annoyance vvhen vve had leisure to seek after Wealth vvithout perill there arose hot contentions betvvixt the Nobilitie and the Commons Sometimes the factious Tribunes carried it avvay sometimes the Consuls had the better and in the City and common Forum some little skirmishes the beginning of our Civil Wars were sometimes seen Afterwards C. Marius one of the meanest of the Commonally and L. Syllâ— the most cruel of all the Nobility by force of Arms overthrowing the Free-State reduced all to an absolute Government To them succeeded â—n Pompeâ—us a little closer in his projects but nothing better minded to the Common-wealth Et nunquam postea nisi de Principatu quaesitum and never after that was any other point debated than who should get the Soveraignty unto himself So Tacitus and he stateth it rightly For after Pompey had revived the controversie and had found Caesar a better disputant than himself Augustus Antony and Lepidus on the death of Caesar made good the Argument attracting all power unto themselves by the name of Triumviri till Augustus having out-witted Lepidus and vanquished M. Antony at the battell of Actium became sole Soveraign of the State by the name of Prince Et cuncta bellis civilibus fessa nomine Principis sub imperium accepit as that Author hath it But touching those great alterations in the State of Rome the contentions for the chief command and the Reduction of it to a Monarchy by Augustus Caesar I published a Discourse in the year 1631 but written many years before under the title of AUGUSTUS or an Essay of those Means and Counsels whereby the Common-wealth of Rome was altered and reduced to a Monarchy Which being but short so pertinent to the present business and so well entertained when it came abroad I hope it will not be improper or unprofitable to sub-joyn it here The Reader may either peruse it or praetermit it as his fancy guides him And here it followeth in these words THey which have heretofore written of Common-wealths have divided them into three Species The Government of the King secondly of the Nobles and thirdly of the People Either of these is again subdivided into good and evill The evill form being only the good corrupted the bad nothing else but the good refined So is the Government of a King divided into a Monarchy and a Tyranny Of the Nobles into an Aristocracy and an Oligarchy Of the People into a Republick and a Democraâ—y All these as well in generall as in the severall couplets have a secret Inclination to change the one into the other and to make a Pythagorical transmigration as it were into each other being I need not stand on many instances The Common-wealth of Rome into whose stories whosoever looketh will judge them rather to contain the acts of the whole World than a particular Nation will serve for all Romulus at the foundation of his City reserved unto himself the chief Soveraignty leaving it entire to his Successors Numa Ancus Tullus Tarquin the Elder and Servius governed themselves so moderately and the people so justly that they affected not Tyranny nor the Commons Liberty They appeared more desirous to fill the Coffers of their Subjects than their own Treasuries And when necessity compelled them to a Tax they rather seemed to sheer their sheep than fleece them But Tarquin the second commonly called Superbus a man of insupportable Vices having by violence enthronized himself in that Chair of State which had not his ambitious spirit been impatient of delay would have been his rightfull Inheritance made his Government answerable to his enterance cruel and bloody How many men eminent as well by their own vertue as their Parents Nobilitie did he cut off How many did he for no cause promote to make their fall the more remarkable What part of the Senate was free from slaughter What corner of the City from lamentations Yet this was not all The miserable Romans were visited with three Plagues at once Pride in the Father Crueltie in the Mother and Lust exorbitant in their sonne Sextus a true Copy of the old Originals Either of these had been more than enough to exercise the peoples patience But meeting all at one time it seemed that nothing could now be added to the wretchedness of the one and the wickedness of the other Brutus a name fatall to Tyrants did easily perswade the Commons to shake off this yoak For they as well desirous of Novelties as sensible of Oppressions had long since murmured at the present State and wanted nothing but a head to break out into actuall Rebellion So the People got the Freedom and the Kings lost the Soveraignty of the City 2 Brutus although he wanted no fair title to the Crown yet either perceiving how odious the name of King was grown or perhaps willing to be rather the first Consul than the last Prince instituted a new form of Government Wherein the sway of all was referred to the Fathers of the City out of whom two were annually chosen as chief of the rest And here in certainly he dealt very advisedly For had he sought to confirm himself in the Kingdom what could men judge but that not love to his Country was the cause that stirred him to take Arms but desire of Rule Again besides that secure Privacie is to be preferred before hazardous Royalty what hope had he to keep the seat long having by his own example taught the people both the Theory and Practice of Rebellion Under this new Aristocraty the Roman affairs succeeded so prosperously their dominions were inlarged so immensly that it may well be questioned whether the Roman fortune caused their greatness or their valour commanded their fortune For the Governours not seeking wealth but honour or not their own wealth but the publick did so demean themselves both in Peace and War that there was between all a vertuous emulation who should most benefit his Countrey An happiness which was too great to continue long The people had as yet no written Laws Custom bearing most sway and the rest of the Law locked up in the breast of the Judges To avoyd such inconveniencies as might hence ensue there were some men conceived to be as sound in judgement as honest in their actions deputed by a generall Commission to take an abstract of the Grecian Laws according to the tenor whereof the people were to frame their lives the Judges their sentences Here followed the Oligarchy or Decemvirate State of Rome but long it lasted not For these new Lords joyning forces together made themselves rich with the spoil of the people not caring by what unlawfull means they could purchase either profit or pleasure Appius Claudius one of the Decemviri was the break-neck of this Government He unmindfull of Lucretia and the Tarquius lusted after Virginia a woman though of low condition yet such a woman in whom beauty and vertue strove for the preheminence The issue was that she to save
they had reigned here under eight of their Kings for the space of 72 years they were at last subdued by Belisarius and Narses two of the bravest Souldiers that had ever served the Eastern Emperours and Italie united once more to the Empire in the time of Justinian But Narses having governed Italie about 17 years and being after such good service most despightfully used by Sophia never the wiser for her name the wife of the Emperor Justinus abandoned the Country to the Lombards For the Empress envying his glories not only did procure to have him recalled from his Government but sent him word That she would make the Eunuch for such he was come home and spin among her maids To which the discontented man returned this Answer That he would spin her such a Web as neither she nor any of her maids should ever be able to unweave and thereupon he opened the passages of the Country to Alboinus King of the Lombards then possessed of Pannonia who comming into Italie with their Wives and Children possessed themselves of all that Country which antiently was inhabited by the Cisalpine Galls calling it by their own names Longobardia now corruptly Lombardy Nor staid he there but made himself master of the Countries lying on the Adriatick as far as to the borders of Apulia and for the better Government of his new Dominions erected the four famous Dukedoms 1 of Friuli at the entrance of Italie for the admission of more aids if occasion were or the keeping out of new Invaders 2 of Turlu at th foot of the Alpes against the French 3 of Benevent in Abruzzo a Province of the Realm of Naples against the incursions of the Greeks then possessed of Apulia and the other Eastern parts of that Kingdom and 4 of Spoleto in the midst of Italie to suppress the Natives leaving the whole and hopes of more unto his Successors The Lombardian Kings of Italie 1 Alboâ—us 6. 2 Clephes 1 Interregnum annorum 11. 3 Antharis 7. 4 Agilulfus 25. 5 Adoaldus 10. 6 Arioaldus 11. 7 Richaris or Rotharis 8 Radoaldus 5. 9 Aribertns 9. 10 Gundibertus 1. 11 Grimoaldus 9. 12 Garibaldus mens 3. 13 Partarithus 18. 14 Cunibertus 12. 15 Luithertus 1. 16 Rainbertus 1. 17 Aribertus II. 12. 18 Asprandus mens 3. 19 Luit prandus 21. 20 Hildebrandus m. 6. 21 Rachisiâ—s 6. 22 Astulphus 6. 23 Desiderius the last King of the Lombards of whom more anon In the mean time we will look into the story of some of the former Kings in which we find some things deserving our confidetation And first beginning with Alboinus the first of this Catalogue before his comming into Italie he had waged war with Câ—nimundus a King of the Gepida whom he overthrew and made a drinking cup of his Skull Rosumund daughter of this King he took to Wife and being one day merry at Verona forced her to drink out of that detested Cup which she so stomacked that she promised one Helmichild if he would aid her in killing the King to give him both her self and the Kingdom of Lombardy This when he had consented to and performed accordingly they were both so extremely hated for it that they were fain to fly to Ravenna and put themselves into the protection of Longinas the Exarch Who partly out of a desire to enjoy the Lady partly to be possessed of that mass of Treasure which she was sayd to bring with her but principally hoping by her power and party there to raise a beneficiall War against the Lombards perswaded her to dispatch Helmichilde out of the way and take him for her husband to which she willingly agreed Helmichilde comming out of a Bath called for Beer and she gives him a strong poyson half of which when he had drunk and found by the strange operation of it how the matter went he compelled her to drink the rest so both died together 2 Clephes the 2 d King extended the Kingdom of the Lombards to the Gates of Rome but was so tyrannical withall that after his death they resolved to admit of no more Kings distributing the Government among 30 Dukes Which division though it held not above 12 years was the chief cause that the Lombards failed of being the absolute Lords of all Italy For the people having once cast off the yoak of obedience and tasted somewhat of the sweetness of licentious Freedom were never after so reduced to their former duty as to be aiding to their Kings in such Atchievements as tended more unto the greatness of the King than the gain of the subject 3 Cunibert the 14 King was a great lover of the Clergy and by them as lovingly requited For being to encounter with Alachis the Duke of Trent who rebelled against him one of the Clergy knowing that the Kings life was chiefly aimed at by the Rebels put on the Royal Robe and thrust himself into the head of the Enemy where he lost his own life but saved the Kings 4 Aripert the 17. King gave the Celtian lpes containing Piemont and some part of the Dutchy of Millain to the Church of Rome which is observed to be the first Temporall Estate that ever was conferred upon the Popes and the foundation of that greatnes which they after came to 5 The 19 King was Luitprandus who added to the Church the Cities of Ancona Narnia and Humana belonging to the Exarchate having first wonne Ravenna and the whole Exarchie thereof An. 741. the last Exarch being called Eutychus But the Lombards long enjoyed not his Conquests For Pepin King of France being by Pope Stephen the third sollicited to come into Italy overthrew Astulphus and gave Ravenna to the Church The last King was Desiderius who falling at odds with Adrian the first and besieging him in Rome was by Charles the great successor to Pepin besieged in Pavie and himself with all his children taken prisoners An. 774. and so ended the Kingdom of the Lombards having endured in Italie 206 years Lombardy was then made a Province of the French and after of the German Empire many of whose Emperours used to be crowned Kings of Lombardy by the Bishops of Millaine with an iron Crown which was kept at Modoecum now called Monza a small Village This Charles confirmed his Fathers former donations to the Church and added of his own accord Marca Anconitana and the Dukedom of Spoleto For these and other kindnesses Charles was by Pope Leo the fourth on Christmas day crowned Emperour of the West An. 801 whose Successors shall be reckoned when we come to the story of Germany At this division of the Empire Irene was Empress of the East to whom and her Successors was no more allotted than the Provinces of Apulia and Calabria and the East parts of the Realm of Naples being then in possession of the Greeks To the Popes were confirmed
think that it was denominated from Venetia which in the old Latin signifieth the seething or frothing of the sea VENETIA A maris exaestuatio est quae ad Littus veniat saith the old Glossarie upon Isidore out of Marcus Varro But the truth is that it was so called from the Veneti the old Inhabitants of the neighbouring Province of Friuli who to avoyd the fury of the barbarous Hunnes then threatning Italie abandoned the main land and built this City in the bogs and marishes of the sea adjoyning And that it might afford them the greater afetie they not onely built in the most inward part of the Adriatick sea commonly called the Gulf of Venice but in the midst of many Lakes of salt-water extending thirty miles in compass and having on the East the said Adriatick sea for the length of 550 miles betwixt which and the sayd Lakes there is a bank or causey which they call Il Lido made as it were by nature to defend the Ilands which lie in this Lake from the violent fury of the sea A Causey of 35 miles in length bending like a Bow and opening in seven places only which serve as well to keep the lakes always full of water as for the passage of Ships and Barks of smaller burden the bigger being compelled to lie at Anchor on the South side of the City near to a place called Malamocco and the Castles of Lio which are very well fortified and there must remain till they are brought in by skilfull Pilots who know the passages which by reason of the shifting of the sands change very often On the West and North sides it is compassed with very deep Marishes about five miles distant from the land and on the South with many Ilands in which are severall Churches and Monasteries like so many Forts which lie between it and those parts of Italie which are not under the obedience of the Commonwealth So that it is impossible to be taken but by an Army which can stretch 150 miles in compass It is built as before is sayd on 72 Ilands the principall of which are 1 Heraclea the first seat of the Duke of Venice from thence removed to Malamocco and the last to Rialto more famous at this time for being a Bishops See than the number of Citizens 2 Grado to which the Patriarchall See of Aquileia was removed by Pelagius the second about the year 580 making it thereby the Metropolitan of Friuli or the Country of Venice but from thence it hath been since removed to another of these Ilands called Castello Olindo 3 Rialto which is of most esteem and reputation so called quasi Rivo alto because the Marishes are there deeper than in other places or quasi Ripa alta because it lay higher above the waters than the other Ilands For which reasons that Iland getting reputation above the rest most of the Gentlemen setled their dwellings in the same and drew thither in the end the Dukes Palace also insomuch that in some antient writings the whole City hath been called Rialto many of the old Records being dated in such and such a year of the Rialto But as they did increase in numbers so were they fain to spread themselves from one Isle to another till in the end they built on all the Ilands which lay near together and might conveniently be joyned by Boats or Bridges By this Rialto runs the passage called the Grand Canale being in length about 1300 paces and some fortie in bredth adorned on both sides with stately and magnificent Palaces and covered with an incredible number of Boats called Gondolos very neatly built and veiled over with cloth so that the Passengers may go unseen and unknown without the molestation of sun wind or rain For publique buildings it hath in it 70 Parish Churches to each of which belongeth a Market-place and a Well 31 Cloysters of Monks 28 of Nuns besides Chappels and Almes-houses The principall Church of this City is that of S. Mark the Patron of their Commonwealth whose body they report to have been brought hither from Alexandria in Egypt and intombed herein Affirmed by some to be the richest and goodliest Church in all the World The building of Mosaick work of which work they boast themselves to have been the Authors A kind of work by the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Latin Writers Musiva Musica and Musaica wrought out of stones or metaâ—s of divers colours unto the shape of Flowers Knots Birds Beastâ— and other fancies of the Workman yet done with such exactness of skill and judgement that it seemeth to be all one stone the work rather of Nature than Art A Church of admirable work both within and without compacted of most rare peeces of Marble Porphyrie and a rich stone which the Lapidaries called Ophitis because it is speckled like a snake adorned on the outside with 148 Pillars of Marble and eight of Porphyrie near the door besides 600 Marble pillars of a lesser size which carry up an open Gallery round about the Church from whence the Magistrates and others of the principall Citizens behold such Shews as are presented in the Market place adjoyning to it The Church in length not above 200 foot of Venice measure nor above 50 in bredth the roof thereof being of an Orbicular form lieth open at the very top where the light comes in there being no windows in all the Church as commonly the Churches in Italie are exceeding dark either to strike in the spectators a religious reverence or to make their Candles shew the better And for the inside of the Church the riches of it are so great the Images so glorious the furniture of the Altars so above comparison that all the treasures of the State may seem to be amassed in the decking of it And yet as goodly and as glorious as the Fabrick is it is still unfinished and as some think is kept unfinished on purpose partly to draw on other Benefactors to advance the work the benefit of whose liberality may be employed unto the use of the publick Treasury and partly lest the Revenues which are given already should be resumed by the Heirs of the deceased if the work were ended So infinitely doth the furniture of the Church exceed the sumptuousness and beauty of the Church it self Of other of the publick buildings the Counsell-house the Ducall Palace Monasteries Churches and the like though stately and magnificent structures I forbear to speak Nor shall I here say any thing of their private houses so large and beautified that here are said to be no fewer than 200 most of them on the Grand Canale able to entertain and lodge the best King in Christendom All I shall adde and so leave this City will be a word or two of their Arsâ—nall and publick Magazine In the first of which they have in readiness 200 Gallies with rooms for Cables Masts Sails Victuals and Ammunition of all sortt able
opposite to Boulogne on the other side of the water 3 Beullenberg more within the Land an Out-work to Boulogne 4 Boulogne by Plinie called Portus Gessoriacus part of the Countrie of the Morini spoken of by Caesar divided into the Base or Low Town lying on the shore side well built and much frequented by Passengers going to or coming out of England and the High Town standing on the rise of an Hill well garrisoned for defence of the Port beneath it and honoured with a Bishops See translated hither from â—curney when that City was taken by the English The Town and Countrie purchased of Bernard de la Tour the true Proprietarie of it by King Lewis the 13. who as the new Lord did homage for it to the Virgin Maâ—y in the chief Church thereof called Nostre Dame bare headed and upon his knees without Girdle or Spurrs and offered to her Image a massie Heart of gold of 2000. Ounces capitulating that from thenceforth he and his successours should hold that Earldom of her only in perpetual Homage and at the change of every Vassall present her with a golden Heart of the same weight After this it was taken by King Henry the 8th An. 1544. but yielded not long after by King Edward the 6th I aâ—d before I leave this Town that at such time as it was an absolute Estate it gave one King unto Hierusalem and another of England the King of Hierusalem being that famous Godfrey surnamed of Bâ—uillon Earl of this Boulogâ—e as Sonne of Eustace Earl hereof and Duke of Lorrein and Bouillon as the Sonne of the said Eustace and the Ladie Ida the true Inheretrix of those Duchies The second King which had the Title and Estate of Earl of Boulogne was Stephen King of England who held it in right of Maud his Wife the Daughter and Heir of Eustace Earl of Boulogne the Brother of that famous Godsrey But his issue failing not long after and the Estate being fallen amongst his Heires general it came at last to the De la Tours of Auvergne the Ancesters of the now Dukes of Bâ—uillon and so unto the Crown as before is said The Arms of which Family are a Tower embattled Sables but the colour of the Feild I find not 3. PONTHEIU so called from the Bridges built for conveniencie of passage over the moorish â—lats thereof belonged formerly to the English To whom it came by the Mariage of Eleanor Daughter of Ferdinand of Castile by Joane the Daughter and Heir of Simon the last Earl hereof to King Edward the first Towns of most note in it 1 Abbeville seated on the Some well fortifyed and as strongly garrisoned as a Frontier Town upon Artois on one side unassaultable by reason of a deep moorish Fen which comes up close to it beautified with a fair Abbey whence it had the name Abbatis Villa in the Latine and the See of a Bishop 2 Monstreuille a well fortified Town in the way betwixt Abbeville and Amiens and a strong out-work unto Paris 3 Crecie where King Edward the 3d defeated the great Armie of Philip de Valois in the first onsets for that Kingdom And 4. â—report a small Haven on the East of St. Valeries Some place the Earldom of St. Paul in this Countrie of Pontheiu others more rightly in Artoys where we mean to meet with it The Arms hereof were Or 3 Bends Azure 4 And as for SAâ—NTERRE which is the fourth part of the Lower â—â—eardie the chief Tows of it are 1 Peronne upon the River Some where Lewis the 11th the greatest Master of State-craft for the times he lived in put himself most improvidently into the hands of Charles of Burgundie who as improvidenly dismissed him 2. Roy and 3. Montdidier 〈…〉 in Latine both of them strong Towns upon the Frontire but otherwise of little same in former Stories In Higher Picardie and the Vidamate of AMIENS the places of most note are 1 Corbis a Garrison on the Frontire towards the Netherlands 2 Piquigni on the River Some more famous for the enterview of Edward the 4th of England and Lewis the 13th than for giving the name of Picardie to all the Province which Mercator only of all Writers doth ascribe unto it And 3dly Amiens it self seated upon the Some above Piquigni the River being there divided into many Streams for the use and service of the Town well built with very strong walls and deep ditches the loss whereof when taken by Archduke Albert much hazarded the affairs and reputation of King Henry the 4th and therefore when he had regained it he added to the former Works an impregnable Citâ—dell But the chief glorie of this Citie is in the Cathedrall the fairest and most lovely structure in the West of Europe so beautified within and adorned without that all the excellencies of Cost and Architecture seem to be met together in the composition The Fronts of our Cathedrals of Wells and Peterburgh the rich Glass in the Quire at Canterbury the costly Imagerie and arched Buttresses in the Chappell at Westminster before the late defacements of those Cathedralls might serve as helps to set forth the full beauties of it II. But not to dwell on this place too long pass we on next to VEROMANDOIS the ancient habitation of the Veromandâ—â— the fairest and largest part of both Picardies and not a whit inferior to the best of France in the number of neat and populous Cities The principall whereof are 1 Soissons called antiently Augusta Suessionum the chief Citie of the Suessones or Suessiones and the last Hold which the Romans had in all Gaul lost by Siagrius governor for the Western Emperor to Clovis the fifth King of the French In the division of his Kingdom made the Seat Royall of Clotair the sonne of this Clovis and of Aripert and Chilperick the sonnes of Clotair from hence entituled Kings of Scissons their Kingdom containing the whole Province of Belgica Secunda or the Provinces of Artois Picardie and Champagne as we call them now But Soissons having long since lost the honour of a Regall Seat hath of late times been made the honourarie Title of the Counts of Soissons a branch of the Royall stock of Bourbon and a Bishops See situate on the River of Aisne 2 Laon a Bishops See also the Bishop whereof is one of the Twelve Peers of France and Earl of Laon the Town in Latine Laodunum 3 Noyon in Latine Noviodunum an Episcopall See also 4 Chapelle a strong piece one of the best outworks of Paris against the Netherlands 5 D'Ourlans and 6 La Fere places of great strength also but more neer the Frontires And 7 S. Quintin antiently the chief Citie of the Veromandui then called Augusta Veromanduorum called afterwards S. Quintin from that Saint here worshipped as the Patron and Deus tutelaris of it A place of great importance for the Realm of France and so esteemed in the opinion of the Earl of Charolois after Duke of Burgundie
France and Lorrein and France it self distracted into many Soveraign Estates and Principalities 26. 841. 4 Charles II. surnamed Calvus or the Bald youngest Sonne of Lewis King of France and Emperour vanquished by Charles the Grosse in the War of Italie 38. 879. 5 Lewis II. surnamed Balbus or the Stammering Sonne of Charles the Bald King of France and Emperour 881. 6 Lewis III. with Caroloman his Brother the base Sonnes of Lewis the Stammering Usurpers of the Throne in the infancy of Charles the Simple 886. 7 Charles III. surnamed Crassus or the Grosse King of Germany and Emperour called into France and elected King during the Minority of Charles the Simple 5. 891. 8 Odo or Eudes Sonne of Robert Earl of Anjou of the race of Witikindus the last King of the Saxons elected by an opposite Faction outed Charles the Gâ—osse 9. 900. 9 Charles IV. surnamed Simplex or the Simple the Posthumus Sonne of Lewis the Stammerer restored unto the Throne of his Fathers which after many troubles raised against him by Robert the 2d Earl of Anjou whom he slew in battel he was forced to resigne 27. 927. 10 Rodolph of Burgundie Sonne of Richard Duke of Burgundie the Brother of Eudes succeeded on the resignation of Charles the Simple 2. 929. 11 Lewis IV. surnamed Transmarine in regard that during his Fathers Troubles he had lived in England restored unto the Regal Throne on the death of Rodolph opposed therein by Hugh Earl of Paris and Anjou the Nephew of King Eudes by his Brother Robert before mentioned 958. 12 Lotharius Sonne of Lewis the 4th disturbed in his possession by Hugh Capet the eldest Sonne of the said Hugh on the pretensions of that house by which at last he got the Kingdom 987. 13 Lewis V. Sonne of Lotharius the last King of the House of Charles the Great After whose death being King onely for a yeer the Crown was seized on by Hugh Capet Charles Duke of Lorreine Brother of Lotharius and Uncle unto Lewis the fift being pretermitted And now we are come to the present race of the Kings of France founded in Hugh Capet so called from the greatness of his head Sonne of Hugh the great Earl of Paris and Anjou and Grandchild of Robert the second Earl of Anjou Which Robert was the Brother of Eâ—des and Cousin German of Rodolph Kings of France Who partly by his own wits but chiefly by the weakness of the mungrel Issue of Charles the Great having got the Diadem transmitted it unto his Posterity the Crown descending in a direct line from Father to Sonne till the death of Lewis the 10th surnamed Hutin But here we are to understand that the Realm of France was at that time shut up within narrower bounds than it is at the present the large and rich Countries of Champagne Normandie Bretagne Anjou Poictou Languedoc and the great Dukedom of Aquitain besides those Provinces which constituted and made up the Kingdom of Burgundie being aliened and dismembred from it How they became reduced to the Crown again will be discerned in the ensuing History and Succession of The third Race of the Kings of France of the Capetine or Saxon Line 988. 1 Hugh Capet of whom sufficiently before 9. 997. 2. Robert the Sonne of Hugh Capet Duke of Burgundie also 34. 1031. 3 Henry the eldest Sonne of Robert his younger Brother Robert being setled in the Dukedom of Burgundie 39. 1061. 4 Philip the Sonne of Henry who added Berry to the Crown 49. 1110. 5 Lewis VI. Sonne of Philip surnamed the Grosse 28. 1138. 6 Lewis VII Sonne of Lewis the sixt an Adventurer in the War of the Holy Land as also did his Sonne and successour 1181. 7 Philip II. surnamed Augustus by whom Normandy Aquitain Anjou with their severall Appendixes were taken from King Iohn of England 43. 1224. 8 Lewis VIII Sonne of Philip Augustus 3. 1227. 9 Lewis IX surnamed the Saint renowned for his Wars in Egypt and the Holy-Land He restored Guienne to the English and added the Earldoms of Tholouse and Mascon to the Crown of France 44. 1271. 10 Philip III. Sonne of Lewis 15. 1286. 11 Philip IV. surnamed the Fair King also of Navarre in the right of the Lady Ioan his Wife 28. 1314. 12 Lewis X. surnamed Hutin King of Navarre in right of his Mother whom he succeded in that Kingdom Anno 1305. After whose death the Kingdom of France was to have descended on Ioan his Daughter 2. 1315. 13 Philip V. called the Long Brother of Lewis Hutin partly by threats promises and other practices caused a Law to pass to which he gave the name of the Sal que Law for disabling Women from the succession to the Crown and thereby quite excluded his Brothers Daughter served in the same kind himself by his Brother Charles who following his example excluded on the same pretence his Neeces Joan and Margares the Daughters of Philip. 5. 1320. 14 Charles IV. but in true accompt the fifth of that name most commonly called Charles the Fair Brother of Philip and Lewis the two last Kings After whose death began the Wars of the English for the Crown of France challenged by King Edward the 3d. as Sonne and Heir of Isabel the Daughter of King Philip the Fair and Sister to the 3 last Kings 7. 1328. 15 Philip VI. surnamed de Valois Son of Charles Earl of Valois the second Sonne of King Philip the third and Vncle to the three last Kings succeeded under colour of the Salique Law of which Charles it is said that he was Sonne to a King Brother to a King Vncle to a King and Father to a King yet himself was no King In this Kings dayes was fought the famous Battle of Crecie Anno 1343. in which the French Army consisted of about 70000 Souldiers the English of 11800 only yet the victory fell unto the English by whose valour fell that day Iohn King of Bohemia 11 Princes 80 Barons 120 Knights and 30000 of the common Souldiers He added unto his Estates the County Palatine of Champagne the Country of Daulphine and the Citie and Earldom of Montpelier 22. 1350 16 Iohn the Sonne of Philip de Valois in whose reign was fought the battel of Poictiers wherein Edward the black prince so called for his black acts upon the French with an handfull of wearied Souldiers but 8000 in all overcame the French army consisting of 40000 men of which they slew besides the Nobles 10000 of the common Souldiers and took prisoners King John himself and Philip his Sonne 70 Earls 50 Barons and 12000 Gentlemen 14. 1364. 17 Charles V. the Sonne of Iohn recovered all those peeces except only Calice which the English had before gotten from his Father and Grandfather He is called commonly Charles the Wise but Lewis the 11th would by no means allow him that attribute affirming that it was but a foolish part to give his younger Brother Philip the Dukedom of Burgundy and withall the Heir of Flanders to wife
the next Bishop there Principall Cities of this Kingdom besides London spoken of already were 1 Westminster situate in those times a mile from London now adjoyning to it The See of the Archbishop of London in the time of the Britains afterwards by the Saxons called Thorn-eye or the Thorny Iland till the new Minster built by Sebert as before is said and the western situation of it in regard of S. Pauls built at the same time by Ethelbert the King of Kent gained it this new name A Citie honoured with the seat of the Kings of East-Sex and since those times with that of the Kings of England the names of the old Palace of the one and the new Palace of the other still remaining there beautified upon that occasion with more stately and magnificent houses belonging to the King Bishops and Nobility than all the other in the Kingdom having of late a new Town added to it in the Convent Garden a place belonging formerly to the Monks of Westminster for uniformity of building and handsome streets inferiour to no Citie of France or Italy 2 Colchester the chief Town of Est-sex situate neer the Sea on the River Coln a Colonie of the Londoners in former times thence called Colonia Londinensium and Colonia only then a Bishops See from which or from the River with the Addition of Ceaster after the manner of the Saxons came the name of Colchester A fair and well built Town and of good resort fortified with an old Roman wall and having in it to the number of 14 Churches 3 Ithancester in Dengey Hundred where S. Ceaddae the second Bishop of London baptized the relapsed East-Saxons 4 Hartford the chief Town of the Countie so called by Beda named Herudford and of great note in his time for a Synod there held in the dawning of the day of Christianity among the Saxons in which S. Augustine the Monk the first Apostle of that People had a conference or consultation with the British Bishops more memorable in the following times for giving the title of an Earl to the illustrious Family surnamed De Clare the addition of an Honour and a goodly Patrimonie to Ioâ—u of Gaunt D. of Lancaster and at this time the title of Earl and Marquess to the noble Family of the Seymours The Kings of the East-Saxons A. Ch. 527. 1 Erchenwin the first King 587. 2 Sledda 596. 3 S. Sebert the first Christian King 4 Sâ—ward and Sigebert 623. 5 Sigebert II. or the Litle 6 Sigebert III. 661. 7 Swiâ—helme 664. 8 Sighere 664. 9 S. Sebba 694. 10 Sigbeard 11 Seofride 701 12 Offa. 709. 13 Selred 774. 14 Suthred the last King of the East-Saxons subdued by Egbert the great and potent King of West-Sex Anno 828. and his Kingdom made a Member of that rising Monarchy V. The Kingdom of the EAST-ANGLES so called from the Angli or English which possessed these parts and the Eastern situation of it begun by Vffa a great Commander of the Saxons Anno 575. contained the Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge-shire and the Isle of Fly The Christian Faith first planted here in the Reign of Redwall the third King by the Ministerie of Felix a Burgundian the first Bishop of the East-Angles the See whereof was afterwards removed to Norwich Places of most importance in it were 1 Dunwich on the Sea-shore the first Bishops See of the East-Angles for the Countie of Suffolk then a Town capable of that Dignity now ruinous decayed and for the greatest part worn into the Sea 2 Ipswich in the same Countie of Suffolk and the chief of the Countrie a rich populous and well traded Emporie consisting of no fewer than 5 Parish Churches 3 Norwich the head Citie of Norfolke situate on the River Yare which runs thence to Yaremouth lying out in length a mile and an half half as much in breadth and in that Circuit comprehending about 30 Parishes well walled about with many a Turret and 12 Gates for entrance but hath within it much wast ground the Citie suffering great loss both in wealth and buildings by Kets Rebellion in the time of K. Edward the sixth recovered of the first blow by the Dutch Manufactures of the last still languishing yet still it glorieth in the beauties of a fair Cathedrall the three Palaces of the Bishops the Dukes of Norfolke and the Earls of Surrey and the ruins of an antient Castle of the Saxons building 4 North Elmham the Bishops See of the East-Angles for those parts which we now call Norfolk both this and that of Dunwich ruinated in the Danish Wars but this reviving at the end of 100 yeers and here continuing both Sees united unto one till removed to 5 Thetford another Town of this Countie situate on the confluence of the Thet and the lesser Ouse a larger Town than either of the other two from whence at last removed to Norwich 6 Cambridge the chief Town of that Countie by Antonine called Camboritum whence the modern name unless we rather fetch it from a Bridge over the River Cam or Grant for some call it Grantbridge as perhaps we may A Town well built by reason of the Vniversity said to be founded by Sigebert King of the East-Angles of whom it is affirmed by Beda that he Founded a School for the education of Children in the wayes of good Learning but he speaketh neither of Vniversitie nor nameth Cambridge for the place 7 Ely situate in the Isle so named occasioned by the divided streams of Nor and Ouse with the over-flotes of other Rivers turning a great part of this tract into Fens and Marishes the Inhabitants vvhereof were called Girvii A place of no great beauty or reputation as situate in a foggy and unhealthfull ayr but only for a Fair Monastery built by S. Ethelreda Wife of Egfride King of the Northumbers by her made a Nunnery aftervvards rebuilt and replenished with Monks by Ethelwold B. of Winchester Anno 970. or thereabouts finally made a Bishops See in the time of King Henry the first Anno 1109. The Kings of the East-Angles A. Ch. 575. 1 Vffa the first King 582. 2 Titullus 593. 3 Redwall the first Christian King 624. 4 Erpenwald 636. 5 S. Sigebert 638. 6 Egric 642. 7 Anna. 654. 8 Ethelbert 656. 9 Edelwald 664. 10 Alauffe 683. 11 Elswolph 714. 12 Beorn 714. 13 S. Ethelred 749. 14 Ethelbert II. treacherously murdered by Offa the great King of the Mercians to whose Court he came an invited Guest Anno 793. after whose death this Kingdom became subject to the 〈◊〉 and then to Egbert the West-Saxon governed by Tributarie Kings of their own Nation of whom we have no constat till the time of 870. 15 S. Edmund descended from Anna the 7th King hereof Martyred by the Danes for his stout and constant perseverance in the Faith of CHRIST from whence the fair Town of S. Edmunds burie in the County of Suffolk took denomination After whose death the Kingdom was possessed by the Danes
well seated on the banks of the River Istrad which from thence runnes into the Cluyd the fairest River of all those parts A Town well traded and frequented especially since it was made by King Henry the 8th the head-Town of a Countie before which time of great resort as being the head-Town of the Baronie of Denbigh conceived to be one of the goodliest territories in England having more Gentlemen holding of it than any other 5 Mathravall not far from Montgomery heretofore a fair and capacious Town honoured with the Palace and made the chief Seat of the Princes of Powys-land thence called Kings of Matraâ—asâ— now a poor village 6 Cacrmar then Maridunum antiently whence the modern name the Britans adding Caer unto it not called so from Caer-Merlin or the Citie of Meâ—lin inchanted by the Lady of the Lake in a deep Cave hereabouts as old Fablers and Romances tels ns A fair large Town beautified with a Collegiate Church to which there was a purpose in the time of King Edward the â—th of removing the Episcopall See from S. Davids Not far off on the top of an Hill stands Dinâ—vour Castle the chief Seat of the Princes of South-Wales thence called Kings of Dinevour who had their Chancery and Exchequer in the Town of Caermarthen 7 Haverford Wâ—st situate in the Chersonese or Demy-Iland of Pembrâ—ke-shire by the Welch called Ross by the English Little England beyond Wales by reason of the English tongue there spoken a Town the best traded and frequented of all South Wales 8 Milford in the same County of Pembroke famous for giving name to the most safe and capacious Haven in all the Iland consisting of sundry ' Creeks Bavs and Roads for Ships which makes it capable of entertaining the greatest Navie the landing place of Henry the 7th when he came for England 9 Monmâ—â—th situate at the mouth or influx of the River Munow where it falleth into the Wie whence it had the name A Town belonging antiently to the House of Lancaster the birth place of King Henry the â—ift called Henry of Monmouth That one particular enough to renown the place and therefore we shall add no more 10 Ludlow a Town of great resort by reason of the Court and Councell of the Marches kept here for the most part ever since the incorporating of Wales with England for the ease of the Welch and bordering Subjects in their sutes at Law Situate on the confluence of the â—emd and Corve and beautified with a very strong Castle the Palace heretofore of some of the Princes of Wales of the blood Royal of England at such times as they resided in this Countrey of which more anon and of late times the ordinary Seat of the Lord President of Wales now reckoned as all Shrop-shire on that side the Severn as a part of England Of Anglesey and the Towns thereof we shall speak hereafter now taking notice only of Aberfâ—aw the Royall Seat sometimes of the Princes of North-wales called thence Kings of Aberfâ—aw The Storie of the Britans till the time of Cadwallader their last King we have had before After whose retirement unto Rome the whole name and Nation became divided into three bodies that is to say the Cornish-Britans the Britans of Cumberland and the Britans of Walâ—s The Cornish-Britans governed by their own Dukes till the time of Egbert the first Monarch of England by whom subdued Anno 809 and made a Province of that kingdom The Britans of Cumberland had their own Kings also some of whose names occur in Storie till the yeer 946. when conquered by Edmund K. of England the Son of Athelstaâ— But the main body of them getting into the mountainous parts beyond the Severn did there preserve the name and reputation of their Countrey although their Princes were no longer called Kings of Britain but of the Wallish-men or Welch and much adoe they had to make good that Title all the plain Countrey beyond Severn being taken from them by Offa King of the Mercâ—â—anâ— and themselves made Tributaries for the rest by Egbert before mentioned by Athelstan afterwards Which last imposed a tribute on them of 20 pounds of Gold 300 pounds of Silver and 200 head of Cattel yeerly exchanged in following times for a tribute of Wolves But howsoever they continued for a time the Title of Kings whose names are thus set down by Glover in his Catalogue of Honour published by Milles. The Kings of Wales A. Ch. 690. 1 Idwallo Sonne of Cadwallader 720. 2 Rodorick 25. 755. 3 Conan 63. 818. 4 Mervin 25. 843. 5 Rodorick II. surnamed the Great who divided his Kingdom small enough before amongst his Sonnes giving Guinedâ—h or North-Wales to Amarawdh his eldest Sonne to Cadel his second Sonne Deheubarth or Souh-Wales and Powis-land to his youngest Sonne Mervin conditioned that the two younger Sonnes and their Successors should hold their Estates in Fee of the Kings of North-Wales and acknowledge the Soveraignty thereof as Leigemen and Homâ—gers According unto which appointment it was ordained in the Constitutions of Howell Dha the Legislator of Wales that as the Kings to Abersraw were bound to pay 63 pounds in way of tribute to the Kings of London â—o the Kings of Dynevour and Matravall should pay in way of tribute the like summe to the Kings of Abersraw But notwithstanding the Reservation of the Soveraignty to the Kings of North-Wales Roderick committed a great Soloecism in point of State by this dismembâ—ing of his Kingdom especially at a time when all the kingdoms of the Saxons were brought into one and that one apt enough upon all occasions to work upon the weakness of the neighbouring Welch which had they been continued under one sole Prince might have preserved their Liberty and themselves a Kingdom as well as those of Scotland for so long a time against the power and puissance of the Kings of England Yet was not this the worst of the mischier neither his Successors subdividing by his example their small Estates into many insomuch that of the eight tributary Kings which rowed King Edgar on the Dee five of them were the Kings or Princes of Wales But Roderick did not think of that which was to come whom we must follow in our Storie according to the Division of the Countrey made by him into three Estates of North-Wales South-Wules and Powys-land 1. NORTH-WALES or Guinedth contained the Counties of Merioneth and Carnarvon the Isle of Aaglesey and the greatest parts of Denbigh and Flint-shires The chief Towns whereof are Bangor Denbigh Carnarvon Abersraw spoken of before and some in Anglesey whereof we shall speak more hereafter The Countrey Anglesey excepted the most barren and unfruitfull part of all Wales but withall the safest and furthest from the danger of the incroaching English which possibly might be the reason why it was set out for the portion of the Eldest Sonne in whom the Soveraignty of the Welch was to be preserved by the Kings or Princes of North-wales A.
