from Rome he resolved to go thither himself to negociate this Affair with the Pope imagining that the splendour of his favour and the gallant propositions he would offer for the exaltation of the Pontifical Authority would obtain all he desired He was magnificently received at Rome Lewis Cardinal d'Est presented him to his Holiness he respected him as the Favourite of a very potent Monarch but for the rest did not comply with any of his demands except a Cardinals Hat for the Archbishop of Narbonne his younger Brother The King stiling him his Brother in his Letters of Recommendation the Venetians upon his return rendred him as much honour as if he had been a Son of France the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantoua treated him in the same manner and all the Cities of France where he passed made him their Compliments as they were ordered to do nevertheless the vexation of mind he brought home with him for the Popes denial or as some others will have it an unfortunate trick of youth cast him into a long fit of Sickness which made him so lean and so ill-favour'd that it was some time ere he durst appear before the King with whom during this interval his Rival had gained so much advantage that he might easily have quite supplanted him had he not feared Year of our Lord 1583 some other might come into his place whose more auspicious favour might perhaps have thrust him out likewise Queen Margaret was then at Court where she could not forbear making feuds and practising her wonted malice A Courier whom the King sent to Joyeuse in Italy month July being kill'd upon his Journey and his Letters rifled the King suspected it was by her contrivance and resolved to be revenged by defaming her as she endeavour'd to vilifie him He reproached her publickly of her familiarity with James de Harlay Chanvallon said she kept certain Ladies about her that were her Confidents whom he called precious Vermine then some few days after commanded her to go to her Husband and upon the Road sent a Captain of his Guards who searched her very Litter pull'd her Masque off her Face and seized upon two or three of her Domestick Servants and brought them before the King with two of her Dames He examined them each apart concerning the manner of Life and Conversation of his Sister then sent them to the Bastille The King of Navarre could easily not resolve to receive his Wife thus defam'd he pressed the King to chastise her himself if she deserved to suffer such Indignities if not to clear her of those Scandals the King without offering to make out any month August c. thing repeated his absolute Commands and the Mareschal de Matignon having invested him in Nerac by privately conveying Garrisons into all the places thereabout forced him to receive her The Expences of the Favourites were excessive and the depredations of the Finances even by those very Men that managed the Treasury much greater yet This ill Husbandry begot such an extream scarcity of Money that often times there was not enough to furnish the Kings Table and if we may so say the Pottage-Pot stood often topsey-turvey His Flatterers pretended the People loved him so infinitely that whenever he did but signifie his wants all 〈◊〉 untie their Purse Strings to assist him It was for this purpose but under 〈◊〉 â—our of redressing the present Disorders that he the precedent year had sent to visit the provinces by Persons of Credit and Probity who with smooth and fine Harangues concluded always with a touch upon that String but to very little purpose Year of our Lord 1583 When he found that Project would hot take he called an Assembly of Notables to St. Germain en Laye thinking thereby to gain the good will of the People and let them know that if he had sent Commissioners it was not so much for his own Interests as to hear their Complaints and do them Justice month Septemb. c. The Assembly was divided into three Chambers each of them having a Prince of the Blood for President The Affairs were all distributed which they reduced to certain Heads as well for the Reformation of the Clergy the Nobility and the Judges as for the Administration of the Government and regulation or dispensation of the Finances There were very excellent Propositions tendred as to set aside all sale of Offices and Employments to assign punishments for all such as should invent any new Imposts or Creations to purge the Kings Council of those that had any Combination with the Parties belonging to the Finances and to prevent all under-hand villanous dealing therein Chiverny had introduced that fraudulent practise amongst them ever since he had had the Seals endeavouring thereby to procure both Employment and Authority to himself as not having so much 〈◊〉 he desired in Affairs of State The Clergy were not forgetful in demanding the re-establishment of Elections and the publication of the Council of Trent as to the first point all those that thought it much easier to acquire favour and interest then merit and learning stood up against it and for the second the Chapters Parliaments and the Kings Council made Head and opposed it so that they obtained neither the one nor the other As for the rest the King established four Councils i. e. the Council for Foreign Affairs the Council of State the Council de Finances or the Treasury and the Privy-Council They were composed of Men of the Sword of the Church and of the long Robe to whom he prescribed even the fashion of their Garments both for Winter and Summer and assigned them two thousand Livers per Annum Wages The remaining part of the year was spent in setling these Regulations and divers ☞ other Orders the multiplication whereof in France hath never had any other effect but the multiplying of Abuses and Grievances In the mean while the Three and twentieth month November of November died the Cardinal Rene de Birague aged Seventy four years who said of himself That he was A Cardinal without a Title a Priest without a Benefice and a Chancellor without the Seals for in the year 1578. he had given them up to Chiverny One might have added A Judge without knowledge in the Law and a Magistrate without any Authority because in truth he had no learning and bowed his Head like a tall Reed to every blast of Court wind having more respect for a Valet in favour then to all the Laws of the Kingdom A famous Ingenier named Louis de Foix Native of Paris but Originally of the Country whose name he bare began this year to build the Phare at the mouth of the Year of our Lord 1583 River of Bourdeaux near the ruines of another Tower which was named the Tower of Cordouan Two years before he had done great service towards the Trade of Bayonne The Sea had brought such vast quantities of Sand into the old Boucaud of the
Theodosius's in that of Honorius and in Valentinian's the III. The last day of the year 406. the Alains and the Vandals bringing along with them the Burgundians the Sueves and divers other barbarous People passed the Rhine and made an irruption in Gaul the most terrible that had been ever known Some conjecture it was at this time that they Massacred St. Ursula and her Glorious Train which have been called the Eleven thousand Virgins though in the Tombs said to belong to those Martyrs were found the Bones of Men and Children there are three or four different opinions on this Matter but neither of them without such difficulties attending as are not to be solved Year of our Lord 407 Those Barbarians having ravaged all Germania Prima and Belgica Secunda fell upon Aquitain In the year 409. some numbers of the Vandals and Sueves marched from thence into Spain Two years after the rest being affrighted upon the coming of Ataulphus King of the Visigoths out of Italy took the same course and follow'd them However there were some Alains still remaining in Dauphine and about the River Loire who had Kings amongst them for above Threescore years but in the end they submitted to the Dominion of the Visigoths and the Burgundians Year of our Lord 408 The Vandals and the Sueeves possessed Galicia the Silingi and Betica and the Alani part of Lusitania of Provence and Carthagenia Sixteen years afterwards the Vandals passed over into Africa but in the mean while Vallia King of the Visigoths who fought for the Romans utterly rooted out the Silingi and weakened the Alani so much that being unable to subsist alone they put themselves under Gunderic King of the Vandals The Suevi maintained themselves almost two Ages in Spain In fine their Kingdom was likewise extinguished by Leuvilgildus King of the Visigoths in the year 588. All these Barbarians were divided in several Parties or Bands and had each their Chief running about and scowring the Countreys without intermission so that at the same instant there were several of the same People in Places far distant from one another and of contrary Interests Year of our Lord 409 Ann. 408. Stilicon who was accused for bringing them in is Massacred by order of Honorius Alaric King of the Visigoths his good friend to revenge his Death besieged the City of Rome three times and the last time he takes it by Treachery the 20th day of August in the year 410. About the end of the same year he dyes in Calabria near Cosentia while he was making himself ready to go into Africa Ataulphus his Cousin succeeded him and Married Placid ia Sister to the Emperor Honorius whom he had taken in Rome Year of our Lord 412 Ann. 412. Ataulphus goes into Gallia Narbonnensis and takes Narbonna he remained there but Three years The Count and Patrician Constantius who was since Emperour and Married his Widdow Placidia compelled him tâ— go into Spain where he Year of our Lord 415 was kill'd by his own People in Barcelonna about the Month of September Ann. 415. They elected Sigeric in his stead and served him after the same manner within Seven days Vallia his Successor was recalled into Gaul by Constantius who gave him Aquitania Secunda with some Cities of the neighbouring Provinces amongst others Thoulouse where Year of our Lord 419 he fixed his Royal Seat Ann. 419. But he dyed in a few Months afterwards and Theodoric succeeded him Vnder this King and under Evaric or Euric the Visigoths made themselves Masters of all the Three Aquitani and the Two Narbonnensis Hitherto very few of the French had received the Light of the Gospel they yet Year of our Lord From the year 300 to the year 400. Adored Trees Fountains Serpents and Birds but the Gauls were most of them Christians unless it were such as dwelt in places less accessible as the Mountainous Woody and Boggy Countreys or in the Germanick or Belgick Territories which were perpetually infested by the incursions of the Barbarians The Faith had been Preached to them by some Disciples of the Apostles and even from the Second Age or Century divers Churches established amongst the Gauls at least in the Narbonnensis and Lugdunnensis Prima Under the Emperour Decius about