Bretaign became an arrier-fief to the Crown of France In this State it continued till the death of Covan Earl of Bretaign who left Issue only one daughter nam'd Constance This rich Heiress was courted by many but Henry the second King of England pretended as Duke of Normandy the Right of Marriage and partly by his Authority partly by his Addresses of Courtship obtain'd her and had four Sons by her Henry Richard Geoffry and John He design'd to leave to Henry the Crown of England to Richard the Provinces of Normandy Main Anjou and Tourain which fell to him by Succession from his Father and Mother and the Provinces of Guien and Poictou which he had in Marriage by his former Wife Eleanor Between these two young Princes and the two daughters of the most Christian King Lewis the 7th there was a solemn Treaty of Marriage and the King of England had Interest enough to bring both to effect John his 4th Son was design'd for Ecclesiastical Preferment so that a Match having been propos'd between the Heiress of Bretaign and the house of England she must now of necessity be married if to any to Geoffry King Henry's third Son In fine the was married to him upon considerations meerly Political for his person was no way taking with the young Lady but his death soon deliver'd her and left her to a second Marriage more to her content for she her self then made choice of Guy de Thouars a Knight the handsomest and bravest person of his Age by whom she had but one daughter her first Husband had left her big with Child of a Son nam'd Arthur whose death was the more unhappy for that he was depriv'd thereby of such an accumulation of Successions that of England and the French Provinces thereunto appendant fell to him by the death without Issue of his Fathers two Eldest Brothers and Bretaign being his at the same time in Right of his Mother he had doubtless in prospect had he liv'd the vastest Monarchy that had been known since the partage of the Imperial Dominion of Charles the Great but John sirnamed Lackland the only Uncle who surviv'd procur'd his death to get his Estate and by this means the daughter of Guy de Thouars became sole Heiress of the Earldom of Bretaign Philip the August who taking advantage of the villany of John Lackland had reunited the Dutchy of Normandy to the Crown of France pretended that since Henry these cond King of England had power as being Duke of Normandy to dispose of the Mother he both as Duke of Normandy and King of France together had so much the better Title to dispose of the daughter The branch of Dreux was at that time the most proper branch of the Royal Family his appennage was small he had neither Office nor Government his Alliances had not enrich'd him and it was to be fear'd he might lose his Rank for want of Estate as it hapned some time since to the branch of Cortenai supposing his publih'd Genealogy be altogether exact This made Philip the August the more willing to give the Heiress of Bretaign to Peter de Dreux with this Condition that Bretaign should henceforth be immediately held of the Crown of France that is to say that it should no more do homage to whoever should be Masters of Normandy in case that Province should ever be again dismembred from the Crown The Condition was advantagious to both the new married Parties since their Estates were now no longer held in arrier fiefs nor would depend for the time to come upon a single Duke of Normandy but only upon the first of Christian Kings Nor did any one receive prejudice by it in regard Normandy was reunited to the Crown No wonder then if Peter de Dreux and his Wife accepted gladly the Condition and observ'd it in all particulars But that soon befel the new Duke of Bretaign which is but too frequent with men of slender virtue that is to say he suffer'd himself to be drawn away and transported by this flowing Tide of good fortune The large Extent of this Country of Bretaign and its advantageous Situation gave it a very sufficient Title and Merit in this Princes opinion to an absolute and independent Sovereignty besides he was pleas'd to flatter himself with this conceit that his carrying on so high a design as the shaking of the French yoke would immortalize his Name to all Posterity which great undertaking the better to accomplish he was really perswaded that his siding with the Earl of Boulogne and his Party was as fair an opportunity as he could have wisht for taking it for granted that if the Earl succeeded he could do no less than remit his homage of Bretaign in recompense of his declaring for him In case he did not succeed the Regent in revenge that she might oblige those Princes of the blood who had taken part with him to desert him would be glad to condescend to what ever they should demand of her Thus the Duke of Bretaign turn'd Rebel upon false surmises with which he fed his fancy but the most cross and untoward occurrence in his Revolt was his drawing in upon a quite contrary principle his Brother Robert de Dreux This Person had a Soul so sensible of all benefits and so prone to grateful returns that he thought he could not better testifie the high obligation he had to the Duke of Bretaign for having left entire to him the Apennage of their branch than by serving him for or against whom soever he desir'd except the King Thus he put himself under the Banner of the Malecontents by a Motive