Fat having suffocated him He left by his Wife Blanch of Artois one Daughter only named Year of our Lord 1274 Jane but Three years of Age. By his Will and Testament he gave the Guardianship to her Mother and enjoyned she should Marry her in France but the Lords were divided upon the point and the greatest Party being against the Mother gave Don Pedro Sancho de Montagu to the Pupil for her Guardian The King of Arragon and the King of Castille had I know not what pretences to that Kingdom under that colour each of them makes his Party to get the Regency and have the young Heiress in their hands Peter Infant of Arragon desired to have her for his Son and Ferdinand Infant of Castille for one of his Year of our Lord 1274 This last entred into Navarre with his Sword in hand seconding his demand with his force The Lords of the contrary Party called in the Infant of Arragon and made an agreement with him but the Widow whose inclinations tended towards France came and cast her self with her Daughter into the Arms of Philip. Who accepting of the Guardianship sent Eustace de Beaumarchais to govern the Kingdom in his Name and immediately all obeyed him Year of our Lord 1275 Ferdinand de la Cerde died in his return from Navarre He had Two Sons by Blanch of France his Wife those were Alphonso and Ferdinand who ought legally to have succeeded to the Crown of Castille after the decease of their Grandfather Alphonso but Prince Sancho second Son of Alphonso maintaining that it belonged to him as the nearest not to his Nephews though the contrary was expressed in the Contract between Ferdinand with Blanch got himself immediately to be acknowledged presumptive Heir Alphonso their Grandfather instead of opposing this Usurpation did authorize it with all his might and to reduce Blanch and her Children to such a low condition that she might not have it in her power to Resent it he denied that Princess all she was to have by Agreement and even the means to Subsist Queen Yolante could not bear the ill Treatment used towards her Grand-children so that it was by her Counsel and in her Company that the unfortunate Widow stole away and fled into the King of Arragons Country But that Prince being gained upon by Alphonso suffer'd himself to be persuaded to send her back to him and detain the young Orphans in a Castle The Mother fearing to be used like the Children escaped into France not without great difficulty Some say the Castillian set her at liberty upon the earnest intreaty of the King but the Arragonian still kept the Children in hold Year of our Lord 1276 This year Lewis Son to the King and the eldest of the first Bed being dead Peter de la Brosse who was not loved by the young Queen would needs make use of this opportunity to ruine her He was a Man came from nothing that had served as Barber to St. Lewis had been taken into favour by Philip and by that Prince raised to the highest Degree In this post having nothing to fear but the too great Affection the King had for his Wife he found out an Accuser that said she had caused Prince Lewis to be Poyson'd In effect the Child was so made away And if we believe an Author she had run the hazard of being burnt alive if the Duke of Brabant her Brother had not sent a Gentleman who offer'd to prove her Innocency by Duel against the Accuser who not having courage enough to justifie what he had spoken was Condemned to the Gallows There were in the Kingdom three false Prophets the Vidame of Laon a wandring Monk and an old Nun or Beguine whom La Brosse as it was believed had Consulted and Instructed to soretell something that might cool and change the Kings Affection towards his Wife Admire the simplicity of this King Devout as he was he sends Matthew Abbot de Vendosme and Peter Bishop of Bayeux to Discourse the Beguine or old Nun about that business The Bishop being of Kindred to La Brosses Wife going before talked alone to the Beguine to inform her what to say and brought word back to the King that she would discover nothing to him but at Confession The King dissatisfied with this proceeding sent again the Bishop of Dol and a Templer to her who returned with this Answer That the Queen was Innocent and faithful to her Husband and all what had been talked to asperse her was Falsehood and Calumny From that time the Credit of the Queen was much strenthned and that of La Brosse began to diminish Now after the King who had undertaken the defence of Blanch his Sister found that Three several Ambassadors whom he sent to Castille could obtain nothing from an unjust Uncle and an unnatural Grandfather he at length defies them by a Herauld and having gotten a great Army together not only of French but Low-Country-Men and Germans marches directly to the foot or the Pyrenean Mountains and took a re-view of his Army in Bearn Year of our Lord 1276 This Power had certainly overwhelmed the Spaniards had not their Gold which procured them private Agents and Intelligence stopp'd them there contriving it so that there was neither Provisions nor Ammunitions to be had for them So they could advance no farther Only one Party of them under the Conduct of Robert d'Artois was sent into Navarre The Castillian Faction had made them rise up against Eustace de Beaumarchais the Kings Lieutenant and the Rebels who possessed that part of Pampeluna which they named the City or the Navarrerie held him besiged in the other part which they called the Burrough The Gentry and Soldiery of the Faction having defended themselves for some time feared they should be over-power'd at length and retired in the night time The Burghers forsaken and knowing not either how to Capitulate or defend themselves were soon forced and a great number fell by the edge of the Sword the rest were Hanged without Mercy the fugitive Gentlemen degraded of all Nobility and by these terrible Examples the Regency of the French was setled in Navarre The King was still in Bearn The Castillan with design to amuse him that he might enter upon Spain demanded to Confer with Robert and made him lose five weeks time In so much that the Army wanting Provisions Philip decamps on a suddain and marches towards France whereof the Castillan being informed by some Traytor does immediately give notice to Robert who was much amazed at it Year of our Lord 1277 The suspicion of this Treachery fell upon Peter de la Brosse Now the Court being at Melun a Jacobin of the Town of Mirepoix delivered a Pacquet to the Kings own hand which he told he was enjoyned to do by a certain Man who died in that City What it contained was not known but only that there was a Letter Sealed with the Seal of Peter de la Brosse and that the
