to bestow it but they being now no longer acknowledged in Italy the Pope and Romans attributed that Power to themselves and which is more agreed That Charles should have the power of the Investiture of Bishopricks and even to Nominate the Popes to prevent those Cabals and the Disorders that hapned upon Elections The Italian Authors assure us that he remitted this right to the Romans but however he at least reserved to himself that of Confirming them which the Emperours had enjoyed without the least contradiction for above Three Ages After this there was a very great and strict Friendship betwixt Charles and Adrian Year of our Lord 774 Upon his Return Charles was Crowned King of Lombardy as the Kings of that Nation were used to be at the Burrough of Modece near Milan by the Archbishop of that Great City who Anointed him and put the Iron Crown upon his head It is so called because indeed it was made of a Circle or hoop of Iron but cover'd over with a Plate of Gold It is said That the generous Teudelaine Daughter of Garibald Duke of Bavaria she who about the Year 593. converted the Lombards from Arianism had it made for the Coronation of her Husband Agilulf The Order he established in Italy was thus To the Pope he left the Exarchat the Pentapolis they were since called Romandiola the Dutchies of Perusia of Rome of Toscana Vlteriora and Campagnia He gave the Dutchy of Benevent to Aragisa Son in law to Didier that of Spoleta to Hildebrand and that of Friul to Rotgaud upon conditions only of Homage and Service and to revert again to him for want of Heirs Males He gave the Earldomes and Captainries of those Countries upon the same conditions The rest he reserved for himself viz. Liguria Emilia Venetia and part of the Alpes and setled Counts there to govern them and do Justice He imposed a certain Tribute on the Cities and would have the Salique-Law be in force there so that they had three sorts of Laws the Lombard the Salique and the Roman and the Subjects were permitted to live and observe and make any Contracts according to such of these Laws as they best liked Since that this Conquest hath been called the Kingdom of Italy and it extended to the River Aufidus or Ofantus Puglia and Calabria together with Sicilia belonging then to the Grecian Emperors During his absence the Saxons had unchained themselves and put all in the Year of our Lord 774 Countrey of Hesse to Fire and Sword About the latter end of the Year he sent four squadrons of men thither who Attaqued them in four several parts and brought a great deal of booty thence Year of our Lord 775 The following Spring he went amongst them himself with greater forces took the Castle of Sigeburgh rebuilt that of Eresburgh which they had demolished drove them upon the Veser and having beaten them soundly forced them to quitt the Post of Brunsberg where they had fortified themselves He after this divided his Army in two Bodies and chased them to the River Ouacre and there he received the oaths and hostages of Prince Halson or Helsis and of the Ostfales or Ostrelands which is to say Easterlings then upon his return at the place named Buki those of Vitikind and the most considerable of the Dutchy of Angria In the mean time the other part of his Army had like to have been surprised by other Saxons near the River Ouacre of whom he took so severe a revenge by Fire and Sword that these likewise cryed him mercy and gave him up hostages During all this Adalgise Son of Didier whom the Emperor had honoured with the Title of Patrician got an Army at Sea to recover his Kingdom of Lombardy and debauched Rotgaud Duke of Friul who was very unwilling to obey a stranger Charles hastens thither with all diligence defeated Rotgaud in a great Battel caused his head to be cut off and having chastised those that supported this Rebellion gave that Dutchy to a French Lord by name Henry together with Stiria and Carinthia placing Counts and Garrisons in the Cities In his absence the Saxons fly to their Arms surprized and razed the Castle of Eresburgh but thinking to do the same to that of Sigeburgh they were repulsed by the French who pursued them with slaughter to the banks of the Lipp With this misfortune they had intelligence likewise that Charlemain was in their Year of our Lord 776 Countrey looking out for them they came with all humility to prostrate themselves before him together with their Wives and Children desiring his Pardon and Baptism Their submission and conversion though dissembled disarmed his wrath Year of our Lord 777 In the Month of March following they all came from their several quarters to the general Assembly of Paderborn excepting the Valiant Vitikind Duke of Angria who had retired himself into the Country of Danemark which the Authors of those times call Normandy Thither likewise came the Saracen Ibnalarabi Governour of Sarragossa with some other principal persons of the same Nation who implored the protection of Charles He easily granted it and would lead his Army thither himself rather to defend and encrease the Kingdom of Jesus Christ then for his own honour or augmentation of Empire There had been Nine or Ten Lieutenant Generalissimo's in Spain belonging to the Caliph who resided at Damas whence he ruled all that vast Empire extending from the Indies to the Pyreneans There were two very potent Families amongst the Saracens that of Humeia and that of Alevaci The first had held the Soveraignty for 150 years and there had been Fourteen successive Caliphs of them the other pretended to be descended from Fatima the Daughter of Mahomet and for that reason had their claim Now it hapned that Abulguchase who was of the Alaveci revolted and having vanquished and slain Meroüane the last of these Fourteen Caliphs and undertaken the task to destroy the whole Race Abderame flying from that Persecution had saved himself in Spain and freed that part from the dominion of the Caliph by making it a distinct and independent Kingdom But in this revolution other Governours had also fallen off from his obedience and amongst these was Ibnalarabi with the rest that came along with him who wanted the assistance of the French to maintain them in their Usurpation Year of our Lord 778 The great Forces raised by Charles being divided in two Bodies marched two different ways The first with whom he went in person passed thorough Bearn into Navarre and laid Siege to Pampelune This was the longest and the most memorable that ever the French had undertaken At last the place surrendred upon composition From thence he marched towards Sarragossa where the other part of the Army who had taken their way thorough the Countreys of Rousillon and Cerdagne joyned him Ibnalarabi and the other Saracen Chiefs came to meet him and tendred him hostages and other assurances of their
which came on obliged him to retire and Lotaire and Hugh Capet having drawn their Forces together cut off all his Reare-Guard at his passage over the River of Aisne which was overflown and pursued him fighting to the Ardennes The Almain Monks of those days as it is the Genius of men to pretend Miracles in great danger write that St. Udalric Bishop of Ausburgh who accompanted that Emperor in this War went over the River Aisne dry-fout leading the way before him and his whole Army who followed the over-following Stream miraculously growing hard and firm under them the River becoming a Bridge to it's self In this retreat the Earl of Anjou did let the Germans know that the quarrel being between the two Kings it would be better according to common right for them to decide it singly hand to hand then to spill the Blood of so many innocent people But the Germans reply'd that although they did not doubt the courage of their ☞ King nevertheless they would not consent that he should expose his person singly Confessing tacitely thereby that they did not think him so brave as the King of France Year of our Lord 978 Otho thus roughly handled sought an accommodation with the French Lotaire and he conferring together in the City of Reims concluded a Peace upon condition that Lotaire should yeild him Lorrain to be held in Feif of the Crown of France say our Authors for which the French Lords shewed a great deal of discontent Year of our Lord 978 Thus the Soveraignty of that Kingdom remained in Lotaire the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain which two years before had