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
deal with the Saxons the Huns the Lombards and the Saracens The Saxons a most Warlike and as yet Idolatrous Nation compounded of several People and such as had been invincible had they acted by a mutual agreement and consent gave him work and exercise enough for above Thirty Years during which time he made divers Expeditions against them always with advantage He never denyed them Peace and they broke again as soon as he was out of their sight But his Piety constant as their Malice was never wearied in forgiving them not so much out of a desire to allure them to his obedience as to bring them under the Yoak of Christ Jesus The highest part of his Care having no other end but the propagation of Religion He entred into Saxony therefore this Year and would try to terrify those Rebels by Fire and Sword but they were not afraid to bid him Battle somewhat neer Osnabrug Their Confidence was punished by a huge Slaughter of their men those that remained made their escape beyond the Veser He pursuing his Victory took in the Castle of Eresburgh demolished the Famous Temple of the false God Irmensul and broke his Idol It is supposed to have been the God Mars whence Mers-purg took it's name He afterwards pass'd the Veser compelled the Saxons to give him some Hostages and having rebuilt Fresburgh put a French Garrison into it Year of our Lord From the Year 767 to 771. King Didier not able or willing to give over the Design his Predecessors had formed to abate the Power of the Popes to make himself thereby Master of all Italy sowed a Schisme in the Church of Rome whereby to discompose and weaken them Pope Paul being dead Anno 767. Toton Duke of Nepet at his instigation enters into Rome and forced the Clergy to Elect his Brother Constantine who was not in Orders The following Year another Cabal Enemies to this Violence of Constantine's sets a Priest in the holy Chair named Philip But Crestofle Primicera this was the highest Dignity in the City next to the Prefect constrained both the one and the other to renounce the Popeship and caused Stephanus to be duly elected a Priest of St. Cecil's who was the fourth of that name Didier bethinks him of another method in the Year 770. he goes to Rome upon pretence of Devotion and by force of Presents gained Paul Afiarte Duke or Soveraign Judge in Rome to cause this Crestofle to be put to death and to banish or imprison for colourable reasons all such Roman Citizens as he knew to be most able and disposed to thwart his attempts Afiarte did according to his desire but Adrian who was chosen after Stephen stopt those unjust proceedings and not only eluded all the vain essays of the Lombard but was likewise the cause of his utter destruction After all other Experiments Didier employs Force seizes on several Cities of the Exarchat ravaged the Neighbourhood of Rome and the Year after to turmoil the Pope advances towards him upon pretence of Visiting the Sepulchre of the holy Apostles carrying along with him the Sons of the late King Carloman to oblige him to Crown them The Holy Father flatly refuses him and failed not to make use of this Motive to exasperate Charlemaine the more against the Lombards Year of our Lord 773 Betwixt these two Kings there were already some other causes of Enmity For in the Year 771. Charles had repudiated Hildegard the Sister of Didier saying she was infirm A pretence that did not please a great many good people particularly Adelard the King's Cousin who for this reason retired from the Court into a Monastery And Didier on his side had given a reception to Carloman's Widow and promised her his assistance and support to restore her Sons to the Inheritance or Kingdom of their Father These offences having inclined Charles's Mind to hearken to the Pope's Intreaties he was the more easily induced to pass over the Mountains but with so great and numerous Forces that it was evident it was not meant so much to assist him as to conquer Lombardy Having therefore Rendevouz'd his Army at Geneva he divided it in two Bodies his Uncle Bernard with one took his way by the Mount Jou and himself led the other by Mount Cenis Didier had fortified the Passages and in case they should be worsted himself was advanced with all his Forces neer Turin and in Year of our Lord 773 the Valley of Aost to observe and oppose the French even to the hazard of a Battle but some of their Army having stollen by him very silently and charging them in the Rear he was so much afraid of being hemm'd in that he cast himself into Pavia and Adalgise his Son whom he had made Partner of his Crown into Verona Those of Spoletta and Rietta had already forsaken him to joyn with the Pope When his Retreat was known all the Marca Anconitana and many other Cities followed their Example Charles with a part of his Army encamped before Pavia and sent the remainder before Verona And to demonstrate he did not intend to go thence till he had them in his power he ordered his new Wife Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suevia to come to his Camp and passed the Winter there even till Christmass at which time he goes to Verona to press that Siege forwards Adalgise apprehending to fall into his hands abandoned that City and fled to the Emperour of Greece The Veronese soon after yielded Year of our Lord 774 and gave up Carloman's Children and Widow they were carried into France what afterwards became of them is not mentioned that I know of Nothing remained but Pavia The Siege spinning out in length Charles had a desire to go and pay his Devotions at Rome at the good time of Easter The Pope made him a magnificent Entrance such as was accustomed to be made for the Exarchs He in return confirms all the Grants made by his Father and besides say some added that of Soveraign Justice and absolute Power in all those Countries So that to speak properly the Popes before this time held what they had from the French Kings from whom it must be owned they derive the best portion of their temporal Grandeur In length of time Pavia became so straightned not by any Attaques but by Famine and the people so ill disposed Hunoud the Fire-brand of this War having been knock'd on the head by the Women that Didier surrenders himself with his Wife and Children to Charles He was conveyed into France Cloister'd and Shaved and died soon after Thus was the Kingdom of Lombardy in Italy Extinguished after it had lasted some 204 Years Before his return into France Charles made a second Voyage to Rome where the Pope with 150 Bishops whom he had summoned to honour his Reception and likewise the Roman People conferred upon him the Title of Patrician which was the Degree the nearest to the Empire It belonged to the Emperours only
joyned with those of the County and together made Count Sance Duke of Gascogny To whom some years after succeeded Arnold Son of Emenon or Immon Count of Perigord In the year 841. whilst the Kings were in the Field to destroy each other Hochery or Oger one of the most Famous Commanders of the Normands who commanded a Fleet of 150 Ships Burnt the City of Rouen the 14 th of May and the Abbey of Gemiege some days afterwards and for Fifteen or Sixteen years together continued his Barbarities upon Neustria and more particularly upon Bretagne and Aquitain They had also taken their course by Bretagne to make a descent The revolt of that Province opening a gap for them Louis the Debonnaire had given the Government to Neomenes descended from the Ancient Kings of those Countries and younger Brother of Rivalon Father of Salomon Now Neomene having acquired some reputation for having made head against the Normans An. 836. began to think himself worthy of the Crown belonging to his Ancestors however his design did not appear till after the Battel of Fontenay when being incited thereto by Count Lambert he openly declared himself Soveraign and drove all the French out of Bretagne unless those in Rennes and in Nantes who held out This Lambert enraged because King Charles had refused him the County of Nantes which he desired and demanded as a reward for having fought valiantly for him at the Battel of Fontenay renounced his Service and Leagued himself with Neomene with whose assistance having beaten and slain Reynold Count of Poitiers to whom the King had given Nantes he remained Master of the City But being in a short time driven thence in a contest hapning between Neomene and himself he mischievously went and fetched the Normans and brought them up the River before Nantes which they took by Escalado on Saint Johns Festival cut the Throats of most of the Inhabitants who were gotten into Saint Peter's Church Year of our Lord 844 and Massacred the Bishop at the High-Altar while he was saying Mass carried away all that were left alive and from thence went and Burnt the Monastery of the Islands which was Noir Moustier Thus Lambert became Count of a ruined City and endeavoured to maintain himself there wavering betwixt the King and Neomene unfaithful to both and beloved by neither After the division made by the Kings Bretagne being a pretended Member of West France which fell to the lot of Charles the Bald that Prince having now no enemies at home turned his Sword that way thiuking to bring Neomene to obedience But he confidently comes towards him and meeting him on his March in the Road from Chartres to Mans charged him so smartly that he put his Army to the Rout and forced him to fly to Chartres on Horse-back This advantage redoubled the Bretons Forces who made inroads upon Maine Anjou and Poitou It seems nevertheless there was some Truce since upon King Charles's intreaty Neomene drove Count Lambert out of Nantes who went and Nestled himselfin the Lower Anjou and there Built the Castle of Oudon At the same time that Charles was defeated by Neomene a Civil-War infesting Denmark the Lords of those Countries who found themselves strong at Sea amongst others Hasteng and Bier Iron-sides fell upon West France and haing forced the Guards that defended the Mouth of the Seine went up that River with their Barks They Sacked all on the right and left Shoar and Year of our Lord 845 being unable to take Paris they destroy'd all that lay without the Island Plundred the Abbey of Saint Germain des Prez and Ruined the City of Melun When they were pretty well laden with spoil they were soon tempted with Presents made them by Charles to withdraw themselves but as they returned they ravaged Picardy Flanders and Friseland and took the City of Hamburgh however observing all Germany was rising up to expel them from thence they quitted it The Priests and all Religious Orders fled before them from place to place seeking out places of safety or at least hiding places to conceal and keep the Churches Treasure in as also their Holy-Relicks towards which their devotion did so much ✚ increase when that furious Storm was over that it occasioned sometimes bloody contests between the Citizens and Nobility when the one would have them restored and the other would detain them Year of our Lord 843 Whilst Lotaire had denuded Italy of all it's Forces to lead them into France the Dukes Radelchise of Benevent and Sigenulfe of Capoua quarrelling with each other without regarding young Louis his Son called the one the Saracens of Spain to his assistance the other those of Sardinia for those Barbarians had invaded that Island and gave them entrance into Italy where having Fortified themselves â—in many places they exercised their fury for twenty years together And An. 847. pillaged the Burrough of Saint Peter and the Church of that Prince of the Apostles Which obliged Pope Leo the IV. to enclose it with a wall and quarter the Corsicans there whom the Saracens had driven from their Island Year of our Lord 846 The Nobility respected their Kings so little that Connt Gisabert dared to Steal away the Daughter of the Emperor Lotharius and convey'd her into the Dominions of Charles to marry her which gave great cause of complaint to Lotaire and much trouble to Louis of Germany to appease his resentment In Guyenne the great ones raised Forces for their private quarrels and fought in despite of Pepin In Italy in the year 844. the Clergy and Citizens of Rome had the considence to elect Sergius II. Pope without the Emperors permission who nevertheless having sent Twenty Bishops and with them some Soldiers forced the Pope to render his devoir and to acknowledge him for his Soveraign It is a Fable that this Pope first changed his Name and that before his Election he was called Swines-snowt for it was Sergius IV. had that filthy Name and he whom we here mention was called Sergius as was his Father It is held by some that it was one Octavian introduced this mysterious change who would needs be named John He was the 12th of that name Year of our Lord 846 The French being entred into Bretagne intangled themselves unadvisedly in Boggs and Fenny-grounds where they received a second blow Year of our Lord 847 While Charles was preparing for a Third expedition against that Country the terror of the Normans obliged him to agree to a peace with Neomene which nevertheless did not hold long for he began immediately again to make his inroads Year of our Lord 847. And 848. upon France For which Charles taking revenge by Fire and Sword in Bretagne Neomene did the like to all the adjacent Countries and the Territory of Rennes which did not then belong to his petty Kingdom Hitherto he had not taken the Title of King or at least had not put on the Crown The custom of those times were
that the People did not believe a Prince wore it Legally if it were not put on by the hand of one Bishop and the consent of all Now those of Bretagne having for the most part been nominated by Louis the Debonnaire would not give their Ministery nor their approbation to this Usurper He contrived therefore an accusation of Simony against them by the means of an Abbot named Connoyon esteemed as a Saint by the People The assembly sends them before the Pope to justify themselves the Abbot follows them to Rome and Neomene causes him to be accompanied with a stately Embassy with a Present of a Gold Crown for the Pope and an order to desire of him the Restoration of the extinguished Royalty in Bretagne The whole House of France opposed this so strongly that he obtained nothing of the Holy-Father but some Relicks and verbal Reprimands for the accusation against the Bishops But at their return he frighted them so with the fear of Death as made them confess those crimes and thereupon caused them to be deposed Year of our Lord 848. And 849. Presently after he put men of his own Faction in their rooms made three more Bishopricks that is of Dole Treguier and St. Brieuc and Ordained the Bishop of Dole for Metropolitan The Popes had bestowed the Pall on those Prelats in the sixth Century All this tended towards his Crowning and Anointing after the Mode of the French Kings Which was performed in the City of Dole where he had assembled the Estates of his petty Kingdom All his Bishops assisted except Actard of Nantes who for that reason being turned out of his See retired to the Arch-Bishop of Tours his true Metropolitan who having called together the Bishops of his Province and those adjoyning caused some Remonstrances to be made to Neomene but to no purpose Year of our Lord 848 Two other Enemies perhaps leagued together young Pepin and the Normans drew Charles's Army into Aquitain In the Month of March he took some of those Pirats Ships in the Dordogne and compelled Pepin to leave the Field to him But when he was gone from that Province the Normands surprised Burdeaux by the treachery of the Jewes that were in it and took William Duke of the Gascons Prisoner and such others as their covetousness prompted them to spare alive after their fury had been glutted with blood The French were so feeble and weak as to let them make that place their Store-house and Armory for several years Year of our Lord 849 The two Kings Lotaire and Charles had an interview in the Palace of Peronne and by Oaths renewed again their affection and league for mutual Security Charles Brother to Pepin of Aquitain relying too much upon these seeming demonstrations was so imprudent when he returned from Lotaire's Court of whose protection he made no doubt as to pass by West France Count Vivian observing his steps stop'd him and carried him to Charles the Bald who at the Assembly of Chartres caused him to be shaved and sent him to the Monastery of Corbie About four years afterwards Louis the Germanick his Uncle made him Arch-Bishop of Ments Year of our Lord 850 King Pepin his Brother had many very ill qualities he was a Drunkard filthyly Debauched and Violent vexing and grieving his Subjects and Authorizing the unjustice and robberies committed by his Officers A good part of the Grandees of Aquitain having conceived a kind of scorn and hatred for him invited and called in Charles the Bald whom they received with great applause at Limoges and attended him to the Siege of Tolouse which surrendred on composition But as soon as he had left Aquitain they reconciled themselves to Pepin Year of our Lord 850 The Voyage which Charles the Bald made into Bretagne to put a reinforcement into Rennes did not prevent Neomene from Besieging that Town and taking Prisoners all the Chief Officers of that Garrison Year of our Lord 850 The same year the Traytor Lambert having turned his Coat seized Count Amaulry and divers other French Lords who were gotten into Nantes without doubt to defend that place Year of our Lord 851 The following year Neomene attaquing the French Territories by Anjou and destroying their Churches with as much Barbarity almost as the Normans was smitten as it is believed by the hand of God whereof he died in few hours space His Son Herispoux succeeded him There was a general Assembly held of all the Kingdoms of the French Monarchy on the banks of the Meuse where the three Brothers met and swore Amity and mutual Assistance At their departure from thence Charles goes into Bretagne to attaque Herispoux whom he guessed to be as yet unsettled Their Armies engaged on the Confines of Anjou If we credit the Bretons Charles's was but ill handled However it were he agreed to a Peace with the Breton to take possession of Aquitain which was a thing of more importance and also to oppose the Normans The same year the Pyrate Hachery coming out of Burdeaux with his Fleet destroyed the Abbey of Fontenelle to the very Foundations then going up the Seine with his small Boats he plundred all the Country for a great way on either side and burnt divers Cities amongst others that of Beaurais Year of our Lord 852 Pepins ill conduct had so highly offended the Lords of his Kingdom that in fine they seized on his Person and delivered him up to Charles who caused him to be shorn and confined to the Monastery of Saint Mard. Whence making his escape he roved a while and took part with the Normans which made him only the more odious So that being retaken he was close shut up in the Castle of Senlis Year of our Lord 852 The same year Lotaire associated his eldest Son Louis in the Empire He had three living this Louis Lotaire and Charles Lotaire and Louis his Son associate in the Empire Louis King of East-France Bavaria Charles of West-France and Aquitaine There would be no end if we should set down all the exploits and ravages of Year of our Lord 852. And 853. the Normans In An. 852 and 853. other multitudes went up the Seine again and this latter year some went up the Loire plundred the City of Tours and set Fire to the Churches particularly to that of the Grand Saint Martins Ebon had setled himself again in the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims when Lotaire invaded Year of our Lord 852 the Territories of Charles the Bald Afterwards that King expelled him and in his stead caused Hincmar to be Elected who after many contests was this year confirmed in that Arch-Bishoprick by the Synod of Soâ—ssons Year of our Lord 852 Whether it were by necessity or evil counsel the Bald treated the Aquitains very rudely He caused several of the principal Heads to fly amongst others that of a Count named Gosbert which begot so much aversion in them towards their new Soveraign that under pretence that he took no care to
the divertisement with women and taking counsel only of the lowest and meanest People gave the Lords of Lorraine just cause to forsake him to submit themselves to Louis Those that had the Government of this young Prince brought him purposely to Thionville where they put the Crown upon his Head and Zuentibold endeavouring to revenge it was slain in a Battel fought between them the Year of our Lord 900 3 d. day of August in this year 900. He Reigned five years Charles in Neustria or West-France Louis in Germany Lorraine Rodolph I. in Burgundy Louis in Provence Lambert and Berenger in Italy In the War which Arnold Earl of Flanders made against Hebert Earl of Vermandois Eudes had favoured Hebert and King Charles took part with Arnold to whom he was in some sort obliged for what he enjoy'd Now Eudes being dead Hebert who was subtil and insinuating found means to make friends with Charles and got into so much credit with him that this simple and un-knowing King took the City of Arras from Baldwin and gave it to Count Altmar that he might restore Peronne to Hebert Baldwin or Baudouin coming to the King to beseech him to let him have his Town again was denied with rough language Now Fulk Arch-Bishop of Reims great both by birth and merit was then chief Counsellor to Charles and holding the Abbey of Saint Vaast had excommunicated Baldwin for invading the Lands thereof Wherefore Winomach Lord of the Island Vassal to the Count imputing the affront his Lord had received to the Counsel of this Arch-Bishop way-laid him in a Wood and murthered him for which being pursued and excommunicated by all the Bishops made his escape into England where he was eaten up with Lice It seems this was an Epidemical distemper in those days For we find divers persons in History that died thereof amongst others Arnold the Emperor the preceding year and King Rodolph of whom we shall hereafter make mention The Hungarians began to make themselves known about the latter end of the Reign of Charles the Fatt They then seated themselves in Pannonia having chased out the Huns and from thence became a Scourge to all the Provinces beyond the Rhine and the Year of our Lord 900 Danube as the Normans were to all on this side They were Originally a People of Scythia Brutish and Barbarous beyond all imagination Their Mother 's trained them to inhumanity from their Birth gashing and mangling their Faces that they might have nothing of humane and by swallowing down blood mixed with their own tears before they sucked their first Milk they might grow Blood-thirsty and pitty-less to all mankind They caroused in blood and fed upon raw flesh cut the hearts of those they took Prisoners in quarters and swallowed the gobbets reeking warm had no faith nor truth nor honour no wit but to defraud and contrive mischief always a turbulent and furious courage either against an Enemy or against one another The women were yet worse then the men They had scarcely any other weapons besides Arrows but were so dextrous in the use of them that every one they shot did some execution and every wound almost was Mortal They were all Horsemen very serviceable in flat and open Countries who would notably harrass an Army within their Bow-shot but aseless in Mountainous or Woody places or for Sieges Nor indeed would they ever adventure to come to handy-blows but ever made a running Fight King Arnold had brought them in to fall upon the back of Zuentibold a Sclavonian Prince who would have usurped Moravia and make himself King He being dead they were not afraid to fall upon the Countries belonging to Louis his Son And this year they gained a great victory against his Forces near the Year of our Lord 901 City of Augsburgh and afterwards Plundred Bavaria Scwaben Franconia and Saxony Year of our Lord 902 The year following having good information of the Civil War betwixt Berenger and Louis the Son of Boson they marched into Italy The Italians An. 899. tired with the Government of Berenger and above all with Adebert Marquiss d'Yvree Father of another Berenger who was likewise King of Italy had called in Louis But Berenger I. had made himself so strong with the assistance of Adebert Marquiss of Tuscany that he hemm'd him in and forced him to a promise he would renounce the Kingdom upon condition he would give him free liberty to march home again without farther lett or molestation The oaths of ambitious Princes are as frail and short liv'd as the vows and promises of Lovers the same Adelbert who had supported Berenger's cause turning Coat and solliciting Louis to return thither again that un-advised Prince confides in Faithless men But he had time to repent at leasure For they delivered him up to Berenger who deprived him both of his Empire and his fight That done he forces the Pope it was John IX to Crown him Emperor but so soon as he was gone from Rome the Pope sent for Lambert who was then private in some corner of Italy and Crowned him Which was confirmed by a grand Council held Year of our Lord 902 at Ravenna Berenger Governed 22 years we might say happily enough had it not been for the incursions of the Bulgarians In the Month of August this same year they again entred Italy with a numerous Army and having ransack'd the Territory of Aquilea Verona Coma and Bergamo came at last towards Pavia Berenger mean while had got his Forces together When they saw his numbers three times more then they expected they endeavoured to make a retreat and when he followed and pursued them so close that they could not get off without fighting they profer'd him all their Plunder and their own Baggage The Italians would hear of nothing less then to have them all upon discretion Necessity converted their fear into fury and dispair the Hungarians now attaque their pursuers and cut their Army all in pieces And Lombardy did afterwards become their prey Nor did they attempt to drive them thence but with their money a Bait so sweet that it allured them to return again often In the year 903. a Star appeared near the Pole-Artick which darted from the North-North-East towards the South-West along Train resembling a Lance which passing between the Signs of the Lyon and the Twinns crossed the Zodiack It was seen for three and twenty days For seven or eight years together there was nothing so remarkable as the cruel incursions of the Normans An. 903. Heric and Haric two of their Captains burnt Year of our Lord 903 the Castle of Tours and Saint Martin's Church Year of our Lord 905 An. 905. Rodolph and Gerlon two other Commanders of the same Nation took the City of Rouen upon composition and there setled their Habitation fortifying the Castles that were near them From thence for five years space they made Incursions into all the neighbouring Provinces conquered Constentine and Inhabited