Lord 1524 Bonnivet Subsisted near upon two months in his Post near Biagras But when the Enemy had surprized Vercel upon him which cut off his Provisions and forc'd Biagras he was constrained to retire towards Turin Charles de Bourbon Chief of their Army followed him in the Rear Bonnivet having a Wound in his Arm got away before for fear of falling into his hands and hastening forwards in a Litter left the charge and care of the retreat to Bayard and to Vendenesse Brother of La Palice They acquitted themselves generously but both of them were Slain by Musquet Shot It is said that Bayard finding himself so wounded in the Reynes that he could sit no longer on Horseback caused his men to set him on the ground with his Face turned towards the Enemies and that Bourbon finding him in this posture and condition and telling him that he very much bemoaned and pittied him he answer'd That it was rather himself was to be pittied for having taken up Arms against France which had given him Birth and had so tenderly bred him That ☞ he should remember that of all those that had born Arms against their Country their ends had been Tragical and their memory Shameful The rest of the Army being not pursued retired towards the Alpes the Swiss returned to their own Country by the Valley d'Aoste the French by Turin Near Suse they met Claude Duke of Longueville with four hundred men at Arms and heard they were making new Levies of Swiss to come and joyn them And thus it was that King Francis never sending his Supplies in time and always in small Parties was at vast expences and did not do his business throughly After the departure of the French Forces the Confederates easily regained those places they yet held the Castle of Novara Surrendred to Sforza Loda to the Duke of Vrbin and Alexandria to Ferdinand d'Avalos Marquiss of Pescara It is observed that in this War of Italy they began to make use of such great and ponderous Musquets that two men were fain to carry them one after the other they loaded them with round Pibbles and fired them lying upon a Rest These were the Ruin and Destruction of the Men at Arms who before this feared nothing but the Canon Notwithstanding all this ill Success Madame did so well manage and prepare the Kings mind in favour of Bonnivet that he laid all the blame upon the blind Baggage Fortune and received him into as great Favour as he had been before Thus this Favorite governing him almost absolutely inclined and perswaded him to raise a huge Army and to go in Person to carry on this War imagining that if he succeeded the Honour would be attributed to his Councils if not then the Kings disgrace would wipe out the Stains of his former Misfortunes Clement the VII in the beginning of his Pope-ship had sent Legates to the Emperour the King and the King of England to bring them to a Peace or at least to a Truce The King would have a Truce for two years the Emperor a Peace for ever the King of England neither a Peace nor a Truce because Thomas Woolsey Cardinal Bishop of York had put it into his head that by the correspondence and means of Charles de Bourbon he might be able to make good the pretensions of his Ancestors to the Kingdom of France With this prospect he made a new Treaty with the Emperor wherein it was said That Bourbon entring into France with his Forces of Italy the King of England should furnish him with one hundred thousand Crowns a month from the first of July to the last day of December unless he rather chose to land there himself there with a good Army In which case the Governours of the Low-Countries should furnish him with what Artillery was necessary and four thousand Foot That at the same time the Emperor with his Spanish Forces should make an Irruption into Guyenne That the Pope and the Princes of Italy should be invited to contribute towards the expences That Bourbon should be restored to all his Lands and that he should have the Kingdom of Arles but that he should own the English to be King of France He absolutely refused this last condition as the Pope and the Venetians to contribute any thing As to the remainder the Treaty held good For immediately Bourbon having drawn together all the Forces the Emperor had in Italy entred into Provence with thirteen hundred Foot and three thousand Horse His design was not to Stop there he intended after he had taken La Tour or the Tower of the Port of Toulon the City of Aix and some others to Year of our Lord 1524 go directly to Lyons from thence into Berry imagining the Nobility of his own Countries would flock to him and increase his Army that the People very much oppressed with new Impositions would cast themselves into his Arms and that by thus taking off the payment of Taxes and Subsidies he should deprive the King of the chief and true Sinews of War But the Emperors Council who aimed at their Masters ends not at Bourbons obliged him in despite of his former project to besiege Marseilles He there found a strong Garrison and men well resolv'd his Attaques did not advance much in six weeks time In the interim the King had leasure to set his Army on Foot which he had not designed to raise till the following Spring and to send part of them into Provence under the Conduct of La Palice He seized upon Avignon Scoffing at the Enemy who had neglected this City and from thence when he heard the King was Marching with the other part of the Army he advanced to Salon de Craux Bourbons was ruin'd by the length of the Siege and the want of pay for the English had paid him but for one month and the Emperor could not Supply him with those German Recruits he had promised him wherefore having notice that the King was parting from Avignon to come and Assault him he re-imbarqued part of his Cannon and retired in great haste The least success carried King Francis much further then either prudence or the uncertainty of events could warrant Being informed that Milan was wholly destitute of Forces and withal knowing that the Estates of Castille had refused money to the Emperor that the Confederate Estates of Italy would not aid him and that the King of England had raised no Souldiers although it were now the month of October he resolved to follow Bourbon by long Marches and perswaded himself that if he could but either reach him or get before him nothing could be able to hinder him from regaining that Dutchy The most knowing of his Officers approved not this resolution They considered it was upon the coming in of Winter for mid October was past that they left France exposed to the Incursions of the English the Flemmings and the Spaniards and the concealed Practises of Bourbon Many did likewise
Bouchard and even Chastelleraud it self open'd their Gates to him From thence he advanced as far as Argenton in Berry to aid the City which held for the King against the Castle that stood for the League Which gave so much jealousie to la Chastre that he declared for the League and made the City of Bourges declare with him The happy progress of this Prince and his Proximity gave the King some reason Year of our Lord 1589 to court his assistance in his extream necessity the Duke of Nevers who apprehended month April this medley of Huguenots and Catholicks might bring Religion into danger dissuaded him with all his might and there were withal great obstructions on either hand On the Kings part the fear of farther offending the Court of Rome and scandalizing the Catholicks the Conscience of so soon violating an Oath twice reiterated before the Estates and the shame of being forced to call into his assistance him whom he had so roughly persecuted On the King of Navarres part the just suspicion lest they should sacrifice him to appease the fury of the League for this King that invited him was himself one of the principal Authors of the bloody St. Bartholomew and the constraint of stooping to the Favourites who sported with the lives of those that did not bow the knee before them Notwithstanding Du Plessis Mornay and some others by their prudent management removed all these Obstacles and accommodated every thing between these two Kings upon condition the Treaty should not be divulged till the King should think it fit It contained an agreement of a Truce for a year during which time the King of Navarre should aid him with all his Forces and should give him up all such places as he should take from the common Enemy Reciprocally the King should give him the