been bestowed upon Charles his Brother by Otho reverted to his disposal but as he must give some part to Charles he agreed he should enjoy that also Which was consented to at an enter-view between that King and Otho upon the River of Kar the German Prince having desired that conference before he undertook this expedition into Italy against the Saracens Year of our Lord 978 Charles imagining his Brother had yeilded him that Dutchy but by compulsion was so ill advised that he might have some body to support him in it as to render Hommage for it to Otho instead of holding the Soveraignty himself as he might have done Year of our Lord 981 Two years after Otho to oblige hm the more gave him likewise the Country all about Mets Toul Verdon and Nancy and other Lands between the Meuse and the Rhine Now this submission tendred by Charles to a Stranger sounded very ill amongst the French and the Augmentation of his power certainly shock'd the designs of Hugh Capet who was preparing his way to the Throne For we must consider that Charles was the only obstacle Lotaire having but one Son weak both in Age and understanding and of very small hopes Besides the long abode of that Prince in those Countries without coming into France the too great affection he shewed for the Germans who at that time were the Capital Enemies of France as likewise some ren-counters with the King his Brother one amongst the rest about the City of Cambray which he defended against that King who would have plundred the Churches as he had done those of Arras gave his Enemies occasion to decry him amongst the French Year of our Lord 982 The Emperor Otho II. Died in the year 982. having before declared his Son of the same name Successor of his Estates LOTAIRE and LOUIS his Son in France OTHO III. Emperor and King of Germany and Lorraine Aged 17 years CONRAD in Burgundy Upon the News of his Death Lotaire believed that Germany was going to be all in confusion and combustion by reason of the contests about the Guardianship of young Otho who was then but seven years old wherefore he entred Lorraine An. 983. to regain it and took 〈◊〉 with Godfrey Earl thereof but when he understood Otho was Crowned by thâ— content of all the Grandees he engaged no Year of our Lord 982 farther but returned home to Franâ—â— Year of our Lord 985 Two years after he rendred up the City of Verdun gave Godfrey his liberty and caused his Son Louis to be Crowned to Reign with him He had already married him to a Princess of Aquitain named Blanche And yet was at most not above 18 or 19. years of Age. It is not well known of which Aquitain she was for in that Age and the next following the French comprehended Languedoc and Provence likewise under that name Year of our Lord 986 This couple were ill-matched the Woman couragious and gallant the Husband wanting vigour of mind and perhaps of Body in so much that she despised him and carrying him into her own Country under colour that she could procure the conquest of it by the assistance and interest of her Kindred and Allies she planted him there and the King his Father was forced to go and fetch him thence again This was a great misfortune in the Royal Family and a greater yet that Lotaire Died the 12 th Day of March in the following year of some desperate morsel given Year of our Lord 987 him by his own wife He was a Warlike Prince active careful of his affairs and worthy in fine to have commanded better Subjects He survived little more then the 45 th year of his Age and the 33 th of his Reign LOUIS THE Lazy or Sloathful King XXXIV Aged about XX Years POPES JOHN XV. Elected towards the end of An. 985. S. 10 years 4 Months and a half whereof 16 Months under this Reign LOUIS the Do-Nothing in France OTHO III. CONRAD IT was divulged that at his Death he left the Guardianship of his Son to Hugh Capet who in effect was his Cousin German How-ever it were Emina Year of our Lord 986 not relying too much upon him as it seems had resolved to carry him in the Month of June to his Grand-mother Adeleida Widdow of Otho I. and Tutoress of Otho III. A Heroick Princess who was called the Mother of Kings But they did not give her the time for the 22 th of the same month the Poor Prince ended his Life in the same manner as his Father and by the crime of Blanche of Aquitain his wife He lieth at St. Corneille of Compiegne An Author of those times sayes that he gave his Kingdom to Hugh Capet another that he bequeathed it to his wife upon condition he should marry her He Reigned in all about three years Eighteen or Twenty Months with his Father and sixteen Months alone With his Reign ended that of the Carlian or Carlovingnian Line after it had lasted 236 years and had a Succession of Eleven Kings taking only those of West-France for if we reckon all the others we shall find above thirty without speaking of all those Princes who dismembred this Kingdom as being issued of this August blood descended by Women There were sprung up three Branches of this Race one in Italy by
Leutaire which had pierced as far as Otranto thinking to bring their Plunder to some safe place was beaten near Fano in the Province Emilia and from thence being Retreated by very difficult ways into Venetia which then belonged to Theobaldus when they thought to rest themselves in a little Town the small and unwholsome Lodgings bred so furious a Contagion that it destroyed them all not one Soldier escaping That of Bucelin who staid in the Countrey de Lavour being already weakned very much with the like Plagues was made an end of in a Battle which Narses gave them neer Capoiia from whence only Five Men escaped The year following the Duke Amingua another General of Theodebaldus being joyned with the gleanings Year of our Lord 555 of the Ostrogoths whom the Count Vidin had gathered up had the same fate as Bucelin there remained nothing to the French in Italy but the passage of the Alpes After such bloody Losses Theodebaldus ended his languishing Life being in the 20th of his Age and the 7th of his Reign He had Married but one Wife Valdrade Daughter of Wacon King of the Lombards by whom having no Children his Succession returned to his Two Great Uncles But Clotaire who was the strongest because he had Five Sons all bearing Arms seizes upon it immediately and on his Wife likewise whom he Married As touching the Kingdom Childebert who had none but Daughters durst not then speak a word but as for the Wife the Bishops made him so many Remonstrances about that Incest that he quitted her and gave her in Marriage to Garibald Duke of Bavaria CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris and CLOTAIRE in Neustria and Austrasia Burgundy to them Both. The Saxons who were Tributaries to the French even from the time of Thierry Year of our Lord 555. and 556. of Mets having heard of his death took occasion to Revolt conjoyntly with the Turingians Clotaire straightway goes thither and having beaten them near the Weser plundered the Countreys both of the one and the other Year of our Lord 556 The following year they revolt again but when saw him him on the Frontiers they sent Deputies to implore Mercy and to submit to any Conditions The French would give no Ear but resolved to chastise them and because he refused to lead them on they tore down his Tent and forced him to go in the Front and indeed they were beaten with a horrible slaughter and the King gladly proffer'd the Saxons that Peace which had been denied them Year of our Lord 557 His Brother Childebert jealous of his prosperities incited them a third time to take up Arms against him and at the same instant set his own Son Chramne to rebel against him Clotaire had bestowed on him the Government of Aquitain where he had behaved himself so tyrannically that great Complaints were brought against him his Father had therefore recalled him to Court to give an account of his actions he having refused to come he sends his two other Sons Charibert and Gontran into Aquitain to compel him to Obedience and in the mean time marches against the Saxons whom he brought under by several Defeats and imposed a Tribute on them of 500 Oxen. While he was in Saxony a rumour was spread that he was slain Childebert falls into Champagne and ravages it the two young Brothers being affrighted retired into Burgundy Chamne pursues them and from thence comes to Paris where he engages himself by an Oath to