it sacked all Picardy Artois Champagne and the Country of Messin often frighted Paris covered the Seine the Marne and the Loire with the Ashes of those Cities they consumed by Fire near those Streams and beat the French every where excepting at Chartres from whence they were repulsed by the protection of the Holy Virgin and the courage of Bishop Gosseaume and at Tonnere where one of their Parties was defeated by Richard Duke of Burgundy The foregoing year Lambert was killed by treachery as he was taking his pleasure in hunting by Hugo Earl of Milan The Western Empire remained vacant till the year 915. When Berenger was again Crowned by Pope John X. We may here place the Birth of the Kingdom of Arragon because about this time Sancho Abacca I. having extended his Kingdom of Navarre or Territory of Pampeluna towards Huesca and conquered all the rest of the Province of Arragon besides the Earldom of the same name which held already of him took the Title of King of Pampelune and Arragon Year of our Lord 911 In An. 911. hapned the Death of two Kings Rodolph of Burgundy beyond the Jour and Louis King of Germany The first left Rodolph II. his Son for Successor The second being only 19 or 20 years of age had only two Daughters Placidia or Plesance and Matilda who for Husbands had Conrard Duke of Franconia and Henry the Bird-Catcher Duke of Saxony and Son of Duke Otho The Lords of Lewis's Kingdom intending to bestow the Crown upon this Otho he excused himself upon the Score of his great Age and generously advised them to Elect Conrad Duke of Franconia though he had been his Enemy Charles the Simple in France Conrad in Germany Louis in Provence Rodolph II. in Trans-jurane Berenger in Italy Year of our Lord 911 Rollo the great Captain did by little and little make himself familiar and friendly with Franco Arch-Bishop of Rouen Upon his intreaties he had twice or thrice granted a Truce The design of that vertuous Prelat was to convert him Rollo's was to attain the Soveraignty and of the head of those Pirats become a Legal Prince The French Lords had much ado to suffer such a Stranger to be setled thus in the best Country of the Kingdom But the People so long and often tormented by their plundrings and continued disturbance cried out to them to put a period to their miseries Besides Robert Earl of Paris who aspired to the Monarchy desired he might remain in that Station to have his assistance in time of need For these reasons Charles made a Truce with him during which he propounded to him to give him in propriety and with the Title of a Dutchy that part of Neustria between the Sea the River of Seine and the Epte which falls into the Seine with his Daughter Gisele in marriage if he would be converted and embrace Christianity Upon these conditions Rollo was Catechised and received holy Baptism upon Easter-Eve An. 912. Earl Robert was his God-Father and named him After this Year of our Lord 912 he went and did homage to the King for the Lands he gave him and then wedded the Princess his Daughter but she lived only a short time with him and brought him no Children Thus this Province which the Romans called Lugdunensis Secunda was dismembred from the propriety of the Kings of France But not from their Soveraignty and according to the name of it's new Inhabitants took that of Normandy As this was granted to them because they knew not how to drive them out so for the same reason they were released of the Homage and dependance of Bretagne because they were indeed Masters of it and pillag'd it when ever they pleased And withal by this means it was reduced to the Soveraignty of the Crown by subjecting it under a Duke that held it of the King Year of our Lord 913 The year following Rollo failed not to demand Homage of the Bretons with his Sword in hand Duke Alain Rebre ' or the Great had been dead six years and left his Children very young Those that govern'd them rather then let them derogate from their Soveraignty carried them out of the Country with some of the greatest Nobility And since that we find no meution of them in History Count Porhouet named Mathued who had married a Daughter of Alain's the Grand went into England with his Wife Berenger Earl of Rennes and Alain de Dol having defended themselves the best they could were at last constrained to bow the Knee before the Normans and shake hands with them There were besides in divers other parts of France especially in Bretagne Anjou and the Country of Maine and the Islands in the River Loire numbers of these people but in time following the example of Rollo they took Habitations and Naturalized themselves French but not without first doing a vast deal of mischief and for a long while after the settlement of these drew in fresh swarms from Denmark and Sweden who were no less ravenous and cruel though not so formidable as the first Year of our Lord 913. and 14. All the Grandees of Germany were not satisfied with the Election of Conrard Arnold Duke of Bavaria Proud for having vanquished the Hungarians in his Dutchy rose up against him with design to make himself King and not being able to compass it pretended to stickle that Charles might have it Year of our Lord 915 That King had it ever in his thoughts to Sieze again upon the Kingdom of Lorrian Now meeting this fit juncture and the assistance of Reiner Count of Ardennâ— who was very potent in those Countries he enters into Lorrain and makes himself Master of part of that Kingdom whereof he made him Governor with the Quality of a Duke Year of our Lord 916 Duke Rollo had repudiated Pope Daughter of the Earl of Bayeux to marry the Daughter of Charles the Bald that Princess being dead he takes his former wife again by whom he had two Children William and Gerlote or Gerloc Henry Duke of Saxony rebels against Conrad gains a Battel over Everard his Year of our Lord 916 Lieutenant and gives chase to Conrad himself whilst on the other side the Hungarians over-run even to Alsace burning the City of Basle and can have no stop put to them but by Sums of Money which Conrad is forced to give them Year of our Lord 917 An. 917. Died Rollo first Duke of Normandy for ever renowned for that severe justice and exact policy he establisht within his Dominions Where the very mention of his name is able to this day to stop the Progress of Villians and bring those that are such before the judgment Seat Some put off his death to the year 924. his Son William afterwards surnamed Long-Sword Succeeded him And because he was but yet a Minor Robert Earl of Paris God-Father to his Father undertook his Tuition Year of our Lord 918 The following year hapned the Death of
fit we observe that at the Coronations of Kings they forgot not their own Interests nor failed to make them promise solemnly to maintain the Rights of the Church But we do not find them always so careful and zealous for the good of the People and the Prerogative of the Nobility Of those that appeared with most Splendor some were such as were noted for Intrigues and Factions and of them were a great number Ebbon of Reims Agobard of Lyons and Bernard de Vienne active in the degrading of Louis the Debonnaire Ebroin of Poictiers for disposing Aquitain to surrender themselves into the hands of that Emperor who would bestow it upon Charles his beloved Son Thietgaud de Colen and Gontier de Ments touching the marriage of Valdrade And Hincmar of Reims for his resisting the Pope and intermedling with all affairs both of Church and State wherein he acted with as much heat as judgment during the Reign of Charles the Bald. The others were illustrious for their Learning as the same Agobard Theodulfe and Jonas his Successor Rabanus Maurus of St. Bennets Order and Arch-Bishop of Mentz Hincmar of Reims who had been Abbot of St. Denis and the other Hincmar his Nephew Remy de Lyons Adon de Vienne Hilduin Abbot of St. Denis Loup Abbot of Ferrieres in Gastinois Henry Monk of St. Germain d'Auxerre Valafride Strabon Abbot of Richenoue Florus Master of the Church of Lyons that is a Divine and John Scot or Scotus surnamed Erigena This last was a great Philosopher and for the Beauty and Delicacy of his wit highly cherished by Charles the Bald even to the lying in his Chamber But in Theology he passed for one of a raving Brain whose sentiments were not right and sound As for Hincmar de Reims we have his works whereof every one may judge The other Hincmar his nephew very zealons for the Popes authority collected their Decretal Letters and was the first that durst put down the names of some Ancient Popes who till that time had none but which Isâ—dore Mercator had already gathered together Other Canonists followed his error till at length the more judicious found they were but fictitious Adon de Vienne composed a Matyrology which is yet in being Hilduin wrote the life of St. Denis the Areopagite by command of Louis the Debonnaire from the Memoires of Methodius Patriarch of Constantinople who to flatter the French endeavour'd to have two things believed which the Criticks pretend to condemn of false-hood The one that this Saint Denis had been Bishop of Paris the other that those Writings which go under his name were his own We have the Epistles of Loup de Ferrieres which give a great light in the affairs of those times And the Monk Henry wrote the Life of Saint Germain de Auxerre in more Elegant Verse then the roughness of that Age could promise I shall observe en passant that Latin Poetry began to rouze its self under Charles the Bald and amongst other Poets that flatter'd him there was one that made a Piece containing three hundred Hexameters in praise of the Bald where every word began with the Letter C. Some for their good lives deserved to be placed in the Catalogue of Saints as Anscher taken out of the Order of St. Bennet by Louis the Debonnaire to be the first Arch-Bishop of Hamburgh Established by that Emperor and to Preach to the Danes and Swedes the same Rabanus whom we have mentioned Two Audrâ—'s one of Sens the other of Mans Ayos de Bourges Prudence de Troyes Hildeman de Beauvais Foulquin and Hunfroy de Teroüanne Amant de Rodez and Bernard de Vienne This last had Adon above-named for Successor both in his Sanctity and his See But he had very few in that good Christian Maxim so often in his Mouth and ever in his Soul That the Riches and Goods of the Church are the Patrimony of the Poor and that a Clergy-man hath no right to them but for his necessities Nor did he keep any more Domestique Servants but one Priest and one Lay-man Proclaiming to all Prelats by this noble example That he who is great in himself hath no need of other Equipage or Train of Servants to make him appear so LOUIS IV. Surnamed TRANSMARINE King XXXII Aged XIX or XX Years POPES LEO VII in 936. S. 3 years 6 Months STEPHEN IX Elect. in 939. S. 3 years 4 Months MARTIN II. Elect. 943. S. 3 years 6 Months and one half AGAPET II. Elect. 946. S. 9 years 7 Months Louis IV. surnam'd Transmarine in France Otho I. in Germany Rodolph II. in Burgundy Transjurane HUGH and Lotaire his Son in Italy Year of our Lord 936 OF all the French Lords Hugh le Blanc Earl of Paris and Orleans Duke of France and Brother in Law to the late King had the greatest Authority in the Kingdom He durst not however take the Crown because Hebert Earl of Vermandois and Giselbert Duke of Lorraine two very potent Enemies would have broke his Measures He found it therefore more safe to make a King of the Blood of Charlemaine who should be wholy obliged to him for his Crown To this purpose he dispatched a Famous Deputation of Prelats and Lords whereof William Arch-Bishop of Sens was the Chief into England to beseech Ogina the Widdow of Charles the Simple to bring back her Son Louis whom the French desired to own for their King She granted their request but not without great opposition of King Aldestan her Brother He apprehended his Nephew might be destroy'd by some treachery as his Father had been and therefore would not be satisfied with only their Oaths but took Hostages besides Hugh and the other Lords came to receive their King at his Landing at Bullogne tender'd their Hommage on the Strand and thence conducted him to Laon where he was Anointed by Arnold Arch-Bishop of Reims the 20 th day of June Year of our Lord 936 Immediately after his Coronation Hugh who still retained the Administration of the Kingdom carried him into the Dutchy of Burgundy for his own ends for there were some pretences but how grounded we do not well know And Hugh le Noir appropriated it to himself as Heir of the Deceased Rodolph his Brother who had it from Richard his Father on whom Boson had bestowed it when he was made King of Burgundy Le Noir or the Black had therefore Seized on the City of Langres after the Decease of King Rodolph but the new King and Hugh thrust him cut again without striking one blow and engaged him to yeild up one half of the Dutchy to Hugh le Blanc or the White An. 937. King Rodolph died having Reigned 25 years in Burgundy Transjurane and only five in the Kingdom of Arles He left three Children Conrade who Succeeded him but whom Otho Seized upon and detained fourteen years Burchard Bishop of Lausanne and Adeleis a most Illustrious Princess who by her first marriage was Wife to Lotaire King of
958. not without suspition of poyson and thus left his Conquest imperfect Year of our Lord 958 Now the complaints of the Lords and Prelats and the earnest entreaty of the Pope pressing King Otho he resolved to go himself after he had Crowned his Son Otho II. at Aix la Chapelle though he were but seven years of Age. Upon his Arrival in Italy Berenger his Son and his Wife abandoned the Cities and Country and retired each of them into a strong Fort. Otho was there received with universal applause recovered Pavia was Crowned King of Lombardy at Milan by the Arch-Bishop and thence marched to Rome where he received the Imperial Crown upon Christmass-day by the hands of John XII who had been put into the Holy Chair by the Credit and Money of his Father Alberic before Year of our Lord 960. 961. 962. the Age of 18 years This Alberic was the Son of Marosia who had chaced King Hugh from Rome after which he had changed the Government there and made himself Consul that he might command in Chief with a Prefect and some Tribuns Year of our Lord 963 Now the young Pope who had earnestly desired Otho to come quickly changed his mind and recalled Berenger to Rome as soon as Otho was gone from thence to reduce the rest of those places which that Tyrant still held Otho being informed of this odd fantastical news did not give over his Conquests then when he thought it seasonable to return to Rome he led his Army thither The young Pope being fled with Berenger and the Treasure of the Church he caused his Process to be made not for his Intrusion but for Murther Sacriledge Adultery Incest Simony and other enormous crimes For this end he Assembled a Council John was cited before them in due form and not appearing they deposed him and in his place put Leo who was the VIII of that name Year of our Lord 963 This Pope to avoid the trouble the Cabals caused in Elections gave the Emperor Otho the power thenceforward to Elect the Popes and Bishops and to give him Investiture The Ecclesiastical History does likewise observe that this John XII was called Octavian before his Election and that he was the first Pope that changed his name Whilst Otho was passing the Christmass Holy-days at Rome with the new Pope having quartred his Army out of the City the Faction and money of John the deposed Pope made the Romans rise to Attaque him Treacherously he had notice of it time enough to prevent surprize put himself in the head of his Army Year of our Lord 965 and came boldly to them They were afraid and coming to a composition with him gave several Hostages He delivered them up again some few days after upon the entreaties of Leo but no sooner was he gone to besiege Camerin but they revolted drove out Leo and received John in their City where he exercised most revengeful cruelty upon Leo's Friends He had continued it to the end had he not been killed in the very act of enjoying a Woman After his death the Romans persisting in their Rebellion Elected the Arch Deacon Bennet Immediately Otho returns again reduces Rome to a Famine compels Bennet to ask pardon in the Synod of Bishops and causing him to be degraded of his Priest-hood sent him Prisoner into Germany where about a year after he died at Hamburgh Some months thence believing Italy might remain in Peace because he had taken Berenger and confined him to Bamberg in Germany he returned home and marched his Army with him After his departure some Lombard Counts revolted having Adelbert and Guy the Sons of Berenger at their head But Duke Burchard whom he sent back overthrew them in a great Battel which was fought on the Banks of the Po. Guy the most mischievous of them all was left dead upon the place and Adelbert escaped with much ado This last having gathered some Forces together hazards another Battel An. 968 ☞ which loosing he died with grief And thus with him ended the second Kingdom of Italy or if you will it passed over the German Princes who let it moulder away and come to nothing After Pope Leo VIII was dead and that John XIII had been set in the Chair with the consent of Otho on whom Leo had bestowed the power of Confirming the Election of Popes the Prefect Consuls Tribuns and other Magistrates of the City of Rome displeased that Otho had greatly limited their power which before led all Italy as they pleased they put this Pope in Prison then turned him out of Rome calling to their aid Rofroy Count of Campania The Pope retires to Pandolfus Prince of Capoua who restored him and John his Brother slew Rofroy In recompence the Pope erects an Arch-Bishoprick at Capoua Year of our Lord 966 and bestowed it on the murtherer of his Enemy But Otho desiring to remedy things once for all by suppressing these Rebellions returns to Italy where he setled his Authority by severe punishments by rewarding Year of our Lord 966. and 967. of friends by creating new Counts by good and wholesome Laws and in fine by the conquest of Calabria and Puglia which he wrested from the Grecian Empire who had kept them hitherto Year of our Lord 968 And to compleat all he Crowned his Son Otho at Milan by the hands of the Pope and joyned him in the Empire This young Prince three years after that is to say in An. 971. Married Teophania or Tifaine Daughter of the Emperor Nicephorus who was then dead Thus Otho but little inferior to Charlemaine raised the Western Empire the ☞ Title thereof ever since that time remaining as it were annexed to Germany with pretences much more great and extensive then their Forces We shall henceforth speak no more of the affairs of Italy and little of Germany unless where things do joyntly relate to the French Year of our Lord 962 During these Transactions in Italy divers quarrels were troublesome to France the two greatest were that about the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims and the hatred of the Counts Thibauld de Chartres and Arnold of Flanders against the Normans The first might have been ended by restoring Hugh of Vermandois to his Dignity in Reims Artold the Arch-Bishop being dead An. 962. if the Queen could have suffer'd it But far from giving her assent she so brought it about that the Council of Soissons refer'd it to the Pope who declared him Excommunicated Year of our Lord 963 The Brethren of this Hugh furiously Animated against Guibuin Bishop of Chaalons who in that Assembly had proved thechief obstacle against his restoration Burnt the City Year of our Lord 964. and 65. The Earl of Chartres was supported by the King against the Normans because he was joyned both by alliance and affection to the Interest of the Sons of Hugh the Great He lost a Battel in Normandy for which he received satisfaction by the conquest of Evreux which the King put
which came on obliged him to retire and Lotaire and Hugh Capet having drawn their Forces together cut off all his Reare-Guard at his passage over the River of Aisne which was overflown and pursued him fighting to the Ardennes The Almain Monks of those days as it is the Genius of men to pretend Miracles in great danger write that St. Udalric Bishop of Ausburgh who accompanted that Emperor in this War went over the River Aisne dry-fout leading the way before him and his whole Army who followed the over-following Stream miraculously growing hard and firm under them the River becoming a Bridge to it's self In this retreat the Earl of Anjou did let the Germans know that the quarrel being between the two Kings it would be better according to common right for them to decide it singly hand to hand then to spill the Blood of so many innocent people But the Germans reply'd that although they did not doubt the courage of their ☞ King nevertheless they would not consent that he should expose his person singly Confessing tacitely thereby that they did not think him so brave as the King of France Year of our Lord 978 Otho thus roughly handled sought an accommodation with the French Lotaire and he conferring together in the City of Reims concluded a Peace upon condition that Lotaire should yeild him Lorrain to be held in Feif of the Crown of France say our Authors for which the French Lords shewed a great deal of discontent Year of our Lord 978 Thus the Soveraignty of that Kingdom remained in Lotaire the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain which two years before had been bestowed upon Charles his Brother by Otho reverted to his disposal but as he must give some part to Charles he agreed he should enjoy that also Which was consented to at an enter-view between that King and Otho upon the River of Kar the German Prince having desired that conference before he undertook this expedition into Italy against the Saracens Year of our Lord 978 Charles imagining his Brother had yeilded him that Dutchy but by compulsion was so ill advised that he might have some body to support him in it as to render Hommage for it to Otho instead of holding the Soveraignty himself as he might have done Year of our Lord 981 Two years after Otho to oblige hm the more gave him likewise the Country all about Mets Toul Verdon and Nancy and other Lands between the Meuse and the Rhine Now this submission tendred by Charles to a Stranger sounded very ill amongst the French and the Augmentation of his power certainly shock'd the designs of Hugh Capet who was preparing his way to the Throne For we must consider that Charles was the only obstacle Lotaire having but one Son weak both in Age and understanding and of very small hopes Besides the long abode of that Prince in those Countries without coming into France the too great affection he shewed for the Germans who at that time were the Capital Enemies of France as likewise some ren-counters with the King his Brother one amongst the rest about the City of Cambray which he defended against that King who would have plundred the Churches as he had done those of Arras gave his Enemies occasion to decry him amongst the French Year of our Lord 982 The Emperor Otho II. Died in the year 982. having before declared his Son of the same name Successor of his Estates LOTAIRE and LOUIS his Son in France OTHO III. Emperor and King of Germany and Lorraine Aged 17 years CONRAD in Burgundy Upon the News of his Death Lotaire believed that Germany was going to be all in confusion and combustion by reason of the contests about the Guardianship of young Otho who was then but seven years old wherefore he entred Lorraine An. 983. to regain it and took 〈◊〉 with Godfrey Earl thereof but when he understood Otho was Crowned by thâ— content of all the Grandees he engaged no Year of our Lord 982 farther but returned home to Franâ—â— Year of our Lord 985 Two years after he rendred up the City of Verdun gave Godfrey his liberty and caused his Son Louis to be Crowned to Reign with him He had already married him to a Princess of Aquitain named Blanche And yet was at most not above 18 or 19. years of Age. It is not well known of which Aquitain she was for in that Age and the next following the French comprehended Languedoc and Provence likewise under that name Year of our Lord 986 This couple were ill-matched the Woman couragious and gallant the Husband wanting vigour of mind and perhaps of Body in so much that she despised him and carrying him into her own Country under colour that she could procure the conquest of it by the assistance and interest of her Kindred and Allies she planted him there and the King his Father was forced to go and fetch him thence again This was a great misfortune in the Royal Family and a greater yet that Lotaire Died the 12 th Day of March in the following year of some desperate morsel given Year of our Lord 987 him by his own wife He was a Warlike Prince active careful of his affairs and worthy in fine to have commanded better Subjects He survived little more then the 45 th year of his Age and the 33 th of his Reign LOUIS THE Lazy or Sloathful King XXXIV Aged about XX Years POPES JOHN XV. Elected towards the end of An. 985. S. 10 years 4 Months and a half whereof 16 Months under this Reign LOUIS the Do-Nothing in France OTHO III. CONRAD IT was divulged that at his Death he left the Guardianship of his Son to Hugh Capet who in effect was his Cousin German How-ever it were Emina Year of our Lord 986 not relying too much upon him as it seems had resolved to carry him in the Month of June to his Grand-mother Adeleida Widdow of Otho I. and Tutoress of Otho III. A Heroick Princess who was called the Mother of Kings But they did not give her the time for the 22 th of the same month the Poor Prince ended his Life in the same manner as his Father and by the crime of Blanche of Aquitain his wife He lieth at St. Corneille of Compiegne An Author of those times sayes that he gave his Kingdom to Hugh Capet another that he bequeathed it to his wife upon condition he should marry her He Reigned in all about three years Eighteen or Twenty Months with his Father and sixteen Months alone With his Reign ended that of the Carlian or Carlovingnian Line after it had lasted 236 years and had a Succession of Eleven Kings taking only those of West-France for if we reckon all the others we shall find above thirty without speaking of all those Princes who dismembred this Kingdom as being issued of this August blood descended by Women There were sprung up three Branches of this Race one in Italy by
he gave Robert the Cities of Chaumont and Pontoise and the French Vexin Year of our Lord 1033 It was then likewise he yielded the Dukedom of Burgundy to his Brother Robert From whom issued the First Race of the Dukes of Burgundy of the Blood Royal. The Earl of Champagn did not hold himself vanquish'd by the defeat of the Party to make him lay down his Sword the King was forced to beat his Army twice and Year of our Lord 1033 and the following the third time put him to a rout and made him fly away half naked and hide himself before he could compel him to shake hands About the year 1032. or 33. Geofrey surnamed Martel made a cruel War upon William V. called the Gross Duke of Guyenne and Earl of Poitou whose Mother-in-Law or his own Fathers second Wife he had Married She was named Agnes Daughter of the Earl of Burgundy The Subject of the Quarrel was the Earldom of Saintonge and the Country of Aulnis which he disputed for The Authors do not tell us plainly by what Title he claimed but that he vanquish'd the Duke in a great Battle near Monstrenil-Bellay took him Prisoner and did not release him till three years end after he had yielded up Saintonge and paid a lusty Ransom Year of our Lord 1033 Rodolph or Rouel King of Burgundy beyond the Jour and of Arles dying in the year 1033. instituted his Heir Conrad the Emperor who had Married Gisâ—lle his youngest Sister and had by her a Son named Henry and made no account of Eudes Earl of Champagne the Husband of Berthe his eldest Sister because while he was living he would have forced him to acknowledge him for King and had bred Factions and Stirs in his Country By this Institution the Kingdom of Burgundy and Arles passing over to German Princes was by them as it were united and joyned to the Germanick Kingdom and the Empire who being at too great a distance have insensibly let it slip through their Fingers and after they had lost the Possession have likewise lost the very Title to it In these days lived Humbert Surnamed White-hands Earl of Maurienne and Savoy Stem of the Royal House of Savoy which at this day holds a great Rank amongst Christian Soveraigns the Off-spring of this Humbert having by Marriages Successions Conquests and other means assembled and joyned all the several pieces whereof that State is composed Some Historians make this Prince to be descended from Boson King of Provence others from Hugh King of Italy and some from the ancient Counts of Mascon but Tradition and which appears most probable makes him the Son of one Berald of Saxony who descended from Vitekind by the same Branch as the three Otho's Emperors or by some other Year of our Lord 1033 34 The Earl of Champagn not able to endure that Conrade should allow him no part of a Patrimony of which the best share ought to be his took his time when that Prince was employ'd in Hungary and with his own Forces and those of his Friends made himself Master of a great part of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1035 But Conrad at his return having led his Army into those Countries drove Eudes Garrisons forth of all the Places he had taken put in his own and received Hommage Year of our Lord 1034 of all the Lords In fine he handled him so roughly that all help failing and perhaps an apprehension getting into his thoughts that the King of France who hated him might agree with the Emperor to strip him he went and surrendred upon Mercy and humbled himself before him Year of our Lord 1035 Robert Duke of Normandy by force of Arms constrains the Bretons to do him Hommage Year of our Lord 1036 He dies the year after at Nicea in Bithynia upon his return from a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem At his departure he had instituted an only Son of his but a Bastard named William to be his Heir begotten on a Citizens Daughter of Falaise leaving him at Paris in the guard and protection of King Henry who had very great Obligations to him and giving the Regency of the Country to Alain Duke of Bretagne Year of our Lord 1036 William had two Paternal Uncles Mauger Archbishop of Rouen who was Married and had Children and William Earl of Argues to whom the Nobility of the Country would much rather have obey'd then to a Bastard This was the occasion of great Troubles and would have ruined Normandy had the French King's Forces been but as great as his desire to regain it Year of our Lord 1003 and the following About this time the name of the Normands began to grow famous and potent in Italy especially in Puglia and Calabria In the year 1003. forty Adventurers of that Nation upon the quitting the Holy Land having acted some things there almost incredible against the Saracens in favour of Gaimar Duke of Salerna who was hugely tormented by them being returned into Normandy loaden with Honour and Presents had excited other brave Men of their Country to go seek their Fortunes beyond the Mountains The first that try'd was a Gentleman named Drengot-Osmond who being forced to quit the Country for killing one William Repostel in the presence of his Prince having vapoured that he had abused his Daughter went with four more Brothers and some others of his Kindred to offer his Service to Mello Duke of Bary and Pandolphus Prince of Capoua who were Revolted against the Greeks They received them with open Arms and gave them a City and some Lands to maintain themselves Then after these were setled not without many hazards Combats and Adventures six of the Sons of Tancrede d'Auterville a Gentleman of the Bishoprick of Constance who had twelve all of them brave and courageous arrived there and carried their same to a higher pitch then the former Year of our Lord 1036 Normandy was all in Fire and Blood by the particular Feuds of some Lords upheld by the Uncles of the young Duke Alain III. Duke of Bretagne his Guardian being come to appease them could not avoid a Mortal Poyson given him by the Factious Antagonists Conan II. his Son but then in his Cradle succeeded him Year of our Lord 1037 About these times William the Gross Duke of Aquitain was delivered out of Prison and died the same year Otho or Eudes his second Brother succeeded him Two years after he inherited the Dukedom of Gascongne taking possession thereof in the Church of St. Severin at Burdeaux according to the Custom He had this Lordship in Right of his Mother Brisce who was the Daughter of Duke Sance Thus the House of Gascongne resolved or dissolved into that of Poitiers or Aquitain Year of our Lord 1037 The Pretensions of Eudes Earl of Champagne to the Kingdom of Burgundy not being wholly stifled he fell with an Army into the Kingdom of Lorrain which belonged to the Emperor and took the City of Commercy but as he
