Castles which however were soon after put into his possession again without doubt because they had some need of him Year of our Lord 1183 84. In Berry there were several Bands of Robbers that wasted the Country they were named Cottereaux and were believed to be tainte â—ith the Heresie that spread in Languedoc because they aimed chiefly to do mâ—schief to the Churchmen the Berriers getting together with the help of some Men sent them by the King cut them in pieces killing seven thousand upon the place The vast Multitudes of eople that flocked to Paris the Kings Train encreasing with his Authority made the Streets so dirty and 〈◊〉 that there was no going in them The King sent therefore for the Citizens and their Provost and enjoyned them to remedy it which they did by Pav ng it with Stone at their own expences I find about this time that one Girard de Poissi who managed the Exchequer brought in thither of his own proper Moneys or Fund Eleven thousand Mark in Silver It is to Year of our Lord 1185 be imagin'd that he had gotten them by the King but however we may say that this Example ✚ will be singular and that we shall never meet a Chequer-man will follow his Example What ever can be done that sort of People will sooner go to the Gibet then be brought to make Restitution Year of our Lord 1185 Margaret of France Widow of Henry the Young King of England is Re-Married to Bela III. King of Hungary Gesroy Duke of Bretagne and Brother of that Henry being come to wait on the King who tenderly lov'd him died of a Distemper at Champeaux and was Interr'd at Nostre-Dames in Paris He had one Daughter named Alienor and one Son only aged but three years The Bretons would give him the name of Artur in memory of that famous King whom the Romancers make to be the Author of the Knights of the Year of our Lord 1185 round Table and many high feats of Arms. He remained under the Guardianship of his Mother and the Protection of the King in despite of all the Efforts of Henry and Richard his Son who made several Attempts to seize upon his Person that they might get Bretagne into their possession The Widow Constance afterwards Married Guy Lord de Thouars The memory of Gefroy is still very famous amongst the Bretons because of that Law he made in his Parliament or Estates General which was called the Assize of Count Gefroy Whereby it was ordained that in the Families of Barons and Knights the Estates should not be shared or equally divided as heretofore but that the eldest should reap the whole Succession and bestow such part upon the younger as himself and the rest of his Kindred should think fit This hath since been thus proportion'd the Thirds amongst all the younger Children during Life to the Males and Inheritance to the Female In time the rest of the Gentry not to yield in Quality to the Barons would needs be comprehended herein likewise Towards the end of the year 1186. a War was raised between King Philip and Henry of England for
on the highest part of the Gibbet with the other Thieves he was hanged His immense Riches sufficiently proved the Justice of this Sentence Afterwards those Receivers or Officers of the Treasury who were of his gang were laid hold on and several put to the Wrack they would confess nothing however so well those Caterpillars know how to wind up their bottoms desiring rather in the greatest extremity to lose their Lives then part with their Money They carried on this search even to his very friends and particularly Peter de Latilly Bishop of Chaalons and Chancellor of France He was accused of giving the Morsel that is to say of having poysonn'd the Bishop his Predecessor and also the late King He was put out of his Office and left a prisoner in tbe hands of the Arch-Bishop of Reims his Metropolitan The execrable Custom of Poysonning was grown very common in France and it grew so in my opinion because the Ministers of the deceased King had been so extream Violent and vindicative This Prelat accused of so Villanous a Crime was referr'd to the Judgment of the Bishops of his Province To that end there was a Council Assembled at Senlis in the Month of October of this year 1315. where the Archbishop of Reims was present with his Suffragans The Party accused upon his request and according to Law was first redintegrated to his Liberty and his Bishoprick and afterwards it having been proved that four Women had been Convicted and Punished for Poysonning his Predecessor he was absolved fully and wholly Year of our Lord 1315 The Gentry and Commonalty of the Country of Artois having divers causes of Complaint against their Countess Mahaut the King sent for her in presence of Ame the Great Earl of Savoy and obliged her to give him her Hand that he might take notice of it Year of our Lord 1315 This Ame the Great was one of the most considerable Princes of his time He acquir'd the Title of a Prince of the Empire which was granted him by the Emperor Henry VII in Anno 1310. He increased his Territory with the Lordships of Bresse and Baugey by his Marriage with Sibilla the only Daughter of Guy Lord de Baugey as likewise with a part of the little Country of Revermont by Purchase of the Duke of Burgundy who had it of Humbert Dauphin of