word she might have pass'd for a Heroine if so many illustrious qualities had not been blasted by great vices which appear'd so openly in all her conduct that History neither ought nor is able to dissemble them For it was but too apparent for her honour what prodigality what luxury what shamefull dissoluteness she permitted in her Court and which she her self made use of for gaining such whom she desir'd to engage in her interests Add to this her want of sincerity and faith in her promises the too much credit she gave to Astrologers and Fortune-tellers whom she consulted in reference to the future and above all her immoderate and vast ambition on the account of which and out of her insatiable desire of being always absolute she made no scruple to sacrifice the interests of the State and of Religion both which she had almost ruin'd by wavering betwixt the Huguenots and Catholiques sometimes seeming to be on one side sometimes on the other according as this or that Religion appear'd most conducing to her designs In fine to conclude her character by what relates to the essential part of this History the hatred which she bore to the King of Navarre her Son-in-law and the love which she had to her Grand-son of Lorrain caus'd her underhand to favour the League of which nevertheless she was the gull and was cousen'd by those whom she intended to deceive For she had this misfortune which commonly happens to those who wou'd manage two contrary Factions and poize themselves Trimmer-like betwixt them that she was in a manner equally hated both by the Catholiques and Protestants Such was this Princess whose good and ill qualities were in extremes Yet happy both in relation to God and man For she di'd at a time when the World believ'd her life wou'd be profitable and indeed necessary for the King to draw him out of that Labyrinth of confusions wherein he was entangl'd and also because she di'd with all the serenity of a good Christian having first receiv'd the Sacraments with much devotion though the Huguenot Historians who naturally hated her have written to the contrary And because she was not less abhorr'd by the Leaguers of Paris who believ'd she had a share in the death of the Guises as others also have thought therein following the relation which was written by Miron the Physician they said publiquely that if her Body shou'd be brought to Paris to be laid in the magnificent Tomb which she had built at St. Denis for her self and King Henry the Second her Husband they wou'd certainly throw it into the Seine In the mean time the King who was still of opinion that they might be reduc'd to their obedience by the ways of clemency and mildness sent thither the Dutchess of Nemours mother of the Guises and of the young Duke of Nemours their Brother by the Mothers side who had made his escape not long after he had been imprison'd by the King That Princes◠who was very prudent preferring the benefits of Peace before the unprofitable revenge of her Childrens death had begun to treat by Letter with the Dukes of Nemours and Mayenne her two remaining Sons endeavouring to reduce them by gentle means and offering them all the advantages and all the security which they possibly cou'd wish which gave the King occasion to believe that in the end she might conquer their resentments and appease the commotions in Paris He was willing also that she shou'd be accompani'd by the Sheriffs Compan and Cotteblanche who promis'd him to use their best endeavours to that effect or to return to Prison in Blois if they succeeded not in their negotiation and at the same time sent his express order to the Parliament to inroll the Declaration which he had publish'd immediately after the execution at Blois The Dutchess was receiv'd at Paris with great honour and incredible joy of the people who paid their veneration to her as to the Mother of two Holy Martyrs And the Petit Feuillant Preaching one day before her flew out into so high a transport that turning himself towards her he made an Apostrophé to the late Duke of Guise in these words O Holy and Glorious Martyr of God blessed is the Womb that bore thee and the Breasts that gave thee suck But after all she succeeded not in her negotiation The two Sheriffs forswore themselves and joyn'd with the Factious according to their former practice And upon the request the original of which is kept in the Library of Monsieur Colbert and which I have seen sign'd by forty eight of the principal Citizens a prohibition was made them to return to Blois and the Oath which they had taken was declar'd Null by an order of the New Parliament which the Leaguers set up after they had broken the old one by one of the most Horrible Encroachments which was ever made upon the Royal Authority For the Duke of Aumale and the Council of Sixteen having that August Body in suspicion the Principal Members of which were Loyally devoted to the King's service resolv'd to take them into custody and all the other Officers whom they distrusted Iean Le Clerc otherwise call'd Bussy heretofore a Procureur in Parliament one of the most heady and impudent fellows that ever breath'd and whom the Duke of Guise well knowing him to be a desperate Leaguer had made Governour of the Bastille demanded and obtain'd that Commission which he executed on the sixteenth of Ianuary For in the Morning possessing