her Loved Sebastian whom she sought amidst the Horrid Numbers of the Dead and Dying with which the Plain was covered Some of the Wounded Men who had yet a Glimmering of understanding left them told the Place where Don Sebastian Fought and carefully observing those Bodys she espyed one extreamly resembling her Lover and with great Crys she embraced and moved him resolving to Dye there when the supposed Dead Man came to himself a little opening his Eyes and spake a few words imperfectly Xerine being Transported with Joy by the help of her Slave carryed him to the Bank of the River Mucazen which runs through those Plaines where she wash't and bound up his Wounds sending Laura to a little house hard by for some body to remove him from thence A Mariner did that good Office carrying him with his Boat into a small Island but Inhabited at the Mouth of the River for which she well rewarded him The Allyance which Don Sebastian had with Muley Mahomet made his Death necessary to the Peace of the new King Hamet so the Xerine fear'd equally the Life Liberty of her Lover if he fell into his hands she tended and drest him till his Recovery One Day saying to him Heaven will not deprive Portugal of it's King But has made your Xerine happy in saving her Dear Don Sebastian 's Life The Wounded Man soon found the Princesses Error without intending to undeceive her but using his Endeavour to confirm her mistake from which he foresaw such happy Consequences Therefore gave her Infinite Thanks desiring she would inform him how she distinguish't him among the Dead of which she told him the Particulars This shewed him Xerine's Birth and Engagement with Don Sebastian whom he studyed to personate which he might with Impunity for he resembled him much a Prodigious and incredible thing even to several Moles and Natural Marks on his Body Xerine understood by those whom she had sent to enquire for News that King Sebastian was drowned in his endeavouring to save himself but none could find his Body This Truth she thought an Error as she believed her own Error true promising her self no less than to be Queen of Portugal and thinking her Care kind Words and obliging Promises well bestowed on that Subject The Portugueze having spirit enough to support this Caprice of Fortune soon perceived by the Princesses Discourse that Muley Boabdelin a Prince of the Blood Royal of Morocco had always been a Friend to Don Sebastian He sent him word that the King of Portugal was not dead and if he would come to the Island of Mucazen he should hear of him Maley Boabdelin came in great haste with the Envoy Xerine sent leaving the farthest Part of the Province Hoscore whither he was sled to avoid the Tyranny of Muley Moluc generally called Abdelmeleck When he Arrived he was deceived by the resemblance as the Princess had been There was great Embracing caressing and mutual kindness betwixt them By him the False Sebastian was informed That his Uncle the Cardinal Don Henry Reigned in his stead by the consent of the People This News much disturbed him believing it very difficult to dispossess him Muley Boabdelin was of his Opinion they both concluded it proper to sound the Inclinations of the Portuguezes and try to Oblige the Principal Ministers of State to Assert and Maintain their Monarch's Right before he should expose himself to the Policies of the New King This Moorish Prince at the same time offering Xerine and her Lover a retreat in Hoscore where he was so well fortified that he had no occasion to fear any thing They all agreed not to Publish any report of Don Sebastian's being alive till he were in a Condition of Possessing his Crown But to Authorize what the Princess had done in his Favour Muley Advised him to marry Xerine which she also wish't believing by that tye her hopes secured This Effect of his likeness to Don Sebastian made him desirous to taste the Fruit of it he was charmed with the Beauty and Passion of the Princess and had Reason to be so Therefore fulfilled her desire with as much Joy as Speed By this becoming Victorious and the most happy of Mankind But when he had thus made what Advantages he could the private Negotiation of Portugal seemed too slow so he resolved to go and manage his Affairs there in Person Upon which Xerine and he had many Discourses Europe said she one day to him Asia or Affrick are all equal to me provided I have you with me Do not then refuse me the Pleasure of following you 'T is a Debt to my Love Let me not be so unhappy to find any other thing more Powerful in your Soul since I have the Glory of Contributing to your Establishment when Pretentions had been Vain without me These tender Expressions seemed Reproaches to Sebastian they offended him which troubled Xerine at last they differ'd and that Difference gave him an opportunity which he lookt for He had Learned from her the most Particular Affairs of the true Sebastian and in these Transports of their Love he ask her What Part of his Conduct had most sensibly touch't her that as he said he might often repeat what he had Practised with Success The Princess ingenuously told him