Nine years JOHN I. The 23 August 423. S. Two years nine Months and a half BONIFACE II. The 15 th Oct. S. One year JOHN II. In Decemb. 431. S. Three years four Months AGAPETUS In July 534. S. One year SILUERIUS In June 536. S. Four years VIGILIUS In 540 S. 15 years Thierry King of Meâ—z or of Austrasia aged between 28 and 30 years Clodomir of Orleans aged 16 or 17 years Childebert of Paris aged 13 or 14 years Clotaire of Soissons aged about 12 years Year of our Lord 511 THese four Brothers divided the Kingdom betwixt them and drew their shares by Lot Thierry had all Austrasia and the Countreys beyond the Rhine the other Three had Neustria they were all equally Kings and without dependence upon one another yet nevertheless all these parts together made but up the body of one Kingdom The Historians count their Succession by the Kings of Paris because that City hath since been the Capital of all France Year of our Lord 512. c. Five or six years successively these Princes lived in quiet the three Sons of Clotilda being yet young and perhaps the two last under the Government of their Mother it seems a little after the death of their Father the Visigoths regained from them the Countrey of Rouergne and some other Lands in the neighborhood of Languedoc France then began to be divided into Oosterrich or the Eastern part called by corruption Austria and Austrasia and into Westrich or Western part and by corruption Neustria Austrasia comprehended all that is between the Meuse and the Rhine and even on this side the Meuse Rheims Chalons Cambray and Laon. Besides antient France and all those people subdued beyond the Rhine as the Bavarois the Almains and a part of the Turingians depended upon it Neustria extended from this side the Meuse unto the Loire Aquitain was not comprised under the name of France nor Burgundy not even after it was conquer'd nor Bretagne Armorick at least the lower because it was an independent Estate Year of our Lord 516 Gondebaud King of Burgundy dyed in the year 516. He had compiled or written a Law called by his Name the Law Gombete which was long in use amongst the Burgundians as the Salique was amongst the French He had two Sons Sigismond and Gondemar The first succeeded him in all his Dominions and having been Converted many years before by the Instructions of Avitus Bishop of Vienne he abjured Arrianisme at his first coming to the Crown and brought all his People over with him to the Orthodox Faith A Danish Captain named Cochiliac exercising Piracy had made a Descent on the Year of our Lord 518. towards 519. Lands belonging to Thierry 's Kingdom near the mouth of the Rhine when he would have gotten on Ship-board again with his Plunder comes the Prince Theodebert eldest Son of Thierry who assaults him kills him and having stained both Land and Sea with the Blood of those Pirats regained all what they had seized and stollen Sigismond bad at his first Marriage espoused Ostrogotha Daughter to King Theodorick of Italy by whom he had a Son named Sigeric After the death of that Queen he took one of his Servants into his Bed who having conceived a Step-mothers hatred against the young Prince made him seem criminal in his Fathers Eyes by her frequent calumnies who caused him to be strangled with a Napkin as he was sleeping but immediately he was so struck with Remorse that he retired himself for a time to weep for this Year of our Lord 522 crime into the Monastery of d'Agaune which he himself had built or much enlarged in Honour of St. Maurice and his Companions The Divine Justice as may be well believed stirred up the French Kings to chastise him though he had married his Daughter Sister to Sigeric with King Thierry the other three Brothers forbore not to conspire his ruine being incited thereto by Year of our Lord 523 their Mother Clotilda who yet cherished in her bosome the desire to revenge her Fathers death If at least we may suspect such a thing from so pious a Princess In few days they made themselves Masters of a great part of Burgundy either by the gaining of some Battle or the defection even of the Burgundians Sigismond fearing to be delivered up by his own Subjects disguises himself like a Monk and retires to the top of an inaccessible Mountain he had not long been there but some of those he thought his most faithful Servants went and found him and advised him to quit that place as not safe and betake himself to St. Maurice's Church the most Sacred Asylum of all those Provinces when he was come almost to the Gate of that Monastery the Traitors delivered him into the hands of the French Clodomir carries him away with his Wife and Children and shuts them in a Castle not far from Orleans As for Gondemar having saved himself by flight he awhile afterwards gathers Year of our Lord 524 up his Brothers Wrecks and puts himself in possession of the Throne Clodomir could not endure it and Leagued himself with Thierry his elder Brother to compleat his overthrow Before he set forth he was resolved to rid himself of Sigismond St. Avy Abbot of Micy endeavoured in vain to prevent him by his Pious Arguments adding In the Name of God the threats of a Reprisal on his Head and his Family but he Treated him in Ridicule and caused Sigismond to be cruelly Massacred with his Wife and Children and their Bodies to be thrown into a Well The prophetick threatnings of the Holy Abbot soon had their effect It was impossible but Thierry must in his Soul have a just Resentment for the death of Sigismond his Father-in-law so that when he beheld Clodomir far engaged in the medley which was in a Battle they fought against Gondemar near Autun he forsook him and suffer'd him to perish The Burgundians knowing him by his long Royal Locks cut off his Head and fixed it on a Lance but that spectacle instead of terrifying the French inflamed their Courage and Fury they revenged his death by a horrible slaughter of the Burgundians and conquer'd a part of that Kingdom to wit that which lay nearest the Kingdom of Orleans Clodomir was aged some Thirty years he left three Sons then but Children Theobald Gontair and Clodoaldo whom Clotilda their Grand-mother took care to breed hoping that when they came to be of age their Uncles would restore their Fathers Kingdom to them Clotaire his younger Brother presently married his Widow she was named Gondiocha so little the Princes of this First Race had any consideration for their Blood being as bruitish in their Amours as in their Revenge THIERRY in Austrasia at Mets. CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris CLOTAIRE in Neustria at Soissons The Kingdom of Burgundy was not shared amongst these Brothers till some years afterwards and Thierry had no part of it Theoderic King of the Ostrogoths
Critiques have maintained that the Chronology did not agree but there is no appearance that so many Authors should or could have invented such a Fable without any necessity or ground to move them to it Cherebert King VIII POPE JOHN III. S. Ten years under this Reign CHEREBERT King of Paris aged Twenty years GONTRAN of Orleans and of Burgundy aged 36 years SIGEBERT of Austrasia aged Twenty five or Thirty years CHILPERIC of Soissons aged Twenty or Twenty five years THe Kingdom was for the Second time divided into Four for his four Sons which was the cause of infinite Civil Wars Murthers Treasons Plunderings and Calamities Before their shares were setled Chilperic the youngest of them had Year of our Lord 561 seized upon all the Fathers Treasure which was at Bresne and afterwards that at Paris but he was driven thence by the other three This done they drew Lots which gave the Kingdom of Paris to Cherebert that of Orleans and a good part of that of Burgundy to Gontran he resided at Chaalons that of Austrasia to Sigebert and that of Soissons to Chilperic Besides this each of them had a share in Aquitain as the four Sons of Clovis before Year of our Lord 562 had and also in Provence that so each of them and altogether might be obliged to maintain them with their joynt Forces The Austrasians had nominated for the Office of Mayre of the Palace a Lord named Chrodin he refused to accept of it considering that all the Grandees of the Countrey being his Kindred would have thought they might have taken the liberty of committing all sorts of violence on the People with impunity and that he could not have the severity to punish them for it He therefore advised them to Year of our Lord 565 make another choice and they relying upon his probity he recommended Gogon to them who was of his Educating and taking him by the Arms he puts them round his Neck in token that he owned him for his Superiour The Avarois a People of Hun flying the Tyranny of the Turks who were of the same Nation had forsaken their Native Soil and were come to the Service of the Emperour Justinian After his death being slighted by Justin they sought their Fortunes elsewhere and having penetrated into the heart of Germany they ravaged Turingia which belonged to Sigebert This King not fearing these Barbarians who were reckoned so terrible attaqued them neer the Banks of the Elbe and having mated them in a great Battle he sent them back again with shame to the Danube from whence they were come Chilperic in the mean time falls upon his Territory and ruined all the Countrey of Rheims Sigebert being come back repels him most vigorously and took his Son Year of our Lord 567 Theodebert prisoner with the Citty of Soissons In this same year the quarrel ended in a peace followed with the liberty of the young Prince but not a perfect reconciliation In 570. began the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy their King Alboinus being Year of our Lord 570 Crowned at Milan this year after he had conquer'd all the Countrey from the Alpes to Tuscany excepting only the Exerchat of Ravenna which yet remained in the Empire The name of Lombards came either from their wearing of long Beards or that they were armed with long Bards which was a kind of Axe Their first Habitation was on the further Banks of the Elbe whence coming forth and having often changed their Dwellings Four hundred years together they in the end fixed themselves in Pannonia in the days of the Emperour Justinian From thence their King Alboinus a very War-like Prince and brought some Forces into Italy for the Romans Service in the time of the Funnque haarses Now they had takensuch delight in the Habitation so rich and fruitful a Land that that Great Captain being dead they all went thither with their Wives and Children in the year 568 under the Conduct of that King He likewise carried thither Thirty thousand Saxons who were willing to follow him and the remainder of the Gipedes whose Kingdom he had extinguish'd in Pannonia Year of our Lord 570 The Neighborhood soon set them together by the Ears with the French and begot a mortal Enmity between them As they were huge covetous and pussed up with their Victories they were not satisfied with the spoils of Italy but made frequent incursions into Rhetia and Provence In that very year some numbers of them in a body without a Head were sallen into the Countrey of Valais but instead of carrying away Plnnder they lost their Lives The year following they marched much stronger into the Kingdom of Burgundy Year of our Lord 571 and at the first in a bloody Battle defeated the Army which King Gontran had sent against them and slew their General This was Amat Patrician or Governour of the Province of Arles but when they would needs come again the Third time and had ransacked the Countreys about Ambrun the Patrician Mummole Successor to Amat insnared or surrounded them and having stopped all the ways by felling of huge Trees charged these Robbers so smartly that he destroyed almost the whole Army or made them prisoners Year of our Lord 562. and the following There was nothing more disorderly then the liberty which these Four Kings of France took in their Marriages Gontran after he had chosen a Servant for his Mistriss belonging to some Courtier from whom he had forced her espoused Marcatrude Daughter of Magnachaire whom he rejected in a short time afterwards to take one that waited on her she was called Austrigilda Bobilla Chilperic had repudiated Queen Andovere though he had three Sons by her for the love of Fredegonda one of the Women belonging to his Chamber Cherebert put away Ingoberge whom he had Married in the life time of Clotaire and Married with Meroflede Daughter to one that worked in Woollen and then afterwards with her Sister Marcovefe though she were under the Holy Veil and likewise with Theodegildus Daughter to a Shepherd King Sigebert on the contrary desiring a lawful Marriage and one well qualify'd espoused Brunechild or Brunehand Daughter of Atanagildus King of the Visigoths Sometime afterwards Chilperic follow'd his example and having for a short while quitted his Amours to Fredegonda demanded likewise Gelasuinta Sister to Brunebaud The Father consents to it but not without a great deal of repugnance and the obliging both himself and the chief Lords his Subjects to swear by many Oaths that he should never take any other whilst she was living Year of our Lord 570 Cherebert being gone into Xaintonge which was in his Lot dyed in the Castle of Blaye on the Garonne and was buried in the same place within the Church of St. Romain He was little less then Forty nine years and had Reigned Nine He had but three Daughters Berte by Queen Ingoberge and Berteflede and Crodielde by some Mistriss These two last were Veiled
informed of it sent one of his Dukes who quashed that Design The Provinces suffered most horribly by the cruel Discord of these Kings the Soldiers who marched every where plunder'd burnt and put all to the Sword There was no Discipline but so uncontroul'd a License that the Soldiers would fly in the faces of their own Officers if they did but question or forbid them as soon as on the meanest fellow With this cruel Desolation Heavens sent a cruel Epidemical Disease which raged over all France but most fiercely over Paris and that Vicinage it was called Lues Inquinaria because it appeared in those parts it burnt those that were tainted with it with great pain and made an Escar in a short time like a Cautery the most part died howling and shreiking most horribly and there was no cure found but in the Churches and especially that of our Ladies Chilperic had besieged Melun and commanded three of his Dukes to attaque Year of our Lord 583 Bourges the Berryvians came forth to meet them and gave them Battle which was very bloody to both Parties Gontran who went in his own Person to fight Chilperic having met with a Body of his Men who had left the rest to get Plunder cut them all off Chilperic much cooled with this Rebuke caused some Propositions to be made towards an Accommodation and Gontran who was of a mild and peaceable Temper receives them with joy Chilperic thought with himself that now he should get him to joyn to oppress Childebert in whose Kingdom he had great intelligence by the means of the Bishop of Rheims but maugre all the intrigues of those Factious Spirits Gontran and Childebert were reconciled the Uncle restored that part of Marseilles which began the breach to his Nephew again and they formed a League together to recover at their joynt Charges and Expence those Cities belonging to Chereberts Kingdom which Chilperic had gotten from it Upon the point when Childebert was preparing himself to assault Chilperic the Emperor Mauritius for the Sum of 50000 Crowns of Gold ready Money obliges him to carry his Forces into Italy against the Lombards who held the City of Rome besieged The young Prince but Fourteen years of Age went in Person Their King Autaris did not oppose Force with Force but putting his Men into several places let the Torrent run on and that it might for ever be turned another way he yielded up his Kingdom to the French and became their Tributary It is fit we understand that in the year 584. the Lombards perceiving that the Emperor Mauritius would needs endeavour by all means to root them out of Italy they thought the best way to preserve themselves was to restore their State to a Monarchy again and made Autaris the Son of Clephus King But nevertheless their thirty Dukes kept as their Propriety and as Hereditary the Titles to those Cities they then held but so that they should be obliged in certain Services to him particularly to obey and follow him in time of War This is perhaps the true Original of that Knights Service or Fee so much searched after by the Curious at least it is said they were setled or establish'd according to the Custom of the Lombards Year of our Lord 584 After many Wars Chilperic thinking to enjoy some rest was Assassinated in the Court of his Palace of Chelles in Brie which hapned towards the end of September One Evening in the twilight as he was alighting from his Horse being come from Hunting accompanied with but few a Murtherer gave him two Stabs with a Knife one under his Arm-pit the other into his Belly An Author attributes this unhappy blow to Brunehaud but others accuses his Wife Fredegonda who was obliged say they to prevent him because he had discover'd her Adultery with a Lord named Landry History describes this King to us Proud Inhumane Malicious Dissembling and a great Projector of Imposts but Crafty Patient Magnificent and instructed with good Learning In our days have been found it was Anno 1643. a couple of Tombs just by one another under ground at the entrance into the Church of St. Germain des Prez the name of Chilperic which was written upon one of the two hath made it to be conjectured that it was his and the other his Wife 's however it be that other Tomb in the same Church whereon we see his Statue is a Cenotaph which hath been placed there in these last Ages Of so many Sons as he had gotten on divers Women there remained but one who was but four months old and had as yet no name he caused him to be Nursed at the Burrough of Vitry near Tournay for fear they should destroy him by Poyson or Witchcraft as he believed they had done the others He had likewise a Daughter by Fredegonda she was named Rigunta who was then on her way into Spain to meet with Ricarede the King eldest Son to Leuvigildus to whom she was betrothed When she was gotten to Thoulousa the news came of her Fathers Death Didier Duke of that Country rifled all her Equipage so that she went no farther but returned to her Mother to whom she gave a great deal of trouble being much like her in Humour and ill Qualities Clotair II. King X. POPES PELAGIUS II. S. Five years during this Reign St. GREGORY I. Called the Great chosen Sept. 590. S. thirteen years six months SABINIANUS In Sept. 604. S. five months nineteen days BONIFACE III. Chosen in Sep. 606. S. nine months BONIFACE IV. Chosen 607. S. six years eight months DEUS-DEDIT Elected in 614. S. three years BONIFACE V. Chosen in 617. S. nine years HONORIUS I. Elected 13 May 626. S. twelve years five months of which six years in this Reign Vncle Cousin Germans GONTRAN in Burgundy and part of Neustria CHILDEBERT in Austrasia CLOTAIR II. Aged four or five months in Neustria Year of our Lord 584 THe Conscience of the Crime and the fear of Childebert who was at that time at Meaux terrified Fredegonda so much that leaving part of her Treasure at Chelles she flies to Paris and thrusts her self for Sanctuary in the Church of Nostre-Dame under the Protection of the Bishop Gontran having heard of the death of his Brother came presently with great Company Childebert was set forward likewise to have gotten in but finding the place was possessed he retires to Meaux and sends Ambassadors to him to demand part of the Kingdom of Paris and then again some others to pray him to deliver up Fredegonda to him to punish her for the Murther of her Husband and of Meroveus and Clovis To the first he Replied That all the Kingdom of Paris belonged to him because his Brothers Sigebert and Chilperic had forfeited their shares by violating the Treaty of Agreement made between them three and as for the other he would refer it to an Assembly of the Estates which was to be held on a day appointed He remained two months at
was natural to see a Prince of Twenty six years to be amorous but it was a prodigy against nature that at that age he should have such a covetous heart as nothing could satisfie Nevertheless being in himself at the bottom very good the Remonstrances of St. Amand Bishop of Tongres somewhat allay'd the heat of his Covetousness He took Nantilda his first Wife again and lived with her the rest of his days Year of our Lord 631 Mean time he had a Son by Ragnetrude the same year that he Married her He sent to pray his Brother Aribert to come and hold it at the Font. Both of them met at Orleance for that Ceremony and the Child was Baptized by the Bishop St. Amand and named Sigebert Year of our Lord 631 Aribert was no sooner returned to Thoulouse but he died and his Son Chilperic who was yet in his Cradle survived him but a few days It was suspected that Dagobert had contributed to the death of that Innocent to regain Aquitain by seizure as he presently did DAGOBERT I. Sole King It is certain this King had a singular Devotion for St. Denis and his fellow-Martyrs and that he Erected a Church in honour of him to which he joyned a rich Abby But the subject or cause which we related elsewhere passes amongst the Criticks but for a Fable I cannot tell whether it be a truth that he unfurnished several other Churches of their most precious Ornaments to enrich this same Year of our Lord 631 It hapned this year that some French Merchants who Traded with the Sclavonians were Robbed King Samon having refused to repair this Wrong Dagobert would needs right himself by the Sword The King of the Lombards and the Duke of the Almains the first of which was Allied and the other Subject to France attaqued them joyntly on the one hand whilst the Austrasian French assaulted them on the other The first got the advantage and slew a great many of them but the Austrasians who were discontented with Dagobert because he had preferred his Residence in Neustria before that of Austrasia behaved themselves very cowardly For having besieged the Castle of Vagastburgh wherein the bravest of the Enemies had put themselves they raised it the third day and retreated in great disorder After this the Sclavonians were emboldned to make Incursions in Turingia and other Countries belonging to the French And Debvan or Dervan Duke of the Sorabes they were a People of Sclavonia who inhabited Mâ—snia drew himself off from the Obedience of the French to put himself under Samon There had been of a long standing a Colony of Bulgarians who had taken up their Quarters in Panonia where they were Allied or become Tributaries to the Avares who possessed the greatest part of that Province with that of Dacia It is disputed whether the ancient Bulgaria was in Sarmatia Asiatica along the River Year of our Lord 631 Volga otherwise called Rha or else in the European on the borders of the Euxine Now the Bulgarians being entred into a War with the Avares were vanquished and so trodden under foot that there were left but nine thousand who were forced to forsake the Country with their Wives and Children These Wretches having besought Dagobert to give them an abiding in some Corner of his Dominions he sent orders to the Bavarois to receive them and to quarter them separately in Villages and Burroughs till the Estates of the Kingdom had ordained how to dispose of them The Estates found the best Expedient would be to cut the Throats of them all in one Night and that was put in execution but too punctually One of their Chiefs having got some wind of it made his escape with seven hundred of them into Sclavonia that Country is yet called the March of Wenden between the Rivers Save and Drave Year of our Lord 631 The Visigoths in Spain made and un made their Kings as they pleased This year 631. the Government of Suintila who had Reigned ten years being uneasie and displeasing to them they cast their Eyes upon Sisenand who implored the Assistance of Dagobert promising him in Recompence the great Golden vasa or Vessel weighing 500 pounds and enriched with Jewels which Aetius had bestowed upon Torismond for helping him against Attila Sisenand being instated in his Throne by the assistance of the French could not refuse this Vessel to the Ambassadors but the Visigoths Way-laid them and took it away again from them by force Dagobert was offended and threatned the business was canvassed and in the conclusion he was contented with two hundred thousand pieces of Silver As he was raising great Forces to stop the Incursions which King Samon with his Sclavonians made into Turingia the Saxons came and profer'd to repel them at their own Peril and Charge if they would forgive them the Tribute of Five hundred Beeves which they owed to France The profer was accepted and they were relied upon to make good their Promise but either they wanted strength or perhaps faith to perform it and secure Turingia as was expected Thus it continued still exposed to the insolency of those Barbarians The Neustrians were too remote to defend them the Austrasians should have done it and they had strength more then enough to have accomplished it but being ill affected they did not much trouble themselves about it It was necessary therefore to regain their hearts and affections to give them a King that should reside amongst them DAGOBERT in Neustria and Burgundy SIGEBERT his Son in Austrasia Year of our Lord 633 Wherefore Dagobert having Assembled the Prelates and the Lords of this Kingdom at Mets he by their Advice and with their Consent makes his Son Sigebert King of Austrasia furnished him with a Royal Treasure that is to say rich Moveables Precious Vasa's or Vessels and Silver Coyn and left the Conduct of his Education of his Court and his State to Cunibert Bishop of Colen and to the Duke Adalgise Then the Austrasians counting themselves restored to their Liberty because they had a King stood up for their Honour and valiantly repulsed the Sclavonians Year of our Lord 634 The following year he had a Son born by Queen Nantilda who was named Clovis Nantilda considering that if her Husband should come to die without setling the Succession this Son would have no share solicited him so earnestly that he sent for the Lords of Austrasia and made them understand that he meant and intended that Neustria and Burgundy should belong to the Infant that was newly born but that all the Cities of Aquitain of Provence and of Neustria which had been joyned to the Kingdom of Austrasia should so remain united excepting the Dutchy of Dentelen which Theodebert the Young had taken from King Clotaire Year of our Lord 635 The Gascons who had possessed one part of the Novem-populania or third Aquitain had again began their Robberies after the death of Caribert There were sent twelve Dukes with the
