Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	life_n	old_a	5,148	5	5.6715	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42794	The history of the life of the Duke of Espernon, the great favourite of France Englished by Charles Cotton, Esq. ; in three parts, containing twelve books ; wherein the history of France is continued from the year 1598 where D'Avila leaves off, down to our own times, 1642.; Histoire de la vie du duc d'Espernon. English	Girard, Guillaume, d. 1663.; Cotton, Charles, 1630-1687.	1670 (1670)	Wing G788; ESTC R21918	646,422	678

excellent Lady in the six and twentieth Year of her Age after having manifested an indifferency for life becoming her masculine Courage and Resignation unto Death worthy her great Piety and Vertue The Sieur du-Masses Lieutenant for the King under the Duke in that Government dispatch'd a Courier to the Duke to acquaint him with his loss as also with the Dutchess her dying request unto him who after having given publick testimonies of his affliction than which nothing could be greater he vow'd to observe what she expected from his fidelity to the last hour of his Life A promise that he as faithfully observ'd though in the space of fifty years that he surviv'd this excellent Lady he was offer'd many and great advantageous matches which he still refus'd ever professing that the respect he bore to his dead Ladies last request did and should with-hold him from embracing a new Wife and f●om embarquing in a new Fortune Fortune had hitherto so favour'd the Duke in almost all his Enterprizes that his Affairs had been carried on with great prosperity and success and the Provisions he had drawn from the Province or bought with his own mony had kept his Army in so good Discipline and Obedience that the Provencials had tasted very little of the incommodities of War Yet wanted there not some unquiet Spirits who enemies to the peoples peace as envious of the Duke 's good Fortune endeavour'd by all imaginable ways to debauch from him the respect and good will he had by his noble carriage acquir'd from the greater part of the Country and from the better sort of men perswading them that his severe and hasty humour proceeded from a purpose he had to usurp an absolute Authority over them and rendring his best intentions so suspected to the people as made them at last refuse to pay their accustomed Taxes It was by so much the easier to corrupt these undiscerning spirits by how much a certain emulation has ever been observ'd to be betwixt the Provencials and Gascons as seems to have been hereditary if not natural to those two people So that the Provencials not being able to endure the dominion of those with whom they had ever disputed the prize of Glory and Valour were easily tempted to shake off the yoke that either was or was pretended to be impos'd upon them After therefore as has been said they had denied the Duke those Contributions which until then they had willingly paid most of the Souldiers of the Country who were in his Army retir'd themselves and some of the chief Nobility pretended to favour at Court by accusing him of inordinate Ambition though all his endeavour to make himself considerable in Provence was only in order to his Majesties Service The Duke seeing things in this ill condition would by force have reduc'd them to their former posture but this remedy which was by no means proper for the constitution of that people ripping up the memory of the severe punishments he had in such cases inflicted upon several men in divers places serv'd only to make them desperate in their disobedience and to incen●e them to the last degree Thus did all those who had manifested an animosity against the Duke begin to apprehend falling into his power amongst which the Leaguers were in the greatest fear who as their obstinate Rebellion had made their fault much greater than theirs who like Souldiers had defended Montauron so did they fear a worse punishment if worse could be than had been inflicted upon them They saw their City of Aix reduc'd to the last extremity neither would those within stay till they could come to their Relief The Count de Carces a particular Enemy to the Duke besides the hatred that diversity of interest does usually beget above all things dreaded to fall into his hands so that Friends and Enemies those who pretended to be Royallists and Leaguers conspiring together to hinder the Duke's further advancement he saw almost in a moment all Provence in Mutiny and Insurrection The King had already publickly embrac'd the Catholick Religion of which he had made open profession at St. Dennis the five and twentieth day of Iuly this same year whose Conversion having taken away all manner of pretense from such as had declar'd they forsook his Majesties Service upon no other accompt than the Interest of Religion the Inhabitants of Aix conceiv'd they could now no longer continue in their Rebellion without manifesting to all the world that they were sway'd by other considerations than those they had already declar'd to which the Count de Carces making use of this time and occasion adding his perswasions one while representing to them their Duty to their Prince and another the severity they were to expect from the Duke of Espernon animated as he must of necessity be by the hatred they had in this Siege express'd against his Person he at last prevail'd with them to send away speedily to the King to assure his