himself of the Palace-Gates he enter'd arm'd Cap a pie into the great Chamber at eight of the Clock where the Parliament was assembled and told them that the good Catholiques of Paris had given him in charge to present them a Request Afterwards having put it into the hands of one of the Members he retir'd to the Parquet des Huissiers where his men waited for him The Request was this in substance That it wou'd please that Court to unite it self with the Prevost of Merchants the Sheriffs and the good Citizens of Paris for the defence of Religion and of the Town That in conformity to the Decree of the Sorbonne it wou'd declare that the French were discharg'd from their Oath of Allegiance and Obedience to the King and that they wou'd use his name no more in their Orders This was the way which that Villain took to lay hold of an occasion which he knew wou'd be specious and popular under the shadow of which he might use the Parliament as afterwards he did for he knew full well that they wou'd never confirm a Decree so impious as was that of the Sorbonne This is a passage which all of our Historians have omitted and which I learn'd from the Manuscript Journal which the famous M. Anthony Loysel an Advocate in Parliament who was then at Paris left to his Children for their instruction It was nobly communicated to me by Monsieur Ioly his Grandson Chanter of the Church of Nostre
whereby to render their Memory immortal and to fill the World with the glory of their names But on the otherside it gives an Historian to understand that when he is oblig'd to write a History neither fear nor hope nor threatnings nor rewards nor hatred nor love nor partiality nor prejudice to any person ought to turn him one single step out of the direct road of truth for which he is accountable to his Reader if he intends not to draw upon himself the contempt and indignation of posterity which will never fail to condemn him for an Impostor and a publick poisoner Thus you have the Character of this great Man in whom nothing cou'd be censur'd but that he was somewhat too timorous and that he had not firmness and resolution enough to give generous and bold advice in pressing emergencies so to have cut up by the root those great evils which threatned the Government Therefore when he saw the King who was yet more fearfull than himself amaz'd at the audaciousness of the Associators And likewise was of opinion that if he wou'd have ventur'd it was not in his power to have suppress'd the League knowing also full well that the Queen Mother who was his Master's Oracle and who underhand supported the League would never consent that the ruine of it shou'd be endeavour'd and that on the other side he was very desirous to draw the King out of this present plunge betwixt both he took a trimming kind of way by which he thought he shou'd be able to preserve the Royal Authority without the destruction of the League To this effect not doubting but that in case it were not prevented they wou'd chuse a Head who had power to turn it against the King himself he advis'd him to declare in that Assembly that far from opposing the League of the Cathâ—liques against the Huguenots he was resolv'd to make himself the Head of it which they dar'd not to refuse him and by that means wou'd make himself the disposer of it and provide that nothing shou'd be enterpris'd against him And truly this was no ill expedient to check and give a stop for some time to the execution of those vast designs which were form'd by the Authours of the League But it must also be confess'd that by signing this and causing it to be sign'd by others as he did when he declared himself the Head of it he authoris'd those very Articles which manifestly shock'd his Royal Authority put the League in condition and even gave it a lawfull right according to that Treaty which he approv'd to act against himself in case he shou'd disturb it or finally break with it which was impossible not to happen in some time he infring'd the Peace which he had given his Subjects by the Edict of Pacification granted to the Huguenots and precipitated France into that bottomless gulf of miseries that are inseparable from a Civil War which himself renew'd and which was of small advantage to him I shall not describe the particularities of it because they belong to the History of France and have no relation to the League which on that occasion acted not on its own account against the Authority of the King By whose orders two Armies the one commanded by the Duke d' Alanson the other by the Duke de Mayenne attacqu'd the Huguenots from whom they took La Charite Issoite Broüage and some other places of less importance I shall onely say that the King quickly growing weary of the Cares of War which were not â—uitable to his humour loving as he passionately did his ease and pleasures A new Peace ensued which was granted to the Huguenots at the end of September in the same year by the Edict of Poitiers little different from that of May onely with this reservation that the exercise of Calvinism was restrain'd within the limits of the former pacifications and that it was forbidden in the Marquisate of Salusses and the County of Avignon Farther it was during this interval of Peace which was highly displeasing to the Leaguers that the King to strengthen himself against the League by making himself