not be corrupt and become cowards by too great peace and prosperitie for want upon whom to make warre The resolution of the Senat was in a meane betwixt these two opinions For it was ordained That the Carthaginians should be permitted to remove their towne into any other part tenne mile from the sea But the Carthaginians found so strange the removing of their towne that they had rather suffer all extreame things insomuch as by long warre they were wholly vanquished and their towne altogether rased and made inhabitable Very memorable also to this purpose is the advice of the Chancellor de Rochefort Annales upon the year 1488. who was in the time of king Charles the eight For many counselling this yong king to make war against Francis duke of Bretaigne to lay hold of his dutchie this good Chancellor shewed That the rights the king pretended to that duke were not yet well verified and that it were good to seeke further into them before warre was attempted for it should be the worke of a tyrant to usurpe countries which belong not to him According to this advice embassadors were sent to the duke who then was at Reves to send on his side men of counsell and the king would doe so on his side to resolve upon both their rights This was done and men assembled to that end but in the meane while duke Francis died and the king espoused Madame Anne his daughter and heire and so the controversie ended The same king enterprising his voyage of Naples caused to assemble all his presidents Annal. upon Anno 149â— of his courts of Parliaments with his Chancellor his privie Counsell and the princes of his blood to resolve upon his title and right to Naples and Sicilie These lords being assembled visited the genealogie and discent of the kings of Sicilie and Naples they found that the king was the right heire of these kingdomes so that upon that resolution this voyage was enterprised Hereby is seene the vanitie of Machiavell who presupposeth That king Charles had enterprised that voiage to get all Italie but that Fortune was not favourable unto him for that was never his deseigne nor purpose neither assayed he to seize upon any thing in Italie but of certaine townes necessarie for his passage in determination to yeeld them up again at his departure as he did And if the king would have enterprised upon Italie hee had had a farre more apparent title than the magnificent Lawrence de Medicis seeing all Italie was once by just title possessed by Charlemaine king of France his predecessor But this hath been alwayes a propertie in our kings not to run over others grounds nor to appropriate to themselves any seignorie which appertained not unto them by just title We reade also of Charles the fift called the Sage That being incited by his nobilitie Frois lib. 1. cap. 245. 25. and people of Guienne to seize againe that countrey which was occupied by the English he would not enterprise it without great good deliberation of good Counsell And therefore he caused well to be viewed by wise and experienced people the treatie of peace made at Bretaigne betwixt his dead father and the king of England for that it was told him that the king of England had not accomplished on his side that which he was bound to doe After they had as they thought well resolved him of this point yet he was not content to be satisfied himselfe but would that his subjects should be also well resolved thereof and especially such as were under the English obedience and to that purpose hee sent preachers covertly into such good townes as were occupied by the English insomuch that readily by the preachers inducements there were more than threescore townes and fortresses which revolted from the Englishmen and offered themselves unto the kings obeisance This then is a resolved point That a prince ought not to enterprise to obtaine a If by warre any can be constrained to be of any Religion countrey where hee hath no title under colour to deliver the inhabitants thereof from tyrannie But here may arise a question if it be lawfull for a prince to make war for religion and to constraine men to bee of his religion hereupon to take the thing by reason the resolution is very easie For seeing that all religion consisteth in an approbation of certaine points that concerne the service of God certaine it is that such an approbation dependeth upon the persuasion which is given to men thereof but the meanes to persuade a thing to any man is not to take weapons to bear him nor to menace him but to demonstrate unto him by good reasons and allegations which may induce him to a persuasion But he that will decide this question by examples of our auncestors he shall find divers to be for and against For to reade our French hystories in the lives of Clowis the first Charlemaine and some other kings of Fraunce it seemeth that their studie was altogether bent upon warre Annales upon Anno 718. against Paynims for nothing but to make them become Christians with hand-blowes and force of armes But what Christians That is when the Paynims were vanquished and that they could no more resist they were acquited upon condition to be baptized without other instruction And most commonly as soone as they could againe gather strength they returned to their Paynim religion And this is well shewed us by the hystorie of one Rabbod duke of Fricse who being upon the point to be baptized and his clothes off and having one foot in the font hee demanded of the archbishop of Sens which should have baptized him Whether there were more of his parents in hell or in paradice The archbishop aunswered him that the most must needs be in hell because his predecessors were never baptized Then the duke drawing his foot out of the water Well said he then I will goe to hell with my parents and friends and I will not be baptized to be seperated from them so he withdrew himselfe denying to be baptized Here I leave you to thinke if this man were well instructed in the Christian doctrine It seemeth that at that day to be a Christian it sufficed to be baptized and commonly Paynims were baptized by force of armes We reade also That our auncient kings of Fraunce made many voyages into Turkie and into Affrica for the augmentation of the Christian Religion and to revenge as they said the death of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Paynims and Infidels But one time the Paynims themselves shewed them well that they enterprised such warres by an inconsiderate zeale For the armie of Fraunce whereof the duke of Bourbon was cheefe being in Affrica making warre against the Infidels in the time of king Charles the sixt the captaine generall of the Turkes and Saracens sent an herauld to the duke of Bourbon to know wherefore he discended into Affrica to
by Machiavell which maintaineth his subjects in division and partialitie and which seekes to sley all them which love the commonweale and which desire a good reformation a good policie in the commonweale There are also other tokens and markes whereby to know a tyrant as them which wee have before alledged out of doctor Bartolus and them also which hystoriographers have marked to have been in Tarquin the proud For they say when he changed his just and royall domination Dioni Halic lib. 4. into a tyrannicall government he became a contemner and a despiser of al his subjects as well the meane people as the nobilitie and Patritians he brought a confusion and a corruption into justice he tooke a greater number of waiting servants into his guard than his predecessors had he tooke away the authoritie from the assembly of the Senate which it alwaies before had moreover hee dispatched criminall and civile causes after his fancie and not according to right hee cruelly punished such as complained of that change of estate as conspirators against him he caused many great and notable persons to die secretly without any forme of justice hee imposed tributes upon the people against the auncient forme and regalitie to the impoverishing and oppression of some more than of others hee had also spies to discover what was said of him and afterward punished rigorously such as had blamed either him or his government These be the colours wherewith the hystories do paint Tarquin when of a king he became a tyrant and these are ordinarily the colours and liverie of all tyrants banners whereby they may be knowne It seemeth that Tarquin forgot nothing of all that a tyrant could doe but that he slew not Brutus which was a fault in the art of tyrannie as learnedly Machiavell noteth it which fell to bee his ruin But the cause hereof was that Brutus in the court counterfeted the foole wherby Tarquin had no suspition of him For none but wise men and good people are suspect and greevous to tyrants but as for counterfeting fooles unthrifts flatterers bauds murderers inventors of imposts and such like dregs and vermine of the people they are best welcome into tyrants courts yet even amongst them are not tyrants alwaies without danger for amongst such fooles sometimes happeneth a Brutus who at last will plat out their ends so that ever their lives hangs by a small thred as Denis the tyrant sayth But the example of Hieronimus another tyrant of Sicilie is to this purpose well to be noted This Hieronimus was the sonne of a good and wise king called Hiero whom also they well called tyrant because he came not to that estate by a legitimate title although he exercised it sincerely and in good justice who when he died left this Hieronimus his sonne very young and under age For the government therefore of him and of his affaires he gave him fifteene tutors and amongst them Andronodorus and Zoilus his sonnes in law and one Thraso which he charged to maintaine the countrey of Sicilie in peace as he himselfe had done by the space of fiftie yeares of his raigne but especially that they should maintaine the treatie and confederation which he had all the length of his time duly observed with the Romanes The said tutors promised to performe his request and to change nothing in the estate but altogether to follow his footsteps Straight after Hiero was dead Andronodorus being angry because of so many tutors caused the king who was then but 15 yeares old to be proclaimed of sufficient age to bee dismissed of tutors and so dispatched himselfe as well as others of that dutifull care they ought to have had of their king and countrey After he got to himselfe alone the government of the kingdome and to make himselfe to bee feared under the kings authoritie hee tooke to him a great number of waiters for his guard and to weare purple garments and a diademe upon his head and to goe in a coach drawne with white horses altogether after the manner of Denis the tyrant and contrary to the use of Hieronimus yet was not this the worst for besides all this Adronodorus caused the yong king his brother in law to bee instructed in pride and arrogancie to contemne every man to give audience to no man to bee quarelous and to take advantage at words of hard accesse given to all new fashions of effeminacie and riotousnesse and to bee unmeasurable cruell thirstie after bloud After Andronodorus had thus framed to his minde this yong king a conspiration was made against him unto which Andronodorus was consenting to dispatch and sley him but it was discovered but yet executed which A conjuration discovered yet executed was strange For one Theodorus was accused and confessed himselfe to bee one of the conspiracie but being tortured and racked to confesse his complices and parteners in that conspiracie knowing he must needs die and by that meanes desiring to be revenged of that yong tyrant he accused the most faithfull and trustiest servants of the king This young tyrant rash inconsiderat straight put to death his friends and principal servants by the counsell of Andronodorus who desired nothing more because they hindered his deseignes This execution performed incontinent this yong tyrant was massacred and slain upon a straight way by the conspirators themselves which before had made the conjuration the execution whereof was the more easie by the discoverie thereof because as is said the tyrants most faithfull friends and servants were slaine Soone after the tyrants death Andronodorus obtained the fortresse of Siracuse a towne of Sicilie but the tumults and stirres which he raised in the countrey as he thought for his owne profit fell out so contrarie to his expectation that finally he his wife and all their race and the race of Hieronimus were extermined as well such as were innocent as they that were culpable And so doth it ordinarily happen to all young princes which by corruption are degenerated into tyrants So fals it out also to all them which are corrupters of princes to draw them into habits of all wickednesse Lastly here would not bee omitted altogether this wickednesse of Machiavell who confounding good and evill together yeeldeth the title of Vertuous unto a tyrant Is not this as much as to call darkenesse full lightsome and bright vice good and honourable and ignorance learned But it pleaseth this wicked man thus to say to plucke out of the hearts of men all hatred horror and indignation which they might have against tyrannie and to cause princes to esteeme tyrannie good honorable and desirable 16. Maxime A Prince may as well be hated for his vertue as for his vice THe emperour Pertinax saith Machiavell vvas elected emperor Cap. 19. Of the prince against the vvils of his men of vvarre vvhich before had customably lived licentiously in all vices and dissolutenesse under the emperour Commodus his predecessor
must have a wise quicke and sharpe wit and iudgement rightly and discreetly to ponder and weigh the circumstances and accidents of every affaire prudently to apply them to the rules and Maximes yea sometimes to force and bend them to serve to the present affaire But this science and habit of knowing well to weigh and examine the accidents and circumstances of affaires and then to be able handsomely to apply unto them their rules and principles is a science singular and excellent but rare and not given to many persons For of necessâ—â—â— he that will come to this science at the least in any perfection to be able to mannage and handle weightie affaires had need first to bee endowed with a good and perfect naturall iudgement and secondly he must be wise temperate and quiet without any passion or affection but all to publicke good and utilitie and thirdly hee must bee conversed and experimented in many and sundry affaires These he cannot have and obtaine unlesse hee himselfe have handled or seene them handled or els by great and attentive reading of choise hystories he have brought his iudgement to bee very stayed and well exeecised in such affaires We must not then thinke that all sorts of people are fit to deale with affaires of publicke The scope of the Author estate nor that every one which speaketh and writeth thereof can say that which belongeth thereunto But it may be some will enquâ—re if I dare presume so much of my selfe as to take upon me effectually to handle this matter Hereunto I answer that nothing lesse and that it is not properly my purpose wherunto I tend or for which cause I enterprise this Worke But my intent and purpose is onely to shew That Nicholas Machiavell not long agoe a Secretarie of the Florentine commonweale which is now a Dutchie understood nothing or little in this Politicke science whereof we speake and that he hath taken Maximes and rules altogether wicked and hath builded upon them not a Politicke but a Tyrannicall science Behold here then the end and scope which I have proposed unto my self that is to confute the doctrine of Machiavell not exactly to handle the Politick science although I hope to touch some good points thereof in some places when occasion shall offer it selfe Vnto my aforesaid purpose I hope to come by the helpe of God with so prosperous a good wind and full sailes as all they which reade my writings shall give their iudgement and acknowledge that Machiavell was altogether ignorant in that science that his scope and intent in his writings is nothing els but to frame a very true and perfect tyrannie Machiavell also never had parts requisit to know that science For as for expertence in managing of affaires he could have none since during his time hee saw nothing but the brabblings and contentions of certaine Potentates of Italie and certaine practises and policies of some cittizens of Florence Neither had hee any or very little knowledge in hystories as shal be more particularly shewed in many places of our discourse where God ayding we will marke the plaine and as it were palpable faults ignorances which he hath committed in those few hystories which it pleaseth him sometimes by the way to touch which also most commonly he alledgeth to evill purpose and many times falsely As for a firme and sound iudgement Machiavell also wanted as is plainely seene by his absurd and foolish reasons wherewith for the most part he confirmes his propositions and Maximes which he sets downe only he hath a certaine subtiltie such as it is to give colour unto his moct wicked and damnable doctrines But when a man comes something nigh to examine his subtilties then it truth it is discovered to be but a beastly vanitie and madnesse yea full of extreame wickednesse I doubt not but many Courtiers which deale in matters of Estate others of their humor will find it very strange that I should speake in this sort of their great Doctor Machiavell whose bookes rightly may bee called The French Courtiers Alcoran they have them in so great estimation imitating and observing his principles and Maximes no more nor lesse than the Turkes doe the Alcoran of their great Prophet Mahomet But yet I beseech them not to be offended that I speake in this manner of a man whom I will plainely shew to be full of all wickednesse impietie and ignorance and to suspend their iudgement whether I say true or no untill they have wholly read these my discourses For as soone as they have read thâ—â— I doe assure my selfe that every man of perfect iudgement will say and determine thâ—t I speake but too modestly of the vices and brutishnesse found in this their great Doctor But to open and make easie the intelligence of that should here be handled wee must Of Machiavell and his writings first search out what that Machiavell was and his writings Machiavell then was in his time the Secretarie or common Notarie of the Common-weale of Florence during the kingdome of Charles the eight and Lewis the twelfth kings of France Alexander the sixt and Iulius the eleventh Popes of Rome and of Henry the seventh and Henry the eight kings of England in which time hee writ his bookes in the Italian language and published them about the first beginning of Francis the first king of Fraunce as may be gathered by his owne writings Of his life and death I can say nothing neither did I or vouchsafed I once to enquire thereof because his memorie deserved better to be buried in perpetuall oblivion than to be renewed amongst men Yet I may well say that if his life were like his doctrine as is to be presumed there was never man in the world more contaminated and defiled with vices and wickednesse than hee was By the Praefaci he made unto his booke entituled De Principe Of the Prince it seemeth he was banished and chased from Florence For he there complaineth unto his Magnificall Lawrence de Medicis unto whom he dedicated his Worke of that hee endured iniuriously and uniustly as he said And in certaine other places he reciteth That one while he remained in France another time at Rome and another while not sent embassadour for he would never have forgotten to have said that but as it is to be presumed as a fugitive and banished man But howsoever it be he dedicates the said booke unto the said Lawrence de Medicis to teach him the reasons and meanes to invade and obtaine a principalitie which booke for the most part containeth nothing but tyrannicall precepts as shall appeare in the prosecution and progresse of this Worke. But I know not if they de Medicis have made their profit and taken use of Machiavels precepts contained in his said booke yet this appeares plainely that they since that time occupied the principalitie of Florence and changed that Aristocraticall free estate of that cittie into a Dutchie
the Senat yet had they no power over the whole body of the Senat for they might well punish with death one Senator but they had no superioritie over the body of the Senat. So the body of the Senat and the body of the People were as it were alike and equall And as much authoritie had the lawes of the Senat which they called Senatus consulta as the lawes of the People which they called Plebiscita And therefore the emperours which by the Law Roiall succeeded in the place of the People only for the Senat did never despoile themselves of their authoritie to invest the emperour therewith had never power to decay the Senat neyther durst they ever enterprise it although some had a will thereunto as Nero Caligula and their like But as for the good emperours besides that they had no power to abolish the Senat they never had any desire thereof but maintained and conserved it and governed themselves by it and by it were they better obeied For we need not doubt but a people will more willingly obey a Law or Decree which shall have been sifted and examined in a great wise and notable an assembly such as was the Senate and will like it better and rather judge the Law to be founded upon reason and equitie than when it onely passeth through the braine of one sole man or of some small number Therefore the Emperour Alexander Severus never made Lamp in Alexand. law nor edict but he had on his Counsell twentie great and excellent Lawyers and fiftie other great excellent persons wise and well experienced And yet to the end that they might give their opinions more assuredly he first made them understand the matter upon which they must give their advise and after give time to consider thereof that their opinions might bee better digested resolved Therfore also the Emperour Theodosius ordained that no law should be availeable unlesse it were first L. humanum C. de Leg. concluded and determined with good and assured resolution of all the princes Consistorie and afterward received and approved by the Senat of Rome For saith he we know well that the ordinance of good Lawes and Edicts concluded with good Counsell and deliberation is the establishment of the assurednesse and glory of our Empire Therefore was it also that that great and wise Emperour Augustus Caesar did so communicate all the affaires of his Commonwealth with the Romane Senate Dion in August that as Dion saith he made a sweet and pleasant mingled harmonie of the Monarchicall estate with the estate of the Commonwealth And he not onely contented not himselfe to conferre with the Senate all affaires of importance and to take their advise but yet he would that the Senate should give him every yeare twentie Counsellors to be nigh him of his privie Councell in which Counsell he had alwaies many men very wise courteous and very modest such as the Lawyer Trebatius and that good and prudent Agrippa his sonne in law with that so learned and good a piller of learned men Mecoenas Therefore also Tiberius the Emperour the successor of Augustus although he was a Prince more abundant in vices than in vertues not daring wholly to stray out of his predecessors traces that good Augustus made nor ordained any thing of weight without the Counsell and advise of the Senate For this cause also breefely all the good Emperors as Vespatian Titus Traian Adrian the Antonines and others like communicated alwaies with the Senate upon all the great affaires of the Commonwealth and they bore themselves not like maisters but like Presidents of the Senat also they did not attribute unto themselves any title of honour nor enterprised to make any triumphs but such as was decreed and ordained by the Senate And by the contrarie the Emperours which were of no account such as Caligula Nero Comodus Bassianus Maximinus Heliogabalus and other like hated extreamely the Senate esteeming of it as their pedegoge and corrector and have caused many Senators to die thinking the more easily to command as they would having no controulers to withstand their wicked actions But the end was alwayes this that such as despised and would have annihilated the Senate have ever had an unluckie end and reigned not long time but have all been massacred and slaine young and have left unto their posteritie an infamie and most wicked memorie of them Herein is shewed a continuall successe of the just judgements of God against them which despised wise Counsell and contrary a felicitie and divine prosperitie in other Emperours which governed themselves by the good Counsell of the Senate and of the wise men of their privie Counsell For they raigned and held the Empire happily replenished with all goods honour and glorie and their subjects under them enjoyed good handling and good repose and tranquilitie And we need not doubt that such felicitie comming to good Princes the evill haps unto wicked Princes doe not proceed from God for as the wise man saith Good Counsell commeth from God and he that despiseth the gift of God Prov. 18. Eccle. 37. certaine it is that in the end he shall be well chastised Our kings of France of old used the same course that these good Emperors did For they often convocated the three Estates of the kingdome to have their advise and Counsell in affaires of great consequence which touched the interest of the Commonwealth And it is seene by our Hystories that the generall assembly of the Estates was commonly done for three causes One when there was a question In old time the general Estates wer held for three causes to provide for the kingdome a Governour or Regent as when kings were young or had not the use of their understandings by some accident or were captives or prisoners For in these cases the three Estates assembled to obtaine a Governour for the Realme Againe when there was cause to reforme the kingdome to correct the abuses of Officers and Magistrates and to bring things unto their ancient and first institution and integritie For kings caused the Estates to assemble because that many being assembled from all parts of the kingdome they might better be informed of all abuses and evill behaviours committed therein and might also better worke the means to remedie them because commonly There is no better Physician than he that knoweth well the disease and the causes therof The third cause why there was made an assembly of the Estates was when there was a necessary cause to lay a Tribute or Impost upon the people For then in a full assembly some shewed to them which were there which represented all the people the necessitie of the kings and the kingdomes affaires who graciously and courteously entreated the people to aid and helpe the king but with so much money as they themselves thought to be sufficient and necessarie And for this cause that which the Estates accorded to the king was