Viennois and the Earldoms of Ast and Yvree the first whereof came to him by the Concession of the Emperor Henry VII the second by the voluntary subjection of the People His Wisdom made him reign in all the greatest Courts in Europe the Emperors King Philip's of France Edward King of England's and made him find the Art to be so much a Friend to all these Princes who were at great variance that he became the perpetual Mediator concerning those Differences which Interest and their Jealousie bred amongst them Year of our Lord 1316 The Truce with the Flemming being at an end about the very time of the Coronation the King assembled his Forces and whilst on the other side William Earl of Hayâ—ault ravaged the Country along the Scheld he besieged Courtray The unseasonable Weather did what the Flemming durst not undertake and forced him to raise the Siege but the infinite havock and spoil the Soldiers made caused a horrible Famine in Flanders About the end of the Month of May in the year 1316. King Lewis began to feel the effects of those Poysonnings grown so rife in France They had given him a Dose so violent by what hand was not known that it carried him off the Fifth day June An Accident which the Vulgar thought to be presag'd by a Comet which had Year of our Lord 1316 display'd its terrible Train in the Heavens the One and twentieth of the Month of December before He died at the Bois de Vincennes the Nineteenth Month of his Reign and the Eight and twentieth of his Age. He left Clemence his second Wife with Child being four Months gone By his first which was Margaret Daughter of Robert II. Duke of Burgundy he had had a Daughter named Jane to whom belonged the Kingdom of Navarre and the Counties of Brie and Champagne but the Kings Philip the Long and Charles the Fair found out pretences to detain them REGENCY without a KING for Five Months Year of our Lord 1316 WHen Lewis Hutin left this World Philip the Long Earl of Poitiers his Brother was at Lyons where in pursuance of his Orders he laboured to make them elect a Pope to supply the See that had been vacant for above three years He had employ'd himself with so much zeal that at length he got all the Cardinals to Lyons and had shut them up in Conclave in the Jacobins Convent They had been there together some days when the news was brought him of the death of Hutin this made him return to Paris with diligence after he had left the guard of the Conclave with the Earl de Fores. After the end of fourty days the Cardinals could come to no other agreement about the election of a Pope then to refer it to the single Vote of James Dossa a Cardinal Bishop of O Porto who without hesitation named himself to the great astonishment of the whole Conclave who notwithstanding let it pass so He took the name of John the Twenty second of that name He was of the Country of Quercy the Son of a poor Cobler but very Learned for those times The Succession of the Males to the Crown was established not by any Written Law but by the inviolable Custom of the French nevertheless because in all other Kingdoms and in great Fiefs the Daughters succeeded and that in France of a long time no occasion had been offer'd to exclude them The Friends and Parents of little Jane particularly Eudes Duke of Burgundy Brother of her deceased Mother were on the Watch pretending the Crown belonged to her in case the Fruit of Queen Clemences Womb should come to no Perfection In the mean time they named Philip the Kings Brother for Regent till the time of her delivery Philip V. King XLVII POPE JOHN XXII Elected the 7th day of August 1317. S. Eighteen years and Three Months whereof Five years under this Reign PHILIP V. Called the Long because he was Tall King of France XLVII and enjoying the Kingdom of Navarre Aged Twenty six years Year of our Lord 1316 THe Fifteenth of November the Queen brought a Son into the World whom they named John but he went out of it again eight days after He was buried in St. Denis and in the Funeral Pomp was declared King of France and Navarre Which hath given some occasion to some Modern Authors to increase the number of the Kings of France and to call him John I. Year of our Lord 1317 Then the Dispute touching the Crown was renewed with more heat then before Charles Earl of Valois seemed to favour little Jane and the Duke of Burgundy her Uncle claimed and
the divertisement with women and taking counsel only of the lowest and meanest People gave the Lords of Lorraine just cause to forsake him to submit themselves to Louis Those that had the Government of this young Prince brought him purposely to Thionville where they put the Crown upon his Head and Zuentibold endeavouring to revenge it was slain in a Battel fought between them the Year of our Lord 900 3 d. day of August in this year 900. He Reigned five years Charles in Neustria or West-France Louis in Germany Lorraine Rodolph I. in Burgundy Louis in Provence Lambert and Berenger in Italy In the War which Arnold Earl of Flanders made against Hebert Earl of Vermandois Eudes had favoured Hebert and King Charles took part with Arnold to whom he was in some sort obliged for what he enjoy'd Now Eudes being dead Hebert who was subtil and insinuating found means