the year 250. there were divers Holy Preachers sent from Rome who planted other Churches in several parts as Saturninus at Thoulouse Gatian at Tours Denis at Paris Austremonius at Clermont and Martial at Limoges The persecutions of the Heathen Emperours had sorely shaken them Constantine re-assured them afterwards the incursions of the Barbarians again destroys them especially those in Germania and Belgica and the Arian Heresie much troubled those in Aquitania Clowis restores them and endowed them plentifully In the fourth Age the Gallican Church produced a great number of Holy Bishops above all Hilary Bishop of Poitiers an invincible Defender of the Holy Trinity Maximin and Paulin de Treves who maintained the same Cause and at the same time with him the Great St. Martin of Tours parallel to the Apostles Liboire du Mans Severinus of Colen Victricius of Rouen all four contemporaries Servais de Tongres elder by some years and Exuperius de Tholouse who lived yet in 405. About the middle of the same Age many of those that had Devoted themselves to God came from towards Italy to inhabit in the Islands of Provence and the Viennensian Mountains as likewise a while afterwards great numbers flocked out from Ireland and took up their stations in the Forrests of the Lyonnoises and the Belgicks Their example and a Zeal to that Holy Profession drew many People either to come into their Monasteries or dwell in Solitude but still under the Conduct of the Bishops and the Discipline of the Canons Of these there were principally Four sorts such as lived in Community those were called Cenobites such as having formerly lived so retired into Solitude aspiring to a greater perfection these were the Hermits or Anchorits such as associated in small companies of three or four in a knot without any Superior or any certain Rule and such as wandred all about the Countrey on pretence of visiting Holy Places and finding out such Persons as were most advanced in Piety There were some also that strictly confined themselves to a Cell either within some City or in the Desert they were called Incluses or Recluses all lived by the labour of their Hands and most of them gave what they got to the Poor though in the greatest strictness they were not obliged to renounce their Wealth nor were they excluded from enjoying it in case they returned again to the World but such a return was indeed looked upon as a kind of a desertion Councils being extream necessary to preserve the Purity of the Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline there were several held in Gaul An. 314. The Emperour Constantine caused one to be Assembled at Arles where there were Deputies from all the Western Provinces to determine
Paris in which time Fredegonda knew so well how to sooth him that he took her and her Son into his Protection and ordered the Lords of Chilperic's Kingdom to repair to Vitry and acknowledge that Son for their King and to name him Clotaire however he appropriated most of the Kingdom of Paris to himself only the City of Paris excepted which he left to the young Child He afterwards employed himself in doing Justice to those that made complaints of the several violences of the deceased Chilperic and of all the Grandees belonging to that Kings Court who being unjust and griping to the utmost extremity had suffered all manner of Robberies and Spoil in them In fine believing himself Master of all France during the Minority of his Nephews he took possession of their Lands in Neustria as he pleased but in Austrasia his Power was not owned The hatred they had against Fredegonda did not diminish she durst not come out of her Asylum of Nostre-Dame wherefore he sent her to Van de Rueil near Rouen Being there in more security she began afresh to make use of Poyson and Poyniard they did several times apprehend and discover some Assassines which she was sending to Murther King Childebert and Brunehaud That Queen having detected one especially amongst the rest it was a Clerk after he had been put to many Tortures sent him back again to her in derision and she for shame and madness caused the Feet and Hands of this miserable Wretch to be cut off Two years after the beforementioned Gondebaud who was come from Constantinople Year of our Lord 535 had kept himself close and concealed in an Island at the mouth of the Rhosne Gontran-Boson the Patrician Mummole Didier Duke of Thoulouse Bladaste who had been beaten by the Gascons and some other Factious Heads sworn Enemies to King Gontran had persuaded him to take the Title of King listing him up upon the Target at Brine la Gaillarde The Lords of Childebert's Court several Bishops of Aquitain Brunehaud her self who desired him for her Husband favoured him openly enough and all the Country beyond the Garonne obeyed him The thing did particularly concern King Gontran he seared his Nephew Childebert might assist this Conspiracy which aimed at no less than to strip him it was by this Motive that he desired he would come to him and that he confirmed the Adoption before made putting his Javelin into his Hand At the same time he caused an Army to march into Aquitain under the Conduct of Leudegisile and the Patrician Egila Gondebaud knowing they approached shuts himself up with good store of Ammunitions in the strong City of Lyons de Cominges he was there besieged a while after The Fifteenth day of the Siege Mummole ever perfidious and the other Lords delivers him to the Besiegers thinking to purchase their Lives with the price of his In effect he was kill'd upon the place but they fared never the better for that Mummole was treated in the same manner as well as Bishop Sagittary as soon as they had orders from the King The City was sacked and destroy'd and remained buried in its Ruines till about the year 1005. when Bishop St. Bertrand whose name it bears Rebuilt it in the very same place but of a far less Circumference than before Year of our Lord 585 That War ended Gontran came to Paris to hold the little Clotair at the Font which was not performed this time Fredegonda keeping the Child at a distance and fearing that he desired to see it only to seize upon it and to shave it for he could not believe it was his Brothers Son so that to cure him of this doubt she sent him three Bishops and three hundred Notables who affirmed upon Oath that this little Prince was Legitimate Year of our Lord 584 and 85. The Prince Hermenigilda second Son of King Leuvigilda had Married Ingonde Daughter to King Sigebert The young Princess having Converted him to the Catholick Religion Goisuinte her Mother in Law used her outrageously Hermenigild her Husband had taken Arms against King Leuvigild his Father and being Leagued with the Sueves and the Greeks had trusted his Wife in the hands of these last Now not being able to resist his Father he had surrendred to his Mercy and the Father kept him miserably confined in close Imprisonment The Greeks seeing him detained retained his Wife also and Embarqued her to transport her to Constantinople Her Brother Childebert that he might obtain her Release of the Emperor sent a puissant Army to make War upon the Lombards but it being made up half of French and half Almains the Discord betwixt those two Nations made them trudge back again as they went without so much as seeing the Enemy Year of our Lord 585 Immediately after this it was known that Ingonde was dead in Affriâ—k and that Leuvigildus had caused her Husband to be Strangled King Gontran animated with a just Resentment against those Arrian Barbarians undertook to drive them out of Languedoc His Forces of the Kingdom of Burgundy besieged Nismes and those of Aquitain Carcassonne but there was so little Order and so much Licentiousness in both these Armies that they reaped nothing but shame nor did they make any feel the effects of War but their own fellow Subjects plundering and killing all the poor Peasants and indeed at their return the lower Countries being utterly destroy'd and the Bridges broken down some of them perished for Hunger others in passing over the Rivers nay above five thousand by their own Swords in the Contests one Company had against another almost every hour Year of our Lord 586 Leuvigildns broken with Age spared not either Prayers or Presents to obtain a Peace with Gontran but that King would never hearken to it he could not so soon forget the ill Treatment they had shewed to his Nephew nor the Affront he had received the year before from Recarede who had made Inroads and taken some Places in Provence Year of our Lord 587 Some while after this Leuvigildus dies but had before renounced Arrianism and his Recared or Richard professed the Catholick Religion and Established it amongst his People Year of our Lord 587 Before his Death he had practised some Intelligence with Fredegonde to rid themselves of their common Enemies he meant Childebert and Gontran who at that time were firmly united For Gontran having again declared Childebert his only Heir without making any rockoning of Clotair whom he counted a Bastard or one foisted in Fredegonda mortally hated them both and sought to thrust them out of the World Two Clerks were apprehended whom she had sent to assassinate Childebert with Poysoned Knives they were put to death by Torments their Noses Hands and Ears being cut off Year of our Lord 586 Every hour were such like Plots found out contrived by that wicked Woman Pretextat had been restored to his Bishoprick of Roüen by King Gontran she could not behold him without