Militia of Burgundy and several Counts without Dukes to bring them to their Duty They fallied forth out of their Rocks and their Fastnesses and set upon the French with wonderful alacrity but after all they found it better to make use of their agility to save themselves then to Fight They were pursued without stop or stay and Fire and Sword flew after them even into their strongest Retreats till there being no other security left them but the Mercy of their Prince they promised to sall down at his Feet and submit to all his Commands I know not where some Authors have found how Aquitania Secunda was concerned in their Revolt and that Dagobert having gone thither in Person razed the City of Poitiers and sowed it with Salt in token of its Desolation If this were true it must have been because of the too heavy Imposts upon Salt that the Poitovins Rebelled Year of our Lord 635 The lucre of Plunder had likewise incited the Bretons to run upon the French Territories Eloy who was since Bishop of Noyon went and demanded Reparation of their King Judicael or Giquel Son and Successor of Jukel He found it no difficult thing to persuade that Prince that he were better come and wait on the King then have his Country over-run and plundred by the Forces that were returning Victorious out of Gascongne he brought him to the Palace of Clichy where he humbly craved pardon of Dagobert promised him for the future to prevent the like Disorders and submitted both himself and Kingdom to his disposal Year of our Lord 636 The Gascon Lords with their Duke Aighina came to the same place as they had promised the foregoing year to surrender themselves up to the mercy of Dagobert and because they dreaded his wrath they had recourse to the intercession of St. Denis and put themselves into Sanctuary in his Church The King in honour to that Saint gave them their Lives and Fortunes and they in acknowledgment laying their hands up on his Altar swore an eternal Fidelity to him to his Sons and to all his Successors Kings of France Year of our Lord 636 The whole Kingdom was in peace both within and without at this time Dagobert did not enjoy this Repose very long for the Second year he was taken with a Dysentery at Espinay which was one of his Royal Houses upon the Seine a little below St. Denis His Sickness increasing he made them carry him to that Abby where he dyed the 17th of January in the year 638. being very neer 38 years of age He Reigned in all but 16 years as I think that is Six in his Fathers life time and Ten after his death At his dying he earnestly recommended his Wife Nantilda and his Son Clovis to Ega Mayre of the Palace of Neustria and to such Grandees as were then present The great Donations he made to the most famous Churches of France deserve the unparallell'd Encomiums of the Clergy who have allowed him all the qualities of as Virtuous as Wise as Valiant and as much accomplish'd a Prince either for Peace or War as any that ever Reigned over the French The Chronology begins to be very confused and uncertain in this Reign for some will have it that he dyed An. 639. others that it was in 643. Some reckon the Sixteen years of his Reign from the death of his Father others from the year that he made him King of Austrasia I am of the opinion of the latter Gold and Silver had been very scarce and rare in France in the Reign of Clovis and his Children but since then the Expeditions they made into Italy the Pensions they drew from the Emperours of the East and as it is credible the Commerce they setled with the Nations in the Levant brought great quantities of those precious Mettles as likewise precious Stones and rich Vasa's and Ornaments insomuch that the Bravery and Luxury of the Court of France was not inferiour to the Emperours Clovis II. King XII POPES SEVERIAN Elect in 639. S. some Months JOHN IV. Elect in Decemb. 639. S. One year nine Months THEODORE Elect in Novemb 641. S. Seven years and half MARTIN I. Elect in July 649 S. Six years three Months EUGENIUS I. Elected in August 654 S. One year PEPIN and then GRIMOALD Maire SIGEBERT in Austrasia aged 8 or 9 years CLOVIS II. in Neustria aged 4 years EGA then ERCHINOALD Maire Year of our Lord 638 WE shall now henceforward behold the Royal Power in the hands of the Mayres of the Palace and all the affairs of State governed according to their capricious Fancies and their Interests Pepin delivered by the death of Dagobert who had always kept him near himself upon some Honourable pretence got again into the administration of his Office of Mayre of Austrasia Dagobert having committed the Government of that Kingdom to Duke Aldagise that Lord gave it up to him either willingly or by compulsion and he gave notice thereof to Cunibert the Bishop his old friend who was Governour to Sigebert It was perhaps for his sake that he transferr'd the Court and Royal Seat of Austrasia from the City of Mets to that of Colen Year of our Lord 638 At the instance of the Governours of Austrasia who required that the Fathers Treasures should be divided betwixt the two young Kings the Grandees both of the one and the other Kingdoms assembled at Compiegne to make the estimate and to share it Year of our Lord 639 A year after Pepins return into Austrasia he fell sick and dyed having held the Office of Mayre Seventeen years a Man as great for Honesty as Policy being one according to the Heart of God and Man By his Wife Itta whom some do name Juberge he had three Children a Son named Grimoald and two Daughters Begghe and Gertrude The First Married Ansegise the Son of St. Arnold and Father of young Pepin and being a Widow Devoted her self to God in the Monastery of Nivelle with her Mother who built it and her Sister Gertrude Grimoald with the assistance of Cunibert got himself into possession of the Office of Mayre of the Palace but Otho who was Bail or Fosterer of the young Prince and for that reason very powerful in the Kings House disputed it with him for three years In fine Grimoald to enjoy it quietly caused him to be slain by Leutaire Duke of the Almains This is the First time that Office descended from Father to Son hereafter we shall sind it Hereditary Year of our Lord 640 During this Discord and the minority of Sigebert Radulfe or Raoul Duke of Turingia sets up for Sovereign having allied himself with the Sclavonians and made a League with Fare who would needs revenge the death of Chrodoald his Father whom King Dagobert had caused to dye for his Crimes The Austrasian Lords led the Forces of their Kingdom and the King himself thither to chastise their Rebellion At first Fare having dared to come and meet
greatest indignity even to the reducing him to much indigence of all things fit for him I find in the Life of this most Wife King an act of Clemency more then Royal. There having been discovery made of a grand Conspiracy against his Life and State and the Authors taken when the Lords were assembled together to Sentence them to Death he caused those Wretches to be splendidly entertained and the next day admitted to the Sacred Communion then would needs have them be set free saying They could not put those to Death whom Jesus Christ had newly received at his Table This year William IV. Duke of Aquitain and Earl of Poitiers died and his eldest Son William V. surnamed the Gross took the Goverment of his Country The Widow Dutchess second Wife of William IV. having Children to gain assistance against those of the first Bed Married Geofrey Martel a most valiant Prince the Son of Fulk Earl of Anjou Year of our Lord 1025 The year after Richard the Good Duke of Normandy ended his days and for Successor Year of our Lord 1026 had Richard III. his eldest Son Year of our Lord 1027 Othe-William Earl of Burgundy left this World likewise and his Son Renauld possessed his Estates An enraged Passion to govern Armed Baldwin then surnamed the Frison and afterwards the Debonnaire against Bearded Baldwin his own Father Earl of Flanders so that he drove him out of his Country This unnatural Son valuing himself highly on the Alliance of King Robert whose Daughter he had Married but who nevertheless did not countenance his impiety Richard III. Duke of Normandy others affirm it was Robert received the old banished Man and restored him to his Earldom but he could not totally supress the Partialities in those Countries where some still sided with the Son as others stood up for the Father Year of our Lord 1028 The 17th of September the young King Hugh died in the Flower of his Age bemoaned of all Europe for his rare and lovely Qualities which had acquired him so great Reputation that he could hardly have made it good if he had longer survived King Robert had three more Sons remaining Henry Robert and Eudes Some Year of our Lord 1028 29. say that Eudes was the eldest of them all However it were the King after the Death of Hugh would have Henry Crowned but Queen Constance by a depraved appetite had undertaken to put Robert in the Throne The Fathers Authority and Reason carried it for Henry amongst the French Lords and yet this Womans Obstinacy could not acquiesce but caused many Tumults her Husband not being able to prevent her even in his Life time from contriving a great Conspiracy to dethrone the eldest and place the younger in his stead ROBERT and HENRY his Son Aged some Eighteen years Year of our Lord 1029 RIchard III. Duke of Normandy having Reigned but two years died of Poyson by by his Brother named Robert who after his death enjoyed the Dukedom obtained Year of our Lord 1028 by Fratricide Year of our Lord 1029 30. In the year 1029. and 30. there began a great War between Eudes Earl of Champagne Chartres and Tours and Fulk Earl of Anjou because Fulk fortified the Castle of Montrichard which Eudes said did belong to the Country of Touraine After some Rencounters they came to a pitched Battle each being at the head of his Army the loss was great on either side but the Angevin obtained the Victory Year of our Lord 1030 31 and the following Though King Robert commonly permitted the liberty of Elections yet the Bishop of Langres being dead he by his absolute Authority substituted another as having need of one wholly at his Devotion in that place to help him in the bridling and containing of Burgundy The Canons having Poysoned this he put in a second there which excited so great trouble amongst the Clergy of that Diocess that he was forced to send his Son to install the last promoted and to secure him from their Attempts Year of our Lord 1033 Whilst Henry was in that Country hapned a great Eclipse of the Sun and Robert his Father was seized with a Distemper whereof he died the 20th of July in the year 1033. having lived Sixty one years of which he Reigned Forty five and an half that was Nine and an half with his Father and Thirty six since his death He had four Children living three Sons Henry who had the Crown Eudes who contended with him for it and Robert who was Duke of Burgundy and one Daughter named Adeleida who Married Baldwin Earl of Flanders It was no fault of his Government that France was not compleatly happy he gave his Subjects what depended upon him Justice and Peace but had the unhappiness to see a Famine three times and after that a Plague make great destruction in his Dominions the first in Anno 1007. the second Anno 1010. and the third from the year 1030 to 1033. The first was general over all Europe and the last so severe in France that many People were seen to dig up dead Carkasses for Food to go a hunting after little Children and lie in wait at the corners of Woods like Beasts of Prey to devour Passengers Nay there was a Man so possessed with the covetous desire of gain more cruel then the Famine it self that he exposed Human Flesh to sale in the City of Tournus but that detestable Prodigy was by them expiated in the Flames Henry I. King XXXVII POPES BENEDICT IX A young Boy intruded in December 1033. S. near Ten years Three Anti-Popes the same BENEDICT SYLVESTER and GREGORY VI. Elected after the Abdication of BENEDICT Anno 1044. S. Two years CLEMENT VII Named by the Emperor Anno 1046. S. Nine Months DAMASUS II. Elected in 1048. S. Twenty three days LEO IX After Five Months vacancy Elected in Feb. 1049. S. Five years two Months VICTOR II. Named by the Emperor Anno 1054. S. Three years STEPHANUS X. Elected in August 1057. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS II. Elected in 1058. S. Two years six Months Year of our Lord 1033 THe first and most capital Enemy against this King was his own Mother who continuing to the prejudice of his Fathers Declaration and the right of Nature to endeavour to set the Crown upon the Head of Robert her beloved Son raised a good Party of the Grandees against him particularly Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Eudes Earl of Champagne bestowing the City of Sens upon this last to engage him to her Party But Henry whose Resolution was above his Age went himself being the Twelfth to Robert Duke of Normandy to implore his Assistance The Duke by Motives of Fidelity or hatred against the Champenois aided him with all his Forces With which having in a short time defeated the Queen's in several Rencounters and taken the Rebels Holds he unlinked the whole Party and reduced her in despite of all her Projects to live quietly with him The War ended
to which he replied that Soldiers could not be kept without Money They soon understood what he desired and the mischief pressing hard upon them they were constrain'd to give and immediately the Lords desisted from plundering Year of our Lord 1191. and the following In the interim John King of England summon'd for three several times to answer the accusation in King Philips Court endeavour'd to gain time and made all delays But Philip finding himself strong in Men and provided with Money having no counter-poise in his Kingdom because he held in his own hands the Garde-noble of the potent House of Champagne and the Earl of Flanders was gone into the Levant had resolved to push on against him He therefore gave some Forces to Prince Arthur to pursue his Right having before betrothed his Daughter Mary to him At the same time he entred upon Normandy where he forced five or six places and received the most considerable Lords of the Countrey into favour amongst the rest Hugh de Gournay and the Earl of Alenson who assured him of their Service and their Towns Arthur on his side attaques Poitou the Earls de la Marche and d'Eu Gefroy de Luzignan and their friends being joyned with him His Grand-Mother Alienor had Year of our Lord 1201 put her self into Mirebeau he besieges her there King John hastens thither with so much diligence that he surprizes him one fair Morning napping in his Bed takes him prisoner and sends him to the Castle of Falaize Normandy and Poitou being shaken in this manner comes a Legat from the Pope who ordains the two Kings to assemble the Bishops and Lords of their Countreys Year of our Lord 1202 and by their Consultations put an end to these Disputes John would readily have consented to this Order but Philip who was not willing to give over so fair a Game obliged his who were assembled at Mantes to throw in an Appeal from the Sentence of the Legat to the Pope himself which was to gain time and continue his progress Year of our Lord 1202 The respect for Queen Alienor had still with-held King John from staining his hands in the Blood of the unfortunate Arthur Soon after her death he caused him to be brought to the Castle of Rouen he kept his Court in that City and in a very obscure night he drew him forth thence and led him to such a place that afterwards he was never seen It being justly presum'd that he had murther'd him Constance the Mother of that young Prince demanded Justice of King Philip for that parricide committed in his Territory and upon the person of one of his Vassals He caused John therefore to be summoned before his Peers or Pairs where not appearing nor sending any to excuse him he was by judgment of that Court Condemned as attainted and convicted of Parricide and Felony to lose all the Lands he had in France which should be consiscated and forfeit to the Crown and all such as should defend them reputed Guilty de Laesae-Majestatis Year of our Lord 1203 In prosecution or rather execution of this Decree Philip partly by force partly by intelligence took from him this year almost all the higher or upper Normandy whilst this unworthy lazy Man pass'd away the time with his Wife at Caen as if all had been in a profound Peace We may imagine that if he would have taken some care of his Affairs Philip could not so easily have conquer'd so many places since the single Castle de Gaillard neer Andeley situate on a Rock both very high and steep on all sides endured a Five months Siege but both Heaven and Earth had declar'd against him his friends betray'd him his Subjects became unfaithful and he meanly abandonn'd himself Year of our Lord 1204 The following year Philip made himself Master of all the Cities of the Lower Normandy almost without a blow Rouen it self which was the Capital of the whole Province environ'd with a double Wall and very affectionate to her natural Dukes After a Siege of forty days being informed by the Deputies sent to King John that no Relief or assistance could be had from him surrendred to the Conquerour upon condition he should maintain the Citizens in their Franchises and Priviledges which he agreed to and they obtained Letters or a Charter to secure it a procaution as feeble against an absolute Power as Paper is against Steel Year of our Lord 1204 Two or three other places which yet defended themselves followd the example of Rouen and so it was that in less then three years he gained all Normandy which had had Twelve Dukes of that Nation whereof John was the last who had Govern'd them about Three hundred and sixteen years At the same time William des Roches who had quitted John's party to joyn with Philip secured the Counties of Anjou du Maine and de Touraine and Henry Clement Mareschal of France conquer'd all Poitou for him excepting only Niort Touars and Rochel Year of our Lord 1205 The next year the King himself having gotten a great Train of Artillery forced the Castle des Loches and some places that remained in the hands of the English in Touraine Year of our Lord 1203 The French and the Venetians sailing to Constantinople with only 28000 Men forced the Harbour and afterwards the City though there were above Threescore thousand Fighting Men there deliver'd Isaac out of prison and caused the young Alexis his Son to be Crowned The Tyrant Alexis and his Brother-in-law Theodorus Luscaris having made their escape over the Walls retir'd to Adrianople Year of our Lord 1204 Whilst this Army of the Cross wintered about Constantinople and Isaac and his Son endeavour'd to make good what they had promis'd them for their reward the people upon whom they Levied very great sums of Money mutined One certain Alexis Ducas surnamed Murzufle Great Master of the Wardrobe to young Alexis headed the sedition seized on that Prince whilst Isaac was in his last Agonie and strangled him with his own hands Then caused himself to be Declared Emperour and went forth with the City Militia against the aforesaid Army but they were presently beaten back Constantinople besieg'd and within Sixty days taken by Storm swimming in Blood and a great part consumed by Fire The Conquerours gave power to Twelve of the chief amongst themselves to elect an Emperour upon condition That if he were a French man the Patriarch should be a Venetian and so on the contrary The intrigues of the Venetians for whose interest Boniface Marquis of Montferrat was not so convenient though he seemed most worthy of the Empire manag'd it so that the Electors conferr'd it upon Baldwin Earl of Flanders and the Patriarchat upon Thomas Morosini a Venetian After they had setled things in order within the City they easily conquer'd all what the Grecian Empire possess'd in Europe and formed several Principalities there of which the Marquis de Montferrat who married Isaac's
decamp till he brought the Besieged to Reason in so much that on the Assumption-day they were reduced to a Capitulation They gave up two hundred Hostages their Walls were pull'd down their Moats and Grafts fill'd up and three hundred Houses with Turrets demolish'd These were Inns belonging to Gentlemen who had the like at Toulouze and other great Cities in those Provinces Going thence the King went into Provence and all the Towns surrender'd to him within four Leagues of Toulouze The Season growing bad and he somewhat tender of Constitution he takes his way back towards France leaving the Conduct of his Forces and the Government of those Countries in the hands of Imbert de Beau-jeu Year of our Lord 1226 Upon his return one of the Grandees of the Kingdom whom History has not dar'd to name caused some Poyson to be given him whereof he died at the Castle of Montpencier in Auvergne upon a Sunday being the Octave of All-Saints He had Year of our Lord 1226 lived Thirty nine years and had Reigned three and about four Months He is buried at St. Denis by his Father The Clergy because of his Piety and his Chastity reported that his Sickness proceeded from his too great Continence for his Wife did not go with him and that he chose rather to dye then make use of an unlawful Remedy they presented him for Cure As he foresaw things in a posture that threatned great troubles after his death he took the Oaths and Seals of Twelve Lords that were about him that they should cause his eldest Son to be Crowned and if he failed they should put the Second in his stead By his Wife Blanche de Castille he had nine Sons and two Daughters there were but five Sons alive Lewis Robert Alphonso Charles and John According to his Will and Testament Lewis Reigned Robert had the County of Artois and propagated the branch of that name Alphonso had that of Poitou and Charles that of Anjou From him sprung the first Branch of Anjou John dyed at the age of 14 years Of the two Daughters only Isabella was left who having been promised to divers Princes and grown to be an old Maid took on the Holy vail and shut her self up the year 1260. in the Monastery of Longchamp between Paris and St. Cloud which the King her Brother founded for her Saint Lewis King XLIII Aged Eleven years six Months POPES HONORIUS III. Five Months GREG. IX Elect in April 1227. S. Fourteen years Five Months CELESTINE IV. Elect in Sept. 1241. S. Eighteen days Vacancy of Twenty Months INNOCENT IV. Elect in June 1243. S. Eleven years Five Months and a half ALEXANDER IV. Elect in Decemb. 1254. S. Six years Five Months URBAN IV. Son of a Cobler of Troyes Elected about the end of August 1261. S. Three years Thirty four days CLEMENT IV. Elected in Feb. 1265. S. Three years and about Ten Months Vacancy of Thirty five Months from Dec. in the year 1268. the Cardinals not agreeing amongst themselves in the Conclave about the Election THis is the Third Minority in the Capetine Race and the First wherein a Year of our Lord 1226. in Novembre Woman had the Regency Blanche de Castille a stranger but courageous and able undertook it and carried it being assisted by the Counsels of Romain the Cardinal Legat who had great power with her and grounded upon the Certificates of some Lords who attested that her Husband being on his Death-bed had ordered that he would have his eldest Son with the Kingdom and all his other Brothers be left to her Guardianship and Government Immediately before the Lords had time to contrive any obstacles to her Regency Year of our Lord 1226 she drew all the Forces she possibly could together and with them went and caused her eldest Son Lewis to be Crowned in the City of Rheims The Episcopal See being vacant the Bishop of Soissons who is the Suffragant performed the Ceremony It was on the First day of December The Lords of the Kingdom had been invited thither by Letters but the greatest part refused to come amongst others Peter Duke of Bretagne Henry Earl of Bar his Brother-in-law Hugh de Luzignan Earl de la Marche Thibauld Earl of Champagne Hugh de Chastillon Count de St. Pol and divers others They were framing a League amongst them demanding that the Regent who was a Stranger should give security for her good Administration that whatever had been taken from the Lords during the two last Reigns should be restored to them and such as were prisoners should be released especially Ferrand Earl of Flanders Year of our Lord 1226 After her departure from Rheims notwithstanding the severity of the Winter she marched towards Bretagne where lay the strength of the League The Confederates being not yet ready avoided what mischief they could by a Retreat but she followed so close at their heels that the Earl of Champagne fell off from the party then the others entred into a Treaty and promised to appear in full Parliament which was to be held at Chinon and which at their request was removed to Tours then to Vendosme Year of our Lord 1227 In that Parliament which was held in the Month of March a Peace was patched up between the Regent and the Lords but the same year they being assembled at Corbeil plotted to surprize the King as he was coming from Chastres to Paris their design had infallibly succeeded if the Queen Regent had not been informed and cast her self with the King into Montlehery The Citizens of Paris having taken up Arms went thither to guard him and brought him back with joyful acclamations to their City The Earl of Champagne was the man that had given this private intelligence to the Queen This young Prince had a pretence of Love or Gallantry for her rather out of some Court-like vanity then for the power of her charms she being a Woman of above Forty years of age she knew how to make her own advantage of his folly and wished him to continue amongst those discontented People that he might betray all their intrigues to her Year of our Lord 1227 The King of England would needs concern himself in this quarrel and promised them his assistance and the Earl of Toulouze taking his opportunity during these Brouilleries and Stirs had got possession again of all his Places The Queen Regent fearing this Flame might be blown too high renew'd a Treaty with the Princes of this League whom by that means she kept from farther proceeding all this year and in the mean while she confirm'd the Alliance with the Emperour Frederick made a Truce with the English for a Twelve-month and came to an agreement with the Duke of Bretagne who gave his Daughter to be Married to a Son of hers named John Thus the Earl of Toulouze was left alone Imert de Beau-jeu having received a notable re-inforcement bethought himself instead of taking the Castles one by one it would do
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