to make friends with Charles and got into so much credit with him that this simple and un-knowing King took the City of Arras from Baldwin and gave it to Count Altmar that he might restore Peronne to Hebert Baldwin or Baudouin coming to the King to beseech him to let him have his Town again was denied with rough language Now Fulk Arch-Bishop of Reims great both by birth and merit was then chief Counsellor to Charles and holding the Abbey of Saint Vaast had excommunicated Baldwin for invading the Lands thereof Wherefore Winomach Lord of the Island Vassal to the Count imputing the affront his Lord had received to the Counsel of this Arch-Bishop way-laid him in a Wood and murthered him for which being pursued and excommunicated by all the Bishops made his escape into England where he was eaten up with Lice It seems this was an Epidemical distemper in those days For we find divers persons in History that died thereof amongst others Arnold the Emperor the preceding year and King Rodolph of whom we shall hereafter make mention The Hungarians began to make themselves known about the latter end of the Reign of Charles the Fatt They then seated themselves in Pannonia having chased out the Huns and from thence became a Scourge to all the Provinces beyond the Rhine and the Year of our Lord 900 Danube as the Normans were to all on this side They were Originally a People of Scythia Brutish and Barbarous beyond all imagination Their Mother 's trained them to inhumanity from their Birth gashing and mangling their Faces that they might have nothing of humane and by swallowing down blood mixed with their own tears before they sucked their first Milk they might grow Blood-thirsty and pitty-less to all mankind They caroused in blood and fed upon raw flesh cut the hearts of those they took Prisoners in quarters and swallowed the gobbets reeking warm had no faith nor truth nor honour no wit but to defraud and contrive mischief always a turbulent and furious courage either against an Enemy or against one another The women were yet worse then the men They had scarcely any other weapons besides Arrows but were so dextrous in the use of them that every one they shot did some execution and every wound almost was Mortal They were all Horsemen very serviceable in flat and open Countries who would notably harrass an Army within their Bow-shot but aseless in Mountainous or Woody places or for Sieges Nor indeed would they ever adventure to come to handy-blows but ever made a running Fight King Arnold had brought them in to fall upon the back of Zuentibold a Sclavonian Prince who would have usurped Moravia and make himself King He being dead they were not afraid to fall upon the Countries belonging to Louis his Son And this year they gained a great victory against his Forces near the Year of our Lord 901 City of Augsburgh and afterwards Plundred Bavaria Scwaben Franconia and Saxony Year of our Lord 902 The year following having good information of the Civil War betwixt Berenger and Louis the Son of Boson they marched into Italy The Italians An. 899. tired with the Government of Berenger and above all with Adebert Marquiss d'Yvree Father of another Berenger who was likewise King of Italy had called in Louis But Berenger I. had made himself so strong with the assistance of Adebert Marquiss of Tuscany that he hemm'd him in and forced him to a promise he would renounce the Kingdom upon condition he would give him free liberty to march home again without farther lett or molestation The oaths of ambitious Princes are as frail and short liv'd as the vows and promises of Lovers the same Adelbert who had supported Berenger's cause turning Coat and solliciting Louis to return thither again that un-advised Prince confides in Faithless men But he had time to repent at leasure For they delivered him up to Berenger who deprived him both of his Empire and his fight That done he forces the Pope it was John IX to Crown him Emperor but so soon as he was gone from Rome the Pope sent for Lambert who was then private in some corner of Italy and Crowned him Which was confirmed by a grand Council held Year of our Lord 902 at Ravenna Berenger Governed 22 years we might say happily enough had it not been for the incursions of the Bulgarians In the Month of August this same year they again entred Italy with a numerous Army and having ransack'd the Territory of Aquilea Verona Coma and Bergamo came at last towards Pavia Berenger mean while had got his Forces together When they saw his numbers three times more then they expected they endeavoured to make a retreat and when he followed and pursued them so close that they could not get off without fighting they profer'd him all their Plunder and their own Baggage The Italians would hear of nothing less then to have them all upon discretion Necessity converted their fear into fury and dispair the Hungarians now attaque their pursuers and cut their Army all in pieces And Lombardy did afterwards become their prey Nor did they attempt to drive them thence but with their money a Bait so sweet that it allured them to return again often In the year 903. a Star appeared near the Pole-Artick which darted from the North-North-East towards the South-West along Train resembling a Lance which passing between the Signs of the Lyon and the Twinns crossed the Zodiack It was seen for three and twenty days For seven or eight years together there was nothing so remarkable as the cruel incursions of the Normans An. 903. Heric and Haric two of their Captains burnt Year of our Lord 903 the Castle of Tours and Saint Martin's Church Year of our Lord 905 An. 905. Rodolph and Gerlon two other Commanders of the same Nation took the City of Rouen upon composition and there setled their Habitation fortifying the Castles that were near them From thence for five years space they made Incursions into all the neighbouring Provinces conquered Constentine and Inhabited