violence But because at the first they which reade this place of Commines may peradventure thinke that he seemes too much to limit and restraine a Princes power I will here as it were by an interpretation of his saying a little cleare this point You must then understand and presuppose that in a soveraigne Prince there A Prince hath a double power an absolute and a civile are two powers the one is called an absolute power and the other a civile power The absolute power is that which cannot nor ought not to be any thing limited but stretcheth it selfe to all things whatsoever they be unlesse it be to the lawes of God and of nature and of those lawes which are the foundation of the principalitie and estate For a Prince hath not power over God no more than the vassall hath over his liege Lord but ought himselfe to obey his commandements and ordinances So much there wants that he can any thing abolish or derogate from them The Prince also cannot abolish the fundamentall lawes of his principalitie wherupon his estate is founded and without which his said estate cannot subsist nor endure for so might he abolish and ruinate himselfe As in France the king cannot abolish the Salicke law nor the three estates nor the law of not alienating the countries and provinces united to the crowne For the Realme and the Royaltie are founded upon those three points which are as three pillars that sustaine and hold up both the king and kingdome neither can the Prince breake nor abolish any law naturall approved by the common sence of all men But in all other things the absolute power of a Prince reacheth without limitation for it is above all other lawes which he may make and unmake at his pleasure he hath power also over the body and goods of his subjects without restriction purely and simply True it is that he ought to temperat the use of that Absolute power by the moderation of his second power which is Civile as we shall say hereafter But suppose he will not moderate his absolute power by the Civile we must notwithstanding obey because God commandeth us But before we speake of the Civile power we must a little more amply cleare the points before touched The first point then which is that the Absolute power of a Prince stretcheth not above God is a matter of all confessed And there were never found any Princes or very few which would soare and mount so high as to enterprise upon that which belonged unto God yea even the Emperours Caligula and Domitian are blamed and detested by the Paynim hystories which had no true knowledge of God for that they durst enterprise upon God and upon that which appertained unto him Also it is a Maxime in Theologie That we must rather obey God than men which Maxime hath at all times ben practised by all good people and holy persons which are praised even with the mouth of God in the holy Scriptures as by Daniell and his companions the Apostles the Christians of the primitive Church and many of our time As for the other point which is that the Prince cannot abolish the foundamentall The Prince cannot abolish the fouÌ„damentall lawes of his principality lawes of his principalitie it is as cleare of it selfe For if a Prince overthroweth the foundations of his principalitie he ruinateth and overthroweth himselfe and his estate cannot endure for the first sencelesse and unwise man that comes thereunto will overthrow all upside downe As if in Fraunce a king may overthrow the Salicke law and so subject his Crowne unto the succession of women it is certaine that long ago the estate of France had been overthrowne For kings which have left none but daughters after them as Philipâ—le long Charles le bel and Lewis the twelfth had been easily enclined upon naturall affection towards their daughters to have broken that Salicke law if they so could to cause the Crowne to have falne unto their said daughters by the meanes whereof the kingdome after should have falne into strangers hands and by consequent into ruine and dissipation For the nature of the inhabitants of France is such that they cannot long suffer a strange Prince wherein they differ from many other nations as they could not long beare the domination of the Romane Emperours but against the reigne of the Emperour Tiberius they began to kicke and be greeved with the rule of Princes of another nation than their owne and finally they rid themselves of the Romanes yoke and Gaule was the first Province that cut it selfe from the Empire Neither was there ever found king that durst enterprise to breake the Salicke law True it is that king Charles the sixt at the instigation of Philip duke of Bourgoigne gave the kingdome of France in dowrie with his daughter Katherine which he maried to the king of England and declared the Dolphin unable and incapable to succeed in the kingdome of Fraunce because at Monterean-fante-Yonne Iohn father of the said Philip duke of Bourgoigne was by him slaine But this donation held not as being made against the Salicke law insomuch that the said duke Philip himselfe which had procured and caused to declare the said Dauphin unable to be king of France after the death of king Charles the sixt acknowledged him for king and lawfull successor to the Crowne of Fraunce For as for incapacitie it was knowne there was none because that duke Iohn which the Dauphin had slaine deserved it well having before caused to be slaine the duke of Orleance the kings only brother Yet because the manner of the execution which the said Dauphin caused to be made upon the said duke Iohn was not by lawfull meanes he acknowledged his fault in that case and made a great satisfaction to the said duke Philip as shall hereafter be more at large set forth So then the Salicke law hath alwaies remained firme as one of the three pillars of the kingdome and royaltie of France our ancestors neverbeing willing to suffer women to raigne and rule over them As much is to be said of the Estates generall the authoritie of which hath alwaies remained whole untill this present even from the foundation of the kingdome as being the second piller whereupon the kingdome is founded For if it happen that the crowne fall to a king under age or to one that is not well in his wit and understanding or that the king be a prisoner or captive or that the kingdome have urgent necessitie of a generall reformation how necessarie is it in all these cases that the estates assemble to provide for all affairs otherwise the estate of the kingdome and of the Roialtie would incontinent fall to the ground and without doubt it could not long continue in his being if the generall estates were abolished and suppressed For to say that in the aforesayd cases other than the foresaid estates may well order the affairs of the
of flatterers were banished and driven out of Fraunce in the time of Philip Augustus Annal. upon the year 1104. as persons serving for nothing but to vanities and corruptions of manners unto which Princes and great Lords gave gifts which might better have been employed upon Gods poore And therfore that good king made a vow that he would from thenceforth give to the poore all that which before he and his ancestours had given unto janglers And to the end that other Lords of the court should follow his example and that they might have no more occasion to give any thing to the said janglers he banished them all as is said from the court Such flatterers in truth are very pernicious for seeking too much to exalt and lift up Princes by praises they are causes to mount them into pride and unmeasurable fiercenesse which after brings their destruction So came it to Iulius Caesar For Dion Plutar in Caesar Sueto in Caes cap. 78 79. Lucius Cotta Coruelius Balbus and such like janglers being nigh about him ever persuaded him first to name the moneth which then was called Quintilis with and by his name Iulius which he did and ever since was it called Iuly After that they would needs make him a Temple to make him be worshipped as a god and they called him Iupiter in his presence they also persuaded him to take the name and crowne of a king which he was determined to doe if he had not been prevented by death When the Senators came to speake with him in his house he would not arise to meet them but those flatterers hindered him neither would they permit him to rise out of his chaire to salute them saying he was Caesar the soveraign Prince of the Common-wealth and that all others ought to honor him and not he them These things which Caesar did against his will by the persuasions constraint of janglers gathered unto him hatred and evill will of all the Senate insomuch that some Senators conspired against him and slew him even in the Senat house Caius Caligula a certaine time was a good Prince but the janglers he had about Suet. in Calig cap. 22. 51. Ioseph Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 15. him by their unmeasurable praises made him become as saith Suetonius a monster they caused him to take titles of Pitions The Sonne of Campes or Hoasts Most good and Most great Caesar and in the meane while they made him become the most cruell the most coward and the most wicked tyrant in the world He tooke a desire after all those goodly names and titles yea to take the name of a King and to weare a crowne but his flatterers shewed him that the name of an Emperour was much more than a King therefore from thence forward he attributed to himselfe a divine honour So gave he commandement that men in temples should set up images of him through all the world which were subject to the Romane Empire Insomuch that the Governour of Iudea called Petronius would have placed an image of Caligula in the great temple of Ierusalem but the Iewes would not suffer him which extreamely detested images whereby there had like to have beene a great sedition but in all other provinces of the Empire it was executed without contradiction Yet not contented that his images should bee in all places adored this detestable monster would many times goe and place himselfe in person betwixt the two images of Castor and Pollux in the Temple which was consecrated to them at Rome and there made himselfe to be worshipped in the middest of the said two gods which hee called his brethren Moreover he caused a Temple to be builded and consecrated where he made his image to be erected which was of gold and caused it every day to have on such like apparrell as he wore himselfe and founded in that Temple Priests for his service and to offer up unto him rare and precious Sacrifices as Pheasants Peacockes and other like birds and beasts farre fetched every day Sometimes went hee into the Capitoll Iupiters Temple and there would come unto the image of Iupiter and make a countenance to talke with him and speake in his eare and then would lay his owne eare to Iupiters mouth as it were to heare his answere sometimes would hee lift up his voice and taunt and rebuke Iupiter and after hee was departed from thence then said he that he had spoken with Iupiter and had obtained that hee asked I pray you what will you here say Is it possible in the world to dreame or imagine a more extreame folly or a pride and arrogancie more abhominable and enraged Behold to what point janglers brought him But this was not all for seeing himselfe thus adored he fell persuaded that no man durst ever enterprise any thing against him and so committed he a thousand cruelties and strange and horrible wickednesses such as easily a soveraigne prince might doe which spends his time and power in all excesses wantonnesse and riotousnesse wherein he never ceaâ—ed to wallow and tumble himselfe till he was suddainly massacred and slain which was a just and merited recompence vnto him because he so lightly beleeved flatterers and praisers You must thinke that whilest these janglers handled thus their maister leading him to such follies that they themselves were merry and joyfull to see him so governed after their fancie yet was there not laughter for them all and to speak of them which did not laugh is so much the better fit to make others laugh First then was Dion in Caio Caligu one Macro who seeking to come in favour and good grace with Caligula not onely he employed himselfe to praise and exalt the Emperour but also he set on his wife called Ennea to make her fit and handsome to gaine the good grace of that young Prince commaunding her to refuse him nothing For such people to come to the end they purpose care not therein to employ their honour and that of their wives even so far as themselves to be very bauds She then obeying Macro her husband did so much by her journeies that she entred into Caligula his amitie and her selfe discovered unto him how well her husband loved him and what commaundement hee gave her Insomuch that Macro as well by the meanes of his wife as by his owne jangling was a good time in credit But one day he had done something that pleased not Caligula as to breake a glasse or some other like fault and this foolish Emperour caused him to be called When he came he said Come hither Gallant did not you commaund such a thing to your wife doe you not know well that it is a thing punishable by our lawes to be a baud to his owne wife You must die and so constrained him to slea himselfe without hearing any excuse or defence There are yet two others which received no lesse and I will tell you how The Emperour
for Senators and Lawyers may as well be flatterers as others although they should shew better example because commonly they are wiser You must then vnderstand that in the time of the Emperour Tiberius many were accused for light matters said or done towards the Emperour because they knew he tooke pleasure in such accusations Amongst others one day there was accused Vitellio Sueton in Top. 5. in a full Senate of treason a Romane Knight called Lucius Ennius because he had melted a silver image of his owne which represented the Emperours image to make some other worke for his owne vse you may thinke what an huge crime this was and how men should find it evill for a man to do with his owne at his owne pleasure The Emperour Tiberius seeing that this accusation had no colour in it and that it was but a mockerie to call it a crime much lesse a crime of treason he forbad that the Knight should be criminalized for it Yet Atteius Capito a Senator and a great Lawyer but a very flatterer rose up and as upon a free libertie of speech he used these words to the Emperour Sir we are here assembled in the Senate where every one hath libertie freely to vtter his opinion for the good and utilitie of the common-wealth we beseech you not to take from us the power that we haue to punish such as commit crimes against the common-wealth and pardon not you alone that injurie which is done to all For what a despight and contempt is this for Ennius that he dare found and cast into the fire a Princes image ought not he rather to have kept it by him as an holy and sacred thing to have reverenced it for the honor of him whose representation it was this shews what heart and affection he beares towards his Prince and that if he could he would do as much vnto him as he doth to his Image For he that reverenceth the gods reverenceth also their images Had he not otherwise enough whereof to make his silver vessel but to melt for it this sacred Image hee would not do so much with the images of Brutus and Cassius for he honoureth them in his heart and would well at this day find the like which might enterprise the like disloyaltie against our good Prince as they did against Caesar Our Lawes will that in crimes of treason the least apparant suspition sufficeth to condemne the accused And it is the great interest and profit for the common-wealth rigorously to punish such as never so little attempt against the Prince vnlesse a man will say that the body hath not to do neither needeth to care when the head is wounded and offended And therfore I conclude that justice be executed vpon Ennius as a man attainted and culpable of treason The Emperour Tiberius although he was cruell in such matters knew well that this faire opinion of the Lawyer Capito was but a meere flatterie which he vnderstood better then he vttered therefore notwithstanding the said Capito his remonstrance and opinion he persisted in the Inhibitions before made that the knight Ennius should be no more vexed nor endangered about that matter And the abovesaid Tacitus saith that Capito by this his goodly opinion acquired a great infamy and evill reputation to himselfe greatly dishonouring both the knowledge of the civile Law humane and good letters wherewith he was excellently endowed Vpon this point I note that which master Philip de Comines well saith That Lawyers and great learned Comines lib. 1. cap. 24. men are very fit to be about a Prince and of his Counsell if they be good men but being otherwise they are very dangerous For they can so wel paint and set out their language alledging lawes and histories which every man understandeth not that often they take euill conclusions But when they be good men they may marueilously order and conduct matters which are handled in Counsell and bring them to a good resolution as may be proved by infinit examples out of Titus Livius and other Hystoriographers which I will not here accumulate because it is from our determined purpose In the ranke of janglers may well be placed the Poets of our time which by their Poesies full of flatteries and lies seeke to hooke in some abbotship or priorship or Poets janglers some other such gift in recompence of their adulations I confesse that a Poet may and should take more libertie to write the praises of some one man than an Oratour or an Hystoriographer but when praises are so hyperbolicall as they rather fall out to be the dishonour than the honour of him of whome they are written then are they not any thing tollerable I will take for example but the Epitaphes which were imprinted at Paris a little after the death of king Charles the ninth There those goodly Poets say That the king before he died overthrew more monsters than ever did Hercules in shedding so much bloud of his rebellious subjects That he died like Sampson who at his death pulled downe and overthrew the pillers which hee had in his armes and the house upon himselfe so in Fraunce justice pietie and religion died with him That France had been his stepmother That there was in him an exceeding great cunning in all arts and sciences and that he was also very expert in divers handicrafts That the king Henry his brother that now raignes succeeded him as Castor to Pollux as one god to another god That king Charles died a martyr of Iesus Christ and that from thenceforth he ought to be invocated as a Saint I pray you is there any man of sober judgement which doth not plainly see that such speeches become rather men void of wit and understanding by some extreame affection of flatterie than these gallant Poets which are drawne on and led with a generous and right Poeticall spirit for meaning unmeasurably to praise there escapes from them that they speake things redounding to their dispraise and if the dead king were alive he would not thanke them for such praises For a good Prince as Horace saith of Augustus ever rejecteth such foolish praises To purpose ill shall never goe my verse To Caesars eare for as his deeds appeare So would he I his praises should rehearse Too much his praise detesteth hâ— to heare And indeed it is common to all good and vertuous people not onely to reject excessive praises but also to hate as flatterers and liers all such as use them as Euripides witnesseth saying A good man praise too great cannot abide But hates that thing which puffes him so with pride If those goodly Poets before they had made their Epitaphs had well read Virgil and Horace they should have found that these two excellent Poets writ in many Aenead 6. Hora. lib. 4. Carm. Ode 5. 15. places the praises of Augustus But wherefore do they praise him For that he established a good peace in all the Romane Empire
gave them all great summes of money for Severus had left great treasure and made them sweare they would be faithfull unto him So that when after they knew the deed done and found themselves all gained and corrupted with silver they obeyed him without contradiction as to one sole emperour And what came of all this Bassianus not ignorant that the Senate of Rome would find this murder very strange that he had committed of his brother desired that great lawyer Papinian who was his kinsman and had beene as the Chancellor or great maister under the Emperour Severus that he would goe to the Senate and make his excuses by an Oration well set out That he had done well to slay his brother and that he had reason and occasion to doe it Papinian who was a good man answered him That it was not so easie to excuse a parricide as it was to commit it Bassianus greeved at this refusall caused one of his attendants straight to cut off his head After this willing to shew to the Senate and to the people that he greeved because he had slaine his brother and that they might see it was done by evill counsell he caused also his Marmoset Laetus his head to be cut off who had counselled him to doe that murder he caused also to die all them which helped him in that businesse which were culpable thereof saying that they were cause thereof This notwithstanding to the end Geta his friends should enterprise nothing against him he made die as many as he could catch of them So that under that title of being a friend servant or favourer of Geta his brother he made die many great and noble persons yea he slew all such as caried themselves betwixt them two as neuter and reconciliators I pray you what was the cause of all this great and horrible butcherie was it not the mortall enmitie which these Marmosets had sowne betwixt the brethren In the time of the Emperour Commodus there happened a like thing and because Dion Lamprid. in Commod Herod lib. 1. the hystorie is memorable I would rehearse it a little at length Marcus Antonius the Emperour was surnamed the Philosopher because he was a prince wise and studious and a lover of good letters In his time there were great plentie of wise and learned men because commonly saith Herodian men doe imitate their prince and give themselves to such things as the Prince loveth There was alwaies about him a great number of good and learned people for his privie Counsell which hee called his faithfull friends as the king of Fraunce also at this day dooth call his privie Counsellors in his pattents This good emperour being in Hungarie at the warre with Commodus his sonne fell into a disease whereof he died But before his death hee caused his Counsell to assemble and to recommend his sonne unto them made a little remonstrance worthy of such a Prince in this manner I doubt not my good friends that you are not anguished and sorrowfull to see me of this disposition For humanitie causeth that easily wee have compassion of mens adversities but especially when we see them with our eyes But yet in my regard there is a more speciall reason for I doubt not but you beare mee alike good will to that which I have ever borne you But now is the time for me to thanke you that you have alwayes been unto me good and faithfull Friends and Counsellors And I pray you also not to forget the honour and amitie which I have borne you You see my son which you your selves have nourished who now entreth into the flower of his youth who as he that entreth into an high sea had need of good Patrones and Governours least by ignorance and evill conduction hee stray from the right way and so come into perill I pray you then my friends whereas he had no more fathers but one in me be you many fathers unto him that he may be alwaies made better by your good counsels For truly neither the force of silver and treasures nor the multitude of guarders can maintaine a prince and make him be obeyed unlesse the subjects which owe obedience doe beare him good affection and benevolence And assuredly they onely raigne long and assuredly which ingrave and instill in their subjects hearts not a feare by crueltie but a love by bountie For they ought not to bee any thing suspected to a prince in that they doe or suffer which are drawne to obedience by their owne will and not by constrained servitude And subjects will never refuse obedience unlesse they bee handled by violence and contumelie Very true it is That it cannot bee but hard for a soveraigne prince who is at his full libertie moderately to guide and bridle his affections But if you alwayes admonish him to doe well and to remember the words which hee heareth now of me that am his father I hope you shall find him a good prince towards you and all others And in thus doing you shall manifestly shew That you alwayes have mee in remembrance by which onely meanes you may make mee immortall Vpon this speech his heart and his word failed with languishment and then all his Counsellors which were there begun to weepe lament yea some could not containe from crying for great sadnesse and bitternesse of heart that they had to see so good a prince faile After his death Commodus his sonne and successor in the empire governed himselfe some little time by the good people and auncient Counsellors of his father but this continued not long for there were straight Marmosets which found subtill meanes and entries to get into him which when they saw their time begun to say unto him What meane you to tarie in this base and barraine countrey of Hungarie better it were for you to bee at Rome to have all the pleasures in the world you have no cause to beleeve these tutors which your father left you you are no child to bee governed by tutors Commodus who was a faire young prince and one that desired nothing but his pleasures and who yet had no great resolution although his father had taken great paines to instruct him wel begun to let himself to be led with Marmosets which never spoke anything unto him but of merry and pleasant things So made he a shamefull and dishonorable peace with the Barbarians against whom his father had commenced warre and retired to Rome being there he begun to become cruell especially against the good and auncient counsellors of his fathers which hee caused almost all to die at the instigation of his Marmosets which reported unto him that they bore him no good will that they blamed his actions and controuled his pleasures He caused also many Senatours to die which his reporters for the same reason disgraced Amongst other Marmosets he had one called Perennis which persuaded him to care for nothing to take his pleasures and to