Creatures who shou'd inviolably be ingag'd to his Service by an Oath more particular and more solemn than that which universally oblig'd his Subjects establish'd and solemnis'd his new Order of the Holy Ghost which is even at this day and after the entire revolution of an Age one of the most illustrious marks of Honour wherewith our Kings are accustom'd to reward the merit and service of the Princes and the most signaliz'd Nobility It has been for a long time believ'd that Henry the Third was the Institutour and Founder of this Order and himself us'd whatever means he cou'd to have this opinion establish'd in the World But at length the truth is broken out which with whatever arts it is suppress'd can never fail either sooner or later to exert it self and to render to a man's person or his memory the blame or praise that he deserves For it has been found out by a way which cannot be suspected of forgery and which leaves no farther doubt concerning this Subject that the beginning of this Order is to be referr'd to another Prince of the Imperial bloud of France I mean Louis d' Anjou styl'd of Tarento King of Ierusalem and Sicily who in the year one thousand three hundred fifty two instituted in the Castle Del Vovo at Naples the Order of the Knights of the Holy Ghost on the precise day of Pentecost by its constitution containing 25 chapters and which in the style of those times thus begins We Lewis by the Grace of God King of Jerusalem and Sicily to the Honour of the Holy Ghost on whose day we were by Grace Crown'd King of our Realms for the exaltation of Chivalry and increase of Honour have ordaind to make a Society of Knights who shall be call'd the Knights of the Holy Ghost of right intention and the said Knights shall be to the Number of three hundred of which we as beginner and founder of that said Order shall be Prince as also ought to be all our Successours King of Jerusalem and Sicily But seeing he died without Children by Queen Iane the first his Wife and that after his death there happen'd strange revolutions in that Kingdom that order so far perish'd with him that the memory of it had not remain'd if the Original of that constitution of King Lewis had not by some accident fallen into the possession of the Republique of Venice who made a present of it to Henry the third at his return from Poland as of a piece that was very rare and which coming from a Prince of the bloud Royal of our Kings deserv'd well to be preserv'd in the Archives of France which was not the intention of King Henry For finding this Order to be excellent and besides that it was exactly calculated for him because being born on Whitsunday he had been Crown'd
pay him an entire Obedience and that he propos'd nothing to himself but that provision shou'd be made for the safety of Religion and of good Catholiques which were design'd to be oppress'd through the pernicious Counsells of such as held intelligence with Heretiques and projected nothing but the ruine of Religion and the State These Letters together with those which the Parisians wrote to the other Towns exhorting all men to combine with them for their common preservation in the Catholique Faith and those of the King which on the contrary were written in too soft a style and where there appear'd more of fear and of excuse than of resentment and just complaint for so sacrilegious an attempt had this effect that the greatest part of the people far from being scandalis'd at the Barricades approv'd them loudly praising the conduct of the Duke of Guise whom they believ'd to be full of Zeal for the Catholique Faith for the good of the Kingdom and for the Service of the King And as he desir'd nothing so much as to confirm them in that opinion he was willing that the body of the City shou'd send their Deputies to the King humbly to beseech his Majesty that he wou'd forget what was pass'd and return to his good Town of Paris where his most Loyal Subjects were ready to give him all the highest demonstrations of their Obedience and devotion to his Service He permitted that even processions shou'd be made in the Habit of Penitents to desire of God that he wou'd please to mollify the King's Heart and this was perform'd with so much ardour that there was one which went from Paris as far as Chartres in a most extraodinary Equipage under the conduct of the famous Fryar Ange. This honest Father was Henry de Ioyeuse Count of Bouchage and Brother to the late Duke He had given up himself to be a Capuchin about a year before this time having such strong impressions made upon him by the death and good example of his Wife Catharine de Nogaret Sister to the Duke of Espernon that he was inflam'd with a desire of repentance insomuch that neither the tears of his Brother nor the intreaties and favours of the King who lov'd him exceedingly nor the ardent solicitations of all the Court were able to remove him from the resolution he had taken of leading so austere a Life This noble Fryar having put a Crown of Thorns upon his head and carrying an overgrown Cross upon his Shoulders follow'd by his Fraternity and by a great number of Penitents and others who represented in their Habits the several persons of the Passion led on that procession singing Psalms and Litanies The march of these Penitents was so well manag'd that they enter'd the great Church of