Lord 1197 Amongst all the events of this War which amounted only to Burnings and Plunderings is to be observed what hapned to Philip de Dreux Bishop of Beauvais Cousin german to the King This Bishop being taken in the War Armed and Fighting by some of Richard's Soldiers was detained a long time in an uneasie prison The Pope would interpose his recommendation to Richard for his deliverance and in his Letters he call'd this Bishop His most dear Son But Richard having sent word back in what posture and manner he was taken and having sent his coat of Maille all Bloody with order to him that carry'd it to ask him Behold Holy Father whether this be the Coat of your Son The Pope had nothing to reply but that the Treatment they shewed to that Prelat was just since he had quitted the Militia of Jesus Christ to follow that of the World Death of the Emperour Henry As he had manifested himself as rude an enemy to the Popes as his Predecessors and besides was very odious for his cruelties Innocent III. strongly opposed the Election of Philip his Brother excommunicating all his Adherents and stood up for Otho Son of the Duke of Saxouy and a Sister of Richards who was Crowned at Aix la Chapelle so that there was a Schism in that Empire which had often occasioned one in the Church The King of England the Earl of Flanders and the Arch-Bishop of Colen supported Otho and King Philip on Year of our Lord 1197 the contrary made a League with his Rival The same year died in the City of Acre or Acon the generous Henry Earl of Champagne Titular King of Jerusalem his Nephew Thibauld or Theobald III. of that Name Earl of Blois inherited those Lands he had in France in prejudice of his Year of our Lord 1197 Uncles two Daughters The eldest was named Alix and was Queen of Cyprus and by her was born a Daughter of the same Name whom we shall find making War against Thibauld IV. The Second was called Philippa who was Married to Erard de Brienne Year of our Lord 1198 These bloody and obstinate Wars the particulars whereof cannot be brought within the compass of an Abridgement caused much mischief in France but the greatest was that Philip grew extreamly covetous and became too greedy in heaping up Treasure under pretence of the necessity of raising and maintaining great numbers of standing Forces which are truly very proper to make Conquests and new Acquisitions but some times become oppressive to the Subjects and destructive to the Laws of the Land As he was the First of the Kings of France that kept Men in pay and would have Soldiers always ready to employ them in what he pleased he set himself likewise upon making great exactions upon the People ransoming or taxing the Churches and recalling the Jews who were the introducers of Usury and Imposts But however he was very frugal and retrencht himself as much as possible knowing and considering ☜ that a King who hath great designs ought not to consume the substance of his Subjects in vain and pompous expences Year of our Lord 1199 At the end of two years War the Pope by his intercession procured a Five years truce between the two Kings during which Richard as covetous of Money as he was proud having intelligence that a Gentleman of Limosin had found a vast Treasure and carried it into the Castle of Chalus he went presently and besieged him he was wounded there with a Cross-bow and his debauchery having envenom'd his wound he died of it the Eleventh day of April in this year 1199. He had introduc'd the use of Cross-bows in France before that time Sword-men were so generous and brave that they would not owe their Victory but to their Lances or Swords they abhorr'd those treacherous weapons wherewith a coward sheltred or conceal'd may kill a valiant Man at a distance and thorough a hole Year of our Lord 1199 He had no Children therefore the Kingdom of England and the Dutchy of Normandy belonged of right to young Arthur Duke of Bretagne as being the Son of Gefroy his Brother elder then John without Land but John having seized the Money gained Richards Forces and stept into the Throne In the mean while the Earl of Flanders with his Allies regained the Cities of Aire and St. Omers It hapned that the Kings party took his Brother Philip Earl of Namur and Peter Bishop Elect of Cambray The King refusing to release this last the Popes Legat puts the Kingdom of France under a prohibition so that after three Months time he was constrained to set him free Year of our Lord 1200 The day of the Ascension in the year 1200. Peace was concluded at a solemn Conference between the two Kings between Vernon and Andeley It was warranted by Twelve Barons on either part who made oath to take up Arms against him that should break it and moreover confirmed by the Marriage of Blanche Daughter of Alfonso VIII King of Castille and Alienor Sister to King John with Lewis the eldest Son of Philip to whom King John in favour of this Alliance yielded up all the Lands and Places which the French had taken from him Each had a care to secure his Partisans John was oblig'd to receive his Nephew Arthur into favour who did hommage to him for his Dutchy of Bretagne but yet remained with Philip. Reciprocally Philip pardon'd Renauld Earl of Boulogne and some while after Treated the Marriage between his Son of his own name whom he had by his Queen Agnes and that Earls Daughter Since the repudiation of 1semburge of Denmark King Philip had kept her in a Convent at Soissons and at three years end that is Anno 1196 he had espoused Mary-Agnes Daughter of Bertold Duke of Merania and Dalmatia Pope Celestine III. upon the complaints of King Canut Brother of the Divorc'd Lady had Commissioned in the year 1198. two Legats to take cognisance of this Affair who had assembled a grand Council at Paris of the Bishops and Abbots of the Kingdom but all those Prelats being partly terrify'd and some corrupted durst give no Sentence and the Legats were suspected to favour the Cause of Agnes Afterwards the Holy Father more importunately desired to do justice had sent two more One of them in the month of Decemb in the year 1199. having called the Prelats of France to Dijon notwithstanding the Appeal interjected by Philip to the Pope pronounced Sentence of prohibiton upon all the Kingdom in presence and by consent of all the Bishops and nevertheless that he might have leasure enough to get away into some place of safety he was willing it should not be publish'd till twenty days after Christmass He had reason to fear Philips anger In effect it burst out with furty against all his Subjects against the Ecclesiasticks first whom he believ'd to be all accomplices in this injury for he drove the Bishops from their Sees cast the
Men at Arms the Burgundian was not weaker but the Queen the Dukes of Berry and Bourbon appearing as Mediators reconciled the Uncle and the Nephew at least to outward shew At that time the King was in his Fits when he was recover'd the Duke of Orleans obtained of him that when he was ill he should have the Goverment of Year of our Lord 1402 the Kingdom He imprudently began it by new Imposts which rendred him odious to the People Insomuch that the Burgundian being returned to Court found his party strong enough in the Council to obtain the Government again Soon after the King coming out of another Fit gave order that they should Govern joyntly but the Council the Queen and the other Princes and Lords prayed him to recal it The Duke of Orleans went to take passession of the Dutchy of Luxemburgh which he had purchased of Wenceslans King of Bohemia and made an agreement between the Duke of Lorrain and the City of Mets. As for the Duke of Burgundy he went into Bretagne where he rendred a signal piece of Service to France Jean de Navarre the Widow of Duke John de Montfort was going to be married with Henry King of England and was ready to have carried her three Daughters with her the Duke prevented this and having taken order to preserve the Dutchy for them brought them to the Court of France to be bred up in an affection to that Crown Bennet found means to make his escape out of the Palace of Avignon bearing about him the Body of our Lord and certain Letters from the King in which he had made promise never to forsake him Immediately his Cardinals were reconciled to him the City craved his Pardon and the King of Sicilia made him a visit The Court of France was hugely divided about the business of the Substraction the Dukes of Berry Burgundy and Bourbon insisted to persevere therein the Duke of Orleans on the contrary The Clergy of France were assembled to decide it The King of Spain declared by his Ambassadours that he would take it off In a word they bestirred themselves so with the King that he restored the Kingdom to the Obedience of Bennet All the Universities consented even that of Paris at last unless the Norman People who resisted a long while And all this change was made upon the Duke of Orleans becoming security for Bennets good intentions who after this setled himself in Avignon fortify'd it and got some Soldiers into the City and others quarter'd round the neighborhood to maintain himself by power Year of our Lord 1403 The Dukes of Orleans Berry and Burgundy disputed daily and contended daily for the Government they agreed in no one thing but the laying of new Imposts they had their shares all three but the odium fell chiefly upon the first for this as well as for the Schism in the Church All the whole time of this Reign poor France was beaten with divers rods of Affliction sometimes with parching Droughts then otherwhiles with Floods of Rain and Inundations of Rivers sometimes with violent Storms and Tempests often Year of our Lord 1404 with contagious or epidemical Diseases There hapned so great a Mortality at Paris in the year 1399. that they were fain to forbid all great Meetings This year another was so rife it carried off an infinite number Philip Duke of Burgundy dyed of it at Halle in the Countrey of Brabant the Twenty seventh of April His Heart was brought to St. Denis his Body to the Chartreuse of Dijon which he had built most magnificently This Prince without being a King had the greatest Estate in Lands of any in his Days but his Magnificence which we may say hath been Hereditary to the House of Burgundy which yielded not for number of Officers nor rich Furniture to that of the Royal Family and the excessive expences he was at upon all occasions had so much impoverish'd him that his Wife renounced the Community and laid down his Girdle Keys and Purse upon his Coffin as her surrender He had three Sons and four Daugters Of his Sons John had the Dutchy and the County of Burgundy with Flanders and Artois Anthony was Duke of Brabant Lothier and Limbourg Philip had the Earldoms of Nevers and Rhetel Of the four Daughters Marguerite espoused William eldest Son of Albert Duke of Bavaria who was Son of the Emperour Lewis and Earl of Haynault Holland and Zealand and Lord of Friesland From them came an only Daughter named Jacqueline of whom we shall have many things to relate Mary was wedded with Ame VIII First Duke of Savoy who afterwards was made Pope under the name of Felix Catharine was Wife of Leopold IV. Duke of Austria and Earl of Tyrol Bonna died before she was Married Year of our Lord 1404 It was now two years that the Duke of Bretagne's Children had been bred in the Court of France this year the Eldest who succeded to the Dutchy he was called John and was the Sixth of that name went to take possession thereof and shewed himself a better Frenchman then his Father They were sensibly troubled in France for the death of King Richard and they had used all their endeavours to turn that great affection the Cities of Bourdeaux and Bayonne had for Richard into a hatred against his Murtherer but they were so strictly tied to the English by their intercourse of Trade they could not pervert them from their Interest and Obedience nor gain the least of their ends upon them And the Kings indisposition would not suffer them to venture to take a revenge for the Murther of his Son-in-law There were none but the Duke of Orleans and Valeran Count de St. Pol who had Married Richards Sister that shewed any resentment The First sent to defy Henry in very opprobrious terms but received a sutable return The Second after most outragious challenges and bravado's much above what was in his power to perform besieged Mere by Land from whence he was driven away most shamefully Henry had sent back Queen Isabella to her Father with her Portion and all her Jewels and Truces had been made at divers seasons but those were more punctually observed Year of our Lord 1404 on the French side then by the English For accordingly as Henry setled himself he loosed the Reins of the Englishmens hatred who committed many hostilities by Sea and Land in Normandy and in Guyenne The Bretons and Normans did not leave them un-retaliated as likewise at the same time the Constable Albert he succeeded Lewis de Sancerre in that Office cleared all the neighborhood of Bourdelois of a great many petty Castles by means whereof they gathered great Contributions in the Countrey of Guyenne The Earl de la Marche Son of the Duke of Bourbon did as much in Limosin Year of our Lord 1404 But this last by his too long delay ruined that relief he should have carried to Clindon a Prince of Wales who made
Leagues but finding he was too weak and that his prayers availed not with his Son in Law he retreated and his Constable was forced to capitulate The Castle of Guissant which is within four Leagues of Bayonne surrendred likewise after three thousand English whom the Constable of Navarre and the Year of our Lord 1449 Mayor of Bayonne sent by Water to their relief had been beaten by the Besiegers At the same time Veneuil in Perche was taken by the contrivance of a Miller in revenge for that the English had beaten him the great Tower held it out yet a while In the interim the Count de Dunois by the small resistance he met with from Pont-Audemer Lisieux Mantes and the Forts that were round those Cities perceiving the English were at a low ebb sent the King word that Normandy was sorely shaken He was besides informed that the Duke of Bretagne with the Constable had taken Coutances and that the Inhabitants of Alenson had restored their Duke to his City and besieged the Castle which immediately capitulated Upon this good news he departs from Vendosme where he got his Forces together came to Verneuil thence to Louviers and Pont de Larche to summon the City of Rouen whose Inhabitants were disposed to shake off their yoak Year of our Lord 1449 The Earl of Sommerset who was in it with three thousand English did not permit his Heraulds to come near Which could not prevent a party of the Inhabitants from placing many Frenchmen upon their Walls but the rest not joyning with them that design miscarried These would first make their Conditions with the King as they did the next day Their Archbishop Rodolph Roussel who was chief of the Deputation obtained security and liberty for the Persons and for the Goods of all those that were within the City as well English as French whether choosing to remain there still or to remove elsewhere if they desired it When he had given an account of the Treaty in the Town-Hall the English endeavoured to frustrate the execution by seizing on the Gates and Walls but the Inhabitants soon dispossess'd them and forced them to retire to the Bridge the Castle and the Palace The Fort St. Catharine held but little Sommerset having few Provisions in the old Palace capitulated within fifteen days That himself and all his should go out with their Lives and Goods and all their furniture for War excepting their great Guns That they should pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns and all such Debts as they owed to the Bourgois and the Merchants belonging to that Country That they should be obliged to procure the surrender of Caudebec Moustiervilliers Lislebonne Tancarville and Honnefleur and for Hostages should leave the Sire Talbot and five or six more of their principal Commanders The Tenth day of November the King entred the City in Pomp and celebrated the Feast of St Martin the ancient Patron of Gall. Year of our Lord 1449 and 50. Notwithstanding the inconveniences of the Winter Season he laid Siege to Harfleur which was the first place that was conquered by the late Henry King of England It surrendred upon the Twelfth day of January As did Honnefleur afterwards which held out but a few days Year of our Lord 1449 At the same time the Duke of Bretagne and the Constable reduced Valongne with six or seven other little places and after a long Siege regained likewise his City of Foulgeres Year of our Lord 1449 These prosperities were not without some mixture or allay of sorrow to the King In the year 1449. while he was at Jumieges they poysoned his dear Agnes de Sorean without whom he could not live one moment To comfort him Antoinetta dt Maignelais Dame de Villequier Cousin to the deceased took her place but she was not sole Mistress the impotence of age stirring up this Kings desires he entertained a great number of beautiful Damsels at least to satisfie the pleasure of his Eye Some would needs have it that some of the Dauphins friends made away Agnes and that he who did most contribute to it was the famous James Coeur Keeper of the Kings Plate Master of the Moneys or Mint-Master of Bourges his Native City a Merchants Son and one that managed all the Treasury There are such wonders related of his Riches his Credit and his Buildings that Chymists would fain persuade us he had the Philosophers Stone In Anno 1452. an Accusation was framed against him in the Kings Council and all his Goods were seized as well for the Crime above mentioned as for those of Concussion Exaction Transportation of Money out of the Kingdom falsifying of Coyn counterfeiting Seals selling Arms and Powder to the Sarrasins c. He appeared voluntarily to justifie himself he was Arrested and removed to several Prisons Finally the King being satisfied that he was guilty says the Decree of the Nineteenth of May 1453. of all these Crimes and yet remitting the pains of death for the services he had rendred him and upon the intercession of the Holy Father condemned him to make Amende Honorable to pay a hundred thousand Crowns and confiscated all his Goods Some time after the Parliament restored him in his Reputation and Estate after he had paid his Fine Towards the beginning of this year 1450. there landed three thousand English at Cherbourgh commanded by Thomas Kyrle who drawing a Party out of the Garrisons made up a gross of six thousand Men with which he adventur'd to take the Field The Constable having heard of their march goes forth to seek them although he had not half their number of Men. He met and fought them nigh the Village of Fourmigny between Carentan and Bayeux along a small River which ran behind them These new Levies joyned with such as had never hunted together could not stand before the old experienced Soldiers who had so many brave Leaders and Warlike Nobility to encourage them few of them escaped since they counted three thousand seven hundred seventy four that were slain and fourteen hundred Prisoners Year of our Lord 1450 This blow brought them to their last gasp they appeared now no more but upon the Walls of some places yet remaining in their hands The King being gone into the Lower Normandy found no great difficulty in besieging them nor much more in taking them Vire Bayeux St. Sauveur le Vicomte Falaize Caen defended themselves but weakly Caen made its composition upon St. John's Eve They provided the Earl of Sommerset and four thousand English he had about him with Vessels to transport them into England but not to any other place The City was given up to the King the Second day of July Falaise the Twentieth of the same Month. The King made his entrance into Caen the Sixth Nothing remained but Cherbourgh the Constable had besieged it after the surrender of Caen Thomas Govel who was Governor with a thousand Natural English gave it up the Eleventh day of August Thus was
meet him and himself went and received him at Rheims whence he had him to his Palace of Crecy upon the Oise to pass his Christmass and from thence to Aix la Chapelle to consecrate the Church The Holy Father having been there eight dayes went back again to Rome thorough Bavaria He had undertaken this Journey to complain how that Maurice Duke of the Venetians and his Son John whom he had joyned with him persecuted the Patriarch Fortunatus whom he had approved of and honoured with the Pall and also how they favoured the Grecian Emperour The City of Venice was not yet built and the Seventy two Islands that compose it together with the Country and Towns upon the Shoars of the Gulph were governed by Tribunes who counter-balanced the power of the Duke Now those Tribunes Beat and Obelier whom our French Authors of those Times call Willeric had caused themselves to be Elected Dukes by one part of the People and had driven away Maurice and John who had recourse to the Assistance of the Greeks Year of our Lord 806 These therefore and John Duke of Zara with some other Lords of Dalmatia came to the Palace at Thionville to desire assistance of the Emperour in case the Greeks should assault them Whilst he remained there he shared his Estates between his three Sons in such manner that either of them hapning to dye without Children his Portion should ☞ be re-divided betwixt the other two but if a Son were born and that the People would Elect him to succeed his Father the Uncles were to consent thereunto This partition was made all his Sons being present subscribed by the French Lords and carried to the Pope that he might likewise Sign it not to make it the more Valuable but to render it the more Authentique Year of our Lord 806 This Year the Navarois were reduced to the Obedience of the French from whom they had withdrawn themselves upon what motives is unknown to put themselves under the dominion of the Saracens The Emperour's eldest Son employ'd himself without intermission in subduing the remaining Idolatrous people in Germany The preceding Year he had gained a very great Victory over the Beheman Sclavonians or Behains they are now called Bohemians and slew their Duke named Lechon This Year he had the like advantage over the Sclavonian Sorabes who inhabited on the other side of the River Elbe At the same time his two other Brothers laboured each in his division to encrease their Limits upon the Infidels Pepin made War against the Saracens at Sea Ademar Count of Genoa lost a Battle and his Life but Bouchard Count de l'Estable obtained another very signal one Lewis with his Aquitains made his Incursions to the further Shoar of the Elbe Year of our Lord 807 Nicetas Patrician of the East sent into the Adriatique Sea by the Emperour Nicephorus to recover Dalmatia restored that Country to the obedience of his Master and re-settled Maurice and John Dukes of Venice who had been expell'd and they soon expelled all those that had taken part with France Pepin had resolved to attaque Nicetas yet he made a Truce with him for some Months perhaps because he had enough to do with the Saracens who infested the Tuscan Seas This Year 807. was seen in the Heavens two extraordinary Phenomena besides three Eclypses two of the Moon and the third of the Sun For on the last day of January the Planet Jupiter seemed to enter into the Moon who was in her 17th day and the 14th of March Mercury appeared in the diske of the Sun a little above the Center like a little black speck which lasted so eight dayes Year of our Lord 807 The Pyracies of the Normands and their Descents and Landing on the Coasts of Neustria and even in the Mediterranean became more frequent and troublesome Charlemaine one day being in Provence and seeing some of them appear was so touched with the Misery France was like to suffer by these Pyrats that he could not refrain from Tears Year of our Lord 807 The Ambassadors from the King of Persia brought him Rare Presents Tents all of Silk and a Striking Clock with wonderful Automata They were accompanied by some Monks whom the Patriarch of Jerusalem for Syria was then under the obedience of the Persians had given them to be their Guides In the East all acknowledged or honoured Charlemaine There was none but Godfrey that countermined his Grandeur and Charles desired to get into his Country not to take possession of the Ice and barren Rocks of that Northern Region but to bring those poor ignorant Wretches to the Knowledg of true Faith Year of our Lord 808 The Dane prevented him and had the confidence to attaque his Country At first he made a great bustle drove before him Traciscon Duke of the Abrodites who was under the dominion of the French took by Treachery and hanged another of their Dukes and made two thirds of those people become his Tributaries Nevertheless having lost his best Men and his Brothers Son upon the storming of a Castle being informed that Charles eldest Son to the Emperour had passed over the Elbe he retreated and spoiled or ruined his Haven at Reric whither much Goods and Merchandise had wont to be brought for fear the French should fortify themselves there He designed likewise to shut up and cover his Country of Danemark by drawing a line and making a great rampart just opposite to the Saxons Territory from that Gulph of the Sea on the Eastern part to that on the West and all along the Banks of the River Egidore or Egid and in this part of his Earthen Wall or Work he had but one Gate well flanked for the passage of Carts and Soldiers Amongst divers exploits which were done in the Marches of Spain Lewis King of Aquitain took by force of Engins and assaults the City of Tortosa in Catalonia But Count Aureolus who had the Government of those Frontiers dying the year after Amoroz a Saracen Prince of Sarragosa seized upon several Fortresses of the French protesting notwithstanding he was ready to restore these places and his own person to the Emperors disposal Whereupon a Treaty was begun during which Abular King of Cordoüa to whom these Negotiations were no way pleasing sends his Son Abderaman who craftily seized upon Sarragosa and constrained Amoroz to retire himself to Huesca Year of our Lord 808 The Truce being expired between the French and the Greeks Pepin enters into the Gulph of Venice and gave Battel to Paul who was Patrician and one of the Greeks Generals Each side pretended they had gained the Victory Year of our Lord 809 The following year Nicetas having presented him Battel near Comachio was rudely repulsed At the same time Charlemain desiring to repress the Danes incursions sent orders and materials to build a great Fort on the River Sturia at the place called Aselfelt The Gascons were again revolted Lewis being gone to Dags
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
he brought most of them to their Duty one after another Eudes being dead during these Transactions he Treated with Hugh de Puiset who was to inherit that Earldom and making him resign his Right provided he would give him his liberty put himself in possession of that place of great importance at that juncture Year of our Lord 1112 c. Some time after Hugh having re-fortisied le Puiset and committing a thousand Insolencies upon the Neighbouring Countries he besieged him in that place but the Champenois having the rest that were in League together for him failed not to come to relieve it Two great Battles were fought one to the Kings disadvantage the other to his advantage after that they talked of an Accommodation and Hugh obtained his Pardon Milon Vicount de Troyes whom the King had re-setled in Montlehery had withdrawn himself from the rest of the Leagued Party Crescy not being able to draw him in again surprized him by Treachery and after he had led him about to divers Castles bound and setter'd not knowing where to secure him so but the King would deliver him nor how to let him go but he would take his Revenge he caused him to be Strangled in the night and thrown out of a Window at the Castle of Gumet He would have had it believ'd that he had broken his Neck endeavouring to make his escape but the Crime was discover'd and the King with great diligence besieged the Castle of Gumet The wretched Murtherer being condemned to justifie himself by Duel in the Court of Amaulry de Montfort had not the courage to expose himself to that hazard and therefore finding himself Convicted he came and cast himself at the Kings Feet gave up his Lands to him and put on the Habit of a Monk as his Pennance Year of our Lord 1116 Hugh du Puiset being Revolted the third time the King again besieged that Castle razed it and then turned that Rebel out of all his Estate This unfortunate Man having in a Sally killed Anseau de Garlande Grand Seneschal and Favourite to the King and not daring to remain any longer in the Country went a while after to the Holy Land which in those times was the Refuge of Banish'd and Condemned People as it was likewise of true Penitents Year of our Lord 1116 Thomas de Marle Lord of Coucy had been Excommunicated and Degraded of his Nobility Anno 1114. by the Popes Legat in the Council of Beauvais for the Sacriledge and Robberies he committed upon the Churches and the People belonging to the Bishopricks of Reims Laon and Amiens That Sentence had inflamed his Rage to do yet worse even to the setting Fire to the City of Laon and the Noble Church of Nostre-Dame I believe it was that of Liesse to Massacre the Bishop Galderic and cut off that Finger whereon he wore the Episcopal Ring The King who flew about every where with incredible Celerity ran that way before this Robber had seized the Tower of Laon forced and razed his Castles of Crecy and Nogent and brought him to Reason Year of our Lord 1116 17. He quelled likewise another puny Tyrannet named Adam that ravaged all the Neighbourhood of Amiens He had gotten possession of the City Tower which was very strong and gave a great deal of trouble but the King having begirt it for two years gained it and razed it About Ten or Eleven years afterwards Thomas draws the King again upon him by the like Deportment so that he went and besieged his Castle of Coucy It hapned that making their approaches Rodolph Count de Vermandois met him wounded him and took him Prisoner He was carried to Laon where he died miserably of his Wounds Henry King of England was the Boute-feu and Support of all these Revolts Year of our Lord 1117 King Lewis in Retaliation had stirred up against him his Nephew William Son of the Deceased Duke Robert whom he admitted to do Hommage for the Dukedom of Year of our Lord 1117 Normandy and gave him the Castle and City of Gisors the first occasion of the Quarrel This Nephew being thus supported put his Uncle to so much trouble that he was fain to make a Peace with Lewis promising to leave all the Rebels to his Mercy Year of our Lord 1118 Archambaud Lord of Bourbon being dead Hemon his Brother surnamed Vaire-Vache under pretence of claiming his Share detained the whole Possession to the prejudice of the Son and Treated his Subjects especially the Clergy very Tyrannically The King assigns him to plead his Right before the Parliament Upon his refusal to appear he went in Person to compel him and besieged his Castle of Germigny Hemon dreading his Wroth came and craved his Pardon he received him to Mercy and took both him and his Nephew along with him to bring them to an agreement of all their Disputes The Quarrel between the Emperor and Pope concerning the right of Investitures being burst out anew with more heat then ever Pascal II. being Pope the Emperor Henry V. had seized both upon him and all his Cardinals and constrained him to allow him the priviledge of nominating two Bishopricks Afterwards that Pope being at liberty annull'd that Treaty in the Council of Latran and Excommunicated the Emperor Year of our Lord 1118 In this year 1118. Galasius was elected in the room of Pascal or Paschalis but he sought not the approbation of the Emperor who being displeased at that neglect or contempt caused one Maurice Burdin to be chosen a Limosin by Birth and Archbishop of Braga in Portugal to whom they gave the name of Gregory Year of our Lord 1119 Gelasius being then driven from Rome took his way into France to hold a Council there as he did in the City of Vienne but he died the same year in the Abby of Clugny Year of our Lord 1119 The Cardinals that had followed him elected Guy Archbishop of Vienne who took the name of Calixtus II. He was the Brother of Stephen Earl of Burgundy and Uncle of Adele or Alix Queen of France who was the Daughter of his Sister and of Humbert Earl of Morienne and this consideration did fortisie the Holy See with great Alliances against the Emperor Year of our Lord 1119 The whole Kingdom of France having taken his part he came from Vienne to Toulouze where he held a Council Thence he went to Reims where he called another in which divers Canons were made to take away Simony the Investiture of Benefices from Laicks Concubines from Priests and the selling of Sacraments The King was present the Emperor Henry would not be there and having refused to part with the right of Investitures was Excommunicated There was almost the same contest and difference betwixt the Popes and the Kings of France These pretending the Election and Provisions of the Popes were not sufficient without their consent So that it had begot great troubles in the Churches of Bourges Reims Beauvais and
against the Infringers even to the killing them in the very Churches which served as a Sanctuary to all other the most enormous Criminals William the Conqueror had Establish'd this Law in England and in Normandy Anno 1080. Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna in his Country Anno 1060. the Council of Clermont had confirmed it Anno 1096. and that of Rome Anno 1102. Now as these Truces were but ill observed and Languedoc and a part of Guyenne principally upon occasion of that War betwixt the King of Arragon and Raimond Earl of Toulouze were most miserably tormented with Factions Murthers and Robberies a certain Carpenter named Durand who seemed a plain simple Fellow Year of our Lord 1183 found the Remedy against these Calamities and a Means to enrich himself He asserted that God had appeared to him in the City du Puy in Auvergne commanding him to proclaim Peace and for proof of his Mission had given him a certain Image of the Virgin which he shewed So that upon his Veracity the Grandees the Prelats and the Gentry being Assembled at Puy on the day of the Feast of the Assumption agreed amongst themselves by Oath upon the Holy Evangelists to lay down all Animosities and the remembrance of former Injuries and made a Holy League to reconcile Mens Spirits and entertain Love and Peace which they named the Peace of God Those who were of it wore the Stamp of this Image of our Lady in Pewter upon their Breasts and Capuches or Hoods of white Linnen on their Heads which this Carpenter sold to them Which had such power over their Minds and had made such Impression that a Man with those Badges was not only in security but likewise in Veneration amongst his most mortal Enemies Year of our Lord 1184 Whether the three Princes of Champagne Brothers to the Queen Mother had gotten the upper hand at Court and put the King out of conceit with the Earl of Flanders or for some other cause the King summon'd him to surrender up Vermandois which Louis the VII had given him only as was pretended for a certain time The Earl being very Potent would maintain the possession passed the Somme with a great Army and came as far as Senlis But upon tidings of the Kings march he turns back the way he came and went and besieged Corbie from whence he decamped again immediately for the same cause The King not being able to overtake him besieges Boves the two Armies drew near to engage Some Mediators put a stop to their impetuous haste and made up the Peace The Earl yielded all Vermandois excepting Peronne and Saint Quentin which they let him enjoy during Life Year of our Lord 1184 To this Agreement the King called all the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons that served in his Army with their Vnder-Vassals And such was then the Rights of the French The Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Prior of the Hospital of St. John's deputed on the behalf of the Christians from the Holy-Land brought the Keys of the Holy City to King Philip imploring his assistance and representing to him the extream danger it was reduced unto Whereupon having held a great Assembly of Prelats and Lords at Paris he enjoyned them to Preach the Cross or Croisade and to publish it every where and in the mean time sent at his own Expence a considerable Relief of Horse and Foot into that Country The Complaints of the Clergy of Burgundy whom Duke Odo had plundred and the Year of our Lord 1184 Lord de Vergy whose Castle that Prince besieged ingaged the King to march that way and besiege Chastillâ—n on the Seine the strongest Bulwark belonging to that Rebel Who finding his Fort taken by Assault came humbly to submit to his Commands promised to pay 30000 Livers for Reparation to the Clergy and gave up four Castles which however were soon after put into his possession again without doubt because they had some need of him Year of our Lord 1183 84. In Berry there were several Bands of Robbers that wasted the Country they were named Cottereaux and were believed to be tainte â—ith the Heresie that spread in Languedoc because they aimed chiefly to do mâ—schief to the Churchmen the Berriers getting together with the help of some Men sent them by the King cut them in pieces killing seven thousand upon the place The vast Multitudes of eople that flocked to Paris the Kings Train encreasing with his Authority made the Streets so dirty and 〈◊〉 that there was no going in them The King sent therefore for the Citizens and their Provost and enjoyned them to remedy it which they did by Pav ng it with Stone at their own expences I find about this time that one Girard de Poissi who managed the Exchequer brought in thither of his own proper Moneys or Fund Eleven thousand Mark in Silver It is to Year of our Lord 1185 be imagin'd that he had gotten them by the King but however we may say that this Example ✚ will be singular and that we shall never meet a Chequer-man will follow his Example What ever can be done that sort of People will sooner go to the Gibet then be brought to make Restitution Year of our Lord 1185 Margaret of France Widow of Henry the Young King of England is Re-Married to Bela III. King of Hungary Gesroy Duke of Bretagne and Brother of that Henry being come to wait on the King who tenderly lov'd him died of a Distemper at Champeaux and was Interr'd at Nostre-Dames in Paris He had one Daughter named Alienor and one Son only aged but three years The Bretons would give him the name of Artur in memory of that famous King whom the Romancers make to be the Author of the Knights of the Year of our Lord 1185 round Table and many high feats of Arms. He remained under the Guardianship of his Mother and the Protection of the King in despite of all the Efforts of Henry and Richard his Son who made several Attempts to seize upon his Person that they might get Bretagne into their possession The Widow Constance afterwards Married Guy Lord de Thouars The memory of Gefroy is still very famous amongst the Bretons because of that Law he made in his Parliament or Estates General which was called the Assize of Count Gefroy Whereby it was ordained that in the Families of Barons and Knights the Estates should not be shared or equally divided as heretofore but that the eldest should reap the whole Succession and bestow such part upon the younger as himself and the rest of his Kindred should think fit This hath since been thus proportion'd the Thirds amongst all the younger Children during Life to the Males and Inheritance to the Female In time the rest of the Gentry not to yield in Quality to the Barons would needs be comprehended herein likewise Towards the end of the year 1186. a War was raised between King Philip and Henry of England for