came about twice as many from such as held places in Normandy and Mayne which they sold to go and joyn with him The four bravest Captains he had about him were the above-named Caurelee Eustace d'Auberticour a Hennuyer John Chandois Seneschal of Poitou Thomas Piercy Seneschal of Rochel and Robert Knolles all English To the last of these four he gave the Command of his Forces To the force of Arms the Wise King joyned the power of Religion and Eloquence which can do all things on the hearts of the People He ordered Fasts and Processions to be made over all his Kingdom and sometimes he went himself bare-footed with the rest When at the same time the Preachers made out his Right and Title with the justice of his Cause and the injustice of the English Which had two ends the one to bring back again those French Provinces which had been yielded by the Treaty of Bretigny the other to make those that were under him willing to suffer the Contributions and all other inconveniencies of War The Archbishop of Toulouze alone by his Persuasions and Intrigues regained above fifty Cities or Castles in Guyenne amongst others that of Cabors The King of England would have practised the same methods on his part and sent an Amnesty or general Pardon to the Gascons with an Oath upon the Sacred Body of Jesus Christ to raise no more new Imposts but all this could not reclaim those minds that had bent themselves another way Divers incursions were made by the French into Guyenne and Poitou and by the English into the Neighbouring Countries and in one of them these last took Isabella de Valois the Widow Dutchess of Bourbon and Mother to the Queen of France at her Castle of Bellepeche in Bourbonnois She was afterwards exchanged for the Prince of Wales his Knight The Earls of Cambridge and Pembrook marched even to Anjou and there took the strong Castle de la Roche-sur-Yon from whence they scowred all the Country as they likewise did that of Berry having gained the City of St. Severe which is situate in Limosin upon that Frontier But on their side they suffer'd more loss by far then all this came to the most considerable being that of Chandois who was unfortunately slain in a Rencounter near the Bridge of Lensac in Poitou Besides the ordinary Troops which they called Companies the Lords and Gentlemen often came together and of their own accord drew themselves into a Body for some great Enterprize or else to make Incursion then after such a Riding so they then called it they returned back to their own homes again King Charles had undertaken to raise an Army that should land some Forces in England his Brother Philip was to Command it and they were to take Shipping at Harsleur When he was ready to go on board the Vessels the news was brought him that John Duke of Lancaster King Edwards third Son was landed at Calais and made inroads upon the French Country He was advised to quit his design and turn his force that way Lancaster seeing him in the Field posted himself upon the Hill de Tournehan between Ardres and Guisnes Philip encamps right against him as either to attaque or surround him but before he had been long there grew weary and disbanded his Men. Thus Lancaster had leisure and opportunity to over-run the Country of Caux even to Harfleur and at his return the Country of Pontieu where he took Prisoner Hugh de Chastillon Master of the Cross-bow-men who had seized upon that Country in the name of the King At the same time the Dukes of Guelders and Juliers moved by the Charms of English Sterling Coyn sent to defie the King who soon set up the Duke of Brabant and the Count de Saint Pol to coap with them as taking fire upon some particular Interest There hapned a furious Battle between both Parties at Baeswilder betwixt the Rhine and the Meuse which brought those Princes very low On the one side the Duke of Juliers was slain on the other the Duke of Brabant was taken Prisoner The Emperor his Brother released him and made up the Quarrel Year of our Lord 1369 The Estates being Assembled the Seventh of December granted to the King an Imposition of a Sol or Penny per Liver upon Salt of four Livers upon every Chimney in the Cities and thirty Sols in the Country as likewise upon the sale of Wine in the Country the 13th in Gross and the 4th upon Retail and upon entry at Paris fifteen Sols for every Pipe of French Wine and twenty four per Pipe for Burgundy Wine To which the Cities joyfully consented as knowing these Levies would be well managed and cease again with