It was the slighting Mary of Portugal whom he refused to Marry for her sake Besides said she that Princess was very Beautiful and Loved you much as you did her before you knew me He well might Love her for she was a Princess of Infinite Wit whose Body and Mind were equally Admirable her Meen was modest and yet Majestick she was of a most accomplish't Beauty and indeed the most admirable of that Age. I cannot Read her Character in Fam. Strada's History of the Wars of Flanders without being charmed with the Merit and Vertue of this Princess whom in the absence of Don Sebastian the King of Spain Philip the Second gave to her Cousin-German in Marriage being Brother and Sister's Children This was that Great and most Renowed Souldier of his Time Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma the King's Nephew who did him those Eminent Services as Governour of the Low Countrys This Princess spake Latine Elegantly understood the Greek Tongue was perfectly Mistress of the Mathematicks a Great Judge of Philosophy and Familiar in the Holy Scriptures of both Testaments And with all this was of an admirable Innocence of Manners and a Holy Life Of all which the said Strada gives us the Relation The Pretended Sebastian being furnished with these Instructions and above all with those he had cunningly drawn from Xerine took an Opportunity to cross the Sea about Fourteen or Fifteen Years after the Battle of Alcazer Landing in Italy where the Princess was then a Widdow The Hero her Husband dying at Arras in the Six and Fortieth Year of his Age the Second Day of December 1591. People of this Sebastian's Character use not to be ignorant of any Circumstance or
be of Alboin's coming into Italy and conjured him to countermand and hinder it all he could When the Pope and he were returned to Rome and considering how they might remedy this Misfortune Narses died whose body was carried to Constantinople and there magnificently buried Gondoald after this Accident crossed the Sea and made his Court to the Emperour Justin and the Empress Sophia his Wife an Ambitious and Airy Princess His good Meen and Intriguing Humour made him extreamly considered in that Court Venerationem sibi ac Majestatem conciliarunt says Paulus Aemilius He remained at Constantinople all the time of Justin the Second a pusillanimous Prince who suffered his Wife to govern the Empire contrary to his Honour and Interest During the Reign of Tiberius which was seven years he made several Campaigns in the Wars of Persia under Mauritius who was after chosen Emperour and Successor to Tiberius for Gondoald dared not to venture himself in the Court of France where he had been so ill treated having many sad Examples of his Relations Cruelty even to their own Blood Clotaire his Father without Pity or Mercy burnt Cramnus or Granus his own Son with his Wise and Children in a House where they Fled for Refuge He overcame kill'd in Battle Senabut Duke of Britain He Burnt Conobald Duke of Guienne in the Chappel of S. Martin where he ran for safety because he had assisted Granus in his Revolt to whom he Married his Daughter This Clotaire also was Guilty of that abominable parricide of dipping his hands in the Innocent Blood of his two young Nephews Theobald and Gontier Sons of Cladomir his Brother King of Orleans Gondoald considering he had little Reason to expect a better Treatment from his Fathers Brothers Sigebert and Chilperic chose rather to Live quietly in Justin's Court But when he was Informed how matters went in France he resolved to hasten thither encouraged by the Empress Constantina and the Emperour Mauritius Son-in-Law to Tiberius who promis'd him their Assistance His two Sisters-in-Law Brunechilde the Daughter of Athanagilde King of the Wisigoths in Spain Married to his Brother Sigebert and Fredegonde Woman of the Bed-chamber to the Queen Galsond Wife to Chilperic his other Brother King of Paris who first became Mistress and then Wife to that King These two Women disturbed all France Their Husbands having been Traitorously Murthered which was the occasion of his Return after having been Twenty Years in the East He Landed at Marseilles with a splendid Equipage where Theodore Bishop of that Diocess received him with much Honour it being reported he brought Vast Riches along with him and was able to give great Rewards having made the best Advantage of his Happiness in the Eastern Court besides the finding a mighty Treasure hid by Narses the Eunuch His Royal Qualities and Majestick Person were admired The Fame of his Actions having gain'd him the Reputation of a good Captain Scholler to the Incomparable General Narses Didier who absolutely Commanded the Countrys adjacent to Tholouse Mummol much talkt of for his Service in the Wars against the Greeks and Lombards and thought one of the best Souldiers in his time besides many Lords both Visigoths and Romans who kept the Frontiers of Spain declared for him Thus having acquir'd such powerful Friends and reduced to his Obedience a great part of the People and Cities of Guienne the Peregordins and Bourdelois those of Tholouse and