to which he replied that Soldiers could not be kept without Money They soon understood what he desired and the mischief pressing hard upon them they were constrain'd to give and immediately the Lords desisted from plundering Year of our Lord 1191. and the following In the interim John King of England summon'd for three several times to answer the accusation in King Philips Court endeavour'd to gain time and made all delays But Philip finding himself strong in Men and provided with Money having no counter-poise in his Kingdom because he held in his own hands the Garde-noble of the potent House of Champagne and the Earl of Flanders was gone into the Levant had resolved to push on against him He therefore gave some Forces to Prince Arthur to pursue his Right having before betrothed his Daughter Mary to him At the same time he entred upon Normandy where he forced five or six places and received the most considerable Lords of the Countrey into favour amongst the rest Hugh de Gournay and the Earl of Alenson who assured him of their Service and their Towns Arthur on his side attaques Poitou the Earls de la Marche and d'Eu Gefroy de Luzignan and their friends being joyned with him His Grand-Mother Alienor had Year of our Lord 1201 put her self into Mirebeau he besieges her there King John hastens thither with so much diligence that he surprizes him one fair Morning napping in his Bed takes him prisoner and sends him to the Castle of Falaize Normandy and Poitou being shaken in this manner comes a Legat from the Pope who ordains the two Kings to assemble the Bishops and Lords of their Countreys Year of our Lord 1202 and by their Consultations put an end to these Disputes John would readily have consented to this Order but Philip who was not willing to give over so fair a Game obliged his who were assembled at Mantes to throw in an Appeal from the Sentence of the Legat to the Pope himself which was to gain time and continue his progress Year of our Lord 1202 The respect for Queen Alienor had still with-held King John from staining his hands in the Blood of the unfortunate Arthur Soon after her death he caused him to be brought to the Castle of Rouen he kept his Court in that City and in a very obscure night he drew him forth thence and led him to such a place that afterwards he was never seen It being justly presum'd that he had murther'd him Constance the Mother of that young Prince demanded Justice of King Philip for that parricide committed in his Territory and upon the person of one of his Vassals He caused John therefore to be summoned before his Peers or Pairs where not appearing nor sending any to excuse him he was by judgment of that Court Condemned as attainted and convicted of Parricide and Felony to lose all the Lands he had in France which should be consiscated and forfeit to the Crown and all such as should defend them reputed Guilty de Laesae-Majestatis Year of our Lord 1203 In prosecution or rather execution of this Decree Philip partly by force partly by intelligence took from him this year almost all the higher or upper Normandy whilst this unworthy lazy Man pass'd away the time with his Wife at Caen as if all had been in a profound Peace We may imagine that if he would have taken some care of his Affairs Philip could not so easily have conquer'd so many places since the single Castle de Gaillard neer Andeley situate on a Rock both very high and steep on all sides endured a Five months Siege but both Heaven and Earth had declar'd against him his friends betray'd him his Subjects became unfaithful and he meanly abandonn'd himself Year of our Lord 1204 The following year Philip made himself Master of all the Cities of the Lower Normandy almost without a blow Rouen it self which was the Capital of the whole Province environ'd with a double Wall and very affectionate to her natural Dukes After a Siege of forty days being informed by the Deputies sent to King John that no Relief or assistance could be had from him surrendred to the Conquerour upon condition he should maintain the Citizens in their Franchises and Priviledges which he agreed to and they obtained Letters or a Charter to secure it a procaution as feeble against an absolute Power as Paper is against Steel Year of our Lord 1204 Two or three other places which yet defended themselves followd the example of Rouen and so it was that in less then three years he gained all Normandy which had had Twelve Dukes of that Nation whereof John was the last who had Govern'd them about Three hundred and sixteen years At the same time William des Roches who had quitted John's party to joyn with Philip secured the Counties of Anjou du Maine and de Touraine and Henry Clement Mareschal of France conquer'd all Poitou for him excepting only Niort Touars and Rochel Year of our Lord 1205 The next year the King himself having gotten a great Train of Artillery forced the Castle des Loches and some places that remained in the hands of the English in Touraine Year of our Lord 1203 The French and the Venetians sailing to Constantinople with only 28000 Men forced the Harbour and afterwards the City though there were above Threescore thousand Fighting Men there deliver'd Isaac out of prison and caused the young Alexis his Son to be Crowned The Tyrant Alexis and his Brother-in-law Theodorus Luscaris having made their escape over the Walls retir'd to Adrianople Year of our Lord 1204 Whilst this Army of the Cross wintered about Constantinople and Isaac and his Son endeavour'd to make good what they had promis'd them for their reward the people upon whom they Levied very great sums of Money mutined One certain Alexis Ducas surnamed Murzufle Great Master of the Wardrobe to young Alexis headed the sedition seized on that Prince whilst Isaac was in his last Agonie and strangled him with his own hands Then caused himself to be Declared Emperour and went forth with the City Militia against the aforesaid Army but they were presently beaten back Constantinople besieg'd and within Sixty days taken by Storm swimming in Blood and a great part consumed by Fire The Conquerours gave power to Twelve of the chief amongst themselves to elect an Emperour upon condition That if he were a French man the Patriarch should be a Venetian and so on the contrary The intrigues of the Venetians for whose interest Boniface Marquis of Montferrat was not so convenient though he seemed most worthy of the Empire manag'd it so that the Electors conferr'd it upon Baldwin Earl of Flanders and the Patriarchat upon Thomas Morosini a Venetian After they had setled things in order within the City they easily conquer'd all what the Grecian Empire possess'd in Europe and formed several Principalities there of which the Marquis de Montferrat who married Isaac's
Widow had Thessaly for his Year of our Lord 1204 share with the Title of a Kingdom upon which condition he gave up the Island of Candia to the Venetians The Grecian Princes preserved Asia to themselves where they established divers Sovereignties Theodorus Lascaris attired himself with Imperial Robes at Nicea in Bithynia and had the largest Dominion for extent Of the Family of the Comnenes Michael had part of Epirus David Heraclea Ponticus and Paphlagonia and Alexis his Brother the City of Trebisond on the Pontus-Euxinus There was the Empire of Trebisond formed which still remained separate and distinct from that of Constantinople till the Turks devoured both the one and the other Baldwin enjoy'd not the Empire two years for going to besiege Adrianople Joannitz or Calojan King of Bulgaria coming to assist the Greeks drew him into an Ambuscade made him prisoner and having carried him into Bulgaria cut off his Arms Year of our Lord 1205 and Legs and cast him into a Precipice where he languisht for three days It was thus given out but many are of opinion that he escaped from that imprisonment However it were his Brother Henry succeeded him in the Empire He left two Daughters the eldest Married Ferrand Brother of Sancho King of Portugal who by this means was Earl of Flanders the youngest had Children by Bouchard d'Auesnes Year of our Lord 1205 King John not attributing his misfortunes to his crime his cowardize or sloth but to the ill-will of his English Subjects particularly the Clergy who had not assisted him in his necessities sets himself upon molesting and vexing them by all Year of our Lord 1206 manner of exactions Guy de Touars who Govern'd Bretagne being Husband to the Dutchess Constance had turned to Philips party and assisted him not a little in his late Conquests He had likewise brought over to him the Vicount Touars his Brother but this year both of them were at variance with him Guy would Cantonnize himself in Bretagne the King begirts him in Nantes and compels him to return again to his Service how-ever the Vicount remained for the English Interest That King having Levied vast sums of Money and a powerful Army in England comes and Lands at Rochel the Vicount Savary de Maulcon and some other Lords joyn with him Philip finding himself too weak contents himself only with providing and strengthening his Towns in Poitou with all speed and then retires to Paris John marches into Anjou takes Anger 's dismantles it and presently after remembring that it was his Ancestors native City causes the Walls to be rebuilt At the same time there were some Bretons who seizing upon the Promontary de Garplic built a Fort there to favour the approaches of the English upon those Shallows These were all the Effects of the great Prowess of King John for being soon tir'd he caused a Truce to be propounded by the interposition of the Pope who threatned Excommunication in case of refusal Philip agrees it for two years against the opinion of the French Lords who proffer'd him all assistance and engaged not to forsake him although the Pope should proceed against him by censures Year of our Lord 1208 The two contenders for the German Empire Otho and Philip had agreed An. 1207. in such sort that Otho who had the approbation of the Pope but was the weaker should leave the Empire to Philip whom if he hapned to die without Children Otho should succeed him and in the interim Marry his Daughter Now this year Philip being Murthered in his Sick Bed by Otho Palatine of Vitelspack the Empire fell to his Competitor who the following year went into Italy and was Crowned at Rome Immediately after he had a quarrel with the Pope about some Enterprize upon the Lands belonging to the Church and those belonging to Frederick King of Sicily Feodary to the Holy See for which he was Excommunicated An. 1210. Innocent III. was then Pope a Prelat of great courage rare merit and who being in the strength of his age was stirring in every place and concern'd himself in every thing driving all things to the height where he met with a weak or divided party England made an unhappy Experiment King John being absolutely resolv'd not to accept of Cardinal Stephen Lanctbon for Arch-Bishop of Canterbury whom the White Friers had Elected to the Popes liking but without the Kings consent and the Pope standing stifly up to maintain and justify this Election the contest grew so hot that the Pope sends to three of the English Bishops a Sentence of Interdiction to be laid upon the whole Kingdom John was so enrag'd that he confiscated the Estates of all the Clergy and resolv'd utterly to abolish Episcopacy in the Nation Commanding them immediately to depart and to secure himself against any personal effects of the Excommunication wherewith he was threatned he took Hostages of the Towns and Nobility The Pope not being able to reduce the Hereticks of Languedoc who had almost gained the whole Province fals upon Raimond Earl of Toulouze because he was their chief promoter and encourager and had caused one of his Legats to be massacred it was Peter de C hastean-neuf a Monk de Cisteaux or White Fryer and the First that exercised the Inquisition He Excommunicated that Earl Absolv'd his Subjects of their Oath of Fidelity and gave his Lands to the first Occupier but without prejudice to the right of the King of France his Sovereignty Such an apprehension seized on the Earl that being come to Milon the Popes Legat at Valence he intirely submitted gave up eight places of strength to the Roman Church to perpetuity as a pawn of his Conversion and the following year to obtain Absolution suffred himself to be scourged with Rods at the Gate of St. Giles's Church where Peter de Chasteau-neuf lay buried and thence dragg'd to that Friers Tomb by the Legat who put the Stole about his Neck in presence of Twenty Arch-Bishops and an infinite multitude of People After which he likewise crossed himself or put on the badge of the Cross and joyned the next year with those that took his and the Towns of his Allies Year of our Lord 1208 It was not his penitence that humbled him to undergo so horrible a shame it was the fear he had of a dreadful storm just ready to break and fall upon his Head For the Pope having turned that sorvent Zeal which animated the People so much to go in defence of tho Holy-Land had this very year order'd a Croisade to be Preached against the Albigenses and many Lords Prelats and great numbers of common People had listed themselves in this Militia the King himself set out Fifteen thousand Men that were to be maintain'd at his own charge These bore the Cross upon their Breast to distinguish them from such as went to the Holy-Land who wore that badge upon their Shoulder Amongst these Heretiques there were some whom they called the Poor
others who named themselves the Humbled The First made profession of an Evangelical poverty the Second undertook to Preach wherever they came To contradict or countermine these two Religious Orders were instituted viz. The Friers Mineurs or Cordeliers and the Preaching Friers or Jacobins The First Foundation of that was laid in Italy by St. Francis d'Assise of the other in Languedoc by St. Dominique of the Noble Family of the Guzmans in Spain and Cannon of Osma who came into this Province with a Bishop to Convert the Albigenses Year of our Lord 1208 King Philip would have been himself in this Expedition or would have sent his Son for these Sectaries had committed some Hostilities in his Territory acknowledging his Enemy King John had he not feared a Landing of the English in Bretagne under favour of the Fort du Garplie He went not therefore beyond the Loire but Commanded the Nobility that held of him to arm themselves and take that Fort as in truth they did this year The Bishops of Orleans and Auxerre who had been sent thither with their Vassals upon this Expedition being return'd again without leave pretending not to be oblig'd to march with the Army but when the King was there in Person the King commanded their Regalia to be seized that is to say what they held in Fief of him not their Tithes Offerings and other dues necessarily belonging to People of that Function They made complaint by their Envoys to Pope Innocent III. then went themselves The Pope having examined the matter found they had failed and transgressed against the Customs and Laws of the Kingdom so that they were fain to pay a Mulct to the King to re-enter upon their Temporals Year of our Lord 1209 The number of these New-Crossed Soldiers were not less then 500000 Men not all Combatans as I believe amongst whom there were five or six Bishops the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Nevers St. Poll and de Montfort The general Rendezvous was at Lyons about the Feast of St. John Thence going into Languedoc they assault the City of Beziers one of the strongest held by the Albigenses forced it and put all to the edge of the Sword there being slain above threescore thousand Persons Those in Carcassonne terrified with this horrible Slaughter surrendred upon Discretion thinking themselves very happy to escape naked or only in their Shirts Year of our Lord 1209 The Lords in this Army having called a Council elected Simon Earl of Montfort chief Commander in this War and to govern the Conquests they had and should make upon those Hereticks That done the Earl of Nevers returned with a great Party of those Soldiers and soon after the Duke of Burgundy with another so that Simon was left ill attended yet he maintained himself by a more then Heroick Valour and Conquer'd Mire-pâ—ix Pamiers and Alby In so much as in a little time he made himself Master of the Albigois the Counties of Beziers and Carcassonne and above an hundred Castles Year of our Lord 1209 In these times the School at Paris flourish'd more then ever They gave it the name of University because all sorts of Sciences were universally taught there although in effect the desire to Study or Learn and the affluence of Scholars were much greater then their Doctrine A certain Priest of the Diocess of Chartres named Almaric beginning to Preach up some Novelties had been forced to recant for which he died of grief Several after his Death following his Opinions were discover'd and condemn'd to the Fire he Excommunicated by the Council of Paris his Body taken out of the Grave and his Ashes cast on the Dunghil And because they believ'd the Books of Aristotles Metaphysicks lately brought them from Constantinople had fill'd their heads with these Heretical Subtilties the same Council prohibited either the keeping or reading them upon pain of Excommunication Year of our Lord 1209 Guy Count d'Auvergne for the violence and injustice he committed against the Clergy particularly the Bishop of Clermont whom he had imprison'd was deprived of his County by King Philip and could never be restor'd again Year of our Lord 1210 The Emperor Otho grew stubborn in the defence of the Rights of the Empire and prepared to go into Italy wholly to subdue it with a mighty Army which he raised with the Money his Nephew King John had sent him upon condition that from thence he should fall upon France Thereupon he was thunder-struck with Excommunication by Pope Innocent and a little after a great part of the German Princes elected Roger-Frederick II. Son of the Emperor Henry VI. about the Age of Seventeen years and who in his Fathers Life-time had already been named King of the Romans The Pope consented to this Election and the following year Frederic who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily passed into Germany Every other while there came new Bands of Soldiers of the Cross to the Earl de Montfort even from Flanders and Germany but slipt away again within six weeks or two Months With these Recruits he carried all the Places and Castles not only of the Hereticks but likewise of other Lords The King of Arragon of whom divers in those Countries held their Lands in Under-Fiefs because of some Lordships he was possessed of wrote to the Pope about it and the Earl of Toulouze went even to Rome to make his Complaints where his Holiness receiv'd him well enough and promis'd him Justice Year of our Lord 1210 But at his return they propounded an Agreement with Montfort if he would let him have all he had already taken He could never consent to it and Milon the Popes Legat Excommunicated him in the Council of Avignon because he levied certain new Tolls upon his Lands The King of Arragon came in Person to another Council which was held at St. Gilles to endeavour to accommodate Affairs and restore the Earl of Foix and the Vicount de Bearn who were dispossess'd as favourers of Hereticks but he could not obtain any thing Year of our Lord 1211 The Toulouzain after so many mean and ruinous Submissions takes the Bit in his Teeth and puts himself in a posture to defend his own Then is he openly Excommunicated and his Lands exposed to any that could Conquer them Montfort besieges Toulouze but the grand Recruits that were come with him stealing away in a little time he is forced to raise the Siege The Earls of Toulouze and de Foix with their Confederates pursue him and besiege him in Chasteauneuf a thing incredible above 50000 Men could not overpower or force three hundred are beaten and shamefully retreat Year of our Lord 1211 The young Princes Frederick II. and Lewis eldest Son of King Philip delegated by his Father Confer at Vaucouleurs upon the Frontiers of Champagne to renew the Alliance between France and the Empire and to unite themselves more closely against Otho and against King John his Uncle two irreconcilable Enemies Renauld Earl of
that he left all his Warlike Engines behind and part of his Men who were kill'd or drowned upon the Retreat Never after durst he shew his head in any place where he knew Lewis could come and abandoned all Anjou to him and his new Fortifications of Anger 's which were presently demolish'd Year of our Lord 1214 Before the Month was expir'd after Lewis's Victory King Philip his Father gained a much more signal one nigh the Village of Bouvines which is between L'Isle and Tournay against the Emperor Otho and his Confederates They had an Army of 150000 fighting Men his was weaker by one half but strengthned with the flower of the Nobility and many Princes of the Blood viz. Eudes Duke of Burgundy Robert de Courtenay Robert Earl of Dreux and his Brother Philip Bishop of Beauvais The Battle was fought the 25th of July and lasted from Noon till Night Guerin Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and a little before elected Bishop of Senlis to whom the King left all things drew up the Army in Battalia Matthew Baron of Montmorency William des Barres Seneschal to the King Henry Earl of Bar Bartholomy de Roye Gaucher Count de Saint Pol and Adam Vicount de Melun had the greatest shares in the Danger and in the Victory Guerin fought not with his hands because of his Quality of Bishop nor did Philip Bishop of Beauvais smite with the Sword but a Wooden Club believing that to beat out Peoples Brains was not shedding of Blood The King ran a great hazard in his own Person having been beaten down trod under the Horses Feet and wounded in the Throat but in fine his Enemies were worsted every where Otho put to flight his great Standard being a Dragon with an Imperial Eagle over it and the Chariot which bore it broken all to pieces and five Earls amongst whom were Ferrand and Renauld with two and twenty Lords that carried Banners taken Prisoners The Fortune-tellers had assured the old Countess of Flanders Ferrands Aunt that there should happen a great Battle that the King should be overthrown Horses tread over him and that Ferrand should enter in Triumph into Paris The first part of this Prediction held good without Equivocation the second was likewise true but after another manner then they imagined for indeed they carried him into Paris in Triumph but in quality of a Captive loaden with Chains and linked fast in a Chariot drawn by Ferrand Horses that is according to the Language then used of an Iron-grey-Colour The Parisians made the King a most pompous Entrance and Celebrated his Victory with Solemn Joy for eight days together Ferrand was shut up in the Tower of the Louvre without the City Walls and Renauld in the new Tower of Peronne with Shackles on his Legs and a Chain that fastned him to a great piece of Timber Philip had made a Vow in the midst of his Joy for this most happy success to build an Abby in honour of God and of the Blesled Virgin his Son Lewis performed it by founding that of Nostre-Dame de la Victoire near Sanlis The Lords of Poitou that had favour'd the English finding that Lewis was Victorious sent to tender him all manner of Submission He would not trust to their words but went into the Country with his Army to bring things to a full period The Vicount de Touars the most considerable of them all obtained the Kings Pardon without much ado by the intercession of Peter Duke of Bretagne the rest were utterly lost and King John who was then in Partenay could not have avoided being taken if he had not bethought himself of interposing the Popes Legat to demand a Truce That power was so formidable that the King durst not deny him and agreed to it for five years Year of our Lord 1215 When that was done Prince Louis or Lewis whether out of devotion or jealousie of the Power of Count de Montfort took up the Cross on him against the Albigeois and made a Voyage to Languedoc Montfort came to Vienne to meet him and the Legat to Valence Montfort who accompanied him received Bulls from the Pope Year of our Lord 1215 which in Consequence of the Decree of the Council of Montpellier held some Months before gave him the Tolosian Territories in guard or keeping and all those other that had been Conquer'd by the Adventurers of the Cross upon Condition to receive Investiture of the King and render him Feodal Duty So that we may say ☜ the Pope named and the King Confer'd upon his Nomination From thence Lewis was at Montpellier then at Beziers where he gave order the Walls of Narbonne and Tolose should be demolish'd Mean while the Lateran Council notwithstanding the pitiful Remonstrances of the Count de Tolose who was there in Person with his Son adjudged the propriety of his Lands to Montfort reserving only those he had in Provence for his Son and four hundred Marks of Silver yearly for his Subsistance to be understood if they shew'd themselves obedient to the Holy See From that time Montfort took on him the Quality of Earl of Toulouze and came to receive Investiture from the King in the City of Melun While Lewis was yet in those Countries the English Lords sent to offer him the Crown of England and demand Assistance against the Tyrannies of John who was Excommunicated by the Pope and who had robb'd them of their Liberties and Priviledges for which cause they had taken up Arms to Dethrone him They had the City of London and some other places for them nevertheless their design did not go on well and their dispair forc'd them to seek their safety by some Foreign Assistance Year of our Lord 1215 16. The Tyrant seeing his loss infallible stuck not to abase the Dignity of his Crown to gain the Popes Protection He satisfies him therefore and becomes his Vassal and Tributary of a thousand Mark of Silver but this abasement added scorn to the execration his Subjects had for him Now the Holy Father resolv'd highly to protect his new Vassal Excommunicated the English and sent a Legat into France to divert Lewis from that Enterprize and desired King Philip to put a stop to it Philip makes protestation of all Respect and Obedience to the Holy See but said he could not impose upon his Son that necessity not to pursue the Rights of his Wife who was Neece to King John So that Lewis accepted the Crown of England and landed with a great Equipage in the Isle of Thanet thence went to London where he was solemnly Crowned John being excluded from his Capital City retired to Winchester and by his flight gave him full leisure to receive the Hommage of all the Nobility and secure all about London The Legat not being able to put a stop to Lewis by any Arguments or Persuasions Excommunicated him and all his Adherents but he appeal'd to the Pope they had not yet found out the
let them see by that Equipage to what a vile Condition those holy Assemblies were reduc'd Most of those held in France during this Age were called either by the Popes themselves or by their Legats The Popes were Personally present in Six Paschal II. in that of Troyes Anno 1107. and there the Simoniacks and the Laicks that conferr'd Benefices were Excommunicated Gelasius held one at Vienne in the year 1119. where he thundred his Anathema against the Emperor Henry V. and 〈◊〉 Anti-Pope Calistus II. his Successor Guy Archbishop of Vienne did the same thing in that of Rheims the following year which had been denounced by Gelasius Those that made sale of things Sacred and took Money for burying the dead for the Crisome and Baptism were likewise Excommunicated Innocent II. held one at Clermont in Anno 1130. and another at Rheims in Anno 1131. where he fulminated the Anti-Pope Anacletus and his Adherents Eugenius III. did Celebrate one at Rheims in the year 1137. where divers excellent Regulations were decreed And Alexander III. one at Tours in Anno 1163. where he gave an acount of his Election and proved the nullity of Octavian's his Rival These are a good part of those called by the Legats One at Troyes in Anno 1104. in which the Bishop of Senlis was accused of Simony by some ill designing People but the Bishops rejected them as no good Evidence He desired nevertheless to purge himself from that suspicion by Oath before the Legat to which he was admitted Two Cardinal Legats assembled one at Poitiers in Anno 1109. to reform the Manners and Habits of the Clergy They were forbidden to take any Benefice from the hands of the Laity The Abbots to use Gloves Sandals or the Ring Monks to Exercise Parochial Function as to Baptise or to Preach which nevertheless was allowed to the Regular Canons There was one at Vienne Anno 1112. where Godfrey Bishop of Amiens was President in Quality of Legat because the Archbishop Guy had no very fluent Tongue The Emperor Henry V. was Excommunicated there As were also those guilty of Simony and such of the Laity as gave the Investiture of Benefices There were three in the year 1114. one at Soissons one at Beauvais and another at Rheims to Excommunicate Henry V. and Burdin his Anti-Pope One at Toulouze in Anno 1124. which condemned certain false Brothers or counterfeit Monks who declaimed against the Temporal Riches and Incomes of the Church and against the Sacraments One at Troyes Anno 1127. where the Order of the Templers was confirmed The Abbots Stephen de Cisteaux and Bernard de Clervaux were assistant there and the latter drew up the Rules of that Order of Knights Templers There was one Assembled at Estampes in the year 1130. to condemn the Anti-Pope Anacletus One likewise at Jouars the same year to avenge by Canonical Punishments the Murther of the B. Thomas Prior of St. Victors Another at Soissons Anno 1136. which condemned the Errors of P. Abailard One at Sens four years after for the same business King Lewis the Young was present there Another at Vezelay in Burgundy in the year 1145. for the Expeditioin to the Holy Land That of Paris in the year 1147. confuted the Opinions of Gilbert Poree Bishop of Poictiers who REcanted before Pope Eugenius at Rheims after the Council was dissolved which had been held in that City That of Fleury in the year 1151. was to annul the Marriage of King Lewis VII and Alienor of Aquitain In that of Auranches in Normandy Anno 1173. the Legats gave for the second time the Absolution for the Murther of St. Thomas of Canterbury to Henry II. King of England That of Alby which was in Anno 1176. condemned the Heresie of the Albigensis In that of Dijon which was held about Michaelmas in the year 1197. the Legat from Pope Innocent III. put the whole Kingdom of France under an Interdiction to comple Philip Augustus to quit Agnes de Merania whom he had Espoused in prejudice of Isemburge his Lawful Wife In that of Sens which was held in the year 1198. the Abbot of St. Martins of Nevers and the Dean of the great Church of the same City being present were convicted of the Heresies of the Popelicans the Abbot deposed the Dean suspended and both of them sent to Rome We hardly find above three or four that were called by the Kings order and the Authority of the Bishops of France Amongst others one at Rheims Anno 1109. one at Estampes Anno 1130. and two at Paris the first in the Year 1186. the other in 1188. Both of them were called by King Philip to consider of the best means to relieve the Holy-Land and in the last they agreed to raise the Tenths which was called the Saladine Tythe That of Estampes was called by King Lewis VII to judge whether of the two Popes they were to own either Innocent or Victor That of Rheims was by the proper motion of the Bishops of that Province to do right to Godfrey Bishop of Amiens against the Monks of St. Valery He had made discovery that certain Letters of Exemption by them obtained of the Holy See were false their Cause was worth nothing in France they transferr'd it to Rome and found such Advocates there as obtained a Sentence to their advantage The Bishops complained to the Assembly We find in the LX VIII Epistle of Peter de Blois that sometimes the like counterfeit Letters were discovered These were declared such by the Council Thus it is related by Nicholas Moine of Soissons who has written the Life of this holy Bishop A modern Author hath endeavour'd to invalidate this Narrative by contradicting of the Dates of times assigned his proofs may be examined Monastick Discipline was in its vigour in the newly Establisht Orders but some of the ancient Monasteries as well of Men as Virgins and the old Canons were greatly in disorder having run into much irregularity Sometimes there were Bishops that took care to reform them by gentle means but when the Debaucheries were too great they put Regular Canons or some new Monks in those places There were time out of mind some Canons in the Church St. Genevieve du Mont which was called the Chapter St. Peter and who upon the Recommendation of King Robert had been exempted from dependance on the Bishop and immediately subject to the Holy See it hapued that Pope Eugenius being lodged in their House a Quarrel arose between them and his Officers these would needs take away a rich Silk Carpet which the King had made a Present of to his Holiness to cover the place he kneeled on at Prayers the others pretending it ought to be left to their Church From words they came to blows the Canons fell upon the Popes Officers so rudely that several of them were hurt the King himself had like to have been so while he was endeavouring to prevent the Scuffle For punishment of this
much that he died at Perpignan the 6th day of October He was in the beginning of the Five and fortieth year of his Life and the Sixteenth of his Reign His Flesh and Bowels were interred in the Cathedral of Narbonne and his Bones brought to St. Denis If we consider his Qualities he was Valiant Good Liberal Just and very Pious but too simple and too easie to be deceived If his Conduct it was not over-happy in those undertakings he made abroad but for his Enterprizes at home they could not succeed better for his Kingdom since it grew rich and flourishing by a Peace of Fifteen years continuance without any vexation of Imposts and the maintenance of a most exact and speedy Justice By Isabella Daughter of James I. King of Arragon he left two Sons those were Philip and Charles The first Reigned the second was Earl of Valois and Father of a Philip who came to the Crown By his second Wife Mary de Brabant he had one Son and two Daughters the Son was Lewis Earl of Euvreux From him sprang the Branch of Euvreux into which the Crown of Navarre was brought by Marriage The Daughters were Margaret and Blanch Margaret was Married in the year 1298. to Edwardâ— King of England Blanch having been twice Contracted once with John de Namur eldest Son of Guy Earl of Flanders the other time with John d'Avesnes Earl of Ostrevant eldest Son of John d'Avesnes Earl of Haynault Married at last in the year 1298. to Rodolph Duke of Austria eldest Son of Albertus the Emperor by whom she had a Son but both the Mother and the Child were Poysoned in the City of Vienna Anno 1305. Philip IV. King XLV POPES HONORIUS IV. Eighteen Months Vacancy Nine Months and an half NICHOLAS IV. Elected the 22th of February 1288. S. Four years one Month and an half Vacancy Two years three Months CELESTINE V. Institutor of the Celestines Elected the 5th of July 1294. S. Five Months and an half BONIFACE VIII Elected the 24th of Decemb. 1294. S. Eight years nine Months and an half BENNET XI Elected the 20th of October 1303. S. Eight Months seventeen days Vacancy Eleven Months CLEMENT V. Elected the 5th of June 1305. transfers the See into France S. Nine years wanting five weeks PHILIP IV. Surnamed the Fair King of France XLV and of Navarre also by his Wife Aged Seventeen years and some Months Year of our Lord 1286 After Philip had brought back into France the remainder of the Army and conveyed his Fathers Bones to St. Denis he went to be Crowned at Rheims by the hands of the Archbishop Peter Barbet the Sixth day of January with the Queen his Wife Year of our Lord 1286 Guy de Dampierre had succeeded in the Earldom of Flanders after the death of his Mother and had done Homage for it to Philip the Hardy but neither his Mother nor himself for want either of will or power had not as yet caused the Articles to be Sworn to and Ratified which were made in the year 1225. between Philip Augustus and Ferrand because in truth they were very destructive and ruinous to the Flemmings This year the King having threatned Guy if he did not perform it without delay to own him no longer for his Vassal but to declare a War the Cities and Commonalty of the Countrey were so alarmed and scared that they obey'd his Will and Pleasure Ever since the death of Philip III. Edward King of England had omitted no endeavour to confirm the Treaties with his Successor In the year 1286. being landed in France about Pontieu he was received at Amiens by several Lords whom the King sent to meet him from thence he came to Paris where he was Treated magnificently was present at the Parliament which was held after Easter and going from thence about Whitsontide went by Land to Burdeaux The apparent cause of his Voyage was the desire he had to Compose the business of the King of Arragon because Alphonso the eldest Son and Successor of Peter had Married his Daughter Alienor He forgot not likewise to press earnestly he might have some reparation for Normandy and those other Countries which both his Father and himself had renounced but could obtain nothing in either of these two points Being returned to Burdeaux he solemnly received the Ambassadors from the Kings of Castille of Arragon and of Sicilia all Enemies to France which gave no little jealousie to Philip. John de Launoy Vice-Roy for Philip in Navarre continued the War against the Arragonians But a Lord of the Country named John Corbaran whom he had entrusted with the Command of the Armies having been worsted by their Forces a Truce was agreed upon between the two Crowns The King of England laboured very seriously to Compose the Difference between the Kingdom of France and that of Arragon and Sicilia To this purpose he Conferr'd with Alphonso and Olâ—ron de Bearn and afterwards took the pains to make a Voyage into Sicily that he might Treat with James the Brother of Alphonso who as we have related had seized upon that Island The Negotiations of the King of England were somewhat retarded by the Progress some French Lords had made in that Island But the rest who were going thither to compleat that Conquest being beaten and taken at Sea by Lauria the Admiral they gave a more willing Ear to what was propounded Year of our Lord 1288 The Treaty was carried on so well that Charles the Lame was set at Liberty promising he would bring it so about with the Earl of Valois that he should renounce the Kingdom of Arragon and with the Pope that he should invest James of Arragon in that of Sicily which his Brother Alphonso should yield to him For security whereof Charles gave his Three Sons and Fifty Gentlemen of Quality as Hostages When he was deliver'd from his Imprisonment he did not hold himself obliged to make that good which he had been forced to promise on the contrary being in France he exhorted the Earl of Valois not to desist from his Right to the Kingdom of Arragon and going afterwards into Italy he got himself to be Crowned by the Pope who was then at Geronsa King of Sicilia both on this side and beyond the Fare So that James of Arragon perceiving the Treaty was broke fell upon Calabria where the City of Catensana had revolted in his favour Robert d'Artois laid Siege to it James and his Admiral Lauria hastned to its relief and being beaten went and blocked up Gaieta thinking to make a Diversion but Charles and Robert followed at the same time and besieged the Besiegers so straightly that they reduced them to Famine Then the Sicilian caused I know not how the Popes Legat to intervene who demanded a Truce for two years and Charles not well informed of the extremity wherein his Enemies were consented to it a little too easily at which Robert was so incensed that he retired into France and carried
