remitted to the judgement of the holy Father who was to decide that controversie in a year The Publication of the Peace was made on the same day through all the Cities of France and the Low-Countries with those rejoycings whose rumour spread to the utmost bounds of Christendom but none so truly resented a joy for it as our Henry who was accustomed to say That it being a thing Barbarous and contrary to the laws of Nature and Christianity to make War for the love of War a Christian Prince ought never refuse peace if it were not absolutely disadvantagious to him The Third PART OF THE LIFE OF Henry the Great Briefly containing what he did after the Peace of Vervin made in the year 1598. unto his death which happened in the year 1610. HItherto we have followed the Fortune of our Henry through ways craggy and intricate over Rocks and Precipices during times very troublesome and full of storms and tempests at present we are about to trace it through paths more easie and fair in the sweetnesses of calm and quiet peace where however his Vertue slept not in his repose but appeared always active where his great Soul was employed without ceasing in the true functions of Royalty and where in fine among his Divertisements he made his most necessary and most important employs his principal pleasures In the two first parts of his Life which we have seen he was by constraint a Man of War and of the Field in this last a Man of Counsel and a great Polititian but in both invincible and indefatigable The true duty of a Soveraign consists principally in protecting his Subjects he must both defend them against Strangers and repress the Factions and Attempts of Rebels It is for this purpose that he hath the power of Arms in his hands and that it is advantagious to him perfectly to understand the mystery of War But that comprehends but a part of his Functions and we may truely say that it is neither the most necessary nor the most satisfactory For besides that he may manage his Wars by his Lieutenants who doubts him to be the most happy Prince that governs his Affairs in such a manner that he hath no need of his Sword but is powerful enough to distribute Justice punish the wicked and to honour and reward deserving men to confer graces and recompences to keep good order and conserve the Laws to maintain his Provinces in tranquillity sustain his Reputation and greatness by his good Conduct inform himself often and diligently of all that passes make himself to be feared by his Enemies and esteemed by his Allies and like a Soveraign himself preside in his Councils receive Ambassadours and answer them dispatch great Affairs by Treaties and Negotiations prevent all ill and deprive wicked persons and enemies of their power to hurt encourage Traffick and the Studies of Sciences and Noble Arts to make his Kingdome rich flourishing and abundant to fetch wealth from all the corners of the earth but above all to procure the glory and service of God so that his Kingdome may be as a Paradise of Delights and a Harbour of Felicity These are in my opinion Employs worthy a potent King a Christian and wise King who being the Shepherd of his people as Homer often calls the great King Agamemnon ought not onely know how to drive away the Wolves I mean make War but likewise understand how to manage his Flock preserve them from Diseases fatten and multiply them The Peace being published with an incredible joy of the French Flemins and Spaniards it was solemnly sworn by the King on the one and twentieth of June in the Church of Nostre-Dame on the Cross and the holy Evangelists in the presence of the Duke of Arscot and the Admiral of Arragon Ambassasadors from the King of Spain for that purpose and afterwards Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert Governour of the Low-Countries for that King swore it on the six and twentieth of the same moneth in the City of Bruxels the Marshal of Byron assisting whom our Henry had newly honoured with the Quality of Duke and Peer confirmed in Parliament as well to give more splendour to that Embassy as to recompense those great services that Lord had rendred him in his Wars In this Voyage the Spaniards spared neither Caresses nor Prayers to this new Duke to inspire him with Pride and Vanity and intoxicated him in such manner with a good opinion of himself that it put a fancie in his head that the King ought him more then he would ever know how to give him and that if his vertue were not sufficiently honoured in France he would finde other places where it should be set at a higher price That which afterwards produced very ill effects Many among the French who knew not truely the pitiful estate wherein the King of Spain and his Affairs were could not comprehend why this Prince should buy the peace at so dear a rate as the surrendry of six or seven strong places and amongst others Calais and Blavet which might be called the Keys of France On the contrary the Spaniards who beheld their King as it were dying his Treasury wasted the Low-Countries shattered in pieces Portugal and his Lands in Italy on the point to revolt the Son which he left a good Prince in truth but who loved repose were astonished that the French having so bravely re-taken Amiens and re-united all their Forces after the Treaty of the Duke of Merceur had not pressed farther into the Low-Countries seeing that in all appearance they might either have carried them or at least sorely shaken them The King answered That if he had desired peace it was not because he was weary of the incommodities of War but to give leave to afflicted Christendome to breath That he knew well that from the Conjuncture wherein things were he might have drawn great advantages but that God often overturns Princes in their greatest Prosperities and that a wife man ought never out of the opinion of some favourable event be averse to a good accord nor trust himself too much on the appearance of his present happiness which may change by a thousand unexpected Accidents it having often happened that a man thrown down and wounded hath killed him who would make him demand his life It was known in a little time that King Philip the second had more need of the peace then France for his sickness was more then redoubled he had for twenty six days continually a perpetual flux of blood through all the conduits of his body and a little before his death he had four Aposthumes broke in his Groin from whence there tumbled a continual multitude of Vermin which all the diligence of his Officers could not drain In this strange sickness his constancy was wonderful nor did he ever abandon the reins of his Estate until the last gasp of his Life for he
but I with my Gray Jacket will give you good effects I am all Gray without but you shall find me Gold within I will see your desires and answer them the most favourably I can possible All his Prudence and all his Address were not too much to teach him to govern himself so that both the Catholicks and Pope might be content with his Conduct and the Hugonots have no cause to be alarmed or cantonize themselves His Duty and his Conscience carried him to the assistance of the first but Reason of State and the great Obligations he had to the last permitted him not to make them despair To keep therefore a necessary temperature he granted them an Edict more ample then the precedent It was called The Edict of Nantes because it was concluded the year before in that City whilst he was there by this he granted them all liberty for the exercise of their Religion and likewise license to be admitted to Charges to Hospitals to Colledges and to have Schools in certain places and preaching every where and many other things of which they are since deprived by reason of their Rebellions and divers Enterprizes The Parliament strongly opposed it for more then a year but in the end when they were made understand that not to accord that security to the Hugonots who were both powerful and quarrelsome were to rekindle new War in the Kingdom they confirmed it On the other side to sweeten the Pope who might be troubled at this Edict the King shewed him all possible manner of respect and strenuously embraced his interests as appeared in the action of Ferrara in the years 1597. and 1598. This Dutchy is a Fief Male of the holy Seat of which the Popes had formerly invested the Lords of the house of Est in charge of its reversion in default of legitimate Males Alphonso d' Est second of that name and last Duke died in the year 1597. without Children and had left great Treasures to Caesar d' Est Bastard to Alphonso the first his Kinsman He had done what possibly he could to obtain the Investiture of the Dutchy on this Bastard who not able to obtain it yet ceased not to take possession of it after the death of Alphonso the second resolving to maintain it by force of Arms. Clement the eighth was obliged to make War against him to dispossess him the Princes of Italy took part in the Quarrel and the Dukes of Guise and Nemours were upon the point to undertake the defence of Caesar whose near Kinsmen they were being the issues of Anne d' Est Daughter of Hercules the second Duke of Ferrara and of Madam Renee de France for that Anne in her first marriage had espoused Francis Duke of Guise and in her second James Duke of Nemours The King of Spain likewise favoured him underhand not desiring that the Pope should grow greater in Italy by the re-union of that Dutchy But Henry the great was not wanting to take this occasion to offer his Sword and his Forces to the holy Father The Allies knowing it were extreamly disheartned and he constrained to treat with the Pope to whom he surrendred all the Dutchy of Ferrara There remained to him onely the Cities of Modena and Regia which the Emperour maintained to be Fief of the Empire and of which he gave him the Investiture From whence came the present Dukes of Modena If the heat which the King testified in this occasion for the interests of the holy Seat sensibly obliged the Pope that care which he made dayly appear to bring back the Hugonots into the bosome of the Church was no less agreeable to him He acted to this purpose in such a manner that from day to day many of the most understanding and of the best quality were converted But that which was more important was his taking the young Prince of Conde from the hands of the Hugonots who had kept him diligently at St. John d' Angely ever since the death of his Father which happened in the year 1587. and brought him up in the false Religion with great hope to make him one day their Chief and Protector The King considering how it would be both prejudicial to the safety of the young Prince and to his own interests to leave him longer there knew so well how to gain the principal of the party that they suffered him to be brought to Court and he gave him for Governour John Marquess of Pisani a Lord of a rare merit and of a wisdome without reproach who forgot not to instruct him well in the Catholick Religion and in the truest sentiments of Honour and Vertue He was yet but seven or eight years old when he came to nine the King gave him the Government of Guyenne loving him tenderly and cherishing him as his presumptive Successour During this calm of the peace nothing was spoken of but rejoycings feasts and marriages That of the Infanta of Spain Isabella-Clara-Eugenia and of the Arch-Duke Albert was solemnized in the Low-Countries and that of Madam Katherine sister of the King with Henry Duke of Bar eldest son to Charles the second Duke of Lorrain at Paris Katherine was forty years of age more agreeable then fair having one Leg a little short She was very spiritual loved Learning and knew much for a woman but was an obstinate Hugonot The King feared lest she should marry some Protestant Prince who by this means might become Protector of the Hugonots and be like another King in France by reason of which he gave her to the Duke of Bar thinking moreover to gain more belief among the Catholicks by allying himself with the house of Lorrain Before this he had used all possible means to convert her even to the employing of threats but not being able to do it he said one day to the Duke of Bar My Brother it is you must vanquish her There was some difficulty about the place and the Ceremony of Celebration of this marriage the Duke would have it done at the Church and the Princess by a Hugonot-Minister The King found a mean he caused it to be done in his Closet whither he led his Sister by the hand and commanded his natural Brother who had for about two years been Archbishop of Rouen to marry them This new Archbishop at first made some refusal of it alledging the Canons but the King representing to him that his Closet was a consecrated place and that his presence supplyed the default of all solemnities the poor Archbishop had no longer power to resist him This Marriage being made for the good of the Catholick Religion it seemed that the Pope should have been content Nevertheless not willing to suffer an ill that a good might come of it he declared that the Duke of Bar had incurred Excommunication for having without the dispensation of the Church contracted with an Heretick nor ever could the Duke
when I am in one be assaulted with tremblings and be fearful in despite of my self They counselled him to shun these ill Prophecies to depart on the morrow and leave the Instalment to be done without him but the Queen was extreamly offended and he good and obliging remained onely to content her The Instalment was made at St. Denis on the 13 of May and the Queen on the 16 of the same moneth was to make her entrance into Paris where there were erected Magnificent Preparations to honour this Feast Already had the forces of the King met at their Rendezvouz on the Frontiers of Champagne Already had the Nobility who were come from all parts sent their Equipages The Duke of Rohan was gone to gather together the six thousand Swisses and there were gone fifty piece of Cannon out of the Arsenal Already had the King sent to demand of the Arch-duke and the Infanta in what manner they would that he should pass their Country either as a Friend or an Enemy Every hour of delay seemed to him a year as if he had presaged some misfortune to himself and certainly both Heaven and Earth had given but too many Prognosticks of what arrived A very great Eclipse of the whole body of the Sun which happened in the year 1608 A terrible Comet which appeared the year preceding Earthquakes in several places Monsters born in divers Countries of France Rains of blood which fell in several places A great Plague which afflicted Paris in the year 1606 Apparitions of Fantosms and many other Prodigies kept men in fear of some horrible event His Enemies were at present in a profound silence which possibly was not caused onely by their Consternation and by the fear of the success of his Arms but out of the expectation they had to see succeed some great blow in which lay all their hopes It must needs be that there were many conspiracies against the Life of this good King since from twenty places advice was given of it since both in Spain and Milan a report was spread of his death by a printed Paper since there passed a 〈◊〉 eight days before he was assassinated through the City of Liege that said that he carried News to the Princes of Germany that he was killed since at Montargis there was found a Billet upon the Altar containing the prediction of his approaching death by a determinate blow since in fine the report ran through all Prance that he would not out-live that year and that he would die a tragick death in the fifty seventh year of his Age. Himself who was not over-credulous gave some faith to these Prognosticks and seemed as one condemned to death So sad and cast down he was though naturally he was neither melancholy nor fearful There had been at Paris for about two years a certain wicked Rogue named Francis Ravaillac a Native of the Country of Angoumois red haired down-looked and melancholy who had been a Monk but after having quitted the Frock he before professed was turned Sollicitor of businesses and come to Paris It was not known whether he was brought hither to give this blow or whether being come out of some other designe he had been induced to this execrable enterprize by those people who knowing that he had yet in his heart some leven of the League and that false perswasion that the King was about to overturn the Catholick Religion in Germany judged him proper for the blow If it be demanded who were the Devils and Furies who