the most excusable that ever was if any excuse can be admitted in matters of Treason The last Prince of the blood that the Earl of Boulogne drew in to his Party was Robert of Courtenay whom he found the more pliable to his Temptations by discontent because the branch of the Dreux had been preferr'd before his by the Match of Bretaign and to engage him the more deeply he had opportunity given him to make himself Master of certain summs of the Kings mony Raimond the 7th of that Name Earl of Tholouse sirnamed the young was before hand with the Malecontents to whom without staying for any Invitation from them he went and joyned of his own accord upon the first prospect he had of a civil war His main inducement to this proceeding for he had none of those pretences which the rest made use of was only to save himself by fishing in other mens troubled waters The Court of Rome whose Thunders ruin'd without Exception all those petty Princes upon whom they lighted was altogether inexorable toward this Prince and would not quit him of those Ecclesiastical Censures which had been pronounc'd against him though the refusal thereof was the greatest obstacle to the recovery of Languedoc This Interdiction had so powerful an ascendant upon his Subjects minds that they thought they might be very well
THE MINORITY OF St. Lewis With the Politick Conduct of Affairs by his Mother Queen Blanch of Spain during her Regency BEING A Relation of what happen'd most Memorable under his Reign during the Year 1226 1227 1228 and 1229. LONDON Printed for R. Bentley and S. Magnes at the Post-house in Russel-Street in Covent-Garden 1685. To the most Illustrous Prince HENRY DUKE of NORFOLK Earl Marshal of England Earl of Arundel Surrey Norfolk and Norwich Baron Mowbray Howard Seagrave Bruse de Gower Fitz-Allan Clun Oswaldestrey Maltravers Talbot Verdon Lovetot Furnival Strange of Blackmere and Howard of Castle Rysing Constable and Governour of His Majesties Royal Castle and Honour of Windsor Lord Warden of Windsor Forrest Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Norfolk Surrey and Berks and of the City of Norwich and County of the said City and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter MY LORD I Should not have presum'd to approach with an Address of so small importance a Personage of your Dignity and Grandure in whose present station all the Honours and in whose Person all the Virtues of your Illustrious Family so eminently shine but for this consideration that there is an obliging condiscention which ever attends upon true Nobility and Native Greatness But my Lord I have this moreover to plead that in this so small a Volume there are such Arcana Historiae and such well weigh'd Characters of persons that those even of the highest Sphaere and Imployment may I judge think a few hours not ill bestow'd in the perusal of them The last pretension I lay to your Graces pardon is that I have taken care to give your Grace as little interruption as possible to your more weighty affairs in striving to express the ambition I have of paying my Mite of those honours and respects which you merit from all the world and thereby of aspiring to the Title of MY LORD Your GRACES most humble most obedient and most dutiful Servant Edw. Philips The MINORITY OF St. Lewis OR A Relation of what happen'd of most Memorable under his Reign during the Years 1226 1227 1228 and 1229. NEver any Christian Prince merited of History more solid serious and univerversal Praise than Lewis the 9th of that Name King of France firnamed the Saint and consequently never any Christian Prince hath been so ill treated by the generality of Historians both French and Foreigners Ancient and Modern Good and Bad of all sorts of People and of all Religions The Hereticks of latter times haply offended at the Reason he gave for refusing to go to see the Body of Christ become visible in the hands of a Priest namely that he had no need of ocular Testimony to convince him of a Truth whereof he was already so well satisfied have with that prejudice represented even the most Heroick of his actions that were their Credit valuable this Prince could certainly be allow'd no better a Character than any of the nine last Kings of the Merovingian Race They will needs have that haughtiness wherewith he treated his Brother Charles of Anjou who after he was crown'd King of Naples and Sicily let loose the Reins to licence pass for an Effect of secret Pride and Ambition they brand with rashness and imprudence the two Expeditions he made against the Infidels and will have the extraordinary Charge he was at in those Undertakings no other than Profuseness and Prodigality That Majestick Air which he exprest in all his Actions and which descended to him from the Queen his Mother they interpret to be only a natural Surliness and Austerity of humour in him and though more Covertly they forbear not to censure his frequent Visitations and regulations of Hospitals The plainness of his habit they attribute to a poorness of Spirit in him and from his aptness to conceal and pass over all private Injuries offer'd him they are ready to accuse him of Pusillanimity and Cowardice His Conversation though obliging enough they account too Reserv'd and Morose considering the Familiarity and Freedom that had been allow'd to Courtiers in those times They cavil at the sincerity