Anjou followed his Fortune Childebert King of Mets the Nephew of Gondoald was then angry with his Uncle Gontran King of Orleans for refusing to deliver into his hands his Mother-in-Law Queen Fredegonde the Murtheress of King Sigebert his Father which reason perswaded him to declare for Gondoald sending him Ambassadors and stiling him King to give him the more Majesty for the obtaining the Hearts of the French advising him to take the Name of Clotaire his Father The occasion of Gontrans refusing to deliver to him the Queen Fredegonde was that young King Clotaire the Second her Son was under his Tutelage and he thought it below a Generous Prince to give up the Mother of him whom he intended to make his Successor Gontran was a Prince extreamly Good Pious and Charitable I can find no other Reason why he preferr'd Clotaire his Nephew who was but Four Months Old when his Father Chilperic was Assassinated by the Infidelity of Fredegonde his Wife Gondoald having before so much cause to doubt whether Clotaire were Lawfully begot or no his Mother being of a very scandalous Life in her Husbands time abandoning her self to the Maire or Stewards of the Pallace Londry de la Tour. Unless he thought the Decision of the Laws sufficient that Filius est quem nuptiae demonstran That Child is Legitimate who is Born of a Woman who hath a Husband He hoped to give good Impressions to the young Prince being like soft Wax capable of any he would make But Gondoald's Humour he extreamly apprehended for his fierceness and resentment of the usage he received in his younger Days That Divine Quality so Admirable in a Prince to forget Injuries received when 't is in his Power to Revenge them never having been exercised by Clotaire his Father who always prefer'd his own private Resentments This made him not acknowledge Gondoald that came from the Court of Constantinople when the Grecian Artifices Treachery and Cruelty were much in use The Affection and tenderness he had for the Innocent Child prevail'd over his aversion to the Vices and conduct of Fredegonde his Mother Raymond Bishop of Paris a Person of an Exemplary Life first spoke to the good King in Favour of this young Prince he having before saved Fredegonde from the Fury of the People inraged by the Death of their King Chilperic of which she and her Gallant Landry were shrewdly suspected he giving her with her Son and Treasure refuge in his Church The Merciful King continued his Clemency to his Death which happened the 28th of March 594. Still assisting the Queen with his Councel and Protection He perswaded her by his remonstrances with the fear and respect she had to offend him to Live a more retir'd Life He caused what the Courtiers and Domesticks of his Brother Chilperic had unjustly taken from several particular Persons to be restored He did many Favours to the Church making those dues to be paid which Chilperic had supprest or diverted and largly assisting the Poor All which he had reason to believe Gondoald would not do being greedy of Money wanting all the Treasure he could get to recompence his Creatures and support the Luxury he had Learnt at Constantinople I will not stop to relate the Encomiums which Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius in their Chronicles give this King Gontran only say it was the greatest misfortune or if you please an effect of Gods Judgment to want his protection and be rejected by him Though Gondoald did all he could to obtain his Favour He chose two
Paternal Grand-mother Sister to the same Emperor and of the Cardinal Henry his Great Uncle A Desire to Augment his Glory by setting a Moorish Prince on the Throne of Fez in Africa imitating Alexander the Great who at his Age passed the Hellespont for the Conquest of Asia Perswaded him to do the same over the Straights of Gibraltar for the Subjugating Africk his Ancestors having shewed the way especially King Don Emanuel whose Heroick Vertues frequent Prosperities and Signal Victorys had vanquish't and made Tributary several Kings in those Extream Parts of the World Chiefly by the Conduct of the Famous Don Alphonso Albuquerque and also through his Care to plant the Christian Faith which Justly made him esteemed one of the Greatest and most Happy Princes in the World The same Motives of Religion and Glory with the Hopes that Muley Mahomet or Muley Hamet King of Fez whom he undertook to re-establish in the Throne would according to his Promise embrace the Christian Religion perswaded him to this most Unhappy Enterprize and as the Marquis of Pisani then Ambassador for the Crown of France in the Spanish Court declares That he was also push't on to this Engagement by the Vnsound and Pernicious Counsels of the Jesuites I have Read in their Catechism That this Prince being a Jesuite in his Heart would not Marry they having often sollicited him to make a Law That for the future none should be King of Portugal but a Jesuite and Elected by their Order as the Pope is by the Cardinals And because this young Prince could not or to say truely durst not condescend to it though Superstitious enough they assured