tax which he had ordered for their maintenance Being returned to Tours he fell into the like Fitts of fainting as before His Servants having vowed him to Saint Claude he went thither on Pilgrimage and left the General Lieutenancy of the Kingdom to Peter de Bourbon Lord of Beaujeu his Brother Never was such a Pilgrim seen the Countries he passed felt his Devotions he marched accompanied with six thousand Soldiers and did always some terrible thing or other in his way In this he seized Philibert Duke of Savoy and brought him into France that young Prince dying the next year in the City of Lyons and his brother Charles succeeding him he declared himself his Guardian For since the decease of Duke Ame IX their Father he had alwayes had a great hand in the affairs of Savoy upon pretence that these young Princes were his Sisters Children Year of our Lord 148 Happily for Italy Mahomet being on the point to begin again the Siege of Rhodes and to send a new Army to Otranto dyed at Nicomedia the third of May. Now whilst his two Sons Bajazeth and Zizim were contending for the Empire between themselves the Pope and King Ferdinand took the courage to besiege Otranto and the Turks whilst the division betwixt their Princes lasted expecting no succours surrendred upon composition A short while after Zizim having been defeated twice fled to Rhodes where expecting to find an Asylum he fell into captivity For the Knights for a Pension of 50000 Crowns which Bajazeth promised to pay them yearly detained him Prisoner and with the Kings permission sent him to the Castle of Bourgneuf in Auvergne where he remained some years treated honourably enough Year of our Lord 1489 Year of our Lord 1481 Every thing gave apprehensions to King Lewis he still kept his wife at distance from him and these last years he continued her in Savoy he bred his Son like a Captive at Amboise amongst Servants lest he should grow too high-spirited and alwayes took along with him the first Prince of the blood Lewis Duke of Orleance not suffering any to cultivate his mind by any Education He married him this year to one of his daughters named Jane a most wise Princess but ugly and Lame and one whom the Physitians assured uncapable of bearing any Children Perhaps themselves had taken a course for that purpose Year of our Lord 1481 A little while after his return from Saint Claude he fell again for the third time into his fits of Swooning He caused himself to be carry'd to Clery where he had built a Church to his good Our Lady And there he received some relief but which lasted not long Year of our Lord 1481 The 10th of December Charles d'Anjou Count du Mayne being sick at Marseilles whereof he dyed the next day by his Testament instituted King Lewis his universal Heir in all his lands to enjoy the same he and all the Kings of France his Successors recommending most earnestly to him to mantain Provence in it's liberty 's Perogatives Customs Rene Duke of Lorraine Son of Yoland d'Anjou reclaimed against this institution maintaining that it could not be made to his prejudice the King on the contrary justified it to be good because Provence is a Country ruled by written Law according to which any person may dispose of his own in favour of whom he pleaseth besides the Counts of Provence had always called the Males to their Succession to the prejudice of the daughters Palamedes de Fourbin Sieur de Souliers who managed the Mind of Charles made him find these reasons to be good and for this he in recompence had the Government or to say better the Soveraignty of Provence during his whole life Year of our Lord 1482 When the Affairs of Mary of Burgundy began to be setled that Princess going ahunting fell from her horse and died of it at Gaunt the 25th of May with the fruit wherewith her womb was pregnant In four years she had borne three children Philip Margret and another that had but a short life The death of Mary brought trouble and disorders afresh amongst the Flemmings Her Husband had so little Authority because of his Covetous Poverty amongst those people who were wont to have Princes extreamly Liberal and Magnificent that he was forced to suffer that the Children he had by her should remain under the guard of the Gauntois After a great famine which had afflicted France during the year 1481. there followed an Epidemical Sickness altogether extraordinary which seized upon the Great as well as the Little ones It was a continual and violent Feaver which set the Head on fire whereby the most part fell into Phrensies and died as it were Mad. Year of our Lord 1482 William de la Mark called the wild Boar of Ardenne incited and assisted by the King Massacred most inhumanely Lewis de Bourbon Bishop of Liege either in an Ambuscade or after he had defeated him in Battle and soon after himself being taken by the Lord de Horne brother to the Bishop successor to Lewis had his head cut off at Mastrict Desquerdes had even the last year made himself Master of the Town of Air at the price of 50000 Crowns bestowed on the Governour From this advantagious Post which bridled the Flemmings he made them incline as well by cunning too as force to treat of the Marriage of Margret Daughter of their deceased Princess with the Dauphin Charles though she were hardly two years old and Charles almost twelve The Gauntois Ambassadors having seen the King at Clery made report to their Council of the Kings intentions He demanded for her dowry only the County of Artois and they would needs add to it those of Burgundy of Masconnois Auxerois and Charolois thereby to weaken their Prince so much that he might never be able to bring them under his Yoke Year of our Lord 1482 The King was in so ill a condition that hardly could he suffer them to see him to present so advantagious a Treaty The Daughter was to be put into his Hands about the end of this Year but there remaining yet some difficulties to be determined they brought her not into France till the April following and the Wedding was celebrated at Amboise at the end of July Year of our Lord 1483 Then Edward King of England who upon the faith of the Treaty of Pequigny had ever flattered himself that the Dauphin should Marry his Daughter and held himself so well assured that he made her be called the Dauphiness seeing himself bafled by the French and scoffed by his own Subjects as one fouly imposed upon was so moved with shame and grief that he died the 4th of April delivering France from the apprehension of many mischiefs he might have done them during the Minority of Charles VIII He had two Sons Edward and Richard and five daughters Marry'd to Noblemen of that Country He had also had two Brothers George Duke of Clarence
provide for the security of the Frontier Towns The fright and terror was greater yet then the loss We know not what it might have produced if the Duke of Savoy had marched directly to Paris or if a design he had upon Lyons had been well managed but as to the first Philip would not suffer him to march in any further fearing lest under those advantageous circumstances a certain negotiation that he had set on foot the preceding Winter should end in an Accommodation with the King which would have restored him to his Country and by consequence have unhinged him from the Spanish Party And as for the enterprise upon Lyons the Baron de Polvilliers who was to have favour'd it with Fifteen Thousand Germans did but only enter into Bresse and marched out again immediately The Duke of Savoy was therefore much against his will forced to stick to the Siege of Saint Quintin King Philip came thither in Person fifteen days after which was upon the seven and twentieth of August and brought Ten Thousand English and as many Flemmings France had been lost if they had pursued their point and indeed Charles V. having received the news of this important Victory asked the Courier if his Son were in Paris The Admiral having staid too long by three or four days to Capitulate saw the Town stormed at five several breaches and was taken Prisoner with Dandelot his Brother who got away the following Night Philip's Army passed the remainder of the Campagne in taking the Catelet Han and Noyon and about the end of Autumn was wasted away about the one half the English being withdrawn their haughtiness not agreeing with that of the Spaniards and the Germans for want of pay A good part of these came over to the Kings Service During the Universal trouble which flowed from the loss of Saint Quintin the Religionaries had the Confidence to Assemble in the Night time at Paris in a House at the upper end of the Street Saint Jacques One named John Masson was the first that was Instituted Minister in this City in the year 1555. The People who observed them coming out thence fell upon them and took above a Hundred amongst whom were Persons of Quality nay even some Maidens belonging to the Queen They were charged with strange Crimes it was said they Year of our Lord 1557 rosted young Children and after they had made very good chear the Lights were all put out and so Men and Women mingled together A good number of them were burnt but the rest disputed their Lives so well by recusation of Judges and other delay 's and put-offs that they had time to get Letters from the Prince Palatine and the Swiss Protestants who interceeded for them The King standing in need of their Swords was obliged to relent somewhat of his severity Amidst the fear and dispiritedness all France lay under particularly Paris it is believed that if but only a Thousand Horse had appeared on this side the Oyse that great City would have remained a desart They laboured hard therefore to fortifie it the King gave Orders to raise Twelve Thousand Swiss and Eight Thousand Germans sent to all French Men Nobles or not who had formerly served in the War to come to Laon to the Duke of Nevers to Brissac and the Governor of Mets to send him part of their old Companies and to the Duke of Guise that quitting all other designes he should return with his Army He was likewise advised to have recourse to Solyman La Vigne his Ambassador made instant Suit to that Prince to lend him two Millions of Gold and send his Naval Force to him but with Order they should Winter in his Ports of France because they lost the best of their time in going and coming As to the Money Solyman excused himself by Pleading that they were forbidden by their Law to lend any to Christians for which reason he had already refused it to King Francis but for his Fleet he promised he would send a very powerful one very well Equip'd to act joyntly with the Kings or else separately as they would appoint or desire Whilst these things were negociating in the East the great Cities of France opened their Purses freely enough to the King Paris furnisht him with Three Hundred Thousand Livers and the rest in proportion Fifty Lords of note proffer'd him to keep and defend Fifty Places at their own expence It was then he really found that the French are the best People in the World and that it was both hard-heartedness and ill Polity to vex them by extraordinary Imposts since they would bleed so freely for the necessities of the State When the Duke of Guise had received the Kings orders to return he Councell'd the Pope to make his Accommodation The Holy Father made it honourably as he could wish in such a juncture For it was agreed they should surrender up all his Places to him that he should absolve the Duke of Alva and the Colonnas and that that Duke should ask his Pardon in the name of King Philip The King had foreseen that the Duke of Ferrara would also make his Accommodation wherefore that he might not do it without his participation and to his prejudice he sent him word he approved of it The Caraffas base and perfidious Friends did already Treat with the Spaniards to Invade the Ferrarois and to share it between them The Duke d'Alva made his entrance into Rome upon the very same Horse with the same honours and as great demonstrations of joy expressed by the Nephews as the Duke of Guise had done This Duke having sojourned ten or twelve days in a Castle of Strozzi's near Rome whilst the Pope was making his Treaty took Shipping at Civita-Vecchia with Two Thousand Select men and some of his best Officers and left the Conduct of the rest of the Army to the Duke d'Aumale his Brother who brought it back into France by Bolonnois Ferrarois the Country of the Grisons and Swisserland The return of the Duke of Guise seemed to have brought back with him the Courage of the Kings drooping Councel and of his flying Forces They proposed to give him the Title of Vice-Roy which being thought too ambitious they gave him that of Lieutenant-General of the Kings Armies within and without the Kingdom which was verified in all the Parliaments After he had saluted the King he had order to go to Compiegne and draw the Army together Thus did the ill-fortune of France prove to be his good fortune and the falling of the Constable his exaltation The King now wanted nothing but Money for this he Assembled the Estates at Paris the sixth of January in the year 1558. since King Johns time they have served for little else but to encrease the Subsidies It was this time thought fit to divi de them into four distinguishing the third Estate from the Officers of Justice Year of our Lord 1557 and the Treasury They altogether
accused him in Parliament of dangerous opinions and sentiments concerning matters of Faith got him confined to a Prison but the King by a Decree of Council set him at Liberty with an injunction to write no more without his express Order and Permission and forbid the Parliament to take any Cognisance of this matter The Five and Twentieth of July the Feast day of the Apostle Saint James the great the Emperor Ferdinand I. Brother of Charles V. died at Vienne of a lingring Feaver attended with a Dropsie He had lived Sixty one years and governed the Empire Seven yeaers Maximilian his Eldest Son who was already King of the Romans succeeded him month July The whole Kingdom was full of Factions and Tumults from all quarters complaints were brought to the King of the one and the other Party The Queen Mother desiring to know the Strength of the Huguenots and the different dispositions of Mens minds or having some more secret design under deck thought good to take a Progress with the whole Court to every City in the Kingdome taking along with her the King Alexander Monsieur the Elder of his Brothers and leaving Hercules the youngest at Bois de Vincennes The Prince of Condé had retired himself to his House de Valery Year of our Lord 1564. and 65. The Court began their promenade about the end of Winter visited Champagne Barrois Bourgongne Lyonnois Provence Languedoc Guyenne making solemn Entries in all the great Cities and arrived at Bayonne the Tenth day of June of the following year 1565. Year of our Lord 1565 During the Kings absence a controversie between the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Mareschal de Montmorency Governor of Paris and the Isle of France was very near breaking out into another War The King had forbid all his Subjects wearing of any Arms the Cardinal notwithstanding had a Licence under the Great Seal to have a Guard that might bear them The Mareschal knew it well enough but he expected the Cardinal should send to Compliment him upon it and the Cardinal pretended that it belonged to the Mareschal to pay him that Civility Now when upon his return from the Council of Trent the Cardinal would have passed thorough Paris with the Duke of Aumale his Brother and the Duke of Guise his Nephew the Mareschal de Montmorency knowing he drew near the City sent to Command him by a Prevost des Mareschaux to make his men give up their Arms the Cardinal went on the Mareschal well Accompanied goes to meet him charged him in the Street Saint Denis The Duke d'Aumale was gone by Saint Martins Gate The Cardinals People were scatter'd here and there and he escaped into a Shop with his Nephew At Night they went all to the Hostel de Clugny which was the Cardinals House The next day the Mareschal passed and repassed in a bravado before his Door The City of Paris being just on the point to rise the Prevost des Marchands on behalf of the Parliament endeavour'd to find out some means for an Accommodation between them He prevail'd with the Cardinal to go out of Town and with the Mareschal to permit that Princes Guard to wear their Arms according to the Kings Licence a Copy whereof he shewed The Duke d'Aumale nevertheless hovering about Paris with a numerous Train of Friends whom he had called to him the Admiral was likewise sent for by the Mareschal his Cousin and brought a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Gentlemen along with him and thus both Parties being in Armes it was feared every Moment they would charge each other but the King having heard the Complaints of both sides sent a Command they should lay down their Armes to which they obey'd The Queen Mother being so nigh the Frontiers of Spain desired to see her Daughter Isabella de la Paix Wife of King Philip II. The King sent his Brother the Duke of Anjou to meet her who being attended with the Flower of the French Court passed over the River Marquere which is beyond Saint John de Pied de Port and parts the two Kingdomes met the Queen at Arvanis and accompanied her to Saint Sebastians where Ferdinand Alvara de Toledo Duke d' Year of our Lord 1565 Alva came and waited on her with a great Attendance He brought the Order of the Golden Fleece for the King who went to receive his Sister at the Banks of the River Bidasso and there gave his hand to help her out of the Boat The Queen Mother had past over the River whether so agreed upon or impatient to embrace her Daughter whom they set upon a Palfrey Monsieur and the Cardinal de Bourbon walking on each side and so led her to Bayonne where she remained about Three weeks with her Mother During that time all what the Luxury and Pomp of the Court of France which surpasses all others in those profusions could invent and contrive for Balets Feastings Carousels and Bravery were employed to let them see theirs was as stately and proud and much more ingenious then that of Spain The Queen Mother would have had it thought this residence of the Court at Bayonne was only to divert her Daughter but her design was quite another thing For under pretence of going to visit her by means of a close Gallery purposely built from one House to the other she every Night held Communication with the Duke of Alva and the event did afterwards plainly discover that all those Conferences tended to make a secret Alliance between the two Kings to extirpate the Protestants month July c. The Huguenots who had piercing Eyes and quick Ears imagined the Duke of Alva had advised the Queen to draw them all together to some great Assembly and dispatch them without Mercy They said likewise that he let these words fall That the Head of one Salmon is worth more then all the Frogs in a Marsh and they believed that even at the Assembly of Moulins the Queen had then given the fatal blow if all things necessary thereto had concurred as she desired Now whether these things were true or imaginary it is certain they lost all that little Credit and Confidence there had been between them so that they could never afterwards take any measures with her and thus the Spaniard attained the end he aimed at and so greatly desired which was to maintain an irreconciliable Division in France The Court at their departure from Bayonne passed by Nerac where they restored the Exercise of the Catholick Religion which Queen Jane d'Albret had banisht thence visited afterwards Agenois Perigord Angoumois Poitou and Anjou and from thence going up the River of Loire came and concluded the year in the City of Blois and assigned an Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom and the first Presidents of the Parliaments in the City of Moulïns for the Month of January in the following year 1566. This was Memorable for the Famous Siege of Malta which was fiercely Attaqued by the Turks four
took up at Nismes both Money and refreshments from that place Marched towards the Vivarets reposed themselves for some days at Aubenas passed the Rhosne by Pousin which they held and under the favour of a Fort which Montbrun sent before by the Princes for that very purpose had built on the other Shoar then coasting Year of our Lord 1570 along that River they in vain Attaqued Montelimar and having sojourned a while in Daufiné took their course towards the Country des Forés where they surprised the City of Saint Estienne Year of our Lord 1570. May c. In this place the Admiral was taken sick of a Feaver which put him in great danger of his life and staid them above three weeks there When he began to recover Saint John younger Brother to Montgommery seized the Bridge called Sainct Rambert upon the Loire and Briquemaut sent by the Princes brought them from la Charité fifteen Companies as well Foot as Horse which made up fifteen hundred Horse and two thousand Foot Their Army being thus re-inforced descended into Burgundy and having given the Allarm to Chalon surprised Arnay le Duke by means of a long March they made in one day for that purpose The King's Council could never have believed it possible they should March securely by so many Cities strong Forts over Rivers narrow steights in Mountains and such hilly and uncouth Countries or that they could have the strength and good fortune to break thorough so many Garrisons of their Enemies and Multitudes of People risen up in Arms against them who night and day lay in wait to destroy them and at the same time endure the severity and inconveniencies of a sharp and uncomfortable Winter the difficulties of the ways and the opposition of Seven or Eight Provinces Besides they relied upon a Negociation for a Peace to which end there was a perpetual sending backward and forward from the time of the Surrender of Saint Jean d'Angely so that they were much amazed to find they were come so nigh and upon their March directly for Paris threatning to execute the same vengeance as they had done in the Voicinage of Thoulouze Then that peril they had neglected whilst they were in distant Provinces appearing greater by how much nearer it approached they gave Orders to the Mareschal de Cossé to draw the King's Forces together and go forth to meet them In all this long and toilsome March the Princes had maintain'd their Forces as well by the plunder of above fifty small Towns which they had taken and twice as many which they had ransomed as by the reinforcements of Horse that came to them and a great number of Arquebusiers of those Countries thorough which they Marched serpenting and turning every way to receive such as desired to joyn with them and who being scatter'd here and there could never of themselves have made their way thorough those Crowds of common people who rose up in Arms in every part against them But after all they notwithstanding lost greater numbers than they could pick up for those that had been in Poitou as soon as they drew near their own habitations retired thither and desired to stay at home both to repose themselves and to protect and defend their Families The incommodities of the Winter the fatigues of the March the wants they met withal in their Lodgments or Quarters where most commonly there was neither Bread nor Wine for the Peasants fled the continual attempts made upon them by the Catholicks not sparing so much as any one that stray'd never so little from the main Body had made them lose above six thousand Of five hundred English they had at first amongst them but twelve were left above the one half of their Reisters were dead and the rest were most of them disarmed for not being able to have Carriages in so tedious a March and thorough such rugged ways the greater part had left their Corselets and Head-pieces behind them with all their Horses as likewise those that belonged to the French were grown so poor and weak they could scarce support themselves And as for the Foot their condition was not much better for a great part of them were but raw Soldiers in those times they named them Bisongnes but they had this advantage most of them were mounted upon little Naggs that they might be enabled to make long Marches and yet be little tyred The Mareschal de Cossé having about Orleans drawn the Royal Forces together to the number of thirteen or fourteen thousand Men passes the Loire at Desise and Marched directly towards the Princes imagining that being so tatter'd and out of sorts as they were he need but only attaque them to defeat them He soon changed his opinion when he found upon a great Skirmish between the two Armies near Arnay le Duke that they would put him to half the trouble at least After this he would run no more hazards but let them go quietly towards la Charité contenting himself with coasting along by them upon the right hand During these times there were divers other exploits performed in the other parts of this Kingdom but the most observable about Rochel The Baron de la Garde Puy-Galliard and Puy-Taillé pressed mightily upon those that were retired Year of our Lord 1570 to that place La Garde and Puy Taillé having besieged Rochefort situate upon the Avenues of the Islands were drove thence by la Noüe whom notwithstanding they soon afterwards forced to take shelter in Rochel Afterwards Puy-Galliard with an Army of ten or twelve thousand Men took all the Forts the Huguenots had seized in Poitou after the surprizal of Marans and to streighten them the more he built one at Lucon upon the Avenue to the Marshes La Noüe who understood the consequence immediately laid Siege to it Puy-Galliard draws all his Men together again whom he had distributed in the higher Poitou and Marches up to him but loses the Battel between Sancte Gemme and Lucon La Noüe follows his blow Besieges Fontenay and receives it upon composition He afterwards regains Oleron Matennes Soubize and Broüage In those very days Broüage was of great importance for its situation upon a Canal very difficult to enter and wholly surrounded by Salt-Marshes which produce the greatest Riches of that Country it was begun to be fortified by James de Ponts-Mirembeau who being Lord thereof would have given it the name of Jacopoli All the Catholicks of those quarters were forced to retire to Sainct John d'Angely The Baron de la Garde having kept the Seas a while with his Galleys brings them back into the River of Bourdeaux To stop the further Progress of the Huguenots it was resolved Prince Henry Daufin of Auvergne Son of Lewis de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier should go into that Country and he was preparing himself for that expedition when the news of the Peace discharged him both from that trouble and expence The Army of the