in hearing interrogating and confronting them with him that is accused Therefore hee sent the cause and the parties to Iunius Rufus Governour of Macedonie commaunding him to examine diligently the witnesses and take good advisement whether they were good men worthy of credit and if Alexander the accuser could not prove well his accusation that he should banish him to some place This commandement of the emperour Adrian hath since been marked by the Lawyers which since made a law thereof Behold how men must proceed when it lies on mens lives and not to beleeve Marmosets and reporters neither beleeve papers without seeing or hearing witnesses and the accused without searching whether the witnesses be good men or no as is done at this day for at this day there is nothing wherof magistrats make a better market than of mens lives But let us passe on Froissart lib. 2. cap. 173. lib. 3. cap. 63 68. and other following and lib. 4. cap. 92. c. I would now rehearse an example truly tragicall of king Richard of England who was sonne of that valiant and victorious prince of Wales This king came to the crowne very yong and had three good uncles about him the duke of Lancaster Yorke and Glocester by whose counsell for a certaine time hee governed well his kingdome But the earle of Suffolke whom the king made duke of Ireland entred so farre into the kings favour that he governed himselfe after his fancie Then took he occasions to talke so of the kings uncles as was very strange for he told him that his uncles desired nothing but to deale in the affaires of the kingdome to obtaine it to themselves a thing which they never thought And did so much by his reports that the king put his uncles from his counsell and from dealing with any of the affaires of the kingdome whereof the people and especially the Londoners were so evill contented that they rose up and made warre against the king or rather against the duke of Ireland and they were at a point to give the battell one against the other But the duke of Ireland who was generall of the kings armie lost his courage with great feare that he had to be slain or taken and therfore fled passed into Flanders where he finished his dayes never after returning into England As soone as he was fled his armie was dissipated the kings uncles seized upon the kings person established a new Counsell by justice executed some of them which were of the duke of Ireland his adherents A longtime after another Marmoset called the earle Marshall gained the duke of Ireland his place and was so farre in the kings good grace that he governed all as he would One day this earle Marshall talking with the earle of Darbie eldest sonne of the duke of Lancaster the earle of Darbie chanced to say Cousin what will the king do will he altogether subject the English nobilitie there will soone be none it is plainely seene that he desireth not the augmentation of his kingdome But he held this talke because the king had put to death chased away a great number of gentlemen and caused the duke of Glocester to die a prince of his blood and yet continued in that rigour to make himselfe be feared and revenging still that which was done in the duke of Irelands time The earle Marshall answered nothing to the speeches of the earle of Darbie but only marked them in his heart Certain daies after he reported them to the king and to make them seeme of more credit he profered and said hee was readie to enter into the campe against the earle of Darbie to averre the said words as outragious injurious against his Majestie The king not measuring the consequence of the deed in place to make no account of these words sent for the earle of Darbie his cousin germane and after hearing before him the earle Marshall speak his wil was they should enter into the camp and fight it to utterance But the kings Counsell conceiving it might come to be anevill example such great lords to slay one another and that the earle Marshall was not of equall qualitie unto the earle of Darbie they counselled the king to take another course namely to banish from England for ever the earle Marshall because he had rashly appealed and challenged unto single combat a Prince of the bloud to banish also the Earle of Darbie for ten years only for speaking the aforesaid words of the king his lord The king following the advice of his Counsel by sentence given by himself banished the earle Marshall out of England forever the earle of Darbie for six years only moderating his Counsels advice foure years When the earle of Darbie came to depart there assembled in the streets before his gates at London more than fortie thousand which wept cried lamented his departure extreamly blamed the king and his Counsell insomuch that going away he left in the peoples hearts an extreame anguish and greefe for his absence and a very great amitie towards him yet notwithstanding he left England and came into France Whilest he was in France the duke of Lancaster his father died The king to heape up his evill lucks caused to be taken seized into his hands all his lands goods because they fell to the earle of Darbie Hereby hee got great hatred and evill will of the Nobilitie and of all the people Finally the Londoners which are a people easie to arise made a complot and part against the king and secretly sent word to the earle of Darbie that hee should come and they would make him king The earle arriving in England found an armie of the Londoners ready So went he to besiege the king Richard in his castle unprovided whom he tooke and imprisoned and caused him to resigne unto him the Realme and Crowne of England King Richard was put to death in prison after hee had raigned two and twentie yeares a thing very strange rigorous and unheard of in England or in any kingdomes nigh unto it And so the earle of Darbie who had beene banished from England remained a peaceable king and was called Harry the fourth of that name This earle Marshall who kept at Venise knowing these newes died ragingly This was the end of this Marmoset and the tragicall evill hap whereunto he brought his master and that upon words reported which were never spoken as any evill speech of the king but onely for the greefe hee had that they of his Counsell governed so evill the kingdomes affaires Which words should nor ought not to have been taken up nor reported to the king and being reported unto him he should have made no account of them to have alwaies presumed rather well than evill of his cousin Germane Herodes borne of a lowe and base race was created king of Iudea Galalie Samaria Joseph Antiq â—ib 14. cap 23.
lib. 15. cap. 9. li. 16. cap. 3 4 13. lib. 17. and Idumia for the favour of Marcus Antonine a Romane capitaine and by decree of the Romane Senate he espoused a noble Ladie who was of the kings race of that countrie called Mariamme by whom he had two children Alexander and Aristobulus but Herodes had a sister called Salome who was a very Tisiphone and served for nothing but to kindle and light fires in the kings court by false reports which she invented and this infernall furie did so much as she perswaded the king her brother that Mariamme sought to poison him by his cup-bearer and brought out certaine false witnesses to proue it so that the king beleeved it and put to death his wife one of the fairest princes of the world and of whose death there was after infinit griefes and repentances But as one sinne draweth after it another Salome fearing that those two aforesaid children would feele afterward the outragious death of their mother she machinated and resolved in hir spirit that they must also dye So began she straight to forge false reports false tokens and false accusations insomuch as she perswaded Herodes the father that these two children Alexander and Aristobulus spake alreadie of revenging the death of their mother and by the same meanes to vsurpe the kingdome Herodes suffering himselfe to be persuaded by the calumniations and slaunders of his sister Salomē tooke his iourney to Rome having his two children with him where he accused them to have fought his death before Augustus Caesar he began to descipher his accusatorie oration and to deduct set out the means whereby he pretended that his two children should go about his death When it came to their turne to speake for their defence they began to weepe and lament Caesar knew well thereby that the poore children were full of innocencie So he exhorted them from thence forward to carry themselues in such sort towards their father that not only they should not doe against him any thing vnworthy or greevous but also should doe so much as to bring themselves farre from all suspition He exhorted also Herodes to use his sonnes well and to keepe them in his favor Then fell the children on their knees before their father with great effusion of teares crying him mercy by which meanes they were reconciled unto their father But after the returne of Herodes and his children this furie Salome not contented with this reconciliation which Caesar had made began to lay new ambushes by false reports that she made to Herodes wherein she mixed some truth to give the better taste Herodes who was very credulous in such matters made Augustus understand that his children had againe conspired his death Augustus answered him That if his children had done against him the thing which merited punishment that he should chastice them as he thought good and that he himselfe gave him power and permission so to do The abovesaid Herodes joyful to have received this power being led with an irreconcileable rage by the meanes of Salome caused the two poore children Alexander and Aristobulus to be strangled Salome ayded her selfe in all this businesse with one other sonne of Herodes borne of another woman called Antipater God would that Herode should discover that the accusations against his two dead children were but slaunders and that Antipater who had aided to forge them had himselfe conspired to poison his father Whereupon he caused him to be called before Guintius Varius the governor of Syria for the emperour The cause being long pleaded and debated Antipater could not purge himselfe of the sayings and proofs against him and did no other thing but make great exclamations nothing appertaining to the matter holding on that God knew all unto whom he recommended his innocencie Varus seeing that he could not wel justifie himselfe wished Herodes to imprison him and so he did Certaine dayes after Herodes fell sicke which comming to the notice of Antipater in prison he rejoyced greatly Herodes advertised that Antipater wished his death and rejoyced at his sicknesse sent one of his guard into prison to slay him which he did Five daies after Herodes died like a mad man for the evill haps he had in his children and this rage lighted a fire in his entrailes which rotted him by little and little wherupon engendred worms which eat him alive with horrible languishments before his death And who was the cause that Herodes thus contaminated his hands and all his house with the bloud of his owne children Even that most wicked reporter Salome who devised false accusations and slaunders which she blew in the king her brothers eares Besides those kind of flatterers whereof we have spoken above which are janglers Coūsellors flatterers and Marmosets there is yet a third kind which under the name and title of principall Counsellors and under the pretext and colour of conducting the affaires by good counsel they abuse the princes authoritie who are greatly to be feared To shun the mischeefe that may come therupon there is nothing better than to follow the precept of Comines namely That the king have many Counsellors and that hee Comines lib. 1. cap. 27. lib. 2. cap. 44. never commit the conducting of his affaires to one alone and that he hold as nigh as he can well his Counsellors equall For if hee commit much more to one than to another he wil be master and the others dare not reason against him freely or els knowing his inclination dare not contradict him Therefore in a criminall cause handled before the Senate of Rome against a gentlewoman of a great house called Lepida accused of treason the emperour Tiberius although he were very rude in Cornel. Tacitus annal lib. 3. li. 5. such cases would not suffer his adoptive sonne Drusus to reason first least sayth Tacitus thereby had been laied and imposed a necessitie for others to have consented unto his opinion And in another cause of like matter where Granius Marcellus was accused in a certaine place to have set his owne image above the emperors When the cause came to handling Piso whose opinion the Emperour desired first began thus to say And you Sir in what place will you reason for if you reason last I feare that by imprudencie I shall not dissent from you For that cause Tiberius declared that he would not reason at all indeed the accuser was absolved although the Emperour had shewed a countenance to be angry against him as he heard the accusation rehearsed And there is no doubt but that the counsell of one alone is Counsell of one alone dangerous perillous to the prince because naturally men are divers waies passionate and that which shall be governed by one alone is often by passion guided Also the indisposition of mens persons causeth that every one hath not alwaies his head well made as they say nor are wise at all seasons and
do often proceed when kings governe themselves by men of base hand as they call them for then are princes and great lords jealous And therefore to shun such jealousies and just complaints that great men may have to see themselves despised a prince ought so to advance meane men that hee recoile not great men and meane men ought alwaies to acknowledge the place from whence they came respecting great men according to their degrees without staggering in their dutie to their prince common-wealth And when they see that by some accident they are evill beloved of great men or of the common people and that for the good of peace it is requisit to extinguish the envie and jealousie conceived against them they ought voluntarily to forsake their estate For willingly to retaine it to the detriment and confusion of the common-wealth therein doe they evidently shew that they are not good servants of their prince King Charles the seventh had Counsellors both wise and loiall as M. Tanguy du Chastell M. Iohn Lowet president de Provence the Bishop of Cleremont Annal. upon An. 1426. and certaine others of meane qualitie which had done him great services in great affaires he had had as well when he was Dolphin as after he was king At that time this king had civile warre against the duke of Burgoigne whome secretly the duke of Bretaigne favoured which warre the king would gladly have had extinguished Therefore hee himselfe openly spoke to the said lords and dukes which made him answere That they were content to come to some good accord provided that hee would put from him such Counsellors as he had and take others These beforenamed Counsellors knowing this said to the king Since Sir it holds but thereon to quench civile warre which there is against the house of Burgoigne let them all goe home againe it shall not come of us that so good a thing shall bee hindered and they themselves desired and counselled the king to accord to that condition These were good and loyall Counsellors but they are dead and there are no more such to bee found But such there are now adaies which had rather see the commonwealth in combustion and ruine than they would suffer themselves to be removed from their places one pace Yet these good Counsellors abovesaid withdrew to their houses willingly and without constraint and soone after peace was accorded and finished betwixt the king and the duke of Burgoigne These good persons alledged not That men sought to take away the kings faithfull Counsellors to seduce and deceive him and that their dutie commaunded them then more than ever to keepe nigh his Majestie seeing the great troubles and affairs of the kingdome and that otherwise they might be accounted traitors and disloiall No no they alledged no such thing they looked right upon the white to keepe peace in the kingdome For they knew well that if they had used these reasons to the duke of Burgoigne that he could soone have answered replied that they were too presumptuous and proud to thinke that in all the kingdome of Fraunce there could not be found people as wise and faithfull to their prince as they For in all times the kingdome of Fraunce more than any other hath ever beene well furnished with wise and vertuous people of the Nobilitie Iustice Cleargie yea Marchants and of the third Estate To come againe to our purpose certaine it is That a prince which committeth the government of his affaires to one alone brings himselfe in great daunger and hardly can such governement bee without great mischeefes and disorders For this commonly men hold That being lifted up unto great honor and dignitie they cannot hold a moderation and mediocritie which is that which giveth taste and grace to all our actions The emperour Severus so high advaunced Plautianus that being great master of his houshold the people thought seeing his dealings in his office that hee was the emperour himselfe and that Severus was but his great master Hee Dion Spartian Severo slew robbed banished confiscated the goods of all such as hee would in the sight and knowledge of Severus who contradicted him in nothing So farre mounted this great and immoderate license that Plautianus durst well attempt to cause Severus to be slaine and his two sonnes But his wickednesse was disclosed by a captaine unto whom he had discovered it insomuch that Severus caused him to come before him and although by nature he were a cruell Prince yet was he so firmely affected to Plautianus that he never spoke sharpe or rigorous word unto him but onely uttered this remonstrance I am abashed Plautianus how it came in thine heart to enterprise this against me who have so much loved and exalted thee and against my children whereof Bassianus my eldest sonne hath married your daughter and so is your sonne in law Truly the condition of men is very miserable that cannot maintaine themselves in such honour and dignitie as I have placed you in I pray you tell me your reasons defences to purge you of this act The abovesaid Bassianus seeing that the emperour his father would receive Plautianus to his justification fearing he should have escaped caused one of his men to slay him in the presence of his father adding to the saying of Severus Certaine it is that great honors attributed to one man alone as to governe the affaires of a kingdome not only makes him go out of the bonds of reason but also subjects him unto great envies wherby great mischeefes happen unto him In the time of Philip le Bell king of Fraunce M. Enguerrant de Marigni Countie Annal. upon An. 1314 1326. de Longuevile a valiant and wise knight governed almost all the affaires of the king and his kingdome and especially of his common treasure which was distributed by his ordinance Amongst other things he caused to build that great Pallace at Paris where the court of parliament is held After the death of king Philip Charles Counte de Valois his brother begun criminally to pursue M. Enguerrant before certaine commissionaries of the said court delegated for that purpose And so farre did the said Countie de Valois being a great lord prince of the bloud and in great credit with king Lewis le Hutin his nephew and sonne of the said Philip pursue the cause against M. Enguerrant who was then out of credit after the death of king Philip his master that he was condemned to bee hanged and strangled on a gibbet at Paris as he was indeed This happened onely unto him by the envie he had procured by his great place and too great credit For true it is that he was accused of many things but he was not condemned of any punishable thing But our hystories say That he was not received unto his justifications and defences he was so fiercely pursued by the said Countie de Valois who after he had caused him to bee hanged and that