him that God had so ordained it as he should understand by a Voice from Heaven when he came to the Sea-side so that he several times expected it but these good Apostles for so they called them in Portugal could not so well carry on their Mummery to procure the Voice However they so followed these Impressions as carryed him into this unhappy War in the Flower of his Age being about Twenty Two Years Old This Disaster one of the most terrible that ever the Sun beheld was presaged the Year before it happened that is in 1577. by the Appearance of a Prodigious Comet seen in the Ayr when all Portugal was in Armes Nunquam visus Terris impune Cometes if you believe the Poet. I will not leave my Subject to seek further any Reasons of the War That having been at large declared by Giovanni Botero Benese Abbot of St. Michael de la Chiusa in his first Volume of his General Description of the World which was augmented by Pierre Daviti of Tournay and continued by Me in the Year 1660. Cherif Xeque King of Fâ—z and Morocco gave his Kingdoms to his Sons Successively excluding his Grand-sons Abdalla Successor of Xeque to Frustrate his Fathers Will put all his Brothers to Death who were very Numerous being born of many Wives after the Mahumetan Fashion Only Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck and Hamet sled to Constantinople for the saving their Lives and for a better Expectation of the Crown to exclude their Nephews the Sons of Abdalla according to their Father's Establishment Muley Mahomet the Son of Abdalla tryed to secure his Fathers Scepter to the Prejudice of the Substitution made in his Uncles Favour And in truth Justice was on his side it being the Natural Order of Succession However his Uncle Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck assisted by the Turks beat him three several times This made him Cross the Sea to Implore the Assistance of King Don Sebastian who moved with hopes of converting the Moores through more Zeal than Prudence and heightned by his Desire of Glory heard the Affrican Kings Protestations from whom he promised himself great Advantages for the Christian Religion for the Reputation of his Name and the Utility and Profit of his Subjects With these Notions he passed the Seas at the Head of a very Powerful Army and joyning with Muley Mahomet he gave Battle to Muley Abdelmeleck near the City Alcazer on the Plains of Tamista in the Year 1578. where to his great Unhappiness his Army was defeated with an extream Slaughter and he doing the Office of a Valiant Captain was there kill'd Though the Portuguezes have always believed and yet affirm his Escape from the Fight into Italy where many saw him as we shall after declare Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck in the Beginning of this Action was taken with an Appoplexy and carryed to his Tent where he dyed just when his Enemies were upon the Point of Flying Hamet his Brother Reaping the Sole Fruit of this Victory Mahomets Body was carefully sought for by his Order and being found his Skin was slayed off and stufft with Straw to be carryed before him at his triumphant Entry into the City of Fez. This Mahomet left a Son called Chirissi whom his Uncle Albequerin brought into Spain where turning Christian by the Munificence of Philip the Second he was made Commendator of the Order of S. James though commonly called the Prince of Morocco Some years after this King Don Sebastian came back out of Affrica But whether he were the True or an Impostor the World seems yet divided in their Opinions Daniel Hawley an Irish Man of the Order of St. Dominick called Arch-bishop of Goa when he was Ambassador in France from Alphonso the Sixth King of Portugal told me in Paris That he was fain to refuse the Licensing a Book which said This King Don Sebastian had lost his Life in that Battle of Alcazer till he had Obliged the Author to change his Language and Opinion And at this present to say That he was an Impostor and not the true Don Sebastian that returned from Affrica is forbidden and Criminal in Portugal Peter Mathâ—â—a in his History of Henry the Great in the Third Book and Mademoiselle des Jâ—â—â—â—as in the Seventh Part of her Aâ—nales Gallantes in the Eighth History tells by what good Fortune this young Prince got from among the Dead and how he wandred from the Field of Battle I will not determâ—ne any thing on the likelyhood or real Truth of the Action She says That this King though he were promised and engaged to Many the Princess Mary his near Kinswoman Daughter of Edw. Duke of Braganza and Isabel one of the Daughters of King Don Emanâ—eb fell so much in Love with Xerine Daughter of Muley Moluc who being born of a Greek was much whiter than Affricans commonly are that he promised to Marry her and underhand bring what Obstacles he could against the Dispensation to Marry his Cousin German This Moorish Princess understanding Don Sebastians Defeat whom she dearly Loved despiseing the Crowns of Fez and Morocco for the Hopes of that of Portugal and Transported with a Grief even to Despair Rann ere the Day-brake to the Plains of Tamista only accompanyed with Laura a Christian Slave her Confident resolving to Sacrifice her self with her own Hand on the Body of
