but the eldest Son lived only 9 Months the other two Sons and the eldest Girl died immediately after they were born only the youngest that was born the 8 of February 1515 was longer lived Mr. Varillas has a peculiar talent of committing more Errours in one single Period than any Writer of the Age and here he has given a good essay of his art for the Queen bore only three Children the first was a Son born the 1. of Ianuary that died the 22 of February thereafter which was not two full Months much less 9 Months the second Son died not immediatly but about a Fourtnight after he was born and the Daughter afterwards Q. Mary was born the 9th of February 1516. So that thô by chance he has hit the Month right yet he is mistaken both as to the Year and the Day of the Month. So unadvised a thing it is for an ignorant Writer to deliver matters of fact so particularly for thô this may deceive others that are as ignorant as himself by an appearance of exactness yet it lays him too open to those that can find the leisure and the patience to expose him and the last is no easy matter 12. He runs out into a very copious account of K. Henry's Disorders and dresses up Q. Katherine's Devotions in a very sublime strain It does not appear that in all that time he had any other Mistress but Elisabeth Blunt and during all that while he had the highest Panigyriques made him by all the Clergy of Europe upon his Zeal for Religion and Piety possible so that if we did not live in an Age in which Flattery has broke loose from all the restraints of Decency they would appear very extravagant Commendations and if the sublimities of Flattery were not rather a just prejudice against a Prince which give a character of a swelled Ambition and an imperious Tyranny that must be courted by such abject methods so that it is hard whither we ought to think worse of the Flaterers or the Flatered we would be tempted to judge very advantageously of K. Henry the 8th by the Dedications and other fawning Addresses that were made him As for Q. Katherine it does appear that she was indeed a vertuous and devout Woman but Mr. Varillas being more accustomed to Legends than to true Histories could not set out this without a considerable addition of his own for the half of it is not mentioned by any Author that ever I saw nor by any quoted by himself but a Poët must adorn his matter and if he has not judgment he overdoes it 13. He says the King designed to marry his natural Son the Duke of Richmont to his Daughter Mary upon which he makes that long digression concerning the Names of the Race of Tudors that was formerly considered When a Man affirms a thing that is so notoriously injurious to the Memory of a Prince he ought at least to give some sort of proof of its truth for thô in the accesses of Mr. Varillas's Religious Fits he does not think fit to trouble himself with those inconsiderable matters of Truth and Falsehood yet all the World is not of his mind and some colours of Truth are at least lookt for It is true a Negative is not easily proved so a bold Affirmer fancies he has some advantages but in this case it is quite otherwise for the whole series of the Original Instructions Messages and Letters that passed between Rome and England in that matter are still extant in all which there is not the least tittle relating to this Proposition And there are some things of such indecency that nothing but a temper like Mr. Varillas's can bring them together For when K. Henry was pretending a scruple of Conscience at his own marrying his Brother's Wise it is very improbable that he would have asked a Dispensation for a Mariage in a much nearer Degree For Sanders that is Mr. Varillas's Author says that both Propositions were made at the same time There were many Libels printed against K. Henry about that time but the strongest and the best writ was that of Cardinal Pools in which it is visible that he spares nothing that he could alledg with any colour of Truth yet he says nothing of this matter thô it had more weight in it to discover the King's Hypocrisy in pretending to scruples of Conscience than all the other things he alledges and I never could find any other Author for this Story before Sanders whose Book was printed 60 years after 14. He gives another essay of his skill in History and that he is equally ignorant of the Histories of all Kingdomes when he represents to us the endeavours of the King of Scotland for the obtaining of a Mariage with the Princes Mary in favours of his Son upon whose Person he bestows a kind dash of his Pen and he enters into a speculation of the danger that King Henry apprehended from this Proposition and that if he had rejected it the King and Prince of Scotland might have addressed themselves for it to the Parliament and that the Parliament would have raised a general Rebellion rather than have suffered King Henry to reject it The dislike that Mr. Varillas has conceived against the Crown of England seems deeply rooted in him for it returns very often Here he represents forreign Princes complaining to Parliaments when the Kings do not accept of Propositions for their Children as if our Princes were less at liberty in the disposal of their Children than the meanest of their Subjects are but he knows our Constitution as little as he does the History of Scotland otherwise he could not have represented the King of Scotland as pretending to the Mariage of the Princess Mary for his Son since K. Iames the fourth that had married King Henry's Sister was kill'd at the Battel of Floddun the 2 September 1513 above three years before the Princess was born he left an infant Son between whom and the Princess a Treaty of a Mariage was once proposed but no progress was made in it for K. Henry neglected it And he had always his Parliaments so subject to him to apprehend any of those vain Schemes with which Mr. Varillas would possess his Reader There are many that make no great progress in History but yet know somewhat of the Death of Kings and that carry some small measure of Chronology in their Head Yet since Mr. Varillas has not yet got so far he had best buy some common Chronological Tables and have them always before him when he writes and this will at least preserve him from such childish Errours 15. He tells us that there were many Pretenders to the young Princess and to make a full Period he tells us that all the Souverains of Europe courted her both the Emperour the Kings of France Spain and Scotland and so he gives us a fantastical speculation of King Henry's balancing those Propositions one against