Pont de Ce upon the Loire and one place in every Bailiwick as a retreat for his sick Men. When the Legat had discover'd this new Confederation he employ'd all his power and interest to incline the Duke of Mayenne to an Accommodation even so far as to offer him Conditions much beyond the power of his Commission The King finding he did but only lose time that in the Dukes Army they gave him no better Title then the Tyrant the Massacrer and dethroned Henry and that the Duke was at Chasteaudun within three days Journey of Tours he caused the Truce to be proclaimed though with a great deal of repugnance There were at Rome some Envoys on his behalf to sollicite for his Absolution and others in behalf of the League to oppose it The thing was found to be much more difficult to obtain of the Pope then he had imagined In that Court the Blood of a Cardinal is not so lightly valued and Pope Sixtus who gloried in trampling upon Crowned Heads would be sure not to let slip this opportunity of magnifying his own power He demanded before any further proceedings that they should set the Cardinal de Bourbon and the Archbishop of Lyons at liberty Charles d'Angennes Bishop of Mans had made him believe the King would grant him this but when in stead of a compliance that Prelat entertain'd him with excuses and ragione di stato and at the same time they were informed by Letters from the Legat of the Kings Confederation with the Head of the Huguenots the Pope le ts fly a Monitory the Fifth of May by which he demanded and commanded to set the Cardinal and the Arch-Bishop Year of our Lord 1589 at liberty within ten days after publication and to give certain notice month May and June thereof within thirty by an authentick Act In default whereof he declared he had incurr'd the Censures Ecclesiastical especially those which are contained in the Bull in Coena Domini of which he could not be absolv'd but by the Pope himself unless at the point of death and upon giving security to make satisfaction cited him to appear personally at Rome within sixty days allowing him twenty days for each Admonition and disanulling all Indulgences Faculties and Priviledges to the contrary granted by the Holy See either to him or to any of his Predecessors This Monitory was published in Rome and affixed upon the Church doors of St. Peters and St. John de Latran the Three and twentieth of May and the Month of June following in the Cathedral of Chartres in that of Meaux and some other Churches in France but the King still pretended cause of ignorance He notwithstanding had well enough foreseen this thing and the apprehension he had of it hastned him to satisfie the King of Navarre by giving him a passage upon the Loire Du Plessis Mornay by his Address brought it so about as in lieu of Pont de Ce a very ill-favoured place he gave him the City of Saumur whereof his Master gave him the Government This security being granted the two Kings met about the Thirtieth of April about the hour of One in the Afternoon at Plessis Les Tours in the Park he of Navarre was come to the Bridge de la Motte which is a Rivolet a quarter of a league beyond Tours and had brought part of his Forces which were quarter'd about two leagues beyond that but would venture no farther Nevertheless d'Aumont and Chastillon having informed him that such mistrust displeased the King pressed him so home that they prevailed with him to pass the River of Cher and come into the Park His old Captains trembled both for anger and for fear lest the King said they in a season wherein treachery may be so advantageous to free himself out of that Labyrinth whereinto another had drawn him should have agreed for his Absolution at the price of this Princes Life and destined his Head a present to the Pope to accompany the Admirals The same day to dispel their fears he returned to his lodgment but the next day by six in the morning and without giving them notice he repasses the River with only one Page and came to the King as he was rising The two Princes spent all that morning and the next in consulting of their Affairs Their resolution in gross was to attaque Paris the principal head of the League and that which gave motion to all the rest They reckon they should for this purpose have the Forces of the Huguenot Party and great numbers of the Nobility a powerful assistance which the King expected from England and a levy of twelve thousand Swiss whom Sancy was gone to raise in the Protestant Cantons After they had remained together two days Year of our Lord 1589 the King of Navarre went to Chinon to bring forward the rest of those Troops he month April had left there In the Provinces the two Parties had had divers Rencounters Sautour a Royalist besieging Mere upon Seine Hautefort who qualified himself Lieutenant General for the Union in Brie and Champagne charged him kill'd or caused most of his Men to drown themselves
Archbishoprick Year of our Lord 1594 of Sens called first an Assembly of the Curates of Paris who unanimously month April acknowledge they were convinced by his Reasons Then another Body of the University in the Royal Colledge of Navarre the Two and twentieth of April where the Rector all his Deputies and a great number of Scholers and Religious Votaries of all Orders Sware to be faithful to the King even to the shedding of their Blood renounced all Leagues and retrenched the Refractory from their Bodies as spurious and rotten Members The same week returned the Members of Parliament and other Companies who were at Tours The Governor of Paris this was Francis d'O whom the King had restored to that Command a great number of the Nobility and the most noted Citizens went to meet them as far as Bourg-la-Reyne Thus all were re-united without trouble to any Man unless it were about some fifty Persons to whom the King sent Tickets to quit the Town These were most notorious People nevertheless many others took so hot an alarm upon it that it was like to have produced very ill effects Paris thus reduc'd the other Cities came in with so much haste as if striving to precede each other The Six and twentieth of April Villars brought in Rouen Havre Montivilliers and Pont-Audemer but of all the Chiefs of the League he set the highest price upon what he did and would abate nothing of Twelve hundred thousand Livers in Money sixty thousand Livers Pension the Government of all those Cities without owning for three years time the Duke of Montpensier who had that of the Province and the Office of Admiral Biron having this it could not be taken from him without wounding his very Heart and that the more deeply for that Villars was his Concurrent both in Valour and Reputation month April and May At the same time or soon after May-David returned to his Duty with the City of Verneuil As also the Magistrates and Bourgeois brought in Monstreuil and Abbeville in Picardy Troyes in Champagne after they had forced out the Prince of Joinville the Governonor Sens in Burgundy and Rion in Auvergne Montluc Governor for the League in Agenois brought in Agen Villeneuve and Marmanda During this Torrent of Prosperities the King had information that Count Mansfeld after a Conference which the Duke of Mayenne held with him had besieged la Capelle and going to relieve it found it at the last gasp He had his revenge upon the City of Laon. The Duke had left his second Son in it with the President Jeannin as his chief Council and Adviser The King besieged it about the end of May the Enterprize was hazardous for him he wanted Ammunitions and the discontent