they would Elect another they made reply that they desired no other but him and since that they were a long time without any Year of our Lord 628 Those of Saxony were a potent People it comprehended divers of different Names and they had Dukes in each Countrey Those that owed Tribute to the French were this year revolted against them Dagobert making War upon them was wounded with a blow of a Sword which took off part of his Helmet and a little of the skin of his Head with some of his Hair It is said that having sent these Tokens to his Father all bloody who was Hunting nigh Ardennes the King moved by his good nature got what Forces he could together and having passed the Rhine attaqued the Saxons encamped on the other side of the Weser where he slew Bertold their Duke with his own hand and after scowring over all the Countrey he did not leave any one of them alive that was taller then his Sword In the Assembly of the Estates of Neustria and Burgundy which was holden at Clichy there arose a great quarrel Eginaire Intendant of Ariborts Palace the Second Son of Clâ—taire having been killed by Egina's People the Favourite of this King the young Prince and his Uncle Brunulph would revenge his death Egina encamps with his Friends upon the side of Montmercure or Montmars at this day Mont-Martre But the King having commanded the Burgundians to sall upon the first that began to stir it cooled the hottest amongst them Year of our Lord 628 After Adaloald King of the Lombards and Son to King Agilulf had been poisoned by his People Arioald was raised to the Throne upon the consideration of his Wife Gundeberge Sister to Adaloald who nevertheless being accused how she intended to Poison him that she might Marry Tasin Duke of Tuscany he had kept her Prisoner for three years King Clotaire to whom she was of Kin took compassion on her and commanded his Ambassadors to reproach that wicked Husband One of these having upon his own head proposed to the Lombard King that it would be well to put the decision of so important a matter to the Judgment of God by Combat two Relations of Gundeberges brought a Champion who vanquishing Adalulf so was the Accuser called asserted and recovered the Honour and Liberty of that Princess This year is remarkable for the Death of that famous Impostor and most false Prophâ—t Mahomet whose abominable Religion composed partly of Judaism and partly of the Whimseys of several Hereticks who were retired into those parts and accommodated to the Sensualities of Corrupt Nature was embraced by such Robbers and wicked Varlets as knew neither Justice nor the Deity The greatest part of our Hemisphere bath submitted to the Tyranny of that Law and had it not been for the Valour of the French they had divers times made themselves Masters of all Europe The Aera or manner of accounting and Calculating the time by this Sect commences at the year of the Egyra or the Retreat of Mahomet to the City of Medina which hapned the 26th of July in the Six hundred twenty second year of Jesus Christ But it must be noted that they are Lunary years consisting but of 354 days whereas those amongst Christians are solary of 365 days without reckoning the Bissextile Year of our Lord 628 The Death of Clotair hapned Anno 628. in some House of his near Paris He was buried at St. Vincents at this time St. Germain des Prez The time of his Reign in Neustria within four months of the time of his Age was about forty five years and his Reign over all France after the death of Thierry was fourteen We know the names of two of his Wives the one was Beretrude the other Sichilda perhaps he may have had some other before these He left two Sons Dagobert and Aribert of what Mothers we cannot tell certainly but only that they were not both of one and the same Bed He was an affable Prince very different from the cruel and brutish ferocity of his Predecessors Just Pious instructed in good Learning and Liberal especially towards the Church and such as professed a Monastick Life Their Kings were always chosen of the Blood of the Reigning Race three Conditions were required in them their Birth it mattered not whether they were Legitimate the Will of the Father and the Consent of the Grandees the last did ever almost follow the two first After the death of Clovis as I believe they added to the ancient Custom of lifting them upon the Target that of seating them on the Throne or Regal Chair which had neither Arms nor Back for a King must support and sustain himself by his own strength The Regal Ornaments were long Hair or Locks pleited the Purple Mantle and Tunick and the Diadem or Head-band enriched with Precious Stones When they left Children that were in Minority if they had not allotted their shares the Queen-Mother and the Grandces ordained as they thought convenient and had the Administration of Affairs and the Education or Bailifes of the Minor Kings From hence these Lords were called Nourricers Nursers but there was one amongst the rest that bore this Title When a King undertook any Expedition they held up their Hands in token of the Assistance which they promised him Peace might be made without them but War could not In Civil Discords they made themselves Arbitrators between the Princes and obliged them to agree The first day of March they held an Assembly in the open Field under Tents where the Militia was often sent for Because of the day on which they met it was called the Field of Mars The Kings presided and consulted with the Lords concerning the Affairs of that year either touching Peace or War These Assemblies gave them the Command of the Armies which was not necessarily tied to their Persons at least till the time of Clovis They ever had about them a certain number of Braves or Barous who guarded them and for their safety exposed themselves to all manner of dangers The most eminent Offices of the Kingdom were the Prefect or Mayre of the Palace who was elected by the great ones or Grandees and confirmed by the King The grand Referandary who had the Royal Seal and under him several lesser or petty Referandary's and also great numbers of Expeditioners whom they called Chancellors because they did their business Intra Cancellos or Lattices The grand Apocrisiary who was the chief of the Priests and Clerks of the Court in the second Race he was called Arch-Chaplain The Count of the Palace who was Judge the Chamberlain who gave all Orders in the Kings Chamber the Count of the Stable who took care of the Stables and perhaps of the Equipage I cannot tell whether they had in those times a Provost or grand Seneschal of the Table as there was since under Pepin the Bref The Children of Lords were bred
of Allemans or Almans because this Prince being Duke of the Almans had ever both in his Train and in all Offices more of those People then of any other Country The Italians even in those days called then Tudesâ—hi as they do still Death ravisht from the King his two ablest Councellors which were Suger Abbot of St. Denis the Fifteenth of January and Rodolph Earl of Vermandois the last Prince of the second Royal Branch of that name He having no Children and his Sister being Married to Philip Son of Thierry Earl of Flanders the King who cherished this Philip left him the possession of Vermandois the Subject of a Quarrel in the Reign following Year of our Lord 1152 Whether it were jealousie or scruple of Conscience the King eagerly pursued the Separation from his Wife and obtain'd it by Sentence of the Prelats of his Kingdom whom he had called together at Baugency Immediately proceeding with integrity he withdrew his Garrisons from Aquitain to leave her that Country in freedom and gave her liberty to go whether she pleased keeping the two little Daughters he had by her with him This Woman burning with Love and Ambition Married some Months after Henry Duke of Normandy and Presumptive King of England a Prince both young hot and Red-Haired very able to satisfie her Desires As soon as Alienor was Divorced Lewis sent to demand Constance-Elizabeth Year of our Lord 1152 Daughter of Alfonso King of Castile by Hugh Archbishop of Sens who performed the Ceremony of that Marriage at Orleans and there Crowned the new Queen the Archbishop of Reims protesting in vain that this Right belonged to him only Lewis not able to endure his Vassal should go equal with him nor Henry who had so many great Lordships suffer a Soveraign above him it was imposible they should continue good Friends This last being assigned to appear in Parliament refused to come Lewis to punish him besieged and took the City of Vernon but Henry submitting out of some apprehension he yet had of King Stephen the Lords reconciled him with Lewis who restored the place to him Year of our Lord 1152 King Stephen the Usurper of the English Crown being dead Henry gets into possession of that Kingdom according to the former agreement betwixt them It was not permitted the Kings of France says Yves de Chartres to Wed any Bastards Now there went a report that Constance was such wherefore King Lewis two years after his Marriage would satisfie himself herein and under the pretence of going on Pilgrimage to St. Jago in Galicia took her Fathers Court in his way the most magnificent Prince of those times who received and entertained him Year of our Lord 1154 most Royally at Burgos and took away that suspicion he had conceived Year of our Lord 1154 Divers do in this year 1154. reckon the Death of Roger I. King of Sicily one of the most Warlike and Potent Princes of this Age. He raised the reputation and fame of the Normans to its highest pitch in so much as after him it did ever decline He had a Son named William and a Daughter called Constance the Son Reigned but with so much Injustice Avarice and Tyranny that he deserved the surname of Wicked or Bad. He prided himself most in filling his Coffers and draining his Subjects to the very last Penny Constance being an old Maid Married the Emperor Henry VI. in the year 1186. Year of our Lord 1155 Gefroy Earl of Gien on the Loire knowing himself too weak to oppose William Earl of Nevers who made a rude War upon him allied himself with Stephen de Champagne Count of Sancerre and gave his Daughter to him and for Dowry his Earldom to the Exclusion of his Son Herve The Son thus disinherited by his Father without any fault committed implored the Kings Justice who goes in Person and besieges Gien takes it upon Composition and settles him there Year of our Lord 1159 When Henry was possess'd of England Gefroy his Brother demands Anjou Touraine and Maine according to their Fathers Will but far from giving these he takes Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau from him so that he had been left without any thing had it not been his good Fortune to be chosen by the Nantois for their Earl who having forsaken Hoel stood in need of a Prince to defend them against the Assaults of Conan Year of our Lord 1158 The Enmities between King Lewis and Henry being ready to break forth the Lords found out a way to prevent it yet a while by the Alliance of Henry's eldest Son of the same name with Margaret Daughter of Lewis by his second Wife though both of them were Children and had scarce left off their Bibs The Girl was put into the Father-in-Law's hands and Lewis promis'd to bestow in Dowre with her Gisors and other places in the Normand Vexin which in the interim were trusted to the keeping of the Grand Master of the Knights-Templars to be deliver'd up to Henry when the Marriage should be Consummate The Emperor Frederick composed the Difference between Bertold of Zeringhen and Renauld about the Earldom of Burgundy in such a manner that he dismembred or cut off from it the little Country of Nuctland which is beyond Mount-Jou and the Cities of Geneva Lausanna and Sion to give them to Bertold leaving the remainder to Renauld whose Daughter and Heiress named Beatrix he Married After which keeping open Court with great Pomp at Besancon he received Hommage of all the Lords and Prelats belonging to the Earldom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Arles who notwithstanding regarded not his Soveraignty but only to obtain a better Title to their Usurpations Those that were common Friends to both endeavour'd to procure an Enterview between him and the King of France and agreed upon the time and place but the King stung with Jealousie at the Grandeur of that young Prince or having some suspicion he would design upon his Person would go attended with a great number Year of our Lord 1159 of Soldiers which caused Frederick to withdraw very much dissatisfied Gefroy Earl of Nantes being dead without Children Conan Earl of Renes or of Little Bretagne seized on the City of Nantes King Henry Brother of Gefroy pretending it belonged to him by Succession undertakes to recover it by force of Arms. Year of our Lord 1160 Conan being hardly press'd buys his Peace by giving him his Daughter and Heiress named Constance for his Third Son by name Gefroy the same as his Uncle deceased After the Death of Pope Adrian the greater number of the Cardinals elected the Cardinal Rowland a Siennois who was named Alexander III. But the Roman People and two Cardinals only gave their Votes for Cardinal Octavian a Roman who took the name of Victor The Right of either side was dubious for on the one hand the Decrees of some Popes had referr'd the Election to the Cardinals only and on the other the Roman