the War Year of our Lord 1369 The same year 1369. Hugh Aubriot Prevost des Merchands caused the Towers of the Bastille to be built near the Gate St. Antoine the same as we find them at this day Year of our Lord 1370 The first years War had not produced any very considerable event the two Kings prepared themselves with all their might to perform greater matters the second All the four Brothers of France having held Counsel together resolved that the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Berry should attaque Guyenne that the former should enter about Toulouze in that part that lieth betwixt the two Seas the other about Berry in Limosin and that they should both joyn at Limeges to besiege the Prince of Wales there Year of our Lord 1370 To this effect they thought fit to recal du Guesclin out of Spain where King Henry had bestow'd upon him the Earldom of Molines and the Lands of Soria He came upon the Kings first commands and having joyned the Duke of Anjou took as he was upon his march the Towns of Moissac Tonneins Aiguillon and other Castles less considerable along the Garonne On his part the Duke of Berry made himself Master of Limoges more by his Intelligence with the Citizens and the Bishop who betrayed the Prince of Wales though his Gossip and very good Friend then by his Sword After this the two Brothers knowing that the Prince too Politick to suffer himself to be cooped up had taken the Field discharged their Soldiers Year of our Lord 1370 The King of England on his part had sent the Duke of Lancaster with some Companies of Men at Arms and Archers into Guyenne and given the Command of all his Army about Picardy to Robert Knolls It consisted of above Thirty thousand Men. His march struck a terror through all France even to the Loire for they sacaged Vermandois Champagne and la Brie burnt all round about Paris made the sound of their Trumpets eccho in the very Gates of the Louvre while neither the smoak of those Incendiaries nor the noise of their Martial Musick could move the wise King to hazard any thing nor let one Soldier go out to the Enemy Year of our Lord 1370 Du Guesclin
he even left them there two Months without joyning them as he had promised They were fain to go and find him out at Vennes He was mightily perplexed for the Breton Lords even those who were the most affectionate being tired with suffering under strangers and the miseries of War and withal revolted from him by the intrigues of Clisson and the credit of Beaumanoir would peremptorily have him agree with France in effect they compell'd him to make a Peace with the King to dismiss the English and renounce their Alliance and also gave such cautions as obliged him to make good this Treaty They did not breed up the young King conformable to the good instructions of his Father but according to the inclinations of his age and airy Nature to Hunting Dancing and running about here and there One day when he was Hunting in the Forest of Senlis a large Stag was rowzed which he would not pursue with his Dogs but took him a Toil They found about his Neck a Copper Coller Gilt with an Inscription in Latine which imported * that Casar had given him it The young King because of this or for that in a Dream he had been carried up into the ✚ Air by a Stagg that had wings took two Staggs Volant for Supporters to the Arms of France Before him our Kings had Flowers-de-Luce Sans number in their Scutcheon he reduced them to three we do not know wherefore Year of our Lord 1381 The Children of the Navarrois to wit his Eldest and his Second Son and one Daughter who had been taken in one of his places of Normandy being yet prisoner the wicked King hired an Englishman to poison the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy in revenge for that they hindred their being set at liberty This wretched fellow was discover'd and quarter'd alive Nevertheless John King of Castille the Son of Henry importun'd by the continual sollicitations of his Sister who Married the Infant of Navarre interceded so effectually with the Kings Uncles that they released those innocent Children of a very wicked Father Year of our Lord 1381 The meanness and condescentions of the two Popes towards those Princes of their parties to attain their ends was a most lamentable thing nor can it without indignation be express'd what exaction and violence they committed on the Clergy and those Churches of their dependance The six and thirty Cardinals of Avignon were so many Tyrants to whom Clement gave all sorts of Licence They had Proctors every where with Grants of Reversions who snapp'd up all the Benesices the Claustral Offices the Commandery's retained the best of them and sold the rest or gave them upon pension or rather Farmed them out Clement himself besides his seizing upon all that any Bishop or Abbot left after his death besides his taking a years Revenue of each Benesice upon every change whether it hapned by vacancy or by resignation or by permutation ravaged the Gallican Church by infinite Concussions and extraordinary Taxes Good People bewailed these disorders there were none but Purloiners that wished they might be continued and nothing but the particular Interests of Princes kept