the future That whomsoever the Chapter should nominate to lift or take up the said Shrine should be bound to take out Letters of Pardon under the Great Seal that so this favour might be derived indeed from the Prince and proceed in a judicial order We shall pass by these things and many others the like to observe the management of two very important Affairs without doors wherein the Kings Authority and Prudence had the best share I mean the difference between the Pope and the Seigneory of Venice and the Truce between the Spaniards and the States of the United-Provinces As to the first His Holiness complained for that the Seigneory Year of our Lord From 1605 to 1606. had put a certain Canon to death convicted of ravishing a Girl of Eleven years old and then cutting her Throat for that they detained two other Ecclesiastiques in Prison a Canon and an Abbot the first for having inchiostré that is to say besmear'd a door belonging to a Kinswoman of his with Ink which is the highest affront in those Countries because she had refused to consent to his infamous desires The second because he was Accused of incest with his own Sister of Assassinates Poysonings Robbery on the High-ways Magick and of many other Crimes He was offended yet more at three or four Decrees made by them against the honour and the liberty of the Church By one in 1602. they had excluded the Lords Spiritual under what title or pretence soever from the right of emphyteutique prelation By a second of the year 1603. they had forbidden the building of any Church Convent or Hospital without permission of the Senate upon pain of banishment for such as transgress'd and confiscation of the Ground and Edifice By a third of the year 1605. they extended that Decree made first only for the City of Venice in the year 1536. to all the Cities and Territories under their obedience viz. That no Ecclesiastique should be allowed to leave bequeath or engage any Goods to the Church and if it were found that they possessed any of that sort the said Goods should be distrained and the value restored to whom it should belong To which was added That henceforward none should give any Estate in Lands to the Clergy nor to the Religious Orders without the consent of the Senate who would allow of it upon good consideration still keeping and observing the same solemnities as are observed upon the alienation of the publick demeasnes The two first Decrees were made in the time of Clement VIII the third was renew'd during the vacancy of the Holy See Paul V. declared to the Ambassador of the Seigneory That he would have this last to be abolished The Ambassador having Year of our Lord 1605 written thereof to the Senate received for answer to his Holiness That the said Decree contained nothing that was contrary to the Ecclesiastical Liberty that it respected only Year of our Lord 1606 the Seculars over whom the Republick had a Sovereign Power That it was not just that such Lands as maintained the Subjects of the State and was to bear the Charges should fall into Mortmain and that the Senate had ordained nothing therein but Year of our Lord 1607 what the Emperors Valentinian and Charlemain the Kings of France from Saint Lewis even to Henry III. Edward III. King of England the Emperor Charles V. and several others most Christian Princes had ordained in the like matters But the Pope very far from taking these reasons for currant payment demanded moreover that they should deliver up the Prisoners to him and sent two Briefs to his Nuncio for Martin Grimani Duke of the Seigneory which ordained him to do both the one and the other under pain of Excommunication and interdiction When these Briefs arrived at Venice the Duke was in his agony so that they deferr'd the opening of them till the Election of a new one who was Leonard Donati Vnder the Authority of this Duke the Senate made answer to the Pope That they could find nothing in the Decree nor in their own conduct that did any way deviate from the respect they owed to the Holy See or which was not of the rights of their Soveraignty in temporals At the same time they nominated Duodi Ambassador Extraordinary to go and declare the reasons for their so doing to his Holiness In the mean time he from France it was Fresne Canaye and the Cardinal Delfini made use of all their skill to allay the Popes indignation but on the one side the Cardinals of the Spanish Faction and on the other the Catholick Kings Ambassador Ferdinand Paceco Duke d'Ascalona puff't him up and heated him with specious motives of Religion and Honour The Cardinals did this to cast the good man into some Embarass hoping the troubles of such a perplexed business would shorten his days As for the Duke of Ascalona he sought to revenge himself for some resentment he had against the Venetians and thought hereby to give his Master an opportunity that might signalize his power in Italy The extraordinary Ambassador from the Seigniory coming too late sound all things in a flame and notwithstanding all the respects he could tender to the Cardinals and all the Arguments and Reasons he could urge he saw some time after a Bull posted up in the publick places of Rome declaring that the Duke and the Senate had by their undertakings against the Authority of the Holy See the rights of the Church and the priviledges of the Ecclesiastiques incurred those Censures contained in the Holy Canons the Councils and the Constitutions of the Popes ordained them to deliver up the Prisoners into the hands of his Nuncio declared their Decrees null and invalid enjoyned they should revoke them raze and tear them out of their Archives and Registries and cause it to be proclaimed throughout all their Territories that they had abolished them and this within four and twenty days which he allowed as the utmost time And in case they obeyed not he declared Excommunicate them their Abettors Counsellors and Adherents And if after the four and twenty days prefixed they did abide the Excommunication with stubbornness then he aggravated the Sentence and subjected the City and State of Venice to interdiction This made Duodi retire from thence without taking his leave of the Pope bringing along with him Nani the Ambassador in Ordinary from the Seigneory month May c. This thundring Bull was sent to all the Bishops within the Territories of the Seigneory to publish it the number of those that obey'd was the lesser the Senate had taken such good order there that this great flash of Lightning could set no part on fire divine Service went on still in the open Churches and the Sacraments were administred as before The Ancient Religious Orders stood firm but most of the new ones quitted that Country particularly the Capucins and the Jesuits both very strictly tyed to his Holiness interest the latter having
of Soissons and Paris in Neustria CHILDEBERT II. called the Young aged Five years in Austrasia Year of our Lord 575 The death of Sigebert was followed with a suddain and general Revolution the Austrasians raised the Siege of Tournay and having joyned with those who were at Vitry they retired in confusion the Neustrians returned to the Obedience of Chilperic and Brunehaud found her self surrounded and cooped up in Paris where she then was with her Children and knew not how to get thence But the wisdom of the Duke Gombaud the greatest Lord of Austrasia found out a way to save the Pupil Childebert having let him down over the Walls in a Basket and put him into the hands of a faithful Person who himself carried him into the City of Mets. Already some of the Austrasians had made their Composition with Chilperic but the rest being assembled together in great numbers according to their custom set the young Prince upon the Royal Seat on New-years-day and put him under the protection of Gontran so that Chilperic lost his hopes of invading that Kingdom but he seized upon that of Paris and banished Brunehaud to Rouen and her two Daughters to Meaux Year of our Lord 576 He had sent Meroveus his eldest Son by Queen Audovere to seize upon Poitou which belonged to the Kingdom of Childebert Meroveus instead of putting this design in execution went to Tours and from thence to Rouen where he suffered himself to be so much surprized with the charms of Brunehaud as then aged at least 28 years that he Married her Pretextat Bishop of Rouen God-father to the young Prince making the Marriage The Father hastens thither and having by deceitful words drawn those so newly Wedded out of a Church where they had taken shelter he set a Guard upon Brunehaud and carried his Son away with him Mean time the Austrasian Lords who were come to submit to him returned again to Childebert Godin amongst others who to carry somewhat with him that might bid him welcom armed the Champanois and made himself Master of Soissons where he wanted but little of surprizing Fredegonda Chilperic was quickly there vanquishes him and re-takes the Town but Fredegonda believing that Godin had not undertaken so bold an enterprize without the participation of Meroveus and Brunehaud obliged her Husband to confine that young Prince and a while after to force him to turn Priest and send him to the Monastery of Aunisse which is called now St. Calas the name of its first Abbot The Austrasians demand their Queen Brunehaud with so much earnestness that Year of our Lord 576 he sent her to them and yet he could not forbear to invade the Lands of Childebert His Son Clovis took the Town of Saintes but the Duke Didier going to besiege that of Limoges met in his way the Patrician Mummole whom Gontran sent to Year of our Lord 577 defend the Country belonging to his Pupil the Fight was so obstinate that there were slain Thirty thousand on both sides three parts of them were Didier's who saved himself with much ado About the same time Meroveus escaped from the Monastery and secured himself in the Church called St. Martins of Tours prompted thereto by Gailen his most intimate Confident who was come to visit him and drawn by Gontran-Boson who had sheltred himself in that place as we have related The Step-Mother Ferdegonda favoured this Boson for the same reason that Chilperic would put him to death and maintained a private Commerce with him that he might destroy Meroveus as he had made his Brother Theodebert to perish The young Prince having notice that Fredegonda sought by all means to take away his life did not find himself there in security He goes out from thence accompanied with this Boson whose treachery he knew not of and would go to find out Brunehaud but the Austrasians refused to admit him he remained then some time concealed and a Vagabond in Champagne After which this Boson and Giles Bishop of Rheims upon the pretence of delivering up the City of Teroüenne to him made him fall into their Ambuscades surrounding and taking him Prisoner in a Village of which they gave immediate notice to Chilperic he went thither with Year of our Lord 577 all diligence but found that his unfortunate Son was dead he had been Poynarded by the order of Fredegonda who made him believe that apprehending he should be put to tortures he had borrowed the helping hand of Gailen his favourite to dispatch him A while before the Bishop Pretextat his Godfather was accused before the Bishops assembled in Councel at Paris where no proofs appearing strong enough against him touching what was alledged he suffers himself to be induced by two false Brothers upon an assurance the King would pardon him to confess more than they could desire for which he was banished to an Island near Coustances but with hopes of returning because he pretended he had not been degraded though they had placed Melantius in his See Death having snatched away the two Sons which Gontran had by Austrigilda his second Wife although he were not above the age of getting Children not being above Fifty he desired the Austrasians to bring his Nephew Childebert to him and Adopted him having placed him in his Royal Seat These two Princes being thus allied sent to Chilperic to demand their part of the Kingdom of Paris and declared War against him Chilperic did but scoff at them diverting himself in building of Cirques or places for publick Spectacles at Paris and at Soissons where he would have entertained the People with Chariot-races could he have found Charioteers that had skill enough The Bretons about the year 441. had possessed themselves of Vannes afterwards Year of our Lord 578 Clovis had taken that place again and likewise the Cities of Nants and Rennes at that time governed by Roman Captains This year 578. Waroc or Guerec a Count of Bretagne had the boldness to seize again upon Vannes which appertained to the Kingdom of Chilperic and march up to the French who were encamped on the Banks of the River Vilain They had some Companies of Saxons or Sesnes-Bessins in their Army one night he passes the River and beat up their Quarter but three days afterwards finding himself too weak for so potent an Enemy he desires Peace swore fealty to the King and renders up the City of Vannes upon condition he should remain Governor A short while after he again seizes it and so long as he lived put the French to a great deal of trouble Chilperic and his wicked Wife Fredegonda over-burthened the People with Imposts they had taxed an Amphore of Wine upon every half Acre of Vineyard several other Charges upon things of another kind and a Tribute upon the head of every Slave and indeed a kind of Poll-money for every Freeman insomuch that their Subjects ran away out of the Kingdom as a place of Torment and peopled
Paris in which time Fredegonda knew so well how to sooth him that he took her and her Son into his Protection and ordered the Lords of Chilperic's Kingdom to repair to Vitry and acknowledge that Son for their King and to name him Clotaire however he appropriated most of the Kingdom of Paris to himself only the City of Paris excepted which he left to the young Child He afterwards employed himself in doing Justice to those that made complaints of the several violences of the deceased Chilperic and of all the Grandees belonging to that Kings Court who being unjust and griping to the utmost extremity had suffered all manner of Robberies and Spoil in them In fine believing himself Master of all France during the Minority of his Nephews he took possession of their Lands in Neustria as he pleased but in Austrasia his Power was not owned The hatred they had against Fredegonda did not diminish she durst not come out of her Asylum of Nostre-Dame wherefore he sent her to Van de Rueil near Rouen Being there in more security she began afresh to make use of Poyson and Poyniard they did several times apprehend and discover some Assassines which she was sending to Murther King Childebert and Brunehaud That Queen having detected one especially amongst the rest it was a Clerk after he had been put to many Tortures sent him back again to her in derision and she for shame and madness caused the Feet and Hands of this miserable Wretch to be cut off Two years after the beforementioned Gondebaud who was come from Constantinople Year of our Lord 535 had kept himself close and concealed in an Island at the mouth of the Rhosne Gontran-Boson the Patrician Mummole Didier Duke of Thoulouse Bladaste who had been beaten by the Gascons and some other Factious Heads sworn Enemies to King Gontran had persuaded him to take the Title of King listing him up upon the Target at Brine la Gaillarde The Lords of Childebert's Court several Bishops of Aquitain Brunehaud her self who desired him for her Husband favoured him openly enough and all the Country beyond the Garonne obeyed him The thing did particularly concern King Gontran he seared his Nephew Childebert might assist this Conspiracy which aimed at no less than to strip him it was by this Motive that he desired he would come to him and that he confirmed the Adoption before made putting his Javelin into his Hand At the same time he caused an Army to march into Aquitain under the Conduct of Leudegisile and the Patrician Egila Gondebaud knowing they approached shuts himself up with good store of Ammunitions in the strong City of Lyons de Cominges he was there besieged a while after The Fifteenth day of the Siege Mummole ever perfidious and the other Lords delivers him to the Besiegers thinking to purchase their Lives with the price of his In effect he was kill'd upon the place but they fared never the better for that Mummole was treated in the same manner as well as Bishop Sagittary as soon as they had orders from the King The City was sacked and destroy'd and remained buried in its Ruines till about the year 1005. when Bishop St. Bertrand whose name it bears Rebuilt it in the very same place but of a far less Circumference than before Year of our Lord 585 That War ended Gontran came to Paris to hold the little Clotair at the Font which was not performed this time Fredegonda keeping the Child at a distance and fearing that he desired to see it only to seize upon it and to shave it for he could not believe it was his Brothers Son so that to cure him of this doubt she sent him three Bishops and three hundred Notables who affirmed upon Oath that this little Prince was Legitimate Year of our Lord 584 and 85. The Prince Hermenigilda second Son of King Leuvigilda had Married Ingonde Daughter to King Sigebert The young Princess having Converted him to the Catholick Religion Goisuinte her Mother in Law used her outrageously Hermenigild her Husband had taken Arms against King Leuvigild his Father and being Leagued with the Sueves and the Greeks had trusted his Wife in the hands of these last Now not being able to resist his Father he had surrendred to his Mercy and the Father kept him miserably confined in close Imprisonment The Greeks seeing him detained retained his Wife also and Embarqued her to transport her to Constantinople Her Brother Childebert that he might obtain her Release of the Emperor sent a puissant Army to make War upon the Lombards but it being made up half of French and half Almains the Discord betwixt those two Nations made them trudge back again as they went without so much as seeing the Enemy Year of our Lord 585 Immediately after this it was known that Ingonde was dead in Affriâ—k and that Leuvigildus had caused her Husband to be Strangled King Gontran animated with a just Resentment against those Arrian Barbarians undertook to drive them out of Languedoc His Forces of the Kingdom of Burgundy besieged Nismes and those of Aquitain Carcassonne but there was so little Order and so much Licentiousness in both these Armies that they reaped nothing but shame nor did they make any feel the effects of War but their own fellow Subjects plundering and killing all the poor Peasants and indeed at their return the lower Countries being utterly destroy'd and the Bridges broken down some of them perished for Hunger others in passing over the Rivers nay above five thousand by their own Swords in the Contests one Company had against another almost every hour Year of our Lord 586 Leuvigildns broken with Age spared not either Prayers or Presents to obtain a Peace with Gontran but that King would never hearken to it he could not so soon forget the ill Treatment they had shewed to his Nephew nor the Affront he had received the year before from Recarede who had made Inroads and taken some Places in Provence Year of our Lord 587 Some while after this Leuvigildus dies but had before renounced Arrianism and his Recared or Richard professed the Catholick Religion and Established it amongst his People Year of our Lord 587 Before his Death he had practised some Intelligence with Fredegonde to rid themselves of their common Enemies he meant Childebert and Gontran who at that time were firmly united For Gontran having again declared Childebert his only Heir without making any rockoning of Clotair whom he counted a Bastard or one foisted in Fredegonda mortally hated them both and sought to thrust them out of the World Two Clerks were apprehended whom she had sent to assassinate Childebert with Poysoned Knives they were put to death by Torments their Noses Hands and Ears being cut off Year of our Lord 586 Every hour were such like Plots found out contrived by that wicked Woman Pretextat had been restored to his Bishoprick of Roüen by King Gontran she could not behold him without
ready to march in he was obliged to recall it because of the Death of Childebert The last of this Kings days was the 15th of April Anno 711. He was Aged about Year of our Lord 711 Twenty eight years and had enjoyed the Title of King Sixteen or seventeen years He was buried at the Church of St. Stephens at Coucy Though he had not the opportunity of doing any Act himself being as it were Tethered by the Authority of Pepin nevertheless they gave him the name of Just rather to distinguish him from the other Childebert then because he deserved it Some give him two Sons Dagobert and Childeric The first Reigned the other was bred up to Learning or clerkship and surnamed Daniel There are those that will make him to be the Son of Thierry the First The Piety of Gontran the Mildness and Justice of Clotaire and the Tranquillity of his Reign after the death of Brunehaud turned the genious of the French already very Devout to be highly Religious and inclined them more generally to Reverence holy things and such as they believed to have a more frequent Communication with Heaven The Kings and Grandees outvied each other who should bestow most Gifts upon the Churches They deposited in those sacred Treasuries even to their very Girdles their Belts their Precious Vessels their Apparel when they were rich and set with precious Stones or Embroidered their Houshold Furniture and any other Rarities which were more for Ornament then use It was then who should build most Churches and Hospitals and who should found the noblest Monasteries The Kings strove to exempt such as they founded from all Temporal Jurisdiction and Charges and to ascertain the full and free Possession of all what they bestowed And therefore because of the assumed power the Bishops had to lay hands on all those Goods and that they disposed of the Donations and Offerings which were made to any of the Churches within their Diocess and for that besides they took some certain Duties for Blessing the Chrisome for the Consecration of Altars for their Visiting and sometimes for Ordinations they obliged them to free them from all such Impositions and even not to meddle with any Monastery but to leave the Correction and Government of the Monks to the Abbot excepting in case he had not power enough to compel Obedience and withall to confer the Sacred Orders to such Monks as should be presented without exacting any thing The Princes on their part did likewise freely bestow many the like Immanities which exempted them as well from Contribution for their Lands and from all Imposts on their Goods as from New-years-Gifts Lodging and Expence of Judges which they claimed from all other People wherever they went to hold their Courts Now these Exemptions were agreed to by the Diocesan but with the consent of his Brethren of the Clergy That of St. Denis the oldest now remaining was conceded by Landry of Paris upon the intreaty of King Clovis II. Anno 659. in the Assembly of Clichy it containeth many more things then the Protocole or Deed of Marculfe That of Corbie was given by Bertefoy of Amiens Anno 664. at the request of Queen Batilda It makes mention that there had been the like heretofore granted to the Monasteries of Agaune and Lerins and Leuxeu Pope Adeodat in the year 672. confirmed that which had been granted to St. Martins at Tours saying That divers others in France had obtained the like without which he would not have given his consent it being contrary to the Canons There was the like granted to Fontenels by Ansbert of Rouen in a Council which he called for that purpose in that City 682. In fine there were few great Abbies that did not obtain the like and ever the last gained something more and enlarged themselves as I may say to the prejudice and cost of the Hierarchy who lent them her Authority to destroy her self and them likewise since the Perfection of a good and holy Monk consists in Obedience and Humility I hardly find any Age wherein the heat for a Monastick Life reigned so greatly as in this Such as were prompted with that Spirit went from one Country to another wandring in every corner to seek out Forests and Mountains which were the more and sooner peopled by how much they were the more solitary and melancholly Ireland Scotland and England sent great numbers of these good Monks into France Colombanus the most renowned of all Irish by Birth having been very well received by King Gontran then by Childebert built the famous Monastery of Luxeu in the Mountain of Vosge His Reputation spreading over the three Nations drew thither a vast number of People and the Sentence of the Council of Mascon in the year 627. who undertook the defence of this Institute against the Monk Agrestin who would oppose him gave him such a Vogue that it spread all over France going an equal pace with St. Bennets and producing most eminent Servants to God as Emery Deile Eustasius and Gal Disciples of Colombanus Eustasius was Abbot of Luxeu and Gal who was likewise an Irishman went and built a Monastery in the Country of the Swissers about which was afterwards raised the City of St. Gall. St. Vandrille built one in the Diocess of Rouen at that place called Fontenelle St. Riquier one in Vimieu St. Vallery and St. Josse two others in the Diocess of Amiens upon the Sea-coast This St. Josse was younger Brother of Judicael King of Bretagne and had for Brother Vinok and two more who all chose to lead the same Life St. Ghislain one in Haynault Romaric one for Nuns in the Vosge in the place where stood his Castle of Romberg St. Tron one in the Country of Liege St. Bavon one at Ghent St. Goar one on the River Woker near the Rhine All these Monasteries to this very day bear the names of these Saints The Princes or Grandees gave them Ground whereon to build them together with the assistance of devout People and sometimes some of them did build at their own Charge and Expence Sigebert King of Austrasia erected twelve A Lord named Bobelen four in the neighbourhood of Bourges Clovis II. or rather an Archdeacon of Paris St. Maur des Fossez The Queen Batilda two very famous ones viz. Corbie for Men and Chelles for Women King Thierry St. Vaast of Arras as an Expiation for having consented to the death of St Leger St. Ouin or Owen filled his Diocess with a great number the most illustrious of them are Fontenelle Fescamp and Gemieges This last as likewise that of Noir-moustier in an Island of Poitou was the work or production of the care of that Philebert whom we have mentioned St. Eloy amongst many others built one at Solongnac in Limousin and one for Virgins at Paris of which St. Aura was the Abbess At this time it is the Church of St. Eloy before the Palace inhabited