their Subject This so possest the Dutchess with Rage and Jealousy that she destroy'd all she had before done for him and declared him an Impostor Xerine came soon after into Portugal to sollicite the Establishment of her Husband purely moved by her own Conjugal Affection notwithstanding his Ingratitude and had she come before he had left the Dutchess her Resentment might have been more Fatal Mademoiselle des Jardins contrary to the Idea that Strada gives of her says Her anger was the more Justifyable having granted this Counterfeit Sebastian many innocent Favours which this Accident made her think Criminal Her Aversion bearing a Proportion to her Former Kindness made her fly from one Extream to another She sent and declared to the Estates That he was a Counterfeit which she had discovered by the many Contradictions and different Stories she found him in Making a Voyage into Portugal more to raise him Enemies for his Perfidiousness than for the obtaining her Son Rainuccio that Crown And as her Anger saw plainer than her Love so it was more Active The Circumstances of the true Sebastians Death were examined by the Assembly of the Estates His defeat at Tamista was not so general but that several Persons of Note could give an Account of their Princes Fate They all affirmed They had followed him to the Side of the River Mucazen Some added They saw him drowned there And others said They had like to have perish't by endeavouring to Save him This Story no way agreed with what Xerine affirmed of finding him in the middle of the Battle But that which made most against him was the Account she gave of the Cloths he was wounded in The King's Officers affirming that they were no way like those he had on that Day But Nature had made the Subject so like the Prince and he so supported the Resemblance by his Wit and Courage that they knew not what to resolve The more they examined the greater Difficulties arose It was a horrid Crime to refuse their Lawful Prince his Crown And it could be no less to give it to an Impostor But the Death of the Counterfeit determined the Matter The Politicians look't on this Union of Don Sebastian with the Moors as very dangerous to Portugal He had Married Xerine by a most Signal Infidelity charmed with her Beauty before he came to Affrica She drew him from among the Dead and was Married to him before the Old Prince Boabdelin at Hoscore and it was impossible to bring any Obstacle by reason of the Difference of Religion she having promised to become a Christian and kept her word as soon as she Landed in Portugal Mademoiselle des Jardins says The Pretended Sebastian was with an Army raised in his Favour upon the Frontiers of Portugal where it is separated from the Kingdom of Oviedo and that being obliged to Fight his Ambition made his Courage so rash that he was made a Prisoner and carried to Lisbon where his Adversaries talked of no less than punishing his Insolence by a shameful Death But this supposed King died in Prison leaving great Suspicions that his Death was hastened He desired to see Xerine before he dyed and the last Breath being a Touch-Stone to the Artinces of Life he confest to this Princess of Morocco That he was not the King of Portugal and Conjured her not to disturb the Election after his Death This Declaration he found necessary for the Peace of his Conscience Xerine having had a Son by him who might have caused much disturbance He could not make such a Confession without great Signes of Remorse Crying Ah Madam I have deceived you more ways than one yet I can but weakly reproach my self for the Deceit which made me your Husband I should do it more not to have used it when in my Power than I can think my self Guilty for the accepting so great a Glory But Madam That which makes me Dye in Despair is That once I ceased to Love you for the hopes of a Crown which I obtained not and which a Thousand Accidents might take from me if I had gained it I was on the point of Renouncing a Heart that all the Diadems upon Earth could not justly Meritâ—â— Afflict not your self said the Generous Princess with 〈◊〉 too late and unuseful Repentance I Loved the Person of Don Sebastian more than the Splendour of his Condition I thought I had met that Person in you Those charmes which first touch't me have lost none of their Priviledge because they were not placed in a Monarch though I confess I should never have observed them in an Ordinary Man Neither my Spirit nor my Birth would have permitted me to Consider whom I had not thought a Prince but my Error became dear to me and is so still for all it is Fatal to my Peace The Name of Husband is so sacred to a Woman truely Vertuous that it wipes out any Stain which accompanies it Therefore try to overcome your Illness my dear Prince pardon that Name Fortune said she lifting her Eyes to Heaven might have given it where she gave me Rescue your self from the Arms of Death if it be possible it may be we may find you a Happiness more serene