all Acts were passed in his name without any mention of the Kings the little Seal du Chastelet which they used in his absence was laid aside and they had a great Seal made purposely for the Regency He would be no longer at the mercy of the Parisians nor the general Estates he found it better to hold with particular ones those of Champagne at Vertus and those of Picardy at Compiegne consented to some Contributions The Parisians offended that they were despised endeavoured to seize upon the Posts about their City not being able to effect it they proceeded to enclose it with Walls from that part where the Bastille is even to the Wooden Tower near the Louvre filled up all their Gates towards the University excepting that called St. James's and from that Gate to that de Nesle caused Ditches to be made before the Walls for till this time they had not any Year of our Lord 1358 During this Anarchy the Nobility and other Men of the Sword exercised all manner of violence upon the poor Countrey people Those unfortunate wretches beaten plundred hunted like savage Beasts having for the most part no other places of retreat but Woods Caves and Boggs did like those hunted Beasts who being at the last gasp fly at the Greyhounds throats they muster'd together in great companies and were resolv'd to destroy all the Gentry This fury was begun in Beauvoisis and for their chief Leader they took one named Caillet a Peasant They called it La Jacquerie because the Gentlemen when they pillaged the Peasant called him in raillery Jacques bon homme Had the Citis joyned with these Rustiques there had been an end of the Nobility and Monarchique Government as well as in Swisserland but not one of them open'd their Gates for fear of being ransack'd they attempted divers to no purpose destroyed all the little Castles in the Countrey amongst the rest that of Beaumont upon Oyse and made themselves masters of Senlis but besides all this they committed so many more then brutish cruelties that the Nobility of all parties French English and Navarrois rallied themselves unanimously against them The King of Navarre defeated Caillets crew who being taken was beheaded The Dauphin cut off more then Twenty thousand and so this insurrection was quashed on a suddain In the time the Dauphin was gone towards Senlis having left the Earl of Foix in that part of the City of Meaux named le Marche the Parisians who were much concerned to secure that Key of the Marne sent out some Forces under the command of a Grocer to seize upon it The Mayor of Meaux open'd the Gates to them but as they were attacquing the Market the Earl sallied out with Horse and Foot and cut them all off The Grocer was slain the City sacaged and burnt the Mayor and some of the Citizens beheaded Year of our Lord 1358 Against his promise made to the Dauphin the Navarrois drew near to Paris and having conferr'd with Marcel at St. Ouin entred the City and harangued the People who declared him their General but the Nobility affronted to see him caresse them less then he did the Citizens forsook him and in an Assembly which was held at Compiegne promised the Dauphin all their assistance for the besieging of Paris The Factious party having notice of it engaged the University to go and beg their pardon of that Prince offering such satisfaction as he pleased saving their Lives and Honours to which not condescending unless they would deliver up to him Twelve of the principal Mutineers they united themselves together again as firmly as ever they possibly could and stuck close to the King of Navarre Year of our Lord 1358 The Dauphins friends having gotten some credit amongst the People of Paris insinuated a jealousie into their minds for that the King of Navarre had brought some English thither they massacred a great many of those strangers Marcel to save the remainder clapt them all in prison then let them make their escapes they retired to St. Denis from whence teey cruelly revenged the deaths of their compagnons upon all those of Paris that they could light upon The People whatever the Navarrois could urge in his florid Speeches against it forced both him and Marcel to lead them thither that they might make a final end of them but whether by the treachery of those two Commanders or otherwise the English drew them into an Ambuscade and slew above Six hundred of them in the night as they were returning home all in disorder Year of our Lord 1358 This bloody check redoubled their suspicions and the Peoples out-cries Marcel and his associates fearing to be at length deliver'd up to the Dauphin conspired to deliver up the City rather to the Navarrois by letting him one night into the Bastille But as the Dauphins friends had their Eyes and Ears in every corner one John Maillard and one Pepin des Essards who were the Chiefs contrived their business so well that having got their friends together just at the nick of time as Marcel was to put his plot in execution they kill'd both him and all those that accompany'd him before he could get the Gates open Year of our Lord 1358 His Corps were dragg'd thorough the Streets and his death attended with the Massacre the execution and the banishment of many of his friends amongst others Ronsac the Sheriff Josserand the King of Navarre's Treasurer and Caillard who had delived up the Castle of the Louvre all which lost their Heads in the place of Execution called the Greeve After this the face of Affairs was wholly changed the party-colour'd Hoods were thrown into the Fire and the Dauphin returned to Paris the Twenty fourth day of August Year of our Lord 1358 But the Navarrois fretted beyond all patience for the death of his Friends and his Officers protested he would never have peace with the Princes of the House of Valois nor did he any longer own them for Sovereigns In this heat he got his Forces together from every quarter sent to desie the Dauphin block'd up Paris both by Land and Water and called to his assistance the Captal de Buch and Robert Knolles an English Captain This Man notwithstanding the Truce made horrible depredations every where particularly in Auxerrois and in Champagne Now having been forced away from before Troyes by the Count de Vaudemont he came and joyned with the Navarrois in hopes to plunder Paris It was at this time they burnt the City of Montmorency which was none of the least as may be guess'd by its ruines while in the mean time Philip de Navarre ran about Picardy and made several attempts upon many Cities which all miscarried Year of our Lord 1359 The Dauphin durst not stir out of Paris for fear they should recall the Navarrois who had yet good store of friends remaining amongst them In the mean time as he could settle nothing in order in no part
he even left them there two Months without joyning them as he had promised They were fain to go and find him out at Vennes He was mightily perplexed for the Breton Lords even those who were the most affectionate being tired with suffering under strangers and the miseries of War and withal revolted from him by the intrigues of Clisson and the credit of Beaumanoir would peremptorily have him agree with France in effect they compell'd him to make a Peace with the King to dismiss the English and renounce their Alliance and also gave such cautions as obliged him to make good this Treaty They did not breed up the young King conformable to the good instructions of his Father but according to the inclinations of his age and airy Nature to Hunting Dancing and running about here and there One day when he was Hunting in the Forest of Senlis a large Stag was rowzed which he would not pursue with his Dogs but took him a Toil They found about his Neck a Copper Coller Gilt with an Inscription in Latine which imported * that Casar had given him it The young King because of this or for that in a Dream he had been carried up into the ✚ Air by a Stagg that had wings took two Staggs Volant for Supporters to the Arms of France Before him our Kings had Flowers-de-Luce Sans number in their Scutcheon he reduced them to three we do not know wherefore Year of our Lord 1381 The Children of the Navarrois to wit his Eldest and his Second Son and one Daughter who had been taken in one of his places of Normandy being yet prisoner the wicked King hired an Englishman to poison the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy in revenge for that they hindred their being set at liberty This wretched fellow was discover'd and quarter'd alive Nevertheless John King of Castille the Son of Henry importun'd by the continual sollicitations of his Sister who Married the Infant of Navarre interceded so effectually with the Kings Uncles that they released those innocent Children of a very wicked Father Year of our Lord 1381 The meanness and condescentions of the two Popes towards those Princes of their parties to attain their ends was a most lamentable thing nor can it without indignation be express'd what exaction and violence they committed on the Clergy and those Churches of their dependance The six and thirty Cardinals of Avignon were so many Tyrants to whom Clement gave all sorts of Licence They had Proctors every where with Grants of Reversions who snapp'd up all the Benesices the Claustral Offices the Commandery's retained the best of them and sold the rest or gave them upon pension or rather Farmed them out Clement himself besides his seizing upon all that any Bishop or Abbot left after his death besides his taking a years Revenue of each Benesice upon every change whether it hapned by vacancy or by resignation or by permutation ravaged the Gallican Church by infinite Concussions and extraordinary Taxes Good People bewailed these disorders there were none but Purloiners that wished they might be continued and nothing but the particular Interests of Princes kept this Schisme still on foot Clement allowed the Duke of Anjou the Levying of the Tenths and the Duke allowed of all his pilserings and violently reproved all those that durst complain This unjust proceeding rather then the Justice of Vrbans party was the cause why many of the principal Doctors of the Faculty put themselves under the Obedience of that Pope and also made the University begin to desire and demand a Council as the Sovereign remedy for all these mischiefs Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Berry angry that he had no part in the Affairs his Father-in-law the Earl of Armagnac perswades him to demand the Government of Languedoc as then in the hands of his Enemy the Count de Foix. The Council consents to his demand but the Count armed to maintain himself and the Province where he was as much beloved for his Justice and his Generosity as the Duke of Berry was hated for his Thievery stuck close to him The Duke with an Army to take possession by force the Count beat him foundly near the City of Rabasteins but after he had let him know he was able to keep his Government he yielded it up to him that he might not be the ruine of those that defended him Year of our Lord 1381 John Lyon chief of the White Hats had so blown up the troubles in Flanders that his death could not extinguish the Flame Most part of good Towns in that Countrey had joyned themselves to the Ghentois the Peace the Duke of Burgundy had made betwixt them and the Earl his Father-in-law lasted but a very short time the Earl goes secretly out of Ghent and the Gentry combine against the Cities Ghent had all manner of ill success but neither their being thrice let Blood which cost above Fifteen thousand Lives nor Waste nor Famine nor being fortaken by the other Cities nor yet the miseries of two Sieges could quell those stubborn obstinate lovers of their liberty After the loss of most of their stoutest Leaders they chose one named Peter du Bois and upon his perswasions another also to wit Philip d'Artevelle Son of that James formerly mentioned much richer then his Father but less crafty and much prouder This last took the upper-hand and pretended to all the Functions of a Sovereign Year of our Lord 1384 Although they had promised the People to take off the Imposts the Regent nor the Treasurers who Governed him could not resolve upon 't The great Cities took up Arms to oppose it Peter de Villiers and John de Marais Persons venerable with the People and also very much regarded by the Regent somewhat appeased the commotion at Paris but could by no means perswade them to suffer those new Levies The Burghers took Arms set Guards at the Gates created Diseniers Cinquanteniers Centeniers and made some Companies to keep the Avenues and Passages to the City free Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Anjou was therefore forced to dissemble for the present but he had not resolved to let go the thing thus and intended only to wait till their heats were grown colder to go on as before It hapned the following year that having published the Farming of those at the Chastellet one of the Officers belonging to the Farmers demanding a Denier of an Herb-Woman for a bundle of Cresles the Rabble gathered together upon the noise this Woman made grew into fury went and broke open the Town-Hall to get Arms and took out three or four thousand iron Maillets or Hammers for which cause this seditious crew were named the Malletiers After this they massacred all that were concerned to gather it plundred their Houses and razed them open'd the Prisons and took out all the Criminals amongst others Hugh Aubriot Prevost of Paris whom they made their Captain but
Salisbury having brought new Forces out of England began it upon the Twelfth of October of the year 1428. and made several Bastilles or Forts as well on the side towards la Beausse as that towards Soulogne having before cleared all the places in la Beauasse and all others for twelve or fifteen Leagues both above and beneath the Town along the River of Loire Year of our Lord 1428 All the year 1428. the Duke of Burgundy was busied in the Low-Countries in pursute of Jacqueline of Bavaria He followed her so close that having besieged her in the City of Ghent he compell'd her to declare him Heir to all her Lands so that to Flanders and Artois he joyned Hainault Holland Zealand and Frise and again the same year the Earldoms of Namur and Zutphen after the death of Count Theodoric who sold them to him only reserving the possession to himself during his life time Two years after in Anno 1430. there likewise fell to him the Dutchies of Lothier Brabant and Linbourgh the Marquissate of the Holy Empire and the Lordship of Antwerp by the decease of his Cousin Philip of Burgundy the second Son of Anthony who had succeeded to Duke John his elder Brother Husband of Jaqueline who died in the year 1426. In the beginning of this year he went to Paris to the Duke of Bedford whither came also some Ambassadors from King Charles and Deputies from Orleans to intreat him that he would suffer the said City to be sequestred into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy They remonstrated that the Princes of the House of Orleans who were Prisoners in England could have acted nothing for which they ought to be dispoiled of their Towns and that it would he sufficient to put them under Sequestration as a security for what they should do when they were set at liberty The English believing this important City was now as good as their own scoffed at the request they would not lose the time and Money they had expended in the Siege Besides Bedford granted but very little of those things which the Burgundian demanded However that he might not be exposed between two Enemies without any Party to support him he put on the masque of an apparent satisfaction upon the face of his discontent Their attaques at Orleans were very brave and the defence of the Besieged much braver yet the Earl of Salisbury lost his life by a Cannon shot but the French having been beaten near Rouvroy at their falling upon a Convoy of Herrings which was going to the Camp it was in Lent and the Constable being retired Malecontent into Bretagne the place was just going to fall and the courage of all the French with it The King was already diposing himself to retire into Dauphine When a most extraordinary thing pulled down the English pride and raised up the hopes of France About the end of February the Lord de Baudricourt Governor of Vaucouleurs in Champagne sent a Maiden to the King about the age of Eighteen or twenty years who affirmed that she had an express Commission from God to relieve Orleans and cause him to be Crowned at Reims being sollicited thereto by the frequent apparitions of Angels and Saints She was named Joan or Jane was Native of the Village of Damremy upon the Meuse Daughter of James of Ave and Isabella Gautier and bred to keep Sheep in the Country Her Vocation was confirmed by miraculous proofs for she knew the King though meanly habited amidst the throng from all his Courtiers The Doctors of Divinity and those that were of the Parliament who examined her declared that there was somewhat of Supernatural in her behaviour She sent for a Sword that lay in the Tomb of a Knight behind the high Altar in the Church of St. Catharine de Fierbois upon the Blade whereof were several Crosses and Flower-de-Luces graved and the King openly affirmed that she had devined a very great secret not known to any but himself They gave her therefore a suitable Equipage and some Forces yet did they not trust the conduct of this relief to her management but gave it to the Mareschal de Rieux and the Bastard of Orleans followed by many other brave Knights who understood the Trade When she had display'd her Banner whereon there were two Images one a Crucifix the other the Annunciation with the Sacred Names of Jesus-Maria she wrote to the English in the name of God That they should leave the Kingdom to the Lawful Heir if not then she would make them go perforce But they kept her Herauld Prisoner He was found in Fetters when the City was relieved and it was discover'd that they intended to have burnt him as a Confederate of hers whom they called a Witch Year of our Lord 1429 The success made good her threatnings From that very day all their Affairs declined When she had thrown Provisions into Orleans and soon after entred the City in Person the Besieged believing her to be sent from Heaven resumed courage made divers Salleys where she fought valiantly and in two or three days took their chief Bastilles and constrained them to decamp for good and all the Twelfth day of May. The French ran up and down every where with this Heroine as to a certain Victory the English fled before her as from a Thunder-Bolt and durst not stand her approach They were chaced from Jargeau from Beaugency beaten at Patay in Beausse upon a retreat and in fine dislodged from all the places in those Countries Year of our Lord 1429 Touching the second point of her Commission she over-ruled it in the Council that the King should go to Reims to be Crowned though that City and all Champagne were yet in the Enemies power In their passage Auxerre Troyes and Chaalons surrendred to the King then the City of Reims it self as soon as ever those Lords that held it for the Duke of Burgundy were gone forth to fetch some assistance from Burgundy he was Crowned upon a Sunday being the Seventh day of July by Renauld de Chartres Archbishop of that City and their Chancellor Year of our Lord 1429 In recompence of these so important Services the King Ennobled the Pucelle her Father and her three Brothers and all their Descendants even by the Females changed the name of their Race which was of Arc into that of de-Luce or Lily and for their Coat of Arms gave them a Field Azure with a Sword placed in Pal the Cross and Pumel Or accosted with two Flowers-de-Luce and sustaining a Crown of the same upon its point Year of our Lord 1429 Upon his return they gave him up Laon Soissons Beauvais Compiegne Crespy and all the Cities even to Paris The Duke of Bedford came and presented him Battle in the Plain of Montepilloy the Armies were in sight but parted after some Skirmishes From thence he went to assault St. Denis and made an attempt upon Paris his Men were repulsed with loss and
Transactions between them from the time of Lewis XII he accused him of having ever broke the Peace failed in his word disturbed Italy and Germany and unjustly dispossest the Duke of Savoy He concluded by saying That of three things the King must chuse one Either to take the Dutchy of Milan for his third Son upon certain conditions whereof one was that he should restore the Duke of Savoy to his Lands or to accept of a Single combat between them Personally with what ever Weapons he pleased upon some Bridge in an Island or a Boat upon condition that the Victor should employ his Forces according to the appointment of his Holiness to reduce the Heretiques and oppose the Infidels Or to resolve upon a War that should be so Bloody as to ruin one of the two The King slighted these proud boasts but replied to the Accusations by an Apologetique Letter which he addressed to the Pope and Cardinals and which in very modest terms but very Pithy and Energetical cleerly satisfied every point the Emperor had touched upon and retorted all the blame upon himself In the interim divers overtures were made between the Pope the Emperor and the Ambassadors to prevent these two Princes from coming to an absolute rupture The Admiral de Brion had conquer'd all Piedmont to the Douere and found himself in a posture and condition to have conquer'd all the rest for they were terrified and Antonio de Leva who had taken the field and joyned the Duke at Vercel had not as yet got all his Forces ready Notwithstanding the King upon what Vely wrote to him that the Emperor this was before his Harangue had given him notice by Gravelle he would give up Milan to his second Son sent the Cardinal of Lorraine into Italy to conclude that business which he presumed was in much forwardness The Cardinal left order in the name of the King that Brion should not pass the Douere and also promised Antonio de Leva that he should not pass the Sesia and though he was informed by Veley whom he met at Sienna whither he followed the Emperor of what had fallen out since at Rome he forbore not being a confident man and one that thought nothing difficult to speak again of it to the Emperor and to put him in mind of his former promise The Emperor owned that he had given his word for it but that the King having continued to prosecute his War against the Duke of Savoy he was no longer obliged to perform it After this reply the Cardinal sent the King word he ought to provide well for his own defence Nevertheless the Pope who ardently desired to reconcile the two Kings would not give over but represented to each of them the Strength of the other much greater then indeed they were thereby to incline them to a Peace Wherefore the King not willing to begin the Rupture commanded Brion to undertake nothing but withdraw his Forces into Daufiné after he had well provided and Garrisoned the Places unless Antonio de Leva did pass over the Sesia On the contrary the Emperor not only prepared himself for War but likewise endeavoured to stir up all the World against Francis He dispatched an Year of our Lord 1536 Envoy into England to desire the Amity of King Henry and protest that all his resentment was buried in Queen Catherines Grave who died this year in the Month of January And although Henry had answered but very coldly he notwithstanding promised himself and grounded his hopes upon the inconstancy of his humour that if he once saw France invaded he would not forbear attempting somewhat upon the score of his ancient pretensions He had likewise made use of all sorts of Calumnies and false reports concerning the Germans to render the King very Odious He made them believe they were mortally hated in France that they were persecuted that they burnt them alive and that the King not only endeavoured to kindle Discords amongst them that so whilst they were grappling and pulling one another by the Ears Solyman his faithful allie might Invade the Empire of Germany But that he likewise maintained Rascals hired on purpose to set Fire on their Borroughs and Towns In effect this year there were a sort of People not known by whom nor for what they were set on who burnt several as well in France as Germany and especially the City of Troyes William du Bellay-Langey a man of Quality and a good Souldier but whose Eloquence did much greater service then his Valour composed an excellent Treatise in Latin and High-Dutch which was scattered over all those Countries and as well by that means as by the testimony of Dutch Merchants who affirmed they had been kindly used in France he disabused them but not without much ado After the Emperor at the head of two great Armies had made Solyman first retire and then forced Barbarossa to fly he breathed nothing but War His Flatterers who corrupt the minds of the wisest Princes by their excessive praise promised him no less then the Empire of all Europe the Poets and Panegyrists assured him of it and the Diviners and Astrologers no less confident or impudent in their Lying Prognosticks had so boldly foretold it should certainly come to pass that it had made Impression in feeble minds and Credulous Spirits Amongst whom the Marquess de Salusses was one who thinking to prevent destiny that the Emperor might seem to be obliged to him for doing that Voluntarily which he fancied necessity must at last bring him to went over secretly into his service But being as Treacherous as Shallow-brain'd he remained yet a while amongst the French to ruin their Affairs Some have said that the hopes they gave him that the Emperor would adjudge the Marquissat of Montferrat to be his which was Litispendente between him the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mantoua tempted him to that Infamous baseness The Duke of Savoy expected that the Emperor would employ his Forces to restore him and he already began to think his Affairs seemed to mend For John de Medequin Marquess de Merignan and Antonio de Leva besieged Turin and the King had sent to his Generals to abandon all their Conquests in those Countries excepting Turin Fossan and Cony It was ordered in a Council of War that Fossan should be Fortified The Marquess de Salusses who had the charge of it far from hastning the work retarded it all he could He diverted the Pioneers Provisions Powder and Ball Then when he perceived his Treason began to be discover'd he retired to his Castle of Ravel fathering his retreat upon the disobedience of the French Officers From thence he gave Intelligence of the poor condition of the place to Antonio de Leva who leaving Ten Thousand Foot and some Horse before Turin under the Command of James de Scaleng came and laid Siege to it and yet the purchase came not so cheap as he imagin'd for after he had
much his passion hurried and transported him that the Season was very far spent and that neither his Men nor his own health which was very much impaired would be able to endure the Rains the Frosts and Snows After he had therefore secretly agreed with Albert he came and laid Siege to Mets the Eighteenth of October with an Army of an Hundred Thousand Men and at the same time the Count de Raeux entring Picardy after having burnt Noyon Roye Nesle Chauny and the Royal House of Folembray assaulted Hesdin and took it by Storm but the same year the Duke of Vendosme recover'd it The terror the Parisians were in lest the Count de Raeux should come and sack their City destitute of Defence or Forces caused the King to free them from the like apprehensions in time to come to command it should be fortified on that side towards Picardy but at the Charge of the Citizens Year of our Lord 1552 The City of Mets was large but weak and ill fortify'd the Duke of Guise notwithstanding undertook to defend it against all the Emperors Forces He was accompanied with a great number of Princes and Lords and had with him all the Flower of the Nobility and Five Thousand chosen Men. He was forced to his great grief to beat down all the Suburbs and many fair Churches that were in them amongst others Saint Arnolds to which was joyned an Abbey Royal and wherein were to be seen the Monuments of seven or eight Princes of the Corolovinian House As to the rest the good order and Method he took concerning the Provisions the Ammunitions and the Guarding of the Place his indefatigable care his industry and his courage gave the Emperor much more trouble then he imagined and by making him limit there his Ne plus ultra acquir'd that Duke a never dying Fame The faithless and artificious Albert after he had some time entertain'd the French with intention to have surpriz'd Mets declar'd himself openly for the Emperor after his having surpriz'd the Duke of Aumale but the Siege advanced not the more for that It lasted two Months with great damage and breaches made by their Canon yet durst not the Besiegers give an assault In the mean time the severities of the Winter and the tedious fatigues joyned with the Valour of the French did so ruine the Emperors Army that having lost Thirty Thousand Men he raised the Siege upon the first day of January and retired to Thionville It was the most melancholly object in the World to see his Souldiers so benum'd with Cold they had not so much as the strength to run away but yielded themselves up to any that would take them The French instead of beating out their Brains took care to warm them and save their lives by all manner of comfortable Remedies The Duke of Guise made his generosity appear no less on this occasion then his Valour had before appeared in the Siege he Vanquisht his Enemies in a manner by so much the more Noble and Glorious as it made even those to Celebrate his Victory who were overcome by it Towards Italy Ferdinand de Sanseverina Prince of Salerno having been ill treated by Peter de Tolledo Vice-Roy of Naples had put the King upon thoughts of a Design against that Kingdom assuring him that as soon as the French Army appeared near Naples the City would rise To do this the King caused the Famous Corsair Dragut to go upon those Coasts and chase away the Galleys of Andreas Doria from that Port which he performed having pursued him and taken seven of his Vessels If the Prince of Salerno to whom the King had lent his own hed been there at this time of their consternation he might certainly have entred into Naples but not arriving till three weeks after Dragut returned discontented to Barbary and the Design mis-carried So long as this War lasted Solyman failed not every year to send a Naval Force to assist the King in his Attempts Those always did great mischief upon the Coasts of Sicilia and Naples but brought little advantage to the French only the hindring of Doria from molesting of Provence and giving them trouble at Siena and in the Island of Corsica As to the Affairs of Piedmont though Ferdinand de Gonzague after the Truce made between the King and the Pope had withdrawn and joyned to his Army all the Forces he had in the Dutchy of Parma nevertheless he did nothing all that Spring besides the taking three or four petty places for which Brissac had his revenge by the surprizing of Alba a place very important and by the Conquest of Verrue and some other places The King wanted some Post or Place in the midst of Italy and on the Sea-Coast to keep the Pope in awe and fear to make it his rendezvous from whence he might attaque the Kingdom of Naples and to receive the Turkish Navies They chose Sienna for this purpose situate in Tuscany and possessed of a Territory of fifteen or sixteen Miles about it wherein there were twelve or fifteen small Towns They had hitherto governed themselves as a Republick under protection of the Emperor but were divided into four Factions mortal Enemies to each other During their Division Hurtado de Mendoza whom the Emperor had setled there for Governor perswaded the silly people to build a Citadel to defend and preserve their liberty from all invasions of the Gentry and Ambushes of the Duke of Florence who was indeed ready to fall every hour upon them had he not feared to offend the Emperor When he had thus curbed them he began to exercise an insupportable Tyranny Year of our Lord 1552 as well upon the one as the other They durst not openly kick at him but made their Addresses to the King and put themselves under his Protection by means of the Cardinal de Tournon who was at that time retired to Venice The King sent Three Thousand Men to Eneas Picolomini Martin Bandin and two more Sienois to deliver their Country or rather to bring it under his own power Nicholas de Vrsini Count de Petigliani having set open his Castle to them which was almost the only passage into the Country they drove the Spaniards out of Sienne razed the Citadel and seized upon all the places of that Seigneory excepting Orbitello whither the Spaniards made their Escape Soon after the King sent the Cardinal of Ferrara thither in Quality of his Lieutenant-General and then Paul de Termes to Command his Army under the Authority of that Cardinal Termes in a short time drew Twelve Thousand Foot together for the defence of that Seigneory and carefully stored all the places Year of our Lord 1553 No sooner was the Spring come when the Emperor desiring to revenge the affront he had received at Mets caused Terouane to be assaulted All the people of the Low Countries out-vied each other and contributed their utmost to ridd themselves said they of a Wolf which lay