inspired him with so damnable a thâ—â—ght and who spurred him forward to effect his wicked disposition the History answers that it knows nothing and that in a thing so important it is not permitted to make pass suspitions and conjectures for assured truths The Judges themselves who examined him durst not open their mouths nor ever spoke but covertly But see here how he executed his wicked designe On the morrow after the Instalment being the 14 of May the King went forth of the Louvre about four a Clock in the Evening to go to the Arsenal to visit Sully who was indisposed and to see as he passed the preparations made at the Bridge of Nostre-dame and the Hostel de Ville for the reception of the Queen He was at the bottom of his Coach having the Duke of Espernon by his side the Duke of Montbazon the Marshal of Lavardin Roquelaure La force Mirebeau and Liancour chief Esquire were before and in the Boots His Coach entring out of the street of St. Honorio into that of the Ferronnerie or Ironmongers found on the right hand a Cart laden with Wine and on the left another laden with Hay which causing some trouble he was constrained to stop for the street is very narrow by reason of the shops builded against the wall of the Church-yard of St. Innocents King Henry the second had formerly commanded them to be beaten down to render that passage more free but it was not executed Alas that one half of Paris had not rather been beaten down then it have seen this great misfortune which hath been the cause of so many infinite other miseries The Foot-men being passed through the Church-yard of St. Innocents to avoid the trouble and no person being near the Coach this wicked person who for a long time had obstinately followed the King to give his blow observing the side on which he sate thrust himself between the shops and the Coach and setting one foot on one of the spokes of the wheel 〈◊〉 the other against a stall with an enraged resâ—â—â—tion gave him a stab with a knife between the second and third Rib a little beneath the heart At this blow the King cryed out I am wounded But the Villain without being affrighted redoubled it and struck him in the heart of which he died immediately without so much as casting forth a sigh The Murderer was so assured that he yet gave a third blow which light only in the sleeve of the Duke of Montbazon Afterwards he neither took care to flee nor to conceal his knife but stood still as if to make himself be seen and to glorifie or boast in so fair an exploit He was taken on the place examined by the Commissioners of Parliament judged by the Chamber of Assemblies and by sentence drawn by four horses in the Greve after having had the flesh of his breasts his arms and thighs drawn off with burning Pincers without his testifying the least emotion of fear or grief at so strange tortures Which strongly confirmed the suspition had that certain Emissaries under the mask of Piety and Religion had instructed and inchanted him with false assurances that he should die a Martyr if he killed him whom they made believe was the sworn enemy of the Church The Duke d'Espernon seeing the King speechless and dead caused the Coach to turn and carried his body to the Louvre where he caused
it to be opened in the presence of twenty six Physitians aâ—â— Chirurgeons who found all parts so sounâ— â—hat in the course of Nature he might yet have lived thirty years His Entrails were the same hour sent to St. Denis and interr'd without any Ceremony The Fathers Jesuites demanded the heart and carried it to their Church de la Fleche where this great King had given them his house to build that fair Colledge at present seen The Corps embalmed in a sheet of Lead covered with a Coffin of Wood and a cloath of Gold over it was placed in the Kings Chamber under a Canopy with two Altars on each side on which Mass was said for eighteen days continuance Afterwards it was conducted to St. Denis where it was buried with the ordinary Ceremonies eight days after that of Henry the third his Predecessor For it is to be understood that the body of Henry the third remained till then in the Church of St. Cornille in Compeigne from whence the Duke of Espernon and Bellegarde great Esquire formerly his favourites brought it to St. Denis and caused his funerals to be celebrated Civility obliging that he should be buried before his Successor The Kings death was concealed from the City all the rest of that day and a good part of the morrow whilst the Queen disposed the Grandees and the Parliament to give her the Regency She obtained it without much difficulty having led the young King her Son to the Parliament and the Prince of Conde and the Count of Soissons who alone could have opposed it being absent The first was at Milan as we have said before and the second at his house at Blandy whither he was retired discontented some days before the Instalment of the Queen When the fame of this Tragical accident was spread through Paris and that they knew assuredly that the King whom they believed only wounded was dead that mixture of hope and fear which kept this great City in suspence broke forth on a suddain into extravagant cries and furious groans Some through grief became immoveable Statue-like others ran through the streets like mad men others embraced their friends without saying any thing but Oh what misfortune some shut themselves up in their houses others threw themselves upon the ground women were seen with their disheveled haire run about howling and lamenting Fathers told their Children What will become of you my Children you have lost your Father Those who had most apprehension of the time to come and who remembred the horrible calamities of the past Wars lamented the misfortune of France and said that that accursed blow which had pierced the heart of the King cut the throat of all true French-men It is reported that many were so lively touched that they died some upon the place and others a few days after In fine this seemed not to be mourning for the death of one man alone but for the one half of all men It might have been said that every one had lost his whole family all his goods and all his hopes by the death of this great King He died at the age of fifty seven years and five months the thirty eighth of his reign of Navarre and the one and twentieth of that of France He was married twice as we have said before First with Margaret of France by whom he had no children The second time with Mary of Medicis Margaret was Daughter to King Henry the second and Sister to the Kings Francis the second Charles the ninth and Henry the third from whom he was divorced by sentence of the Prelates deputed for that purpose from the Pope Mary of Medicis was Daughter to Francis and Niece to Ferdinand Dukes of Florence She had three Sons and three Daughters The Sons were all born at Fontain-bleau The first named Louis came into the world on the 27 September in the year 1601. at Eleven a Clock at night He was King after him and had the Surname of Just. The second was born on the 16 of April 1607. he had the title of Duke of Orleans but no name because he died before the Ceremony of his Baptism was celebrated in the year 1611. The third took birth on the 25 of April 1608. and was named John Baptista Gaston and had title Duke of Anjou but the second Son being dead that of Duke of Orleans was given him which he bore to his death which happened two years ago The eldest of the Daughters was born at Fontain-bleau the 22 of November 1602. she was the second child and was named Elizabeth or Isabella she was married to Philip the fourth King of Spain and died some years past She was a Princess of a great heart and had a spirit and brain above her Sex the Spaniards therefore said that she was truly Daughter to Henry the Great The second was born at the Louvre at Paris the 10. of February 1606. There was given to her the name of Christina and she Espoused Victor Amadeo then Prince of Piedmont and after Duke of Savoy a Prince of the greatest vertue and capacity in the world The third was born in the same place on the 25. of November being the Feast of St. Katherine in the year 1609. and had name Henrietta-Maria This is the present Queen-Mother of England widow of the unfortunate King Charles Stuart whom his Subjects cruelly despoiled of his Royalty and Life but heaven the protector of Soveraigns hath gloriously re-established his Son Charles the second Besides these six Legitimate children he had likewise eight Natural ones of four different Mistresses without counting those whom he did not own Of Gabriella d' Estrees Marchioness of Monceaux and Dutchess of Beaufort he had Caesar Duke of Vendosme who yet lives and was born in the month of June in the year 1594 Alexander great Prior of France who died prisoner of Estate and Henrietta married to Charles of Lorrain Duke of Elbeuf Of Henrietta de Balsac d' Entragues whom he made Marchioness of Verneuil he had Henry Bishop of Mets who yet lives and Gabriella who Espoused Bernard of Nogaret Duke of Valette at present Duke of Espernon by whom she had the Duke of Candale dead some time since and a Daughter at present a Religious Carmilite after which she died Of Jacqueline de Bueil to whom he gave the County of Moret was born Anthony Count of Moret who was killed in the Service of the Duke of Orleans in the Battail of Castlenaudary where the Duke of Montmorency was taken This was a young Prince whose Spirit and Courage promised much The Marquis of Vardes Espoused afterward this Jacqueline de Bueil Of Charlotta d' Essards to whom he gave the land of Romorantin came two Daughters Jane who is Abbesse of Fontevrault and Mary-Henrietta who was of Chelles He loved all his children Legitimate and Natural with a like affection but with different consideration He would
likewise Meulan on the Seine seven leagues off Paris and laid Siege before Dreux At the noise of these Conquests the Duke of Mayenne was obliged in reputation to come forth of Paris to assemble his Troops and to receive contrary to his inclination fifteen hundred Lanciers and five hundred Carabines from the Duke of Parma Governour of the Low-Countries these forces were Commanded by the Count d' Egmont After this Duke had regained several little places which incommodated Paris and the Country adjacent he passed the Seine o'er the Bridges of Mantes to go succour Dreux imagining he might do it without hazarding any thing The King so soon as he had advice of his advance raises his siege but with an intent to fight him and came to this effect to lodge at Nonâ—ncourt on the passage of the River of Eure. Two things principally obliged him to that resolution of giving him battail the one because wanting money he could not long keep his Troops in the body of an Army and had he led them into Normandy he should unprofitably have spent all the revenue of that Province which alone he valued above all others he held The other because he perceived so great a rejoycing throughout all his Army who seemed to leap for joy when they were told they should go to find out their enemy demonstrating by their outward appearances that a day of fighting should be unto them as a day of feasting The Duke of Mayenne was not of opinion that he ought to engage his fortune and honour to the hazard of one day especially considering the valour of the Kings forces in comparison of his the great experience and incomparable vertue of that Prince and with all this his great fortune which had already gained so great an ascendant over his that he believed he could no better overcome him then by avoyding encounters with him But the reproaches of the Parisians the instances of the Legat which the Pope had sent to support the interests of the League the Spanish Cabal which on which side soever fortune turned it self promised themselves great advantages from this battail and in fine the shame to have lost more then forty places in six months without having endeavoured to succour any of them led him as it were perforce to the relief of Dreux and when he was so near it the false advice he had that the King retired towards the City of Verneuil au Perche and the Bravadoes of the Count of Egmont who boasted himself capable with his Troops alone to defeat the Army of the King engaged him with an extraordinary diligence to pass the River of Eure over the Bridge of Yvry To speak truth both the King and he were equally surprised the King to understand that he had so soon passed and the Duke to see that the King whom he believed to have taken the way towards Verneuil came directly towards him but now though they would they could neither withdraw but of force must come to a battail which happened on the fourteenth of March neer the Bourg of Yvry The Histories do at large declare the description of the field of the battail the order of both Armies the Charges which the Battalions and Squadrons both on the one and the other side made and the faults of the Chiefs of the League We shall therefore speak nothing but what concerns the person of our Prince His rare intelligence his wonderful genius and his indefatigable activity in the Mystery of War were all admired It was wondred how he knew how to give orders without perplexing his intellectuals but with as little Confusion as if he had been in his Closet how he could know so perfectly to range his Troops and how having observed the enemies design he could in a quarter of an hour change the whole order of his Army How during the fight he could be every where take notice of every thing and himself give orders as if he had had a hundred eyes and as many armes The noise confusion dust and smoak augmenting rather then troubling his judgement and knowledge The Armies being ready to joyn he lifted up his eyes to heaven and joyning his hands called God to witness of his intention invoking his assistance and praying that he would reduce the Rebels to an acknowledgement of him whom the order of Succession had given them for Legitimate Sovereign But Lord said he if it pleaseth thee to dispose otherwise or that I should be of the number of those Kings whom thou dedicatest to thy anger deprive me of my life with my Crown consent that I may this day fall a victim to thy holy will let my death deliver France from the Calamities of War and my blood be the last that shall be shed in this quarrel Immediately after he caused to be given him his Habiliment for his head on the top of which he had a plume of three white feathers and having put it on before he pulled down his Viziere he told his Squadrons My Companions if you this day run my fortune I shall likewise run yours I will overcome or dye with you let me only conjure you to keep your rankes and if the heat of the Combat make you quit them think as soon of rallying it will be the gain of the Battail you may do it between those three trees which you see there on high on your right hand they were three Pear-trees and if you lose your Ensigns Cornets or Banners lose not the sight of my white Feather which you shall always find in the Road to Honor and Victory The Decision of the Battail having been a long time uncertain was in the end favourable to him The Principal glory being due to himself alone so much the more because he Charged most impetuously on that formidable body commanded by the Count of Egmont and that having entred that forest of Lances with his sword in his hand rendred them useless and constrained them to come to their short Arms at which his had a great advantage because the French are more agile and active then the Flemings so that in less then a quarter of an hour he pierced them dissipated them and put them to rout the cause of the entire gain of the Battail Of sixteen thousand men which the Duke had there were scarce four thousand saved There remained above a thousand horse on the place with the Count of Egmont four hundred prisoners of Note and all the Infantry for the Lansquenets were all cut in pieces They took all his Baggage Cannon Ensigns and Cornets to wit twenty Cornets of Cavalry the white Cornet of the Duke the Colonel of his Reistres or German horse the great Standard of Count Egmont and sixty Colours of foot The Duke of Mayenne behaved himself as valiantly as he ought and many times endeavoured to make some rally but in the end for fear of being encompassed he retired toward the