of his Answers both by word of mouth and in writing to foreign Ambassadors in the Affairs he had to concert with the Crowns of England and Spain they tax him of too much Severity in the Execution of his Laws especially against the Jews and of too much adhering to particular Justice to the prejudice of the publick in the renuntiations he made to the Dutchy of Guien and Kingdom of Castile Nor is this noble Prince and Saint King Lewis better dealt with by the Catholick Historians though perhaps not with such an apparent and design'd prejudice and that by Reason for a more probable cause cannot be guess'd at of that pragmatick Sanction which came forth under the Name of this Prince occasion'd by the quarrel he had with the Court of Rome They look'd upon as Criminal the zealous Concerns he had for the Rights of his Crown and upon this pretence took upon them to bespatter all his actions without Limit or Distinction Of this last sort of Writers some there are who not daring to launch out into those high Intemperancies have yet fallen into another default equally disadvantageous to the glory of this Royal Saint They have a conceit forsooth that there is no extraordinary Sanctity to be found but in Monasteries or at least that it is not to be attain'd but by such Mortifications of the body as are there in use and upon this presupposal they carry on the main part of their design throughout all their Writings so that they make it not so much their buisiness to represent this holy King Lewis such as really he was but such as in their Opinion he ought to have been that is to say in stead of making him a great King as he was they set him forth a very Monk of the most reformed Order Insomuch that in a Manuscript Imbellisht with curious Figures in Miniature which came to light about 12 years after his death he is pourtray'd in several Exercises of Penitence the most severe and bloody that were than practic'd in Cloisters Moreover one Richard a Monk of the Abby of Enove de Votsge describes him yielding to the Temptation of a certain Jacobin who urg'd him to take upon him the Order of St. Dominick and from which nothing but the powerful and incessant Interposings of the Queen his Mother Philip the Hardy his Son and Charles of Anjou his Brother could have diverted him Mathew Paris an English Benedictin an Historian otherwise the most faithful and best informed of his Time brings in our Princely St. Lewis at his restitution of Guien to the English uttering himself in a Speech no less void of Sense then Regal Authority and gives him a very lame at least imprudent Character when he tells us that without fear or respect of the Barons of his Realm he had given up to the English those other Provinces which
by the different passions which had got the Mastery of him began to entertain an Idea of Parricide as of absolute necessity at this time He could not resolve upon attempting the Kings Life by open force at a time when he had all his Troops about him nor was the way of Assassination much more safe It was now many Ages since any of the French Monarchs had been taken off by this way so ready the Nobility had been to take part with them and to revenge all designs whatsoever put in practice against them No way was left but poison and the French who from the very first beginning of the Monarchy had had this practice in the greatest detestation began insensibly to have an inclination to it whether it were that they were of late grown more Ingenious in Malice or that they had learn'd this way of giving their Enemies a dispatch either from the Infidels against whom they had born Arms or from the Greeks with whom they had of late been more than formerly conversant What kind of poison it was that the Earl gave the King was never absolutely discovered but sure enough for the greater Secrecy of the matter such a Dose was given him as caus'd a lingring distemper The King dissembled for many dayes the violence of the Feavour which inwardly confum'd him nor did he to the very last so much resent the pain he endur'd as the disturbances likely to ensue as to publick Affairs Jealousy for its greater Satisfaction finds out peculiar wayes of taking Vengeance The Earl had the pleasure before he parted to see the King languishing on his death bed and to foresee that his leaving him in that Condition would augment his grief and vexation of Spirit However he had the confidence for all this to go and wait upon the Queen as presupposing that she could hardly suspect the true cause of her Husbands Malady or at least if she should come to under-it she would be oblig'd to conceal her knowledge because of the need she would have of his assistance in obtaining the Regency Nor was it long e're the King finding his end to draw near made his Will in which he appointed the Queen to be Governess of her Eldest Son and Regent of the Kingdom He dyed thesventh of November 1226 in the 39th Year of his Age This last Will and Testament met with no opposition on whether it were that the Princes of the Blood and Nobility of the Realm were wrought upon by those pathetical discourses which he made to them upon his death bed to oblige them to pursue his Interests or that their wavering minds had not yet fix'd upon those measures which were to be taken for a Revolt intended or had they indeed been ready for any such design they were