Majesty of their Fidelity and Obedience This was the first thing that discover'd a disunion in the League of which though the Duke of Mayenne highly complain'd to the Count de Carces reproaching him with weakness and charging him with all the miscarriages that should after happen to their Faction yet was he deaf to his reproaches and the fear of falling into the Duke's hands as he was upon the point to do the City of Aix not being able longer to hold out being more prevalent upon him than the respect of his Alliance he resolutely persisted in his first Design But the Count de Carces was not satisfied with hindering the Duke from making himself Master of the City of Aix only the hatred he implacably bore him proceeding yet further and to contrivances of more dangerous consequence against him There was none who did not believe the King had a jealousie of the Duke's Designs amongst whom the Count de Carces who understood it better than the rest easily perswaded himself that his Majesty would not suffer the Duke to encrease his Reputation and Power in Provence by the taking of Aix one of the most important places of that Province And he further knew the Duke would as hardly consent to have his Conquest so near effected forestall'd and the prey snatch'd out of his hands So that in this diversity of pretensions he doubted not but that the King's aversion to the Duke as also his mistrust of him would be infinitely encreas'd which in the end succeeded as he had foreseen and projected The Estates of the Country assembled at Aix appointed Deputies to go make a tender to the King of the obedience of their City provided his Majesty would please to protect them against the Duke of Espernon whose power they said was grown formidable and his insolence not to be endur'd 'T is true he had acted vigorously against them but they would not say That had he proceeded with greater moderation they would ever

his men went on with very great courage to the assault where being as resolutely receiv'd they were at last beaten back but the Compte de Candalle not being able to endure such a repulse return'd to the Assault and putting himself in his Doublet only at the head of his men he repell'd the Enemy and won the top of the Breach when being now upon the point to carry the Town an unfortunate Musquet shot in his Throat laid him dead upon the place An accident by which the Town already as good as taken was again lost with the life of the Conquerour By the death of this Compte his Daughter being then but three years old was left to the Tuition of Francis de Foix and de Candalle Bishop of Aire her Uncle by the Father's side a Prelate who having to the dignity of his Birth added a singular knowledge in the profoundest Sciences and chie●ly in the Mathematicks had the reputation of one of the most excellent Men not only of his own time but also of all Antiquity Yet did not his diligence in study though he were immeasurably addicted to it hinder his due care of his Niece either as to the Education of her Person or as to the management of her Fortune for he deliver'd her over when very young to the Connestable de Montmorency her Aunt a Lady of singular Vertue who had earnestly desir'd it that she might bring her up as one of her own Daughters which she accordingly did and under her excellent Tuition this young Lady grew up to so great a perfection in all vertuous Qualities that she won the general Applause and was admir'd above all others of her Quality in the Kingdom To these eminent endowments of Mind she had yet the advantage of her Birth and the reputation of her Fortune For the first I shall need to say no more than that she was ally'd to almost all the Crowns of Europe and that from her Family descended the House of Navarre that her Family had oblig'd Hungary with a Queen and France with a Gaston de Foix with other Captains of so incomparable Valour as took place of the most eminent Leaders of their time Their Estates had also been very great and there yet remain'd in fair demeasnes to the value of above fourscore thousand Livers annual Rent though to say truth the Affairs of that Family had of late years been so ill managed that there now remain'd but a very small part of that vast Revenue clear and unincumbred with Debts Her Estate therefore requir'd both a discreet manager to husband it and a man well furnish'd with money to disengage it and to restore it to that Splendor and Reputation in which it had formerly been And if the Person of this Lady I speak of was not endow'd with all those Criticisms of form the curious will have concurre to the making up of a rare and illustrious Beauty she had yet so much and that set off with so graceful and so winning a Fashion as oblig'd the Duke to become her Suitor after which it was not long before the King concluded the Marriage The Solemnity was held at Bois de Vincennes the 7th day of August in the Year 1587. the King being then going against the Reiters who were already enter'd the Borders of France It is not long since I saw the Articles of that Contract with the Inventories of the Dukes Estate both Personal and Real then taken in the presence of the Countess de Ryberac and a Gentleman sent for that purpose on the behalf of the Bishop of Aire and by his Letter of Attorney authoriz'd to manage that business For the Bishop what hopes soever they could give him of the obtaining of a Cardinals Hat if he would come to Court he could