with a See Episcopall 3 Verdun an antient Episcopall See also the Civitas Verodonensiam of Antoninus seated on the Meuse or Maes the Bishop whereof as also those of Mets and Toul being the onely ones of this Countrey of Lorrain acknowledge the Archbishops of Triers for their Metropolitan All of them in the number heretofore of Imperiall Cities possessed of large and goodly territories and of great revenue but taken by the French King Henry the second anno 1552. during the wars between Charles the fift and the Protestant Princes of Germany under colour of aiding them against the Emperour And though Charles tryed all wayes to recover them to the Empire againe and to that end maintained a long and desperate siege against the City of Mets yet was the Town so gallantly defended by the Duke of Guise that he was fain to raise his siege and goe off with dishonour Since that they have been alwayes under the subjection of France a Parliament being erected at Mets for the ease of the people as in other Provinces of that Kingdome Of such Towns as immediately belonged to the Duke of Lorrain the principall are Nancey not great but of a pleasant and commodious site well watered by the river Meurte or Marta and fortified better then before in the year 1587. on occasion of a great Army of the Germans passing into France to aid the Protestants most commonly the Dukes seat and famous for the discomfiture which Charles Duke of Burgundy here suffered with the losse of his life 2. St Nâ—câ—las a town so populous well seated and neatly built that were it walled it would hardly yeeld preceedency to Nancie It took name from the body of Saint Nicolas here buryed whose reliques have purchased no small reputation and riches to this town 3 Vaucoleur the birth-place of Joane the Virgin to whose miracles and valour the French attribute the delivery of their countrey from the power of the English but being at last taken prisoner she was by the Duke of Bedford then Regent of France condemned and burned for a Witch Of which crime I for my part doe conceive her free Nor can I otherwise conceive of her and her brave exploits then of a lusty lasse of Lorrain tutored and trained up by the practise of the Earl of Dunois commonly called the Bastard of Orleans and so presented to Charles the seventh French King as if sent immediately from Heaven A project carryed on of purpose as the most intelligent of the French writers say Pour fair revenir la courage aux Francois to revive the drooping spirits of the beaten French not to bee raised againe but by help of a miracle Upon the sight of her Statua on the bridge of Orleans a friend of mine did adventure on a copy of verses in her commendation too long to be inserted here but they ended thus She di'd a Virgin 'T was because the earth Bred not a man whose valour and whose birth Might merit such a blessing But above The Gods provided her an equall Love And gave her to Saint Denys She with him Protects the Lilies and their Diadem You then about whose Armies she doth watch Give her the honour due unto her match And when in field your standards you advance Cry loud Saint Denys and Saint Joan for France Townes of lesse note are 4 Pâ—nt a Moson so called from a bridge on the River Moson with a small University 5 Vandemont which gave a title of an Earl to a younger branch of the house of Lorrain 6 Neauf-Chatteau on the edge of the Countrey towards Barrois 7 Amance seven leagues on the South of Mets sometimes the Chancery of Lorrain 8 Riche Court neer the Lake called Garde-lake out of which floweth a River which runs into the Meurte 9 La Mothe seated on a River which fals presently into the Moselle 10 Churmes the place of treaty between the Duke of Lorrain and the Cardinall of Richelieu the result whereof was the surrender of the town of Nancie and by consequence of all the Dukedome into the hands of the French Septemb. 1633. Of lesse note there are 1 Saint Die 2 Saint Hippolit 3 Bouquenon and 4 Saverden the first towns of this Dukedome taken by the Swedes anno 1633. in the warre against Lorrain 5 Saint Miel 6 Oden-Chasteau 7 Mirecour all taken the same yeere by the French in the prosecution of that war before the treaty at Charmes 8 Romberville 9 Espinul 10 Gerbrevillier c. The old Inhabitants of this Countrey were the Mediomatrices and the Leuci spoken of before together with the Vindonenses all of them conquered by the Romans under whom this Countrey and the District of Triers made up the whole Province of Belgica Prima From them being taken by the French with the rest of Gaule it was made a Kingdome the Provinces of Germania Prima Secunda containing all the parts of Germany before described and so much of the Netherlands as lye on the Westside of the Rhene being added to it called first from the Eastern situation by the name of Austenreic or Austrasia the portion of Theodorick the fourth sonne of Clovis the first Christian King of the French from the chief City of his Kingdome called the King of Mets whose successours follow in this order The KINGS of AVSTRASIA or METS 514 1 Theodorick the base sonne of Clovis the Great vanquished the Turingians and extended his Kingdome as far as Hassia and Turingia as we call them now 537 2 Theodebert the sonne of Theodorick repulsed the Danes infesting the coasts of the Lower Germany and added Provence taken from the Gothes of Italy unto his Estates 548 3 Theobaldus the sonne of Theodebert subdued the Almans and added much of their Countrey to his own Dominions 555 4 Clotaire King of Soissons the youngest sonne of Clovis the Great succeeded Theobald in this Kingdome as afterwards his brother Childebert in the Realm of France anno 560. uniting in his person the whole French Dominion 565 5 Sigebert the sonne of Clotaire vanquished the Hunnes then falling into his Estates killed in his Tent by the practises of Fredegond the wife of Chilperick King of France 577 6 Childebert the sonne of Sigebert successour to his Uncle Guntrum in the Realm of Orleans 598 7 Theodebert the II. the sonne of Childebert vanquished and outed of his Kingdome by Clotaire the second of France from whose eldest sonne Sigebert descended the illustrious family of the Earls of Habsburg 617 8 Clotaire the II. King of France on the death of Theodebert King of Austrasia and his brother Theodorick King of Orleans the sole King of the French 9 Dagobert in the life of his Father King of Mets or Austrasia whom he succeeded at his death in the Realm of France 645 10 Sigebert II. the eldest son of Dagobert made choise of this kingdome for his part of the whole French Empire therein preferring it to West-France or France it self which he left to Clovis the 2.
is of different natures the parts adjoyning to the Weser being desert and barren those towards the Earldomes of Mark and Bergen mountainous and full of woods the Bishoprick of Bremen except towards the Elb full of dry sands heaths and unfruitfull thickets like the wilde parts of Windsor Forrest betwixt Stanes and Fernham In other parts exceeding plentifull of corn and of excellent pasturage stored with great plenty of wilde fruits and by reason of the many woods abundance of Akorns with infinite herds of swine which they breed up with those naturall helps of so good a relish that a Gammon of Wesiphalian Bacon is reckoned for a principall dish at a great mans Table The old inhabitants hereof were the Chauci Majores about Bremen the Chanani Angrivarii and Bructeri inhabiting about Munster Osuaburg and so towards the land of Colen and part of the Cherusci before spoken of taking up those parts which lie nearest unto Brunswick and Lunenbourg All of them vanquished by Drusus the son-in-law of Augusius but soon restored to their former liberty by the great overthrow given by the Cherusci and their associates to Quintilius Varus Afterwards uniting into one name with the French they expulsed the Romans out of Gaul leaving their forsaken and ill-inhabited seats to be taken up by the Saxons with whom the remainders of them did incorporate themselves both in name and nation Of that great body it continued a considerable Member both when a Kingdome and a Dukedome till the proscription and deprivation of Duke Henry the Lyon at what time the parts beyond the Weser were usurped by Barnard Bishop of Paderborn those betwixt the Weser and the Rhene by Philip Archbishop of Colen whose successours still hold the title of Dukes of Westphalen the Bishopricks of Breme Munster Paderborn and Mindaw having been formerly endowed with goodly territories had some accrewments also out of this Estate every one catching hold of that which lay nearest to him But not to make too many subdivisions of it we will divide it onely into these two parts VVestphalen specially so called and 2 the Bishoprick of Bremen In VVESTPHALEN specially so called which is that part hereof which lyeth next to Cleveland the places of most observation are 1 Geseke a town of good repute 2 Brala a village of great beauty 3 Arusberg and 4 Fredeborch honoured with the title of Prefectures 5 VVadenborch 6 Homberg lording it over fair and spacious territories All which with two Lordships and eight Prefectures more dispersed in the Dukedome of Engern and County of Surland belong unto the Bishop of Colen the titulary Duke of VVestphalen and Angrivaria Engern as he stiles himself 7 Mountabour perhaps Mont-Tabor seated in that part hereof which is called VVesterwald a town of consequence belonging to the Elector of Triers 8 Rhenen 9 Schamlat and 10 Beekem reasonable good towns all of the Bishoprick of Munster 11 Munster it self famous for the Treaty and conclusions made upon that treaty for the peace of Germany seated upon the River Ems and so called from a Monastery here founded by Charles the great which gave beginning to the Town supposed to be that Mediolanium which Ptolemy placeth in this tract a beautifull and well fortified City and the See of a Bishop who is also the Temporall Lord of it Famous for the wofull Tragedies here acted by a lawlesse crew of Anabaptists who chose themselves a King that famous Taylor John of Leiden whom they called King of Sion as they named the City New Jerusalem proclaimed a community both of goods and women cut off the heads of all that opposed their doings and after many fanatick and desperate actions by the care and industry of the Bishop and his confederates brought to condigne punishment The Story is to be seen at large in Sleidan and some modern pamphlets wherein as in a Mirrour we may plainly see the face of the present times 12 Osnaburg first built as some say by Julius Caesar as others by the Earls of Engern but neither so ancient as the one nor of so late a standing as the others make it here being an Episcopall See founded by Charles the Great who gave it all the priviledges of an Vniversity Liberally endowed at the first erection of the same and since so well improved both in Power and Patrimony that an alternate succession in it by the Dukes of Brunswick hath been concluded on in the Treaty of Munster as a fit compensation for the Bishoprick of Halberstad otherwise disposed of by that Treaty of late enjoyed wholly by that Family 13 Quakenberg on the River Hase 14 VVarendorp and 15 VVildshusen towns of that Bishoprick 16 Paderborn an Episcopall See also founded by Charles the Great at the first conversion of the Saxons more ancient then strong yet more strong then beautifull 17 Ringelenstein and 18 Ossendorf belonging to the Bishop of Paderborn 19 Minden upon the VVeser another of the Episcopall Sees founded by Charles the Great and by him liberally endowed with a goodly Patrimony converted to lay-uses since the Reformation under colour of Administration of the goods of the Bishoprick and now by the conclusions at Munster setled for ever on the Electors of Brandenbourg with the title of Prince of Minden 20 Rintelin a strong town conveniently seated on the Weser not far from Minden to the Bishop whereof it doth belong Hitherto one would think that Westphalen had formerly been a part of Saint Peters Patrimony belonging wholly to the Clergy but there are some Free Cities and secular Princes which have shares therein as 1 VVarburg a neat town but seated on an uneven piece of ground neer the River Dimula a town which tradeth much in good Ale brewed here and sold in all parts of the Country heretofore a County of it self under the Earls hereof now governed in the nature of a Free Estate and reckoned an Imperiall City 2 Brakel accompted of as Imperiall also 3 Hervâ—rden a town of good strength and note governed by its own Lawes and Magistrates under the protection of Colen 4 Lemgow belonging heretofore to the Earls of Lippe but by them so well priviledged and enfranchised that now it governeth it self as a Free Estate Here is also 5 The town and County of Ravensburg belonging anciently to the Dukes of Cleve and now in the rights of that house to the Elector of Brandenbourg As also 6 the Town and County of Lippe lying on the west side of the VVeser the Pedegree of the Earls whereof some fetch from that Sp. Manlius who defended the Roman Capitol against the Gauâ—s they might as well derive it from the Geese which preserved that Capitol others with greater modestie look no higher for it then to the times of Charls the Great one of the noble Families of the antient Saxons Some other Lords and Earls here are but these most considerable all of them Homagers of the Empire but their acknowledgments hereof little more then titular though not
fortunes of Bithynia it self I look upon the Bithynians as a Thracian people whom both Strabo and Herodotus speak of as the founders of the name and Nation Of such a King of theirs as Bithynius I finde some mention in my Authors and possibly it might be he who had the leading of the Thrni or Bithyxi in this expedition that being the name rather of his Nation then his proper Family But for the line of Kings which held out till the flourish of the Roman greatnesse they begun to reign here some few geaerations before the time of Philip and Alexander the Macedonians by whom having other imployment and lying out of the road towards Persia they were little troubled alantus one of Alexanders Captains made an expedition into their Countrey and was vanquished by them and afterwards they had to do with one of the Lieutanants of Antigonus one of Alexanders greatest Princes who though he humbled them for the present yet got he neither title nor possession by it And thus they held it out till the time of Prusias so shuffling with the Macedonian and Syrian Kings that betwixt both they still preserved their own estates This Prusias when the Romans became so considerable as that no danger need be feared from Greece or Syria peeced himself with them and having aided them in their warres against Philip and Antiochus both and most unworthily promised to deliver Anniball who had fled to him for succour unto their Embassadours made all sure on this side His Sonne and successour Nicomedes being outed of his Kingdome by Muhridates King of Pontus and restored again unto it by the power of the Romans held it as their Fenditarie as did Nicomedes his next Successour simamed Philometor who dying without issue in the time of Augustus gave his whole Kingdome to the Romans By them with the addition of that part of Pontus which lay next unto it it was made a Province of their Empire by the name of Pontus and Bithynta continuing so till the division of that Empire into the Eastern and the Western when falling to the share of the Constantinopolitans and with them to the power of the Turkish Tyrants who do still possesse it 2. PONTVS PONTUS is bounded on the East with Colchis and Armenta on the West with Bithynia and the River Sangarius on the North with the Euxine Sea and on the South with Phrygia Mayor Paphlagonia Galatia and Cappadocia So that it taketh up the whole length of Anatolia or Asia Minor from Bithynia to the River Euphrates which parts it from Armenia Major but not of answerable breadth and gives name to the Sea adjoining a Ponto regione illi adjacente it a appellari as Ortelius hath it called from hence Pontus by the Latines the adjunct of Euxinus comming on another occasion which we have spoken of before A Countrey of a large extent and therefore divided by the Romans when Masters of it into these four parts viz. Metapontus or Pontus specially so called 2. Pontus Galaticus 3. Polemomacus and 4. Pontus Cappadocius 1. PONTUS specially so called or Metapontus bordering on Bithynia and bounded on the East with the River Parthemius which divided it from Paphlagonia had for the Chief Cities thereof 1. Claudiapolis so called in honor of Clausdius the Roman Emperor as 2. Flaviopolis in honor of Flavius Vespasianus and 3. Fulipolis in honor of the Julian family all midland Towns 4. Diospolis on the Euxine Sea so called from a Temple consecrated to Jupiter of great resort 5. Heraclea a Colonie of the Phocians called for distinctionssake there being many of that name Heraeclea Pontit memorable of late times for being the seat or residence of a branch of the Imperial family of the Conent when at the taking of Constantinople by the Western Christians David Alexius Comnexi fled into these parts the first fixing here his Royal residence commanded over this part of Pontus and paphligonia the other possessing himself of Cappadocia and Galatia made Trabezond his Regall or Imperiall City But these two Empires though of the same date were of different destinies that of Heraclea and Pontus being partly conquered by the Greek Emperours residing at Nice and partly seized on by the Turks in the beginning and first fortunes of the Ottoman family the other keeping up the Majesty and State of an Empire till the year 1461. when subdued by Mahomet the Great 6. Phillium at the mouth or influx of the River Phillis upon which it is seated 7. Amastris the farthest Town of this part towards the East on the Sea-side also once of great strength but take by Lucullus together with Heracles Sinope Amisut and other Townes in the war against Mithridates the great King of Pontus 2. Eastward of Pontus specially so called or Metapontus as Justin the historian call's it lyeth PONTUS GALATICUS so named because added to Galatia in the time of the Romans The chief Cities whereof were 1. Sinope pleasantly seated on a long point or Promontorie shooting into the main remarkable in antient storie for the birth and sepulture of Muthridates before mentioned and in the later times for being the chief seat of the Issendiars and noble Family of the Turkes who had taken it with the rest of this tract from the Comneni and held it till the same year in which the Empire of Trabezond was subdued by Mahomet First built by the Milesians and continuing in a free estate till taken by Pharatees a King of Pontus and made the Metropolis of that Kingdome 2. Castamona the head City of the Principality of the Isfendiars before mentioned preferred by them for strength and conveniency of situation before Heraclea or Synope 3. Themiseyra now called Favagoria seated on a spacious plain neer unto the Sea and antiently giving name to the Province adjoyning 4. Amasia the birth-place of Strabo the Geographer remarkable in the Ecclesiatical Histories for the Martyrdome of St. Theodorus and of late times for being the residence of the eldest Sonnes of the Grand Signeur sent hither as soon as circumcised never returning back again till the death of their Father Accompted now amongst the Cities of Cappadocia and the chief of that Province a midland Town as also is 5. Cabira called afterward Dtopolis memerable for the great defeat which Lucullus gave there unto Mithridates more for the trick which Mithridues there put upon Lacullus For being well acquainted with the covetousnesse of the Romans he saw no better way to save himself and the rest of his forces after the defeate then to scatter his treasures in the way which he was to take that by that meanes his enemies might slacken the pursuite to collect the spoiles and he preserve himself to another day and so accordingly it proved 6. Coniaus to difference it from another of that name called Comana Pontica to which other being of Cappadociae or Armenia Minor Mithridates came in safety by the trick aforesaid and thence escaped unto Trgranes the Armenian
story see at large in the Book of the Indges chap. 19 20 21. The territories of this Tribe lay betwixt those of Ephraim on the North and Iudah on the South having the Dead-Sea to the East and Tribe of Dan to the West-ward of them The chief of their Towns and Cities were 1. Micmas the incamping place of Saul 1 Sam. 13. 2. and the abiding place of Ionathan one of the Maccaboean brethren 1 Macc. 9. 73. 2. Mispah famous in being the ordinary place of assembly for the whole body of the people in matters of warre or peace as also in that standing in the midst of Canaan it was together with Gilgal made the seat of justice to which Samuel went yearly to give judgement to the people 3. Gebah the North border of the Kingdome of Iudah toward Israel 4. Gibeah the Countrey of Saul the first King where the a busing of the Levites wife by the young men of this Town had almost rooted the Tribe of Renjamin out of the garden of Israel 5. At a great and strong City in the siege of which the Israels were first discomfited but when by the death of Achan who had stoln the accursed thing the Camp was purged Josuah by a warlike stratagem surprised it 6. Gibeon the mother City of the Gibeonites who presaging the unresistable victories of the Israelites came to the Camp of Josuah and by a wile obtained peace of Josuah and the People Emploied by them in hewing wood and drawing water for the use of the Tabernacle after the fraud was made known unto them called Nethinims Ezr. 43. from Nathan which signifies to give because they were given to the service of the Tabernacle first of the Temple after Saul about four hundred years after slew some of them for which fact the Lord caused a famine on the land which could not be taken away till seven of Sauls sonnes were by David delivered unto the Gibeonites and by them hanged This famine did God send because in killing those poor Gibeonites the Oath was broken which Josuah and the Princes swore concerning them In defence of those Gibeonites it was that Josuah waged war against the Kings of the Canaanites and staied the motion of the Sun by his fervent praiers 7. Jericho destroied by the sound of Rams-horns was not onely levelled by Josuah to the ground but a curse inflicted on him that should attempt the re-building of it This curse notwithstanding at the time when Ahab reigned in Israel which was about five hundred years after the ruine of it Hiel a Bethelite delighted with the pleasantness of the place reedified it But as it was foretold by Iosuah as he laid the foundation of the wals he lost his eldest Sonne and when he had finished it and was setting up the gates thereof he lost also the younger It may be Hiel when he began his work minded not the prophecy it may be he believed it not peradventure he thought the words of Iosuah not so much to proceed from the spirit of prophecy as from an angry and vexed heart they being spoken in way of wish or execration And it is possible it may be he chose rather to build the eternity of his name on so pleasant and beautifull a City than on the lines and issues of two young men 8. Anathoth the birth-place of the Prophet Ieremy and the patrimony of Abiathar the high Priest sent hither by the command of Solomon as to a place of his own when deposed from his Office by that King 9. Nob called 1 Sam. 22. 19. the Cit of the Priests destroyed by Saul for the relief which Abimelech the high Priest had given to David the Aâ—k of the Lord then residing there 10. Gilgaâ— upon the banks of Iordan where Iosuah did first eat of the fruits of the Land and kept his first Passeover where he circumcised such of the People as were born during their wandring in the Wilderness and nigh to which he set up twelve stones for a Memorial to posterity that the waters of Jordan did there divide themselves to give passage to the twelve Tribes of Israel where Agag King of the Amalekites was hewen in peeces by Samuel and where Samuel once every year administred Justice to the People For being seated in the midst of the land of Israel betwixt North and South and on the Eastside of the Countrey neer the banks of Iordan it served very fitly for that purpose as Mispah also did which stood in the same distance in regard of the length of the land of Canaan but situate towards the West Sea neer the land of the Philistinis used therefore enterchangeably for the ease of the people 11. Bthel at first called Luz but took this new name in remembrance of the vision which Iacob saw here at his going towards Mesopotamia as is said Gen. 28. 19. It signifieth the house of God and was therefore chosen by Jeroboam for the setting up of one of his Golden Calves though thereby as the Prophet saith he made it to be Beth-aver the house of vanity Osee 4. 15. and 10. 5. For then it was a part of the Kingdome of the Ten Tribe and the Southern border of that Kingdome on the coasts of Ephraim but taken from it by Abijah the King of Judah and after that accounted as a member of his Kingdome till the destruction of it by the Chaldoeans Called with the rest of those parts in the time of the Maccabees by the of Aphoerema which signifieth a thing taken away because taken from the Ten Tribes to which once it belonged 1. Maccab. 11. 34. where it is said to have been taken from the Countrey of Samaria and added unto the borders of Iudoea 12. Ramath another place there mentioned and said to have been added to the Realm of Iudah having been formerly the South border of the Kingdome of Israel and therefore strongly fortified by Baoesha in the time of Asa King of Iudah 13. Chadid or Hadid one of the three Cities the other two being 14. Lod and 15. Ono which were inhabited by the Fenjamites after the Captivity Destroyed in the warres with the Kings of Syria and afterwards rebuilt by Simâ—n the Maccaboean But he chief glory of this Tribe and of all the rest and not so only but of all the whole world besides was the famous City of Hurusalem seated upon a rocky Mountain every way to be ascended with steep and difficult ascents except towards the North environed on all other sides also with some neighbouring mountainets as if placed in the middest of an Amphitheatre It consisted in the time of its greatest flourish of four parts separated by their several Walls as if severall Cities we may call them the Upper City the Lower City the New City and the City of Herod all of them but the Lower City seated upon their severall hills Of these that which we call the City of Herod had formerly been beautified with the houses of many of the
Prophets as in our Saviours time with that of Mary the mother of John Mark mentioned acts 15. 37. converted to a Church by the Primitive Christians the Western part whereof was wholly taken up by the Palace of Herod a wicked but magnificent Prince for cost excessive and for strength invincible containing gardens groves fish-ponds places devised for pleasure besides those for exercise Fortified with three Towers at the Corners of it that on the South-East of the wall 50 Cubiâ—s high of excellent workmanship called Mariamnes Tower in memory of his beloved but insolent wife rashly murdered by him Opposite to which on the South-West corner stood the Tower of Phaseolus so called by the name of his brother 70 Cubits high and in form resembling that so much celebrated Aegyptian Phtros and on the North Wall on an high hill the Tower of Hippick exceeding both the rest in height by 14 Cubits and having on the top two Spires in memory of the two Hippâ—er his very dear friends slain in his service by the wars 2. On the South-side stood that part which was called the Old City possessed if not built by the Iebu 〈◊〉 and therein both the Mountain and Fort of Sion but after called the City of David because taken by him who thereon built a strong and magnificent Castle the Royall Court and Mansion of the Kings succeding In the West part hereof stood the Tower of David a double Palace built by Herod the one part whereof he named Agrippa and the other Coesar composed of Marble and every where enterlaid with gold and not far off the house of Annas and Caiaphas to which the Conspirators led our Saviour to receive his tryall 3. That which was called the Lower City because it had more in it of the Valley was also called the Daughter of Sion because built after it in majesty and greatness did exceed the Mother For therein upon Mount Moriah stood the Temple of Solomon whereof more anon and betwixt it and Mount Zion on another hill the Palace which he built for his Wife the Daughter of Aegypt and that which he founded for himself from which by an high Bridge he had a way unto the Temple West hereof on a losty rock overlooking the City stood the Royall Palace of the Princes of the Maccaboeans re-edified and dwelt in by King Agripoa though of Herod race and not far off the Theater of Herods building adorned with admirall pictures expressing the many victories and triumphs of Augustus Coesar In this part also stood Mount Aâ—ra and on that once a Citadell built by Antiochus King of Syria but razed by Simon one of the Maccaboean Brothers because it overtopped the Temple the house of Helena Queen of Adiabâ—ne who converted from Paganism to Indaism had here her dwelling and here died and finally Herods Amphitheatre capacious enough to contain 80000 people whom he entertained sometime with such shews and spectacles as were in use amongst the Romans And in this part also on an high and craggy rock not far from the Temple stood the Tower of Baris whereon the same Herod built a strong and impregnable Citadell in honour of Marc. Antonie whose Creature he first was called by the name of Antonius having a fair and large Tower at every corner two of them 50. Cubits high and the other 70. afterwards garrisoned by the Romans for fear the Jews presuming on the strengen of the Temple might take occasion to rebel 4. As for the New City which lay North to the City of Herod it was once a Suburb onely unto all the rest inhabited by none but mechanicall persons and the meanest trades-men but after incompassed by Agrippa with a wall of 25 Cubits high and fortified with ninety Turrets The whole City fenced with a wonderfull circumvallation on all parts thereof having a Ditch cut out of the main Rock as Iosephus an eye-witness writeth sixty foot deep and no less than two hundred and fifty foot in bredth First built say some by Melghisedech the King of Salem by the Jebusites themselves say others by whomsoever built called at first Jebusalem afterwards Jerusalem with the change of one letter only inlarged in time when made the Royall seat of the house of David to the Magnificence and greatness before described â—â— it attained unto the compass of sixty furlongs or seven miles and an half Unconquered for the first four hundred years after the entrance of the Children of Israel and when David attempted it the people presumed so much on the strength of the place that they told him in the way of scorn that the blâ—nd and the lame which they had amongst them as the Text is generally expounded should defend it against him But as I think the late learned Mr. Gregory of Christ-church in Oxon hath found out a more likely meaning of the Text than this who telleth us that the Jubesites by the blind and lame as they knew well the Israeliâ—es called blind and lame did understand those Tutelar Idols on whose protection they relied as the 〈◊〉 did on their Palladium for defence thereof and then the meaning must be this those Gods whom you of Israel call blind and lame shall defend our Walls Why else should David say had they meant it literally that his soul hated the lame and the blind 2. Sam. 5. 8. or why should the People of Israel be so uncharitable as to say that the blind and lame should not come into the House or Temple of God were it meant no otherwise But notwithstanding these vain hopes the Town was carried under the conduct of Joab that fortunate and couragious leader and made the Royal seat of the Kings of Judah Proceed we now unto the Temple built by Solomon in providing the materials whereof there were in Lebanon 30000 workmen which wrought by the ten thousand every moneth 70000 Labourers which carried burdens 80000 Quarry-men that hewed stones in the Mountains and of Officers and Overseers of the work no lesse then 3300 men The description of this Stately Fabrick we have in the first of Kings cap. 6. 7. In the year of the world 2350 it was destroyed by Nabuchadzezzar at the taking of Hierusalem rebuilt again after the return from the Captivity but with such opposition of the Samaritans that the Workmen were fain to hold their Tooles in one hand and their swords in the other to repulse if need were those malicious enemies But yet this Temple was not answerable to the magnificence of the former so that the Prophet Haggi had good occasion to say to the People cap. 2. ver 3. Who is lâ—ft among you that saw this house in her first glory is it not in your eyes as nothing in comparison of it Nor fell it short thereof onely in the outward structure but some inward Additaments For it wanted 1. The Pot of Mannah which the Lord commanded Moses to lay up before the Testimony for a Memorial Exod. 16. 32. c. 2. The
and in the end possessed himself of the City of Nice not long before the Imperiall Seat of the Grecian Emperors Emboldned with such great successes and heating of the death of Aladins the second whom he acknowledged for his Lord he took unto himself the Title of Sultan Anno 1300. from which before he had abstained To this time and these small beginnings we must reduce the first foundation of the Ottoman Empire increased unto its present greatness by the courage and good fortune of these Princes following The Kings of the Turks of the Oguzian or Ottoman Family 1300. 1. Ottoman the sonne of Ethrogul the first Turkish Sultan of this line added to his small territory the greatest part of Bithynia and some part of Pontus 28. 1328. 2. Orchanes took the City Prusa and made it his residence and was the first that put footing in Europe where he got Gallipolis and other peeces 1350. 3. Amurath wonne the Thracian Chersonese the strong City of Adrianople with the Countries of Servia and Bulgaria where he was slain by a common Souldier in the fields of Cossova 23. 1373. 4. Bajazet made himself master of a great part of Thrace Macedon and Achaia He was taken prisoner by Tamerlane and brained himself in an iron cage in which the insolent Conqueror used to carry him 26. 1399. 5. Mahomet united the dismembred Empire of his Father and inlarged it with the more absolute conquest of Dacia part of Sclavonia and the rest of Macedon 17. 1416. 6. Amurath II. subdued from the Constantinopolitan Empire all Achaia Thessaly Epirus he shaked the State of Hungary and dyed before the Walls of Croy. 34. The Ottoman Emperors 1450. 7. Mahomet II. sumamed the Great and first Emperor of the Turks ruined the two Empires of Constantinople and Trabezond twelve Kingdomes and two hundred Cities 31. 1481. 8. Bajazet II. subdued the Caramanian Kingdome and part of Armenia and drove the Venetians from Morea and their part of Dalmatia 31. 1512. 9. Sclimus having poisoned his Father subverted the Mamalucks of Egypt bringing it together with Palestine Syria and Arabia under the yoke of the Turks 7. 1519. 10. Solyman the Magnificent surprised Rhodes Belgrad Buda with a great part of Hungary Babylon Assyria Mesopotamia 48. 1567. 11. Selimus II. an idle and effeminate Emperour by his Deputies took from the Venetians the Isle of Cyprius and from the Moores the Kingdome of Tunis and Algiers 8. 1575. 12. Amurath III. took from the disagreeing Persians Armenia Media and the City Tauris and the fort Guierino from the Hungarians 20. 1595. 13. Mahomet III. took Agria in Hungarie which Kingdome had likely bin lost if he had pursued his victory at the battell of Keresture 8. 1603. 14. Achmat who the better to enjoy his pleasures made peace with the German Emperor and added nothing to his Empire 15. 1618. 15. Mustapha brother to Achmat succeeded a novelty never before heard of in this Kingdome it being the Grand Signeurs common policy to strangle all the younger brothers howsoever this Mustapha was preserved either because Achmat being once a younger brother took pitty on him or because he had no issue of his own body and so was not permitted to kill him 1618. 16. Osmen succeeded his Unkle Mustapha and being unsuccesseful in his war against Poland was by the Janizaries slainin an uproar and Mustapha again restored yet long enjoyed be not his throne for the same hand that raised him plucked him down and seated young Amurath in the place 1623. 17. Morat or Amurath the IV. Brother of Osmen of the age of 13. years succeeded on the second deposition of his Unkle Mustapha who proved a stout and masculine Prince and bent himself to the reviving of the antient discipline To the great good of Christendome he spent his stomach on the Persians 18. Ibrahim the brother of Morat preserved by the Sultaness his mother in his brother life and by her power deposed again for interdicting her the Court He spent a great part of his reign in the warre of Crete against the Venetians but without any great successe 1648. 19. Mahomet IV. sonne of Ibrahim now reigning Lord of all this vast Empire containing all Dacia and Greece the greatest part of Sclavonia and Hungary the Isles of the Aegean Sea and a great part of the Taurican Chersonese in Europe of all the Isles and Provinces which we have hitherto described in Asia and in Africk of all Aegypt the Kingdomes of Tunis and Algiers with the Ports of Suachem and Erocco Nor is their stile inferiour to so vastan Empire Solyman thus stiling himself in his Leter to Villerius great Master of the Rhades at such time as he intended to invade that Iland i.e. Solyman King of Kings Lord of Lords most high Emperour of Constantinople and Trabezond he most mighty King of Persia Syria Arabia and the Holy Land Lord of Europe Asia and Africa Prince of Meccha and Aleppo Ruler of Hierusalem and Soveraign Lord of all the Seas and Isles thereof As for the persons of the Turks they are generally well-complexioned of good stature proportionably compacted no idle talkers nor doers of things superfluous hot and venereous servile to their Prince and zealous in their Religion They nourish no hair upon their heads except it be a Tust on the top of their Crowns by which they think that Mahomet will snatch them up into Paradise at the day of judgement For which reason they keep on of all sides though never so poor accounting it an approbrious thing to see any men uncover their heads saying when they dislike of any thing which they see or hear I had as liefe thou hadst shewn me thy bare skull In their familiar salutation they lay their hands on their bosomes and a little incline their bodies but when they accost a person of rank they bow almost to the ground and kiss the hem of his garment Walking up and down they never use and much wonder at the often walking of Christians Biddulph relateth that being at his ambulatory exercise with his companion a Turk demanded them whether they were out of their way or their wits If your way quoth the Turk lay toward the upper end of the Cloister why come you downwards If to the neither end why go you back again Shooting is their chief recreation which they also follow with much laziness sitting on carpets in the shadow and sending some of their slaves to fetch their arrowes They prefer as they pass the streets the left hand before the right as being thereby made master of his sword with whom they walk As they shave their heads so they wear their berds long as a sign of freedome but their slaves keep theirs shaven and close cut The women are of small stature for the most part ruddy clear and smooth as the polished Ivory as neither afflicted with the weather and often frequenting the baths of a very good complexion seldome going abroad and then masked