to the manner of speech used amongst the people but there was never Philosopher so beastly that ever thought her to be any goddesse but when the auncient Philosophers say any thing comes by fortune or by adventure or contingencie they meane that the efficient cause of such a thing is unknowne for that is their doctrine and manner of speech to say that a thing happeneth or chanceth by Fortune and contingently when they know not the cause thereof Learnedly speakes Plutarke to this purpose when he sayth That the poets have Plutarke in libello de Fortuna done great wrong to Fortune to say she is blind and that she gives her gifts to men rashly without knowing them for sayth he it is we which know it not for Fortune is no other thing but the cause whereof we are ignorant of things which wee see come to passe And therfore the Stoicke philosophers although they knew not the second causes of all things no more than other philosophers yet used they another manner of speech than they and attributed the haps and chances of all things unto the ordinance and providence of God which they called by the name of Fatum yet indeed the Fatum differeth much from the providence of God which the Christians hold For the Stoickes held That God could worke no otherwise than the order of second causes would beare and leade him unto but wee hold That God is free in operation and not tied to second causes without which he can do that which he doth by them and can change them at his pleasure Timotheus an Athenian captaine comming one day from the war where his affaires had succeeded and sped well hee was much greeved at some which said that he Plu. in Silla was very happie and fortunate so that one day in a publike assemblie of all the people of Athens hee made an oration wherein hee discoursed all his gestes and victories uttering by the way the meanes and counsell which hee had used in the conduction of his affaires and after all this discourse Maisters said hee Fortune hath had no part in all this that I have accounted unto you as if he would say That it was by his owne wisedome that these things had so well succeeded to him The gods saith Plutarke were offended at this foolish ambition of Timotheus insomuch that he did never after any thing of account but all things he did turned against the haire till hee came to bee hated much of the Athenian people that in the end hee was banished and chased from Athens Hereby we may see that the ancient Paynims meant to attribute to the gods that which men in their common manner of speech attributed to Fortune but they never beleeved shee was a goddesse When Messiere de Commines speaketh of the constable of S. Pol who was so great and puissant a lord yet in the end such evill luck befell him that his hand was De Com. lib. 1. cap. 18. cut off Heereof hee makes a question and wisely and religiously absolveth it What shall wee say saith hee of Fortune This man that was so great a lord that by the space of twelve yeeres he had handled and governed king Lewis the eleventh the Duke Charles of Bourgoigne hee was a wise knight and had heaped together great treasures and in the end fell into her net Wee may then well say that this deceitfull Fortune beheld him with an evill countenance nay contrary wee must answere saith hee that Fortune is nothing but a poeticall fiction and that God must of necessitie have forsaken him because hee alwaies travailed with all his power to cause the war still to continue betwixt the king and the duke of Bourgoigne for upon this war was founded his great authoritie and estate and hee should bee very ignorant that would beleeve that there was a Fortune therein which could guide so wise a man to obtaine the evill will of two so great princes at once and also of the king of England which in their lives accorded in nothing but in the death of this constable Beholde the very words of Commines speaking of Fortune which senteth as much of a good man and a good Christian as the Maxime of Machiavell tastes of a most wicked Atheist And as for that which Machiavell saith That Fortune favours such as are most hazardous and rash Titus Livius is of a farther opinion who speaking of the victorie Tit. Livi. lib. 2. Dec. 3. which Anniball obtained nigh the lake Trasimene against the consull C. Flamminius saith That evill luck came by the temeritie of Flamminius which was nourished and maintained in him by fortune whereas before things had well succeeded with him but now hee which neither tooke counsell of the gods nor of men it was no mervaile if sodainely hee fell into ruine This losse of the battaile was the cause that Fabius Maximus was elected Dictator to go against Anniball as indeed after his election he tooke the field with a new army and certain time after being sent for of the Senat to assist at Rome certain sacrifices and ceremonies he left in the campe Minutius his Lieutenant saying unto him in this manner I pray you Minutius take heed you do not as Flamminius did but trust you more in good counsell than in fortune better it were to bee assured not to be vanquished than to hazard your selfe to bee vanquisher In another place Titus Livius rehearseth That Caius Sempronius captaine of the Roman Armie against the Volsques trusting in Fortune as a thing Lib. 4. Dec 1. constant and perdurable because alwaies before the Romanes had it in custome to overcome that nation used no prudence nor good counsell in his conduction but hazard and temeritie therefore saith Livie fortune and good successe followeth abandoneth rashnesse and this happeneth most commonlie Heere you see the opinion of Fabius Maximus and of Titus Livius much better than that of Machiavell who would persuade us that wee had better bee rash than prudent to have fortune favourable unto us for certaine it is that the haps which men call of Fortune proceede from God who rather blesseth prudence which hee hath recommended unto us than temeritie and although sometimes it happen that hee blesse not our counsels and wisedomes it is because we take them not from the true spring and fountaine namely from him of whom we ought to have demanded it and that most commonly wee would that our owne wisedome should bee a glorie unto us whereas onely God should bee glorified Heere endeth the second part entreating of such Religion as a Prince should use THE THIRD PART TREATING of such Pollicie as a Prince ought to hold in his Commonweale ¶ The Praeface I Have before in order disposed all Machiavels Maximes touching Counsell and Religion and at large I have shewed That all his doctrine shootes at no other marke but to instruct a prince to governe himselfe after his owne fancie not
of the commons which committed those barbarous inhumanities was called Cappeluche the executioner or hangman of Paris Those comparteners of the house of Burgoigne not contented to suscitate such popular commotions stirs in France but brought also the English men into Fraunce which were like to have beene masters therof yet not herewith content they caused king Charles the sixt to war against his owne son who after was called Charles the seventh and one moietie of the kingdome against another And not to leave behind any kind of crueltie no not towards the dead they caused to bee spread and published all over Fraunce certaine Popes buls wherby they indicted and excommunicated all the house of Orleance and his partakers both quicke and dead insomuch as when there died any in the hands of the parteners of Bourgoigne either by ward prison or disease they buried them not in the earth but caused their bodies to be carried to dunghils like carrion to be devoured of wolves and savage beasts What could they have done more to the execution of all barbarousnesse and crueltie Behold what fruits civile warres doe bring wee see it even at this day with our eyes for there is no kind of crueltie barbarousnesse impietie and wickednesse which civile warres have not brought into use The prince then that is wise will leave nothing behind to appease civile warres under his owne governement but will spend all his care power and dilligence to hinder it after the example of that good and wise king Charles the seventh king Lewis the eleventh his sonne Charles the seventh being yet Daulphin the duke Iohn Monstr lib. 2. ca. 175. 180 181 182 183 186 187. of Bourgoigne a man very ambitious and vindicative after by secret practise hee had caused to be slaine Lewis duke of Orleance the onely brother of king Charles the sixt and after hee had filled the kingdome with warres both civile and strange contented not himselfe herewith but laid hold of the king who by a sickenesse was alienated of his wits and of the queene to make warre upon the Daulphin These occasions seemed sufficient to such as then governed the Daulphin and at last to the Daulphin himselfe being yet very yong to enterprise an hazardous blow He then sent to the said duke that hee would make a peace with him and prayed him they might appoint a place and day together to meet for that purpose The day was appointed the place assigned at Montean-fant-Yonne whither the said duke came under the trust of the word of the Daulphin his faith and assurance As soone as hee arrived making his reverence unto Monsieur le Daulphin he was compassed in and straight slaine and withall also certaine gentlemen of his traine Philip sonne and successor of this duke Iohn tooke greatly to heart this most villanous death of his father and sought all the meanes he could to be revenged which still continued the civile warres This meane while the English did what they could in France and conquered Normandie Paris the most part of Picardie and marched even unto Orleance which they besieged The abovesaid king Charles the sixt died so that Monsieur le Daulphin his son who was called Charles the seventh comming to the crown and finding himselfe despoiled of the most part of his kingdome insomuch as in mockerie he was generally called the king of Bourges This wise king well considered That if civile warres endured he was in the way to loose all one peece after another hee therefore laid all his care power and diligence to obtaine a peace and an accord with the duke of Bourgoigne Therefore he sent in embassage unto him his Constable Chancellor and others his cheefe Counsellors to say that he desired to have peace with him and that he well acknowledged that by wicked counsell he had caused his father duke Iohn to be slaine at Monterean and that if he had been then as advised and resolute as hee was at that present hee would never have committed such an act nor have permitted it to have beene done but hee was young and evill counselled and therefore in that regard hee offered to make him such amends and reparation thereof as he should be contented therewith yea that he would demand pardon althogh not in person yet by his embassadors which should have expresse charge thereof and prayed him to forgive that fault in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that betwixt them two there might be a good peace and love for hee confessed to have done evill being then a young man of little wit and lesse discretion by bad counsell so to sley his father And besides this he offred to give him many great lands seigniories as the Countie de Masconnois S. Iangon the Counrie de Auxerre Barsur Seima la Counte de Boloigne Surmer and divers other lands that during his life he would acquite him and his subjects of personall service which he ought him as vassale of Fraunce yet made many other faire offers unto him This duke Philip seeing his soveraign prince thus humiliate himself to him bowed his courage justly exasperated for his fathers death harkened unto peace which was made at Arras where there was held an assembly of the embassadors of all Christian princes of the counsell of Basil of the Pope insomuch as there were there above 4000 horses All or the most part of those embassadors came thither for the good of the king and his kingdome but there was not one there which found not the kings offers good and reasonable as also did all the great princes lords of the kingdome all the kings counsel so that his majesties embassadors which were the duke of Bourbon the countie of Richemont constable of France the archbishop of Rhemes chancellor the lord de Fayette marshall many other great lords in a full assembly in the king their masters name demanded pardon of the duke of Burgoigne for his fathers death confessing as abovesaid that the king their master had done evil as one yong and of litle wit following naughtie counsell therfore they praied the duke to let passe away all his evill wil so to be in a good peace love with the king their master And the duke of Burgoign declared that he pardoned the king for the honor reverence of the death passion of our Lord Iesus Christ for compassion of the poor people of the kingdome of France to obey the Counsels reasons the Pope other Christian princes which praied him Moreover besides the aforesaid things it was accorded to the said duke that justice punishment should be done upon all such asâ—ed slain his father of such as had given the Daulphin counsell to cause his slaughter that the king himself should make diligent search through all his realme to apprehend them Here may you see how king Charles 6 appeased the civile wars of his kingdome by humilitie and
that if Sertorius had not been slaine of his own people he had sooner overcome Pompeius than he him Yet Sertorius was but a simple souldier who had neither silver nor treasure he had no authoritie to command neither did any obey him against their wils Spartacus also was but a poore slave which escaping from his master gathered together a great number of people and made strong warre upon the Romanes whom hee many times vanquished And but that Pompeius and Crassus with great armies were greatly busied to hinder his desseignes he had made himselfe master of Italie And was not Cleon another poore slave yet gathered under his conduction an armie of 70 thousand other slaves wherewith he had like to have gotten all Sicilie And Viriatus was but a shepheard on the mountaines of Spaine and gathering together a great number of shepheards and theeves he made infinit worke for the Romanes yet in the end certaine Romane captains sent against him not being able otherwise to overcome him caused him traiterously to be slaine This the Senat found not good but greatly blamed those captains which overcame by so villanous a meane After Viriatus was slaine his people disbanded not but still made warre upon the Romanes insomuch as the Romanes were constrained to give unto them to appease them the towne and territorie of Valence in Spaine to inhabite and so they were satisfied and gave over their armes Of late memorie Philibert de Chaton Prince of Orange Antonie de Leva Andrew Doria the Marquis of Mantua and many others whereof we have spoken in other places which revolted against king Francis the first and did him more hutt than all the forces of the emperour Charles the fift yet were they no great lords in comparison of the king Therefore he which is a wise prince will estimate no enemie to be pettie and little but will guard himselfe from justly offending any man fearing least by that meanes hee procure enemies For enmities will come too fast on a man before hee lookes for them As for that hee saith That the Romanes had colonies in countries which they Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 1. lib 7. Dec. 3. lib. 8. Dec. 4. conquered they did it not to serve their turnes as fortresses in that countrey as Machiavell saith but to disburden the citie of Rome of their too great a multitude of people which were still stirring up rebellions and seditions in their towne as in the time of the consulship of Marcus Valerius and Quintus Apuleius The towne saith Titus Livius was brought to a great quiet and tranquilitie by discharging it of a great part of the common people by deduction of colonies which when they were sent into any countrey that the Romanes had conquered the publick and common fields were divided amongst them yet the old inhabitants were not chased away neither were their goods taken from them but only mingled with the Romans goods which dwelt with them in their townes in houses they themselves builded or els which were publicke and conquered to the Roman commonweale The Romans also set up colonies as a multiplication of their race but not to serve them for fortresses in conquered countries and that it was so appears because they erected not colonies in all the countries they conquered no not in the most strongest places but rather in the amplest fattest and fertilest places These said colonies also were no more faithfull unto them than the other subjects but often rebelled as well as others as was seene after the battaile that the Romanes lost at Cannas against Anniball for then twelve Roman colonies revolted from them and entred league with Anniball And it is commonly seene that citizens transported into other countreyes doe incontinent degenerate taking the manners and conditions of the countrie as came to passe in the townes of Alexandria in Aegipt Seleucia in Siria Babilon in Parthia which were colonies of the Macedonians and to the towne of Tarentum a colonie of the Lacedaemonians for all these foresaid townes were straight despoiled of the manners natures and the originall generositie of their nation and became soft effeminate and cowardly as they were into whose countries they were removed A great and memorable calamitie fell to Philip king of Macedonie by removing Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 4. to other places the naturall inhabitants of the maritime and sea townes of his countrey This king fearing to enter into warre with the Romanes because many of his neighbours went to complaine of him to the Senat of Rome thought it good to stand upon his guard and something distrusting the inhabitants of such townes as were nigh the sea hee tooke away from thence the naturall inhabitants and gave them grounds in Emathia to dwell in and in their places planted the inhabitants of Thracia in whom he trusted This caused in all Macedonie a great discontentment for every one saw to their great griefe their ancient poore dislodged carrying their children on their shoulders weeping and lamenting their calamities and making exercations and imprecations against the king that it might so happen to the king and his race to bee driven from his kingdome and countrey The king being advertised of this universall murmuration began to enter into a distrust of every man and especially of the children of certaine gentlemen which hee had caused to die and hee feared that the saide children making use of the peoples discontentment should attempt some enterprise against him and therefore determined to have seased certaine young children of the slaine gentlemen for his better assurance Theoxena the widdow of a great lord which was slaine by the king called Herodicus resolved rather to make die the children of her and her dead husband than that they should come into the hands and power of the king So she resolved to save her-selfe and them at Athens and yet if the worst fell she provided good swords poisons after shee was embarked with her children to obtaine the towne of Athens shee was followed by another boate of the kings people which when shee saw that they rowed with great dilligence to the barke wherein shee was Loe said she my childen you have now no other meanes to shun the tyrannie of king Philip but death which you may see shewing the swords and the poison chuse which you had rather die on either on sharpe whetted swords or to swallow this poison on my children let the eldest shew themselves most hardy and couragious This exhortation persuaded so much that they slew themselves some with swords some with poyson then she caused them all to fall into the water even when they yet had breath and cast her-selfe after them Straight the kings people ioyned to the barke but they found it emptie of the persons they looked for The crueltie of this fact added a new flame of envie and evill will towards the king so that it seemed to every one they heard the infernall furies preparing themselves to bring
ordinarily vvhen corrupted nations frequent amongst others for they infect them vvith evill manners And therefore it is that the Almaigne nation remaines so entire and constant in his manners because the Almaignes vvere never curious to trafficke vvith their neighbours nor to dwell in other countries nor to receive strangers into their countrey but alwayes have contented themselves vvith their owne goods nouriture manners and fashion of apparrell insomuch as shunning the frequentation of Spaniards French and Italians vvhich are the three nations of the vvorld most vicious they have not yet learned their customes and corruptions I Have not here set downe this Maxime to say it is not very true For besides the examples we reade in hystories we know it by experience and sight of eye seeing wee see at this day all Fraunce fashioned after the manners conditions and vices of strangers that governe it and have the principall charges and Estates and not onely many Frenchmen are such beasts to conforme themselves to strangers complections but also to gaggle their language and doe disdaine the French tongue as a thing too common and vulgar But if wee well consider this manner of vengeance taught by Machiavell in this Maxime we shall find it is a most detestable doctrine as well for them which practise it as for them against whom it is practised The example even of Capua which Machiavell alledgeth prooveth it For the Capuans in receiving into their towne Annibals armie corrupted Tit. Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. rupted and infected the souldiers of Anniball with all excesse and effeminate wantonnesse also by the same meanes they procured their owne ruine and entire destruction which soone after happened unto them The Persian lords which with their manners corrupted king Alexander the Great did nothing to their owne advauntage Plu. in Alex. For Alexander becomming vicious they got the evill will of the Macedonians which tooke displeasure to see their king corrupted and finally after the death of Alexander which came unto him by his dissolutenesse learned of the Persians these lords had part of the evill lucke whereof they were cause And generally we may see that the corrupters of princes and people take part alwayes in the evill whereof they are cause as in other places we have shewed by many examples of flatterers which have corrupted their princes We Frenchmen may yeeld good witnesse of what account the Italian and Neapolitane nation is by the frequentation wee had with them in the voyage which was made to Naples in the time of king Charles the eight for from thence brought they this disease which at this day is now called the French poxe and that we have ever since kept but yet so as the Italians and Neopolitanes are not exempt therefrom but both the one and the other have part of that corruption Breefely we ought to detest and hate this wicked doctrine of Machiavell and reject all vengeance and follow S. Paules lesson who commands us to converse with good people and of good manners because the conversation of the wicked not onely corrupteth good manners but also soweth those that are wicked And as for that which Machiavell saith of the Almaignes wee know and see the frequentation of the Almaignes in France and yet till this present we have not seene that they have yet gathered corruption of manners And whereas he sets downe the French nation amongst such as are most corrupted we cannot denie it but we may well say That the doctrine of Machiavell the frequentation of them of his nation are cause of the greatest and most detestable corruption which is at this day in Fraunce For of whome have the Frenchmen learned and knowne atheisme sodomie trecherie crueltie usurie and such other like vices but of Machiavell and of them of his nation So that they may brag that they are well revenged of the warres which our auncestors have made in Italie 6. Maxime It is folly to thinke that with princes and great lords new pleasures will cause them to forget old offences CAEsar Borgia saith Machiavel during the life of Pope Alexander Cap. 7. Of Princes Discourse lib. 3. cap. 4. the sixt his father usurped the domination of Romania which is a land belonging to the Church and vvas called duke de Valentinois In making those usurpations in favour of the Pope his father he offended many Cardinals and amongst others the Cardinall of Saint Peter ad vincula yet after he consented that hee should bee elected Pope after the death of Alexander his father vvhereof hee soone repented For this new Pope called Iulius the eleventh straight be took himselfe to armes to recover that vvhich Borgia had usurped although he had favoured him in his election vvhich hee should never have done nor suffered any election of a Pope vvhich vvas his enemie For saith he new pleasures never makes men forget old iniuries and offences and therefore Borgia which in all other things had governed vvell committed a foule fault in the creation of Iulius and himselfe delivered the mean of his finall destruction The same fault cōmitted Servius Tullius king of the Romanes in giving his two daughters in marriage to two Tarquins vvhich quarrelled for the crowne and vvhich thought that Tullius vvould usurpe it upon them For not only this alliance extinguished the envie and rancour vvhich they had to Servius but that which is more it caused one of the daughters to enterprise to sley her owne father IF seemeth that this which Machiavell telleth of Borgia boweth something from the truth of the hystorie For Sabellicus writeth That during the election of Pope Iulius the eleventh Borgia was shut up in the Popes tower to be safe and guarded by his enemies So there was no likelyhood that a man brought into such an extremitie as to hide himselfe and be shut up in prison for the great multitude of enemies which hee had procured should have such great credit in the Popes election But suppose it was true that Borgia helped Pope Iulius to the Popedome and that Pope Iulius was unthankfull for that benefit for the remembrance that he had of the old and ancient injuries that Borgia had sometimes done him what followes hereof That all great lords will alwayes doe the like will some Machiavelist answer and that therefore they ought not to bee trusted Is not here a goodly doctrine for a prince Breefely it is Machiavels mind to teach a prince to trust in no lord which hee hath once offended and againe that none which hath made a fault or offended him shall any more trust him whatsoever reconciliation peace concord amitie pleasure and good offices may happen since the offence Here behold a most wicked and detestable doctrine to say That an offence ought to take so deepe root in the heart of the offended that by no pleasures services or other meanes it can be rased out But Machiavell seemeth something excusable to maintaine this Maxime for according to