and easy than that which is denied you in Portugal He was so moved with this Excess of Generosity that he could no longer suffer the Transports of it But expired in the Arms of the Passionate Xerine whose Soul with much difficulty staid behind This Man had in the highest Degree abused the Princesses mistakes and the unconstancy which followed the first Fault was more Injurious than the Crime it self But Xerine truely Loved the Counterfeit Don Sebastian and religiously fulfilled his Desire as soon as her Grief permitted retiring into Affrica without giving the least Disturbance to the Competitors of the Crown I acknowledge to have borrowed the most agreeable Part of this Relation from Mademoiselle des Jardins her Annales Gallantes P. Mathieu in his History of Henry the Great says That Sebastian wandred through many of the Courts of Italy till he fell into the hands of the Viceroy of Naples who sent him to Philip the Second King of Spain By an Effect of whose Policy he dyed in Prison out of the sight of the World and without Witnesses He passed through all Christendom except in Portugal since the late Revolutions in 1639. for an Impostor CHAP. X. THE LIFE OF THE COUNTERFEIT Voldemar Elector and Marquis of Brandenbourg THis Man has past for an Impostor in the Opinion of most Historians as Hen. the Monk of Rebdorff in his Chronicle John Cuspinian in his Lives of the Emperors Nicholas Lutinger in his Life of Frederic the First of that Name Elector of Brandenburg and John Leunclavius in his Pandects of the Turkish History c. For my own Part after examining the Circumstances of his Story I am apt to conclude in his Favour and pity this Princes Disafter in losing his Country and being decryed by
in his Place the absent Voldemar whom they believed was dead They knew that Lewis bore a mighty Hatred to the House of Ascagne the two Electors of that Family Rodolph Duke of Saxony and Voldemar the First having opposed his Election declaring for Frederick of Austria his Rival in the Empire in the year 1313 at the Diet of Franckfort Voldemar the First starving Nicholaas Booch his Envoy in Prison for falsifying his Letters of Procuration razing out the Name of Frederick to insert that of Lewis contrary to his Master's Intention and Pleasure All these Considerations make me reasonably conclude they either thought him Living and had some News of him or were perswaded the Emperour Lewis only gave his Son the Administration of the Marquisate and Electorate of Brandenbourg till he returned or his Death was better confirmed It is almost impossible he should die in a strange Country and tell no Body who he was as likewise that the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria should send no Messengers to be assured of the Place and Circumstances of his Death when it would have saved him so much Trouble and secured so rich a Prize How many Examples are there of Princes who have quitted their Country thro' the same Motives that Voldemar did William Duke of Guienne and Earl of Portou whose eldest Daughter and Heiress Elenor was repudiated by Lewis the Seventh King of France called the Young and Married to Hen y the S cond King of England in the year 1152 also of the Old Blood of the Earls of Anjou which Lady became the occasion of most cruel Wars between those Martial Nations while her Father went on Pilgrimage to St. James of Galicia feigning himself Dead he in the mean time travelling like a miserable unknown Wretch about the World that he might exercise those rude Pennances for his Crimes after his Death being made a Saint to eternize his Memory Fiacre Son of Eugenius the Fourth King of Scotland lived a Hermite unknown to all near Meaux in France chusing a Spade before a Scepter Him also they made a Saint Julius Sabinus an Illustrious Gaul near Langres who boasted that he was descended from Julius Caesar and in the time of the Civil War between Vitellius Otho and Vespasian caused himself to be proclaimed Emperour by several Legions but having the worst in Fight lived Nine Years in a â—ave with his dearly beloved Wife Eponina where in the greatest Extremity to Poverty he had several Children by her but could not so conceal himself to avoyd Death by the Cruelty of the Emperour Vespasian who destroyed him with his Wife and Children The Proverb says Ill gotten Goods are soon lost Which was verisied in the Posterity of Lewis of Bavaria Marquis of Brandenbourg for neither He nor his two Brothers Lewis the Roman nor Otho ever possest it quietly but were constrain'd to abandon it to the Emperour Charles the 4th Thus as Carion concludes in the Fifth Book of his Chronicle the Bavarians were deprived of this Electorate and Marquisate of Brandenbourg by the same Deceits which they had used to frustrate the Princes of Anhalt after the Absence and Death of Voldemar who were justly the next Heirs CHAP. XI THE False Mustapha SON of BAJAZET The First of that Name Emperor of the Turks THere 's none can be so ignorant in History as not to have heard of Tamberlain Emperour of the Tartars and of the Victory he gain'd over Bajazet the First of that Name