the King granted him and the Conditions are so honourable that never Subject had greater Advantages from any King of France but they had been greater if that before his party had been so much ruined he had treated for those great Cities who yet held him as their Chief and whom by this means he might still have kept firm to his interests Some time after he came to Monceaux to salute the King who seeing him coming along an Alley where he was walking advanced some paces towards him with all Alacrity and good Countenance possible and thrice straitly embracing him assured him that he esteemed him so absolute a man of Honour that he doubted not of his word treating him with as much freedom as if he had always been his most faithful servant The Duke surprized with his goodness said at his departure That it was now onely that the King had compleatly vanquished him And he ever after as well remained in the duty of a most faithful Subject as the King shewed himself a good Prince and exact Observer of his word At the same time that this Duke had concluded his Treaty and obtained an Edict from the King which confirmed it the Duke of Nemours his Brother by the Mothers side and who was called Marquiss of St. Sorlin whilst the brave Duke of Nemours his elder Brother was living by the means of his Mother reconciled himself likewise to the King and brought under his Obedience some little places which he yet held in Lyonnois and in Forez His elder Brother one of the most noble and generous Courages was ever known died the year before of a strange malady which made him vomit through the mouth and through all his pores even to the last drop of his blood Were it that this malady happened to him out of his extream grief when he was shut up in the Castle of Pierre-Encise to hear of the surrendry of Vienne which was his surest retreat or were it caused by a sharp and scalding poyson reported to be given him by those who feared his resentment he died without being married and his younger Brother of whom we speak was Father to those Messieurs de Nemours whose deaths we beheld in the years last past The Duke of Joyeuse who after the death of his younger Brother slain in the Battel of Villemur near Mountauban had quitted his habit of Capuchin to make himself chief of the League in Languedoc and had maintained the City of Tolouse and the Neighbouring Countries on his party took likewise this time to make his Accommodation and obtained very favourable Conditions by the means of Cardinal de Joyeuse his other Brother among other things he had the Staff of Marshal of France The Lord of Boisdaufin had the same recompence though he had no more then two little places in Mayne and Anjou to wit Sable and Castle-Gontier the King granting him this good Treatment rather in Consideration of his Person then his Places There were now no more to reduce besides the Duke of Merceur and Marseilles This City was governed by Charles de Casaux Consul and by Lewis d' Aix the Viguier or Judge As these two men were upon the point to deliver it to the Spaniards a Burgess named Libertat with a Band of his friends caused the Inhabitants to rise against them and having killed Casaux and driven out Lewis d' Aix put it in full Liberty under the Obedience of the King As for the Duke of Merceur the King granted him a prolongation of the Truce because he was not in capacity at present to go so soon to dispossess him of the rest of Brittany being much hindred by the Siege of la Fere where he was in person and where he had made little progress in three or four moneths Moreover it happened when he least thought of it that the Arch-Duke Albert who commanded the Spanish Army incited by the counsels of that Rosny of whom we have spoke came to fall upon Calais and that Rosny who was a great Captain having at first took the Forts of Risban and Nieule the Spaniards forced the place on the 24 of April and put all to the sword A little after the King took la Fere which surrendred for want of Victuals The Spaniards having made the Treaty would have no Hostages from him saying That they knew he was a generous Prince and of good credit a Testimony so much the more glorious for him because coming from the mouth of his enemies The grief which he had for the loss of Calais was redoubled by that of the Cities of Guines and Ardres which were likewise taken by the industry and valour of Rosny who had done many such other exploits if some months after he had not been killed happily for France at the Siege of Hâ—lst near to Gaunt Now the noise of these four or five great losses received one upon another cast some terrour into the hearts of the people and the Emissaries of Spain excited as much as they could new seeds of division in their spirits serving themselves to that purpose of all sorts of pretexts but above all of that of the oppression of the people Truely it was great but it was caused by the pillages of War and by the necessity of Affairs rather then the Kings fault who had no greater desire then to procure the ease of his Subjects as we shall see This cast him into a great affliction and trouble because he had no Treasure to continue the War and he foresaw by the murmurs already excited that if he crushed the people more he should raise against himself a new tempest In this trouble he had recourse to that great Remedy accustomed to be practised when France is in danger which is the Convocation of the Estates but because the pressing necessity gave him not time to assemble them in a full body he called onely the chiefs of the Peers of his Estate of the Prelates and of the Nobility with the Officers of Justice and of the Revenues He desired that the Assembly should be held at Rouen in the great Hall of the Abby of St. Ouen in the midst of which he was seated in a Chair elevated in form of a Throne with a Cloth and Canopy of Estate On his sides were the Prelates and Lords behinde the four Secretaries of Estate beneath him the first Presidents of the soveraign Courts and the Deputies of the Officers of Justice and of the Revenues He made his Overtures to them by a Speech worthy a true King who ought to believe that his Greatness and Authority consists not onely in an absolute power but in the good of his Estate and the safety of his people If I should account it a glory said he to them to pass for an excellent Orator I should have brought hither rather good words then good will but my ambition tends to something higher
dangerous enemies so that no year passed but with many conspiracies against his person he hoped that in the end some of them might succeed In effect that year there had been three discovered of which that which made most noise was of a woman who offered to the Count of Soissons to poison him but the Count discovered it and she was buried alive in the Greve To the end therefore to gain time he desired to come himself into France having so good an opinion of his own cunning and slights that he assured himself he should obtain of the King the gift of this Marquisate or at least he pretended to make such propositions and to employ so many artifices that there should pass more then a year before he should untangle them He said that his Ambassador had sent him word that he had heard the King say that if they were together they would decide this difference like friends and that it was this good word had set him on his voyage But many suspected and that with some appearance that he had a design to gain some people in the Kings Council to sound the affections and observe and watch the discontented to cast abroad seeds of corruption and division and renew that intelligence might be useful to him at Court Others imagined that he was discontented with Spain because Philip the second having given the Low-Countries in Dower to his youngest Daughter he had left to the eldest wife of this Duke only a Crucifix and an Image of our Lady Moreover he had indeed received some displeasures from the Ministers of Spain and he spread a report abroad were it true or not that he had undertaken this voyage without communicating any thing to Philip the third his Brother-in-law In fine every one judged according to his fancy and possibly none divined the secrets of his thoughts there being never any Prince more close or less penetrable then he And some said his Heart was covered with mountains as well as his Country that is because that he was Hulch-back't as Savoy was mountainous He brought with him a Train which well set forth his degree for he had with him twelve hundred horse but all his Officers were clad in mourning by reason of the death of his Wife which many took as an ill presage The King desiring to receive him according to his dignity commanded all the Cities and the Governours to render him the same honour as if he were there in person He came to Lyons by the River of Roan and was received by la Guiche Governour of that City But the Chapiter of St. John would not give him the place of Canon and Count of that Church because he no longer possessed the County of Villars by virtue of which the Counts of Savoy had been at other times received Adding to this that he had not his Titles nor would give time to make proof of his Nobility of which the Chapiter dispences not with any whatsoever beside our Kings From Lyons he came to Roanna descended by water to Orleans and after came post to Fontain-bleau where the King was He arrived the twentieth of December accompanied with seventy horse and presently to acquist confidence with him he lamented highly against the Spaniards discovered or feigned to discover to him his most secret thoughts and a designe he had to drive them out of Italy He told him his friends his ways and his intelligences for that he would make him believe that he would open his heart to him that he was an absolute French-man and desired to fix himself to the interests of France without reserve The King hearkned to him with attention and thanked him for his good thoughts but after all he finished with this I am of opinion that we should decide first those affairs between us and then talk of others Three days after the King went to Paris where they were to discourse more amply on the subject had brought him into France Now was the beginning of the last year of the fifteenth Age which is counted the One thousand six hundredth celebrated for the Centenary Jubilee which was opened at Rome There were found there four and twenty thousand French some moved by devotion others by curiosity among which there was a good number of Hugonots who went to see the great Ceremony They might do it with all security for during the great Jubilee the Inquisition ceases at Rome where at other times it is much less rigoâ—ous then in Spain The Duke of Bar was in a concealed habit at this Jubilee he went to demand absolution of the holy Father but his submission how great soever could not obtain it nor had he it till the death of Madam Katherine his Wife The beginning of this year beheld the King and the Duke of Savoy live with so much familiarity and so many proofs of friendship that it was believed that they had both but the same heart The French Courtesie and Civility obliged the King to give the Duke all sorts of good Treatments and the desire which the Duke had to obtain from him the Marquisate moved him to a great Complacency and to seek all means to render himself agreeable to so great a King The Court of France avowed it had never seen a more perfect Courtier the Ladies a more pleasing Gallant and the Officers of the King and the great ones a Prince more liberal He knew how to govern himself in such manner with the King that he neither acted his Companion nor his Servant and if he would appear inferiour to him in Grandeur he endeavoured to be superiour to him in Generosity and Liberality he gave with full hands especially to the principal men of the Court The King permitted them to accept his presents and on his side gave very great ones to the Duke he treated him and made the Chiefs of the Court treat him every day shewing him some new subject of divertisement Among other things he desired that he should see his Parliament which our Kings have usually shewn to strange Princes as a Compendium of their greatness and the place where their Majesty sits with the greatest splendour They went together into the Lantern of the great Chamber where they with great delight heard pleaded a very singular Cause chosen of purpose and the sentence or agreement pronounced by Harlay first President a Personage so grave and so eloquent that all which came from his mouth seemed to come from that of Justice her self There was no Civility or Courtesie which the King shewed not to the Duke but after all he released not to him the Marquisate The Duke tryed the business all ways possible sometimes he offered to hold it in homage from the Crown sometimes he proposed to the King his great Designes on the Milanois and on the Empire sometimes he laid before him the platform of a puissant League to destroy
the true Religion The King answered plainly and prudently to those that made him these reports That he knew the heart of Byron that it was faithful and affectionate that in truth his tongue was intemperate but that in favour of those good actions he had done he could pardon his ill discourses Now two things compleated his loss and obliged the King to search into the very bottom of his wicked designs The first was the too great number of his friends and the affection of the Souldiery which he made boast of as if they had been absolute dependants on his Command and capable to do whatever he would The second the most particular friendship he had with the Count d' Auvergne brother by the Mothers side to Madamoiselle d' Entragues who was called the Marchioness of Verneuil For by the one he begat a jealousie in the King and made himself be feared and by the other he rendred himself odious to the Queen who imagined and possibly not without cause that he would make a party in the Kingdom to maintain that Rival and her Children to her prejudice Now the King desiring to search the farthest he could into this affair sends for Laffin who comes to Fountain-bleau more then a month before the King departed towards Poictou He had at first some very secret entertainments with him afterwards very publick ones and gave him great quantities of Papers amongst other those Memoires or Notes written by Byrons own hand of which we have before spoken That which Laffin revealed to the King begat great inquietudes in his spirit so that in all the voyage of Poictiers he was observed extremely pensive and the Court after his example was plunged in a sad astonishment though none could divine the cause of it At his return from Poictiers to Fountainbleau he sent for the Duke of Byron to come to him The Duke at first doubted to go and excused himself with many weak reasons He presses him and sends to him some of his Esquires afterwards the President Janin brought him word that he should receive no harme which was provided he put himself into an estate to receive grace and aggravated not his crime by his pride and by his impenitence Byron knew that Laffin had made a voyage to Court but he was more assured of that man then of himself Moreover the Baron of Lux his confident who was then there had told him that Laffin had without doubt kept his Counsel and not revealed any thing which might hurt him De Lux believed so because the King after having entertained Laffin had told him with a merry countenance I am glad I have seen this man he hath eased me of many distrusts and suspitions of spirit In the mean time the friends of Byron writ to him that he should not be such a fool as to bring his head to the Court that it would be more secure for him to justifie himself by Attorny then in person But notwithstanding this advice and against biting of his own conscience after having some time deliberated he took post and came to Fountain-bleau now when the King no longer expected him but prepared to go seek him The Histories of that time and many other relations recount exactly all the circumstances of the imprisonment process and death of that Marshal I shall content my self to relate onely the chief The insolence and blindness of this unhappy man cannot be sufficiently admired at nor on the contrary the goodness and clemency of the King be enough praised who endeavoured to overcome his obstinacy Confession of a fault is the first mark of repentance The King taking him in private instantly conjured him to declare all those intelligences and Treaties he had made with the Duke of Savoy engaging his faith that he would bury all in an eternal oblivion That he knew well enough all the particulars but desired to understand them from his mouth swearing to him