But if any demand how diviners and astrologers could so justly foretell the death of the emperour Domitian I answere that we must beleeve that this said prediction was not by art or science but the evill spirit would give boldnesse of enterprising unto Domitians enemies in making them know by frivolous divinations his fatall houre that they might beleeve the starres and heaven to aid their enterprise And God above who serves himselfe with such meanes as pleaseth him to exercise his justice gives efficacie to the spirit of error The same effect came of the divination of Caracalla for it was the cause that Macrinus enterprised to sley him although he never before thought of it till the astrologers declared their divination nay he would never have done that enterprise if that divination had not constrained and drawne him unto it Master Philip de Comines reciteth to this purpose a very memorable hystorie that happened in his time He saith there was at Naples a king called Alphonsus a bastard of the house of Arragon who was marvellous cruell a traitour and dangerous for none could know when he was angry he could so well manage his countenance yea and often betray men as he made them good cheare and he was a man wherein there was neither grace nor mercie neither had hee any compassion of the poore people This king Alphonsus had a sonne also as wicked as he called Ferrand who had found means to bring before him under his fathers assurance many princes and barons of the countrey to the number of foure and twentie and amongst them the prince de Rosane his brother in law having married his sister all which hee caused to be imprisoned notwithstanding the faith and assurance which he had given them insomuch as some remained foure or five and twentie yeares prisoners As soone as the king Alphonsus was dead and Ferrand his sonne was king the first thing hee did at his comming to the crowne was to massacre all those said great princes and barons which he himselfe had imprisoned during his fathers life by a Moorean slave of Affrica which he rewarded and straight after the execution sent him into his countrey This king Ferrand or Ferdinand having newes of the said murder as the king of Fraunce Charles the eight enterprised the conquest of Naples judging himselfe unworthie to be king because of his great and abhominable cruelties sent embassadors to the king to agree and to be at an accord with him offering to yeeld himselfe tributarie to the crowne of Fraunce to hold the kingdome of Naples of him and to pay him 50000 crownes yearely But the king who knew there was no fidelitie in the Arragonian race of Naples would enter into no treatie with the king Ferdinand who being in dispaire to be ever able to hold that kingdome against the king of Fraunce having his owne subjects his enemies died for sorrow and dispaire and left his sonne Alphonsus his successor This Alphonsus the new king was as wicked as his father and had alwayes shewed himselfe pittilesse and cruell without faith without religion and without all humanitie insomuch as perceiving that king Charles approched Rome his conscience also judging himselfe to be an unworthy king he resolved to flie into Spain and to professe himselfe a monke in some monasterie But before hee fled hee caused to be crowned king at Naples a young sonne of his called Ferdinand who was not yet hated in the countrey his nailes beeing not yet either strong or long ynough to doe evill This done hee fled into Sicilie and from thence to Valence in Spaine where he tooke the habite of a monke and in a little time after died of an excoriation of gravell But it was marvellous that this cruel tyrant should be so seized of feare as he should go in no good order away but left all his moveable goods and almost all his gold and silver in his castle at Naples And this feare proceeded to him from a faintnesse of heart for as Comines saith never cruell man was hardie And when one desired him onely to stay three dayes to packe up his goods No no said he let us quickly depart from hence heare you not all the world crie Fraunce Fraunce Men may see how an evill conscience leaves a man never in quiet This wicked man knowing that by his crueltie hee had procured the hatred of his subjects the wrath of God and the enmitie of all the world was tormented in his conscience as of an infernall furie which ever after fretted his languishing soule in the poore infected and wasted bodie And to end this tragoedie straight after he had saved himselfe the king of Fraunce obtained the kingdome of Naples And a little while after the said young Ferdinand sonne of the said Alphonsus died of a feaver and a flux So that within the space of two yeares God did justice on foure kings of Naples two Alfonses and two Ferdinands because of their strange cruelties which were accompained with disloyall impietie and oppression of subjects for alwaies those keepe company together A like punishment happened by the conduction and judgement of God to that Comines lib. 1 cap. 132. 133. and Bellay lib. 1. of his memories cruell king Richard of England king Edward the fourth his brother This king Edward deceasing left two sonnes and two daughters all yong and in the tutelage and goverment of Richard duke of Glocester his brother This duke desiring for himselfe the crowne of England caused his two nephewes cruelly to be slaine and made a report to goe that by chance they fell of a bridge and so were slaine His two nieces he put into a religion of Nunnes saying they were bastards because saith hee the dead king Edvard their father could not lawfullie espouse their mother for that before hee had promised to espouse a gentlewoman which hee named and the bishop of Bath beeing present protested it was so and the promises of marriage were made betwixt his hands The duke of Glocester having thus dispatched both his nephewes and nieces caused himselfe to be crowned king of England and because many great lords of England murmured at this crueltie this new tyrant king which named himselfe king Richard the third made to die of sundrie deaths all such as hee knew had murmured against him or his tyrannie After all this when hee thought hee had a sure estate in the kingdome it was not long before God raised him up for enemie the earle of Richmond of the house of Lancaster who was but a pettie lord in power without silver and without force who but a little before was detained prisoner in Bretaigne To whom certaine lords of England sent secretly that if he could come into England but with two or three thousand men all the people would come to him make him king of England The earle of Richmond hasted to king Charles the eight then raigning in France by whose permission hee levied people in
because it is said in Ecclesiasticus chap. 10. Initium omnis peccati superbia that is Pride is the beginning and root of all sinne All men may then argue from this place Then is not dame covetousnesse But the answere hereunto is that there are three manner of covetousnesse that is of Honor of Riches and of Carnall delectation but the first kind comprehendeth pride ergo c. This covetousnesse also of honor comprehendeth vain-glorie wrath hatred envie insomuch as hee that is spotted with this kind of covetousnesse is enflamed with vaine-glorie and angrie against his lord whose place and domination he would gladly occupie and moreover hateth and envieth him And al these crimes together which proceed from covetousnesse when they are committed against his prince are called Treason which is the greatest crime that can bee Thus much for the first point of my theme That dame Covetousnesse is the root of all evils The second point is That she maketh them become disloyall for with a desire to dominier they enterprise against their lord whereas they should be loiall unto him as I shall shew hereafter by many goodly places But as is fit to shew my lord of Bourgoignes justification I will take that place of dame Covetousnesse which I have alleadged for my Major and after I will come to my Minor and so to the Conclusion For proofe then of my Maior I wil note and propose eight principall Verities by manner of a foundation out of which I will inferre eight Conclusions as it were correlatives the better to ground the justification of Monsieur de Bourgoigne The first Veritie is That every subject and vassale which upon covetousnesse enterpriseth against the corporall health of his king and soveraigne lord to take away his most noble seignorie committeth the horrible crime of treason and is worthie of double death that is of the first and of the second I prove it because every disloyall subject and vassale against his soveraigne sinneth mortally Ergo c. Also I prove it by S. Gregorie who sayth thus Tyrannus est proprie qui non Dominus reputatur non iuste principatur aut non principatu decoratur That hee is a tyrant which is not the true Lord or which ruleth not justly or which is not honoured by his principalitie Also I prove it by S. Iohn the Evangelist who saith Qui vivit non morietur nec laedetur à morte secunda that is to say That he that shall have victorie upon lady Covetousnesse and her three daughters Ire Hatred and Envie shall not need to feare the second death namely eternall damnation The second Veritie is that in the aforesaid case wherein the subject or vassale is worthie of double death yet the vassale is more to be punished than the simple subject and a baron more than a simple vassale and a countie more than a baron and a duke more than a countie and a kings allie more than a stranger I prove it because the obligation of a duke or the kings kinsman towards the king is by many degrees greater than of a countie baron or of a vassale Ergo then the punishment must be in an higher degree And that my consequence is good I prove it because the degrees of obligations and prerogatives doe correspond and fully answer to the degrees of the punishment and so as they are greater so ought the punishment to be greater as I have before alledged out of S. Gregorie Cum crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum As gifts encrease so ought the reasons of gifts that is obligations to doe I prove also my said Veritie by another argument It is a greater scandale that a duke or the kings allie should goe about to take away the kings seignorie than if it were a poore subject Ergo then the punishment ought to bee greater seeing the scandale is greater Thirdly I prove my said Veritie because there is a greater perill of a great man than of a little therefore the remedie of punishment ought to be greater to withdraw great men from yeelding and obeying the enemie of mankind and dame Covetousnesse The third Veritie is That in the case aforesaid when the vassale committeth treason meriting double death then is it lawfull for every subject according to the lawes morall naturall and divine to kill without any command that traitour and disloyall tyrant and it is not onely lawfull but also honourable and meritorious I prove this veritie by twelve reasons in the honour of holy Theologie The first of a doctor which upon the second booke of the master of Sentences sayth Qui ad liberatioonem patriae tyrannum occidit praemium accipit facit opus laudabile meritorium That is He which sleyeth a tyrant to deliver his countrey receiveth a reward and doth a laudable and a meritorious worke The second authoritie is taken out of that excellent doctor Salceber in his book of Policraton who saith Amico adulari non licet sedaurem Tyranni mulcere licitum est quia ei licet adulari quem licet occidere that is It is not lawfull for any to flatter his friend but with faire words he may wel bring a tyrant asleepe for it is lawfull to kill him The third authoritie is of many doctors in Theologie all which I set downe but for one that I may not exceede the number of three namely of Richard de Mivile Alexander de Halles and Astensis which hold the foresaid conclusion And for a greater confirmation I adde hereunto the authoritie of S. Peter who sayth Subditi estote Regi quasi praecellenti that is Let each man obey his king as the most excellent and soveraign My three second reasons of the twelve are founded upon the authoritie of three morrall philosophers The first Licitum laudabile est cuilibet subditorum occidere tyrannum that is It is lawfull praiseworthie for every man to sley a tyrant The second authoritie is from the noble morallist Tully who sayth in his Offices That they which killed Iulius Caesar were worthie of praise because he had usurped the seignorie of Rome by tyrannie The third authoritie is out of Boccace who sayth That men may well conspire and employ armes against a tyrant and that it is a thing most holy and necessarie that a tyrant ought not to be called king nor prince and that there cannot be a more pleasanter sacrifice than the bloud of a tyrant After these authorities alledged out of Theologians and Moralists I come now to the authoritie of Legists And because I am not a Lawyer it sufficieth me to speake the sentence of the lawes without alledging them for in all my life I never studied the cannon and civile law but two years and that was twentie yeares agoe so that I could learne but a little and might easily forget that little by the length of time since I learned it The first authoritie out of the civile law is That it is lawfull to kill
forsakers of knighthood but who can more forsake knighthood than he which forsakes his king who is the chiefe of all knighthood The second authoritie is That it is lawfull to kill theeves and robbers by high wayes It is lawfull then to kill a tyrant which continually watcheth and intendeth the death of his soveraigne lord I come now to three authorities of the holy Scripture The first is that of Moses who without authoritie slew the Aegyptian who tyrannized over the people of Irael For at that time Moses had not the authoritie of a judge over the people of Israel which was delivered unto him nigh fortie yeares after that he had slaine the Aegyptian The second authoritie is the example of Phineas who without any commandement slew the duke Zambry because he allied him selfe by carnall love with a Sarracene woman whereupon Phineas was commended and reverenced in three things in love honour and riches The third authoritie is that of S. Michael the archangell who without the commandement of God or any other fought against the tyrant Lucifer so disloyall to God his soveraigne who went about to usurpe the seignorie of God The said S. Michael was favourably rewarded in three things that is in honour love and riches in love because God loved him more than any other Angell in honour because God made him a perpetuall prince of the heavenly hoast in riches because God gave him riches as much as he desired or could carrie away so it appeareth that my third Veritie is well proved by twelve reasons in the name of the twelve Apostles of which reasons three are taken from the holy Theologians three from Moralists and three from Legists and the three last from the holy Scripture and they goe alwaies from three to three My fourth Veritie is this It is more meritorious and honourable that a tyrant be slaine by the kings parents than by a stranger and by a duke than by a countie and by a barron than by a simple vassale because therein shineth more the love obedience of the sleyer and is more honourable to the king to be revenged of a great man than a base and meane man My fift Veritie is That alliances promises othes or confederations ought not to be kept if for keeping them there come any prejudice to the prince or to the commonweale but to keep them is to do against the morall naturall and divine lawes I proove this Veritie by thus arguing Whensoever two contrarie obligations are concurrent a man must keepe and observe the greatest and breake the least But in this case the bond unto the prince and commonwealth is greater than any other promise or consideration Ergo then wee must observe the obligation towards the prince and commonwealth and breake all other obligations othes and confederations Also in arguing thus Whensoever a man doth a thing better than that which he sweares to do he is not perjured in doing that better thing omitting that thing which he swore to doe as expressely the master saith of Sentences in the last of the third but in this propounded case it is better to kill a tyrant although a man have sworne not to kill him than to let him live as hath been above shewed Ergo then it is no perjurie nor evill done to sley a tyrant against his sworne promise alliance or confederation that he hath with him Also Isiodorus in his booke of soveraigne good sayth That wee must not observe an oth whereby a man shall bee forced rashly to commit an evill but in our case a man shall bee forced to an evill by such a promise and oth Ergo he must then not observe it The sixt Veritie is That if so it happen that the alliances othes or confederations turne to the prejudice of one of the promisers hee is in nothing bound to keep them This veritie is prooved in thus arguing The end of every commaundement is charitie as the Apostle saith but the cheefe charitie beginneth at our selves Ergo the commandement to observe the faith and promise ought not to bee observed if it be contrarie to the charitie which we ought to have towards our selves according to that which is said of the Cannonists Frangenti fidem fides frangatur eidem Hee that breakes faith faith ought to be broken to him againe Also in all promises that are made every man must include If it please God But certaine it is it pleaseth not God that we should do any thing against the law and order of charitie Ergo c. The seventh Veritie is That to every subject it is lawfull honourable and meritorious to kill a tyrant by deceits speculations and dissimulations I proove it first by the authoritie of the morall philosopher Boccace above alledged Also by the example of king Iehu who dissembled to approve the service of Baal to trap the sacrificers for which he was praised Also by the example of Ioiada who by treason caused Athalia to be slaine for which he was praised Also of Iudith who slew Holofernes by dissimulation whereupon she is praised And this is the fittest death for tyrants to die on that is to be slaine villanously by watchings and espiements The eight Truth is That every subject which enterpriseth and worketh against his soveraigne lord by Necromancie and invocation of devils for covetousnesse to have the crowne is a violator of the Catholicke faith and worthie of double death the first and the second For S. Bonaventure in his second book Distinction the sixt saith That the divell never pleaseth the will of such men but first idolatrie and infidelitie are mingled together For as faith serveth much to the operation of the miracles of God so infidelitie is as requisit in the operation of divellish things The divell also will doe nothing for such men unlesse they agree to yeeld him the domination over them whereof he is very desirous Also that great doctor in the ninth article in Secunda Secundae saith and affirmeth That invocations of devils never come to effect without a fore-going of a corruption of faith idolatrie and an expresse compact with divels And this opinion doe the venerable doctors Alexander de Hales Richard de Mivile and Astensis hold and commonly all the other doctours which have writ of this matter Here you see my eight Verities well proved I come now to eight Correlatives The first is If it come to passe that in the case aforesaid these invocators of devils and traitoâ—â—â—o the king be imprisoned and some of their partakers deliver or cause to deliver them hee ought to bee punished with the same punishment as they are themselves namely with the first and second death Secondly every subject that maketh a bargaine with any man to empoyson his soveraigne lord although the enterprise come not to effect is also well worthie of death Thirdly every subject that by dissimulation of pastime causeth apparrell to be made to put on his soveraigne lord and to put
fire therein thinking to burne him is also worthie of double death Fourthly every subject making alliance with the mortall enemies of the king the kingdome is also worthie of death Fiftly every subject which fraudulently setteth dissention betwixt the king and the queene making the queene understand that the king hateth her and counselling her to goe out of the realme she and her children offering safely to conduct her out is worthie of the like death as above Sixtly every subject that giveth the Pope to understand false things as to make him understand that his king and lord is not worthie to hold the crowne nor his children after him is worthy of like death Seventhly the tyrant that hindereth the union of the church and the deliberations of the Cleargie for the utilitie of the holy mother Church ought to be punished as an hereticke and schismaticke and meriteth that the earth should open and swallowe him as Dathan Core and Abiron Eightly the subject which by empoysonments and viands seekes to cause the king or his children to die is worthie of the aforesaid death The last is that every subject which with souldiers causeth the people and countrey of his soveraigne to bee eaten up and exiled and which taketh and distributeth his money at his pleasure and makes it serve his turne to procure alliances with his lords enemies ought to be punished as a very tyrant with the first and second death And here I make an end of my Maior of the justification of Monsieur the duke of Bourgoigne But I come now to declare my Minor wherin I have shewed That Lewis late duke of Orleance was so much embraced with ladie Covetousnesse of the honours and riches of this world that hee would have taken away the seignorie and crowne of Fraunce from the king his brother and his children by temptation of the enemie of hell using the aforesaid meanes for he found an Apostata monke expert in the divellish art unto whom he gave a ring and a sword to consecrate them to the divell This monke went into a solitarie place behind a bush where he put off all his garments to his shirt and fell on his knees so invocating devils Straight there appeared two devils apparelled in darke greene whereof the one was called Hernias and the other Estramain Then this monke did unto them as great reverence honour as he could doe to God our Saviour and one of the devils tooke the ring and the other the sword and after vanished away the monke went away also Hee returned into that place againe and there found the ring having a red colour and the sword wherewith he thought to have slaine the king but by the helpe of God and of the most excellent ladies of Berry and Bourgoigne the king escaped Also the said duke of Orleance made an alliance and confederation with the duke of Lancaster who in like manner warred against king Richard of England his lord as is abovesaid Item He went about to have carried away the queene and her children which hee meant to have carried into the countie of Luxembrough to take his will of her which the queene would not agree to Item Hee practised to make Monseignior le Daulphin eat an impoysoned apple which was given to a child who was charged to give it to none but to the said Daulphin but it so happened that the child gave it to one of the sonnes of the said duke of Orleance who diâ—d thereof Item The said duke hath alwayes favoured the Pope in the extraction of money out of the kingdome to obtaine of him a declaration against the king and his generation of inhabilitie to hold the kingdome and to give it unto him Item He hath held armed men in the fields by the space of 14 or 15 yeares which did nothing but pill exile rob ransack and sley the poore people and force women and maids Item He laid tallages upon the kings subjects and emploied the silver in making alliances with our enemies to come to the crowne and besides hee hath committed many great crimes which my said Monseignior le Bourgoigne reserveth to declare in time and place It followeth then by good consequence that my said lord of Bourgoigne Conclusion ought not to be blamed for sleying the said duke of Orleance and that the king should like that deed well and to authorize the same as much as were needfull And besides he ought to be rewarded in three especiall things that is in Love Honour and Riches as were S. Michaell the archangell and the most valiant Phineas that is to say as I thinke in my grosse and rude understanding That the king our lord ought more than before to beare amitie loyaltie and good reputation to my said lord of Bourgoigne and to cause to be published letters patents through all the realme God graunt it may bee so who bee blessed world without end Amen Here is in substance the Oration of that venerable doctor in Theologie unto which I have not added one word onely I have shortened certaine long and reiterated allegations whereby might be seene the beastlinesse of this our master a man hired to justifie one of the most execrable murders that ever was committed Very notable is the rhethoricke and art of this venerable doctors Oration which in the Exordium or beginning to obtaine benevolence confesseth that he is an ignorant man without sence or memorie And to make a reason why hee hath enterprised to be in these causes advocate he saith it is for a pension which the duke of Burgoigne gave him towards his living After for proofe of his Maior he alleadgeth places of Scripture so evill applied as children at this day will discover his follie And for notable authors he alledgeth a sort of sottish scholasticall sophisters of Theologie as Alexander de Hales Salceber Mivile and other like His Correlatives and his Minor are the false imputations wherewith the duke of Bourgoigne charged the duke of Orleance Moreover this Oration was reviewed by the masters of the facultie of Sorbonne with the bishop of Paris and the Inquisitor of faith and there were condemned for heresies these propositions following Every tyrant may be slaine by his vassale and subject without commandement of justice Secondly S. Michael slew Lucifer without Gods commandement Thirdly Phineas killed Zambry without the commandement of God Fourthly Moses slew the Egyptian without the commandement of God Fifthly Iudith sinned not in flattering Holofernes nor Iohn in lying that he would honour Baal Sixtly it is not alwaies perjurie when a man dooth that which he hath sworne not to doe Which articles having been declared hereticall they were condemned to be burnt publickely as also M. Iohn Petits bones who had maintained them for he was at this judgement dead and buried at Hesdin and the said articles were executed and put into the fire but not the doctors bones for they could not be gotten because the duke of Bourgoigne then
