of Allemans or Almans because this Prince being Duke of the Almans had ever both in his Train and in all Offices more of those People then of any other Country The Italians even in those days called then Tudesâ—hi as they do still Death ravisht from the King his two ablest Councellors which were Suger Abbot of St. Denis the Fifteenth of January and Rodolph Earl of Vermandois the last Prince of the second Royal Branch of that name He having no Children and his Sister being Married to Philip Son of Thierry Earl of Flanders the King who cherished this Philip left him the possession of Vermandois the Subject of a Quarrel in the Reign following Year of our Lord 1152 Whether it were jealousie or scruple of Conscience the King eagerly pursued the Separation from his Wife and obtain'd it by Sentence of the Prelats of his Kingdom whom he had called together at Baugency Immediately proceeding with integrity he withdrew his Garrisons from Aquitain to leave her that Country in freedom and gave her liberty to go whether she pleased keeping the two little Daughters he had by her with him This Woman burning with Love and Ambition Married some Months after Henry Duke of Normandy and Presumptive King of England a Prince both young hot and Red-Haired very able to satisfie her Desires As soon as Alienor was Divorced Lewis sent to demand Constance-Elizabeth Year of our Lord 1152 Daughter of Alfonso King of Castile by Hugh Archbishop of Sens who performed the Ceremony of that Marriage at Orleans and there Crowned the new Queen the Archbishop of Reims protesting in vain that this Right belonged to him only Lewis not able to endure his Vassal should go equal with him nor Henry who had so many great Lordships suffer a Soveraign above him it was imposible they should continue good Friends This last being assigned to appear in Parliament refused to come Lewis to punish him besieged and took the City of Vernon but Henry submitting out of some apprehension he yet had of King Stephen the Lords reconciled him with Lewis who restored the place to him Year of our Lord 1152 King Stephen the Usurper of the English Crown being dead Henry gets into possession of that Kingdom according to the former agreement betwixt them It was not permitted the Kings of France says Yves de Chartres to Wed any Bastards Now there went a report that Constance was such wherefore King Lewis two years after his Marriage would satisfie himself herein and under the pretence of going on Pilgrimage to St. Jago in Galicia took her Fathers Court in his way the most magnificent Prince of those times who received and entertained him Year of our Lord 1154 most Royally at Burgos and took away that suspicion he had conceived Year of our Lord 1154 Divers do in this year 1154. reckon the Death of Roger I. King of Sicily one of the most Warlike and Potent Princes of this Age. He raised the reputation and fame of the Normans to its highest pitch in so much as after him it did ever decline He had a Son named William and a Daughter called Constance the Son Reigned but with so much Injustice Avarice and Tyranny that he deserved the surname of Wicked or Bad. He prided himself most in filling his Coffers and draining his Subjects to the very last Penny Constance being an old Maid Married the Emperor Henry VI. in the year 1186. Year of our Lord 1155 Gefroy Earl of Gien on the Loire knowing himself too weak to oppose William Earl of Nevers who made a rude War upon him allied himself with Stephen de Champagne Count of Sancerre and gave his Daughter to him and for Dowry his Earldom to the Exclusion of his Son Herve The Son thus disinherited by his Father without any fault committed implored the Kings Justice who goes in Person and besieges Gien takes it upon Composition and settles him there Year of our Lord 1159 When Henry was possess'd of England Gefroy his Brother demands Anjou Touraine and Maine according to their Fathers Will but far from giving these he takes Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau from him so that he had been left without any thing had it not been his good Fortune to be chosen by the Nantois for their Earl who having forsaken Hoel stood in need of a Prince to defend them against the Assaults of Conan Year of our Lord 1158 The Enmities between King Lewis and Henry being ready to break forth the Lords found out a way to prevent it yet a while by the Alliance of Henry's eldest Son of the same name with Margaret Daughter of Lewis by his second Wife though both of them were Children and had scarce left off their Bibs The Girl was put into the Father-in-Law's hands and Lewis promis'd to bestow in Dowre with her Gisors and other places in the Normand Vexin which in the interim were trusted to the keeping of the Grand Master of the Knights-Templars to be deliver'd up to Henry when the Marriage should be Consummate The Emperor Frederick composed the Difference between Bertold of Zeringhen and Renauld about the Earldom of Burgundy in such a manner that he dismembred or cut off from it the little Country of Nuctland which is beyond Mount-Jou and the Cities of Geneva Lausanna and Sion to give them to Bertold leaving the remainder to Renauld whose Daughter and Heiress named Beatrix he Married After which keeping open Court with great Pomp at Besancon he received Hommage of all the Lords and Prelats belonging to the Earldom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Arles who notwithstanding regarded not his Soveraignty but only to obtain a better Title to their Usurpations Those that were common Friends to both endeavour'd to procure an Enterview between him and the King of France and agreed upon the time and place but the King stung with Jealousie at the Grandeur of that young Prince or having some suspicion he would design upon his Person would go attended with a great number Year of our Lord 1159 of Soldiers which caused Frederick to withdraw very much dissatisfied Gefroy Earl of Nantes being dead without Children Conan Earl of Renes or of Little Bretagne seized on the City of Nantes King Henry Brother of Gefroy pretending it belonged to him by Succession undertakes to recover it by force of Arms. Year of our Lord 1160 Conan being hardly press'd buys his Peace by giving him his Daughter and Heiress named Constance for his Third Son by name Gefroy the same as his Uncle deceased After the Death of Pope Adrian the greater number of the Cardinals elected the Cardinal Rowland a Siennois who was named Alexander III. But the Roman People and two Cardinals only gave their Votes for Cardinal Octavian a Roman who took the name of Victor The Right of either side was dubious for on the one hand the Decrees of some Popes had referr'd the Election to the Cardinals only and on the other the Roman
with incredible Artifice tended to no more but to make him possessor of the Dutchy of Milan To bring this to pass he had Married his Sister to Maximilian King of the Romans and had secretly taken the investiture of that Dutchy as vacant by default of Hommage and other Duties not tendred but this he must wrest from John Galeas Son of his eldest Brother who held it by a just Title This was a young Man of little Courage whom he already kept as his Captive having chaced away his Mother Bonne de Savoy Sister to the Kings mother who had forfeited her Reputation by her Gallantries in her Widdow-hood but he had married a Wife as Couragious as Beautiful who being Daughter of Alphonso Duke of Calabria Son of Ferdinand King of Naples was able with the assistance of her Brother to retard the Execution of his malitious designs This was the motive which obliged Ludovic to stir up the King to the Conquest of Naples to ruin or at least to Embarrass that House which was alone able to prevent him He had the City of Genoa under his subjection which nevertheless held of the Crown of France the Kings Favourites having obtained the investiture for him for eight Thousand Crowns in his Alliance Hercules d'Est Duke of Ferrara his Father in Law Bentivoglio Lord of Bologna and some other Lords In those Days there were five great Governments or Powers in Italy two Republicks Venice and Florence this holding more of a Democracy or Popular State the other an Aristocracy or Government by Nobles the Church or Pope the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan Venice was Governed by their Senate none of her Citizens daring to raise themselves above the rest At Florence the Medici had usurped all the Authority after they had extirpated the Passi Peter the Head of the Family behaved himself with unsufferable haughtiness Lewis Sforza as we have told ye Governed the Milanois a Man that was perfidious sanguinary crafty and very aptly Surnamed the Moor not only because his Skin was tawny but likewise because he exceeded the Africans in Treacheries and Disloyalty In the Holy See was then sitting or rather intruded Alexander VI. who disposed of all things at his pleasure and to say truth he had paid for the tripple Crown It will suffice to give you his just Character to say in a word that never any Mahometan Prince was more Impious more Vicious or more Faithless than he and if any one did ever surpass him in his abominations it was Caesar Borgia his Bastard Son At Naples Reigned Ferdinand Bastard of Alphonso King of Arragon He had two Sons Alphonso and Frederic And Alphonso had a Son named Ferdinand as was his Grandfather Aged twenty or two and twenty years This last seemed to be of a good disposition and gained the Love of the Nobility and People but his Father and Grandfather were held in execration amongst all their Subjects for their Taxes Monopolies and bloody Cruelties the son exceeding the Father as much in wickedness as the Father exceeded all other Princes Besides all these Potentates had no Religion but by their Actions and in their Discourse professed a most Villainous and Brutish Atheism but withal pretended to great Wisdom and the finest Politicks Year of our Lord 1492. 93. 94. There were two men that wholly Governed the Kings mind Stephen de Vers his Chamberlain and Seneschal of Beaucare and William Briconnet his Treasurer General and Bishop of St. Malo By their means this War was undertaken but Briconnet having afterwards more thorowly considered and weighed it be-became of a quite contrary opinion Two years was it absolutely resolved upon then laid aside then again under consideration and debate There was not Wisdom enough in the Kings Council no money in his Coffers no assurance of his Allies for in Italy he had none for him but the Traitor and perfidious Ludovic in whom no prudent man would put any confidence but under-hand there were against him the wise Venctians and openly or barefac'd Pope Alexander and Peter de Medicis Upon the rumour of this War Ferdinand King of Naples sent to the King to Year of our Lord 1494 offer him Hommage and pay him an Annual Tritute of fifty Thousand Crowns These proffers having been rejected such grief and fear Seized upon him that his last day was the five and twentieth of January in the year 1494. being aged Seventy two His Son Alphonso more wicked then himself and more unfortunate took the Scepter After many delays the King pressed by the continual Sollicitations of Ludovic to which were likewise joyned those of the Cardinal of Saint Peters c. an irreconciliable Enemy to Pope Alexander left Paris in the Month of July having given the Regency to Peter Duke of Bourbon during the time he should be out of France He remained a while at Lyons in great uncertainty what he should do then again at Vienne from thence he passed to the City of Ast where he sojourned near a Month whilst they drew his Cannon over the Mountains with much difficulty In that place he was like to die of the Smal-Pox For two Years past had the Princes of Italy those great Men in War and Politicks so much vaunted by their Historians taken notice how this Design was forming which could not but prove fatal hereafter to the liberty of their Country and for the present invade their Peace and Power and yet they had not Skill or Prudence enough to divert a Prince who was but young and guided by a Council without Brains nor Courage enough to meet and fight his Forces which were but inconsiderable So that there is reason to believe that God had sealed their Eyes tied their Hands behind them and raised up this young King to chastize them Indeed Hierosme Savanarola a Dominican had a long time before filled all Italy with predictions of his coming and affirmed that he had a Commission from Heaven to Dethrone the Tyrants For this great Enterprize he had belonging to himself but sixteen hundred Gents-Darmes each with his two Archers on Horse-back his two hundred Gentlemen three or four hundred Horse lightly arm'd twelve thousand Foot half Swisse and half French but withal a great number of young Lords and Nobility who went Volunteers all very fit and useful for a Day of Battle but not any wise proper in Affairs that required length of time as not able to undergo Hardship nor be under Command Alphonso was resolved to carry the War into Ludovic's Country to this effect he had sent an Army into Romagnia commanded by young Frederic his Son and another by his Brother Frederic towards the Coasts of Genoa Frederic goes on Shoar at Rapalo thinking thereby to make the Genoese rise by the intelligence of those that were Banished but the Duke of Orleans who commanded the French Fleet beat the others in the Post which they had fortified and Daubigny having with some Forces outmarched