Childebert never to reconcile himself to his Father Year of our Lord 558 Childebert returning from Champagne was struck with a troublesome malady which having made him languish for some time ended not but in death St. Germain Bishop of Paris buried him in the Church of St. Vincent which he had Erected Amongst his Virtues he was eminent in his Charity towards the Poor and his Zeal for Religion The first made him part with all his Gold and Silver Plate to bestow it in Charity the other was signalized by the several Foundations for pious Uses and by his care to propagate the Faith and preserve its Purity For he made an Edict to demolish all the Pagan Temples and the Pope Pelagius being suspected guilty of the Errors condemned by the Council of Chalcedon he sent to him to know his Profession of the Faith that he might take some course against that scandal His Wife Ultrogoth survived him a long time and led a Holy Life with two Daughters she had by him they were named Chrotherge and Chrotesinda they never Married Their Uncle Clotaire whether in hatred to their Father or for fear lest they should pretend to the Succession detained them in prison with their Mother till he had secured himself of the Kingdom This is the First Example of the Salique Law in favour of the Males to the Crown Clotaire succeeded to the exclusion of his Nieces and he was so happy that having survived his three elder Brothers he rejoyned in his own person the entire Succession of the Grand Clovis Clotair I. King VII POPE JOHN III. 559. In March S. 14 years Two only under this Reign Year of our Lord 560 THe Prince Chramne destitute of the protection of Childebert reconciled himself to his Father but soon after he flies off again and retires into Bretagne to Conober one of the Princes of that Countrey for there were divers and such as did not depend upon the French His Father hotly pursues him and fought him neer the Sea-side History does not exactly mark out the place but that the Bretons were defeated Conober killed in the Fray and Chramine taken prisoner The cruel Father orders his People to burn him with his Wife and his Children which they presently executed on the spot putting Fire to a place filled with Straw where they had locked them up So cruel an action caused in him a cruel Repentance in vain he strove to appease Year of our Lord 560 that remorse by his Devotions and great Donations to the Church Coming back from a great Hunting in the Forrest of Cuise a burning Fever seized on his Bowels whereof he died at Compiegnè He was in the 61 year of his age and about the Year of our Lord 561 end of the 49th of his Reign His four Sons conducted his Corps with great Pomp the Priests Singing all the way of the City of Soissons where they buried him as he had ordained in the Church and before the Altar of St. Medard He had four or five Wives amongst the rest he kept two Sisters together at one time Ingonde and Haregonde by the First he left three Sons Cherebert Gontran Sigebert who Reigned and a Daughter named Clodosuinda who Married Alboin King of the Lombards By Haregonda he had Chilperic who Reigned likewise and by Ghinsine the unhappy Chramne Many Authors antient enough give him a Daughter named Blitilda and Marry her with the Senator Ansbert whom they make paternal Grandfather to St. Arnold Some modern
received Holy Baptism and had the Emperor for his God-Father who gave him a natural Daughter of King Lotaires II. in Marriage named Gisile and two thousand and fourscore Livers in Gold with the Dutchy of Frisia Year of our Lord 882 About the same time Louis King of West-France going to meet some Breton Princes who were bringing him an Army to march against the Normans fell sick at Tours whence being brought back in a Litter he died at Saint Denis in France the of August having Reigned somewhat more then three years Paul Emilius says that spurring his Horse to run after a pretty Maiden that fled from him into a House he broke his back riding in at the door which was too low and thereof died Carolus Crassus or Charles the Fatt Emperor King of Germany Carloman King of West-France Aquitaine and Burgundy Year of our Lord 882 His Brother Carloman immediately went from the Siege of Vienne leaving the prosecution thereof to Earl Richard to secure his Succession and head that Army which was marching against the Normans Upon his arrival at Autan he had information that those Robbers being afraid were fled out of the River Loire and a few days after he sees Richard come to him who having taken Vienne brought thither both the wife and daughter of Boson Prisoners From thence he marches against another Body of Normans who having gotten in by the Mouth of the Somme ran up as far as Laon and Reimes he charged them vigorously and one part of them were defeated the rest made their escape in their Barks by the River Aisne At this time the grand Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Reims worn out with age and pierced with grief to see his Country thus Plundred and wasted himself being forced to fly from his City threatned by those Barbarians as they were conveying him in his Litter he died at Espernay leaving the Gallican Church almost quite destitute of any Prelate that understood her Rights or took care of her discipline After the example of the Emperor Charles the Fatt Carloman his Cousin treated with the Normans to go out of his Countries compounding with them for twelve thousand Marks of Silver to do so Year of our Lord 884 Shortly after being a-hunting in the Forrest d'Iveline near Montfort a days journy from Paris he was mortally wounded by a wild Boar or as others say by a Gentleman of his Train who thought to dart the Boar. He lieth buried at Saint Denis In all he Reigned five years that is three joyntly with his Brother and two alone His Father had contracted him to Boson's daughter An. 878. But it is most likely he never did marry her Nor do we find that he had any Children For that Louis le Faineant or Do-nothing which some would bestow upon him is a pure Chimera Year of our Lord 884 As soon as the Normans had the news that he was dead they entred upon the Kingdom again subtilly interpreting according to their Genius and their own interest that the Treaty expired with his life Hugh the Abbot fought them and made so terrible a slaughter that they left France in quiet for some time CHARLES III. Surnamed Crassus or The Fatt King XXVIII Aged about L. Years POPES ADRIAN III. Nine Months under this Reign STEPHEN IV. Elect. in May 885. S. five Years and some Months whereof 2 Years 8 Months under this Reign Charles the Fatt Emperor in Italy and Germany Charles the Simple aged 7 years a Minor under the Tutelage of Hugues the Abbot in France Year of our Lord 884 IT need not be thought strange if the Western-French standing in need of a King in his Majority to command their Armies did not confer the Crown upon Charles the Posthumus Son of Lewis the Stammerer who was but seven years of Age but gave their Oaths of Fidelity to Charles the Fatt who was very potent and was not as yet observed to be weak Spirited and inclining to be distracted Year of our Lord 884 How-ever it cannot be said that they excluded the Pupil since they entrusted the Abbot Hugh the Great with his Guardianship and Education who held in Fief the Earldom of Paris and the Dutchy of France that is to say all that lies within the Seine the Loire and the Sea excepting only the Bishopricks Year of our Lord 885 Valdrade's Bastard had not quitted his pretention to Lorraine And Godfrey the Norman Duke of Frisia his Brother in Law were creating some quarrel that they might have an opportunity to restore him to the possession of that Kingdom The Emperor Charles ridd himself both of the one and the other but by unhandsome means according to the contrivance of Henry Duke of Saxony For this Henry and Guillebert or Gilbert Arch-Bishop of Colen having drawn Godfrey to a Conference at an Island in the Rhine there massacred him and all the Normans that attended And at the same time Hugh who came upon his promise of Faith and security to Ioinville was Seized an d his Eyes put out then confined to the Abbey of St. Gal. Year of our Lord 886 The fury of the Normans which began to be allayed burst out again upon this bloody Treachery and made most horrible work under the conduct of Sigefroy They entred the River Seine with 700 Barks and