king how vicious soever he be but alwaies impute vices and faults to some of his governors and Counsellors rather than to him Truly if princes had alwaies good men about them they could never bee vicious at the least to the detriment of the Commonwealth Therefore by good right men do impute the evill government of a countrey rather to a princes Counsellors than to himselfe as we have proved in another place 10. Maxime A Prince ought not to trust in the amitie of men MEn generally saith Machiavell are full of ingratitude variable Cap. 17. of a Prince dissemblers flyers from dangers and covetous of gaine and so long as they profit by thee so long thou maiest hold them in thy lap and they will offer thee their lives goods and all they have even when there is no neede but in a necessitie they will turne their garment and away So that a prince which leaneth upon such a rampire shall at the first fall into ruine yea they vvill sooner be offended when a man will use love tovvards them than if by rigour hee seeke to bee feared because men make lesse accompt to offend him vvhich useth him gently and lovingly than him of vvhom they are afraid Because amitie is onely founded upon some obligation vvhich easily may bee broken but feare is founded upon a feare of punishment vvhich never forsakes the person AS well this Maxime as the former is a plain tyrannous precept For as saith the Poet Aeschilus No friend to trust what common more Amian Marcell lib. 16. Each tyrant hath this ill in store This is the reason why Denis the tyrant of Sicile caused a strong house to be built where he dwelt environed with deepe ditches full of water on all sides over which there was no entrie but a draw bridge which was every night taken in by himselfe and certaine lose planks of the bridge brought into his bed chamber which ever the next morning hee carried himselfe to the bridge againe Hee caused also his daughters to learne to bee barbars to poule and trimme his head and beard and all this did he because hee durst trust no man in the world to doe those things Yet Commodus a cruell tyrant also used another more Lamp in Commod sure receit For trusting no man with his haire of head or beard hee himselfe burnt them with a candle I leave you to thinke if such people bee miserable whose consciences are tormented in such sort that it judgeth them worthie to have all the world for a capitall enemie in such sort as they dare put no confidence in any but are in continuall feare and torment Far contrarie from this doctrine of Machiavell is the exhortation which Misipsa â—aâ—ust in bello Iugurth the good king of Numidia gave a little before his death to Iugurtha and his other children admonishing them amongst themselves to maintaine a good amitie and concord It is not sayth he puissant armies nor great treasures by the meanes of which a prince ought to conserve and maintaine his estate but by his friends which are not acquired either by force of armes or by gold silver but by good offices loialtie But who ought to be a more loiall friend than one brother to another or whome can he trust who shall be an enemie to his owne blood I leave you a kingdome firme and assured if you be good but feeble and weake if you be wicked for by concord small things encrease but by discord great things fall to ruine Behold a breefe exhortation but very weightie to shew how necessarie it is to have good friends and to maintaine good amity and loyaltie amongest parents Like unto this is the oration which Silla made to king Boccus of Mauritania Wee are very joyfull said hee that thou rather seekest to bee a friend than an enemie of the Romane people for even from her birth the Romane people being poore have alwaies better loved to acquire friends than slaves servants have ever thought it more assured to command voluntary people than any by constraint King Boccus then cannot chuse a better amity than ours which can both favour thee aide thee will never hurt thee to say truth neither we nor any other can have too many friends The amitie and friends which a prince may obtaine by a good and just government may serve so to assure him of every man in his estate that hee shall have neede of no guard if hee thinke good to bee rid of them as did that good emperour Traian who often went to visit see his friends onely accompanied with foure Dion in Traian or five gentlemen without any guard of souldiers The like did the ancient kings of France which knew not that kind of guard wee have now of gunners and halberdiers but ordinarily marched without other companie than gentlemen which onely bare their swords about them Amitie saith Cicero is the true bonde of all humane societie and whosoever will take amitie from amongst men as Machiavell doth from amongst princes he seekes to take away all pleasure solace contentment and assurance that can bee amongst humane creatures For the friend is another our selfe with whom wee rejoyce in our prosperitie and our joy encreaseth when wee have unto whom to communicate it for wee are also comforted with him in our adversitie and sorrowes and our sadnesse is more than halfe diminished when wee have upon whom to discharge by amiable communication the bitternesse of our heart Moreover although wee bee sometimes blind in our owne causes yet our friend marketh our faults and kindly sheweth them unto us and giveth us good counsell in our affaires which we cannot take of our selves Briefely humane life without amitie seemes no other thing then a sad widowage destitute of the chiefe sweetnesse and comfort that can bee gathered in humane societie as Cicero Plutarch and other great philosophers have learnedly discoursed unto which I send them which will more amply understand the good and utilitie of Amitie I will not denie but many such friends will bee found like them whereof Machiavell speaketh which will seeme to bee our friends as long as they hope to draw any profit from us and which will make us faire offers when they see we have neede but will turne their backes in our necessities There are indeede but too many such and wee are but too often deceived with them yet wee may not disdaine the good for the evill neither may wee defame friendship for the vices and incommodities which accompanie it For amongst corne commonly growes darnell and amongst wholesome hearbs some are venemous which in outward shew seeme to bee faire and good yet men may not cast away a thing so necessarie as corne for the feare to finde darnell or drauke in it nor the wholesome hearbs for such as bee venemous But wee must seeke as much as may bee to know and to separate that which is evill
in good use and observance Naturall reason also sheweth us that a law and rule made and examined by many braines must needes bee better than when it is made by one alone but because I have touched this point more at large in another place I will wade no further therein As touching that which Machiavell saith of Agis Plutarch in his life speaketh otherwise thereof for hee saith that hee was the most meeke and quiet man in Plut. in Agid the world who sought to reforme the estate of Sparta by all good and honest meanes and to bring into force and use the ancient lawes of Licurgus and because the Ephori opposed themselves against his desseignes and purposes hee practised that Lysander and Agesilaus should bee advanced to the estate of Ephori as they were But Agesilaus overtaken with auarice refused to sticke to the effecting of this good purpose of king Agis so that he could not any way bring to passe that good reformation which hee intended Heere is all which Plutarch saith he speakes no word that Agis should cause the Ephori to bee slaine but contrary that the Ephori brought Agis to his death neither speakes hee of any enterprise of the Macedonians And I know not where Machiavell hath fished for that hee heere writeth unles hee take it out of his owne braine and then oweth hee nothing to any man seeing it is his owne But howsoever it bee hee can learne it of no author which shall not bee alwaies convinced of a lie by that learned Plutarch who speaketh as I have set it downe 14. Maxime A prince ought to exercise crueltie all at once and to doe pleasures by little and little HE vvhich vvill invade a principalitie saith our Florentine Cap. 17. Of the prince vvhatsoever is to bee sharpely and cruelly practised vvould at the first entrie bee dispatched vvith all expedition that there may be no occasion to returne often to one businesse to the end that afterward by gracious and good dealing he may the sooner bring under and tame his subiects for iniuries and offences ought to be committed all at once that beeing the lesse time felt by subiects they may stirre and anger them the lesse And contrarie pleasures must be done by little and little that by often iteration thereof they upon vvhom such benefites are bestowed may the more desirously and pleasantly drinke them up and imprint them in their hearts It is true indeed that many there have been vvhich because they vvere cruell could not long time continue their principallitie in peace but that happened unto them because their cruelties vvere not handsomely and vvell exercised But they may bee accounted vvell exercised vvhen they are committed but once as it vvere upon a necessitie to assure himselfe and to avoid and shun a greater inconvenience for augmentation of the Commonweale Agathocles the Sicilian by the practise of this Maxime became king of Siracuse This gallant vvas but a potters sonne and all his life vvicked and full of vices yet those his vices vvere accompanied vvith a great bravenesse of courage he followed armes By little and little he did so much by his iournies that he became Praetor of Siracuse and being in that estate desirous to make himselfe king and to usurpe the tyrannie he caused the people and the Senat of Siracuse to bee assembled making them understand that he vvould execute some great matters of importance before them The people and the Senate being assembled at a vvatch word he had given unto his soldiers they put to death all the Senators and the most noble of the people and so made himselfe soveraigne lord of the towne without any empeachment Whosoever then considereth the prudence of Agathocles and the greatnes of his courage to enterprise and to execute so great a thing mē would not iudge him inferiour to any other captaine before him In our time during the raign of Pope Alexander the sixt Oliver de Ferme was educated and brought up young by one that vvas his mothers brother called Iohn Foglian vvho sent him to learne the militarie art under captaine Paulus Vitellius thereby to come unto some honourable estate This Oliver being a gallant and personable man and of a quicke vvit after a good space he had followed the vvarre a la Solde for vvages he scorned this base manner of life and determined vvith the helpe of certaine citizens of the towne of Ferme to get possession to make himselfe master and lord of the towne To obtaine this he vvrit a letter to his uncle Iohn Foglian whereby he signified That wheras he having been long time out of his countrey had not all the time seene his parents and friends and now comming to visit them that they of the towne might thinke he had been honorably employed in his pursute of vvarre desired his said uncle to find meanes that he might as honorably enter with an hundred horse of his friends and servants and that he would doe so much as in some good order also to meet him vvhich should be not only to his honour but also to his uncles that had nourished him Messier Iohn greatly reioyced at these newes and failed in nothing to prepare all that vvas possible to honour his nephew insomuch as the vvhole towne every vvay celebrated and reioiced at his comming thither conducting him vvith all honour agreeable to his discent unto the Towne-house vvhere he abode certain daies whilest he made all things readie for the execution of his enterprise At the last he prepared a great banket unto which hee invited his uncle and all other most noble persons of the towne of Ferme At the bankets end he begun to fall into talke of weightie matters concerning Pope Alexander and his son the duke de Valentinois and their enterprises wherunto his uncle making a certaine answere Oliver began to smile and vvithall told him that such an answere vvould have been made more private as also all their vvhole talke of that matter Therefore giving them to understand that he vvould discover unto them certain secrets of that matter he drevv them apart into a chamber and as soon as his uncle and the noblest greatest of the cōpanie vvere there set down suddainly entred a great company of souldiors vvhich he had hired and hid in some place nigh vvho massacred and put to death in a moment his owne uncle and all the others in his companie This murder being executed Oliver being followed of his soldiors overran straight all the towne besieged the soveraigne magistrate in his pallace and did so much as finally every one vvas constrained to yeeld him obedience This done he made himselfe soveraigne lord of the town and he there established a certaine polliticke government but yet caused all such to be slain as might be malecōtent vvith that change or could any vvay hurt him And vvithin a little vvhile after by good civile and militarie ordinances he not only made himselfe
that which Machiavell prescribeth for by oppressing and causing to die al the conjurators and enemies and all their friends and allies he made himselfe so feared and redoubted that there was not in Rome great or little but he trembled for feare only to heare the name of Nero Such great men whose friends and parents were put to death came and fell downe on their knees before him and thanked him for the good and honour he had done them to have purged and cleansed their parentage and alliance from so wicked men as those he had slaine Others in signe of joy for the death of their friends and parents caused their houses to be hung with lawrell and made sacrifices to the gods to give them thankes for so great a good as was happened unto them They celebrated also great feasts of joy as they had been mariages The Senate also for their part being also in a great terrour ordained there should be processions and publicke sacrifices to yeeld thankes to the gods that this conjuration was discovered yea they caused to be builded and consecrated a chappell to the Sunne in the house where the conjuration was made because it shined to the discoverie therof They builded also a temple to the goddesse Health Nero thinking that all these joyes were true and unfained yet were they but simulations exercised still more and more his butcherie and in the end made himselfe so assured by reason he was feared and redoubted of all the world that he was of opinion that he had obtained the upperhand of all his enemies but it was cleane contrarie For by this strange slaughter with so many other wickednesses whereof hee was full hee brought himselfe into a deadly hatred of all the world insomuch as the provinces of the empire revolted from his obedience one after another and in the end he was abandoned of every man unlesse it were of some foure or five of his meanest servants which kept him companie in his flight untill he had slaine himselfe as is said in another place therfore Nero needed to take no thought how to nourish enemies against himselfe as Machiavell teacheth in this Maxime for hee never wanted a great number as all tyrants have ordinarily And how should not tyrants have good store of enemies seeing even good De Com. lib. 1. cap. 107 108 109 100 111. and wise princes doe not want them To this purpose master Phillip de Comines makes a very good discourse saying That it pleased God to give to all princes kingdomes and common weales an opposit and contrary unto them that both the one and the other might the rather bee held in their duties as England hath Fraunce Scotland hath England Portugall hath Castile Grenado hath Portugall the princes and common weales of Italie are contrarie one to another and so it is of all God hath giveÌ„ to every seignorie his opposit countries and seignories of the earth For if there bee any prince or common-weale which wants his opposite to hould him in feare straight one shall see him fall to a tyrannie and luxuriousnesse Therefore God by his wise providence hath given to every seignorie and to every prince his opposit that one by the feare of an other might be stirred up to a modest and temperate carriage And there is indeed nothing saith hee that better holdeth a prince in his duetie nor which causeth him to walke more upright than the feare of his opposit and contrary For the feare of God nor the love of his neighbour nor reason whereof commonly hee hath no care nor justice for there is none above himselfe nor any other like thing can hold him in his duetie but onely the feare of his contrary After that Comines had dispatched this question hee entreth into another which dependeth heereof What is the cause saith hee that commonly princes and great lords have Princes have not the feare of God nor of charitie for want of Faith not the feare of God nor love to their neighbours He answereth the want of Faith for if a prince beleeved verely the paines of hell to bee such as indeed they are hee would doe no wrong to noe man nor retaine an others goods unjustly For if they beleeved assuredly as it is true and certaine that they are damned in hell and are never like to enter into paradise which retaine other mens goods without making satisfaction or that doe any wrong to any without amends unto him It is not likely there would bee found a prince or princesse in the world or any other person which would with-hold anothers goods were it of his subjects vassailes or neighbour in good earnest or would put any to death wrongfully no not to hold them in prison nor take from one to give to another nor procure any dishonest thing against any person If then they had a firme faith and beleeved the paines of hell to bee horrible and great without other end or remission for the damned knowing againe the shortnesse of this life they would not doe that they doe And for example saith hee when a king or a prince is a prisoner and that hee feareth to die in prison is there any thing so deere in the world which hee would not give to come out Certainely hee would give both his owne and his subjects goods altogether As wee have seene king Iohn of France being taken prisoner by the prince of Wales at the battaile of Poitiers who paied 3000000 of franks for his ransome and acquited to the English all Aquitane or at least as much as they then held and many other cities townes and places all which came to the third part of the kingdome which was thereby brought into great povertie that no coine was there currant but it was made of leather with a little naile of silver in the middest of it And all this gave king Iohn and Charles the sage his sonne for the said kings deliverance out of prison And if they would have given nothing yet the English would not have put him to death but at the worst have kept him in prison And yet if they had caused him to die the paine that hee had suffered had not beene comparable to the thousand part of the least paine in hell Why then did king Iohn give all that hath beene said and so overthrew his children and the subjects of his kingdome because hee beleeved that which hee saw and knew well that otherwise hee could hot bee delivered But you shall not finde a prince or else very few that if hee had a towne of his neighâ—ours would yeeld it for the feare of God or the paines of hell It is then the want of faith because princes beleeve not that God will punish the wrongs they doe to another and that they doe not also beleeve that the paines of hell are horrible and eternall as they are Yet is this certaine that god will punish them as well as other men though not
On the other side Artabanus prepared himselfe and his retinue in as good order as was possible without any armie to goe meet his new sonne in law What did this perfidious Caracalla As soone as the two parties were joyned and that king Artabanus came nigh him to saluâ—e and embrace him he commanded his souldiers earnestly to charge upon the Parthians Then straight the Romanes embraced and entertained the unarmed Parthians with great blowes of swords and other armes as enemies and as if there had been an assigned battaile in so much as there was a great slaughter made of the Parthians but the king Artabanus with the help of a good horse escaped with great difficultie and danger So that this simuled and disguised marriage although pleasant to Caracalla and his friends yet were they sorrowfull to many poore Parthians Artabanus beeing saved determined well to revenge himselfe of that villanie and trecherie but Macrinus releeved him of that paine who within a little time after slew that monster Caracalla who was already descryed through all the world because of his perfidie Besides that perfidie and violation of Faith is the cause that none wil beleeve nor Perfidie is the cause of the ruine of the perfidous trust them which once have used it yet proceeds there another upon it which is That breach of Faith is ordinarily cause of the totall destruction ruine of the perfidious and disloyall person The example above alleadged of Anniball may well serve to prove it for his trecherie was first a cause that none would trust him secondly it was the cause that another perfidious person seeing him without friends or meanes enterprised to play another part of perfidie which forced him to poyson himselfe We have also in another place before recited the example of Virius and other Capuans to the number of seven and twentie which desperately slew themselves because they had broken their Faith with the Romanes But amongst other examples that of king Syphax of Numidia is most illustrious and memorable This king promised Scipio that he would aid and give him succours against the Carthaginians The Carthaginians knowing this found meanes to lay a bait for this king by Titus Livius lib. 9. 10. Dec. 3. a faire Carthaginian damosell called Sophonisba one of a great house who by her enticements so drew him into her nets that she caused him to breake his Faith with Scipio and made an alliance and confederation with the Carthaginians by the marriage of Sophonisba whereby they accorded that they would have alike friends and enemies Scipio beeing hereof advertised was much both astonished and greeved yet hee thought it good resolution not to attend whilest the two powers of king Syphax and of the Carthaginians were joined together Hee then so hasted that hee placed his armie before king Syphax who was going with thirtie thousand for the helpe of the Carthaginians and overcame all those succours insomuch as Syphax himselfe was taken prisoner his horse having been slaine under him was brought alive to Scipio who demaunded of him wherefore he had broken his Faith with the Romancs which he had so solemnely sworne betwixt his hands This poore captive king confessed that an enraged follie had drawne him unto it by the meanes of the Carthaginians which gave him that pestilent furie Sophonisba who by her flatteries and enticements had bereaved him of his understanding After this miserable king was in a triumph by Scipio led to Rome died miserably his kingdome brought under the obedience of the Romanes which gave a good part of it to Massinissa another king of Numidia who had ever been loyall and faithfull unto them in the observation of their Faith So that Syphax lost himself and his kingdome by his perfidie and breach of Faith and Massinissa acquired great reputation and honour and greatly amplified and enlarged his kingdome for rightly observing his Faith and loyaltie Charles the simple king of Fraunce in his time made strong warre upon Robert Annal. upon the year 916. duke of Aquitaine and vanquished him in a battaile nigh Soissons where duke Robert was slaine Heber countie de Vermandois brother in law of that Robert was so greeved and displeased at that overthrow that he enterprised a part of perfidie and villanie to catch the king his soveraigne lord therefore with a countenance of amitie he invited the king to a great feast in the town of Perone whither the king came with many other great princes and lords but the said countie caused them all to be taken prisoners and shut them within the castle of Perone Afterward hee enlarged all the said princes and lords upon condition of their promises never to bear armes against him but still retained the king prisoner in the said castle where he died within two yeares after Lewis the third of that name his sonne succeeded him in the crowne who at his first entry revenged not the death of his father upon countie Heber fearing some insurrection in his kingdome because of his great kindred and friends yet at the last he also made a great and solemne feast unto which he entreated the great lords and barons of his kingdome and even countie Heber and his friends and kinsfolkes As they were all assembled at that feast behold there arrived out of England a currier a thing fained by king Lewis who booted and spurred fell upon his knees before the king and presented letters unto him on the king of Englands part The king tooke those letters and caused them to be read low by his Chancellor the rather to deceive As soone as he had read them the king began to smile and say on high to the companie Truly men say true that the English are not wise My cousin of England sends me word that in his countrey a rusticall clownish man had summoned his lord whose subject hee is to a dinner at his house and as soone as he came there he tooke and detained him prisoner and after strangled him and villanously caused him to die Therfore he sends me word to have the opion of the princes barons and lords of Fraunce to know what justice should bee done upon that subject I must make him an answere and therefore my masters I pray you tell me your advices What thinke you said he to the countie de Blois the most auncient to this matter my good cousin The countie de Blois answered that his opinion was That the said rusticall fellow should die ignominiously and that according to his desert All the other princes and lords were of the same opinion yea even Heber countie de Vermandois Then tooke the king the word and said Countie de Vermandois I judge thee and condemne thee to death by thine owne word for thou knowest that in the shew of friendship and under the shaddow of a feast in thy house thou diddest invite my dead father and being come thou retainedst him and brought him most