Vassals judging him uncapable to succeed from the imbecillity of his understanding a defect very ordinary in the Carolovinian Race Henry left all his Three Sons under the Guardianship of Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had Married his Sister and likewise entrusted him with the Regency of the Kingdom Queen Anne his Widdow retired to Senlis where she was building a Church in Honour of the Martyr St. Vincent Her Solitude was not so Austere but she could listen to the Addresses of Rodolph Earl of Grespy who was of that neighborhood She made no difficulty to Marry him and this Second Flame had like to have kindled a Civil War not for the difference in their Qualities for the Grandees went almost equal with their Kings but because Rodolph was of Kin to the First Husband for which reason the Bishops Excommunicated that Lord but nothing could make him let go his hold of her save death which untied him from his Princess Ann. 1066. Being a Widow and destitute of support she returned to end her days in her own Countrey Philip I. King XXXVIII Aged Seven or Eight years POPES Vacancy of Three Months Alex. II. Elect 1 Octob. 1061. S. Eleven years and neer Seven Months Gregory VII Son of a Carpenter Elect in April 21. 1073. S. Twelve years One Month. Victor III. Elect in May 1086. S. about One year Four Months Vacancy Five Months Urban II. Elect in March 1088. S. Eleven years and Four Months Paschal II. Elect 12. August 1099. S. Eighteen years and Five Months Year of our Lord 1060 61 and 62. ALL quietly gave Obedience to the Regency of Baldwin the Gascons only refused to submit themselves apprehending said they lest by that Title he should destroy his Pupil to invade the Crown upon pretension that he was Married to the Daughter of King Henry He wisely dissembled this injury but two years after marched an Army towards the Pyreneans giving out it was to make War upon the Saracens in Spain and when he had passed the Garonne he stopp'd in the Rebels Countrey and brought them to their Duty without striking a blow Year of our Lord 1062 Guy Gefroy-William Duke of Aquitain believed that Gefroy Martel Earl of Anjou being dead without Children his Nephews Sons of his Sister had no right to Xaintongne He would therefore seize it and besieged Xaintes his Army was defeated by the two Brothers neer Chef-Boutonne but the following year he got another Army and took the Town from them Year of our Lord 1062 and 63. The two Brothers minded not the relieving it they were at mortal feud amongst themselves Foulk le Rechin the younger of the two gained the Lords of Touraine and Anjou who betraid his Brother Gefroy and unfortunately deliver'd him up with the City of Anger 's In the mean while the Duke of Aquitain having re-conquered Saintongne led his victorious into Spain where he forced the City of Barbastre at that time very rich and renowned The Zeal of Religion did often lead the Princes and Lords of Aquitain and Languedoc into Spain to succour the Christians against the Saracens and their assistance raised and very much supported the petty Spanish Kings Year of our Lord 1064 Edward King of England whose Christian Virtues have placed him in the number of Saints dying without Children left his Kingdom by Will and Testament to William the Bastard Duke of Normandy in consideration of the good Reception and Treatment he found in the House of Robert his Father when he was driven out Year of our Lord 1064 of his own Countrey as likewise because he was neer of Kin. But the English not affecting the Government of a Stranger gave the Crown to Harold Son of Godwin one of the great Lords of the Kingdom The Bastard on his side sought from all parts the assistance of his Friends and Allies to get himself into possession of his Right insomuch as having got by his large promises a powerful Army of Normans French Flemmings and others together he landed in England gave Battle to Harold the 14th of October who was slain in the Fight with his chief Commanders and left England to the discretion of the Conquerour A Revolution thought to be presaged by a terrible Comet which for Fifteen days blazed with three great Rays over-spreading almost all the Southern parts of the Heavens Before William past the Sea hapned the death of Conan Duke of Bretagne it was said he caused him to be poysonn'd because he claimed the Dutchy of Normandy as belonging to him by his Mother Daughter of Duke Robert Hoel who was Married to his Sister succeeded him Year of our Lord 1067. and the following The English ill-Treated by Williams Lieutenants and Officers Revolted the following years and called in the Danes to their aid but that only increased their misery and yoak for he took from them almost all their Lands and even their antient Laws introducing and imposing those of his own Countrey as he did that Language in all Courts of Justice and instruments of Law withal putting such Lords as follow'd him in possession of English Mens Estates the greatest part of them being punished or slain Thus ended the Reign of the English in that Island which hath notwithstanding retained their Name but in effect hath ever since been sway'd and is still by the Norman Blood their Kings and the greatest of the Countrey being descended and holding their Rights of this William the Bastard to whom was given the Surname of Conquerour Year of our Lord 1067 Baldwin Regent of the Kingdom of France and Earl of Flanders ended his days An. 1067. He had Two Sons Baldwin called of Monts who was Earl of Flanders and Robert who was Surnamed the Frison as being Lord of that Countrey of Friesland Year of our Lord 1069 It is observed that in the year 1069. Arnold Lord of Selne began to build the City of Ardres upon the ruines of his Castle of Selne A War did soon break out between Baldwins two Sons the Eldest thinking to devest the Younger was by him beaten and slain in the field of Battle leaving two Sons Arnold and Baldwin very young The Guardianship of these begot a bloody contest between Robert their Uncle and Richilda their Mother This Princess supported by Gefroy Crook-Back Duke of the lower Lorrain defeated Roberts Army and thrust him out of a part of his Countreys This happy success made her so haughty Year of our Lord 1068 towards her Subjects that the Flemmings Flammengant forsook her and she had none left but the Walloons and the Hennuyars The King would have made himself Judge and Arbitrator between both parties but Richilda coming to Paris with great Presents gained his Counsel and engaged him openly to take her quarrel Year of our Lord 1070 The King inflamed with the heat of Youth would needs go in person to make his first Essay in War and Arms. It proved not very successful for he was beaten and pursued Richilda taken and carried
they held as what they produced how situated or some particularities of their Castles or such Office they bore Some there were that chose such things as preserved the memory of their brave Feats of Arms or some singular Adventure which had hapued to them or theirs and others in fine would have such as betokened their inclination not to mention those that would needs have their Coats out of a meer fantastical Humour and without any design These glorious Marks and Badges belonged otherwhile only to the Nobility and was not the least illustrious part of the Succession of their Noble Families Now at this time every one hath them the meanest villains are the most curious herein they have not only brought the ✚ Rebus's of the little Citizens Merchants Cyphers Shop-keepers Signs and Artists tools and implements into their Coats under the shadow of Crowns Helmets and Supporters but likewise by a confidence not to be endured they have made choice of the most illustrious things and given occasion to observe that there are no better Coats then the Arms of a Villain or Plebeian Year of our Lord 1096 97 98 and 99. From the first Croisade William Rufus King of England taking the opportunity of his Brothey Roberts absenc had seized on the Dutchy of Normandy Swoln with this increase of Power he promised himself to invade France because he saw the Excommunicated King languishing in the Arms of his Concubine who besides had but one lawful Son of 15 or 16 years of age and was destitute both of Money and Friends Nevertheless this young Prince surpassing his age did by his Courage and Virtue defend himself so well three years together that Rufus was forced to leave him in Peace and retired again into England In that Countrey letting himself loose to all sorts of infamous pleasures tiranny Year of our Lord 1100 and execrable wickedness both towards God and Man he perished in a tragical manner being as he was Hunting shot with an Arrow either designedly aimed at ☞ him or by chance which pierced his very Heart Henry his younger Brother got into the Throne during the absence of Duke Robert who was still in the Holy-Land Notwithstanding the Popes Excommunications the King had renewed society with Bertrade by the consent even of Foulk her Husband being so infinitely enchanted with that Woman that he was often seen at her Feet there to receive all her Year of our Lord 1098 99 and 1100. Commands as if he had been a Slave Some of the Belgick Bishops honour'd the Kings Adultery with the name of Marriage and on their great Feasts according to ancient custom placed the Crown upon her Head to shew or signifie they did not hold her to be Excommunicated but the Popes Legats denied to communicate with him and conven'd a Council at Poitiers in July where he was Excommunicated once more William Duke of Aquitain who feared the like Treatment having committed the like fault for he entertained a Concubine and had forsaken his lawful Wife affronted and abused the Prelats greatly and perhaps his Sorrow and Repentance for it afterwards prompted him to go to the Holy Land as we have observed The King constant in his Affections solicited the Popes Favour so earnestly that he sent some Legats to re-view the Cause Year of our Lord 1101 They assembled a Council at Baugency The King and Bertrade promised to abstain from each other till the Popes Dispensation and thus the Council broke up Year of our Lord 1102 without giving any Judgment The King continued with the recommendation of the Bishops to endeavour the obtaining a Dispensation in the Court of Rome in the end he had it he was Absolved in the City of Paris and his Marriage confirmed so officacious is constancy even in things not commendable The opposition of the Bishops served only to authorize the use of Dispensations from Rome which since have been very common in all matters and occasions Young Lewis whom they named the Prince of the Kingdom and was designed King by his Father it is not specified in what year took the Government of Affairs Year of our Lord 1102 3. and the following PHILIP LEWIS Surnamed the Gross designed King aged 19 or 20 years In those times the Rights of the French were such that they could not legally arrest the Lords nor punish them with death unless it were for Treason but only deprive them of their Lands I mean those they held of the King they called them Honours This was it that gave them Licence to arme to oppress the weaker to rob and plunder and above all usurp the Goods of the Church Year of our Lord 1100 Lewis had to do first with Bouchard Lord of Montmorency against whom he embraced the Cause of the Monks of St. Denis whose Lands that Lord had pillaged and having appeared according to an assignation in the Kings Court of Justice refused to obey the Sentence or Judgment given against him therein He forced him by destroying and burning all his Villages and his Castle it self to submit to Reason In like manner he chastifed Droco or Dreux de Mouchy and Lionnet de Meun who tyrannized this over the Churches of Orleans the other over those of Beauvais Also he humbled Matthew Count of Beaumont upon Oise Son-in-law to Hugh Earl of Clermont in Beauvoisis who having half of the Lands of Luzarches in Dowry had seized upon all and had devested the good Man his Father-in-law Year of our Lord 1103 He durst or would not intermeddle with the quarrel between the two Norman Brothers Robert and Henry The First upon his return from the Holy Land demanded the Kingdom of England of his younger Brother who had usurped it after the death of William Rufus The business after three years Negotiation and War was determined in this manner Robert An. 1107. having lost a Battle at Tinchâ—bray in Normandy was made prisoner by his cruel Brother who deprived him of Sight by placing a burning Bason of Brass before his Eyes whereof he dyed in Prison Thus the whole Succession of William the Conquerer remained in Henry the youngest of his three Sons Year of our Lord 1103 In the year 1103. Lewis passed into England to King Henry I cannot tell upon what design Bertrade his Mother-in-law who could willingly have sent him out of the World sollicited Henry to make him away and this Artifice failing she caused poison to be given him at his return into France which put him in great hazard of his Life Year of our Lord 1104 The King to rid himself of the trouble brought upon him by the Family of Montlehery agreed upon a Marriage with Guy Troussel betwixt Philip his Son and bertrade to whom he gave the Earldom of Mantes on condition that Guy should deliver him the Castle of Montlehery which he did Year of our Lord 1104 At the same time or a little after Guy Lord of Rochefort Uncle of Troussel entirely possessing the Kings
S. Thirteen years Three Months and a half Year of our Lord 1380. in September THe Reign of Charles the Wise was happy enough but too short this very long and exteramly unfortunate A Minor King and then alienated in his Understanding Sick-Brain'd a Queen an ill Wife and unnatural Mother Princes of the Blood Ambitious Covetous Squanderers and Cruel the Grandees by their example giving themselves upto all manner of Licentiousness Subjects mutinous and seditious tumbled France into an Abysse of all kinds of Miseries and under the dominion of Strangers From the very first day some jealousies about the Government divided the Kings Uncles The Duke of Anjou being seized of the Regency disposed of Commands and changed the Officers The Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon could not suffer it and would have the King Crowned he maintained on the contrary that he ought not to be so till he were Fourteen years of age according to the Declaration of the late King About this difference an Assembly of Notables was held where John des Marais Advocate-General of the Parliament maintained the Duke of Anjou's Cause and Peter d'Orgement the contrary This conference having only heated them the more the friends of either partyarm'd themselves Paris beheld her self surrounded with Soldiers who lived at Discretion The Lords of the Kings Council mediated an agreement and prevailed so far that the parties referred it to Arbitrators who concluded That the King should be Crowned without delay That afterwards he should have the administration of the Kingdom that is to say he should receive the Homages and Oaths and all Acts should be expedite in his Name and for this purpose the Regent had aged him that is to say Emancipated That the Duke of Anjou should continue Regent that the other Two should have the Guard of the Kings Person with the Revenues of Normandy and three or four Bailywicks for his entertainment They likewise agreed to chuse a Council of Twelve Persons necessarily resident at Paris where by a plurality of Votes they were to ordain all things concerning the Revenue and Offices belonging thereto and without whose Authority no part of the Demeasnes pertaining to the Crown should be alienated either for Life or Perpetuity and who should make an Inventory of the Revenues Plate Jewels and Furniture that was the Kings which the Duke of Anjou seized upon and never gave a good account of The Imposts having been very excessive in the last years of the Reign of Charles V. caused some Emotions in the Cities particularly of Paris and Compiegne but without any miscievous consequence or accidents The Cardinal d'Amions who had been principal contriver of those Subsdies was now paid part of the reward he so well deserved for the young King remembred he had checkt him with sawcy Language in his Fathers life-time and exprest his resentment in discourse to the Chamberlain Peter de Savoisy in these terms God be thanked we are now delivered from the Tyranny of that Chaplain The Cardinal having notice of it makes up his pack and retires to Douay and from thence to Avignon carrying away an immense Treasure which he had scraped together to the poor Peoples cost and by picking the pockets of the whole Nation Clisson had been confirmed in the Office of Constable he had the Commission to conduct the King to Rbeims with that Pomp and Magnificence as was usual on those Ceremonies The Duke of Anjou staying some days behind seized upon the Treasures which Charles V. had concealed in the Walls of the Castle at Melun having forced Savoisy with whom the King had entrusted the secret and guard of it to shew him the where it lay which prompted the courage of that Prince to undertake the unfortunate War of Italy where himself perished with the choice Flower of the French Nobility So true it is that those vast sums of Money collected by Sovereign Princes does for the most part bring only trouble to their Kingdoms in the end and that their Treasures are no where so secure as in the affections of the Subjects who are ever affectionate and kind when they are ☞ kindly Treated The Duke of Anjou having overtaken the King upon his way to Rheims the Coronation was performed the Fourth of November Of the Lay-Paris were none present but the Duke of Burgundy who being the first of all it was by judgment of the Council ordained That he should take place before the Duke of Anjou his elder Brother and Regent and when this last not submitting to that judgment had seated himself at the Feast made on that Ceremony next to the King the Burgundian boldly came thrust himself between and took the place above him The Princes and their Council of Twelve had no other aim but their particular Interests The Duke of Anjou was the most powerful the Duke of Burgundy made Head against him Bourbon's Duke sloated betwixt both the Duke of Berry made no considerable Figure At the Coronation there was proclaimed the relaxation of the Imposts pursuant to the last Will of Charles V. but the Duke of Anjou having taken all the Money of the Treasury and refusing to employ any of it towards payment of the Soldiery or the Kings Family in one Month after they were fain to settle new ones especially upon the City of Paris The Populace mutined a Cobler makes himself Head of them and compell'd the Prevost des Marchands to go to the Palace attended with a multitude of Mutineers to demand the Revocation of them nevertheless the Chancellour it was William de Dormans Bishop of Beauvais appeased that Commotion by fair words and with a promise that was made to grant them what they did desire The very next day another Troop of the Rabble pull'd down their Courts or Offices tore their Accounts and Registers and going thence fell upon the Jews Houses there were Forty in one Street plundred them all and burnt their Writings took their Children and haled them to Church to Baptize them and would have beat out the Brains of their Fathers had they not taken Sanctuary in the Prison of the Chastelet The King restored them to their Houses again and caused Proclamation that every one should give them back what they had forced from them In the Month of July the Earl of Buckingham with a potent Army was landed at Calais not in Guyenne as is told us in the History of this Reign written by a Monk of St. Denis which is not very true in many places He crossed Picardy Champagne passed near Troyes where the Duke of Burgundy had made the general Rende-vouz of his Army then by Gastinois la Beause Vendosinois and Mayne to go into Bretagne to the assistance of that Duke Year of our Lord 1381 The same day he passed the Sartre King Charles V. passed into the other World The news of his death allayed that hatred the Breton had conceived against the French Insomuch as the English having laid Siege before Nantes
would leave it to them two He failed not to take his advantage of these inconsiderate words He would not have his Brother be so near a Neighbour to the Burgundian his Interest was to place him at the other end of the Kingdom to break off their Communication That young Prince Weak Year of our Lord 1468. and 69. and Inconstant of mind was Governed by Oder-Daydie Lord of Lescun a Gascon and vain who would needs be a Prophet in his own Country by his means he was persuaded to renounce Champagne and accept of Guienne with the City of Rochel This change was the loss of that young Prince The Cardinal de la Ballue in whose hands the Treaty of Peronne had been Sworn with much regret suffered it to be altered whether out of love to Monsieur or that he would have had the King still in some perplexity This good Prelat and William de Hoeraucoux holding Intelligence with the Burgundian wrote to Monsieur to dissuade him and represented many things to him for his advantage but contrary to the Kings intentions Their Letters having been intercepted and they Seized they ingenuously confessed their practices The King sent the information to his Brother who suffering to be overcome by his Carasses accepted of Guyenne and came to meet him at Tours The Bishop was shut up in an Iron Cage a punishment he well deserved since he was the first inventor of it The Cardinal was convey'd to the Bastille where he remained twelve years the Pope demanding him as liable only to his Justice and the King pressing the Pope to let him have Judges assigned him within the Kingdom to hear his cause Year of our Lord 1469 The good correspondence between the two Brothers seemed to be perfected and the King to gain or wean Monsieurs Heart from the Countries on this side allured him with a great Match in Spain Henry King of Castille had a Daughter named Jeane but whom the Castillians held for a Bastard because he was esteemed impotent in so much as they had constrained him to declare the Infanta Isabella who was his Sister his Heiress The King sent the Cardinal of Arras to demand this Isabella for Monsieur But the Lords of the Country having stollen her away and married her to Ferdinand Infant of Arragon he seeks to have Jane which Henry agreed to A Matter for a long War if Charles had lived The first day of August the King being at his Castle of Amboise instituted an Order of Knighthood in honour of St. Michael and limited the number of Knights to 36 yet was it never filled up in all his Reign The French particularly Honoured St. Michael as the Tutelary Angel of that Monarchy And a better could not be pitched upon to tread down the Pride of the English who carr'd Dragons in their Ensigns then that Prince of they Celestial Militia who is painted with a Dragon under his feet And indeed it had been reported that he was seen at the head of our Army 's sighting against them for the French He imagined by means or vertue of this Collar that he should have drawn all the Grandees of the Kingdom within his clutclies when he held this Chapter And therefore the Duke of Bretagne refused it and the Duke of Burgundy doing yet worse received the Order of the Garter and wore it to his Death The Breton had in his service one Peter Landays his Treasurer a man of Low Birth but very knowing and able to countermine all the Artisices of Lewis XI It was he that led him to all these evasions and emboldned his Master to withstand all his devices and his threats Thus what ever endeavours he could use though he were on his Frontiers with an Army he could never disunite him from the Burgundian but only obliged him by a Treaty made at Saumur to renounce all offensive Leagues against the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1470 In the year 1470. John the Natural Son of Lewis Duke of Orleance left this world aged 70 years having divers years before left the Court because of his almost continual pain of the Gout which the hardships in the Wars had brought upon him This Prince valued in all things says Comines having made himself as able a Counsellor as he was a Captain was one of the principal instruments God made use of to drive the English out of France Therefore the Princes of his Family gave him the County of Dunois King Charles that of Longue-ville the Office of Great Chamberlain and the Lieutenancy General of his Army's and strong Forts A power of so great extent that it hath been communicated to none but himself in the third Race Year of our Lord 1470 The renunciation which the King caused the Breton to make had most respect to Edward of York King of England and Brother in Law to the Burgundian of whom it was hourly reported that he was coming to Land at Calais He was wholly prevented by the Earl of Warwick who in revenge of some injuries received from him set himself to carry on the interests of the House of Lancaster and had even Debauched the Duke of Clarence his Brother He had the foregoing year defeated his Army and afterwards took him Prisoner Then Edward having escaped beat him in his turn So that he was forced to save himself in France about the end of the Month of May this year From thence returning into England with the Succours the King leâ—t him he changed the Scene a second time For all slocked to him according to the Genius of that Country which loves change and Year of our Lord 1471 Edward wholly forfaken fled into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy his Brother in Law Then King Henry who was in the Tower of London was set at Liberty and Warwick and Clarence took upon them the Government of the Kingdom Though the King still resented in his Heart the affront received at Peronne nevertheless being of a fearful Spirit and the length of any enterprize putting him out of patience if the success were not as swift as his desires he would have lived in peace if the Constable and those that were about him had not excited his resentment to draw him to a rupture They feared and the Constable most of all that a Peace making them appear useless the King might think of retrenching their great allowances and his stirring mind if it were not employ'd abroad might put him upon great alterations at home in his Court. Besides these motives there was also an Intrigue of the Bretons and the Constables in favour of Monsieur As they desired to strengthen him against the King they had inspired him with a desire of marrying the only Daughter of the Burgundian And because they knew the Father would not easily consent to it they believed they should sooner bring it about by force then by friendship and therefore they resolved to engage the King to make a War upon him The Bias they took
Ports of Brest and Conquet and it was put to the question in the King's Council whether he should compleat the Conquest of that Country by force of Arms. The Courtiers did all advise and desire it the Chancellor Rochefort alone disswaded them representing that a Most Christian King ought not to measure his Conquests by his Sword but his Justice That it were most shameful to dispoil a Pupil one that was innocent of his Kindred and his own Vassal in that Dutchy which he might have by Marriage a much more honest and more easy Method to obtain his desired ends This remonstrance and perhaps the Arrival of six thousand English with whom she garrison'd her Towns put a stop to their present acting to the great regret of the Dame de Beaujeu who had already got a Grant of the County of Nantes Year of our Lord 1489 Innocent VIII Successor to Sixtus IV. whether out of a design to make a Holy War against the Turks or perhaps to draw a good Pension from Bajazeth obtained of the King's Council that Prince Zizim should be put into his Hands upon a condition he should not send him out of Rome but should always have him guarded by some Knights of Rhodes Peter Vaubusson Grand Master of the Order had a Cardinals Cap for managing this Affair For some time after the King had delivered him up to the Popes Agents came an Embassy from Sultan Bajazeth to demand him offering in exchange all the Relicks that were at Constantinople to recover the Holy Land at his own Expences and to pay him a very great Pension Year of our Lord 1490 As for the Affairs of Bretagne upon divers Ruptures there were divers Negotiations There had been some French and Breton Arbitrators appointed but they being thought too much interested or dependent it was judged fitter to make choice of two that were not so and to this purpose the King and the Dutchess agreed upon Maximilian of Austria and the Duke of Bourbon a Prince of great Integrity and withal no great Friend to the Dame de Beaujeu The Deputies of both Parties being met at Francfort it was agreed by Provision that the King should restore all the Places to the Dutchess excepting Saint Aubin Dinan Fougeres and Saint Malo which were to be put under Sequestration into the Hands of the two Arbitrators who should surrender them up to those to whom the Dutchy should be adjudged to belong of Right That in the mean time they should put out all the Soldiers both French and English That the two Parties should produce their Titles before certain Lawyers appointed to examine them in Avignon and that the Deputies should meet again at Tournay the five and twentieth of March following to hear the definitive Sentence which should then be given by the Arbitrators In the midst of all these Goings and Comings there was another secret Treaty carrying on of which the King's Council had not the least suspicion which was the Marriage of Maximilian with the Dutchess and this was so far advanced that in the Year 1489. this Dutchess married him by his Proxy who was the Earl of Nassaw The thing was kept secret a long time and yet nothing of what they agreed on at Francfort was put in Execution So that the King whether he had discovered the Marriage or was tyred at the tedious delay of the Arbitration took up Arms again and caused his Forces to March to besiege the Dutchess in Renes but they were countermanded for what Reasons I know not Year of our Lord 1491 In vain the Princess presses for Assistance from England and Germany she had but very weak returns Maximilian a Poor and a Cold Lover did not bestir himself as he should have done for so fair a Mistriss he never furnish'd her with above two thousand Men. In the mean time Bretagne was invaded on all Hands by the French and the Lord d'Albret enraged to see himself supplanted by a German gave them up the City of Nantes upon condition of some compensation promised him for those Pretensions he had to the Dutchy This claim was derived from his Wife Frances of Bretagne Daughter of William Vicount of Limoges youngest Son of the House of Pontieure During these Disorders nothing could be more facile then for the King to have taken away the Dutchess by force However he was advised to try Maximilian's way rather then force and to Marry the Princess and so gain her by composition Of an Enemy therefore he became her Lover and sought to win her by Courtship and Allurements but she was haughty in her Misfortune she could not resolve to break her Faith nor bestow her Heart upon a Prince that had treated her so ill and who had too much Power not to violate in a short time the Laws and Liberties of Bretagne The Duke of Orleans had acquired a great deal of Credit with her the King desiring to make use of him to conquer her high Spirit and besides being perswaded thereto by some of the Gentlemen of his Chamber goes one Day and takes him out of the Tower at Bourges without consulting the Dame de Beaujeu who had kept him Prisoner two Years and some Months This Duke by the Mouth of the Count de Dunois and with the help of Prince of Orange and the Mareschal de Rieux who was reconciled to the Dutchess omitted no Courtship nor Reasons of State to perswade her in favour of the King She resisted for a while but in fine the great negligence of Maximilian and he pressing necessities added such force to their Arguments and Reasons that she yielded and with a Sigh gave her self up a Sacrifice for the Safety of her Country Year of our Lord 1491 Wherefore after the deliberation of the Estates of Bretagne the Contract of Marriage was perfected at Langeais in Touraine the sixteenth of December and the Nuptials consummated the same Day By the Contract either of the Parties in case of Death did reciprocally yeild up all the Rights each of them had to the Dutchy and the King made a Separate Treaty with the Estates of that Country for the Preservation of their Laws and their Priviledges Some time before this Marriage was spoken of the great Authority of the Dame de Beaujeu diminished a little and gave way to the favour of some of the young King 's Domestick Officers which she did the more cheerfully undergoe because her Husband was become Duke of Bourbon by the decease of John his eldest Brother which hapned in 1488. Year of our Lord 1490. And 1491. The young King now become Master of his own Will and Desires did endeavour to form himself to Goodness by his own inclination addicting his Mind to the Study and Reading useful Books and delighting in the Conversation of knowing Men as much as his former neglected Education and narrow Breeding could give him Light to do but the flattering Courtiers to whose Humors a wise serious Prince proves but a