this Schisme still on foot Clement allowed the Duke of Anjou the Levying of the Tenths and the Duke allowed of all his pilserings and violently reproved all those that durst complain This unjust proceeding rather then the Justice of Vrbans party was the cause why many of the principal Doctors of the Faculty put themselves under the Obedience of that Pope and also made the University begin to desire and demand a Council as the Sovereign remedy for all these mischiefs Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Berry angry that he had no part in the Affairs his Father-in-law the Earl of Armagnac perswades him to demand the Government of Languedoc as then in the hands of his Enemy the Count de Foix. The Council consents to his demand but the Count armed to maintain himself and the Province where he was as much beloved for his Justice and his Generosity as the Duke of Berry was hated for his Thievery stuck close to him The Duke with an Army to take possession by force the Count beat him foundly near the City of Rabasteins but after he had let him know he was able to keep his Government he yielded it up to him that he might not be the ruine of those that defended him Year of our Lord 1381 John Lyon chief of the White Hats had so blown up the troubles in Flanders that his death could not extinguish the Flame Most part of good Towns in that Countrey had joyned themselves to the Ghentois the Peace the Duke of Burgundy had made betwixt them and the Earl his Father-in-law lasted but a very short time the Earl goes secretly out of Ghent and the Gentry combine against the Cities Ghent had all manner of ill success but neither their being thrice let Blood which cost above Fifteen thousand Lives nor Waste nor Famine nor being fortaken by the other Cities nor yet the miseries of two Sieges could quell those stubborn obstinate lovers of their liberty After the loss of most of their stoutest Leaders they chose one named Peter du Bois and upon his perswasions another also to wit Philip d'Artevelle Son of that James formerly mentioned much richer then his Father but less crafty and much prouder This last took the upper-hand and pretended to all the Functions of a Sovereign Year of our Lord 1384 Although they had promised the People to take off the Imposts the Regent nor the Treasurers who Governed him could not resolve upon 't The great Cities took up Arms to oppose it Peter de Villiers and John de Marais Persons venerable with the People and also very much regarded by the Regent somewhat appeased the commotion at Paris but could by no means perswade them to suffer those new Levies The Burghers took Arms set Guards at the Gates created Diseniers Cinquanteniers Centeniers and made some Companies to keep the Avenues and Passages to the City free Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Anjou was therefore forced to dissemble for the present but he had not resolved to let go the thing thus and intended only to wait till their heats were grown colder to go on as before It hapned the following year that having published the Farming of those at the Chastellet one of the Officers belonging to the Farmers demanding a Denier of an herb-Herb-Woman for a bundle of Cresles the Rabble gathered together upon the noise this Woman made grew into fury went and broke open the Town-Hall to get Arms and took out three or four thousand iron Maillets or Hammers for which cause this seditious crew were named the Malletiers After this they massacred all that were concerned to gather it plundred their Houses and razed them open'd the Prisons and took out all the Criminals amongst others Hugh Aubriot Prevost of Paris whom they made their Captain but
each for himself the Duke of Mayenne for his eldest Son and sometimes when he found any difficulty he thought of proposing the Cardinal de Bourbon then after divers agitations of mind he found there could be no better Resolution taken then that which in effect was worst of all and that was to take none at all Whilst he floated amidst these Uncertainties the Parliament of Paris being Assembled upon the Rumour then on wing of the Election of the Infanta made it appear they are infallible when concerned for the Fundamental Laws of the Monarchy of which they have ever had a tender and useful care For they made a grand Decree Ordaining that Remonstrances should be made to the Duke of Mayenne that he would look to the maintaining of those Laws and hinder the Crown from being transferr'd to Strangers and declared null and illegal all Treaties that had already been or might hereafter be made for that purpose as being contrary to the Salique Law Conformably to this Decree John le Maistre who held the place of First President went and deliver'd the Message boldly and shewed him how the Government of Women in France even that of Regents had never produced any thing but ✚ Seditions and Civil Wars whereof he instanced in ten or twelve examples most remarkable amongst which he did not omit Blanche de Castille and that of Catharine de Medicis the principal and almost the only cause of these last Troubles During these Transactions the King causes Dreux to be besieged he took the Year of our Lord 1593 Town upon the first