so great a number of other Vessels that the stream was cover'd with them for above two Leagues in length the City of Paris seated on an Island and having Bridges on either branch of the River put a stop to this formidable Fleet. The Barbarians who would needs have the passage thorough this River free held it besieged three years Year of our Lord 886 87 and 88. During all that time they tried their utmost endeavours to accomplish their ends But the Bishop named Gosslin the Abbot Ebon his Nephew the Earl Eudes whom we shall hereafter find to be King with a great many valiant Knights and the Parisians whose courage was then greater than their City defended it better then it was attaqued The besiegers did from time to time make attempts and assaulted the Towers of the two Gates from whence being repulsed would make incursions upon the adjacent Provinces still keeping the City block'd up with Forts which they had built very nigh the place Twice did the Emperor Charles send thither Henry Duke of Saxony upon the carnest intreaties of the French who deputed Count Eudes to go and implore assistance from him The first time he forced the Danish Camp and put some relief into the City which done he returned but the second riding headlong imprudently into a ditch cover'd with straw and some small branches a Stratagem often used in those times he fell into the snare and was instantly slain and stripp'd His Army finding themselves a Body without a Head returned into Germany Year of our Lord 887 At last the Emperor came in person with numerous Forces and encamped at Montmartre Yet through some discontent which hapned between
some Method to bring Hugh in again to that See but considering that a small number could not undo what had been done by a greater and that they had notice from the Pope to clear their doubts that he had Excommunicated him in a Council held at Rome Anno 949. they broke up without proceeding any farther That of Reims in 975. wherein presided Stephen Deacon to Bennet V. Pope and Adolberon of Reims Excommunicated Thibauld who had usurped the See of Amiens In 983. that of Mount St. Mary in the Diocess of Reims where Adalberon presided confirmed the Decree made by that Bishop to put Monks into the Monastery of Mouson in the stead of those Canons that were there In the foregoing Age in many places the Canons were more desired The Humour was changed in this Gerbert solliciting with heat to have Arnold de Reims his Process made a Council was called in that same City Anno 992. where his Credit and the vehement Eloquence of Arnold d'Orleans carrying it against the Remonstrances of Abbon Abbot of Fleury and the Sentiment of Seguin de Sens who was President Arnold was deposed and Gerbert instaled in his See The Pope believing it intrenched upon his Authority if he suffer'd them to undertake this without his Order sent a Legat into France the year ensuing who first called together some Bishops at Monson then a greater number at Reims where Seguin representing the Person of the Pope it was said that Gerbert should be deposed and Arnold restored but this last being a Prisoner at Orleans Gerbert disputed it and stood his ground yet for some time and appealed to the Pope who grew more stubborn and stiff in favour of Arnold and forced the King by the threatnings of a terrible Excommunication to release him and suffer him to enjoy his Bishoprick Robert King XXXVI POPES GREGORY V. About two years under this Reign SILVESTER II. Elected in March 999. S. Four years and two Months JOHN XVIII Elected in May 1003. S. Five Months JOHN XIX Elected in Novem. 1003. S. Five years ten Months SERGIUS IV. Elected in Aug. 1009. S. Two years eight Months and an half BENEDICT VIII Elected in 1012. S. near Twelve years JOHN XX. Elected in March 1024. S. Nine years eight Months ROBERT King XXXVI Aged Twenty four or Twenty five years THis King compleat both in Body and Mind of a handsom Stature a sweet and grave Air a composed and sage Humour having been nurtur'd to Piety and good Learning by Gerbert became very knowing for that Age much more Religious and Zealous in the Service of God and as Just Charitable and Debonnaire towards his People as any Prince that ever wore a Crown And indeed God favour'd his Reign with the choicest Blessing he is wont to bestow upon those Kings who are according to his own Heart I mean with a long and happy Peace which he enjoy'd near Thirty years after some slight and petty Wars Year of our Lord 996 This year 996. died Richard I. Duke of Normandy who was past his Seventieth year He left his Dukedom to his Son Richard II. surnamed the Good Year of our Lord 997 98. William Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitain having War with Boson II. Earl of Perigord and de la Marche Robert was obliged to assist him as his Kindred and Vassal They both laid Siege to the Castle of Belac but their Army wanting Provisions because they were too numerous could not subsist till the taking of the Place The Chronicles of those times who are all very succinct do not give an account of the end of that War no more then of many other things Eudes Earl of Brie and Champagne prompted with great desire to have a passage Year of our Lord 999 over the Seine as he had already over the Marne thereby to go commodiously from Brie to his County of Chartres cast his Eyes upon Melun and with Money gained the Vicount or Castellaine belonging to Earl Bouchard who deliver'd it up to him Bouchard had been the favourite of Hugh Capet who had given him that Earldom and he was yet at this time Count Palatine for King Robert Wherefore this King took in hand his defence sent Richard II. Duke of Normandy his Cousin and good Friend and with him besieged the place The Battery with their Engines having made a Breach the Garrison surrendred upon Composition the Castellaine and his Wife were both Hanged on the top of a Hill near the place They did not punish Gentlemen with Death for Rebellion or Felony unless they committed Treason but in that case they hanged them in some eminent Place that Crime degrading them of all Nobility Year of our Lord 999 Poland was honoured with the Title of a Kingdom by the Emperor Otho III. who going to Gnesne to Visit the Sepulchre of St. Adalbert Martyr gave the Regal Ornaments to Duke Boleslaus The following year Hungary had the same Advantage and Honour but would receive it from the hands of the Pope to whom Prince Stephen the Son of Geisa who first embraced Christianity sent to demand the Royal Crown Year of our Lord 1000 Towards the end of January in the year 1002. the Emperor Otho aged but Twenty nine years died in the City of Rome or in Paterna not leaving any Children It was believed to be of Poyson the cursed practise thereof being much in use as I have observed in this Age thorough all the West Henry II. of that name called the Cripple Duke of Bavaria and Earl of Bamberg succeeded him by an Election of the German Princes but did not bear the Title of Emperor at least not in Italy till he had been Crowned by the Pope which was Twelve years afterwards Year of our Lord 1002 The degrees of Parentage wherein Marriage was prohibited having been extended to the Seventh besides the obstructions from Spiritual Alliance or Gossipship caused much Broil especially amongst Princes and Grandees who commonly are of Kin to one another even within that degree For so soon as a Husband or a Wife were disgusted with each other or that any one had a mind to trouble them they needed but to Article and make Oath they were of Kin within the degrees forbidden and produce Witnesses upon it to the number of nine as I believe which were not wanting or difficult to get and thereupon the Diocesan Bishop or an Assembly of Bishops if there were any greater difficulty pronounced Judgment Year of our Lord 1003 Now Queen Lutgard the first Wife of Robert being dead he was advised by Maxims of Policy to Wed Bertha Sister to Rodolph the Lazy King of Burgundy Widow of Eudes I Earl of Chartres and Mother of Eudes II. as yet but young She being of Kin in the fourth Degree and besides he having held a Child with her at the Font he thought he might prevent the inconveniency of nullity of Marriage by the Authority of the Gallican Church he called therefore his
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