the Roman Colonies 6. Cirta or Cirta Julia the Metropolis of Numidia when a Roman Province and formerly the Seat-royal of Syphax King of the Masaesyli within whose country it was reckoned in former times though afterwards laid unto this Province Situate near the mouth of the River Ampsaga and memorable for the tragedie of Sophonisba the daughter of Asdrubal of Carthage a Lady of most exquisite beauty and yet carried more charms in her tongue then in her eyes â—spoused first unto Masinissa King of the Numidians but after upon reason of State married unto Syphax who being took prisoner by his Rival and brought to Cirta the Lady upon hopes of liberty and honour both bestowed her self on her first Lover but Scipio fearing lest that marriage might withdraw Masinissa from the Roman party caused the Lady to be seized on which Masinissa not being otherwise able to prevent or remedie sent her a Cup of poyson which she drank and died Of these Numidians there is much mention in the Stories of Rome and Carthage imployed by this last City in all their wars both in Spain Italy and Sicil. Siding at last with Scipio against that State they did good service to the Romans in the weakening and destruction of that City whose fall they did not long survive first conquered in the war of Jugurth after the death of Juba made a Roman Province Their Kings as far as I can trace the succession of them follow in this Order The Kings of the Numidians 1 Gala the Father of Masinissa 2 Desalces the brother of Gala according to the laws of the Country which gave the Crown unto the brother not the son of the former King like the law of Tanistry in Ireland succeeded Gala. 3 N. N. a son of Desalces in the absence of Masinissa then serving under the Carthaginians in the wars of Spain possessed himself of the throne slain not long after by a Rebel 4 Masinissa son of Gala recovered the kingdome of his Fathers but again outed by Syphax and the Carthaginians betwixt whom and Masinissa touching Sophonisba there was deadly feud Aided by Scipio and the Romans with whom associated against Carthage he not only recovered his own kingdome but was gratified with the greatest part of that which belonged to Syphax A professed Enemy to Carthage the final ruine whereof he lived to see till the time of his death being then ninety years of Age. 5 Micipsa the son of Masinissa of whom nothing memorable 6 Jugurth the son of Mastanabilis one of the Brethren of Micipsa having wickedly made away the two sons of Micipsa usurped the kingdom manifestly withstood the Romans whose attempts sometimes by force sometimes by subtility but chiefly by money and bribes he overthrew and made frustrate Et fuit in Ingurtha saith Florus quod post Annibalem timeretur At last being broken by Metellus vanquished by Marius and by Bocchus delivered into the hands of Sylla he was by Marius led in triumph to Rome In this Triumph was carried 3700 pound weight in Gold in Silver-wedges 5775 pound weight and in ready Coin 28900 Crowns it being the custome of the Romans in their Triumphs to have carried before them all the riches and mony which they had brought out of the conquered Countries to put into the common Treasury 7 Hiempsal son of Bocchus king of Mauritania gratified for his Fathers treacherie in betraying Jugurth with the kingdome of Numidia Relieved Marius in his exile 8 Hiarbas another of the Marian faction preferred to the Numidian Crown but vanquished and deprived by Pompey at that time one of Sylla's Captains 9 Hiempsal II. preferred by Pompey to this kingdom 10 Juba the son of Hiempsal the second who siding with Pompey against Caesar in the Civil wars gave a great overthrow to Curio one of Caesar's Lieutenants Curio himself slain his whole Army routed such as were taken prisoners murdered in cold blood But being discomfited by Caesar after Pompey's death Numidia was made a Province of the Roman Empire Thus by the fall of Carthage and the death of Juba came the whole Provinces of Africa Propria and Numidia containing the now Kingdom of Tunis into the power of the Romans Of which the Nations of most note were the Nigitimi on the Eastern parts of the Mediterranean the Machyni near the Lesser Syrtis the Libya-Phoenices and Mideni bordering upon Carthage the Ionii Navatrae and Cirtesii taking up all the Sea-coasts of Numidia Such as inhabited more Southwards on the back of these not so much considerable None of them to be staid upon but the Libya-Phaenices a mixt people of the old Libyans and new Phoenicians as the Liby-Aegyptii were of the said Libyans and the neighbouring Egyptians The memory of all of them so defaced by the violent inundation of the Arabians that there is scarce any tract or footsteps of them in all the Country When conquered by the Saracens they were at first subject to the Caliph or Sultan of Cairoan after the spoile whereof by the Arabians subdued by Abdul Mumen King of Morocco and by him added to that Kingdom In the distractions of that State made a peculiar Kingdom by some of the Relicts of the Stock of the Almohades who took unto himself the title of King of Tunis that City being his chief Seat By him transmitted unto his posterity till the dayes of our Grandfathers when Muleasses one of the youngest sons of Sultan Mahomet having first murdered Maimon his eldest brother and put out the eyes of twenty of the rest usurped the Soveraignty Rosetta the onely one of those Princes who escaped this massacre by the aid of Solyman the magnificent obtained the Crown outed thereof not long after by Charles the fifth appearing in favour of Muleasses An. 1535. But the Tyrant did not long enjoy his ill-gotten Soveraignty when his eyes were were also put out by his own son Amida and so committed to close prison Nor did Amida enjoy it long dispossessed by Abdamelech his fathers brother To Abdamelech Mahomet his son succeeded and in his life another Mahomet the brother of Amida who being supported by the Turks recovered from the Christians the strong Fort of Coletta and dying left the Turk his heire who doth now possesse it 2. TREMESEN or ALGIERS THe Kingdom of TREMESEN is bounded on the East with the River Ampsaga now called Maâ—or by which parted from the Kingdom of Tunis on the West with the Kingdoms of Fesse and Morocco from which separated by the River Malutha or Malva So called from Tremesen or Teleusine the chief City of it Called also the Kingdom of Algiers from the City so named sometimes the Seat-royal of their Kings In the flourish of the Roman Empire it had the name of Mauritania Casariensis Mauritania because a part of the Kingdom of Juba King of Mauritania of which more anon Casariensis from Casarea the chief City of it as that so called in honour of Augustus Caesar on whom the Kings hereof depended
us invaded and almost ingrossed by the Hanse and Hollanders And yet there is another thing which speaks me more an Englishman than all these together which I shall fall on soon enough and indeed too soon the sadness of the subject being well considered Next as a Church-man I have taken more especiall notice of the antient and present face of Christianity in all parts of the World the planting and Government of Churches the Hetrodoxies and opinions of those severall Sects into which it now doth stand dismembred By which it will appear most clearly amongst other things that the Doctrin and Government of the Church were of equall standing that this government was no other than that of Bishops and that wheresoever Christianity did find any admittance Episcopacie was admitted also as a part thereof the Gospel being in most places first preached by Bishops or growing to esteem and strength under their Authority And it is found on these Recherches that as Espiscopacie was co-aevall with the Church it self so the Subordination of Bishops to their severall Primates and the Coordination of those Primates amongst themselves in the common Government thereof was of such antiquitie as being setled and confirmed in St. Cyprians time who flourished in the year 250. that it is hard to trace the beginnings of it Debere Episcopos in commune Ecclesiam regere is a noted Maxime in St. Hierome but practically true in the Communicatoriae and Formatae of the Elder Ages Which happy course had it been preserved Episcopacie had been so far from being made a stirrup for Antichrist to mount into his throne as the Smectymnuans falsly charge it that it had served rather as a Martingall to have kept him down from lifting up his head too high above the rest of his Brethren And that this conrse was not preserved came not intentionally from the Popes for that by Antichrist they mean the Popes of Rome is a thing past question but from the Inundation of the barbarous Nations though I confess the Popes were apt enough to make the best advantage of those various Accidents which the distresses of the Church did present unto them For by the overflowing of the Barbarous Nations Christianitie was either quite extinquished or the authoritie of the Primates trodden under foot or that intelligence and commerce which had been antiently amongst them interdicted on good reasons of state by such Heathen or Mahometan Princes under whom they lived And then how easie was it for the Pope in the new planting of the Gospel in these Western parts done either by his Ministers or by his Incouragement to give unto the Bishops of his own appointing such a limited power as might make them more and more obnoxious unto his commands and afterwards to lessen their Authoritie as he saw occasion by granting large Exemptions to Monasteries Convents and Cathedrals with Jurisdiction over the Parochiall Churches which belong'd unto them So that it is most evident in the course of Story that the Popes never came unto their height nor could obtrude their Superstitions and Novations on the Church of CHRIST till they had weakened by degrees the Episcopall power Followed in that design though on different ends by Wicliff and some others in the Ages since who have driven on their private projects under the colour and pretence of a Reformation Episcopacie as it was co-aevall with the Church of CHRIST so was it the best and strongest Buttress in that sacred Building The weakning or subverting of which Primitive Order did either prostitute the Church to the lust and tyranny of that proud Vsurper or expose the Patrimonie thereof unto spoyl and rapine or finally subject it to the Anarchy and licentiousness of Hetrodoxies and confused Opinions But I fear I have digressed too far in this speculation As a Geographer I have been punctuall and exact in giving unto every Province its peculiar bounds in laying out their severall Land-marks tracing the course of most of the principal Rivers and setting forth the situation and estate of the chiefest Towns and did once think of beautifying the Work with as many Maps as the severall States and Kingdoms which are here described But upon further consideration how much it would increase the Book both in bulk and price and consequently make it of less publick use than I did intend it I laid by those thoughts and resied satisfied with the adding of four Maps for the four parts of the World by which the Reader may discern how each Countrie lies unto the other though he find not each particular Province and much less all the Towns and Cities which are here expressed and on the other side may meet with many Towns of inferior note which are here oâ—â—â—â—ed And herein I have took some pains in searching out the first Inhabitants of each severall Country as far as I could see by the light of Letters or go by probable conjectures in finding out the place of such antient Cities as are now decayed not easily visible in their ruins and adding to such Cities as are now in being if of any Antiquity their Originall names A thing as necessary to the understanding of the Histories of those elder times as the knowledge of the present names is to the more delightfull reading of our modern Stories And though I have not pretermitted any Town of note fit to be specified and insisted on in a work of this nature yet would I not have the Reader look for such a punctuall enumeration and description of them as he may meet withall in those who have written the Chorographie of some Countrey onely or think himself unsatisfied in his expectation if he find not here the situation and affairs of each Town of War or the Quartering place of every Company or Troop of Souldiers which are presented to him in the Weekly News-Books In all Countreys there are many places which either by the advantage of their situation or some present exigency of affairs are fortified and made Towns of Warr or otherwise remarkable for some signall battell in these late bustles and commotions of the Christian World of which no notice hath been taken in former times and consequently not within the compass of this Discourse and yet perhaps may grow as famous and considerable in the times to come as many of the mightier Cities now decayed and ruined He that shal think the work imperfect though I confess it to be nothing but imperfections for some deficiencies in this kinde may be likned to the Countrey-Fellow in Aristophanes if my memory fail not who picked a great quarrell with the Map because he could not finde where his own Farm stood And such a Countrey-customer I did meet with one a servant of my elder Brothers sent by him with some horses to Oxon to bring me and a friend of mine unto his house Who having lost his way as we passed thorow the Forest of Whichwood and not able to recover any beaten Tract did
Geographia Sacra Out of whose learned labours and some Animadversions of mine own I shall here say somewhat concerning the Plantation of the World by the Sons of Noah leaving the more exact and punctuall description of it unto the History of those severall Lands and Countries which were planted by them First therefore to begin with the posterity of Sem as those who fixed themselves in Asia without wandring further we finde Sem to have had five sons that is to say Elam Assur Arphaxad Lud and Aram of whom there is no issue on Record in holy Scripture but onely of Arphaxad and Aram And of these two there are but four sonnes given to Aram viz Uz Hul Gether and Mesech and but one to Arphaxad which was Selah To Selah was born Heber to Heber Phales the Ancester of Abrabam and Ioktan the father of those thirteen sonnes whose names we shall rehearse hereafter if occasion be From Elam who is first named did descend the Elamites a people bordering on the Medes and therefore oft-times joyned together in the Scriptures as Go up O Elam besiege O Media Es 21. v. 2. And all the Kings of Elam all the Kings of the Medes Ier. 25. v. 25. And in the second of the Acts Parthians and Medes and Elamites march in rank and file as being Nations bordering upon one another The principall City of this people was called Elymais mention whereof is made in the second of Maccab. cap. 6. v. 2. Sufficiently famous for the rich and magnificent Temple which was there consecrated to Diana A City seated on the banks of the River Eulaeus and neighbouring close to Susiana which therefore is sometimes included in the name of Elam as Dan. 8. ver 2. I was saith he 〈…〉 not taken for the Province of the 〈…〉 but as it gave denomination unto all these Nations whom they after mastered 〈…〉 of Sem is Assur of whom there is no question made amongst the Learned but 〈…〉 was the Father of the Assyrians called Assyres in some old Greek Writers Not of the whole 〈◊〉 of that great and unwieldy Empire who sometimes generally passe by the name of Assyâ—â—â— but of the people of Assyria strictly and properly so called as it denotes the Country 〈…〉 the Regall City of that Empire which after was called Adiabene Iuxta hunc Circuicum Adiabene Assyria priscis temporibus vocata as in Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 33. Arphaxad comes next after Assur and him Iosephus makes to be the Father of the Chaldaeans called antiently Arphaxadaeâ— if he tell us true But others tells us and that more probably perhaps that he planted in that part of Assyria which was first called Arphaxitis afterwards Arrapachitis by which name it occurreth in the Tables of Ptolomie Lud the fourth son is generally said to be the Father of the Lydians a people of Asia the lesse the names of Lud and Lydi or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grecians call them being much alike And it is possible enough that some of the posterity of this Lud might afterwards settle in those parts and call the Country by the name of Lud their common Ancestor as the posteritie of Abraham took unto themselves the name of Hebrews from Heber one of the Progenitors of their father Abraham But that Lud should in person go so far from the rest of the sonnes of Sem I cannot easily imagine For Aram the fift and last as they stand in order of the Text sets himself down close by his Brethren in the Land of Syria which in the Hebrew is called Aram and from thence the name of Aramites was given to the Inhabitants of it Of which and of the severall Provinces which were hence denominated we shall hereafter speak more fully when we come to Syria Onely take now this testimony and acknowledgment from the pen of Strabo Quos nos Syros vocamus ipsi Syri Aramenios Arameos vocant Those saith he which we now call Syrians do call themselves Arameans or Aramentans In and about the same parts did the four Sons of Aram set themselves and their Families Uz in that part of Syria which is called Syria Damascena or Aram Dammesek the building of the great Citie of Damascus being generally ascribed unto him and the Land of Uz bordering South upon Damascus taking denomination from him The like did Hul or Chul the next son of Aram whom both Josephus and St. Hierome setle in Armenia or Aramenia as in Strabo And that not improbably considering that there is a Region in Armenia which Stephanus calls Cholobetene and divers Cities in that tract which still preserve the Radicals of Hul or Chul as Cholus Cholnata Cholimna Colsa and Colana whereof mention is made in the Tables of Ptolomie For Gether the third son of Aram it is not yet agreed on where to find his dwelling Josephus contrary to all reason placeth him in Bactria and Mercer with as little in Caria a Province of the lesser Asia and Acarnania of Greece Junius sets him down in the Province of Cassiotis and Seleucis neer his Father Aram where Ptolomie placeth Gindarus and the Nation called by Plinie Gindareni Bochartus on the banks of the River Centrites which divides Armenia from the Carduchi as it is in Xenophon Which River if it were called originally Getri as he conjectureth it might be the controversie were at an end But being that we find in Ptolomie a City of Albania which bordererh on Armenia called Getara and a River of the same Country called Getras I see no cause why we should seek further for the seat of Gether though the Greek Copies more subject to corruption in the times of ignorance than the Latin were insteed of Getara read Gagara But if this be too far to set him we shall find Mas or Mesch the last Son planted neerer hand even in the Northern part of Syria towards Mesopotamia neer the Hill called Masius at the foot whereof there is a people which Stephanus calls Masieni and thereabouts a River which in Xenophon is named Masca Both which do evidently declare from what root they come Come we next to the second branch of the house of Sem derived from Arphaxad whom we left setled in the Region of Arrapachitis in or neer Assyria Not far from which in Susiana a Province of the Persian Empire there is a Citie of chief note called Sela mention of which is made both in Ptolomies Tables and the 23 Book of Ammianus Marcell nus Adde unto this the autoritie of Eustathius Antiochenus who briefly thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The People of Susiana came from Sala But this as I conceive must be understood onely of that part of this people which lived in and about the Citie of Sela and not of the whole Nation of the Susians or Susiani which borrowed their nomination from another root To Sela was born Heber from whom the people of the Hebraei or Hebrews do derive their name And to him Phaleg his
Haven-town not far from Bizantium which Plinie Ptolomie and Mela call Athyras A River and Town called Tyras in the Province of Moesia bordering next to Thrace whereof most of all the old Geographers have taken notice and finally the Thracians calling their God Mars by the name of Thuras Not to say any thing of Tereus Therops and some others of the Kings of Thrace whose names come very neer unto that of Thyras as the first founder of their Nation Thus have we seen che severall Generations and Disperâ—ions of the Sonnes of Noah so far forth as their names are registred in holy Scripture these being the Heads and Leaders of those severall Tribes which joyned together in the project of the building of Babel and afterwards dispersed themselves as before was shewn But that no more than these I mean Heads of Families descended in so long a time from the loyns of Noah that they should have towards the new peopling of the world in an hundred years for so long it must be at least from the Flood to the building of Babel no more than sixteen sonnes in all and ten of those sixteen go childless also to the grave is not a thing to be imagined Nor is it to be thought that all the people which were born since the Flood till then could meet together at one place as by inspiration or being met would joyn together in a work of so little profit or that if Noah or Sem had been there amongst them they would not have disswaded them from that foolish enterprize And therefore I should rather be of their opinion which think that Noah fixed himself in those parts which lay neerest to the place where the Ark took land and having planted as far Eastward as he thought convenient sent out the surplusage of his people under the Conduct of one or more of these Undertakers directing them perhaps to the Land of Shinaar where himself had dwelt before the Flood Where being come and destitute of graver and more sober counsells they fell upon that vain attempt which became their ruin and made them scatter and disperse themselves into so many Companies For in my minde Sir Walt. Ralegh pleads the point exceeding strongly that it must needs be that Noah was setled in the East and had well peopled all those parts which lay neerest to him before he sent this Troop abroad upon new discoveries For being it is expresly said in holy Scripture that as they went from the East they found a plain in the Land of Shinaar it must needs follow without controversie that they came from the East Countreys into Shinaar or Babylonia and not from any part of Armenia as the Vulgar opinion is which lay North thereof Now that the Countreys whence they came were not left utterly desolate upon this remove but very sufficiently provided both of men and Cities appeareth by those huge Armies which Zoroaster the King of Bactria and Staurobates King of the Indians were able to bring into the field Of whom the first being invaded by Ninus the Assyrian Monarch encountred him with an Army of 400000. fighting men the other on the like occasion out-vied Semiramis for numbers and yet her Army did consist as we read in Diodorus Siculus of three millions and an half of men besides 10000. armed Waggons whereof if we believe but the third part it may serve to prove that the East must needs be planted before this Expedition towards Babylonia For considering that Ninus the husband of Semiramis was but the third in descent from Nimrod that iâ— to say the sonne of Belus the sonne of Nimrod it had been a most impossible thing that such a vast increase should be made onely out of Colonies in so short a time as needs must be between the planting of the Countreys before specified and these two great Actions unless God raised them out of stones or by some such miracle to abate the pride of these Usurpers over other Nations Without a miracle of this nature which I conceive no wise man would expect to find it is I say a thing impossible that Staurobates should exceed Semirames in number of men as Diodorus saith he did he being but a Castling of a second Swarm and she the great Commandress of that part of the world from whence he came upon a second or a third Plantation Add unto this that those who have recorded the Acts of Alexander the great assure us that he found more Cities and sumptuosities in that little Kingdome of Porus which lay side by side to the East of the River Indus than in all his other travells and undertakings And this may serve instead of a further evidence that the East Countreys were not planted after this dispersion but built and peopled and reduced under forms of Government as soon as any in the World Nor know I else where to finde either Noah himself or Sem and Japhet unless they staid behind with their Father Noah or were disposed of by themselves in their severall quarters there being none of those though most diligent men who have writ of the Plantation of the World upon this dispersion that either speak of any Nations planted by them or of their setling in the Colonies of any one of their descendants Which is to me a very strong Argument that they came not with the rest to the plains of Shinaar but tarried still in those habitations wherein God had placed them Against this I can see but two Objections of any moment one from the Text the other from an old Tradition amongst the Jews That from the Text is gathered from those words of Moses where having made his Catalogue of the Families of the Sonnes of Noah he adds And by these were the Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood Gen. 10. v. ult But these words as I take it do relate onely unto that division which was made upon occasion of the confusion of Languages when they were forced to give over their work and sort themselves into severall Companies and not to such Plantations as were made before who being all of one tongue though in divers dwellings could not be looked upon as severall and divided Nations For the Tradition of the Jews t is this that from the beginning of the world to the building of Babel that language which in after-times was called the Hebrew was the common language of Mankinde and that it did continue uncorrupt in the house of Eber whence it had the name because he joyned not with the rest in that proud and ungodly undertaking Hence it may possibly be objected that if there were any others of the off-spring of Noah which came not with the rest to the plains of Shinaar and consequently had no hand in that vain attempt they could not come within the curse of confounded Languages but must needs speak the Hebrew Tongue as well as those descended of the loyns of Heber But against this Tradition and the consequents of
clarius faceret spersa congregaret imporia ritus mollieret tot populâ—â—um disâ—ordes 〈◊〉 as sermonis commercio ad calloquia distraeheret humamitati hominem daret Italy saith he the Parent and withall the Foster-Child of all other Nations was elected by the providence of the Gods to make if possible the very Heavens themselves more famous to gather the scattered Empires of the World into one body to temper the barbarous Rites of uncivilized people to unite the disagreeing languages of so many men by the benefit of one common tongue and in a word to restore man to his humanity A very high Enconâ—ion doubtless and yet not much more than the place deserver with reference to the times when the Author lived The people antiently and to this day they still partake somewhat of those qualities were wary of behaviour sparing of expence and most greedy of glory according unto that of Tully Semper appetentes gloriae praeter cesterâ—s nationes sunt Romani by which he doth not mean those onely who lived within the wallâ— of the Citie of Rome but also their Italian neighbours and associates Romans by privilege and freedom though not by birth They have twice given the Law to the fairest and most puissant parts of the World once by their Valour when the greatest part of the then known World was brought under the obedience of the State of Rome the standing body of whose Armies was principally compounded of Italian bands And Secondly by their Wit by which they have subdued a great part of Christendens to the obedience of the Pope and Court of Rome the standing body of whose Counsell though he have Ministers of all tempers and motions do specially consist of Italian Heads In former times here lived the renowned Captains Camillus the Swoâ—d and Fabius Maximus the Suckler of Rome the two Scipioes one of which subdued Africk and the other Asia Pompey the great who extended the Roman Empire Eastwards to the banks of Euphrates Caesar the greater of the two enlarging it Westward to the British and the Belgick Ocean besides infinite others of less note in respect of these though most deserving in themselves Here flourished also the famous Orators Cicero Hortensius and Antoâ—iâ—s the renowned Historians Livie Tacitus and Salâ—stius the memorable Poets Virgil Ovid Caâ—ullus Tibullus and Propertiâ—s Plantus and Terence the Comedians the Satynists Horace Jâ—â—vanal and Persius So equally were they favoured both by More and the Muses that it is not easie to determine whether they were most eminent in Aâ—â—s or Arms. What men of speciall eminence it hath since produced we shall see hereafter when we are come to take a view of Italy as it stands at present and to that place we shall deâ—er our Observations of the Rivers Air and disposition of the soyl with such other particulars as have received little or no alteration in the change of times Italy was antiently divided as most Countries else into Tribes and Nations as the Latines Sabines Tuscans Saâ—nites Campans Picentini Picâ—â—i Ligures Tareâ—tim Lucani and others of inferiour note whom we shal meet with in the description of those several States into which it doth now stand divided But all those Nations being severally vanquished by the Roman â—â—issance and made up into one body whereof Rome was the head it pleased Angustus to divide it into eleven Regions us before was said that is to say Liguria Hetruria Latium Campania â—lambria Samniâ—m Picennâ—â— Gallia Italia Transpadaâ—â— Venetia and Histria In the time of the Emperor Antoninus the Provinces of Italy were increased to sixteen the bounds of the former Region being somewhat altered and the three Iles of Scicilie Corsica and Sardinia with the two Rhetias first and second added to the number But being that this distribution received some change in the time of Constantine the Great who altering both the names and bounds of the former Provinces and adding one more to them made 17 in all that is to say Tuscia and Umbria a Picenunt Suburbicarium 3 Campania 4 Apulia and Calabria 5 Valeria 6 Samnium 7 Lucania and the Brutii 8 Sicilie 9 Corsica and 10 Sardiniâ— which made up the praefecture of the City of Rome 11 Flaminia and Picenum Annonâ—rium 12 Venetiâ— 13 Aentilia 14 Liguria 15 Alpes Castiae 16 Rhaetia prima and 17 Rhaetia secunda which made up the Diocess of Italy properly and especially so called whereof Millain was the first Meâ—ropolitan Citie Aquile 〈◊〉 afterwards The Language heretofore was divers according to the several Provinces and people of it In Apulia they used the Mesapian tongue in that which is now called Calabria they spake the Greek in Hetruria they used the Tuscan and the Latin in Latium which last so altered in short time by reason of the commerce they had with the conquered Nations that the Articles of the Peace made between the Romans and Carthaginians at the expulsion of the Tarquins could not be understood as Polybius saith by the best Antiquaries of his time And yet the time between the making of those Articles and the time of Polybius who was Contemporary with Scipio Africanus there passed not above 300 years That the Latin tongue was afterwards at any time spoke generally in all parts of the Roman Empire or of Italy it self as I see some hold I can by no means be perswaded it being by speciall favour granted to the Ciâ—â—ans dwelling but an hundred miles from the walls of Rome that they should use the Roman language which had been a meer mockery and no mark of favour at all if these Italian people dwelling out of Latium had used it formerly And yet this hapned not above 140 years before the times of the Emperors at what time the Romans were Lords of Italy Sicilie Sardinia Corsica and great part or Spain And though the Latin tongue in succeeding times came to be understood in most parts of Italy by reason of the Roman Colonies which were planted amongst them being in all no fewer than 150 and their continuall resort to Rome on their severall businesses it being a great point of the Roman State not only to have their Laws written and judgment pronounced by the Praetors for the severall Provinces in the Latin only but to give Audience in the open Senate to none who came thither from the subject Nations save only in the Latin tongue their own proper language Yet for all this it never grew to such extent to be the Language of the whole Empire no nor of Italy it self no more than the English tongue is naturall or nationall to the Welch or Irish though it be generally understood for the very same reasons by all of the better sort both in Wales and Ireland In which regard I am not of their opinion who think that the Italian as the French and Spanish are nothing but corruptions of the Latin tongues occasioned by the inundations of the barbarous Nations But rather that the Latin words which occur
and Irene these two last Provinces only were assigned to the Constant inopolitans the rest to Charles and his Successors both outed of their severall parts by the prevailing Saracens under the conduct of Sabba and other successive 〈◊〉 These partly dispossessed by the Emperour Otho the first and his Almain forces and they again expelled by the Greeks and Saracens joyning together against them as a common Enemy who afterwards held bitter wars against one another for the sole command During these wâ—rs it happened that one Drangot a Gentleman of Normandy having in the presence of Duke Robert the Father of William the Conqueror slain one Repostel a Gentleman of like quality to avoid the justice of the Prince and the practices of Repostels kindred fled into this Countrey attended by such of his followers as either did depend upon his fortunes or had been medlers in the Fray Where being come the Duke of Benevent Vicegerent to the Eastern Emperor took them into pay Their entertainment being bruited in Normandy and a report raised withall that the Greeks hearkened after men of valour and action caused many private Gentlemen to pass over the Alpes and there to hew themselves out a more prosperous fortune than formerly they had injoyed The fortunate success of which last Adventurers drew thither also Tancred the Lord of Hauteville who with his twelve sonnes came into Apulia Ao. 1008. and in short time not only drove the Saracens thence but the Grecâ—ans also as men that had broke Covenant with them in the division of the Bootie For William the sonne of Tancred combining with Melorco Governour of Apulâ—a for the Greek Emperour and with the Princes of Capua and Salerâ— men of power and honour for the conquest of Sicil which the Saracens then wholly held agreed amongst themselves to divide the places conquered by them into four equall parts one for each Adventurer But when the Saracens were driven out Melorco having new supplies sent him out of Greece seized on the possession of the whole Island in the Emperors name Which injury William cunningly dissembled till Melorco's Forces were dispersed and then he suddenly set upon him first took the City of Melsi and after by degrees most of the other Towns and places which the Greeks held in Italie of which both he and his Successors kept possession by the Title of Dukes of Calabria only Of these though all of eminent vertue there were two besides this William of speciall fame 1. Robert Guâ—scard the third sonne of Tancred the most valiant Captain of his time and chief establisher of the Normans power in Italie to which he added in conclusion the Isle of Sicil together with the citie of Naples it self and all the Lands which lie betwixt it and Rome 2. Bohemund the eldest sonne of this Robert who going with Godfrey of Bovillon and others of the Western Christians to the Holy Land was for his signall merits invested with the Kingdom of Antioch inherited by his children after his decease But to proceed this Guiscard at his death but not without some wrong to the children of his Brother William whom he had dispossessed of all by the Popes Authority gave Sicil with the title of Earl to his sonne Rogero and his estates in Italy to his other sonne William who going to Constantinople to mary with the Emperors daughter was outed of his part by his brother Roger made not long after by the Pope the first King of this Familie The Kings of Naples of the Norman Line 1125. 1 Roger Earl of Sicil created by Pope Anacletus 2d. King of both the Sicilies at the Town of Benevent which City in requitall of so great a favour he restored again unto the Church from which it had been taken after the first Donation of it by the German Emperors 24. 1149. 2 William the sonne of Roger who to assure himself of his Kingdoms was content to take them as a gift from the hands of Pope Adrian the 4th to be holden for ever in Fee of the Church of Rome 21. 1170. 3 William II. sonne of the former William who left a daughter called Constance who became a Nun. 26. 1196. 4 Tancred the base sonne of William the 2d. excluded his Sister from the Crown but was sententially deposed by Pope Celestine the 3d. who had an aim to get the Kingdom for himself But when he saw that Tancred was too strong for him out of meer spight to be defeated of his purpose he called in the Germans the antient Enemies of his See and gave the Lady Constance then almost fifty yeers of age in mariage unto Henry the 6th 2. The German Line 1198. 5 Henry the sixt of that name Emperor and Duke of Schwaben succeeded on his mariage with the Lady Constance 4. 1202. 6 Frederick sonne of the Emperor Henry and Queen Constance crowned at the age of three yeers afterwards Emperor by the name of Frederick the 2d. He had to wife the daughter of John di Brenn the titulary King of Hierusalem of which the Kings of Naples have ever since had the title of Kings and in the rights of this Kingdom the Kings of Spain 125â— 7 Conrade the sonne of Frederick King of Naples and Sicil as also Emperour and Duke of Snevia or Schwaben poisoned as it was conceived by his base brother Manfred 4. 1254. 8 Munfroy or Manfred base sonne of Frederick and Duke of Benevent first governed the Kingdom as Protector unto Conradine the sonne of Conrade but after took it to himself against the will of Pope Urban the 4th who being weary of the Germans called in Charles Duke of Anjou and Earl of Provence brother to Lewis the 10th of France it being usuall with the Popes as Machiavel very well observeth to call new men into Italie and stir up new wars for their own ambition not suffering any to possess that long which themselves through their weakness could not hold and practising the over-throw of those very men whom themselves had raised to power and greatness The French Line 1261. 9 Charles Earl of Anjou and Provence overcame King Manfred and was after crowned by Pope Urban the 4th who conditioned with him that neither he nor his Successors should assume the Empire and that they should pay fifty thousand Crowns per annum as a Rent to the Church This Charles did also vanquish Conradine the sonne of Conrade the last of the royall house of Suevia whom he caused to be beheaded at Naples After which bloody Act neither he nor any of his posterity did either quietly or long injoy these Kingdoms For in his own time Peter King of Aragon clamed the Kingdom of Naples in right of Constance his wife the daughter of Manfred betwixt whom and Charles a single combat was appointed to be fought in Bourdeaux before King Edward the first of England to decide the Controversie But whilest Charles there expected him he seized on Sicil Ao. 1281. This Charles reigned three and twenty
into three small Provinces that is to say 1. Vall de Noto 2. Mazara and 3. Mona to which the Isles adjoyning may add a fourth 1. VALLIS DE NOTO taketh up the Eastern parts of the Iland The chief Cities of which are 1. Syracusa once the Metropolis of the whole Iland and a most flourishing Common-wealth It was as Tully reports the greatest and goodliest City of all that wene possess'd by the Greeks for situation very strong and of an excellent prospect from every entrance both by Sea and Land The Port thereof which had the Sea on both sides of it was for the most part invironed with beautifull buildings and that part of it which was without the City was on both sides banked up and sustained with very fair 〈◊〉 of Marble Nor was it only the goodliest City of the Greeks as Tullie tells us but the greatest also of the world as is said by Strabo by whom it is affirmed that without the outmost wall thereof for it was invironed with three walls it contained one hundred and eighty Furlongs in compass which of our measure cometh to eighteen miles it being compounded of four Towns made up into one that is to say Insula or the Isle Acradine Neapolis and Tyche besides the Fort called Hexapla which commanded the rest the greatness of all which the ruins and foundations of it do still demonstrate It standeth North of the Promontory called Pachiâ—us and was built by Archias of Corinth about the time of Jotham King of Judaâ— who being for an unnaturall rape committed on a young Gentleman banished his Countrey together with his Friend and Companion Miscellus consulted with the Oracle at Delphâ—s â—ow and in what place they should dispose of themselves The Oracle demanding whether they most affected wealth or health Miscellus answered health and Archias wealth and thereupon the former was directed to setle himself at Cortona in Italie and the other here Nor did the Oracle deceive him in his expectation this Town by reason of its beautifull and commodious Port proving of greatest trade and wealth next to Carthage it self in those times of the world It was the custom of this Town when any of the Citizens grew too potent to write his name 〈…〉 Olive leaf which being put into his hand did without more 〈◊〉 condemn him to banishment for five years and was called Petalisme from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying 〈◊〉 leafâ— yet could not this device so much secure them in the possession of their so much-defined Freedom but that this City fell oftener into the power of Tyrants than any one City in the world That which is now remaining of it is the work of Augustus who after a second destruction of it in the time of Pompey sent a Colonie hither and built upon the Isle and the parts neer to it But now the whole Isle Ortygia the Antients called it is taken up with a very strong Castle the whole City also being very well walled and held by a Garrison of Spaniards 2. Noto which giveâ— name to this whole Division A City which heretofore contended with Syracuse in point of greatness situate on a very high Rock unaccessible on all sides but by one narrow passage and having under the Cape of Passari a very fair and capacious Harbour the Key of Sicil on that side 3. Augusta fituate on the shore also and of so large a Haven that it could never be fortified 4. Castro Giovanni a Town of about four thousand Families situate in a wholesom air and a fruitfull soyl which they hold to be the very Navell and exact middle of the Iland It is also much prized for mines of most excellent Salt 5. Lentini famous for its Lake whose fishing is farmed for eighteen thousand Crowns yeerly It was antiently called Leontium and stood somwhat North of Syracusa with which continually in war either to preserve their own Liberties or get the Soveraignty of the other 6. Enna a midland Town whence Pluto is said to have ravished Proserpine In after times the dwelling of that Syrus Ennus who stirred up the Roman Slaves against their Lords and having broke open the common prisons and received all such as came unto him patched up an Army of forty thousand This war the Roman Writers call Bellum Servile ended at last but with no small difficulty by the valour and good fortune of P. Ruptlius 2. MAZARA containeth all the West part of the Iland The chief Cities whereof 1. Agrigentum now called Gergenti famous for Phalaris the Tyrant and his torturing Perillus in a Brazen Bull which he had made for the destruction and torture of others Of which aptly Ovid. Nec enim lex justior ulla est Quam necis Artifices arte perire sua Most just it is a man should be tormented With that which first his cruell wit invented It was said antiently of the people of this City that they built as if they should never dye and eat as if they were sure to live no longer 2. Palermo antiently called Panormus and then a Colony of the Phoenicians now the chief City of Sicil and the seat of the Spanish Vice-Roy Situate on the West Cape of the Iland looking towards Sardinia beautified with large streets delicate buildings strong walls and magnificent Temples It hath no naturall Port appertaining to it Drepanum serving antiently as the Port thereof but of late there is an Haven forced out by a mighty Pierre a work of vast expence and worthy of the greatness of Rome It is also an Arch-bishops See and an University 3. Monreal commonly called Morreal famous for the Church the Archbishops See It is called in Latine Mons Regalis 4. Drepanum now called Trapani situate on a Promontory thrusting into the Sea not far from that of Lilybaeum a Town well fortified in regard of the ill neighbourhood of the Moors who do often pillage on these coasts and having the command of a very fair Port. The Inhabitants of this place are said to be the best Seamen of Sicil. 5. Mazara which gives name unto all this Vale situate South of Lilybaeum and not far from Selinus 6. Eryx situate on a mountain over-looking the Sea said by the Antients to have took this name from Eryx the sonne of Venus slain here by Hercules memorable in those elder times for being the Seat of K. Acestes who so kindly entertained Aeneas and his wandring Trojans and a magnificent Temple in which Venus was worshipped who from hence was called Erycina as sive tu mavis Erycina ridens in the Poet Horace This was the last Town which the Carthaginians held in Sicil on the surrendry whereof by Amilcar the Father of Annibal at the end of the first Punick War it was conditioned by the Romans amongst other things that the Carthagintans should relinquish all the clame or title which they had to any part of this Iland which thereby fell unto the Romans the State of Syracusa excepted onely