of the Mareschal de Biron who was the Soul of his Enterprizes were a Year of our Lord 1594 dangerous Remora Mansfeld approached to relieve it his Army was posted upon month May and June a rising ground not far from the Kings for seven or eight days Then wanting Provisions and having seen two Convoys of his bravest Men went to fetch some from la Fere defeated he retired into Artois where Sickness compleated the ruine of his Forces The Place defended it self yet a long time and very obstinately not capitulating till the Two and twentieth of July to surrender upon the First of August if they were not relieved by that day In the Attacks Givry was slain the most accomplish'd Cavalier of the whole Court both for his Heroick Valour his skill in all Polite Learning his ready wit and ingenious gallantry An Amorous despair occasioned month July and Aug. by the infidelity of a Princess made him so often court and seek a kinder fate in death that in the end he met his wishes During this Siege the Baron de Pesche Treated with the King for the Town of Chasteau-Thierry and the Inhabitants of Poitiers for theirs the Government of it and of the Provinces were left to the Duke d'Elboeuf After the Capitulation of Laon the Magistrates of Amiens Beaâ—vais and Peronne alarmed for that the Spanish Cabal would have engaged them to take a new Oath returned to their Duty those of Amiens having forced the Dukes of Mayenne and Aumale to quit their City Dourlens which in the Reign of Henry III. had been given as a place of security to the Duke of Aumale would needs be comprehended in the Edict of the Reduction of Amiens month September In the Month of September the King laid Siege to Noyon Descluseaux who commanded within gave it up the Eighteenth of October Thus he recover'd all Picardy excepting three places Soissons Ham and la Fere which were in the power the first of the Duke of Mayenne the second the Duke of Aumale and the third of the Spaniards For Colas Vice-seneschal of Montelimar who was Master of this last had given himself up entirely to them and in Recompence they gave him the Demaine with the Title of a County month June and July There were yet certain Contrivances hatching in Paris to re-imbroil the Kingdom The greatest part of the Royalist Lords were angry that the Leaguers carried away most of the Money and the best Rewards they repented likewise the having dispatched and advanced the Kings Affairs so soon that he was now almost in a Condition not to want their further help The Parisians were more alarmed at the fifty Persons he had banished the City then they could be assured by all his Declarations The Cardinal de Bourbon could not put the ambitious-pleasing imagination of a Crown out of his thoughts The Count de Soissons his Brother was wounded to the very Soul because the King refused to let him have his Sister after he had most solemnly promised it and Biron afflicted and discontented they had deprived him of Year of our Lord 1594 month June and July the Admiralty was come to divert his melancholy thoughts at Paris where he met with so kind a Reception that the King conceived some jealousie and ran thither from the Siege of Laon that by his presence he might dissipate those practises which possibly they would have carried on against his Interest As for the Cardinal of Bourbon death put an end to his aspiring hopes and the Kings fears soon after about the end of July He believed he was poyson'd by month October a Lady whom he had tenderly loved In the Month of October following Francis d'O Sur-Intendant des Finances ended his life in his Hostel at Paris his Soul and Body being equally corrupted by all sorts of Villany The King was easily consoled for his loss because he made prodigious devastations and yet held him as it were under Tutelage After this he for a time ordered his revenue to be managed by four or five in Commission but finding no satisfaction in a multitude still disagreeing and self-interessed he restored the Sur-Intendance and gave it to Sancy and Rosny While the Chiefs and the Cities of the League were pressing their
Theodosius's in that of Honorius and in Valentinian's the III. The last day of the year 406. the Alains and the Vandals bringing along with them the Burgundians the Sueves and divers other barbarous People passed the Rhine and made an irruption in Gaul the most terrible that had been ever known Some conjecture it was at this time that they Massacred St. Ursula and her Glorious Train which have been called the Eleven thousand Virgins though in the Tombs said to belong to those Martyrs were found the Bones of Men and Children there are three or four different opinions on this Matter but neither of them without such difficulties attending as are not to be solved Year of our Lord 407 Those Barbarians having ravaged all Germania Prima and Belgica Secunda fell upon Aquitain In the year 409. some numbers of the Vandals and Sueves marched from thence into Spain Two years after the rest being affrighted upon the coming of Ataulphus King of the Visigoths out of Italy took the same course and follow'd them However there were some Alains still remaining in Dauphine and about the River Loire who had Kings amongst them for above Threescore years but in the end they submitted to the Dominion of the Visigoths and the Burgundians Year of our Lord 408 The Vandals and the Sueeves possessed Galicia the Silingi and Betica and the Alani part of Lusitania of Provence and Carthagenia Sixteen years afterwards the Vandals passed over into Africa but in the mean while Vallia King of the Visigoths who fought for the Romans utterly rooted out the Silingi and weakened the Alani so much that being unable to subsist alone they put themselves under Gunderic King of the Vandals The Suevi maintained themselves almost two Ages in Spain In fine their Kingdom was likewise extinguished by Leuvilgildus King of the Visigoths in the year 588. All these Barbarians were divided in several Parties or Bands and had each their Chief running about and scowring the Countreys without intermission so that at the same instant there were several of the same People in Places far distant from one another and of contrary Interests Year of our Lord 409 Ann. 408. Stilicon who was accused for bringing them in is Massacred by order of Honorius Alaric King of the Visigoths his good friend to revenge his Death besieged the City of Rome three times and the last time he takes it by Treachery the 20th day of August in the year 410. About the end of the same year he dyes in Calabria near Cosentia while he was making himself ready to go into Africa Ataulphus his Cousin succeeded him and Married Placid ia Sister to the Emperor Honorius whom he had taken in Rome Year of our Lord 412 Ann. 412. Ataulphus goes into Gallia Narbonnensis and takes Narbonna he remained there but Three years The Count and Patrician Constantius who was since Emperour and Married his Widdow Placidia compelled him tâ— go into Spain where he Year of our Lord 415 was kill'd by his own People in Barcelonna about the Month of September Ann. 415. They elected Sigeric in his stead and served him after the same manner within Seven days Vallia his Successor was recalled into Gaul by Constantius who gave him Aquitania Secunda with some Cities of the neighbouring Provinces amongst others Thoulouse where Year of our Lord 419 he fixed his Royal Seat Ann. 419. But he dyed in a few Months afterwards and Theodoric succeeded him Vnder this King and under Evaric or Euric the Visigoths made themselves