Emperor of the Turks In the Turkish Annals these two Monarchs are called the one Temir Can and the other Gilderum Can. The Title Can which signifies King or Lord being commonly used to any other Tartar Prince or Turkish Lord. But the Name of Tamberlain or Tamerland was given him because he was Lame which Land expresses in the Persian Tongue Some called him Temir Cuthlus signifying in the Tartarian Language a Fortunate Sword His Sirnames were The Terrour and Desolation of the East Terror Clades Orientis He also stiled himself the Wrath of God or the Instrument of his Indignation As for Bajazet he was Named Gilderum or as others say Hildrim which in the Language of the Tartars signifies the Terrour of Thunder and Lightning The Greeks called him Lelapa that is a Violent Torrent The Imposture of this False Mustapha who called himself the true Son of Bajazet certainly believed to have been killed in this great Battle where his Father was defeated and made a Prisoner obliges me to look backward and tell you of Bajazet with the Subject and Circumstances of the War Bajazet was a most Cruel and Bloody Parricide being the First who taught the Princes of his Family to Imbrew their Hands in the Blood of their nearest Relations he causing his Brother Jacup or Jacob to be strangled whom Paulus Jovius calls Solyman His Ambition was so great that without having any right but the sharper Scymitar he drove many Soveraign Princes out of their Countrys As Techrin Prince of Erzingue or Erzrum in the Greater Armenia whom some call Scander and make him King also of Armenia together with the Prince of Germian the Duzinon or Lord of Adem and others sadly experimented He had also much Afflicted Constantinople and made great Devastations in the Countrys of Emanuel Emperour of the East These expelled Princes being thus cruelly used went in Person to implore the Protection of Tamberlain against the Tyranny and Injustice of Bajazet The same Greek Emperour groaning under the severe Yoak of this Tyrant paying him Three Hundred Thousand Crowns Tribute every Year Tres myriadas Auriorum as Carion has it in his Chronicle was constrained to surrender up the City of Philadelphia to him which the Tyrant had so often Besieged in vain giving him also Hostages and being Obliged to furnish such number of Souldiers for his Wars this made him also send Ambassadours to represent his miserable condition Axalla the bravest of Tamberlain's Generals was a Christian of Genoese Extraction born at Copha in Taurica Chersonesus which was then a City and Collony under the Dominion of that State of Genoa This generous Man endeavoured also by his entreaties to perswade his Master to re-establish these Persecuted Princes and beat down the Pride and Insolencâ— of Bajazet Tamberlain was pleased to hear him express what Glory it would be to his Reputation if he should deliver the Emperour of Constantinople and the other Princes from so unjust a Tyranny The Tartar was so sensibly touched with their Misfortunes that he dispatched away a Herald to require Justice on their behalf from Bajazet at the same time sending a very Rich Vest which is always by them presented from a Superior to an Inferior This so enraged the Turk that a War was soon declared Bajazet bringing an Army of Eight Hundred Thousand Men into the Field Paulus Jovius says a Million where in a bloody Fight he was absolutely defeated and taken Prisoner The Turkish Annals mention not the numbers of either Army only
that Bajazet's was as numerous as Tamberlain's And that the Occasion of Bajazet's defeat proceeded from the generosity of the Tartars in freeing of Diest and other Nations as Germian Mentez c. which Bajazet had subjugated whose Princes were in Tamberlains Army There was none but Bulcis or Bulcogli for so they called George Son of the Despot of Servia who followed not the good Example endeavouring to exterminate the Tyrant by abandoning him as the rest did His Men behaved themselves so well to the Glory of the Christians that Tamberlain cry'd to those about him See how valiant and resolute those Dervices are Proh quam feroces truculenti sunt isti Dervisii till some of his Great Officers told him They were Christians and not that sort of Religious Turks called Dervices Turlacks The Victory fell on Tamberlain's side One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men being Killed upon the Place This Battle was Fought in the Year 1399 and according to the most probable Opinion in the great Plain called Cassobe or Descanards near Mount Stella Memorable for the Famous Defeat that Pompey the Great gave there to Mithridates King of Pontus I find very different Accounts of this Action but follow the Turkish Annals which say that Zelebis or the Noble Mustapha the Name of Zelebis being given to all the Children of the Turkish Emperor was killed in this Fight And he being the Subject of this Discourse who must appear and pretend to the Ottoman Empire and dispute it with his Brothers and with Amurath the Second his Nephew It seemed necessary to dispose the Reader for the History and Adventures of this Impostor