of proceedings against them in the year 1245. in that of Beziers which was composed of Prelats of the Narbonnensian Province And that of Terragona Anno 1242. did the same thing against the Vaudensis whose Opinions were creeping into those quarters Besides the Albigensis the Vaudensis and that swarm of different Sects which had got in nestled and increased greatly in Languedoc and Gascongny there was one Amaulry of Chartres a Doctor of Paris who went about teaching his fancies for Truths saying amongst other things That if Adam had not sinned Men would have been multiplied without Generation that there was no other Paradice but the satisfaction of well-doing nor any other Hell besides the ignorance and obscurity of Sin That the Law of the Holy Ghost or Spirit had put an end to that of Jesus Christ and to the Sacraments as these had accomplished that of Moses and the Ceremonies of the Old Testament and that all such actions as were done in charity even Adulteries could not be evil This Doctrine being a great encouragement to lewdness and Scandal the Author was obliged to go and give an account to the Pope who forced him to retract which having done with his Mouth only and not from his Heart his Disciples persisted in his whimseys and added many others to them Peter II. Bishop of Paris and Frier Guerin Principal Counsellor to King Philip having made discovery both of the Persons and the Secrets of these Sectarics by an Emissary who crept in amongst them caused a great number of Men and Women Clergy and Laity to be laid hold on These People having been convicted in a Council held at Paris in the year 1209. were delivered over to the Secular power who gave the Women their Pardons and ordered the Men to be burnt The Friers Preachers and the Friers Minors endeavouring to out-vie each other in Scholast que Subtilties there were some that lost their way in that Utopian or Imaginary Countrey of Terra incognita and who were as soon restrained and corrected by the Sacred Faculty or by the Bishops Thus by Bishop Stephen II. at the Council of Paris which met in Anno 1277. was William the Frier Minor corrected who had published divers Heterodox propositions touching the Soul Free Will the Resurrection and the worlds Eternity but as soon as they were condemned he retracted them with great submission contrary to the custom of those singular Spirits who having once taken their flights do hardly ever stoop again We find likewise a certain David of Dinand who maintained that God was the Materia Prima St. Thomas hath Learnedly refuted him In the Fourth Tome of the Library of the Fathers we read That Anno 1242. William Bishop of Paris in an Assembly of the Doctors of Theology condemned some errors touching the Divine Essence the Holy Spirit the Angels and the place where Souls remain after death and several other propositions either rash or false which all proceeded from the contentious subtilties of Scholastique Doctors It would be too tedious to quote all those Councils that were held about Discipline and for other matters The two most famous were those of Lyons Pope Innocent III. presiding in the First Anno 1245. pronounced a Sentence of Excommunication against the Emperour Frederic II. In the Second which was in the year 1 74. the most numerous that ever was for there were Five hundred Bishops Seventy Abbots and a Thousand other Prelats Pope Gregory X. made divers Constitutions amongst others that which directs the Cardinals should be shut up in the Conclave for the Election of a Pope and he admitted the Emperour Michael and the Greek Church to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome Robert de Corceonne Cardinal Legate assembled one at Paris in the year 1212. for the reformation of Abuses and of Clerks as well Secular as Regulars Gerard de Beurdeaux held one of his Province at Cognac in Anno 1238. for the same purpose and to maintain the Rights of the Church Vincent de Pilonis Arch-Bishop of Tours likewise one of his Province at Rennes in the year 1263. for the Second point In that of Bourges in the year 1276. held by Simon de Brie Cardinal Legat they Treated of the Liberty of the Church of Elections of the power of Judges Delegates or Ordinaries of Bishops Courts of Tithes of Wills and Testaments of Priviledges of Canonical punishments of the Jews Simon de Beaulien Arch-Bishop of Bourges Assembled one in the year 1287. where he Collected and Reformed all the Constitutions his Predecessors had made in the divers Councils of that Province The Bishop of Beauvais pretending that the King it was Saint Lewis but as then very young had usurped on the Rights of his Church Henry de Brienne with all his Province of Rheims undertook this Cause very vigorously and held three Councils to have satisfaction two at St. Quentin in 1230 and 1233. and one at Laon in 1232. when he put the business so home that in fine the King gave them satisfaction Before Charlemain the Arch-Bishop of Bourges pretended to no Primacy over the other Metropolitans of Aquitain but that King having made this City the Capital of the Kingdom of Aquitain composed of the three Provinces of that name and the Narbonnensis Prima which is Languedoc would needs to link them together the better that they should all resort for Spirituals to Bourges and the Pope authorised this Novelty the colour for it being that Bourges was the Metropolis of Aquitania Prima Thus this Bishop took up the Title of Primate and that of Patriarch over the Arch-Bishops of Narbonna Bourdeaux and Ausch He of Narbonna shook off the yoak at the time the Earls of Toulouze became Marquis de Gottia He of Bourdeaux would have done as much when Aquitania Tertia was left to the Kings of England under the Title of Dutchy of Guyenne He of Bourges stood upon the possession for at least three ages and the Judgment of several Popes but the other defended himself by his common Right and the antient usages of the Gallican Church The quarrel lasted a long while he of Bourges assembled many Councils for that business one amongst the rest in that City in the year 1212. proceeding always against the other as his inferior even so far as that Giles de Rome about the year 1302. caused Bertrand de Got to be Excommunicated by Gautier de Bragas of the Order of the Minors and Bishop of Poitiers because he like himself took up the Title of Primate of Aquitain Bertrand was so offended that Gautier who was his Suffragan should joyn with that party and have the confidence to fulminate against him that when he was raised to the Papacy being at Poitiers in 1308. he Deposed him and sent him hack to his Convent A terrible punishment for a Monk and indeed he fell sick upon it and it was easier for him to go out of the world then get out of the
and confirmed by Pope Alexander IV. Anno 1257. The people because of their Habit called them White Mantles and the Convent given to them at Paris retains that name still it was bestowed on them in 1268. the Benedictins have the House at present All these Orders particularly the Mendicants applied themselves much for the stirring up peoples Devotion towards the Sacrament and the Virgin Mary Saint Dominique instituted the Rosary which is composed of a certain number of Ave Maria's and Pater-nosters which are repeated and whereof as one may say they make a Hatband or Coronet of Flowers to put upon the Head of that Queen of Angels The Carmelites not to come behind them in their Zeal to the Holy Mother of God established the Devotion of the Scapular to which they attribute great Virtue particularly to redeem them from the pains of Purgatory and not to die without Confession They affirm that Saint Simon Stoe their General instituted it upon a Vision he had of the Holy Virgin The peoples Devotion towards the Reliques of Saints was still very warm and zealous Charles the Lame King of Sicilia and Earl of Provence at his coming out of his imprisonment being perswaded by the Revelation of two Friers whereof one was his Confessor caused a certain place named Ville-late in the Diocess of Aix to be digged where they found a Corps believed to be St. Mary Magdelins said to be buried by Saint Maximin and afterwards removed and hid in another place not far from the first in the time of the Saracens incursions Charles caused it to be taken out with great ceremony and built a fair Convent in the same place for the Preaching Friers the resort of people by succession of time hath added a Town to it which