that though his fault should be greater then the worst of crimes his confession should be followed by an absolute pardon Byron in stead of acknowledging it or at least excusing himself with modesty as speaking to his King who was offended insolently answered him that he was innocent and that he was not come to justifie himself but to understand the names of his back-biters and demand justice which otherwise he would do himself Though this too haughty answer aggravated much his offence the King ceased not sweetly to tell him that he should think farther of it and that he hoped he would take better counsel The same day after supper the Count of Soissons exhorted him likewise on the part of the King to confess the truth concluding his Remonstrance with that sentence of the Wiseman Sir know that the anger of the King is as the Messenger of Death But he answered him with more fierceness then he had done the King On the morrow morning the King walking in his Gardens conjured him the second time to confess the Conspiracy but he could draw nothing from him but protestations of innocency and threatnings of his accusers Upon this the King felt himself agitated even at the bottom of his soul with divers thoughts not knowing what he ought to do The affection he had born him and his great services withheld his just anger on the other side the blackness of his crime his pride and obstinacy gave reins to his justice and obliged him to punish the criminal Besides that the danger with which both his Estate and Person were threatned seemed impossible to be prevented but by cutting off the head of a conspiracy whose bottom was scarce visible In this trouble of spirit he retired into his Closet and falling on his knees prayed to God with all his heart to inspire him with a good resolution He was accustomed to do thus in all his great affairs esteeming God as his surest Counsellour and most faithful assistance At his coming from prayers as he said afterwards he found himself delivered from the trouble wherein he was and resolved to cast Byron into the hands of Justice if his Council found that the proofs they had by writing were so strong that there need no doubt be made of his Condemnation He chose for this purpose four persons of those which composed it to wit Bellievre Villeroy Rosny and Sillery and shewed them the proofs They all told him with one voice that they were more then sufficient Yet after this he would make a third trial on this proud heart He employed this last time Remonstrances Prayers Conjurations and assurances of pardon to oblige him to acknowledge his crime but he answered still in the same manner adding that if he knew his accusers he would break their heads In fine the King wearied with his Rhodomontadoes and obstinacy left him giving him these for his last words Well then we must learn the truth in another place Farewel Baron
not that they should call him Monsieur or Sir a name which seemed to render Children strangers to their Fathers and which denoted servitude and subjection but that they should call him Papa a name of tenderness and love And certainly in the Old Testament God took the names of Lord the Mighty God the God of Hosts and others to set forth his greatness and power but in the Christian Law which is a Law of Grace and Charity he commanded us to make our Prayers as his Children by those sweet words Our Father which art in Heaven There remains at present that we put here a Summary recapitulation of the Life of this great King and after erâ—ct an Eternal Monument to his glory in the name of all France which can never sufficiently acknowledge its Immortal obligations to his Heroick vertue He began the first motions of his life in the Camp at the Sound of Trumpets his Mother brought him into the world with a wonderful courage his Grand-father inspired strength into him the first day he saw him and he was brought up to labor from his tenderest infancy The first knowledge that age gave him was to resent the death of his Father killed at the siege of Rouen and to see himself encompassed with dangers on all sides distant from Court his friends dis-favoured his servants persecuted and his ruine conjured by his enemies His Mother a generous and able woman gave him excellent instructions for Morality and Policy but very ill ones for Religion so that he was a Hugonot by Engagement and not by Election And he often professed that he was not prepossessed that he should be ready to clear and â—ay himself open and that if they could make him see a better way then that he followed he willingly and faithfully would walk in it but that till then he was to be tolerated and not persecuted At the age of fifteen years he became chief of the Hugonot party and gave such sensible advices that the greatest Captains had cause to admire him and to repent that they had not followed him He passed the first flowers of his youth part in Arms and a part in his Lands of Gascoin where he remained till the age of nineteen years He was then enticed to come to Court by a Marriage as illegitimate as cruel for we may say that the present Nuptial was the suddain death of his Mother the Feast the general Massacre of his friends and the Morrow of his Marriage his Captivity which endured almost four years at the mercy of his most cruel enemies and in a Court the most wicked and most corrupted that ever was known His courage was not at all weakned by this servitude nor could his soul be infected among so many corruptions But the Charms of the Ladies which Queen Katherine made use of to retain him begat in him that weakness and vice which indured all his life not to refuse any of those desires their beauty inspired To withdraw himself from the servitude of the Court he cast himself into the snare of his ancient party and of the Hugonot Religion He received all those troubles and all those perplexities which the Chiefs of a Civil War make proof of his dignity of General not dispensing with the pains and dangers of a simple Souldier Thrice did he oblige the Court to grant him Peace and Priviledges to his party but thrice they violated them and he several times beheld seven or eight Royal Armies make head against him His valour which had already appeared in many occasions signalized it self with great Renowne at the Battail of Coutras This was the first important blow that he struck on the head of the League A little after it having assembled the Estates at Blois to Arm the whole Kingdom against him and exclude him from the Crown of France the Guises who were believed the Authors of this Tragedy were themselves made the terrible Catastrophe but which filled all with flame blood and confusion The Duke of Mayenne Armed himself to Revenge the Death of his Brothers and the King almost quite abandoned and shut up in Tours was enforced to call him to his aid Our Hero passed by all distrusts and all fears some would have infused into him to take the part of his Soveraign They marched to Paris and besieged it but upon the point to enter Henry the third is Assassinated by a Monk The right of Succession calling our Henry to the Throne he found the way crossed with a thousand terrible difficulties the League in head against him the servants of the defunct King little affected to him the Grandees every one for his particular ends The whole Catholick Religion Leagued against him without the Spaniard the Pope the Savoyard the Lorrainer within on one side the people and the great Cities on the other the Hugonots who tormented him with their continual distrusts He could not advance one pace without finding some obstacle so many days so many battails His subjects endeavoured to overthrow him as a publick enemy and he endeavoured to regain them like a good Father In his Closet and in his Council there were only displeasures and bitternesses caused by an infinity of discontents treasons and pernicious designs which were from moment to moment discovered against his Person and against his Estate Every day a double Combat a double Victory the one against his enemies the other against his followers using Prudence and Cunning where Generosity would not serve At Arques he made it appear he could not be overcome and at Yvry that he knew how to vanquish Every where where he appeared all yeilded to his Arms The League dayly lost places and Provinces It was beaten by his Lieutenants in other places as by himself in the heart of his Kingdom He had forced Paris if he could have resolved to loose it but by sparing it he absolutely gained not onely its walls but its hearts The Duke of Parma stopt a little the progress of his successes but he could not change their course Vertne and Fortune or rather Divine Providence seemed linked together to crown him with Glory God visibly assisted him in all his designes and preserved him from an infinite number of treasons and horrid attempts which were dayly formed against his Life In fine he overthrew the intentions of the Thirdlings and prevented the resolutions of the Estates of the League by causing himself to be instructed in the Catholick Religion and re-entring into the bosome of the holy Church When that pretext of Religion was wanting to his enemies all the party of the League mouldred away Paris and all the great Cities acknowledged him the Duke of Mayenne though very late was constrained to become his subject and return to his duty and all the Chiefs of the League treated separately This shew'd a great deal of prudence and cunning in the King to receive them thus disjoyntly for if they had all together made a treaty of common
all Europe by the esteem of his Vertue In effect since the first foundation of the French Monarchy the History furnisheth us not with any Reign more memorable by reason of the great Events more repleat with the wonders of Divine Assistance more glorious for the Prince and more happy for the People then his and it is without Flattery or Envy that all the Universe hath given him the surname of Great not so much for the greatness of his Victories however comparable to those of Alexander or Pompey as for the greatness of his Soul and of his Courage for he never bow'd either under the Insults of Fortune or under the Traverses of his Enemies or under the Resentments of Revenge or under the Artifices of Favorites or Ministers he remained always in the same temper always Master of himself In a word he remained always King and Soveraign without acknowledging other Superiour then God Justice and Reason Let us then proceed to write the History of his Life which we shall divide into three principal Parts The first shall contain what happened from his Birth till his coming to the Crown of France The second shall speak what he did after he came to it until the Peace of Vervin And the third shall recount his Actions after the Peace of Vervin until the unhappy day of his death But before all it is necessary we speak something briefly of his Genealogie He was Son to Anthony de Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and King of Navarre and of Jane of Albret Heiress of that Kingdome Anthony descended in a direct and Masculine Line from Robert Count of Clermont fifth Son to King St. Lewis This Robert espoused Beatrix Daughter and Heiress to John of Burgoyne Baron of Bourbon by his Wife Agnes for which cause Robert took the Name of Bourbon but not the Arms still keeping those of France This sage Pre-caution served well to his Descendants to maintain themselves in the Degree of Princes of the Blood which those of Courtnay lost for not having acted in the same manner And besides the Vertue which gave a splendour to their Actions the good management and oeconomy which they exercised to conserve and augment their Revenues the great Alliances in which they were very diligent to match themselves ever refusing to mingle their Noble among Vulgar Blood and above all their rare Piety towards God and that singular goodness wherewith they acted towards their Inferiors conserved them and elevated them above Princes of elder Branches for the People seeing them always rich puissant wise and in a word worthy to command had imprinted in their spirits as it were a prophetick perswasion that this House would one day come to the Crown and they on their side seemed to have conceived this hope though it were at great distance having taken for their Word or Device Espoir or Hope Among the younger Branches which issued from this Branch of Bourbon the most considerable and most illustrious was that of Vendosm It carried this Name because they possessed that great Country which came to them in the year 1364. by the marriage of Katharine Vendosme Sister and Heiress to Bouchard last Count of Vendosme with John of Bourbon Count of the Marches At present it was but a County but was after made a Dutchy by King Francis the first in the year 1514. in favou◠of Charles who was great grand-childe to John and father of Anthony This Charles had seven Male-Children Lewis Anthony Francis another Lewis Charles John and a third Lewis the first Lewis and the second died in their infancy Anthony remained the eldest Francis who was Count of Anguien and gained the Battel of Cerisoles died without being married Charles was a Cardinal of the title of Chrysogone and Archbishop of Rouen this is he who was named The old Cardinal of Bourbon John lost his life at the Battel of St. Quintin The third Lewis was called The Prince of Condé and by two Marriages had several Male-Children from the first descended Henry Prince of Condé Francis Prince of Conty and Charles who was Cardinal and Archbishop of Rouen after the Death of the old Cardinal of Bourbon There were eight Generations from Male in Male from St. Lewis to Anthony who was Duke of Vendosme King of Navarre and father to our Henry As for Jane d' Albret his Wife she was Daughter and Heiress to Henry of Albret King of Navarre and of Margaret du Valois Sister to King Francis the first and Widow to the Duke of Alenzon Henry d' Albret was son to John d' Albret who became King of Navarre by his Wife Katherine du Foix Sister to King Phoebus deceased without Children for that Realm had entred into the House of Foix by marriage as it 〈…〉 afterwards into that of Albret and since into that of Bourbon Ferdinand King of Arragon had invaded and taken the Higher Navarre that is that part which is beyond the Pyraenean Hills and the most considerable of that Realm from King John d' Albret so that by consequence there rested to him onely the Lower that is that beneath the Mountains towards France but with it he had the Countries of Bearn of Albrett of Foix of Armagnac of Bigorra and many other great Signories coming as well by the House of Foix as that of Albret Henry his Son had onely one Daughter Jane who was called The Minion of Kings for King Henry her Father and the great King Francis the first her Uncle with Envy to each other strove most to cherish her The Emperour Charles the fifth had cast his Eyes on her and caused her to be demanded of her Father for his Son Philip the second proposing this as a means to pacifie their Differences touching the Kingdome of Navarre but King Francis the first not thinking it fit to introduce so puissant an Enemy into France causing her to come to Chastellerault affianced her to the Duke of Cleves and after releasing her of that Contract married her to Anthony of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and the Marriage was solemnized at Moulins in the year 1547. the same year that Francis the first died The two young Spouses had in their first three or four years two Sons both which died at Berceau by accidents very extraordinary the first because its Governess being her self cold of nature kept it so hot that she stifled it with heat and the second by the carelessness of the Nurse who playing with a Gentleman as they danced the Childe from one to another let it fall to the ground so that it died in torment Thus Heaven deprived them of these two little Princes to make way for our Henry who merited well both the Birth-right and to be an onely Son Let us now come to the History of his Life The First PART OF THE LIFE OF HENRY the Great Containing his History from his Birth until he came to the Crown of FRANCE