Masters of all the Three Aquitani and the Two Narbonnensis Hitherto very few of the French had received the Light of the Gospel they yet Year of our Lord From the year 300 to the year 400. Adored Trees Fountains Serpents and Birds but the Gauls were most of them Christians unless it were such as dwelt in places less accessible as the Mountainous Woody and Boggy Countreys or in the Germanick or Belgick Territories which were perpetually infested by the incursions of the Barbarians The Faith had been Preached to them by some Disciples of the Apostles and even from the Second Age or Century divers Churches established amongst the Gauls at least in the Narbonnensis and Lugdunnensis Prima Under the Emperour Decius about the year 250. there were divers Holy Preachers sent from Rome who planted other Churches in several parts as Saturninus at Thoulouse Gatian at Tours Denis at Paris Austremonius at Clermont and Martial at Limoges The persecutions of the Heathen Emperours had sorely shaken them Constantine re-assured them afterwards the incursions of the Barbarians again destroys them especially those in Germania and Belgica and the Arian Heresie much troubled those in Aquitania Clowis restores them and endowed them plentifully In the fourth Age the Gallican Church produced a great number of Holy Bishops above all Hilary Bishop of Poitiers an invincible Defender of the Holy Trinity Maximin and Paulin de Treves who maintained the same Cause and at the same time with him the Great St. Martin of Tours parallel to the Apostles Liboire du Mans Severinus of Colen Victricius of Rouen all four contemporaries Servais de Tongres elder by some years and Exuperius de Tholouse who lived yet in 405. About the middle of the same Age many of those that had Devoted themselves to God came from towards Italy to inhabit in the Islands of Provence and the Viennensian Mountains as likewise a while afterwards great numbers flocked out from Ireland and took up their stations in the Forrests of the Lyonnoises and the Belgicks Their example and a Zeal to that Holy Profession drew many People either to come into their Monasteries or dwell in Solitude but still under the Conduct of the Bishops and the Discipline of the Canons Of these there were principally Four sorts such as lived in Community those were called Cenobites such as having formerly lived so retired into Solitude aspiring to a greater perfection these were the Hermits or Anchorits such as associated in small companies of three or four in a knot without any Superior or any certain Rule and such as wandred all about the Countrey on pretence of visiting Holy Places and finding out such Persons as were most advanced in Piety There were some also that strictly confined themselves to a Cell either within some City or in the Desert they were called Incluses or Recluses all lived by the labour of their Hands and most of them gave what they got to the Poor though in the greatest strictness they were not obliged to renounce their Wealth nor were they excluded from enjoying it in case they returned again to the World but such a return was indeed looked upon as a kind of a desertion Councils being extream necessary to preserve the Purity of the Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline there were several held in Gaul An. 314. The Emperour Constantine caused one to be Assembled at Arles where there were Deputies from all the Western Provinces to determine
of Allemans or Almans because this Prince being Duke of the Almans had ever both in his Train and in all Offices more of those People then of any other Country The Italians even in those days called then Tudesâ—hi as they do still Death ravisht from the King his two ablest Councellors which were Suger Abbot of St. Denis the Fifteenth of January and Rodolph Earl of Vermandois the last Prince of the second Royal Branch of that name He having no Children and his Sister being Married to Philip Son of Thierry Earl of Flanders the King who cherished this Philip left him the possession of Vermandois the Subject of a Quarrel in the Reign following Year of our Lord 1152 Whether it were jealousie or scruple of Conscience the King eagerly pursued the Separation from his Wife and obtain'd it by Sentence of the Prelats of his Kingdom whom he had called together at Baugency Immediately proceeding with integrity he withdrew his Garrisons from Aquitain to leave her that Country in freedom and gave her liberty to go whether she pleased keeping the two little Daughters he had by her with him This Woman burning with Love and Ambition Married some Months after Henry Duke of Normandy and Presumptive King of England a Prince both young hot and Red-Haired very able to satisfie her Desires As soon as Alienor was Divorced Lewis sent to demand Constance-Elizabeth Year of our Lord 1152 Daughter of Alfonso King of Castile by Hugh Archbishop of Sens who performed the Ceremony of that Marriage at Orleans and there Crowned the new Queen the Archbishop of Reims protesting in vain that this Right belonged to him only Lewis not able to endure his Vassal should go equal with him nor Henry who had so many great Lordships suffer a Soveraign above him it was imposible they should continue good Friends This last being assigned to appear in Parliament refused to come Lewis to punish him besieged and took the City of Vernon but Henry submitting out of some apprehension he yet had of King Stephen the Lords reconciled him with Lewis who restored the place to him Year of our Lord 1152 King Stephen the Usurper of the English Crown being dead Henry gets into possession of that Kingdom according to the former agreement betwixt them It was not permitted the Kings of France says Yves de Chartres to Wed any Bastards Now there went a report that Constance was such wherefore King Lewis two years after his Marriage would satisfie himself herein and under the pretence of going on Pilgrimage to St. Jago in Galicia took her Fathers Court in his way the most magnificent Prince of those times who received and entertained him Year of our Lord 1154 most Royally at Burgos and took away that suspicion he had conceived Year of our Lord 1154 Divers do in this year 1154. reckon the Death of Roger I. King of Sicily one of the most Warlike and Potent Princes of this Age. He raised the reputation and fame of the Normans to its highest pitch in so much as after him it did ever decline He had a Son named William and a Daughter called Constance the Son Reigned but with so much Injustice Avarice and Tyranny that he deserved the surname of Wicked or Bad. He prided himself most in filling his Coffers and draining his Subjects to the very last Penny Constance being an old Maid Married the Emperor Henry VI. in the year 1186. Year of our Lord 1155 Gefroy Earl of Gien on the Loire knowing himself too weak to oppose William Earl of Nevers who made a rude War upon him allied himself with Stephen de Champagne Count of Sancerre and gave his Daughter to him and for Dowry his Earldom to the Exclusion of his Son Herve The Son thus disinherited by his Father without any fault committed implored the Kings Justice who goes in Person and besieges Gien takes it upon Composition and settles him there Year of our Lord 1159 When Henry was possess'd of England Gefroy his Brother demands Anjou Touraine and Maine according to their Fathers Will but far from giving these he takes Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau from him so that he had been left without any thing had it not been his good Fortune to be chosen