night following to the great discredit both of his cause and person taken in Adulterie B. Bergomâ— a right antient Town but very well built seated upon the side of an hill and having a very large and beautifull Suburb the Territory whereof hath many rough and craggy Mountains the Spurs and excursions of the Alpes but withall many rich and delightfull valleys intermingled with them The people of this City and Countrey are said to speak the coursest language of any in Italie but to have as fine wits as the best Places of more inferiour note are 1. Este Ateste in most Latine Writers whence came the Family D'Este late Dukes of Ferrara 2. Liniacum a strong Garrison on the borders of Mantua as 3. Castel-France is towards Ferrara and 4. Seravall of most remarkableness for the great quantity of Armour which is therein made 5. Feltrie which still preserves its old name of Feltria This Province being antiently a part of the Cisalpine Gaule fell to the power of the Romans at the end of the second Punick war and being conquered by the Romans did continue theirs till first the Gothes and afterwards the Lombards became Masters of it Afterwards in the fall of the Kingdom of Lombardie it fell first unto the French and after to the German Empire from which by many mean conveyances it came at last to Othocarus King of Bohemia and Duke of Austria who bought the same of Ulricus the last Duke of Carinthia Upon a reconciliation made betwixt this Ottocarus and Rodolfus of Habspurg then Emperor of Germany it was added together with Austria itself unto the Patrimony of that Family sold by Duke Leopold the ninth to the Carraras then Lords of Padua in the ruin of whose Estate and Family it fell together with that City into the power of the Venetians who still hold the same 2. FRIULI hath on the East the River Formio which parteth it from Histria on the West Marca Trevisana and a branch of the Alpes on the North the main body of the Alpes which divide it from Germany and on the South the Adriatick Sea or Golf of Venice It is called Forum Julii in the Latine of which that of Friuli is derived from Julius Caesar who conducting his Armies this way built the Town so named and from that march of his the Alpes adjoyning as ' eis thought had the name of Juliae By some Writers of the middle times it is called Regio Aquilegiensis as appertaining for the most part by the gift of the Emperors Otho and Conradus to the Church or Patriarchate of Aquileia and by the common people of Venice for the most part Patria or the Countrey because from these parts they derive their first Originall The Countrey is in a manner square each side fifty miles watred with Rivers of 1. Hydra heretofore of no small fame for the silver Mines 2. Tiliaventum rising from the Alpes and navigable towards the later end of its course 3. Natisco neighboured by the famous City of Aquileia 4. Tiniavus mentioned in the first of the Aeneids which rising out of the Alpes and running under ground for the space of 330. furlongs breaketh out again and being branched into nine Channells falleth into the Gulf or Bay of Trieste By Niger it is now called Lareina but by Leender named Timavo The Soyl sufficiently fruitfull except towards the Alpes and yeelding a very pleasant Wine which Plinie did prefer before any in Italie Towns herein of most note and consequence 1 Aquileia or Aquilegia as some call it made the Metropolis first of the Province of Histria and Venetia by the Emperor Antoninus as afterwards of the whole Diocese of Italie by the Western Emperors Honoured in that regard with the seat of the Praefectus Praetorio and of his Vicarius or Lieutenant translated from Millaine to this Citie as the Gate of Italie by which the Barbarous Nations used to make their entrance never so like to be shut out as by the power aod presence of so great an Officer After his time and on this occasion the Bishop here of had the title of Patriarch And here the Patriachall See continued till the City was destroyed by Attila that furious Hun and then removed to Venice as the safer place and setled in the Isle of Grada yet so that the succeeding Bishops of Aquileia for they staied at Venice onely till the times were quiet c. do still retain the dignity and name of Patriarchs as well as those of Venice do and with better reason For besides the honour which it had in being made the seat of the Praefectus Praetorio it had been formerly more honoured with the residence of Augustus Caesar who here kept his Court whence it had the name of Roma altera or a second Rome and of Tiberius who here lived with Julia the daughter of the said Augustus before his comming to the Empire As for the City it self it is situate on the River Natisco but not well inhabited at the present partly because of the ill Air but principally by the ill neighbourhood of Venice attracting all Trade unto it self Most memorable in old story for enduring that famous siege against Maximinus for the safety of the Empire of Rome and her Emperours Maximus and Balbinus In whose cause the Citizens hereof were so resolutely faithfull that they bereaved the women willing to lose that invaluable ornament of their sex for the common good of the hair of their heads to make Bow-strings withall Nor did this pious constancie of theirs want an happy issue For they beheld the Tyrant headless under their walls slain by the hands of his own Souldiers and saw the Metropolis of the World preserved by their loyalty And yet the matter was not ended with the death of the Tyrant the Souldiers and people laying hands on his children also and putting all unto the sword Of which crueltie being asked the reason they returned this Answer that not a whelp was to be spared of so ill a litter none of the brood of such a Cur or in the language of the Author Pessimi Canis Catulus non est relinquendus 2 Trieste of old called Tergestum from whence a spacious Bay adjoyning had antiently the name of Sinus Tergestinus and is now called Golfo di Trieste The Bay replenished principally with the water of the River Timans which with many streams doth fall into it and is therefore by the inhabitants of that Golf or Bay called Fons maris as Polybius in Strabo telleth us The town of no greater Antiquitie than observation mentioned by Plinie and some others of the Antient Writers but not else considerable 3 Montfalcon famous for its medicinall Herbs 4 Porto Gruate an Haven-town as the name importeth 5 Concordia in former times of no small esteem but so demolished by Attila the Hunn that it is now nothing but a ruin 6 Utina or Uden the fairest and largest at this time of all the Province containing about
River Arno where it meeteth with Sâ—rchius did erect this Town In the distractions of the Empire it stood up for it self and grew so potent that at one time they waged war both with the Venetians and Genoese They were once Masters of Sardinia Corsica and the Baleares but finally being discomfited by the Genoese neer the Isle of Giglio by whom it was made free An o 1369 they submitted themselves to the protection of Charles the fourth Not long after it was taken by John Galeaze the first Duke of Millain An o 1404 by John Maria his sonne and successor sold unto the Florentines from whose command they freed themselves by a popular violence The Florentines upon this besieged them and brought them to such extremity of hunger that they were ready to be starved Yet such was the humanity of the Besiegers that when they entred the Town every man carryed victuals in his hand instead of weapous to beget as it were new life in that rebellious people This victory the â—lorentines got by the valor and conduct of Sir John Hawkwood whom the Italians call Giovanni di Aguto who being first a Taylor in Essex afterwards served Edward the third in his French Wars where he was knighted And when upon the peace concluded after the battell of Poictiers he wanted employment he entered with his Regiment into Italie and put himself into the pay of the Florentines then in war with this City who for his valor have honoured him with a fair Tomb and Monument When Charles the 8th went into Italie the Pisans again revolted and were not without much labour and great charges reduced to their former obedience As for the City it self it is almost as big as Florence this being five miles in compass and that but six but very short of it in the numbers of people Florence being sayd to contain 90000 souls Pisa not a third part of that proportion yet it hath very good advantages to make it populous that is to say the publick Arsenal for Shipping an University for Students and the See of an Archbishop the Cathedrall Church of which is a very beautifull peece of work the Gates thereof are brass and the Steepl of it of such artificiall and exquisite building that it sheweth as if it were always falling But the unwholsomness of the Air over-ballanceth all these fair advantages The next place of importance within the Territory of this City is the Town and Haven of Ligorn Livornum it is called in Latin seated upon the influx of the River Arno well fortified against the Genoese by whom the Works were once slighted An o 1297. Upon a reconciliation made between those States it returned again to its old Masters And when the Pisans were sold over to the Florentines by the Duke of Millain Thomas Fregosa Duke of Genoa seized upon this place and sold it also to the same Chapmen for 120000 Ducats By the care of Duke Cosmo and his two sonnes it is much improved in strength and beautie and so well fortified that it is thought to be one of the strongest Cities in Christendom Cities I say and not Castles the Castles of Stockholm in Sweden and that of Millain being held to be the strongest Forts in the World After this comes in 3 Peira Sancta on the West side of the Arnus a place of great consequence and strength one of the best peeces of the Pisans when a Free-estate against their old enemies the Genoese towards whom it standeth 4 Terraciola Eastward of Ligorn neighboured with a capacious Bay on the Mediterranean 5 Castellona an Episcopall See and 6 Porto Berrato bordering on the Signeury of Siena now nothing but a station for ships nor much used for that but heretofore beautified with one of the best Cities of the Tuscans called Populonia 3 The third Member of this Dukedom is the City and Territory of SIENA lying betwixt the Estate of Pisa and the land of the Church The City sayd to be built by Brennus who did there put his old sickly men to sojourn and called it Sena the Birth-place of Aeneas Sylvius called afterwards Pope Pius the second of Francis Picolominy after Pope Pius the third and of Sixtus hence surnamed Senensis the greatest Scholar of the three if not of all the age he lived in By Antonine in his Itinerarium called Senae Juliae to difference it perhaps from another of that name near the Adriatick called Sena Gallica Built neer the Spring or Fountain of the River Arbia now better known by the name of Treissa but built which makes the situation of it exceeding pleasant upon an high hill on which there is a Castle that commands the Town the streets thereof even and very plain centring in a large and spacious Market-place near to which is a very fair Palace used for a Senate-house in the Free-Commonwealth and on the South side near the walls the Cathedrall Church reputed to be one of the fairest in Italie having only one door into it to which there is an ascent by fair Marble stairs of which the Pavement is made also Having long held the Gibelline or Imperiall faction it bought its liberty at an easie rate of the Emperour Rodolphus the first After it fell into the hands of the Spaniards then of the French and finally was made over to Cosmo de Medices Duke of Florence by the King of Spain An o 1558 in consideration of the great charge he had been at to beat out â—he French and other services expected for the time to come Cosmo being thus invested in it deprived the people of their Arms altered the Government and was the first Prince who had the absolute command of it after the constitution of their Common-wealth neither the French nor Spaniards ruling here as Lords but onely as called in by their severall factions and suffered to have Garrisons in it of their own people by the agreement of their party And to say truth it stood with good reason of State that the Florentine should use all his wit to get this City and having got it use all meanes to assure it to him For besides that great accession which it made unto his Estate by adding thereunto the yearly income of a hundred and fifty thousand Ducats above all expences it was also to be carefully looked on as a Rivall which had long time stood in competition with it for the soveraign command of Tuscanie Besides there had been mighty animofities between the Cities the Florentine being always of the Guelfes and the Siennoys of the Gibelline faction A faction at last so generally distated in all Italie and so abhominable to the Popes that on an Ashwednesday when the Pope being to cast Ashes on the heads of the Cardinals was to have sayd Memento O homo quod cinis es in cinerem converteris according to the usage of the Church of Rome seeing a Gibelline amongst them he forgot himself and sayd thus unto him Memento O homo
Lake About this Lake are many fair houses and handsom villages which do much beautifie the place and in the middest thereof an Iland called Comacina in which there was a strong Fortress in former times wherein the Longobardian Kings did preserve their treasurie 3 Lodi or Landa in the Latin seated in a prosperous soyl and blessed with a painfull and industrious people 4 Novara situate upon an high hill in which live many antient and noble Familyes of right belonging to the Spaniard as Dukes of Millain but at the time when Maginus wrote consigned over upon some conditions to the Dukes of Parma But this Town though it appertained to the Dukes of Millain is situate within the Dukedom of Montferrat and so is 5 Alexandria also once a poor small village known by the name of Roboretum from a Grove of Oakes adjoyning to it afterwards being raised to its present greatness by the joynt purses of the Citizens of Cremona Millain and Placentia in honour of the Emperor it was called Caesarea But in short time these people siding with the Popes drew on themselves the anger of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who having in a manner desolated the City of Millain the people thereof at the destruction of the City retired to this Town calling it in honour of Pope Alexander the third whose part they then took against the Emperor by the name of Alexandria which it still retaineth It is now the strongest Out-work of the vvhole Duchy well fortified against all assaults amd batteries which may come from France 6 Marignan situate South from Millain remarkable for the great defeat here given the Switzers by King Franci◠the first and now the title of a Marquess 7 Cremona situate on the Banks of the River Po in a very rich and healthy soyl an antient Colony of the Romans but a beautifull City to this day and of such fidelity to its Prince that it hath got the name of Cremona the faithfull It was built in the first year of the second Punick War and burnt to the ground by Vespasians souldiers after the defeat of Vitellius his forces which defeat was given under the walls of this Town For when Antonius Vespasians Generall first after his victory entered into it he went into a Bath to wash away the sweat and blood from his body where finding the water somewhat too cold he sayd by chance that it should anon be made hotter Which words the souldiers applying to their greedy desires set fire on the Town and spent four days in the Pillage of it By the encouragement of Vespasian it was again re-edified and is now famous for the high Tower from which grew the by-word Una turris in Cremona unus Petrus in Roma 〈◊〉 Portus in Ancona 8 Millain a fair Town once the Metropolis of the Province of Liguria and afterwards of the whole Diocese of Italy called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by S. Athanasius At this time the fairest and the biggest of all Lombardy having a Castle so strongly fortified with naturall and artificiall Ramparts that it is deemed impregnable A City very populous containing 200000 persons and of great Trade here being private shops equalling the publike store-houses of other places and the people are so rich that the wise of every Mechanick will flaunt it in her silks and taffatyes This City is sayd to have been built by the Galls 359 years before Christ It is seven miles in circuit and honoured with an University wherein flourished Hermolaus Barbarus Caelius Rhodiginus and Cardanus seated it is in as commodious a soyl as any in Italy environed with water by two great channels the one drawn from the River of Addua the other from the Tesis or Athesis which run hard by it and convey all things to the City in so great abundance that things there are at very cheap rates and adde much also to the industry of the inhabitants in the vending and dispersing of their Manufactures which are of great esteem in most parts of the World The buildings of the City generally are fair and stately but three especially commended for their magnificence that is to say the Castle the Hospital and the Cathedral For matter of Religion it doth use to glory that Barnabas the Apostle was its first Bishop and St. Ambrose one of his Successors that formerly their Bishop stood on even terms with the Popes of Rome and their Church as much privileged as that and that since those times they have given unto the world four Popes that is to say Alexander the 2 Urban the 3 Celestine the 5 and of late Gregory the 14. As for the fortunes of it it continued in the power of the French and the Kings of Italy of that Nation from the destruction of the Lombards till the Kingdom of Italy fell from the house of Charles the Great and came at last into the hands of the German Emperors Under them it continued till the time of Frederick Barbarossa from whose obedience it revolted An o 1161 in behalf of Pope Alexander the third the Emperor divers times defacing the City and the people stil ministring fresh occasions of dislike and quarrel Beatrix the wife of Frederick comming to see the City without any ill intentions to it was by the irreverent people first imprison'd and then most barbarously used For setting her upon a Mule they turned her face towards the tail which they made her hold instead of a bridle and having thus shewed her up and down the City they brought her unto one of the gates and there kicked her out To revenge this horrible affront the Emperor besieged and forced the Town adjudging all the people to dye without mercy but such as would undergo this ransom Between the buttocks of a skittish and kicking Mule there was fastned a bunch of figs one or more of which such as desired to live must snatch out with their teeth their hands bound behind them as the Mule was pacing thorow the streets A condition which most of them accepted and thereupon gave occasion to the custom used among the Italians who when they intend to scof or disgrace a man are wont to put their thumb betwixt two of their fingers saying Ecco la Fico a disgrace answerable to that of making horns in England to him that is suspected to be a Cuckold The City after this rebelling and again taken by the Emperor he levelled it unto the ground pulled down the walls and caused the whole ground on which it stood to be ploughed up and sowed with salt seeming to threaten by that Emblem that it should never be re-edified Which notwithstanding the City was not only new built again but the Pope with the help of these Millanese and the Venetians had at last the better of the Emperor whom he enjoyned after a vile submission to undertake a journey to the Holy-land Freed from the Emperor they began to live after the form of Republick in which condition they continued
about 56 years when Otho surnamed Visconti quasi bis Comes because he was Lord of Millain and Angerona assumed the title to himself and setled it upon that Family after his decease but so that for the most part they were under the command of the German Emperors and to them accomptable Galeaz the first so called as some write because the Cocks crowed more than ordinarily at the time of his birth added to the Estate hereof the Cities of Crema and Cremona In the person of John Galeazo it was advanced unto a Dukedom by the Emperor Wenceslaus for 100000 Crowns in ready money which John increased so mightily in wealth and power that he had 29 Cities under his command and dyed as he was going to Florence to be crowned King of Tuscany To him succeeded John Maria and after him his brother Philip who in his life had maried his only daughter but illegitimate to Francisco Sforza the best Commander of his times and at his death appointed Alfonso of Aragon King of Naples for his heir and successor Before Alfonso could take any benefit of this designation Sforza was quietly possessed both of the City and the loves of the people This Francis Sforze I must needs crave leave to tell this story was the sonne of James Altenduto a plain Country man who going to his labour with his Ax in his hand whilst a great Army was passing by him compared the misery and unpleasingness of his present condition with those fair possibilities which a martiall life did present uuto him And being in a great dispute with in himself what were best to do he presently fell upon a resolution of putting the question to the determination of the Heavenly Providence by casting his Ax unto the top of the tree next to him conditioning with himself that if the Ax came down again he would contentedly apply himself to his wonted labour but if it hung upon the boughs he would betake himself unto higher hopes and follow the Army then in passage He did so the Ax hung upon the boughs he went after the Army and thrived so well in that imployment that he became one of the best Captains of his time surnamed de Cotoniogla from the place of his dwelling and Sforza from the greatness of his noble courage By Antonia the daughter of Francis di Casalis the Lord of Cortona he was the father of this Francis Sforze whom now we speak of who was so fortunate a Commander in the wars of Italy that to oblige him to his party Philip the Duke of Millain bestowed his daughter upon him and thereby a fair title to this great Estate which he successively obtained against all pretenders In his line it continued till the coming of Lewis the 12 of France the sonne of Charles and nephew of Lewis Dukes of Orleans by Valentine the sole daughter of John Galeaze the first Duke who getting Duke Lodowick Sforze betrayed by the Switzers into his hands carryed him prisoner into France and possessed himself of the estate Outed not long after by the confederate Princes of Italy who were jealous of so great a neighbor he left the cause and quarrel unto Francis the first his next successor in that Kingdom in pursuance whereof it is sayd by Bellay a French Writer that the use of Muskets was first known But Francis being in conclusion taken at the battell of Pavie and carryed prisoner into Spain for his release was forced to release all claim unto this estate A release long before endeavouced by some French Politicians because the pretensions hereunto had brought such damage to that Crown and no less eagerly opposed by Chancellor Prat on the same reason that Scipio Nasica did oppose the destruction of Carthage that is to say because it did not only keep the French Nation in continual discipline of War but served for a purgation of idle and superfluous people yet notwithstanding this release Francis renewed the War again and laid siege to Millain then under the command of Antonio di Leva and a Spanish Garrison during vvhich vvar the vvretched Millanese endured the vvorst of miseries For first the Governour under colour of providing pay for his souldiers got all the victuals of the town into the Castle to be sold again at his ovvn price vvhich many of the poorer sort not able to pay perished of famin in the streets And on the other side his souldiers which were quartered in most parts of the City used when they wanted mony to chain up their Hosts and then to put them to a ransom Such as upon this barbarous usuage fled out of the City had their Goods confiscate on which there followed such a disconsolate desolation that the chief streets were over-grown with netles and brambles In this miserable estate it continued till Charles the Emperor having totally driven out the French restored it to Francis Sforze brother to the last Duke Maximilian and sonne of that Ludowick who to advance himself unto this Estate had most improvidently taught the French the way into Italy But this Francis dying without issue and the house of the Sforze failing in him the Emperor entred on the Dukedom as right Lord thereof and left the same to his successors in the Realm of Spain This said we will sum up the whole story of this Estate in the ensuing Catalogue of The Lords and Dukes of Millain 1277 1 Otho Arch-bishop of Millain 1295 2 Matthew Brothers sonne to Otho confirmed in his command of Millain by Albertus the Emperor 1322 3 Galeaze Visconti sonne of Matthew disseized of his command by Lewis of Bavaria Emperor 1329 4 Actio Visconti sonne of Galeazo confirmed in his Fathers power by the same Lewis the Emperor 1339 5 Luchino Visconti brother to Galeaze 1349 6 John Visconti the brother of Luchino 1354 7 Galeaze II. sonne of Stephen the brother of John 1378 8 John Galeaze sonne of the first Galeaze created by the Emperor Wenceslaus the first Duke of Millain An. 1395. 1402 9 John Maria sonne of John Galeaze slain by the people for his horrible tyrannies 1412 10 Philip Maria the last of the Visconti which commanded in Millain a Prince of great power in swaying the affairs of Italie He died An o 1446 the Millanese for some years resuming their former liberty 1446 11 Francis Sforze in right of his wife Blanch the base daughter of Philip seconded by the power of the sword admitted Duke by the generall consent of the people of Millain one of the Knights of the noble Order of the Garter 1461 12 Galeaze Sforze a valiant but libidinous Prince cruelly murdered by his own Subjects 1477 13 John Galeaze Sforze privately made away as it was supposed by his Uncle Lodowick 1494 14 Lodowick Sforze who to secure himself of his ill-got Dukedom drew the French into Italic 1501 15 Lewis the 12 of France sonne unto Lewis Duke of Orleans and Valentina daughter to the first Duke of Millaine vanquished Ludowick
populous withall that once a Piemontese being demauded the extent of his Country made answer that it was a City of 300 miles compass The principall Cities of it are 1 Turin called of old Augusta Taurinorum because the head City of the Taurini once the inhabitants of this Tract from which Taurini it deriveth the name of Turin and not as some conceive from the River Duria on whose banks it standeth In this City is the Court and Palace of the Duke of Savoy who is the Lord of this Country the See of an Archbishop and an Universitie in which the renowned Scholar Erasmus to ok his degrees in Divinity It is situate on the River Po in a place very important for the guard of Italie for which cause the Romans sent a Colony hither and the Lombards made it one of theâ— four Dukedoms Adjoyning to it is a Park of the Dukes of Savoy watered with the Duria Sture and Po six miles in circuit full of Woods Lakes and pleasant Fountains which make it one of the sweetest situations in Europe 2 Mondent seated on the swelling of a little hill with very fair Suburbs round about it in one of which the Dukes of Savoy built a Church and Chappell to the blessed Virgin intended for the buriall-place of the Ducall Family It is the best peopled Town for the bigness of it of any in Italie 3 Augusta Iraetoria now called Aost situate in the furthest corner of Italy to the North and West 4 Vercelli a strong Tovvn bordering upon Millain to which it formerly belonged and was given first in Dower with Blanch the daughter of Philip Maria Duke of Millain to Amadee the third Duke of Savoy antiently the chief Town of the Libyci who together with the Salassi and Taurini were the old Inhabitants of this Countrey 5 Inurea called by Ptolomie Eporedia situate at the very jaws of the Alpes an Episcopall Citie 6 Nicaea or Nizze an Haven on the Mediterranean at the influx of the River Varus which divides it from Provence beautified with a Cathedrall Church the Bishops Palace a Monastery of Nuns and an impregnable Cittadel A place so naturally strong that when as yet the Fortifications were imperfect it resisted the whole Forces of Barbarossa the Turkish Admiral An. 1543 lying before it with a Navy of two hundred sayl and battering it continually with incredible fury First fortified by Duke Charles upon occasion of some words of the Duke of Burbon who passing this way with his Army Behold saith he a situation of which they know not the importance the Citadell being after added by Emanuel Philibert and garrisoned for the most part with 400 souldiers 7 Suse seated in the ordinary thorough fare betwixt France and Italy called of old Segovio and honoused in those times with a stately Sepulchre of K. Coctius King of the Allobroges one of the seven Marquisates in the middle times erected by the Emperor Otho 8 Pignarolle fortified with a Castle of great importance which commandeth all the adjoyning vallies 9 Quiers adorned vvith many goodly Churches fair Convents and noble Families 10 Ville Franche a place of great strength more towards the sea 11 Savillan seated in so pleasant a Country that Duke Emanuel Philibert had once a purpose to settle his abode in it and make it the chief of his Estate 12 Busque a Marquisate another of the seven erected for the sonnes of Waleran 13 Hereunto we may adde the City of Ast though properly within the limits of Montferrat antiently a Colony of the Romans and now to be compared for the greatness and beauty of her Palaces to the most stately Cities of Lombardy situate betwixt the two Rivers of Po and Tenarus very rich and populous Here is also in this Country the Marquisate of Saluzzes of the same erection as the former but a greater Estate the cause of so many differences betwixt France and Savoy The principall Town whereof is called also Saluzze from the Salassi questionless who dwelt hereabouts seated about the spring of the River Po reasonably big and fortified with a very large Castle fitted with rooms for all uses and for every season 2 Carmanlogla which gave name to that famous Captain who carried so great a sway in the Wars of Italie A Town so fortified and stored with all sorts of Ammunition that it is thought impregnable 3 Ravelle a well-fortified place 4 Doglian the thorow-fare for the greatest part of the trade which is driven betwixt Piemont and the River of Genoa The Arms hereof Argent a Chief Gules The antient Inhabitants of this Country were the Salassi Libyci and Taurini as before is said all vanquished by the Romans and their Country made a Province of that Empire by the name of the Province of Alpes Coltiae in the time of Nero of which Genoa was the Metropolis or principall City The present are descended for the most part of the Heruls who under the conduct of Odoacer conquered Italie whereof he was proclamed King by the Romans themselves but Odoacer being vanquished near Verona by Theodorick King of the Gothes the Heruli had this Country allotted to them by the Conqueror for their habitation They had not held it long when subdued by the Lombards of whose Kingdom it remained a part till given by Aripert the seventeenth King of the Lombards to the Church of Rome affirmed by some to be the first temporall estate that ever the Popes of Rome had possession of But lying far off aud the donation not confirmed by the Kings succeeding the Popes got little by the gift so that in the subverting of the kingdom of the Lombards it was at the devotion of the Kings of Italie of the house of Charles the Great and afterwards of his successors in the Empire by whom distracted into severall Estates and Principalities Thomas and Peter Earls of Savoy made themselves Masters of the greatest part of it by force of Arms the former in the year 1210 the later in the year 1256. Since that time the first sonne of Savoy is stiled Prince of Piemont The Marquisate of Saluzzes containing almost all the rest was added by the mariage of a daughter of this Marquisate with Charles Duke of Savoy An. 1481. Of which mariage though there was no issue vet the Savoyard alwayes held it as their own till the French upon as good a title possessed themselves of it Recovered by the Savoyard An. 1588 the Civil Wars then hot in France But finding that he was not able to hold it against Henry the fourth who looked upon it as a door to let his forces into Italie he compounded with him An. 1600. the Country of Bresse being given in exchange for this Marquisate Of which together with the residue of Piemont and some peeces of importance in the Dukedom of Montferrat that noble Family of Savoy doth now stand possessed The Armes of this Principality are Gules a Cross Argent charged with a Label of three points Azure 2 SAVOY strictly
Corn Wine and most delicate fruits and happily enriched with Meadows and most excellent Pastures which yeeld a notable increase of Cheese and Butter And in the Countrey about Sion they discovered in the year 1544 a Fountain of Salt and have also many hot Bathes and medicinall waters very wholsom Of Springs and River-water they are very destitute having scarce any but what they fetch from the Rhosne vvith a great deal both of charge and trouble the common people using snow-water for the most part for domestick uses which made one pleasantly observe that they pay there dearer for their water than they do for their Wine Cattell they have sufficient to serve their turn and amongst others a wild Buck equall to a Stag in bigness footed like a Goat and horned like a fallow Deer leaping with vvonderfull agility from one precipice to another and so not easily caught but in Summer time for then the heat of that season makes him blind It is divided into the Upper and the Lower Wallisland the Upper lying towards the Mountain de Furcken in the very bottom of the Valley and the Lower stretching out to the Town of Saint Maurice which is at the opening of the same the length of both said to be five ordinary daies journey but the bredth not answerable The Upper Wallisland containeth the seven Resorts of 1 Sion or Sedune 2 Leuck 3 Brig 4 Nies 5 Rawren 6 Sider 7 Gombes in which are reckoned thirty Parishes the Lower comprehending the six Resorts of 1 Gurdis 2 Ardoa 3 Sallien 4 Martinacht 5 Jutremont and 6 Saint Maurice in which are 24 Parishes The people in both parts said to be courteous towards strangers but very rough and churlish towards one another The severall Resorts before mentioned are named according to the names of their principall Towns which according to their reckoning are thirteen in number The chief of which are 1 Sedunum Sittim or Sion a Bishops See suffragan to the Metropolitan of Tarentuise the chief of all this little Country of no great beauty in it self but neat and gallant in respect of the Towns about it Situate in a Plain on the River of Rhosne under a Mountain of tvvo tops on the one of which being the lower is seated the Cathedrall Church and the Canons houses and on the other looking downwards with a dreadfull precipice a very strong Castle the dwelling place of the Bishop in the heats of Summer which being built upon an hill of so great an height and of so hazardous an ascent is impossible almost to be took by force the sharpness of the Rocks keeping it from the danger of assaults and the highness of the hill from the reach of Gun-shot 2 Marchinacht by Caesar called Octodurus and Civitas Valensium by Antoninus remarkable for its antiquity only 3 Saint Maurice or Saint Morits antiently Augaunum the Key of the whole Country but in Winter especially vvhen all the other passages are so frozen up that there is no other entrance but by the Bridge at this Town vvhich for that cause is very well manned and fortified to avoyd surprisall and therefore also chosen for the seat of the Governour of the Lower Wallisland This Country now called Wallisland is in most Latin Writers called by the name of Valesia but corruptly as I think for Valensia as the Dutch or English name for Wallinsland which name I should conceive it took from the Valenses the old inhabitants of this valley of vvhom Octodusus now called Marchinacht is by Antoninus made to be the Metropolis or principall City It was made subject to the Romans by Julius Caesar at such time as the Helvetians were conquered by him and falling with the Western parts of the Roman Empire unto Charles the great was by him given to Theodulus Bishop of Sion An. 805. Under his successors they continue to this very day but so as that the Deputies of the seven Resorts have not only voyces with the Canons in his Election but being chosen and invested into the place they joyn with him also in the Diets for choosing Magistrates redressing grievances and determining matters of the State The Lower Wallisland obeyeth the upper made subject by long War and the chance of Victory and hath no sway at all in the publick Government but takes for Law that which their Governours agree of The same Religion is in both being that of Rome For maintainance whereof they combined themselves with the seven Popish Cantons of Switzerland An. 1572 or thereabouts as also for their mutuall defence and preservation against Forein Enemies and keeping amitie and concord amongst one another 5. SWITZERLAND NExt unto Wallisland lyeth the Country of the SWITZERS having on the East the Grisons and some part of Tirol in Germany on the West the Mountain Jour and the Lake of Geneve which parts it from Savoy and Burgundy on the North Suevia or Scwaben another Province also of the upper Germany and on the South Wallisland and the Alpes which border on the Dukedom of Millain The whole Country heretofore divided into three parts onely that is to say 1 Azgow so called from the River Aaz whose chief Town was Lucern 2 Wislispurgergow so called from Wiflispurg an old Town thereof the chief City whereof is Bern. And 3 Zurichgow so named from Zurich both formerly and at this present the Town of most note in all this Tract but since the falling off of these Countries from the house of Austria divided into many Cantons and other members of which more anon It is wholly in a manner over-grown with craggy Mountains but such as for the most part have grassie tops and in their bottoms afford rich Meadows and nourishing pastures which breed them a great stock of Cattell their greatest wealth And in some places yeelds plenty of very good Wines and a fair increase of Corn also if care and industry be not wanting on the Husband-mans part but neither in so great abundance as to serve all necessary uses which want they doe supply from their neighbouring Countries And though it stand upon as high ground as any in Christendom yet is no place more stored with Rivers and capacious Lakes vvhich doe not onely yeeld them great aboundance of Fish but serve the people very vvell in the vvay of Traffick to disperse their severall Commodities from one Canton to another Of which the principall are Bodensee and the Lake of Cell made by the Rhene Genser see or the Lake of Geneve by the Rhosne Walldstet see and the Lake of Lucern made by the Russe Namonburger and Bieter sees by the Orbe and Zurich see by the River of Limat or Limachus It is in length two hundred and forty miles an hundred and eighty in bredth conceived to be the highest Countrey in Europe as before is sayd the Rivers which do issue from it running thorow all quarters of the same as Rhene thorough France and Belgium North Po thorough Italie to the South