it The Emperor remanded him to give him the Government of Milan which he took from Ferdinand de Gonzague The Duke had much ado to get lieve to keep this General with him till the Siege were over The Emperor therefore substituted Gomez de Figueroa in the stead of Gonzague who being Year of our Lord 1554 fitter for a States-Man then a Soldier suffer'd the Affairs of Piedmont to decline very much The first three Months the Duke of Florence had the disadvantage Ascanius de la Corne one of his Commanders thinking to surprize Clusio lost Twelve Hundred Men and was made Prisoner by a double dealing intelligence Strozzi defeated Medequin in a Ren-contre near Petia where he slew him Two Thousand Men Then having received a great re-inforcement brought him by Octavia Farnese and the Count de Miranda he regained one of the Bastions of Sienna which Malatesta had surprized by treachery and ransacked over all the Dukes Country to the very Gates of Florence But this fortune changed immediately Leo his Brother who was just Arrived with Twelve Galleys with which he lay at Port-Hercole expecting a re-inforcement that was to come from Provence was slain by a shot from behind a Hedge as he was viewing the ill favour'd Castle of Scarlin Then himself coming to releive Marcian besieged by Medequin lost a Battel near that City The sault was laid upon his presuming to make a retreat in the open day-light before an Enemy stronger then himself the cowardize of the Count de la Miranda who sled at the beginning with all the Cavalry whom he commanded as Collonel and the treachery of some Italian Companies of his Van-Guard who proved to be Turn-Coats He escaped to Montalien where he rallied up what he could of those shatter'd Forces and did yet give the Florentines a great deal of trouble He had intreated the King to let him have some good Officer to be his Second particularly to Govern the City of Sienna He sent him Blaise de Montlue whether of his own Choice or named by the Guises which was the ruine of that Republique for the Constable considering him as the Creature of his adversaries did not care he should Succeed and so sent no relief that way He came into that Country much about the time when Leo was slain before Scarlin During all this Reign there were divers changes made amongst the Officers of the Finance and Judicature and great number of Creations all to get Money the thirsty Ministers inclining the King to draw the purest Blood of the Nation to satisfie their greedy appetite The Parliament of Paris seemed to have too much power and sometimes opposed their injustice they made it Semestre that is one half to sit and attend Six Months and then the other alternately and almost doubled the number of the Judges who till then were not above one Hundred taking in the Six Masters of Requests and the Twelve Dukes and Pairs The Edict for this was not verified and yet it took place but within three years after when they had sold all those new Offices they suffer'd the two parts to be joyned again in one By another Edict they augmented the number of the Kings Secretaries who were Sixscore already that is to say more by half than was necessary and added Fourscore so that in all there were Two Hundred By another yet they set up a Parliament in Bretagne composed of four Presidents two and thirty Counsellors two Registers two Advocates and an Attorney for the King They divided it into two Semestres in one of which the Officers were necessarily to be Natives of that Province Necessity extorted from the Ministers for those of Guyenne what compassion towards those people had never been able to obtain Observing there was a great deal of danger and yet a much greater expence in settling the Gabelle in that Province they took it off but constrained the people to pay Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns to redeem themselves from that vexation Year of our Lord 1554 After the rebuke received by Strozzi at Marcian the Marquiss de Marignan being Master of the Field took most of the places belonging to that little State and laid a formal Siege to Vienna which he had before invested Blaise de Montluc kept up the Spirits of the Siennois and withstood the Attaques of the Enemies near Eight Months as he particularly relates in his Memoires and Commentaries At length his provisions failing extreme Famine forced him to capitulate This was upon the One and Twentieth of April Year of our Lord 1555 The Treaty contained that they should enjoy their Goods Liberty and Republique in all security but the Emperor failed them in his promise and faith he soon subjugated and fetter'd that unfortunate City and gave it to his Year of our Lord 1555 Son Philip who in Anno 1558. yielded it to the Duke of Florence retaining only the maritime places And indeed the chief Citizens foreseeing or guessing the Imperialists would not make good the Treaty went out with the French Garrison to the number of Eight or Nine Hundred and retired to Montalcino In that City they chose them Magistrates and preserved the Form of their Republick till the time of the Peace betwixt France and Spain in the year 1559. Brissac Besieged Valfenieres in Piedmont and the Spaniards were in the Field to relieve it when the Battel of Marcian was fought The news thereof heightned the courage of the Enemies very much and it was to be fearâ—d it might cast a great damp upon the spirits of the French so that he found fit by the advice of his Councel of War to raise the Siege Some time afterwards having given the Enemy a repulse and thinking he had put all Piedmont in a condition of safety at least for some Months he formed a great design It was to have gone straight forward resolutely to Sienna with a Body of Eight Thousand Foot he had Fifteen or Sixteen Thousand of the best in the World to fall immediately upon the Besiegers and force one of their Quarters to put Provisions into the City But the jealousie his great reputation gave to those that Govern'd the Kings Mind would not permit him to execute so brave an exploit The Constable though related to him did not wish him well he having obtained the Government of Piedmont by the Craft of the Dutchess of Valentinois and without his knowledge nay even in despite of him who was then upon the point of endeavouring to have it for his Nephew Gaspard de Coligny Chastillon The Duke of Guise highly esteemed him and yet as the brave cannot well endure one another he very often took occasion to quarrel and thwart him Thus to ruine his reputation and fame they ruin'd the Kings Affairs in Piedmont And yet all these obstructions could not hinder him from taking this year Vercel and Ivree nor when he had fortified Saint la from compleating a design he had contrived upon Casal by the
the Rhine and take away the Lands they had bestowed on them in Gaul or at least a good part of it It is not certain whether this hapned in the last year of the Reign of Pharamond or the First of that of Clodion Year of our Lord 428 In this year they date the death of Pharamond who by that account had Reigned Ten years They know not his Acts the place of his Burial the Name of his Wife nor of his Children excepting Clodion who succeeded him An antient Chronicle gives him the Glory of setling the Salique Law by Four antient Lords and says they laboured in it for three Malles or Assizes It is called Salique from the Name of the Saliens the Noblest of the French People Clodion the Hairy OR Long Locks King II. POPES CELESTINE I. Three years SIXTUS III. The 26th of April 432. S. Eight years Year of our Lord 428 HE was Surnamed the Hairy or Long Locks because in my opinion he first brought in a custom that Kings and those of their Blood should wear Long Hair well Combed and Curled not only on the top of their Heads as all the Princes of this Nation had done before him but likewise on the hinder part The rest of the French had all their Hair cut round a little beneath their Ears Year of our Lord 431 It is not known whether there were yet left them any Land in Gaul It is certain that Clodion in the beginning of his Reign Inhabited beyond the Rhine and that he marched over it in the year 431. to make an irruption but he was beaten and driven back by Aetius He contained himself some years without undertaking any thing making his Residence at the Castle of Disparg on the other side of the Rhine but being informed by his Spies that there were no Garrisons in the Towns of Belgica Secunda he went thither in great diligence with his People and keeping his March private by the Forest Charbonniere which is Haynault made himself Master of Bavay and Cambray and some other adjacent places The English Saxons subdue Great Britain They had been called in by the natural Inhabitants who being forsaken by the Romans had set up Kings of their own Nation and those Kings did not find themselves strong enough to oppose the Picts and the Scots which were People inhabiting the Mountainous Countreys now called Scotland The English gave the name of England to their Conquest and set up seven Principalities of little Kingdoms which in the end were Vnited into one The Britains or Inhabitants of Great Britain being tormented with these Barbarians got together in great numbers and passed into Gallia Armorica It was then the Romans who suffered them to settle in the Countrey of Vennes and Cornualles and having in process of time extended themselves to the Bishoprick of Treguier and Leon and even to the Loire and the Confines of Anjou they gave the Name of Bretagne to that Province which it retains to this day Year of our Lord 133 The Burgundians a People of Germany or Scythia for there were of them both in the one and the other after they had remained a long time on the borders of the Rhine in Germania Prima obtained the Countrey adjoyning to Geneva of the Romans and there multiplied so much in a short time that they seized on the Province of Vienne on that of the Sequani and of the First Lyonnoise They had received the Christian Faith in Ann. 430. by the Preaching of St. Sever Bishop of Treves but some years after they fell into the Arian Heresie There were then Five several Dominations in Gaul the Romans the French the Visigoths the Burgundians and the Bretons Clodion pursuing his Conquests during the extream confusion of the affairs of the â—mpire received a great check by the valour of Aetius in the Countrey of Artois near to Vicus Helena perhaps it is Lens Nevertheless Aetius having Year of our Lord Towards 444. too much to do elsewhere did not wholly destroy him so that recovering Breath he made himself Master of Artois and enlarged his Dominion as far as the Soame having taken the City of Amiens which was his Royal Seat and of Meroveus also He likewise sent saith a Modern Author his eldest Son to besiege the City of Soissons where that Prince having lost his Life the Father was so touched that he died for Grief after he had Reigned Twenty years It was about the end of the year 447. having before constituted Meroveus Tutor to his Sons Year of our Lord 447 It is certain he left two and I find they were named Clodebaud and Clodomir Some of the Moderns give him Three whom they call Renaud Auberon and Ragnacaire and from Auberon they make Ansbert the Senator to be descended and from Male to Male Pepin First King of the Second Race But for Ansbert others have proved that he was issued of the Family of Tonnance Ferreole Prefect of the Gauls Pretorian Meroveus or Merovee King III. From whom the Kings of the First Race have taken the Name of Merovignians POPE LEO I. The 10th of May 440. S. 21 years 3. in the following Reign Year of our Lord 448 ACCording to most Authors who were nearest to these times he was not Son to Clodion but only of his Kindred It is said that his Mother bathing her self on the Sea-side a Sea-Bull came out of the Water and made her Pregnant with this Prince This Fable seems to be grounded upon the Name because Mer-veich signifies a Sea-Calfe Now whether he were only Tutor to Clodions Children or otherwise the French Elected him for their King or General Commander This was in the City of Amiens The Children of Clodion having been deprived of the paternal Succession their Mother carried them beyond the Rhine where it seems they disputed amongst themselves about that part of their Succession but in time that came likewise to Meroveus we know not how After Attilla King of the Huns who caused himself to be named the Scourge of GOD had pillaged all the Provinces of the Empire in the East and had killed his Brother Bleda to invade his Kingdom he would likewise needs plunder those of the West He crossed the Panonias and Germany entred into Gaule with 500000 Combatants under pretence of going to attaque the Visigoths in Aquitain and after he had sacked and burnt Mets Triers Tongres Arras and all those Cities that lay in his March he passed along by Paris and came and besieged Orleans The Town had already capitulated and part of his Forces were entred when Aetius General of the Romans Meroveus King of the French and Theodoric King of the Visigoths having joyned their Armies together charged them unawares and drove them thence paving all the Streets with their slain Year of our Lord 448 A little while afterwards they gave him Battle in Campis Catalaunicis which is interpreted the Plain of Chaalons in Champagne but some imagine with probability that it
Marseilles From thence he turned upon the Saxons beyond the Rhine and brought them so low that they did not afterwards make any attempt for divers years As Martel was an Usurper every Governour thought he had reason enough to disobey Year of our Lord 737 and 38. him and acted like Soveraigns Maurontus Governour of Marseilles that he might make himself Independent craved the assistance of the Saracens and delivered the City of Avignon up to them whence they spread themselves over Dauphine Lyonnois and if credible even as far as Sens with a horrible desolation of all those Countreys The Barbarians did not hold Avignon long Charles sent thither his Brother Childebrand who having made them quit the Field besieged them in that City Soon after he came thither himself with the gross of his Army gave an Assault by Scalado and forced them part of the City was burnt and all the Infidels that were within it put to the Sword This done he crosses over Septimania and goes to besiege Narbonne resolved to have it what ever it cost thereby to shut up that passage into Gall. Athim Governour of the City and perhaps of all that Countrey for the Saracens was gotten into the Town Those in Spain informed of the danger the place was in made great Levies of Soldiers and put them aboard some Vessels to relieve it There is a Lake between Narbonne and Ville-Salse at whose Mouth the little River of Bere discharges it self into the Sea it is called the Lake Oliviere there it was their Boats came into Land those Forces they had brought Amoroz Governor of Terragonne was their General Martel leaving his Brother with part of the Army to maintain the Siege went thither to them and gave them Battle nigh Sigeac It was very obstinate but in the conclusion Amoroz was overthrown upon huge heaps of his slain Men and most of the rest that fled into their Boats Drowned or put to the Sword Athim's courage increased by this ill success and he defended himself so bravely that Charles left him there and turning his Forces towards more easy Conquests made himself master of Besiers Agde Maguelonna and of Nismes all which he dismantled Year of our Lord 738 About the year 738. hapned the death of Thierry of Chelles about the 23 year of his age and the 17th of his imaginary Reign Now Charles Martel having perhaps the design of taking up the Title of King as he had the Authority put no other in his stead nor his Sons neither till a year after his death so that there hapned an Interregnum of Five years Interregnum Charles Martel Maire and Duc of the French A Second time Maurontus calls the Saracens into Provence Jusep Governour Year of our Lord 739 of Narbonne Besieged and Took the Town of Arles and from thence ove-ran and ransacked all Provence Charles summons Luitprand King of the Lombards to joyn with him against this Enemy Luitprand who did not desire to have them so near Italy and who besides was a friend to Martel presently marches to joyn him the Infidels dare not stay for them but retreat to Narbonne without striking a blow Maurontus likewise forsakes Marseilles and retires amongst the Rocks so that Provence remained peaceably in the hands of the French Year of our Lord 738 The power of the Saracens which threatned to overwhelm all Christendom being as it were upon its ebb the Spanish Princes recovered themselves by little and little again especially with the assistance of the French and yet nevertheless they were above Seven hundred years in regaining what they lost in three years time This year Charles Martel sent them a considerable assistance which helped them more then a little towards the setling their affairs In Spain they called the Saracens Moors because indeed they were come from Mauritania which they had conquer'd and because most of their Forces were composed of Men from that Countrey The dispute about the worship of Images caused a pernicious and bloody Schisme in the Church The Emperour Leon upon the reproaches the Saracens and Mahometans had made him that it was Idolatry to adore Stone and Wood would needs pull chem out of the Churches the Popes at the same time contending to keep them there Gregory II. stood up stoutly in this Cause the Dispute went so far that An. 726. not looking upon Leon as his Sovereign he wrote him Letters that were very haughty and full of new Maxims stop'd the Moneys he was raising in Italy and turned the People from that Obedience they owed to him Gregory III. his Successor went yet farther and Excommunicated him On the other hand the Emperour turned every stone to revenge it but all his endeavours proved fruitless and a shame to himself in the end Whilst affairs were in such a condition that the Pope could hope for no assistance of the Emperour in his occasions it hapned that he offended Luitprand King of the Lombards by giving Retreat to Trasimond Duke of Spoleta and making League with Godescal who had invaded the Dutchy of Beneuent That King pressing upon him with his Army and having seized some Towns within the Dutchy of Rome he had recourse to the protection of Martel and wrote two or three very moving Letters to him in Year of our Lord 740 the Titles whereof he called him his most excellent Son and gave him the Title of Year of our Lord 741 Sub-King or Vice-Roy Charles was a little hard to be moved the Letters having operated no great matter Year of our Lord 741 he sent him a most remarkable Embassy which carried as a Present the Keys of the Sepulchre of St. Peter and the Bonds wherewith that Apostle had been tied and after that came another which bestowed and conferred upon him the Sovereignty of Rome and the Title of Patrician He was not now any more in a condition for great enterprizes a troublesome and lingring distemper which undermined him by little and little forwarned him to think of his Death and the settlement of his Family He had three Children Legitimate Carloman Pepin called the Breif and Griffon the two first by Cbrotrude and the other by Sonichilde and besides these three Bastards Remy or Remede Hierosme and Bernard Remy was Bishop of Rouen Hierosme and Bernard Married The First had a Son named Fulrad Abbot of St. Quintins which he built The Second had three Sons and two Daughters the two eldest Sons were Adelard and Vala both Counts at Court then successively Abbots of Corbie and the Third named Bernier was likewise a Monk The two Daughters Gondrade and Theodrade vowed themselves to God in a Religious Life the first in her Virgin State the other in her Widdow-hood Now Prince Charles dividing the Estate between his three Legitimate Children as if he had been the lawful Sovereign gave to Carloman who was the eldest Austrasia Souaube and Turingia Bavaria had its Dukes Frista and Saxony were Revolted to Pepin Neustria Burgundy Septimania
him after his deposition Louis King of Germany feeling some remorse or thinking to Aggrandize himself if he restored him Sollicited Lotaire to deliver him to which Pepin joyned his interest But Lotaire not being inclinable thereto and having transfer'd him thence to Compiegne and then to Saint Denis both of them brought their Forces into the Field and appointed a place to joyn together nigh Paris Lotaire observing they flocked thither from all parts amuses them for some days with the Prospect of a Peace then finding there was no safety for him he takes his way by Burgundy and retires to Vienne leaving his Father at Saint Denis The Debonnaire being at liberty would not immediately put on his Imperial Robes but first desired to be reconciled to the Church by the Bishops So that even in Saint Denis Church it self they returned the Crown and Military girdle to him with the deliberation and consent or Counsel of the French People Some time after a couple of Bishops brought his Wife and his Son Charles to him who were set at liberty by those that were to guard him Year of our Lord 834 Lotaire had placed some Counts in the Cities above the Loire amongst others Lambert at Nantes and Mainfroy at Orleans who undertook to preserve those Countries for him These Counts having with great advantage defeated those sent by the Emperor who went and unadvisedly Attaqued them did so importunately Sollicite their Master to return thither and pursue the Victory that he went to them immediately having forced and burnt the City of Chaalons upon the Soane Pepin was come to the assistance of his Father with considerable Forces So that they were much Superiour to him in strength Nevertheless he came and Encamped right over against them not far from the City of Blois promising himself to withdraw and get away his Men as formerly But finding that on the contrary he was in danger of being forsaken by his men and that he could not make his retreat without a hazardous Battel he resolved to come and beg pardon which he could never have obtained had he been taken with his Sword in Hand His Father received him Sitting on a Throne which was raised very high in the midst of his Tent where he would see him prostrate on his knees and condescended not to pardon him and his but upon condition he should come no more into France without his leave but should remain in Italy all the passages from which place he shut up after him with strong Garrisons Year of our Lord 834 The Princes party being thus abandoned and without support Ebon Arch-Bishop of Reims who had most contributed to the degradation of the Emperor being taken as he was flying away with the Churches Treasure was brought before the Year of our Lord 835 Parliament of Mets. And there the Emperor accused him personally after his own restauration had been signed by all the Grandees The unhappy Creature did not endeavour to make any defence but as a favour desired he might be judged in private by the Bishops and owned his Crimes in writing whereupon he was deposed and subscribed his own degradation After this Ignominy he retired into Italy to Lotaire whither many others had already saved themselves Year of our Lord 835. And 836. It had been much better for the quiet of France that Lotaire had never repassed the Mountains But the Empress Judith desiring to have a support for her Son Charles after the death of the old Emperor who was very Sickly and Infirm endeavoured to reconcile them and caused word to be sent that he should come to Court To which notwithstanding he durst not trust so soon And besides he could not have come being at that time fallen ill of an Epidemical distemper which brought him to extremity and almost all the French Lords who went thither with him to their Graves It carried off Valac esteemed the best Head-piece and the most powerful Genius of his Court as it had been of Charlemains and so many other of the most considerable Lords that it was said it had left France naked both of Counsel and Strength Year of our Lord 836 In the year 836. the Emperor had a design to go and visit the Sepulchres of the Holy-Apostles in Rome But the Rumour of the Normands falling upon Frisia where they burnt Dorstat and Antwerp detained him in France where he called general Assemblies as was usual Year of our Lord 837 Towards Easter-day there appeared a Comet in the Heavens in the Sign Virgo which having in 25 days passed thorough the Signs of Leo Cancer and Gemini came and lost its Train and Globe of Fire right against the Head of Taurus under the Feet of the great Bear The Emperor who was a great Astronomer did first discover it There had been another Visible the preceding year on the 11th of April in the Sign Libra which shewed its self but three days only The principal cause of the trouble and Rebellions of Debonnaires Children was the frequent alteration he made in the partitions and division of the Portions of his Sons The Empress who feared Lotaire and desired to gain him persuaded her Husband to send for him and to propound to him the division of his whole Estate in two parts Aquitaine and Bavaria not comprehended whereof the Emperor should chuse one or else that he should divide it and Lotaire should take his choice Lotaire referr'd the division to him and that being done he took the Eastern France from the Meuse upward and left the Western to Charles his youngest Brother obliging himself by Oath to defend him and not to undertake any thing against the will of his Father Year of our Lord 838 The Normands ceased not from pillaging the Coasts of Flanders They had gained a great Battel in the Island Walcheren which makes part of Zeland where the Count of that Country was slian and having afterwards Fortified themselves in that Post made great Ravage till the French Army beat them from thence Year of our Lord 838 From the First of January a Comet appeared in the Sign Scorpio a little after the Sun-set Some fancied it presaged the Death of Pepin King of Aquitaine which followed in the Month of November after He was Aged some 35 years and had Reigned Twenty one They buried him at Sainte Croix of Poitiers He left by his Wife Engeltrude Daughter of Thiebert Earl of Matrie two Sons Pepin and Charles whose adventures we shall relate in due place and one Daughter named Matilda who Married Giraud Count of Poitiers To have done as Charlemain when a King had allotted his Children their division and that one hapned to dye if this left any Sons it depended on the People to Elect one in his stead or to let his share be given amongst the rest of the Brothers After the decease of Pepin there were two Parties in Aquitain One whereof a Lord named Emenon was Chief would have the eldest Son Pepin to