suffer she should be carried into England The Inhabitants of Rochel of Marennes and of the Islands were revolted upon the endeavouring to settle the Gabel in those Countries The King at his return from Languedoc passed that way to suppress that Commotion About the end of December he entred with his Forces into Rochel and caused great numbers of the Seditious Islanders to be brought before him bound and chained After he had put them into an extream Consternation he suffer'd himself to be overcome with Compassion and from a Scaffold where he was Surrounded by the Grandees of his Court he heard the most humble Request they made him by their Advocate and which they seconded with doleful Cries for Mercy and after he Year of our Lord 1543 had laid open their faults in a discourse equally Tender Majestick and Eloquent he absolutely forgave them caused all the Prisoners to be set at Liberty and all the Soldiers to be sent out of the City He would likewise that day needs be guarded and served at his Table by the Bourgeois His incomprehensible goodness ✚ cloathed them with shame and confusion and left in their Hearts and Memories a mortal regret for having ever offended him This was to chastise them indeed after a most Noble and Royal manner The Princes and Emperor of Germany had so often demanded a Council that in the Year 1536. Pope Paul III. had Indicted one at Mantoua for the Two and Twentieth of May the following Year From that time he had Prorogued it to 1538. then to 1539. at Vicenza but had yet suspended the Celebration for as long time as he should find fit In the Year 1542. he was obliged by the vehement pursuit of the Emperor who pressed him because he was so earnestly pressed by the Princes of the Empire to assigne one in the City of Trent which he did by his Bull of the One and Twentieth of May. He believed this Consideration might serve to bring the two Kings to a Peace but the War growing still hotter betwixt them there came so few Bishops to Trent that Year of our Lord 1543 he was this year 1543. forced to recal the Legates he had sent thither and refer the Celebration of the Council to a more pacifick opportunity In France and Spain they were making greater preparations for War than ever The Spaniards furnished the Emperor with above four Millions of Gold John King of Portugal who was Marrying his Daughter Mary to Philip his only Son gave him very great Sums and the King of England promised him no less This inconstant Prince who could never long agree even with himself being offended for that Francis would not renounce his obedience to the Pope and for intermedling too far about the Affairs of Scotland had made a new League Year of our Lord 1543 with the Emperor who did not in the least scruple to have a Prince in Alliance with him though he were under the blackest censures of the Church a mortal Enemy to the Holy-See and one that had used his Aunt so outrageously That he might be able to withstand so dreadful a Storm the King laid an impost upon the walled Cities for the Maintenance of Fifty Thousand men which ended not with the War as he had promised nor was revoked till under the Reign of Francis II. The Emperor going into Germany went by Sea to Italy whither he also carried Ten Thousand Spaniards in some large Ships and Galleys He could not upon the Popes earnest request refuse to confer with him They met as Bussetta between Parma and Piacenza The Holy Father endeavoured to perswade him to give up those two Cities to the Holy-See and invest his Grandson Octavius Farnese with the Dutchy of Milan since the Italian Potentates would never consent that he should retain it for himself The Emperor gave him only general words and cut the Conference off very short for fear of giving jealousie to the King of England who was subject enough to misinterpretations That Muley-Assan whom he had restored to the Kingdom of Tunis being hardly beset on all hands by the Turks who had taken from him divers of his places came to Genoa to kiss his hand and crave some Assistance Whilest he was absent one of his Sons named Amida usurped the Kingdom The unfortunate Father having given him Battle with some Forces scraped together was vanquished and taken with two more of his Sons by the Rebel who put out his Eyes reproaching him for having served his own Brothers so Afterwards this Parricide being driven out of his Kingdom by the Governour of Goletta where nevertheless he got the Mastery again some while after Muley-Assan made his escape out of Prison and took refuge amongst the Spaniards Year of our Lord 1544 In the Spring time the King gave Command to Antony become Duke of Vendosme by the Death of his Father Charles to revictual Terouane Then himself lead his greatest Forces towards the Low-Countries where he thought to make a considerable Progress while the Duke of Gueldres held the Emperors in play So that about the end of May though he were indisposed he put himself in the head of his Army which was joyned with the Troops of Antony Duke of Vendosme He roved for some Weeks all about the Country of Artois and having often changed his Mind sometimes to Fortifie L'Illiers and Saint Venant another while to besiege Avenes he fixed at last upon the Fortifying Landrecy on the other side of the Sambre After he had given the necessary Orders he came to encamp at Maroles then to refresh and repose himself at Reims where he had caused the Ladies to come to divert him Whilst he was at Maroles the Daufin employed part of the Army for the taking the Castle of Emery which is on an Island in the Sambre and the Town of Maubeuge but a while after he forsook them The Duke of Orleans likewise entred into Luxembourg regained all the Country which had been taken after his going away and amongst other the Capital City which gives it the Name The King was there in Person visited the Place and notwithstanding its vast Circumference and odd Situation would have it Fortified Such as were knowing in the Trade were against the doing of it but because it was like to be a work of great profit to him that should have the ordering of it there was an Engenier ☞ that advised it and undertooke it In the mean while the Emperor having passed out of Italy into Germany came at first to attack the Duke of Cleve and by the taking his City of Duren which he sacked and perhaps by the Assistance of his own People whom he had corrupted frighted him and all the rest of the Country so terribly that he came and craved his Pardon and promised to quit his Alliance with the French and the Title of Duke of Guelders satisfying himself with that of Administrator Which was so suddenly done that the Duke had not time
Bayard one of the Secretaries was Imprisoned and Villeroy his Compagnon deprived of his Employment James du Tiers and Claude Clausse Marquemont were put in their Places as in that of John du val Tresorier de l'Espargne Blond de Bochecour whose Wages or Salary was augmented to thirty Thousand Livers a certain presage of the future wasting of the Finances They likewise took away the Office of Grand Master of the Artillery or Ordnance from Claude de Tais to give it to Charles de Cossé Brisac the Lord amongst all the Courtiers the most lovely and the most beloved by the Kings Mistress Longeval accused to be of Intelligence with the Emperor redeemed himself by selling his fair House de Marchez in Laonnois to Charles de Lorrain who soon after was made Cardinal Of Twelve Cardinals that were then in France the new Ministers to be the more at large and at their own ease sent Seven of them to Rome upon pretence of Fortifying the French Party for the Election of a Pope when Paul III. who was near Fourscore years old should come to die Annebaud to satisfie to an Edict which they had purposely made that one man could not hold two great Offices was forced to quit that of Mareschal wherewith Saint André was gratified Francis I. had encreased the number of Mareschals even to Four but finding that the multitude debased that great dignity he had resolved to reduce them to two so that at this time there were but three They added a fourth which was Robert de la Mark Sedan Son in Law of Diana They made process against Odard de Biez likewise Mareschal of France and against Vervin his Son in Law They were not Condemned till the year 1549. Vervin lost his head His Father in Law an Honourable old Man and by whose hands Henry being then but Dausin would needs be made a Knight was shamefully degraded of his Office and the Order of Saint Michael He died of Grief in the Fanxbourg Saint Victor whither he had permission to retire The Earldom of Aumale was erected to a Dutchy in favour of Frances Eldest Son of Claude Duke of Guise The Dutchess d'Estampes having no more support at Court and seeing her self despised by all the World even of her own Husband chose one of his Houses for her Retreat where she yet lived some years in the Exercise of the new Religion to which her Example and Liberalities drew a great many People All the Kings Revenues being too little to satisfie the Covetousness of the new Ministers they sought to have Advice what to demand of him but the Genius of the French nor their Parliaments being yet used to suffer Monopolies and Farmers they employ'd Accusers or Informers who brought the richest Delinquents to Justice that they might enjoy their Spoils by Confiscations or by Compositions As to Things without Doors the Pope desired to have a defensive League with the King and for that end had sent the Cardinal Saint George Legate into France to give the King thanks for having promised his Natural Daughter Diana but nine Years old to his Grand-Son Horace and to negociate a more strickt Alliance with him The King gave no Positive Answer to the last Proposition his Affairs not being as yet in good Order and they suspecting his great Age and the Fidelity of his Children And indeed he was at the same time treating with the Emperor to get the Dutchy of Milan for John Lewis Farneze his bastard Son The King and the Emperor laboured separately and distinctly with the Turk the one to have a Peace with him the other to incite him to fall upon Hungary Year of our Lord 1547 as he had promised King Francis Now as on the part of France they neglected a while to send any News to Constantinople or even give notice of the death of that King the Emperor meeting no Obstruction obtained a Truce of Solyman for five Years paying him thirty thousand Crowns Tribute Annually and making him believe he held a very good Correspondence with the French and that they would have no more to do with the Port. Nevertheless Solyman desiring still to preserve his Amity with France would needs without being required have the King to be comprized in the Truce of Hungary as if he had been absolutely a Party contracting It is to be observed that in the Writings or Instrument of this Truce Solyman stiles Charles V. only simply King of Spain and the King of France the most serene Emperor of France his most dear Friend and Allie The Sixteenth of July the King being returned out of Picardy where he had been to visit the Frontiers saw at Saint Germains en laye the famous Duel between Guy Chabot Jarnac and Francis Vivonne la Chasteigneraye they quarrell'd about some certain intrigues of the Womens Jarnac had given the Lie to Chasteigneraye upon some villanious reproach of his concerning his Fathers second Wife He challenges him to fight the King permitted it causeth the Lists to be made ready and would needs be a Spectator with the whole Court He fancied Chasteigneraye would have the better whom he cherished and yet it fell out that Jarnac though much weakned with a Feavour that tormented him brought him down with a back blow he gave him on his hams They parted the Combatants but the vanquished not able to undergo so much shame in the Kings Presence would never suffer the Chyrurgions to bind up his wound but dyed of rage within a few days The King was so concerned at it that he sware solemnly never to permit the like Combats In the Month of August the Grands Jours or extraordinary Court of Justice began to be held in the City of Tours The troubles continued in Scotland The English were obstinately bent to have the young Queen for their King Edward and had gained a furious Battel against the Scots and after it taken several places The King sent therefore an Army into Scotland Commanded by Dessé Epanvillers who was accompanied by Peter Strozzi and Dandelot Brother to Chastillon They settled the Authority of the Queen Dowager stopt the Progress of the English and the year following brought the young Queen into France she was but six years of Age. Two Months before the Kings Coronation news came into France that the Protestant Princes of the League of Smalcalde were vanquish't by the Emperor in the Battel of Mulberg the twenty fourth of April That John Frederic Duke of Saxony their chief head and a Prince of great worth was taken Prisoner in the rout that the Emperor had caused him to be Condemned to lose his Head and having with much ado given him his life he detained him in Prison and had deprived him of his Dutchy to invest his Consin Maurice with it who was of the same House of Saxony and of the same Religion that all the great free Cities excepting Magdenbourgh had submitted that the Landgrave of Hesse had been forced to