Ferdinand and stept in before him prevented his getting into Romagnia These successful beginnings engaged Charles the more He parted from Ast the sixth day of October At Turin he borrowed the Dutchess of Savoyes Rings and at Casal the Marchioness of Montferrats and pawned them for twenty four thousand Ducats Ludovic with his Wife came to receive him at Vigeue and accompanied him as far as Piacenza He arrived at Pavia the thirteenth of October There he found Duke Galeazo very ill of some Morsel his good Uncle Ludovic had caused to be given him Being at Piacenza he heard of his Death and then Ludovic who had accompanied him thither took his leave of him to go and reap the Fruit of his Crime and make sure of the Dutchy without any regard to Galeazo's Son as yet but five years old The French trembled with rage that this wicked Wretch should bring the King to be witness of a Parricide upon the Person of his Cousin-German They thought it much more just and safe to revenge this Death upon that Tyrant and to conquer the Dutchy of Milan and the City of Genoa then to run to the farther end of Italy crossing above an hundred Leagues thorow the Enemies Country in the midst of Winter without Money and without Provisions to seek out a Kingdom which would be impossible to keep unless they could first be Masters of Genoa and the Milanois Such was the sentiment of Desquerdes a great Soldier and had he lived had so much Credit with the King as would no doubt have perswaded him to take that Course but he died at Lyons Ludovic's Intrigues who had gained Stephen de Vers overthrew all that good Counsel and the King went forward taking his march by Tuscany The taking a small Castle by storm on the Confines of the State of Florence and afterwards the Fort of Serezanella which capitulated and then the defeat of some Succors which Paul Vrsinus was bringing did so astonish Peter de Medecis that he consigned four Places into the King's Hands which were even the very Keys of that Country to hold them for some certain Time and consented that he should borrow Two hundred thousand gold Crowns of that City Ludovic had fancied to himself that the King would put those places into his hands pretending that two of them belonged to the City of Genoa And for this purpose lent him twenty Thousand Ducats The Council having fairly denied him he retired but left some of his Emissaries about the King to watch their opportunities and dispose things for his advantage His fingers itched to get Pisa One day while the King was in that City his men had persuaded the Pisans to fall on their Knees as he went along to Mass and cry out for Liberty The young King was moved with Pity and the Master of Requests who went along before assured him that what they craved was Just Thus without considering that City was none of his he granted them their desires The Florentines at all times French by inclination taking their opportunity of the Kings approach banished Peter de Medecis from their City by a Sentence of the Senate and recovered their Liberty He retired to Bologna and from thence to Venice with so little Credit that one of his own Factors refused to let him have a Piece of Cloth he sent for The 17 th of November the King entred into Florence his Army in Battallia and himself Armed at all points his Lance upon his Thigh The Florentines partly by force partly out of good will treated upon and agreed a Confederation with him which was proclaimed in all the Cities of Italy with a Manifesto declaring that the King was come thither only to chace away the Tyrants and from thence to carry his Arms against the Turks the capital Enemies to Christendom Picus Mirandolus that marvellous Prodigy of all sorts of Sciences Died in Florence the same Day the King made his entrance The very same hour he went forth the City of Pisa threw off the yoak of the Florentines the People pull'd down their Arms and erected the Kings Statue in the room of them This prodigious success of the French their great train of Artillery which was drawn by Horses and so well managed that in a few hours they could shatter and beat down the strongest Walls as likewise their Combats which was no Childrens play like the Italian fighting bred a Terror over all Young Ferdinand soon retreated from before Aubigny even to Rome and his Uncle Frederic getting out of the Port at Legorne retured to Naples All cried out Vive France the places about Rome strove which should first surrender and the Vrsini made their Peace with the King Then his Holyness to his great regret intreated Frederic to withdraw his Forces and himself was constrained to let the King make his entrance into Rome he being retired to the Castle St. Angelo Year of our Lord 1494 The King entred there Armed as into an Enemies Town upon the 28 th of December and disposed of his Soldiers and Artillery in all the publick places So that Alexander fearing to be taken by force and deposed as he well deserved capitulated with him and condescended to what ever he desired Amongst other things he let him have five or six of his best places for a certain time the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples Caesar Borgia his Bastard Son who was called the Cardinal of Valentia for Hostage and Zemes or Zizim the Brother of Bajazeth to make use of him against the Turks Year of our Lord 1495 The Treaty being finished the Pope came down from his Castle He and the King saw each other often with more appearance of Friendship then any real confidence And the King shewed great respect to his Dignity even to the kissing of his Feet giving him water to wash at Mass and taking his Seat in the Chappel below the Dean and Cardinals Which did not so well please such as expected he would have made use of his power in reforming the Roman Church and purging the Holy See of a Tyrant who defiled with all the abominations imaginable the House of God The eight and Twentieth of January the King went from Rome continuing his march towards the Kingdom of Naples Being at Velitri the Cardinal Bastard Son of the Pope who was an Hostage slunk away from him and returned back to Rome At the same place Antony de Fonseca Ambassador from Ferdinand King of Arragon seeking some pretence for a Rupture made sharp complaints for that the French invaded the Empire of all Italy and urged that when his Master treating with King Charles had promised not to oppose him in his Progress meant it only in relation to the Kingdom of Naples whereas the King had taken divers places from the Florentines and from the Holy See The French replied smartly And the dispute growing hot the Ambassador tore the Treaty in pieces in the Kings presence which so inceased
them that they could scarce forbear doing the like to his person Year of our Lord 1495 The same Day he had news of Alphonso's flight That King finding himself mortally hated by his Subjects whom both he and old Ferdinand had Treated most cruelly resigned his Crown which he had not worn a year to young Ferdinand his Son and retired to Messina in Sicilia where he shut himself up in a Monastery to do pennance all the rest of his Days They were not many for before the end of that year he ended his life Dying of the Gravel which made him Languish with most grievous Torment Alphonso's fears and astonishment was so strange that although the French were yet above sixty Leagues distant he fancied they were in the very Streets of Naples and that the Trees and Stones cried out France His wife begging him to stay but only three days that she might say she had been one whole year in her new Kingdom he would not allow her that little satisfaction but said he would throw himself out of the Windows if they offer'd to detain him any longer He made so much hast to fly thence that he took none of all the vast Riches with him which he had heaped up in his strong Castles The misfortunes of this House or rather the Judgments of the Almighty God followed the Son as they had done the Father and Grandfather Ferdinand came and had posted himself at the passage de Cancello near the Abbey of Saint Germans to defend the entrance into the Kingdom As soon as ever the Mareschal de Rieux drew near to attack him he quitted it and all his Forces Disbanded John James Trivulcio a Milanese by Birth but who having been Banished by Ludovic was Listed in his Service came over to the Kings Party and gave him up Capoua which gave example to all the rest to do the like the City of Naples shut her Gates against him in a word he retired to the Island of Ischia leaving the defence of the Castles of Naples to his most considing Officers The two and twentieth of February the King made his entrance into that City the People triumphing at his Victory and receiving him as if he had been their founder and deliverer The Castles did not hold out long Thus in four Months this young King marched thorough all Italy was received every where as their Soveraign Lord without using any Force only sending his Harbingers to mark out his Lodgings and Conquer'd the whole Kingdom of Naples in fifteen days excepting only Brindes Year of our Lord 1495 Greece was almost ready to follow the same Dance with Italy Bajazeth Siezed with the extreamest Terror had drawn away all his Garrisons to strengthen his City of Constantinople the Grâ—ecians were ready to cut the Throats of all the Turks and the Turks cast their eyes towards Zemes or Zizim and wisht he were their Soveraign The jealous Venetians and the Pope made this design miscarry amidst all those fair hopes they poysoned that Prince before he was resigned into the hands of the French And withal gave the Turks notice of all the correspondence the King held in those Countries Which cost the Lives or Ruin of above fifty Thousand Christians whom the King was to have furnished with Arms to have Siezed divers maritime Towns at the time he was to pass into Greece This Bright Sun-shine of Fortune did so dazle the young King and all his Council who had but little Sence or Judgment that they scarce minded or took care of any thing Several Cities that had set up the Standard of France returned to the Arrogonians for want of sending some body to receive and take possession for the King the Favourites on whom he bestowed the Governments squandred away the Ammunitions his Soldiers lived at discretion and his Lords became insolent The People were not eased no justice was done to those Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction who had been thrown out of all their Estates So that the Love they had at first for the French was soon converted into hatred and made them forget the sorrows under the foregoing Tyrannies Year of our Lord 1495 Whilst the King and his Court full of young Fopps wasted their time in dancing Feasting Gaming and pleasant Walks the Venetians laboured to form a League against him comprizing the Pope the Emperor the Arch-Duke his Son Ferdinand King of Arragon and Ludovic Sforza so many Heads could not readily be brought to agree together it required near a whole years time to adjust them And the League they thought to contrive to obstruct his going into Italy could now only serve them to turn him out again At first Ludovic would by no means side with them on the contrary he endeavoured his utmost to hinder them but having attained his own ends he was the most zealous to promote and hasten it It was concluded about the end of Lent and published upon Palm-Sunday in presence ☞ of the Turkish Ambassador The Venetians and the Pope his good Friends would needs gratify him with that joyful news before he took his leave The information the King had thereof put him upon thoughts of his return but yet ere he went he would needs make his Triumphant entrance into Naples the Thirteenth Day of May. He was on Horse-back in an Imperial Habit a Crown upon his Head the Globe in his right Hand and a Scepter in his Left under a Canopy born by the greatest Lords of that Country and the People shouting aloud and crying Long live the August Emperor With this Ceremony he was conducted to the great Church where he received anew their Oaths of Fidelity He left in all four Thousand men to defend that Kingdom and the Country furnished him with twice as many Gilbert de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier had the Title and power of Vice-Roy a good man but of little judgment and one that loved his ease so much he seldom rose from his Bed till Noon Daubigny the Office of Constable and the Government of Calabria George de Sully that of the Dutchy of Tarente Gratian Guerre a Gascon that of Abruzzo Stephen de Vers the Dutchy of Nola. He parted from Naples the Twentieth of May. The Pope had offended him too much to stay his coming he went from Rome and retired to Orvieto But the King did not fail to restore all those places he held belonging to the Church As soon as he was gone some distance the Colonnas lately so zealous for his Interests turned their backs upon him the Florentines alone out of a desire to regain their own offer'd to maintain his quarrel and to furnish him with a good force to convoy him but he refused both the one and the other and again confirmed the Liberty of the Pisans He lost twelve or fifteen days time at Pisa and at Sienna during which the Confederates Army had leasure enough to Assemble Perhaps he waited for news from the Duke of Orleans who remained yet
with the Bentivoglios the Pope retired to Ravenna and left the guarding of Bologna to the Cardinal of Pavia his Favourite and to Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin his Brothers Son his Forces being in the Place and the Venetians in the Vicinage but this could not stay nor hinder the inconstancy of the Bolognese nor the impetuosity of the French Upon his way he met with three Mortal Displeasures the first was the News that the Bolognians had driven out his Soldiers the second that his Army was dispersed the third the Duke of Vrbin his Nephew stabb'd almost in his sight the Cardinal of Pavia in Ravenna upon some Quarrel between them and in those Cities thorough which he passed he saw the Indiction posted up for a General Council at Pisa the first of September It was of the sixteenth of May made at the requisition of the Kings and the Emperors Procurators in execution of the Decree of the Council of Constance and in the Name of nine Cardinals three of them having signed it these were Sancta Croce Cosenza and Saint Malo their Names Bernard de Carvajal Francis Borgia and William Briconnont who hapned to be then at Milan The King and the Emperor approved this Indiction by their Letters Patents of the following Month of July In this consternation seeing no Security for himself even in Rome if the Kings Victorious Army should pursue him he cast about for an Accommodation but as soon as he knew that the King tyred with the importunate Scruples of his Wife had sent Orders to Trivulcio not to make any Attempt upon the Territories of the Church he shewed himself more stubborn and more implacable then ever Year of our Lord 1511 And so by his Bulls of the Seventeenth of July he assigned a Council at Rome in the Lateran Palace for the nineteenth of April following declared Null the Convocation of that of Pisa and cited the three Cardinals to appear before him within threescore and five Dayes upon default whereof they should be degraded of their Dignities and deprived of their Benefices The Kings negligence and the Chimerical irresolutions of the Emperor heightned his Courage For the Emperor ever slow and wavering omitting at first to press the Business home had not so much Credit as to make his Prelates go to Pisa the King managing this serious Business as it were but in Sport sent thither but fifteen of his Bishops of France and Milan together with some Abbots Doctors and Procurators of the Universities and the Council was not opened till the twenty-ninth of October they being troubled to obtain leave of the Florentins under whose Seigneury Pisa then was who had at length reduced it by force about two Years before this The Cardinal de Sancta Croce was President there Odet de Foix Lautrec the Guardian and Philip Dece an excellent Lawyer the Advocat Year of our Lord 1511 The Pisans had little respect for this Assembly and the People whether of themselves or by the secret Instigations of the Popes Emissaries or the Florentins who apprehended the furious resentments of the Pope did often quarrel with the French Soldiers The Fathers took such an Allarm upon it that at their third Session they transferr'd it to Milan where they were no better received nor longer in quiet Year of our Lord 1511 Julius relied much upon the Assistance of Ferdinand and the Venetians the twentieth of October he concluded the League with them which they named Holy for the Peace of the Church said they the abolishing the Council of Pisa the recovery of the Lands belonging to the Holy See and the expulsion of all those out of Italy that would hinder the Execution of those things Year of our Lord 1512 In the Month of January of the Year 1512. the Army of the Holy League commanded by Raimond de Cardonna Vice-Roy of Naples besieged Bologna and the Citizens of Brescia introduced the Venetians into their City where they put in fifteen hundred Horse and eight thousand Foot in Garrison who besieged the Castle But now behold the young Gaston de Foix General of the Kings Army in those Countries more sudden and more terrible then Thunder overthrows them and all their Designs For on the tenth Day of the Siege whilst the Snow fell so thick as to prevent the being observed he entred into Bologna to the great astonishment of those Old Soldiers who raised their Siege confounded and cloathed with Shame From thence marching towards Brescia with six thousand chosen Men he on his way defeated John Paul Bailloni who commanded part of the Venetian Army Then entring into the City by the Castle he forced their Works and the Intrenchments they had made strewed the Streets with eight thousand of their Slain and drove out the Venetian Troops These three grand Exploits performed in less then fifteen Daies raised this Prince above all the Captains of his Time Notwithstanding all these Advantages the Pontifical League being reinforced every day with some remainders the Florentins renounced their Amity with France the Report was spread of a sudden Irruption of the Swiss and the English were just upon breaking with the King for the Pope had intoxicated them with the vain Glory of defending the Holy See and the Fumes of all sorts of delicious Wines whereof he had sent them a whole Ships loading together with Hamms Sauciges and Spices to give the Wine a better relish or gusto and make them the more desirable Year of our Lord 1512 Now the King that he might not have so many Enemies at once sent Order to Gaston that he should give Battle to the Army of the League during the Torrent of his good Fortune The Enemies themselves presented it to him being approached near Ravenna to make him raise the Siege which he had undertaken Year of our Lord 1512 for this very purpose It was fought on Easter Day the eleventh of April Their Forces were equal the shock very bloody in the conclusion the Commanders for the League some of them being fled and the others taken the Victory turned to Gaston's Lot But as he was pursuing too eagerly a Body of four thousand Spaniards who made their retreat in good Order by the way betwixt the rising Ground and the River Ronca he was surrounded and slain with the thrust of a Pike and his Cousin Odet de Foix Lautree grievously wounded This gross was not pursued the rest were all cut in Pieces or made Prisoners Ravenna afterwards Sacked and some Neighbouring Cities put into the Hands of the Cardinal Sanseverin Legate from the Council of Pisa as likewise the Cardinal Julian de Medicis the Popes Legate Ferrand d'Avalos Marquiss of Pescaro and Peter de Navarre who had all been taken in the Battle After this it was expected there would have been an Universal Revolution in Italy in favour of the French In effect their fright was so great in Rome that the Cardinals in a Body went to implore the Pope to
three Counties and in the mean time the King declared all the Vassals in those Countries acquit and discharged from their Oathes to him from all Faith and Homage and enjoyned them to serve the King upon the Penalty of Forfeiture of their Fiefs and to be Proclaimed Rebels whereof publication to be made upon the Frontiers The Heraulds went therefore to Summon Charles by posting up Papers and making Proclamation He replied fuming with rage that since they recalled him into France he would return thither with such powerful Justifications as would Year of our Lord 1537 make the Treaties to be duely observed and in the mean while for Comparition Adrian de Crouy Count de Roeux having drawn together the Commons of the Low-Countries came and ransacked the Frontiers of Picardy This proceeding of the Kings was variously spoken of but none could approve of the Alliance he made with Solyman the Enemy of Christendom as well to defend himself against the Emperor as in hatred to the Venetians with whom he was extreamly offended for having despised his Amity and the offer he made to share Milanois with them One might nevertheless in some Measure excuse this League of a Christian King with an Infidel not only by the example of the Kings of Spain Grand-Fathers of this Emperor who had contracted the like with Mahometan Kings but even by that of the Emperor himself who had endeavour'd earnestly to do the same with Solyman so that he was no less guilty in that particular but less prevalent or skilful or less fortunate then Francis The Kings attempts did not answer this grand Arrest or Decree of his Parliament He took only Hesdin and Saint Paul and having spent his first Fire returned in the beginning of May to Paris leaving his Army with the Count de Saint Paul and order to Fortifie the City of the same name where they put three Thousand Men in Garrison So soon as he was retired the Enemies being Assembled forced that City and received that of Monstreuil upon Composition but they could gain nothing at Terouenne the Dauphin and Montmorency having got their Troops together timely enough to Relieve it as they did During this Siege a Conference was held at the Village of Bommy at the solicitation of the two Queens Eleonora of France and Mary of Hungary where the Deputies agreed upon a Cessation of all hostilities for three Months in the Low-Countries that they might endeavour to bring about a Peace Some believed the King accepted of it to Transport all his Forces into Italy pursuant to the Treaty made with the Turks who at the same time were to fall upon the Kingdom of Naples In effect the Emperor Solyman did himself lead an Army of One Hundred Thousand Men into Albania from whence he sent Lusti-Bacha and Barbarossa to Cruise upon those Coasts and discover the Country resolved to follow them as soon as they had gained any Port but when he found that the King was making War in Flanders he returned with great Indignation that he should break his word with him As for Barbarossa having no certain News of the King he was fallen upon the Island of Corfu belonging to the Venetians where finding the Places too well provided he ruined the open Country and carried Sixteen Thousand Souls into Captivity The same Summer King Ferdinand received two great Foiles by the Turks the one at Belgrade in Hungary the other before a City in Dalmatia where his two Armies besieging those two places were shamefully defeated In the Interim it hapned in Piedmont as well by the little esteem the Soldiers had of Humieres as the particular quarrels amongst the other Officers and the Mutinies of the Lansquenets the French Forces were dissipated Humieres was retired into Pignerol to wait for Supplies from France and had quitted the Field to Du Guast who had retaken several Towns and almost the whole Country of Salusses The Marquess whom we told you had so unworthily forsaken the French Party was kill'd with a Cannon Bullet at the Siege of Carmagnoles His death so enflamed the fury of the Soldiers that they forced the Place and Du Guast to revenge his death hanged the Captain The Love of Liberty could not be so soon effaced out of the hearts of the Florentines One that was of Kin to the new Duke Alexander named Laurence de Medicis slew him in his own Chamber whither he had allured him with the hopes of meeting a certain Lady for whom he had a great passion but flying as soon as the blow was given the Cardinal Innocent Cibo Son of a Sister to Leo X. who was then at Florence and Alexander Vitelli Captain of the City Guards set up a young man of the House of the Medicis in the place of Alexander where he maintain'd himself in spite of Strossy and other Zealots for their Liberties His name was Cosmo and descended of one Laurent Brother of the Grand Cosmo To gain the People he promised them at first that he would have from the City but Twelve Thousand Crowns for his Maintenance but when he was well establisht he raised it to Twelve Hundred Thousand As for Laurence de Medicis after he had wandred in divers places because Cosmo had Year of our Lord 1537 set a price upon his head he was at last stabbed at Venice by two Assasins Christierne III. King of Denmark introduced Lutheranisme into his Kingdom and turned out the Bishops but kept the Canons that he might have the bestowing of Prebends He did the same in Norway which he had Conquer'd Some years before King Gustavus Erecson had made a like change in Sweden The King being informed that his Affairs went on very ill in those Countries that du Guast besieged Humieres in Pignerol and that before the years end he would drive the French quite out of Piedmont resolved to prevent it and in some measure satisfie Solyman to go thither in Person At Lyons being fallen sick of a slight Feaver he gave order to the Daufin and to the Mareschal de Montmorency to march before-hand with the Army At first coming they forced the Pass of Sufa guarded by ten thousand men a famous exploit in War drove Du Guast to Quiers and got several advantages which drew the King himself thither with great hopes of recovering Milanois His Army was found to be above Forty Thousand Men the French were in good Heart the Enemy affrighted and their Places ill provided but it was the end of October he apprehended the inconveniences of the Season the length of some Siege the Irruption of the Flemmings and the uncertainty of accidents so fatally experimented before Pavia So that making a specious pretence of the having given his word to the Queen of Hungary that he would not do any thing that should obstruct the Peace he upon the mediation of the Pope and the Venetians granted a Truce of three Months for those Countries beyond the Mountains and prolonged that with the Low-Countries