bears the name of St. Maximin The Benedictine Monks of Vezelay in Burgundy were notwithstanding able to aver they had the full possession of this Holy Corps which had been brought to them from Aix or as others say from Jerusalem by the care of Gerard de Rousillon Founder of that Abbey about the year 882. The universal concourse of the whole Nation the Bulls of divers Popes even after this invention of Ville-late the Authority of two Kings Lewis VII and Lewis IX who had paid their Devotions in this place made this believed to be a Truth above contradiction amongst the French But that of the Greeks destroy'd equally both the pretences of the Monks of Vezelay and of the Jacobins For we find in some of their Writers of the Seventh age that the Body of Magdeline was at Ephesus and their Historians relate how the Emperour Leo the Philosopher who began not to Reign till the year 886. transferr'd it from that City to Constantinople as also the Corps of Lazarus from the Island of Cyprus However it were after this new discovery at Ville-late they told how this Holy Woman flying from the persecution of the Jews had made her escape by Sea into Provence with Lazarus her Brother her Sister Martha Marcella servant to Martha and Saint Maximin one of Seventy two Disciples of our Lord. That Maximin was the first Bishop of Aix and Lazarus of Marseilles That Martha preached the Faith in the Diocess of Aix and that she vanquished the Dragon whom they called the Tarasque which hath given name to the City of Tarascon where the Den of that Monster was That Magdeline retired into a Baulme or Grotto where after Twenty years solitude and mortification the Angels carried her Soul up to the Region of the Blessed and many other things unknown in the former ages The Sciences flourish'd with great luster in the University of Paris Theology the study of the Civil and Canon Law Physick and Philosophy with the Arts but not being accompanied or joyned with humane and polite Learning and Eloquence which came not into play or use till a long while after they expressed themselves but in barbarous terms and learned more Sophistry and shuffling then solid Truths All the substitutes of the University being Ecclesiastiques the skill and knowledge of the Law and Physick was in their hands and the Pope was owned for Head of that Body and of all the Men of Learning As for Physick they taught little more then the Theory under the name of Physick leaving the practical part of Medicines to the Laity For the Law the Popes would willingly have reduced it all to the Canons and their own Decretals from which we must ackowledge that France hath taken most of her Forms and judicial Orders that so all Christendom making use of the same Laws both in Temporals and Spirituals might accustom themselves to own but one Head to wit him who hath all the Laws both Divine and Humane in his own Breast It was for this in my opinion that Honorius III. by his Bull of the year 1219. did forbid upon pain of Excommunication to Teach the Civil Law at Paris and all other Citis in France and Gregory IX renewed it as to Paris Some are apt to believe those two Popes did it upon the request of the two Kings Philip Augustus and St. Lewis In effect the Letters of King Philip the Fair for the Institution of the University of Orleans speak the same but some doubt of the truth of their exposition and believe the prohibitions of Honorius and of Gregory was only intended to have respect to the Ecclesiastiques whom they would fain have weaned from that too great affection they had to the study of a thing which being very gainful made them lay aside and desert their Divinity Now whether one or other of these Opinions be the Truth it is certain that since they forbore not to Teach the Civil Law in the University of Paris till in the year 1579. that advantage was taken away from them by virtue of an Article found in the Ordonnance of Blois but truly it did not slourish there so much as in those of Toulouze and of Orleance The University of Toulouze was instituted in Anno 1230. by Saint Lewis that of Orleance was not till the year 1312. by King Philip the Fair. It is true that above One hundred years before there was in this last City as also in Toulouze Anger 's and divers others a famous School but which had no Seal nor the power of making Graduats and other marks of a Company formed and approved by the Prince Clement V. in acknowledgment of his having studied there gave several Bulls all in the year 1303. to make it an University The Scholars thinking to have the benefit in the year 1309. before they were approved of by the King the Burghers opposed them with Sword in hand and those troubles were not quieted till the King in 1312. had given a Being to that Body by his lawful Authority That of Montpellier otherwhile very famous for the Art of Physick because of the commerce and correspondence they had with the Arabian Physitians that were in Africa
Lords and Citizens who were most to be suspected and bridled them with two strong Castles which he order'd to be built there Year of our Lord 1452 The University being one of the greatest Bodies and one of the most necessary to all Christendom the Cardinal d'Estouteville the Popes Legat making use of his faculty but by the Kings express Order employ'd himself in purging it of some abuses that had much disfigur'd them and made many good Reglements which are yet kept in their Archives Year of our Lord 1452 53 54 55 56 and 57. Never since the Slege of Calais had the Duke of Burgundy much concern'd himself in the War against the English but yet he was not free from crosses in his own Countries Those of Bruges being up in Arms Anno 1437. let him into their City as if they had intended to give him satisfaction then fell upon his Men killing above an hundred of them amongst the rest the Lord de L'Isle-Adam Himself ran a great hazard and escaped with much difficulty by breaking open one of the City Gates with Hammers After this fury they betook themselves to rove all about the Country Their rage began to cool when they found the rest of the Towns did not approve of their rash actions and that the Duke was coming to besiege them with a vast Army They craved his pardon which they obtained not but upon rude Conditions It cost them two hundred thousand Gold Crowns the loss of many of their Priviledges and the Lives of a dozen or fifteen of the most Factions The Ghentois gave him much more trouble by their frequent disturbances The most dangerous was that in Anno 1452. a Gabel or Impost was the cause of it He would needs settle it in Flanders and make it certain and fixt imposing 24 Gross Money of that Country upon every Sack of Salt They resolved to run all the hazards and extremities imaginable rather then suffer an Impost upon Water and the Sun which are free and universal Gifts bestow'd by Nature They relied upon the protection of the King and indeed he wrote earnestly and in high terms in their behalf to the Duke of Burgundy but having received an answer in terms that were yet higher he thought it not prudence to embarque himself in a Civil War being as yet not come to an end of the War against the English his Foreign Enemy The losses which the Ghentois met with in five or six great Fights did but heat their savage hearts the more but the Battle of Ripelmond and afterwards that of Gavre where they lost twenty thousand Men brought them so low they were forced to come to composition Two thousand Men bare Head and bare Foot with all their Counsellors Sheriffs and Officers only in their Shirts went out a League to meet the Duke and his Son to implore their Mercy The Gate through which they marched out to fight him at Riplemond was stopt up for ever They were condemned to pay four hundred thousand Ridders of Gold to bring their Banners that he might dispose of them as he pleased and to suffer a change of their Usages and Priviledges Year of our Lord 1453 Upon a Tuesday the Nine and twentieth of May Constantinople the Trunk of the Grecian Empire from which the Turks had lopp'd off all the Branches was taken perforce by Mahomet II. not more then three and twenty years of age Constantine her last Emperor perished there crowded to death by the multitude at one of the Gates of the City Such was The End of the Eastern Empire the which to reckon from the dedication of Constantinople upon the Nineteenth of