and misused him so strangely that he durst not go into any of them but Ghent The King as his Lord and of near Parentage took his part and entred Flanders with an Army of Twenty five thousand Men. The Flemmings had posted Sixteen thousand upon a Hill near Cassel to guard their Frontier He coming to encamp in a Valley beneath them they had the confidence to go and attaque him and appointed three Bodies at the same instant to make their way to his Tent to the King of Bohemia's and to that of the Earl of Hainault thinking to surprize them all three unawares His Person was in great danger but whilst the bravest of his Men stood as a Rampart and put a stop to the Enemy the rest Armed themselves and charged the Flemmings so stoutly that the three Princes defeated those three Parties not one Man of them escaping All Flanders quell'd by this great shock submitted to his Mercy He caused several hundreds to be Hanged Banished and Confiscated and the year after dismantled five or six of their Towns which allay'd their heat for some time but did not extinguish it The severest punishment for those that are corrupt Officers of the Treasury and indeed the most beneficial to the Publick is not the hanging of them but to pare their Rapacious Talons so close that they may not be in a capacity to deserve it Peter Remy Sieur de Montigny had succeeded to Marigny and la Guette in the management of the Treasury their sad example had not so great influence upon him as the passion to enrich himself as they had done So that by Sentence of Parliament where there were Eighteen Knights Five and twenty Lords and Princes and the King himself present he was Condemned to be Drawn and Hanged as a Traytor at the Gallows of Montfaucon which he had caused to be rebuilt His Confiscation amounted to Twelve hundred thousand Livers a prodigious Sum for those times Of the Six great Pairries of the Laity the Kings had appropriated four to themselves to substitute others in their place and erected many new to wit Beaumont le Roger in Anno 1328. for Robert d'Artois and Anno 1329. the Barony of Bourbon this with the Title of Dutchy that with the Title of Earldom Then afterwards in several years Alenson Evreux Clermont in Beauvoisis all for Princes of his Blood and upon Lands truly of much lower Dignity and Consideration then those of the former six Pairries but as much above those of this Age as the Princes of the Blood are above Private Gentlemen Edward Earl of Savoy was come into France to demand assistance of the King against the Dauphin de Viennois and the Earl of Geneva his perpetual Enemies Year of our Lord 1329 Dying at Paris and leaving only a Daughter John III. Duke of Bretagne Husband to this Princess made earnest sute to have the Succession but the Estates of Savoy wherein presided Bertrand Archbishop of Tarentaise declared That the Salique Law took place there and called Aymon Brother of the deceased to that Crown Year of our Lord 1329 Upon the first Summons they sent to Edward by two Lords who had express Commission according to the custom of Fiefs he promised to come and do Homage to the King of France The seizure of his Fiefs of Guyenne and Ponthieu was therefore deferr'd and he came to Amiens in great Equipage After he had there in vain demanded the restoring of what had been taken in Guyenne from his Father he did Homage But it was with his Tongue and in general words only intending to Advise first with his Barons what was to be done When he was returned into England he sent Letters to King Philip under his great Seal in which he declared That that Homage was Liege and that he owed it for the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldoms of Ponthieu and Monstereuil Year of our Lord 1328 The Troubles that hapned in England had hindred him from performing that Devoir sooner His Mother with her Mortimer had made him believe that his Uncle Edmund Earl of Kent had plotted to take away his Life Indeed thaâ— Earl endeavour'd to get King Edward II. out of prison who was his Brother and as he thought yet living Upon this Information young Edward causes him to be seized and condemned to death somewhat too lightly but afterwards Mortimer and the Queen his Mistress were Treated in the same manner For the young King weary of their scandalous deportment caused the Gallant to be hanged upon pretence of several Crimes and his Mother to be shut up in a Castle where they hastned her end a very just act had it been done by any other hand but that of a Son The discord between Pope John XXII and the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria grew to that extremity that Lewis being in Italy after the example of the Emperour Otho degraded John of the Papal Dignity and in his place substituted Michael de Corbiere a Frier Minor under the name of Nicholas V. Michael de Cesenna General of that Order and divers of his Monks supported him mightily by their Preachings and Writings These Monks and others of the Imperial party having spread many reproachful and bloody Invectives thorough all Christendom against Pope John XXII an Assembly of the Clergy was held at Paris where the Bishop in his Pontifical Habit attended by many other Prelats and Clergy-men declared to the People in the Church-Porch of Nostre-Dame the Attempts and Mistakes of Corbiere and pronounced Excommunicate both the said Corbiere the Emperour Lewis and Michael de Cesenna with their Adherents Two things ruined this Party the Emperours ill Conduct which forced him to go out of Italy and the disagreement between the Friers Minors many of whom having forsaken their General it weakned his Interest so much that in the end he was disowned by all of that Order So that Corbiere after many Adventures being caught and brought to Avignon in the year 1330. begged pardon of John XXII with a Rope about his Neck but he could not get off so they put him in prison where he died some Months afterwards Year of our Lord 1329 We must not confound this Assembly above-mentioned with another which was held in the same City and the same year 1329. upon complaint the Kings Judges made by the Mouth of Peter Cugnieres Kt. Counsellor and Advocate-General of the Parliament touching the Usurpations and Attempts of the Clergy upon the Secular Jurisdiction The business was discussed in a Council held at Vincennes then again in the Assembly of Parliament Cugnieres spake earnestly and to the good liking of all the Nobility who applauded him Peter Roger elected Archbishop of Sens afterwards made Pope and Bertrand Bishop of Autun who was a Cardinal having undertaken the defence of their Body replied very eloquently The Clergy was in great danger not only of being lopt off in part but quite rooted out of their Jurisdiction The King at
the King in case he would surrender them which being denied they acknowledged Edward to be King of France and gave him their Oaths of Fidelity then did he begin to take that Title upon him in all publick Acts and to put the Flowers-de-Lys in his Coat of Arms and in his Seals However I find that the year before he had by a Declaration forbid any to call Philip by the name of King of France but only Earl of Valois Year of our Lord 1339 Having shortly after passed over into England to recruit himself with Money there was nothing done in all this year but sacking or plundering and some skirmishes that were not decisive In the mean time the King by his Craft and Money together had found means to take the Emperour off from the English Interest Insomuch as he repeated his Title of Vicar of the Empire which he had sold at so dear a rate to him Year of our Lord 1340 But whatever skill they did make trial of in tampering with the Flemmings they could not be brought over again and their Earl not daring to return into that Countrey nor put any trust in Artevelle kept himself within l'Isle The Pope upon the Kings request had put their Countrey under Interdict and all their Priests obey'd very exactly which did at first cause a great consternation but the King of England sent some that were less scrupulous amongst them who opened the Churches and officiated boldly Year of our Lord 1340 The Duke of Normandy this was John the eldest Son of Philip after he had made strange havock in Hainault laid Siege to the Castle of Thin-l'Evesque on the Sambre because it did much incommode the City of Cambray The French and Flemmish Armies were there once more near each other but the Flemmish now withdrew themselves without blows the besieged observing their retreat set fire to the place and made their escape As soon as the King of England had recruited himself with Money and Men he came and landed a Second time at Scluse and overthrew the French Fleet that lay Year of our Lord 1340 upon that coast in wait thinking to hinder his attempt The discord between their Admirals there were two of them was the main cause of their defeat Year of our Lord 1340 This advantage having abated the edge of their courage King Philip retired and distributed his Army in the several Garrisons The King of England sent to defie him in single combat one to one or else a hundred on either side or both Armies in a pitch'd battle He was answer'd That a Lord accepts of no challenge from his Vassal Some days after he besieges Tournay which was reduc'd to great distress but the long and vigorous defence of the besieged saved the place by the Truce that was then made Year of our Lord 1340 Mean time the Flemmings were cut in pieces before St. Omers Robert d'Artois who Commanded them was not only in danger of losing his Life there but afterwards being pursued by the Populace who cry'd out he had betray'd them was forced much wounded as he was to make his escape to the King of England Year of our Lord 1340 The French Garrisons were drawn together in a Body to relieve Tournay Philip had made divers attempts for that purpose had lost all hopes of succeeding in it when on the suddain Edward condescends to a Truce whether by the mediation of the Widdow Jane Countess of Hainault who was his Sister and Mother of the Queen of England at that time retired to the Convent of Fontenelles or as Villain tells it because of the desertion of the Duke of Brabant whom the King had gained by his Money and besides being unwilling that City should fall into the English hands went away from them with all his Forces It was to last from the Twentieth of September to the Five and twentieth of June following and was again prolonged at an Assembly which shortly after was held at Arras upon the earnest desires of the Popes Legats Year of our Lord 1341 John II. Duke of Bretagne dying this year 1341. upon his return from Flanders whither he had attended the King that War which he so much apprehended broke out in his Countrey and kept it in a flame for two and twenty years space For John Earl of Montfort being very liberal of those Treasures he had in Limoges secur'd himself of the best Soldiers and of the Cities of Brest Nantes Rennes Hennebond and Avray Then foreseeing his Antagonist would have recourse to the King of France his Uncle he goes over into England where he contracted a secret Alliance with Edward and also did homage to him Year of our Lord 1341 During this progress Charles de Blois comes unto the King as to his Sovereign Lord. The Dutchy was a Fief of the Crown of France ever since the Dukes Peter de Mauclere and John le Roux his Son had acknowledged it to be held of the Crown and moreover it was a Pairrie Philip the Fair having grac'd it with that Title in Anno 1277. in recompence for that John II. had brought him Ten thousand Men to the Siege of Courâ—ray Besides both of the contenders had presented their Petitions to the King to be admitted to do homage which no doubt but either of them would have performed in any manner required and for this reason the King Year of our Lord 1341 referr'd it to the judgment of the Pairs who caused both parties to be summon'd to make out their Right and Titles The Duke of Bretagne appeared but finding by the very first words the King spake to him that not only his Cause but likewise his Person was in danger he makes his escape one fair night into Bretagne with three more himself disguised like a Merchant â—aving left all his Officers at Paris who put a good face upon it as if their Master were not sled but kept his Bed for some indisposition The better to cover his evasion he left a procuration with one of his people to act and carry on this Cause before the King and Pairs and produce what Deeds and Papers were necessary to maintain his Right His adversary had done the same but either of them notwithstanding without power of concluding on any thing but only for debating and putting their Arguments and Titles into a method to instruct the Judges Year of our Lord 1341 Upon these imperfect proceedings the Pairs received Charles de Blois to homage and threw out Montfords Petition Immediately Charles and his friends were putting themselves into a posture to execute the Decree the Duke of Normandy entred into Bretagne with an Army and having forced Chantoceaux besieged Nantes where Montford had shut up himself The Nantois terrified at the misfortune of Two hundred of their Burghers taken in a Salley obliged Montford to surrender himself to the Duke who sent him to Paris where he was confined to the great Tower of the Lovre Thus one
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
Service From the beginning he made it appear that the French could beat the English who had always beaten them in the preceding Reigns The Navarrois and Montfort not having been comprehended in the Treaty of Bretigny their people continued the War and the English Forces and the French took part with them John de Grailly Captal de Buchs who was come to the aid of the Navarrois took the Command of all their Forces The French Officers being met to Fight him found him near the place called Cocherel and de la Croix St. Leufroy between Evreux and Vernon Bertrand de Gueselin on whom he had conferr'd the Command upon refusal of the young Count d'Auxerre behaved himself so well with his companions that Captals Men were beaten out of their advantageous Post and he taken prisoner The King thinking to get him on his side released him a while after but he was rather desirous to retaliate his defeat then that obligation Year of our Lord 1364 During these Occurrences Philip of Navarre hapning to dye Lewis his young Brother got the Forces of that Party together and fell upon Bourbonnois and the lower Auvergne where he rifled several Castles Nay some of his Men surprized la Charite upon the Loire a place very important for the passage it gave from thence he made a cruel War upon the Countries on this side whilst on the other hand the Count Montbeliard was fallen upon Burgundy to serve the House of Navarre who pretended that Dutchy appertained to them But Philip of France to whom King Charles had confirmed the Grant was order'd to go and defend his Country and to quit la Beausse from whence he had resolved to expel the Robbers and had already cleared four or five small Castles by turning them out of their Kennels He carried the War therefore into Montbeliard and compell'd the Earl to go out of Burgundy Then laid his Siege before la Charite Lewis d'Evreux not finding himself strong enough to make him raise it retreated with his Forces to Cherbourgh in Normandy The Besieged surrendred upon Composition which the Duke agreed to by the Kings order that he might be able to send help to Charles de Blois his Cousin who was engaged with John de Montfort for the Dutchy of Bretagne Year of our Lord 1394 The Battle d'Auvray decided the Controversy between these Contenders John de Montfort had besieged that place with the assistance of the English led by John Chandois that Kings Lieutenant in Guyenne Charles de Blois undertakes to relieve it back'd by the French Forces commanded by the Count d'Auxerre and Bertrand du Gueselin The Armies came to an engagement the Nine and twentieth of September the Feast-day of St. Michael The Fight was obstinate and bloody to extremity in the conclusion Charles lost the day the Dutchy and his Life For the Lords of Bretagne had agreed amongst themselves that to put a period to that tedious Quarrel they would certainly kill that Chief of the two that was vanquished Year of our Lord 1364 The Children of Charles de Blois were still Prisonners in England and his Widow had more of Pride then Wisdom and good Conduct The Duke of Anjou her Son-in-Law would willingly have assisted her with all his power but the Council of France did not think it fit to drive that business too far least Montfort should turn Homager to the English They therefore made a Peace with him by the Treaty at Guerrande The Dutchy was left to him upon condition of paying his Devoirs to the King of France The Title of Dutchess to the Widow of Charles during her life and for all her Posterity the right of being restored upon want of Heirs descended from Montfort Moreover she had the County of Pontieure and divers other Lands with Forty thousand Livers of Rent for her self alone to be raised upon the whole Dutchy Year of our Lord 1365 Although the Holy War had been interrupted by the death of King John nevertheless Peter King of Cyprus having collected some assistance of Moneys from the Christian Princes and gathered up here and there some numbers of Adventurers together with the Knights of St. John went and landed in Egypt where he valiantly forced a part of the great City of Alexandria and might have brought it all under his power if those that went with him having more regard to their Plunder then their Honour had not returned on board their Vessels with the Spoil Year of our Lord 1365 and 66. With the like Valour and more Perseverance Ame VI. Earl of Savoy carried his Forces against Amurat Sultan of the Turks and the King of Bulgaria who would needs dispossess John Paleologus his near Kinsman of the Grecian Empire the Bulgarian holding him already a Prisoner Ame having taken the City of Calipolis in the Thracian Chersonese by Storm from the Turks entred Bulgaria and upon the taking of divers places forced that King to release the Emperor into whose hands he also put the City of Calipolis but the Greeks lost it again immediately afterwards so much was their Valour declined as well as their Empire The Emperor Charles IV. had much more fancy to design vast Undertakings then Understanding or Means to put them in execution He pleased himself with the empty pride and vain-glory of pompous Ceremonies because he could not attain to those things that were truly real and solid And as his small Revenues and his great Expences still kept him in a necessitous Condition when he began any Year of our Lord 1365 considerable Enterprize it was but only with intent to have Money given him This year 1365. he visited the Pope in Avignon to make a League with the Holy Father and the other Princes of Italy against Barnaby Viscount of Milan He was at Mass Celebrated by the Pope himself on the day of Pentecost in his Imperial Habit and then went and was Crowned King of Arles in the City of the same name Then returned again to Avignon where he obtained permission of the Pope to levy the Tenths upon all the Clergy of Germany and Bohemia for the Expences of that War which he never made Year of our Lord 1365 Gueselin who had been taken at the Battle of Auvray was set free upon Ransom and Oliver de Clisson who was of Montforts Party allured to the Kings service In the Month of December Montfort came to Paris and did Homage first for his Dutchy but only by word of Mouth and without any Oath then for the County of Montfort ungirt and on his Knees and both his hands joyned together between the hands of the King his Soveraign Lord. This year we met again with some Troops of those revolted Peasants of the Jaquerie Year of our Lord 1365 who being re-inforc'd and joyned with some Companies of Plunderers went even into Alsatia from whence they were hunted out and most of them destroy'd by the Emperor Charles IV. and the other Princes of Germany The
Flowers upon their Heads and taking Hands with one another went into the Streets and Churches Dancing Singing and running round with so much violence that they fell down for want of breath This agitation made them swell so prodigiously they would have burst had not great pains and care been taken to swathe them with bands about their Bellies immediately such as looked on them too attentively were often infected with the same distemper Some believed it an operation of the Devil and that Exorcisms did much help them The vulgar named it The Dance of St. JOHN Year of our Lord 1375 Upon the instant and continual exhortations of the Pope the two Kings entred into a Negotiation to compose their differences For this an Assembly was held at Bruges in Flanders whither they sent their nearest Princes of their Blood and the most illustrious Lords of their Kingdoms It lasted almost two years incredible expence There was first a Truce made for a year to commence in the month of May of this year 1375. which being concluded the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of Bretagne passed into England Bretagne not being comprehended their Duke returns with an Army of English and partly by force partly by correspondence regained St. Mahé St. Brieue and seven or eight other places whilst John d'Evreux Brother to the King of Navarre made great spoil and waste all about Kemperlay He had built a Fort thereabouts for his retreat from whence he very much incommoded that City Clisson Roban Beaumanoir and other Lords of Bretagne besieged him in it The Duke hastned thither to deliver him they quickly marched off he pursues them and besieged them in Kemperlay Now when they were just ready to be exposed to his mercy he would have shewed but little to those whom he proclaimed Traitors and Rebels a second Truce wherein they comprized him drew them most fortunately out of his hands Year of our Lord 1375 The minority of the King of France if I do not deceive my self lasted to the age of Twenty years and during all that time all Command all Orders and all Acts were made under the name of the Regent The wise King considered that an Authority so absolute might force or snatch the Crown from his Son if he left him a Minor That the people were it error or custom did not willingly acknowledge a Prince for their King till he was Crowned and that it might be feared lest the Duke of Anjou should make them believe by some former examples or presidents that they ought to chuse one that was in Majority and capable to Govern For these reasons or for others we are ignorant of he made his memorable Ordonnance by the advice of the Princes Lords Prelates University and other notable persons which imports That the eldest Sons of France as soon as they have attained to the age of Fourteen years should be held for Majors and capable of being Crowned and that they should receive the Homage and Oaths of sidelity from their Subjects This was made at the Bois de Vincennes in the month of August 1374. and verified in Parliament the Twentieth of May of the following year We must not however imagine that he believed as much King as he was that he could advance the course of Nature and give his Son the Sence and Wit that age alone can bestow since the same Year and the same Month he made a Declaration which mention'd that in case he died before his Son should have attained to the age of Fourteen years he left the Guardianship and Government of him and of his other Children as also the Government and Defence of the Kingdom to the Queen Mother she was then living and joyned with her the Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon with a necessary and sufficient Council of near Forty persons Year of our Lord 1376 The Popes Legats remained still constantly at Bruges and kept the Ambassadors of both Crowns there with them to labour for a Peace But the Propositions on either side being at too great a distance to be brought to a meane they obtained at least a prolongation of the Truce to the Month of April in the year 1377. In Gascongne the Earl of Armagnac thinking to take revenge upon the Earl de Foix who had beaten him increased both his shame and loss He had taken the little City of Caseres and put himself into the place without providing it with Ammunition the Earl de Foix besieges him and without striking a blow reduces him to the extreamest want but he would not agree to give him and his their Lives but upon condition that they should creep out thorough a hole made purposely in the Year of our Lord 1376 Wall which they could not do but by crawling with their Bellies upon the ground nor were they quit for all this affront the Earl of Armagnac and twenty more of the principal paid great ransoms before they could be released The King of Navarre pass'd his word for that of the Sire d'Albret Year of our Lord 1377 During the long absence of the Popes Italy had accustom'd it self to disregard and disown them The People of Rome set up themselves as several petty Tyrants to preserve some Image of their Liberty and by the same Spirit the Cities belonging to the Ecclesiastical State at the sollicitation and with the aid of the Florentines had shaken off the yoak and turned out his Apostolical Legats Gregony IX thinking to redress these disorders and besides being earnestly pressed by St. Bridget of Sweden and by St. Catherine of Sienna two persons who were thought to have a very frequent Commerce with Heaven resolved to transfer the Holy See back to Rome from whence it had been removed Seventy two years He departed from Avignon the three and twentieth of September embarqued at Marseilles and after very great dangers on the Sea Signes of the agitations that change had wrought in the Church he arrived at Rome the Twenty seventh of January following Year of our Lord 1377 King Edward in the mean while had lost the brave Prince of Wales his eldest Son who had left a Son named Richard very young and for two years past found himself much broken and his Brain decay'd with weight of continual business and contention though he were but 65 years of age This was it made him desire to have a Peace and made him willing to relinquish many Articles of the Treaty of Bretigny But death prevented the effects of that disposition and took him out of the World the 21 of June His Grandson Richard II. Surnamed of Bourdeaux succeeded him He had seven Sons whereof five only lived to Mens Estate and were Married those were Edward Lyonel John Edmond and Thomas Edward was the brave Prince of Wales for the other four the First was Duke of Clarence the Second of Lancaster both of them by the Heiresses of those two Houses and the Third Earl of Cambridge then Duke of York the Fourth
mean time were forced to dissemble till they could have fit opportunity to declare the Truth and to write Letters to all Princes that his Election was Canonical however they gave notice to the King of France that he should give no faith to their Letters till they were out of danger But when upon pretence of avoiding the extream heats in Rome they were retired to Anagnia being moreover offended at the proud deportment of Bartholomew they made the Truth of the matter of Fact known to all Princes admonished Bartholomew three several times to desist from pretending to the Papacy since he well knew they had no intention to elect him and afterwards they proceeded judicially against him and declared him an intruder That done they retired to Fundy under protection of the Earl of that place and there elected one of the six Cardinals Year of our Lord 1379 that had remained in France This was Robert Brother of Peter Earl of Geneva whose Courage was as high as his Birth He took the Name of Clement VII France after several Assemblies had been held of the most Learned of the Clergy and the most judicious Prelats and Nobility adhered to Clement the Kings of Castille and of Scotland who were his Allies did the same the Earl of Savoy and Jane Queen of Naples also although in the beginning she had protected his Competitor But all the rest of Christendom owned Vrban the Navarrois the English and the Flemmings out of spite to France the Italians to preserve the Papacy in their Year of our Lord 1378 and 79. Nation the Emperour in acknowledgment because that Pope before he was ever required had made haste to confirm the election of Wenceslaus his Son the King of Hungary that he might have a pretence to dispoliate the Queen of Naples and the rest for divers interests Peter King of Arragon remained Neutre At first Clement was well armed and in a condition to over-top his adversary having in his service one Sylvester Bude a Captain of Bretagne with Two thousand old Adventurers of that Nation who took the Castle St. Angelo defeated the Romans in Rome it self and made themselves Masters of the City But after another famous Captain who was an Englishman and was named Hacket otherwhile Head of the ✚ Bands of the Tard-Venus and now in the service of Vrban had vanquished and taken him prisoner Clements Affairs went on so ill that he was driven out of Italy and retiring himself to Avignon left his Rival sole Master of Rome This Schisme lasted Forty years either party having great Persons Saints Miracles and Revelations as they said and even such strong Arguments and Reasons on his side that the dispute could never be decided but by way of Cession that is by obliging the two Contenders to abdicate the Papacy so that it is great boldness to call those Anti-Popes who during this Schisme held the See at Avignon Year of our Lord 1379 The death of the Emperour Charles IV. fell out upon the Nine and twentieth of November in the year 1378. in the City of Prague the 63 year of his age Wenceslaus his Son who was elected King of the Romans in the year 1376. succeeded him in the Empire and the Kingdom of Bohemia a Prince deformed both in Body and Soul Year of our Lord 1379 It was a kind of Rebellion in the Earl of Flanders to own any other Pope then his King had done and indeed he shewed him ill will for it and more yet towards the Breton who encouraged him in his obstinacy Besides it had so fortuned that the Flemming by the Counsel of that Duke had caused one of his Envoyes to be staid who was passing thorow his Countrey on his way to Scotland to incite Robert Stewart to break the Truce with the English The King made complaint to the Flemming and Commanded him to drive the Breton out of his Countreys but the Flemming having taken advice of his People who assured him of Two hundred thousand Combatants in case he were attaqued refused to give him that satisfaction The Breton nevertheless went out of Flanders and took refuge in England The place of his retreat aggravated his crime the King orders him to be summoned to appear in Parliament to be judged by his Pairs Not presenting himself he was declar'd by Sentence of the Ninth of December attainted of the crime of Felony and all his Lands as well in Bretagne as all others he held in the Kingdom consiscated for having defied the King his Sovereign Lord and for having entred the Countrey in Arms with the enemies of the Kingdom That which in appearance seemed likeliest to ruine this Duke raised him The Bretons who for a thousand years past had so generously fought for the liberty of their Countrey having discover'd that the King designed more against the Dutchy it self then the Duke alone and that he would take it away from the guilty only to apply it to himself began to complain to withdraw from their affection to the French to re-unite amongst themselves and to make divers Leagues and Associations between the Cities and the Nobless Even the Widow of Charles de Blois by Counsel of the friends of her House sent to protest against that Decree and alledged that Bretagne was not subject or liable to consiscation because it was not a Fief and that if the Dukes had submitted their persons by obliging themselves to certain Service it was not their power to subject their Countrey This year a most cruel War was kindled in Flanders which lasted Seven years The interior cause of this inflammation was the Luxury of the Nobility and the dissolute and excessive expences of the Earl the occasion was a quarrel that rose between one called John Lyon and the Matthews who were six Brothers both the one and the other were very powerful amongst the Navigators or Mariners and between the Cities of Ghent and Bruges for a certain Canal or River which those of Bruges would needs make The Earl took part with these and was cause that John Year of our Lord 1379 Lyon formed against him a faction of White Hats in the City of Ghent He sets up the Matthews to oppose and countermine them John Lyon was found to be the stronger and pushed the contest on to the utmost extremity The Duke of Anjou was mighty greedy of Money and a great exactor his People by his Order or upon their own Authority having laid some new Imposts upon the City of Montpellier which was under his Government but of the Propriety of the King of Navarre the People mutined and killed Fourscore of them amongst which number were his Chancellour and the Governour The Duke hastned thither with some Forces and caused a most horrible Sentence to be given for punishment of that crime but it was moderated almost in every point by the intercession of his Holiness excepting against the Authors of that Sedition who paid down their Heads for it
affectionate to the Princesses which hapned the Sixth day of January in the year 1386. Year of our Lord 1386 The same year the Widow-Queen and her Daughter going into the Countrey fell into the hands of Horvat Governour of Croatia one of King Charles's Partisans or Confederates who to revenge the death of his Master caused the Widow and the Murtherer Gato to be massacred He kept the Princess some time then sent her to Sigismund having first obliged her by all sorts of Oaths to pardon him Sigismund did not think himself bound by her promises and therefore having surprized him made him dye amidst a thousand torments Year of our Lord 1386 The news of Charles's Murther being brought into Italy Thomas de Sanseverin caused Lewis II. eldest Son of the deceased Duke of Anjou to be proclaimed King and Clement VII to be owned Pope Afterwards Marguerite the Widow of Charles being retired to Cajeta with Ladislaus or Lancelot her Son aged about Ten years he reduced almost the whole Kingdom and Naples it self Thus all things went on smoothly for Lewis till Mary de Blois his Mother and Governess having sent Clement de Montjoye Nephew to Pope Clement with the Title and Authority of Vice-Roy the Sanseverins thinking themselves under-valued were alienated from her Service and turned to Ladislaus Year of our Lord 1386 In the mean while Lewis was put into possession of Provence and invested with the Kingdom of Naples by Clement but it was not without great trouble before the Provensaux would acknowledge him the Kings Counsel themselves inciting them underhand to a Rebellion upon divers motives because they would have disposed them to give themselves up to France After Five or Six years Truces and petty Wars the Council resolved to attacque the English not in Guyenne only but even in their own Island For this end they made the most formidable preparations of Men Engines and Ships that ever yet were seen They bought up or hired all the Vessels they could light on from the Ports of Sweden to those in Flanders they built a City of Wood which was to be taken in pieces to shelter themselves upon their Landing The King went to Sluyce to take a view of his Army and Navy consisting in Nine hundred Vessels The Duke of Berry's envy and jealousie retarded the progress he would needs break the design because he was not the contriver In order to which he made them wait for him till the Fourteenth of September when the Seas began to appear un-navigable So the Forces drew off into Quarters part of this numerous Fleet were scattered by Tempests the English pickt up many that were wrack'd or stragled Year of our Lord 1386 There was no reason to trust the Duke of Bretagne too much because of his too many Obligations to the English and the consideration that their suppression must he his ruine wherefore they warily minded his actions but he to justify himself laid Siege to Brest which they yet held as a bridle to Bretagne The Constable assisted him in the undertaking the place was mightily streightned but when they were at the last gaspe the Duke of Lancaster who was going into Spain with great Forces made them raise the Siege The occasion of his voyage was this Ferdinand last King of Portugal had no Child but a Daughter born of a Lady whom he had taken from her Husband He caused this Girl to be owned as his presumptive Heyress as likewise the Mother had been owned Queen and married her to John King of Castille who was a Widower and had two Sons but when he died the principal Cities of Portugal apprehending the Castillan bondage had more mind to have a bastard Brother of Ferdinands for their King his Name was John Froissard names him Denis thorow a mistake instead of saying he was Grand Master of the Order D'Avis The fortune of the War was favourable to the Bastard he gained a Battle at Juberot against his adversaries the Castillans having out of an ugly jealousie suffer'd the Gascons and French to be defeated who took their part with above Eight thousand Men and then were afterwards themselves defeated Notwithstanding this advantage it was to be feared the Castillan would be able yet to crush them and therefore the Bastard sent to the Duke of Lancaster inviting him to come and pursue the right he had to the Kingdom of Castille as on the other hand the Castillian had recourse to France Year of our Lord 1386 The Duke of Lancaster passed therefore into those Countreys with a huge force conquer'd a part of Castille and struck such a terror into all the rest that King John made some overtures of Peace but he spun out the Treaty awhile expecting the French succours when he sound those did not come the Duke of Bourbon their Conductor marching very slowly he concluded the Treaty the Duke of Lancaster Sealed it by the Marriage of two of his Daughters one with the King of Portugal and the other with the Castillans eldest Son This little piece of Honour cost the English very dear the losses they suffer'd by contagious Sicknesses in Spain and afterwards by Storms in their return were so great that the Duke of Lancaster hardly carried home the sixth part of his Men and not one but in a languishing condition half dead with malady and pain At last by a just punishment from Heaven Charles the Wicked who had blown up so many flames and burnt so many entrails with his violent poysons was most cruelly burnt himself He had caused his Body to be wrapp'd all over with Sheets drenched in Spirit of Wine and Sulpher to corroborate the natural heat decay'd by his debauches this took fire I know not by what accident and broiled him to the very bones whereof he died three days after being the First of January in the year 1387. Charles called the Noble his Son succeeded him Year of our Lord 1387 The Constable Clisson and the Admiral John de Vienne had so fill'd the King's Head with the expedition for England that he makes another preparation to execute it this year The state of Affairs was very favourable all England was in combustion against King Richard because he had put mean and vile People into places of the highest Trust who bear all the sway which his Uncles could not endure nor indeed would they have the Power lodged in any other hands but their own Now when France was on the point of making advantage of these troubles the Duke of Bretagne either of intelligence with the English or without thinking of them was cause of interrupting the Enterprize this time as it had been formerly Clisson was then in Bretagne to dispatch the Forces that were at Treguier that they might go and joyn with those at Sluyce but at the same time he was Treating of the Marriage of one of his Daughters with John the Son of Charles de Blois whom he had purposely got out of the hands