watch'd too narrowly by the Queen to bring it to Effect For notwithstanding she was left a Widow at a Conjuncture capable of disheartning a Princess who though of wit and spirit enough yet wanted two qualifications which might render a womans Government supportable to the French Nation that is to say Credit and Experience however she endeavour'd by all means possible to inform her self of the Genius of a People she was to govern and eafily apprehended that the best way to prevent what ever designs might happen to be broach'd in France was to carry with all speed her Eldest Son St. Lewis to Reims to be there anointed King and that nothing would so much conduce as this Ceremony to keep within the bounds of their Allegiance a People prepossess'd with an opinion of his being hereby made a partaker in the Sovereign Power The extraordinary haste that was made for the King's Journy into Champaign hinder'd the Grandees and Nobles from accompanying the King with the Splendor and Magnificence usual upon such occasions notice only was given that the King was willing to dispence with the trouble and charge of those great preparations expecting their Attendance in person only without any pompous Train or numerous Retinue which in such an Affair as this would be but trouble-some and apt to breed disturbance This Ceremony was perform'd in the beginning of December 1226 by the Ministry of the Bishop of Soissons Premier Suffragan of the Archbishoprick of Reims whose seat was then vacant But Philip of France the Kings Paternal Uncle first Prince of the Blood Earl of Boulogne and Clermont whether it were that he took Exception to see himself preceded by the Peers of France at the Kings Inauguration or because the Regent had not confirm'd the Augmentation of his Appenage which was promis'd him when he gave his content to her being made Regent what ever it were he repented him of what he had done when it was but just too late to revoke it He was the first man that labour'd to destroy his own work though no man was more concern'd than himself to preserve it entire He came short in deeds of Arms both of his Father and his Brother but equall'd them both in wit and surpass'd them in Vigour and Address and though there were no other proofs then the Intreagues hereafter mention'd they are sufficient to discover him the most subtle and dextrous Prince of his Age. He represented both by word of mouth and by writing to all the Nobles of the Realm how they had been circumvented how that a Spanish Woman had found a way how to deprive them of the fruit of all their labours and that notwithstanding those Conquests which had been gain'd by Philip the August in a War of 50 Years to avoid falling under the English Power and the coming off with so much glory in so difficult an Enterprise they were now in danger of falling under that Yoke whereof in former times they had so universal a dread That the Queen whom they had declar'd Regent was indeed born in a Country which hitherto had neither any Antipathy nor Interest with France but that she was in Effect English and neither could nor ought to be consider'd as others wise though at a time when she took upon her the Government of the French That she was the daughter of Eleanor Princess of England and Grandchild of a Queen of the same Name who had detach'd Guien from the Crown of France to unite it to England That though she was the daughter of Alphonso sirnamed the Noble King of Castile yet she was not married to the late King Lewis as Infanta of Spain but as Princess of the Royal House of England where the Daughters are call'd to the Succession of the Crown for want of Issue Male. That this Marriage had been resolv'd on in a solemn Treaty with the English That the King of England had endow'd her with the Earldom of Eureux and 30000 Marks of Silver and therefore had reason to expect from her a Recompence proportionable to the establishment he had setled upon her That nothing less could be expected but giving back the Provinces conquer'd from King John
which was no less advantageous to their Party They laid Treason to his Charge impeaching him of the untimely death of his late Sovereign Lord King Lewis the 8th by poyson given him and offer'd to undergo the severest penalties that could be inflicted upon false accusers if they did not plainly prove him guilty of two Crimes which rendred him unfit for humane Society that is to say of high Treason against his Sovereign Lord and of being a Traitor against his Country This they urg'd with Arms in their hands and the danger which threatned the Crown from their impetuous heat was thought so considerable that all the grand Ministers of the Kings Council were of Opinion that the best way would be to give them some satisfaction The Count himself was of the same Sentiment for quietness sake and it was with his own consent that the Queen upon Treaty with them made the chief Condition of their laying down their Arms to be the Earl of Champaign's taking upon him the Croisada and setting out immediately for the holy Land attended with a hundred Knights at least to be maintain'd at his own Charge This was a very notable Expedient in regard it equally pleas'd both Parties For on the one side the Earl found it very advantageous to him in regard both his Crime met with a far gentler punishment than it really deserv'd or he could