never be drawn from his Books nor tempted to leave his Study and his Ambition lying another way that is rather to search into the solid Truth than the vain Apparence of things he found a greater contentment of mind in his retirement and solitude than in all the lustre and bustle of the Court. There were few Writers of that time that do not make mention of the Dukes great Riches and of the Kings unlimited liberalities towards him and yet upon this occasion there was only found in Land Jewels Plate and other Furniture to the value of thirteen hundred thousand Crowns which if a man consider the difference berwixt this Fortune and those of many others that we have since known not only Favourites but also men of very mean beginnings that have been rais'd to far greater Riches in a much shorter time than the Duke was a Favourite will appear no such prodigious proportion His Hostel at Paris was also part of this Estate which I have heard the Duke say was then the best House next to the Queen Mothers now call'd l' Hostel de Soissons and so little inferiour even to that that after the Queens death he might have had it advancing 10000. Crowns in exchange for his own I have made this observation that we may consider to what a degree of State and Beauty the Structures of these latter times are got when this House that was then the second in Paris has now scarce any name amongst the many Structures that have been erected since Men have since been very liberal in their censure of the Duke's Oeconomy and which many unjust to his Honour and not very kind to him have blemish'd with the name of Avarice I cannot deny but that the Oeconomy of his House was great neither do I see why that should not have its due Honour amongst his other Vertues he being in this as much a Steward for the publick as for his own private Interests for who does not know that the Profusions of Princes and the Prodigalities of Favourites are ever to be repair'd by the Oppression of the People He was a good Husband 't is true but his good Husbandry far from the meanness of Avarice serv'd only to maintain his greatness and to enable him the better to support the lustre of his Expense without being chargeable to the King It has ever been such that from his first rise to Favour during the whole course of his life no man ever maintain'd a nobler Table at Court a better Stable of Horses a more numerous train of Attendants and those men of Quality and good Fashion more stately Furniture nor a greater number of inferiour Servants than the Duke did His expense in Building infinitely exceeded all others of his condition and all this without the least abatement in his ordinary way of living without any visible incommodity in his Affairs or without ever importuning the King his Master which can only be attributed to his Oeconomy and the prudent government of his Affairs many other great Persons of far greater Estates than he having never been able to do such things as he did with great ease without apparent inconvenience and

indeed fell out At this time every one despair'd of his Life and the report of his Death that was spread in all parts follow'd a few days after with the certain news of his Recovery having astonish'd all the world that now scarce pass'd any longer for raillery which had so pleasantly been said That he had out-liv'd the Age of dying In truth all Forein Parts having for the space of threescore and eight or threescore and ten years been continually full of the great Name of Espernon finding him still in their Gazetts one while taking Towns another in the head of Armies now Triumphing and again in Disgrace but ever in some great and illustrious Occasion Strangers conceiv'd of him that this must be the Grand-child of that Duke of Espernon who had been the Favourite of Henry the III. of France and could not perswade themselves that the lives of two men could furnish this History with so many important Actions The Duke whilst he was yet sick and even in the worst of his Sickness had an inckling of some designs the Spaniard had upon several Frontiers of this Kingdom and particularly upon those of his own Government of which to be better assur'd he was careful to send thither such persons as were capable of discovery and as he durst trust to bring him true intelligence of what pass'd amongst our Neighbours abroad By these Spies he understood that all the Frontiers of Arragon Biscay Guipuscoa and other finitimous Provinces of Spain had order to make Preparation of Arms and were to set out a certain number of Souldiers by an appointed day That to these Provincial Forces they would moreover adde several standing Regiments and of both together to make up a considerable Body Of all which the Duke was so precisely inform'd that he did not only know the number of men but even the names of all the Captains who were to Command them Neither did he fail to send the King an Account of the Intelligence he had receiv'd but our great Ministers were so taken up with other nearer and more immediate Affairs that they were not much concern'd at a danger two hundred Leagues from Paris They therefore contented themselves with writing to the duke that he should cause Bayonne the place that was principally threatned to be fortified at the Charge of the Inhabitants and as to the rest that he was by his Wisdom and Interest to provide for all things within the Precincts of his Command These Orders so general and