the Parliament of Provence which they durst never have undertaken had it not been upon an assurance of the support of those that govern'd and even by their instigation particularly the Connestable who thought to involve the Cardinal de Tournon as principal Author of that Massacre he being his Capital Enemy The business was first brought before the Kings Great Council then the King took it upon himself and afterwards referr'd it to the Grand Chamber of the Parliament of Paris The Cause was Pleaded at Fifty Audiences or Hearings with great heats and vehement sollicitations After all this noise there was none but Guerin the Kings Advocate in the Parliament of Provence who paid for all those that had contributed to this Massacre He was Beheaded in the place called the Greve at Paris The Historian of Provence relates how on the day he lost his head his Picture or Effigies appeared in the palm of his wives hand traced in lines of blood and was seen by great numbers of people during several days Lewis Adhemar Earl of Grignan and Governour of Provence who had given Commission to d'Oppede to Levy Forces in his absence was like to have lost his Lands D'Oppede was sent away absolv'd having done nothing but by good order from the King but he survived not long after it and the Huguenots were revenged on him by giving out that he died of an inward fire which cruelly burnt up all his Bowels Year of our Lord 1550 and 51. The abuse of the Banquiers and of the Datary of the Court of Rome touching the resignation of Benefices were come to that pass that all the Clergy of France complained of it The King redressed this by an Edict and Charles du Moulin the most resolute of all the French Lawyers wrote a most Learned Book against the Petites Dates but which being very vehement raised so great a Storm against him amongst the Catholique Zealots for the interests of the Pope that for fear of being Treated as an Heretique he retired into Germany where he kept himself private till the rupture which hap'ned between the King and Pope Julius III. The Pic's Lords of Mirandola being at variance amongst themselves for the possession of that County Paul III. had endeavour'd to reconcile and agree them and not able to compass it had sequestred it in the hands of King Francis That King had restored it to Lewis Pic. Galeot Pic his Nephew assassinated his Uncle and Usurped it then fearing his other Relations would revenge this parricide retired to King Henry II. and had admitted a French Garrison into the place and also as it was reported had agreed upon an exchange for some other Lands in France However it were the King used it as a City properly his own and made it his place of Arms and his Assemblies in that part of the World The King wanted some occasion to interrupt the Progress of the Emperor he was over-joy'd to meet with this which follows D'Aramon his Ambassador made use of all industry with Solyman who was returned from the Persian War to break the Truce of Hungary and he wanted not considerations and motives to incite him to it for the Emperor had in Barbary taken the Cities of Mahadia and Monester from the Corsair Dragut one of the Grand Seignior's Captains and King Ferdinand held secret intelligence with Frier Georges Monk of the Order of Saint Poll a Hermit who by the testamentary institution of John Year of our Lord 1551 the pretended King of Hungary governed the Affairs and Country of Isabella and Stephen her young Son Solyman had given orders to take that Monk dead or alive the Monk having notice of it retired had cantonniz'd himself in some strong Castles he had purchased and provided from whence he began to make War upon the Queen He was reconciled and fell out again with her two or three several times and as he apprehended the power of the Turk he privately made an agreement with Ferdinand and perswaded the Widdow to restore Transilvania to him upon conditions very advantageous both for him and the Pupil if they had been observ'd But soon after Ferdinand fearing this mans inconstancy or rather that he would force him to make good what he had promised sent word to John Baptist Castalda General of his Forces to make him away which he Executed by the hands of some Assassines who went and Murthered him in a House of Pleasure to which he was retired Solyman could not suffer that Transilvania for which John had rendred him Homage should be possessed by Ferdinand He powred a very numerous Army in upon that side and almost totally Invaded it The Imperailists did not fail to publish that the King of France had drawn him thither but we find by the Memoirs of those times that he did his utmost to disswade him from making War in Hungary because the common danger re-united all the German Princes with the Emperor and it was his interest to divide them And therefore he could rather have wished that Solyman would have made use of his Sea Forces and landed in Puglia to facilitate an enterprize the French then had upon Sicily All these things make it evident that the King had firmly resolv'd to concern himself in the business of Parma by other ways and means then mediation or accommodation and that it was not the Dutchess of Valentinois that made him enter upon that War that there might be occasion to bestow some employment upon Brissac whom she loved infinitely It is true that at that Ladies request or perhaps to keep him at distance and absent from her he made him Governour of Piedmont in the place of John Caracciol Prince of Melsy whom he recalled to Court and to make up the Complement of good fortune for Brissac it hap'ned that the said Prince returning into France died at Suza and left a vacancy for a Mareschal which the King immediately conferr'd on him It sufficed the King to assist his Allies without directly breaking with the Emperour wherefore he sent to Brissac to make use of some indirect means to that end Brissac therefore disbanded a part of the Forces in Piedmont who had order to File away towards Parma over the Milanois under favour of the Truce two by two sometimes three without any weapons and by easie Journeys Gonzague mistrusting the Craft and Contrivance set Guards upon the ways who Massacred the greatest part of them so that there came not above four or five hundred to Miranda who went over by the Mountains at Genoa During this assay the Pope strove to perswade the King to abandon the Duke of Parma and the King endeavour'd to gain the Popes good Will that he might take him into his Protection But as the first had sharply replied to the Kings Remonstrances threatning him with his Ecclesiastical Thunder the French Ambassador raising the Tone of his Voice declared that the King would for no consideration whatever relinquish his
it in France The time drawing near la Renaudie who forged a thousand fine imaginations upon the event of this project could not hold his tongue but opened the whole mystery to an Advocate of his own Religion named des Avenelles with whom he lodged at Paris The Advocate discover'd it to l'Allemand Vouzé a Master of Requests and l'Allemand carried him to Court to declare particularly all what he had learned of la Renaudie Upon this news the Guises first provided for the security of their own persons and without the least noise called all their trustiest friends about them gave order for the preservation of the great Cities caused the Prince and the Admiral to come to Court granted an abolition of all things past to the Religionaries excepting to those that had conspired and at the same time set Guards of Soldiers and Men belonging to the Provosts upon all the Roads leading to the Conspirators The Duke got the Title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom confirmed to him as well whilst the King should be present as absent and established a Company of Musquetiers on Horse-back all select Men who were constantly to attend the Kings Sacred Person Year of our Lord 1560 The Court immediately dislodged from Blois and went to the Castle of Amboise as well because that place was stronger as to break the measures of the Plotters In the mean time the Duke of Guise sent the Kings Orders into all the Provinces with exhortations to the Nobility and Officers of War to arm themselves for the preservation of the State and to the Governors to seize upon all such as should be found in Arms whether on Foot or on Horseback upon the Road of Amboise The Prince of Conde who was going to Court met the Lord de Cipierre at Orleans by whom he was informed how the enterprize was discover'd but this hindred not his Journey forward nor la Renaudie a self-will'd fellow from pursuing his design But the Court having changed their station he was fain to change the Rendezvous appointed for his Gang and this was it that made them miscarry in the execution of the contrivance Castelno de Chalosses one of the chief Ring-leaders with Raunay and Mazeres were at Nozé James de Savoye Duke of Nemours took the two last as they were imprudently walking without the Castle but Castelno and the rest got in He besieged them there and being unable to take them by force drew them out by fair promises for he gave them his word he would carry them to the King and no hurt should be done to them neither should they be confin'd to Prison But as there is no security in the faith of that Man that is not able to warrant it as soon as they were come to Amboise they were cast into a Goal and Nemours thought it a sufficient excuse to say I cannot help it La Renaudie who was in Vendosmois made his Men advance with all speed to disengage Castelno whose surrender he knew not of but as they Marched in small parties and by ways thorow the Forrests the people set there by the Kings Order to watch them easily slew them or took them Prisoners and tied them to their Horse-Tails to lead them to Amboise whither they no sooner came but they hang'd them up immediately on the Battlements of the Walls Booted and Spurr'd The day after la Renaudie was kill'd in the Forrest of Chasteau-Renaud but he first slew Pardillan his Cousin to whom the King had given command to go a-hunting after the Conspirators with two hundred Horse His Body was for some hours hanged upon the Bridge at Amboise with this writing Captain of the Rebels then quarter'd and the quarters set up in divers places The Guises press'd the Chiefs might be dispatch'd the Chancellor was of opinion they should suspend that till they had found the bottom and main drift of the enterprize and to appease the fury of those exasperated spirits it would be fit to grant a Pardon to such whose blind zeal had misled them provided they would return to their own homes in small parcels of two or three in a Company But whilst they were contending for Mercy and Clemency against the rigour of Justice and Law a Captain of the Conspirators named la Motte made an attempt to surprize Amboise which stopt the Chancellors Mouth and let loose the raynes of persecution to the utmost severity A Command was given to take all such as had been in Armes either dead or alive though they should be returning to their own homes They pardon'd very few of those they had in Hold there were hanged drowned and beheaded near Twelve Hundred the Streets of Amboise were overflowed with Blood the River choaked up with dead Corps and the Market-places planted full of Gibbets The Chief were Executed the last the Queen-Mother her three Sons and all the Court Ladies gazing out of the Windows beholding this Tragical Spectacle as a divertisement Not one of them would own or confess that the Conspiracy aimed at the Kings Person but only against the Guises Raunay and Mazeres confessed upon the Rack that la Renaudie had told them that if it had succeeded the Prince of Condé would have declared Castelno stoutly denied it and upon their confrontation gave them very significant reproaches Some writings in Cyphers seized in the Custody of la Bigne Secretary of the Conspiracy and the Examinations of certain Captains that had Command amongst them gave them light enough to believe that the Prince of Condé and the Admiral were concerned but the proofs not being clear and the Evidence only upon hear-say and those that had orders to search the Princes House finding neither Men nor Arms there he demanded leave to purge himself in full Council before the King The Queen Mother being willing to admit him he made a discourse full of Reason and Eloquence to justifie himself concerning that attempt and afterwards gave the lye to all that durst say he was guilty of it and offer'd to Fight them himself renouncing his Quality only for that purpose Year of our Lord 1560 The Duke of Guise out of a most profound dissimulation applauded his generosity and told him he was also ready to maintain his Innocency but in private he notwithstanding was of opinion he ought to be seized on The Queen Mother did not judge it convenient whether she feared the Guises might make themselves too absolute if they could but pull down the only Prince that was able to make head against them or that she apprehended lest such a detension should produce some act of desperation which might prove more fatal then the fore-going Conspiracy The danger over they wrote Letters in the name of the King to all the Parliaments Governors and great Cities giving them an account of the eminent danger the King had escaped and the signal Service the Duke of Guise had rendred him The Parliament of Paris giving Credit to it bestowed upon him the glorious