Chartres just as the King was there at Vespers As they enter'd they began to sing the Miserere in a very dolefull tone And at the same time two swindging Fryars arm'd with Disciplines laid on lustily poor Fryar Ange whose back was naked The application was not hard to make nor very advantageous to the Parisians for the charitable creature seem'd evidently to desire the King that he wou'd please to pardon them as Iesus Christ was willing to forgive the Iews for those horrible outrages which they had committed against him A Spectacle so surprising produc'd different effects in the minds of the standers by according to the variety of their tempers some of them were melted into compassion others were mov'd to Laughter and some even to indignation And more than all the rest the Marshal de Biron who having no manner of relish for this sort of devotion and fearing besides that some dangerous Leaguers might have crowded in amongst them with intention to Preach the people into a Mutiny counsell'd the King to clap them up in Prison every Mothers Son But that good Prince who notwithstanding all his faults had a stock of Piety at the bottom and much respect for all things that related to Religion rejected wholly this advice He listen'd to them much more favourably than he had heard all the Harangues of the former Deputies and promis'd to grant them the pardon they desir'd for the Town which he had so much favour'd on condition they wou'd return to their Obedience And truly 't is exceeding probable that he had so done from that very time if they had not afterwards given him fresh provocations by proposing the terms on which they insisted for the Peace which they desir'd For the Duke of Guise to whom all these fair appearances were very serviceable and cou'd be no ways prejudicial and who always pursu'd his designs in a direct line knew so well to manage the disposition of the Queen Mother who had seem'd at first to be much startled at his demands that he recall'd her with much dexterity into his interests by working on those two passions which were rooted in her Soul She desir'd to raise to the Throne after the death of the King her Son her Grandson Henry de Lorrain Marquis du Pont and believ'd that the Duke of Guise wou'd contribute to it all that was in his power But as cunning as she was she saw not into the bottom of that Prince who fed her onely with vain hopes of that Succession for another to which he personally aspir'd She infinitely hated the Duke of Espernon and believing he was the man who having possess'd himself of the King's Soul had render'd her suspected to him long'd to turn him out of Court promising her self by that means to be re-establish'd in the management of affairs from which the Favourites had remov'd her And the Duke of Guise who had as little kindness as her self for the Duke of Espernon concurr'd in the same design with at least as much earnestness but for a much different end for he desir'd to be absolute himself In this manner this subtle Prince always dissembling and artifically hiding the true motives by which he acted drew the Queen at last to consent to all that he desir'd and above all to give her allowance that a request shou'd be presented to the King in the name of the Cardinals the Princes the Peers of France the Lords the Deputies of Paris and the other Towns and of all the Catholiques united for the defence of the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Religion This reqest which in the manner of its expressions was couch'd in most respectfull terms contain'd notwithstanding in the bottom of it certain Propositions at least as hard as the Artâ—cles of Nancy and even as those which not long before were propos'd to the Queen by the Duke of Guise For after a protestation in the beginning of it that in whatsoever had pass'd till that present time there had been nothing done but by a pure zeal for God's honour and for the preservation of his Church they demand of the King That he wou'd make War with the Huguenots and that he wou'd conclude no Peace till
is all the 〈◊〉 I will ever take on you for all the 〈◊〉 you have done me when you were 〈◊〉 of the League Thus the Duke being charm'd with so much Generosity and Goodness which won upon his Nature devoted himself wholly to his service and serv'd him afterwards to his great advantage especially against the Spaniards in the retaking of La Fere and Amiens Now after this Agreement there remain'd no more towards the total extinguishment of that great Fire which had spread it self through all the Kingdom than the reduction of the Dukes of Mercaeur and of Ioyeuse who yet held for the League the one in Bretagne and the other in Languedoc For as to the Town of Marseilles which the Duke of Guise to whom the King had given that Government of Provence had retaken from the Rebels it being then under the dominion of two petty Tyrants who acknowledg'd neither the King nor the Duke of Mayenne and who wou'd have given it up to the Spaniards the History of its Deliverance belongs not to that of the League for the Duke of Ioyeuse three years were already past when after the death of his Brother who was drown'd in the Tarn when he had been forc'd in his Retrenchments at the Siege of Villemur he was return'd from Father Aâ—ge the Capuchin to be Duke of Ioyeuse and General of the League in Languedoc