Earl of Buckingham and afterwards Duke of Gloucester He had also Four Daughters Isabella who Married the Earl of Bedford Jane who was Wife to the King of Spain Mary that was so to John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne and Margaret to the Earl of Pembrook This great multitude of Children was his strength during his life-time and the ruine of England after his death Year of our Lord 1377 The Wise King had not consented to suspension of Arms but to prepare himself the better Therefore he would hear of no more Propositions and making himself assured of the event o◠the War he began it anew with five Armies He sent one into Artois One into the Countreys of Berry Auvergne Bourbonnois and Lyonnois One into Guyenne One into Bretagne and kept the Fifth near himself as a reserve Year of our Lord 1377 to assist either of the other Four that might stand in need of it They were Commanded by the Dukes of Burgundy of Berry and of Anjou Oliver and the Constable all which behaved themselves so well that the English could not preserve any places of importance but Calais in Belgica Bourdeaux and Bayonne in Guyenne and Cherbourgh in Normandy which was sold to him by the Navarrois Year of our Lord 1378 The eldest Son of that King named Charles as himself was had a great desire to see the King of France his Uncle his Father was just then upon the point of concluding a bargain with the English very disadvantageous to France which was to give them some Lands and Places he held in Normandy and to take the Dutchy of Guyenne in exchange for the defence whereof they were to furnish him every year with Two thousand Men at Arms and as many Archers to be paid by them When his Son therefore went to see his Uncle he would needs take this opportunity to brew some Plot or Conspiracy in France and even to poison the King He had therefore placed about his Son the most crafty and most wicked Men he could pick out amongst others la Rue his Chamberlain and du Tertre his Secretary but was so unadvised withal as to send the Captains of his best places of Normandy His design was discover'd or perhaps prevented the King caused his Son and his Captains to be seized and la Rue and du Tertre to be put into the hands of Justice The Son whatever intercession could be made remained a prisoner Five years the Captains were not set free till the places they belonged to were surrendred to the King du Tertre and la Rue had their Heads cut off At the same time some Forces were sent into Normandy and took all his Holds to the number of Ten or Twelve excepting Cherbourgh which after a long Siege remained still in English hands and immediately dismantled them The Duke of Anjou pressed the English very home likewise in Guyenne The taking of Bergerac and the gaining of a Battle which was fought near the little City of Aymet where almost all the Chiefs and Barons of Gascongne remained prisoners made himself Master of all the Places above the two Rivers the Dordogne and the Garonne Three things weakned the English so much that they had neither the Sence nor Courage nor Forces and Strength to defend themselves One was the Minority of their King aged but Thirteen years the Second a great Plague which depopulated England and the Last the incursions of the Scots who had broken the Truce being incited to it by the King and upon condition of a hundred thousand Gold Florins with the Pay for Five hundred Men at Arms and as many Sergeants Year of our Lord 1377. and 78. The Pope ceased not to exhort the King of France to make Peace and pressed the Emperour Charles to make use of his intercession The Emperour whether out of affection for the Royal House of France or to take measures to secure the Empire to his Son Wenceslaus or for some other subject desired to visit that Court though he were very much tormented with the Gout The King sent two of the most illustrious Earls and two hundred Horse to meet him at Cambray where he kept his Christmass the Duke of Bourbon to Compiegne and two of his Brothers to Senlis himself went beyond the Suburbs of St. Denis to receive him and lodg'd him in his Palace All the time he was in France he entertained him with all the magnificence imaginable paid him all manner of Respects unless such as denote a Sovereignty and which hereafter might give a Title to some imaginary pretences For this reason when they received him into any City they did not ring their Bells nor bring their Canopy of State such as made Speeches did not forget to tell him it was by order of their Sovereign and at his entrance into Paris the King affected to be mounted upon a White Horse and ordered a Black one for the Emperour He came in thither the Fourth day of January and went out thence the Sixteenth returning by the way of Champagne Year of our Lord 1379 During his abode in the Court of France he gratify'd the Dauphin with the Title of Vicar irrevocable of the Empire by Letters Patents Sealed with a Seal of Gold and by others he likewise gave him the same Office for Danphiné with the Castles of Pipet and Chamaux which till then he was possessed of in the City of Vienne Since that we do not read that the Emperours have concerned themselves any more in the ✚ Year of our Lord 1378 Affairs of that Kingdom of Arles nor touching Daupiné which have remained in compleat Sovereignty under the Kings of France who indeed even long before did not acknowledge the Emperour Gregory XI had scarcely been Fourteen Months at Rome when either of Melancholy or otherwise he fell ill of a detention of Urine whereof he died the Seventh of March having declared in his agony that he foresaw grievous troubles and that he did heartily repent his having rather given credit to deceitful Revelations then followed the certain light of true knowledge and good understanding There were in all in the Roman Church three and twenty Cardinals six whereof remained still at Avignon and one was gone upon a Legation Of the Sixteen that were in Rome there were Twelve of them French-men and four Italians all of them foreseeing that the Roman Populace would force them to elect a Pope of the Italian Nation agreed amongst themselves that they would elect one feignedly only to avoid the fury of the People and another in good earnest whom when they were gone thence they would own for the true Pope During this Convention the heat and violence of the People growing more terrible then they Year of our Lord 1378 could have imagined they named the Cardinal Bartholomew Boutillo a Native of Naples Arch-Bishop of Barry in that Kingdom who immediately took himself to be lawful Pope and assumed the Name of Vrban VI. The Cardinals in the
he even left them there two Months without joyning them as he had promised They were fain to go and find him out at Vennes He was mightily perplexed for the Breton Lords even those who were the most affectionate being tired with suffering under strangers and the miseries of War and withal revolted from him by the intrigues of Clisson and the credit of Beaumanoir would peremptorily have him agree with France in effect they compell'd him to make a Peace with the King to dismiss the English and renounce their Alliance and also gave such cautions as obliged him to make good this Treaty They did not breed up the young King conformable to the good instructions of his Father but according to the inclinations of his age and airy Nature to Hunting Dancing and running about here and there One day when he was Hunting in the Forest of Senlis a large Stag was rowzed which he would not pursue with his Dogs but took him a Toil They found about his Neck a Copper Coller Gilt with an Inscription in Latine which imported * that Casar had given him it The young King because of this or for that in a Dream he had been carried up into the ✚ Air by a Stagg that had wings took two Staggs Volant for Supporters to the Arms of France Before him our Kings had Flowers-de-Luce Sans number in their Scutcheon he reduced them to three we do not know wherefore Year of our Lord 1381 The Children of the Navarrois to wit his Eldest and his Second Son and one Daughter who had been taken in one of his places of Normandy being yet prisoner the wicked King hired an Englishman to poison the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy in revenge for that they hindred their being set at liberty This wretched fellow was discover'd and quarter'd alive Nevertheless John King of Castille the Son of Henry importun'd by the continual sollicitations of his Sister who Married the Infant of Navarre interceded so effectually with the Kings Uncles that they released those innocent Children of a very wicked Father Year of our Lord 1381 The meanness and condescentions of the two Popes towards those Princes of their parties to attain their ends was a most lamentable thing nor can it without indignation be express'd what exaction and violence they committed on the Clergy and those Churches of their dependance The six and thirty Cardinals of Avignon were so many Tyrants to whom Clement gave all sorts of Licence They had Proctors every where with Grants of Reversions who snapp'd up all the Benesices the Claustral Offices the Commandery's retained the best of them and sold the rest or gave them upon pension or rather Farmed them out Clement himself besides his seizing upon all that any Bishop or Abbot left after his death besides his taking a years Revenue of each Benesice upon every change whether it hapned by vacancy or by resignation or by permutation ravaged the Gallican Church by infinite Concussions and extraordinary Taxes Good People bewailed these disorders there were none but Purloiners that wished they might be continued and nothing but the particular Interests of Princes kept this Schisme still on foot Clement allowed the Duke of Anjou the Levying of the Tenths and the Duke