maintaining the ancient Religion they laboured to set up an absolute and unlimited power over those Provinces who owed no further obedience then according to their Laws and Priviledges The procedure of the Cardinal de Granvelle who treated the Grandees of the Country very imperiously exasperated them yet more Divers Conspiracies were contrived against him the fear of which forced him to retire to Besanson but his Spirit Reigned in Flanders still and perswaded the Council of Spain not to abate in the least but proceed and carry on the work with the utmost severity The Council of State of the Order of the Fleece and Governors of the Provinces wherein Margaret Dutchess of Parma Governess of the Low-Countries presided thought good to send Egmont into Spain to represent the ill Consequences that would attend the publication of their too severe Edicts He returned with fair words and great caresses but Philip sent Orders to the Governess to publish the Council of Trent and set up the Inquisition The States of Brabant opposed it the Religionaries heated the people the Governess apprehending a revolt was constrained to put forth a Declaration which revoked the Inquisition and would not suffer the Council to be published but with restrictions conformable to the Priviledges of the Country But the Populace for the most part pre-possest with the Doctrine of the Sectaries were not satisfied with that but threatned to fall foul upon the Nobility in so much as the Lords of the Country dreading their fury or pretending so assembled at Gertrudemberg and made a League amongst themselves for the preservation of their Liberties The Governess being much amazed at this Conspiracy the Count de Barlaimont who hated them mortally told her they were only a Company of Gueux The Conspirators hearing of it took that Epithet or word for the name of their Faction and began to wear upon their Coats the figure of a wooden Porringer or Dish with this Inscription Servants of the King even to the Budget Immediately as if that had been the Signal for their rising the Religionaries broke loose in every part of the Country They began to hold Assemblies to destroy and break in pieces all what the Catholicks esteem most sacred and to seize upon some Towns as the Huguenots of France did formerly with whom they had kept intimate correspondence for several years Year of our Lord 1566 and 67. Of two Opinions debated in the Council of Spain touching the Method to extinguish this Flame Philip chose that of the Duke d'Alva as most suitable to his mercyless humour and his desire of absolute authority which was to use the utmost severities to quell those Tumults and not to receive the people to any kind of Mercy till they had given up their Priviledges their Estates and even their Lives to his discretion Wherefore after he had pretended for three Months together that he would go personally thither to settle that people he sent the Duke of Alva with Orders to execute those sanguinary resolutions of which he was the Author He Marched by Savoy Bress the Franche-Comté and Lorrain with the Forces of Milanois and of the Kingdom of Naples Whilst he was yet in Italy he advised Queen Catherine to arm on her part to exterminate the Huguenots at the same time as he would destroy the Gueux In effect she raised six thousand Swiss and ordered the Governors of Provinces to send the Companies already on foot called d'Ordonnance and to levy new ones but it was under pretence of Coasting the Duke to observe and hinder him from undertaking any thing upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom Before he left Spain the Marquiss de Bergue and Floris de Montmorency Montigny were arrested having been sent on the behalf of the States of the Low-Countries to make their Remonstrances to King Philip. The first died either of grief or some morsel prepar'd for the purpose the second had his head cut off though both of them were very stanch Catholicks which made it apparent that the Council of Spain intended no less against the liberty of the Low-Countries then against the new Religion Year of our Lord 1567. June c. Now it is certain that the Duke of Alva's Army kindled the flame of Civil War again in France The Huguenots seeing them march imagin'd That the Pope and the House of Austria had conspired their ruine that this design was evident because they every day restrained them more and more of that liberty which had been granted them by Edicts so that it was almost reduced to nothing Year of our Lord 1567 that the people fell upon them in all places where they were the weaker and where they were able to defend themselves the Governors made use of the Kings Authority to oppress them that they dismantled those Cities that had favour'd them that they built Citadels there that they could not have justice done them either in Parliaments nor by the Kings Council that they Massacred them impunitively that they restored them not to their Estates and Employments These were in substance the complaints they carried twice or thrice to the Prince of Condé and Coligny who having met them two several times still answered them that they must endure any thing rather then take up Arms again That a second disturbance would make them become a horror to all France and the particular object of hatred to the King in whose mind it would make so deep an impression of prejudice against them in his blooming youth as nothing hereafter would be able to blot out But when one of the Chief Persons about the Court had given them certain notice that it was resolved on to seize upon the Prince and the Admiral the first to be detained a perpetual Prisoner the other to be brought to the Scaffold Dandelot the boldest of them made them resolve not only to defend themselves but to attack their Enemies by open force and to that purpose drive away the Cardinal de Lorrain from the King and cut the Swiss in pieces this was their first aim but no man alive nay not themselves could have told to what height their success might have carried them had it proved such as they desired The little City of Rosoy in Brie was Assigned for Rendezvous of the Nobility of the Party on the eighth and twentieth day of September The Prince with the Admiral Dandelot and the Count de la Rochefaucaut seized upon it without any difficulty there being Arrived several Gentlemen from divers parts one by one till they made up the number in all of Four Hundred Masters They had a mind to surprize the Court which was then at Monceaux on the Feast day of Saint Michael when the King was to have held the Chapter of his Order but the Queen having Information that they were upon their March immediately retired with the King to Meaux And to give her Swissers time who were quarter'd in the Neighbouring Villages to get into the
Kingdoms of Aquitain and Burgundy At their first accession they meet with the displeasure of seeing two Kingdoms belonging to their Father dismembred from the Succession which were Lorrein as we have observed and Burgundy As for this last it was lopp'd off by Boson That Lord had been in such high favour with Charles the Bald that he had given him Provence if not in Soveraignty at least to perpetuity and his Neece Hermengarde to Wife Having these advantages he was encouraged by that ambitious Princess to make himself King So that having gained the Lords and Prelats of those Countries he was Crowned King of Burgundy in the Royal Castle of Mantale in Dauphine by the hands of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons This attempt went near the hearts of the two Brother Kings but besides him they had two Enemies more to deal withal their Cousin Louis and the Normans They gained a Battel against the last night the River of Vienne the first day of November After which leaving their victory imperfect they turned head against Louis who by the instigation of the Abbot Gauzelin was advanced even to their Frontiers Having intelligence they were coming towards him he durst not march forward but demanded to parley with them at Gondouville where they saw each other In his retreat he defeated in Hanault a crew of eight or ten thosuand Normans but lost his Bastard Son in that Bustle Those Pyrats had burnt Saint Omers Teroüenne Arras Tournay Saint Riquier Saint Valery and all the Countries of Hainault Flanders and Boulonois Four Burghers of Tournay who fled to Noyon rebuilt the City and let houses at easy Rents Arras was deserted thirty years the Inhabitants having forsaken it for Beauvais The four Kings to compose their contests had assigned a general Assembly at Gondoul a Town near Mets. Louis of Germany sent to excuse himself because he was fallen into a sit of sickness but Charles his Brother came there and conferr'd with Louis and Carloman touching their common interest and affairs They found it necessary to enter into a league together for the destruction of their Enemies Louis the Germanick with Louis and Carloman against Hugh the Son of Year of our Lord 881 Valdrade who sacked all the open Countries of Lorrein And Charles the Fatt also with his two Brothers to pull down Boson's pride As for the first the Forces of Louis the German and the two Brothers having encountred the Army belonging to Hugh commanded by Tybault his Brother in Law they put it to the rout and made a great slaughter Then Charles the Fatt and his two Brothers marching joyntly against Boson defeated him in Battel and afterwards besieged Vienne where that Rebel had left his wife retreating himself to the Mountains We shall not find this siege at an end till about two years hence Charles was come thither upon the request of his Cousins and had left the affairs of Italy whither had he made one Voyage already and in some Months time had secured to himself all Lombardy whereof he was Crowned King by the Arch-Bishop of Milan And being impatient to return again he took leave of them and having repassed the Mountains went directly to Rome accompanied by the Patriarch of Aquilea At this time the Pope who hesitated on whom he should bestow the Imperial Crown could not deny a Prince so powerfully Armed and therefore set it on his Head upon Christmass Day in the year 881. Year of our Lord 881 In the mean while a Fleet of Normans entring by the Vaal or Waal fortified themselves at leasure in the Palace of Nimeghen So that Louis not being able to force them only obliged them to quit the Kingdom They went away indeed with all their men but took all their Plunder with them likewise Another very strong Fleet going up the Somme forced the rich Abbey of Corbie Year of our Lord 881 and the City of Amiens then spread themselves at large over the neighbouring Countries The mischief was very great therefore Louis leaving his Brother Carloman at the siege of Vienne hastned into Picardy fell upon the Normans near Amiens and laid nine thousand of them dead on the place Nevertheless whether it were that he expected some other greater Body of them was marching towards him or was Seized with a Pannique fear he returned home and the remainder of those Barbarians fell a plundring as before A third Body of them came to the place called Haslou nigh the Meuse and having fortified themselves there set the City of Liege on Fire and likewise burned Tongres which had otherwhile been ruined by the Vandals then set fire to Colen Bonne Nuis the Palace of Aix la Chapelle and Triers and Mēts and having Year of our Lord 881 gained a victory over the Bishops of those two Cities where the Bishop of Mets was slain made a horrible slaughter amongst the poor Peasants who were in Arms for them Year of our Lord 882 Whilst Louis the German was getting his Forces together to oppose them he died at Francfort the 20 th of January in the strength of his Age having Reigned but six years His Corps was conveyed to St. Nazaire the Abbey-Church of Loreshein where his Fathers lay He was the only Brother of three that married his wife was called Luidgarde daughter of Ludolfe Duke of Saxony and Sister to Otho Father of Henry L'Oiseleur or Bird-catcher He had but one Son who in An. 880. playing in a Window fell down and bruised himself so that he died Charles the Fatt Emperour King of Italy Germany or East-France Bavaria and Lorrain Louis and Carloman of East-France Aquitain and part of Burgundy The Succession of the German Kingdom and likewise the necessity of affairs called Year of our Lord 882 Charles the Fatt into France where the Normans posted at Haston plaid the Devils assisting and being reciprocally assisted by Hugh the Bastard of Valdrade who invited and animated those Barbarians and kindled factions amongst the Lords to revenge himself at least if he could not settle himself Charles therefore comes over the Mountains confirmed the donation of Carinthia to Arnold his Bastard Nephew and gave him the command of his Army and after he had held a Parliament at Wormes Arnold having joyned him he marched towards Haston His Van-guard at first made the Normans retreat And had it not been for the intelligence and correspondence between some of his Chief Officers in favour without doubt of Hugh and those Barbarians he might have forced them upon this first disorder The Emperor afterwards blocked them up with his whole Army But a most dreadful Tempest and furious Plague infesting his Army were once more favourable to them So that after ten days Siege they were quit upon condition to leave the Kingdom whence they carried infinite riches Year of our Lord 882 They had two Kings or Generals Sigefroy and Godfrey The first Embarked with above 40000 men The other whether for Interest or Devotion