May in the year Three hundred and thirty had lasted Eleven hundred twenty three years We shall henceforwards place the Turkish Sultans in the room of those Emperors Year of our Lord 1454 and 55. The Count d'Armagnac was not grown the wiser by his first chastisement he would play Rex hindring him that had provisionally the Archbishoprick of Ausch from taking possession and obstinately persever'd to keep his own Sister for his Wife maugre the Censures of the Church The King being therefore moved at the importunity of the Pope to wipe off this scandal from the Kingdom sent some Forces thither with five or six of his chief Commanders some whereof seized on the Country of Rovergne others on the Valley d'Aure and another Party on the County of Armagnac The City of Leytoure environed with a triple Wall and its Castle situate upon a steep Rock did not hold out long so that the Count sled out of the Country and retired safely to some Lands he had upon the Frontiers of Arragon Year of our Lord 1455 It concerned the honour both of the Kingdom and the King of France to justifie the memory of the Pucelle The King therefore ordered her Parents to Petition the Holy See to appoint some Judges that might review the Process Upon their request Calistus III. ordered Commissioners who were the Archbishop of Reims and the Bishops of Paris and Coutances who being met at Rouen looked into and examined the Proceedings heard divers Witnesses and thereupon fully justified that Heroick Virgin caused the former Process to be torn and burnt by which they had condemned her Their Sentence was proclaimed in Rouen at St. Ouins Churchyard and the old Market and likewise in many other Cities of the Kingdom There was no need of taking any course against her false Judges the greater part of them being perish'd either by suddain or such a shameful death as seemed to shew the hand of God upon them Year of our Lord 1455 During these years began those divisions which did not a little contribut to the losing of Navarre Blanch the Heiress of that Kingdom had a Son named Charles by John King of Arragon her Husband This Princess dying in Anno 1441. John took in second Wedlock Isabella of Portugal and retained the enjoyment of Navarre which in effect belonged to Charles as then about One and thirty years of age This dispute Armed the Son against the Father the Kingdom was divided The House of Gramont which was considerable took part with the Father that of Beaumont which was not inferior joyned with the Son The Mother in Law who could have wished the Son out of the World blew the coals and exasperated the Fathers anger From thence grew irreconcilable Enmity and cruel Wars Prince Charles having given Battle to his Father lost it and was taken Prisoner A while after he was set at liberty upon an Accomodation Year of our Lord 1456 The Dauphins ill Conduct and those insupportable Exactions he laid upon Dauphine particularly the Clergy did so irritate the King his Father that he commanded Anthony de Chabanes Earl of Dammartin to go and Arrest him Dammartin having been cruelly offended as we have related would have executed this Order severely had not the Dauphin been informed and made his escape in post-haste into the Principality of
chiefly in that Country Year of our Lord 1573 The Three Armies destined against the Huguenots did but little La Chastre succeeding ill in his Attaques upon Sancerre at the end of Three Months turned the Siege into a Blocade Danville instead of taking Nismes as the Cities of Lyons and Thoulouze did heartily wish because they paid and maintain'd his Army set upon the little City of Sous-Mieres whether with design not to succeed or otherwise I know not for he knew very well they plotted the Ruine of his House and he put as little Confidence in the Kings Council as they did in him He therefore ruined his Army before it and raised the Siege after he had lost Two Thousand men with Henry de Foix Count de Candale slain upon an Assault This Lord had Married his Sister and brought him Twelve Hundred Gascons Villars and la Valette cleared Gascongne of several small Garrisons but could not take Cossade and were constrained to disband their Troops who lived so licentiously that the Commons rose up in Arms to fall upon them The greatest efforts were at the Siege of Roâ—hel Strossy and Biron had invested it the preceding year all the Forces of the Kingdom were come thither and Monsieur himself Arriving there in the Month of February had brought along with him all that were bravest and greatest about the Court the Duke of Alencon month February c. his Brother the Duke of Montpensier all the Guises the Duke of Nevers and even the King of Navarre the Prince of Condé and the Mareschal de Cossé for fear lest they should make some stir elsewhere in favour of the Huguenots After several fruitless Conferences after that la Noüe not being able to perswade the Rocheliers to submit was come out of the Town and they had chosen Six Captains in his sted Monsicur began to express his mind by the roaring Mouths of his Cannon having Four-score in Battery against them In this Siege it was made more manifest then in any other of these last Ages that there is nothing which the perswasion of 〈◊〉 and Religion does not overcome and nothing that can overcome it It lasted Eight Months to reckon from the time of the Blocade the Baron de la Garde had begun within a Month after Saint Bartholomew the City during that time sustained Five and Thirty ☜ Thousand Cannon shot Nine grand Assaults above Twenty lesser ones near upon Seventy Mines very frequent Conspiracies as well by contrivance of some that were Rich who feared to loose their Wealth as by some of the Gentry who have ever some particular engagements at the Court and seldome desert it but in expectation of being called back again to the Cost of whatever Party they Espouse The People labour'd with so much heat that they raised a double Terrass and digged a deep Retrenchment at the place where they batter'd the Town before they could make their breach Besides their men were perpetually making Sallies the Women went along every where with them some to Fight others to carry necessaries and refreshment carry off and dress the wounded and gather up the Spoil others again to throw kettles of scalding Liquor or Oil melted Pitch red hot Iron Hoops Bricks Stones Timber Loggs and the like upon the Assailants heads Their Courage did not fail them though the Assistance from England which Montgommery was to have brought failed them After a long expectation in mid March they appeared but very Slender for as much as the Mareschal de Rais as well by the Intrigues he forged in England as the Pensions the King bestowed on Queen Elizabeths Councellours had notably hindred him from obtaining Year of our Lord 1573 so considerable a Supply as was promised Finding the choice Mâ—n of the Besiegers Army had put themselves into the Kings Ships and the Channel stopt up with an Estacade which they could not gâ—t over but at Spring-Tydâ—s â—e weighed Anchor and went and seized upon Bâ—ll-Isle But hearing the Count de Rais was coming against him with a dozen Ships he quitted it after he had plundred it and retired to the Isle of Wight The Count de Rais under pretence Bâ—ll-Isle wanted some Lord to defend it manag'd his Interest so that the King by his Soveraign Authority caused it to be substracted and dismembred from the demesne of the Abbey of Saincte Croix de Quimperlay and erected it to a Marquisate to bestow it upon him During all the Siege of Rochel those within enjoy'd a perfect health they had established a very good order for the distribution of their Provisions so that they had enough for two Months longer when they were deliver'd For though they were but meanly furnished with Corn they had great Stores of Flesh and Salt-Fish and the Sea shewing her self Charitable and Merciful to that Town which she hath ever looked upon as her Nurse-Child threw upon the Owze infinite quantities of Shel-Fish for the Subsistance and Relief of the Poor On the contrary the Besiegers were under all sorts of inconveniencies the neglect of discipline and the desolation of the Country round about them had caused extream scarcity of Provisions and Forrage in their Camp and a most terrible Infection which bred frequent and contagious distempers But the complement of all those Evils was their general