which is called Vallage so named as I conceive from the River Vasle 5 Vitrey upon the confluence of the Sault and Marne the chief Town and Balliage of that part which is named Parthois Ager Pertensis in the Latine so called of 6 Perte another Town thereof but now not so eminent 7 Chaumont upon the Marre the chief Town of Bassigni and strengthned with a Castle mounted on a craggie Rock 1544. 9 Rbemes Durocortorum Rhemorum an Arch-Bishops See who is one of the Twelve Peers of France situate on the River of Vasle At this City the Kings of France are most commonly crowned that so they may enjoy the Vnction of a sacred Oil kept in the Cathedral Church hereof which as they say came down from Heaven never decreaseth How true this is may be easily seen in that Gregorie of Tours who is so prodigal of his Miracles makes no mention of it but specially for Argumentum ab autoritate negativè parum valet since the Legend informeth us that this holy Oil was sent from Heaven at the annointing of Clovis the first Christian King of the French Whereas Du. Haillan one of their most judicious Writers affirmeth Pepin the Father of Charles the great to have been their first annointed King and that there was none de la primiere lignee oinct ny Sacre à Rhemes ny alleiurs none of the first or Merovignian line of Kings had been annointed at Rhemes or elsewhere But sure it is let it be true or false no matter that the French do wonderfully reverence this their sacred Oil and fetch it with great solemnity from the Church in which it is kept For it is brought by the Prior sitting on a white ambling Palfrey and attended by his whole Convent the Arch-Bishop hereof who by his place is to perform the Ceremonies of the Coronation and such Bishops as are present going to the Church-dores to meet it and leaving for it with the Prior some competent pawn and on the other side the King when it is brought unto the Altar bowing himself before it with great humility But to return unto the Town it took this name from the Rhemi once a potent Nation of these parts whose chief City it was and now an University of no small esteem in which among other Colleges there is one appointed for the education of young English Fugitives The first Seminarie for which purpose I note this only by the way was erected at Doway An. 1568 A second at Rome by Pope Gregory the 13. A third at Valladolid in Spain by K. Phylip the second A fourth in Lovaine a Town of Brabant and a fifth here so much do they affect the gaining of the English to the Romish Church by the Dukes of Guise 10 Ligni upon the River Sault All these in Belgica Secunda or the Province of Rhemes In that part of it which belonged to Lugdunensis quarta the places of chief note are 1 Sens Civitas Senonum in Antoninus antiently the Metropolis of that Province by consequence the See of an Arch-Bishop also 2 Langres or Civitas Lingonum by Ptolomie called Audomaturum situate in the Confines of Burgundie not far from the Fountain or Spring-head of the Seine the See of a Bishop who is one of the Twelve Peers of France 3 Troys Civitas Tricassium seated on the Seine a fair strong and well traded-City honoured with the title of the Daughter of Paris a See Episcopal and counted the chief of Champagne next Rhemes A City of great note in our French and English Histories for the meeting of Charles the sixth and Henry the fift Kings of France and England in which it was agreed That the said King Henry espousing Catharine Daughter of that King should be proclamed Heir apparent of the Kingdom of France into which he should succeed on the said Kings death and be the Regent of the Realm for the time of his life with divers other Articles best suiting with the will and honour of the Conquerour 4 Provins by Caesar called Agendicum seated upon the Seine in a pleasant Countrie abounding in all fragrant flowers but specially with the sweetest Roses which being transplanted into other Countries are called Provins Roses 5 Meaux seated on the River Marne antiently the chief City of the Meldi whom Plâ—nie and others of the old Writers mention in this tract now honoured with a Bishops See and neighboured by 6 Monceaux beautified with a magnificent Palace built by Catharine de Medices Queen Mother of the three last Kings of the house of Valois 7 Montereau a strong Town on the confluence of the Seine and the Yonne 8 Chastean-Thierri Castrum Theodorisi as the Latines call it situate on the River Marn These five last situate in that part of Champagne which lieth next to France specially so called known of long time by the name of Brie which being the first or chief possession of the Earls of Champagne occasioned them to be sometimes called Earls of Brie and sometimes Earls of Brie and Champagne Add here 9 Auxerre in former time a Citie of the Dukedom of Burgundie but now part of Champagne of which more hereafter And 10 Fontenay a small Town in Auxerrois in the very Borders of this Province but memorable for the great Battel fought neer unto it An. 841. between the Sons Nephews of Ludovicus Pius for their Fathers Kingdoms in which so many thousands were slain on both sides that the forces of the French Empire were extremely weakned and had been utterly destroyed in pursuit of this unnatural War if the Princes of the Empire had not mediated a peace between them alotting unto each some part of that vast estate dismembred by that meanes into the Kingdoms of Italie France Germany Lorrein Burgundie never since brought into one hand as they were before Within the bounds of Champagne also where it lookes towards Lorrein is situate the Countrie and Dutchy of BAR belonging to the Dukes of Lorrein but held by them in chief of the Kings of France The Countrie commonly called BARROIS environed with the two streames of the River Maâ—n of which the one rising in the edge of Burgundie and the other in the Borders of Lorrein do meet together at Chaloas a City of Champagne Places of most importance in it 1 Bar le Duc so called to distinguish it from Bar on the River Seine and Bar upon the River Albâ— a well fortified Town 2 La Motte 3 Ligni 4 Arqu of which nothing memorable but that they are the chief of this little Dukedom A Dukedom which came first to the house of Lorreinâ— by the guiâ—t of Rene Duke of Anjou and titularie King of Naples Sicil c. who succeeded in it in the right of Yoland or Violant his Mother Daughter of Don Pedro King of Aragon and of Yoland or Violant the Heir of Bar and dying gave the same together with the Towns of Lambesque and Orgon to Rene Duke of Lorrein his Nephew by the
of France was Duke of Burgundy in right of his Wife the Daughter of Giâ—bert 976. 4 Henry the Brother of Otho 1001. 5 Robert King of France Sonne of Hugh Capet succeeded in the Dukedom on the death of his Vncle Henry 1004. 6 Robert II. Sonne of this Robert and Brother of Henry King of France 1075. 7 Hugh the Nephew of Robert by his Sonne Henry became afterwards a Monk of Clugny 1097. 8 Odo or Otho II. Brother of Hugh 1102. 9 Hugh II. Sonne of Otho the 2d 1124. 10 Odes or Otho III. Sonne of Hugh the 2d 1165. 11 Hugh III. the Companion but great Enemy of our Richard the first in the Wars of the Holy-Land 1192. 12 Odes or Otho IV. Sonne of Hugh the 3d. 1218. 13 Hugh IV. an Adventurer with King Lewis the 9th in the Holy-Land 1273. 14 Robert III. Sonne of Hugh the 4th which Robert was the Father of Joan the Wife of Philip de Valois French King and Grandmother of Philip the Hardie after Duke of Burgundy 1308. 15 Hugh V. Sonne of Robert the 3d. 1315. 16 Eudes the Brother of Hugh was Earl of Burgundie also in right of his Wife 1349. 17 Philip the Grand-child of Eudes by his only Sonne Philip Duke and Earl of Burgundie by descent and Earl of Flanders and Artois in right of his Wife the last Duke of this Line 1363. 18 Philip II. surnamed the Hardie Sonne of Iohn King of France Sonne of Philip de Valois and Ioan Daughter of Robert the 3d. by Charls the 5th his Brother in whom the right of this Dukedom did them remain was made Duke of Burgundy and maried to the Heir of Flanders and the County of Burgundy 1404. 19 Iohn surnamed the Proud Sonne of Philip the 2d Duke and Earl of Burgundie and Earl of Flanders and Artois 1419. 20 Philip III. surnamed the Good who added most of the Netherlands unto his Estate 1467. 21 Charls the Warlike Earl of Charolois Sonne of Philip the Good After whose death slain by the Switzers at the battell of Nancie Lewis the 11th seized upon this Dukedom Anno 1476. pretending an Escheat thereof for want of Heires males uniting it for ever to the Crown of France Of the great wealth and potency of these last Dukes of Burgundie we shall speak further when we come to the description of Belgium the accession whereof to their Estates made them equall to most Kings in Christendom But for their Arms which properly belonged to them as Dukes of Burgundie they were Bendwise of Or and Azure a Border Gules Which Coat is usually marshalled in the Scutchions of the Kings of Spain that of the Earldom being omitted though in their possession The reasons of which are probably for I go but by guess partly because this being the older and Paternal Coat comprehends the other and partly to keep on foot the memory of his Title to the Dukedom it self in right of which he holdeth such a great Estate 19 The County of BVRGVNDIE THe County of BVRGVNDIE hath on the East the Mountain Iour which parts it from Switzerland on the West the Dntohie of Burgundie from which divided by the Soasne on the North a branch of the Mountain Vauge which runneth betwixt it and Lorreine on the the South La Bresse It is reckoned to be 90 miles in length about 60 in bredth and with the provinces of Daulphine La Bresse and Provence made up the Dukedom of Burgundie beyond the Soasne on the Eastern side of which it is wholly situate This part thereof now generally called the Frenche Comtè or the Free County because not under the command of the French Kings but living in a more free Estate than any Subjects of that Kingdom The Country in some parts very Mountainous but those Mountains yielding excellent Vineyards and having in recompence of a little barrenness an intermixture of most pleasing and fruitfull vallies swelling with plenty of all naturall commodities usefull unto the life of man and for variety of fresh streams and delightful Riverets inferiour only to the Dutchie The principall Towns and Cities of it are 1 Besanson called by Caesar Vesontio then the chief Citie of the Sequani as afterwards the Metropolis of the Province entituled Maxima Sequanorum by consequence an Archbishops See Seated betwixt two Mountains on the banks of the River Doux by which it is almost encompassed such artificiall Fortifications being added to it as make it very strong both by art and nature But this is an imperiall City not subject to the Government and Command of the Earls of Burgundie honoured with a small Universitie founded here Anno 1540. by Pope Iulio the 2d and Charles the fifth 2 Dole seated on the same River Doux for riches strength and beauty to be preferred before any in all the County of which it is the Parliament City and consequently of most resort for dispatch of business Antiently it was an University for the study of the Civill Lawes but now the University is devoured by a College of Iesuites who fearing lest the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches might creep in amongst the people not only have debarred them the use of the Protestants Books but have expresly forbid them to talk of GOD either in a good sort or in a bad 3 Salins so called from its salt fountains out of which came the greatest part of the Earls Revenue honoured for a while with the seat of the Parliament removed hither from Dole by King Lewis the 11th at such time as he held this Country beholding to him being a wise and politick Prince for many wholsome Ordinances still observed amongst them 4 Poligni the Bailliage of the Lower as 5 Vescal is of the Higher Burgundy 6 Arboise noted for the best Wines and 7. Laxoal for medicinable Bathes 8 Nazareth on the borders of Switzerland fortified with a very strong Castle the ordinary seat and retreat from business of the first Princes of Orange of the house of Chalons who had great possessions in this Country 9 Gray and 10 Chastel-Chalon 11 Quingey 12 Orgelet Here is also the great and famous Abbie of Clugny neer the Town of Beaum out of which so many Monasteries in the Western Church had their first Originall The old Inhabitants of this Countie were the Sequant a potent name contending with the Hedui and Arverni for the Soveraignty of Gaul till the strife was ended by the Romans under whom it made together with Switzerland the Province of Maxima Sequanorism In the declining of which Empire it fell to the Burgundians and by Rodolph the last King of the French Kingdom of Burgundy was given to Conrade the 2d Emperour of Germaneâ—e After that reckoned as a part of the German Empire governed by such Earls or Provinciall Officers as those Emperours lent hither Othâ— of Flanders Sonne to a Sister of the Emperour Conrade was the first that held it as Proprietarie the other three whom Paradine sets before him in his Catalogue of the
North-East with those Pyrenees The Figure of it compared by Strabo to an Oxes Hide spread upon the ground the neck thereof being that Isthmus which unites it to France This Countrie hath in divers Ages been as diversly named 1. Hesperia either from Hesperus a supposed King hereof or from Hesperus the Evening Star under which it was supposed to be situate as being the furthest Countrie West-ward to difference it from Italy which many of the Greek Authors termed Hesperia also named Hesperia Minâ— 2. It was called Ibeâ—ia either from the famous River Iberus or from the Iberi inhabiting that Countrie of Asia which we now call Georgia as Celtiberia from the mixture of those Asian Iberi and the Celts of Gaul by which name it occurreth often in Appiau of Alexandria and sometimes in Strabo 3 Hispania as the soundest judgements agree from Panus the Iberian Captain For the Grecians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spania as may be proved in many places that especially of the 15 to the Râ—mâ—ns verse 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will come by you into Spain No doubt but from the Grecians the old Roman borrowed the name of Spania which they often used to which the Spaniards according to their custom adding E as in Escola Escuda c. made it â—spania and now Hispania In like manner as the famous Citie of Sevill called at first Spalis according whereunto the Bishop hereof in the Councill of Eliberis subscribed himself by the name of Sabinus Spalensis in tract of time was called Hispalis And yet I must not pretermit the fancie of Bochartus who fetching the names of most places from the Punick Language will have it to be called Spaâ—ija or Sphanija by the Carthaginians or Phoenicians at their first discovery from Saphan which in the Punick tongue signifies a Conie with which that Country much abounded in the former times the Romans being hence furnished with them Let the Reader like it as he list The greatest length hereof is reckoned at 800 miles the breadth where it is broadest at 560 the whole circumference 2480 Italian miles But Mariana measuring the compass of it by the bendings of the Pyrenees and the creeks and windings of the Sea makes the full circuit of it to be 2816 miles of Italian measure And though according to the smallest computation it be above 400 miles in compass more than France yet is it farr short thereof in numbers of people France being thought to contain in it 15 millions of living souls whereas Spain is reckoned to contain but 8 millions only which is little more than half the number of the French The reasons of which disproportion are 1 The continuall wars which they had for 900 years together against the Moores in their own Countrie by which they were consumed in the very growth 2. The Expulsion of so many thousand Families of Jewes and Moores 124000 Families of the one in the time of Ferdinand the Catholick and 110000. of the other by King Philip the 3d which was as the lopping off of a main limb from the body Politick though without any loss to the Ecclesiasticall 3. The unnecessary wars maintained against all the rest of Christendom ever since the time of Charles the fifth out of meer ambition before they were well cured of their former wounds 4. The infinite Plantations made by them in the East and Western Indies and all along the Sea-Coasts of Africa and those great Garrisons maintain'd in Milan Naples Sâ—il the Low-countries and their Towns in Africk consisting for the most part of natural Spaniards 5. The barrenness of the Countrie in many places unable to sustain great multitudes but made more barren than it would be for want of men to labour and manure the Land And 6. and last of all the Impotencie of both Sexes for Generation the men being generally more hot upon their lusts than able for Generation and the women for the most part beginning to be Mothers so extremely young that nature is decay'd and spent in them before they have run half their course And t is a most true and undoubted Maxime that the greatness of Cities and populousness of Kingdoms and Common wealths doe much depend on the generative vertue of the men and the nutritive vertue of the soyl in which they live It is situate in the more Southernly part of the Northern temperate Zone and almost in the middest of the fourth and sixth Climates the longest day being fifteen hours and a quarter in length in the most Northern parts hereof but in the extreme South neer to Gibraltar not above fourteen Which situation of this Countrie rendreth the Air here very cleer and calm seldom obscured with mists and vapours and not so much subiect to diseases as more Northern Regions They are a mixt People descending from the Gothes Moâ—res Jewes and the antient Spaniards From the Iewes they borrow superstition from the Moores Melancholy Pride from the Gothes and from the old Spaniards the desire of Liberty The Jewes first planted here by the Emperour Adrian who having totally banished them their Native Countrie sent them hither to dwell the totall number of which Plantation is said to amount to 500000. men women and children and yet their numbers much increased in the time of Vlidor Vlet the Great Caliph of the Sarazens who having made a Conquest of Sâ—ain sent hither 50000 Families of Moores and Iewes the better to assure it to him And so we have the coming in of the Moores and Iewes the Conquest of it by the Gothes and their setling here shall be shewn hereafter which severall Nations by long time and intermariages together were at last incorporated into one For their conditions it is said that they are highly conceited of themselves great Braggards and extremely proud even in the lowest ebb of Fortune Which last appeareth by the tale of the poor Cobler on his death-bed who as Barklay in his Icon Animorum reporteth the storie commanded his eldest Sonne coming to him for his last blessing to endeavour to retain the majesty worthy so great a Family Memineris said he in maâ—estaâ—em assurgere familia â—na dignam The same Author relateth another story to the like purpose A woman of this Country attended on by three of her brats went a begging from dore to dore Some French Merchants travelling that way and pittying her case offered her to take into their service the bigger of her boyes But she proud though poor scorning as she said that any of her linage should endure a Prentiship returned them this answer Quî aut tu â—ut ego sâ—iamus in quae fata sit genitus For ought that she or any kâ—ew her Sonne simple as he stood there might live to be King of Spain Not much unlike to theâ—e is that tale of a Spanish Cavaleiro who being for some faults by him committed whipped thorough the principal streets of Paris and keeping a sober pace was advised by a friend
in King Iames his reign tending to the advancement of such uniformitie be not interrupted For other things certain it is that London is the antienter Citie as being an Archbishops See in the time of the Britans when the name of Paris was scarce heard of a Bishops See at the first conversion of the Saxons increased so much in wealth and honour from one Age to another that it is grown at last too big for the Kingdom which whether it may be profitable for the State or not may be made a question And great Towns in the bodie of a State are like the Spleen or Melt in the bodie naturall the monstrous growth of which impoverisheth all the rest of the Members by drawing to it all the animal and vitai spirits which should give nourishment unto them And in the end cracked or surcharged by its own fulness not only sends unwholesome fumes and vapours unto the head and heavy pangs unto the heart but drawes a consumption on it self And certainly the over-growth of great Cities is of dangerous consequence not only in regard of Famine such multitudes of mouthes not being easie to be fed but in respect of the irreparable danger of Insurrections if once those multitudes sensible of their own strength oppressed with want or otherwise distempered with faction or discontent should gather to an head and break out into action Yet thus much may be said to the honour of London though grown by much too bigg now for the kingdom that it is generally so well governed and in so good peace that those Murders Robberies and outrages so frequent in great and populous Cities beyond the Seas are here seldom heard of 2 York in the West-riding of that Countie the second Citie of England as the old Verse hath it Londinum caput est Regni urbs prima Britanni Eboracum à primâ jure secunda venit That is to say In England London is the chiefest Town The second place York claimeth as its own And so it may being indeed the second Citie of the Kingdom both for same and greatness A pleasant large and stately Citie well fortified and beautifully adorned as well with private as publick Edifices and rich and populous withall Seated upon the River Ouse or Vre which divides it in twain both parts being joyned together with a fair stone Bridge consisting of high and mighty Arches A Citie of great estimation in the time of the Romans the Metropolis of the whole Province or Diâ—cese of Britain remarkable for the death and buriall of the Emperour Seveâ—us and the birth of Constantine the Great by consequence the Seat of the Primate of the British Church as long as Christianity did remain amongst them Nor stooped it lower when the Saxons had received the Faith and notwithstanding those mutations which befell this Kingdom under the Saxons Dancs and Normans it still preserved its antient lustre and increased it too Adorned with a stately and magnificent Cathedrall inferiour to few in Europe and with a Palace oâ— the Kings called the Manour-house the dwelling in these later dayes of the Lord President of the Court or Councell here established by King Henry 8th for the benefit of his Northern Subjects after the manner of the French Parliaments or Presed all Seiges 3 Bristol the third in rank of the Cities of England situate on the meeting of the Frome and Avon not far from the influx of the Severn into the Ocean in that regard commodiously seated for trade and traffick the Ships with full sayl coming into the Citie and the Citizens with as full purses trading into most parts of the World with good Faith and Fortune A Town exceeding populous and exceeding cleanly there being Sewers made under ground for the conveyance of all filth and nastiness into the Rivers Churches it hath to the number 18 or 20 reckoning in the Cathedrall and that of Ratcliff The Cathedrall first built by Rob. Fitz. Harding Sonne to a King of Danemark once a Burger here and by him stored with Canons Regular Anno 1248. but made a Bishops See by King Henry 8th Anno 1542. The principall building next the Church an antient Castle a piece of such strength that Maud the Empress having took King Steven Prisoner thought it the safest place to secure him in 4 Norwich the 4th Citie of the first rank of which more hereafter 5 Oxford the first of the second rank of English Cities seated upon the Ouse or Isis but whether so called as Vadum Isides Ouseford or the Ford of Ouse or Vada boum as the Greeks had their Bosphori in former times I determine not An antient Town and antiently made a seat of Learning coevall unto that of Paris if not before it the Vniversity hereof being restored rather than first founded by King Alured Anno 806. after it had been overborn awhile by the Danish Furies but hereof as an Vniversity more anon This only now that for the statelinesse of the Schooles and publick Library the bravery and beauty of particular Colleges all built of fair and polished stone the liberall endowment of those houses and notable encouragements of Industry and Learning in the salarie of the Professors in most Arts and Sciences it is not to be parallelled in the Christian World The Citie of it self well built and as pleasantly seated formed in the Figure of a Crosse two long Streets thwarting one another each of them neer a mile in length containing in that compasse 13 Parish Churches and a See Episcopall founded here by King Henry 8th Anno 1541. The honourary Title of 20 of the noble Family of the Veres now Earls of Oxon. 6 Salisbury first seated on the Hill where now stands old Salisbury the Sorbiodunum of the Antients But the Cathedrall being removed down into the Vale the Town quickly followed and grew up very suddenly into great Renown pleasantly seated on the Avon a name common to many English Rivers which watereth every street thereof and for the populousness of the place plenty of Provisions number of Churches a spacious Market-place and a fair Town-Hall esteemed the second Citie of all the West 7 Glocester by Antonine called Glevum by the Britains Caer Glowy whence the present name the Saxons adding Cester as in other places A fine neat Citie pleasantly seated on the Severn with a large Key or Wharf on the banks thereof very commodious to the Merchandise and trade of the place well built consisting of fair large Streets beautified with a magnificent Cathedrall and situate in so rich Vale that there is nothing wanting to the use of man except onely Wine which life or luxury may require 8 Chester upon the River Dee built in the manner of a quadrate inclosed with a wall which takes up more than two miles in compasse containing in that compasse 12 Parish Churches and an old Cathedrall dedicated antiently to S. Wereburg Daughter of Wolfere K. the Mercians and Visitress of all the Monasteries of England but
the Councell of Colen in the reign of Constantius the son of Constantine the Great anno 347. But the light hereof being extinguished for a time by those barbarous nations who fell upon these out-parts of the Roman Empire began to shine again on the conversion of the French in all parts of this countrey the Conquests and example of this puissant Nation giving great incouragement thereunto In which as those of other Countries doe not want their honour so the greatest part thereof belongs to the English Saxons Willibrod the first Bishop of Vtrecht Willibald of Aichstat Swibert of Virden Willibald of Breme and specially Boniface the Archbishop of Mentz being most gloriously fortunate in that sacred service The Moravians Boâ—emians and others farther off came not in till afterwards Not fully converted to the faith they began to suck in the corruptions of the Church of Rome discerned and opposed by John Husse and Hierome of Prague Bohemian Divines who by reason of the marriage of King Richard the second of England with the daughter of Wenceslaus Emperour and King of Bohemia had opportunity to be acquainted with the preachings of Wiclef the points of whose Doctrine they approved and propagated But these two being burnt at Constance by the decree of that Councell their followers in Bohemia would not so give over but after many sufferings and much bloudshed obtained at last a toleration of the Emperour Sigismund their King more able to make good his word in his own dominions then he had been to save the two Martyrs from the fire at Constance to whom he had granted his safe conduct for their comming and going In this condition they remained under the name of those of the Sub utraque or Calistini because of their Administring the Sacrament in both kindes till the rising of Luther who justly offended at the impious and unwarrantable Assertions of Frier Tekel and others of the Popes Pardon-mungers first opposed their doings and after questioned that authority by which they acted falling from one point to another till he had shaken the foundations of the Roman Fabrick Of the successe of his undertaking we shall speak more punctually in the Dukedome of Saxony the place of his birth the Scene of this great Action and the proper Sphere of his Activity Suffice it now to say that his doctrine was so well approved of that the Dukes of Saxonie Brunswick Lunenbourg Wirtenberg Mecklenberg and Pomerania the Marquesse of Branderbourg the Lantgraves of Hassia and most of the Free and Imperial Cities did adhere unto it who from their Protestation made at Spires the Imperiall Chamber to that effect anno 1529. had the name of Protestants The next year following they delivered in the Confession of their faith at Auspurg a City of Suevia thence called Confessio Augustana authorized or tolerated at the least after a long war with variable successe on both sides by the Emperour Charles the fift at the Pacification made at Passaw anno 1552. and afterwards more fully at Ausbourg where their Confession had first been tendred anno 1555. In the mean time arose up Zuinglius amongst the Switzers of whose both Doctrine and successe we have spoken there These not communicating Councels went two severall waies especially in the points of Consulstantiation and the Reall presence not reconciled in their times nor like to be agreed upon amongst their followers For Calvin rising into the esteem and place of Zuinglius added some Tenets of his own to the former doctrines touching Predestination Free-will Vniversall Grace Finall perservance points fitter for the Schooles then a popular Auditory by which the differences were widened and the breach made irreparable the cause being followed on both sides with great impatience as if they did not strive so much for truth as victory And of the two those of the Lutheran party seemed more violent though the other was altogether as irreconcilable who could not choose but stomach it to see themselves undermined and blown by a new form of doctrine not tolerated in the Empire but under colour of conformity to the Confession of Ausburg For Zuinglianisme being entertained amongst the French a busie and active people spread it self further in few years then it was propagated by the Switzers men of the same temper with the Dutch in all times before Insomuch as it did not only prevail in France but by the reputation of Calvin and the diligence of his followers was wholly entertained in the Kingdome of Scotland the Netherlands and even in Germanie it self in which it got footing in all the territories of the Counts Palatines of the Rhene in some of the Lantgraves of Hassia in the Imperiall City of Strasburg many of the Hanse-towns and amongst other Princes and Free Cities of inferiour note The rest of Germanie containing the Patrimoniall Estates of the house of Austria the Dukedomes of Bavaria and Lorrain the territories of the three Spirituall Electours and of all the other Bishopricks in the hands of the Clergie some of the Marquesses of Baden part of the subjects of Cleve and but three of the Imperiall Cities and those small ones too that is to say Gmund Vberlinque and Dinekell-Spuell unlesse some more be added by the late great successes of the house of Austria remain in their obedience to the See of Rome yet so that there be many Protestants in Bohemia Austria and in other the Estates of the Popish Princes as there be Papists in the Free Cities of Frankford Nurenberg Vlm Aken and some other places besides the late increase of them in both Palatinates As for the Government of their Churches those that continue in obedience of the See of Rome are under the old form of Archbishops and Bishops co-aevall in all Germanie as in most places else with the faith it self The Calvinists by which name the Zuinglianâ—st now also passeth if not eaten out submit themselves for doctrine discipline and formes of worship to Calvins Modell whereof we have spoke more at large when we were in Geneva And for the Lutherans they have divided the Episcopall function from the Revenues giving those last to some of their younger Princes with the title of Administrators of such a Bishoprick the function or jurisdiction to some of the more eminent Clergie with the title of a Superintendent assigning to them a priority both of place and power before other Ministers which they enjoy for term of life together with some liberall maintenance in proportion to it In other things as habit and title of dignitie they differ not at all from the other Ministers and over them in place of Archbishops they have their generall Superintendents all of them of each sort accomptable to the supreme Ecclesiastical Consistory as formerly to the Provinciall or Nationall Synod made up of Counsellors of State and the heads of the Clergie so that the form is much the same as in elder times the greatest Alteration being in the names and that no other in
seated on the Erp not far from its fall into the Rhene the break-neck of the glories of Charles Duke of Burgundie who being resolved to get this town into his hands as a convenient passe into Germanie lay so long before it that he lost the opportunity of joyning with King Edward the 4. of England whom he had purposely invited to the war of France and yet was fain to go without it By means whereof he grew so low in reputation that he was undermined by the French defied by the Lorrainer forsook by the English baffled by the Switzers and at last overthrown and slain by that beggerly nation 3. Ernace or Andernach by Marcellinus called Antenacum one of the ten Garrisons erected by the Romans on the banks of the Rhene to secure their Province from the Germans the other nine being Confluenz Bopport Wormes Bing Zabern Altrip Selts Strasburg and Wassenberg 4. Lintz seated on the same River also 5. Sontina a town of good repute 6. Zulp now a village of no esteem but for the Antiquities of it by Tacitus and Antoninus called Tolbiacum most memorable for the great victory which Clovis the first Christian King of the French upon a vow made in the heat of the fight to embrace the Gospell obtained against the whole power of the Almans never presuming after that to invade his territories 7. Rhineburg commonly called Berck the most northern town of all the Bishoprick situate on the Rhene as the name imports there where the lands of this Bishop as also of the Dukes of Cleve and the Earls of Muers meet upon a point A Town which for these 60. years hath been of little use or profit to the right owner possessed sometimes by the Spaniards sometimes by the confederate States for each commodiously seated as opening a passage up the River and receiving great customes on all kinde of Merchandise passing to and fro But having finally been possessed by the Spaniard from the year 1606 till 1633 it was then regained for the States by Henry of Nassaw Prince of Orange with the losse of no more then 60. men there being found in the Town 30. Brasse peeces of Ordnance 70. barrels of powder with victuals and ammunition of all sorts thereunto proportionable 8. Colen situate on the Rhene first built by the Vbii before mentioned and by them called Oppidum Vbiorum afterwards in honour of Agrippina daughter of Germanicus and wife of Claudius who was here born made a Roman Colonie and called Colonia Agrippina and sometimes by way of eminency Colonia only thence the name of Colen A rich large populous and magnificent City containing about five miles in compasse in which are numbred 19 Hospitals 37 Monasteries of both Sexes 30 Chappels of our Lady 9 parishes and 10 Collegiate Churches besides the Cathedrall being a Church of vast greatnesse but of little beauty and not yet finished the Metropolitan whereof is Chancellour of Italy the second of the three Electors and writes himself Duke of Wâ—stphalen and Angrivaria Nigh to this Town did Caesar with incredible expedition make a bridge over the Rhene which more terrified the barbarous enemy then the reports of his valour so powerful is laborious industry that it overcometh all dysasters and maketh the mostunpassable waters yeeld to Heroick resolutions In this Town also are said to lie the bodies of the three wisemen which came from the East to worship our Saviour vulgarly called the three Kings of Colen The whole story is at large written in tables which are fastned unto their Tombes The pith whereof is this The first of them called Melchior an old man with a large beard offered Gold as unto a King the second called Gasper a beardlesse young man offered Frankineense as unto God The third called Balthasar a Blackmoor with a spreading beard offered Myrrhe as unto a Man ready for his Sepulchre That they were of Arabia the tale saith is probable firs because they came from the East and so is Arabia in respect of Hierusalem and 2. because it is said in the 72 Psalme The Kings of Arabia shall bring gifts As for their bodies they are there said to have been translated by Helena the mother of Constantine unto Constantinople from thence by Eustorfius Bishop of Millain removed unto Millain and finally brought hither by Rainoldus Bishop hereof anno 1164. This is the substance of the history which for my part I reckon among the Apocrypha except it be their comming from some part of Arabia but have not leisure in this place to refell the Fable 2 Next to the Bishoprick of Colen lieth the land of TRIERS extended all along the course of the Moselle from the Dukedome of Lorrain on the South to the influx of that River into the Rhene at the City of Confluentz where it bordereth on the Land of Colen and being bounded on the East with Luxembourg as on the West with some part of Franconia The Countrey towards Lorrain and Luxembourg somewhat wilde and barren more fruitfull about Triers it self and the bank of the Rhene in all parts generally more pleasant then profitable the greatest riches of it lying in woods and Minerals The Bishops See here first erected by Eucherius a Disciple and follower of S. Peter The reality whereof not only testified by the Martyrologies but by Methodius a writer of approved credit who addes Valerius and Maternus for his next successours the line Episcopall continuing till the Councell of Arles anno 326 Agritius Bishop of Triers subscribing to the Acts thereof From this time forwards and before the Bishop had the reputation and authority of a Metropolitan the City of Triers being anciently the Metropolis of Belgica prima within which it stands increased exceedingly by being made one of the three Electors of the Spiritualty though the last in order and Chancellour to the Emperour for the Realm of France the fortunes of which Realm it followed till wrested from it with the rest of the Kingdome of Lorrain by the German Emperours Places of most importance in it are 1. Confluents now Cobolentz the Confluentes of Antoninus so called because seated on the confluence or meeting of the Rhene and the Moselle the station anciently of the first Legion A populous and well-built town and seated in a pleasant and fertill Countrey 2. Embretstein over against Cobolentz on the other side of the Rhene beautified with a strong Castle of the Bishops mounted upon a lofty hill which not only gives a gallant prospect to the eye but commands both the Town and River 3. Boppart seated on the Rhene and called so quasi Bonport from the commodiousnesse of the Creek upon which it standeth for the use of shipping one of the forts as Confluents before mentioned was erected by the Romans on the Rhene for defence of Gaul against the Germans occasioning in time both Towns It was once miserably wasted by Richard Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans because the Bishop of Triers agreed not