Bayard one of the Secretaries was Imprisoned and Villeroy his Compagnon deprived of his Employment James du Tiers and Claude Clausse Marquemont were put in their Places as in that of John du val Tresorier de l'Espargne Blond de Bochecour whose Wages or Salary was augmented to thirty Thousand Livers a certain presage of the future wasting of the Finances They likewise took away the Office of Grand Master of the Artillery or Ordnance from Claude de Tais to give it to Charles de Cossé Brisac the Lord amongst all the Courtiers the most lovely and the most beloved by the Kings Mistress Longeval accused to be of Intelligence with the Emperor redeemed himself by selling his fair House de Marchez in Laonnois to Charles de Lorrain who soon after was made Cardinal Of Twelve Cardinals that were then in France the new Ministers to be the more at large and at their own ease sent Seven of them to Rome upon pretence of Fortifying the French Party for the Election of a Pope when Paul III. who was near Fourscore years old should come to die Annebaud to satisfie to an Edict which they had purposely made that one man could not hold two great Offices was forced to quit that of Mareschal wherewith Saint André was gratified Francis I. had encreased the number of Mareschals even to Four but finding that the multitude debased that great dignity he had resolved to reduce them to two so that at this time there were but three They added a fourth which was Robert de la Mark Sedan Son in Law of Diana They made process against Odard de Biez likewise Mareschal of France and against Vervin his Son in Law They were not Condemned till the year 1549. Vervin lost his head His Father in Law an Honourable old Man and by whose hands Henry being then but Dausin would needs be made a Knight was shamefully degraded of his Office and the Order of Saint Michael He died of Grief in the Fanxbourg Saint Victor whither he had permission to retire The Earldom of Aumale was erected to a Dutchy in favour of Frances Eldest Son of Claude Duke of Guise The Dutchess d'Estampes having no more support at Court and seeing her self despised by all the World even of her own Husband chose one of his Houses for her Retreat where she yet lived some years in the Exercise of the new Religion to which her Example and Liberalities drew a great many People All the Kings Revenues being too little to satisfie the Covetousness of the new Ministers they sought to have Advice what to demand of him but the Genius of the French nor their Parliaments being yet used to suffer Monopolies and Farmers they employ'd Accusers or Informers who brought the richest Delinquents to Justice that they might enjoy their Spoils by Confiscations or by Compositions As to Things without Doors the Pope desired to have a defensive League with the King and for that end had sent the Cardinal Saint George Legate into France to give the King thanks for having promised his Natural Daughter Diana but nine Years old to his Grand-Son Horace and to negociate a more strickt Alliance with him The King gave no Positive Answer to the last Proposition his Affairs not being as yet in good Order and they suspecting his great Age and the Fidelity of his Children And indeed he was at the same time treating with the Emperor to get the Dutchy of Milan for John Lewis Farneze his bastard Son The King and the Emperor laboured separately and distinctly with the Turk the one to have a Peace with him the other to incite him to fall upon Hungary Year of our Lord 1547 as he had promised King Francis Now as on the part of France they neglected a while to send any News to Constantinople or even give notice of the death of that King the Emperor meeting no Obstruction obtained a Truce of Solyman for five Years paying him thirty thousand Crowns Tribute Annually and making him believe he held a very good Correspondence with the French and that they would have no more to do with the Port. Nevertheless Solyman desiring still to preserve his Amity with France would needs without being required have the King to be comprized in the Truce of Hungary as if he had been absolutely a Party contracting It is to be observed that in the Writings or Instrument of this Truce Solyman stiles Charles V. only simply King of Spain and the King of France the most serene Emperor of France his most dear Friend and Allie The Sixteenth of July the King being returned out of Picardy where he had been to visit the Frontiers saw at Saint Germains en laye the famous Duel between Guy Chabot Jarnac and Francis Vivonne la Chasteigneraye they quarrell'd about some certain intrigues of the Womens Jarnac had given the Lie to Chasteigneraye upon some villanious reproach of his concerning his Fathers second Wife He challenges him to fight the King permitted it causeth the Lists to be made ready and would needs be a Spectator with the whole Court He fancied Chasteigneraye would have the better whom he cherished and yet it fell out that Jarnac though much weakned with a Feavour that tormented him brought him down with a back blow he gave him on his hams They parted the Combatants but the vanquished not able to undergo so much shame in the Kings Presence would never suffer the Chyrurgions to bind up his wound but dyed of rage within a few days The King was so concerned at it that he sware solemnly never to permit the like Combats In the Month of August the Grands Jours or extraordinary Court of Justice began to be held in the City of Tours The troubles continued in Scotland The English were obstinately bent to have the young Queen for their King Edward and had gained a furious Battel against the Scots and after it taken several places The King sent therefore an Army into Scotland Commanded by Dessé Epanvillers who was accompanied by Peter Strozzi and Dandelot Brother to Chastillon They settled the Authority of the Queen Dowager stopt the Progress of the English and the year following brought the young Queen into France she was but six years of Age. Two Months before the Kings Coronation news came into France that the Protestant Princes of the League of Smalcalde were vanquish't by the Emperor in the Battel of Mulberg the twenty fourth of April That John Frederic Duke of Saxony their chief head and a Prince of great worth was taken Prisoner in the rout that the Emperor had caused him to be Condemned to lose his Head and having with much ado given him his life he detained him in Prison and had deprived him of his Dutchy to invest his Consin Maurice with it who was of the same House of Saxony and of the same Religion that all the great free Cities excepting Magdenbourgh had submitted that the Landgrave of Hesse had been forced to
in peace telling him That he had not lâ—v'd four score years without learning to die a quarter of an hour At his Funeral Pomp Year of our Lord 1567 they carried his Effigies which is an honour done to none but to Kings and to the Sons of France The Queen very glad to be ridd of him who alone did in a manner limit her power within bounds of reason would not fill up that Office of Constable but that she might retain the general Command of the Armies in her own hands gave it to her Son the Duke of Anjou who was not yet fourteen years of age and placed trusty people about him to dispose both of his person and that great Command as she directed The fifth day after the Battel the Huguenots fearing they might be overwhelmed by those of Paris took their March towards Montereau to meet John Casimir Son of Lewis Elector and Count Palatine who brought them an Army from Germany The Royal Army did not pursue them but kept within Paris there being since the death of the Constable no General as yet appointed The Queen Mother had by Lansac and Bochetel Bishop of Rennes her Ambassadors declared to the Protestant Princes of that Country that in this War Religion was not at all concerned since the Huguenots were allowed all manner of liberty but the Regal Authority which they directly opposed so that the Electors William Duke of Saxony and Charles Marquiss of Brandenburg had denyed the Prince to make any Levies in their Territories but had allowed it to the King The Palatine being also prepossest had for a while kept back those Forces his Son was to command but being afterwards otherwise informed by an Envoyé who accompanied Lansac to the Court of France and who upon his return saw the Prince of Condé he exhorted his Son to go on with his March Year of our Lord 1567. September and October They sojourned at Montereau fifteen days to wait for the Troops which their Chiefs were raising in several Provinces as the King had likewise ordered his part to encrease his Army Those that were raised for them in Poitou Angoumois and Saintonge had for Commanders Francis de la Rochefoucant Claude de Vaudré-Mouy Giron de Luzignan Bessey and Francis de la Nouë whose wisdom and probity was held in admiration amongst the very Catholicks In their favour the City of Rochel by means of Truchard their new Maire and perhaps by the connivance of Guy Chabot Jarnac who was Governor for the King entred into their party whereof it hath been as it were the strongest Tower and Asylum for sixty years together In their March la Nouë being detached to get Orleans for them managed the Business so well that with the help of the Inhabitants who were of the Religion he made himself Master of it the eight and twentieth of September and forced out the Governor who had cantoned himself at the Porte-Baniere From Orleans they Marched towards Montereau and forced Ponts Sur-Yonne The Admiral having joyned them there with a gross of Cavalry would try the City of Sens but he there found the young Duke of Guise who having season'd his courage in the War of Hungary endeavour'd to let him see that he should find in him an Enemy as brave and more dangerous then his Father Those of Languedoc were employ'd by James Crussol d'Acier in taking the Castles of Nismes and Montpellier they having the Towns already by means of the Inhabitants Those of the Countries of Foix Albigeois and Lauraguais conducted by the Vicount those were seven Gentlemen bearing that Title having joyned him assisted him in the taking some places about Avignon and in Daufiné From thence they went to Orleans where by their Arrival they freed the Princess of Condé and the Wives of the other Chief Commanders from the great fear and trouble they were in who having but few Soldiers were every hour under some apprehension of being taken with the Town it self As for the Forces of Auvergne Forez and Beaujolois led by Poncenas and Verbelay they received a check in the Country of Forez from Terride la Valette and Monsalez who were bringing some Levies out of Guyenne to the King but however they made a shift to get clear Poncenas upon another occasion in the night was kill'd by his own Men. The Duke of Newers who had an Army of twelve or thirteen thousand Men six thousand being Swiss and the rest made up in Piedmont and Italy took as he was on his way the City of Mascon whereof la Loüe was Governor but as he was passing thorough his own Dutchy of Nivernois he met with some Huguenot Horse of the Garrison of the little Town of Antrain he charged them and pursuing them in their retreat was wounded in the knee with a Pistol-shot which made him lame all his life after and much exasperated against the Huguenots Year of our Lord 1568 The Huguenot Army at their departure from Montereau took their March thorough Champagne by Chaalons passed the Meuse and went into Lorrain They were five or six dayes in great pain that Prince Casimir appeared not and no less afterwards when upon his first Arrival he demand d an Hundred Thousand Crowns the Prince had promised to pay him when he could joyn him At this time hapned what had never till then been known the Princes Soldiers even to the very Snap-sack boys freely disbursed to make up part of the said Sum and thus one Army paid the other which consisted of six Thousand five Hundred Horse and about three Thousand Foot Year of our Lord 1580 With this considerable Re-inforcement the Confederates returned into France They took the Garrisons of Joinville and Chaumont passed the Marne and crossing the Bishoprick of Autun came to the head of the Seine the Forces under the month January Duke of Nevers not being able to hinder their passage over it From thence they steer'd their Course by Auxerre Chastillon and Montargis whence they extended into la Beausse The Prince having been at Orleans to receive those Troops were brought him from Guyenne marched Twenty Leagues in one day to lay Siege to Chartres He thought when he should have taken this Town he might promise to himself it being one of the Granaries of Paris that he might return to Block up that City its self so deep the Imagination was imprinted in him that he should never attain the ends he designed but by mating that great City by Famine and other inconveniences attending War The enterprize proved more difficult than he expected Antony de Lignieres was got into Chartres with a Strong Garrison and had put all things in good Order If nevertheless he had at first which he did not till the latter end turned the River another way which wrought their Mills the Besieged would soon have wanted bread During this Siege the Conferences for a Peace were again set on foot the Cardinal de Chastillon going to Longjumeau treated a
of the Treaty they reveng'd it by the Massacre of the whole Garrison These cruel Inâ—idelities were much used during this whole War At this very time Dandelot having a little refreshed the Huguenot Forces who were yet near Four Thousand Horse besides their Foot made an incursion by Poiton as far as Clisson At his return he was seized with a Pestilential Feaver whereof he died at Saintes The Princes gave the Command of Collonel of the Foot to James de Crussol Daceir the King did the like to Philip de Strossy Son of Peter who had been Mareschal of France and was near of kinn to the Queen Mother The last day of February the Duke of Deux-Ponts parted from Savarna and had taken his March by Alsatia and Lorrain he had Seven Thousand Five Hundred Reistres and Six Thousand Lansquenets William of Nassaw Prince of Orange whom the Duke of Alva had thrust out of Flanders and Lewis his Brother came and joyned him with some Troops of Horse and Fifteen or Twenty French Captains of Daufiné with Six Hundred Horse and Eight Hundred Vrquebusiers they had pick'd up about Strasburgh The Duke d'Aumale finding he was unable to make head against him followed him in the Rear almost as far as Cisteaux When they had pass'd the Saone at Montier he left them that he might get before them and wait their passage over the Loire where he was to joyn the Duke of Anjou's Army which lay at Gien But the Duke des Deux ponts passed it at a Foord near Pouilly and also took the Town de la Charité a place very weak in those dayes but of great Importance upon the same River As soon as the Admiral knew he had passed the River he drew out a Party of his Forces to go and meet him having left the care of all Affairs in Guyenne to la Noüe and sent Montgommery into Gascongne as well to reconcile the Vicounts whom the ambition of Command had set at variance as to stop the Progress Montluc and Terride were making in Bearn The Queen of Navarre had inveigled all that Country to be of the New Religion She pretended to be absolute Soveraign there and yet many of the Nobility adhered rather to the King than to her The Duke of Anjou in the mean time advanced to Limoges and placed Guards upon all the Passages of Vienne but the Forlorn of the Duke de Deux-ponts Marched over the Bellies of them Thus after a three months March this Army of Strangers Arrived in Safety but the Duke des Deux-ponts who was very corpulent and labouring under the reliques of a Quartan-Ague died at Nessun Year of our Lord 1569 within three Leagues of Limoges the Eighteenth day of June By his Will he left the Conduct of his Forces to Volrad Mansfeld and within four dayes after they were joyned in a body with the Admirals The two Armies being near that of the Princes about Saint Yrier the Duke of Anjou's at Roche-labelle they had so great a Skirmish as had almost engaged them to a general Battel On the Royalists side Strossy was taken Prisoner Roquelaure and Saint Leu two valiant Captains were kill'd with four Hundred of their Men. After which the Duke of Anjou put his Army into Garrisons and discharged the Nobility with Orders to return again about Mid August During all which time there hapned nothing Remarkable but the Siege of Niort by the Count de Lude Governor of Poitou and of la Charité by Sansac where neither of them gained any thing but blows but Teligny seized upon Chasteleraud and forced the Castle of Luzignan no less Famous for the Fables of Mellusine then for the reputation it had of being impregnable month June c. During this time Montgomery was sent into Bearn to recover it for the Queen of Navarre for the Count de Terride had very near subdued it all Having therefore gotten some Forces together in Languedoc passed the Garonne and Ariege surprised the City of Tarbes in Bigorre he entred that part of the Country where Terride at that time Besieged Navarrins At the Noise of his approach Terride makes up his Bundle and retires to Ortez Montgomery besieges him there and forces him to Surrender He had four Barons of that Country with him Saincte Colombe Pordeac Goas and Favas who were comprised in the Capitulation but Montgommery caused them all to be Poniarded having more regard to the Orders Queen Jane had given him to use them as Traytors than to his own Honour and Faith But for the discord which was between Terride and Montluc and between the latter and Danville Governor of Languedoc he had not entred so easily into that Country or at least had never got out again However Montluc not to remain idle borrowed some Companies of Danville with which together with those la Valette had Raised he forced the City of Mont de Marsan where another Favas Commanded a Native of S. Macaire Whilst this Captain was Treating with him he caused the Castle to be stormed on the back part and put all to the Edge of the Sword in revenge for the death of the Four Barons After the taking of Luzignan which was followed by that of S. Maxian and Mirebeau the Admirals thoughts were to seize upon Saumur which he would fortifie to have that convenient passage on the Loire and carry the War the fourth time to the Gates of Paris Unfortunately for him he changed his design and besieged Poitiers a great City above two Leagues in circumference The young Duke of Guise whom the Duke of Anjou had sent to succour Luzignan puts himself into it with the Marquiss de Mayenne his Brother and great numbers of the Nobility and gained to himself no less Glory than his Father had done formerly by defending the City of Mets. The Count de Lude Governor of Poitu was likewise gotten in with six thousand Soldiers but there were very little Stores and Provisions for so many Mouths The Siege began the five and twentieth of July the Attaques the Besiegers made upon them did not give them so much trouble as the want of Food Forrage and Mills did put them to In the mean time Montluc having drawn his Forces together laid Siege to Chastelleraud to make a diversion The Admiral was glad of such a fair pretence to raise his Siege from before Poitiers where he lost both his time and reputation He decamped the seventh day of September and approaching near Chastelleraud put in four hundred Arquebusiers who entred by the Bridge conducted thither and cover'd by the Cavalry of his Van-Guard Upon his Arrival the Catholicks drew off their Cannon and afterwards their Men with so much diligence that their Army was lodged at la Celle which is six Leagues from thence and on the other side la Creuse before he knew they moved he follow'd with a resolution to attaque them but finding them in a Lodgment where he could not bring up his
Duke of Alenson after the Peace made his residence at Bourges where Bussy d'Amboise Fervaques Laffin Simiers and some other Favourites of his obliged him to stay for their own advantage or for their security Towards the end of October he was prevailed upon to go to Court by the perswasions of the Queen-Mother and came to salute the King at the Castle d'Olinville near Chastres The King received so much joy by this visit that he gave notice by Letters Patents of it to all his Kingdom Bussy would not follow his Master but went and setled his Habitation in the Castle of Angiers chusing rather said he to play the King in that Countrey then the Waiting-man or Valet at Court As soon as they had thus withdrawn the Duke of Anjou they began to continue the ruine of the Huguenots to form powerful Leagues as well within the Kingdom which we shall presently mention as without by communication with Don Juan of Austria whom King Philip was sending Governour to the Low-Countreys and with the Popes Legat. Year of our Lord 1576 Don Juan and the Legat arriving at Court on the very same day and from different places the first incognito and the other in great state had access and very private Conference with the Kings Council and yet more particularly with the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mothers aim was in the first place to take off the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from the party and in order to this she was resolved to make a journey into Guyenne and discourse with them but whether she found they were not so disposed as she desired to be deluded by her or not she did not go In the mean time these two Princes who had no secure retreat for their Persons endeavour'd to make sure of some the Prince with more Craft then Faith or fair Play seized upon Brouage having order'd some Companies to slip in then upon Mirembean himself who was Lord thereof whom he forced to put him in possession of the place promising however to render it again within three Months In effect he did render it to him but soon after seized it the Second time upon some jealousie either real or pretended The Rochellers took the allarm and the Court fomented their suspitions so much that the Mayor sent to desire the Prince not to come to Rochel but the Ministers and People made them change that resolution and ordered that he should be invited provided he brought no more then his ordinary attendance Thus the Court plainly perceived he was not so absolute over the party as he would have made them believe The late conjunction of the Duke of Alenson with the Religionaries and Politiques and the advantageous Peace granted to them produced that mightly Faction to which the Authors of it gave the name of Holy Vnion and the vulgar that of The League or to say better revived and fagotted together all the other particular ones which had been already formed in divers parts under the Reign of Charles IX For the Lords during those troubles had taken the confidence to make Treaties and Confederacies amongst themselves without asking permission of the King and the People arrogated to themselves the liberty of giving their Oaths to others besides their Sovereign justifying themselves by presidents drawn from the Huguenots who indeed shewed them first the example Thus they framed one in Languedoc between the Cardinals de Strossy and Armagnac and some Lords of that Countrey another again in Bourdelois of which the Marquis de Trans of the House of Foix was General another much greater whereof Montluc advised Charles IX to be the Head There were also certain Fraternities joyned in Burgundy which to speak properly were a kind of a League Besides that in Limosin in the Vivarets and some other Provinces the People armed to defend themselves against all Soldiers of either party Year of our Lord 1576 They tell us likewise that the Queen-Mother had given notice to Charles IX that if he would not consent to the Massacre on St. Bartholomews there was a League ready form'd should execute it without him and it is certain that upon the apprehension there was of King Henry's being stopt in Poland several Associations were made in the Provinces to preserve the State and the Catholique Religion So that it was but only the joyning and cimenting all these distinct parties together to make up the great Body of the League The zealous Catholiques were the instruments the new Religious Orders the Paranymphs and Trumpeters the Grandees of the Kingdom the Authors and Heads The easy temper of the King gave way to its growth and the Queen-Mother lent it her helping hand She was not prompted to it by any zeal for Religion nor for any love or kindness towards the Guises but out of her mortal hatred to the Huguenots above all other Reasons because they earnestly desired she should give an account of her Administration and bawled open mouth'd against the disorders of the Court and the enormous Vices of the Italians especially against the new and vexations Tolls and Faxes those strangers invented every day The Pope and the King of Spain were the promoters of it this because the Huguenots were in friendship with the Gueux the Rebels in the Low-Countreys and he apprehended lest the Duke of Anjou grown more powerful might affect to embrace the Sovereignty of those Provinces or that the King of Navarre young and valiant would endeavour to wrest that Kingdom out of his hands which he so unjustly detained from him the other because he feared the Huguenots might become so strong as would oblige the King to hold a National Council and believed withal that if he could but exterminate them in France he might very easily attain his ends and trample on all the Protestants elsewhere Now the League appeared first in Picardy The People in that Countrey ignorant and devout but hot-headed easily took fire upon the apprehension was spread on purpose amongst them how the Prince of Condé would plant his Religion in that Province if he came to make his Residence at Peronne pursuant to the Treaty of Peace James de Humieres Governour of Peronne Montdidier and Roye great in Estate and Credit induced the Nobility and most of the Cities in that Province to sign it and Aplincourt a young Gentleman of his kindred took the Oaths of the Inhabitants of Peronne The Duke of Guise and the Duke of Mayenne engaged Champagne and then Burgundy to do the like Lewis de la Tremouille prevailed in Poitou being offended with the Huguenots who now and then surprized some Castle of his withal desirous to impugne the Count de Lude Governour of the Province In fine this Faction which had this taken root in every Province did on a suddain shoot forth such thick and lofty branches that it both cover'd and eclipsed nay almost stifled the whole Regal Authority When the Huguenots demanded with such instance the Estates-General