Assault and the Castle afterwards upon Composition but not month June and July without much trouble and time The Spaniards finding by the Decree of Parliament and the loss of this City that the Affairs of the League were beginning to decline did the more press them for the Election of a King and at last in a Council they held with the Duke of Mayenne named the Duke of Guise Never was any Mans astonishment like to that of the Duke of Mayennes the trouble of his Soul appeared thorough all the coverings of dissimulation His Wives indignation was greater yet then his she would have overturned all rather then obey that meer Boy as she called the Duke of Guise In this pressing occasion when he knew not what to reply Bassompierre found out an Expedient for him which putting the business off for a while did in the end dash it utterly in pieces and that was to demand eight days time to give notice of it to the Duke of Lorrain his Master During this delay the Duke of Mayenne set all his Engines at work sometimes with the Duke of Guise to dissuade him from accepting this nomination as a thing ruinous both to him and all the House of Lorrain sometimes with the Spaniards to let them know it was not yet the Season for it and in fine with the Estates to incline them to his Sentiments His attempts proved altogether ineffectual upon the two first especially the Spaniards of whom it was reported they had endeavour'd to persuade the Duke of Guise his Nephew to kill him as being the only Remora to his Advancement But as to the Estates he plaid his part so successfully amongst them that they consented to the drawing up an Answer the Twentieth day of July By which the Duke and the Lorrain Princes most humbly thanked the Catholick King for the honour he did their House protesting they would ever persevere in their acknowledgments and a willingness to serve him and declared they were ready to promise before the Legat to persuade the Estates of the Kingdom to approve the said Election when there should be Forces sufficient to maintain it and when they should have agreed to such Conditions as were reasonable to be secured to the Chiefs of the Party Hereupon great Contests arose between the Partisans of the Duke and those of Spain these requiring they should go on with the Election the others that it should be deferr'd The Spaniards heard all without once opening their Mouths in the end finding their Votaries were fewer by a third part then the other they let go their hold And which was more the Duke without any regard to their Requests concluded month July to Treat for a Truce with the King and named his Deputies for that purpose Many Prelats some Doctors and even three Curats of Paris of whom one was he of St. Eustache named Rene Benoist being sent for to St. Denis the Two and twentieth of July the King came thither the next day and entred into Conference with them to satisfie himself as it were of certain scruples yet remaining touching Year of our Lord 1593 month July some points of Religion He was soon convinced but the Cardinal de Bourbon was not so that any other Bishop besides the Pope had right to give him Absolution the contrary notwithstanding was allowed maugre his under-hand dealings and vehement Remonstrances The formulary of his Confession of Faith was drawn up and the day appointed to make it the following Sunday Some Prelats out of an ignorant Zeal had thrust in certain trifling things which were not very necessary the King whose judgment was solid could not relish such trash wherefore they pared away all that was not essential to Faith and yet they sent it as it was first drawn up to the Pope the better to persuade his Holiness of his entire Conversion The Ceremony was performed in St. Denis Church by the Archbishop of Bourges as may be seen in the Memoirs of those times seven or eight Bishops being present and all the Grandees of his Court even Gabriela d'Estree who had not a little contributed to the Conversion of the King having already conceived great hopes he would Marry her The same night all the Fields from Montmartre whither he went after Vespers to visit the Church of the Holy Martyrs to Pontoise were enlightned by great numbers of Bon-fires which was soon after imitated by the Cities of the Royal Party and accompanied with Feastings Dancings and all other Tokens and Expressions of publick Rejoycing From that very day the People of Paris shewed plainly it was purely their aversion to Huguenotisin had engaged them to reject this Prince for they ran forth in multitudes to this Ceremony notwithstanding the prohibition of the Duke of Mayenne and on a suddain changing that hatred they had for him into a real affection began to call him their King and not the Bearnois as they had hitherto done scoffing at all the declamations of their Preachers who strove to make them persevere in their former Sentiments The Duke of Mayenne rejoycing also or pretending to rejoyce at his Conversion Treated with him about a Truce for three Months and both of them agreed to send to the Pope to get his Absolution without which the Duke would by no means hearken to a Peace His intentions an◠interests as he protested being no other but to preserve the