allowed of all his pilserings and violently reproved all those that durst complain This unjust proceeding rather then the Justice of Vrbans party was the cause why many of the principal Doctors of the Faculty put themselves under the Obedience of that Pope and also made the University begin to desire and demand a Council as the Sovereign remedy for all these mischiefs Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Berry angry that he had no part in the Affairs his Father-in-law the Earl of Armagnac perswades him to demand the Government of Languedoc as then in the hands of his Enemy the Count de Foix. The Council consents to his demand but the Count armed to maintain himself and the Province where he was as much beloved for his Justice and his Generosity as the Duke of Berry was hated for his Thievery stuck close to him The Duke with an Army to take possession by force the Count beat him foundly near the City of Rabasteins but after he had let him know he was able to keep his Government he yielded it up to him that he might not be the ruine of those that defended him Year of our Lord 1381 John Lyon chief of the White Hats had so blown up the troubles in Flanders that his death could not extinguish the Flame Most part of good Towns in that Countrey had joyned themselves to the Ghentois the Peace the Duke of Burgundy had made betwixt them and the Earl his Father-in-law lasted but a very short time the Earl goes secretly out of Ghent and the Gentry combine against the Cities Ghent had all manner of ill success but neither their being thrice let Blood which cost above Fifteen thousand Lives nor Waste nor Famine nor being fortaken by the other Cities nor yet the miseries of two Sieges could quell those stubborn obstinate lovers of their liberty After the loss of most of their stoutest Leaders they chose one named Peter du Bois and upon his perswasions another also to wit Philip d'Artevelle Son of that James formerly mentioned much richer then his Father but less crafty and much prouder This last took the upper-hand and pretended to all the Functions of a Sovereign Year of our Lord 1384 Although they had promised the People to take off the Imposts the Regent nor the Treasurers who Governed him could not resolve upon 't The great Cities took up Arms to oppose it Peter de Villiers and John de Marais Persons venerable with the People and also very much regarded by the Regent somewhat appeased the commotion at Paris but could by no means perswade them to suffer those new Levies The Burghers took Arms set Guards at the Gates created Diseniers Cinquanteniers Centeniers and made some Companies to keep the Avenues and Passages to the City free Year of our Lord 1381 The Duke of Anjou was therefore forced to dissemble for the present but he had not resolved to let go the thing thus and intended only to wait till their heats were grown colder to go on as before It hapned the following year that having published the Farming of those at the Chastellet one of the Officers belonging to the Farmers demanding a Denier of an Herb-Woman for a bundle of Cresles the Rabble gathered together upon the noise this Woman made grew into fury went and broke open the Town-Hall to get Arms and took out three or four thousand iron Maillets or Hammers for which cause this seditious crew were named the Malletiers After this they massacred all that were concerned to gather it plundred their Houses and razed them open'd the Prisons and took out all the Criminals amongst others Hugh Aubriot Prevost of Paris whom they made their Captain but
at Court Year of our Lord 1413 It was not without ground that they accused the Burgundian of bringing Fuel to maintain this scroching Fire of Sedition though in effect he could not govern their hot Heads as he would In the mean while all were forced to give way to this Torrent The King was forced to consent they should bring their Prisoners upon their Trail to go to Parliament in his white Hood and publish certain Ordinances for reforming some abuses touching his Revenue displace Arnaud de Corbie his Chancellor who surrendred the Seal to Eustace de Laitre his Son-in-Law and to deliver up to Execution an Esquire belonging to the Duke of Guyenne and Peter des Essards whose Heads were cut off James de la Riviere Chamberlain to the said Duke rather then undergo so great ignominy beat out his own Brains with a large drinking Bowle or else was kill'd in Prison by Helion Jaqueville a Captain of Paris but however it hapned they dragg'd him to the Gallows as one that had despair'd and Murther'd himself So violent a Government could not last long The Duke of Guyenne privately agreed with the Leagued Princes they made use of the Kings name and a pretence of confirming the Peace of Chartres which was not fully executed to enter upon a Conference with them at Vernevil Their Deputies being come to the King at Paris Year of our Lord 1413 the Seditious often broke up their Assembles where they were Treating about the Peace but yet could not by all their art or insolent rudeness prevent so good a work from going on To attain their ends an Enterview was propounded between the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Burgundy then a Conference concerning the other Princes at Pontoise by Deputies All that were foundest and Wisest the University the Parliament and the honest Citizens inclined to Peace the Burgundian had but little stomach to it as promising but slender advantage to him however it was concluded at Pontoise the first day of August and the King agreed the Princes should come and Year of our Lord 1413 Congratulate him in Paris This being so setled the Duke of Guyenne puts himself in Arms at the head of the honest Citizens and having gotten together above Thirty thousand Men well sitted marched through the Streets The Chiefs of the Factious who held the Bastille the Louvre the Palace and the Town-Hall left those places to him and withdrew Then he sets free all those they had imprisoned he changes the Sheriffs and putting out the Chancellor whom they had put in by force gave that Office to John Juvenal then restores the Seals to Arnaud de Corbie who gave them up to Henry de Marle the first President The Burgundian not thinking himself too safe resolved to be gone before the Orleannois were come Having therefore got the King one day forth a Hunting he takes his leave on a suddain and without bidding adicu to Paris hastens to Flanders by long days Journeys though very well attended Year of our Lord 1413 After his retreat there was an absolute Revolution The Duke of Orleance was so much in the Kings favour that he would have him Cloathed in the same Stuffs as himself wore The Coultable d'Abret returned to Paris with great splendour the Chiefs and Authors of the Sedition were sought for some executed some proscribed all the Burgundians Creatures were removed divers Gentlemen and Burghers Friends to him imprison'd They went farther yet the Declarations that had been made against the Princes were declared a surprize their Innocency owned and published and he on the contrary detested as an execrable Murtherer And for the greater affront Lewis of Anjou King of Sicilia sent him back his Daugher who had been put into his hands in order to be Married to his eldest Son and two months after he gave one of his own to Charles Earl of Pontieu the Kings third Son who was not fully Twelve years of age by this means making both himself and his Son-in-Law mortal Enemies to the House of Burgundy Year of our Lord 1413 The ill Treatment was hard to be digested the Burgundian complained to the King wrote of it to the Citizens of Paris the Parliament and the University but neither his Complaints nor Letters effected any thing Finding he did not succeed that that way he found means to renew some kind of Correspondence with the Duke of Guyenne his Son-in-Law who in effect was angry to be detain'd at Court and as it were a Prisoner in Louvre This was pretence enough for him to raise a great Army and take the Field to come and deliver him He was received at Noyon at Soissons and at Compiegne but Senlis shut her Gates against him He made himself Master of St. Denis by Intelligence and afterwards presented himself before Paris notwithstanding the King had forbid him to come near upon pain de Loesae Majestatis He thought to have received the former humour of the People and have made some rising that would have given him entrance Thereupon the King being recover'd of a Fit made a thundring Declaration against him When he found this he was afflicted and retreated in most horrible confusion Year of our Lord 1414 Every one bawl'd after him stop Traitor stop Murtherer The Bishop of Paris Brother of Montaigu and the Faculty of Theology having examined the Herangue of his Orator John Petit who was then dead drew seven Propositions out of it condemned them of Impiety and Heresie and caused them to be burnt in the Porch of Noster-Dame John Charlier named Jarson from his Native Village near Reims Chancellor of the University and a Doctor of great Reputation shewed himself mighty zealous in this Prosecution He had formerly some contest with Petit and the Burgundians had sold his Houshold Goods the year before for certain Taxes The following year the Burgundian removed this Business by Appeal to the Council of Constance where it was debated with much heat He maintain'd that those Propositions that had been condemned at Paris were not Petits but that they were forged and contrived by Jarson The Commissioners deputed to examine the thing having made their Report the Council without taking any notice of Petit or Jarson did in general condemn that pernicious Proposition that a Tyrant may be killed or put to death by his Subject in what manner soever At the same time the King proceeded against him as an Enemy to the State went to St. Denis to set up the Orislame and summoned the Ban and Arriere-Ban against him He takes the City of Compiegne upon Capitulation and Soissons by force This was miserably plundred and Bournonville who had defended it to the uttermost had his Head cut off Without doubt the Burgundian was in a great consternation at the taking of it and more yet when the Flemmings refused to serve him and sent Deputies to the King to offer him all Obedience The taking of Bapawne by the Duke of Bourbon