Boulogne had served Philip very well since his Reconciliation and had likewise been very well recompenc'd by a great deal of good Land bestow'd upon him in that Country Nevertheless the King suspecting him of holding Correspondence with the King of England demands his strong Holds of him and upon his refusal to deliver them he attaques them and press'd upon him so briskly that he durst not defend them but went away to the Earl of Bar his Kinsman and from thence to Flanders Year of our Lord 1212 Although King John had been Excommunicate the precedent year by the Popes Legat he scoff'd at those Censures But he was hugely astonished when he understood that by a more terrible Sentence the Pope had absolv'd his Subjects of their Allegiance and expos'd his Kingdom as a Prey and that King Philip made great preparations to invade it having already a prodigious number of Vessels ready at the mouth of the Seine The Legat by secret Informations increases his fears and disturbs him to that height as he promises to make his Kingdom hold of the Holy See and to pay a thousand Mark of Silver as a yearly Tribute besides the Peter-Pence When the Legat had wire-drawn all he desired from him he tries to persuade Philip to wave his Enterprize but he was too far engag'd in Honour and Expence to break off so Year of our Lord 1213 All the Lords of the Kingdom in a Parliament held at Soissons the Morrow after Palm-Sunday had promis'd to assist him with their Lives and Fortunes There was only Ferrand Son of Sancho I. King of Portugal Earl of Flanders that refused to accompany him in this Expedition unless he would restore the Cities of Aire and St. Omer which he had gotten from him to have his consent that he might Marry the Heiress of Flanders who was the eldest Daughter of Baldwin V. The King thought that his approach might bring him back to his Duty when he should see him on those Coasts ready to Embarque Therefore when he was at Boulogne he sent him order to come and meet him at Graveline The Earl made them wait for him but he appeared not so that the King resolv'd before he took Shipping to put him in a Condition not to be able to hurt him Year of our Lord 1213 The Towns of Ipres Cassel and all the Country to Bruges submitted to his Sword His Naval Force consisting of One thousand seven hundred Sail having cast Anchor at Dam. While the greatest part were in the Road with scarce any Men comes the English Fleet Commanded by the Earls of Boulogne and Salisbury who took and sunk a great many and laid Siege to the place Philip decamping from before Ghent routs those they had sent on shoar and slew two or three thousand Nevertheless they keeping the Seas and his Vessels not being able to get out without falling into their hands he took out all their Furniture and caused them all to be burnt and the City of Dam afterwards Year of our Lord 1213 Then having wasted and plundred the Territory of Bruges squeezed great Sums of Money from those Citizens as likewise from the Inhabitants of Ghent and Ipres sack'd and dismantled L'Isle he left his Son Lewis and Gaucher Count de Saint Pol in that Country with a strong Body of Horse and Garisons in the Cities of Doway and Tournay only When he was retir'd out of Flanders the Earl Ferrand re-entred and soon Master'd Tournay and L'Isle which Lewis was beginning to repair as in revenge Lewis sack'd and burnt Courtray Philip for the second time goes into Flanders to secure his Conquests and presently Ferrand withdraws but as soon as Philip was gone Renauld Earl of Boulogne took the Field with some Forces he brought out of England But without doing any Exploit only after he scowred about the Country once or twice and attempted two or three Sieges in vain he forced Henry Earl of Louvain and Duke of Brabant who had Married one of the Kings Daughters to joyn with him On the other side King John landed at Rochel with a great Army and having patch'd up again with the Earls de la Marche d'Eu d'Angoulesme de Lezignan and other Poitevins who assisted him with their Forces crosses Poitou made himself Master of some places in Anjou and began to rebuild the Walls of Anger 's his Native City To hinder this Progress the King recall'd his Son out of Flanders and sets him in opposition This Prince takes his head Quarters at Chinon and was seconded with the Forces of Bretagne by Peter de Dreux who this year had Married the Heiress of that Dutchy It was Alix or Alice Daughter of the Dutchess Constance and Guy de Touars Year of our Lord 1213 In the mean while the English wrought diligently about the fortifying Anger 's and enclosed that part towards the River of Maine with a Wall His Soldiers made excursions to the very Suburbs of Nantes on the other side of the Loire surpriz'd Robert the eldest Son of the Earl of Dreux in an Ambuscade who was got over the Bridge to attaque them cut his Men in pieces and made him Prisoner Peter King of Arragon having gotten into his League and under his Protection the Earls of Toulouze de Foix and de Comenges the Vicount de Beziers and others whose Lands Montfort had usurp'd sâ—â—t his Heraulds to deâ—ie him Montfort had left a strong Garison in Muret to make waste in the Neighbourhood of Toulouze This King lays Siege to it in the Month of September His Army consisted of an Hundred thousand Men almost Montfort who was at Castlenaudry having hardly drawn together a thousand or twelve hundred got into the place From whence making a furious Sally upon the King who slighting so small a number set down to eat at the beginning of the Fight cut all his Army off threw him on the ground where his Throat was cut by a private Soldier took his Royal Standard which was carried in Triumph to Rome and cover'd the Field with dead Bodies without the loss of Year of our Lord 1213 above eight Men. The weighty blow of this Club made the Earl of Toulouze and the Inhabitants of that great City fall down at the Legats Feet they offer'd to submit to whatever Conditions he would impose but they could not get off with words it was resolv'd they should be plum'd of all Year of our Lord 1214 This year 1214. France was shrewdly attaqu'd by King John and on the Flanders side by the Emperor Otho and the Counts Ferrand of Flanders and Renauld de Boulogne but both in the one and the other part his Arms remained Victorious Prince Lewis having drawn his Forces together at Chinon march'd resolutely against King John who besieged the Castle de la Roche au Moine upon the Loire between Anger 's and Nantes Being within a days Journey of that place that King was frighted repasses the River in such great haste
Bourdeaux and carried away the King and his Son along with him tg ether with a prodigious number of prisoners Charles the Dauphin Lieutenant then Regent Aged some XXI years Year of our Lord 1356 THere being no Authority left in the Kingdom and the King before his departure having not setled any thing in order all was in a most horrible confusion The Dauphin at the first took only the quality of Lieutenant upon him he believed it belonged to the general Estates to provide for the Government of the Kingdom and the redemption of the King and therefore having called them together at Paris the Fifteenth of October he propounded these two things to them But that hapned then which ever happens in such great disorders where the people have been evilly treated in their prosperity Instead of assistance he met with nothing but complaints and sharp rebukes They would deliberate of nothing in the presence of his Commissioners they demanded to have the Chancellor set aside this was Peter de la Forest Archbishop of Rouen Simon de Bucy First President and six or seven Officers more that had mis-mannaged the Treasury They would have him set the King of Navarre at liberty and would have him be governed and guided by a Council they chose for him upon which conditions they promised to maintain Thirty thousand Men but which should receive their pay from their own hands In the mean time they set up a Council for the Government of the Kingdom whereof Robert le Coq Bishop of Laon was the Chief and Commissioned People that were at their own Devotion to manage the Treasury The Dauphin not being able to perswade them to condescend to any other method nor bias their resolutions made use of some wile to break up that Assembly and upon divers pretences obliged the Deputies of the several Cities to return Afterwards he dispatched others to all the Bailywicks and Seneschals Courts to demand a subsistence of them severally hoping that none in particular would dare to refuse him what when altogether they had boldly denied During this confusion every one imagined now was the proper time to recover their Rights and Priviledges The Nobility began to make Alliance with the Cities The Dauphin found out the way to prevent that union and draw them to himself The Cities on the other hand grew jealous of the Gentry so that to preserve themselves from being pillaged by the Soldiery who had all manner of Licence allowed them they began to fortifie especially at Paris where they chained their Streets repaired their Walls made good their Ditches and enclosed all that quarter of the Street St. Anthoine and St. Pol which before was but the Suburbs Stephen Marcel Prevost des Merchands and Ronsac the Sheriff had full power over the People and govern'd them at their own pleasure Year of our Lord 1356 The unfortunate Gefroy de Harcourt had sold his Lands in Normandy to the English to enjoy it after his decease disinheriting Lewis his Nephew because he would not take up ARms against his own Countrey He had some Forces at St. Sauveur le Vicomte from whence they made their incursions to the Suburbs of Caen and even to Evreux The Estates assembled at Paris had sent four Captains thither to make head against him he marching into the Fields to meet them near the City of Coutances was there defeated and slain had he been taken alive they would have made him pay down his Head upon a Scaffold he chose rather to dye with his Sword in hand The Duke of Lancaster and Philip of Navarre who made War in Normandy with Philip d'Evreux not being able to pass over the Loire to assist the Prince of Wales amidst the danger he was in before the Battle of Poitiers were fallen down into Bretagne The Duke laid Siege to Rennes the Third of December in this year 1356. but Year of our Lord 1356 the place was so well defended that he could make nothing of it in Ten Months time After the example of their Sovereign who had studied more the enlarging of his ☜ power then the publique good every one took care now of his particular interest and overturned all that lay in his way to attain his own ends The Deputies whom the Dauphin had sent into all the Provinces brought nothing back but grievances the only Countrey of Languedoc because they had been less oppressed by Taxes then the rest testified a publique sorrow for the captivity of their Prince and proffer'd to maintain Five thousand Horse for his Service the others refused every thing but what should be ordained by the Estates Year of our Lord 1356 The Dauphin had Commanded some new Money to be Coined but being gone to Metz to confer with the Emperour Charles IV. his Cousin who stood up mightily for the interests of the House of France the Duke of Anjou whom he had left at Paris was compell'd by Stephen Marcel to forbid the carrying it on Year of our Lord 1357 Wanting some publique Authority to get himself to be declared Regent he had summoned the Estates upon the Fifth of February to meet at Paris at the Cordeliers but could obtain no more from them then he had done the former time They forced the Chancellor la Forest to lay down the Seals turned out all the principal Officers of the Treasury caused all their Goods to be seized and inventoried and upon the warm Remonstrances of Robert le Coq Bishop of Laon removed all the Great Officers of the Kingdom even those of the Parliament excepting Sixteen The Dauphin not finding what he reckon'd on Adjourn'd the Assembly till Fifteen days after Easter Whether it were the inconveniency of that time of the year or the greediness and covetous humor of the Gascons each one of them demanding as much reward as if he alone had gained the Battle and taken the King which hindred the English from removing him out of Bourdeaux he passed all the Winter there but Served and Treated as if he had been in his own Courr Year of our Lord 1357 About the beginning of April they transferr'd him into England where he was entertained with as much Honour and Respect as if he had gone over only to pay a kind visit to King Edward They made him a publique entrance at London he was mounted upon a White Horse a mark of Sovereignty and the Prince of Wales on his left hand upon a little Hackney They lodged him in the Savoy palace the King the Queen and the Grandees visited him and gave him all sort of liberty In the mean time the Popes instant mediation obtained a Truce for two years between both Crowns in which John de Montfort and Philip d'Evreux were not comprehended The Duke of Lancaster had sworn not to rise from before Rennes till he had gotten in and planted his Banners upon their Ramparts whist his Army was in apprehension Year of our Lord 1357 of a second Winter and the