his Wife inflamed his covetoufness as his birth and quality inspired him with pomp and magnificence So that being possessed with two contrary passions of getting and spending he succeeded his Uncle the Duke of Anjou and even exceeded him in the unjust desire of pillaging the Kingdom and snatching away the Goods of other People Year of our Lord 1389 Upon the Popes intreaty the King made a journey to Avignon where he was present at the Coronation of Lewis of Anjou by the Popes hands From thence he went into Languedoc where he took information of the Duke of Berry's exactions of which he heard daily complaints They punished this Prince in his Ministers by casting out several of the worst Officers and making the Process of John Betisac principal Counsellor and Minister of his violence He was burnt alive for a crime against nature and this was a Bon-fire to the People whom he had most horribly vexed and abused From Toulouze the King went into the Countrey of Foix. Gaston Phebus received him magnificently and having rendred him homage for his Countrey intreated him that he would be his Heir which was to deprive Matthew Vicount de Castelbon his Cousin-german by the Father of his Succession and get some share of it to fall upon his natural Son At his return he took away the Government of Languedoc from the Duke of Berry and bestow'd it upon the Lord de Chevreuse but five years after he restored it again to him as he was going to make War upon the Duke of Bretagne A Second time the Duke of Bourbon upon a request the Genoese made to the King for his assistance against the Barbarians of Tunis who by their continual Piracies interrupted all manner of Trade fitted out a Fleet wherein were Five hundred Men at Arms all Knights or Esquires and a great number of Cross-bow Men. Philip de Artois Earl of Eu the Count de Harcour the Admiral John de Vienne Charles Sire d'Abret were Voluntiers the Earl of Derby Son to the Duke of Lancaster would needs be amongst them with some Forces made up of his own Countrey-men Being joyned with the Genoese they laid Siege to the City of Carthage at that time the Bulwark of the Kingdom of Tunis The enterprize was greater then their Forces at six weeks end they found themselves so disordered through the heats of the Climate Labour and Wounds that although they had gained a great Battle yet they lost either their hopes or courage and re-embarqu'd again the Genoese only had the craft to take advantage of the King of Tunis by a private Treaty for liberty to Traffique Year of our Lord 1390 To continue the abatement of Imposts they ought to have retrench'd their expences at Court and the cupidity of the Ministers but both of these rather increasing then diminishing their exactions were renewed An honest Hermit the preceding year came to the King commanding him in the name of God not to oppress his Subjects The words and admonitions of this poor Man contemptible in the eyes of the Court having wrought no effect Heaven it self would make use of a more powerful voice and express'd it self in wrath About the midst of July while the Council were assembled at St. Germansen Laye to settle some new Impositions the King and Queen being the same instant at Mass on a suddain there arose such a dreadful strom of Wind Hail and Thunder as almost beat the Castle about the ears of those evil Counsellors and so terrify'd them they durst not go forward with their projects The Turks made mighty progress in Europe Sultan Amurat gained a bloody Battle in the Plains of Cosow against the Kings of Servia Bosina and Bulgaria but he perished there Bajazet his Son Surnamed the Thunder-bolt succeeded him About the same time Themir-lanc King of the Tartars raised himself to great power Year of our Lord 1391 Lewis the Kings Brother buys the County of Blois and that of Dunois or Chasteaudun with some other Lands of Earl Guy who had no Children He likewise got of the King the Dutchy of Orleans notwithstanding all the Remonstrances the Burghers of that City made by the mouth of their Bishop The chief ground of the mortal feud between the Houses of Orleans and Burgundy was their disputes for the Government Having been raked up now for a while this year it began to break forth anew The Duke of Orleans pretended to the administration as being nearest related and arrived at the age of Twenty years but the Estates being assembled at Paris gave their opinion for the Duke of Burgundy Gaston Phebus Earl of Foix who bare the name and devise of the Sun and who was so renowned for his Victories his Generosity his Buildings his Magnificence and his Train and Equipage equal to that of a King died suddenly as they were filling Water for him to wash his Hands before Supper after his return from Hunting He had made a Gift of his County to the King who not desiring to be beneath him in generosity returned it to his Bastard-Son From whence soe're it came or whose fault soe're it was the Treaty between the Duke of Bretagne and Clisson was broken The Duke was infinitely troubled that France should support his Subject against him and make a private Gentleman equal with him The King sent for both of them to Court the Duke far from coming thither renewed his antient Alliances with England Upon this day they dispatch Year of our Lord 1391 the Duke of Berry Peter de Navarre and divers other Lords to him to complain of the correspondence he held with strangers his Coyning of Moneys and making his Subjects give their Oaths to him and against all others He imagined this stately Embassy was only to stir up his People and was upon the point to seize on all of them as a pawn for his better security His Wife having some hint of it though she were great with Child and at that time half undress'd took up her Children in her Arms found him out and by the powerful influence and rhetorique of her Prayers and Tears made him change his mind and resolution She farther prevailed with him to go to Tours where the King was but he came with Six hundred Gentlemen and under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy his good Cousin The King Treated him very civilly and desired nothing more of him but only that he would pay the remainder of the hundred thousand Franc's to the Constable and give up some places to the Earl of Pontieure John Galeazo Viscount had usurped the Seigneury of Milan upon Bernard his Uncle whom he put to death in prison and had deprived his Son Charles and a Daughter married to Bernard Brother to the Earl of Armagnac of his Succession This Earl for his Brothers sake and upon the intreaty of the Florentines and Bolognians whom Galeaze oppressed marched into Lombardy to make War upon him Being more courageous then he he
for a farther tye toma ke this agreement sure they stipulated the Marriage of a Daughter of the Burgundians with Philip Count de Vertus the Second of the Three Brothers Year of our Lord 1409 The Peace concluded the King returned to Paris and the Burgundian to the Low-Countreys From whence coming again about the month of July he took the whole Government upon him and to give some satisfaction to the People whose affection he had gained in shewing his dislike against Taxes he caused the Council to call the Financiers to Examination and Account The most of them got off for Money but it cost John de Montaigu his Life who had been Sur Indtendant He was a man of mean birth Son of a Citizen of Paris whom the Kings favour without any great desert of his had raised to the Office of Grand Maistre of his House and his Brothers one to the Arch-Bishoprick of Sens the other to that of Paris His immense Riches which never are acquired without crime did blind this little fellow and drew the eyes of all great Men upon him insomuch as he bad married his Son to a Daughter of the Constable d'Albret and his Daughters to the greatest Lords of the Kingdom Though he had been very serviceable in negotiating the Treaty of Chartres nevertheless the Duke of Burgundy and the King of Navarre conspired his destruction because he had given the advice to carry the King to Tours They caused him to be accused of divers hainous crimes taking their opportunity when the King who loved him was in one of his Fits of Folly he was Arrested by Peter des Essards Provost of Paris examined by Commissioners of Parliament and cruelly tormented on the Rack His sufferings could not draw one word from him however his Head was chopt off at the Halles At his death he freely of his own accord confessed his depredation of the Kings Treasure which in it self contains all the greatest crimes The Trunk of his Body was hanged on a Gibbet his Head planted upon a high Pole Afterwards the Vicount de Lionnois had interest enough to re-abilitate his memory and having caused the Body to be taken from Montfaucon with an honourable convoy or attendance of Priests and Torches carried it to the Celestines Church at Marcoussy which he had founded Year of our Lord 1409 At this examination of the Officers it was ordered that all the Receivers should Account before the Earls de la Marche de Vendosme and de St. Pol and that till the had so done nothing should be allowed without Receipts and Vouchers The Treasurers were likewise all put out and the management thereof was given to some Citizens who were esteemed rich and less interessed Thus the Princes strove to gain the affection of that Queen of Cities For the same reason they renewed all their former Priviledges and the Provostship of Marchants of which they had till now only given them the keeping and they also granted them but to such only as were Natives the priviledge of holding Fiefs with the same Franchise as any Gentleman The Kings sorrow was very great when upon his recovery he heard of the death of Montaigu whom he had tenderly loved But there being no way to recall things past he would consider of what was to come Having therefore assembled the Grandees of the Kingdom he told them that he desired when he was at any time ill the Queen should take cognisance of Affairs and upon her default the Dauphin Duke of Guyenne whom he discharged from being under the conduct of his Mother but would that he should Govern with the Councils of the Dukes of Berry and of Burgundy This last usurped all the Authority Year of our Lord 1409 Whilst the Mareschal de Boucicaut was gone to Milan to receive that State under the Kings Protection and Government for John Galeazo chose this rather then that of the Marquis de Montferrat and Facin Can de l'Escale who had halfe subdued it the Marquiss to prevent him in it had caused the Genoese to rise up in Arms by means of the Gibbeline party They massacred all the French within their City forced the Cittadel and called him in to be their Lord but soon after they threw him out as they had done Boucicaut Year of our Lord 1409 Maugre the fulminations of the two Anti-Popes Maugre the Councils each of them had called Gregory in the Patriarchat of Aquilea and Benedict at Perpignan that Assembly which the Cardinals of both parties had summoned was open'd at Pisa the Five and twentieth of March. The Anti-Popes having been cited to appear there and all the Forms observed the Substraction was first order'd then they declared Schismatiques and Hereticks and Faculty given to the Cardinals to elect another Their Suffrages agreed in favour of Cardinal Peter Philargi called of Candia because a Native of that place He was named Alexander V. During the Schism Ladislaus King of Naples had seized upon Rome and the Lands of the Church which was the cause why the Council and the new Pope Alexander more willingly invested Lewis of Anjou with that Kingdom and gave him the Command Year of our Lord 1409 of Lieutenant-General of the Church In the beginning he had good success regained all the places that Ladislaus had usurped and drove him out of Rome but the end was not alike Year of our Lord 1410 The Eighteenth of May or according to others the First of June the Emperour Robert dyed at Oppenheim in Bavaria The Electors divided into two parties whereof one elected Sigismund de Luximbourgh King of Hungary the other his Cousin Josse Marquis of Moravia This last dying soon after all the Suffrages joyned for Sigismund Alexander V. had been a Cordelier Frier upon this consideration he granted a Year of our Lord 1410 new Priviledge to the Four Orders of Mendicants to Administer all the Sacraments in the Parishes and receive the Tythes iâ— they were bestow'd on them The University of Paris much offended at this Novelty retrenched all these Orders from their Body unless they would renounce this Bull. The Jacobins c ..... and Carmelites who found themselves feeble obey'd this Decree The Cordeliers and the Augustins remaining refractory were deprived of the Pulpit and Confessional of which the Jacobins made advantage as the Cordeliers had done upon their being in disgrace Pope John XXIII revoked all these Priviledges and reduced all things to the same condition they were in before We find amongst Historians that in these times there were many bloody Battles fought betwixt Birds of all sorts even amongst the smallest as Sparrows and amongst the domestique ones which proceeded from certain minute Bodies spread in the Air which pricked and irritated them in such measure as provoked and Year of our Lord 1410 pushed them on to discharge their anger upon one another This year 1410. in the Countrey of Hainault the Storks were observed to League with the Hernes and Pyes
and give battle to the Ravens who in their Flocks had Rooks and Choughs the Storks gained the Victory In the Countrey of Liege in like manner some Crows or Ravens having insulted over a Faulcon breaking the Eggs in its Airy the next day were to be seen in that very place a vast quantity of Birds of both those kinds who fought most obstinately till the Crows betook themselves to flight after a very great slaughter of their Forces It was wisely Counsell'd whereby to lay asleep all discords to employ all the Forces of France in a War upon the English under that specious pretence of revenging the death of King Richard II. The Nobless went about it with much resolution but the envy which other Princes had against the greatness of the Burgundian who sate at the Helme broke off this design Year of our Lord 1410 At the end of August the Dukes of Berry and Bourbon having made a League at Gyen with the House of Orleans and with the Duke of Bretagne the Earls of Alenson Clermont and Armagnac who were all his friends or picqued against the Burgundian sent to make their demands of the King Every one armed himself the King might command them to lay down their Arms but it was in vain for they went on with their Levies The Burgundian having to little purpose proffer'd them Peace made use of the Kings Authority to summon the Arriere-ban puts Ten thousand Men into Paris The Duke of Berry and the Princes lodged themselves at the Castle of Wicestre and began to make the War The neighbouring parts round that City were eaten up by Two hundred thousand hungry Soldiers About the end of November when all the Provisions were consumed necessity compell'd both parties to come to an agreement It was Articled that the Duke of Burgundy should go out of Paris and that the Duke of Berry should not go in That those two Princes should name some Lords that should take care for them of the Government and the Dauphin's Person That the King sho u l d chu Council of Twelve Persons not suspected whose Names he should communicate to them That all the Princes should withdraw with their Forces and that none of them should return near the King unless he were commanded by Letters under the Great Seal and written in Council Year of our Lord 1411 The Burgundian obey'd with sincerity and retir'd forthwith but the Duke of Orleans with those of his party began immediately to make new Levies The Queen and the Duke of 〈◊〉 appeared as Neuters and offer'd to be Mediators The King spake 〈◊〉 Master and Commanded them to disarm the Burgundian lay quiet and remained in Obedience but the Orleannois with his Sword in hand demanded Justice for the death of his Father After many Letters and fruitless Negotiations he sent a very biting Cartel to the Burgundian who answered in the same stile Their Challenges were in the month of August Year of our Lord 1411 The King had ordained the Queen and the Duke of Berry who were at Melun to labour for a Peace and sent thither Persons that were Notables of the Clergy the Nobility the Parliament and the University the better to Authorize what they should conclude therein but their design was only to pillage Paris and deliver themselves to the Orleannois The Parisians having timely notice demanded the Count de St. Pol might be their Governour It was agreed to but instead of strengthening himself with good honest Citizens he furnishes himself with Rascals and raises a Company of Five hundred Butchers Commanded by the Goix the Kings Butchers who committing a thousand insolencies obliged a great many good Citizens to retire elsewhere France then divided her self in two Factions the one the Orleannois vulgarly named Armagnac's from the Count of Armagnac one of their principal Chiefs they carried a White Bend and a Cross with Right Angles and the other the Burgundians who bare the St. Andrew's Cross The best of the Citizens of Paris inclined towards the First the Populace towards the Second From thence proceeded so many Murthers plunderings and Proscriptions according as the success varied on either side Year of our Lord 1412 The Burgundian party was then the strongest having the King the Dauphin Duke of Guyenne and the City of Paris on that side so that they displaced the Prevost des Marchands and imprisoned and banished divers of the contrary party In the mean time the Forces under the Duke of Orleans plundered Picardy and he seized upon Montlehery Upon this they perswaded the Duke of Guyenne to oblige the King to recall the Burgundian to his assistance This Duke embraced the opportunity enters into Picardy with Sixty thousand Men besieged and forced Ham but he could go no further The contest about the plunder of that City begot a mortal dissention between the Picards and the Flemmings wherewith his Army was made up insomuch as the Duke of Orleans approaching with his the Picards forsook him the Flemmings withdrew and he though much against his Will with them The greediness with which the party Orleannois gaped for the plunder and spoil of Paris hindred them from pursuing and destroying the Burgundian They marched immediately to block up this great City made themselves Masters of St. Denis by a Siege of the Tower of St Cloud by the Treachery of him that Commanded it and fired the Houses of such Citizens as were not of their Faction In retribution the Company of Butchers went and burnt the Castle of Wicestre which belonged to the Duke of Berry Year of our Lord 1412 The Orleannois thought themselves so very sure of the taking of Paris that they had already agreed upon their shares in the spoil But now the Burgundian returns with a relief of English pierces thorough the midst of their Forces and the Thirtieth of October is received into the City as the deliverer of the Kingdom Then their party declines St. Cloud is forced out of their hands with the loss of above Nine hundred Gentlemen they raise their Blockade and having drawn all their Men together at St. Denis retreat in disorder over the Bridges they had laid upon the Seine Year of our Lord 1412 All the misfortunes that attend a routed party fell upon these The victorious Burgundian causes them to be excommunicate and proscribed gives them chace every where puts their Goods to sale by out-cry imprisons all their Friends and Servants displaces the Constable Albret John de Hangest Hugueville Grand Master of the Cross-Bow-Men and the Sire de Rieux Mareschal to give their places to the Count de St. Pol the Lord de Rambures and Lewis de Longny his partisans All the neighbouring Cities about Paris enter into the same interests Orleans alone remains of the side of her Princes The other places and of such as followed them are forced to abandon them even Guyenne and Languedoc submit and renounce the Government of the Duke of Berry Year of our
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
Duke of Bretagne ended his days at the Castle de la Tousche near Nantes He left his Dutchy very much enriched and improved by a long Peace and mightily Peopled by that War which Year of our Lord 1443 made its Neighbouring Countries desolate particularly Normandy From that single Province there went above thirty thousand Families to inhabite in Bretagne and a great part of them at Rennes which mightily enlarged it and gave occasion to inclose with Walls that quarter of the Town which is named the Basse-ville He had three Sons Francis Peter and Giles whereof the two eldest were Dukes of that Country successively The foregoing year the English laid Siege to Diepe The Dauphin being returned out of Guyenne went thither in quality of Lieutenant-General for the King and chaced them shamefully thence But the Earl of Sommerset landing at Cherbourgh with six thousand fighting Men pierced as far as Anjou and Bretagne defeated the Mareschal de Loheac and the Lord de Rueil then returned loaden with spoil back to Rouen Year of our Lord 1443 Year of our Lord 1440 or 42. In the year 1440 or 1442. is placed the Invention or at least the first use of Printing which would be as excellent as it is wonderful were it not that like Fame whose clearest Trumpet it is it vends as many ill things as it does good ones The City of Leyden in Holland attributes the honour to it self in behalf of Laurent Johnson one of her Burghers Mentz for a Gentleman named Gutemberg Some allow it to one John Mentel of the same City Those deceive themselves that say it came from China for although it be true that they printed there a long time before yet was it not with Letters separate and movable as are ours theirs were graved on plates Year of our Lord 1444 The two Kings loved their pleasures enough to make them have but little love for War The King of England was the first that made mention of an accommodation the Deputies met at Tours where not being able to agree a final Peace they made a Truce of eighteen Months the Twentieth day of May and the Marriage of Marguerit Daughter of Rene of Anjou with the King of England to whom she was conducted by the Duke of Suffolk By consent of both Kings it was thought good to throw the French and English Forces upon the Countries of the Empire which were fat and but poorly defended The apparent pretences were to assist the House of Austria against the Swisse to revenge some incursions the Count de Montbelliard had made upon the Territories of France to affright the Council of Basil that they might put an end to the Schism and to take part with Rene of Anjou Duke of Lorrdin in his contest with the City of Metz for their having assisted Anthony Earl of Vaudemont his Enemy but the real design or cause was to discharge the Kingdom of those troublesom Sons of Mars the Soldiers Year of our Lord 1444 The Dauphin leading these Men there were near 20000 Horse parted from Troyes in the Month of July took Montbelliard and from thence went into Alsatia between Basil and Strasbourg Basil fortifi'd it self and called the Swisse in to their aid He sought four thousand near that place who rather tired then overcome died all upon the place but sold their lives at double the number There were but sixteen escaped others say but only one single man who being returned home to his Canton lost his Head as a deserter The Dauphin judging by this that he should gain nought from them but by losing too much himself and withall being gorged with spoil and observing the heavy German Body began to move he retired for fear of being over-matched and went to joyn with his Fathers Army that lay before Mets. He besieged that Town in favour of Rene Duke of Lorrain The Citizens seeing the Country wasted and ruined for seven or eight Months together bought their redemption at the rate of three hundred thousand Florins of which the King had two hundred thousand and the other hundred thousand they give Rene acquittance for who owed it to them The Army paid with this Money were all disbanded excepting fifteen hundred Men at Arms as many Coustilliers these were Foot that accompanied the Horse and three thousand Archers This was the establishment of what they called Companies d'Ordnnonance Year of our Lord 1444 and 45. He caused them to be quarter'd and cloathed and fed in the Towns but the Vulgar who look no further then the present and will never consider what may happen hereafter minded nothing but how to ease themselves of this burthen and granted a Tax in Money for the subsistence of these Gents-darmes not considering that when once this Tax was setled it would not be in their power to say either how long it should last or how much or little it should be increased or diminished Year of our Lord 1444 The Tenth of November was fought the bloody Battle of Varnes between the Turks and young Ladislaus King of Hungary He had solemnly sworn a Peace with them having unhappily broken it by the Popes instigation who dispenced him of his Oath he most unfortunately lost his Life and all his Army a wound that bleeds yet to this very day The Counties of Valentinois and Diois were united this year to Dauphine Lewis de Poitiers who possessed them had in Anno 1419. given them by his Will to Charles V. who was then Dauphin upon a condition to furnish fifty thousand Crowns to pay off his Debts and Legacies and in case he failed so to do he then gave the succession to Ame Duke of Savoy The Dauphin not having done it Ame was got into possession and had setled a Governor there But this year upon a Treaty at Bayonne agreed the third of April Lewis the Son of Ame gave up all the right he had in favour of the Dauphin Lewis who in retaliation quitted to him the absolute Siegneury and Homage of Foucigny Year of our Lord 1445 and the following During the quiet and soft minutes of the Truce the King enjoy'd the sweet pleasures of his Gardens and languished amidst his Amours and Mistresses Ease and prosperity had plunged him into daliance and effeminate softness His greatest inclination was Agnes Soreau a Gentlewoman of Touraine a very agreeable and generous Lady but who setting her self up as equal with the greatest Princesses became the envy of the Court and a scandal to all France Year of our Lord 1445 The King of England lived much more reserved He was a devout Prince fearing God and of a gentle disposition but having no great Spirit or parts and loving nothing but his Wife he suffer'd her to possess him wholly This Princess bold and undertaking beyond the nature of her Sex would needs take the Helm and make her self absolute To this end she gives some sinister impressions to her Husband concerning his Uncle Humphry Earl of Gloucester
all Normandy regained by the French or to speak more properly helped to recover it self in one year and six days The King desiring the remembrance should be preserved and that eternal thanks should be rendred to God ordained general Processions should be made in the Month of September of the same year and annually hereafter upon same day that Cherbourgh surrendred Year of our Lord 1450 After the King had given Order for all the Affairs of this great Province leaving only six hundred Lances and their Archers he turned towards Guyenne and this same year open'd the passage over the Dordogne by the taking of Bergerac which was besieged and mastered by John Earl of Pontieure and Vicount of Limoges He was one of the four Sons of Marguerite de Clisson who was restored to the Estate belonging to his Family by Duke Francis pursuant to the Treaty made at Nantes in Anno 1448. As the loss of the Battle at Fourmigny made the English lose all Normandy the defeat of the Bourdelois made them lose all the rest of Guyenne Amanjeu d'Albret Lord d'Orval going to scowre about the Neighbourhood of Bourdeaux with seven hundred Horse only there came forth ten or twelve thousand Horse and Foot English and Bourdelois who ran confusedly upon him as to a certain Victory D'Orval knowing whom he had to deal with charges them briskly puts them to the rout strewed the ways and Fields with a thousand of those giddy-brain'd Fellows and carried away a great many more to Basas Year of our Lord 1452 The following Summer the King who was still at Tours having drawn together a great many Men resolved to compleat the Conquest of Guyenne much crest-faln at that shock The Count de Dunois is Lieutenant General the Count de Pontieure Foix and Armagnac attaqu'd it at the four corners the English were beaten and gave ground every where so that having no more then Fronsac Bourdeaux and Bayonne the Count de Dunois having besieged Fronsac they capitulated to surrender those three places if upon St. John Baptists-day there appeared not in the Field and near Fronsac an Army able to give them Battle Which not having been able to do they executed the Agreement excepting only as to Bayonne whom they abused with the flattering hopes that the King of England was preparing to come and relieve it Personally The French Generals made their triumphant entry into Bourdeanx the Nineteenth day of June Year of our Lord 1451 In vain did the English struggle obstinately to keep Bayonne after some assaults the apprehension of being taken by Storm obliged them also to capitulate on Friday the Twentieth of August The Governor John de Beaumont with all the Garrison were made Prisoners of War and it cost the Inhabitants forty thousand Crowns of Gold to be spared The favour of Heaven was so benign towards the French or the Peoples fancies so strong that upon that same Friday they beheld a white Cross in the Air over Bayonne which seemed to instruct them that God would have them to forsake the red Cross of England and take up that of France This place being reduced the English had nothing left them in all France but only Calais and the County of Guisnes If we search into the causes of this so suddain and wonderful a revolution we shall find it was the neglect of the English in not well providing and strengthning their places their wont of good Commanders the hatred the People had for their scornful and imperious way of Government On the other hand the union and hearty zeal of the Nobles and all the French Militia the good order and discipline in their Armies the huge stores and provision of Canons and all sorts of Warlike Engines Pioneers and Ammunitions and the new method of approaching and attaquing of Towns by Works and Trenches but above all the Civil War that Richard Duke of York had kindled amongst the English Year of our Lord 1451 and 52. That Duke knew how to make such use of the disgust that Nation had taken against the Government of Queen Marguerite who was a French-woman as to raise himself amidst their discontents up to the Throne which he pretended was due to him rather then to Henry For he descended but only by the Female side from Lionel of Clarence who was second Son of King Edward III. and Henry came but from the third Son who was John Duke of Lancaster his Paternal Great Grandfather Year of our Lord 1452 These Divisions were calmed for a while upon the intreaties of the Lord de L'Esparre deputed from the City of Bourdeaux and the Lords of the Country of Bourdelois who taking distaste at some new Impost that was laid upon them offer'd to restore that Country to the English Talbot the bravest of that Nation and the most zealous for its honour being therefore landed in Medoc with four thousand Men was brought into Bourdeaux by the Citizens the Twenty fourth day of October and about the latter end of the year having received a like reinforcement from England he made himself Master of Castillon Cadillac Libourne Fronsac and some other small places besides The Bourdelois had taken their opportunity when the King was just going to engage in a great War against the Duke of Savoy who apparently must have been upheld by the Dauphin and by conseqence had correspondence in the very heart of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1452 The Kings quarrel to that Duke was because he had agreed the Marriage of his Daughter Charlotte and the Dauphin without his consent This was the true motive of the War but that he might have some apparent cause he had taken into his protection certain Lords belonging to the Estates of Savoy who having joyned in a League against their Princes chief Minister named John de Compeis were for ever banished by a Sentence given at Pont de Beauvoisis The King advanced even to Fores to restore them but being informed the English were landed at Bourdeaux the Duke being come to wait upon him at Feurs he suffer'd himself to be overcome by his most humble submissions and agreed to a Peace Year of our Lord 1453 The following year he marched to Lusignan in Poitou thence to St. Jean d'Angely for the recovery of Bourdelois His Army besieged Castillon Talbot coming to its relief with six thousand Men was beaten and slain together with his Son His defeat caused the surrender of the City the utter ruine of the English Party and after that the regaining of Bourdeaux For they perceiving Fronsac Libourne Langon Cadillac and all the other Towns about them were reduced the King quartered at Lermont all Relief and even all Provisions failing them surrendred upon composition which the King would never have granted them if a great mortality had not swept away his Men. However the better to curb and keep this City which the interest of Traffick and reciprocal Marriages inclined to be for the English he banished forty
for that purpose He could not consent to the dismembring that fair Province but in the mean time having information that the Duke of Bourbon who made War in that Country having been by some intelligence introduced into the Castle of Rouen had made himself Master of that City and that all the Province inclined to the same resolution allured with the desire of having a Duke as Bretagne had who found themselves very well under him he was induced to grant them what they held already Year of our Lord 1465 The Treaty was concluded the 29 th of October The Count de Charolois had the Cities of the Somme redeemable only after his Decease for two hundred thousand Crowns and moreover the Counties of Guisnes of Boulogne and of Pontieu The Count de St. Pol who Governed him had the Constables Sword To the Count of Armagnac and to all the rest they restored their Lands and those Offices they were dispossessed of and withal they gave them Pensions and employments but in such a manner as sowed the Seeds of discord amongst them The Duke of Bretagne made them pay the charges of his Army and his Journey The Publick which served for a Stalking-Horse to this War and who had born all the expences gained no advantage save only that it was promised That there should be named Six and Thirty Notables or prime Men twelve of the Nobility twelve of the Clergy and twelve of the long Robe to consult of Methods to ease the People and redress the disorders of the State Year of our Lord 1465 The next day the King and the Confederate Princes met at the Castle de Vincennes which he had put into the hands of the Count and there Monsieur rendred Hommage for his Dukedom of Normandy Two days after the Count took his journey towards Flanders the King conducting him as far as Villers le Bel and at the same time the Duke of Bretagne went with Monsieur into Normandy to see him take the possession of it The good success of Francis Sforza's Counsel did soon appear the King gained the most valiant of their Commanders to be for him put some of them into jealousies and divisions sought occasions to strip others and in time lighted on fit opportunities which entangled them in great troubles and perplexities The Count de Charolois was gotten into one that was bad enough to wit a War with those of Liege he needed but to encourage them by blowing up the Flame and assisting those inveterate people in their furious hatred Year of our Lord 1465 Their Bishop was Brother to the Duke of Bourbon Nephew by his Mother to Duke Philip of Burgundy they had expelled him the Country because he did not live like a Prelate and the Burgundian had undertaken to restore him Those of Leige and those of Dinant sent to declare a War against the Charolois when he was on his March towards Paris For that time the Duke his Father with the assistance of the Dukes of Cleves and Guelders compelled them in a few days to buy a Peace But a while after upon the flying report that the Count was kill'd at Montlehery they reassumed their Arms with more fury relying upon the promise the King had made to give them assistance and that he would make no Peace without them Those of Diant a City Famous and enriched by their works in Copper burst out into a Thousand outrages against the Charolois even to the calling him Bastard and hanging him in Effigie Year of our Lord 1466 Their chastisement followed their outragious Insolence very close The Duke laid Siege to the Town his Son commanded the Army The place was taken by Storm and burnt eight Hundred of the Inhabitants drowned in the Meuse and the rest abandoned to extream misery The Liegois who came to their relief terrified with the smoak of this Fire desired a Truce for a year till the month of January the year following and gave up three hundred Hostages Year of our Lord 1465 The Duke of Bretagne would monopolize Monsieur to himself alone and enjoy all the favours he could confer in Normandy John Duke of Calabria and the old Servants of Charles the VII had their pretences too divisions grew amongst them one may guess whether Engines were then wanting to blow up the Sparks They made John Duke of Calabria believe that the Breton had plotted to convey away Monsieur into Bretagne Duke John gives notice hereof to the Normands the noise is spread all over the City the Foolish people take it for a truth run to the Mount St. Catharine where Monsieur was waiting till they had made all ready for his reception sets him upon a Horse and forces him to make his entrance Tumultously without Ceremony The Breton durst not appear and was constrained for his own safety and to avoid that fury to retire into the lower Normandy whose Cities were in his hands Year of our Lord 1465 Soon as the King knew this he took opportunity by the foretop He marched directly to him frighted him brought him to a Conference at Caen where the Duke consented that those places which he held should be put as in Sequestration into the hands of Oder Daydic-lescun since Count of Cominges Whilst the King was in this Country the same Duke of Bourbon who had put Normandy into the power of Monsieur laboured to get him out again and put it into the Kings possession In all his life the Duke of Burgundy felt not a more sensible displeasure then to find that Prince whom he had loved above all the Men in the World turn his back upon him so soon and ruine his own designs Year of our Lord 1466 Louviers and the Pont de Larche being surrendred to the King those of Rouen demanded composition the 10 th of January and their miserable Duke denuded of Friends Money Heart and Counsel escaped in pittiful equipage and thought himself happy in finding a shelter at the Bretons Thus Normandy kept her Duke but two Months The King could not pardon the passion they had shewn to have one It cost the lives of a great number of the most considerable in that Country The War with the Liegois detained Count de Charolois so that he could not prevent this revolution and old Age hindred Duke Philip his Father from stirring in it so early as he would have desired He held only a Correspondence with the Breton and strove to Animate King Edward whose Daughter he had demanded in marriage to make a descent in France During the noise which was spread every where of this irruption and the murmurings of infinite numbers of discontented persons the King amused the people with the hopes of easing them having Summoned an Assembly des Notables at Paris out of which were chosen 21 Commissaries who began to set themselves about it in the Palace the 16 th of July The Count de Dunois presided It was he alone who amongst so many Princes had followed it
from them At that time the said Duke having vanquished the Liegois had sent to entreat him to leave his Friends in Peace otherwise he should be obliged to Succour them And indeed he advanced by long Marches for that end but mean while they being affrighted though nothing appeared which could oblige them to precipitate themselves so soon concluded their agreement and complied with the resolution of the Estates The King failed not to give speedy notice of it to the Burgundian but he would believe nothing even the Herald from the Breton who carry'd him the News ran the hazard of being hanged as a Party Suborn'd because he had seen the King in his journey At length he met with so many demonstrations that he must give Faith He encamped in great order along the Somme He was the first that renewed the Roman Method to enclose his Forces in a Camp entrenched Notwithstanding those precautions the Kings Army was so strong and his Soldiers so Animated that he might easily have forced him had he undertaken it but he would rather try a less hazardous way and gave him six Score Thousand Crowns of Gold to ☞ procure a Truce He never let any thing slip which could be purchased by money which cost him nothing for that he drained out of his Subjects pockets but the chance of a Battel concerned him most Year of our Lord 1468 The Catalonians notwithstanding the Kings Sentence and the accommodation of the Castillian had chosen the foregoing year John Duke of Calabria for their Soveraign as well for his valour as the pretensions the House of Anjou had to the Kingdom of Arragon He made a War in that Country with the Kings assistance three years together having sometimes good success and sometimes bad but in the year 1470. When he had routed the Army of John King of Arragon who besieged the City of Peralta he Died of a Burning Feaver in Barcelona Lewis had a Genius that was marvellously Subtil Insinuating and Intriguing He knew it perfectly well and had conceived that if he could but confer with the Burgundian he could difunite him from the other two or at least cast the Seeds of jealousies amongst them He therefore negociated for an enterview and by the advice of Cardinal la Balue went to find him at Peronne where he was without taking any Guards but only the Cardinal the Duke of Bourbon the Count de Saint Pol and two or three other Lords thereby to shew an entire confidence The Duke had lodged him in the City Soon after there arrives three Princes of the House of Savoy Philip Lord of Bresse the Count de Romont and the Bishop of Geneva then the Mareschal of Burgundy the Lords du Lau and d'Vrfe and some others all Enemies to the King Du Lau had been otherwhile his Favourite but afterwards had been clapt in Prison whence he made his escape The sight of these People put him in such fear that he desired the Duke to lodge him in the Castle This was to go into the Trap and give himself up a Prisoner Before his going to Peronne he had sent Ambassadors to Liege to stir those bustling People to take up Arms and he had taken no care to countermand it Now the Mine was sprung earlier then he would have had it for at the first word those impetuous People went forth out of hand took the City of Tongres immediately where they Seized their Bishop tore in pieces five or six of his Canons and slew some Burgundians Year of our Lord 1468 At this news the Duke grows in a Rage causes the Gates of the Castle of Peronne to be shut up and hardly could retain his wrath from a revenge upon the King himself Three days together the King was in mortal Trances he saw himself in the hands of his Enemies justly provoked and enraged and who might have gained all by loosing him amidst People that hated him to the very Death and in a House at the foot of that Tower where Hebert Count de Vermandois had heretofore put Charles the Simple to Death In effect he had been lost had he not found out the means to gain some of the Dukes Domestick Servants amongst others Philip de comines who softned the Spirit of the Duke their Master He would not withdraw himself from his Precipice but by making a new Treaty with the Duke by which he agreed Monsieur should have the Counties of Champagne and Brie and promised to follow the Burgundian to the destruction of the unhappy Liegois with what numbers of men he should desire He carry'd only some Guards and 300 Soldiers Although the City of Liege were dismantled and without Guns they nevertheless Year of our Lord 1468 defended themselves desperately eight days together made great Salley's amongst others one in the Night wherein they had like to have killed the King and the Count in their Quarters But on a Sunday the 30 th of October which they believed to be a day of rest amongst Christians as if there were any Religion in a War they were Attack'd about Dinner time and made but little defence One great part of the People fled over the Bridge that crossed the Meuse into the Forrest of Ardennes where more then half of them perished by hunger and cold the rest got into Churches or hid themselves in their Houses Fearconstrained the King to rejoyce at the unhappiness of his miserable Allies to applaud the great actions of the Duke of Burgundy before his own People and in his presence and make Courtship to his own Vassal Four days after he managed it so by means of those whom he gained to be for him that he was permitted to go to cause the Treaty of Peronne to be verify'd in the Court of Parliament for without that as Philip de Comines says the Treaties were at no value The Duke having made him some ill-favour'd excuses for having brought him thither conducted ☞ him only half a League After the Kings departure he caused about a Thousand or twelve Hundred of those miserable wretches to be drowned that had been taken in their Houses at Liege and set fire to the whole City excepting the Churches and three hundred Houses about them which were preserved to lodge the Clergy The Parisians could not refrain from Scoffing at the craft of the King which brought him into this Trap at Peronne he contrived to turn their discourse upon another Subject by sending to their Houses to take away all their Deers Goats Cranes Swans Cormorants and other Creatures which they kept for their pleasure as likewise all such Birds as were taught to whistle and speak Perhaps they had instructed some Parrot to say Peronne At his parting with the Duke he had asked him what he understood he was to do in case his Brother would not be contented with Champagne for his Apennage the Duke answered that if he would not take it and that the King could otherwise satisfy or content him he