dead man makes no warre But if a man reply upon them that a dead man yet may because of warre although he can make no warre what would they answere Dare they denie so apparent a thing as we see with our eyes and whereof hystories furnish us with infinit examples Lewis duke of Orleance king Charles the sixt his brother after the duke Iohn of Bourgoigne had caused him to be slaine made no warre indeed but yet was the cause of a civile warre in Fraunce which endured more than sixtie yeares Pompeius after he was slaine made no more warre but his death was the cause of a great and long civile warre in the Romane empire The violating and Iudges 19 20. death of a Levites wife was it not the cause of a warre wherein there died more than sixtie thousand men They which were slaine at Vassi Anno 1562 drew not they on a civile warre which endured too long They also which were slaine in Anno 1572 in the moneth of August by the great townes of Fraunce but especially Paris were not they cause of great warres It is therefore a foule and an inconsiderate saying to alledge that a dead man makes no warre thereupon to found their massacres and slaughters without considering the consequences thereof Hereupon is very memorable the speech that Geta the yong prince made to the emperour Severus his Spar. in Geta father Severus having vanquished Albinus and Niger his competitors to the empire begun to make a great slaughter of the greatest lords and gentlemen of Rome which had taken part with Albinus or Niger because they were of a more noble house than Severus As then day by day he was committing his slaughter he one day said unto Bassianus Geta his children as men spoke of that fact I shall by this meanes ease you of all your enemies Hereupon Geta his sonne demanded of him My lord and father them which you meane to put to death are they a great number Yea answered Severus and told him the number All they replied he have they neither parents allies nor friends Yea they have many said Severus You then said Geta will leave us more enemies than you take from us This wise speech of this young prince touched so well the heart of Severus although he was cruell that hee would needs cease from his slaughter but that Plautianus and other courtiers which attended the enriching of themselves by confiscations incited him to continue Let murderers then hold themselves assured that for one they have slaine they stirre up tenne enemies And yet is not this all for all the rest of their life they have soules and consciences tormented with the remembrance of such as they have most wickedly murdered and the shadowes and remembrances of them shall alwayes bee before their eyes as a feare and terror unto them O how the shadow of that great Admirall shall strangely torment these great enterprisers of massacres it will never leave them at rest but shall bee a burning flame which shall agast and fearefully accompanie them even to their sepulchres Let them then hearken unto the menace and threatening he makes in his tombe against them Although the soule from bodie mine cold death hath ravished Virgil Aene. lib. 4. Yet absent I will follow thee yea with a flame full blacke My shaddow alwaies shall appeare about thee as one dead Which shall revenge on thee my blood thou who no ill doest lacke I thought good by the way to touch what warre the dead makes or what cause of war they are to refute that saying of the Machiavellians That a dead man makes no warre Let us now come where we left Of subtilties which wee say ought not to bee practised in the government of the affaires of State and that thereby none may cover any perfidie When Anniball had gotten the battaile of Cannas against the Romanes hee toke a great number of prisoners and because he more loved money for their ransome than to hold them hee sent a certaine number of them to Rome to practise and worke their redemption but hee made them sweare and promise that they would returne to him and so did let them goe upon their Faith But one advised himselfe of a subtile device when hee came at Rome to returne no more yet none should say hee broke his Faith For having passed a good piece of his way towards Rome hee suddenly returned backe againe to Anniball fayning hee had forgotten something after againe followed his companions and so they all came to Rome But their affaires comming to bee debated in the Senate none would yeeld to redeeme the prisoners insomuch as they all which came to Rome for that purpose returned very sad to Anniballs campe except hee which returned by the way who with these came not to the campe but remained in his house thinking hee was well discharged of his Faith and othe But when the Senate heard tell of the fallacious and deceitfull returne of the said souldier so unworthy and unseemely for a Romane they commanded him to bee drawne out of his house and by force to bee led unto Anniball Heereby you may see then that no wise people of good judgement such as were the ancient Romanes can approve such subtile palliations and covertures of an infraction and breach of Faith such as Machiavell persuadeth to a prince A like deceit was in the king of France Phillip the sixt of that name for having Froisart lib. 1. cap. 10. made an oth as almost all his ancestors kings of France had done never to run over or attempt to besiege or take any thing belonging to the empire yet desiring the castle of Tin the Bishops nigh to Cambray which troubled him much caused his sonne the duke of Normandie as the chiefe generall of the armie to besiege it and himselfe went thither also as a simple souldier without any command at all By which subtiltie the king Phillip could not save his oth for hee that doth any thing by a mediator is as much as if hee had done it himselfe neither did the deceit succeede well unto him for both the duke of Normandie was constrained to raise his siege from before the castle and not long after the king lost the battaile at Cressy The emperour Valentinian in his time was cruell in his actions and dealings Amm. Marel lib. 28. and had many officers like himselfe Amongst other such there was a criminall judge called Maximus who as hee examined certaine criminall persons promised them if they would confesse the truth they should suffer no punishment either of sword or fire These poore accused persons as often men doe confessed things they had never perpretated trusting upon his Faith and promise But this wicked judge caused them to bee beaten downe and slaine with leaden hammers thinking by this cavillation to save his oth God would that for a recompence hee should after be hanged and strangled under the emperour Gratianus
a gentle and kind prince For it often happeneth that such cruell judges which have bestowed great paines to make their dâ—lligence allowed of the cruell princes have beene after paid their wages and received their due recompence of some good prince succeeding Nabis was a tyrant who without right or title got soveraigne possession of the commonwealth of the Lacedaemonians and there committed many cruelties and Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 4. indignities The Aetolians a furious and cruell kinde of people esteemed that it would bee a great glorie and honour unto them if they could slay this tyrant any way and that all Greece especially the Lacedaemonians would thank them So they enterprised to joyne themselves unto him under a pretext and shew of Faith and socieâ—â—e the better to overthrow him Alexamenes was deputed captaine and conductor of the Aetolian forces to effect that enterprise who did so much as hee entered into league and confederation with Nabis who at that time greatly feared the Romanes This league being past Alexamenes persuaded Nabis that both together they must often exercise their souldiers by bringing them into the fields to wrastle leape skirmish and practise other millitarie exercises to shun idlenesse and to make them good souldiers Nabis beleeved him insomuch as one day beeing in the field together Alexamenes came behinde him and threw him cleane over his horse with a blow hee gave him and then presently caused him to be slaine and massacred This being done Alexamenes his people returning towards the towne of Sparta from whence they departed thinking to seize upon the castle to guard themselves from all assaults of the tirants frinds but they could not obtaine it For the Lacedaemonians so disdained greeved at that most perfiidious villanus part of the Aetolians against their king Nabis although they desired no more than his death that they furiously rushed upon the Aetolians which were dispersed through the towne and looked not for their paines to be so recompensed that they slew them almost all and amongst them Alexamenes himselfe such as escaped the sword were taken prisoners and sould For the last example of this matter I will set downe that of Ioab David nephew 2. Samuel 2. 3. 20. 1 Kings 2. and constable unto whom hee did good and great services Yet David commanded Salomon his sonne that hee should put to death Ioab his cosin germane as hee did because of his perfidie for hee had slaine Abner and Amasa two other great captaines traiterously under the coulour of amitie Ioab seemed to have great causes to justifie his fact For Abner had slaine Asahel Ioabs brother and therefore Ioab could not but receive just sorrow and feeling thereof Moreover Abner had followed the contrary part to David standing for the house of Saul Amasa was a rebell and a seditious person against David and had followed Absalons part so it was evident if Ioab had had our Machivellists judges of his fact they would not onely have adjudged him innocent but for a remuneration they would have made him some great amendes with the goods of Abner and Amasa but the judgement of David which hee made at his death against his sisters sonne who had done him infinit good and great services shewed well how execrable and detestable Ioabs perfidie was to him And heereby princes have to learne to imitate this holy and wise king by whose mouth God teacheth them that they ought to observe their Faith and promise yea to their domage a doctrine fully contrary to the doctrine of this filthie and wicked Machiavell To conclude Perfidie is so detestable a thing both to God and the world that God never leaveth perfidious and Faith-breaking persons unpunished Oftentimes hee waits not to punish them in the other world but plagnes them in this yea often strangely and rigorously by exterminating as it were in a moment all their rase wives and children as the Poet Homer although a Panim hath wisely taught us saying Though straight the God of heaven lay not his punishment divine Homer Ili 4 At all times on the perfidious for his great periurie Yet neither hee himselfe nor child can skape his ire in fine No nor his wife but all destroyed by hand of his shall bee 22. Maxime Faith Clemencie and Liberalitie are vertues very domageable to a prince but it is good that of them hee have onely some similitude and likenesse THere is no necessitie saith our Florentine that a prince Cap. 18. Of the prince should bee garnished with all these vertues but it is requisit that hee have an appearance of them For I dare well say this that having and observing them in all places they will fall out mervelous domageable unto him And contrarie the maske and semblance of them is very profitable and indeede wee see each day by experience that a prince is often constrained to goe from his Faith and from all charitie humanitie and religion to conserve and defend his owne vvhich verely hee shall incontinent lose if exactly hee will observe all points which make men to bee esteemed vertuous MAchiavell sets heere downe three vertues Faith Clemencie and Liberalitie which hee reproveth in a prince as domageable and pernitious effectuallie to use them But whosoever can recover the maskes and similitudes of them as they are naturallie portraied hee shall doe well to adorne and decke himselfe with them as whores and courtizans doe which apparell themselves like women of honour to make men beleeve that they are honest and good women But I will not stand heere upon invectives to confute or cause men to detest such a filthie doctrine For what man is so brutall or ignorant that seeth not with his eie how Machiavell delights to mock play with the most excellent vertues amongst men As for the Faith which is and ought to bee amongest men for Machiavell speakes not of the Faith which is towards God wee have discoursed upon it in the former Maxime And as for Liberalitie wee shall speake upon it in another place Heere wee will speake of Clemencie and examine Machiavells doctrine whether this doctrine can bee domageable to a prince or no To shew that Clemencie cannot bee domageable but profitable to him unto Clemencie profitable honourable to such as are clement whom God imparteth that grace to bee indued therewith an argument drawne from the contrary concludes well and evidently for this purpose For if crueltie which is directly contrary to Clemencie bee pernitious and domageable to him that is infected therewith as wee have above shewed It followeth that clemencie and gentlenesse is both profitable and honourable to him that is indued and adorned therewith And indeede it is a vertue both agreeable and amiable with everie man which bringeth to whatsoever person it dwelleth in favour grace amitie honour and good will of every man to doe him pleasure All which are affections that can never bee idle nor without some operation
was no great warriour But the cause why the Romanes delivered so great and honourable a charge unto him was because the great Scipio the Affrican his brother had declared that if Lucius his brother were chosen generall captaine to goe against Antiochus he should be there as his lieutenant As then they both were in Greece with the Romane armie making warre upon that king it so happened that the only sonne of Scipio the Affrican was taken prisoner by Antiochus souldiers Antiochus having this young lord in his hands entertained and used him very honourably knowing that that great Scipio was of such Clemencie that he would never forget that the pleasure and that the amitie of so great a personage might stand him in good stead in some great necessities as losse of a battaile or of a captivitie or such like Not long after Scipio fell sicke whereof Antiochus hearing he sent him his sonne without ransome fearing Scipio would die with greefe and melancholie by whose death he doubted to leese a good refuge For that king saith Titus Livius trusted more in the Clemencie and authoritie of Scipio alone for the uncertaine and doubtfull haps of warre than in his armie of 60000 footmen and 12000 horsemen Is not here thinke you an admirable effect of Clemencie that an enemie dooth better assure his estate upon his enemies Clemencie than upon his owne forces But what need we any more to amplifie by examples or authorities this point doth not ordinarie experience shew and ever hath done that all good and clement princes have alwaies been very assured in their estates as Augustus Vespasian Traian Adrian the Antonines and many other Romane emperours and the most part of our kings of Fraunce which were clement and debonaire doe fully proove this which I say for they raigned very peaceably died of naturall deaths and after their deaths were greatly lamented of the people Here I may not forget a notable sentence of the emperour Antonius Pius which hee received from Scipio the Affrican Capit. in Pio. Sueâ— in August cap. 35. which was this That hee loved better to preserve one of his subjects than to sley a thousand of his enemies Assuredly a sentence of a good and clement prince who delighted not in shedding of blood as our Machiavelists doe at this day which are so covetous of such blood as they account their enemies that whensoever any of marke fals into their hands they will not give him for an hundred pounds They may well say contrary to Scipio and the emperor Pius that they had rather slay an enemie than save an hundred friends Are not these people worthie to commaund Neither make they any account more of their princes subjects than of slaves which men may beat scourge or sley at their pleasure as beasts as indeed there hath been lately a burne-paper-fellow a writer for wages one of these Machiavelists who durst publish by writing That the authority of a prince over his subjects is like that which a lord hath over his villaine and slave having power over death and life to sley and massacre them at their pleasure without forme of justice and so to despoile them of their goods And how comes this Thinkes this sot that the office of a king is like to the office of a gally captaine to hold his subjects in chaines and every day to whip them with scourges Surely they which hold that opinion doe merit to be so handled yea that some good gally captaine would twice or thrice a day practise that goodly doctrine upon their shoulders but how much more notable and humane is the doctrine wee learne of the life of Augustus Caesar who so much feared that men had such an opinion of him that he would not take away but onely diminish the libertie of the people that he could never abide and suffer to be called Dominus that is to say Lord but abhorred it as an injurious name full of opprobry because it hath some relation to Servus which is to say servant or slave he being farre from the affectation of such great and magnificall names as many great men have since well liked of without shewing the effect of them The third point now remaineth which is to shew That the Clemencie of a prince A prince by Clemencie encreaseth his domination Dionis Halic lib. 2. Plutarke in Caesar Alexand is cause of the encreasement of his domination Hereupon we reade a memorable hystorie of Romulus who was so clement soft and gentle towards his people which he vanquished and subjugated that not only many particulars but the whole multitude of people submitted themselves voluntarily and unconstrainedly under his obedience The same vertue was also cause that Iulius Caesar vanquished the Gaulois for he was so soft and gracious unto them and so easie to pardon and used them every way so well farre from all oppression that many of that nation voluntarily joyned themselves unto him and by them he vanquished the others When Alexander the Great made great conquests in Asia most commonly the citizens of all great cities met him to present unto him the keyes of the townes for he dealt with them in such Clemencie and kindnesse without in any thing altering their estates that they liked better to be his than their owne Anniball having taken the towne of Saguntum in Spaine was so feared and redoubted Titus Livius lib. 2. Dec. 3. that the most part of Spaine submitted themselves under his obedience and abandoned the Romane societie because they had not aided Saguntum against Anniball The Romanes to repaire their fault whereat they tooke much greefe sent great forces into Spaine under the conduction of Publius Scipio father of the African and of Cneius his uncle Anniball to containe in obedience the Spaniards tooke in hostage their children their brethren or parents of all the nobilitie of the countrey and the notablest citizens of the good townes and set them under guard at Saguntum under the charge of some small number of souldiers God would that those hostages should find meanes to escape from their prison yet it was their haps to fall into the hands of the Scipioes The Scipioes having possession of them in place to revenge themselves upon them as they feared for the fault they and their parents had made by their revoltment from the Romanes they welcommed and dealt with them very graciously and sent them all to their parents and houses This Clemencie and kindnesse of the Scipioes was cause that soone after all Spaine forsook the obedience of Anniball and the Carthaginians and fell under the government of the Romans which they would never have done if these hostages had been dealt with after the counsels and precepts of Machiavell Yet the example of Clemencie in Scipio the Affrican is more notable than this Titus Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. of his father and uncle After the deaths of his said father and uncle this young lord full of all