his neighbours His chief Townes 1 Onaldsbach or Ansbach the usuall residence of these Marquesses and the birth-place of most of their children 2 Hailbrun on the edge of Wirtenberg walled in about in the yeare 1085. and honoured with some publick Schools there founded by Marquesse George Frederick anno 1582. 3 Pleinfelt not far from Nuremberg Such places as they hold in Voiteland we shall meet with them there These Marquesses are of the puissant family of Brandenbourg by whom this fair estate was wrested from the Female heirs of Wolframius the last Lord hereof the first who did enjoy this Estate and Title being Marquesse George Frederick the sonne of Albert Marquesse and Elector of Brandenbourg called the Achilles of Germany the Father of Albert the first Duke of Prussia and of George the first Marquesse of Jagendorf and Grandfather of that Marquesse Albert who in the dayes of Charles the Fift so harassed this Countrey But his male-issue by Casimir his eldest sonne failing in that Albert anno 1557. it returned to the Electorall house and by Sigismund a late Electour was given to Joachim Ernestus one of his younger brethren who by the Princes of the Vnion for defence of the Palatinate was made chief Commander of their Forces anno 1620. A charge in which it was supposed that he carryed himself neither so faithfully nor so valiantly as he should have done being much condemned for suffering Spinola with his Army to passe by unfought with when hee had all advantages that could be wished for to impede his march the greatest part of the Palatinate being lost immediately upon that neglect and by degrees the rest of the Vnited Provinces either taken off from their engagement or ruined for adhering to it with too great a constancie To him succeeded his son Christian now possessed hereof As for the other secular Princes which have any considerable estates in this Countrey they are the Earls of Henneberg Hohenloe Rheineck Castell Wortheim Horpach and Swartzenbourg together with the Lords of Lemburg and Rheichisberg all of them named so from the chiefe town of their Estates and all those townes enriched with some suitable territorie Of these the Earles of Henneberg Rheineck Castell and Wortheim are Homagers to the Bishop of Wurtzburg and are to doe him service at his Inthronization the Earldome of Rheineck being now united to that of Hanow as was shewn before and that of Henneberg most famous in that one of the Earles hereof was Father of that incredible increase of children as many as there be dayes in the yeares produced at one birth by the Lady Margaret his wife sister of William Earle of Holland and King of the Romans A Family of as great Antiquity as most in Germany fetching their Pedegree as high as to Charles the Great without help of the Heralds But they of greatest power and parentage amongst them are the Earls of SCHWARTZENBVRG deriving themselves from one Witikindus of the house of Saxony who fighting for his Countrey against the French anno 779. was taken prisoner carried into France and there baptized at the perswasion of Lewis the Godly sonne of Charles the Great Witikindus his sonne and successour being baptized at the same time also by the name of Charles was the first Earl of Swartzenburg a Castle of his owne building on the edge of Turingia anno 796. whose posterity doe still hold the same but much improved in their Estates by marriages and other accrewments A race of Princes which have yeelded many of great influence in the affairs of Germany amongst them Gunther Earl of Schwartzenburg elected Emperour of the Romans against Charles the fourth by Rodolph Electour Palatine Ericus Duke of Saxony Ludovick Marquesse of Brandenburg and Henry Archbishop of Mentz By which last solemnly inaugurated at Aken or Aquisgrane anno 1349. But being unworthily poysoned by his Competitour though he dyed not of it yet he was made so weak and unfit for action that he was forced to surrender his pretentions to his mortall enemy receiving in compensation for his charges 22000 marks in silver and some towns in Turingia Of the Imperiall Cities which share amongst them the remainders of Frankenlandt the principall are 1 Frankford on the Meine so called from its situation on the River Meine to difference it from Frankford in the Countrey of Brandenburg Divided by the River into two parts joined together by a bridge of stone the lesser part situate on the right hand shore of the River being called Saxen-hausen the greater part properly called Frank-ford seated on the other both under one Magistrate and both together making up a fair rich populous and well traded town of great both riches and repute by reason of the famous Marts here held in the midst of Lent and September yearly and the Election of the Emperour or King of the Romans as occasion is The City of a round form compassed with a double wall beautified with some walkes without the town on the bankes of the River amongst Vineyards meadowes and sweet groves called thus as some say from Francus the sonne of Marcomie supposed to be the founder of it or a Francorum vado as the Ford of the Francks before the building of the bridge 2 Schweinfort on the Meine also in a fruitfull soil 3 Rotenburg on the River Tuber 4 Winsheim Here is also the town of 5 Koburg which belongeth to the house of Saxony and gives title unto some of the younger Princes of it called from hence Dukes of Saxen-koburg And hereto may be added 6 the fair City of Nurenburg conceived by most to be within the Vpper Palatinate but by the Emperor Maximilian made a member of the Circle of Franconie in regard most of the Estates and possessions of it lie within this Countrey Of which indeed they have so plentifull a share that when Maurice Electour of Saxony and his confederates had driven Charles the fift out of Germany Marquesse Albert before mentioned whose sword was his best Revenue picking a quarrell with this City burnt no lesse then an hundred Villages belonging to it 70 Manours and Farmhouses appertaining to the wealthier Citizens 3000 Acres of their Woods and after all this havock made of their estate compelled them to compound with him for 200000 Crownes in Money and six peeces of Ordinance But being the City it selfe seems rather to belong to the other Palatinate wee shall there meet with it Amongst these Prelates Princes and Imperiall Cities is the great Dukedome of Franconia at this time divided the title still remaining in the Bishop of Wurtzburg and some part of the Countrey but both the Countrey and the title of Duke of Francony not long since otherwise disposed of For the Swedes having taken Wurtzburg anno 1631. as before is said together with the City of Bamberg and all the Towns and Territories appertaining to them conferred them upon Bernard Duke of Saxon-Weymer with the style and title of Duke of Franconia Inaugurated therein in
touching this Province are chiefly two First that out of the Mountain Felchtelberg before mentioned arise 4 Rivers running to the four quarters of the world that is to say the Eger towards the East the Mein or Moenus towards the West the Sala or Saltza to the North and the Nab Nabus to the South so that it may be probably thought to be the highest hill in all Germanie 2 That in the Southwest corner of it are two little Rivers the one called Abnul which falleth into the Danow and the other Rednitz which runs into the Mein and finally into the Rhene between the heads whereof being not much distant Charls the Great once began to dig a Channel for making a passage out of the Rhene into the Danow In which work he employed many thousand men but partly by excesse of rain and partly by some strange affrightments all which they did in the day being undone in the night he was fain to desist Some parts of the intended water-course are to be seen near Wassenburg spoken of before which standeth in the middle way betwixt both Rivers Chief places of this Country which belong to the Electorall Familie are 1 Amberg on the River Vils enriched chiefly by the commoditie of iron digged out of the neighbouring hils and here fashioned into all sorts of Vtensils and thence conveyed in great abundance to the parts adjoining but prouder of its mines of silver then those veins of iron affording to the Princes Coffers 60000 Crowns yearly 2 Monheim in the midst of a fruitfull valley near a wood of Juniper 3 Newburg upon the River Swartzach which gives title to the second branch of the Palatine house called the Count Palatines of Newburg competitours with the Marquesse of Brandenbourg for the Dukedom of Cleveland 4 Kelhaim at thee meeting of the Danow with the river Almul 5 Cham on the edge of Bohemia near the river Regen which passing thence falleth into the Danow near the Citie of Regensberg 6 Castell where the Electors for the most part hold their Residence when they are in this Country 7 Awerbach 8 Saltsbach 9 Weiden 10 Newmarcki There are also in this Country some towns belonging to the Lantgraves of Luchtenberg one of the four old Lantgraves of the Empire the other three being Duringen Hassia and Alsatia so called from Luchtenberg an old Castle situate on a loftie hill not far from Pfriemd the chief town and ordinary seat of these Lantgraves seated on the river Nab 2 Gronsfelden 3 Schonhuffen an ordinary passe and baiting-place in the way from Prague to Nurenberg But the chief Citie of this Country and perhaps of Germanie is Nurenberg it self Norimbega in the modern but Noricum in the ancient Latine So called from an ancient Castle called Castrum Noricum the ruines of which are still remaining encompassed with a deep but drie ditch now of no use nor ornament to the Citie at all but reverenced for its antiquity as the mother of Nurenberg The Castle said by some to be built in the time of Claudius Caesar more probably by some of the Norici who terrified with the Invasion of Attila in the decline and waine of the Roman Empire relinquished Bavaria where before they dwelt and passed over the Danow there to provide themselves of a safer dwelling Conquered by the Bavarians it became together with their Conquerours subject to the French in the time of Lewis the 3. it became Imperiall and was walled and fortified during the reign of Charls the 4. From that time it encreased so fast both in wealth and beauty that it is counted the greatest and wealthiest City in all this Continent there being reckoned in it 11 stone bridges for passage over the river Pegnits which runneth through it 12 Conduits of fresh water 13 common Baths 116 publick Wels and 128 Streets Of figure square environed with a triple wall of 8 miles in circuit and plentifully stored with all sorts of Ammunition The Marquesses of Brandenburg in former times were the Burgraves of it an office of great power and jurisdiction but sold for a good sum of mony by Frederick the 3. anno 1414. Albert his son attempting to recover the old office again besieged the town having no lesse then 17 Princes on his side and yet could not force it That for an Argument of its strength A proof and evidence of the wealth of it we have seen before in that great havock made of their Towns and Villages and the great ransome they were put to by another Albert spoken of in Franconia And it adds much unto the commendation of the people that this great wealth is gotten by their indefatigable industrie the town being situate on a barren and sandie soil and destitute of those helps which commonly a navigable River brings into a City those great possessions which belong to the State hereof being gotten out of the fire as the saying is by their continuall working of iron and other manufactures occasioning a resort hither of Merchants from all parts of Germanie Other Towns of chief note within this Palatinate are 1 Altorf where the Nurenbergers Founded an University for the study of all Arts and Sciences anno 1575. 2 Erspruck a great Town and well seated belonging to the State of Nurenberg also 3 Eisted Aichstadium in the Latine an Episcopall See situate on the River Almul 4 Wassenburg an Imperiall City on the borders of Schwaben Here was also in this Province if not still remaining the town of Winsberg memorable for the piety and gallantry of the women of it For the Town being besieged and distressed by the Emperour Conrade the 3. for siding against him with the Guelfs then Dukes of Bavaria no other conditions could be gotten at the surrendrie of it but that the women might have leave to depart in safety and carry all their Jewels with them Which being obtained they took their husbands on their backs and so left the Town and by that noble act so moved the affections and compassion of the angry Prince that he spared the Town and gave them all a generall pardon It is said by some that the odious names of Guelfs and Gibelines with which the peace of Christendome was so long distracted took their beginning at this siege the first so called from Guelfo brother of Henry the Proud Duke of Bavaria in whose cause they fought the other from Veibling the French and Italians speak it Gueibling a Town of Frankenland in which that Emperour was born Another originall hereof we had in our description of the State of Florence but I take this to be the more probable of the two though neither certain The ancient inhabitants here were the Narisci of Tacitus Afterwards some of the Norici fearfull or grown impatient of the Roman yoak came over the Danubius to them and built that famous Castle called Castrum Noricum where now stands Nurenberg Overpowered by the Boji and uniting with them in the name of Bojarians they followed
by which parted from Frankenland So called from the Turingians the antient Inhabitants hereof communicating their name to the place they dwelt in The Countrey environed round about with woody mountaines but within those mountains plain and pleasant fruitfull in Corn and very plentifull of Woods which yeelds great profit to the people not without some Mines of Gold and Silver and rich pits of Salt able to furnish out a feast but for wine onely which is the greatest want hereof The whole length of it is not above 120 miles and the breadth not more Yet is so populous and well planted that there are said to be in it 12 Earldomes and as many Abbies 144 Cities and as many market Towns 150 Castles and 2000 Villages The principall of these are 1. Jene on the River Saltza bordering upon Misnia an University chiefly of Physitians founded in the year 1555. by the sonnes of John-Frederick the Electour taken prisoner and deprived by Charles the fift 2 Erdford on the River Gers out of which are cut so many Channels that every street hath almost the benefit of it A rich populous and well built City accounted amongst the best of Germany and made an University in the time of the Emperour Wenceslaus anno 1392. Many times burnt but still reviving like the Phoenix out of the ashes into greater glory At first immediately subject to the Archbishop and Electour of Mentz but having freed themselves from him they have since governed themselves as a free Estate and one of the Hansetowns not subject to the Duke of Saxony as their Lord but their Patron and good neighbour onely 3. Mulhuisen and 4 Noorthuisen two Imperiall Cities but not else observable 5 Smalcald famous for the league here made anno 1530. between all the Princes and Cities which maintained the doctrine of Luther into which first entred John Frederick the Duke of Saxon and his sonne Ernest and Francis Dukes of Luneburg Philip the Lantgrave George Marquesse of Brandenbourg the Cities of Strasburg Nurenberg Heilbrune Ruteling Vlmes Lindaw Constance Mening and Campedune Afterward anno 1535. there entred into it Barnimus and Philip Princes of Pomeren Vlrick Duke of Wirtenberg Robert Prince of Bipont William Earl of Nassaw George and Joachim Earls of Anhalt the Cities of Franckford Hamborough Auspurg Hannolder and not long after the Palsgrave and the King of Danemark By which famous confederacy Luther not onely kept his head on his shoulders but the Religion by him reformed grew to that strength that no force or policy could ever root it up 2 Kale or Hale where Philip the Lantgrave was treacherously taken prisoner as you shall hear anon 5 Wiemar a town which together with the Castle of Gotha were assigned for the estate and maintenance of that religious though unfortunate Prince Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony after this discomfiture and imprisonment by Charles the fift The ordinary seat of the Dukes of Saxon Weimar who live here in a stately and magnificent Castle made of polished stone most artificially contrived and beautified with Orchards Gardens and other pleasures but made more pleasant by the watering of the River Ilma upon which it standeth 6 Gotha upon the River Lonn said by Rithaimerus to bee built by the Gothes and by them thus named A place not long since of great importance and fortified with a very strong Castle called Grimmensten which being made the retiring place of one Grunbachius and other seditious persons under the protection of John Frederick one of the sonnes of the deprived Elector was taken after a long siege by Augustus the Elector of Saxony to whom the strength of this peece being in the hands of the injured family was a very great eye-sore and by command of the â—â—states of the Empire in the Diet at Regensberg anno 1567. demolished and levelled with the ground The old Inhabitants hereof were the Chasnari of Tacitus and after them the Turingi who with the Heruli under the conduct of Odoacer conquered Italy called by some Turcilingi by others supposed to be the Tyrangetae of Ptolemie Not heard of in this Countrey till the reign of Childerick the fourth King of the French then taking up the whole Provinces of Hassia and Turingia under one Bissinus their King Their Armes at that time and long after Azure a Lion Barrie Argent and Gules armed and Crowned Or. Being overcome at the great battell of Zulph neere Colen where they joined with the Almans they became subject to the French afterwards added to the Empire by Henry the first William the sonne of the Emperour Otho the first being Archbishop of Mentz by the permission of his Father held the City of Erdford and all the rest of Turingia which hee lefâ— unto his successours in that See governed by their Vidames and Provinciall Officers till the time of Conradus Salicus when Ludovicus Barbatus one of these Vidames or Vicedomini made himselfe the Proprietarie of it and left the same unto his children after his decease But in the time of Conrade the second the issue of this Ludovicus either failing or dispossessed it was by that Emperour conferred upon Lewis of Orleans sonne to a sister of his Emperesse the title of Lantgrave being given to them of this family for their greater honour Under eight Princes of this line whereof five successively had the name of Lewis this Estate continued next falling to Herman a brother of the fift Lewis then to a sixt Lewis and last of all to Henry the brother of that Lewis whom the male issue failed having continued for the space of 252 years To please all parties interessed in the succession the Estate before entire was divided into two parts or Provinces Of which this now called Duringen or Turingia was alloted to Henry Marquesse of Misnia sonne of Judith the daughter of Herman the Western part hereof with the title of the Lantgravedome of Hessen adjudged to Henry Duke of Brabant in right of Sophia his wife daughter of Lewis the sixth In the description of which Countries we shall hear more of them 2 MISNIA or Meissen is bounded on the East with Lusatia on the West with Duringen on the North with Saxonie specially so called and some part of Brandenburg on the South with Voiteland and some part of Bohemia The Countrey once overspread with woods and full of bogs rendring the air unwholesome and the soyl unprofitable both rectified by the care and industry of the people now yeelding some mines of silver and great plenty both of corn and pasturage well watered with the Rivers Sala Plisses Elster and Musda Places of most observation in it are 1 Dresden seated on the Albis having continually on her wals and Bulwarkes 150 Pieces of Ordinance a stable of the Dukes in which are 128 horses of service and a Magazin out of which 30000 Horse and Foot may be armed at a dayes warning The Town it self situate on both sides of the River by which divided into the
beatissimum autem Archiepiscopum Constantinopoleos Novae Romae secundum habere locum that is to say that the Pope of Rome should have the first place in all Generall Councels and the Bishop of Constantinople or New Rome should have the second Encouraged wherewith and with the countenance and favor of the Emperor Mauritius John Patriarch of Constantinople in the time of Gregory the Great took to himself the title of Vniversal or Oecumenical Bishop the Pastor Generall as it were of the Church of CHRIST And though Pope Boniface by the grant of that bloody Tyrant PHOCAS got that title from him yet the Patriarchs of Constantinople made good their ground never submitting either themselves or their Churches to the Popes Authority for that cause specially accounted by the Church of Rome for Schismaticks accordingly reviled and persecuted with all kind of indignities How it succeeded with these Patriarchs in the times ensuing and by what means their jurisdiction was extended over all Greece Muscovie part of Poland and many other Churches in the North and East hath been said already Certain it is the constant residence of the Emperours from the time of Constantine gave great ground unto of whom I should here adde the names but that I must first summe up the affairs of Thrace before the building of this mighty and predominant City and take a brief view of the rest of those Provinces which we have comprehended under the name of Greece Concerning which we are to know that the antient Inhabitants of it had the names of Strimonii Bardi Doloâ—gi Sapaei Saii and some others united by most writers in the name of Thracians Governed at first by the Kings or Princes of their severall Tribes as most Nations else distinguished from the common people as in other pompes so most especially by their Gods which their Kings had to themselves apart and were not to be worshipped by the best of their Subjects These not agreeing well together for the common good gave the Athenians Spartans Thebans and other Nations of the Greeks a good opportunity to invade their Country to seize on the Sea-townes thereof and plant Colonies in them the Country in those times being meanly peopled and consequently giving that advantage unto the Grecians as the Indies in these later times have to the Spaniards Portugueze English Hollanders and all other Adventurers Such of them as lay next to Macedon proving bad neighbours here unto upon all occasions at last provoked Philip the Father of Alexander to put in for a share who being chosen Arbitrator betwixt two competitors for that Kingdome drawn at last into fewer hands came not unto the Councell with such poor attendants as Justice and Piety but with a great and puissant Army wherewith having vanquished and sâ—ain the two Pretenders he pronounced sentence for himself and made Thrace his own compelling the Inhabitants to pay him the tenth part of their Revenue for his yearly Tribute After the death of Alexander this Country was seized on by Lysimachus as his part of the spoil who here built the City Lysimachia from hence invading Dacia Macedon and the neighbouring Regions and he being dead the Thracians now accustomed to a forrein yoak were either Subjects or at least Tributaâ—ies to the Macedonians Aiding them in their warres against the Romans they incurred the displeasure of that people who having setled their affairs in other places and repulsed the Cimbri thought it fit time to call the Thracians to accompt for their former Actions but sped so ill in the attempt that Porcius Cato lost his whole Army in the onset cunningly intercepted in their woods and fastnesses Didius the Praetor coming in whilst the Thracians were busie in the chase gave them such a stop that he deserved a Triumph for it and the Victory more easie to Metellus who succeeded Cato in that charge and triumphed also over them as also did Lucullus on another Victory A. U. C. 680. Broken with so many ill successes they were finally subdued by Piso in the time of Augustus becoming so obsequious to that fortunate Prince that Rhitemalces a great and puissant â—ing hereof aided him with a strength of Horse against the Pannonians and Illyrians who had then rebelled Afterwards made a Province of the Roman Empire in Constantines new modell it became a Diocese under the Proefecius Proefetorio Orientis Thrace it self being cast into four Provinces that is to say Thrace specially so called Hamimontum Rhodope and Europa Scythia and the Lower Moesia spoken of before being added to it of which the Presidents of Rhodope and Haemimontum were not to be appealed from to the praefectus Praetorio as the others were but onely to the Praefect of Constantinople the Imperiall City But as Alfonsus King of Castile surnamed the Wise was once heard to say never the Wiser for so saying That had he stood at the elbow of Almighty God when he made the World he would have shewed him how some things might be better ordered so give me leave to play the fool and to say this here that had I stood at Constantines elbow I would have counselled him to lay the Diocese of Thrace to the Praefecture of Illyricum who had originally onely the Dioceses of Macedon and Illyricum under his command and not have placed it under the Praefect of the East who had both Asias and all Aegypt under his Authority For being that there lay Appeals from the Vicars of Lieutenants of the severall Dioceses to their severall and respective Prefects how great a trouble must it be to the subjects of Thrace on every occasion of Appeal to post to Antioch there to complain unto the Prefect of the Orient when Sirmium and Thessalonica the ordinary residences of the Praefectus Praetorio for Illyrirum were so hard at hand But Constantine was an absolute Prince and might doe what he listed He had not else removed his seat so farre towards the East and left the western parts of the Empire open to the barbarous people out of a fancy onely to preserve the Eastern For that it was a fancy onely the event did shew the Persians for all this prevailing more then ever formerly and Thrace it self though honoured with the Imperiall City and planted with so many Roman Colonies so ill inhabited that a great part thereof lay wast and desert many Ages after Insomuch as the Goths being by the Hunnes driven over the Danow where by the Emperour Valens plainted in this Country the Emperour having a designe to use them in his following warres where not contented with the portion allotted to them they bid fair for all wasting the whole Province taking divers townes and endangering Constantinople it self from whence not driven Valens himself being killed in the warre against them but by the coming of some Saracens to the aid of the Citizens Nor could the residence of the Emperours so protect this Country but that it was continually harassed and depopulated by the Sclaves Bulgarians Rosses
Cureta by a Syncope or abbreviation from the Curetes the first in habitants hereof who together with the Corybantes and Telechini were the Priests of Cybele the principall goddesse of this Island and they so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their tonsure or shaving of the head A custome much in use amongst the Priests of some of the Pagan Deities and possibly enough from them transmitted to the Church of Rome And to this Etymologie I do rather incline then either to derive the name from Crete the son of Jupiter and the Nymph Idea or from Grete the daughter of Hesperus though both these have their Authors also Nor dare I to reject the conceit of Bochartus who fetching the Etymons of most people from the Punick language or Originall will have the Cretans to be descended from the Cerehites a Nation of the Philistins well known in Scripture the word Cereth being abbreviated into Creth from which into Crete and Cretans is no difficult passage But in my mind his conjecture is better then his proof For though it may begranted without inconvenience that the chief arms of the Philisins were their Bow and Arrows as appears 1 Sam. 31. 3. and that the Cretans anciently were expert at those weapons also yet this concludes no more that the Cretans are of the race of the Philistins then that almost all Nations else had the same Originall the Bow and Arrows being the ordinary weapons of most people formerly till custome and experience trained them up to others of a later date as he himselfe acknowledgeth in many places of his excellent and elaborate tractates In reference to the heavenly bodies it is situate under the beginning of the fourth Clorate so that the longest day in Summer is no more then 14 hours and a quarter And in relation to the earth set in the middle of the Sea at so even a distance from Europe Asia and Africk as if naturally designed to be what Aristotle hath pleased to call it the Lady and Misiris of the Sea For it is distant from Peloponnesus an hundred miles as many from Asia the lesse and not above 150 from the thores of Africk So verifying that of Virgil Crete Jovis magni medio jacet insula Ponto Joves birth-place Crete a fruitfull land In the middle of the Sea doth stand It is in length 270. in breadth 50 miles in compasse about 590. The soil is very fruitfull especially of wines which we call Muscadels of which they transport yearly 12000 Buts together with Sugar-Candie Gums Honey Sugar Olives Dates Apples Orenges Lemmons Raisons Melons Citrons Pomegranats Yet as other Countries of the like hot nature it is not a little deficient in corn the most or greatest part of which is yearly brought hither from Peloponnesus The Island is very populous insomuch that it is thought that upon any sudden occasion the Signeury of Venice can raise in it 60000 men able to bear arms The people have formerly been good sea-faring men a vertue commaculated with many vices which they yet retain as envie malice and lying to which last so infinitely addicted that an horrible lye was called proverbially Cretense mendacium This fault was aimed at by the Poet Epirnemdes a native of this Island whose words thus cited by S. Paul in that to Titus cap. 1. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretans alwayes lyers are Unrulie beasts of labour spare To which this Proverb may be added viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say There are three Nations whose names begin with the letter K worse then any others viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cappadocians Cretans and Cilicians though some I know apply this Proverb to the Cities of Corinth Capua and Carthage beginning all with the same letter and all conceived to be very dangerous to the State of Rome At this day they are sick of their old diseases as great Lyers and as idle as ever formerly covetous withall and very subtile impatient of labour and not caring to learn any science perfectly only well practised in shooting to which accustomed from their youth and therein thought more expert then the Turks themselves The language generally spoken is the Greek tongue though the Gentleman and Merchant by reason of their dependence on the State of Venice speak Italian also Both languages used also in divine offices the people being generally of the Communion of the Church of Greece but the Latine service used also in many places since the subjection of this Island to the Venetians Converted first unto the faith by S. Paul the Apostle who having planted the Gospel of life amongst them left the watering of it unto Titus whom he made Bishop of this Isle recommending unto him the care of the Churches there with power of Ordination and Eoclesiaticall censure as appears clearly by the Text. Which power that it belonged to Titus as Bishop and not their Evangelist only is attirmed expresly not only by the subscription of the said Epistle where he is plainly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians but by the concurrent testimonies of Euseb Eccl Hist l. 3. c 4 S. Ambr. in praefa◠Ep. ad Tit. S. Hieron in Tit. c. 1. v. 5. and in his tract de Scriptor Ecclesiasticis Theodoret cited by Oecumen in praefat ad Ep. Tit. Oecumenius himself in Tit. 1. and finally by Theophylact in his preface to the same Epistle All which in plain terms call him Bishop and the Bishop of Crete according to that sense and meaning of the word Episcopus as it was used in their times distinct from Presbyter The Church hereof whilest wholly under the Greek Patriarchs was governed by four Archbishops and 21 Bishops but since the subjection of this Island to the State of Fence there is but one Archbishop which is he of Candie the chief Citie and eight Bishops only besides the titular Patriarch of Constantinople who hath here his residence some Prelate of the Latine Church having been alwayes honoured with that emptie title ever since the recoverie of that Citie from the Western Christians Famous was this Island amongst the Ancients for many things memorized both by the Poets and old Hastonians For here reigned Saturn in the first ages of the World father of Jupiter born here and secretly nursed in the hill called Ida. For seeing that by the compact betwixt Saturn and his brother Titan Eaturn was to enjoy the Kingdom for his own life only but all his male children to be murdered as soon as born Jupiter by the care of his mother Cybele was conveyed away and secretly nursed in Mount Ida as before was said the crying of the Infant being drowned by the noise of loud-sounding Cymbals purposely used by his Rockers to avoid discovery Whence afterwards the Corytantes or Pricsts of Cybele used in her sacrifices the like musicall instruments continually sounding and withall shaking of their heads like Fidlers in an antick and
Pontick Diocese lying within Anatolia or Asia Minor converted to the Christian faith by the two great Apostles of Jews and Gentles as appeareth by Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and Saint Peter's to the Sâ—rangers dispersed in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynnta 7. ASIA PROPRIA COme we now to the ASIAN Diocese and first to that part thereof which Ptolomie and others for the reasons spoken of before call Asia Propria Antiently the most rich and flourishing part of all this 〈◊〉 and so affirmed to be by Tullie who telleth us that the tributes which the Romans had from other places hardly sufficed to defray the publick charges for defence thereof Asia vero tam opinia est sâ—rulâ—s ut ubert 〈◊〉 agrorum varictate fructuum magnitudine pastionis multitudine carum rerum quae exportentur facile omnibus terris antecellit But as for Asia saith he it is so fertile and so rich that for the fruitfulnesse of the fields variety of fruites largenesse of pasture-grounds and quantity of commodities which were brought from thence it very easily excelled all other Countreys The fortunes of the severall Provinces we shall see anon Brought under the command of the Persians they continued subject to that Crown for some generations but at last taken from them by the Grecions under the prosperous ensignes of victorious Alexander After whose decease the Empire being divided among his Captains Asia fell to the share of Antigonus whose sonne Demetrius seized on the Kingdome of Macedonia and left Asia to Seleucus Nicanor King of Syria and the East being also one of Alexander's heires The sixt from this Seleucus was Antiochus called the Great who waging warre with young Prolomy Philopaters King of Egâ—â—t committed by his father to the protection of the Romans and otherwise practâ—ing against their estate provoked the Sen ite of Rome to send Scipio sirnamed from his 〈◊〉 victories Aâ—â—aticus against him who compelled him to forsake Asia which the Romans presently took into their possions But finding it agreeable to the present estate of their Affaires the Kingdome of Macâ—denia standing in their way to make further use of Eumeneâ— King of Pergamus and the people of Rhodes who had been aiding to them in the former warre they gave unto Eumenes the Provinces of Lâ—caonia Phrygia Mysia Ionia Lydia Lycia and Caria to the Rhodians knowing full well that they could easily take them back again when they saw occasion More hereof in the story of the Kings of Pergamus on the decease of Artalus the last King thereof these Provinces returning fully to the power of the Romans It contained only after the accompt of Cicero the Provinces of Phrygia Mysia Caria Lydia as he reck oneth them up in his Oration for Flaccus computing the two Phrygia's for one Province only and comprehending Aeolis and Ionia under that of Lydia But for our more punctuall and particular proceeding in it we will consider it as divided into 1. Phrygia Minor 2. Phrygia Mayor 3. Mysia 4. Aeolis and Ionia or Asia more especially so called 5. Lydia and 6. Caria 8. PHRYGIA MINOR PHRYGIA MINOR is bounded on the East with Mysia interposing betwixt it and the Greater Phrygia on the West with the Hellespont on the North with the Proponis on the Sourh with the Aegean Sea Called Phrygia from Phryx a River in the Greater Phrygia or as some say from Phryxus the sonne of Athamas King of Thebes who flying from the treacherous snares of his Mother in law did here seat himself Minor was added to it to distinguish it from the other Phrygia which being the bigger of the two had the name of Major It was also called Phrygia Hellespontiaca from its situation on that Streit and Troas from Troas the chief City of it by which name it occurreth in the book of the Acts. It was called also Epictetus but the reason of the name I finde not except it came from the Epicteti a People dwelling on the East parts of Bithynnia and consequently neere this place Chief Rivers of it 1. Scamander on whose Bankes stood the renowned Citie of Troy honoured by Hesiod with the title of Divine Scamander in which the Virgins of this Countrey a litle before they were to be married used to bath themselves and to say these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Take O Scamander my Virginity Which opportunity Cimon an Athenian taking clapped a Coroner of Reeds upon his head like a River-god and so deflowred Callirhoe a noble Virgin then betrothed to another occasioning thereby the leaving off of this foolish custome It was also called Xanthus by the Poets Xanthúmque bibissent as in Virgil and watered a litle Region called Lycia of which more anon 2. Aesopus parting this litle Region from the Lesser Mysia the boundary of it on the North as the Promontory called Lectium is the furthest point of it towards the South 3. Simoeis now called Simores falling into the Hellespent not far from the Promontorie called Rhateuni memorable for the Statue and Sepulchre of A ax but rising out of Mount Ida an hill of this Region on which Paris being by his Father exposed to the fury of wild Beasts judged the controversy of the golden ball in favour of Venus respecting neither the great riches of Juno nor the divine wisdome of Pallas but transported with a sensuall delight fatall in the end to the whole Countrey Cities of most observation in it 1. Dardâ—num or ' Dardania the Town and Patrimony of Aeneas 2. Assus mentioned Acts 20. v. 13. by Plinie called Apollonia who telleth us that the earth about it is of such a nature that it will consume a dead body in fourty daies 3. Trajanopolis whose name declareth its founder 4. Sigaeum the Port-town to Troy neere a noted Promontory of the same name 5. Troy situate on the River Scamander the beauty and glory of the East called Ilium and Pergamus for the reason to be shewn anon A famons Town from the people whereof all Nations desâ—e to fetch their originall The beauty of it may be as some write yet seen in the ruines which with a kind of majesty entertain the beholder the walls of large circuit consisting of a black hard stone cut four-square some remnants of the Turrets which stood on the walls and the fragments of great Marble Tombes and monuments of curious workmanship But certainly these are not the ruines of that Ilium which was destroyed by the Grecians but 6. Troas or New Troy built some four miles from the situation of the old by Lysimachus one of Alexanders Captains who peopled it from the neighbouring Cities and called it Alexandria or Troas Alexandri in honour of Alexander the Great who begun the work but lived not to bring it to any perfection In following times called Troas onely and by that name mentioned Acts 20. v. 6. then the Metropolis of this Province now a ruine onely but every day made more ruinous
the River Eleutherus one of the Rivers of this Countrey so called from Arvad one of the Sonnes of Canaan alluded to by the Greeks and Romans in the name of Aradus by which this Isle was known unto them 2. By the vicinity which it hath to Palmyrene the Aram-Sobah of the Scriptures to which it joyneth on the East with the King whereof as bordering Princes use to be the Kings of Hamath for the most part were in open warre Of which fee 2 Sam. 8. 9 10. 1 Chr. 8. 9 10. 3. From the authority of Saint Hierome who finding mention in the Prophet Amos cha 6. v. 2. of a City named Hamath the Great determineth it to be that City which afterwards was called Antiochia the principall City of this part and indeed of Syria the title of Great being added to it to difference it from some other Cities of this name of inferiour note And 4. from comparing the places in Scripture with the like passage in Josephus the Historiographer The Scripture telleth us that Hierusalem being forced by the Babylonians Zedekias the King was brought Prisoner to Nabuchadnezzer being then at Riblath 2 Kings c. 2. v. 6. to Riblath in the Land of Hamath v. 21. where the poor Prince first saw his Children slain before his face and then miserably deprived of fight that he might not see his great misfortunes was led away to Babylon Ask of Josephus where this sad tragedy was acted and he will tell us that it was at Reblatha or Riblah a City of Syria Antiqu. l. 10. c. 10. and if we ask Saint Hierome what he thinks of Reblatha he will tell us that it was Urbs ea quam nunâ— Antiochiam vocant the City which in following times was called Antioch On these grounds I conceive this part of Syria to be the land of Hamath intended in the Texts of scripture above-cited though there were other Towns and Territories of the same name also The Countrey is naturally fertile the hedges on the high-way sides affording very good fruits and the adjoining fields affording to the Passenger the shade of Fig-trees Were it not naturally so it would not be much helped by Art or Industry as being very meanly peopled and those few people without any incouragement either to plant fruits or manure the Land Their Sheep are commonly fair and fat but so overladed in the tail both with flesh and fleece that they hang in long wreathes unto the ground dragged after them with no small difficulty Pliny observes it in his time that the tails of the Syrian Sheep were a Cubit long and had good store of wooll upon them Natur. Hist l. 8. c. 48. And modern Travellers report that the tails of these sheep do frequently weigh 25 pound weight and sometimes 30 pounds and upwards The like hath also been affirmed of the sheep of Palestine comprehended in old times in the name of Syria And that may probably be the reason why the rumpes or tails of sheep and of no beast else were ordained to be offered up in sacrifice of which Levit. 3. v. 9. But besides the store of Wooll which they have from the sheep they have also great plenty of Cotton Wooll which groweth there abundantly with the seeds whereof they sow their fields as we ours with Corn. The stalk no bigger than that of Wheat but as tough as a Beans the head round and bearded in the size and shape of a Medlar and as hard as a stone which ripening breaketh and is delivered of a white soft Bombast intermixed with seeds which parted with an instrument they keep the Seeds for another sowing and fell the Wooll unto the Merchant a greater quantity thereof issuing from that litle shell than can be imagined by those who have not seen it The people heretofore were very industrious especially about their gardens the fruitful effects whereof they found in the increase of their herbs and plants Whence the Proverb Multa Syrorum Olera But withall they were observed to be very gluttonous spending whole daies and nights in feasting great scoffers and much given to laughter Crafty and subtile in their dealings not easily to be trusted but on good security and so were the Phoenicians their next neighbours also Hence came the Greek Adage which Suidas speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syri contra Phoenices used by them when two crafty knaves endeavoured to deceive each other They were noted also to be superstitious great worshippers of the Godess Fortune but greater of their Syrian Godess whatsoever she was Affirmed by Plutarch to be a womanish and effeminat nation prone unto tears and such as on the death of their friends would hide themselves in caves from the sight of the Sun Herodian addeth that they were wavering and unconstant lovers of plaies and publick pastimes and easily stirred up unto Innovations But at this time they are almost beaten out of all these humours having been so often cowed and conquered that they are now grown servilely officious to them that govern them not without cause defective in that part of industry which before enriched them Where by the way we must observe that this Character of the people and that of the Countrey belong not to this part alone exclusively of those which follow but to all Syria and every part and Province of it except Phoenicia which being planted by a people of another Stock hath had its Character by it self The whole by Ptolamy divided besides Comagena Palmyrene and Coele-Syria into many petit Regions and subdivisions as 1. Pieria 2. Casiotis from the hills adjoining 3. Seleucis 4. Apamene 5. Lâ—todicene 6. Cyrrestica 7. Chalcidice and 8. Chalybanotis from their principall Cities Of which in all he musters up the names of an hundred and upwards then of some note most of them now grown out of knowledge and many of them of no mark or observation in the course of business So that omitting his method we will follow our own and take notice only of such places as antiently were or at this present are of most observation and importance in the course of Story with reference notwithstanding to the subdivisions made by Ptolomy as they come in my way reckoning Cyrrestica Chalybanotis Casiotis and the territories of Seleucus Laodicea and Apamea into Syria Propria and Pieria into Comagena First then to begin with those Cities which ly most towards the East we have in Cyrrestica 1. Zeugma on the banks of the River Euphrates memorable for the passage of Alexander the Great who there passed over his Army on a Bridge of Boats 2. Berroea supposed by some both antient and modern writers to be that which is now called Aleppo but the position of the place agreeth not with that supposition Aleppo being placed by our modern Cosmographers in the 72. degree of Longitude and the 38. of Latitude whereas Berroea is assigned by Ptolomy to the 36. degree of Latitude and the 71. of Longitude Besides that the River