for this was to assure him that they had Infallible Intelligence how to surprize the Dukes Towns and make his Subjects revolt in the very Heart of Flanders Upon the hopes of these great advantages he sent an Usher of the Parliament to Summon him even in the very City of Ghent to give satisfaction to the Count d'Eu from whom he detained some Lands belonging to the County of Pontieu In stead of appearing upon the Summons he levy'd Soldiers at half Pay but having been at this charge three Months seeing no Body moved he thought it was only a huffe and dismissed them The House of Burgundy spared their People so much that they kept up no Militia nor Garrisons in their Towns they thought that by Treating their Subjects well they were Guard good enough However when he had laid down all his Arms he received divers informations that all was ready to overwhelm him John de Chaalons Prince of Orange and some of his Domestick Servants for sook him Baldwin one of his Bastard Brothers he had eight Plotted to poyson him the Breton renounced his alliance and the Constable Seized upon the City of Saint Quentin Then he that had feared nothing began to apprehend every thing He got together with much ado three hundred Horse with which he advanced to cover his other Cities on the Somme But upon sight of him those of Amiens turned their backs and received the Kings Forces Abbeville would have done as much if Desquerdes had not hinderd it He retired therefore to Arras with more hast then he went forth and sent a private messenger to the Constable to pray him not to push things forward to extremity He received for answer that unless Monsieur would declare for him he could not be served in it But that he was ready to embrace his defence if he would give his Daughter in Mrrriage to him A Note from Monsieur conveyed to him in a piece of Wax assured him the same thing and the Breton gave him intelligence that all his Towns even Bruges and Ghent were upon the point of revolting and that the King was resolved to besiege him whithersoever he went But the more they will force him the more he stands out against them Not being followed so closely as he might have been by the King he resumes his Courage gathers up Men takes the Field and having gained Pequiny presents himself before Amiens and Fired his Guns at the Town to invite the Constable to give him Battel But finding the great numbers of men coming which the King got together at Beauvais he retreated back and wrote a very Submissive Letter to him which in gross discovered the Artifices of those that Animated the King against him The King who found he was as little secure as the Duke amongst such double dealing People agreed to a Truce for a year the 12 th Day of May. St. Quintin remained the Constables and was at last the cause of his ruine The Treaty Signed the King went into Touraine Monsieur to his Apennage of Guyenne and the Burgundian to Flanders During this War Edward of York with a Moderate assistance which the Burgundian and secretly furnished him withal for he apprehended to offend the Earl of Warwick had by the favour of the Duke of Clarence his Brother whom he had regained by the intrigues of a Woman re-enters England gained two Battels one against Warwick who was killed on the spot the other against young Edward Son of King Henry and the Queen his Mother in which that Prince was slain The Queen became a Prisoner to the Conqueror whom afterwards King Lewis redeemed by a ransom of 6000 Crowns Thus Edward re-establisht himself in his Throne and maintained it till his Death Year of our Lord 1471 Sigismond Duke of Austria having need of Money which that House hath ever been in great scarcity of till the time of the Emperor Charles V. engaged his County of Ferreie for a Notable Sum to the Duke of Burgundy The Duke puts ☜ in a very courteous Governor he was called Hagembach who laying great exactions was the first cause of the Germans hatred towards his Master Year of our Lord 1471 Pope Sixtus the IV. this was Francis de la Rovere Elected in the Room of Paul II. to follow the example of his Predecessors Sollicited the Christian Princes to unite themselves against the Turks For this purpose he sent the Cardinal Bessarion a Greek by Birth and a person of great merit to the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy The Cardinal having seen the Duke first the King was so much offended at it that he made him wait a long time before he would admit him to his presence and giving him Audience he rallied with him and treated him as a Grecian Beard The Truce displeased the Duke who had made it by compulsion neither was it to the good liking of Monsieur nor the Breton nor the Constable thus all four sought to re-unite themselves rogether The marriage of Monsieur was the only tye that could be secure the Burgundian promised it though he had no mind to it and upon this foot they renewed their League The Constables solliciting the other Princes to enter into it the Duke of Bourbon gave notice of his practices to the King who wisely dissembled it contriving to be quit with them by the same method For he every day pared away somewhat of his Brothers Apennage threw one rub one day and another the next Debauched his Friends from him corrupted his Servants and got them to reveal all their Masters secrets By the Treaty of Constans John Court of Armagnac had been restored to his Lands the King had caused them to be again Seized on in the year 1468. And had given them to Monsieur with the Government of Guyenne Monsieur being discontented had caused that Count to return put him into possession of his Estate and by his means and with the assistance of the Counts de Foix and the Lord de Albret he raised Men either that he might not be Surprized or to undertake something Year of our Lord 1471 Whatever his designs were they were blasted by a detestable and cruel remedy He loved a Lady Daughter of the Lord Monsereau and Widdow of Lewis d'Amboise and had for Confessor a certain Benedictine Monk Abbot of St. John d'Angely named John Favre Versois This wicked Monk poyson'd a very fair Peach and gave it to that Lady who at a Collation put it to steep in Wine presented one half of it to the Prince and eat the other her self She being tender died in a short time the Prince more robust sustained for some while the assaults of the Venome but how-ever could not Conquer it and in the end yielded his Life to it Year of our Lord 1471 Such as adjust all the Phenomena's of the Heavens to the accidents here below might have applied to this same a Comet of extraordinary Magnitude which was visible four score days
together from the Month of December It 's Head was in the Sign of the Ballance and it had a long Tail turning a little towards the North. In Spring the King drew near towards Guyenne the Monk had perhaps reiterated his Dose However it was Monsieur died the 12 th of May. In the mean time the Burgundian passionately desiring to recover St. Quintin and Amiens was entred into a Treaty with the King who promised to restore it and to leave the Counts of Nevers and St. Pol to his Mercy and the Duke reciprocally did oblige himself to abandon Monsicur and the Breton to him Neither of these Dreamt of keeping their Word of Faith The Duke Signed the first the King deferr'd from day to day expecting what would become of his Brother when he had certain news of his Death he scoffed at the Duke and Seized Guyenne again into his own hands Although in many actions he had not too much of the Fear of God before his Eyes nevertheless he had great Devotion towards the Saints enriched their Churches went several Pilgrimages every year particularly to places Consecrated to our Lady He Ordained on the first of May that at the sound of the great Bell at Noon every one should kneel down and say the Ave Maria. The same day after the procession William Chartier Bishop of Paris Died suddenly not without suspicion that some had contributed towards his Death Year of our Lord 1472 It was in this year that Philip de Comines quitted the Duke of Burgundy whose Domestick and Subject he was to go into the Service of the King his Soveraign Lord. If the Motive thereto had been Honest no doubt but it would have been explained by him who hath reasoned so well on every thing else Who could express the rage the Duke of Burgundy was in when he Learn'd the Death of the Duke of Guyenne He entred into Picardy with a Torch in one hand and his Sword in the other Hitherto burnings had not been practised by either Party nevertheless he made a Bon-fire of all the open Country and Sacrificed all that fell under his power to his Friends Ghost Nesle taken by assault endured all sorts of cruelties because the Inhabitants had killed a Herald at Arms who went to Summon them and two men besides during a Surcease which had been allowed them to Treat in The reverence to the Altar could not save those innocent people who fled to the Church for refuge and such as escaped the Sword were all hanged or had their hands cut off His blind fury ran aground at the Siege of Beauvais The want of attacking it roundly at first made him lose six Weeks time and two Thousand Men. It is Memorable that upon a General Assault which was given the Thursday 9 th of July the Men within being ready to give ground the Women conducted by one Jane Hatchete did wonders repelling the Enemy with showers of Stones Wild-fire and Lead melted with scalding Rozen The Effigies of that Woman is yet to be seen in their Town-Hall grasping a Sword in her hand and there is a procession the 10 th of July which is the Day on which the Siege was raised where the Women march first the Men following after Year of our Lord 1472 Going thence the Burgundian Ravaged all the Country of Caux took Eu and St. Valery but was repulsed before Diepe then before Rouen and having threatned Noyon he retired to Abbeville From Guyenne the King passed into Bretagne to force the Duke to renounce the League and surrender the Monk to him who had Poyson'd Monsieur For Odet-Daydie had Seized him and transfer'd him to Nantes The Monk was found dead in Prison the Devil as was said having broken his Neck the Night before that day wherein they were to pronounce his Sentence This was what the King desired that so the Proof of the Crime might perish with the Poysoner and it was more easie now for the Breton to avoid the heavy strokes of his power by the ordinary craft of his Landays He granted him a Truce the 10 th of September and remained still in Poitou till it was converted into a final peace Which was brought about by the Mediation of Odet-Daydie whom he allured to his Service by great rewards He knew better then any Prince in the World how to gain Men discover his Enemies secrets distract them with jealousies divide the most united but in his mirth he could not hide his secrets every thing came to light and he was likewise more subject to commit faults then able to repair them which he strove to do by Methods more frequently bad then good Year of our Lord 1472. 73. In the beginning of Winter the Burgundian accepted a Truce In the Month of February the Duke of Alenson who had a troubled and unquiet mind for having contrived I know not what League with him was made Prisoner and conveyed to the Castle of Loches and from thence to the Lowre The following year the Parliament by a Sentence of the 18 th of July Condemned him to loose his Head The King his Godson gave him his Life and Seventeen Months after took him out of Prison and put him into a Citizens House at Paris under a good Guard Year of our Lord 1474 where he soon Died. John V. Count of Armagnac who had been once more driven from his Country after the Death of Monsieur had again Siezed upon his City of Leytoure by certain correspondence and had there surprised Peter de Bourbon Beaujeu Governor of Guyenne He was straightly besieged in that place by the Kings Army commanded by the Cardinal of Arras 'T is said that having capitulated with him that good Prelate broke his Faith so that the City was invaded during the Suspension and the Count miserably Murth'red in his House His Brother Charles was brought Prisoner to Paris During the Truce the Burgundian wont to conquer the Dutchy of Guelders Duke Arnold had either sold or given it to him disinheriting his wicked Son Adolph who had a long time held his Father Prisoner and was himself so now by the Burgundian at Ghent This new Acquisition gave him the Appetite to encrease on the German side He flatter'd the Emperor Frederick with the marriage of his Daughter to his Son Maximilian and was even willing she should give him her promise and a Diamond With this Lure he brings Frederick to Mets thinking by his Authority to make himself Lord of that Town which did not Succeed and got his promise that he would raise his Dukedom to a Kingdom With these hopes he went awhile after to him at Treves carrying along the Regal Ornaments and made him a Feast with more then Royal Profusion But the Emperor meant the Marriage should be first accomplished and the Duke would sign the Contract in Quality of King They could not agree thereon And the Emperor left him there without taking his leave Year of our Lord 1473 The King let
him run after his fancies and endeavoured then to recover Perpignan whereof John King of Arragon was repossessed by Intelligence it was only the Town for the Castle held out still for the French Their Army went thither after the taking of Leytoure King John besieged in the City though Aged above Seventy years defended himself bravely for two Months together till his Son Ferdinand came to his assistance and relieved him The Twelfth day of August Nicolas d'Anjou Son of John of Calabria who had Succeeded to the Dutchy of Lorrain after the Death of his Father Died of the Plague at Nancy Thus his Cousin Rene of Lorrain Son of his Aunt Yoland d'Anjou and de Ferry who was Son of Antony Count of Vaudemont restored the Dukedom to their House whence it came For about four or five years past the Constable play'd double betwixt the King and the Burgundian and incited them the one against the other He thought their broils was his only safety but both offended with his duplicity agreed his ruin at the price of his head and his plunder if they could but catch him He had some hint of it and broke the project by the many reasons he gave the King in writing But after he had obtained his pardon he again offended him more grievously then ever For he Seized on the City of St. Quentin and which was worse had the impudence to confer with him well Armed upon a Bridge with a Barrier betwixt them as he had been his equal Year of our Lord 1474 The Burgundians ambition was insatiable He had invited Edward of the House of York to make a descent in France where the Burgundian promised to do as much by his correspondence as they with their Forces and nevertheless instead of waiting for them he went and ruined his Army before the Town of Nuz building great designs upon the taking of this place which lies on the Rhine The apparent reason why he laid that Siege was to re-settle Robert de Bauiere in the Arch-Bishoprick of Cologn whose Channons had refused to admit him and for their Chief had taken one of their Colleagues to wit Herman Brother of the Landgrave of Hesse Year of our Lord 1474 As King Rene was good liberal and devout so was he inconstant and variable of Courage tame and weak His Sons and Grand-sons being all dead there remained only his Daughter Yoland mother of Rene Duke of Lorrain but that House was at distance from him and such as were near made him believe that having received so many troubles from her he ought not to love her and inclined him according to their interests to give his Succession one while to the King of France another while to Charles Count du Maine his Nephew Son of his Brother of the same name another time to the Duke of Burgundy And this is the reason of so many several Wills and divers Donations made by him on that Subject It is believed that he caused one to be written in Letters of Gold and Adorned with Miniature whereby he made the King his Heir to the County of Provence It is certain that this year 1474. he instituted Charles du Maine in all his Lands reserving only the Dutchy of Barr which he left to his Daughters Son Duke Rene. Now the following year when he saw the King had Seized his City of Anger 's and the Castle of Barr for the Portion said he of Mary d'Anjou his Mother he changed his mind or pretended so and to make him afraid said he would bestow it upon the Duke of Burgundy but the King being purposely advanced as far as Lyons hindred him and thereupon hapned the defeat of that Duke as you shall see Whilst he was battering his Head against that potent Body of Germany which is all of Iron the King accumulated Enemies on that part against him especially the Swisse whose alliance he had gained with the Cities of Basle and Strasburgh and others on the Rhine Sigismund Duke of Austria Rene Duke of Lorrain and even the Emperor Frederic Sigismund with the aid of the Swisse re-enters the County of Ferrete and caused Hagenbac's head to be cut off for the Concussions he had useâ— â—ene Duke of Lorrain sent to declare War against him even before Nuz by a Moorish Servant who belonged to the Lord de Craon and Frederick Armed all the power of the Empire to force him to raise the Siege Nevertheless durst he not attack him though he were four times more in number The Bishop of Munster alone had brought thither 1200 Horse and 60000 Foot all cloathed in Green with 1200 Waggons Year of our Lord 1475 The Truce betwixt the King and the Duke being expired the King goes into the Field and snatched from him Roye Montdidier and Corbie but neither this multitude of Enemies nor the Winter long and sharp nor the loss of his Towns could not make his stubborness Flexible which held him still to that Siege for ten Months from its beginning In the Month of June Edward King of England caused his Army to Land at Calais which took up three Weeks time Whilst he was putting them ashoar he sent two or three dispatches to him prayed him and pressed him to come and joyn with him the Duke making now one delay and then another The Mediation of the Apostolick Legat and of the King of Denmark who was in a City near at hand was a plausible pretence for him to withdraw from that dangerous enterprize with Honour but he obstinately refused it In the end when he saw it was too long a business though he was within ten days of taking the City by Famine he consented it should be put into the hands of the Legat. That done he comes post to find the English at Calais leaving his Forces in Barrois so shatter'd that he durst not let them be seen He conducted the King all along the way to Peronne and from thence went to see the Constable at St. Quentin who gave him his word he would deliver that City and all his other places up to the English the Duke assured them of it But when they would have approached he caused them to Fire upon them It is hard to express whether was then greatest their amazement or their rage the Duke having spent a great many words to Interpret this in the best Sence returned to Barrois to recruit his Forces Edward was a Voluptuous Prince very Fat and naturally slow who sought only to cram his Purse and who having undertaken this War rather to screw money from his Subjects then to acquire Dominion or Honour had brought over with him some of the Fattest London Citizens such as loved their ease mightily that so their weariness and toyl might make them sooner willing to desire a Peace It hapned therefore that during the Burgundians absence the King by force of intrigues of flattery and withal some Presents whereof the English are very greedy persuaded that Prince and
two Factions one for the Pope and Ferdinand King of Naples the other for the Duke of Milan with the Venetian and the Florentines At Florence there were two Potent Families that of the Passi most ancient and that of Medecis richest The latter as then Governed and the two Brothers Julian and Laurence were the Heads Year of our Lord 1478 The Passi under the secret protection of the Pope conspired to assassinate them at Church upon Sunday 26th of April Julian was Murthered Laurence saved himself in the Sacrary The Populace being raised ran upon the Passi and exterminated all of them The Conspirators who had gotten themselves into the Palace to Seize it were shut in there and Hanged up at the Windows amongst others the Arch-Bishop of Pisa and they imprisoned a young Cardinal Nephew to the Pope who was found to be Innocent Now the Pope upon pretence of revenging the Honour of the Ecclesiasticks commenced a rude War on the Florentines both with the Fulminations of the Church and with material Arms and Forces The King endeavoured an Accommodation but being unable to effect it he took part with the Florentines and sent Philip de Comines to them who only brought some Succours from Savoy and Milan He had no mind to employ his Forces in so Forraign an Expedition but to frighten the Pope he spoke of calling a Council and continuing the Pragmatick For this purpose he convened all the Prelats and the Deputies of the Universities of the Kingdom at Orleans and dispatched a Noble Embassy to the Pope Guy d'Arpajou Vicount de Lautrec was the principal to demand of him that he should off the Excommunication he had thundred against the Florentines and that they should severely punish all the Complices of that Conspiracy The Scandalous Chronicle has noted That in this year in a Monastery of Benedictines in Avergne it was that of Issoire there was found a Monk both Male and Female who made use of either Sex particularly of the Femininr as appeared by proving great with Child Year of our Lord 1479 The second Truce expired Chaumont got first into the Field and scowred all the Franche-Comte even to the City of Dole Which having been taken by the Teachery of the German Forces who entring therein to relieve it introduced the French was sacked and destroyed and remained some years Buried under its own Rubbish At the same time Maximilian with his Army besieged Terouenne The Kings which was commanded by Desquerdes going to its Relief the Besiegers raised their Siege to encounter them The Shock was given near the Village of Guinegaste Desquerdes at first made the Flemmings give ground but pushing it too far the Counts of Nassaw and de Romont rallied some Companies and put the French to a Rout The Field remained to Maximillian though much more cover'd with the dead Bodies of his own Men than of Enemies and this day regained him some Reputation in his Affairs Year of our Lord 1479 At Sea the Normand Captains took 80 Vessels laden with Wheat which the Flemmings were bringing from Prussia and all their Fleet of Herrings an inestemable damage to that Country In these times arose the power of the great Czar of Russia or Muscovy Russia had heretofore many Princes But they were as Slaves to the Cham of those Tartars who Inhabit the other side of the Volga Duke John shook off that Yoke of Slavery and besides Conquered divers Cities in Russia Alba who obeyed the Duke of Lithuania and reduced to his Command the Great and Famous City Novogorod Capital of Russia then that of Mosco which takes it's Name from the River on which it is Scituate and gives it to all this State Year of our Lord 1479 When the good King Rene was Dead which hap'ned the 10 th of July in the year 1479. The King not openly permitted Charles II. Count de Mayne to put himself into possession of Provence according to the Testament we have before mentioned but likewise interposed his Authority with the Provensals to Enthronize him in that County being perhaps well assured of what hap'ned two years after Year of our Lord 1480 As all things went according to his wishes it hap'ned that being at a Village near Chinon during the Month of March he was on a Sudden deprived of his Speech and all manner of Knowledge At two days end he recover'd both the one and the other But his Body remained so Weak and Languishing that he could never regain his perfect Strength The Legat Nephew to the Pope took his time upon occasion of this Malady to intecede for the Cardinal de la Ballue who on his part did so cunningly feign a Retention of Urine that the King believing he would not live long and making conscience to let him die in Prison set him at Liberty towards the end of November upon condition he should leave the Kingdom which he did and retired to Rome Revenge jealousie and distrust which are the Signs of a weak and ill temper'd Soul encreased upon his Spirits whilst he decreased in Strength He was afraid that if they thought him uncapable to act they would usurp the Government the Duke of Bourbon being the only Prince almost that had the Qualities requisite for such a Pretension he fell into so much hatred against him that he caused his Lands to be Seized and sought out some colourable occasion to ruin him At the same time whether he could not confide in his natural Subjects or for some other reason he disbanded the Franc's Archers and in their stead raised Companies of Strangers especially Swissers Year of our Lord 1480 In this condition he was glad to make Truce with Maximilian for Seven Months to Commence in August The following year it was prolonged a Twelve-month more Year of our Lord 1481 Year of our Lord 1480 The Sultan or Grand Seigneur Mahomet II. caused the Island of Rhodes to be Besieged by the Visier Messite one of his Captains and sent almost 〈◊〉 the same time the Bassa Gedue Acmet to make a Descent on the Coast of Calabria The first after he had lost ten Thousand Men and spent three Months time shamefully raised the Siege but the other took Otranto by Assault the 27th Day of August and struck a Terror through all Italy Charles Duke of Burgundy whose thoughts had only been for War desiring to imitate the Roman Discipline had begun to keep and to exercise his Men in Camps The King after his example caused one to be made in a Plain near the Pont de Larche retrenched and closed up with Waggons He gave the command of it to Desquerdes and put in 10000 Foot Pikemen and Halberdiers for experience had taught him in the Warrs with the Swiss and Liegois that those were the best Weapons or Arms for the Infantry 2500 Pioneers and 1500 Lances After these Soldiers had remained there a Month only he disbanded them and took off as I believe the 1500 thousand Livers
them that they could scarce forbear doing the like to his person Year of our Lord 1495 The same Day he had news of Alphonso's flight That King finding himself mortally hated by his Subjects whom both he and old Ferdinand had Treated most cruelly resigned his Crown which he had not worn a year to young Ferdinand his Son and retired to Messina in Sicilia where he shut himself up in a Monastery to do pennance all the rest of his Days They were not many for before the end of that year he ended his life Dying of the Gravel which made him Languish with most grievous Torment Alphonso's fears and astonishment was so strange that although the French were yet above sixty Leagues distant he fancied they were in the very Streets of Naples and that the Trees and Stones cried out France His wife begging him to stay but only three days that she might say she had been one whole year in her new Kingdom he would not allow her that little satisfaction but said he would throw himself out of the Windows if they offer'd to detain him any longer He made so much hast to fly thence that he took none of all the vast Riches with him which he had heaped up in his strong Castles The misfortunes of this House or rather the Judgments of the Almighty God followed the Son as they had done the Father and Grandfather Ferdinand came and had posted himself at the passage de Cancello near the Abbey of Saint Germans to defend the entrance into the Kingdom As soon as ever the Mareschal de Rieux drew near to attack him he quitted it and all his Forces Disbanded John James Trivulcio a Milanese by Birth but who having been Banished by Ludovic was Listed in his Service came over to the Kings Party and gave him up Capoua which gave example to all the rest to do the like the City of Naples shut her Gates against him in a word he retired to the Island of Ischia leaving the defence of the Castles of Naples to his most considing Officers The two and twentieth of February the King made his entrance into that City the People triumphing at his Victory and receiving him as if he had been their founder and deliverer The Castles did not hold out long Thus in four Months this young King marched thorough all Italy was received every where as their Soveraign Lord without using any Force only sending his Harbingers to mark out his Lodgings and Conquer'd the whole Kingdom of Naples in fifteen days excepting only Brindes Year of our Lord 1495 Greece was almost ready to follow the same Dance with Italy Bajazeth Siezed with the extreamest Terror had drawn away all his Garrisons to strengthen his City of Constantinople the Grâ—ecians were ready to cut the Throats of all the Turks and the Turks cast their eyes towards Zemes or Zizim and wisht he were their Soveraign The jealous Venetians and the Pope made this design miscarry amidst all those fair hopes they poysoned that Prince before he was resigned into the hands of the French And withal gave the Turks notice of all the correspondence the King held in those Countries Which cost the Lives or Ruin of above fifty Thousand Christians whom the King was to have furnished with Arms to have Siezed divers maritime Towns at the time he was to pass into Greece This Bright Sun-shine of Fortune did so dazle the young King and all his Council who had but little Sence or Judgment that they scarce minded or took care of any thing Several Cities that had set up the Standard of France returned to the Arrogonians for want of sending some body to receive and take possession for the King the Favourites on whom he bestowed the Governments squandred away the Ammunitions his Soldiers lived at discretion and his Lords became insolent The People were not eased no justice was done to those Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction who had been thrown out of all their Estates So that the Love they had at first for the French was soon converted into hatred and made them forget the sorrows under the foregoing Tyrannies Year of our Lord 1495 Whilst the King and his Court full of young Fopps wasted their time in dancing Feasting Gaming and pleasant Walks the Venetians laboured to form a League against him comprizing the Pope the Emperor the Arch-Duke his Son Ferdinand King of Arragon and Ludovic Sforza so many Heads could not readily be brought to agree together it required near a whole years time to adjust them And the League they thought to contrive to obstruct his going into Italy could now only serve them to turn him out again At first Ludovic would by no means side with them on the contrary he endeavoured his utmost to hinder them but having attained his own ends he was the most zealous to promote and hasten it It was concluded about the end of Lent and published upon Palm-Sunday in presence ☞ of the Turkish Ambassador The Venetians and the Pope his good Friends would needs gratify him with that joyful news before he took his leave The information the King had thereof put him upon thoughts of his return but yet ere he went he would needs make his Triumphant entrance into Naples the Thirteenth Day of May. He was on Horse-back in an Imperial Habit a Crown upon his Head the Globe in his right Hand and a Scepter in his Left under a Canopy born by the greatest Lords of that Country and the People shouting aloud and crying Long live the August Emperor With this Ceremony he was conducted to the great Church where he received anew their Oaths of Fidelity He left in all four Thousand men to defend that Kingdom and the Country furnished him with twice as many Gilbert de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier had the Title and power of Vice-Roy a good man but of little judgment and one that loved his ease so much he seldom rose from his Bed till Noon Daubigny the Office of Constable and the Government of Calabria George de Sully that of the Dutchy of Tarente Gratian Guerre a Gascon that of Abruzzo Stephen de Vers the Dutchy of Nola. He parted from Naples the Twentieth of May. The Pope had offended him too much to stay his coming he went from Rome and retired to Orvieto But the King did not fail to restore all those places he held belonging to the Church As soon as he was gone some distance the Colonnas lately so zealous for his Interests turned their backs upon him the Florentines alone out of a desire to regain their own offer'd to maintain his quarrel and to furnish him with a good force to convoy him but he refused both the one and the other and again confirmed the Liberty of the Pisans He lost twelve or fifteen days time at Pisa and at Sienna during which the Confederates Army had leasure enough to Assemble Perhaps he waited for news from the Duke of Orleans who remained yet
could he by going a long way about get entrance into the Castle del Ovo again From thence he descended again into the City with his Sword and Flambeau in Hand and strugled mightily to recover it but the Revolters opposed him with Retrenchments and Barricado's which they wrought upon with so much diligence both Night and Day that they coop'd him in the Castle This hapned at the same time as the Battle of Fornowa After three Months Siege and continul Skirmishes Montpensier wanted Provisions and was informed at the same time that the relief which was coming from France by Sea meeting with great Storms was driven to Legorne and there dispersed In this extremity he capitulated with the Enemy to deliver up the Castles in a Months time if he were not relieved In the mean time he bethinks himself but very late to send to Aubigny to dravv all his Forces together and come to disengage him Aubigny could not go in Person being yet sick he sent Percy who cut four thousand of the Count de Matalonas Men in pieces near Eboli Ferdinand vvas so much dismay'd that he had thoughts of Flying but the Neapolitans and the Colonnas whom fear of Punishment had made desperate labour'd so much as to make him change his Fear into Year of our Lord 1495 a Re-assurance Percy coming thither found their Intrenchments so well guarded that he could not approach the Castle whereupon he returned to Nola. Mean while Stephen de Vers whom the King had made Duke of Nola being gone into France did earnestly sollicite they would provide for the maintaining of that Kingdom the Ambassadors from the Florentines the Cardinal of Saint Peters c. and Signor Trivultio joyned their Intreaties and the French even those that had advised against the first Attempts for this Conquest declared all with one Voice that it now concerned the Honor of the Nation to preserve it and not suffer the Great Monarch of France to be braved by those Bastards of the House of Arragon Every one desired this excepting those that managed the Affairs particularly the Cardinal Briconnet who either by intelligence with the Pope or out of Sloath and Cowardize hindred the rest from acting The King might be angry with them if he pleased nothing went forward Year of our Lord 1496 The importunity of those Lords who were engaged in the Kingdom of Naples the reproaches of the French and those of his own Conscience obliged the King to resolve upon a new Effort for the Affairs of Italy He parted from Tours where he left the Queen his Wife came to Saint Denis to take his Farewell of the Holy Martyrs advanced to Lyons and gave out his Orders every where then when it was believed he would have passed the Mountains he returned Post to Tours whither the Charms of one of the Queens Maids attracted him as it were per-force These grand Preparations amounted to six Vessels loaden with Provisions and Men for Cajeta Year of our Lord 1496 Ludovic had perswaded the Emperor Maximilian to enter into Italy to embrace the Defence of Pisa which he thought by this means to get into his own Hands Upon this Expedition it was that the Pisans pull'd down the King's Statute to set up the Emperors in its stead As for the rest of this Enterprize no more then in all his others he showed neither Valor nor Perseverance and to speak the Truth he minded no more but only to make his Musters compleat that he might get the Pay and then drew off again like a Hireling The French Affairs declined from Bad to Worse Aubigny was Sick still Percy marr'd his greatest Success by his unsufferable Pride the Germans Mutined for want of Pay and the Garrisons were quite unfurnished And to compleat these Misfortunes Montpensier suffers himself to be shut up in Atella by three Armies of Venetians Spaniards and Arrogonians and for want of Provisions capitulated to Surrender the whole Kingdom in one Month. The other Chiefs especially Aubigny and Guerre refused to obey him in the execution of this Infamous Treaty As a Punishment for this Stubborness Ferdinand banished both him and all his Soldiers into the Maritime Countries where the Pestilential Air destroy'd most of them Of five thousand Men he had with him hardly did five hundred escape and Montpensier himself died at Puzzoli of Sickness or of Poison From Atella Gonsalvo passed to Calabria reduced Manfredonia and Cosenza and Besieged Daubigny in Gropoli That generous Captain defended himself so bravely that he made an honourable composition they gave him leave to carry back his Forces into France with Colours Flying but the surrender of Cajeta was comprehended in it Nothing was left the French of this glorious and suddain Conquest but a villanous Disease which cannot handsomely be named The Spaniards having gotten it in the Islands of Florida where it is almost Epidemical had brought into and infected the Kingdom of Naples with it the Women whom they had spoiled with this Venome communicated it to the French Year of our Lord 1496 Before Cajeta was Surrendred King Ferdinand Died and Frederic his Uncle ascended that mournful Throne with the good wishes and acclamations of all his Subjects Ferdinand King of Spain his own people called him so and the French in railery John Gipon made an Inroad towards Narbonna in favour of Ferdinand King of Naples Charles d'Albon Saint Andre Lieutenant for the King in Languedoc did not only repress them but in ten hours forced the City of Salses in sight of their Army The Spaniards fearing they might draw the whole burthen of the War upon themselves entred into a Conference which towards the end of the year produced a Truce for some Months Year of our Lord 1497 Several designs were set on foot and divers means considered and projected for the recovery of the Kingdom of Naples sometimes to receive Hommage and Tribute of Frederic at other times to agree with the Pope who was Lord of the Fief then to begin with the Milanois and give the conduct to the Duke of Orleans To this purpose Levies were made amongst the Swiss and the Cavalry advanced as far as Ast but the Duke refused that employment Several consultations were held afterwards some resolutions taken but no effects though the several and various interests of the Italian Princes did call every day for the Kings return and opened the Gates wide enough for his re-entrance Year of our Lord 1498 But his Health hourly diminishing as well because he was of a washy constitution and had loved the Ladies too much or perhaps some slow working poyson given him by the Italians made him lose the relish of all these Conquests nay even of those amongst the Beauties so that he now thought of nothing but how to lead a quiet and Christian life He therefore turned himself wholly towards God and applied himself to the reforming of his State He heard the complaints and causes of his Subjects