beyond what was paied them in France was imputed to his Method of Writing that wants none of the beauties of History except that of Truth and to the Ignorance in which Strangers live as to the Particulars of their History It is true at last he has found a Patron and a Pension and now he has given us an Essay of his Merits but if this Work is examined severely he will very probably soon lose his appointments since mercenary Pens are seldom paied longer than they can be useful Here one finds so much occasion for censure that whereas in other Books one must run up and down to find matter for a Critical Judgment here it occurs so copiously that a Man must take care not to surfeit his Reader with too much of it and therefore must choose out the more remarkable Errours and there are even so many of these that it is to be feared that the World will not think him not his Writings worth the time and the pains that must be bestowed on them Mr. Maimbourg has set a Pattern to the World that thô few wil care to imitate yet it has taken so much with the present Age that it is no light indication of its degeneracy when surch books are so much read and sold in which the Writer seems to have so broken loose from all the common measures either of honesty or shame that one would wonder of what composition he were made if they did not know that he has lived 50 years the in Iesuite Order for as he has no regard to truth or likelyhood in what he writs so he seems to be proof against the evidentest discoveries of his prevarications that are possible and when they are laid open in a manner capable of making any man besides himself to blush he neither has the conscience to confess his errours nor the sense of honour to justify himself but he finds out still new matter to writ on and a new stock of Champaigne wine as I have been told that he has oft said to make his blood boil till he has spoild an other piece of History and he thinks a scornfull period or two in a Preface is enough to carry off all the shame to which his errours ought to condemn him He has also the Impudence to dedicate his books to the King and the world is still willing to be cosened by him This trade has succeeded so well with him that it seems Mr. Varillas vies with him in it and as he has the chaster stile and the more natural way of misleading his Reader so he has resolved not to be behind him in a bold quality that I love not to set down by its proper Name But thô Mr. Varillas has the art to refine upon the pattern that Mr. Maimbourg set him yet Mr. Maimbourg is the Author of the Invention and therefore he deserves the better Pension History is a sort of Trade in which false Coyn and false Weights are more criminal than in other Matters because the Errour may go further and run longer thô these Authors colour their copper too slightly to make it keep its credit long If Men think there are degrees of Lying then certainly those that are the most loudly told that wound the deepest that are told with the best grace and that are transmitted to Posterity under the deceitful colours of Truth have the blackest Guilt but some Men have arrived at equal degrees in hardning their Consciences and in steeling their Forheads and are without the reach either of inward Remorses or publick Discoveries so that as Augustus fancied there was a charm in the Pillour of a Roman that died hugely indebted since without an extraordinary saporiferous composition he could not fancy how such a Man could sleep securely so if humane Nature did not often produce some very irregular Individuals a Man that feels the Authority that Truth and Modesty have ever a pure mind can not easily imagine by what secret others can quite extinguish those Inclinations which he finds are so prevalent in himself But I will now by Mr. Varillas's leave take the liberty to set before him some of his most conspicuous errours and thô I do not expect much sincerity from himself yet I hope the world will be juster than he has shewed himself to be Mr. Varillas begins his History with a view of the progress of that which he calls Heresy in a Prophetick stile setting forth what effects it was to produce as if he were foretelling what was to fall out and that for 11. pages according to the Impression of Amsterdam this has so little of the air of a Historian and is so full of the figures of a Declaimer that it looks liker the strain of a heated and angry Fryer than of a grave and serious Writer of History who ought to be always in cold blood and ought not to let the heats of a vitious Rhetorick transport him But this is so like one of the forced raptures of some Missionary that one would think it was writ either by one of them or for one of them It is much a safer thing to prophecy concerning matters that are past than concerning those that are to come and one is less in danger of committing errours yet when heat enters into matters of History and meets with so vast a deal of Ignorance as is that of Mr. Varillas no wonder if it carries him into great errours If Mr. Varillas had gathered the History of the last Age out of any Books or out of those Letters tha◠he so often vouches he could not have said that Edward th◠6th's Tutor or Governour was the Duke of Northumberland since there is not any one Book writ concerning that Time that does not shew the contrary The Duke of Somerset was his Governour and for the Duke of Northumberland thô the last two Years of that Reign in which that King was past the Age of Tutelage he bore the chief sway of affairs yet he had neither the Character of the King's Tutor or Governour nor any other whatsoever but only that of a Privy Councellour that was much considered by him and he at his Death professed that he had been always a Catholick in his Heart so that his pretending to be of the Reformed Religion to serve his interests shews that he belongs no more to our Church than the now forced Converts belong to that of Rome In the same page he says that Mary Queen of Scotland did by her Bastard Brother's persuasions marry a single Gentleman and on the Margent he gives his Name Henry d' Arley this is a new proof how little he knows the Books of the last Age. This Henry whom he calls d' Arley was Henry Lord Darly eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox which was one of the chief Families of Scotland and a Branch of the Family of the Stewarts It is true it came off from it before the Crown came into it by Mariage yet the