burned the suburbs of Toulouse in such manner that the sparkles of that fire flew into that great City The War being thus kindled in the heart of France he shewed himself on the other bank of the Rhone with his troops gained by storms the City of St. Julien and St. Just and obliged St. Estienne en Forez to capitulate From thence he descended to the banks of the Saone and afterwards into the middle of Burgongne Paris trembled the second time at the approach of an Army so much the more formidable because it seemed to be re-inforced by the loss of two-battles and to have now gained some advantage over that of the Catholicks which the Marshal de Cosse commanded The Counsel of the King fearing to hazard all by a fourth Encounter judged it more to the purpose to plaister up a peace with that party it was therefore treated of the two Armies being near each other and concluded in the little City of Arnay-le-Duc on the eleventh of August This Peace made every one retire home the Prince of Navarre went to Bearn King Charles the ninth married with Elizabeth Daughter to the Emperour Maximilian the second and nothing else seemed thought of but Feasts and Rejoycings In the mean time the King having found that he could never compass his Desires on the Hugonots by force resolved to make use of meáns more easie but much more wicked he began to caress them to feign that he would treat them favourably to accord them the greatest part of those things they desired and to lull them asleep with hopes of his making War against the King of Spain in the Low-Countries a thing they passionately desired and the better to allure them he promised as a gage of his faith to marry his Sister Margaret to our Henry and by these means drew the principal Chiefs of their party to Paris His mother Jane who was come before to make preparations for the marriage died a few days after her arrival a Princess of a Spirit and Courage above her Sex and whose Soul wholly virile was not subject to the weaknesses and defaults of other women but in truth a passionate Enemy of the Catholick Religion Some Historians say that she was poisoned with a pair of perfumed Gloves because they feared that she having a great spirit would discover the designe they had to massacre all the Hugonots but if I be not deceived this is a falsity it being more likely which others say that she died of a Tissick since those that were about her and served her have so testified Henry her Son who came after her being in Poictou received news of her death and presently took the Quality of King for hitherto he had onely born that of Prince of Navarre So soon as he came to Paris the unhappy Nuptials were celebrated the two parties being espoused by the Cardinal of Bourbon on a scaffold erected for that purpose before the Church of Nostre-Dame Six days after which was the day of St. Bartholomew all the Hugonots which were come to the solemnity had their throats cut amongst others the Admiral and twenty other Lords of remark twelve hundred Gentlemen three or four thousand Souldiers and Burgesses and through all the Cities of the Kingdome after the example of Paris near an hundred thousand men Execrable action which never had nor ever shall again if it please God finde its parallel What grief must it needs be to our young King to see in stead of Wine and Perfumes so much Blood shed at his Nuptials his best friends murthered and hear their pitiful cries which pierced his ears into the Louvre where he was lodged And moreover what trances and fears must needs surprize his very Person for in effect it was consulted whether they should murther him and the Prince of Condé with the rest and all the murderers concluded on their death nevertheless by a miracle they after resolved to spare them Charles the ninth caused them to be brought to his presence and having shewed them a mountain of dead bodies with horrible threats not hearkning to their reasons told them Either Death or the Mass. They elected rather the last then the first and abjured Calvinism but because it was known they did it not heartily they were so straitly observed that they could not escape the Court during those two years that Charles the ninth lived nor a long time after his death During this time our Henry exquisitely dissembled his discontents though they were very great and notwithstanding those vexations which might trouble his spirit he cloathed his visage with a perpetual serenity and humour wholly jolly This was without doubt the most difficult passage of his Life he had to do with a furious King and with his two Brothers to wit the Duke of Anjou a dissembling Prince and who had been educated in massacres and with the Duke of Alenzon who was deceitful and malitious with Queen Katherine who mortally hated him because her Divines had foretold his reign and in fine with the house of Guise whose puissance and credit was at present almost boundless He was doubtless necessitated to act with a marvellous prudence in the conduct of himself with all these people that he might not create in them the least jealousie but rather beget a great esteem of himself make submission and gravity accord and conserve his Dignity and Life in the mean time he dis-engaged himself from all these difficulties and from all these dangers with an unparallell'd address He contracted a great familiarity with the Duke of Guise who was about his own age and they often made secret parties of pleasure together but he agreed not so well with the Duke of Alenzon who had a capritious spirit nor was he over-much troubled at his ill accord with him because neither the King nor Queen-mother had any affection for this Duke However he gave no credit to the ill counsel of that Queens Emissaries who endeavoured to engage his contending in Duel against him so much the rather because that he considering him as the brother of his King to whom he ought respect he knew well it would have proved his loss and that she would not have been wanting to take so fair a pretext to ruine him He shunned likewise other snares laid for him but yet not all for he suffered himself to be overtaken with the allurements of some Ladies of the Court whom it is said that Queen served her self expressly of to amuse the Princes and Nobles and to discover all their thoughts From that time for Vices contracted in the blossome of youth generally accompany men to their tomb a passion for women was the greatest feebleness and weakness of our Henry and possibly the cause of his last misfortune for God punisheth sooner or later those who wickedly abandon themselves to this criminal passion Besides this he contracted no other
and attended onely by one Page passing the Bridge went to give a visit to the King They entertained one another a long time in two or three Conferences in which our Henry gave great marks of his Capacity and Judgement Their Resolution in sum was to raise a puissant Army to assault Paris which was the principal head of the Hydra and gave motion to all the rest a thing easie for them to do because the King expected great Levies from towards the Switzers whither he had sent Sancy for that purpose adding that the designe of the siege being published it would infallibly draw a great number of Souldiers and Adventurers out of hopes of so rich a pillage The two Kings having passed two days together he of Navarre went to Chinon to cause the rest of his Troops to advance who hitherto had refused to mingle themselves among the Catholicks During his absence the Duke of Mayenne who had taken the Field fell upon the Suburbs of Tours thinking to surprize the City and the King within it by means of some intelligence The Combat was very bloody and the Dukes designe wanted little of taking effect but after the first endeavours having lost the hopes to compass it he easily retired Afterwards the Kings Troops being wonderfully increased they marched conjoyntly he and the King of Navarre towards Orleans took all the little places thereabouts and from thence descended into Beauce and drew together all of a suddain towards Paris All the Posts round about it as Poissy Estampes and Meulan were either forced or obtained Capitulation in which they desired no other security then the word of the King of Navarre to which they trusted more then to all the Writings of Hen. 3. So great a profession made he of keeping his word even to the prejudice of his interests Let us consider a little the different Estate to which these two Kings were reduced by their different conduct The One for having often broken his Faith was abandoned by his Subjects and his greatest Oaths found no belief amongst them and the Other for having always exactly kept it was followed even by his greatest Enemies in all occasions he gave marks of his Valour and Experience in point of War but above all of his Prudence and of those Noble Inclinations he had to good and to oblige all the world He was always seen in the most dangerous places to accelerate Labours animate his Souldiers sustain them in Sallies comfort the wounded and cause Money to be distributed amongst them He observed all inquired into all and would himself with the Marshal of the Camp order the Lodgings of his Souldiers He observed strictly what was done in the Army of Henry 3. where though he often found faults he concealed them out of fear to offend those who had committed them by discovering their ignorance and when he believed himself oblito take notice of them he did it with so much Circumspection that they could not finde any reason to take it in ill part He was never niggardly of giving praises due to Noble Actions nor of Caresses and generous Deport to those came near him he entertained himself with them when he had time to do it or at least so obliged them with some good word that they still went away satisfied He feared not at all to make himself familiar because he was assured that the more men knew him the more they would esteem him In fine the conduct of this Prince was such that there was no heart he gained not nor no friend he had who would not willingly have become his Martyr Paris was already besieged the King lodged at St. Clou and our Henry at Meudon keeping with his Troops all that is between Vanvres to the Bridge of Charenton Sancy was already arrived with his Levies of Suisses and they laboured with Orders to give a general Assault to the end they might gain the Suburbs beneath the River The Duke of Mayenne who was in the City with his Troops expecting those Supplies the Duke of Nemours was to bring was in great apprehensions that he should not be able to sustain the furious shock was preparing when a young Jacobin of the Convent of Paris named James Clement spurred on by a Resolution as devilish and detestable as it was determinate smote King Henry the third with a blow of a knife in the Belly of which he died the morrow after If the frantick Monk had not been slain upon the place by the Kings Guards many things might have been known which are now concealed Our Henry being advertized late in the Evening of this mournful Accident and of the danger in which the King was came to his Lodging accompanied onely by five and twenty or thirty Gentlemen and being arrived a little before he expired he fell on his knees to kiss his hands and received his last Embraces The King named him many times his Good Brother and Legitimate Successour recommended the Kingdome to him exhorted the Lords there present to acknowledge him and not to disunite In fine after having conjured him to embrace the Catholick Religion he gave up the Ghost leaving all his Army in an astonishment and confusion which cannot be expressed and all the Chiefs and Captains in Irresolutions and different Agitations according to their Humours Fancies or Interests The Second PART OF THE LIFE OF Henry the Great Containing what he did from the day he came to the Crown of France until the Peace which was made in the year 1598. by the Treaty at Vervin THE Death of Henry the third caused an entire change in the face of affairs Paris the League and the Duke of Mayenne were transported from a profound Sadness to a furious Joy and the Servants of the Defunct King from a Pregnant Hope to see him Revenged to an extreme Desolation This Prince who had been the object of the peoples hatred being now no more it seemed that that hatred should cease and by consequence the heat of the League relent but on the contrary not only all those who composed that faction but likewise many others who had held it for a Crime to League themselves against Henry the third their Catholick and Legitimate King believed themselves in Conscience Obliged to oppose themselves against our Henry at least till such time as he should return into the bosome of the true Church a qualification they believed absolutely necessary for that him should succeed Charlemagne of S. Lewis So that if the League lost that heat which hatred gave it it gained one much more specious from a zeal to Religion and had likewise a most plausible pretext not to lay down Arms till Henry should Profess the Religion of his Ancestors It was very difficult to judge whether the point of time wherein this unhappy Parricide arrived were good or ill for him for on one side it seemed that Providence had not drawn him from the
took care before his death to treat of the marriage of his Son with Margaret Daughter to the Arch-Duke of Grats and that of his dear Daughter Isabella with the Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert of the same blood with her and gave him for Dowry the Low-Countries and County of Bourgongne on Condition of its Reversion if she died without issue He had already signed the Articles of the peace but this mortal sickness permitted him not to give Oath to it with the same solemnities as the King and Arch-Duke had done Philip the third his Son and Successour acquitted himself of this Obligation on the one and twentieth of May in the year 1601. in the City of Vallidolid and presence of the Count of Rochepot Ambassodour of France The license of the War having for many years permitted mischiefs with impunity there were yet found a great number of Vagabonds who believed it still permitted them to take the Goods of others at pleasure and others there were who thought they had right to do themselves justice by their arms not acknowledging any Laws but force This obliged our wise King to begin the Reformation of the Estate by the Re-establishment of publick Security To this effect he forbad all carrying of Fire-arms to all persons of what quality soever upon pain of the Confiscation of their Arms and Horses and a Fine of two hundred Crowns for the first fault and of Life without remission for the second permitting all the world to arrest any who carried them except his light-horsemen his Gens d' Arms and the Guards of his body which might bear them onely when they were in service To the same purpose and to ease the Country of the multitudes of his Souldiers he dismissed not onely the greatest part of his new Troops but likewise reduced the one half of his old He reduced the Companies of the Ordinance to a very little number and took off the Guards of the Governours of the Provinces and Lieutenants of the King not willing to suffer any whatsoever besides himself to have that glorious mark of Soveraignty about their persons The Wars had spoiled all Commerce reduced Cities into Villages Villages to small Cots and Lands to Deserts nevertheless the Receivers constrained the poor Husband-men to pay Taxes for those Fruits they had never gathered The Cries of these miserable people who had nothing but their Tongues to lament with touched in such manner the very Entrails of so just and so good a King that he made an Edict by which he released them of all they owed him for the time past and gave them hopes to ease them more for the future Moreover having understood that during the Troubles there were made a great quantity of false Nobles who were exempted from the Tax he commanded that they should be sought forth nor did he confirm their Usurpation for a piece of mony as hath been sometimes done to the great prejudice of other taxed people but he would that the Tax should be re-imposed upon them to the end that by this means they might assist the poor people to bear a good part of the burthen as being the richer He desired with much affection to do good to his true Nobility and repay them those Expences they had been at in his service but his Coffers were empty and moreover all the Gold in Peru had not been sufficient to satisfie the Appetite and Luxury of so many people For King Henry the third had by his example and that of his Minions raised expences so high that Lords lived like Princes and Gentlemen like Lords for which purposes they were forced to alienate the Possessions of their Ancestors and change those old Castles the illustrious marks of their Nobility into Silver-lace