with the Bentivoglios the Pope retired to Ravenna and left the guarding of Bologna to the Cardinal of Pavia his Favourite and to Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin his Brothers Son his Forces being in the Place and the Venetians in the Vicinage but this could not stay nor hinder the inconstancy of the Bolognese nor the impetuosity of the French Upon his way he met with three Mortal Displeasures the first was the News that the Bolognians had driven out his Soldiers the second that his Army was dispersed the third the Duke of Vrbin his Nephew stabb'd almost in his sight the Cardinal of Pavia in Ravenna upon some Quarrel between them and in those Cities thorough which he passed he saw the Indiction posted up for a General Council at Pisa the first of September It was of the sixteenth of May made at the requisition of the Kings and the Emperors Procurators in execution of the Decree of the Council of Constance and in the Name of nine Cardinals three of them having signed it these were Sancta Croce Cosenza and Saint Malo their Names Bernard de Carvajal Francis Borgia and William Briconnont who hapned to be then at Milan The King and the Emperor approved this Indiction by their Letters Patents of the following Month of July In this consternation seeing no Security for himself even in Rome if the Kings Victorious Army should pursue him he cast about for an Accommodation but as soon as he knew that the King tyred with the importunate Scruples of his Wife had sent Orders to Trivulcio not to make any Attempt upon the Territories of the Church he shewed himself more stubborn and more implacable then ever Year of our Lord 1511 And so by his Bulls of the Seventeenth of July he assigned a Council at Rome in the Lateran Palace for the nineteenth of April following declared Null the Convocation of that of Pisa and cited the three Cardinals to appear before him within threescore and five Dayes upon default whereof they should be degraded of their Dignities and deprived of their Benefices The Kings negligence and the Chimerical irresolutions of the Emperor heightned his Courage For the Emperor ever slow and wavering omitting at first to press the Business home had not so much Credit as to make his Prelates go to Pisa the King managing this serious Business as it were but in Sport sent thither but fifteen of his Bishops of France and Milan together with some Abbots Doctors and Procurators of the Universities and the Council was not opened till the twenty-ninth of October they being troubled to obtain leave of the Florentins under whose Seigneury Pisa then was who had at length reduced it by force about two Years before this The Cardinal de Sancta Croce was President there Odet de Foix Lautrec the Guardian and Philip Dece an excellent Lawyer the Advocat Year of our Lord 1511 The Pisans had little respect for this Assembly and the People whether of themselves or by the secret Instigations of the Popes Emissaries or the Florentins who apprehended the furious resentments of the Pope did often quarrel with the French Soldiers The Fathers took such an Allarm upon it that at their third Session they transferr'd it to Milan where they were no better received nor longer in quiet Year of our Lord 1511 Julius relied much upon the Assistance of Ferdinand and the Venetians the twentieth of October he concluded the League with them which they named Holy for the Peace of the Church said they the abolishing the Council of Pisa the recovery of the Lands belonging to the Holy See and the expulsion of all those out of Italy that would hinder the Execution of those things Year of our Lord 1512 In the Month of January of the Year 1512. the Army of the Holy League commanded by Raimond de Cardonna Vice-Roy of Naples besieged Bologna and the Citizens of Brescia introduced the Venetians into their City where they put in fifteen hundred Horse and eight thousand Foot in Garrison who besieged the Castle But now behold the young Gaston de Foix General of the Kings Army in those Countries more sudden and more terrible then Thunder overthrows them and all their Designs For on the tenth Day of the Siege whilst the Snow fell so thick as to prevent the being observed he entred into Bologna to the great astonishment of those Old Soldiers who raised their Siege confounded and cloathed with Shame From thence marching towards Brescia with six thousand chosen Men he on his way defeated John Paul Bailloni who commanded part of the Venetian Army Then entring into the City by the Castle he forced their Works and the Intrenchments they had made strewed the Streets with eight thousand of their Slain and drove out the Venetian Troops These three grand Exploits performed in less then fifteen Daies raised this Prince above all the Captains of his Time Notwithstanding all these Advantages the Pontifical League being reinforced every day with some remainders the Florentins renounced their Amity with France the Report was spread of a sudden Irruption of the Swiss and the English were just upon breaking with the King for the Pope had intoxicated them with the vain Glory of defending the Holy See and the Fumes of all sorts of delicious Wines whereof he had sent them a whole Ships loading together with Hamms Sauciges and Spices to give the Wine a better relish or gusto and make them the more desirable Year of our Lord 1512 Now the King that he might not have so many Enemies at once sent Order to Gaston that he should give Battle to the Army of the League during the Torrent of his good Fortune The Enemies themselves presented it to him being approached near Ravenna to make him raise the Siege which he had undertaken Year of our Lord 1512 for this very purpose It was fought on Easter Day the eleventh of April Their Forces were equal the shock very bloody in the conclusion the Commanders for the League some of them being fled and the others taken the Victory turned to Gaston's Lot But as he was pursuing too eagerly a Body of four thousand Spaniards who made their retreat in good Order by the way betwixt the rising Ground and the River Ronca he was surrounded and slain with the thrust of a Pike and his Cousin Odet de Foix Lautree grievously wounded This gross was not pursued the rest were all cut in Pieces or made Prisoners Ravenna afterwards Sacked and some Neighbouring Cities put into the Hands of the Cardinal Sanseverin Legate from the Council of Pisa as likewise the Cardinal Julian de Medicis the Popes Legate Ferrand d'Avalos Marquiss of Pescaro and Peter de Navarre who had all been taken in the Battle After this it was expected there would have been an Universal Revolution in Italy in favour of the French In effect their fright was so great in Rome that the Cardinals in a Body went to implore the Pope to
to Table and made both him and all his Prisoners Some days before Emard de Prie with five or six thousand Men was gone to Genoa to attack Alexandria and some other Towns on this side the Po. Octavian Fregosa had at the same time treated with the King who left to him the Signeury of Genoa to be not a Duke but only Governour in his Name These tydings brought to Lyons the King parted from thence the fifteenth day Year of our Lord 1515 of August accompanied by seven Princes of the Blood and an infinite number of Great Lords having before-hand left the Regency to Louise de Savoy his Mother who was stiled Madame As he was going forth arrives an Ambassador from England to let him know from his Master that he ought not to pass into Italy for fear of disturbing the Peace of Christendom which only served to discover the inconstancy of that Prince and the jealousy he had left a young King should out-strip him in the Race of Honour who had lived a much longer time King Ferdinand's Menaces signified as little as the King of Englands Remonstrances He was but too well pleased that the first Efforts and Attempts of this new Conqueror were to fall upon Italy and not upon Spain And therefore as soon as he was certain of his March that way he disbanded the greatest part of his Forces and little cared for that League he was entred into for the defence of Milan This Shock or Surprize of Prospera Colomna's being very considerable because Year of our Lord 1515 it was the first essay of the whole Enterprize greatly changed the disposition of the Minds of the Emperor the Pope and even the Swisse who after having burnt Chivas and Verceil retired to Novarre whilst the King was assembling his Troops at Turin He immediately set forwards to follow them without delay being informed how they began to disagree and judg'd he had a fair opportunity either to vanquish them during their disunion or to treat the more advantageously with them And indeed some of their Chiefs began to give ear to the Propositions that were made by him but knowing he was come to Verceil they dislodg'd from Novarre and retired to Galerate He followed the same Pace and got into all their Towns without striking one Blow Being thus repulsed and at variance with each other they set a Treaty on Foot by the mediation of Charles Duke of Savoy their ancient Allie He obtained them all the satisfaction they could hope for that is to say great Summs of Money as well for their Pensions as to make good the Treaty of Dijon and a very fair settlement in France for Duke Sforza in recompence for his Dutchy of Milan But thereupon arrives a re-inforcement of ten thousand Men from their own Country who desiring to have their share in the Honor and Spoil as well as their Compagnons whom they found very rich broke off all and led them back to Milan This did not however take away all hopes they might be pacified by adding an over-plus Summ to stop the Months of the most Troublesom and Active but one Day when all seemed to be at an end and the King was ready to send Money for performance of the Articles the Cardinal of Sion whilst they were all met to make the final Conclusion begins to Harangue them with so much earnestness that he made them take up their Arms to come and Charge the French who were lodged at Marignan within a League of Milan and expected no less then such a sudden Onset Therefore the thirteenth of October about four in the Afternoon they came and Charged the French Van-guard with impetuosity who having been forewarn'd received them much better then they imagined they could not however hinder them from gaining the enclosure of their Camp and some Pieces of Canon But the King hastning to that part with the Flower of his Nobility and Gentdarmerie prevented them from piercing any further Never was there a more furious scuffle not heavier Blows the Fight lasted four hours in the Night nought but their over weariness made Truce between them till break of Day but did not part them many of both Parties lying down by each other all the Night The King with his Armor on rested himself upon the Carriage of a Gun where the great Thirst his toyl had brought upon him made him relish even a little Water mixed with Dirt and Blood brought to him by a courteous Soldier in his Morion Year of our Lord 1515 He did not waste all the Night in reposing himself but the greatest Part in placing his Guns his Musquetiers and Gascon Cross-bow Men. The Day appearing the Swisse returned to the Assault with more vigour then the Night before but the Cannon broke their Battallions the Bullets and Arrows made a great Slaughter then the Horse sallied and ran over them some of their Companies were driven into a Wood who were all cut in Pieces About nine in the Morning the rest thinking themselves vanquisht because they had not been able to Vanquish and withal observing Alvaine approach with the choice of his Venetian Cavalry began to make their retreat towards Milan none endeavouring to pursue them excepting Alvaine who thinking to Charge them in the Rear soon found by their fierce resistance that they dreaded their Italian Lances but little This was all the Share he had in this Battle whatever the Authors of that Nation are pleased to relate The French kept the Camp cover'd with ten thousand dead Swisse and three or four thousand of their own Men but of the bravest and for the most part Gentlemen Francis de Bourbon Brother to the Constable the Prince of Talmont only Son of Lewis de la Trimoville Bussy d'Amboise Nephew to the Cardinal of that Name the Count de Sancerre and eight or ten other Lords of Note were slain there Claude Duke of Guise who commanded the Lansquenets in the absence of Charles Duke of Gueldres his Maternal Uncle was trod under Foot a German Gentleman his Esquire saved his Life at the expence of his own by covering him with his own Body and receiving the Blows they made at his Master This ill Success begot new discords between the Swisse those that would have agreed with the King demanded Money of Sforza that they might be gone they knew well enough he had none and thereupon they returned by way of Coma which the King had left open for them The rest follow'd them the next day but left fifteen hundred of their Men with Sforza to maintain the Castle together with five hundred Italians he had there promising in a short time to come back to his assistance as likewise on his side the Cardinal of Sion going to the Emperor for the same purpose vow'd to return again speedily So that upon this assurance he shut himself into the Castle with one John Gonzague Jerome Moron and some Milanese Gentlemen The City surrendred the next day
his Brother Year of our Lord 1521 Lescun in Bed tyred with his former Day 's labour he was amazed when towards the Evening they attacked the Suburbs and gained it the Venetians that had the Guard there basely abandoning it At the same time the Burghers of the Gibeline Faction let them into the City but the Spaniard revenged the French and made that faithless Town pay dearly for their defection plundring them for eight days together He then drew together round about the Castle all the Men he had and after he had put Men enough into it instead of charging the Enemy whilst they were in disorder and separated he resolves to retire the same Night to Coma and thence to the Country of Bergamo Soon after Coma was taken by the Marquiss of Pescara Parma abandoned by the too precipitate Order of Lautrec and Piacenza delivered by her Citizens to the Confederates The over-joy for so much good Success moved Pope Leo so much that the very Night he received it he was seized with a kind of a Feavor of which or of some other more hidden Cause he died at Rome the first Day of December Now he having projected this War and furnished Money for maintaining of the Army it might be judg'd that upon his Death the French should have recover'd their advantage seeing they had still in their Hands all the best Places in the Dutchy the Castle of Milan Cremona Piacenza Novarra Alexandria seven or eight strong Forts and the City of Genoa the Colledg of Cardinals troubling themselves so little with those Affairs that the Duke of Ferrara easily regained all the Towns that Leo had taken from him Francis Maria the Dutchy of Vrbin and moreover that of Camerin which he wrested from John de Varane and Baillon the City of Perugia But the Affront they received at Parma being beaten off by a very few Soldiers and People half armed gave other Towns the greater Courage to resist them After which the two Armies rested near sixs Week without undertaking any thing the French for want of Men and indeed both of them for want of Money Year of our Lord 1522 The Holy See having been vacant more then two Months by reason of the Discords which the interests of particular Men and the division of their Affections between the King and the Emperor occasioned in the Conclave the Cardinals elected Adrian Florent Cardinal Bishop of Tortosa a Hollander by birth who had been Tutor to the Emperor and at that time Governed Spain all the World nay they themselves after it was done wondring how out of I do no know what giddy Fancy they should go so far off for one that thought but little of them as indeed till now they had as little thought upon him He came not to Rome till the twenty ninth day of August following Whilst the Armies lay quiet Prosper Colomna took great care for every thing that was necessary to preserve Milan both for the Fortifications and the Provisions as also for Soldiers and principally to dispose the People to make an obstinate Defence Which he did as well by the hatred he encreased in them against the French representing the Severities they had used towards them and the extreme Resentment and Revenge their Nature would prompt them to if they should ever regain that Place from whence they had been so shamefully beaten out as by the Affection he inspired them withal for Francis Sforza second Son of Ludovic and Brother of Maximilian For the deceased Pope Leo had designed by the Emperor's consent to restore him to his Father's Dutchy but he was yet at Trent expecting a Levy of eight thousand Germans to conduct him thither Upon this notwithstanding the Cabals of the Imperialists the discords between the Cantons some of them being for the King others for the Emperor and the contrary interests of the particular Chiefs amongst them they had granted the King in one of their Diets a Levy of twelve thousand Swisse who marched into Lombardy by Mount Saint Bernard and Saint Godards Mount under the conduct of Honorius Bastard of Savoy Grand Maistre of France and Galeas de Sanseverin Grand Escuyer Soon after John de Medicis came into the King's Service also and joyned his Army with three thousand Soldiers With two such considerable re-inforcements and raising of some Italian Troops Lautrec thought he might do Wonders against the City of Milan if he posted himself about it in the Neighbourhood either by cutting off their Supplies and Provisions or by assaulting them in that consternation he believed the People would be in upon his approach When he had been there already some Days and his hopes to gain it either by Famine or by Assault were reduced to the Forms of a long Siege he had information that Francis Sforza having left Trent with his Lansquenets and crossed Veronois and the Mantouan Territory was arrived at Piacenza and that the Marquiss of Mantoua had joyned him with his Horse to convoy him to Pavia where he was to wait a favourable opportunity to get to Milan Then he decamped and posted himself upon the Cassine which is within three Leagues of Milan to hinder his Passage and put the Venetians into Binasque for the same purpose When he had been there some while he had news that his Brother was returning from France with Money and some Infantry which were Landed at Genoa he sent four hundred Lances and seven Thousand Swiss to Guard him Lescun came to Novarre whose Castles still held out for the French and turning their great Guns upon the Town plaid upon it so suriously that he entred it by force upon the third Assault But this delay of some days favour'd the passage of Duke Sforza who marching by an uncouth Rode got into Milan and infinitely encreased the Courage of the Inhabitants and their hatred against the French by the remembrance of the mild Government of the Dukes his Predecessors Year of our Lord 1522 When he was gone from Pavia Lautrec caused it to be besieged It was better furnished with Men then he expected his Soldiers were beaten off upon all their Assaults and the great Rains which made the Tesin to overflow and its Stream become so Rapid that they could not bring up any Boats famished his Army He decamped therefore and advanced as far as Monce to receive the Money sent him from France While the Treasurer that brought it was at Aronca and could not get forwards because a Party of the Enemy had lodged themselves upon their Way the Swisse impatient to receive their Arrears demanded leave either to be gone or to fight the Enemies Army without considering that they were intrenched in a Place where nothing could be gained but Blows Lautrec finding he could not with-hold them any longer neither by his Promises nor the consideration of the Posture they were in hazarded the Battle wherein he foresaw all the disadvantage would fall upon them The Enemies were posted in a Farm
with a great Fleet which carried Ten Thousand Men and at the same time Felix of Wirtembergh entred by Land upon Milanois with a like number The Potentates of Italy did all bow down to this Power and the Pope himself came to Bologna to receive him But the Emperor informed of Solyman's irruption in Hungary durst not use all his Power to oppress them but on the contrary yielding to their Intreaties he resettled Francis Sforza in the Dutchy of Milan and agreed with all the other from whom he drew vast Sums of Money Year of our Lord 1529. and 30. There were none but the poor Florentines who remained exposed to the resentments of the Pope because they refused to submit themselves to the Medicis who were but private Citizens no more then the rest The Emperor lent him his Forces to Besiege their City who having defended themselves for Eleven Months in vain imploring the help of France and their ancient Confederates Surrendred upon Composition the Fifth of August in the following Year and were reduced under the Dominion of the Medicis although by the Treaty it was said that the Pope should Establish no Government that should be contrary to their Liberty Year of our Lord 1529 During these troubles between the two greatest Powers of Christendom Solyman snatched away the best part of Hungary The pretended King John had called him to his aid making himself his Subject and his Tributary but the Tyrant instead of putting him into possession of the Kingdom took for himself the Cities of the five Churches Alba Royal where were the Sepulchers of their Kings Buda Strigonium and Altemburgh After these Conquests he laid Siege to Vienna but in a Months time the scarcity of Provisions and the approach of Winter made him dislodge He raised his Siege the Fourteenth of October after he had lost near Threescore Thousand men and took his March towards Constantinople threatning to return the next year with a much greater force Those that adher'd to the doctrine of Luther acquired this year the Surname of Protestants because there having been a Decree made by the Arch-duke Ferdinand and other Catholick Princes in the Diet of Spire in favour of the ancient Religion and to hinder the progress of theirs they protested against it and appealed to the Emperor and to a General or National Council Year of our Lord 1530 The following year appeared their Confession of Faith which is called the Ausburgh Confession because they presented it to the Emperor in the Assembly which was held in that City to endeavour to pacifie and allay the differences in Religion Luther had composed it in Seventeen Articles Melancton explained and enlarged them The Affairs of Hungary and Germany not permitting the Emperor to be long absent the Pope gave him the Imperial Crown at Bologna with the same Ceremonies as if he had been at Rome The Emperor affected to pitch upon the Twenty fourth day of February for this great Ceremony as being his Birth-day and the day likewise of the taking of King Francis at Pavia Having sojourned there till the Two and Twentieth of March he returned into Germany and before he left Italy erected the Marquisate of Mantoua to a Dutchy in favour of Frederic Gonzague who merited a greater Title if Year of our Lord 1530 his Territory could have born it They had much adoe in France to make up the Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns promised by the Treaty of Cambray for the Release of the Kings Children The Mareschal de Montmorency carried them to Endaya and the first day of June exchanged them for the two Princes in the same place and in the same manner as they did the Father The King went to meet them as far as Verin which is a Nunnery in the Launds of Bourdeaux near the Mount de Marsan In the same place he Married Eleonora the Emperors Sister who had sent her to him with his Sons The year following in the Month of March she was Crowned at Saint Denis and the City of Paris graced her with a Magnificent Entry This Princess aged thirty Years and rather ill-favour'd then handsom never possessed the heart of her Husband but that she might be consider'd gained the respects of the Mareschal de Montmorency who at that time governed the King and the Kingdom The Catholicks and Protestants had agreed in the Assembly at Ausburgh to call a Council that might put an end to their differences and the Emperor had given his assent because he would make use of this Proposition to awe the Pope In effect he was so alarmed at it that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the Council In the mean time the Catholicks of Germany finding their Religion endanger'd made a League amongst themselves in the Month of November Which gave occasion to the Protestants to frame one likewise at Smalcalde about the end of the following Month. Year of our Lord 1531 The first effect of the Catholicks League was that by their help the Emperor got his Brother Ferdinand to be Elected King of the Romans who was already so of Hungary and Bohemia it was upon the Fifth of January in the Diet of Colen without having any regard to the oppositions of John Duke of Saxony and the Remonstrances of other Protestant Princes who being yet more alarmed upon this Election sent to the Kings of France and England to implore their Assistance They willingly granted it and Entred with them into a League but only to defend their Lands and the Rights and Liberties of the Empire The English promised to furnish them with Fifty Thousand Crowns monthly if they were Assaulted and the French deposited an Hundred Thousand Crowns in the hands of the Bavarian Princes to Levy Men in case they found reason for it or were necessitated thereto During the calmes of Peace to the Love for Ladies he joyned the Love of Learning The good King Lewis XII had caused him to be bred in the Colledge of Navarre and although he had made but a very small progress in the Latine Tongue nevertheless the little smattering he had gave him a great Gusto for the Sciences especially Astronomy Physick Natural History and Law He kept near him the ablest men in all the Kingdom who studied to make handsome and Methodical discourses to him upon all those parts of Learning most commonly whilst he sat at Dinner sometimes in his Walks or in his Closet and he improved so well by those entertainments that he became as knowing as the greatest Masters In acknowledgement of those Inestimable benefits he raised many of them to Offices and showred Presents and Pensions upon the rest Nor did they advance his Affairs a little by their Services and render his Name Illustrious to the Eyes of all Nations by their Works so that in spite of Fortune he gained most Renown though his rival flourish'd with more Success He instituted the Royal or
Italian Princes because he had oppressed the City of Florence which was the place of his Nativity could not be induced to grant it but replyed in general terms he must Communicate the thing first to the other Princes of Christendom As to the second he gave his consent and made a League for some Year of our Lord 1533 Months For the third he excused himself because he had hopes of Marrying his Niece with the Kings second Son a party much more Advantageous then Sforza could be The Cardinal de Tournon and de Gramont were then upon the Negociation with him about this Alliance The Emperor could not believe the King would so much Debase and Vilifie the Noblest Bloud in the World He was much amazed when the two Cardinals shewed him the Powers they had for it Then went he away very ill satisfied with his Holiness though to appease him he promised to give him content in what he demanded against the King of England and Embarquing at Genoa about the end of February he passed into Spain Henry made most Vehement instances to Francis that he would Impetrate of the Pope he might have Judges appointed on the Place The two Cardinals whom we have mentioned being arrived at Bologna the fourth of January in the year 1533 obtained of his Holiness that he would defer the Judgement of that business till the King and he should had seen one another at the place appointed for that Meeting They had agreed upon the City of Nice but the Duke of Savoy making too many Difficulties the Pope consented not without much Repugnance that it should be at Marseilles and that they should come there in the Month of October The Amorous Impatience of Henry could not attend till then he caused his Marriage with Catherine to be Dissolved by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Espoused Anne Bullen in the presence of four or five Witnesses only He was Emboldned thereto by the three Thomases who governed him these were Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Cromwel Lord Chamberlain and Privy-Seal and Audley Lord High Chancellour The thing being done he gave notice of it to King Francis intreating his assistance for what he demanded of the Pope and to keep the business Secret It could not be kept so Private but that in one Months time both the Pope and the Emperor were made acquainted with it Both of them were Netled and Incensed to the greatest Extremity in-so-much as the Pope Pronounced the Sentence of Excommunication against Henry and nevertheless he refrained from Publishing it upon the Kings request who on the one hand being obliged to Henry and on the other desiring to be firmly united to the Pope sought out some way for an Accommodation However he promised nothing to King Henry saving that he would do him all the good Offices he could without prejudice either to his Religion or his Conscience And indeed the Pope desired that he would not press him in that concern beyond his Duty and the rules of Justice Year of our Lord 1533 In the mean time Anne Bullen was deliver'd of a Daughter who was named Elizabeth This was in the Month of September of this year 1533. The tenth of October the Pope arrived at Marseilles in the Kings Galleys who took him in at the Port of Pisa Some days before John Stuard Duke of Albany had brought thither Catherine de Medicis whose Maternal Aunt he had Married John de Bellay Bishop of Paris and afterwards Cardinal Harangued his Holiness in most Elegant Latin The next day after he had made his Entrance into the City the King made his with his Queen The Nuptials between Henry and Catherine were Celebrated the seven and twentieth of the Month with as great Joy as Magnificence The Pope and the King spent several days together being Lodged in two Houses just opposit the Street betwixt them but joyned by a Timber Gallery so that they went to each other unseen and could treat of their Affairs with the greatest Privacy Upon this occasion the King did not forget his usual Magnificence but rather Surpassed it very much He Loaded with exquisite Presents and great Pensions all those Cardinals that were with his Holiness But he made the Beauty of his mind and Eloquence out-shine the luster of his Gifts and that whole Court was satisfied that if there were a richer Prince in the World yet there could not be any one that made a more generous use of his Riches nor that accompanied his favours with so much wit and so much kindness as he The two and twentieth of November the Pope and he parted very well pleased with all their Negociations excepting that the King had extorted from the Pope four Cardinals Hats for four Relations of his Favorites these were John le Veneur Bishop of Lisieux Grand Almoner of France Claude de Giury Paternal Uncle to the Wife of de Brion Odet de Coligny but thirteen years of Age Son of Montmorency's Sister and Philip de la Chambre Brother by the Mother to John Duke of Albany This last took the name of Cardinal of Boulogne he being descended from that House by his Mother As to the rest there was no new League made between the Pope and the King contrary to the expectation of the whole World The Pope promised only to do all he could in favour of Prince Henry his second Son to obtain the Dutchy of Milan of the Emperor for him And as to the business of the King of England the King could not prevail with the Pope to revoke the Excommunication but only that he would not Publish it till he had first tryed by all manner of perswasions to bring that Prince again to reason To this intent he forthwith dispatched John du Bellay Bishop of Paris into England to exhort him not to depart from the Communion of the Roman Church This wise and able Prelate having obliged King Henry to promise him that point provided the Pope on his part would forbear publishing the Excommunication went Post to Rome to carry this good News and demand time to reclaim and fix that inconstant and stubborn Spirit The Imperialists could not prevent him from procuring it but they caused it to be limited to a much shorter space then was requisite Du Bellay therefore sent back a Courier into England with order to return by such a certain time Now the day being come but not the Courier the Imperialists pressed the business so hotly that although he represented that the Frosts and Snows and other Inconveniencies of the Season and Way might hinder and retard him and desired another respite only for six days Yet the Pope refused it and doing in one Meeting what he ought not to have done but in three he Pronounced the Sentence and caused it to be affixed in the usual places Two days after the Courier arrived bringing very ample Powers by which King Henry Submitted himself to the Judgement of the Holy See provided certain Cardinals whom
with their Nails and bear him each having a Flambâ—au in his hand to St. Andrews Church About Five Thousand Burghers assisted at this Funeral Pomp carrying all Wax-Candles and making a stop before the Connestables door cryed out for mercy and confessed they had deserved a more heavy punishment Besides all this he put above an hundred to death most part being of the principal Citizens and Officers belonging to the place This great severity â—lienated the affection of the people from him as the tender humanity of the Duke of Aumale gained it so as from this very time that Lorrain Branch began to reign in their hearts Some while after the King who was benign and easie following the counsel of that Prince did in many particulars moderate the rigour of the Sentence preserved the Town-House gave Pardon to many that were Condemned and restored the Bells and Priviledges again to the Bourdelois Charles IX his Son gave them more ample ones After Bourdeaux had been humbled in this manner the Provost belonging to the Connestables going thorough all the Provinces laid hold on several of the most Seditious amongst others Three of their Chiefs viz. a Gentleman who had his Head cut off and two Chiefs of the Commons who were broken upon the Wheel with a Crown of red hot Iron clap'd upon their Heads Year of our Lord 1549 After all these Tragical Executions the Year 1549 was spent for the most part in rejoycings and in Carousels The Birth of the Kings Second Son of whom the Queen was deliver'd at Saint Germains was one occasion of these Feastings He was named Lewis The Figure-Flingers foretold wonders of him and yet he lived but two years The divertisements of the Carneval succeeded that of his Christ'ning then in the Month of July the King and Queen made their Magnificent Entrance into Paris after her being Crowned aâ— Saint Denis To this Ceremony they added Tiltings running at the Ring Balls great Entertainments and all the vain past-times that an ingenious and opulent idleness could invent to delight and glut the Eyes of the Women and multitudes of People When the Court was weary of these Sports the Scene of it was changed and a fit of Piety succeeded their Gallantry They made a general Procession to Nostre-Dame whereat the King was present This was to testifie by a publick Act the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors and to punish all those that would disturb it Which he confirmed by the horrible Executions of great numbers of those miserable Protestants who were burned in the Greve They were haled up by a Pully and an Iron Chain then suffered to fall down in the midst of a great Fire which was repeated several times He would needs feed his own Eyes with this Tragical and Melancholly Spectacle and it is said that the horrible and mournful Shricks of one of those poor wretches left so lively an impression in his imagination that all his life long he had from time to time a very frightful and terrifying remembrance of those dreadful groans However that were it is certain the smell of those Carkasses thus roasted got into the Brains of a great many People who on the one hand beholding their false constancy and on the other the scandalous dissolute living at Court named this Justice a Persecution and their punishment a Martyrdom The 12 th of June the Alliance was renewed with the Swiss but not without much opposition of the Protestant Cantons exasperated for the burning those of their Religion Year of our Lord 1549 When the English were contriving better measures to invade Scotland there hap'ned some division between the Duke of Sommerset and the Earl of Warwick and between the Nobility and the People This Juncture being favourable to France the King would lay hold of it to recover Boulogne He armed powerfully by Sea and Land went before the place in person and gained four or five Forts the English had built round about it Then Autumn coming he Block'd up the Tower d'Ordre meaning to return in the following Spring Pope Paul having lost all hopes of recovering Piacenza from the hands of the Emperor or even to preserve Parma in his Family resolved to re-unite this to the Demeasnes of the Church and to give the Dutchy of Camerino to his Grand-Son Octavio Octavio positively denied to accept of this exchange and wrote to the Cardinal Farneze his Brother that rather then consent to it he would Surrender up Parma to Frederic de Gonsague The Cardinal shewed the Letter to the Pope who was so moved with wrath that his whole Body fell into a strange fit of trembling and afterwards into a violent Feavour whereof he died within three days The Cardinals after three Months practices and juggling Elected John Maria de Monte who assumed the name of Julius III. Year of our Lord 1550 The English not having Forces sufficient would not stand off too long but came to a Treaty of Peace which was concluded between the City of Boulogne and the Fort d'Outreau the 24 th of March They promised to resign Boulogne upon the payment of four hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to wit the one half when the French entered the Town the other moiety six Months after Scotland was comprized in this Treaty and those places the English had Invaded were to be restored to the Queen-Regent The House of Guise obtained great augmentations Duke Claude and John Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother being dead Francis Duke of Aumale took his Fathers Title and Charles who was called the Cardinal de Guise that of his Uncle and his Benefices This same raised his power mightily and that of his whole House not so much by his merit though he had a great deal as by his complaisance to the Kings Mistress He had so much power that he caused Peter Lizet the first President of the Parliament of Paris to be displaced He had dared to affront him by refusing to Treat him as a Prince but was forced Year of our Lord 1550 humbly to have recourse to his intercession to obtain some Benefice for his subsistance they gave him the Abbey of Saint Victor lez Paris John Bertrand second President was put in his place Soon after Diana caused the Seals to be taken from the Chancellor Olivier whose probity did not sute with her conduct and because he stood upon it not to lay down his Title of Chancellor which by the Laws of the Land cannot be taken away but with his Life She obliged the King to grant the Commission and Office of Keeper of the Seals and to give it to Bertrandi who by this means left that of first President to Giles le Maistre who had before succeeded him as second Though Faggots were lighted every where against the Protestants yet the Inhabitants of Merindol and Cabrieres presented their Petition to the King demanding Justice for the Violence done against them under pretence of a Decree 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