Lotaire Those Lords that accompany'd Charles observing these Artifices believed the best way was to breake thorow them all with a brave resolution and advised he would march directly to him Thus the two Armies were found to be within Six Leagues of each other the City of Orleans lying between them Then the Lords on either part endeavoured to bring them to an accord as was the usual custom of the French Those of Charles's party finding themselves by much the weaker yielded to an agreement very disadvantagious whereby was left to him only by provision Aquitain Languedoc and Province with some Counties between the Loire and the Seine and it was said they should meet at the Parliament to be holden at Atigny to compose all their differences but they added this Clause that in the interim Lotaire should attempt nothing upon Charles nor Louis otherwise they should be quit of their Oathes and promises Year of our Lord 841 This Treaty finished Charles marched towards Bretagne to quell the motions of some Lords of that Country From thence he returns on his way to be at the Parliament of Atigny Lotharius had in the mean while endeavoured to shut up the passages against him broken down all the Bridges over the Seine and ordered Forces on either Shoar who coasted along incessantly Which did him no good because Charles having information that there were several Vessels at Roüen Seized them with great diligence and wafted over his Army with them His enemies betook themselves to Flight upon the first appearance of his Standard At the same time Lotharius by the advice of Albert Earl of Mets his chief incendiary and Othbert Bishop of Ments were dealing with the French Austrasians and knowing that Louis of Germany was upon his march to joyn with Charles caused some Troops to pass over the Rhine to meet him and did entice away a part of his men so that he was councell'd fearing he might lose the rest to retreat into Bavaria where it had been easy for Lotaire to have crushed him had he but pursued it Year of our Lord 841 Charles marching up along the River Seine makes his Prayers in the Church of St. Denis joynes some Troops which two or three of his Counts brought him near Montereau on Yonne beats two of the Counts that Lotaire had sent to oppose him in his March goes on to Troyes where he celebrated the Feast of Easter From thence he went to Atigny to let them know he would not neglect to meet at the conference appointed between him and Lotaire After his having remained there some days he Marched towards Chaalons and there finds his Mother the Empress Judith and those Forces she brought him out of Aquitain He had intelligence at the same time that his Brother Louis having gained a Battel against Albert Count of Mets made all possible hast to joyn with him Wherefore he goes that way to meet him Lotaire gave out a report that he fled and pursues him Mean time Louis arrives and thus the two young Brothers being united were found to be the strongest Lotaire therefore gains some days time by his feigned negotiations till Pepin who was upon the March could joyn with him When he had this re-inforcement he talked of nothing but bringing them to obedience and having a Monarchical Soveraignty All the tenders they could proffer did but confirm his resolution of having all So that they were constrained to send him word they would give him Battel the next morning about the second hour of the day which was the 25 th of June Year of our Lord 841 The two Armies being encamped against one another near the Burrough of Fontenay by Auxerre The whole Power of France all the bravest Officers and most of the Grandees and Nobility were about the Four Kings who were to be both the Witnesses and rewarders of their Actions Since the Beginning of the French Monarchy to the very day I write these Lines there hath not been so much French Blood spilt in any Battel whatever A Hundred Thousand men perished there a horrible wound and which weakned the Carlovinian-House so greatly that it could never well recover it self again The victory fell to the younger Brothers share They used it with all humility and would not give the Emperor chace for fear of spilling more blood They likewise caused his men to be buried and took care to dress the wounded as their own proclaiming a general pardon to all those that would accept thereof Year of our Lord 841 The most part of those Officers that had been with these Princes being gone away they could not reap all the Fruits might have accrued upon so notable an advantage Louis repassed the Rhine and Charles took his way towards Aquitain to drive Pepin entirely from thence But some dissention hapning in his Councels so that he acted not vigorously enough Pepin who had been brought very low and would certainly have submitted re-assumed his courage On the other hand Lotaire having gathered up his scatter'd men and raised new ones appeared soon after in Neustria where he had a great many abetters His Army and Charles's drew near each other about St. Denis the River betwixt them Charles's being the weakest saved themselves in the Forrests of Perche Lotaire pursued them but not able to compel them to a Battel he sent back Pepin whom he had called thither with his Forces of Aquitain Year of our Lord 842 The two young Brothers at their parting had appointed to meet again at soonest As soon as Charles found the way open and clear he went to the banks of the Rhine to his Brother and both of them being met the 22 th of February in the City of Strasburgh made a new League and Alliance of Friendship promising by Solemn Oath never to forsake each other This Treaty was framed and written in two Languages viz. Romance the Original of the present French and the Tudesque It mentioned that if either of the two Brothers contravened their Subjects should be no longer obliged to serve them Which was in truth to leave a gap open for them to change their Soveraign when they pleased Year of our Lord 842 This union having reassured their Subjects brought back those whom Lotaire had inveigled and encreased their Forces they sought for him to give him battel but he left the Country in so much hast that he made no stop till he was gotten to Lyons and by his slight abandoned all Austrasia to them and part of the Kingdom of Burgundy Year of our Lord 842 When they were come back to Aix the Bishops by them Assembled pronounced a Solemn Judgment whereby they deprived Lotharius of all his Portion of Lands on this side the Mountains and yet they would not admit the two Brothers till they first were assured by them that they would govern according to the Commandments of God To which having answered that they desired so the Bishops told them And we by
Kingdoms of Aquitain and Burgundy At their first accession they meet with the displeasure of seeing two Kingdoms belonging to their Father dismembred from the Succession which were Lorrein as we have observed and Burgundy As for this last it was lopp'd off by Boson That Lord had been in such high favour with Charles the Bald that he had given him Provence if not in Soveraignty at least to perpetuity and his Neece Hermengarde to Wife Having these advantages he was encouraged by that ambitious Princess to make himself King So that having gained the Lords and Prelats of those Countries he was Crowned King of Burgundy in the Royal Castle of Mantale in Dauphine by the hands of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons This attempt went near the hearts of the two Brother Kings but besides him they had two Enemies more to deal withal their Cousin Louis and the Normans They gained a Battel against the last night the River of Vienne the first day of November After which leaving their victory imperfect they turned head against Louis who by the instigation of the Abbot Gauzelin was advanced even to their Frontiers Having intelligence they were coming towards him he durst not march forward but demanded to parley with them at Gondouville where they saw each other In his retreat he defeated in Hanault a crew of eight or ten thosuand Normans but lost his Bastard Son in that Bustle Those Pyrats had burnt Saint Omers Teroüenne Arras Tournay Saint Riquier Saint Valery and all the Countries of Hainault Flanders and Boulonois Four Burghers of Tournay who fled to Noyon rebuilt the City and let houses at easy Rents Arras was deserted thirty years the Inhabitants having forsaken it for Beauvais The four Kings to compose their contests had assigned a general Assembly at Gondoul a Town near Mets. Louis of Germany sent to excuse himself because he was fallen into a sit of sickness but Charles his Brother came there and conferr'd with Louis and Carloman touching their common interest and affairs They found it necessary to enter into a league together for the destruction of their Enemies Louis the Germanick with Louis and Carloman against Hugh the Son of Year of our Lord 881 Valdrade who sacked all the open Countries of Lorrein And Charles the Fatt also with his two Brothers to pull down Boson's pride As for the first the Forces of Louis the German and the two Brothers having encountred the Army belonging to Hugh commanded by Tybault his Brother in Law they put it to the rout and made a great slaughter Then Charles the Fatt and his two Brothers marching joyntly against Boson defeated him in Battel and afterwards besieged Vienne where that Rebel had left his wife retreating himself to the Mountains We shall not find this siege at an end till about two years hence Charles was come thither upon the request of his Cousins and had left the affairs of Italy whither had he made one Voyage already and in some Months time had secured to himself all Lombardy whereof he was Crowned King by the Arch-Bishop of Milan And being impatient to return again he took leave of them and having repassed the Mountains went directly to Rome accompanied by the Patriarch of Aquilea At this time the Pope who hesitated on whom he should bestow the Imperial Crown could not deny a Prince so powerfully Armed and therefore set it on his Head upon Christmass Day in the year 881. Year of our Lord 881 In the mean while a Fleet of Normans entring by the Vaal or Waal fortified themselves at leasure in the Palace of Nimeghen So that Louis not being able to force them only obliged them to quit the Kingdom They went away indeed with all their men but took all their Plunder with them likewise Another very strong Fleet going up the Somme forced the rich Abbey of Corbie Year of our Lord 881 and the City of Amiens then spread themselves at large over the neighbouring Countries The mischief was very great therefore Louis leaving his Brother Carloman at the siege of Vienne hastned into Picardy fell upon the Normans near Amiens and laid nine thousand of them dead on the place Nevertheless whether it were that he expected some other greater Body of them was marching towards him or was Seized with a Pannique fear he returned home and the remainder of those Barbarians fell a plundring as before A third Body of them came to the place called Haslou nigh the Meuse and having fortified themselves there set the City of Liege on Fire and likewise burned Tongres which had otherwhile been ruined by the Vandals then set fire to Colen Bonne Nuis the Palace of Aix la Chapelle and Triers and Mēts and having Year of our Lord 881 gained a victory over the Bishops of those two Cities where the Bishop of Mets was slain made a horrible slaughter amongst the poor Peasants who were in Arms for them Year of our Lord 882 Whilst Louis the German was getting his Forces together to oppose them he died at Francfort the 20 th of January in the strength of his Age having Reigned but six years His Corps was conveyed to St. Nazaire the Abbey-Church of Loreshein where his Fathers lay He was the only Brother of three that married his wife was called Luidgarde daughter of Ludolfe Duke of Saxony and Sister to Otho Father of Henry L'Oiseleur or Bird-catcher He had but one Son who in An. 880. playing in a Window fell down and bruised himself so that he died Charles the Fatt Emperour King of Italy Germany or East-France Bavaria and Lorrain Louis and Carloman of East-France Aquitain and part of Burgundy The Succession of the German Kingdom and likewise the necessity of affairs called Year of our Lord 882 Charles the Fatt into France where the Normans posted at Haston plaid the Devils assisting and being reciprocally assisted by Hugh the Bastard of Valdrade who invited and animated those Barbarians and kindled factions amongst the Lords to revenge himself at least if he could not settle himself Charles therefore comes over the Mountains confirmed the donation of Carinthia to Arnold his Bastard Nephew and gave him the command of his Army and after he had held a Parliament at Wormes Arnold having joyned him he marched towards Haston His Van-guard at first made the Normans retreat And had it not been for the intelligence and correspondence between some of his Chief Officers in favour without doubt of Hugh and those Barbarians he might have forced them upon this first disorder The Emperor afterwards blocked them up with his whole Army But a most dreadful Tempest and furious Plague infesting his Army were once more favourable to them So that after ten days Siege they were quit upon condition to leave the Kingdom whence they carried infinite riches Year of our Lord 882 They had two Kings or Generals Sigefroy and Godfrey The first Embarked with above 40000 men The other whether for Interest or Devotion
would have attaqued Bar Gotolon Duke of Lorrain came and opposed him so roughly that he defeated his Army and laid him dead upon the place His two Sons Thibauld and Stephen shared his Lands Thibauld had the Earldoms of Chartres and Tours and Stephen those of Troyes or Champagne and Meaux in Brie Year of our Lord 1038 and 39. Geofrey Martel following the Passion of Agnes his Wife excited the Subjects of Eudes Duke of Aquitain to rebel against him thereby to advance his Brothers of the same Venter Peter-William and Guy the Son of that Agnes which succeeded as he wished for Eudes who had no Child being slain in the year 1039. at the Siege of a little paltry Town Peter-William succeeded him and Guy-Geofrey had the Earldom of Gascongny Year of our Lord 1038 and 39. The Normans under the Conduct of William surnamed Fierabras the eldest of Tanâ—reds Sons were employ'd by the Grecian Emperor's Lieutenant to drive the Saracens out of Sicily upon condition they should have part of the Conquests Whereof finding themselves frustrate by the Greeks they fell upon Puglia or Apulia which they began to take footing in Duke Fierabras their General hapning to die they chose his Brother Drogon in his stead and he being likewise treachcrously kill'd by the Lords of that Country they Substituted Onfroy the third of those Brothers Year of our Lord 1039 and the following The Grecian Emperor's Lieutenant brought his Army from Sicily to stop their Enterprize and fought them near the Streams of Aufidus and not far from Cannes where otherwhile Hannibal made so horrible a Slaughter amongst the Romans The Greek was not more fortunate then the Carthaginian he lost the Battle and so great a number of his Men that the Grecians could never raise themselves again in that Country and the power of the Normans increased so much that it suppressed theirs in a few years Foulk Earl of Anjou died in the City of Mets in his return from the Holy Land Geofrey surnamed Martel his Son succeeded him This Foulk being in Jerusalem touched with a deep Repentance for his Sins caused himself to be drawn all naked on a Hurdle with a Rope about his Neck and Whipt till the Blood run crying out Have Mercy Lord on the Treacherous and Perjur'd Foulk Year of our Lord 1040 and 41. The Sons of Eudes Earl of Champagne refused to do Hommage for their Lands to King Henry because he had not assisted their Father against the Emperor Conrad The pretence of their Felony was that they said the Crown belonged to his Brother Eudes In effect they encouraged him to set up for King Which hath made some suspect that he was the eldest Year of our Lord 1041 Henry did not give this Conspiracy time to make any progress he besieged his Brother in a Castle whither he was retired and having taken it sent him under a strong Guard to Orleans I do not find what became of him This done he marched against Stephen Earl of Brie and Champagne whom he put to a rout and thence turns against Galeran Earl of Meulan their Allie whom he deprived of his Earldom On the other hand he animated Geofrey called Martel against Thibauld whereupon he besieges the City of Tours and whatever Agreement could be afterwards made between the King and Thibald Martel would not give over his Enterprize He had kept it block'd up almost a year Thibald knowing it was like to perish for want of Victuals resolves to relieve it Geofrey going to meet him with the Chappe or Mantle of St. Martin which he caused to be carried in manner of a Standard gained the Victory made Thibald a Prisoner and afterwards reduced the Town which since belonged to the Earls of Anjou In those times Princes caused the Relicks of some Saint Worship'd in their Countries to be carry'd for their Ensigns or some which they had procured from other places and likewise often took the Banners used in Churches which served as their Standards Year of our Lord 1039 During the Troubles and Factions the Minority of William the Bastard occasioned in Normandy the King took his opportunity to make them deliver up the Castle de Tilleres upon pretence that the Rebels might seize upon it and in truth he caused it to be razed but soon after he rebuilt it and placed a Garrison there then stepping farther into Normandy he ransacked the County of Hiesmes and there burnt the little City of Argentan which perhaps is the place the Romans called Arae Genuae Year of our Lord 1040 Soon after William took the Government and because he was yet a Minor chose himself a Guardian it was Rodolph de Gace his Constable But the Lords obey'd unwillingly because of the defect of his Birth they had for Chief Guy of Burgundy who being the Son of Reynold Earl of the Franche Compte and Alix Sister of the deceased Robert pretended that in his Conscience the Dutchy belonged to him Year of our Lord 1041. and 42. The Faction was so strong that they had like to ruine William but being somewhat re-assured he had recourse to King Henry who having now another design then to destroy him went and joyned Forces with him both gave the Rebels Battle in a place called the Valley of the Downs some Leagues on this side the City of Caen. The King was struck down with a Lance by a Gentleman of Constantine but recover'd himself again without any hurt The Rebels were wholly cut off Guy of Burgundy Year of our Lord 1042 besieged and forced in Brionne was devested of the Lands he held in Normandy and retired to the Franche Comte Year of our Lord 1043 and 44. The Earl of Anjou who had been once in greatest favour with the King there being I know not what coldness grown betwixt them let fall some words which so highly offended the King that he undertook to chastise him he sent therefore to the Norman Duke to accompany him in this Expedition and entred upon the Earls Lands but they were immediately reconciled Year of our Lord 1041 The quarrel was still to be decided between the Norman and the Angevin it lasted as long as the life of the latter and Fortune was favourable sometimes to the one sometimes to the other The Norman Duke having attained to years fit for Marriage espoused Matilda Daughter of Baldwin called the Pious Earl of Flanders and Alix or Adeleida Daughter of King Robert Being of kin to him they were fain to obtain a Dispensation from the Pope who allowed it upon condition to build four Hospitals in four several Cities each to maintain an hundred poor People Year of our Lord 1046 The Church not being used to these Dispensations Mauger Arch-Bishop of Rouen Uncle to the Duke not out of any zeal for Canonical Discipline but because he would embroil them that his Brother the Earl of Arques might make himself Duke Excommunicated them both The Duke having Convened the Bishops of
to St. Omers But as he was retreating towards Monstreuil Eustace Earl of Boulogne who had a great Body of Reserves took Robert and carried him to St Omers He that Commanded the place surrendred it to deliver Richilda for which the King was enraged that he sacked and burnt the City Year of our Lord 1071 The same year Richilda though still assisted by the French lost another Battle in which Eustace Earl of Boulogne being made prisoner his Brother Chancellor of France and Bishop of Paris to obtain his freedom obliged the King to intermedle no more in that dispute Nay which was more he made him Marry Bertha the Daughter of Florent I. Earl of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony who had taken Robert for her second Husband By this means he was engaged to maintain the Cause for his Father-in-law who by his assistance defeated Richilda's Army the Fourth time and so remained Master Year of our Lord 1071 of Flanders Roger Brother of Robert Guischard Duke of the Normans in Puglia was by his Brother sent into Sicilia which was possessed by the Saracens he conquerd d the City of Panormus and Messina which opened him a way to become Master of the whole Island Year of our Lord 1073. and 4. After the death of Baldwin the Regent King Philip being arrived to the age of Adolescency ran into many disorders and vexations with his Subjects Whereupon Pope Gregory VII who sought but the occasion to constitute himself the Judge and Reformer of Princes wrote to William Duke of Aquitain that together with the Lords he should make him some Remonstrances and Declare that if he did not amend he would Excommunicate both him and all the Subjects that obey'd him and would place the Excommunication upon St. Peters Altar to re-aggravate it every day Year of our Lord 1076 The death of Robert I. Duke of Burgundy his Son being deceased before him had left two Sons Hugh and Otho the first of these succeeded his Grandfather Year of our Lord 1077 After William the Conquerour had entirely subdued England suppressed the Rebellion of his Son Robert and quelled the Manceaux he went into Bretagne to reduce them to his Obedience and laid Siege to Dol. The Duke or Earl Hoel implored the Kings help who marching in person to his assistance made them raise their Siege A Peace immediately follow'd but was broken almost as soon again upon another Year of our Lord 1076 score which was for that the Conquerour in the Kings Presence having given the Dutchy of Normandy to his Son Robert before he went to invade England Robert would take possession of it the Father hindred him and the King justified the Son in his demands This was the subject of a new War The Father besieges his rebellious Son in the Castle of Gerbroy near Beauvais In a Sally the Son wounds him and turned him off from his Saddle with his Lance but Year of our Lord 1077. 78. and the following coming to know who it was by his voice he helped him up again with Tears in his eyes and the Father at length overcome by the sentiments of nature and the intreaty of his Wife and Barons gave him his pardon and quitted the Dutchy to him then returned into England Gozelon Duke of the Lower Lorrain who in favour of Baldwin Earl of Monts Year of our Lord 1077. and 78. the Son of Richilda had fought and defeated Robert the Frison being a while after this Victory assassinated in Antwerp the Emperour detained the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain and gave only the Marquisate of Antwerp to Godfrey Duke of Bouillon the Son of Adde Sister of Gozelon and Eustace Earl of Boulongne but Twelve years after for his great Services he gave him the said Lorrain Year of our Lord 1080 The Lords of Touraine and of Maine extreamly pressing Foulk Rechin by force of Arms to set Gefroy his Brother at liberty this barbarous Man rather then release him chose sooner to give the County of Gastinois to King Philp that he might maintain him in his unjustice Some time after his own Son named Gefroy likewise and surnamed Martel moved Year of our Lord 1080 with the miseries of his Uncle forced his Father to set him free but whether it were the Melancholy he had contracted or some Drink they had given him he could never relish the sweetness of his liberty The famous Robert Guischard Prince of the Normans in Puglia after he had gained Year of our Lord 1085 two Naval Victories one over the Venetians and the other over the Greeks died this year 1085. He had two Sons Boemond and Roger the eldest being then upon the coasts of Dalmatia with a Navy his younger Brother seized on the Dutchies of Pouille and Calabria for which the Brothers were contending till the time of the first Croisado or Holy War when the French Lords passing that way to the Holy Land brought them to an agreement Their Uncle Roger held Sicily with the Title only of Earl Year of our Lord 1085 Upon complaints about the vexations and ill Treatment Duke Robert shewed to his Norman Subjects his Father the Conquerour comes over out of England to chastise him but his paternal tenderness did easily admit of a reconciliation The death of Guy-Gefroy-William his Son William VIII aged but 25 years succeeded him Year of our Lord 1086 King Philip a very voluptuous Prince being disgusted with Berthe his Wise made use of the pretence of Parentage which was between them and having proved it according to the course then in use caused his Marriage to be dissolved by authority of the Church though he had a Son by her named Lewis about Five years old and a Daughter named Constance He banished his Divorced Wife to Monstreuil upon the Sea-side where she lived a long time poorly enough Year of our Lord 1087 This Divorce according to Rule and a judicial Sentence being made he demanded the Daughter of Roger Earl of Sicilia named Emma who was conducted as far as the coasts of Provence however he did not Marry her the reason is not given Year of our Lord 1088 William the Conquerour become crazy was under a strict regiment of Dyet at Rouen to pull down his over-grown fatness which did much incommode him The King rallied at him and asked when he would be up again after his Lying in the Duke sent him word that at his Uprising he would go and visit him with 10000 Lances instead of Candles and indeed as soon as he could he got on Horseback he destroy'd all the French Vexin and forced and burnt Mantes But he over-heated himself so much in the assaulting of that place that it set his own Blood and Body on fire and brought a fit of Sickness so that he returned to Rouen where he dyed in a few days By his Will he gave the Kingdom of England to William called Rufus who was bat his Second Son Normandy to Robert who was
Boulogne had served Philip very well since his Reconciliation and had likewise been very well recompenc'd by a great deal of good Land bestow'd upon him in that Country Nevertheless the King suspecting him of holding Correspondence with the King of England demands his strong Holds of him and upon his refusal to deliver them he attaques them and press'd upon him so briskly that he durst not defend them but went away to the Earl of Bar his Kinsman and from thence to Flanders Year of our Lord 1212 Although King John had been Excommunicate the precedent year by the Popes Legat he scoff'd at those Censures But he was hugely astonished when he understood that by a more terrible Sentence the Pope had absolv'd his Subjects of their Allegiance and expos'd his Kingdom as a Prey and that King Philip made great preparations to invade it having already a prodigious number of Vessels ready at the mouth of the Seine The Legat by secret Informations increases his fears and disturbs him to that height as he promises to make his Kingdom hold of the Holy See and to pay a thousand Mark of Silver as a yearly Tribute besides the Peter-Pence When the Legat had wire-drawn all he desired from him he tries to persuade Philip to wave his Enterprize but he was too far engag'd in Honour and Expence to break off so Year of our Lord 1213 All the Lords of the Kingdom in a Parliament held at Soissons the Morrow after Palm-Sunday had promis'd to assist him with their Lives and Fortunes There was only Ferrand Son of Sancho I. King of Portugal Earl of Flanders that refused to accompany him in this Expedition unless he would restore the Cities of Aire and St. Omer which he had gotten from him to have his consent that he might Marry the Heiress of Flanders who was the eldest Daughter of Baldwin V. The King thought that his approach might bring him back to his Duty when he should see him on those Coasts ready to Embarque Therefore when he was at Boulogne he sent him order to come and meet him at Graveline The Earl made them wait for him but he appeared not so that the King resolv'd before he took Shipping to put him in a Condition not to be able to hurt him Year of our Lord 1213 The Towns of Ipres Cassel and all the Country to Bruges submitted to his Sword His Naval Force consisting of One thousand seven hundred Sail having cast Anchor at Dam. While the greatest part were in the Road with scarce any Men comes the English Fleet Commanded by the Earls of Boulogne and Salisbury who took and sunk a great many and laid Siege to the place Philip decamping from before Ghent routs those they had sent on shoar and slew two or three thousand Nevertheless they keeping the Seas and his Vessels not being able to get out without falling into their hands he took out all their Furniture and caused them all to be burnt and the City of Dam afterwards Year of our Lord 1213 Then having wasted and plundred the Territory of Bruges squeezed great Sums of Money from those Citizens as likewise from the Inhabitants of Ghent and Ipres sack'd and dismantled L'Isle he left his Son Lewis and Gaucher Count de Saint Pol in that Country with a strong Body of Horse and Garisons in the Cities of Doway and Tournay only When he was retir'd out of Flanders the Earl Ferrand re-entred and soon Master'd Tournay and L'Isle which Lewis was beginning to repair as in revenge Lewis sack'd and burnt Courtray Philip for the second time goes into Flanders to secure his Conquests and presently Ferrand withdraws but as soon as Philip was gone Renauld Earl of Boulogne took the Field with some Forces he brought out of England But without doing any Exploit only after he scowred about the Country once or twice and attempted two or three Sieges in vain he forced Henry Earl of Louvain and Duke of Brabant who had Married one of the Kings Daughters to joyn with him On the other side King John landed at Rochel with a great Army and having patch'd up again with the Earls de la Marche d'Eu d'Angoulesme de Lezignan and other Poitevins who assisted him with their Forces crosses Poitou made himself Master of some places in Anjou and began to rebuild the Walls of Anger 's his Native City To hinder this Progress the King recall'd his Son out of Flanders and sets him in opposition This Prince takes his head Quarters at Chinon and was seconded with the Forces of Bretagne by Peter de Dreux who this year had Married the Heiress of that Dutchy It was Alix or Alice Daughter of the Dutchess Constance and Guy de Touars Year of our Lord 1213 In the mean while the English wrought diligently about the fortifying Anger 's and enclosed that part towards the River of Maine with a Wall His Soldiers made excursions to the very Suburbs of Nantes on the other side of the Loire surpriz'd Robert the eldest Son of the Earl of Dreux in an Ambuscade who was got over the Bridge to attaque them cut his Men in pieces and made him Prisoner Peter King of Arragon having gotten into his League and under his Protection the Earls of Toulouze de Foix and de Comenges the Vicount de Beziers and others whose Lands Montfort had usurp'd sâ—â—t his Heraulds to deâ—ie him Montfort had left a strong Garison in Muret to make waste in the Neighbourhood of Toulouze This King lays Siege to it in the Month of September His Army consisted of an Hundred thousand Men almost Montfort who was at Castlenaudry having hardly drawn together a thousand or twelve hundred got into the place From whence making a furious Sally upon the King who slighting so small a number set down to eat at the beginning of the Fight cut all his Army off threw him on the ground where his Throat was cut by a private Soldier took his Royal Standard which was carried in Triumph to Rome and cover'd the Field with dead Bodies without the loss of Year of our Lord 1213 above eight Men. The weighty blow of this Club made the Earl of Toulouze and the Inhabitants of that great City fall down at the Legats Feet they offer'd to submit to whatever Conditions he would impose but they could not get off with words it was resolv'd they should be plum'd of all Year of our Lord 1214 This year 1214. France was shrewdly attaqu'd by King John and on the Flanders side by the Emperor Otho and the Counts Ferrand of Flanders and Renauld de Boulogne but both in the one and the other part his Arms remained Victorious Prince Lewis having drawn his Forces together at Chinon march'd resolutely against King John who besieged the Castle de la Roche au Moine upon the Loire between Anger 's and Nantes Being within a days Journey of that place that King was frighted repasses the River in such great haste