have hop'd for had he been brought to Trial and his Reputation was in a manner salv'd by going in a croud of so many innocent persons as daily went upon this Expedition upon no other motive than their most ardent zeal On the other side the Rebels also obtain'd what they desir'd for besides that they had a long time of deliverance from their Enemy and the satisfaction of having put him upon an Expedition from whence few valiant men live to return If the accusation wherewith they branded him were not made out in full it was at least in part for admitting there were among the Croisado'd Champions many innocent persons there were also many culpable and as divers Princes and Great men led Armies over into Palestine merely for the accomplishing of those religious vows they had made for the recovery of the holy places where Jesus Christ had been conversant and died for the Salvation of mankind So there were others of no less grandure who undertook this Voyage or rather Pilgrimage as a penance enjoyn'd and to obtain absolution of those Ecclesiastical Censures which they lay under And this was the case of Henry the second King of England who for his Assassination of St. Thomas of Canterbury had this penitential Voyage enjoyn'd him by Pope Alexander the third which our Earl of Champaign so willingly accepts Civil wars and the Defluctions of the body end much after the same manner that is to say by discharging themselves all at once upon the weakest part and throwing on it a greater weight than it is able to bear The French were almost brought to a right understanding yet nevertheless would not easily consent to lay down their Arms they earnestly press'd to be employ'd in prosecuting the design of Lewis the 8th and there was reason to fear lest the refusal of their demand might occasion new troubles Never was there a fairer prospect of the Conquest of Languedoc the longer the delay the greater would be the difficulty and the Interests of State were not to be neglected so long as they were seconded by those of Religion In order hereunto the Regent resolv'd to drive the Earl of Tholouse to the utmost extremity and the better to assure her self of the greatest advantage possible in all humane appearance she made it her first business to deprive this Prince whose ruine she design'd of the surest refuge he had to trust to It hath been already observ'd that the Earl of Provence was his Cousin and a Prince in like manner as himself of the house of Catalogue Languedoc had expectation of assistance more ways than one Those of Provence were in a Condition to aid them if not directly yet at least indirectly being at that time the most free from war of any people in France and their Prince the most mony'd man of any Prince in Europe Mony was the main thing the Earl of Tholouse wanted and but for the want of which he could not have wanted Souldiers notwithstanding all the Excommunications thunder'd against him from the Court of Rome Above all things therefore the Earl of Provence must of necessity be taken off him the Regent knew to be a sincere man and a most punctual observer of his word wherefore she represented to him by secret Messengers that he was now grown old and could not if he regarded his health and consider'd his true Interest engage himself in the Earl of Tholouse his quarrel without drawing an inevitable war upon Provence let him use all the faution he could That he had only our daughters and the Earl of Tholouse but one so that since the house of Catalonia was drawing toward a period he could not better consult for the honour and advantage of his Family than by making an Alliance with that of France which beyond all dispute was the noblest in the world That the Eldest of the Provencian Princesses could not be more happily matcht than with the young King of France that this proposal was not so much upon the account of her Estate as of her matchless beauty and the charming sweetness of her Nature and to evince to the Earl that this Alliance was not in the least promoted in reference to the uniting of his Estate to the Crown of France there should be a renunciation made to any such pretension upon the contract of Marriage of the King with his Eldest daughter and free leave given him to divide all he had among his three younger daughters or to give it to her of the three whom he preferr'd before the rest The Earl of Provence could never have been more easily tempted than by two such soft and obliging Proportions as the concluding his Life in Tranquility and repose and the liberty to dispose his Estate as he pleas'd For besides that he was much of the temper of those effeminate Princes who hate nothing more than business he was overtaken with the vice of those who happen to have Children in their old Age that is to say he lov'd the Princess Beatrice his youngest daughter better than any of the other three to her he design'd to leave Provence and as a man is apt for the most part to give way to the belief of what he earnestly and constantly desires he perswaded himself that in preferring the youngest he should do no wrong to the three Elder daughters since it was his intention to leave them his Treasures which he look'd upon as treble the value of his Sovereignty He fancy'd if the King of France by marrying of his Eldest daughter shewd himself an approver of what he had determin'd