Italy and rendred those places to Frederic which they held in Calabria the Arch-Duke by the Treaty recover'd his Towns of Artois upon condition he should do Homage to the King for that County and for that of Flanders and of Charolois And this he really did at Arras bare-headed and un-girt in the hands of Guy de Rochefort Chancellour of France who was cover'd and sitting in a Chair Year of our Lord 1499 There was more difficulty how to agree with Maximilian because he was engaged with Sforza for which he had received great Sums of Money and had also sent an Army to enter the Dutchy of Burgundy but the Count de Foix having easily repulsed them And Ludovic not having a stock of Riches large enough to satisfie his covetous indigence he was soon persuaded to make a Truce for some Months The Florentines in the mean while and the Venetians composed their differences by means of the Duke of Ferrara whom they chose for Arbitrator but Ludovic embroiled himself so much with the Venetians that they made a League with the King to pluck his Feathers They were to have for their share of the Milanois all the Towns without the River Addo and they imagined that they should soon have the French Kings part likewise who would sell it or suffer it to be lost by ill Government and their Divisions as they had done the Kingdom of Naples But they were mistaken in the account and found soon afterwards that as to the matter of Princes and Estates the next Neighbour being ever an enemy ☞ the most potent is the most dangerous This wretched Ludovic with all his Crast and Fineness in Politiques had not one friend no not so much as the Duke of Ferrara his Father in Law he was fain to have recourse to Maximilian and to the Sultan Bajazeth the ones assistance was slow very costly and not very certain that of the other was infamous and odious Year of our Lord 1499 In the Month of July the Kings Forces entered into the Milanois on the one hand and those belonging to the Venetians on the other In Fifteen days Ludovic lost all his Countrey the Venetians took all beyond the Addo the French went no less swiftly on Novarre and Alexandria defended themselves but ill and were sacked Mortara capitulated Pavia sent their Keys The City of Genoa followed the Dance the Adornes and the Fregoses being at Daggers draw who should deliver it up first In fine none kept their faith to Ludovic neither the People nor Commanders nor Cities In this revolution he sent his Treasures and his Children into Germany to the Emperor Maximilian thither he retired also himself having first well provided the Castle of Milan After his departure the City received the French with joy Bernardin Curtio whom he believed to be the faithfullest of his Creatures took Money of the King and sold the Castle to him which was held inexpugnable A Treachery which appeared ugly yea even horrible to the very Purchasers and which loaded and cloathed the seller with so much shame that he dyed with it about Ten or Twelve days afterwards The King who was then at Lyons went immediately to Milan He made his entrance in a Ducal Habit and Sojourned about three Months in that Country He presently took off a fourth part of their Imposts allowed liberty of Hunting to the Nobles which they had not before and thinking to make them more affectionate to his Service distributed a considerable part of his demeasnes amongst them particularly to Trivulcio on whom he likewise bestowed the Government of all the Dutchy Year of our Lord 1499 All the Princes of Italy excepting Frederic Congratulated his good Success and the Florentines engaged to assist him in the Conquest of Naples upon condition he would help them to recover Pisa again for them Year of our Lord 1499 After this he was obliged to make good his word to Caesar Borgiae he lent him Forces with which he regained the Cities of Imola and Forli In which last was Cathrine Sforza Mother and Tutoress of the Riari whom he led away Prisoner to Rome Year of our Lord 1500. in January The change which happened at the same time in Milanois retarded his progress Ludovic lay in wait to re-enter there were few French in the Towns the Nobility were offended at the Pride of Trivulcio their equal at his too great passion for the Party of the Guelphs and that upon some hubbub he had killed some with his own hand in the open Market place And the people were Scandalized at the Liberty the French took with their wives Ludovic well informed of all these particulars and having regained the affections of the Milanois returns with fifteen Hundred men at Arms who were all Burgundians and twelve Thousand Swisse whom he had raised with his Money not being able to obtain any Aid of Maximilian Upon his Arrival the People receive him with open Arms the City of Coma having chaced out the French Trivulcio perceiving so sudden a change leaves Milan in the night time and very humbly retires to Mortara with his Cavalry All places surrender themselves to Ludovic excepting the Castle of Milan and some of those which the Venetians held This Ebb notwithstanding did not run very low Lewis de la Trimoville whom the King sent with a very good Army meets him near Novarre which had newly Surrendred The Swisse which this unfortunate man had in his Service being gained by those that were in the French Army refused to give Battel and retired Year of our Lord 1500 into Novarre he was forced to follow them All that he gain'd of them was that they promised to Guard him to some place of safety But next day the eighth of April he was discover'd disguised like a private Soldier in the midst of them perhaps themselves made signs to know him by and sent to the King at Lyons He caused him to be removed from thence to Loches where he was shut up till his Death ten whole years with a severity so unusual and contrary to the mercy of that good Prince that it was thought to be a Visible punishment from Heaven The Cardinal Ascagne his Brother was also delivered into the hands of the French by the Venetians who happened to light upon him The Swiss upon their return home Siezed upon the City of Bellinzonne which shuts up the passage to the Mountains on that side so that holding this place they could fall into Milan when ever they pleased At first they would have parted with it for a very small matter of Money but after they had found of what importance it was no proffer could be so considerable as to make them let it go out of their hands Year of our Lord 1500 This revolt cost the City of Milan the Heads of ten or twelve of their Chiefs and a Sum of two hundred thousand Crowns Upon Holy Friday a day of Mercy the Cardinal d'Amboise received the Amende
Wife Sister of King Lewis who had likewise Married his named Mary and upon certain Contracts made by his Predecessors with the Kings Mathias and Ladislaus prevailed to be Crowned King by part of the Hungarians and John de Zapols Vaivod of Transilvania Earl of Scepus was elected by the other Cabal This being the weaker had recourse to the protection of the Turk which occasioned a long series of misfortunes and desolations in Hungary equally plagued and rent in pieces by the Barbarians and those that said they were their Kings Amidst the uncertainties of the Emperors Affairs concerning Milan he had proffer'd a Ten Months Truce to the Confederates whilst they were trotting backwards and forwards to Rome Venice and France about this same he received news that his Fleet was safely arrived in Italy and that Fourteen Thousand Lansquenets which George Baron of Fronsberg had raised at his expence this was the third time he had done him the like Service were entred into Milan By this means his Affairs being in a good posture he spake no more of an Accommodation Year of our Lord 1527 The Pope had broken the Treaty made with the Vice-Roy of Naples and the Confederates to make a diversion Assaulted that Kingdom by Sea and Land The Count de Vaudemont who had his pretensions to it as being descended from Rene Duke of Lorrain who had the Rights and Title of the House of Anjou commanded the Sea Forces and Rance de Cere the Land Army for the King The Popes irresolution and covetousness ruined all their Progress in that Country for it hindred the providing of those things that were necessary for their subsistence and on the other hand the King failed in furnishing almost every thing that he had promised Thus the Land Army wasted for want of provisions and all the Fleet gained upon the Coast was soon lost again Upon this the Pope had Information that Charles de Bourbon was marching towards Rome he was so terrified that he made a Truce of Eight Months with Lanoy Vice-Roy of Naples without knowing whether Bourbon who depended not upon Lanoy would accept of it He had made account that the Army of the League which was in Milan would hold him still in play or if he should march out that the others would follow him every where but that Prince not knowing how to satisfie the grievous out-cries and complaints of the People whom he had eaten to the very bones nor the Mutinies of the Soldiers who were every moment ready to fall upon him in this extremity and dispair of all things resolved to go forth and seek out a Subsistence for them He therefore passed the Po the Twenty Ninth of January leaving Antonio de Leve at Milan with Eight Thousand Men for the defence of the Dutchy There were some believed his design was to seize upon the Kingdom of Naples that to this end he held correspondence with the King that by private Agents he was reconciled to him and that from France they were to furnish him with a certain Sum every Month to maintain his Army but that the said Money not coming and their heat and insolence increasing daily he was constrain'd to promise them the plunder of Florence or Rome There is great probability it was a thing of meer necessity and that the Duke of Vrbin contributed more then a little towards it having an aking Tooth to be revenged of the Pope who still gave the Title of Dutchess of Vrbin to his Niece Catharine and the Florentines who detained from him Montfeltra and some other Lands which Pope Leo X. had taken from him and engaged to them Indeed it was said that Duke had promised Bourbon not to oppose his March if he went that way and Guichardin assures us that if the Pope would but have restored Montfeltra to him it would have obliged that Duke to serve him after another-guess manner then he did Now Bourbon having sojourned forty days in the Neighbourhood of Piacenza was encouraged say some by the Duke of Ferrara who turned two Months before to the Emperors Party to March directly to Florence or to Rome The Pope was so fickle and so easie to believe what he desired that although he knew he was entred into Romagnia nevertheless he dismissed his Forces and relied upon the assurances Lanoy perhaps deceived himself by Bourbon gave him that the said Prince would go no farther He soon found the contrary for Bourbon being entred into Tuscany and not daring to attack Florence by reason all the Confederates Forces were about it resolved to go and fall upon Rome Upon the noise of his March the Pope leaves all things intirely to the Conduct of Rance de Cere who not having time to raise good and able men pickt up Five or Six Thousand amongst the Estafiers or Lacqueys and Grooms belonging to the Cardinals such rescals as were much more likely to affright then defend a City Wherefore the Fifth of May Bourbon who had encamped himself in a Meadow near Rome sent to demand passage thorow the City and receiving no other answer but a denial the next morning he went head-long and made an Assault at Year of our Lord 1527 a breach which was in the Wall of the Burrough Saint Peter He was twice beaten off the third time a Musket shot laid him dead on the Earth but his Soldiers after two hours dispute forced the Burrough About Evening they pass'd the Bridge over the Tiber and entred into the City mad with revenge and the desire of plunder The Pope instead of retiring into some place of Safety as he might have done shuts himself up in his Castle Saint Angelo with Thirteen of his Cardinals Whatever can be imagined of Barbarity Impieties Sacriledge Cruel and Horrid acts excepting Fire were committed upon the sacking of this great City It lasted two whole Months during which time the Spaniards who say they are such good and sound Catholicks did much out-do the Germans who openly professed they were of Luthers Sect and sworn Enemies of the Papacy Although the King of England had been one of the warmest Promoters of the League against the Emperor nevertheless because it was not concluded in his Island as he desired it might he had not hitherto contributed any thing towards it but remained neuter Now Cardinal Woolsey having suffer'd himself to be enticed by King Francis under whose protection he hoped to shelter himself against the general hatred of the English in case his Master should happen to die propounded a Marriage between the King or his second Son and his Masters Daughter and contrived to conclude on which of the two she should be bestowed there should be an Inter-view betwixt Boulogne and Calais Upon this assurance a new Confederation was made between them towards the latter end of April Wherein it was agreed That the King of England should renounce all claim to the Crown of France upon the payment to him of Fifty Thousand Crowns