to forgive who by the way was not Duke but only Earl of Suffolk is a Dream better becoming so slight a brain as is that of Mr. Varillas than the consummated wisdome of the King and Queen of Spain But thus it falls out when a Library Keeper turns Statesman and when from being a teller of tales he will turn a Writer of Histories which he composes out of his own Imaginations he must needs fall into childish errours When do Kings fall under those weaknesses as to disinherit an only Son to cover them from a remote fear and a very remote one it was for the Archduke needed at that time the assistance of England against France too much to be in a condition to raise a Civil War in England and to support a competition to the Crown which could have no other effect as to him but to give France an opportunity during the distractions of England to come and destroy him In short here is a Vision of a poor-spirited Pedant which is too much considered when it named and laught at 7. He pretends to enter into the reasons that were alledged at Rome both for and against the granting of the Bull but at last he concludes that Pope Alexander the 6th would not consent to it that he might not give occasion to accuse him of having broken the Discipline of the Church But here is such a false representation of the Court of Rome at that time and in particular of P. Alexander the 6th that since Mr. Varillas will needs write Romances I must put him in mind of one Rule that as Painters shew their Judgment and Learning in that which is in one Word called le Costume observing the Air Manners and Habits of the Ages and Scenes to which their Pieces belong so Poets when they bring unknown Names into their Plays they may clothe them with what Characters they please but if they represent Men whose Histories are known they must not confound Characters nor represent a Nero as a grave Philosopher or as a good natured Prince nor a Marcus Aurelius as a wanton Stage-player or as a bloody Tyrant And therefore thô Mr. Varillas may shew his pretended discoveries concerning Men that are less known yet when he brings in an Alexander the 6th on the Stage it is too bold a violation of Poetry to lay a strictness of Conscience or a sense of Honour to his charge and thô there is one part of this Period true that there had never been any dispensation of this sort formerly granted to serve as a Precedent for it yet that exactness in which he represents the Enquiry that the Divines of Rome made concerning this matter agrees ill with the State of the Court of Rome at that time and a Painter may as justly represent the old Romans in Pantalaons and with Hats in their hands 8. He says K. Henry the 7th was preparing all things for the Mariage of his Son to the Princess when he died And a little before that he had said that her Parents sacrificed the Interest of their Family to the satisfaction of the King of England by consenting to it A Match with the Heir of the Crown of England was no very costly Sacrifice and for his vision concerning the design of marrying her to the Duke of Calabria and by that means of restoring the Kingdome of Naples it does so ill agree with the Character of the King of Arragon that since there is no proof brought of this I must look on it as one of those Imaginations with which Mr. Varillas loves to entertain his Readers But for K. Henry the 7th he was so far from making any preparations for the Mariage that one of the Writers of that Age assures us that at his Death he charged his Son to break it apprehending perhaps a return of a new civil War upon the issue of a doubtful Marriage 9. He gives us a new tast of his unskilfulness in ordering his Scenes He had found that when Henry the 8th's Divorce came to be started there was some discourse of a Match between him and Francis the first 's Sister afterwards the Queen of Navarre and therefore he thought a proposition for her might come in before the Mariage as a pretty ornament to his Fable But the silence of all the Papers of that Time which I have seen is a much better evidence against it than his pretended negotiation of Mr. de Piennes is for it to which no credit is due It is well known that in the Archives of Venice there are Recitals laid up of all the Negotiations of their Ambassadours and Mr. Varillas having perhaps heard of this he fancied it would have a good grace to cite such Recitals as to French Affairs thô all that know the State of France know that this has not been the practice of that Court But as there is no proof to shew that there was any such Proposition made at that Time so the State of K. Lewis the 12th's Court differs extreamly from it in which the Count of Angoulême afterwards Francis the first and his Sister were not so favourable as to give us reason to think that pains was taken to raise that Lady to the Throne of England 10. He tells us that King Henry the 8th calling a Parliament in the beginning of his Reign they thought themselves bound in point of Honour to oblige to execute his Father's Orders relating to his Mariage who had not only made it the chief Article of his Testament and charged his Son to do it upon his last Blessing but had laid the same charge on the Men of the greatest Credit in England as he spoke his last Words to them upon which the Parliament being careful to maintain this Authority to which they pretended over their Master did oblige him by repeated Remonstrances to marry the Princess Here he goes to show how implacably he is set against the Crown of England formerly he had debased their Birth but he thought that was not enough now he will degrade them of their Dignity and give the Parliament a Superiority over them But it is a fatal thing for an ignorant Man to write History for if Mr. Varillas could have so much as opened our Book of Statutes he would have found that the first Parliament that K. Henry the 8th held was assembled the 21. of Ianuary 1510. almost 8. Months after the Mariage which was celebrated six Weeks after he came to the Crown in which time if Mr. Varillas had understood any thing of our Constitutions he would have known that it was impossible for a Parliament to have met since there must be 40. Days between a Summonds and a Meeting of Parliament so that if the new King had summoned one the Day after his Father's Death it could not have met sooner than the day before the Mariage 11. He says the Queen bore five Children the first three Sons and the other two Girls