apparent danger whilst the Soldiers were dispersed and eager upon the Prey that the Army might make a Sally out of Paris and cut them in pieces with little or no resistance Having therefore taken La Ferte Aucoulph upon the Marre Dourdan and Mont-Leheri he sate down before Corbeil Corbeil besieged by the Prince of Conde which was under the Government of Monsieur Pavan with the Regiment of Picardy and some Companies of that of Champagne The taking of which place and cutting off the Provisions would have very much incommoded the City of Paris The 17th of November the Prince of Condé summoned the place and being denied it a small Skirmish ensued and the next day S. Andre entered it with Succours from Paris About the same time the News of the death of the King of Navar was brought into the Protestant Camp and the Queen's Emissaries began to give out Speeches that the Prince of Conde should succeed in his Post And the Queen her self sent to invite him to a Conference which was rejected The 22th there was another Conference desired which served for a pretence to withdraw the Army from Corbeil which by this time was too well mann'd for the Prince to deal with whereupon he marched towards Paris The two Armies come in view of each other the Catholick Army being then come up and in sight so that the two Armies pelted each other with their Cannon Two days after the Prince came to Juvicy and the next to Saussaye there the motion for a Conference was again renewed and the Queen was to come as far as Port Angel for that purpose But the Prince either not being well or fearing some Treachery excused himself and sent Coligni to treat with Montmorancy his Uncle Montmorancy on the other side to dissipate the Prince's Jealousie crossed the Seyne and came to him From thence the Prince marched on towards Paris and three days after Coligni who led the Vangard attack'd the Suburbs of St. Victor which caused a grievous Consternation in Paris so that if there had been then no Garison in the City the Inhabitants would have opened their Gates and fled for their Lives and Jacques Gillis President of the Parliament at Paris a violent Persecutor of the Protestants died for fear they were come to take Revenge on him for the Blood he had shed and he was succeeded by Christopher de Thou a person of great moderation and integrity and a lover of his Country but addicted to none of the Factions that embroiled France who was promoted by the Queen The Prince's Army consisted then in 8000 Foot 5000 Horse and 7 Cannons The 2d of December the Queen attended by the Cardinal of Bourbon the Prince of Roche sur Yon Montmorancy and his Son and the Seigneur de Gonnor met the Prince Coligni Genly Gramont and Esternay at a Conference A Treaty with the Queen and the Terms proposed by the Prince of Conde The Prince demanded that the Protestants might freely meet wherever they desired it and not elsewhere That then the English and other Strangers should depart the Nation and the Cities should be restored into their former State. That no person should be called to account for any thing done during the War. That there should be a free General Council held if it might be had within six Months and if not then a National Council of France The Queen as to the first excepted Paris Lyons the Cities on the Fronteers all those that had Parliaments and all that had no Meetings since the Edict of January the Churches to be restored and no Exercises in them but what was according to the ancient form and Conde desired they might meet in the Suburbs of the Fronteer Cities The Conference was continued four days and then ended without any Agreement the Protestants by that time being resolved to try the Fortune of a Battel The 10th of December the Prince withdrew the Army from Paris The Prince marcheth towards Normandy to meet the English Succours and retreated to Paloyseau the next day he marched to Limoux and the third to Valenza a place of Pleasure the fourth to St. Arnoul the Inhabitants of which out of fear shut their Gates whereupon it was taken and plundered and the Priest severely treated and here the Army stayed two days The King's Army for so now it was called marched to Estamps and finding it Garison'd by the Princes Forces they left it and marched to Chartres which was a stronger place and had a greater Garison The Prince of Conde was enraged to be thus deluded by a Sham-Treaty and had some Thoughts to have return'd to Paris which was wisely prevented by Coligni who advised him to march towards Normandy and joyn with the English at Havre de Grace who had a good Body of Foot which they wanted most of all and where they expected Money from England which tho' it was very difficult yet the Germans beginning to be mutinous for their Pay it was resolved upon The 15th of December he marched to * Ablium Ably and the next day to Gallardon which refusing him entrance was taken and the Inhabitants ill used from hence he went to Mintenon where he crossed the Seyne and went to Aulnay Here the King's Army overtook them and pass'd the Eure before him unperceived The King's Army overtake the Prince there was in it 16000 Foot and 2000 Horse which lay encamped between the Villages of L'Espine and Blainville and the Horse being fewer than those with the Prince was divided into four Squadrons and placed between the Foot which