by the recital of what preceded it to give him a more full Idea and clear knowledge thereof The Disasters of his Father Bajazet being so annexed to his Death I will say something farther concerning them without resting on what several Authors report of Tamberlains being the most Inhumane and Bloody of Mankind and of his Extraction from the meanest of the People having been very well informed by that Excellent Book of this Conqueror's Life Written by Monsieur Sainctyon which was taken from an Arabian Historian called Alhacent who was an Occular Witness of his Actions and Military Expeditions and familiar with him which Life is very different from that Written by one Acamed Son of Gueraspes a Creature of the Ottoman Family and by consequence an Enemy to Tamberlain He was the Son of the Potent Monarch Og King of Saketay or the antient Pâ—â—shia nearly related and Successor to the Great Cham of Tartary He had two Sons Cham Sentrokius which signifies the Love of Mankind and Letrokius whose Variance occasioned the Desolation of their Country But he for the Goodness of his Life his Royal Vertues and above all his Justice and Victories might be equal'd with Alexander the Great So far was he from those Vices of Cruelty Barbarity and Rage which Paulus Jovius accuses him of Feritatem truculentiam ore truculento recedentibusque Occulis semper minaci And the Turkish Annals call him Inhumane for this reason that when Gilderum or Bajazet was taken and brought to him he conducted him to his Tent receiving him on foot with great Honour Gilderum was on Horse-back because of his Wounds supported by Tamberlain's People and being brought in they both sate down and eat together Tamberlain saying thus to him Prince we ought to give God infinite thanks and to sing Hymns of Praise to him that he has given me who am a poor Lame Man so vast an Empire extending from the furthest Parts of India to the Gates of Sivas which is Sebaste And to Thee from the Walls of this same City to the Confines of Hungary God having thus disposed so great a Part of the World between us what can such a Cripple as I desire of him more 'T is for this his great Goodness that we ought to make him our Acknowledgments It may be thou hast not done this heretofore as thou oughtest but hast been ungrateful to his Bounty for which Reason this misfortune is come upon thee Philip Camerarius in the 54th Chapter of his Historical Meditations makes him continue it further as follows Can we think the Soveraign Disposer of the World thought us the most worthy to Command so many Millions who are wiser and stronger than we That it should please Him that Thou who art almost blind shouldest be Emperor of the Turks And I who am a Tartar and Lame be the Soveraign of so many People No certainly it was not our Merit but a pure Effect of his Grace and Bounty Tamberlain sent him Doggs and Hawks either to divert him in his Trouble or reproach his extraordinary Delight in those Creatures The Turkish History saying that Gilderum kept Seven Thousand Faulconers and Six Thousand Dogs He talked so insolently to Temir on this Occasion that he exposed him to the Contempt of his Army setting him on a Mule and commanding him to be led through it Thus enduring the Mocks of the Souldiers and causing his Wife the Daughter of Eliazar the Despot of Servia whom he passionately Loved to wait half naked at his Table One Day Temir or Tamberlain asked him and desired him to Answer ingenuously If he had fallen into his Power how he would have used him Gilderum or Bajazet who was a Man of a terrible and cruel Temper answered him in a Rage thus To say the Truth if Fortune had given me the Victory and made me thy Master I would have shut thee up in an Iron Cage and so carried thee about with me Tamberlain was not ignorant of the Lex Talionis nor of that natural Law which the Emperor Alex. Severus as saith Lampridius so often repeated Do to another what you would have done to you Following the Law of the Twelve Tables of the Romans and of that famous Edict mentioned by Aulus Gellius in the First Chapt. of his Noctes Atticae where the Curious Discourse is between Sextus Cecilius the Lawyer and Phavorinus the Philosopher And therefore accordingly he shut him up in an Iron Cage Yet the Turkish Annals say He still continued his Humanity always before he decamped going to see and civilly saluting his Prisoner He assured him he would â—ere long grant what he should desire But telling him he would first carry him to Samarcand where he kept his Court and from thence send him to his own Country Bajazet was so afflicted with this that he killed himself in the Fourteenth Year of His Reign and the Fourth of his dreadful Imprisonment in the Year 1403. and of the Hegira or Flight of Mahomet 804. Theod Spandugin relates these Circumstances of it That having no other way to end his Life filled with Rage and Despair he frequently and with such violence beat his Head against the Bars of his Cage that he broke his Skull and died distracted This Emperor left Five Sons of whom Mustapha Zelebis the Eldest was lost at the Battle The Annals