of Seleucus Callinicus the fourth of this house Aâ—saces a noble Parthian recovered from it all the Provinces of the Persian Empire lying on that side of Euphrates and erected the so much celebrated Parthian Kingdome whereof more in Persia And in the reign of Antiochus Magnus so called for his victories in Egypt Judea and Babylonia the Romans extorted from it all the Asian Provinces on this side Mount Taurus not wanting many provocations to incite them to it for he not only had made warre against Ptolomy Philopater King of Egypt whom the Romans had taken into their protection but stirred up the Cities and States of Greece against them invaded Lysimachia and some other parts of Europe in defiance of them and had received Annibal the Carthagimar and Thoas the Aetolian their most mortal enemies into his dominions governing his Counsels by the influences which they had upon him Nor may we think but that ambition and avarice to adde to their same and Empire by the overthrow of so great a Prince did perswade much with them So that the point being brought to a ready issue they pleaded it on both sides in the battel of Magnesia a City of Lydia to which Antiochus brought an Army of 300000. foot and as many armed Chariots besides store of Elephants if the Roman writers be not over-lavish in their reports But rejecting the advise of Annibal and committing his affaires wholly to Evil Counsellers he was vanquished by no more than four Legions of enemies and for his peace compelle to quit all his Asian Provinces on that side of Taurus and to pay 15000. Talents in ready mony for the charge of the warre The rest of his estates they were content he should enjoy for a longer time Et libentius quod tam facile cessisset as Florus handsomly puts it on him because he had so easily relinquished that Afterwards in the civil broyles among themselves about the succession of the Kingdome Alexander King of the Jews took from them many of their best Towns in Palestine as Joppa Gaza Anthedon Azotus Rhinocorura almost all Samaria and Gaulonitis with Sythopolis Gadara and many other strong Towns in Coele-Syria Finally when they had consumed almost all the Royal race and changed their Kings no less than ten times in 40. years a sure sign of a falling and expiring Kingdome they were fain to cast themselves upon Tigranes King of Armenia a puissant and successeful Prince till ingaged in the quarrel of Mithridates against the Romans by whom stripped of all his Estates on this side Euphrates he was fain to content himself with his own Armenia leaving Syria to the absolute disposal of Pompey who presently reduced it to the form of a Province This said we have not much more to do with the house of Seleucus but to lay down their names and times of their several governments till we draw towards the last end of The Macedonian Kings of Syria A. M. 3654. 1. Seleucus Nicanor the first King of this house 31. 3685. 2. Antiochus surnamed Soter or the Saviour memorable for nothing so much as marying with Stratonice his Fathers wife in his Fathers life-time 3704. 3. Antiochus II. by his flattering Courtiers surnamed Theos or the God but being poisoned by his wife he proved a mortall 3719. 4. Seleucus II. surnamed by the like flattery Callinicus or fair Conquerour because shamefully beaten by the Parthians 3739 5. Seleucus III. called for the like reason Ceraunus or the Thunderer the eldest sonne of Callinicus 3742. 6. Antiochus III. surnamed Magnus the younger sonne of Callinicus a Prince that imbraced many great actions and was fortunate in his successes beyond Euphrates he plagued the Jews but lost all Asia Minor unto the Romans 3778. 7. Seleucus IV. called Philopator the sonne of Antiochus who first began to cast his eye upon the riches of the Tempse at Hierusalem 3790. 8. Antiochus IV. surnamed Epiphanes or the Illustrious but more truly Epimanes or the mad the great scourge of the Jews brother of Seleucus Philopator With whom beginneth the story of the first Book of the Maccabees 3802. 9. Antiochus V. called by the name of Eupator the sonne of Epiphanes who by Lysias his Captain tyrannized over the poor Iudeans for the litle time that he reigned as did also 3804. 10. Demetrius surnamed Soter sonne of Seleucus Philopator by the hands of Nicanor having possessed himself of the diademe by the death of Eupator slain in his favour by the Souldiers who revolted from him He was afterwards deposed for a time by Alexander Bala pretending himself to be the Sonne of Eupator supported herein by the Antiochians 3814. 11. Alexander Bala discomfited in his first battell by Demetrius whom he slew and vanquished in the second maryed Cleopatra Daughter of Ptolomy Philometor by whose aid he was victorious But a quarrel breaking out between them Ptolomy invaded Syria and caused himself to be crowned King of it Alexander being slain by some of his Souldiers 3819. 12. Demetrius II. surnamed Nicator Sonne of Demetrius the first recovered his Fathers Kingdome a friend of the Maccabees but so cruell to his own people that he was driven out of his Kingdome by Tryphon Generall of his Armies 3821. 13. Antiochus VI. surnamed Entheus the Sonne of Alexander and Cleopatra advanced unto the Throne by Tryphon and after slain by him to make way for himself unto the Throne 3824. 14. Tryphon called also Diodorus having driven out Demetrius and slain Antiochus made himself King 3827. 15. Antiochus VII surnamed Sedetes brother of Demetrius having overcome and slain Tryphon succeeded him in the estate for a while victorious against the Parthians but afterwards overcome and slain by them After whose death Demetrius Nicator having lived in Parthia since the loss of his Kingdome was restored again unto the Throne which having held about 4 years he was again dispossessed and slain by 3843. 16. Alexander II. surnamed Zebenna an Aegyptian of mean birth set up by Ptolomy Euergetes and pretending himself to be the adopted Sonne of Antiochus afterwards vanquished and slain by 3845. 17. Antiochus VIII from the croockednesse of his nose surnamed Gryphus Sonne of Demetrius aided herein by the Aegyptian with whom reconciled having reigned about eight years in peace embroiled himself in warre with his half-brother Antiochus surnamed Cyzicenus which with variable successes on both sides continued till the time of his death having reigned 29 years in all 3874. 18. Seleucus V. Sonne of Antiochus Gryphus in the beginning of his reign overcame and flew his Uncle Cyzicenus but being vanquished by Antiochus surnamed Eusebes or Pius one of the Sonnes of Cyzicenus he fled into Cilicta and was there burnt in his palace 19. Antiochus IX surnamed Eusebes having first vanquished Seleucus and afterwards Antiochus another of the Sonnes of Gryphus was crowned King of Syria but slain not long after in the Persian wars 20. Philip and Demetrius III. surnamed Eucoerus younger Sonnes of Gryphus jointly Kings of Syria
but reigning in their severall parts Of which Demetrius intending to disseize his brother was himself vanquished and forced to fly into Parthia leaving the whole Kingdome unto Philip. During which warres amongst themselves Syria was invaded and in part conquered by Aret as King of the Arabians and Alexander King of the Jews 3884. 21. Tigranes King of Armenia during these dissentions was by the Syrians chosen King that by his power they might be freed from the Jews and Arabians the most puissant Prince that had reigned in Syria since the time of Antiochus the Great as being King of Syria by election of Armenia by succession of Media by conquest But ingaging himself with Mithridates whose daughter he had maryed against the Romans was vanquished by Lucullus who with the loss of five Romans onely and the wounds of an hundred is reported to have slain of his Enemies above a 100000 men Finally being again broken and vanquished by Lucullus he yielded himself to Pompey who being appointed Lucullus successour deprived him of the honour of ending that warre and retaining to himself Armenia only he left all Syria to the Romans having reigned eighteen years And though Antiochus Comagenus the Sonne of Eusebes petitioned Pompey for a restitution to the Throne of his Anâ—estours yet it would not be granted Pompey replying that he would not trust the Countrey into such weak hands as were not able to defend it against the Arabians Parthians and the like Invaders and so reduced it presently to the form of a Province The government of this Countrey under these new Lords was accompted to be one of the greatest honours of the Empire the Prefect hereof having almost regall jurisdiction over all the regions on this side Euphrates with a super-intendency over Egypt Niger the concurrent of Severus was Praefect here and on the strength hereof presumed on that competition So also was Cassius Syrus who being a Native of this Countrey and well-beloved by reason of his moderate and plausible demeanour had almost tumbled M. Antonius out of his Throne On this occasion it was enacted by the Senate that no man hereafter should have any militer or legale command in the Province where he was born Left perhaps supported by the naturall propension of the people to one of their own Nation and heartned by the powerableness of his Friends he might appropriate that to himself which was common to the Senate and people of Rome But this was when it was entire and passed but for one Province only Phoenicia being also taken into the accompt which made the Antiochians so proud and insolent that Adrian in his time intended to subduct Phoenicia from it netot civitatum Metropolis Antiochia diceretur faith Gallcanus that Antioch might not be the chief of so many Cities But what he lived not to accomplish was performed by Constantine By whom Phonicia was not only taken off but Syria itself divided into four distinct Provinces as was shewed before each of them having its Metropolis or Mother City but all subordinate to the command of the Comes or Praefect of the East as he to the command of the Praefectus Praetorio Orientis the greatest Officer of the Empire of whom we have often spoke already For the defence hereof aswell against all Forrein invasions as the insurrections of the Natives a wavering and inconstant People the Romans kept here in continuall pay four Legions with their Aids and other Additaments For so many Mutianus had here in the time of Galba and by the strength and reputation of those Forces was able to transfer the Empire upon Vespasian And though the Constantinopolitan Emperours to whose share it fell in the division of the Empire rather increased than diminished any part of this strength yet when the fat all time was come and that Empire was in the Declination the Saracens under the conduct of Haumar their third Caliph an 636. possessed themselves of it Heraclius then reigning in Constantinople And it continued in their power till Trangrolipix the Turk having conquered Persia and the Provinces on that side of Euphrates passed over the River into Syria and made himself Master of a great part of that also A quarrell falling out betwixt him and his neerest Kins-men and thereby a great stop made in their further progress was thus composed by the mediation of the Calivh of Babylon in the time of Axan his Successour To Cutlu Muses was assigned a convenient Army to be by him employed against the Christians with Regal power over the Provinces by him gained without relation or subordination to the Persian Sultans of whose successes and affairs hath been spoke elsewhere To Melech and Ducat two others of his discontented Kins-men but all of the same Selzuccian family he gave the fair Cities of Aleppo and Damascus and those parts of Syria with whatsoever they could conquer from the Caliph of Aegypt who then held all Phoenicia and the Sea-coasts of Palestine to be held in see and vassalage of the Crown of Persia To these two brethren then we are to refer the beginning of the Turkish Kingdome in Syria who with their Successors by reason that here they held their residence caused themselves to be called The Turkish Kings of Damascus 1075. 1. Melech and Ducat the first Turkish Kings of Damascus by the gift of Axan the second Sultan of the Turks in Persia added to their dominions all the rest of Syria together with Cilicia and some neighbouring Provinces in the Lesser Asia 2. Sultan of Damascus at such time as the Christians of the West won the Holy Land against whom he notably defended the City and Territories of Damascus and in a set Battel discomfited and flew Roger the Norman Prince of Antioch 1146. 3. Noradine the Sonne of Sanguin Generall of the Armies and Sonne-in-Law to the former King succeeded him in the estate A noble Prince memorable amongst other things for a gallant answer made to his Commanders when they perswaded him to take the advantage on the death of Baldwin the third and to invade Hierusalem whilst the Christians were busie in solemnizing his Funerals Not so faith he Compassion and regard is to be had of the just sorrow of those Christians who have lost such a King as could not be equalled in the world 1175. 4. Melechsala Sonne of Noradine contemned by reason of his youth by his Nobles and Souldiery who made choice of Saladine for their King by whom dispossessed first and after vanquished 1176. 5. Saladine the Turkish Sultan of Egypt having vanquished the Persians or Parthians coming under the conduct of Cacobed Uncle to Melechsia to restore that Prince to his Estate remained King of Damascus and by the puistance of his Armies recovered from the Christians all Syria and the Holy Land with the City of Hierusalem 1199. 6. Eladel or El-Aphzal the eldest Sonne of Saladine suceeded in the Realm of Damascus which he exchanged for that of Egypt with his Brother Elaziz 7. Elaziz
and preaching often honoured and one of the principal of the Decapolitans Some marks of its former greatness it retained when Saint Hierome lived who confesseth it to be a Town of some good capacity but so decaied in the time of Breâ—denbeck and brochardus that it consisted but of six poor Fishermens houses 3. Hamath so called from Hamaâ—â—â— the Sonne of Canaan planted in these parts a Town of such esteem in the elder times that it was rekoned one of the Gates of the Land of Canaan and therefore called in Scripture introitum Hamath or the entrance of Hamath as Num. 34. 8. Jos 13. 5. Judg. 3. 3. c. Mistaken by Saint Hierome for another of the same name in Syria by the Greeks and Romans after them called Epiphania And in this I say he is mistaken Epiphania being placed by Ptolomy two degrees more Eastward than Caesarea Philippi the most Eastern City of all Galilee and two degrees more North than that though the most Northern City of all Palestine The ground of this mistake we have seen before Won by the Syrians of Damascus it was again recovered to the Crown of Israel by Jeroboam the second the Son of Joas and after added by the Romans as were Scythopolis Pella Gadara and some other of the Cities of this tract unto Coele-Syria 4 Kadesh to difference it from others of the same name called Kaâ—â—â— Naphthalim high-seated on the top of an hill as is said Jos 20. 7. the King whereof being taken and slain by Iosuah it was made one of the Cities of Refuge and given to the Levites Most memorable for the birth of Barac who discomsited Sisera Lieutenant of the host of Jabin before mentioned in the infancy of the Jewish State one of the ten Cities of Decapolis in the time of the Romans and an Episcopal See in the first ages of Christianity 5. Riblah watered with the Fountain of Daphnis a little Riveret which hereabouts falleth into Jordan to which City as some say but I think erroniously Zedechias the unfortunate King of the Iews was brought Prisoner unto Nebuchadnezzar who caused his Children to be slain before his face and then put out his eyes But this I look on as an Errour in them that say it the scaene of this sad Tragedy being by Iosephus laid in Reblatha or Riblah a City of Syria the same which in succeeding times had the name of Antioch And certainly Iosephus who for so long was Governour of both the Galilees cannot be conceived to be so ignorant of the State of this Province as to transferre that bloody execution to a City of Syria if it had been acted in this Countrey Nor can I think that this Riblah none of the greatest Towns in the Tribe of Naphthali should be capable of the Court and train of that mighty Monarch especially for so long a time as he is said to have attended in that place the success of his forces then before Hierusalem and the disposal of the State when the Town was taken 6. Saphet another of the Decapolitan Cities strongly if not impregnably seated one of the strongest Fortresses of the Western Christians as it was after their expulsion of the Turks and Saracens who from hence wasted and subdued all the neighbouring Countrey as far as to the very Sea The onely place not of this Countrey onely but of all the East in which the Iews who possessed a third part of this Town have any shew or shadow of a Common-wealth 7. Bethsemes mentioned Ios 15. 38. made tributary unto those of this Tribe though otherwise possessed by the Canaanites who held out against them 8. Carthan or Kiriaitham situate neer the mountain which in following times was called Moas Christi because much freqvented by our Saviour who here made choice of his Apostles as is said Mark 3. 13 and where he also made that Divine Sermon recited in the 5 6 7. Chapters of Saint Matthews Gospel 9. Masoloth a place of great strength but forced by Baccludes Generall of the Armies of the Kings of Syria in the time of the Maccabees 10. Cinnereth a strong City after called Gennesareth whence the Lake or Sea of Tiberias neighbouring neer unto it is sometimes called the Lake of Gennesareth as Luke 5. 1. c. 2. The Tribe of A SER was so called from Aser the 8. Sonne of Iacob begotten on Zilphah the hand-maid of Leah of whom at their first muster when they came out of Egypt were found 41500 persons able to bear Armes all above 20. years of Age and at the second muster when they entred the Land of Canaan 53400 fighting men of the new increase The portion of the land allotted for their habitation was plentifull in wine oyl and wheat with great store of Balsam extending from the coast of Sidon to Ptolemais 30 miles in length and from the Mediterranean Eastward to the Tribe of Napththali some twelve miles in breadth And though they never were of power to reduce the maritime Cities of Ptolemais Tyre Sarepta and Sidon under their command yet had they in this narrow compasse many beautiful Cities and Towns of note which they were quietly possessed of till their subjugation by the Kings of Assyria The principal of those and others which have since been founded 1. Aphek memorable for the great slaughter there made of the Syrians when besieged by Benhadad of whom 100000. were slain by the Israe it es under the leading of Ahab and 27000 killed by the fall of the wall 2. Gabalâ— mentioned by Ptolomy amongst the mid-land Cities of Phoenicia but belonging properly to this Tribe one of those twenty which were offered by Sâ—lomon unto Hiram and upon his refusal peopled by the Israelites Fallen to decay it was afterwards re-built and strongly fortified by Herod the Great 3. Giâ—â—ala a Town of great strength and consequence the birth-place of Iohn or Iehochaman one of the three seditious â—â— Hierusalem when besieged by Titus where he did more mischief than the enemy Attempting to betray this City to the power of the Romans he gave the Tyrians an opportunity to be Masters of it by whom it was burnt unto the ground But being re-built by the Authority of Iosephus then Governour of Galilee for the Iews it was afterwards yielded to Titus upon composition 4. Cana for distinction sake called Cana-Ma or to difference it from another of that name in the Lower Galilee assumed for the dwelling of that woman whose daughter Christ delivered of an evil Spirit called by Saint Mathew a woman of Canaan cap. 15. a Syro-Phoenician by Saint Mark chap. 7. the Syro-Phoenicians of this Tract being originally of the race of Canaan as was said before 5. Hetâ—lan or Châ—â—â—lan the furthest City of the North as 6. Messal or Masheal to the South of the Tribe of Aser Of later date there are 7. Thoron a strong piece built by the Christians on the hills neer Tyre to â—â—â—der the excursions of the Turks when they held
fift on what day soever for on that he came into the world in that he took K. Francis Prisoner at the battel of Pavâ—e and on the same received the Imperial Crown But to return unto the Temple we find that on the Sabbath or Saturday it was taken by Pampey on the same by Herod and on that also by Titus But goe we forwards to Hierusalem as now it standeth it lay in rubbish and unbuilt after the destruction of it by Titus till repaired by Adrian and then the Temple not so much as thought of till out of an ungodly policy in the Reign of Julian that Politick Enemy of the Church who to diminish the infinite number of Christians by the increase of the Jews began again to build this Temple But no sooner were the foundations laid but a terrible Earth-quake cast them up again and fire from Heaven consumed the Tools of the Workmen together with the Stones Timber and other materials As for the City it self after the desolation in it which was made by Titus it was re-edified by the Emperour Aelius Adrianus who named it Aelia drave thence the Jews and gave it to the Christians But this new City was not built in the place of the old For within this Mount Calvary is comprehended which was not in the Old before As on the other side a great part of Mount Sion part of the City of Herod and the Soyl where the New City stood are left out of this the ruines of the other still remaining visible to shew the antient greatness and magnificence of it To look upon it then as it stands at present it is now onely famous for the Temple of the Sepulchre built by Helena whom most report to have been daughter to Corlus a British King Mother to Constantine the great Much a doe had the good Lady to find the place where the LORDS body had been laid for the Jews and Heathens had raised great hillocks on the place and built there a Temple of Venus This Temple being plucked down and the earth dâ—gged away she found the three Crosses whereon our blessed Saviour and the two Theeves had suffered To know which of these was the right Cross they were all carried to a woman who had been long visited with sickness and now lay at the point of death The Crosses of the two Theeves did the weak woman no good but as soon as they laid on her the Cross on which the Lord died she leaped up and was restored to her former health This Temple of the Sepuâ—chre even at the first building was highly reverenced and esteemed by the Christians of these parts and even untill our daies it is much resorted to both by Pilgrims from all the parts of the Romish Church who fondly and superstitiously hope to merit by their journey and also by divers Gentlemen of the reformed Churches who travell hitherward partly for curiosity partly for love to the antiquity of the place and partly because their generous spirits imitate the heaven and delight in motion Whosoever is admitted to the sight of this Sepulchre payeth nine crowns to the Turkish Officers so that this â—ribute onely is worth to the Grand Signeur eighty thousand Duckats yearly The other building generally very mean and poor if not contemptible Built of flint stones Low and but one rock high flat on the tops for men to walk on and fenced with battlements of a yard in hight to preserve them from falling the under-rooms no better than vaults where they repose themselves in the heat of the day Some houses neer the Temple of Solomon and the Palace of Herod adorned with Arches toward the Street where the passenger may walk dry in a showr of rain but not many such nor any thing but the ruins left of the antient buildings The whole circuit of it reduced to two or three miles and yet to those which take a survey thereof from some hills adjoining where the ruines are not well discerned from the standing edifices it affordeth to the eye no unpleasing prospect And as the place is such is the people inhabited for the most part by Artizans of the meanest quality gathered together of the scumme of divers Nations the greatest part consisting of Moores and Arabians a few poor Christians of all the Orientall Sects which dwell there for devotion and some Turks who for the profit which they make of Christians are content to stay in it Insomuch that when Robert Duke of Normandy being then not cured of his wounds and was carried into this City on the backs of some of this rascal people he called to a Gentleman of his who was going for England and bad him say that he saw Duke Robert carried into Heaven on the backs of devils Come we now to the Tribe of LEVI though indeed not reckoned for a Tribe because not planted close together as the other were nor had whole Provinces to themselves but mingled and dispersed amongst the rest of the people having forty eight Cities assigned them for their habitation proportionably taken out of the other Tribes So was it ordered by the Lord partly that they being set apart for his Service might be at hand in every place to instruct the People and partly to fulfill the Prophecy which he had spoken by Jacob who had fore-signified to Levi at the time of his death that he should be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel The like fortune he had prophesied of Simeon also of the accomplishment whereof so far as it refered to him and the dispersion of his Tribe we have spoken before Now to make up the number of the twelve Tribes Joseph was divided into Ephraim and Manasses and the Levites were reckoned to belong unto that Tribe within whose territorie that City which they dwelt in stood Their maintenance was from the tenths or tithes the first fruits offerings and Sacrifices of the People and as it is in the eighteenth of Joshua v. the seventeenth The Priesthood of the Lord was their inheritance There were of them four kinds 1. Punies or Tirones which from their childhood till the five and twentieth year of their age learned the duty of their offices 2. Graduates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which having spent four years in the study of the Law were able to answer and oppose in it 3. Licenciates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which did actually exercise the Priestly function And 4. Doctors Rabbins they use to call them who were the highest in degree For maintenance of whom they had as before is said the Tithes first fruits and offerings of all the rest of the People besides the 48 Cities assigned for their habitation which last with the severall territories appertaining to them extending every way for the space of two thousand Cubits seems to have been a greater proportion of it self than any of the other Tribes with reference to the small number of the Levites had in their possessions Then for the Tithes
unto Edom whom he overcame and put Garrisons into all their Cities and the Edomites became his servants Governed from thenceforth by a Deputy or Vice-Roy as is said before till the time of Joram the Son of Jehosophat King of Judah in whose Reign they revolted as before was said Never regained to that Crown and but twice endeavoured that so the word of God might be all in all Onely the Simeonites in the reign of Hezekiah wanting pasture for their cattel and room for themselves seized on the parts which lay neerest to them destroyed the inhabitants thereof and dwelt in their habitations because there was pasture for their flocks 1. Chron. 4. 39. Provoked wherewith and with the natural Antipathy which was between them No people were more mischievously bent against Judah than these Edomites were no men so forward of themselves to assist Nabuchadonosor against Hierusalem none that so vehemently cryed Down with it down unto the ground none half so ready to set fire to the holy Temple But they got little by this service to the Babylonians their own thraldome following close upon that of Judah with whom made fellow-subjects to the Chaldaeans as afterwards to the Persians and Kings of Syria of the race of Seleucus In the declining of that house subdued by Hyrcanus the Son of Simon the fourth of the Maccabaean Princes by whom they were compelled to be Circumcised and to receive the Law of Moses not onely reckoned after that as a Province of the Jewish Kingdome but as naturall Jews Which notwithstanding and that the setting of that Crown on the head of Herod and his house being originally Idumaenus might in all reason have extinguished their inveterate malice yet was their hatred of that Nation as great as ever Forgetting therefore how they had been rewatded by the Babylonians they would needs aid the Romans against them also putting themselves into Hierusalem when besieged by Titus onely of purpose to betray it joyning with the seditious there doing more mischief in the City than the enemy had done without and finally setting fire to the second Temple as they had done unto the first Subjected afterwards by the Romans they followed the same fortune with the rest of Palestine Having thus gon through with the story of those neighbouring Nations which encompassed Canaan it will be seasonable to look on the affairs of the Canaanites first and after of the house of Jacob who possessed their Countrey First for the Canaanites they descended from Canaan the son of Cham who with his eleven sons were here setled immediatly after the confusion at Babel Of those twelve taking in the Father five planted in Phoenicia and the coasts of Syria that is to say Sidon Harki Arvadi Semari and Hamathi the other seven in those parts which we now call Palestine though not all of that the Edomites Moabites Midianites Ammonites and Ituraeans being Occupants or Tenants with them And of those seven came those seven Nations which by Gods appointment were totally to be rooted out viz. the Canaanites the Amorites the Hittites the Iebusites the Hivites the Gergeshites and the Perizites But from which of the sons of Canaan these last descended is not yet agreed on unless perhaps they were descended of the Sinites not otherwise reckoned in this muster and got the name of Perizites on some new occasion Governed at first by the Chiefest of their severall Families with the names of Kings the number of which increased as their Families were subdivided into smaller branches insomuch as Iosuah found 31 Kings of the Cannanites onely besides what might descend from those who were setled in Phoenicia and the borders of Syria The most potent of those Nations were the Amorites the Iebusites and the Chanaanites properly so called Of which the Amorites had not onely inlarged their borders beyond Iordan but in the reigns of Og and Sihon ruling at the same time in their severall parts had thrust the Ituraeans Ammonites and Moabites out of most of their Countries and so restored the same again to the race of the Emmims and Zanzummims of which they were who had been dispossessed thereof by the Sons of Lot These vanquished in the time of Moses and their habitations assigned over to the Tribes of Reuben Gad and the one half-tribe of Manasses The Canaanites properly so called as they were the first which fought with the house of Iacob so they were the last of all these people that contended with them They first fought with them under the conduct of Arad their King who thinking it more safe and prudent to encounter the Enemy in an other mans Countrey than to expect them in his own gave battell unto Moses in the Desarts of Moab and having cut off some of the out-parts of his Army and taken a few Prisoners he went home again But Iabin under whom they made their second onset went to work more resolutely and taking a time when the iniquities of that People cried loud for vengeance so prevailed against them that he tyrannized over them for the space of 20 years After which time his Army being discomfited by Baraâ— in the time of Debora Sisera his great Captain slain by Iael the wife of Heber the Kenite and most of his Cities taken and possessed by the Israelites he perished himself in the close of that war for it is said that they prevailed against Iabin the King of Canaan till they had destroyed him Judg. 4. 24. As for the Iebusites they were grown so formidable at the time of the comming of the Hebrews to the rest of their neighbours that their King Adonibezek bragged that he had cut off the thumbs and great toes of 70 Kings and made them eat the crums which fell under his table But being vanquished by Iudah he was served in the same kind himself by Iudah and Simeon and carried to Hicrusalem where he died the whole Countrey of the Iebusites and the City of Hierusalem it self the fortress of Mount Zion excepted onely being made a prey unto the Victor And though the Iebusites held that fortess till the time of David yet being they were onely on the defensive side and made no open war against those of Israel I reckon the Canaanites as the last which did contend with them for the chief command The Canaanites thus conquered and for the most part worn out of the Countrey the Israelites succeeded in their possessions according to the promise of God made to Abraham renewed to Isaac and confirmed to Iacob Governed after the death of Moses and Josuah by the Congregation of the Elders as appears by many passages in the book of Iudg. the Iudges as the Scripture calleth them not being the ordinary Magistrates but raised up occasionally by God for some speciall purpose according to the exigence of their affairs Carrying in this a likeness unto the Dictators in the State of Rome So that the Government at the first was an Aristocratie though to say truth it rather
Hagarenis non à fuga duci But time and opposition at the last reclamed him from this error and in the second edition of his work he is content to follow the common opinion of those men whom in the first he whistled off with the infamous appellation of mendaces But to proceed It hapned much about this time that the Saracens revolting from Heraclius the Eastern Emperour joyned themselves unto him They had long been displeased with their condition and now hoped to mend it Exasperated by Julian the Apostate when they served in his warres against the Persian for telling them when they demanded their pay that he had more store of steel than Gold but then they wanted a fit head to resort unto Now serving Heraclius in the same warre they were used by his Officers in the same ill manner Asking their pay the Treasurer of the Army made them this churlish answer that there was scarce money enough to pay the Roman and Grecian Souldiers and must those dogs be so importunate for their wages Provoked herewith and hearing the fame of Mahomet they betook themselves to him who strengthned by their forces and the coming in of the rest of their Countrey-men soon brought the three Arabias under his subjection To which having defeated the Emperors forces sent against him he added some parts of Syria and Egypt and returning to Mecca there dyed frantick and distempered in the 70th year of his Age and three and twentieth of his impostures of which he had spent thirteen at Medina and the rest at Mecca from his first serling in which City the years of his Empire were computed His dead body being kept four daies in expectation of a resurrection which he promised to perform at the end of three grown full of stench and putrefaction was carried to Medina and there interred his Successors out of wicked and worldly policy keeping up the reputation of that Religion after his decease which they derided in his life and calling themselves Caliphs or Vicars Generall to him their Prophet to the Catalogue of which we hasten made intricate not more by their own confusions than by the difference of those names by which they are presented to us by severall Writers according to the times and Languages in which they writ The Caliphs or Emperours of the Saracens A. C. A. H. 622 5 1. Mahomet the Impostor of whom before 632 15 2. Ebubezer or Vquebar Mahomets Father-in-Law and one of his Great Captains supplanted Ali to whom the Empire was designed by the will of Mahomet and took unto himself the name of Caliph 2. 634 17 3. Haumar the second of Mahomets Great Captains having the command of the Army under Ebubezer succeeded him in the estate and added to it Persia Egypt Palestine with great part of Syria and Mesopotamia 12. 647 30 4. Osmen the third of Mahomets great Captains Husband of Zetneh his second daughter succeeded under that pretence and added all Barbary to his Empire Distressed by the faction of Halt and besieged in his own house he flew himself in the eighty seventh year of his Age and the tenth of his Reign 657 40 5. Hali the Kinsman and next heir of Mahomet and the husband of Fatime his eldest daughter succeeded on the death of Osmen murdered by the procurement of Mxavias neer Cafa in Arabia Felix 660 43 6. Muhavias having murdered Hali his Sonne Hasem or Ossan and eleven of the Sonnes of that Hasem the twelfth onely escaping with life from whom descended the Family of the Alaveci and the Persian Sophies assumed the Government as rightfull Successor to Osmen whose widow the daughter of Mahomet he had took to wife He conquered Rhodes Cyprus and a great part of Asia Minor and was the Founder of the Family of Aben Humeya 681 64 7. Gizid the Son of Muhavias more skilled in Poetry than in Armes 8. Habdalla and Marvan Competitors for the Supreme dignity but carried at last by Marvan 685 68 9. Abdimelech the Sonne of Marvan established the begun conquests of Armenia and Mesopotamia 22. 707 90 10. Vlidor Ulit under whom the Saracens or Moors first conquered Spain 9. 716 99 11. Zulcimin Brother to Ulit whose Captain Mulsamas besieged Constantinople till his Ships were burnt and his men consumed with the Plague 3. 719 102 12. Homar or Haumar II. Son of Vildor Vlit 2. 721 104 13. Izit or Gizid II. the brother of Haumar with whom during his life he was joynt Caliph and after his decease enjoyed it wholly to himself 725 107 14. Evelid by some called Ischam in whose time Charles Martel made such havock of the Moores in France Anno 734 their General then named Abderamen 18. 743 125 15. Gizid III. the Son of Gizid the second 744 126 16. Hyces by some called Ibrahim the brother of Gizid the third slain by Marvan 745 127 17. Marvan II. the last of the house of Ben-Humeya slain by Abdalla of the house of Fatime and Hali. 7. 752 134 18. Abdalla of the house of Alaveci or Alabeci descended from Hali and Fatime the eldest daughter of Mahomet called also the Family of Abas because of their descent from Abas the Uncle of Mahomet and perhaps Father unto Hali. 756 138 19. Abdallas II. 20. Mahomet II. surnamed Bugiafer or Abugefer who built the City of Bagdat made from that time the constant seat of his Successors till their fatall period 777 156 21. Mahadi 9. 786 168 22. Musa or Moyses 1. 787. 169. 23. Aron or Arachid who compelled Irene Empress of Constantinople to pay him tribute 23. 810. 193. 24. Mahamad or Mahomet III. 825. 198. 25. Abdalla III. who took and spoyled Crete and overthrew the Greeks be spoiled Sicilia Sardinia and Corsica 17. 832. 215. 26. Mahomet IV. wasted Italy burnt the suburbs of Rome and harassed the fore-named Ilands 40. Others reckon these Caliphs to have succeeded Mahomet II. 815. 198. 25. Mamon 12. 827. 210. 26. Mutetzam 8. 835. 218. 27. Wacek 4. 839. 222. 28. Methucall 12. 851. 234. 29. Montacer 1. 852. 235. 30. Abul Hamet 6. 858. 241. 31. Almatez 4. 863. 245. 32. Motadi Bila 7. 7. After whose death the Aegyptians with-drew themselves from their obedience due to the Babylonian Caliph and chose one of their own to whom all the Arabians or those of the Mahumetan religion in Africa and Europe submitted themselves Of the Aegyptain Caliphs when we come into that Countrey take now with you the names onely of the Syrian and Babylonian Caliphs for story of them I find little or none the power being totally in the hands of the Sultans of the severall Provinces and nothing left unto the Caliphs but an aiery title the shadow of that mighty Tree which formerly had spread it self over most parts of the World The Babylonian Caliphs after the division A. C. A. H. 870 252 1. Mutemad 21. 891 273 2. Mutezad 8. 897 281 3. Muchtaphi 8. 907 389 4. Muchtedtr 24. 931 313 5. Elhaker 1. 932 314 6.