provide for the security of the Frontier Towns The fright and terror was greater yet then the loss We know not what it might have produced if the Duke of Savoy had marched directly to Paris or if a design he had upon Lyons had been well managed but as to the first Philip would not suffer him to march in any further fearing lest under those advantageous circumstances a certain negotiation that he had set on foot the preceding Winter should end in an Accommodation with the King which would have restored him to his Country and by consequence have unhinged him from the Spanish Party And as for the enterprise upon Lyons the Baron de Polvilliers who was to have favour'd it with Fifteen Thousand Germans did but only enter into Bresse and marched out again immediately The Duke of Savoy was therefore much against his will forced to stick to the Siege of Saint Quintin King Philip came thither in Person fifteen days after which was upon the seven and twentieth of August and brought Ten Thousand English and as many Flemmings France had been lost if they had pursued their point and indeed Charles V. having received the news of this important Victory asked the Courier if his Son were in Paris The Admiral having staid too long by three or four days to Capitulate saw the Town stormed at five several breaches and was taken Prisoner with Dandelot his Brother who got away the following Night Philip's Army passed the remainder of the Campagne in taking the Catelet Han and Noyon and about the end of Autumn was wasted away about the one half the English being withdrawn their haughtiness not agreeing with that of the Spaniards and the Germans for want of pay A good part of these came over to the Kings Service During the Universal trouble which flowed from the loss of Saint Quintin the Religionaries had the Confidence to Assemble in the Night time at Paris in a House at the upper end of the Street Saint Jacques One named John Masson was the first that was Instituted Minister in this City in the year 1555. The People who observed them coming out thence fell upon them and took above a Hundred amongst whom were Persons of Quality nay even some Maidens belonging to the Queen They were charged with strange Crimes it was said they Year of our Lord 1557 rosted young Children and after they had made very good chear the Lights were all put out and so Men and Women mingled together A good number of them were burnt but the rest disputed their Lives so well by recusation of Judges and other delay 's and put-offs that they had time to get Letters from the Prince Palatine and the Swiss Protestants who interceeded for them The King standing in need of their Swords was obliged to relent somewhat of his severity Amidst the fear and dispiritedness all France lay under particularly Paris it is believed that if but only a Thousand Horse had appeared on this side the Oyse that great City would have remained a desart They laboured hard therefore to fortifie it the King gave Orders to raise Twelve Thousand Swiss and Eight Thousand Germans sent to all French Men Nobles or not who had formerly served in the War to come to Laon to the Duke of Nevers to Brissac and the Governor of Mets to send him part of their old Companies and to the Duke of Guise that quitting all other designes he should return with his Army He was likewise advised to have recourse to Solyman La Vigne his Ambassador made instant Suit to that Prince to lend him two Millions of Gold and send his Naval Force to him but with Order they should Winter in his Ports of France because they lost the best of their time in going and coming As to the Money Solyman excused himself by Pleading that they were forbidden by their Law to lend any to Christians for which reason he had already refused it to King Francis but for his Fleet he promised he would send a very powerful one very well Equip'd to act joyntly with the Kings or else separately as they would appoint or desire Whilst these things were negociating in the East the great Cities of France opened their Purses freely enough to the King Paris furnisht him with Three Hundred Thousand Livers and the rest in proportion Fifty Lords of note proffer'd him to keep and defend Fifty Places at their own expence It was then he really found that the French are the best People in the World and that it was both hard-heartedness and ill Polity to vex them by extraordinary Imposts since they would bleed so freely for the necessities of the State When the Duke of Guise had received the Kings orders to return he Councell'd the Pope to make his Accommodation The Holy Father made it honourably as he could wish in such a juncture For it was agreed they should surrender up all his Places to him that he should absolve the Duke of Alva and the Colonnas and that that Duke should ask his Pardon in the name of King Philip The King had foreseen that the Duke of Ferrara would also make his Accommodation wherefore that he might not do it without his participation and to his prejudice he sent him word he approved of it The Caraffas base and perfidious Friends did already Treat with the Spaniards to Invade the Ferrarois and to share it between them The Duke d'Alva made his entrance into Rome upon the very same Horse with the same honours and as great demonstrations of joy expressed by the Nephews as the Duke of Guise had done This Duke having sojourned ten or twelve days in a Castle of Strozzi's near Rome whilst the Pope was making his Treaty took Shipping at Civita-Vecchia with Two Thousand Select men and some of his best Officers and left the Conduct of the rest of the Army to the Duke d'Aumale his Brother who brought it back into France by Bolonnois Ferrarois the Country of the Grisons and Swisserland The return of the Duke of Guise seemed to have brought back with him the Courage of the Kings drooping Councel and of his flying Forces They proposed to give him the Title of Vice-Roy which being thought too ambitious they gave him that of Lieutenant-General of the Kings Armies within and without the Kingdom which was verified in all the Parliaments After he had saluted the King he had order to go to Compiegne and draw the Army together Thus did the ill-fortune of France prove to be his good fortune and the falling of the Constable his exaltation The King now wanted nothing but Money for this he Assembled the Estates at Paris the sixth of January in the year 1558. since King Johns time they have served for little else but to encrease the Subsidies It was this time thought fit to divi de them into four distinguishing the third Estate from the Officers of Justice Year of our Lord 1557 and the Treasury They altogether
when they could find a person of quality to head them such as was Dandelot or the Admiral his Brother This year that question was decided at Venice which the Spaniards had moved to the French concerning precedence or rank Doctor Francis Vargas had been there in the quality and with the Function of Ambassador for Charles V. Emperor and King of Spain After the abdication of the Emperor and about the end of the year 1556. Philip recalled him giving notice however to the Seigneory that he would send him again suddenly During his absence Loyola whom he had left in his stead pretended to hold the place of Ambassador for the Emperor the French Ambassador this was Dominique Bishop of Lodeve would have no such thing allowed and bestirred himself so that Loyola durst never appear at any Ceremonies In the year 1557. Vargas being return'd again pretended to keep the same station he had before saying he had never been revoked but he of France maintained he had since he had had his Audience of Congé and received the Present given to Ambassadors that moreover Charles V. had absolutely devested himself of the Empire without reserving to himself one inch of its Lands and that therefore he had now nothing to negociate or trouble his Brain withal but the looking after and managing his Clocks The business was off and on for almost a whole year then hap'ned the shock at Saint Quentin which much startled the minds and turned the thoughts and cares of the Ministers of France to things of a more important and pressing nature The Venetians grounded their doubts upon Charles V. being still Emperor but when that pretence came once to be remov'd by the Election of Ferdinand which was in the year 1558. they had no apparent reason to hesitate They knew well enough the King had most reason on his side but they durst not own it and would very fain have referr'd it to the decision of the Pope saying it belonged not to them to make themselves Judges between two such great Princes The pretensions of Philip was not as yet to gain the upper hand of France but only to hang up the dispute upon the hedge and stand on equal termes The Venetians had made a Decree in the Councel des Pregadi that the Ambassadors of both Kings should be present at none of their Ceremonies till the controversie were first judged at Rome so greatly did they apprehend to offend Philip Nevertheless when they observed the Kings Affairs began to look with a promising face again and Novailles Bishop of Dacqs the Ambassador from France pressed them without intermission and by strong Arguments and Reasons and threatnings to be gone they at length revoked the Decree and ordained that he of France should hold the first rank according to ancient custom and usage They sent for him therefore to assist at the Ceremony they made upon the day of the Visitation being the second of July This was eight dayes before the death of the King The Peace being made all relented and grew soft and slack in France the Constable was already more then Septuaginary besides ever unfortunate in War the Mareschal de Saint André brave in his Person but softned by luxury and voluptuousness the King if we may so say dared by the Hawk and baffled as who had beheld his Kingdom in extream danger the Guises loaden with Honour and glad there was no occasion to keep them at too great a distance from the Court where they were omnipotent especially since the Marriage of their Niece with the Daufin Some have reproached them perhaps without any reason that from that time they began to entertain secret Correspondencies with the Spaniard or at least to have a great deal of Complaisance for him that they might out-do the Constable in this very point too who seemed to have relinquished much of the Interests of France for his own Whatever it were the Government at this time changed their Maximes in two points whereof one was touching the Affaires of Italy the other the Alliance with the Turks For they resolved as to the first not to intermeddle with it any more And for the other to renounce it wholly likewise as a thing very prejudicial to Christendom of little benefit and very scandalous to France and which hindred the Princes of Germany from reposing an intimate confidence and joyning in a strickt tye with them Year of our Lord 1559 So that under pretence of gaining their Amity they obliged him to send Ambassadors to the Diet of Ausburg to assure them he never had any real Alliance with the Turks and that he was resolved to renounce it Totally The Agents of the House of Austria endeavour'd to make good advantage of this Compliment at the Port Solyman could believe nothing till he had received certain News of the Peace between the two Crowns Then he released Ferdinands Ambassador whom he held in Prison and immediately made a Peace with his Master and yet to make it appear he had still some concern for France he obliged that Prince to be a Friend to his Friends and Enemy to his Enemies The five and twentieth of January the Pope displeased with the ill-behaviour of the Caraffa's his Nephews and principally because they attempted to hold him in Captivity after he had declaimed against them with all his might in a Consistory stript them of all their Offices and Dignities and expell'd them from Rome which furnished Pius IV. his Successor with a pre-judgment to make Process against them though he were indebted to them for his Pope-dome which he gained by their contrivance The Cardinal Caraffa was strangled in the Castle Saint Angelo John Count de Montebel his Brother and the Count d'Alifan Brother of the Wife to that John had their Heads cut off A lesson ☜ written in Letters of Blood to teach their Fellows if they would reflect on it to use that power with more moderation which is so frail and tottering There was neither City nor Province nor Profession where the novel opinions had not got footing men of the Gown men of Learning and the Ecclesiasticks themselves against their own Interest suffer'd themselves to be charmed with them punishments did but make them scatter and encrease and enflame their Zeal the more So that several of the Parliament some out of a more tender and merciful nature others because they had embraced them were of the mind to moderate those to severe prosecutions The King knowing this sent for Giles le Maistre first President and two others with the Procureur or Solicitor General and commanded them to execute his Edict of Chasteau-Briand with the utmost severity Le Maistre makes report to the whole Company of the Kings Commands as they were arguing upon that Subject and most voices inclined towards a mitigation the business being in good forwardness behold the King having notice as it was presumed from Le Maistre comes into the Parliament this was on the
that means cut off the greatest head of the Faction The Queen would not have it so the Duke of Guise himself thought the enterprize too difficult and favouring the Parisians in what they most desired was of opinion they should lay Siege to Rouen The Army Arrived there about the Twentieth of September and just in a nick of time to hinder that Progress the Huguenots might have made with the help of the English For on the same day a Treaty of Confederation was signed between Queen Elizabeth and them at Hampton-Court specifying that she should furnish them with Six Thousand Men one half to be put into Havre de Grace which should be delivered to her and which she should keep for the King and was to serve for a place of retreat and refuge to the Huguenots which in a few days afterwards was Executed The Fort Saint Catherine was taken by Storm The City maintained their Attaques with all possible Resolution They proffer'd them such composition as was reasonable enough and for three several times the Queen Mother hindred the Duke of Guise from giving the Assault being perswaded by the prudent Coun sel of the Chancellor that nothing can be more prejudicial to a Soveraign then to make Conquests upon himself and pillage his own Cities But when they found the Besieged did continue to reject with Stubbornness those favours and that mercy they were importuned to accept the Kings Council gave the Duke lieve to let loose the Reynes to Victory He therefore gave a general Assault the Five and Twentieth of October Their resistance was not equal to their obstinacy they abandoning all at the first Shock The Soldiers pillaged them above eight dayes together which proved the more cruel because they were extreamly rich Montgomery who had a Galley lying there ready upon all occasions it was one of the Kings which hapned to put into Rouen when the Huguenots master'd the Town soon got aboard of it with his Friends together with the English The Slaves to whom he had promised their Liberty rowed with such force that it slid quite over the Chain they had laid cross the River at Caudebec They hanged up John du Bose d'Esmandreville President of the Court of Aydâ—s two Councellors belonging to the City Marlorat the Minister and Eight or Ten Captains amongst others du Cros who had been Governor of Havre de Grace and deliver'd the place up to the English By way of Reprizal or Retaliation the Prince caused the Heads of some Catholicks to be cut off that were in his Hands amongst others John Baptist Sapin Councellor of the Parliament of Paris and John de Troyes Abbot of Gastine who were taken in Vendosmois as they were on their way to Spain from the King Giles leu Maistre first President of the Parliament revenged the Death of Sapin who was his Nephew upon some unfortunate Huguenots that were Prisoners in Paris whom he sent to the common Place of Execution These retaliations had gone on to infinity if the Captains of the Catholick Party who apprehended the like Reprisals should they have fallen into the Enemies power had not engaged their Chiefs to desist from such kind of Process and to make good the usual Rules of War and Martial Customes and Laws The Five and Twentieth of October the King of Navarre had been wounded in the Trenches while he was making water by a Musquet shot in his left Shoulder The City being taken he would needs be carried in his Bed by his Year of our Lord 1562 Swiss Soldiers to make a Triumphant entrance thorough the breach His wound was not Mortal but his too assiduous entertainment of the Damoiselle du Rouet one of those Sirenes the Regent employ'd to enchant that poor Prince withal heated his blood too much after which his impatience to be Cured making him venture by Boat to Paris he was seized with a Trembling and afterwards fell into a cold Sweat the Symptomes of approaching death as indeed it proved for the Boat stopping at Andelis he there resigned his last breath the Seventeenth day of November shewing himself in this last Act as he had done in all the other Four wavering and irresolv'd between the Catholick Religion and the Confession of Ausbourg but discovering enough the bad opinion he had of the Government by an express order he gave to fore-warn his Wife from coming to the Court to stand well upon her Guard and Fortifie her places The trouble the Prince was in for the bloody Conquest of Rouen was yet augmented by the unwelcome News brought him from Guyenne Duras had raised Five Thousand Men for him in that Country this Army of Fellows pickt up at random and most Robbers living without order were charged by Montluc and cut in pieces near the Burrough de Vere between Perigueux and Sarlat Which brought the Prince two great dis-advantages the one that he lost this considerable Supply the other that Montluc's Forces having nothing else in those Parts to fear joyned with the Kings Army some dayes before the Battel of Dreux There have been many Volumes Printed of all the Minute passages in every Province particularly in Guyenne Languedoc and in Daufiné the surprising taking and retaking of Towns a World of little Fights and Skirmishes the Barbarities and Massacres committed on both sides the Insolencies and furious rage of the People which to say the truth they were but too much and too highly provoked unto by the Huguenots in divers places I shall therefore only observe in gross that Sommerine for the Catholick Party made a rude War in Provence against his Father the Count de Tendes who held with the Huguenots That in Daufiné the Baron des Adrets having taken up Armes for these and the Count de Suse for the other pursued each other by turnes very close and smartly and that the Baron made himself Terrible by his enormous Cruelties Precipitating Massacring and Drowning without Faith or Compassion such as resisted him in any place That Tavanes a zealous Catholiâ—k having retaken Chaalon and Mascon preserved for a time all Burgundy from being any further involved in the Civil War That Normandy was all laid waste and desolate the higher by reason of the Sieges of Rouen and Havre and the lower by the Count de Montgommery and the Breton Troops which the Duke d'Estampes had brought in thither to make head against him That Joyeuse preserved one part of Languedoc in the Ancient Religion That Montluc as we may find in his Commentaries rendred the King great Service in Guyenne but that he exceeded the bounds even of severity it self against the Huguenots I shall add that their Party had the disadvantage almost every where unless in Languedoc where they held all the best Cities excepting Toulouze which intending to seize upon in the Month of May they were drove thence after an obstinate Fight of many dayes and the loss of Three Thousand of their Men not reckoning about Two Hundred more who were
Cossé were highly accused by those wretches when they were put upon the Rack nevertheless a Presumption of their own innocency did so far blind them that they repaired immediately to Court to justifie themselves not considering that those are ever guilty who are in the hands of their Enemies and that under their circumstances Imprudence is the most ☜ Mortal of all Crimes And so they were seized and carried to the Bastille the Parisians expressing so much Joy that they received them with Shouts and provided Eight hundred men to be a Guard upon them There was an Order likewise to month March and April seize upon the Prince of Condé who was at Amiens in his Government of Picardy but he went out of the Town in a disguise and having met in his way with Toré a Brother of the Mareschal de Montmorencie's escaped to Strasburg where he abjured the Catholick Religion in the open Church and resumed the Protestant King Charles after the Siege of Rochel having taken the Government of Affairs into his own hands shewed himself very desirous to ease the People and maugre the advice of those whose pretext for Oppression was the publick Necessity he discharged them this year from a Third of the Tailles and kept up but three Companies of the Regiment of Guards about him He had resolved to turn all those out of his Court that were advisers for the Massacre though he otherwise mortally hated the Huguenots to leave the administration of Justice to his Parliaments that of War to his Mareschals and only to himself reserve all Affairs of State to humble the Houses of Guise and Montmorency and to lay aside all his vain Divertisements of Hunting Gaming and Women to apply himself to Business and at his spare hours to the Study of the Noblest Sciences as his Grandfather the great King Francis had formerly done It were to be wished that Soveraigns would be as much concerned to compleat and carry on the brave Designs their Predecessors often Project when they are dying ✚ as they are eager to reap all their Authority and amplifie it after they are dead It was in vain that Charles conceived all these he consumed by a slow fire and visibly melted and wasted away more and more every moment at length the violence of his Distemper cast him upon his Bed in the Bois de Vincennes the Eight day of May. The Queen Mother to colour that violence wherewith she had Usurped the Government with some lawful Title labour'd to have the Regency left to her Whil'st he had yet any remainders of strength and vigour left he would allow her no more but only some Letters to the Governors of Provinces which imported that during his Sickness and in case God should dispose of him he would they should obey her in all things till the return of the King of Poland but when he was brought to extremity and in that condition wherein every thing becomes indifferent to him that is leaving the World she caused other Writings to be drawn which authorized her their Regent obliged him to declare to the two Princes that such was his Will and managed her Business so effectually that the Parliament and the Magistrates of Paris sent their Deputies to intreat her to accept of the Regency Nature did struggle most wonderfully during the two last Weeks of this King's life he started and stretched himself with extream violence he tossed and tumbled incessantly the Blood burst out of every Pore and from every channel of his Body After he had suffered thus a long time he sunk into a weak and fainting condition and gave up his Soul between the third and fourth hour Afternoon on the Thirtieth day of May being the Pentecost He had lived Five and twenty years wanting One Year of our Lord 1574 and thirty days had worn the Crown Thirteen years a half within five days month May. He was of a becoming Stature only a little stooping carried his Head somewhat awry had a forbidding and piercing look high-nosed his colour pale and livid black Hair his Neck somewhat long round chested his whole Body well shaped save only his Leggs were of the biggest He prided himself in his profound Dissimulation and the skill of knowing Mens Natures by their Physiognomy His Courage was great his Spirit lively and cleer-sighted his Judgment penetrating Year of our Lord 1574 and subtil he had a ready Memory an incredible Activity a happy and energetical Expression In fine many Qualities worthy to Command had not those noble Seeds of Vertue been corrupted by an evil Education Those that governed him had imprinted a most wicked custom of Swearing in him which he turned into his ordinary Language they had likewise taught him to reprove and taunt his Grandees and Parliaments Had he lived themselves must have felt the Effects of their wise Instructions To divert him from applying himself to Business they had made him by Custom in love with Hunting Musick and Poetry and endeavour'd to draw and allure him to the Debaucheries of Wine and Women but observing once that Wine had so invaded his Understanding as to make him commit some Violence he abstained from it all the rest of his life And for Women having met with some inconvenience from some belonging to his Mother he took an Aversion and medled but little with them He made Poems which were well enough for those times and often held Academy with five or six Poets it is believed he would have quitted those Amusements for more solid Exercises if he had lived He delighted so much in Hunting that at Table nay when in Bed the freak would often take him to call his Doggs He composed a Book of Hunting or Venery which he dictated to Villeroy He had no Children by Queen Elizabeth of Austria his Wife but one Daughter named Mary-Elizabeth who died in Anno 1578. aged Six years The Mother some while after the Death of her Husband retired to Prague in Bohemia where she died Anno 1582. It is observed as a Pattern of her Goodness and Justice that she would never sell any Offices belonging to those Countries assigned ✚ for her Dower very praise-worthy in a Land where all is Venal and which the good Subjects of France would rather have occasion to commend in their Natural Princes than in Strangers King Charles had also a Natural Son by Mary Touchet Daughter of John Touchet Particular Lieutenant in the Presidial of Orleans and Mary Mathy whom he had Married to Francis Balsac d'Entragues Governor of that City This Son born in the year 1572. bare the same Name as his Father and was first Grand Prior of France then Count of Auvergne and de Lauraguais and after Duke of Angoulesme and Earl of Ponthieu He erected two Dutchies and Pairies the Marquisate of Mayenne in the Country of Mayne for Charles de Lorrain Brother to the Duke of Guise the County of Ponticure in Bretagne for Sebastian de Luxembourg the
he clearly answered that it was his intention that he had so promised to God on the Holy Sacrament of the Altar That he would have his Subjects forwarn'd to give no Faith to whatever he might do or say to the contrary and that if he were reduced to that condition he would not keep his Oath but till such time as he could recover strength sufficient and the opportunity to break it The Deputies for the Huguenots much astonished at these words and the resolution of the Estates made their protestations against them and the greatest part of them retired Year of our Lord 1577 from Blois and went to give a hot alarm to Rochel and in Languedoc Whatever resolution the King shewed nevertheless he so much feared the losing of his Rest and angmenting the power of the Guises that he would needs have the Estates send to the two Princes and to Damville to invite them to come to the Assembly and in the mean time that he might have some Warranty from the publique for the War which was now to begin he desired to have the Advice and Opinion of the chief Lords and of his Principal Counsellors in Writing They all concluded that it was just and necessary not perhaps that they really believed so but they thought it was his desire to make it or at least to pretend such desire to get some round sums of Money from the Estates He demanded two Millions of Gold for the said Expences and the Favourites made use of all the Engines and Tricks imaginable to get this grand Elizir The Third Estate who knew too well that they must pay for all could never be perswaded to consent thereto no more then to the alienation of the demeasne concerning which Bodin having proved with a freedom Confidence and Liberty truly Gallican that the funds of the Demeasne appertained to the Provinces and that the King was but the simple Usager he so fully perswaded the Assembly to be of this Sentiment that they answered Bellievre whom the King sent to them about it That ☜ the common Right and the Fundamental Law of the Nation rendred the thing absolutely impossible Year of our Lord 1577 With these dispositions was held the Second Sessions the Seventeenth of January at the same place and in the same order as the First The Archbishoy of Lyons Orator of the Clergy and the Baron de Senescey of the Nobility began their harangues month January on their knees their Deputies standing up and being uncover'd But at the Second period they were bid to rise and their Deputies sate down and were cover'd The Orator of the Third Estate had been Treated in the very same manner at the Assembly of the Estates at Orleance but here they let him kneel almost half an hour their Deputies standing all the while and bare-headed They had commanded this last it was Versoris to beseech the King to make all his Subjects conform to one Religion by fair and gentle methods and without War to desire he would grant the Election for Benefices absolutely without any reference to the Kings Will to touch home and roundly upon the Male-Administration of the Finances and to make great instance for the punishment of those that had risled and squandred the Treasure as also to insist upon the expulsion of Strangers from the Government and touching the dispensation of Year of our Lord 1577 the publique Moneys After this Session and when the Estates had taken some pains about their Papers the League brought it to this resolution That the King should be desired to forbid the exercise of any other but the Catholique Religion The thing passed by plurality of the Governments not by the Votes of the Deputies neither was it carried by more then two Suffrages and soon after those of Paris fearing the first Pence would be levied upon the City Rents would have retracted The Huguenots having notice of what passed set up a counter-League whereof the Prince declared himself Lieutenant under the Authority of the King of Navarre and published a manifesto much more bloody then any yet had appeared and which plainly shewed his vehement humour his frank and daring courage and the zeal he had for his Religion Whilst he armed in Poitou the King of Navarre armed himself also in Guyenne but either of them so slenderly that it was rather to make Incursions then Expeditions of any consequence The enterprises they had formed upon several places failed John Favas a Native of Bazas to secure himself after a horrible assassinate he had committed there deliver'd up that City to the King of Navarre and made himself of that party and also to give him a more sincere proof of his affection took Reole some few days after but Marmanda derided that King who rashly besieged it with a handful of Men. The Edict of Pacification being revoked and all their threatnings and intrigues proving ineffectual as to the Princes they set two Armies on foot to make quick dispatch of them The Command of one was given to the Duke of Anjou extremely incensed against the Huguenots because some had made him believe that whilst he was amongst them they had an intention of delivering him up to the Reistres nay even to attempt his Person and that the Prince of Condé made sport with him and acted him in his posture when running at the Ring The Duke of Guise demanded the Conduct of the other but the Duke of Anjou's enmity and that jealousie the King had of him denied him that Honour and placed it upon the Duke of Mayenne his Brother This Duke was first in the Field made the Prince quit his ground and drove his Men even to the Gates of Rochel Then proud for having thus beaten them into their strongest Sanctuary he went into Guyenne His Forces being much tired and weather-beaten month February by the Winter-season he readily made a Fifteen days Truce with the King of Navarre which being expired about mid April he took the Field a Second time but yet without any great progress till the Two and twentieth of May when he month April Year of our Lord 1577 returned to Poitou to re-inforce his Troops and wait for fresh Orders from the King who but unwillingly made this War month April In the beginning of April the Duke of Anjou besieged la Charité with Twelve thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse the Dukes of Guise Aumale and Nevers were his Lieutenants la Châtre his Mareschal de Camp and to say the truth his Director The place was invested so suddainly that James de Morogues who was Governour of it could not possibly get in any Soldiers so that having but One hundred and fifty Men to defend three breaches he capitulated after he had sustained two Assaults month April and May c. La Charité rendred up the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Guise rode post to Blois to tell Stories of their brave exploits to the Ladies who had bestow'd Scarfes upon
Party but only Chaalons for the Inhabitants having received information of the death of Guise before the Governor had any notice which was Rosne assembled together and turned him out From thence he went to Sens where his presence was requisite to fortisie his Friends then to Orleans where he found the Citadel surrendred to his Party afterwards to Chartres who received him with extraordinary month February joy and lastly to Paris where he arrived the Tenth day of February That vast number of People were yet so furiously enchanted with the memory of the Duke of Guise that they would needs bestow the Title of King upon this Brother but he did not find himself sufficiently bottom'd to accept of so high a Dignity He consider'd that besides the divisions it would necessarily have begot betwixt him and the other Chiefs who were content to be his Companions but not his Subjects the Spirits of the Authors of that grand Revolution tended rather to establish a Democracy then a Monarchy Wherefore he presently labour'd to diminish their Power encreased the Council of Forty with fourteen more wholly at his own devotion and admitted not only all the Princes of the League but likewise the Presidents the Kings Attorneys and Sollicitors in Parliament the Prevost des Merchands and Eschevins that he might carry things by Multitude upon occasion Then not able to endure this curb by any means breaks it quite the following year when he was going to give the Battle of Yury Year of our Lord 1589 Notwithstanding it was that Council had confer'd upon him the command of month March the Armies and the Quality of Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France but he gave them little thanks for it because they limited his Power to the meeting of the General Estates which was to be upon the Fifteenth of July His Commission was verified in Parliament the Seventh of March and he took the Oath before the President de Brisson They caused new Seals to be made a great one for Council Affairs and a little one for the Chanceries and Parliaments either of them had on one side the Flower-de-Luce as was usual but on the other an Empty Throne with these words about it The Seal of the Kingdom of France Now to make a real Union of this Party as they had the name and to link all the Cities to them that had declar'd already and intended to declare he made an excellent Reglement which being sent into the Provinces brought others into him Especially Laon where John Bodin the Kings Attorney in that Court prevailed so by his Interest and Eloquence that it was accepted having made it clear that the joyning of so many Cities ought not to be called Rebellion but Revolution that this was a just one against an Hypocrite and Tyrant King that Heaven it self seemed to authorize it because States have their periods as well as Men and the Reign of Henry III. ought to be the Climacterical to France he being the LXI King since Pharaemond who according to the Vulgar Account was the first King of the French To this pretended Order succeeded a general Disorder an universal Robbery thorough the whole Kingdom seizures of Goods sales by outcry Imprisonments Ransoms and Reprizals The Offices Benesices and Governments were divided into two or three private Families were even divided within themselves the Father bandying against the Sons Brothers against Brothers Nephews against their Uncles Nothing was to be gained but by those that had nothing to lose those that had wherewithal were obliged to spend it but the Thieves gained on both hands They nestled themselves in old Castles or in small Towns from whence they bolted out to pillage the Neighbouring Countries took up the Kings Rents made private Persons compound for theirs enjoy'd the Churches Revenues and thus enriched themselves with great ease and little danger month March In the beginning of March the King not finding himself secure at Blois retired to Tours He first took out his Prisoners from the Castle of Amboise sent the Cardinal de Bourbon to Chinon whereof Chavigny an ancient Gentleman was Governor the Prince of Joinville who from henceforward was and called himself Duke of Guise to Tours and the Duke d'Elbaeuf to Loches The Duke of Mayennes Affairs as we may say did do of themselves For even in the Month of February the Cities of Aix Arles and Marseilles offended at the Kings restoring la Valete to that Government took the Oath for the League but he in the mean while passed his time at Year of our Lord 1589 Paris where he and his Officers consumed in fruitless Expences the Moneys assessed month March upon the Country with the Confiscations and Sequestrations of the Politicks and Huguenots Estates While that Duke was in the greatest hurry of his Affairs it hapned that four or five of his Friends and Intimates being in debauch with some Ladies of Pleasure in the Hostel de Carnavalet one of them seeing him pass by ran after him and haled him in almost by force he did not stay above half an hour with this Company yet made a shift to get and carry that away with him that forced him to keep his Chamber several weeks after but being in haste he had time to take only palliative Remedies So that the venom remaining still in his Blood rendred him more slow lumpish and melancholy and in his Person stupified the activity of his whole Party In the Month of March John Lewis de la Rochefoucaut Count de Randan debauched Rion and part of Auvergne whereof he was Governor he had drawn the whole Country after him if some Lords as Rostignac Saint-Herem Allegre Fleurat Canillac and Oradour amongst whom d'Effiat having the Kings particular Orders had acquired great credit had not opposed their courage and skill against his Interest and Faction The Duke of Mercoeur having balanced a while debauched likewise all Bretagne excepting only Vitre the Nobility of the Country were cantonized there against him and whilst he besieged it Renes escaped from him Gefroy de Saint Belin Bishop of Poitiers and the Mayor and some other Leaguers stirred up that Town which however did not yet declare for the League Limoges remained under obedience of the King Pichery retained the City of Anger 's in despite of Brissac who had put them upon rising and reduced them by means of the Castle where he commanded Matignons prudence defeated the Conspiracy of the Leaguers who were beginning to Barricade themselves at Bourdeaux but he durst not search it to the quick the Combination being too general and so thought it sufficient to hang two or three of the most Zealous Since the King of Navarres return to Rochel he had taken Maran and then Niort by Escalado Some few days after hapned the Murther at Blois but that made no alteration in the conduct of his Affairs neither did it oblige him to discontinue his War The Cities of Loudun Thouars Monstreuil L'Isle