by the Nantois for their Earl who having forsaken Hoel stood in need of a Prince to defend them against the Assaults of Conan Year of our Lord 1158 The Enmities between King Lewis and Henry being ready to break forth the Lords found out a way to prevent it yet a while by the Alliance of Henry's eldest Son of the same name with Margaret Daughter of Lewis by his second Wife though both of them were Children and had scarce left off their Bibs The Girl was put into the Father-in-Law's hands and Lewis promis'd to bestow in Dowre with her Gisors and other places in the Normand Vexin which in the interim were trusted to the keeping of the Grand Master of the Knights-Templars to be deliver'd up to Henry when the Marriage should be Consummate The Emperor Frederick composed the Difference between Bertold of Zeringhen and Renauld about the Earldom of Burgundy in such a manner that he dismembred or cut off from it the little Country of Nuctland which is beyond Mount-Jou and the Cities of Geneva Lausanna and Sion to give them to Bertold leaving the remainder to Renauld whose Daughter and Heiress named Beatrix he Married After which keeping open Court with great Pomp at Besancon he received Hommage of all the Lords and Prelats belonging to the Earldom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Arles who notwithstanding regarded not his Soveraignty but only to obtain a better Title to their Usurpations Those that were common Friends to both endeavour'd to procure an Enterview between him and the King of France and agreed upon the time and place but the King stung with Jealousie at the Grandeur of that young Prince or having some suspicion he would design upon his Person would go attended with a great number Year of our Lord 1159 of Soldiers which caused Frederick to withdraw very much dissatisfied Gefroy Earl of Nantes being dead without Children Conan Earl of Renes or of Little Bretagne seized on the City of Nantes King Henry Brother of Gefroy pretending it belonged to him by Succession undertakes to recover it by force of Arms. Year of our Lord 1160 Conan being hardly press'd buys his Peace by giving him his Daughter and Heiress named Constance for his Third Son by name Gefroy the same as his Uncle deceased After the Death of Pope Adrian the greater number of the Cardinals elected the Cardinal Rowland a Siennois who was named Alexander III. But the Roman People and two Cardinals only gave their Votes for Cardinal Octavian a Roman who took the name of Victor The Right of either side was dubious for on the one hand the Decrees of some Popes had referr'd the Election to the Cardinals only and on the other the Roman
same day which was the Six and twentieth of August His too hasty March and three long Leagues of way had made the French lose both their breath and strength before they engaged the enemy On the contrary the English were fresh and recruited and dispair re-doubled their courage The Genoese the chief strength of Philips Infantry who were commanded by Antony d'Oria and Charles Grimaldi did nothing to the purpose their Cross-bow strings being made useless by a deluge of Rain that fell just upon the first beginning of their Service they retreating from before a showre of the English Arrows the Count d'Alenson who suspected it to be Treachery rides quite over them with his Cavalry and so began the rout We must also take notice that in this famous Battle the English had four or five pieces of Canon which gave much terror for that was the first time they ever saw those thundering in our Wars To all this add that some amongst the Grandees very glad to see Philip engaged upon this occasion made more shew then they did service These causes chiefly gave the victory to the English The Battle lasted from four in the Afternoon till Two the next Morning A great flight of Ravens which a little hefore the Fight were observed to hover over the French Army were esteemed as a presage of their defeat Of the French side there remained dead upon the place Thirty thousand Foot Twelve hundred Knights and Fourscore Banners taken John King of Bohemia Charles Earl of Alenson Brother to the King Lewis Earl of Flanders and Twelve or Fifteen of the most illustrious Counts lost their Lives King John stark blind as he was fought very valiantly having caused his Horses Bridle to be sastned to the Bridles of two of his bravest Knights horses His Son Charles King of the Romans was hurt with three wounds but it is not true that the Kings of Majorca Scotland and Navarre were in this Engagement the two first were in their own Countreys busie enough about their own concerns and the other not above the age of Thirteen or Fourteen years under the tuition of his Mother The King this time Vnfortunate retired out of the Battle under the favour of the night and saved his Person in the Castle of Broye from thence got to Amiens and so to Paris to raise another Army The next day another slaughter twice greater then the former was made by Five hundred Lances and two thousand Archers amongst the common People who being ignorant of what had hapned were marching to the French Camp The English having ravaged all Boulonois at their pleasure went and laid Siege to Calais about the Eighth of September and stuck close to it with the more security upon the news that David King of Scotland was vanquish'd and made prisoner by the Queen of England upon his falling on the Frontiers Year of our Lord 1346 Before the Battle of Cressy the Emperour Lewis was Excommunicated by the Pope and degraded by Five Electors who in his stead placed Charles the Son of John King of Bohemia This Prince after the death of Lewis which hapned in October the following year got his Election confirmed and bought the Claims of two or three others who disputed their Title to the Empire with him because they had been named by some of the Electors Year of our Lord 1347 After the Duke of Normandy had raised the Siege of Aiguillon the Earl of Derby remained Master of the Field regained all that part of Guyenne which lies beyond the Dordogne and having passed the Rivers ravaged and burnt Saintonge and Poitou took St. John d'Angely and kept it sacaged the great City of Poitiers and quitted it after he had refreshed himself there for Twelve days together Year of our Lord 1346. and 47. The Flemmings having lost their Earl at the Battle of Cressy sent a Deputation to the King to re-demand his Son who was their natural Prince Whilst he was in their power they had assianced him to King Edwards Daughter but that Alliance being contrary to his inclination he escaped from them and returned to the Court of France After he had staid there a year he made a particular peace with the English by the consent of Philip his Sovereign It was agreed that he should permit the Flemmings to give them assistance but as for himself he should not intermeddle with the Affairs either of the one or other of the two Princes Year of our Lord 1347 The Flemmings being at Edwards Devotion made great inroads upon Artois and on the other side John de Montforts party got the upper hand in Bretagne by the help of the English For Charles de Blois going to besiege la Roche de Rien Montfort gave him Battle the Twentieth of June vanquish'd him and took him prisoner with his two Sons John and Guy and most of the Lords of his party His Wife whom ambition and the Royal Blood she came of inspired but with too much courage gathered up the fragments and maintained the business so well that he recover'd once more Year of our Lord 1347 It was but in