in the Marishes But the advantage which the Duke of Montpensier Governor of Normandy gained over the Leaguers was much more considerable He had besieged Falaâ—se Brissac brought four thousand Gautiers to its relief he marches out to meet them and cut them all off near the Village of Pierresite which is within two leagues of Falaise and afterwards went and rooted out the whole Nursery of them at Vimoutier Bernay and la Chapelle-Gautier where part of them were knock'd on the Head part scatter'd and the rest constrained to lay down their Swords and fall to the Plough-share These were all Peasants that for two years had held those places not for any particular Party but to defend themselves from the robbing Soldiery and from the Tax-gatherers greater Villains yet then the Men of the Sword Their first place of meeting was in the Parish of la Chapelle-Gautier whence they had their name they were to the number of ten or twelve thousand Happy if they had not admitted two Gentlemen amongst them who did engage them in the quarrels of the Grandees for which they had not the least concern At parting from Chasteaudun the Duke of Mayenne did not go directly to Tours as it seems he ought to have done but turns himself to some other Enterprizes The one was upon the City of Vendosme he took it by the treachery of Francis Maille Benehard to whom the King of Navarre had given the Government and in the same draught of his Net caught all the grand Council who lodged there He had another to surprize the Duke of Espernons Cavalry who were quarter'd about St. Ouin and to have taken Prisoner Charles de Luxembourg Count de Brienne his Brother in Law that he might exchange him for the Duke d'Elboeuf For we must know that the Duke of Espernon was come back to the King with a good Party of Soldiers and had quarter'd his Foot at Blois to defend it from the fury of the Duke of Mayenne who threatned to lay it level with the ground and sow it with Salt in revenge of the death of his Brothers The Cavalry of the Count de Brienne were wholly cut off and he hemm'd in and then made Prisoner in St. Ouins but the King left him there not much caring to exchange him This hapned some few days after the Enterview of the two Kings The King of Navarres absence made way for the Duke of Mayenne soon after to attempt upon the City of Tours Perhaps the secret correspondence he held with Year of our Lord 1589 some of the Inhabitants who were Leaguers or even the Kings own Officers invited month May. him He parted about Evening on the Seventh of May with his Army and after a march of thirteen Leagues got the next day by Ten of the Clock in the Morning so near the Suburbs that the King who was gone out to walk towards Marmoustier did narrowly miss of being surprized by some light Horsemen The Duke a great Temporiser lost half the day in light Skirmishes it was near four in the Afternoon when having felt their pulses he roundly attaqu'd the Fauxbourg St. Symphorien and carried it in less then half an hour Which made it seem probable that if he had done so at the very first he might have taken the Town wherein he had a great Faction but towards the Evening Chastillon arrived with the King of Navarres Forces who lay not far from Tours and intrenched himself in an Island right over against the City Upon this the Duke reflecting that he had but few Horse and that his Foot were all new raised Men that the King of Navarre would soon return in Person with that part of his Troops who were remaining at Chinon judg'd it safest to make a retreat and dislodged without noise at the first break of day taking his march towards Anjou to gather up in that Country and in Perche and Mayne those Companies which the Gentlemen of the League had raised there This first Effort of the League having succeeded so ill the Nobless who before gave the King for lost perceived now he would be able to defend himself and hastned to come to him with great diligence Then having room to march into the Field which way he pleased he desired the King of Navarre to draw his Forces to Boisgency to make an essay upon Orleans sent the Count de Soissons into Bretagne to secure the City of Renes and himself made a Cavalcade to Poitiers thinking to confirm that City to his own Service which as yet did vacillate betwixt both Parties But Orleans stirred not for the approach of the Navarrois Army the Count unfortunately sell into the hands of the Duke of Mercoeur who made him Prisoner in Chasteaugiron within three leagues of Renes and the King did not find in Poitieres that kind disposition they had given him hopes of He returned therefore to Tours where he began afresh to fall into his wonted idleness still flattering himself with some accommodation with the League when the King of Navarre took the liberty to wait upon him and rowzed up his sloath by so many arguments of danger and honour that he forced him to mount on Horseback desiring of him but only two Months labour and activity to set him at rest all the remainder of his life Two messages of good news did likewise help to awake and spur him forwards one the defeat of the Lords de Saveuse and de Brosse the other the gaining of a Year of our Lord 1589 Battle at Senlis Saveuse and Brosse were Brothers and of the bravest indeed month June amongst all the Picards and the most zealous Leaguers who as they were bringing two hundred Lanciers to the Duke of Mayenne were charged by Chastillon in that part of la Beausse near Bonneval where yet the Cross of Saveuse is to be seen He slew a hundred of them and took fourscore Prisoners whereof the most part died of their Wounds Amongst others Saveuse who refusing any manner of help or consolation let his Soul sally forth together with his Blood detesting the Murther at Blois and spending his last breath in praising the heroick vertues of the Duke of Guise As to the affair of Senlis Tore who had great influence over that City because of the Voicinage of Chantilly having reclaimed them to the Kings service the Duke of Aumale would needs set upon it with some Parisian Forces and four thousand Men brought him by Balagny who called himself Prince of Cambray Now the very same day they had capitulated to surrender la Noue and the young Duke of Longueville who had drawn together some Ten thousand Men to go and meet the Swiss raised by Saney and some Lords of Picardy whose Houses Balagny had ruined resolved to succour it They briskly attaqued that Citizen-Camp and found no great resistance for they defeated and routed themselves upon the very first sight of their Army There fell about two thousand of them upon the
nevertheless this Lord failed him Being thereto disposed by the Gentlemen Provenceaux who had declared themselves Enemies to the Duke d'Espernon and withall fearing the event of a Siege he resolved to chuse a Master that should be sufficiently able to protect them and thereupon persuaded the General Council of the Province to acknowledge the King and to beseech him at the same time to give them another Governor then Espernon The Parliament therefore Ordained the same day that all Acts of Justice should be done in the Name of the King and by any another Decree made some days after declared Rebels and guilty of High-Treason whoever would not obey him The Archbishop Genebrard refused to submit and having kept himself concealed ten or twelve days retired to Marseilles with the Duke of Mayennes Agent After this Example Lyons which ever since the imprisonment of the Duke of Nemours had kept it self as Neutral declared also for the Kings Party The Eschevins and principal Citizens having made their Treaty with Alfonso d'Ornano and received an assurance of the confirmation of their Priviledges an entire Amnesty and that there should be no Exercise but of the Catholick Religion in their City and Suburbs The Five and twentieth of January d'Ornano being advanced with his Year of our Lord 1594 Forces to the Suburbs de la Guillotiere they set up Barricado's and cry'd out Let month January the French Liberty live Down with the Tyranny of the Italians The next day they all with one Voice shouted and cried Vive le Roy and all the Inhabitants Men Women and Children put on white Scarfs Now having found amongst the Dukes Papers no less then seventeen new Imposts of the Italian invention which he would have laid on them had they not surprized him as was before related they prudently Ordained in a General Assembly of their Town-Hall and made every Member Swear to it they would never admit any of them to publick Offices The Fifteenth of February Orleans follow'd the same dance la Chastre being month February brought over by a good round Sum of Money the assurance of a Mareschals Staff the Government of the said City and the Country of Berry from whence in favour to him all the Garisons were to be dismissed excepting those in the Tower of Bourges and the Castle of Meun upon Yeure There were two Factions in the City which wholly divided it the Fraternity of the small Cord otherwise called by the name of Jesus invented by a Cordelier a Zealous Leaguer and the Politicks who inclined to the King To execute his design he strengthned himself with the last secur'd the leading Men of the other Faction or turned those out of Town he could not gain after these Precautions he declared the Seventeenth of February in the Town-Hall the intention he had to submit to the King and exhorted the Inhabitants to follow his Example or suffer him to retire So soon as he had finished his Harangue the Bishop and principal Persons gave him most humble Thanks for procuring their Reconciliation with their Natural Soveraign and protested they would embrace his Resolution They then read the Articles granted by the King which were Ratified with all the Signs and Expressions of Joy Bourges did the same within few days after and upon the same Conditions The presence of the Duke of Mayenne retained Paris and till that vast Body were disposed for so great a Mutation the King employ'd his time in his Coronation as well to remove that Scruple the Ancient Customs of the French imprinted in the minds of many that this being wanting he could not assume the Title of King of France as to convince the People more and more that he was thoroughly persuaded of the Religion of his Ancestors Now because he had not yet the City of Reims in his possession nor the Saincte Ampoule the Holy Oyl which is there kept in the Abby of St. Remy he made choice of Nostre-Dame Church of Chartres most famous for her Devotion to the Virgin and from the Abby of Marmoustier caused a Viol to be brought said to be that which Severus Sulpicius and Fortunate Bishop of Poitiers in their Writings affirm to have been brought by an Angel to the great St. Martin to restore his Limbs batter'd by a fall from top to bottom of a pair of Stairs The Twenty seventh of February Nicholas de Thou Bishop of Chartres performed the Ceremony after the same manner as it had wont to be at Reims Year of our Lord 1594 The Duke of Mayenne saw his Party drop off hourly one after another without month February being able either to hinder this Revolution or make his Treaty with the King for he had Sworn not to obey him till he were absolved by his Holiness Notwithstanding because they saw all the Governors of those Places for the League whom he had sent for to Paris about the end of the last year and with whom he had held Council without calling in the Spaniards did surrender this present year to the month March King and that himself went