and garb being attir'd in Cloth of Gold and his Hair pleated or wove with strings of the same those that follow'd him were so bewitch'd that they drank his Urine kept some as Treasures and Relicks and took it as a particular favour that he would in their presence abuse their Wives and Daughters At the same time another Innovator wandred through Provence Gascongne and Languedoc named Peter de Bruys Preaching that Baptisme was ineffectual before the age of Puberty that they ought to pull down the Churches such places not being necessary for Christians to worship in That the sacrifice of the Mass was nothing That the Prayers of the Living did not avail the Dead and above all things he pretended we ought to have the Cross in abomination because our Lord had been most ignominiously nailed to it Himself burnt a large heap upon Good-Friday and with that Fire boiled several pots with Meat of which he made a publique Meal and invited the people to eat with him But Peter de Clugny going into that Countrey to hunt him thence the people seized on his Person and burnt him alive in the City of St. Giles His Sect was not blown away with the Wind like his Ashes one of his Disciples named Henry made himself their head this was a Monk that had mew'd his Frock who becoming a vagabond because his Apostacy had left him no place of security set himself to preach up these Heresies from place to place to which he added some others of his own invention Peter de Clugny refuted him in an excellent Treatise St. Bernard in a journey he made into that Countrey confounded him by his sound Doctrine and moving Sermons justified with many miracles informed the poor People he had seduc'd and follow'd him so close that at length he was taken and deliver'd up to the Bishop bound Hands and Feet An. 1147. They called these Innovators Petrobrusians and Henricians the names of their two principal Doctors The same St. Bernard had likewise to deal with another sort of Hereticks who gave themselves the name of Apostoliques bragging they were the only people that followed exactly the Doctrine of the Apostles and were the true mistical Body of Jesus Christ none other Christians having the true Belief like them They held many of the extravagancies as those who since have been called by the name of the Illuminated or Enlightned We may well reckon amongst the Heresies those over-bold and too subtil propositions broached by Peter Abailard touching the Trinity since they were condemned as such in the year 1140. at the Council of Sens which was confirmed by the Pope though it appears to some that if there were too much presumption on his part there was also a little too much heat and some want of understanding on theirs However it were his Humility repaired his fault for having appeal'd to the Holy See he was easily perswaded to stop at Clugny by Peter the Venerable and there spent the rest of his days His Wife Heloise had also put on the Holy Vail The History of their Lives and their Loves is well enough known this is not a place to mention it in The Preachings of a certain Monk named Rodolph were something worse then Heresies I find that in the times of the Croisado or Crusado in the year 1146. having assembled I know not how many thousand Men to go into the Holy-Land he preached that they ought before they went to kill all the Jews who were much greater enemies to JESVS CHRIST then the Mahometans St. Bernard had much ado to save those miserable creatures from the fury of the common people who are never so easie to be moved as when some act of cruelty is propounded and ☜ to get the Monk to return into his Covent The Popes were persecuted by other Heretiques whom we might call Politiques because they would not allow the Church-men should have any dominion nor jurisdiction in Temporals The Romans stirred up as we have related by Arnauld de Bresse designed amongst themselves to take it from the Pope in their City and leave him only the Spiritual So that Eugenius III. flying from their persecution was forced to retire into France An. 1147. whilst he was there he called a Council at Reims where they examined the propositions of Gilbert Poret or Poree Bishop of Poitiers who having for Thirty years together profest Philosophy in the chief Cities of the Kingdom spake of God and the persons of the Trinity rather according to the Topicks of Aristotle then conformably to the language of the Holy Scripture He said the Divine Essence was not God that the proprieties of the Three Persons were not the persons that the Divine nature had not been incarnate that there was no merit but that of JESVS CHRIST and that none were truly Baptized unless he were to be saved His Arch-Deacons themselves moved with Zeal or Enmity became his Accusers St. Bernard stoutly Seconds them the business was debated in two conferences the one at Auxerre and the other at Paris and at last determined in a Third which was held after the Council of Rheims the Pope being unwilling before so great an Assembly to censure a Bishop of so much Learning and who besides protested he would submit to what his Holiness should think fit to judge of it His propositions were condemned he received this judgment with all possible submission but some of his Disciples were still so confident as to maintain them That we may know how prone our humane nature is to be deluded and led into the most extravagant novelties we need but consider and mention a wretched fanatical Dotard who was presented to the Pope in the beginning of this Council His name was Eon de l'Estoile a Gentleman of Bretagne he was so ignorant that having heard them Sing at Church Per Eum qui venturns est judicare vivos mortuos he fancied to himself and affirmed to others that it was he should judge both the quick and the dead It is almost incredible how many people were infatuated with this ridiculous extravagancy they follow'd him as a great Prophet sometimes he marched with a stately Train sometimes he hid himself then he appear'd again more Glorious then before They said he was a Magician and made sumptuous Feasts to allure the World but that it was but illusion and that the Meats they eat at his Table and the Presents he bestowed were only charms that alienated the Mind The Arch-Bishop of Rheims having taken him presented him to the Council and to his Holiness His Answers full of frantick Conceits and Whimseys made them look upon him as a mad-Man or rather a Fool but yet they clapt them into close imprisonment where he died shortly after Many of his Disciples more senceless yet then he chose rather to be burnt to death then renounce him There was certainly some remainders left of that Leaven of the Petrobrusians and Henricians which infecting many people
did again inspire them with new and dangerous Questions and Propositions but besides all these another sort of poysoners came out of Italy into France bringing along with them the most pernicious venom of the Manicheans and these were they in my opinion who first infected the Diocess of Alby for which reason those Heretiques were named Albigensis They were convinced at a Conference in that City at the Bishops who was chosen Arbitrator by both parties in presence of many Lords Prelats and Constance the Wife of Raimond Earl of Toulouze and Sister to the King of France Gozelin the Bishop of Lodeve refuting their errors by arguments and proofs drawn out of the New Testament This Conquest could not wholly destroy these unwholsom Seeds they multiplied every day more and more and soon mastered Toulouze the capital City of Languedoc The Kings of France and England were almost resolved to make use of Fire and Sword to destroy them however they thought fit to send some Preachers first amongst them to labour and endeavour to convert them or confound them and to cut them off from all communion with the faithful that they might corrupt no more of them The Popes Legat went thither in Anno 1178. accompanied with Four or Five Bishops and several other Clergy-men they discover'd many of these people in Toulouze amongst the rest the oldest and the richest and as I may say the cock of all the others who let them have his Towers to Meet and Preach in They forced him to submit to a publique pennance pull'd down his Towers or Turrets and excommunicated and banished several of those Heretiques who retired into Albigeois that was as it were their Fort or Cittadel because Roger Earl of Alby favour'd them and made use of them to keep the Bishop of his City a prisoner These Countries of Languedoc and Gascongny as well because of their distance as their situation and likewise the fiery warlike disposition of their people were filled with another sort of wild Beasts and such as delighted in Blood I mean Troops or Herds of Bandits who hir'd themselves to any one that wanted them to take revenge upon their Enemies or else roved all about to seek prey for themselves They sought not only after Money and Goods but took their Persons or their Lives away sparing neither condition nor age nor sex They were of no Religion but help'd the Heretiques thereby to have some pretence to rob Churches and Church-men some of them were called Brabanders Arragonians Navarrois and Basques as coming from those Countreys Others Cottereaux and Triaverdins a Nick-name whose original I do not know and their Horse-men Routiers from the German name Reuter The General Council of Lateran which was held in Anno 1179. Excommunicated both the one and the other forbid the burying them in Holy Ground and exhorted all Catholiques to fall upon them seize upon their Goods and bring their Persons into slavery allowing all those that took up Arms against them Indulgences and Relaxations of pennance proportionable to their Services and at the discretion of the Bishops Amongst these Heretiques there were some that were called Popelicans who held a great many strong Castles in Gascongny where they had cantoniz'd themselves and made up a body ever since they were cut off from the Church Henry who from being Abbot de Clervaux had been made Bishop of Albe having in quality of Legat gathered a good force together by his Preachings and Exhortations went to visit them with a strong hand in Anno 1181. They feigned to avoid this storm they would abjure their errors but the danger being over they lived as before This contagion spread it self in many Provinces both on this and the other side of the Loire one of these false Apostles by name Terric who had kept himself conceal'd a long time in a Grott at Corbigny in the Diocess of Nevers was taken and burnt Divers others suffer'd the same death in several places particularly two horrible old Women in the City of Troyes to one of whom as it was said they had given the name of Holy-Church and to the other that of St. Mary that so when they were examin'd by the Judges they might swear by St. Mary they believed no other then what was the belief of Holy Church These Popelicans amongst other things did openly repugne the reality of the Body of Our S. J. C. in the Sacrament for which cause there were divers miracles wrought in those times to confirm people in the faith of that mistery They were condemned in the Council of Sens of the year 1198. as were likewise the Vandois the Patarins and the Cathares The name of Patarins came from the Glory they took in suffering for the Truth patiently that of Cathares because though falsly they professed great purity of Life These last were called in Flanders Pifles and in France Weavers because the most part of them lived by the labour of their hands which they employed in that Trade It would require a whole Treatise to enumerate and particularize all these Sects their several Names and their Opinions which agreed in some points and were quite different in others but in my judgment they may be all reduced to two that is Albigeois and Vaudois and these two held almost or very near the same Opinions as those we call in our days Calvinists There arose if not an Heresie at least some great doubts touching the resurrection of the Body in the time of Maurice Bishop of Paris by reason whereof to testify what his Faith was concerning this Article he ordain'd they should engrave upon his Tomb the first Response which we find in the Office for the deceased After his example many other Ecclesiastiques gave Order before their death that these words should be affixed upon their Breasts in writing and put into the Graves with them These Schismes and Errors thwarting the power of the Pope and the Clergy confirmed and increased it the more For First the Popes gained the whole advantage upon the Emperours concerning those Disputes about Investitures Then when they had gotten that liberty of Elections they would needs extend it likewise to the persons and Goods of the Ecclesiastiques they said the Church owed no Contribution but to her own Head who is the Vicar of JESVS CHRIST on Earth and that the Clergy could not be corrected but by their Superiours which they founded upon that Maxim That the less Noble or Worthy ought not to command the more Noble or Worthy nor the inferior be judge of him that is above him However this point striking at and diminishing the Authority of all other Temporal Princes as well as the Emperours could not pass for current but in the Countreys of those that were weak and on the other side of the Mountains The third subject of the differences they had with the Emperours was they pretended it belonged to them to dispose of or give
Council of Vienne coming on the Pope to hinder the obstinate pursute of the Kings people against the memory of Boniface gave all the Bulls they could desire for the justification both of the King and his Officers Nay even for fear lest Nogaret should blow up the flame anew he granted him Absolution but upon condition he should go on certain pilgrimages and also travel into the Holy-Land Year of our Lord 1310 The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem were retired to the Island of Cyprus after the loss of Ptolemais but finding themselves ill Treated by the King of that Island they sought another Habitation and gained themselves one by the taking of the Island of Rhodes and five other neighbouring Islands they gained it from the Turks after two years Siege the Turks had taken it from the Saracens and the Saracens from the Grecian Empire Year of our Lord 1311 A year afterwards the Turks made great attempts to recover it but the Knights maintained it bravely by the assistance of the generous Earl of Savoy named Ame V. who got the Surname of Great by it and preserved it as well as he had gained it by many other generous actions To this might well be applied the Simbol or Devise FERT which his Successors retain to this day and the four Letters might be thus made to say Fortitudo Ejus Rhodum Tenuit but it is certain the Princes of this House bear it a long time before Year of our Lord 1311 The General Council was open'd at Vienne the First day of October in the year 1311. the Pope declaring it was for the Process of the Templars for the recovery of the Holy-Land for the reformation of Manners and Discipline and for the extirpation of Heresie Philip came thither the year following about Mid-Lent with a stately Train of Princes and Lords assisted at the opening of the Second Session and took his Seat at the right Hand of the Pope but on a lower Chair The Order Year of our Lord 1312 of the Knights-Templars was there condemned and extinguish'd their Goods left to the disposal of his Holiness who bestow'd part of it upon the Knights of St. John That of the Begards and Begardes was likewise abolished they were a sort of Monks and Religious People that made profession of Poverty but not of Abstinence nor Celibacy and who besides were acccused of many errors As for the most important point which was the Process against the memory of Boniface the King though there present had no satisfaction in it For it was declared that Pope Boniface had always been a good Catholique the other crimes were not mention'd Three famous Doctors one in Theology another of the Civil-Law and the Third of the Canon Law made it out to the King by several reasons and particulars and there were two Catalonian Gentlemen that offer'd to justfy it by combat throwing down their Gantlets which no man there would take up However the Pope and Cardinals made a Decree importing that the King should never be hereafter reproached for all or any thing that he had done against Boniface Year of our Lord 1312 The City of Lyons had for a long time held of the Kings of Arles who had given the Temporal Lordship thereof to the Arch-Bishop but since the Kings of France taking advantage of the weakness and the distance of the Emperours who were Kings of Arles had by little and little drawn to themselves the Sovereignty of this Kingdom and the City of Lyons had began to hold of them Now during the War between Savoy and Dauphiné the Citizens fearing they might be plundred had recourse to Philip who gave them a Warden who coming within the City contrary to what had been agreed upon the Arch-Bishop stirred up the People against him Prince Lewis Hutin going thither with an Army brought the Bishop away prisoner and he could never get cleer but by yielding up the Temporal Jurisdiction to the King for which the Pope helped him to some recompence But afterwards Philip the Long gave it to him again Year of our Lord 1310 The Emperour Henry who was gone into Italy from the year 1310. thinking to restore the dignity of the Empire there found so much opposition from the Guelphs the great Cities and Robert King of Naples that he perished there as well as his Predecessors He died the Four and twentieth day of August in the territory of Year of our Lord 1313 Sienne having been poysonn'd as it was reported with the Sacred Host by a Dominican Monk a Florentine Robert Earl of Flanders would needs have again his Cities of l'Isle Douay and Orchies affirming that he had paid down the redemption to Enguerrand de Marigny who governed absolutely both King and Kingdom The Flemmings refused also to Year of our Lord 1313 dismantle their Towns or to pay either the Principal or Interest of those Sums they owed the King They were therefore forced to begin another War To provide for the charges of it the King summoned the Notables of the People and from a Theatre raised high he shewed them his Necessities The Deputies had suffer'd themselves to be perswaded and granted him by the mouth of Stephen Barbete the Impost of Six Deniers in the Livre and other Subsidies more troublesome yet but the Cities of Picardy and Normandy opposed it highly and all the rest called for the justice of Heaven to fall upon the Head of Marigny the Author of all these galling and flaying extortions These moans and curses did not move him on the contrary he aggravated their misery by making new Coins of very bad Gold and Silver After all none but himself and the Exchequer-men or Receivers could get any profit by it The King having past over the River of Lys and the Armies in sight of each other Marigny who had done his own business took advantage of the interposing of the Popes Legats to bring the parties to an agreement and perswaded the King to an ignominious Truce Thus that great Army which ought to have conquer'd all Flanders vanished in smoak This disgrace of Philips was followed with one much greater All the Wives of his three Sons were accused of Adultery Margaret Jane and Blanch. The First the wife of Lewis Hutin and the Third the wife of Charles being convicted of that crime with Philip and Gautier de Launoy Brothers and Gentlemen of Normandy ✚ were by decree of Parliament the King being present confined to the Castle Gaillard of Andeley and their two Gallants slay'd alive dragg'd into the Field de Manbuisson which was newly Mow'd those parts cut off that had committed the Sin then beheaded and their Bodies hung up being fastned under their Arm-pits upon a Gibbet Margaret the most guilty of the three perish'd in prison Blanch was divorced seven years after upon pretence of Parentage As for Jane who was wife of Philip the Long after she had been confined almost a year her Husband was willing to
same day which was the Six and twentieth of August His too hasty March and three long Leagues of way had made the French lose both their breath and strength before they engaged the enemy On the contrary the English were fresh and recruited and dispair re-doubled their courage The Genoese the chief strength of Philips Infantry who were commanded by Antony d'Oria and Charles Grimaldi did nothing to the purpose their Cross-bow strings being made useless by a deluge of Rain that fell just upon the first beginning of their Service they retreating from before a showre of the English Arrows the Count d'Alenson who suspected it to be Treachery rides quite over them with his Cavalry and so began the rout We must also take notice that in this famous Battle the English had four or five pieces of Canon which gave much terror for that was the first time they ever saw those thundering in our Wars To all this add that some amongst the Grandees very glad to see Philip engaged upon this occasion made more shew then they did service These causes chiefly gave the victory to the English The Battle lasted from four in the Afternoon till Two the next Morning A great flight of Ravens which a little hefore the Fight were observed to hover over the French Army were esteemed as a presage of their defeat Of the French side there remained dead upon the place Thirty thousand Foot Twelve hundred Knights and Fourscore Banners taken John King of Bohemia Charles Earl of Alenson Brother to the King Lewis Earl of Flanders and Twelve or Fifteen of the most illustrious Counts lost their Lives King John stark blind as he was fought very valiantly having caused his Horses Bridle to be sastned to the Bridles of two of his bravest Knights horses His Son Charles King of the Romans was hurt with three wounds but it is not true that the Kings of Majorca Scotland and Navarre were in this Engagement the two first were in their own Countreys busie enough about their own concerns and the other not above the age of Thirteen or Fourteen years under the tuition of his Mother The King this time Vnfortunate retired out of the Battle under the favour of the night and saved his Person in the Castle of Broye from thence got to Amiens and so to Paris to raise another Army The next day another slaughter twice greater then the former was made by Five hundred Lances and two thousand Archers amongst the common People who being ignorant of what had hapned were marching to the French Camp The English having ravaged all Boulonois at their pleasure went and laid Siege to Calais about the Eighth of September and stuck close to it with the more security upon the news that David King of Scotland was vanquish'd and made prisoner by the Queen of England upon his falling on the Frontiers Year of our Lord 1346 Before the Battle of Cressy the Emperour Lewis was Excommunicated by the Pope and degraded by Five Electors who in his stead placed Charles the Son of John King of Bohemia This Prince after the death of Lewis which hapned in October the following year got his Election confirmed and bought the Claims of two or three others who disputed their Title to the Empire with him because they had been named by some of the Electors Year of our Lord 1347 After the Duke of Normandy had raised the Siege of Aiguillon the Earl of Derby remained Master of the Field regained all that part of Guyenne which lies beyond the Dordogne and having passed the Rivers ravaged and burnt Saintonge and Poitou took St. John d'Angely and kept it sacaged the great City of Poitiers and quitted it after he had refreshed himself there for Twelve days together Year of our Lord 1346. and 47. The Flemmings having lost their Earl at the Battle of Cressy sent a Deputation to the King to re-demand his Son who was their natural Prince Whilst he was in their power they had assianced him to King Edwards Daughter but that Alliance being contrary to his inclination he escaped from them and returned to the Court of France After he had staid there a year he made a particular peace with the English by the consent of Philip his Sovereign It was agreed that he should permit the Flemmings to give them assistance but as for himself he should not intermeddle with the Affairs either of the one or other of the two Princes Year of our Lord 1347 The Flemmings being at Edwards Devotion made great inroads upon Artois and on the other side John de Montforts party got the upper hand in Bretagne by the help of the English For Charles de Blois going to besiege la Roche de Rien Montfort gave him Battle the Twentieth of June vanquish'd him and took him prisoner with his two Sons John and Guy and most of the Lords of his party His Wife whom ambition and the Royal Blood she came of inspired but with too much courage gathered up the fragments and maintained the business so well that he recover'd once more Year of our Lord 1347 It was but in vain that Philip advanced between Wissant and Calais with an Army of One hundred and fifty thousand Men to relieve the City the English had enclosed his Camp with such good Trenches that he could find no way to attaque him The besieged driven to the severest extremity of Famine were forced to surrender the last day of August Fame shall never forget the name of Eustace de St. Pierre the most noted Citizen of Calais and his heroick generosity to save his fellow Citizens Edward mortally enraged at their long resistance would not receive them on composition unless they would deliver up to him six of their principal Burghers to do what he pleased with them The Council not knowing what to resolve and the whole City remaining Year of our Lord 1347 exposed to the revenge of a cruel Conquerour Eustace freely proffer'd to be one of those Six By his example there soon follow'd enough to make up the number who went out in their Shirts with Ropes about their Necks to deliver the Keys to Edward He was so obstinately bent to put them to death that the Queen his Wife had all the trouble imaginable to obtain his pardon for their Lives He drove out all the Inhabitants of the place even the Ecclesiastiques and repeopled it with natural English Robert King of Sicilia having no Heirs of his own Body but Jane the Daughter of his Son Charles Duke of Calabria had Married her Anno 1333. to Andrew Second Son of Carobert King of Hungary the eldest of these two being then but seven years of age It hapned Twelve years afterwards Andrew not being enough to Jane's liking and having been Crowned King by the Pope pretending that the Kingdom did delong to him certain Conspirators made him rise one night out of the Bed where he was lying with her and hanged him at a