to do great things Notwithstanding Philippine gained Victory Moncado the Vice-Roy of Sicilia was there Slain with above twelve hundred of their Bravest Men. This great Success much heightning the hopes of Lautrec did much increase his Negligence many things were already wanting in his Army first water to drink the Enemies having Poisoned that little which was good In the second place Forage for their Horses from whence followed another inconvenience for having sent his Horse to all the Neighbouring Towns those belonging to the Enemies were then strongest and fetched divers little Convoyes into Naples and likewise cut off his Provisions Besides this they sent the Plague into his Army by some People who carried Cloaths thither which were Infected and to all these was added Manifest Defection of Andrea Doria and all those of his House Lautrec foreseeing that his discontent would burst out with some great execution dispatched William de Bellay Langeay to the King to let him know that his Affairs absolutely required he should give all satisfaction and content to a man that was so necessary Langeay passed through Genoa heard the complaints and demands of Doria and reported them to King He had been pacified would they have restored Savonna to the Genoese but the Mareschal de Montmorency who was in favour being interested there for the Imposts that were paid in the Port of Savonna belonged to him The Chancellour who flattered him when the business was brought before the Council rejected the Proposition as Extravagant treated Doria as a Proud and Insolent Person and brought it to a Resolution of Seizing upon him The order for it was given to Barbesieux of the Family de la Roche-Foucaud with the Title of Admiral in the Levant Seas and the Command of fifteen Galleys and some Vessels whereon they Embarqued five or six thousand men for the Siege of Naples But the business was not carried so secretly but he had some hint of it he retires from Savonna where he then was to Genoa Barbesieux went to confer with him told him what Commands he had Doria answer'd That he had taken good care he should not put them in Execution and promised to give up the Kings Galleys but he caused them to be Stolen away basely by Antany Doria and withdrawing to Portofin prefected his Treaty with the Emperour with conditions very advantagious Barbesieux was constrained by this change to remain some while in the River of Genoa and to leave near three thousand of his men to bridle that City He was again stopt almost three weeks by the Pope to besiege Civita-Vecehia and in the mean while Philippine having received orders from his Brother quitted the French and before he went away put some Provisions in to Naples which he could not have done if Barbesieux had been there Year of our Lord 1528 The Supplies he put on Shore were but eight or nine hundred men Commanded by Peter de Navarre Two thirds of Lautrec's Army were already destroy'd by Sickness which no more sparing the Chief Commanders than it did the private Souldiers had carried off the Count de Vaudemont Charles Bastard Brother to the King of Navarre and many other Persons of Note It had some days before Seized likewise upon Lautrec his Officers advised him to retire to Capoua and made it appear that Naples would fall of its self having no other places on the Land that could Support it But he had Vow'd either to take it or die in the Attempt His Stubbornness made the last a truth For his Distemper increasing put an end to his Life and his Enterprize the sixteenth day of the Month of August After his Death the Marquess de Salusses took the Command of those Languishing Forces and continued the Siege for some days not with any hopes of taking the City but to wait for Rance de Cere and the Prince of Malfe that he might be able to make his Retreat to Capoua That City being gained by the Enemy he retired into Aversa They pursued him without Intermission and having defeated a Party of his men upon their Retreat and got a great many Illustrious Prisoners amongst others Peter de Navarra they blocked both him and all his up in that place Being wounded with a Culverin Shot in the Knee he Capitulated promising on his part to do what lay in his Power to procure the Surrender of such Places as the French held in that Country by which means he obtained Life and Liberty for the Garrison to retire but not for himself For he remained a Prisoner of War and died soon after as did likewise fifteen or twenty Eminent Lords and above four hundred Officers or Gentlemen The Prince of Malfé who had taken part with France and Rance de Cere a Roman Barron kept Barletta and some other Maritime Places till the Treaty of Cambray A little before the Death of Lautrec the Duke of Brunswic had undertaken to bring twelve thousand Lansquenets and six hundred Horse to the relief of Naples And the King had given five hundred men of Arms as many Light-Horse and six thousand Foot to the Count de Saint Pol to oppose him in his Passage The Count being informed that Brunswick for want to Pay was returned back again staid in the Dutchy of Milan and having joyned the Confederates Army regained some Places but most of his Troops Disbanding for the same cause as Brunswic's he did not great Exploits In the mean time Andrea Doria knowing the French Garrison in Genoa being reduced to a samll number had Quartered themselves in the Castle by reason of the Plague almost Depopulated the whole City approached with his Galleys and Landing only about six hundred men made himself Master of the place The French Navy fearing to be shut up in the Harbour left it in all hastle and retired to Savonna The Castle held out some Months and was not Surrendred till the following year When Andrea Doria by his Treaty with the Emperour had obtained the sole Authority in Genoa he made use of it very generously to restore it to its Liberty And without attempting or designing to make himself Soveraign of his Native Countrey as the Medicis did in theirs Established a form of Government almost the very same at it is yet to this day He thought such an act of eminent Vertue above the Power and reach of time or Fortune to destory was a much safer way to gain Immortal Fame then with injustice to acquire a petty Soveraignty which every little accident might have overthrown and which he could not have maintained without continual trouble and hazard The Lutherans and the Sacramentaries gained upon the minds of those that were lovers of Novelties by their Writings and Emissaries who crept into the Universities and amongst the curious The Chancellour Duprat lately made Cardinal and Arch-Bishop of Sens assembled a Provincial Council of his seven Suffragans in the Augustin Convent at Paris where he made divers excellent Decrces to stop
them with his Alliance by Marrying them to his Wives two Sisters promising to each four hundred thousand Crowns in Dowry In effect Joyâ—use did Marry one and his Wedding was kept with such profusion that it cost the King near four Millions To repair these idle Expences they were forced to have recourse to new Edicts He made no fewer then nine or ten all at once there were even two and twenty in less then two Months time themselves finding the reasons for the same and confidently assigning their Merchants and their Tailors upon thosâ— Funds Wherefore the Parliament thinking it behooved them to prevent the throwing thus away the poor Subjects Money strenuously opposed the Verification of them and Christopher de Thou first President had once the courage to answer them That by the Laws of the Land which is the publick safety such things could not nor ought not to be done The States of the Vnited Provinces found themselves in great perplexities their chief Cities were all in combustion through the diversity of Religion their Armies without Commanders and their Soldiers without pay During this confusion the Year of our Lord 1581 Duke of Parma took the City of Breda which belonged to the Prince of Orange after month July and August which he promised himself to be able to block all the Avenues up against the French Which was â—easible enough for having Artois Hainault and the City of Dunkirk there was nothing left to do it but the gaining of Cambray and to that end he had besieged it The first exploit of the Duke of Anjou was therefore to endeavour the delivery of that place Upon the rumour of this Enterprize which his friends had spread abroad for his advantage great numbers of Volunteers fifteen or twenty Lords of note divers Captains with their Adventurers nay even established compleat Companies came to him he had four thousand French Horse and ten thousand Foot The Duke of Parma drew all his Forces together and stood six hours in Batalia to make him believe he was resolved to keep his ground yet when he perceived month August they marched directly to him he retired to Vatâ—nciennes Thus the Town was freed the Duke received in Cambray as chief Soveraign of the Castle and Protector of the Liberties of the Country giving his Oath to them upon the Altar of Noâ—tre-Dame and afterwards in the Town-Hall He then drove the Enemies out of Slâ—ce and Arleux and batter'd the Walls of Cateaâ—-Cambresis with so much fury that he forced it to surrender at discretion And this was all the effect of that blustering Expedition after these Exploits the heat of his Volunteers began to cool and his Army consisting of independent Parcels there soon grew as many quarrels as there were several Captains So that finding it too perilous to engage himself further or joyn with the States Army who month September were on their way to meet him and too dishonourable to return again so soon he was advised to make a second step into England to wait upon the Queen his Mistress between whom the Articles of Marriage were almost agreed upon The Courtship went so far that the Queen bestowed a Ring upon him as a pledge of her faith but the Caballers against this Alliance and her Women who knew the month October and November danger she must fall into if ever she had a Child made so much noise and fill'd her Ears with so great clamour that she demanded it of him again It hapned at the same time that some English Priests and Religious People bred in the Seminaries of Doâ—ay and Reims founded the one by the King of Spain and the other by the Guises contrived divers Conspiracies against that Queen in execution of the Popes Bull who Anno 1570. had Excommunicated and deprived her of her Year of our Lord 1581 Crown for which reason she was constrained by the out-cries of her Ministers to put some of them to death amongst others Father Edmond Campian a Jesuit The Duke of Anjou express'd a great deal of discontent that before his Eyes they should draw those Catholick Priests to Execution and the Queen her self was in great pain and trouble so that amidst all this hurry no mention was made of the Marriage and yet either of them being willing it might be believed abroad in the World spent almost two Months in Mirth and noble Entertainments which at a distance was guesâ—ed to be their Wedding Festivals When he left the Low Countries above the one half of his Army being dispersed the remainder marched into the County of Flanders by way of Calais and joyned with that of the States The Duke of Parma not being able to hinder this conjunction besieged Tournay The Princess of Espinoy in the absence of her Husband giving out Orders Captain like and fighting like a brave Soldier defended it for two Months space and had perhaps saved the place if the Citizens enchanted with the Spanish Catholicon had not obliged her to capitulate The Prince of Orange and the States pressing the Duke by several Messages to return he took leave of Queen Elizabeth who conducted him as far as Canterbury and would have the Earl oâ— Leicester and her Admiral Howard and an hundred Gentlemen accompany him to Flanders He took Shipping at Dover the Tenth of February and in two days he arrived at Flessingâ—e where the Prince of Orange and d'Espinoy waited for him the next day he went to Middelburgh and was transported by Boats to Antwerp on the River Scheld The States who were there assembled made him a most stately Entrance and first inaugurated him Duke of Brabant the Prince of Orange putting on the Ducal Hat and Mantle which was of Crimson Velvet lined with Ermins then declared him Marquiss of the holy Empire the Consul of Antwerp putting a Gold Key into hâ—s Hand which he immediately returned From that time he began to Govern but with little satisfaction as having heard amongst the Articles of his joyful entrance which were read to him at his Coronation That he was to Rule them not according to Year of our Lord 1582 his own will and pleasure but according to Justice and their Priviledges ☜ In the mean while having also to do with Enemies who thought all ways they could put in practise lawful he ran two great hazards The Eighteenth of March month March the Prince of Orange was wounded with a Pistol Shot in his own House as he rose from Table by Jaregâ—y a Servant belonging to a broken Banker who was said to Year of our Lord 1582 have poysoned Don Juan of Austria He recover'd of his Wounds but the revenge was like to have fallen upon the Duke of Anjou The Flemmings fancied he had a design of establishing his new Dominion by a general Massacre and grounded their suspicion upon this that those Frenchmen who Dined that day with the Prince of Orange presently kill'd the Assassine as if by taking away his life they would prevent