of so vast a Latitude had formerly been the fullest Commissions the Romans were wont to give their Generals in the greatest necessities of Publick Danger but they were in our times the narrowest and the most limited that could possibly be granted who had the King's Interest committed to their Trust. There were already others establish'd by Law which no one without being Criminal was to exceed and those were That no one should make Leavies either of Men or Mony without Order by Letters Patents from the Council That no one should mount Artillery or take necessary Arms out of the Arsenals without special Order so to do So that all the Power of the Kingdom residing in the persons of the Prime Ministers no Governour could make use of his own without incurring the danger of Censure The Duke knowing that in the evil disposition the Court then was as towards him this was only a device to make him run into some error that might draw the King's Indignation upon him wisely fear'd to be involv'd in those Calamities under which for Causes light enough in themselves he had seen men of great Quality and Merit to perish was not easie to be trap'd that way He therefore again writ to the King for more precise Orders in occurrences that might happen and in those dangers he had humbly represented to him and in the end with much importunity obtain'd Order to send an Engineer to Bayonne to see it fortified as far as forty thousand Livers would extend the one half whereof was to be rais'd out of his Majesties Revenue and the other upon the Inhabitants of the place The Duke seeing he could obtain no more did as he was commanded and began some Fortifications which the want of money caus'd to be left imperfect and by that means the Town left in a weaker condition than if nothing had been done at all This Affair which at this time was the only one of moment in the Province being put into this forwardness the Duke conceiv'd he had now leisure to look a little after the recovery of his own health which that he might do at better convenience and greater vacancy from the perpetual distraction of the Affairs of the Province he humbly intreated the King to give him leave for a few days to retire himself to Plassac to the end he might at greater liberty make use of those remedies that were proper for his Disease The King without any difficulty and in very favourable terms granted his so just request whereupon he accordingly in the beginning of May came to his House of Plassac but it was to make a very short stay he being scarcely there arriv'd but that he receiv'd Order to return speedily into Guienne to look after the Affairs that very much requir'd his Presence there The great Preparations that were every where making by the Enemies of France to invade it obliging him to provide also for his defence as he did and that so well as in the end turn'd all their designs to their own confusion There never perhaps in this Kingdom had been more to do for the great men of it than at this time and as the Government of Guienne by its vast extent made up one of the most important and considerable Members of the State so did it consequently produce for its Governour so many and so various Affairs that it is to be wondred at a man of so extreme an Age could undergo so many and so continual labours The first thing the Duke did after his return into the Province which was in the latter end of May was to execute an Express Commission had been directed to him from the King for the enrolling the Edict de Cr●e newly pass'd by his Majesty for the addition of one President and twelve Counsellors to the Parliament of Bordeaux This Affair could not pass without encountring several Difficulties all the other Parliaments of France were charg'd with the same Augmentations proportionably to the extent of their several Jurisdictions this being therefore a common interest amongst so many men of condition it begat also a great correspondency amonst them to oppose it The King having foreseen and expected all these obstacles from the Parliament of Bordeaux thought fit to invest the Duke with as much Authority as he could himself desire to overcome them wherein his Majesty and those of his Council doubted not but that he would with great alacrity put all his

words My Lord I have receiv'd the Letter you was pleas'd to send me and conferr'd with Mounsieur de Magnas about the occasion of his Journey in answer whereunto I have nothing to return but this that neither the King nor any of his Servants have ever doubted in the least of the sincerity of your affection to his Service or of your passion to the prosperity of his Affairs or that you had in the late business of Guienne any other than the same desires with his Majesty and his Council for which I shall ever very willingly be your Caution If any persons have reported otherwise they must have done it meerly out of design to vex you and not that they could themselves believe it it being not to be imagin'd that any one can be so sensless who knowing what has hapned at Bordeaux and how you have behav'd your self in those disorders can possibly doubt that you did not upon that occasion contribute all that in you lay or that could be expected from your Vigilancy and Valour to the security of the Province I do therefore conjure you to set your heart at rest for any thing of that kind and to believe that neither the King nor any of his Servants who have the honour to be