This change of his was made at the earnest Solicitations of the Faculty of Divines in Tholouse the Doctors who were consulted on this Case of Conscience and especially his Brother the Cardinal who after the death of the late King was enter'd into the Party of the League having declar'd to him that he was oblig'd under pain of mortal Sin to accept of that Employment for the good of Religion Yet he wou'd not take it without a Dispensation from the Pope who transferr'd him from the Order of St. Francis to that of St. Iohn of Ierusalem He had maintain'd till that time the Party of the Vnion in that Province as well as he was able but when he saw that the greatest part of the Towns made their voluntary submission after the Conversion of the King and that those few Officers of Parliament who were remaining at Tholouse were resolv'd in case he wou'd not accommodate himself to them that they wou'd joyn with the Members of their Company who during the Troubles were retir'd to Castle Sarazin and Besiers He made his Treaty and in Ianuary obtain'd from the â—inâ— in the same manner as the Duke of 〈◊〉 had done an Edict in favour of him by which he was made Marshal of France and Lieutenant of the King in Languedoc and Tholoâ—se and the other Towns of that Province which yet held for the League He liv'd for three years afterwards in the midst of the Pomps Pleasures and Vanities of the World But it caus'd a wonderful Surprize when after he had solemniz'd with great Magnificence the Marriage of his only Daughter Hâ—nrieâ—â—e Charâ—otte only Heir of that rich and illustrious House of Ioyeusâ— with Henry Duke of Montpâ—nsiâ—r it was told on the second Tuesday of Lent by the Capuchin who preach'd at St. Germain de l' Auxerrois that having for the second time renounc'd the World he was return'd the last night into the Cloister from whence he had departed eight or nine years before for the service of Religion as he believ'd but at the last his Mind having been enlighten'd by God's holy Spirit and being strongly wrought upon by the Impuâ—ses of his Grace he had resolv'd to do Justice on himself considering in the presence of God that the Motive on which the Pope had given him the Dispensation no longer subsisting it was his duty dealing sincerely with God who is not to be deceiv'd no longer to make use of it when the Causes which supported it were no more in being For which Reasons he piously resolv'd to resume his ancient Habit of Penitence in which after he had edified all Paris by his rare Vertues and his fervent Sermons he dy'd in our days a most religious Death All that now remain'd was to reduce the Duke of Mâ—rcaeur which was indeed to give the fatal Blow to the League and to cut off the last Head of that monstrous Hydra That Prince who was Son to the Count of Vaâ—demont and Brother of Queen Louise Wife to the late King being carried away with the furious Torrent of the League after the death of the Guises following the example of the other Princes of his Family had caus'd almost a general Revolt in his Government of Bretagne where he made War for almost ten years with Fortune not unlike that of the Duke of Mayenne but with much greater Obstinacy For not withstanding that in the declination of the League he had lost the greatest part of his Towns which were either taken from him or of their own accord forsook his Party yet he still fed his Imagination with flattering Hopes that this fair Dutchy to which he had some Pretensions in right of his Wife might at last remain in his possession by some favourable revolution of Fortune in case the War continued But when he saw the King approaching Bretagne with such Forces as there was no appearance of resisting he made his Applications to the Dutchess of Beaufort to whom he offer'd the Princess his only Daughter for the young Duke of Vandome her Son And it was in consideration of that Marriage that she obtain'd from the King an Edict yet more honourable and at least as advantagious as that which she had obtain'd for the Duke of Mayenne whom she desir'd to have in her Interests designing to make her self powerful Friends by whose assistance she might compass her high Pretensions which all vanish'd by her sudden Death in the year ensuing Thus ended the League by the reduction of the Duke of Mercaeur who had this advantage above all the Princes of that Party that his Accommodation was follow'd by an Employment wherein he obtain'd all the Glory that a Christian Hero cou'd desire and which has recommended his Name to late Posterity For the Emperor Rodolphus dissatisfy'd with his German Generals who had serv'd him ill against the Turks and being inform'd of the rare Merit of this Prince having entertain'd him with leave from the King and given him the Command of his Forces in Hungary he extended his Reputation through all Christendom by his wonderful Exploits in War particularly in the famous Retreat of Canisia with 1500 men before an Army of 60000 Turks at the taking of Alba Regalis and at the Battel wherein he defeated the Infidels who came to the relief of their men besiegâ—d in that City And being upon his return to France after so many heroick Actions it pleas'd God to reward him with another Crown of Glory infinitely surpassing that on Earth and to receive him into Heaven by means of a contagious Disease which took him from the World at