into Africk with the Count de Harcour the Lord de la Tremonille and other Lords and Gentlemen to the number of Eight hundred and a much greater number of Adventurers of divers Countries with whom he signaliz'd his Courage and Conduct against the Moors of Barbary The King of Armenia Minor sprung from the Blood of Luzignan flying from the cruelty of the Turks who had conquer'd his Kingdom and kept his Wife and Children in Captivity came for relief and assistance to the French Court where the King gave him Honourable Entertainment during all the rest of his days He enjoy'd it to the year 1404. then died at Paris and was interred at the Celestines Year of our Lord 1383. and 84. As to the Affairs of Naples Charles de Duras and his Captains behaved themselves so well that cutting off all Provisions from Lewis of Anjou and either following or flanking him so as to prevent his Fighting them they reduced him to the extreamest want of all necessaries even of Cloaths insomuch as this Prince who had carried away all the Kings Treasure had no more left him then a Coat of painted Cloth to wear and one Silver Bowl to drink in He had sent Peter de Craon an Angevin Lord into France to bring him Money and Succours this faithless Friend made no haste to return amusing himself at Venice with the divertisement of some Courtisans After the unfortunate Prince had waited a long time without any tidings of him he sunk under his grief and died the Tenth day of October in this year 1384. or Year of our Lord 1384 as some others will have it the One and twentieth day of September the year following The Earl of Savoy died in the month of March either of the Plague or by drinking Water out of a Fountain that had been poyson'd His Son Ame VII Surnamed Le Rouge succeeded him We must observe that this Amè VI. was the Institutor of the Order of the Collar which was composed of Love-knots together with the Symbolical Letters of the House of Savoy and had at the end a kind of a Ring or wreathed Coronet Duke Charles III. being at Chamberry Anno 1518. changed the name of this Order to that of the Annunciado to honour the Holy Virgin in that mystery which is the most agreeable to her adding Fifteen White Roses to the Fifteen Love-knots in remembrance of her Fifteen Joyes and filled the Pendant with Figures of the Annunciation Year of our Lord 1385 The unhappy remnants of the Duke of Anjou's Army perish'd by Famine and Want excepting such as dispersing by small parties retired into France begging their lively-hood and receiving more injuries and opprobrious words in their Travels then they got bits of Bread The Angevin party was not for all this quite extinct in that Kingdom it subsisted yet in the hearts of some Lords of that Countrey whereof Thomas de St. Severin was the Chief and who afterwards served very well upon occasion For this time the Kingdom rested quietly under Charles de Duraz. The Truce with the English being expired the King who began to take cognizance of his Affairs held a grand Council to deliberate whether they ought to continue it It was the interest of the Duke of Burgundy because of his Low-Countreys to have a Peace with the English but to counterpoise his Power and to flatter Year of our Lord 1385 the young Kings heat they resolved on a War and even to carry it into their own Countrey To this purpose they fitted up a great Fleet at Sluce and they sent to the Scots to oblige them to a rupture of the Truce on their side Year of our Lord 1385 By the methods the Kings Uncles Governed it appeared plainly they had a mind to suck the Peoples Blood to the very last drop The Clergy that they might secure something for their subsistance held an Assembly where they decreed that their Revenues should be divided into three parts the one to be for the maintenance of the Churches the other for Ecclesiastical Persons and the Third for the King without any mention of the Poor Pursuant to the recommendation of the late King Charles the Wise the young Kings Uncles sought a Wife for him in Germany the opinions in Council were different and divided the Duke of Burgundy carried it for Isabella Daughter of Stephen Duke of Bavaria Count Palatine of the Rhine The King Married her at Amiens the .... of July In the preceding month of April the Nuptials between John the Duke of Burgundy's Son and Marguerite Daughter of Albert Duke of Bavaria Earl of Hainault Holland and Zealand were consummate Year of our Lord 1385. and 86. The great design upon England being laid aside after a vast expence that something might come of it John de Vienne Admiral went with Threescore Sail to Scotland and there landed to attaque the English on that side He made an irruption into their Countrey and took some Castles but the savage humour of the Scots could not comply with the free liberty of the French Besides Love had invaded the Admirals Heart and Head which made him courta Lady of the Kings Parentage whereat that wh ole Court not being acquainted with those Gallantreys took such offence that he found it the best way to make his escape with all diligence Year of our Lord 1385 The obstinate Ghentois would not yet bend they had two new Leaders Francion and Atreman who hardned them against all apprehensions of punishment This obliged the King to make a third step into Flanders They had no Port could receive any English Succours but Damm the king having taken that by force and afterwards burning all the Houses round about their City the Rebels in the end began to hearken to Propositions for an accommodation being inclined by the more pacifique humour of Atreman one of their new Chiefs in despite of all the practises of John du Bois and returned to the obedience of the King and the Duke of Burgundy their Lord. This Prince quite wearied with this tedious War which ruined all his Countrey gave them a general Amnesty for all things that were past and the confirmation of all their priviledges upon condition they would renounce all Leagues and that the first that should violate the Peace might forfeit his Life and all his Goods The Treaty was Signed the Eighteenth of December A Truce was renewed likewise between France and England for some Months Charles de Duraz not being satisfied with having invaded the Kingdom of Naples went also into Hungary and usurped that upon Mary one of the Daughters of Lewis the Great his Benefactor who died Anno 1381. and Wife to Sigismund Brother of the â—mperour Wenceslaus whom he detamed in captivity with the Widow Queen his Mother After so many Treacheries and cruel Ingratitudes Heaven suffer'd him to be murther'd himself by the order of Nicholas Gato one of the Palatines of that Kingdom who was very
Lords and Citizens who were most to be suspected and bridled them with two strong Castles which he order'd to be built there Year of our Lord 1452 The University being one of the greatest Bodies and one of the most necessary to all Christendom the Cardinal d'Estouteville the Popes Legat making use of his faculty but by the Kings express Order employ'd himself in purging it of some abuses that had much disfigur'd them and made many good Reglements which are yet kept in their Archives Year of our Lord 1452 53 54 55 56 and 57. Never since the Slege of Calais had the Duke of Burgundy much concern'd himself in the War against the English but yet he was not free from crosses in his own Countries Those of Bruges being up in Arms Anno 1437. let him into their City as if they had intended to give him satisfaction then fell upon his Men killing above an hundred of them amongst the rest the Lord de L'Isle-Adam Himself ran a great hazard and escaped with much difficulty by breaking open one of the City Gates with Hammers After this fury they betook themselves to rove all about the Country Their rage began to cool when they found the rest of the Towns did not approve of their rash actions and that the Duke was coming to besiege them with a vast Army They craved his pardon which they obtained not but upon rude Conditions It cost them two hundred thousand Gold Crowns the loss of many of their Priviledges and the Lives of a dozen or fifteen of the most Factions The Ghentois gave him much more trouble by their frequent disturbances The most dangerous was that in Anno 1452. a Gabel or Impost was the cause of it He would needs settle it in Flanders and make it certain and fixt imposing 24 Gross Money of that Country upon every Sack of Salt They resolved to run all the hazards and extremities imaginable rather then suffer an Impost upon Water and the Sun which are free and universal Gifts bestow'd by Nature They relied upon the protection of the King and indeed he wrote earnestly and in high terms in their behalf to the Duke of Burgundy but having received an answer in terms that were yet higher he thought it not prudence to embarque himself in a Civil War being as yet not come to an end of the War against the English his Foreign Enemy The losses which the Ghentois met with in five or six great Fights did but heat their savage hearts the more but the Battle of Ripelmond and afterwards that of Gavre where they lost twenty thousand Men brought them so low they were forced to come to composition Two thousand Men bare Head and bare Foot with all their Counsellors Sheriffs and Officers only in their Shirts went out a League to meet the Duke and his Son to implore their Mercy The Gate through which they marched out to fight him at Riplemond was stopt up for ever They were condemned to pay four hundred thousand Ridders of Gold to bring their Banners that he might dispose of them as he pleased and to suffer a change of their Usages and Priviledges Year of our Lord 1453 Upon a Tuesday the Nine and twentieth of May Constantinople the Trunk of the Grecian Empire from which the Turks had lopp'd off all the Branches was taken perforce by Mahomet II. not more then three and twenty years of age Constantine her last Emperor perished there crowded to death by the multitude at one of the Gates of the City Such was The End of the Eastern Empire the which to reckon from the dedication of Constantinople upon the Nineteenth of May in the year Three hundred and thirty had lasted Eleven hundred twenty three years We shall henceforwards place the Turkish Sultans in the room of those Emperors Year of our Lord 1454 and 55. The Count d'Armagnac was not grown the wiser by his first chastisement he would play Rex hindring him that had provisionally the Archbishoprick of Ausch from taking possession and obstinately persever'd to keep his own Sister for his Wife maugre the Censures of the Church The King being therefore moved at the importunity of the Pope to wipe off this scandal from the Kingdom sent some Forces thither with five or six of his chief Commanders some whereof seized on the Country of Rovergne others on the Valley d'Aure and another Party on the County of Armagnac The City of Leytoure environed with a triple Wall and its Castle situate upon a steep Rock did not hold out long so that the Count sled out of the Country and retired safely to some Lands he had upon the Frontiers of Arragon Year of our Lord 1455 It concerned the honour both of the Kingdom and the King of France to justifie the memory of the Pucelle The King therefore ordered her Parents to Petition the Holy See to appoint some Judges that might review the Process Upon their request Calistus III. ordered Commissioners who were the Archbishop of Reims and the Bishops of Paris and Coutances who being met at Rouen looked into and examined the Proceedings heard divers Witnesses and thereupon fully justified that Heroick Virgin caused the former Process to be torn and burnt by which they had condemned her Their Sentence was proclaimed in Rouen at St. Ouins Churchyard and the old Market and likewise in many other Cities of the Kingdom There was no need of taking any course against her false Judges the greater part of them being perish'd either by suddain or such a shameful death as seemed to shew the hand of God upon them Year of our Lord 1455 During these years began those divisions which did not a little contribut to the losing of Navarre Blanch the Heiress of that Kingdom had a Son named Charles by John King of Arragon her Husband This Princess dying in Anno 1441. John took in second Wedlock Isabella of Portugal and retained the enjoyment of Navarre which in effect belonged to Charles as then about One and thirty years of age This dispute Armed the Son against the Father the Kingdom was divided The House of Gramont which was considerable took part with the Father that of Beaumont which was not inferior joyned with the Son The Mother in Law who could have wished the Son out of the World blew the coals and exasperated the Fathers anger From thence grew irreconcilable Enmity and cruel Wars Prince Charles having given Battle to his Father lost it and was taken Prisoner A while after he was set at liberty upon an Accomodation Year of our Lord 1456 The Dauphins ill Conduct and those insupportable Exactions he laid upon Dauphine particularly the Clergy did so irritate the King his Father that he commanded Anthony de Chabanes Earl of Dammartin to go and Arrest him Dammartin having been cruelly offended as we have related would have executed this Order severely had not the Dauphin been informed and made his escape in post-haste into the Principality of
intelligence of a School-master whom the desire of Gain had wrought upon to shew them a certain place where they might scale it It was upon a Shrove-tide Festival when Figuerba and all the Nobility of the Spanish Army were come thither to make a Carousel The City being taken Figueroa cast himself into the Citadel the Mareschal caused it immediately to be batter'd and in a few days forced it to capitulate Year of our Lord 1555 Queen Mary and the Cardinal Pool her Cousin fearing lest the quarrel betwixt the two Kings should embroil the English in a War earnestly desired to procure a Peace between them Their great instances engaged them to send Deputies betwixt Calais and Ardres to treat They Arrived there the one and twentieth of May. For their accommodation several Tents were set up containing a large Hall in the midst of them having four Gates one to the East for the Popes Legates one at the West part for the English Ambassadors one in the South for those of France and one on the North for the Emperors The two Princes according to the Proposals made by the English agreed well enough about the referring all their differences to the judgment of the Council but the King declaring he would not restore the Duke of Savoy till the Emperor surrendred up Navarre to Jane d'Albret and Piacenza to the Farneses the Assembly broke up without concluding any thing Neither the one nor the other were very well prepared for a War so that this Summer past without any great exploits The Imperial Army after several Marches and Skirmishes employ'd themselves in fortifying the Burrough of Corbigny upon the Meuse which they named Philip-Ville Martin Van Rossen Mareschal of Cleves who commanded it dying of the Plague the Prince of Orange succeeded him in that employ Beyond the Alpes after the capitulation of Siena they likewise took the Port-Hercole The French succeeded ill at the Siege of Calvi in Corsica The Mareschal de Brissac took Vulpian and though but little assisted by the Court made head bravely against the Duke d'Alva who succeeded Figueroa This Duke could bring Five and Twenty Thousand Men into the Field notwithstanding he received an affront before Saint Ia being forced to raise his Siege Year of our Lord 1555 The Five and Twentieth day of May Henry d'Albret King of Navarre died at Hagetmar in Bearn The King had a great desire to seize upon the rest of that petty Kingdom and to give Anthony de Bourbon who had Married the Heiress some Lands in exchange but Anthony hast'ned to go and take possession of it and his Wife found means to preserve it notwithstanding the perswasions and treachery of her Officers The King was so fretted at it that he dismembred Languedoc from his Government of Guyenne to bestow it on the constable he refused to give that of Picardy which Anthony surrendred upon his going away to Lewis Prince of Conde his Brother and gratify'd Coligny with it After his departure it hapned that la Jaille being gone to make incursion in Artois with a party of the Arriere-band was upon his return cut in pieces by Hausimont Governor of Bapaume a slight shock which yet so terrified the French that they put their Men in Garrisons About the same time the Diepois having Information that two and twenty great Flemmish Vessels were returning from Spain loaden with rich Goods went and laid in wait for them about Dover and not staying to fire at them went directly aboard Their Vessels were little and low the other large and high built so that they maul'd them with Shot and Granado's from above The Fight lasted six hours hand to hand at length some of them took Fire which burnt half a dozen of either Ships and parted them sooner then otherwise they would have done Jane Queen of Spain Widdow of Philip the Fair and Mother of the Emperor Charles V. died in Spain the Twelth of April Aged 73 years She had been lock'd up as one distracted ever since the death of Philip her Husband however the Estates still reserved the Title of Queen of Spain for her which in all publick instruments was joyned with that of the Emperor her Son This Great Prince finding his Body grown weak and his head crazy not being any longer able to support either the heavy burthen of worldly Affairs nor his own decayed Cottage Resolved in a Council of Women these were his two Sisters to renounce his Soveraignty Having therefore sent for his only Son Philip King of England to come to him to whom the year before upon his Marriage he had already given the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicilia and since that also the investiture of the Dutchy of Milan he assembled the Estates of the Low-Countries at Bruxels the Five and Twentieth of October and there he Created him first Chief of the Order of the Fleece then he resigned up those Provinces to him A Month after in the same City in presence of the Governors and Deputies of his other Estates whom he had called thither for that purpose he yielded up and remitted to him all other his Kingdoms and Seigneories as well in Europe as in the new World He had nothing now left him but the Empire which he held yet a year hoping to oblige his Brother Ferdinand to resigne that up likewise to his Son In the Month of March of this same year Pope Julius III. ended his life Marcel II. who was Elected in his place held it but one and twenty days and they Elected the Cardinal John Peter Caraffa Aged fourscore and one year old He was Son of the Count de Matalone in the Kingdom of Naples and they called him Theatin because he had been Archbishop of Theati and had there instituted the Order of Clerc's Regulars who took their name from that City Many because of the resemblance of the habit have confounded the Jesuits with them His religious life and austere manners which made the World affraid of a severe reformation were immediately changed into a proud and a luxurious huffing vanity He was of a haughty heart and a stubborn Spirit and yet suffer'd himself to be circumvented by his Nephews and led any way as they pleased Amongst the rest he had two Sons of his Brothers these were Charles who had born Arms for the French under the Mareschal Strozzi and Alphonso Count de Montorio greatly desirous to raise themselves the first very proud and rash the second more mild and moderate To this he gave the Government of the Church Lands and to the other a Cardinals Hat The Uncle and the Nephews for divers injuries received hated the Spaniards and by a necessary consequence all those of that party especially the Duke of Florence and the House of the Colonnas who besides all this have ever been averse to the power of the Popes Year of our Lord 1555 Being therefore prompted by this resentment and that spirit so ordinary in many of the Papal
Crowns Pension for his life As he had forsaken the Court and his Power they Year of our Lord 1556 did forsake him likewise as soon as he was out of sight they forgot he was in the World His own Son did not so much as remember him for he performed nothing of all what he had promised he had no value for his Counsel nor any regard to the recommendations made by him and after the first quarter could hardly allow him his Pension Year of our Lord 1557 The Duke of Guise being brave courteous and liberal all those that were indeed brave either amongst the Soldiery or the Nobility followed him In the beginning of January Brissac accompanying him as far as the Po he attaqu'd Valentia because the Spaniards had refused him passage and gained it At the same time the Admiral de Coligny tryed an enterprize upon Doway and having failed over-run Artois and burnt the little City of Lens Thus the Truce between the two Crowns was broken Valentia being taken Brissac and all the chief Officers of Piedmont would have had them push forward into Milanois quite unfurnished of Soldiers and much startled but the Kings express Orders would not allow the Duke to follow that advice and it was to be feared if he staid there the Pope might agree with the Spaniard This consideration and perhaps the instigation of the Cardinal his Brother obliged him to march directly to Rome in full hopes of conquering the Kingdom of Naples to which their House ever had pretensions He could not perswade the Duke of Ferrara who was to have had the general Command of the Armies for the League either to quit his Country nor to let him have his Soldiers He was received at Rome and by the Holy Father with great honour after which divers Councels of War were held and brave and honourable Propositions made but there was nothing in a readiness to execute them The Nephews had provided nothing that was necessary they had little Money and less heart to disburse it It was believed also and the Duke of Guise was of that opinion that at the very time he entered into Italy they had made their accommodation with the Spaniards and that they had given him the trouble of coming as far as Rome only to make their conditions the better and get the greater securities Whilst he was in Rome the Pope created ten Cardinals some out of favour others to strengthen his party with friends and the rest for Money These Ceremonies kept the Duke there during the whole Month of March so that he was not with his Army till the Ninth of April He entred into the Kingdom of Naples upon the vain promises of the Caraffa's attaqu'd Campiglio which he forced afterwards a Civitelle where the French impetuosity ran eground In the interim the Duke of Alva was fallen upon the Lands belonging to the Church and having taken many little places held Rome as it were invested the Excommunications the Pope cast upon him and the Colonna's broke no heads he was forced to cry out help and call back the Duke of Guise He returned therefore into Romagnia and there though nothing else succeeded well he received good luck for him the news of the unfortunate Battel of Saint Quintin The Truce being broken between the two Crowns Philip thought it concerned his honour not to omit any thing that might evince the Reputation of his Courage and Power He raised an Army of Fifty Thousand men and moreover knew so well how to manage the spirits of the English that although at first they had limitted him with many restrictions and had no mind to concern themselves in his Affairs beyond their Island nevertheless they suffered themselves to be induced to take up his quarrel Queen Mary sent to declare War against the King a Herauld brought him the defiance to Reims He received it with disdain as coming from a Woman and knew how to oppose and match her well enough with another I mean Mary Queen Regent of Scotland who gave her so much work in her own Country that instead of Thirty Thousand Men she promised her Husband should be landed in France she could not send thither above Ten Thousand The Duke of Savoy who was Governour of the Low-Countries and commanded Philips Army having for a whole Month feigned to Attack several Towns sometimes in one place sometimes in another came the third day of August and lay down before Saint Quentin which was unprovided of Men and but ill Fortified The Admiral de Coligny had only the time to Force his way in thorough the Enemies Camp with about Six or Seven Hundred Horse and two Hundred Foot Year of our Lord 1557 The Reputation and Valour of that great Captain served for some time as a strong Bulwark to the place which without him would not have held out Four and Twenty hours They attempted several times afterwards to put in more relief and at length the Constable himself his Uncle drew near and passed the Somme with the Kings whole Army designing to send some into the Town thorough the Marshes but this was done with so much precipitation that there hardly got in Five Hundred with Dandelot his Brother Collonel of the French Infantry After this exploit the Constable retiring in sight of the Enemy in the open day-light it was the Tenth of August the Feast day of Saint Laurence embarrassed with Baggage and Victuallers or Sutlers weaker by one half then the Enemy particularly in Horse was so briskly charged by the Duke of Savoy between the Villages of Essigny and Rizeroles that he had not leasure to give necessary orders His Cavalry were put to the rout his Infantry stood firm but were all Massacred He was made Prisoner and with him Montberon his young Son the Dukes of Montpensier and de Longueville the first wounded in the Head Ludovic de Gonzague since Duke of Nevers the Mareschal de Saint André the Rhinegrave Collonel of the Germans ten Knights of the Order there were in all not Forty and three Hundred Gentlemen There were Six Hundred likewise slain besides three Thousand Foot and Horse amongst whom was found John de Bourbon Duke of Enghien They took almost as many Prisoners The Enemies lost not in all above Fourscore or a Hundred men This was named the Battle of Saint Quentin from the City or of Saint Laurence because of the day it was fought on The Valour and Prudence of the Duke of Savoy and the brave exploits of Count Egmont were the principal causes of the Spaniards Victory one of the most renowned and glorious they ever gained and the most doleful and fatal to France of all they ever lost since those of Crecy and Poitiers The Duke of Nevers the Prince of Condé the Count de Sancerre Francis eldest Son of the Constable and many other Officers of note made their escape with the greatest part of the Cavalry and being retired to la Fere did happily enough
King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from joyning with him whilst they were at Court but they came on with more boldness when they were in the Camp Henry de la Tour Vicount de Turenne at that time a Catholick and already very knowing and subtle though but young was the contriver of their Association Being all hot headed rash young Men many Designs were propounded as strange as bold The King having had some hint gave order to Pinard Secretary of State to enjoyn the Duke not to leave the Camp upon pain of Incurring his Indignation The Duke sending him back without any answer because he would not produce his Order the Kings Council took such an Alarm that the King apprehending some dangerous surprize wrote to the Duke of Anjou to hasten the taking of Rochel because he had need of his Forces about his Person This was the cause he made so many Assaults unseasonably and lost so many Men. Now as both the one and the other were in an extream Perplexity Arrives the News from Poland which open'd them a way to go off with Honour The Bishop of Valence had gained the Affections of the Polanders by means of Balagny his naâ—ural Son before the death of King Sigismond the last Prince of the House of Jagellons When he was dead which hapned the Seventh of July in the year 1572. he parted from Paris the Seventeenth day of August following and went thither himself The Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou apprehended nothing Year of our Lord 1573 more then the success of this Election wherefore at the same time they pretended to employ all the Kings power for it they obstructed it underhand by private Methods Nevertheless the Bishop having more regard to the Kings Command and his own Honor then to a Womans fancies managed the business so well that it succeeded The Duke of Anjou was Elected King but as the Heads of two of those four Factions that were amongst them were Calvinists they obliged the French Ambassadors to promise them several Conditions in favour of that Religion particularly that they should leave all those Cities at Liberty which were Besieged Upon the News of this Election and the Arrival of the Polish Ambassadours who came to fetch their new King the Duke of Anjou made them give some fresh Assaults and then renewed the propositions for accommodation The Rochellers refused to hearken to any thing unless all the other Cities of their Party were comprehended and they were fain to yeild to them in this point unless for month June Sancerre whose Surrender was hourly expected The Articles were all resolved upon the Five and Twentieth of June the Ratification was brought back some dayes after with an Edict of Pacification which was more restrictive by much then the preceeding ones for it allowed only Liberty of Conscience but no publick exercise excepting in the Cities of Rochel Nismes and Montauban It was not in their Power to obtain the same advantage for Sancerre the King under colour it belonged to a particular Lord whose right he could not infringe refused to grant them any more but the Liberty of Marriages and Christnings So that although for four Months past the scarcity of Provisions grew daily to a most-horrible Extremity yet they resolved to perish rather then not enjoy the same Conditions which the rest had They fed upon the most unclean Creatures and upon such Herbs as Beasts themselves refuse to tast as also Parchment and Leather and to say all in a word they surprized a Father and a Mother feeding upon their own Daughter that had been starved to death Whilst they were in this most lamentable State and yet would not think of a Surrender the Ambassadours from Poland who Arrived in the beginning of August got composition for them but they had no other advantages for their Religion then what was general So that the Cruel and Voluntary death of Two Thousand of those unhappy Wretches served only to Signalize to all future Ages their too long and fatal obstinacy In the Treaty of Rochel it was Stipulated that the Rochellers should intreat the Duke of Anjou to come into their City but that he should not enter So that after the most eminent had been with him to request it he dismissed his Army and went on Board his Galleys visited the adjacent Islands thence Sailed to Nantes and so returned to Court being every where received in quality of a King Thus ended that Famous Siege where the King lost Twelve Thousand Men and a great many Persons of Note the most remarkable being Claude Duke of Aumale who was Slain with a Cannon Shot The Polish Ambassadours who were Twelve in number and for their Chief had the Bishop of Posna Arrived at Mets the Five and Twentieth of July made their Solemn entrance into Paris on the Third day of September and the Tenth month July c. read the Decree of Election in the Palace-Hall The King was there upon a Scaffold Array'd in his Royal Robes and accompanied by all the Princes and Grandees of his Court The Decree being taken out of a Silver Box Sealed with an Hundred and Ten Seals of the Prelates Palatines and Castellans of the Kingdom was open'd and read aloud by one of the Ambassadors The King having given them very many civil thanks rose from his Seat and went to embrace the King of Poland his Brother the other Princes and Noblemen then present went afterwards to Congratulate him and pay their Respects He kissed the Duke of Alâ—ncon and the King of Navarre and treated the others with more or less Ceremony according to their quality I shall say nothing of the Feastings and Balets wherewith the Queen Mother entertained them those are the Abortives of Luxury and Prodigality the remembrance of which ought to last no longer then the smell of the meat and noise ☜ of the Violins The King of Poland made his entrance into Paris by the Gate Sainct Amoine with a Suitable Magnificence It was looked upon as an ill Omen that his Heraulds mistook in their blasoning the Arms of his New Kingdom Year of our Lord 1573 These Ceremonies ended King Charles who had taken up a strong Resolution he would Reign himself and withdraw that Authority he had imprudently committed to his Mother hastned his departure with great impatience every hour seeming a tedious year but the more he pressed the more delays the other still sought out It was not the delights only of the Court his Mothers tenderness the almost Royal Authority his Command had placed him in as Generalissimo of the Army's and the hope of succeeding to the Crown which ever seemed near at hand because the King had no Child that detained him in France the violent Love he had for the Princess of Condé was a stronger tye then all these The Duke of Guise who had Married the Sister soothed and served him though to no purpose in his passion and by that means had