Gilt-coaches train and horses Afterwards when they were indebted beyond their credit they fell either upon the Kings Coffers demanding Pensions or on the backs of the people oppressing them with a thousand Thieveries The King willing to remedy this disorder declared very resolvedly to his Nobility That he would they should accustom themselves to live every man on his Estate and to this effect he should be well content that to enjoy themselves of the peace they should go see their Country houses and give order for the improvement of their Lands Thus he eased them of the great expences of the Court and made them understand that the best treasure they could have was that of good management Moreover knowing that the French Nobility would strive to imitate the King in all things he shewed them by his own example how to abridge their superfluity in Cloathing For he ordinarily wore gray Cloath with a Doublet of Sattin or Taffata without slashing Lace or Embroydery He praised those who were clad in this sort and chid the others who carried said he their Mills and their Woods and Forests on their backs About the end of the year he was seized with a suddain and violent sickness at Monceaux of which it was thought he would die All France was affrighted and the rumours which ran of it seemed to re-kindle some factions but in ten or twelve days he was on foot again as if God had onely sent him this sickness to discover to him what ill wills there were yet in the Kingdome and to give him the satisfaction to feel by the sorrows of his people the pleasures of being loved In the strength of his Disease he spoke to his friends these excellent words I do not at all fear death I have affronted it in the greatest dangers but I avow that I should unwillingly leave this Life till I have put this Kingdome into that splendour I have proposed to my self and till I have testified to my people by governing them well and easing them of their many Taxes that I love them as if they were my Children After his recovery continuing in his praise-worthy designes of putting his Affairs in order he came to St. Germain in Laya to resolve the Estates of the expence as well of his House as for the Guard of Frontiers and Garisons entertainment of Forces Artillery Sea-Affairs and many other Charges He had then in his Council as we may say we have at present very great men and most experienced in all sorts of Matters but he still shewed himself more able and more understanding then they He examined and discussed all the particulars of his expence with a judgement and with a clearness of spirit truely admirable retrenched and cut off all that was possible allowing onely what was necessary Amongst other things he abridged the superfluous expences of the Tables in his house not so much that he might spare himself as to oblige his subjects to moderate their liquorish prodigality and hinder them from ruining their whole houses by keeping too great Kitchins In sum by the example of the King which hath always more force then Laws or then Correction Luxury was
what submission soever he made obtain Absolution It was necessary for God to lend his hand This Princess died three years after with sadness and melancholy to see her self live in a discontented manner with her Husband who dayly pressed her to turn Catholick Besides the solemnities of these Marriages many other things entertained the Court. Two notable Changes one of the Duke of Joyeuse the other of the Marchioness of Bel ' Isle caused its astonishment The Duke of Joyeuse who had quitted the habit of Capuchin to become chief of the League in Languedoc on a fair day without saying any thing to any body went and cast himself into his Convent at Paris and re-took the habit Few days after there was much astonishment to see him with that habit of penitence preach in the Pulpit whom they had seen the week before dancing of Balls as one of the most Gallant It was said that the holy Exhortations of his Mother who from time to time put him in remembrance of his Vow and some ambiguous words which the King had thrown out in converse with him made him think that he could no longer live in the world either with safety of Conscience or with Honour The Marchioness of Bell ' Isle sister to the Duke of Longueville and Widow of the Marquess of Bell ' Isle eldest son of the Marshal de Retz having received some secret displeasure renounced likewise the world and went and shut her self up in the Convent of the Feuillantines at Tolouse where she took the veil and finished her days After this came News to the Court that Phillipin Bastard to the Duke of Savoy was killed in a Duel by the Seigneur de Crequy of whom it might be without flattery said That he was one of the most gallant and bravest men of his time The History of this Combat may be found written in so many places and is yet so firm in the memory of all that wear swords that it would be superfluous to recount the particularities The Chase was now the Kings ordinary divertisement It is recounted that Hunting in the Forest of Fountain-bleau accompanied by many Lords he heard a great noise of Horns Hunters and Dogs which seemed to be a great way distant but all of an instant approached them Some of his company who were twenty paces before him saw a great black man among the Bushes who affrighted them in such manner that they could not tell what became of him but they heard him cry out to them with a rank and affrightful voice M' attendez-vous or m' entendez-vous or amendez-vous that is Do you hear me or Do you understand me or else Amend your selves The Wood-men and Country-people thereabouts said That it was no extraordinary thing for they had often seen this black man whom they named the Great Hunter with a pack of Hounds which hunted at full cry but never did harm to any Infinite account is made in all Countries in the world of like illusions in Hunting If we may give any credit to them we may believe them either to be the tricks of Sorcerers or of some evil spirits to whom God gives permission to convince the incredulous and make them see that there are substances separated and a being above man Now if Prodigies are signes as some have said of some great and dire Events it may be believed that this presaged the strange death of the fair Gabriella which happened some days after The love which the King had for her instead of being extinguished by enjoyment was come to such a point that she had dared to demand of him that he should acknowledge his fault and legitimate his Children by a subsequent marriage nor durst he absolutely refuse her this grace but entertained her still with hopes Those who love the glory of this great King can difficultly believe that he would have done such an action which had without doubt begot a low opinion of him and again thrown him under his peoples hatred However it was to be feared that the allurements of this woman who had found his weakness with the flattery of the Courtiers whom she had almost all gained either by presents or kindnesses might engage this poor Prince to a dishonour And without dissembling he had his soul too tender towards Ladies He was Master of all his other passions but he was a Slave to this nor can his memory be justified from this reproach for though he were admirable in all other parts of his life he ought not to be imitated in this In the mean time Gabriella flattering her self with a hope to be ere long his Wife deduced from those hopes himself had given her acted so well that she obliged him to demand of the Pope Commissioners to judge of the Divorce between him and Queen Margaret And the King that he might finde favour with the holy Father and render him more facile to his intentions caused to be said underhand that he would marry Maria de Medices his Neece Sister to the Duke of Florence for whom nevertheless it was believed that he had not then any desire And the Pope were it that he distrusted his intention or that he saw that Queen Margaret lent not her hand to it protracted the business and returned onely ambiguous Answers It was likewise said that being one day much pressed by the Cardinal d'Ossat and by Sillery to give content to their Master for want of which said they he may pass further and espouse the Dutchess he was so astonished at this discourse that he immediately remitted the conduct of this Affair to the hand of God commanded a Fast through all the City of Rome and went himself to Prayers to demand of God to inspire him with what should be best for his glory That at the end of his Prayer he cryed out as if he had been revived from an Extasie God hath provided and that in few days after there arrived a Courrier at Rome bringing News of the death of the Dutchess In the mean time the King grew impatient at these delays and it was to be feared lest a disdain to be neglected should cast him into the same inconveniencies it had formerly done Henry the eighth King of England or by the counsel of some flatterers forcing the goodness of his nature be perswaded to rid himself of Queen Margaret in any manner soever Gabriella was at present great with her fourth Childe when the feast of Easter approaching the King desiring to do his Devotions for that holy time far from all object of scandal sent her to Paris accompanying her just half way She with no small grief parted from him recommending to him her Children with tears in her eyes as if she had some secret presentiment telling him that she should never more see him Being at Paris lodged in the house of Zamet that famous Treasurer after having dined with him and heard Tenebres at
little St. Anthonies being holy Thursday as she returned to her Lodging and being walking in the Garden she felt her self struck with an Apoplexy in the brain The first fury of it being passed she would no longer stay in that house but caused her self to be carried to that of Madam de Sourdis her Aunt near St. Germain of the Auxerrois And all the rest of that day and the morrow she was perplexed with Swoondings and Convulsions of which she died on the Saturday-morning The causes of her death were diversly spoken of but however it was a happiness to France since it deprived the King of an object for which he was about to loose both himself and his Estate His grief was as great as his love had been yet he not being of those feeble souls who please themselves in perpetuating their sorrows and in bathing themselves in their tears received not onely those comforts he sought but still conserved for the Children and particularly for the Duke of Vendosm that affection he had born the Mother All good French-men passionately desired that so good a King might leave legitimate Children They durst not press him to take a Wife capable to bring him forth such so long as Gabriella lived for fear lest he should espouse her and out of the same fear Queen Margaret would not give her consent to dissolve his marriage But when Gabriella was dead she willingly lent her hand to it and her self addressed a Request to the holy Father to demand the dissolution founding it principally on two causes of nullity The first was the want of consent for she alledged she had been forced to it by King Charles the ix her Brother The second the Proximity of Kindred found between them in the third degree for which she said there had never been any valuable Dispensation In like manner the Lords of the Kingdome and the Parliament besought his Majesty by solemn Deputations that he would think of taking a Wife representing to him the inconveniencies and the danger wherein France would be found if he should die without Children These Deputations will not seem strange to those who know our ancient History where it may be seen that neither the King nor his Children married but by the advice of his Barons and this passed in that time for almost a Fundamental Law of the Estate The King touched with these just supplications of his subjects addressed his request to the Pope containing the same reasons as that of Queen Margaret and charged the Cardinal d'Ossat and Sillery his extraordinal Ambassadour whom he had sent to Rome to pursue the judgement of the Pope concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces to sollicite instantly this Affair The cause reported to the Consistory the Pope gave Commission to the Prelates to judge it on the place according to the rights of that Crown which suffers not French-men to be transported for Affairs of the like nature beyond the Mountains whither it would be almost impossible to bring the necessary proofs and witnesses These Prelates were the Cardinal of Joyeuse the Popes Nuntio and the Archbishop of Arles who having examined both Parties seen the Proofs produced on one and the other and the Request of the three Estates of the Kingdom declared this marriage null and permitted them to marry whom they should think fit Queen Margaret who for many years had deserted the King and voluntarily shut her self up in the strong Castle of Usson in Auvergne had now permission to come to Paris money given her to pay her debts great Pensions the possession of the Dutchy of Valois with some other Lands and right to bear still the Title of Queen She lived yet fifteen years and built a Palace near du Pre-aux-Clercs which was after sold to pay his debts and demolished to build other houses She loved extreamly good Musitians having a delicate Ear and knowing and eloquent Men because she was of a spirit clear and very agreeable in her discourse For the rest she was liberal even to prodigality pompous and magnificent but she knew not what it was to pay her debts Which is without doubt the greatest of all a Princes fault because there is nothing so much against Justice of which he ought to be the Protector and Defender This marriage being dissolved Bellievre and Villeroy fearing lest the King should engage himself in new loves and be taken in some of those snares which the fairest of the Court stretched out for him perswaded him by many great Reasons of State to fix his thoughts on Maria de Medicis who was daughter to Francis and Neece to Ferdinand great Dukes of Toscany The Cardinal d' Ossat and Sillery made known his intention to the great Duke Ferdinand her Uncle and Alincour son to Villeroy whom he had sent to thank the holy Father for his good and brief Justice touching the aforesaid dissolution of his marriage had order to testifie to him that the King having cast his eyes on all the Daughters of the Soveraign Houses of Christendome had found no Princess more agreeable to him The business was managed with so much activeness and vigilancy by the diligence of those which had enterprized it that the King found himself absolutely engaged The contract of the marriage was signed at Florence by his Ambassadors the fourth of April in the year one thousand six hundred And Alincour in seven days brought him the news to Fountain-bleau He assisted at present at that famous Conference or Dispute between James David du Perron Bishop of Eureux afterwards Cardinal and Philip du Plessis Mornay where truth nobly triumphed over falsehood There are particular relations of the solemnities made at Florence the Magnificences of the great Duke the Ceremonies of the Affiancing and Marriage of this Queen of her Imbarking her being convoyed by the Gallies of Malta and Florence and her reception at Marseilles at Avignon and at Lions and therefore I shall speak nothing of it Whilst the Marriage of Florence was treating the King having a heart which could for no long time keep his liberty became enslaved to a new object It is to be understood that Mary Touchet who had been Mistress to Charles the ninth from whom came Issue the Count d' Auvergne had been Married to the Lord d' Entragues and had by him many children amongst the rest a very fair daughter named Henrietta who by consequent was sister by the mothers side to the Count of Auvergne This Count was about the age of thirty years and she about eighteen It is but too well known that Flatterers and wicked Sycophants ruine all in the Courts of great Men and corrupt likewise their persons These are they which sweeten the poyson which embolden the Prince to do ill which make him familiar with vice which seek and facilitate occasions for it and who act as we may say the mystery of