Cities belonging to the Low-Countries to be put any more into the hands of the French and aid the Catholick King to reduce Cambray and the Rebel Cities Reciprocally the Spaniard should furnish the French Princes with fifty thousand Pistols per Month and should advance them four hundred thousand from six Months to six Months for which the Cardinal de Bourbon should be accountable if he attained to the Crown Year of our Lord 1585. January Besides this Sum the Agent of Spain caused several others to be paid to the Duke of Guise which he scatter'd about with a free hand to gain those of whom he stood in most need There were few yea very few indeed in all France that were not to be bought could he have paid down but the price demanded but as all the Gold of India had not been sufficient to purchase and satisfie all that were Venal there hapned to be multitudes who enraged that they had been neglected or less valued then others whom they esteemed much beneath themselves turned the other way and became sworn Enemies to this Guisian Faction After the States of Holland had wasted a great deal of time in deliberating under whose Dominion they should seek a shelter that might be able to guard and secure them from the oppression of the Spaniard having lost the Cities of Bruges and Ghent and the Duke of Parmâ— holding Antwerp invested they sent some Deputies to the King to intreat he would accept them for his Subjects The Spanish Ambassador employ'd all his Efforts to hinder them from being admitted to Audience however he could not the King heard them received their Propositions in Writing and promised to return his Answer Then did the Spaniards press the Duke of Guise to declare himself and could have no more patience with him till he had thrown his Masque aside When therefore he had put the Cardinal de Bourbon the best Card in his Hand into month March a place of security the Nobility of Picardy having been to fetch him at Gaillon whence they carried him to Peronne he put forth a Declaration the Eighteenth of March not Signed by any one then observing little credit was given to it because it had no name he put forth a second bearing that of the Cardinal de Bourbon together with the Year of our Lord 1585 names of those Princes Prelats and Officers whom he said to be his Assistants Many faults were found with this also and having to deal with People of various minds they changed and alter'd it again and again so that there were hardly twenty Copies to be met with that were alike At the same time the Duke plaid his Game Verdun and then Toul were surprised by Guitaud but they failed at Mets where the Duke of Espernon had put things in good posture Himself secured Chaalons and Mezieres the Duke d'Aumale most of the Cities in Picardy Brissac that of Angiers Entragues secur'd himself of Orleans the Duke of Mayenne of Dijon and some others in Burgundy by himself and of a great many Cities and Castles in Daufine by the Nobility of the Country whom he had charmed with his magnificence and civility The City of Bourdeaux barricado'd her self to drive out Matignon but that wise and prudent Lord making use first of his Intreaties till he had drawn his Men together then of his Commands when he found himself the stronger caused the Barricado's to be pull'd down and so seized upon some of the most Mutinous whom notwithstanding he pardon'd Some few days after he craftily allured Vaillac Governor of the Castle Trompette to come thither and forced him to surrender the place Dariez second Consul of Marseille had promis'd in the absence of the first to make himself Master thereof the Duke of Nevers was to have had that Government and to faciliate the Enterprize had sent four of the Duke of Florences Galleys thither crowded with Foot-Soldiers who had cast Anchor without the Chain of that port expecting the Signal for execution Now Dariez by means of one certain Boniface month April had raised a great Tumult in the City and seized upon the Castle of Nostre-Dame de la Garde yet did not carry the business on or follow his first blow with vigour but kept up the Commotion for three days without compleating his design In the mean while a notable Man named Francis Bouguier who had great credit with the Marseillois having got all his Freinds together besets him in a Court of Guard and carries both him and Boniface away Prisoners to the Town-Hall so that the Grand Prior coming the next day with the Count de Carces they brought them forthwith upon their Trial. In one day they were Examined Condemned and Hanged by Torch-light The Duke of Nevers came to Avignon as was conjectur'd to encourage in the Enterprise yet some have thought his Voyage had another motive Being of a tender Conscience he desired say they before he engaged farther in the League to Year of our Lord 1585 know whether it were truly the work of God and that he might be certain would try whether the Pope would give it his approbation Father Matthew the Jesuit called the Courier of the League made two or three Journeys one soon after another to Rome to obtain a Bull for it in default of a Bull he demanded a Brief and in default of a Brief a Letter only that the Duke of Nevers might have a sight of it in the Vice-Legats hands This was the occasion as some believe of that Princes going to Avignon but Father Mat hew lost all his labour he could neither obtain Brief nor Bull. Nevertheless there is a Letter to be seen lately made publick making mention that the Pope did not think good they should attempt upon the Life of the King but only secure his Person to seize upon his Places under his Authority whence two things may be deduced if at least it were not an Imposture of that Couriers to engage the Duke the one that the Pope at the bottom did not discountenance the League although he durst not declare himself for fear of the consequence and because of the uncertainty of the success the other that the League had made some proposition against the Person of the King and that the Duke of Nevers was not ignorant of it However it were the Enterprise of Marseilles failing he made a Journey to Rome and from that time as some write or within a year afterwards utterly renounced the League and thus having offended his Brother in Law the Duke of Guise he necessarily became his Enemy month April The Kings Council did not proceed all upon the same foot Espernon and his Partisans would have them attaque the League without intermission and without any quarter on the contrary such as did dread the Duke of Guise or hated Espernon were of opinion to temporise The King at first followed Espernons advice but soon after falling into his natural softness and persuaded by his
Circumvalation which retarded the Siege near three weeks The Mareschal de Biron was slain in the approaches by a Cannon Shot which took off his Head He had been Chief Commander in seven Battles or great Combats in each of which he had received some Wound A Man very considerable in the Cabinet Council as well as the Campagne who would be ignorant of nothing had a hand in every thing and fenced with the Quil as dexterously as with the Sword As soon as the Battery had made a breach the Besieged Capitulated Provins Year of our Lord 1592 did the same upon the third day Meaux being much stronger the King did not month May. attaque it but to cut off those Provisions the Parisians drew from thence by the Marne he built a Fort in the Island of Gournay which lies upon that River within four Leagues of Paris and gave the Government thereof to Odet de la Noue whose incorruptible fidelity answer'd his favour with most exactly guarding the said Passage Upon the Frontiers of Bretagne the Princes of Conty and of Dombes being joyned received a very Signal loss they had besieged the City of Craon situate upon the River of Oudon the Duke of Mercoeur came to its relief assisted by Bois-Dausin month May. who brought the Nobility of Mayne and by the Marquiss de Belle-Isle Son of the Mareschal de Rais. Now the Princes for want of good Intelligence had let the Duke pass the River and get into a very advantageous place for Battle whilst they chose a very bad one for themselves then not able to resolve to fight they made their retreat in the open day and committed many other oversights which occasioned their defeat This hapned the Five and twentieth of May. They lost twelve hundred Men all their Cannon which was left by the way for want of Harness and afterwards the Cities of Chasteau-Gontier Mayenne and Laval The Mareschal de Rais after the death of Henry III. not seeing clearly into the depth of Affairs nor knowing which Party to side with was retired to Florence and had advised his Son to joyn with the strongest which made him take part with the Duke of Mercoeur to secure the great Estate he had in Bretagne though others imagined it was a fancy he had for the Dutchess that engaged him to it month June The Fourth of June Henry Prince of Dombes lost his Father Francis Duke of Montpensier Aged Fifty years he inherited his Name his vast Estate and the Government of Normandy which the King bestow'd on him as he did that of Bretagne on the Mareschal d'Aumont This last regained the City of Mayenne after a fifteen days Siege but lay two Months before Rechefort with the loss of a great many Men and not able to take it the inconveniencies of the Winter and the Duke of Mercoeur coming to the relief of the place Rochefort was a Castle upon a Rock of Slat on the bank of the River Loire five Leagues beneath Anger 's right against the Rock de Gausie a place remarkable in former days and ruined during the War with the English Two Brothers Surnamed de Hurtaud who held it for the King put it and themselves into the Party for the League that they might be justified for making Sardiny a rich Partisan their Prisoner and screwing a Ransom of Ten thousand Crowns from him though he were a Royâ—â—â—st It was about the same time that Rene de Rieux Sourdeac being invested in Brest by the Nobility and Commonalty of the Country after a four or five Months blocade beat them so in several Sallies partly by stratagems partly by courage as forced them to dislodge and even to buy a Truce which he sold them at the rate of Eight Year of our Lord 1592 thousand Crowns per Annum Within a Month after he gained a Victory at Sea month June over seven Ships of Normandy which were come from Fescamp to seize upon the Harbour of Cameret from whence they would have annoyed that of Brest These advantages did hugely contribute to the keeping that Country under obedience of the King All Guyenne was so excepting that Emanuel Desprez Marquiss of Villars Son of the Duke of Mayenne's Wife and Henry Lord of Montpâ—sat Brother of Emanuel held some small places in Perigord in Limosin and in Agenois Agen Villeneuve and Marmande These Brothers the foregoing year had been beaten near the Abby de Roquemadour in Quercy by Anne de Levis Ventadour and Ponts de Losieres Temines this Governor of Quercy the other of Limosin who slew them seven hundred of the four and twenty hundred they had got together and took their Cannon and month June July c. Bagage The Mareschal de Matignon commanded in this Province when there hapned a dangerous division by means of Paul d'Esparbez Lussan This Gentleman had purchased Blaye of Guy de Sainct Gelais Lansac a great Waster of his Estate The Mareschal said it was with his Money and that Lussan was but his Agent therein but when he would have come in Lussan flatly denied him entrance and offer'd to repay him his Money The Mareschal not able to bring him to Reason renders him suspected of holding Correspondence with the League and retrenched his pay Lussan did not much value that but begins to raise Contribution upon the River with four great Vessels which he made Men of War Whereupon the Mareschal having excited the Complaints of the whole Province against him obtained an Order from the King to drive him thence by force and laid Siege to Blaye Lussan withstood it three Months after which finding himself hard beset he calls in the Spaniards to his aid and with their help defended himself so well that he kept possession of the place They missed but little of getting some footing in the Province by Bayon upon an Enterprize they had contrived against that City by means of a Merchant of the Franche-Compte named Chastean-Martin who inhabited there and a Physician named Rossius It was very near succeeding when la Hilliere who was Governor of the place discover'd it luckily surprizing an ill instructed Footman who brought Letters from Fontarabia The Merchant and the Doctor were Hanged Amidst the confusion of three or four Parties in Provence that for the King began to be predominant especially when the Duke of Savoy was defeated at Vinon After that la Valete pursued him roundly to the very Gates of Aix and destroy'd all the Farms round about it Then to draw him out into the Field he laid Siege to Roquebrune month February a filthy place and no way considerable unless for streightning the City of Frejus which lies within a League Now as he was ordering the repair of some Year of our Lord 1592 Buttress of a Battery he was kill'd by a random Shot in his Forehead the Eleventh day of February a great loss both for his singular Virtues and the Affairs of the King That part of the Parliament who were retired to