about him can possibly either upon this or any other occasion entertain the least thought to your prejudice His Majesty has caus'd the Sieur de Briet to be sent unto to come speedily hither c. The Cardinal could not in truth have writ to the Duke after a more obliging manner or have carried himself more civilly to him than he did at the beginning of this Affair permitting Justice to be executed upon the fellow Briet had employ'd to corrupt the Petit More who by Sentence of Parliament was condemn'd to make the Duke honourable satisfaction and with a Torch in his hand and a Halter about his Neck in his Shirt to be Carted through the City of Bordeaux and to serve ten years in the Gallies which was accordingly executed upon him but when it came to the business of Briet himself who had reason to apprehend the issue of his cause since he who had only been the Instrument of the Mischief whereof he had been the Contriver had been so roughly handled the Cardinal interpos'd his Interest with the Parliament in his behalf who having once appear'd in his favour his Power had so great an Ascendant over all other Powers how great soever in the Kingdom that it was impossible upon this occasion to obtain Justice contrary to his will and pleasure so that the Duke notwithstanding all the Importunities he could after use could never obtain from Briet the least Reparation If the Duke was wounded to have this Justice deny'd him in so publick and so sensible a wrong he was no less afflicted at the Order he soon after receiv'd to permit that Briet might come and execute the Functions of his Office in Parliament in all security and freedom He had expected at least that he should be detain'd at Paris and that his Majesty would have had that complacency to his just indignation as to have remov'd so hateful an object from his sight But he saw very plainly that the Cardinal was the Author of this Command He knew also very well how dangerous a thing it was either to contradict or provoke him But how great soever his Credit might be the violent effects whereof he had already felt he would notwithstanding never submit to his will nor lay down the Animosity he had justly taken up against a person from whom he had receiv'd so irreparable an Offence Whilst the Duke was perplex'd with these troublesome Affairs both in his own Government and at Court the Cardinal de la Valette his Son had been employ'd in the conduct of the greatest Army his Majesty had at that time on foot the Command whereof was equally divided betwixt Duke Veimar and him And if the Jealousie of our Confederates who had oblig'd our two Generals to enter a good way into Germany to their Succour had not bounded their Conquests it is most certain they had made a very considerable progress into this mighty Empire But those who had implor'd their assistance choosing rather to be left weak as they were than to see the French Name rais'd to a greater height of Glory and Reputation by the Victories they would infallibly have obtain'd over those of their own Nation it was impossible to perswade them to joyn their Forces with ours By which tergiversation if as they did they depriv'd our Generals of the advantages they might reasonably expect it was also to make them acquire the honour of so brave a Retreat as might justly be rank'd with the most famous Victories Our Army being advanc'd a great way into Germany had all the Forces of the Emperour pour'd upon them in which condition they had not only the Rhine but several other Rivers also and difficult passes to go over and break through before they could return into their own Countrey Which notwithstanding they did with their Swords in their hands neither the incommodities of the ways nor the interposition of the Enemy being able to stop them so that they fought eight days together almost without intermission leaving the ways by which they made their retreat much more remarkable by the blood of their Enemies than by that of their own Souldiers Though the mouths of all men were full of the praise of this Action that the Court appear'd to be infinitely satisfied with it and that the Duke himself from all parts receiv'd congratulatory applauses of so great an exploit in the person of his Son he had notwithstanding much rather this Son advanc'd into the Church by his Learning Birth and Fortune to so eminent a degree of Dignity and Reputation should wholly have apply'd himself to her Service than that he should expose so dear a Life to so dangerous a Profession He ever apprehended it would be fatal to him and therefore had done all he could to disswade him from it employing to that end the endeavours of several his most intimate Friends and Servants but all in vain either the humour of the Time the inclination of his Son the necessity of his Destiny or all together still prevailing with him above the fears or foresight of so affectionate a Father The Duke arriv'd now at an extreme old Age worn out and spent with the labours he had undergone during these Commotions and the Vexations that had succeeded was again in the beginning of Winter seiz'd by a very troublesome and very violent Disease This season for several years had never pass'd over without producing strange alterations in his health insomuch that he would often say he perceiv'd in the end it would do his business and that he could not long defend himself against two Winters at once that of Age and that of the Season as it