great Guns they lowred their Pikes and surrendred their Colours which were immediately restored to them again by the generosity of the King who desiring to oblige the whole Nation wrote a very civil Letter to the Cantons The Duke of Mayenne after he had performed all the Duties of a great Commander and brave Cavalier drew part of his Men over the Bridge then caused it to be broken down and with that remnant escaped to Mantes The Inhabitants were willing to receive his Person but not quarter his Troops but made them go thorough ten by ten Nemours Aumale and some other Chiefs with what they could rally retired to Chartres over the Plain The Duke attributed the loss of this Battle to his Flemish Men at Arms who were heavy and unskilful as well the Men as their Horses to the temerity of Count Egmont who commanded them to the mistake of the Vicount de Tavanes who being short-sighted ranged the Squadrons so near each other that there was not space enough in the intervals for the Reisters to wheel about and draw up again in the rear of the rest and above all to the cowardize of those very Reisters who having at first given ground fell into the Dukes Squadron and continuing still to wheel off during the whole fight fell upon the others likewise and so put them into disorder For fear of being pursued he had broken down the Bridge of Yvry and there hapned the greatest slaughter of the run-aways the Reisters defended themselves a while in the Burrough but were all knock'd on the Heads The King having past the River at the Ford of Anet was come to Lodge at Rosny which is a League beyond Mantes His approaches startled the Inhabitants of that Town the Duke perceived by their looks there would be little security for him there and for that reason retired speedily to St. Denis The Plain of Yvry was not the only place wherein destiny to speak like the Vulgar declared for the King the same day it gave him in Auvergne another advantage of great importance and such as wholly confirmed his Affairs in that Province The Count de Randan had surprized the Town of Issoire and built a Citadel the Gentlemen Royalists and the Citizens of Clermont who in hatred to those of Rion Year of our Lord 1590. March had a great deal of Zeal for the Kings Party surprized the City by their intelligence with a Consul and besieged the Citadel Florat Seneschal of Auvergne Commanded on this occasion Randan comes to relieve the Citadel and invested both him and his Party in the Town The Lords of that Country amongst others Rostignac the Kings Lieutenant the Vicount de Lavedan the Baron de Chaseron the Marquiss de Curton who commanded the little Army and d'Effiat came to disengage their Friends This could not be without a Battle it was very obstinate but in fine the Leagners were overthrown It cost them five hundred Men whereof there were an hundred Gentlemen and amongst the rest the generous Count de Randan who being taken Prisoner died of his Wounds in Issoire Those of the Citadel having heard of this defeat capitulated and the Victors returned in great triumph to Clermont The Duke of Mayenne was no sooner parted from Mantes but that City and that of Vernon turned their backs upon him It was said that if he could but have left a good Garison there he had stopt the King upon the Banks of the Seine and made his Victory vanish In effect he had neither Implements nor Ammunitions to make a Siege nor could he keep the Nobility with him any longer who upon the rumour of a Battle came in all haste to him without any Equipage The Wise la Noue was of opinion he should go directly to Paris where the Victory of Yvry had wonderfully raised the courage of his Friends and depressed that of the Seize the Mareschal de Biron most prevalent in the Council of War and d'O Surintendant of the Finances hindred it The first as it was said because he feared lest the King whom he treated as his Scholer should free himself if we may so say from the power of his Ferula and have the less regard of him if his business came to be dispatched so soon The second because he desired rather to reduce Paris by violent means For he judged that in case it were so the King would have just cause not only to take away the Cities Revenue but likewise extort great Ransoms from them and lay such Imposts as he pleased Now whatever motive he had he rested fifteen days at Mantes in which space the League did a little recover out of their astonishment calmed the Peoples fears and repaired their leaks Their Chiefs that they might gain more time made some Proposals for an Accommodation Villeroy first entred into Conference with Plessis Mornay in the Castle of Suindre near Mantes the Legat procured another at Noisy le Sec between the Cardinal de Gondy and the Marâ—schal Biron and was also present himself All very ineffectually for them because the King without any delay prepared himself to besiege Paris Year of our Lord 1590. March and April He had already taken Lagny Provins Monstereau Bray on the Seine and Melun Some false intelligence put him upon attempting the City of Sens but he was repulsed by Chanvallon with the loss of three hundred Men. From thence he came and seized on the Castle and Bridge of Sainct Maur des Fossez the Five and twentieth day of April having fifteen thousand Foot and little less then four thousand Horse Then Paris found they were block'd up That innumerable and confused multitude of People without Heads at least not absolute without foresight without Discipline who apprehended no danger because they understood it not and who relied upon their great numbers and strength had made no provisions for the Belly nor for War neither had the Chiefs taken any care to provide against either publick or private necessities When it came into their thoughts it was too late the Countries about them had no Corn nor Forrage all the Bridges beneath the City were in the Kings power and the Marne could furnish them with little because the Harvest that year had been very ill in Champagne They had scarce any other Stores but three thousand Muids of Corn and ten thousand Muids of Wine which Givry suffer'd to pass the Bridge of Chamoy for a present bestow'd upon him of ten thousand Crowns and out of a secret Complaisance he had for Mademoiselle de Guise with whom he was mightily smitten month May. The Duke of Mayennes Orders and their Necessity confer'd the Government of the City on the Duke of Nemours his Brother by the Mother a young Prince of an active boldness and great vigour He had then no Men of note about him but the Chevalier d'Aumale brave but wild and untractable and of Soldiers only twelve hundred Lansquenets as many French and a thousand Swiss
and Huguenots grew hotter and higher as did the jealousies between the Servants of the present King and those belonging to the former Court who ever kept a Cabal by themselves and did their utmost to discredit each other upon all occasions Thereupon the King called a Council to know what he must do amidst these Disorders He met with nothing but confused advice apprehension and disunion so that it was no time to take a resolution but a necessity to decamp He turned therefore towards Senlis passed the Oyse at Creil with more precipitation then should have been upon a good retreat and after an endeavour to compose them again by the taking of Clermont in Beauvoisis he puts a part of them into the Towns about Paris sent the rest with the Nobility into the Provinces and could not keep with himself above seven or eight hundred Horse When he had passed the Oyse the Dukes of Parma and Mayenne came out of their Intrenchments It is said the former had the curiosity to visit Paris incognito whither Vitry conducted him and observing the Fauxbourgs quite ruined the Shops empty and unfurnished most of the Streets deserted the People with dejected looks and meager Faces a melancholy silence in all parts in stead of the mirth and jollity Year of our Lord 1590. September he expected to find it begot more pity in him to behold their sorrow and miseries then joy for his having deliver'd them After this the two Dukes spread their Forces over the Country of Brie and regained all the little places They would willingly have open'd the Seine as they had unstop'd the Marne the Duke of Parma to that effect besieged Corbeil He thought it would be a work but of five or six days but wanting Powder and the Governors of the places for the League supplying him but unwillingly and in small Parcels it took him up a whole Month. In the mean time his Soldiers gorging themselves month October with unripe Grapes got the Dysentery whereof above three thousand died In fine he took the place by Storm the Sixteenth of October but that done he begins his march towards the Low-Countries not to be staid by the most earnest intreaties of the Duke of Mayenne He was much dissatisfied with his sloath and jealousie however he left him Eight thousand Men and promised to return the following year with greater Forces advising him to hazard nothing in his absence but to entertain the King all along with Treaties of Peace Before his departure he had the displeasure of seeing his Conquest of Corbeil lost in one night which had cost him so many Men and so much time Givry Governor of Brie with his Troops which were in Melun took it by Escalado The King having drawn his together followed him in his rear to the Arbre de Guise At his return being come to refresh himself at St. Quentin he there learn'd that Charles de Humieres his Lieutenant in Picardy had gained the City of Corbie by the Petard and Escalado kill'd the Governor and put the Garison to the edge of the Sword The Publick suffer'd there an irreparable loss by the destruction of the most part of the rare Manuscripts which were in the Library of St. Peters Abby month March c. In the Provinces the Duke of Lorrain conquer'd Villefranche upon the Frontiers of Champagne but raised his Siege most shamefully from before Saincte Menehoud As to Bretagne the Naval Force of Spain being entred into the Channel of Blavet put five thousand Men ashoar commanded by Juan d'Aquila who after he had razed a Fort built there by the Prince of Dombes and then in conjunction with the Duke of Mercoeur forced the City of Hennebond erected two great Forts at the chops of the Channel with design to maintain so important a Post Lesdiguieres became absolute in Daufine by the reduction of the City of Grenoble Year of our Lord 1590. March c. The Isere divides it in two parts which are joyned with a Bridge he gained that by Escalado which lies at the Foot of the Hill less then the other by two thirds but Albigny stopt him for three weeks at the end of the Bridge and might have hindred him from passing further if the People tired with the War had not forced him to Capitulate It was express'd in the Articles That he should have three Months time to choose his Party and that if he took the Kings he should hold his Government He waved the advantage and chose rather to keep to what his Religion and Promise engaged him to The King of Spain was satisfied that if he could but wrest Provence out of the hands of the French he should be Master of the Mediterraneum and break their Alliance with the Turk their Communication with Italy and their Trade into the Levant he therefore gave a Fleet of forty seven Galleys to the Duke of Savoy and allowed him to make Levies in Milanois and the Kingdom of Naples Whilst this Fleet was preparing the Duke raised a Land Army which he intended to be of Ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse With these he entred into Provence being invited thereto by a famous Deputation of that Country who waited upon him at Nice When he arrived at Merargues he took Horse with seven more and rode post to Aix the next day The City made him a more solemn Reception then ever they had done to any Prince and some days after appearing in Parliament he by a solemn Decree had the Title given him of Governor and Lieutenant General of the Province under the Crown of France Both the Kings Party and that of the League were equally tormented with Discords and Factions In that of the League the Duke of Savoy the Duke of Mercoeur and the Duke of Joyeuse drew to themselves the one Provence the other Bretagne and the third Languedoc The Duke of Mayenne had conceived a cruel jealousie for the Reputation of the Duke de Nemours the affection the City of Paris bare to him and for that their common Mother supported and seemed willing to make this younger Brother become his equal Wherefore he flatly denied him the Government of Normandy and after this there never was any more real trust or confidence between them on the contrary these two half Brothers watch'd each other as they had been sworn Enemies and endeavour'd all they could to break one anothers measures On the other hand the Seize having it in their Heads to unite together all the great Cities of the Kingdom under a Republican form of Government and for that purpose relying upon the power of the Spaniard who notwithstanding had quite another aim then theirs fell into a hatred of the Duke of Mayenne as well because he opposed their design as because he had dissolved the Council of Forty and did not month October admit them in the management of Affairs Amongst the Royalists were more Factions yet not all so violent because every one had
surrender to the King that they might be at ease the Peasants and Commons of the upper Guyenne rose and took up Arms to defend themselves from the plundrings of the Nobility and the cruel vexations of Tax-gatherers They gave them the nick-name of Tard-Advisez and they again retorted the appellation of Croquants because in effect they feed upon and devoured the poor Country People Their first Rendezvous was in Limosin Chambret who was Governor there for the King beat and dispersed them Those of Angoulmois who endeavour'd to do the same were likewise scatter'd by Massez the Kings Lieutenant in that Country But it was not so facile to appease those of Perigord A Country Notary first brought them together in the Forest of Absac within a League of Limiel and they afterwards had divers other Assemblies where they increased to the number of Forty thousand The Mareschal de Matignon enervated their whole Strength by inveigling from amongst them all such as had born Arms of whom he formed several Companies and sent them into Languedoc the King allay'd the rest of the Storm by remitting the remainder of their Tailles Bretagne and Burgundy were yet standing out not having submitted to the King We may say one part of Provence also for he thought it worse in the hands of Espernon then in those of the League The Inhabitants of Laval introduced the Mareschal d'Aumont into their City Lesonnot Governor of Concarneaux treated with him Talhouet soon after did the same for Redon and made himself Master of Morlaix by the assistance of the Bourgeois and of the Castle after a long Siege There were five thousand Year of our Lord 1594 Spaniards in the Province commanded by one Don Juan d'Aquila and the Duke of month October Mercoeur had three thousand very good Men so that if they could have agreed together they would have been stronger then the Royalists but the jealousie of those two Nations and the peeks between the two Chiefs rendred them incompatible Aquila refused to joyn with the Duke to relieve the Castle the Duke did the same when Aumont had besieged the Fort of Crodon which the Spaniards had built with great expence upon the point de la Langue which divides the Gulf of Conquet and commands it Before this Quinpercorentin being only invested had surrendred to the Mareschal and soon after the Town of St. Malo perfected their Treaty wherein her Merchants made it appear they were neither ignorant in their Interests nor in their Politicks As for Provence the King durst not overtly set aside the Duke of Espernon as well because of the Intelligence he might contract with Spain and Savoy as because of his Alliances with the Mareschal de Bouillon the Duke de la Trimouille and Ventadour who besides were very much discontented and even with the Constable de Montmorency I call him so for the Sword was given him the precedent year He therefore only sent for him to come to Court to do equal Justice upon his and the Countries Complaints But the said Duke having four thousand Men lent him by the Constable and five and twenty hundred which himself had raised he returns into his Fort and held the City of Aix by the throat as he did the Count de Carces and the Parliament exercising his revenge upon all those that fell into his hands Lesdiguieres moved by their re-iterated cries quitted the Affairs of Savoy to go and succour them He passed the River of Durance at Ourgon and intrenched himself month May c. at Senas Espernon came bravely forth to meet him and try'd him by great Skirmishes but could not stop his march for the Constable would not risque his Men but even withdrew them quite This Lord who after a long Series of Troubles and Crosses was become huge Circumspect found it much safer to make himself a Mediator then a Party in a Cause wherein it was to be feared the King would declare He therefore procured a Truce for three Months during which time the Fort was deposited in the hands of Lafin a perpetual Negociator Lafin had undertaken to put three hundred Men in Garison there to keep it in Sequestration Lesdiguieres found means to slip in a great many Soldiers that belonged to him amongst those others so that by his invention the Fort was in his disposition Being therefore one day the Eleventh of July gone month July out of Aix as if to fetch a walk he approaches insensibly to the Fort and when he was near enough commands the Captain in the name of the King to give it up that it might be razed He no sooner spake but the Garison set open the Gates to him in despite of the Captain and at the same time he abandons the said Fort to the Provencaux who in less then two days ruined that vast work which the Spanish Year of our Lord 1594 Army had been above a year in raising month July That done he returned into Daufine apprehending the great preparations for War the Duke of Savoy was making Lesdiguieres had taken several little places in his Country This Prince having regained them all during his absence did also take Briqueras even in his sight making good use in this Enterprize of the Milanese Forces month August who were going to wage War in Burgundy month November The King going after the taking of Noyon to visit his Frontiers of Champagne this was in the Month of November agreed to a Peace with the Duke of Lorrain who had endeavour'd to make it above a twelvemonth before by Bassompiere He promised this Duke to do right to him and his Children as to the Succession of Catharine de Medicis their Grandmother without prejudice to what the Duke pretended as well in his own behalf as theirs to the Dutchies of Bretagne and Anjou and the Counties of Provence Blois and Coucy He left the propriety of Marsal to him and to his Successors the Cities of Dun and Stenay in exchange of Jamets which the Duke rendred to France And moreover promised him the Government of Toul and Verdun for one of his Sons and to the Brother of that Son that should survive him Bassompiere had the Lands of Vaucouleurs engaged to him for an old Debt of Sixty eight thousand Crowns and for thirty six thousand more he lent in ready Money to the Treasury In the same Month of November was in like manner concluded the Treaty between the Duke of Guise and the King who by this means retrieved likewise the Cities in Champagne which were yet in the Leaguers hands Some Months before this young Prince having none that were considerable in his absolute disposal had secur'd himself of Rheims after this manner St. Pol a Creature of his Fathers and who saved his Life the day before the Barricado's master'd this Town by means of a Redoubt he had built at the Gate called Mars and pretended by this piece and some others which he held to make the King confirm his
caused by the Minority of Duke William the Bastard and by the defect of his Birth 216 Tumult in the Dutchy of Benevent 104 Tumult in Rome 121 Turks and of the time wherein they began to make War upon the Christians 95 Of their irruptions upon Christendom 223 c. Turingians revolt against the French 58 c. V. Vaire-Vache Hemon 224 Valda Heretick Chief of the Vaudois 245 Valdrade Espouses King Lothaire King of Lorraine 140 Excommunicated by the Pope 142 Valentinian Emperor his death 11 Vallia King of the Visigoths 4 Vamba King of the Visigoths 65 Vamba King of Spain Vowed and Consecrated to Penitence in an extream Sickness which took away his understanding is obliged to renounce his Royalty Church of the Twelfth Age. Vandals over-run and ravage Gall thence passing into Spain and from thence into Africa 3 c. Vandals absoutely vanquished and their Kingdom extinguished in Africk 23 Varaton Maire of the Palace of Austrasia 69 Varnaquiâ—r Maire of the Palace of Buâ—gundy 44 Varnes Garnes or Guerins a People of Germany exterminated 40 Venedi and Sclavonians 46 Venice and its first establishment 11 Venice its situation and construction 108 110 111 Venetians joyn with the French in the Expedition to the Holy Land 261 262 Venetians in trouble and disorder amongst themselves 108 Verdun puts it self under the protection of the King 348 Vermandois the Subject of a War between King Philip II. and the Earl of Flanders 253 Vespers Sicilian 319 Vexin French given to the Duke of Normandy 214 Given for a Dowry with Margaret Daughter of the aforesaid Prince 242 Vezelay Revolt of the Inhabitants against the Abbot their Lord. 249 Victor elected Pope to the prejudice of Alexander III. 247 His death 248 Victor IV. Antipope 272 St. Victor its foundation 290 Otherwhile the dwelling of a Recluse ib. Divinity taught there Praise of that House ib. Peter de Ville-Beon Chamberlain his death 312 Visigoths pass from Italy into Gall under the Conduct of their King Ataulfus 3 4 Visigoths Civil War amongst them 26 Visigoths elect their Kings ib. Vitiges elected King of the Ostrogoths ib. Vitri in Champagne forced sacked and burnt 2â—3 Vltrogolthe Queen of France leads a Holy Life 27 University of Paris those of Orleance of Toloze and Montpellier and of their institution 341 c. University of Paris its first Institution or Establishment 104 Voyage to the Levant 224 c. Voyage to the Holy Land 261 c. Vrgel Felix Heresiarque 104 Usury 260 Vrban II. Pope dethroned by the Emperor comes into France holds a Council at Clairmont in Auvergne and there Excommunicates the King and his Bertrade 223 Exhorts the Prelats Zealously to the defence of the Christians in the East against the Turks ib. Vrban IV. Pope orders a Croisade to be Preached against Mainfroy the Bastard 309 His death 310 Waroc or Gueret a Breton Earl seizes upon Vannes 33 Wenillon or Guenillon Archbishop of Reims ingrateful and a Traytor to his Prince 139 Not the Fabulous Ganelon ib. Y. Yolante Queen of Castille 317 Ypres William 238 Yves Chanon of St. Victor Cardinal The Twelfth Age. Yvetot in Normandy a Kingdom 25 The end of the Table of the First Volume A TABLE OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE Contained in this SECOND PART PHILIP VI. called de Valois surnamed the Fortunate King XLIX Page 357 1328. In February JOHN I. by some called the good King King L. 371 1350. In August CHARLES V. called the Wise and Eloquent King LI. 384 1364. In April CHARLES VI. called by some the Well-beloved King LII 400 1380. In September CHARLES VII called the Victorious King LIII 447 1422. In October LEWIS XI King LIV. 481 1461. In July CHARLES VIII called the Affable and Courteous King LV. 507 1483. In September LEWIS XII surnamed the Just and the Father of the People King LVI 532 1498. In April FRANCIS I. called the Great and the Father or Patron of the Learned King LVII 556 1525. In January HENRY II. King LVIII 622 1547. In March till 1559 in July A TABLE Of the Principal Matters contained in this SECOND VOLUME A ADornes voluntarily quit the Government of Genoa Pag. 553 Ant. Adornes Duke of Genoa 546 Adrian Pope 570 Makes a League with the Venetians the Emperor and the English against France 573 His death 575 Aiguillon Besieged and well Defended 365 c. Alva Duke Governor of Milanois enters upon the Territories of the Church 647 Albert Marquiss of Brandenburg 632 d'Albret Connestable his death 433 d'Albret General of an Army 540 d'Albret John King of Navarre his death 560 d'Albret Henry King of Navarre ibid. d'Albret Henry of Navarre made Prisoner of War 579 d'Alegre 540 d'Alencon b. 426 d'Alencon Duke his death 433 d'Alencon Duke Prisoner of War 448 Chief of the Praguerie debauches the Daufin from the Service of the King 457 Is taken Prisoner 466 Is Condemned ibid. Is set at Liberty 482 Falls in with the Party for Charles of France and the Duke of Bretagne 488 Is made Prisoner his death Duke of Alencon his shameful flight his death 495 Alexander V. Pope by Election in the Council of Pisa 426 Gives priviledge to four Orders Mendicants to administer the Sacraments in the Parishes and to receive the Tithes if any be given them ib. Alexander VI. Pope 517 Makes a League against the French with the Venetians Pag. 518 His death 540 Alfonso King of Arragon adopted by Queen Jane of Nâ—ples and his adoption â—acated and nulled 448 Alfonso King of Arragon and Sicilia his death 467 Alfonso King of Arragon Enemy of Ludowick Sforza 519 Alfonso King of Naples hated of his Subjects shuts himself in a Monastery his death 521 Alfonso Duke of Ferrara in War with the Pope 546 Alliance by Marriage between the King of France and the Emperor 537 Alliance renewed with the Swiss 628 Ambassadors 587 Ambassadors of France Assassinated and Slain by the Spaniards 612 d'Amboise Chaumont Commands the Kings Army in Burgundy 501 d'Amboise Cardinal in Milan 535 Legate in France 536 Goes to the Emperor Maximilian on behalf of the King of France 537 Aspires to the Papacy 540 His death 546 Amé VI. Earl of Savoy carries his Arms gloriously against Amurath Sultan of the Turks and the King of Bulgaria 385 Accompanies the Duke of Anjou in his Voyage to Italy 405 His death 408 Amé VII Earl of Savoy ib. Amé VIII Duke of Savoy quits his Estates and retires himself to Ripailles 454 Ameri of Pavia a Lombard Traytor rewarded for his Treason as he deserved 368 c. Amurat Sultan 412 Anabaptists and their horrible Tragedies in the City of Munster 598 d'Andelot held Prisoner 651 Andrew King of Sicilia hanged and strangled at his Chamber Window 396 Anjou Duke Lewis foolish enterprise for the Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples 439 Anjou Charles Connestable 467 Anne of France Wife of Peter de Bourbon Beaujeu 506 Governess of the young King Charles VIII 508 She usurps all the Authority ib. Anne