out of Paris the Sixth of March and took his Wife and Children with him many suspected he had agreed with the King and that he only seemed to remain in that Party to prevent those that were of the Spanish Faction from giving up that City to Strangers in some fit of despair He could not be ignorant how Brissac Treated with the King and that he pretended cause of discontent for that he had not given him satisfaction upon the Duke of Elboeufs turning him out of Poitiers after he the last year so bravely defended it against the Royalists All was in readiness for above two Months past to receive the King at Paris but the Seize or Sixteen seconded by the Spanish Garison and four thousand of the Rabble to whom the Ambassador of Spain gave each a Rixdoller per week and a proportion of Wheat did so narrowly observe him that he could not put his design in execution It is said likewise that having discover'd it they were resolved to prevent him and to rid themselves of those that were most active in assisting him These were amongst others the President le Maistre l'Huillier Prevost des Merchands du Vair a Counsellor and l'Anglois an Eschevin or Sheriff These being Sagacious Men and having a desire to save their Country not to bring it under oppression forgot not before they proceeded farther to have a particular and express assurance from the King That no manner of Violence should be done to any one Inhabitant of the City neither in Body or Goods That he should give a general Indemnity without any exception That he should take them all into his Protection And as for the Strangers That he should let them go Scot-free with Bag and Bagage The Orders given for the night between the One and two and twentieth of March to seize upon the Ramparts and Gates the King who had drawn his Troops together at
surrender to the King that they might be at ease the Peasants and Commons of the upper Guyenne rose and took up Arms to defend themselves from the plundrings of the Nobility and the cruel vexations of Tax-gatherers They gave them the nick-name of Tard-Advisez and they again retorted the appellation of Croquants because in effect they feed upon and devoured the poor Country People Their first Rendezvous was in Limosin Chambret who was Governor there for the King beat and dispersed them Those of Angoulmois who endeavour'd to do the same were likewise scatter'd by Massez the Kings Lieutenant in that Country But it was not so facile to appease those of Perigord A Country Notary first brought them together in the Forest of Absac within a League of Limiel and they afterwards had divers other Assemblies where they increased to the number of Forty thousand The Mareschal de Matignon enervated their whole Strength by inveigling from amongst them all such as had born Arms of whom he formed several Companies and sent them into Languedoc the King allay'd the rest of the Storm by remitting the remainder of their Tailles Bretagne and Burgundy were yet standing out not having submitted to the King We may say one part of Provence also for he thought it worse in the hands of Espernon then in those of the League The Inhabitants of Laval introduced the Mareschal d'Aumont into their City Lesonnot Governor of Concarneaux treated with him Talhouet soon after did the same for Redon and made himself Master of Morlaix by the assistance of the Bourgeois and of the Castle after a long Siege There were five thousand Year of our Lord 1594 Spaniards in the Province commanded by one Don Juan d'Aquila and the Duke of month October Mercoeur had three thousand very good Men so that if they could have agreed together they would have been stronger then the Royalists but the jealousie of those two Nations and the peeks between the two Chiefs rendred them incompatible Aquila refused to joyn with the Duke to relieve the Castle the Duke did the same when Aumont had besieged the Fort of Crodon which the Spaniards had built with great expence upon the point de la Langue which divides the Gulf of Conquet and commands it Before this Quinpercorentin being only invested had surrendred to the Mareschal and soon after the Town of St. Malo perfected their Treaty wherein her Merchants made it appear they were neither ignorant in their Interests nor in their Politicks As for Provence the King durst not overtly set aside the Duke of Espernon as well because of the Intelligence he might contract with Spain and Savoy as because of his Alliances with the Mareschal de Bouillon the Duke de la Trimouille and Ventadour who besides were very much discontented and even with the Constable de Montmorency I call him so for the Sword was given him the precedent year He therefore only sent for him to come to Court to do equal Justice upon his and the Countries Complaints But the said Duke having four thousand Men lent him by the Constable and five and twenty hundred which himself had raised he returns into his Fort and held the City of Aix by the throat as he did the Count de Carces and the Parliament exercising his revenge upon all those that fell into his hands Lesdiguieres moved by their re-iterated cries quitted the Affairs of Savoy to go and succour them He passed the River of Durance at Ourgon and intrenched himself month May c. at Senas Espernon came bravely forth to meet him and try'd him by great Skirmishes but could not stop his march for the Constable would not risque his Men but even withdrew them quite This Lord who after a long Series of Troubles and Crosses was become huge Circumspect found it much safer to make himself a Mediator then a Party in a Cause wherein it was to be feared the King would declare He therefore procured a Truce for three Months during which time the Fort was deposited in the hands of Lafin a perpetual Negociator Lafin had undertaken to put three hundred Men in Garison there to keep it in Sequestration Lesdiguieres found means to slip in a great many Soldiers that belonged to him amongst those others so that by his invention the Fort was in his disposition Being therefore one day the Eleventh of July gone month July out of Aix as if to fetch a walk he approaches insensibly to the Fort and when he was near enough commands the Captain in the name of the King to give it up that it might be razed He no sooner spake but the Garison set open the Gates to him in despite of the Captain and at the same time he abandons the said Fort to the Provencaux who in less then two days ruined that vast work which the Spanish Year of our Lord 1594 Army had been above a year in raising month July That done he returned into Daufine apprehending the great preparations for War the Duke of Savoy was making Lesdiguieres had taken several little places in his Country This Prince having regained them all during his absence did also take Briqueras even in his sight making good use in this Enterprize of the Milanese Forces month August who were going to wage War in Burgundy month November The King going after the taking of Noyon to visit his Frontiers of Champagne this was in the Month of November agreed to a Peace with the Duke of Lorrain who had endeavour'd to make it above a twelvemonth before by Bassompiere He promised this Duke to do right to him and his Children as to the Succession of Catharine de Medicis their Grandmother without prejudice to what the Duke pretended as well in his own behalf as theirs to the Dutchies of Bretagne and Anjou and the Counties of Provence Blois and Coucy He left the propriety of Marsal to him and to his Successors the Cities of Dun and Stenay in exchange of Jamets which the Duke rendred to France And moreover promised him the Government of Toul and Verdun for one of his Sons and to the Brother of that Son that should survive him Bassompiere had the Lands of Vaucouleurs engaged to him for an old Debt of Sixty eight thousand Crowns and for thirty six thousand more he lent in ready Money to the Treasury In the same Month of November was in like manner concluded the Treaty between the Duke of Guise and the King who by this means retrieved likewise the Cities in Champagne which were yet in the Leaguers hands Some Months before this young Prince having none that were considerable in his absolute disposal had secur'd himself of Rheims after this manner St. Pol a Creature of his Fathers and who saved his Life the day before the Barricado's master'd this Town by means of a Redoubt he had built at the Gate called Mars and pretended by this piece and some others which he held to make the King confirm his
the cause felt in himself the Symptomes of that unhappiness which threatned him One would have said he had the Dagger already in his bosom He was often heard to send forth doleful sighs and words of ill presage the Heavens and Earth if we may give faith to such things did also afford him some very sinister ones It was observed that some days before the May which had been Planted in the Court-Yard of the Louvre was faln down of it self A Star appeared visibly at Noon-day in the Year 1609. the year preceding that a great Comet had been seen and the Loire over-flow'd most furiously as it had done a while before the violent deaths of the two Kings Henry II. and Henry III. The same year likewise the Inhabitants of Angoulmois both Gentry and Peasants affirmed they had beheld a frightful prodigy it was a fantastique Army which seemed to consist of about eight or ten thousand Men with Ensigns party-colour'd of blew and red Drummers ready to beat and a Commander of great appearance at the head of them who having Marched upon the Earth for above a League together lost himself in a Wood. It was about two years past that a Priest found upon an Altar at Montargis a Ticket which gave notice the King would be Assassinated And about the same time two Gentlemen of Gascogny of different places and of different Religions came expresly to Court to advertise him of the doleful and pressing Visions they affirmed to have had upon the same subject Of three or four of his Horoscopes terminated his life in his fifty seventh year Divers Prognosticators amongst others he who had otherwhile foretold the Duke of Mayenne the Murther of the Duke of Guise his Brother and the loss of the Battel of Ivry advertis'd him of an approaching and very sudden danger There was one so bold as to tell the Queen that Festival would conclude in Mourning and in Tears and that Princess starting one night out of her sleep weeping told the King she dreamt they were stabbing him with a Knife Himself was not ignorant that the number of the years of his Reign according as a Magician had computed to Queen Catherine de Medicis were even almost accomplished and he had some kind of confused knowledge of divers Conspiracies which were hatching against his person He in his life time had discovered above fifty many contrived or fomented by Church-men or some of the religious Orders such pernicious effects does indiscreet zeal produce but he could