pleasing of their Gods especially of 〈◊〉 whom they called Orsiloche they used to sacrifise all such strangers as they could lay hands on and with their heads most barbarously adorned the walls of her Temples An inhumanity with which the Christian Advocates of the Primitive times did much use to upbraid the Gentiles taunting them with the sacrifices of Diana Taurica so named from hence as inconsistent with the nature of a God or goodness most rightly giving them this brand or censure that they were not sacra but Sacrilegia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Better it was to be of no Religion than of one so cruel But to go forwards with the story in the actions of the Greeks and Romans we hear nothing of them unless it were that the Emperour Trajan as Florus seems to intimate took the City of Taphre Which if he did he added by that action somewhat to his own honour but nothing to the Roman Empire this people being never reckoned amongst their Provinces Nor hear we any thing by name of their infesting the Roman territories as the other barbarous Nations did except they passed in the account of the 〈◊〉 Alani Hunnes Avares or other of the Scythian or Sarmatian people by which the majesty of that Empire was trod under foot But what the Persians Greeks and Romans were not able to do was with ease effected by the Tartars who in the time of Joccatha or Hoccata the next to Cingis under the conduct of Bathu or Roydo one of their most renowned Commanders subdued all these parts together with Russia on the North Bulgaria and Hungarie on the East Subject at first to the command of the Great Cham of Cathaia as the rest of the Tartarians were they came at last to have a Prince of their own one Lâ—chtan Cham descended from the aforesaid Bathu and as it was pretended of the blood of Cingis They grew at last of so great power by conquering the Asiatick Tartars which lay neerest to them that Mahomet the Great thought fit to keep them down before grown too strong for him and therefore under colour of taking in the City of Capha then possessed by the Genoese made himself master of the greatest part of the Taurican Chersonese and the Port of Tanais thereby commanding both Moeotis and the Enxine Sea In the time of Selimus the first who had maryed a daughter of this Crim-Tartar for so they call him and was aided by him with an Army of 15000 men against his Father the Turks and these Tartarians grew into a League The chief conditions of it were that the Tartar should aid the Turk upon all occasions with 60000 horse if it were required that they shall not make war with any of their neighbours except the Moscovite without leave of the Turk that they shall pay yearly to the Grand Signieur in the way of tribute 300 Christians that the new Cham upon the death or deposition of his Predecessor shall receive from the Great Turk a Royall Banner in token of his Confirmation in that estate that in reward of these services the Crim-Tartar shall have yearly from the Grand Signieur 5500 Ducates in the way of pension and succeed finally in the Turkish Empire if ever the male issue of the house of Ottoman should chance to fail According unto this agreement the Tartars have been aiding to the Turks from time to time against the Persians Polanders Hungarians Moldavians and indeed whom not and that with great and puissant Armies the Great Cham sometimes arming 150000 of his own Subjects leaving but one man in an house to attend their cattel and sometimes adding 50000 Circassians and others of the Asian Tartars And for the Moscovite whom he is left at liberty to assault by this Capitulation he hath had so hard an hand upon him that in the year 1571 they pierced as far as to the City of Mosco and set fire on the Suburbs which flaming into the City built most of wood and then reckoned to be 30 miles in compass within the space of four hours burnt the greatest part of it and therein no fewer than 800000 of all sorts of people A quarrel not to be composed the Tartar not only laying claim to the Kingdomes of Casan and Astrachan which the Russe possesseth but even to Moscovie it self as hath there been shewn Nothing so punctuall is the Turk on his part to perform the contract who not content to have the Tartar for his friend or at the worst his Homager hath of late times attempted to make him his slave or Vassall For Amurath the third quarrelling Mahomet the Crim-Tartar for a design to intercept Osman Bassa in his way from Persia to Constantinople authorised the said Osman to war upon him by whom the poor Crim and his two sonnes betrayed by some of his own Counsellers corrupted with Turkish Gold were strangled with a Bow-string Islan a brother of the Crims first sworn a Vassall to the Turk put into the place and over him a Turkish Beglerbeg or Bassa to command in chief What hopes he hath of succeeding in the Turkish Empire if the house of Oâ—toman should fail hath been already taken into consideration in our discourse upon that subject What the Revenue of this Prince is it is hard to say his subjects having little money and living most upon the bartery of their Cattel But besides what he hath in Lands or customes and the 5500 Ducats yearly which he receiveth from the Turk he hath the tenth of all the spoils which are got in the warres and a Checkine for every Captive for some two or three whosoever taketh them according unto their estates As for his power what he can do in horse we have seen already And as for foot and Ammunition and other necessaries he is supplied with them by the Turk who doth sometimes espouse his quarrels by whose assistance they have brought the Moscovites to some extremities And upon confidence of the favour and protection of the Grand Signieur the Cham then being upon the death of Stephen Bathori whom Amurath the 3d. commended to the Crown of Poland sent Ambassadours to negotiate his election to that Kingdome and to induce them thereunto promised them in his letters amongst other things that their Pope should be his Pope their Luther his Luther and that rather than put them unto any charge to find his Table he could live with Horse-flesh His Embassie entertained with Laughter as it well deserved 2. TARTARIA DESERTA TARTARIA DESERTA is bounded on the West with Precopensis and the Empire of Russia on the East with Antiqua and Zagathay from which last parted by the River Spane which falleth into the Caspian Sea about the middle of it and the great Lake of Kitay from East to west on the North with the Scythick or frozen Ocean and on the South with part of the Euxine Sea the Caucasian Mountains and some part of the Caspian It took this name from the many
richest of these kingdoms lieth South to Arrachan a little turning towards the West The soyl so fertile that it yieldeth three Harvests in a year and sent annually 15 ships to Cochin and as many to Malaâ—a laden with Rice Rich also in Mines of Iron lead steel brass silver gold and Rubies and very liberally provided of Springs and Rivers The Forrests well-stored with Harts Bores and Buffoles store of Pines and Palms the woods with Sugar-canes many excellent fruits the ordinary herbs and shrubs either Medicinal or odoriferous The principall City of it called also Martavan situate on an Haven open at all times of the year and not choked with sands as usually other Havens are in the Indian winter of great trading much splendour and a temperate aâ—â— Faithfull unto the last to the Crown of Pegu to the Kings whereof their own were subjects and in that constancy they twice repulsed the king of Siam who then had conquered the most part of the Kingdome of Pegu. Angry whereat the Siamite caused two of his cowardly Captains to be cast into a chaldron of scalding oyl and at the third assault became master of it Bannalaius the old King hereof 99 years old with his heir apparent and 200000 of his Subjects being compelled to hide themselves in the woods and Desarts 5. PEGV the most predominant Kingdom lieth like a Crescent or half-moon on the Gulf of Bengala extending on that coast from Negrais unto Tavan the next Town of Siam for the space of three hundred miles and upwards but little less in breadth if not quite as much So called from the River Pegu which runs thorow the middest of it and gives this name also unto Pegu the most noted City The Soyl hereof exceeding fruitfull by reason of the annuall overflowings of the River which do yearly fatten it fit to bear wheat and of Rice yielding an incredible quantity It affordeth also many Rubies great numbers of Civet-Cats plenty of â—â—cca a Gum there made by Ants as here Bees make wax store of Elephants and abundance of Parats which speak plainer and are much fairer than in any place else The people of a mean stature somewhat corpulent and naturally beardless If any stragling hair thrust forth they alwayes carry Pinsers with them to pull them out Nimble and strong but yet not very fit for warre spending too much of their strength in the love of women to which most passionably addicted They black their teeth because they say that dogs teeth be white and wear no cloths but on their heads and about their nakedness Said by the Jews to be descended from some of the Tribes of Israel confined hither by Solomon but by the Peguans themselves to be begotten of a dog and a China woman which were saved here upon a Shipwrack By Religion for the most part Gentiles imagining innumerable worlds one after another and a determinate number of Gods for every world more Orthodox in assigning after this life according to the merits of the party deceased one place of Torments and another of Delights and pleasures if they had not added a third also for satisfaction Chief Cities of this Kingdome 1. Cosin seated in a Territory full of Woods as those Woods of Tigers Wild Bores Apes and Parats the houses made of Canes which serve here for timber some of them being as bigge as Hogs-Heads covered over with thatch 2. Joccabel a great City on the River Pegu. 3. Dian on the same River also where they make Barks or Vessels as big as Galeasses which serve both for trade and liabitation 4. Coilan a City four-square and each square four miles 5. Lanagon a pleasant Town and full of Palm-trees 6. Dala in which were the Kings Stables for his ordinary Elephants his four White Elephants for so many he had being alwaies kept about the Court not seen abroad but in great solemnities when trapped in furnitures of Gold and no less honoured by the people than the King himself called therefore King of the White Elephant by the neighbouring Princes 7. Silvanpede where many victualling Barkes are made to serve for dwelling on the Sea 8. Mevcao where they use to unload such goods as are to pass by Land to Pegu. Neighboured by the strongest Castle in all this Kingdome and therefore chosen by the King for his place of Retreat when distressed by the Kings of Arrachan and Tangu To the last of which making choice to yield up his person with his Wife and Children because he had maryed him to his Sister he was by him perfidiously and basely murdered 9. Siriangh a strong peece on the mouth of the River given by the King of Arrachan to the Portugals and by them committed to the keeping of Philip de Britto in the year one thousand six hundred or thereabouts Who having made it good against him and the King of Tangu his Associate for the space of thirteen years together was at last forced to yield himself prisoner to the King of Avâ— by whom cruelly tortured on a spit 10. Pegu the glory of these parts great strong and beautifull Divided into two Towns the Old and the New the Old inhabited by Merchants the New by the King and his Nobility The houses made of wood but covered with Tiles a Coco-Tree before every house yielding a comfortable shade and a pleasant shew The Steetes as strait as any line and so broad that ten or twelve men may ride abrest in the narrowest of them In figure square each square having five Gates besides many Turrets all of them beautifully gilded The whole well walled with walls of stone environed on all sides with great Datches and in the middest the Royall Palace walled and ditched about most sumptuously gilded but specially the Temple or Idol-chapel the walls whereof were hid with Gold the Roof tiled with Silver In this magnificent Palace lived the Peguan Kings in as much pomp and pleasure as the world could yield his empire not extending only over these kingdoms now described but over all the Provinces or kingdoms of the Bramane also which he governed by his severall Vice-Roys or rather TRIBUTARIE kings A happiness too great to continue long For in the year 1567. the Vice-Roy or Tributary king of Tangu by the aid of his faction and reputation of his vertues entered into rebellion and slaying the Nobles of the Land usurped that kingdome After this he subdued the Cities and kingdoms of Calam Melintay Prom Miranda and Ava inhabited all of them by the Brames or Bramanes and therfore taking to himself the title of king of Brama because his fame and fortunes took their rise from his victories over them Following the course of his Successes he first assailed the Cities of Odia and Siam but repulsed with loss To make amends for which misfortune he beleaguered Pegu and subdued it and by the reputation which he got in that action returning to the siege of Siam had it yielded to him Dying he gave the
Accessories or Appurtenances to some greater Ilands The rest we shall present only in the generall muster together with a tast of some of those strange reports with which some men have fouled their Papers and abused their Readers Of the Philippines there are said to be 11000. though but 40 of them in possession of the King of Spain More South but over against China is another frie of them affirmed by Mariners to be no fewer than 7448 and as if nature had delighted to disport her self by sowing Ilands in these Seas another Shoal of them about India no fewer in number than 127000 all which laid together would make a Continent as large as three or four parts of Europe and are still groaning under the burthen of Heathenism These Ilands stand so nigh unto one another that they seem not only to such as are a far to be all but one firm land but whosoever also passeth between them may with his hands touch the boughs of the trees on the one side and on the other Of these and the other Indian Ilands travellers relate many incredible fables viz. that here be hogs that have two teeth growing out of their snowes and asmany behind their ears of a span and a half long a tree whose Western part is rank poison and the Eastern part an excellent preservative against it They tell us also of a fruit that whosoever eateth shall for the space of 12 hours be out of his wits and of a stone on which whosoever sitteth shall suddenly have a rupture in his body We are told also that here abouts are taken Tortoises of that bigness that ten men might sit and dine within one of the shells And that there is a tree which all the day time hath not a flower on it but within half an hour after Sun-set is full of them All huge and monstrous lies and not fit for credit Galvano reporteth also that in some of these Ilands there is a fruit of which if a woman that is w h child eat her child will presently move that there is a River plentifully stored with fish whose water is yet so hot that it doth immediately scald off the skin of any beast that is cast into it that some of the men have tailes and most of their swine horns that they have oysters which they call Braâ— the shels whereof are of so large compass that they Christen Children in them that in the Sea there are stones which grow and increase like fish of which the best lime is made that there is a bird called Monicodiaâ—a which having no feet is in a continuall motion and that there is a hole in the back of the Cock in which the Hen doth lay her egges and hatch her young ones Ibid no man to believe these Relations for my part I say with Herace Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi What ever thus thou tell'st me I Will alwayes hate it as a lye And so much for these Eastern-Ilands An Advertisement to the Reader touching the Errata of this part IN the first place the Reader is to be advertised that Fol. 63. from the 24th line to the 32 I have adventured to prove the Alamatha of Ptolomy to be the Chamath or Hamath-Sobab of the Holy Scriptures The place ill pointed but the judicious Reader will easily find out the scope and meaning Yet if this shall not be approved of I should then think it to be that Elam or Helam where David discomfited the Army of the Mesopotamians mention whereof is made 2 Sam. 10. v. 16 17. In the next place he is to know that Fol. 91. within the compass of five lines the victory which Asa king of Judah obtained against the numerous Army of Ethiopians is twice repeated in the first place ascribed to Iethir in the next to Maresha But being that Scripture doth more clearly ascribe it unto Maresha though the other also hath good Authors let that of Iethir be supplied in this manner following 5. Iethir or Iatthir in the North Border of this Tribe towards Eleutheropolis a City antiently of the Levites in S. Hieroms time called by the name of Iethira and then replenished altogether with Christians now nothing but the name remaining 6. Maresa c. And finally whereas Ajalon p. 87. is placed in the Tribe of Ephraim and page 90 in the Tribe of Dan the reason is because being situate in the Borders of both Tribes it is by some writers ascribed to Dan and by others to Ephraim The like may be also said of Michpas mentioned also in two Tribes according as it is disposed of by severall Authors Which being advertised such literal faults as do occurre in this third Book may be mended thus FOl. 4. line 62. for nine read six 7. 37. for doubtfull 1. doughty ib. 52. for right r. sight 11. 26 for Pamphylia r. Lycaonia 12. 42. for perspicuous r. perspicacious 11. 22. for Rom r. Roni 14. 22. for Caousum r. Cucusum 18. 64. for pride and faâ—l r. pride and folly 19. 6. for Streets r. Straits 20. 6 for Cycus r. Caâ—cus 23. 1. for comprehended r. comprehending 25. 47. for Manie r. a mine 27. 67 for Cicilia r. Cilicia 29 1. for Hiliades r. Miltiades 34. 29. for Esburich r. Esbuith 38. 18. d. Stomalymne 60. 9. d. by the Iews or Hebrews once called Reblatha 61. 5 for long after r. not long after 63. 34. for and a Town r. if a Town ib. 37. for Barathius r. Barathene for here sometimes are the Towns r. among the Towns ib. 38. for by which r. to which 65. 16. for this City r. the City of Damascus 71. 37 for forbearing r. forbidding 75. 21. for Amorites r. Moabites ib. for Reson r. Recem 76. 28. for Livias r. Iulias 100. 34. for of which they were r. of which line Og and the Kings of Basan were 113. 18. d. this and 114. 43 for Serah r. Selah 118. for 500 r. 50. fol. 120. 7. 181. 23. for Tuledensis r. Tudelensis 122. 27. for Trocomania r. Tuâ—comania ib. 55. for herse r. house 127. 45. d. containing Susiana 131. 4 to Chaldaea adde and on the South with Susiana a Province of Persia 132. 3. for Cities r. Rivers for Adiavenena r. Adiavena ib. 30. for 900000. r. 90000. 137. 19. for ab inspiciendo r. ab Aras inspiciendo 138. 11. for 30th r. the 118. 51. for where r. when 159 17. for Gauzarania r. Gauzania 159. for which r. with ib. 61. for subdued r. till subdued 160. 11. for Nasmana r. Nasuana 163. 30. for Thessalonians r. Thessalians ib 64. for different r. difference 167. 62 for 24000. r. 240000. fol. 173. 37. for Travels r. Travellers 181. 48. for that reigned in Persia r. the last of the race of Haalâ—â— that reigned in Persia 183. 26. for the 2d t. the 3d. 190. 6 for that r. yet 195. 59. d. the chief 191. 50 for besides r. sides 197. 32 for it is now r. it is not now
dignity remained till the year 1500. and somewhat after Three only were of note in the course of business that is to say 1 Jacob Ben Joseph the advancer of the Marine Family to the Realm of Morocco the establisher thereof in that of Fesse and of great power and influence in the affairs of the Moors in Spain where he held Algeir and Tariffe Towns of great importance slain treacherously by one of his familiar friends at the siege of Tremesen 2 Aben Joseph the second a younger son of this first Joseph the issue of Bucalo his elder brother being quite extinct succeeded after Abortade the fixt of the Marine Family in the Throne of his Father and had added thereunto the Realm of Tremesen if not diverted by the revolt of Alboali his eldest son continually in Arms against him 3 Alboacen the son of this Aben Joseph and the eighth of the Marine Family who after a siege of 30 moneths took the City of Tremesen with that the Kingdom But not so fortunate in his Wars against the Christian Kings of Spain against whom he led an Army of 400000 Foot and 70000 Horse with all other necessaries but vanquished by the two kings of Castile and Portugal with far lester forces their Army consisting but of 25000 foot and 14000 horse at the River of Salado not far from Tariff Anno 1340 Deposed soon after his return by his son Alboanen who lost all which his Father and the first of the Aben Josephs had gained in Spain their Empire after this declining even in Africk it self the Kingdom of Tremesen and the greatest part of the new Kingdom of Tunis withdrawing themselves from their obedience in the East parts of Barbarie as the Portugals prevailed upon them in the West The Kingdom of the Marines thus approaching neer its fatal Period it fortuned about the year 1508 that Mahomet Ben Amet a Native of Dara in the further Numidia or Bilodulgerid pretending a descent from their Prophet Mahomet caused himself to be called Xeriff the name by which the kindred and Successors of that Impostor use to call themselves and being a poor Hermit only with which Mountebanks and the high opinion of their Sanctity this People have from time to time been extreamly fooled plotted to make his sons the chief Princes of Mauritania To this end he sent them in Pilgrimage to Meccha whence they returned with such an opinion of Sanctity that Mahomet King of Fesse made Amet the elder of them Governor of the famous Colledge of Amadurach the second called Mahomet Tutor to his Children the youngest named Abdel staying at home with his Father In those dayes the Portugals grievously infested the Provinces of the Realm of Morocco to repress whose insolencies Mahomet and Amet obtained Commission though much opposed therein by the Kings brother who told him how unsafe it was to trust to an armed hypocrisie assuring him that if they once came unto any power which under color of Religion they might quickly raise it would not be easie to suppress them But this good counsel was rejected and the war went forwards Furnished with an Army they discomfit Lopes Barriga Commander of the Portugal forces under King Emanuel compell that King to abandon all his footing there they subdue Duccala Sus and Hea three Provinces of the Realm of Morocco enter that City poison the tributary King and salute Amet King thereof by the name of the Xeriffe of Morocco investing Mahomet the other brother in the kingdom of Sus. In the career of their successes died the king of Fesse and Amet his successor an improvident young Prince confirms his Quondam-Tutors in their new Estates conditioned they should hold of him as the Lord in chief and pay him the accustomed tributes The Xeriffes of Morocco A. C. 1 Amet denied both tribute and superiority to the King of Fez whom he overthrew in a set field and was after vanquished and dispossessed of his Kingdom upon some quarrell breaking out by his brother Mahomet 1554. 2 Mahomet King of Sus having got A. C. the Kingdom of Morocco united Fesse unto it also by the vanquishment of Amet the King thereof slain after all his Victories by the Turks of his Guard 1557. 3 Abdalla the son of Mahomet 1572. 4 Abdalla II. Sonne of the former had twelve Brothers of which he slew ten Hamet being spared by reason of his supposed simplicity and Abdelmelech escaping to the Turks 5 Mahomet II. Sonne of Abdalla the second expelled by Abdelmelech and the Turks fled to Sebastian King of Portugal who together with the two Competitors were slain in one day at the battel of Alcazar Guer Anno 1578. 1578. 6 Hamet II. the Brother of Abdalla the ad who added parts of Libya and Numidia to the Realm of Morocco not absolutely subdued before 1603. 7 Muley Sheck the eldest son of Hamet opposed in his Succcession by Boferes and Sidan his two younger brethren in which War he dyed as did also Boferes his Brother From whom Abdalla II. son of Muley Sheck had regained Morocco 1607. 8 Sidan the third son of Hamet immediately on the death of his Father caused himself to be proclaimed King of Fez where he was with his father when he died and having won Morocco from Abdalla the son of Muley Sheck became master of that kingdom also Stripped afterwards of Fesse and Morocco both by the opposite factions distressed by Hamet Ben Abdela a Religious Hermit who hoped to get all for himself and aided by Side Hean one of like hypocrisie who seemed to aim but at a Limb of that great Estate by whose assistance he was once more possessed of Morocco These tumults on the Land being pacified in long tract of time and the Country brought to some degree of peace and quietness though never absolutely reduced under his command as in former times a Rabble of Pirats nest themselves in Salla a Port-town of the Realm of Fesse creating thence great mischief to him both by sea and land and not to him only but to all the Merchants of other Countries whose busines led them towards thâ—se Seas Unable to suppress them for want of shipping he craved aid of King Charles of England by whose assistance he became Master of the Port destroyed the Pyrates and sent Three hundred Christian Captives for a Present to his Sacred Majesty An. 1632. Nor staid he here but aiming at the general good of Trade and Mankind he sent a Letter to His Majesty to lend him the like aid against those of Algiers who did as much inâ—est the Mediterranean as the Pirats of Salla did the Ocean The tenor of which Letters as savouring of more piety then could be possibly expected from a Mahometan and much conducing to the honour of his Sacred Majesty I have here subjoyned The Letter of the King of Morocco to the King of England WHen these our Letters shall be so happy as to come to your Majesties sight I wish the Spirit of
contracted Channell he may be said to have a second birth from hence though not the first And these I take to be the Lakes which were discovered by the Romans in the time of Nero. Who following the design of some other great Potentates Sesostris Cambyses Alexander and Philadelphus in discovering the true Original of this famous River imployed two Centurions in that service who aided in it by the then King of the Aethiopians are said to have come at last unto certain great Marishes most probably the lower and sedgie parts of these Lakes now mentioned of whose extent the Inhabitants themselves were ignorant nor possible to be discovered any further the weeds having so overgrown the water that there was no further passage to be made by boat and less by wading Betwixt this Country and Damut which we last passed thorow is said to be a Province of Amazons warlike and fierce and very expert at the Bow whose Queen knoweth no man and by the rest honoured as a Goddess These they say were first instituted by the Queen of Saba as true as that which some have added of the Phoenix visible in this Country of Griffons and of Fowls so big that they make a shadow like a Cloud Which strange reports I have here added to supply the defect of Towns and Cities of which I meet not with so much as the naked names as undiscovered places in our Maps and Charts are filled up with Monsters 7. BAGAMEDRVM BAGAMEDRVM or SAGAMEDRVM for I finde both names lieth on the West of Goiamy betwixt the Northern parts thereof and the River Nilus and keeping all along the course of that River as far as Guagere or Meroe encountreth with the Southern point of Barnagasso Some do extend it also beyond that Iland but making the whole length thereof but 600 miles do confate themselves The greatest Province of this Empire it may probably be cateris hujus AEthiopiae amplissimum as they say it is but if extended the whole length of it it must be 1500 miles not 600 only The Country plentifull in Mines of the purest Silver which they cannot draw thence but by fire which makes it run like long rods or Ropes of Mettall And yet as large and wealthy as they say it is I am more to seek for Towns and rich Cities in it then in the Desarts of Libya or the sands of Arabia Merchants and Travellers for the most part go no further then the Sea coasts of the Country of which they give us more exact and full informations knowing but little of the Inlands and of the Natives such as have travelled abroad into other Kingdoms rude and ignorant men know little more of their own Empire then the place they lived in Or probably their best Cities not containing above 2000 houses few of them so many and those patched up of thatch dirt and hurdles unless some of the Nobility or wealtheir Merchants are provided better they may have no great reason to speak much of them or to acquaint us with the names of such sorry places as are indeed not worth the naming Which I conceive to be the true condition of most or all the Inland Towns in this large Estate 8. BARNAGASSO BARNAGNES or BARNAGASSVM hath on the West Guagere or the Isle of Meroe on the Southwest as some say a point of Bogamedrum on the South Dangali and Adel on the East the Red Sea or Bay of Arabia on the North it stretcheth towards Egypt the Kingdoms of Jasculum and Sua possessed by the Mahometans being interposed The Country very sertile full of Towns and Villages and exceedingly well stored with pleasant Riverets besides the neighbourhood of the Red Sea on the one side Nile and Abanhi on the other Remarkable for a Mountain in the Western part of it which being spacious in the beginning groweth strait by little and little and then enlargeth it self again to a League in circuit On the top thereof a Royal Palace a Church a Monastery and two very large Cisterns with a piece of ground able to entertain and keep 500 men To be ascended one way only and that but to a certain mark to which being come they are drawn up with Cords and Baskets to the top of all not to be took by force by reason of the impossibility of ascent nor by long siege or any extremity of Family in regard it yields provision enough to maintain itself Accounted therefore the chief Hold of all this Province against Turks and Moors It containeth besides Barnagasso it self the two Provinces of Canfila and Dafila though rather subject to the Governour or Vice-Roy of it then parts and members of the same Towns of most moment in the whole I Beroa or Barua conceived by some to be the Colony of Ptolomy the Residence of the Vice Roy situate on a pleasant and fish full River 2 Zameta honoured sometimes also with the Vice Royes presence but rather as a retiring place in times of leisure then a Town of strength 3 Suachen situate in an Hand of the Red Sea or Bay of Arabia one of the richest Cities of the Eastern parts and beautified with a goodly and capacious Haven secured by nature from all storms or smooth tides sure Anchorage and able to receive 300 great ships of burden Situate in a little Iland the whole circumference whereof it taketh up insomuch that vessels of all sorts both within the Haven and without do usually unlade themselves at the doors of the Merchants to which the Ship beaks serve for bridges A wealthy and well traded Town both by Sea and Land to which from the more in land parts of the Abassine Empire the Mountains open a safe passage for the carriage and re carriage of their commodities Taken by the Turks long since with all the rest of the Country lying betwixt it and Egypt and made the seat of a Turkish Beglerbeg or Bassa whom in imitation of the Romans they call the Beglerbeg of Abassia as if by the possession of this small part of that Empire they would entitle the Grand Signeur unto all the rest The Town conceived by some to be that which Ptolomy calleth Ostium Sabasticum or rather Sabaiticum as called by Strabo Others will have it to be the Ptolomais Ferarum or the Epitherias as Plinie calleth it of the Ancient Writers And some again will have it to be the Succhae of Plinie by whom reckoned among the Cities of the Troglodites who are called Succhaei in the Scriptures as before was noted in whose part of the Country it is seated and to which name it hath some resemblance 4 Bisam not far from Erocco remarkable for a Monastery situate on the top of an high Rock environed with dreadful Precipices upon every side in which live 3000 Monks eating by three and three together in a common Refectorie this being the chief of six others in this Province of Barnagasso the furthest not above 30 miles distant For maintainance of whom
whose vertue they had formerly made trial But he very nobly refused it saying that it was more convenient for the Commonwealth that another should be King and that he should execute that which was for the necessity of the State than to lay the whole burden upon his back and that without being King he would not leave to labour for the publick as well as if he were Upon this generous refusal they made choice of Motecumo the first 1438. 6 Motecumo one of the Brothers of Chimalpupuca brought in the custom of using no other Sacrifices at their Coronations but of such Prisoners as the new King should first take in the wars By the valour and good fortune of Tlacaellec he subdued so many of the Nations whose names I hold unnecessary to be here repeated that he extended his estate from one Sea to the other 1467. 7 Axayacaci the Nephew of Ischoalt by his son Tecozomoeliqueto enlarged his Empire by the conquest of Tetentepeque 200 miles from Mexico to fit himself with Sacrifices for his Coronation and brought the Lord of Tlatelulco who rebelled against him to so hard a streit that he was forced to break his neck from the top of a Temple 1479. 8 Ticoicatzi the son of Azayacaci added twelve Cities with their Territories to the Mexican Empire 1484. 9 Abuczozin brother of Ticoicatzi extended his borders to Guatimala repaired or rebuilt a great part of Mexico and brought thither a channel of fresh water 1502. 10 Motecuma II. Son of Axaacaci before his Coronation conquered 44 Cities He ordained that no Plebeian should bear any Office in his Court and in the 18. year of his Reign was subdued by Cortez As for this Cortez to whom the Spaniards stand indebted for the Kingdom of Mexico he was born in Mâ—deline a Town of Estremaduram 1485. and in the nineteenth yeer of his Age employed himself in the Trade and business of America for the improvement of his Fortunes Anno 1511. he went as Clark unto the Treasurer for the Isle of Cuba where he husbanded his Affairs so well by carrying 〈◊〉 Sheep and Mares and bringing Gold for them in Exchange that in short time he was able to put in 2000 Castellins for his stock as Partner with Andrew de Duero a wealthy Merchant Grown richer he was taken to be Partner with James Velasques in the Discovery of Tabasco and the parts neer Jucutan An. 1518. And now resolved to venture all his stock both of friends and money he furnished himself of eleven Ships and with 550 men set saâ—l from Spain and arrived at the Iland of Acusamill now called Santa Crux and failing up the River of Tabasco sacked the Town of Potonchon the Inhabitants refusing to â—ell him victual After this by the help of his Horse and Ordinance he discomfiâ—ed 40000 of the naked Savages gathered together to revenge themselves for the sack of that Town and received the King thereof in vassallage to the Crown of Spain Being told that Westward he should meet with some Mines of Gold he turned his course for the Haven of S. John de Vlloa where landing he was entertained by Tendilli Governour of the Town and Country for the King of Mexico who understanding of his coming and that he was the Servant of so great an Emperour of which Tendilla had informed him by especial Messengers he sent him many rich Presents both of Gold and Silver Inflamed at the sight hereof he resolved to go unto the place where such Treasures were took possession of the Country in the name of Charles the fift King of Spain and Emperour and building there the Town de la vera Crux left in it 150 of his men Attended by no more then 400 Foot 15 Horse and six pieces of Ordnance he pursued his Enterprize by practise gained unto him those of Zâ—mpoallan and Tlascalla whom he understood to be ill-affected to Motecuma assisted with whose Forces he passed on for Mexico sacked the Town of Chololla a Town of 40000 housholds in his maâ—ch he was kindly received into Mexico by the frighted King whom he caused to acknowledge himself a 〈◊〉 to Spain and to present him in the name of a Tribute with so much Treasure as amounted to 160000 Castellins of Gold A quarrell growing not long after Motecuma the unhappy King was by one of his own Subjects killed in the Tumult and the Spaniards driven out of the Town But aided with the whole Forces of the Tlascalans and a recruit of more Spaniards sent thither on a Design against him he made up an Army of 100000 Savages 900 Spanish Foot 80 Horse 17 pieces of Ordnance and having with great diligence made ready a Navie of 13 Galliots and 6000 Canons or Boats laâ—d siege unto the City both by Sea and Land After a Siege of three moneths the City is taken sacked and burnt August 13. 1521. But afterwards rebuilt more beautifully then it was before Thus fell this mighty Kingdom into the hands of the Spaniards by the valour and good fortune of Cortez a private Adventurer endowed for that good Service by Charles the fift with the Town and Territory of Tecoanâ—peque in the Province of Guaxaca and many other fair estates in the Province of Mexico and dignified with the title of Marquels of Valla. As for the Kings of Mexico they are said to have worn a Crown resembling that which is now used by the Dukes of Venice His Coâ—â—nation held with great pomp but most bloody Sacrifices His Revenues thought to be almost infinite raised out of all Commodities and paid in kinde whether Natural or Artificial only the King participating of the fruits of all mens Labour and sharing with them in their wealth some paying in Cups full of powder of Gold of two handfuls a piece some Diadems and Beads of Gold â—â—ates of Gold of three quarters of a yard long and four fingers broad Turâ—â—sse â— stones Golden Targets rich Feather-Pictures c. Not to say any thing of matters of inferior value all which in such a wealthy and large estate must needs afford him a Revenue equall to the greatest Monarch And for the incouragement of his Souldiers and Men of VVar here were ordained three Orders of Knighthood or at least such distinctions of personall merit as had resemblance to such Orders the first distinguished by a Red Ribband the second called the Lyon or Tiger Knight and the third the Gray Knight all priviledged amongst other things to be clothed in Cotton wear Breeches to adorn themselves with gold and silver and to have Vessell gilt or painted high points and not permitted unto any else But it is time that I proceed to the rest of the Provinces 4. TLASCALA lieth betwixt Mexicana and Guaxaca extended from one Sea to the other The length here of from Sea to Sea an hundred Leagues the breadth along the shores of the Gulf reckoned 80 Leagues on the South Sea not above eighteen So called from the abundance of Maize
going off they taught them the use of Arms and put them into a posture of defence inabling them thereby to preserve themselves against all their Enemies 3. ORENOQUE or the Province of the River of Orenoque comprehendeth the North parts of Guyana lying upon and toward the Banks of that famous River of which we have already spoken The Country very rich and pleasant consisting of large Plains many miles in compass adorned with the embroydery of Flowers and unknown Plants exceeding pleasant to the eye and sometimes interlaced with hills reported to be furnished with rich Mines of Gold and Silver The Rivers liberally stored with Fish and the Forrests both with Beasts and Fowls No Country in America not Peru it self said to be comparable to it for abundance of Treasure Some also add a whole Mountain of Chrystall to be seen afar off from Winecaporo and tell us but in generall terms of more goodly Cities then elswhere in all Peruana but neither the Spaniards nor the English could ever see them though they diligently searched into most parts of this Country The People as of several Nations so of several Natures The Capuri and Macureos for the most part Carpenters live by making Cunoas or Boats which they fell into Guiana for Gold and to Trinadado for Tobacco in the immoderate taking whereof they exceed all Nations When a Cacique or Commander dyeth they make great lamentation and after the flesh is putrified and fallen from the bones they take up the Skeleton and hang it up in the house where he dwelt decking his skull with Feathers of all colours and hanging gold Plates about the bones of his arms and thighs Of the Tivitivas dwelling upon some of the Northern branches it is affirmed by Sir Walter Raleigh that are a goodly and valiant People and to have the most manly and most deliberate speech of any Nation in the World A People which eat of nothing that is set or sown the children of Dame Nature and therefore will not be beholding for their lively-hood unto Art or Industry using the tops of the Palmito Tree for Bread Fish Deer and Swines flesh for the rest of their sustenance The Assawy Saymae Wikeri and Aroras affirmed to be as black as Negroes but with smoother hair And to use Arrows dipt in so strange a poyson as doth not only bring death but death with most unspeakable torments especially if the wounded party be permitted to drink Of the Arwacae of this Tract I finde nothing singular but that when any of their Kings or Caciques die their wives and neerest of the kindred beat their bones to powder and mingle it with their drink like spice Places of most importance in it for to speak any thing particularly of those many Rivers which fall into the Orenoque were an endless labour 1 Comolaha on the South of Orenoque but somewhat distant in which they keep some Annual Fairs for the sale of Women One of our English men left by Sir Walter Raleigh Anno 1595. affirmeth that he bought eight of them the eldest not above eighteen for a half-penny red hafted knife which he brought from England But withall telleth us for his credit that he gave them to some Savages of his acquaintance 2. Morequito a known Port upon some branch of the Orenoque of much use to the English in their first Discovery of these parts 3 Wenicapora so called from another branch of that River bearing this name from whence was shewed an high Hill said to be of Chrystall but so far off that it was thought better to believe then to go and see Others report of this Mountain that above it there is a mighty River which falling down this Cataract on the lower grounds makes a terrible noise as if 1000 Bells were knocked one against another And possible enough it is that this great fall of water discerned far off may with the help of Sun-shine carry some resemblance of a Chrystalline Mountain 4 S. Thome situate on the Main Channel of the River Orenoque a Town of 140 houses stretched out in length for half a mile but slightly built a Parish Church in the midst of it and at the West end a Convent of Franciscan Friers The only Town of all Guiana possessed by the Spaniards not fortified till against the last coming of Sir Walter Raleigh Anno 1617 but taken by him at that time and since that by the Hollanders An. 1629. though by both quitted not long after it returned to the Spaniards The severall Nations of this Tract have been named before Discovered first by Diego de Ordas An. 1531. furnished with a Patent for the conquest of it by Charles the fift But not hitting on the right Channel or otherwise not able to overcome the difficulties which lay before him he returned to Spain effecting nothing but the opening of the way to others Followed herein by Hierom de Ortal Anno 1533. and after by Herrera who proceeded further then the others Anno 1536. and finally by Gonsalvo Ximenez de Quesada and Antonio Berreo with far better fortune who beginning their journey from the New Realm of Granada in the search of Guiana fell casually into this great River as Orellana did before into that of the Amazons But yet not perfectly discovered till the yeer 1595. in which Sir Walter Raleigh having taken Prisoner this Antonio Berreo and learning of him the success of his Expedition resolved upon the undertaking and searched so far into the Countrey by the course of this River that some have since called it Raliana The business followed the next yeer after his return by Captain Lawrence Keymis employed by Raleigh in that service who at his coming found the Country possessed by the Spaniards by whom 20 or 30 of the moveable houses of the Savages had been laid together like a Town and all the Natives who wished well to the English dispersed and scattered So that without any other effect of his journey then the finding out the true mouth of the Orenoque which he first discovered he set sail for England In the mean time it had been moved at the Court that a Colony of English should be planted there and some proportionable force sent over to make good the Action But the motion upon good advice rejected first in regard of the distance of it from the main body of our strength and 2. because the Spaniards bordering neer upon it might easily cast out our small Forces and make the enterprise dishonourable to the English Nation who had then the better of him in the point of Honourable Atchievements It was permitted notwithstanding unto private Adventurers to try their Fortunes on it without engaging of the State whereupon followed the Voyages of Leigh and Harcourt before spoken of But they not being able to go thorow with so great a business let it fall again And so it rested till the last unfortunate Voyage of Sir Walter Raleigh licensed by Commission under the great Seal to