it really such that the Besieged could not maintain it Three days longer unless they would feed upon one another month January and February So that he and the Count Signed and sent their Ratification to Lyons where the Constable Sillery and Janin staid to receive it The King was gone thence Post to Paris about Fifteen days before the Queen follow'd by easie Journeys and arrived at the beginning of Sainct Germains Fair. Towards Spring both of them went to Orleans to gain the Jubilé the Pope had month May. sent thither This is the Substance of the principal Articles of the Treaty The Duke quitted the Country of Bresse to the King comprehending Bourg with its Cannon and Ammunitions Bugey Valromey and the Bailywick of Geix with the River of Rosne from Geneva even to Lyons excepting only Pont de Gressin which he retained for the conveniency of Passage Moreover he gave up the City Chastellenie and Tower of the Bridge of Chasteau-Dausin and demolished Beche-Daufin The King in exchange left him the Marquisat of Salusses with the Cities of Cental Demont and Roque-Sparviere and rendred up all the Places he had taken during this War Both the one and the other were bound to make good the Guifts Rewards and Assignments made by either of them or their Predecessors upon those Lands they yeilded up month March Bouvens went out of the Citadel of Bourg the Ninth of March. Had there been Provisions they could never have forc'd him thence But the City being surprized on an instant he could not transport any Stores into that place ☜ which Demonstrates that it is more secure to lay up Stores in Citadels than in the Cities The King gave this important Government to Peter d'Escodeca Boesse a Huguenot and therefore the fitter to be trusted there In the Count de Fuentes Army were Five and twenty thousand Men he could willingly have employ'd them against France but the Council of Spain had designed them elsewhere One half were sent to Flanders the other about Mid-spring were put aboard several Galleys for some grand Enterprize against the Infidels It was believed they month May June and July meant to surprize Algiers by the Assistance of Ten thousand Christian Slaves who were to be Armed upon their Landing The Barbarians suspected it and shut them close in their Cellars doubly-chained Now whether that were the Design or not this Fleet having roved about those Seas some time returned into Port much shatter'd without so much as off'ring to make any the least attempt A powerful Diversion of the Turkish Forces would much have amended the Affairs of the Emperor Rodolph Sultan Amurath III. had broke the Peace with him in the year 1591. after he had made one with the Persian 'T is true that during the rest of his Reign he ever had the disadvantage nor was his Son and Successor Mahomet III. more fortunate the first year of his The Imperialists having taken Strigoniam and Sinan his Grand Visier being most shamefully chaced by Sigismond Battory Prince of Transilvania But the following which was 1596. the said Sultan going in Person gained the Fortress of Agria in the Upper Hungary which the Turks call the INEXPVGNABLE and won a great Battel over Mathias the Emperor's Brother who came too late to the relief of that Place month May June and July The Invasions of the Persians who renew'd the War with him and the Mutinies of the Janisaries made him lay aside his Enterprizes for some years but having brought his Forces again that way the Emperor not relying any more upon the Conduct of his Generals who served him very ill had cast his eyes upon the Duke of Mercoeur as well because of his Courage and Quality as because it was likely he would bring great Numbers of brave French-men with him who otherwise weary of being idle would Year of our Lord 1601 have run themselves into the Service of the United Provinces This Duke did joyfully accept so honorable an Employment not however without the King's Permission and took with him the Count de Chaligny his Brother a great many Volontiers and some compleat Companies of Soldiers There is no Historian of those times but hath taken delight to mention the Exploits of this generous Prince They relate the great though fruitless efforts he made with only Fifteen hundred men to raise the Siege which Ibrahim Bassa had laid to Canisa with Threescore thousand Combatants and to draw him to give Battel Afterwards when he had no more Provisions his gallant Retreat the bravest that Europe had beheld month July in all these Wars Then the following year 1602. the taking of Alba-Royal and defeat of the Turks who marched to relieve that Place After so many noble Actions as he was returning into France for his Domestick Affairs a Purple Feaver seized on Year of our Lord 1602 him in the City of Nuremberg and sent him to Triumph in Heaven the Nineteenth of February Now Seha Abbas King of Persia having renew'd a War against the Turks was persuaded by Anthony Shirley an Englishman one of the greatest Cheats in the whole World to seek the Alliance of the Christian Princes against their common Enemy His Ambassador Conducted by this Anthony saw the Emperor the Pope and the King of Spain they all gave him noble Reception and magnificent Promises but such as had no effect The whole Profit of this famous Embassy fell to Anthony who stole and converted to his own use the greater part of the Presents the Persian sent and designed for the Christian Princes Mahomet advertis'd of the great Noise it made in Europe and that the Duke of Mercoeur with a small number of French put his Armies to more trouble than the whole Forces of Germany had done before dispatched an Envoy to the King desiring him to recall that Prince and renew the ancient Alliances between the House of France and that of the Ottomans This Envoy was only a simple Physitian without any Train or Attendance not that those Barbarians are so insolent as to hold the Kings of France Inferiour to their Grandeur but because our Kings themselves would never ✚ admit of any splendid Embassies from thence lest it should provoke the hatred and reproach of the rest of Christendom However the effect of this Negociation was as inconsiderable as the Minister of it Year of our Lord 1601 The Treaty of Vervins did not hinder the two Kings from seeking to take their advantages of each other The Spaniards reproached the King that he assisted the Vnited Provinces with Money and that he permitted his Subjects to go into their Service with whole Troops of Horse and compleat Regiments of Foot As to the first he replied That if he did send them Money it was because he owed them a great deal But for the second he could not avoid making an Order to Prohibit the French from bearing Arms for those Provinces though in effect he were very glad they disobey'd him in that
869 Du Perron Cardinal made choice of to go to Rome to demand the Absolution of Henry IV. 848 Compleats the said important Affair 849 His Birth Church 16 th Age. Piali Bassa Admiral of the Forces sent by the Turk to Malta 693 Pius IV. takes the Alarm at a National Council in France 668 His Vanity Vide Chur. 16 th Age. Pius V. makes a League between the Spaniards and Venetians 715 De Piles valiantly defends Saint John d'Angely 708 Poissy the place of the famous Colloquy of that Name 676 Politiques a Faction Ch. 16 th Age. John Poltrot Meré Assassinates the Duke of Guise 687 Prodigles at the Deaths of Henry II. Henry III. and Henry IV. 941 Provinces-Vnited sollicite the French and the English to enter into a League 931 Pseffercon a Renegado Jew advises the Emperor to cause all the Jewish Books to be Burned Chur. 16 th Age. Writes against Renchin ib. Q QVarante of Paris chosen out of several Cities 788 Proclaim Charles Cardinal of Bourbon King 799 Quercy Appenage of Margaret of Valois 755 Quin̄ones Conde de Luna Ambassador of Spain at the Council of Trent disputes the precedency with France 685 John Quintin Speaker for the Clergy at the meeting of the Estates under Charles IX 673 Gives the Admiral Satisfaction 674 R RAbastains Besieged by Montluc where he was hurt 740 The Mareschal de Rais by his Practises hinders Rochel from receiving any relief from England 724 Rambouillet beats the leagued at Sablé and takes many Prisoners releases his Wife 807 Rasats a Faction under Henry III. 740 Rapin sent to Touloze by the Prince they make his Process 699 His death revenged 709 Reformed Religion at what time the Huguenots took that Title 743 Religion makes People undergo every thing 723 Makes even the very Women become couragious ib. La Renaudie chosen by the Huguenots to assemble those of their belief 665 Indiscreetly discovers his Design ib. Kills his Cousin and is Kill'd 666 Re-Union Edict given by Henry III. 783 Is sworn to by the King 784 Jo. Ribaud returns to Florida is ill treated by the Winds and worse yet by the Spaniards 700 Jo. Ribaud sent to Florida by the Admiral builds a Fort there and returns ib. His Men coming away after him are reduced to such Streights by Famine that they eat one of their Sick Company are relieved by the English ib. Rochel enters into the Huguenot Party 698 Fortifie themselves after the Saint Bartholomew 722 Is invested 723 Fortified by the Huguenots it defends its self wonderfully well ib. Rodolph King of the Romans Son of the Emperor Conducts Henry III. 733 Requesens Governor of the Low-Countries 750 Gains a famous Battle ib. A League against him ib. Rosny Surintendant of the Finances 840 Ambassador in England 903 Rosoy in Brie the Rendezvous of the Huguenots to surprize Charles IX at Monceaux 696 Rossius a Physician Hanged 825 De Roüet a Damoiselle beloved by the King of Navarre is cause of his Death 684 Rouen besieged by the Kings Army conducted by the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise 683 Their Fort Saint Catherine taken by Assault ib. The City taken by Storm and Sacked ib. Besieged and quitted by Henry IV. 800 Roussel Francis May David surprizes the Castle of Vernueil and makes himself Master of the Town after a long Fight 682 N. de Roye Mother-in-Law to the Prince of Condé seized at the Estates of Orleans 670 Rybeirac Second in a Duel to Entragues the first Example of that kind 750 S. SAbellius his Errors in Vogue Sacierge Peter Chancellour under Lewis XII Church 16th Age. Sacramentaries a Name given to the Huguenots ib. Sagner Advoyer of Berne brings a Message for renewing of the Alliance with Henry IV. 898 Saint Cloud the place where Henry III. was lodged during the Siege of Paris and Murther'd 795 Sainte-Croix Marquess takes the Acores upon Don Antonio 760 His cruelty ib. Sainte Soulene draws off his Ships when they were ready to engage 760 They make his Process ib. Saint John d'Angely Besieged by the Duke of Anjou is taken after a rude Siege 708 Saint Luo Favorite of Henry III. forfeits his favour because he would undeceive his Master 772 Hurts the Prince of Condé to whom he afterwards Surrenders himself a Prisoner 778 Salsede Nicholas his Original his Treason and his Death 759 Salusses Marquisate seized by the Duke of Savoy 785 The King redemands it 870 Treaty for the exchange of it 887 Saveuse a brave Picard his death 793 Schomberg passes into Germany on behalf of Charles IX 716 Scbastian King of Portugal loses a Battle against the Moors 752 The Seize or the Sixteen Henry III. resolves to punish them 780 Sollicite the Duke of Guise to come to their assistance ib. Seize upon the Gates of Paris and elect the Duke of Aumale for their Governor 781 Will set up the Government of a Common-wealth or Republick Devote themselves to the Spaniard 814 Own the Duke of Guise for their Head 819 Cause some Presidents and Councellors to be Hanged ib. Obstruct the Reduction of Paris 836 Serini Count defends Liget bravely his generous Death 693 694 Sigismund of Austria King of Poland is infirm 715 Sixtus V. Pope his Ambition 792 Solyman enraged for having missed Malta falls upon Hungary 693 Dies before Ziget ib. Sonnas a Commander of the Savoy Forces that attempted to surprize Geneva is taken and Executed 900 Example of the extraordinary and unheard of Love of his Wife ib. James Spifame quits a Bishoprick to take a Wife Church 16 th Age. Strasburgh redoubles their Guards after the Saint Bartholomew 722 Strossi Cardinal makes a League 744 Surenne place of the famous Conference between the Royalists and the Parisians 830 The Swiss depute to Henry III. in favour of the Huguenots 774 Remain in the Service of Henry IV. 976 Are received and feasted at Paris 898 T TAlsy a place of Conference between the Queen and the Prince of Condé 678 Tanneguy du Chastel his Generosity and Acknowledgment 671 Tanguerel Batchellor of the Sorbonne Condemned by the Parliament for having maintained a Thesis against Kings 678 Tard-advisez rebels under Henry IV. 840 de Thiard a Poet and a Mathematician Church 16 th Age. de Thou Nicholas Bishop of Chartres Crowns Henry IV. 836 de Toledo Roderique General of the Milan Forces for the Duke of Savoy beaten and slain by Lesdiguieres 833 Truchard Maire of Rochel makes the Town enter into the Huguenots Party 698 Toloza exercises many Cruelties at the Saint Bartholomews and Hangs five Councellors 721 Henry de la Tour Vicount de Turenne Contriver of the Association of the Duke of Alenson the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé 724 Is made Mareschal of France upon his Marriage with the Heiress of Sedan 818 Surprizes Stenay the Evening before his Nuptials ib. de Tournon Cardinal refuses to give place to the Princes of the Blood 676 Trans the Marquess his two Sons are slain 756 Tremblecour Commands the
he suspected abstained from being his Judges and that they would send Commissioners to Cambray to take Information and hear those proofs he would offer The Holy Father perceived then the Fault he had committed by his Precipitating a thing of that Importance and could well have desired to find out some remedy But the time was past his fatal hand had given the blow which made so desperate a Wound as wholly cut off England from the Communion of the Church of Rome For Henry transported with fury that he had posted him up at Rome withdrew himself absolutely from all obedience to the Pope declared himself Head of the Anglicane Church and persecuted severely all those that opposed this change It is observed that if the Pope had deferr'd the Judgement but ten Months death would have disengag'd him from all these Intricacies and cut this knot by taking Catherine out of this World as it did in January following Year of our Lord 1533. and 34. The Kings constancy for the Catholick Faith was then like to be sorely shaken by two strong Temptations the one was the King of Englands Summons Solliciting him to break with the Pope to preserve the strict Colligation that was between them the other the Induction of his dear Sister Margaret who would needs have perswaded him to call in Philip Melancthon and give him Audience concerning the means he had to propound for accommodating the differences in Religion But as to the first he replyed in Substance to the King of England A Friend even to the Alter And for the second the Cardinal de Tournon put by that dangerous blow and fortified the Kings mind so well that he would never after give the least Ear to any of those Reformers but in time did also wean his Sister from that Fondness she had and hankering after Novelties Each day Accumulated more and more cause of Quarrel and War between the King and the Emperor This last had great Jealousie of the Enter-view at Marseille and the Marriage there Solemnized He likewise thought himself highly affronted for that the King was entred into the League of the German Princes Confederated at Smalcalde and he was no less so for his assisting of the Dukes of Wirtemberg in the Diet of Ausburgh where their cause against his Brother Ferdinand was Judged who detained their Lands as also for that William Langey by his Contrivances and his Perswasive and Powerful Eloquence broke the League of Scwaben which had lasted for seventy years to the great advantage of the House of Austria King Francis on his part complained of a very Bloody and cruel injury He had in the number of his Esquires a Gentleman of Milan named Francis de Merveille who had gained much wealth in his Service And knowing that he would be willing to make some shew of it in his native Country he sent him to Milan in quality of Secret Ambassador Merveille was so vain as not to conceal his Employment the Emperor knew of it and made complaint to Sforza with Threats who promised to give him Satisfaction Now it happened either by chance or otherwise that some People of that Country made a Quarrel with Merveille and some body was killed in the Fray The Duke fails not to lay hold of this opportunity to content the Emperor and under colour of Justice but without any form causes his head to be cut off by night and in the Prison This hap'ned a little before the Kings journey to Marseille In pursuance of the Kings League with the Confederates of Smalcalde Philip Landtgrave of Hesse Espoused the Quarrel of the Dukes of Wirtemberg who that he might have Money to prosecute the same engaged Montbelliard to the King and declared War against Ferdinand over whose Army having gained a Notable Victory he re-Established them in their County and obliged Ferdinand to allow all Liberty to the Protestants the Sacramentaries and Anabaptists not Comprised Vpon which condition they acknowledged him King of the Romans The Landtgrave had promised Francis to go into Italy which however he did not and this King with the Design of renewing a War set up a Militia in all his Provinces which he distributed in seven Bodies of Six Thousand Men each they were named Legions This institution lasted not long it would have rendered the People too Powerful and the Government too weak The twenty fourth of September died Pope Clement Two days after the Cardinals being assembled in Conclave elected Alexander Farnese named Paul III. At this time John Cauvin or Calvin aged twenty four or five years began to expose his Doctrine more conformable to that of the Sacramentaries than to that of Luther and which went much farther for it did not only touch upon the inward belief but overthrew all the Exteriour and the Ceremonies He was a Native of Noyon Son of Gerard who was the Bishops Secretary A Man very studious of a sharp and penetrating Wit a Melancholly and Sickly Temper an angry and passionate humour no very smooth Tongue but an Eloquent and Fluent pen and who was oft reproached that he coverd a Violent ambition and extream obstinacy with the Vaile of great Modesty and Humility Year of our Lord 1534 He took the first Impression of those new Doctrines when he was Studying the Law at Bourges from a certain German named Melchior Volmar who taught the Greek Tongue and was entertained by Margaret Queen of Navarre Sister of King Francis A very generous Princess who having a great love for Learning had suffered her reason to be prevailed upon by these Broachers of Novelties It is held that he laid the first foundation of his Sect at Poitiers and there instituted the form of the Lords Supper or Mandâ—cation that from thence he sent three of his Companions into divers Parts to sow his Dogmatisms and that himself retired to Nerac to Gerard de Roussel and James le Feure of Estaples who were there sheltred under the protection of Queen Margaret and had already establisht secretly in that little Court a form of a Church almost the same as he intended to bring forth into the World He stayed but a few Months at Nerac and passed into Italy to see Renee de France Dutchess of Ferrara who was imbued with the same opinions as Margaret Then when Geneva had expell'd her Bishop and the Catholick Religion he there established the Seat of his residence And from thence he sent his Disciples to Preach his Doctrine over all France and the Low-Countries exposing them to all sorts of dangers and deaths which he kept himself far enough off from the fire of Persecution and hazarded nothing but his Paper and Ink. This same year 1534. and the following was acted that Bloody and Horrible Tragedy of the Anabaptists in the City of Munster Those Phanaticks thinking to Establish their Whimseys by subverting the Lawful Power had chosen for their King a Taylor named John of Leyden Their Bishop besieged them and reduced them to
extremity of Famine But whilst they resolved obstinately to Perish rather then yield he was let into the Town by one of that Mock-Monarchs Camerades took him and the chief Ministers of his fury and having led them some time about the Neighbouring Countries as objects of Derision put them to death with exquisite Torments Year of our Lord 1535 About the end of the year 1534. The Sacramentarians published some Libels and posted up Papers against the Divine Mystery of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar King Francis in the beginning of the Year 1535. for reparation of these Injuries caused a general Procession to be made at Paris whereat he assisted with great Devotion holding a Torch in his hand together with the Queen and his Children afterwards making diligent search for the Authors of that Scandal he committed half a dozen to the Flames who were burnt in several places but for every one he put to death there sprang up hundreds of others out of their Ashes These proceedings could not be pleasing to the Protestant Princes his good Friends Wherefore the Emperor failed not to stir them up to a resentment against him to accuse him of Cruelty for burning their Brethren and impiety since at the same time he thus severely handled those that professed a new Reformation of Christianity he had Turkish Ambassadors in his Court. And indeed he had much adoe to justifie himself towards them and in all this whole year could obtain nothing from them The Death of Merveille was either a pretence or a real cause for a War against Sforza that he might get footing once more in Milanois Charles Duke of Savoy denying him passage thorough his Country drew that Tempest upon his own head unless it were perhaps the Kings design first to attaque him for he had many other causes of resentment against him He complained that Beatrix of Portugal his Wife and Sister to the Emperor inclined him to consider the Emperor his Brother in Law more then him who was his Nephew That he had dar'd to take the Investiture of the County of Ast from that Prince which was the Patrimony of the House of Orleans That for pledge of his Faith he had given him Lewis Prince of Piedmont his Eldest Son and in the mean time had refused to accept his Nephew of him the Order of Saint Michael and an establisht Company with Twelve Thousand Crowns Pension As likewise to let the Pope have the use of the City of Nice for the enterview that was at Marseille That he had possessed some Lands of the Marquisate of Sallusses which were a Fief mouvant of Daufine That he refused him the Homage of Foucigny That he rejoyced in his Letters to the Emperor at his being taken Prisoner at Pavia That he had lent the Duke of Bourbon Money since his revolt But above all these there was the right of Convenience which led the King to seize upon those Territories to facilitate his Conquest of Milan and to prevent his exchanging them with the Emperor for others higher up in Italy For the Dukes Enemies reported that the bargain was in hand And therefore he underhand Year of our Lord 1535 demanded the giving up his Places of Montmeillan Veilland Chivas and Vercel for which he offer'd Lands in France and to compleat the Marriage of his Daughter Margarite with Lewis Eldest Son of the Duke accordingly as they had agreed eight years before Now though all these were great occasions of Offence to the King yet he took no other to quarrel with him but that which he would have taken formerly in the Year 1518. which was that he should do him Justice concerning the Succession of Louisa his Mother who was Sister of that Duke and the late Philibert his Predecessor During the Life of that Princess he pursued this business by no other wayes but by Treaty and it may well be believed he would have it sleep still if the reasons we have hinted had not engag'd him to awaken it now again He therefore sent William Poyet President of the Parliament of Paris to the Duke to make his demand for a free Passage and his Rights As for the Passage the Duke at lest in outward appearance shewed himself very ready to grant it and to furnish him with Provisions paying for them And for the other point he proffer'd to make an amicable Agreement and to leave the Kings and his own Pretensions to Arbitrators Which the King taking for a denyal declared War against him in the Month of February of the year 1535. He had already begun to make him feel his Indignation by giving Orders underhand to the Officers and Magistrates of Daufine to make Incursions upon his Countries by obliging the Holy Father to Suppress the Bishoprick of Bourg which had been newly Established in his Favour and by assisting those of Geneva against him The Inhabitants of that City pretending to hold of the Empire had a long time sought to free themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop and for this purpose had twice or thrice helped themselves by the Protection of the Cantons of Bearne and Friburgh who had made them their fellow Citizens In fine they absolutely Revolted and Expell'd their Bishop his name was Peter de la Baulme The Duke having besieged them the King sent several small Supplyes but who were all defeated and yet the apprehension he had of the Beranois made him raise the Siege Immediately the City chiefly at the Instigation of two Sacramentarian Ministers i. e. Farel and Viret changed their Religion and Government and put themselves into the same State almost as they remain in to this day The Bishop transported his See to Anecy After these Flashes of Lightning the mighty Thunder-clap broke forth The Admirable Brion entered his Countries with the Army raised to fall upon Milan At the very report and Noise of his March all the Places of Bress and those of Savoy on this side Mount Cenis opened their Gates to the French without any opposition The Duke was wholly un-provided of Forces he could do no other till the return of the Emperor but only temporise and in the mean time defend himself by Submissions and Respects which are but feeble Arms against a Potent and an Angry Prince when he intends to make Advantage of his Wrath. Year of our Lord 1535 The eight of July of this year 1535. Anthony Duprat Cardinal Arch-Bishop of Lens Legate in France and Chancellour died in his Castle of Nantouillet Much Tormented with Remorse of Conscience as his Sighs and Speeches made manifest for having observed no other Guide or Law he that was himself so great a Lawyer but his own Interest and the Passion of his Soveraign It was he that took away the Elections to Benefices and the Priviledges of many Churches that Introduced the Sale of Offices in Courts of Judicature that taught them boldly to lay all sorts of Impositions in France that divided and distinguished the Kings Interest