steal a victory that ambuscadoes were not honest but onely during War and that it was necessary for his honour to take heeâ— that he did not in any manner contribute to that rupture the enemies had a design to make In fine the Spaniards having found that this wise Argus had too many eyes and too much vigilance to be surprized on any side resolved to employ their Arms in pious and honorable enterprizes A part of their Land-Army passed into Hungary which was at that present assaulted by the Turks The Duke of Merceur being gone to seek in that Country a juster glory then in the Civil-wars of France commanded the Emperours forces He made known to the Infidels by many gallant exploits particularly by the memorable retreat of Canise that the French valour was chosen by God to sustain the Christian Religion Nor was there any doubt made but that he would have quite chased them out of that Kingdom of which they had invaded more then one half if he had not died the year following of a burning Feavour which seized him at Nurembourg as he was about to go pay his devotions at the Shrine of the Lady of Loretto There arrived some time after an accident by which the King took occasion to let the Spaniards know that he could not suffer any thing against his honour nor against the dignity of his estate Rochepot was his Embassador in Spain Some Gentlemen of his train of which one was his Nephew washing in the River chanced to have a quarrel with some Spaniards and killing two saved themselves in the Ambassadors house The friends of the slain so much excited the people that they besieged the house and were ready to put fire to it The Magistrate to prevent the Tragick effects of this fury was constrained to do an injustice and to violate the freedom of the Ambassadors house for he seized by force and led the accused to prison The King of Spain being troubled that he had violated the right of Nations sent him to demand pardon of the Ambassador yet the French men still remained prisoners There were made many discourses and writings concerning the rights and priviledges of Ambassadors It is true said they that an Ambassador hath alone right of Soveraign Justice in his Palace but the people of his train are subject to the Justice of the estate in which they are for those faults they commit out of his Palace and so if they be taken out of it their Process may be made and though it be known that this rigour is not generally observed and that the respect born to the Ambassadors person extends to all those that follow him yet however this is a courtesie and not a right But notwithstanding it is not permitted to go seek the Criminal in the Palace of the Ambassador which is a sacred place and a certain Sanctuary for his people yet ought it not however to be abused or made a retreat for wicked persons nor give Sanctuary to the Subjects of a Prince against the Laws and Justice of his Realm for in such cases on complaint to his Master he is obliged to do reason Now the King being offended as he ought to be at the injury done to France in the person of his Ambassador and not judging the satisfaction the Magistrate had given him sufficient commands him immediately to return which he did without taking leave of the King of Spain He forbade likewise at the same time all Commerce with Spaniards and foreseeing that in these beginnings of the rupture they might enterprize somewhat on the Towns of Picardy he with great diligence departed from Paris to visit that Frontier and came to Calais The people who began to taste the sweetness of repose and to Till their lands with patience trembled for fear lest a new War should expose them once more to the License of the Souldiers But God had pity of these poor people The Pope becoming mediatour to remedy those mischiefs which threatned Christendom happily accommodated the difference The Spaniard remitted the Process and the Prisoners whom his Holiness consigned some days after into the hands of the Count of Bethune Ambassador for France at Rome and the King afterwards sent an Ambassador into Spain which was the Count of Barraut Whilst the King was at Calais whither as we have said he went the Arch-Duke who was before Ostend where he continued that Siege the most famous that ever was since that of Troy feared with some reason lest the Kings approach should retard the progress of his enterprize in which he had already lost so many men so much time spent so many Cannot shot so much money and such stores of Ammunition he sent therefore to complement him promising him on the part of Spain satisfaction for the violence done to the Lodgings of his Ambassador but intreating him that the besieged might not prevail themselves of this Conjuncture The King who never let himself be overcome by Courtesie no more then by Arms sent the Duke of Aiguillon eldest Son of the Duke of Mayenne to assure him that he desired to maintain the peace that he was not advanced on the Frontiers but to dissipate some designs which were contriving and that he hoped in the equity of the King of Spain which he doubted not would do him reason VVhilst he was at Calais Queen Elizabeth sent likewise to visit him by my Lord Edmonds her principal Confident For answer to which obliging civility he caused the Marshal of Byron to pass into England accompanied by the Count d' Auvergne and the choice of all the Nobility of the Court to represent to her the displeasure the King had finding himself so near her that he could not enjoy the sight of her This Queen endeavoured by all means possible to make known to the French her greatness and power One day holding Byron by the hand she shewed him a great number of heads planted on the Tower of London telling him that in that manner they punished Rebels in England and recounting to him the reasons she had to put to death the Earl of Essex whom she had once so tenderly loved Those who heard the discourse remembred it afterwards when they saw the Marshal Byron fallen into the same misfortune and lose his head after having lost the favour of his King VVe must not forget how that before the King made his voyage to Calais he had led the Queen with him to enjoy the Jubilee in the City of Orleans where the holy Father had ordained the Stations for France to begin His piety which was sincere and unfeigned gave a fair Example to his people who see him go to Processions with great devotion and pray to God with no less attention his heart agreeing with his lips He laid the first stone to the foundation of the Church of the holy Cross at Orleans which the Hugonots had miserably
was very good and commodious thought it best to introduce the Manufacture into France to the end the French might gain what was now gained by the strangers To this purpose he gave order for the planting of a great number of white Mulberry-trees in those Countries where they would best thrive and particularly in Touraine to nourish Silk-worms and that people should be provided who understood how to prepare the Webs and put to work the labour of these pretioâ—â— Caterpillers If care had been taken â—â—ter his death to maintain this Order and to extend it to other Provinces it might have spared France more then five Millions which it every year sends out to provide silk Stuffs besides a Million of persons useless for other labours as are old people Maids and Children might have gained a living by it and the Employers more easily have afforded to pay the Imposts and Taxes out of the profit they had made of their industry There was yet a much greater mischief which as we may say dryed up the very Intrails of the Kingdom this was the excessive Usury The ill Husbands that is to say the greatest part of the Nobility borrowed money at ten or twelve in the hundred In which there was two great inconveniences The first That the Interests undermining by little and little in seven or eight years dug up the foundations of the richest and most ancient Houses which are as we may say the Props and Pillars that uphold the State The second That the Merchants finding this conveniency of laying out their money to so great profit and without any hazard absolutely abandoned all Commerce the streams of which once dryed up there must needs follow a famine of Gold and Silver in the Kingdome for France hath no other Mines then its Traffick and the distribution of its Merchandizes These Considerations obliged the King not onely to prohibit all Usuries but lay a penalty of the Confiscation of the sum lent and great Fines beside Afterwards the Parliament deputed some Counsellours in all Provinces to make inquisition after Usurers and to reduce all Interests or Hypothecated Rents to six and a half in the hundred They were before at ten or twelve as we have said The reason of which was because when they were constituted money was much more scarce now since it was extreamly multiplyed since the discovery of the Indies it was just to abate its interests And it was for this reason that it was afterwards put at six and may possibly one day be reduced lower Out of the same designe to enrich his people and to bring abundance and plenty into his Kingdome the King continually received all Proposals which might serve to enlarge Commerce to bring Commodity to his people and to till and make fruitful the most sterile places He endeavoured as much as was possible to make Rivers Navigable He caused to be repaired all Bridges and Causways and the great Roads to be paved knowing that whilst they are not well kept Carriages find but a difficult passage and Commerce is by that means interrupted From whence happen the same disorders in the oeconomy of an Estate as doth in that of a mans body when it findes Obstructions and when the passage of the blood and spirits are not free When he passed through the Countries he curiously regarded all things took notice of the necessities and disorders and immediately remedied all with a great diligence Under his favour and protection were established in many places of the Kingdom Manufactures of Linen and Woollen Cloths Laces Iron-ware and many other things After his example the Burgesses repaired their houses which the War had ruined The Gentlemen having laid by their Arms with onely a switch in their hand dedicated themselves to manage their Estates and augment their Revenues All the people were attentive to their work and it was a wonder to see this Kingdom which five or six years before had been as we may say a Den of Serpents and venemous Beasts being filled with Thieves Robbers Vagrants Rake-hells and Beggers changed by the diligence of the King into a Hive of innocent Bees who strove as it were with envy to each other to give proofs of their industry and to gather Wax and Honey Idleness was a shame and a kinde of Crime and indeed it is as the Proverb says the Mother of all Vices That spirit which takes no care to employ it self seriously in something is unprofitable to it self and pernitious to the publick And for these Reasons did the Provosts in that time make diligent search after Loyterers Vagabonds and idle persons and sent them to serve the King in his Gallies to oblige them perforce to work There is no happiness so stable and assured but it may be easily troubled there arrived this year two things which might have overturned all France had not the King in a good hour subverted them The Assembly of the Notables or Chiefs at Rouen which was held in the year 1596. to raise money for the King to continue the War and pay his debts had granted him as we have said the imposition of a Sol pour livre on all Merchandizes carried into walled Cities The Estate says Tacitus the greatest Polititian among Historians cannot be maintained without Forces nor the Forces without Payment nor they paid without Impositions by consequence therefore they are necessary and it is just that every one should contribute to the expences of an Estate of which he makes a part as well as partake of those Conveniences and that protection it enjoys But these impositions ought to be moderate proportionate to the power of every one and every one ought to bear his part Moreover it should be easie to perceive that the expence of raising them exceed not the principal that they be not laid so as to appear odious as on Merchandizes which nourish the poor and that in fine they be blood drawn gently from the veins and not marrow forced from the bones Now the imposition of a Sol pour livre was of this nature It was very oppressive for in every City they searched the Merchants Goods opened their Bales and saw what every one brought so that liberty was quite lost in the Kingdom Moreover it was excessive for any Merchandize being ten or twelve times sold it was found that it paid as much Impost as it was worth Moreover there was great expence in the sale of it for men were forced to employ as many Factors as would have composed an Army who desiring all to make themselves rich as well as their Masters were so vexatious to the Merchants that they became desperate And that was most strange was that there were in the Kings Council Pensioners to these Farmers who supported them in their violences and upheld them against all Complaints made of their misdemeanours The people are always subject to this Criminal Errour That when
bodies and goods of those who went thus into the field For the present this prohibition made the ardor of the most violent a little relent but because he often pardoned this crime not being able to refuse it to those who had faithfully served him in his need it happened that in a little time this mischief regained its course almost as strong as before His receiving from all persons all advices that might accommodate and in rich his Kingdom made him understand that there were in divers places of France very good Mines both of Gold and Silver Copper and Lead and that if they were wrought there would be no need to buy of strangers That likewise though there should accrue no great profit in digging them yet by them many idle persons might be employed and likewise those criminals who deserved not death might be condemned for so many years to work in them He made therefore an Act which renewed the ancient orders concerning the Officers Directors and Workers of Mines And they began to work in the Pyrenees where it is most certain that formerly there hath been Gold and that there still is In such manner that had they continued this labour they might in all appearance have gained notable advantages but either through the negligence of the Overseers or through the little intelligence or rather impatience of the French who cast by any thing that presently seconds not their desires this work was discontinued Another very great conveniency for Paris was enterprized which was the joyning of the River Loire to the Seine by the Chanel of Briare Rosny laboured in this with much expence employing in it near three hundred thousand crowns but the work was interrupted I know not wherefore It was renewed again in the Reign of Lewis the thirteenth and brought to perfection There was proposed likewise another which was to make a conjunction of the two Seas the Ocean and the Mediterranean by uniting together the Garonne which runs into the Ocean and the Aude which fals into the Mediterranean Sea below Narbonne by Channels which were to be drawn along little Rivers which run between these great ones The Country of Languedoc offered to contribute but there were difficulties found which hindred this enterprize Navigation was established by the good order which the King had taken to keep his Coasts in security and to punish Pirates severely when they catcht them Our ships were not content to Traffick to the ordinary places but enterprized likewise to go to the new world which they had almost forgot since the time of Admiral Coligny A Gentleman of Xaintonge named du Gas began with the Kings Commission the voyage of Canada where afterwards was established the Commerce of Castors or Beavers which are the skins of a certain amphibious creature much like the Otters of this Country Among all these establishments we must not forget a great quantity of new Religious Companies which were made in Paris There was first seen the Recollects which were a branch of the Order of St. Francis of a new Reformation Capuchins and Feuillantines Carmelites who were brought from Spain Barefooted Carmes who came likewise from that Country of the Brothers of Charity vulgarly called the ignorant brothers who came out of Italy and all had soon built them Convents out of the Almes and Charity of Devout persons In the midst of this fair Calme at which the King rejoyced and during all these fair occupations which were worthy of him he was not left without troubles and vexations which perplexed his Spirit He had none more piercing nor more continual then those which came