notwithstanding of the Duke D'Espernon who feigned to be very well satisfied though he fore-saw he should have no power in those parts so long as the King lived Ever since the Kings absolution at the Court of Rome the Jesuits had missed no opportunity of employing the Popes intercession with all their art and industry to sollicite their re-establishment pretending it was one of the secret conditions which had been opposed at his absolution But the imprudent conduct of some of their Society in England at Venice and in the lesser Cantons of Swizzerland having brought complaints against them to Rome the Pope grew somewhat cold in the pursuâ—e of it Now as the King was passing by Verdun the Year of our Lord 1603 Rector and Fathers of the Colledge in that City incouraged by la Varenne presented themselves to request of him that the Decree of the Parliament of Paris which forbid the French to send any of their Children to study in the Jesuits Colledges might not extend to theirs The King having returned them a very Gracious Answer they thought it a fit time to try a little further Their Provincial named Armand and three or four of his came to Mets and chusing the week of the Passion of our Lord most proper to stir up mercy and compassion in a Christian Soul got into the Kings Closset upon Holy-Thursday after noon and fell down at his feet The good Prince soon raized them agen and gave them a full Audience The Provincial who was Spokes-man insinuates himself by extolling of his Victories and his Clemency then endeavour'd to justifie his Society from the common reproaches of their Enemies and afterwards concluded by conjuring and imploring his Royal Clemency by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ to shew mercy towards them and to do it in such sort that this favour might depend on nothing but his own goodness that it might be wholly from him alone and that they might have no obligation but to himself They had put down their harangue in writing after he had heard it with all possible humanity he took it out of their hands as if to read it with more attention The Monday following having called them a second time into his Closet he gave them his positive word for their being restored commanded the Provincial to come to him at Paris and to bring Father Cotton then embraced him and all his Compagnons in token he freely forgave them for the time past and would make use of them for the time to come While he was at Mets he received some Letters the Prince Palatine had written in favour of the Duke of Bouillon his Brother in Law In the same place some German Princes came to Compliment him particularly Maurice Landgrave of Hesse N. de Bavaria Duke of Newburg the Duke of Deux-Ponts of the same House and John George of Brandenburg who disputed the Bishoprick of Strasburg with Charles Cardinal of Lorrain ever since the year 1592. the first having been Elected by the Protestants at Strasburgh and the second by the Catholicks at Saverne The Emperor had often endeavour'd to bring them to an agreement but could never effect it The King rather suspended then decided the controversy by sharing the Revenue between the two Contenders but the following year it was absolutely and finally determined by the mediation of Frederick Duke of Wirtemberg upon these conditions amongst many others That John George of Brandenburg should entirely yield up the Bishoprick to the Cardinal de Lorrain for an hundred and thirty thousand Crowns of Gold ready Money and that the City and Baillywike of Oberâ—agh should remain in the hands of Frederic redeemable at the end of thirty years by the Cardinal or his Successors for the sum of four hundred thousand Crowns From Mets the King went to Nancy to visit the Dutchess of Bar his Sister and to give her the satisfaction of seeing a Balet danced which was of her own invention for such things are not to be counted the least important Affairs of the Court It was likewise as some would have it further to convince the Duke of Bar of his scruples concerning that Marriage and to let him know that the devoir of Man towards his Wife being founded both on a natural and a divine right ought to be more regarded then humane prohibitions However it was within some few Months after the Dutchess believed she was with Child The King had designed a longer stay upon those Frontiers that he might draw the German Princes to him by making himself a friendly Mediator of their differences reconciling as much as possible the Protestants with the Catholicks re-uniting in one common League those that apprehended they might be oppressed month April by the grandeur of the House of Austria and scattering Money amongst the Captains and Officers But the News he received that Elizabeth Queen of England was at the Agony made him suddenly leave that place to return to Paris This Princess so much exalted by the Protestants and made so black by the zealous Catholicks was in truth worthy of immortal praise for the grandeur of her courage her marvellous prudence the rare qualities of her mind and above all that tender love ☞ wherewith she cherished her people a vertue which may well cover all the other Vices in a Soveraign but her reputation will be for ever stained with the Blood of a Queen her Cousin which she spilt upon a Scaffold and with that of a great number of Catholicks her Subjects whom she exposed to cruel deaths This severity notwithstanding proceeded Year of our Lord 1603 not so much from her own temper as the Instances of her Counsellors Who by reason of the frequent Conspiracies hatched by an indiscreet and unwarrantable zeal month April against her person had specious opportunities to involve the innocent with the guilty and to encrease her hatred to that Religion by the hainousness of those attempts She died the fourth of April about four in the morning Aged sixty nine years and six months of which She had Reigned forty five and more On her Death-Bed she gave Letters written with her own hands and sealed with her own Seal to Robert Cecil High Treasurer and Secretary with Command he should open them so soon as she expir'd Now whether by these writings she had declared James Steward King of Scotland her Successor or had left the liberty of Election to her Subjects as the last mark of her affection the Lords the Bishops those of the Privy-Council to the late Queen with a great number of the Nobility and the Major and Sheriffs of London being on the same day assembled early in the Morning at the Guild-Hall Elected that Prince for their King and so speedily that they Proclaimed him by eight of the Clock whereof sending him notice to Edinburg he came to London the seventeenth day of May. It concerned France to take care in time to secure the Alliance with this new King for that hitherto
these Sacramentaries he made on the 2â— th of January that Solemn Procession which is described in all the Histories of those times and to expiate those impieties deliver'd up to the Flames six of those Wretches He afterwards caused divers others to be Condemned to the same sufferings but who went to their death with an alacrity and constancy worthy of a much better cause They had more to undergo yet in the Reign of Henry II. the aversion which the Dutchess of Valentinois had conceived against them in hatred to the Dutchess d'Estampes and the more Religious zeal of the Cardinal de Tournon renewed the Year of our Lord From the year 1947. search and prosecutions of them and besides this their ugly base attempts drew the anger of the Judges and the severity of the Laws upon their own heads For they fell upon Images and the Holy Sacrament not only by virulent writings but likewise with horrible Impieties In Anno 1550. a fantastical Fellow undertook in the open day-light to cut off the head of an Image of the Virgin in the Church of Nostre-Dame at Paris In fine maugre all punishments the mischief became so great that it was not in the power of man to extirpate it by force and besides the divers manners and methods of proceeding gave them opportunities to escape for sometimes they were left to the Judgment of the Secular Magistrates another while they were taken out of their hands to be carried before the Bishops then they sent them to the Presidial Courts created first as it was said by the suggestions of the Sacramentaries themselves with design of becoming Masters thereof by perswading and engaging their Friends to buy those new Offices Which however brought them little advantage in the end because at length the cognisance of those Crimes was referred to the Parliaments After the loss of the Battle of Sainct Quentins they lifted up their heads in divers parts of the Kingdom They had the confidence at Paris to meet by night Year of our Lord 1558 in a House of the Street Sainct Jacques The Magistrates having Information went thither well guarded those that were armed amongst them fought their way thorow the crowd and saved themselves some less desperate were seized all the Women were taken of whom four or five belonged to the Queen For she her self to be thought wise and pious seemed to have some tendency towards that Religion The accused defended themselves so well upon their Trials that their friends had time enough to get Letters of intercession from the Protestant Princes of Germany which saved their lives Anno 1554. They first began to have a Minister at Paris his Name was John Macon Four years after on the Nine and Twentieth of July they held their first Synod in the same City the number of those they have held since is almost infinite In that of Chaalons which was in the year 1563. they propounded to exterminate all Despotique Power the Papacy and Chicane or Pettyfogging which they termed the three Pests of humane kind It was but very lately they ordained that the singing of Psalms turned into French Meeter should be part of their Liturgy Marot had done but fifty only after his death Beza set himself about that work and finished the remainder This Version if we may so call it was published with excellent Tunes set and Composed by the most Famous Musicians of those Times The more pious of the People received them with applause and took delight in singing those Psalmes and Airs imagining by this means to suppress all filthy and impure Songs but when it came once to be understood that they were the Symbole of the Sacramentaries they not only abstained from them but also fell foul upon such as offer'd to sing them which occasioned great Tumults at Paris particularly in the year 1558. The Ministers of State were accused whether wrongfully or not for not having applied the true remedies against this Contagion whilst it infected none but the poorer sort by whose loss they could reap little gain being rather willing it should spread and take hold of the qualified and rich that they might have fines and great confiscations the only means whereby those in favour enriched themselves under the Reign of Henry II. In effect great numbers of People that were wealthy of Ecclesiasticks and of the most considerable Officers were found to be tainted many even of the best Heads belonging to the Parliament were coifed and possessed with it who might perhaps have drawn most of the Members of that body after them had not the King gone in Person to that famous Mercurial of the year 1559. and sent divers of them away Prisoners Some of these would needs justifie themselves the rest retracted the only Anne de Bourg was immolated for his Religion His example spoiled more then an hundred Ministers could have done by all their zealous Preaching Then the weakness of the Reign of Francis II the Minority of Charles IX the Causes of discord which animated the Princes of the Blood assisted by the three Chastillons against the Princes of the House of Guise the Maligne and Artificial Ambition of the Regent Catherine de Medicis who flatter'd sometimes the Huguenots sometimes the Catholicks according as she had need either of the one or the other In fine the Connivence of some great Magistrates and of several Bishops gave opportunities to this Sect both to strengthen and multiply and confirm themselves We have elsewhere spoken of the Tumult at Amboise the Enmities and Cabals of the Grandees for the Government the rise of the name of Huguenot given to the Calvinists who till that were called Sacramentaries and of the Prince of Conde's taking up Arms with the other Chiefs We shall not need Year of our Lord From 1560. to observe that those Furies wasted the Kingdom for thirty years together occasioned the giving of seven or eight battels and an infinite number of Combats were the death either by War or by more cruel Massacres of a Million of brave Men destroy'd two or three hundred Towns and reduced the richest and the most noble Families of France to the poor and humble subsistence of an Hospital It was the Kingdoms misfortune that this Reformation which the Huguenots Preached up so much was passionately desired by the best of people and their Cause hapning to be in some manner complicated with the interest of the State those who had an ambition to show themselves good French-men favour'd and supported them indirectly and Clubb'd Councils with them For this reason the Estates of Orleans did not endeavour to destroy them and some even of the Prelates themselves advised to allow them the Colloquy of Poissy and after that to grant them another Conference concerning Images Reliques and the Ceremonies which did greatly heighten their courage It would perhaps have been more to the purpose to have at that time called a National Council and if they had intended to pluck
of Luxembourg which was Philip Bishop of Mans one of the House of Longueville i. e. John Bishop of Orleans one of the House of Albret which was Amanjeu Bishop of Lascar one of the House of Gramont who was Bishop of Poitiers then Arch-Bishop of Toulouze named Gabriel one of the House of Strozzi he was called Lawrence Bishop of Beziers one of the House of Joyeuse this was Francis Arch-Bishop of Toulouze he lived in the Reigns of Henry III. and Henry IV. and Strozzi in the time of Charles IX Almost all the rest to the number of near twenty were likewise persons of Quality and attained to this eminent dignity some though but very few by their merit only as John du Bellay Bishop of Paris and George d'Armagnac Son of Peter Baron of Caussade Bastard of Charles last Earl of Armagnac the most part by knowing how to make their Court or because allied to those in favour as Philip de la Chambre Adrian de Goussier Boissy Brother of Arthur Grand Maistre of the Kings Houshold John le Veneur Bishop of Lisieux and Grand Almoner of France James d'Annebault Brother to the Admiral of that name Claude de Longvic Givry Bishop of Poitiers Anthony Sanguin whom they called the Cardinal de Meudon Odet de Chastillon Nephew of the Connestable de Montmorency and George de Amboise second of that name likewise Arch-Bishop of Rouen as his Uncle was As for Peter de Gondy Son of the Mareschal de Rais and Bishop of Paris he was Created Cardinal upon the recommendation of Queen Catherine as also René de Birague a Gentleman of Milan who together with this dignity he had the Office of Chancellor of France There were some others of meaner Birth who arrived at this dignity by means of their employments in the Finances or in the Law as Anthony Duprat John Bertrandi and Philip Babou la Bourdaisiere But it was neither Blood nor favour that cloathed Arnold Dossat and Jacques Davy du Perron with the sacred Purple it was the recompence of their services of their great capacity and of their rare erudition Dossat was but the Son of a Peasant in the Diocess of Auch and du Perron of a Huguenot Minister of the lower Normandy but a Gentleman We have known a Natural Son of the first who died Curate of Mesnil-Aubry within four Leagues of Paris There was likewise a great number of Illustrious Bishops concerning whose promotion one may say the same things as have been hinted of that of the Cardinals I observe at Sisteron Lawrence Bureau an excellent Preacher for those times he had been a Religious Carmelite and Confessor to King Charles VIII and Lewis XII At Treguier John du Calloüet a famous Doctor in the Civil and Canon-Law he died Anno 1504. At Lucon Peter de Sacierge whom Lewis XII made Chancellor and President of Milan At Marceilles Claude de Seissel a Savoyard by Birth whose Writings are very well worthy to be read being every ☜ where inter-spersed with those wholesome Maxims which only can procure immortal Fame to Princes and felicity to their Subjects he was afterwards Arch-Bishop of Turin At Renes Bernard Bochetel who served as Secretary to the Kings Lewis XII and Francis I. but in fine touched with some remorse of Conscience or by some other motive he quitted his Bishoprick whose functions in effect are ☞ not altogether compatible with the employments at Court. In the days of these said Kings I find at Paris then at Sens Stephen Poncher a Tourengeau by Birth who had been President in Parliament Chancellor of Milan and of the Kings Order and Keeper of the Seals of France Under Francis I. at Riez then at Vence and afterwards at Aurenches Robert Cenault at Mascon Peter Castellan Great Almoner of France And at Maguelone William Pelicier These three were raised upon the consideration of their Learning Castellan was he who with Budeus put the brave King Francis upon the design of instituting the Regis Professors at Paris and who chose the first whereof Pelicier was one In the time of Henry II. I find at Lavaur Peter Danez whom Francis I. had called from the University of Bourges where he professed the Greek Tongue to make him Tutor to his Daufin And at Vienne Charles de Marillac who died in the year 1560. for the great fear he had leâ—t the House of Guise against whom he had let his Tongue ramble too freely should draw him within the Noose and Guilt of Heresie or Accuse him of some Conspiracy In the time of Charles IX and Henry III. there was at Mans Charles de Angennes ☞ Ramboüillet in whose praise it is said that during his Nine and twenty years holding that See he never gave one Cure but upon the score of Merit and Integrity having for that purpose made a Register of all those whom he thought most deserving and capable At Nevers Arnold Sorbin who was Surnamed de Sainte Foy because he had been Curate of a Parish so named he passed for a great Divine and a very Eloquent Preacher At Orleans John de Morvillier Native of the City of Blois Queen Catherine made him one of the King's Council where he was ever opposed to the Chancellour de l'Hospital because he aspired to get the Seals as in effect he did At Auxerre James Amiot Native of Melun of very mean Extraction but a man of exquisite Literature Henry II. made him Preceptor to his Children and Abbot of Bellosane afterwards Charles IX one of his Disciples gave him the Bishoprick of Auxerre At Valence John de Montluc who was too wavering in the Faith though very Learned and withal a very dexterous Negociator At Tours Simon de Maille a profound Theologer and well read in the Fathers who was taken out of the Order of the Cistertians where he was Abbot to be promoted to an Archbishoprick At Air Francis de Foix Candale Uncle of the Duke d'Espernon's Wife thorowly versed in Humane Learning in the Philosophy of Trismegistus and of Plato and in Chymistry At Chaalons Pontus de Thiard both Poet and Mathematician a singular Talent who died Aged Fourscore and four years At Evreux Claude de Saintes a vehement Preacher and a Divine of great Reputation and at Senlis William Rose who had likewise made himself very famous by his Sermons These two were Passionate Leaguers Saintes was taken in Louviers with the City by the Royalists Anno 1591. and carried to Caen where he died in Prison having ran great hazard of making his Exit on a Scaffold for his Writing and Preaching against Henry III. Rose had many shocks to undergo likewise after the Decadence of the League but he at length did fortunately extricate himself and exchanged his Bishoprick with him of Auxerre At Clermont was Bishop Anthony de Saint Nectaire who employ'd himself much in the intrigues of Catherine de Medicis And at Sees Peter du Val in whose time the Chanons of his
453 Her Memory justified 466 Jane Queen of Naples her death 448. 454 Jane Queen of France takes upon her the sacred Vail in a Convent 534 Jane of Castille loses her Wits 642 Jane Queen of Spain her Death 642 Indies West by whom discovered 516 517 John I. King of France 371 Defeated and vanquish'd in Battle and taken Prisoner by the English near Poitiers 374 Makes Peace with the English and is set at Liberty 380 Repasses into England 382 His Death his Wives and his Children 383 John XXII Pope degraded and another substituted in his place 359 His Death 361 John King of Arragon in War with the Castillian 482 John d'Albret King of Navarre deprived of his Kingdom by the Arragonians 551 Innocent VI. Pope 372 Innocent VII Pope of Rome 420 his Death 422 Innocent VIII Pope favours Reneé Duke of Lorrain against Ferdinand King of Naples 514 Inquisition cause of great Troubles in the Kingdom of Naples 625. Interim granted to the Protestants of Germany 610 Investiture granted to King Lewis XII of the Milanois by the Emperour 541 Investiture of the Kingdom of Naples given by the Pope to Ferdinand of Arragon 547 Isabella de Valois Dutchess Widdow of Bourbon made Prisoner by the English 389 Isabella of Bavaria Queen of France claims the Regency 435 c. Her death 456 Isabella of Bavaria Wife of King Charles VI. the too strict Union of this Princess with the Duke of Orleans gives a Scandal 421 Held Prisoner and afterwards gotten away by the Duke of Burgundy 435 Isabella Queen of Arragon her Death 542 Iscalin Paulin afterwards called the Baron de la Garde goes on behalf of the King to Solyman at Constantinople 612 Italy divided into two Factions for the Pope and for the Duke of Milan 629 Jubilé Centenary celebrated 536 Julius Pope 541 Recovers Bolognia upon John Bentivoglio 543 Enemy of France 547 He Leagues and Arms against the Venetians 545 Reconciled with them 546 Quarrels with the Duke of Ferrara about some Salt-Pits 547 Sollicites the Swiss and the King of England against France ib. Besieges the City of Miranda in Person 548 His Death 552 Julius III. Pope 628 Leagues with the Emperour against the Duke of Parma and the Count de la Miranda 629 Breaks with the King of France 630 c. Juliers the Duke kill'd in a Battle 389 Juvenal John Chancellor 430 K KNoles an English Captain 379 L LAdislas seizes upon Rome and the Lands of the Church 425 Ladislas the Young King of Hungary 460 Landgrave of Hesse Prisoner 624 Languedoc the Government of it given to the Lord de Chevreuse 416 Lanoy 583 Vice-Roy of Naples 584 Laon the Cardinal de Laon his Death 411 Lautrec bravely defends Bayonne 575 General of the Armies of the League in Italy his Exploits 587 c. Governor of the Milanois his Death 590 Lancaster Duke Lands at Calais with an English Army traverses and runs thorow all France without doing any considerable Exploit 387 Lands at Calais and over-runs the Country of Caux 388 Enters France in Arms. 427 Passes into Spain and Conquers a part of Castille 408 League of the King with the Venetians the Florentines and Sforsa for the deliverance of the Pope and the Children of France that were Prisoners 420 League of the Princes against the House of Burgundy 426 League the first the Kings had with the Swisse 501 League and rising of the Spaniards called the Santa Junta 565 League Holy League in England to prevent a Schism League offensive and defensive between the Pope the King of France and the Holy See 605 Leon King of Armenia flying from the cruelty of the Turks takes refuge in France 408 Leo X. Pope 552 His Death 552 D Leve Anthony General for the Emperour in Piedmont 602 Liege in great Troubles about the Election and Establishment of a Bishop 424 Taken by Storm sacked and burnt by the Duke of Burgundy 490 Implacable hatred of the Liegois against the House of Burgundy 424 Limoges taken by Storm by the English 392 Loire the River Loire frozen in the Month of June 484 Lorain Charles Cardinal raises himself and his House very much 629 c. Longueville Duke Prisoner in England 554 Lewis or Lovis of Bavaria Emperour Excommunicated by the Pope degraded from the Empire his Death 367 Lowis the Great King of Hungary Revenges the Death of the King of Sicilia his Brother 368 Lovis Duke of Anjou seizes on the Regency after the Death of Charles V. c. 400 His Death 408 Louis Duke of Orleance Brother of King Charles VI. 412 Is assassinated by order of the Duke of Burgundy 423 The Dutchess his Wife comes from Blois to Paris to complain to the King 424 c. Louis II. Duke of Anjou invested with the Kingdom of Naples 426 Louis of Anjou King of Sicily 430 Louis of Anjou King of Naples 454 His Death ib. Louis XI King of France his return from Flanders and his Coronation at Reims 481 Ill Conduct in the beginning of his Reign 482 His Death his Elogy his Wives and his Children 505 506. Louis King of Hungary vanquished by the Turks 584 Louis or Lewis XII King of France heretofore Lewis Duke of Orleance 532 His Marriage with Jane Daughter of Lewis XI declared null 534 Makes Peace and Alliance by Marriage with the King of England His Death 554 Louysa of Savoy Mother of King Francis I. Regent of the Kingdom during the Voyage of her Son into Italy 580 c. Her Death 594 Luther and of his Defection and going out of the Church the Birth of Lutheranisme 562 Lutheranisme introduced in Sweden in Denmark and Norway 606 Lutherans sought after in France 575 Punished ib. Called Protestants 562 Louret President of Provence 449 Luxury breeds from Desolation 374 M Perrin MAcé 377 Island of Madera's discover'd 439 Mahomet takes the City of Constantinople by force 465 His Death 503 Majority of the Eldest Sons of France Memorable Ordonance 393 c. Mantoua from a Marquisate erected to a Dutchy 592 Marcellus II. Pope 642 Mareschals of France 623 Margaret of Burgundy marries the Daufin of France 504 Margaret of Scotland Queen of France Her Death 506 Margaret of Austria Wife of Charles VIII is sent back into Germany to Maximilian her Father 516 Margaret Sister of King Francis I. passes into Spain 581 Marriage of Charles VI. with Isabella of Bavaria and of John of Burgundy with Margaret of Bavaria 408 Marriage of the Daufin of France with the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and the eldest Son of the Burgundian with Michel of France 421 Marriage of Catherine of France with the King of England 439 Marriage of Margarite of Anjou with the King of England 459 Marriage of King Lewis XII with Mary Sister of the King of England 544 Marriage of Philip of Spain with Isabella of France 654 Of the Duke of Savoy with Margaret Sister of King Henry II. 653 Mary Queen of England her Death 651 Mary Queen
deposed corrupt Judges studied to restore Justice to its Ancient Rules and Methods without Charges or Bribes considered how to lessen the Taxes and bring them down to twelve hundred thousand Crowns which should not be Levied but by consent of the Estates and that upon extraordinary occasions and intended to defray his House-keeping and ordinary expences out of his own Revenue and Demeasnes and the ancient Duties belonging to the Crown Year of our Lord 1498 These good intentions came not into his Head till he was almost uncapable to put them in Execution He had resided for some time past in his Castle of Amboise where he was building one Day the 6 th of April about two hours after Noon being in a Gallery from whence he was looking upon some that were playing at Tennis in a dry-Ditch he was Siezed with an Apoplexy which made him fall down backwards The Courtiers and Officers beholding him in that condition laid him down in the same place on a pittiful Bed-matt where he expir'd about Eleven at night and forsook him to ride in all post hast to the Duke of Orleans his Successor Many believed he was poysoned with an Orenge He Reigned fourteen years and a half and had lived seven and twenty and nine Months Of three Sons he had by Anne of Bretagne his Wife not any one of them attained the fourth year He was but of an ill shape of low Stature Weak and Sickly His Shoulders were round his Face deformed his Speech slow and broken yet were his eyes quick and sparkling his thoughts sudden and sharp on great occasions but not lasting he shewed much Goodness Humanity and Courtesie to all but had so little Spirit and was so careless that he was but little obey'd We do not find that in his whole Life he ever turned away a Domestick Servant or ever offended any one of his Subjects with a harsh word The next Day after his Death happened that of Jerosme Savanarolla the Dominican a generous Victime for Liberty and the truth He had foretold either by his strength of reason and judgment or by Divine revelation all those grand revolutions in Italy He boldly Preached the Reformation of Princes and of the Court of Rome asserted that God had led the King by the Hand and defended the Liberties of his Country against all those Factions that started up against it an Infallible token of a good Man For which the Pope having Excommunicated him the Cordeliers exclaiming against him in their Pulpits Sforza and the Venetians Solliciting his Death the Magistrates of the contrary Faction caused him to be burnt alive The Council of Constance had laboured successfully enough towards taking away the Schism caused by those who contended for the Papacy but they left the Seeds of a division almost as dangerous between the Church and the Popes The Church stood in need of Councils to prevent the like disorders for the time to come and to have the Holy Canons observed but they could not allow there was any other Soveraign Tribunal but their own or other power that could controul their Excess So that when they came to mention the reformation of manners Pope Martin and the Court of Rome who apprehended they would search that wound to the Quick closed up the Council which ended the two and twentieth of April in the Year 1418. and referred that Business till another time They could not however hinder them from resolving that there should be Councils held from time to time the first to begin within five Years from their breaking up and afterwards one in every seventh Year That the place should be assigned by the Pope with the Consent of the Council and upon his refusal by the Council themselves a Month before their rising That all the Prelates without any other Summons should be obliged to appear and all Princes invited to assist either in Person or by their Proxies Pursuant to this Decree there was one assembled at Pavia about the Month of November in 1423. which having continued a Year not being very numerous nor hoping for more because of an almost universal Plague and War dissolved having first assigned another for the next seventh Year to meet in the City of Basile That began on the Nineteenth of July in Anno 1431. and lasted eighteen Years the three first almost in continual Broils with Eugenius IV. the four following Years in pretty fair correspondence the last eleven in an open War and in fine went and expir'd at Lauzanna whither Felix whom they had elected Pope transferr'd it to renounce the Papacy Let me note en Passant that this Felix whilst he was Amadce VIII Duke of Savoy instituted the Military Order of Saint Maurice about the Year 1434. We have observed how during these disorders the Gallican Church being assembled at Bourges Anno 1438. not only owned the Council of Basile and would not give their consent to transfer it to Bologna as the Pope had ordained but made that constitution so equitable and Canonical entitled the Pragmatique Sanction The Council approved it and gave it as much applause as it afterwards met with Contradictions and Attacks from the Popes who could never rest in quiet till they had abolisht it Nevertheless maugre all their endeavours it kept in being till the Year 1516. when it was suppress'd by the Concordat In the eight and twentieth Session of the Council of Basile there was made one of the most just and necessary Decrees in the World but which shock'd the gainful Interests of too many People to be in force or observed any long time It did forbid that any either at Rome or elsewhere should take any Money c. for Elections or Confirmations Presentations Collations Provisions Institutions Installations and Investitures of all sorts of Benefices Monasteries and Ecclesiastical Offices even of Cathedral Churches and Metropolitans neither for Sacred Orders Benedictions or upon sending the Pall nor upon account of Bulls the Seal Common or Petty Services first Fruits whether under pretence of Custome Priviledge or Statute to the contrary or in sine by what Title or under any Colour whatsoever Ordaining that such as contravened whether in giving or else in taking any thing should incur the Penalties of Simoniaques and should have no right to that Benefice where into they should have intruded themselves by such corruption And if even the Pope who was the most obliged to observe the Oecumenical Decrees of the Councils and the Holy Canons should infringe this Decree he should be accused in Council In the same Council it was ordained that the triennial Possessor of a Benefice should not be disturbed in his enjoyment of it As to the particular Councils of the Gallican Church we can find but three one of the Province of Tours celebrated by the Archbishop John Bernardi in Anger 's Anno 1448. for restoring of the Discipline One of that of Reims Anno 1455. by the Archbishop John Juvenal des
Vrsins in the City of Soissons for the same end and one at Avignon by the Legate Peter de Foix Archbishop of Arles Anno 1457. Some perhaps would in this Rank place the two Assemblies of Bourges called by Charles VII the one where the Pragmatick was framed the other with whom he consulted to which of the two Popes they were to adhere either to Nicholas or Felix and that which was held at Lyons Anno 1447. whither the Deputies of the Council of Basile resorted and the Ambassadors from the German Princes and likewise the Electors of Treves and Colen to regulate the Conditions upon which Felix should renounce the Papacy Neither any of Nickclif's nor the Hussite Sectaries spread so far as to infest France or at least did take no rooting there but in the Year 1412. there sprung up a Sect in Picardy who were called Men of Intelligence whereof a Frier William de Hildernissen a German of the Carmelites Order and one Giles le Chautre a Secular were the Evangelists This Giles said he was the Savior of Mankind and that by him the Faithful should see Jesus Christ as by Jesus Christ they should behold God the Father That the Devil and all the Damned should one Day be saved That the Pleasures of Love being simple acts of Nature were no Crimes but a fore-tast of Paradice That Fastings Pennance Confession and Ceremonies were but useless things That the time of the Old Law was that of God the Father the time of the New Law that of God the Son and that there would shortly be a third which should be the time of the Holy Ghost and therein all Mankind stould be set at Liberty That their Actions contributed neither to Salvation nor Damnation for that Our Lord Jesus Christ had abundantly satisfied for the whole World These with many other Whimseys they openly taught The Carmelite was forced to retract them at Bruxels at Cambray and at Saint Quentines where he had dogmatized before Peter Dailly who about that time was created Cardinal The Court of Rome did likewise place in the number of Hereticks another Carmelite named Thomas Connect a Breton by birth and caused him to be burnt alive in the Year 1431. though many believe that the Evangelical Liberty he took to reprove the abominations of the Prelates and the Confidence he had in carrying on his reformation to the very Spring-head of Corruption was all his Crime However his Sermons were so powerful that they wrought a wonderful Change where ever he went moveing even the wanton Women so much as to sell their very Cloaths and Jewels to bestow in Alms and throw all their amorous Toys and Ammunition into the Fire that they might be no longer tempted with those Vanities and dangerous Triflcs A certain French Priest going to Rome at the time of Jubile in Anno 1450. ran the same hazard as the Carmelite because he affirmed he had lived four years without eating They believed it to be either an Impostor or a Compact with the Devil and he was banisht after they had first whipped him We find that in the Year 1453. one William Edeline Doctor in Divinity and Prior of Saint Germans en Laye was condemned by Sentence of the Bishop of Euureux to perpetual Imprisonment for having abused a Woman of Quality and to effect this it was said he had made a Contract with the Devil had worship'd him in the shape of a Ram and had often been transported through the Air to those Nocturnal Assemblies which they called their Sabat We read likewise in the Bourdelois Chronicle that Anno 1435. in the time of Peter Berland Archbishop of Bourdeaux in that Country was discover'd a grand Cabal of those Wretches called Witches that many of them were thrust into Prison some of them were burned and the rest poysoning themselves left their Carkasses to be served as the others This Archbishop was a Peasant by Birth and but little Polished nay as I guess more Scrupulous then Wife or Intelligent since he opposed the Pragmatick but yet he led a pure and innocent life There was War still betwixt the Jacobins and the Cordeliers as between two opposite Powers and mutually jealous each of them watching an opportunity to take advantage of his Adversary In the year 1460. one James de la Marchea Cordelier having preached at Bresse in Lombardy that the Blood of Jesus Christ whilst it was poured out of his Veins at the time of his Passion had lost the Hypostatical Union and that therefore during those three Days it was neither Divine nor Adorable a Jacobin Inquisitor of the Faith cried out it was an Heresy commanded him to revoke that Proposition and caused a Frier of his Order to preach in contradiction to him The dispute grew warm and then it was no longer the Opinion of two private Persons but of both the whole Orders the Devout took part with either according to their Affections and Interest the People were cabaled and were divided as it is usual though they never understood the Question in debate Pope Pius II. fearing the consequences of these partialities commanded the Generals to send the most learned of their Friers to him that he might hear their Arguments and Reasons in this Point This question was bandied three whole Days before the Pope and in the presence of the Cardinals the Bishops and the most Famous Doctors in Law who are more numerous in that Court then the Divines The greatest part of that Assembly and the Pope himself inclined to the Opinion of the Jacobins but having need of the Cordeliers to preach up the Croisade which ran much in his mind they referr'd the decision of this Contest to another time which is not come to this very Day and in the interim the Holy Father made a Constitution which forbid them upon pain of Excommunication and being rendred uncapable of all lawful Functions to Mention Preach or Teach in Private or Publick any thing concerning this Question or to maintain that either the one or the other of these Opinions is Heretical Nevertheless there have been some School-Men in the last Age who out of a strange Itch of raking together all these Niceties and Punctillios much fitter for Sophisters then solid Divines have thrust this Question into their large Volumes And there are besides some People of such a depraved Taste and so ignorant of all Antiquity that they do more delight in reading this Rubbish then in perusing the Holy Fathers or the Councils For this little advantage the Jacobins frequently met with great rubbs and checks upon the Point of the Conception of the Virgin They from time to time renewed the attack upon this question but they were ever routed beat from their ground It happened in the year 1497. that one of their Doctors having Preached at Rouen that she had indeed been purified not preserved from the Original stain was cited before the University and condemned to recant