Division which held the Royal Army in perpetual agitations and ready to cut one anothers Throats like Cadmus his Soldiers There were of three sorts of People the Malecontents the Gentlemen were most of them so with the Queen Mother who governed all by two or three Strangers Covetous Proud and without Faith the Faithful these were the Huguenots who had not quitted their Religion but to avoid the ruine of their Houses or for some Interest at Court had followed Monsieur and the New ones whom the fear of being Massacred had forced to go to Mass though they did not believe in it Out of some of each of these was a Club or Party made whom they named the Politiques and these had together agreed that without any more mention of Religion they would demand the Reformation of the State and expulsion of Strangers Amongst the Catholicks the Montmorencies Biron and Cossé were the Chief Heads these were linked together above a Twelve month before the Saint Bartholomew The Duke of Alencon a Prince ambitious and unquiet despised for his low Stature and his ill Meen had desired to be one and having in his tender Youth taken some Impression of the New Religion from those that Educated him had tied himself in strickt Amity with the Admiral believing by that means to make a Party strong enough to equal the Credit of the Duke of Anjou and get some share in the Govâ—â—â—ment To which he was thrust on by the Ambition of his Favourites and by his Sister Margarets Spleen much offended the Duke of Anjou slighted her after he highly cherish'd her Divers considerations proceeding from jealousie suspicions and fear had withheld the
King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from joyning with him whilst they were at Court but they came on with more boldness when they were in the Camp Henry de la Tour Vicount de Turenne at that time a Catholick and already very knowing and subtle though but young was the contriver of their Association Being all hot headed rash young Men many Designs were propounded as strange as bold The King having had some hint gave order to Pinard Secretary of State to enjoyn the Duke not to leave the Camp upon pain of Incurring his Indignation The Duke sending him back without any answer because he would not produce his Order the Kings Council took such an Alarm that the King apprehending some dangerous surprize wrote to the Duke of Anjou to hasten the taking of Rochel because he had need of his Forces about his Person This was the cause he made so many Assaults unseasonably and lost so many Men. Now as both the one and the other were in an extream Perplexity Arrives the News from Poland which open'd them a way to go off with Honour The Bishop of Valence had gained the Affections of the Polanders by means of Balagny his naâ—ural Son before the death of King Sigismond the last Prince of the House of Jagellons When he was dead which hapned the Seventh of July in the year 1572. he parted from Paris the Seventeenth day of August following and went thither himself The Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou apprehended nothing Year of our Lord 1573 more then the success of this Election wherefore at the same time they pretended to employ all the Kings power for it they obstructed it underhand by private Methods Nevertheless the Bishop having more regard to the Kings Command and his own Honor then to a Womans fancies managed the business so well that it succeeded The Duke of Anjou was Elected King but as the Heads of two of those four Factions that were amongst them were Calvinists they obliged the French Ambassadors to promise them several Conditions in favour of that Religion particularly that they should leave all those Cities at Liberty which were Besieged Upon the News of this Election and the Arrival of the Polish Ambassadours who came to fetch their new King the Duke of Anjou made them give some fresh Assaults and then renewed the propositions for accommodation The Rochellers refused to hearken to any thing unless all the other Cities of their Party were comprehended and they were fain to yeild to them in this point unless for month June Sancerre whose Surrender was hourly expected The Articles were all resolved upon the Five and Twentieth of June the Ratification was brought back some dayes after with an Edict of Pacification which was more restrictive by much then the preceeding ones for it allowed only Liberty of Conscience but no publick exercise excepting in the Cities of Rochel Nismes and Montauban It was not in their Power to obtain the same advantage for Sancerre the King under colour it belonged to a particular Lord whose right he could not infringe refused to grant them any more but the Liberty of Marriages and Christnings So that although for four Months past the scarcity of Provisions grew daily to a most-horrible Extremity yet they resolved to perish rather then not enjoy the same Conditions which the rest had They fed upon the most unclean Creatures and upon such Herbs as Beasts themselves refuse to tast as also Parchment and Leather and to say all in a word they surprized a Father and a Mother feeding upon their own Daughter that had been starved to death Whilst they were in this most lamentable State and yet would not think of a Surrender the Ambassadours from Poland who Arrived in the beginning of August got composition for them but they had no other advantages for their Religion then what was general So that the Cruel and Voluntary death of Two Thousand of those unhappy Wretches served only to Signalize to all future Ages their too long and fatal obstinacy In the Treaty of Rochel it was Stipulated that the Rochellers should intreat the Duke of Anjou to come into their City but that he should not enter So that after the most eminent had been with him to request it he dismissed his Army and went on Board his Galleys visited the adjacent Islands thence Sailed to Nantes and so returned to Court being every where received in quality of a King Thus ended that Famous Siege where the King lost Twelve Thousand Men and a great many Persons of Note the most remarkable being Claude Duke of Aumale who was Slain with a Cannon Shot The Polish Ambassadours who were Twelve in number and for their Chief had the Bishop of Posna Arrived at Mets the Five and Twentieth of July made their Solemn entrance into Paris on the Third day of September and the Tenth month July c. read the Decree of Election in the Palace-Hall The King was there upon a Scaffold Array'd in his Royal Robes and accompanied by all the Princes and Grandees of his Court The Decree being taken out of a Silver Box Sealed with an Hundred and Ten Seals of the Prelates Palatines and Castellans of the Kingdom was open'd and read aloud by one of the Ambassadors The King having given them very many civil thanks rose from his Seat and went to embrace the King of Poland his Brother the other Princes and Noblemen then present went afterwards to Congratulate him and pay their Respects He kissed the Duke of Alâ—ncon and the King of Navarre and treated the others with more or less Ceremony according to their quality I shall say nothing of the Feastings and Balets wherewith the Queen Mother entertained them those are the Abortives of Luxury and Prodigality the remembrance of which ought to last no longer then the smell of the meat and noise ☜ of the Violins The King of Poland made his entrance into Paris by the Gate Sainct Amoine with a Suitable Magnificence It was looked upon as an ill Omen that his Heraulds mistook in their blasoning the Arms of his New Kingdom Year of our Lord 1573 These Ceremonies ended King Charles who had taken up a strong Resolution he would Reign himself and withdraw that Authority he had imprudently committed to his Mother hastned his departure with great impatience every hour seeming a tedious year but the more he pressed the more delays the other still sought out It was not the delights only of the Court his Mothers tenderness the almost Royal Authority his Command had placed him in as Generalissimo of the Army's and the hope of succeeding to the Crown which ever seemed near at hand because the King had no Child that detained him in France the violent Love he had for the Princess of Condé was a stronger tye then all these The Duke of Guise who had Married the Sister soothed and served him though to no purpose in his passion and by that means had