not avoid this last his hour was come and it seems all the former warnings which Heaven gave him were not so much to save him from the fatal blow as to make men certainly see and understand that there is a Soveraign Power ☜ which disposes of futurity Since it so certainly knows and fore-tells it month May. It had been a long time this execrable Monster named Francis Ravaillac had formed this resolution to Murther him He was a Native of Angoulesme Aged about two and thirty years Son of a Man belonging to the Law living at that time In the beginning he had follow'd the Trade of his Father then ran into a Convent of the Fueillans and was a Novice there but they thrust him out Year of our Lord 1610 for his extravagant whimsies Some while after he was imprisoned for a Murther of which notwithstanding he was never convicted being freed from thence he began anew to sollicite Law-Suits of which he had lost one in his own name for an Estate and Succession insomuch as he was reduced to turn Pedant and teach the poor peoples Children in the City of Angoulesme The austerity of the Cloister the obscurity of his Prison the loss of his process and the extreme necessity whereunto he was reduced confounded his judgment and irritated more and more his atrabilary humour From his early youth the Frenzies of the League their Libels and the Factious Sermons of their Ignivomous and Sanguinary Pulpiteers had imprinted in his mind a very great aversion for the King with this belief That it was lawful to kill those who brought the Catholick Religion into danger or made a War upon the Pope He was so very hot in these matters that he could not so much as hear any body pronounce the name of Huguenot but he fell into a fury Those that had premeditated to ridd themselves of the King finding this instrument so proper to act their Design knew very well how to confirm him in his Sentiments they had people at their beck who haunted him eternally though he knew not their intents who caused him to be instructed by their Doctors and enchanted him with supposed Visions and the other the like diabolical Arts. There are proofs that they carried him as far as Naples where in an Assembly at the Vice-Roy's Palace he met with many others who had all devoted themselves to the same end They made him come from Angoulesme to Paris two or three times in fine they managed and guided him so well to their liking and purpose that by his sacrilegious hand they perpetrated the detestable resolutions of their own wicked and accursed hearts The day after that of the Queens entrance the King was to have made the Marriage of Mademoiselle de Vandosme the eldest of his natural Daughters and the following day the Feast then the next Morning to mount on Horse-back and go to his Army But on the Evening of the Day of Entrance which was a Friday a little before four of the Clock as he was going to the Arsenal without Guards to confer with the Duke of Sully an Embarrass of certain Carts having stopt his Coach in the midst of the Street de la Feronerie and his Valets or Foot-men passing under the Channels of Sainct Innocents this Devil incarnate stept upon a spoak of one of the hind Wheels and advancing his Body into the Coach gave him two stabbs in the Breast with a Knife the first glanced along the fifth and sixth Ribb and did not enter his Body but the second cut the Arterial Vein above the Ventricle of the heart so that the Blood bursting forth with impetuosity choacked him in a moment he not being able to utter one word It had been foretold him he should die in a Coach so that upon the least jolt he would cry out as if he beheld the Grave open'd ready to swallow him But yet imagin'd he had escaped the effect of that prediction after two great hazards he run thorow the one at his going to visit the Dutchess of Beaufort the other in the Ferry-boat of Nully whereof we have made mention So strange an amazement and terror seized upon those who were present at this Tragical Accident that if Ravaillac had but dropt his Knife they could not then have discover'd him but being taken holding it yet in his hand he owned the Fact as boldly as if he had performed some Heroique Action There were two things then observed
being assisted in this good work by two Religious Carmelites who had their first Convent near the same City Pope Clement VIII separated them from the mitigated Anno 1693. and allowed them to have their Province apart and to chuse their Superiors amongst themselves upon condition however to acknowledge the General of the Order They came not into France till the year 1505. Their Convent in the Faux-bourg Saint Germain the first that ever they had in the Kingdom was Built Anno 1611. The Reformed of the Hermites of St. Augustin who are called at Paris les Petits Peres i.e. the Little Fathers was instituted at the General Chapter of that Order held at Madrid Anno 1588. From thence some went and settled themselves in Italy and from Italy six or Seven were brought into France in the year 1595. by William d'Avencon Arch-Bishop of Embrun who loged them at the Priory of Villars Benoist in Dauphiné They were not Established at Paris till the year 1609. first in the Faux-burg St. Germain where Queen Margaret Order'd a Convent to be erected for them which they left to the Augustines Reformed who hold it still then near the Gate Montmarte where they have built another The great care which the Friers De la Charité took by receiving in as also tending and administring to the Sick deserves we should make mention of them The Blessed Ican de Dien Native of the Diocess of Evora in Portugal a simple Man without Learning but inflamed with a Charitable zeal towards helping the poor sick began this Congregation in Spain about the year 1570. He went daily about the Streets and into many Houses exhorting all good Christians to bestow their Alms and having frequently these words in his mouth Do good Brethren whilst you have the time for which cause in Italy they named these Votaries Fatte ben Fratelli Pious V. Confirmed it by his Bull of the first of January 1572. Clement VIII reformed it and Paul V. made it a Religious Order obliging them to the three usual Vowes and a special fourth which is to tend the sick under the dependance notwithstanding and under the Correction of the Ordinaries The Congregation of Feuillents sprung from the Order of the Cistertians and began not till the year 1586 in the Abbey of Feuillents which is in the Diocess of Rieux within six Leagues of Toulouze It had for Author John de la Barriere who being Abbot Commendatary of that place had taken on him the Habit of a Frier Sixtus V. approved it Clement VIII and Paul V. allowed them particular Superiors King Henry III. Founded a Convent for them in the Fauxbourg Saint Honoré near the Garden of the Tuilleries and Anno 1587. John de la Barriere brought thither three-score of his Friers They went then all bare-footed but have since worne Sandals or Galochees They have but three Prvinces in France and some thirty Monasteries As every Age and every Generation hath its particular gusto and productions this sixteenth Century was very fertile in Congregations of Clerc's Regulars who are a kind of midling species between Monks and Priests Such are those of the Theatins the Somasques the Clerc's Minors the Ministers of the Infirmaries the Schools of Piety the Clerc's Regulars of Saint Paul called Barnabites the Oratorians of Rome and the Jesuites this last much more potent and of greater extent then all the rest together I shall observe en passant that one of these Fathers a man very devout named John Leon a Flemming by Birth and Regent in the lower Classes of their Colledge at Rome assembling those Scholars who were desirous to add Piety to Erudition gave beginning to their Congregation of the Virgin which hath been found so good and useful that they have not only made of them for their Scholars but also for the honester sort of Citizens and even in some places for Artisans Of all the Clerc's Regulars none have come into France but the Jesuits the Barnabites and the Theatins These last we not established till in our time under the Regency of Queen Anne of Austria It is well known that Saint Ignatius was Institutor of the Company of Jesus how it began in the year 1534. and how it was approved by Pope Paul III. and by his Successors We may elsewhere relate upon what conditions they were admitted into France the oppositions formed against their reception and the great and frequent Traverses they have undergone divers times It shall suffice at this moment to say that they have filled the whole Earth with the loud report of their names and the Books they have composed both for the advancement of Religion and of all polite Learning The Barnabites had been wished for in France by King Henry IV. to have employed them for the Instruction of Youth and to have substituted them in place of the Jesuits after they were empelled They came not then but about six years after their General sent some of his Order to labour for the Conversion of Bearn yet did not they take root in this Kingdom till a long time afterwards they have here fifteen or sixteen houses in most of which they have Colledges to teach all manner of good Learning Their first establishment was at Montargis Anno 1620. And two years after they had one at Paris near the Palace Their Congregation took Birth at Milan and was instituted by three Gentlemen two of that City another of Cremona They went by the name of Barnabites because they established themselves in Barnaby's and the Church they built there was Consecrated to God under the name of that great Apostle Let us now speak of the Religious Orders of the other Sex We omitted in the end of the last Age how in Anno 1594. John Tiâ—â—eran a Cordelier having moved and even melted the most obdurate hearts and converted many Ladies of Pleasure by his Preaching founded an Order Des Filles Repenties to the honour of Saint Magdalene which was to receive such who by the Mercies of God should be brought to forsake and abhor their sins For which reason they were called Penitents There came in at the very first two hundred and twenty and as the number encreased so much that the Revenue was not sufficient they allowed many to go about the Town to crave the Almes of the Charitable and well disposed people Which lasted till the year 1550. when by reason of many inconveniencies they were shut up in a most strict confinement Lewis Duke of Orleans who was afterwards King gave them his Hostel of Orleans near Saint Eustache where they remained till Anno 1572. that Queen Catherine dislodged them to build a Palace there and transferred them to the Chappel Saint George in the Street Saint Denis which till then belonged to the Order of Saint Magloire Queen Jane Daughter of King Lewis XI being parted from King Lewis XII her Husband and retired to the City of Bourges had now no further