wee come to alledge For they said That men must not stay upon fishing for froggs but men must catch in their nets the great Salmons that one Salmons head was more worth than tenne thousand froggs and that when they had slaine the cheefetaines of pretended rebels that they should easily overthrow the rude and rascally multitude which without heads could enterprise nothing These venerable enterprisers should have considered that which here their Doctor Machiavell saith which also since they have seen by experience That a people cannot want heads which will alwayes rise up yea even those heads which bee slaine If they had so well noted practised this place of Machiavell as they do others so much blood would never have ben shed their tyrannie it may be had longer endured than it hath done For the great effusion of blood which they have made hath incontinent cried for vengeance to God who according to his accustomed justice hath heard the voice of that blood and for the crie of the orphant and widdow hath laid the axe to the root of all tyrannie and alreadie hath cut away many braunches thereof and if it please him will not tarry long to lay all on the ground and so establish Fraunce in his auncient government As for Fortresses in frontiers of countries they have been long time practised and are profitable to guard from incursions and invasions of enemies and to the end such as dwell upon the borders may the more peaceably enjoy their goods Wee reade That the emperour Alexander Severus gave his Fortresses upon frontiers to Lamprid. in Alex. Pomp. Laetus in Constant Magno good and approoved captaines with all the lands and revenewes belonging unto them to enjoy during their lives to the end saith Lampridius that they might be more vigilant and carefull to defend their owne And afterward the emperour Constantine the Great ordained That the said Fortresses with their grounds and revenewes should passe to the heires of the said captaines which held them as other manner of goods and heritages And hereupon some say have come such as the civile law call Feudi 34. Maxime A Prince ought to commit to another those affaires which are subiect to hatred and envie and reserve to himselfe such as depend upon his grace and favour A Prince vvhich vvill exercise some cruell and rigorous act saith cap. 7. 14. of a prince M. Nicholas he ought to give the commission thereof unto some other to the end he may not acquire evill vvill and enmitie by it And yet if he feare that such a delegation cannot bee vvholly exempted from blame to have consented to the execution which was made by his Commissarie he may cause the Commissarie to be slaine to shew that he consented not to his crueltie as did Caesar Borgia and Messire Remiro Dorco THis Maxime is a dependancie of that goodly doctrine which Machiavell learned of Caesar Borgia which although it was very cruell yet meaning to appeare soft and gentle following therein the Maxime which enjoyneth dissimulation committeth the execution of his crueltie to Messire Remiro Dorco as at large before wee have discoursed that hystorie And because we have fully shewed that all dissimulation and feignednesse is unworthie of a prince we will stay no longer upon this Maxime Well will I confesse that many things there be which seeme to be rigorous in execution although they be most equall and just which it is good a prince doe commit to others to give judgement and execution by justice as the case meriteth For as the emperour Marcus Antonine said It seemeth to the world that that which the prince doth hee doth it by his absolute authoritie and power rather than of his civile and reasonable power Therefore to shun that blame and suspition it is good that the prince delegate and set over such matters to Iudges which are good men not suspected nor passionate not doing as the emperour Valentinian did who would never heare nor receive accusations against Iudges and Magistrates which hee had established but constrained the recusators or refusers to end their cause before those Iudges only Whereby he was much blamed and his honor impeached and disgraced For truly the cheefe point which is required to cause good Passionate Iudges cannot judge well justice to be administred is That Iudges be not suspected nor passionat because the passions of the soule and heart doe obfuscate and trouble the judgement of the understanding and cause them to step aside and stray out of the way It is also a thing of very evill example when a prince with an appetite of revenge or to please the passions of revengefull great men dooth elect Iudges and Commissaries that bee passionate and which have their consciences at the command of such as employ them As was done in the time of king Lewis Hutin in the judgement of Messire Enguerrant de Marigni great master of Fraunce and in the time of king Charles the sixt in the judgement of the criminall processe of Messire Iean de Marests the kings Advocate in the parliament of Paris And a man may put to them the judgements given in our time against Amie du Bourg the kings Counsellor in the said parliament and against captaine Briquemand and M. Arnand de Cavagnes master of the Requests of the kings houshold and against the countie de Montgomerie and many others For the executions to death which followed manifested well That the Iudges were passionate men their consciences being at the command of strangers which governed them 35. Maxime To administer good Iustice a Prince ought to establish a great number of Judges TO have prompt and quicke expedition of good Iustice saith Machiavell many Iudges must be established for few can dispatch Discourse lib. 1. cap. 7. few causes and a small number is more easie to gaine and be corrupted than a great number And vvithall a great number is strong and firme in Iustice against all men EXperience hath made us wise in France that this Maxime of Machiavell is not true For since they multiplied the Officers of Iustice Multiplicitie of Officers cause of the corruption of â—ustice in Fraunce in the kingdome by the encrease of Counsellours in parliaments by erection of Presidents seats by creation of new or alternative Officers we have processes and law causes more multiplied longer and worse dispatched than before insomuch as by good right and by good reason the last Estates generall held at Orleance complained to king Charles the ninth of that multiplication and multitude of Officers which served not as it doth not yet but to multiplie law causes to ruinate and eat up the people and yet no better expedition of Iustice than before but rather worse and notoriously more long and of greater charges to the parties Vpon which complaint it was holily ordained That offices of Iustice which became vacant by death should bee suppressed and that none should come in their
Lewis The good justice of Lewis which gave oedinarie audience to the complaints of their subjects and to doe them justice But it shall suffice to close up all this matter with the example of that good king S. Lewis who amongst other vertues wherewith he was endowed he was a very good and upright administer of justice This good king having a great zeale to establish a good Iustice in his kingdome first hee would and ordained That the good and auncient lawes and customes of the kingdome should be well and straitly observed upon the paine he would take of his Bayliffes Seneshals and other magistrates if they caused them not to bee well observed And to the end the said magistrates might carry themselves well in their offices he chose other officers the best that hee could find of which he secretly enquired of their vertues and vices And to the end they might administer good and breefe justice to the poore as to the rich without exception of persons he forbad them to take presents unlesse some present of victuall which may not exceed tenne shillings by the weeke nor any other benefites for them or their children neither of them which were in contention nor of any other person of their bailiwike and territorie and commaunded they should take nothing within their perfecture or jurisdiction For this good king considered that presents benefits and desire to gain are the means wherby magistrates may be corrupted and therfore to shun all corruption he must cut off the meanes therunto Moreover he very rigorously punished such officers of Iustice as abused their estates spared not even great lords themselves but punished them after their merits as happened to the lord de Coucy who caused to strangle two yong Flamins when he found them hunting in his woods For the king caused to be called before him the said lord who fearing to be handled as he had delt with the Flamins wold have taken the hearing of the cause from the king saying he was to be sent for before the peeres of France But the king forced him to abide his judgments indeed had made him die if great lords parents friends of the said lord de Coucy had not importuned so much the king for his pardon unto which the king accorded that he shold have his life but yet he condemned him to the warre against the Turks and Infidels in the holy land by the space of three yeares which was a kind of banishment and besides condemned him in a fine paiment of 10000 Paris pounds which were bestowed on the building of an Hostle Dieu at Ponthoise This king gave not easily any pardon nor without great deliberation And for a devise he had often in his mouth that verse of the Psalme of David Happie are they which doe iudgement and Iustice at all times He said also That this was no mercie but crueltie not to punish malefactors Moreover he was a king full of truth chast charitable and fearing God which are vertues exceeding woorthy for a good prince and which commonly accompanie good justice But the godly precepts hee The tenne commandemēts which the king S. Lewis at his disease gave to his eldest sonne gave being in extremitie of his life to king Philip the Hardie his sonne and successor doe well merit to be written in letters of gold upon the lintels of doores and the houses of all kings and Christian princes to have them alwaies before their eies My deare sonne saith he since it pleaseth God our Father and Creator to withdraw me now from this miserable world to carrie mee to a better life than this I would not depart from thee my sonne without giving you for my last blessing the doctrines and precepts which a good father ought to give to his sonne hoping you wil engrave in your heart these your fathers last words I command you then my deare sonne That above all things you have alwaies before your eies the feare of God our good Father for the feare of God is the beginning yea the accomplishment of all true wisedome if you feare him he will blesse you Secondly I exhort you to take all adversities patiently acknowledging that it is God which visiteth you for your sins not to wax proud in prosperitie accounting that it comes to you by Gods grace not by your merits Thirdly I recommend unto you charitie towards the poor for the good you doe unto them shall be yeelded unto you an hundred fold and Iesus Christ our Saviour shall account it done unto him After I recommend to you very straitly my deare sonne that you cause to keep well the good laws customes of the kingdome and to administer good justice to your subjects for happy are they which administer good justice at all times and to doe this I enjoine you that you be carefull to have good magistrates and command you them that they favor not your Procurators against equitie and that you rigorously punish such as abuse their Offices for when they make faults they are more punishable than others because they ought to govern other subjects and to serve them for an example Suffer not that in judgement there be acception of persons and so favour the poore onely as the truth of his fact doth appeare without favoring him as to the judgement of his cause Moreover I command you that you bee carefull to have a good Counsell about you of persons which be of staied good age which be secret peaceable not covetous for if you doe this you shall bee loved and honoured because the light of the servants makes their masters shine Also more I forbid you to take tallages or tributes upon your subjects but for urgent necessitie evident utilitie and just cause for otherwise you shall not bee held for a king but for a tyrant Further I command you that you be carefull to maintaine your subjects in good peace and tranquilitie and observe their franchises and priveledges which before they have enjoyed and take heede you moove no warre against any Christian without exceeding great occasion and reason Item I exhort you to give the benefices of your kingdome to men of good life and good conscience not to luxurious and covetous wretches My deere sonne if you observe these my commands you shall bee a good example to your subjects and you shall bee the cause that they will adict themselves to doe well because the people will alwaies give themselves to the imitation of their prince and God by his bountie maintaine you firme and assured in your estate and kingdome Thus finished this good king his last words full of holy zeale and correspondent to his life passed and yeelded his soule to his creator which had given it him His sonne king Philip third of that name called the Hardie because of his valiancie which he shewed against the infidels and against other enemies as well during the life as after the death of
hardie withall he suffered them to take upon him some small advantages seeking still to draw them unto some place of advantage to fight with them as indeed he did They beeing swelled for that in some light skirmishes they had overthrowne some few of Annibals souldiors and thereby thought it was not honourable to recoile and that men would think their hearts failed them to flie before such as they had alreadie beaten resolved to give battaile and indeed they gave it but they lost it to their great shame and confusion Which the Romane Senate seeing sent against Anniball Fabius Maximus who was not so forward and it may bee not so hardie in enterprizing as Flaminius or Sempronius were but he was more wise and carefull as he shewed himselfe For at the first arrivall as the other did he did not aboord and set upon Anniball who desired no other thing but began to coast him a farre off seeking alwayes advantageous places And when Anniball approched him then would he shew him a countenance fully determined to fight yet alwaies seeking places of advantage But Anniball which was not so rash as to joine with his enemie to his own disadvantage made a shew to recoile and flie to draw him after him Fabius followed him but it was upon coasts and hils seeking alwayes not the shortest way but that way which was most for his advantage insomuch as Anniball saw him alwaies upon some hill or coast nigh him as it were a cloud over his head so that after Anniball had many times assaied to draw Fabius into a place fit for himselfe and where he might give battaile for his owne good and yet could not thereunto draw him said I see well now that the Romanes also have gotten an Anniball and I feare that this cloud which approching vs still hovers upon those hils will some of these mornings poure out some shoure on our heads Breefely the prudencie and wisdome of Fabius brought more feare and gave more adoe unto Anniball than all the Romane forces which yet was not small I have above recited another example witnessed of king Edward of England who said That he feared more the missives and letters of king Charles le Sage than he feared the great and puissant armies of 40 and 100000 men of his Father and Grandfather and that wrought him more trouble and broke more of his purposes and enterprises in enditing of letters than they ever did with their great forces Which is another witnesse made for prudence and good Counsell like unto the example of Anniball which witnesses are so much the more worthie of credite as the one proceeded from a most valiant king and the other from a most noble and hardie Captaine both which well knew by long use and experience how to helpe themselves with force and armes And if we consider the Romane hystories we shall truly find that the ancient Romanes made themselves lords and maisters almost of all the world more by wisdome and good Counsell than by force although they used both Therefore said Varro as by a common proverbe received in his time That the Romans vanquished sitting as if he would say As they sit in their chairs in their Senate they provide so for their affaires by good Counsell and wisedome that they get and obtaine the upper hand in all their enterprises Yea and we see that at this day the Venetians maintain very well their estate yea do augment and make it greater although they understand no thing how to handle armes and indeed when they must needs goe to warre they hire and wage people to doe it but yet notwithstanding are they wise and prudent keeping themselves as much as they can from the warre and when they have warre they do discreetly seeke meanes to quiet and appease it by some other way than by battailes besiegings of Townes or any other exploits of warre And assuredly they know better how to finish and bring a warre to an end by their wisedome and good Counsell without striking any stroke than many puissant princes by their forces and armes Hitherto we have spoken of a princes Counsell which in the time of the Roman A Senat and the Estates are things correspondēt emperours men called The princes Consistorie and our French The kings Priuie Counsell But now we must know that as well the Romane emperours as the kings of France of old have yet had another Counsell whereunto they had recourse in all their waightie affaires which were of great consequence as when they stood in need to make lawes ordinances and rules concerning the universall estate the Romanes called this Counsell the Senat and the French call it the Parlement But this name of Parlement aunciently signifieth an assemblie of the three estates as Philip de Comines saith and as is seene by all our French hystories Our kings also De Comines lib. 1. cap. 64. convocated sometimes with their ordinarie and priuie Counsell some good number of great Prelats and Barons of the realme and that assemblie they called The great Counsell But afterward men attributed the name of Parlement unto the assemblie of Iudges and Senators which judged causes and processes from whome there is no appeale And some thinke that our Parlement is at this day like unto the Senat of Rome but they are greatly deceived for the Romane Senat tooke not any knowledge of the processes and causes of particular persons but only dealt with affairs of the State of the universall government and pollicie and of matters of consequence unto all the Commonwealth and therefore the assemblie of the three estates in France doe much better resemble the Roman Senat than the Parlements doe at this day which might better be compared unto the Romans Centumvirat or to their Praetorian government which dealt in the knowledge of appellations and matters of justice distributive from which judgement ther was no appeale And as the name of Parlement is at this day otherwise applied than it was anciently so is it of the name of Great Counsell But to come to our purpose Wee read that the good Emperours never contemned or thought much in waightie affairs to take the advice of the Romane Senat and to governe themselves thereby for although that by the change of the estate which happened in the time of Iulius Caesar when the commonwealth was changed into a Monarchie the authoritie of the Senate was much abated and weakened yet there was never emperour found that durst enterprise altogether to abolish it but contrarie the good and wise emperors rather helped to establish their authoritie and power And the reason why no emperor good or wicked durst enterprise to abolish the Senate was because by the Law Roiall whereby the estate Monarchicall was established at Rome there was only transferred unto the king the authoritie and power of the people and not that which the Senat had Which people although they had sovereigne power over every particular person of
called with these gracious names Subsidies Subventitions Aydes Grants not with these tearmes Tailles Imposts Tributes Impositions which were tearmes more hard and odious Examples appeare of the first cause when the generall Estates assembled at Paris after the death of king Charles le Sage to provide for the government as well of king Charles the sixt being under Annal. upon An 1380 and Fross li 2. cap. 58. 60. age as of the kingdome which government they gave unto three of the kings uncles namely to the Duke of Berry Languedoc to the Duke of Bourgoigne Picardie and Normandie and to the Duke de Aniou the remainder of all the realme and the rule of the young kings person was committed to the said Dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne So was there ordained during the said kings life another ordinance In like manner the generall Estates were held at Tours after the decease of king Lewis the eleventh to purvey for the government of king Charles the eighth under Annal. upon An. 148. and Coâ—â—n â—ib 1. ca. 109. age and of the kingdome And by the same Estates was established a Counsell of twelve persons good men and of good calling to dispatch the affaires of the kingdome yet in the kings name and under his authoritie And the rule of the young kings person was committed unto Madame de Beavien his sister When king Charles the sixt le bien aime was come to the age of one and twentie yeares his uncles were discharged from the government of the kingdome by the Froiss lib 1. cap. 134. lib. 4. cap. 44. advise and deliberation of the kings great Counsell But this good prince by an accident of sicknesse fell a certaine time after into a frenzie which sometimes bereaved him of his sences insomuch that the Estates assembled at Paris gave the government of the kingdome during the kings indisposition to his two uncles the dukes of Berrie and Burgoigne The yeare 1356. that king Iohn was taken prisoner nie Poictres at the journey of Annal. upon An. 1356 and Fross li. 1. cap. 170. 171. Maupertins with his sonne Philip after Duke of Burgoigne and that they were led into England there remained in France three of the said king Iohns children namely Charles Dauphin and duke of Normandie Lewis duke de Aniou and Iohn duke of Berrie There was a question about the providing for the government of the kingdome because of the kings captiuitie but none of them would enterprise the mannaging thereof of himselfe insomuch that the generall Estates were assembled at Paris whereby were elected thirtie six persons some say fiftie to governe the affaires of the kingdome with Monsieur le Dauphin who at the beginning called himselfe the Lieutenant of the king his father but afterward he named himselfe Regent The yeare 1409. during the raigne of Charles the sixt king of France were held Monstrelet lib. 1. ca. 59. the generall Estates at Paris for the reformation of abuses in the kingdome And there it was ordained that all accountants for the kings revenues and rents should make their accounts By the meanes of which reformation great summes of money were recovered upon the same accountants and there were also made some good lawes and ordinances In other conventions of Estates the money and coine hath been reformed from weake and light unto thicke and of good waight and goodnesse Also of late at the generall Estates held at Orleans were made manie goodly ordinances for the good and comfort of the poore people reformation of justice and for the cutting off of manie abuses which were committed in plaies at Cardes and Dise in superfluitie of apparell and in matter of benefices But commonly commeth such euill hap that all good things which are introducted and ordained vpon good reason and to a good end incontinent vanish away and wicked examples are alwaies drawne into consequence As for the last cause for which we haue said the generall Estates in old time were called namely for the graunt of Helps Subsidies ther are manie examples in our Histories As in the time of king Iohn wherein the Estates accorded great subventions Froiss lib. 1. cap. 155. Annal. upon An 1354 58. 59. or subsidies to make warre against the English men which then held a great part of the kingdome And after he was taken prisoner and led into England the said Estates agreed to give vnto Monsieur le Dauphin his soune great summes of money to pay for the said kings raunsome and for Philip his sonne being also a prisoner And well to be marked it is that our histories doe witnesse that all the people of France generally were meruailously anguished grieved with the prisonment captivitie which they saw their king suffer but especially the people of the countrey of Languedoc For the Estates of the said countrey ordained that if the king were not delivered within a yeare that every one both men and women should lay by all coloured garments such also as were jagged and cut and such as were enriched with gold silver or other strange and costly fashion Likewise to make cease all stage-plaies morrisdauncings piping yea and plaies pastimes and daunces in signe and token of their mourning and lamentation for their princes captivitie A thing whereby appeared the great and cordiall affection of this people towards their king As truely the Frenchmen have alwaies been of great love and affection towards their kings unlesse they were altogither tyrants But to make an end of this point Certaine it is that before king Charles the seventh called le Victorieux no Subsidies were imposed without assembling the generall Estates And that our kings used thus to do was not because they had power by an absolute authoritie to impose tallages and subsidies without calling the Estates but it is to the end they may be better obeyed with a voluntarie and unconstrained obedience and to shunne all uprores and rebellions which often happen upon that occasion And truly the French people have alwaies been so good and obedient unto their kings that they never refused him any thing if there were but any appearance of reason to demand it Yea often the Estates have granted their king more than he would demand or durst looke for as is seene by that which our histories write of the Estates held for Subsidies But because Aydes and Subsidies were customably granted for the making of De Com. lib. 5. cap. 18. warres M. Philip de Comin saith That kings should also communicat and consult with their Estates whether the causes of such warres be just and reasonable and that the Prince cannot nor ought not otherwise to enterprise a warre For it is reason that they which defray the charges and expenses should know something But yet he passeth further and saith There is no Prince in the world which hath power to lay one pennie upon his subjects without their grant and consent unlesse he will use tyrannie and