on the part of his Wife and his Mistresses We have already said how Madamoiselle d' Entragues had engaged him He had given her the land of Verneuil near Senlis and for the love of her had made it a Marquisate After that he was married he ceased not to have the same passion for her and to carry her with him in his Progresses and lodge her at Fontain-bleau These scandalous disorders extremely offended the Queen and the Pride of the Marchioness more furiously incensed her for she spoke alwaies of her in terms either injurious or disdainful sometimes not forbearing to say that if she had Justice she should hold the place of that fat Banker The Queen likewise on her side was with reason transported against her and made her complaints to all the world But this was not the way to gain the spirit of the King she had done better had she wisely dissembled her displeasure and by her kindnesses made her self master of that heart which of right belonged to her The King loved to be flattered he loved sweet and compliant discourse and was to be gained by tenderness and affection The band of love is love it self this was that she ought to employ with him and not grumblings disdains and ill countenances which serve onely more and more to disgust a husband and make him find more pleasure in the allurements of a Mistress who takes care to be alwaies agreeable and alwaies complacent But in stead of holding this way she was alwaies in contention with the King she exasperated him continually by her complaints and by her reproaches and when he thought to find with her some sweetness to ease the great labours of his spirit he encountred nothing but Gall and Bitterness She had belonging to her Chamber a Florentine woman Daughter of her Nurse named Leonora Galigay a creature extreme ugly but very spiritual and who knew so perfectly how to insinuate into her heart that she had in such manner seised on it that she absolutely commanded her It hath been said that this woman fearing that the Queen her Mistress would love her less if she perfectly loved the King her husband kept her from it as much as she could that she might possess her with more ease Afterwards to the end she might have a second in her designs she Married and Espoused her self to a Florentine a domestick of the Queens named Conchini of a little better Extraction then her self being grand-child to Baptista Conchini who had been Secretary to Cosmo Duke of Florence The Common opinion was that these two persons conjoyntly laboured so long as the King lived to conserve a spleen in the spirit of the Queen and to make her always troublesome and humoursome towards him in such manner that for seven or eight years together if he had one day of peace and quiet with her he had ten of discontent and vexation In this truly the Kings fault was the greatest because he gave the occasion of these troubles and the husband being as St. Paul saith the head of the wife ought to give her example and keep a more strict union with her We have observed this once for all But we cannot too often make this Reflexion That sin is the cause of all disorder and that for a little
pleasure it causes a thousand troubles and a thousand mischiefs even in this world it self The King being now but just fifty years of age began this year to have some small feelings of the Gout which possibly were the doleful effects of his excessive voluptuousness as well as of his labours To return to the Marchioness it happened one day that the Queen being very much offended at her discourse threatned her that she should know how to bridle her wicked tongue The Marchioness upon this seemed sad and grieved shunn'd the King and let him understand that she desired that he would no more demand any thing of her because she feared that the continuation of his favours would be too prejudicial both to her and her children Her design was to inflame more his passion by shewing her self more difficult But when she saw that her cunning had not all the effect she hoped and that the Queens anger was encreased to such a point that indeed there was some danger for her and hers she advised her self of another thing D' Entragues her Father demanded permission of the King to carry her out of the Kingdom to avoid the vengeance of the Queen The King granted her demand easier then she thought he would wherewith being excessively enraged her Father and the Count d' Auvergne her Brother by the Mothers side began to Treat secretly with the Ambassador of Spain to have some retreat in the Territories of his King casting themselves absolutely they and their children into his Arms. The Ambassador believed that this business would be very advantagious to his Master and that in time and place he might serve himself of that promise of marriage which the King had given to the Marchioness he therefore easily granted them all that they demanded and added all the fair promises with which weak and feeble spirits might be entoxicated The King had granted them permission to retire themselves out of France but yet without the Children out of a belief he had that they would go into England to the Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Aubigny of the house of the Stuarts who were their near kinsmen but when he understood that they consulted of a retreat into Spain he resolved to hinder them but to employ fair means to do it He sends therefore for the Count d' Auvergne who was then at Clermont so much beloved in the Province that he believed he might securely stay there He refused to come before he had his Pardon Sealed in good form for all that he might have done This was a kind of new crime to capitulate with his King however he sends it him but with this Clause That he should make his immediate appearance His distrust permitted him not to obey on this condition he stayed still in the Province where he kept himself on his Guard with all precautions imaginable Nevertheless he was not so cunning but the King could entrap him and by an Artifice very gross He being Colonel of the French Cavalry was desired to go see a Muster made of a Company of the Duke of Vendosmes He went well mounted keeping himself at a good distance that he might not be encompassed Nevertheless d' Eâ—â—â—re Lieutenant of that Company Nerestan approaching him to salute him mounted on little Hobbies for fear of giving him suspition but with three Souldiers disguised like Lacquies cast him from his horse and made him prisoner They led him presently to the Bastille where he was seized with a great fear when he saw himself lodged in the same Chamber where the Marshal of Byron his great friend had been Immediately after the King caused d' Entragues to be Arrested who was carried to the Conciergerie and the Marchioness who was left in her lodgings under the Guard of the Cavalier de Guet After desiring to make known by publick proofs the ill intention of the Spaniards who seduced his subjects and excited and fomented conspiracies in his Estate he remitted the prisoners into the hands of the Parliament who having convicted them of having complotted with the Spaniard declared by a sentence of the first of February the Count of Auvergne d' Entragues and an English man named Morgan who had been the Agent of this fair Negotiation guilty of Treason and as such condemned them to have their heads cut off The Marchioness to be conducted with a good Guard into the Abby of Nuns at Beaumont near to Tours to be there shut up and that in the mean time there should be more ample information made against her at the request of the Attorny-General The Queen spared no sollicitations for the giving of this sentence believing that the Execution would satisfie her resentment but the goodness of the King surpassed her passion The love which he had for the Marchioness was not so far extinct that he could resolve to Sacrifice what he had adored he would not permit them to pronounce the Sentence and two months and a half afterward to wit on the fifteenth of April he by Letters under his Great Seal changed the penalty of Death on the Count of Auvergne and the Lord d' Entragues into perpetual Imprisonment Some time after he had likewise changed the prison of Entragues into a Confinement to his house of Malles-herbes in Beausse He likewise permitted the Marchioness to retire to Verneuil and seven months being passed without the Attorney-Generals procuring any proof against her he caused her to be declared absolutely innocent of the crime whereof she was accused There rested onely the Count of Auvergne who being the most to be feared was the worst treated for the King not onely kept him prisoner at the Bastille where he lay for twelve whole years but likewise deprived him of his propriety in the County of Auvergne He had bore the title and enjoyed it by vertue of the Donation of King Henry the third Queen Margaret newly come to the Court sustained that this Donation could not be valuable because the contract of the Marriage of Katherine de Medicis her Mother to whom that County appertained allowing Substitution of her goods and that Substitution said she extending to Daughters in default of Males that County was to come to her after the death of Henry the third nor could he give it to her prejudice The Parliament having hearkned to her reasons and seen her proofs annulled the Donation made by Henry the third and adjudged her this County In recompence of which obligation and many others she had received from the King she made a Donation of all her Estates after death to the Daulphin reserving to her self onely the fruits of them during life The Count of Auvergne thus despoiled remained in the Bastille untill the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen when Queen Mary de Medicis having need of him during the troubles delivered him from thence and caused him to be justified She
Authority doth not always consist in prosecuting things to the utmost extremity That the time the persons and the cause ought to be regarded That having been ten years extinguishing the fire of civil War he feared even the least sparkles That Paris had cost him too much to hazard the least danger of loosing it which seemed to him insallible if he followed their counsel because he should be obliged to make terrible examples which would in few days deprive him of the glory of his Clemency and the love of his people which he prized as much as nay above his Crown That he had in an hundred other occasions made proof the fidelity and honesty of Miron who had no ill intention but without doubt he believed himself obliged by the duty of his Charge to do what he did That if some inconsiderate words had escaped him he might well pardon them for his past services That after all if this man affected to be the Martyr of the people he would not give him that glory nor attract to himself the name of Persecutor or Tyrant And that in fine he would not prosecute a man whom he would resolve to loose in so advantagious occasions Thus this wise King knew how prudently to dissemble a little fault nor would he understand what passed for fear of being obliged to some blow of Authority which might possibly have had dangerous Consequences He received therefore very favourably the excuses and humble submissions of Miron and after prohibited the farther pursuing the inquisitions of Rents which had caused so much trouble The second means of which he served himself to raise money and which was of very dangerous consequence was the Paulete or Annual Right To understand this business well we must make some recital of things farther off The Offices of Judicature of Policy and of the Revenues had formerly been exercised in France under the first and second Race of our Kings by Gentlemen for the Nobility was obliged to study and understand the Laws of the Kingdom They were chosen for the maturity of their Age and Judgement they were changed from time to time from one seat to another nor took they any Fees from Parties but onely a Salary very moderate which the Publick paid them rather for honour then recompence Afterwards in the end of the second Race and the beginning of the third the Nobility becoming ignorant and weak together the Plebeians and Burgesses having learnt the knowledge of the Laws raised themselves by little and little to these Charges and began to make them better worth because they drew all their Honour and all their Dignity thence not having any other by their birth as the Gentlemen had Yet they had not over-much employment for the Church-men possessed almost all the Jurisdiction and had their Officers which administred Justice In the mean time the Parliament which before was as the Council of Estate of the Kingdom and an Epitomy of the general Estates taking upon them to trouble themselves with the knowledge of differences between particular persons whereas before they onely treated of great Affairs of Policy Philip the fair or according to some others Lewis Hutin his son made it sedentary at Paris Now this Company of Judges being most illustrious because the King often took seat amongst them the Dukes Peers and Prelates of the Realm made a part of them and that the most able people for Law were chosen to fill places there they made depend upon them all the power of other Judges-Royal to wit the Bayliffs and Seneschals who though before Soveraign Judges became now Subalternate to them Long time after our other Kings created likewise at divers times many other Parliaments but out of a sole intention the better to distribute Justice without any pecuniary interest for by it they charged their Coffers with new Wages to be paid these new Officers At this time the number of the Officers of Justice was very small and the order which was observed to fill the vacancies in Parliament perfectly good The custome was to keep a Register of all the able Advocates and Lawyers and when any Office came to be vacant they chose three whose Names they carried to the King who preferred him he pleased But the Favourites and the Courtiers soon corrupted this Order they perswaded the Kings not to confine themselves to those presented but to name one of their proper motion which those people did to draw some present from him who should be named by their recommendation And the abuse was so great that oftentimes the Charges were filled with ignorant People and Porters by reason of which people of merit held the condition of an Advocate much more honourable then that of a Counsellour The mischief dayly encreasing and the rich people becoming extreamly liquorish of these Charges for lucre and their Wives out of vanity those who governed began to make a Merchandize of them and to draw money from them Thus under Lewis the xii his Coffers being exhausted by the long Wars of Italy the Offices of the Revenue began to become vendible However that good King having soon foreseen the dangerous consequence resolved to re-imburse those who had bought them but dying in that good designe Francis the first of whom he had well predicted that he would spoile all sold likewise those of Judicature afterwards new ones were at several times created onely of purpose to raise money Afterward Henry the second his Son created the Presidents and Charles the ninth and Henry the third heaping ill upon ill and ruine upon ruine made a great number of other Creations of all sorts to have these Wares to sell. And moreover they sold Offices when they were vacant either by death or forfeiture Hitherto the ill was great but not incurable a part of these Offices need onely have been suppressed when they became vacant and the rest when so filled with persons of capacity and merit Thus in twenty years this Ants-nest of Officers might have been reduced to a very little number and those as honest people But the business was not in this manner made known to Henry the Great they represented it to him in another sense They let him understand that since he drew no profit from vacant Offices being almost always obliged to give them he would do well to finde the means to discharge that way his Coffers of a part of the Wages he paid his Officers which he might do by granting them their Offices for their Heirs reserving a moderate sum of money which they should yearly pay yet without constraining any person so that it should be a favour and not an oppression This was named the Annual Right otherwise the Paulete from the name of the proposer named Paulete who gave the Counsel and was the first Farmer All the Officers were not wanting to pay this Right to assure their Offices to their heirs We need