vain that Philip advanced between Wissant and Calais with an Army of One hundred and fifty thousand Men to relieve the City the English had enclosed his Camp with such good Trenches that he could find no way to attaque him The besieged driven to the severest extremity of Famine were forced to surrender the last day of August Fame shall never forget the name of Eustace de St. Pierre the most noted Citizen of Calais and his heroick generosity to save his fellow Citizens Edward mortally enraged at their long resistance would not receive them on composition unless they would deliver up to him six of their principal Burghers to do what he pleased with them The Council not knowing what to resolve and the whole City remaining Year of our Lord 1347 exposed to the revenge of a cruel Conquerour Eustace freely proffer'd to be one of those Six By his example there soon follow'd enough to make up the number who went out in their Shirts with Ropes about their Necks to deliver the Keys to Edward He was so obstinately bent to put them to death that the Queen his Wife had all the trouble imaginable to obtain his pardon for their Lives He drove out all the Inhabitants of the place even the Ecclesiastiques and repeopled it with natural English Robert King of Sicilia having no Heirs of his own Body but Jane the Daughter of his Son Charles Duke of Calabria had Married her Anno 1333. to Andrew Second Son of Carobert King of Hungary the eldest of these two being then but seven years of age It hapned Twelve years afterwards Andrew not being enough to Jane's liking and having been Crowned King by the Pope pretending that the Kingdom did delong to him certain Conspirators made him rise one night out of the Bed where he was lying with her and hanged him at a
word the Duke of Burgundy came to Paris towards the end of February at the head of Eight hundred Gentlemen all armed from Head to Foot only they did not put their Helmets on The Queen and Princes received him with all the demonstrations of confidence but they could not prevail with him to own the murther of the Duke of Orleans publickly He gave Commission for it to a Cordelier named John Petit Doctor in Divinity his Orator and obtained Audience for him in the Great Hall of the Hostel de St. Pol. This mercinary Divine endeavour'd in presence of the Princes and Council to make it appear That the Duke of Orleans had been a Tyrant every way that he was guilty of the crime de Laesae Majestatis both Divine and Humane That he had once bewitched the King another time had conspired to kill him and another to have him Deposed by the Pope That therefore his death was just and necessary It was not the Monks Harangue but necessity and danger that perswaded the Council They gave him an Act in Writing that abolished this crime and in appearance reconciled him with the Queen The King desired to put an end to the collusion of the Anti-Popes he resolved to publish an Order for Substraction the Fifteenth of May. In the mean time Pope Benedict having intelligence of it sent his Bulls to Paris forbidding him to do so upon Year of our Lord 1408 pain of Excommunication Those that brought them to wit Sancho Lupi and a Rider belonging to the Popes Stable having delivered them to the King and the Duke of Berry the Fourteenth of May were immediately seized on The Council sate three days to consider what was to be done having heard the Opinions and Remonstrances of the University the King caused a Pen-knife to be stuck into the Bulls which the Rector of the University afterwards cut in pieces Year of our Lord 1408 The Substraction was after this published and then those that brought the Bulls were tryed by Commissioners Their Sentence was severe they were drawn on a Sledge twice about the Palace-yard then mounted upon a Scaffold where being adorned with Paper Miters and clothed with long painted Vests after the Dalmatian fashion upon which Benedicts Arms were fastned they were severely reproached by a Doctor and after led back to their prison Divers Prelats and Clergy-men that sided with him were likewise sent to Goal Upon this news the two Popes who pretended to be going to Savona fled each his several way Benedict into Catalogna in a Galley and Gregory by Land to Sienna both of them forsaken by their Cardinals When the Burgundian was again returned to Artois the Dutchess of Orleans supported by the Queen who had Cantonized her self at Melun came to intreat the King that he would hear her Orator this was the Abbot of St. Denis in justification of the memory of her Husband and reparation for his death They gave him Audience in the Castle of the Louvre the King the Queen and Princes of the Blood being at the Council After this Harangue of the Widows Orator there Year of our Lord 1408 were divers Assemblies held with more animosity then zeal for Justice where in sine the Burgundian notwithstanding his Act of Abolition was declared an enemy to the State and it was ordered that Forces should be sent to fall upon him on every side and that all the ways should be strongly guarded to keep both him and all others from coming near the King He was at that instant at L'Isle in Flanders arming himself to restore John of Bavaria his Wives Brother to the Bishoprick of Liege This false Prelate who had nothing but the vain Spirit of the World deferring to take Holy Orders gave occasion to the Liegois to turn him out of the Episcopal See and to put in Thierry one of the Lord de Perruveys sons whose Original was from the House of Brabant They were not satisfy'd with having driven him out of their City but besieged him in Maestricht and had kept him blocked up for four Months When they had notice that the Burgundian had taken the Field they raised the Siege and retired but those haughty and rude People hearing that he had iu all but Sixteen thousand Men forced the Lord de Perruveys to seek him out and give him Battle They were three to one yet were they routed and cut in pieces Perruvey and his two Sons and Thirty thousand Liegois lay dead upon the place they had no quarter given them the Bishop rather a Tyger then a Shepherd could not have Blood enough to satisfy his cruel Thirst Their submission did not appease his sanguinary Rage when he was setled he fell not only upon the guilty and the ring-leaders but upon Women and Children Priests and Religious Votaries There was nothing else to be seen round about Liege and those other Cities that were Dependencies but Forrests of Wheels and Gibbets and the Meuse was choaked up with the multitude of their wretched Carkasses thrown into that River bound two and two together From hence began that implacable hatred of the Liegois against the House of Burgundy Had the Duke been worsted in that Battle all the Orleanois party were ready to have run open mouth upon him when they had received this news they found more cause to consult their own safety then his ruine The Queen did not believe her self secure in Paris She departed thence the Thirteenth of November being attended by the Duke of Bretagne her Son-in-law and took the King with her to Tours Year of our Lord 1408 The Duke informed of all particulars by the Parisians soon got to Paris with Four thousand Horse and Two thousand Foot mounted behind them they received him with great joyfulness and sent some Deputies to the King to desire he would return William Earl of Holland proffers to endeavour an accommodation A Second Peace was Treated on between both parties which being well advanced the Widow of Orleans a haughty and vindicative Princess died with grief and anger the 4th of December The Orphans were forced to consent to a reconciliation with him that had murthered their Father It was concluded in the City of Chartres about the end of the month of March The King with the Queen and the Princes being on a Scaffold in the Great Church but pallisado'd round about to hinder the People from seeing what they did the Burgundian fell on his knees before the King and pray'd him by the Mouth of his Advocate and afterwards with his own to lay aside his anger and receive him into his Favour but touching the Murther he expressed himself thus That he was ready to justifie himself The Princes that were present kneeled likewise and joyned their Requests to his Then addressing himself to the Princes of Orleans he desired them to forget what was past and harbour no revenge in their hearts After this they made them embrace and promise amity to each other and
for this was to assure him that they had Infallible Intelligence how to surprize the Dukes Towns and make his Subjects revolt in the very Heart of Flanders Upon the hopes of these great advantages he sent an Usher of the Parliament to Summon him even in the very City of Ghent to give satisfaction to the Count d'Eu from whom he detained some Lands belonging to the County of Pontieu In stead of appearing upon the Summons he levy'd Soldiers at half Pay but having been at this charge three Months seeing no Body moved he thought it was only a huffe and dismissed them The House of Burgundy spared their People so much that they kept up no Militia nor Garrisons in their Towns they thought that by Treating their Subjects well they were Guard good enough However when he had laid down all his Arms he received divers informations that all was ready to overwhelm him John de Chaalons Prince of Orange and some of his Domestick Servants for sook him Baldwin one of his Bastard Brothers he had eight Plotted to poyson him the Breton renounced his alliance and the Constable Seized upon the City of Saint Quentin Then he that had feared nothing began to apprehend every thing He got together with much ado three hundred Horse with which he advanced to cover his other Cities on the Somme But upon sight of him those of Amiens turned their backs and received the Kings Forces Abbeville would have done as much if Desquerdes had not hinderd it He retired therefore to Arras with more hast then he went forth and sent a private messenger to the Constable to pray him not to push things forward to extremity He received for answer that unless Monsieur would declare for him he could not be served in it But that he was ready to embrace his defence if he would give his Daughter in Mrrriage to him A Note from Monsieur conveyed to him in a piece of Wax assured him the same thing and the Breton gave him intelligence that all his Towns even Bruges and Ghent were upon the point of revolting and that the King was resolved to besiege him whithersoever he went But the more they will force him the more he stands out against them Not being followed so closely as he might have been by the King he resumes his Courage gathers up Men takes the Field and having gained Pequiny presents himself before Amiens and Fired his Guns at the Town to invite the Constable to give him Battel But finding the great numbers of men coming which the King got together at Beauvais he retreated back and wrote a very Submissive Letter to him which in gross discovered the Artifices of those that Animated the King against him The King who found he was as little secure as the Duke amongst such double dealing People agreed to a Truce for a year the 12 th Day of May. St. Quintin remained the Constables and was at last the cause of his ruine The Treaty Signed the King went into Touraine Monsieur to his Apennage of Guyenne and the Burgundian to Flanders During this War Edward of York with a Moderate assistance which the Burgundian and secretly furnished him withal for he apprehended to offend the Earl of Warwick had by the favour of the Duke of Clarence his Brother whom he had regained by the intrigues of a Woman re-enters England gained two Battels one against Warwick who was killed on the spot the other against young Edward Son of King Henry and the Queen his Mother in which that Prince was slain The Queen became a Prisoner to the Conqueror whom afterwards King Lewis redeemed by a ransom of 6000 Crowns Thus Edward re-establisht himself in his Throne and maintained it till his Death Year of our Lord 1471 Sigismond Duke of Austria having need of Money which that House hath ever been in great scarcity of till the time of the Emperor Charles V. engaged his County of Ferreie for a Notable Sum to the Duke of Burgundy The Duke puts ☜ in a very courteous Governor he was called Hagembach who laying great exactions was the first cause of the Germans hatred towards his Master Year of our Lord 1471 Pope Sixtus the IV. this was Francis de la Rovere Elected in the Room of Paul II. to follow the example of his Predecessors Sollicited the Christian Princes to unite themselves against the Turks For this purpose he sent the Cardinal Bessarion a Greek by Birth and a person of great merit to the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy The Cardinal having seen the Duke first the King was so much offended at it that he made him wait a long time before he would admit him to his presence and giving him Audience he rallied with him and treated him as a Grecian Beard The Truce displeased the Duke who had made it by compulsion neither was it to the good liking of Monsieur nor the Breton nor the Constable thus all four sought to re-unite themselves rogether The marriage of Monsieur was the only tye that could be secure the Burgundian promised it though he had no mind to it and upon this foot they renewed their League The Constables solliciting the other Princes to enter into it the Duke of Bourbon gave notice of his practices to the King who wisely dissembled it contriving to be quit with them by the same method For he every day pared away somewhat of his Brothers Apennage threw one rub one day and another the next Debauched his Friends from him corrupted his Servants and got them to reveal all their Masters secrets By the Treaty of Constans John Court of Armagnac had been restored to his Lands the King had caused them to be again Seized on in the year 1468. And had given them to Monsieur with the Government of Guyenne Monsieur being discontented had caused that Count to return put him into possession of his Estate and by his means and with the assistance of the Counts de Foix and the Lord de Albret he raised Men either that he might not be Surprized or to undertake something Year of our Lord 1471 Whatever his designs were they were blasted by a detestable and cruel remedy He loved a Lady Daughter of the Lord Monsereau and Widdow of Lewis d'Amboise and had for Confessor a certain Benedictine Monk Abbot of St. John d'Angely named John Favre Versois This wicked Monk poyson'd a very fair Peach and gave it to that Lady who at a Collation put it to steep in Wine presented one half of it to the Prince and eat the other her self She being tender died in a short time the Prince more robust sustained for some while the assaults of the Venome but how-ever could not Conquer it and in the end yielded his Life to it Year of our Lord 1471 Such as adjust all the Phenomena's of the Heavens to the accidents here below might have applied to this same a Comet of extraordinary Magnitude which was visible four score days