were covered by these two Villages on both sides and on the right hand with Wagons too but the Duke of Guise was with a Party of Horse on the left Wing The Battel of Dreux Andelot had that day a fit of his Tertian Ague yet he took his Horse and went to view the King's Army and finding it very dangerous to attack them in that Post advised they should turn toward Treon but Montmorancy ordered the Cannon to play just as they were going to march that way which caused some disorder in the first Troops of Conde's Army Whereupon he fell in upon the Swiss whereas he ought to have charged the opposite Horse and by this means besides he exposed his own Foot naked to the Van-Guard of the Enemy which passed by untouched however the Swiss were broken into and dispersed and the German Horse made a great Slaughter of them Danville eldest Son to Montmorancy came thereupon with three Troops to their Relief in which Action Gabriel Montmorancy his Brother was slain Rochefoucault fell upon the next Squadron of Swiss but was repulsed by their Pikes with loss At the same time Coligni fell upon Montmorancy who was in the Rere ☞ Montmorancy taken Prisoner and broke it all in pieces Montmorancy had his Horse slain under him and as he mounted another was wounded in the Face and taken by one R. Sewart
the Arts of the Guises The King gave him great assurance of his kindness to him and of his Sense of his Merits and Services and then told him He was much concerned to hear from all Places That he was not sound in the business of Religion and thereupon asked him what his Belief of the Sacrifice of the Mass was Aâ—delot who was a Man of Spirit answered otherwise than the King desired and according to Calvin's Doctrin The King admonished him That he should consider himself and not run into Mischief He replied with more confidence than he had shewn before That it was a great Satisfaction to him that the King whom he and his Family had found a Bountiful Master and to whom he had in all things hitherto shewn himself a most Loyal Faithful and Industrious Subject had so far approved of him But then he was not to play the Hypocrite with God in the business of Religion his Body his Estate and his Honour were in the Hands of the King and he might dispose of them as he thought fit but his Soul was subject to none but God who gave it and therefore in this matter he must obey God only as his greatest Master This Answer so intaged the King that taking his Lance in his hand and intending only to throw it on the ground he wounded the Dauphin with it who sate beneath him and the Tables being taken away he ordered Andelot to be taken into Custody who was for some time detained in the House of the Bishop of Meaux and from thence he was sent to the Castle of Melun Andelot being thus laid aside the Baron de Monluc a Person of good Merit was made General of the French Foot in his stead which was a Place of great consideration in the Army This Lord had been educated in the Court of the Duke of Lorain and was much addicted to the Interest of that Family Yet as he saith in his Memoirs he refused this Employment at first because he foresaw it would expose him to a flagrant Envy and the Resentments of the Family of Montmorancy In the beginning of May Thionville besieged and taken the French sat down before Thionville with about Five thousand Horse and Fourteen thousand Foot. This Town is seated in the Dukedom of Luxemburg in a Plain Country but Low and Marshy and having the Moselle on the N.W. which fills its deep Ditches on which sides it has only two Bastions which are short so that they cannot clear their Dikes and at a great distance from each other The rest of the City is secured by great Towers which extend themselves beyond the Walls and they again are within well fill'd with Earth Quaderebbe a Brabentiner was Governor of this Place who had a Garrison under him of One thousand nine hundred Foot and Two hundred Horse The chief Battery lay on that side which is covered by the Moselle This place after a sharp defence was taken upon good Articles the Twenty third of July But then Strozzi an excellent Commander and a Man of great Courage and Prudence was lost before it who was accounted one of the best Captains of that Age. Four thousand Townsmen and Fifteen hundred Soldiers marched out of this place when it was yielded up most of the latter being wounded on the Head. The French lost Four hundred and had more wounded in this Siege After this they took Arlone another Town in the same Dukedom three German Miles from Luxemburg to the West by Surprize which being burnt by an unexpected Accident was dismantled and deserted Their next Design was against Luxemburg but here they spent seventeen days to no purpose It had been order'd by the Council The Defeat of Thermes near Graveling That at the same time the Duke of Guise invaded the Dukedom of Luxemburg Thermes who was Governor of Calais should enter Flanders and that the Duke of Guise should second him with some German Forces and that his Brother the Duke of Aumale should joyn also with him at Faire en Vermandois If their Orders had been as well pursued as they weye prudently contrived the Affairs of King Philip had been brought into great distress Thermes went from Calais in the beginning of July with Five thousand Gasconers and Germans and Fifteen hundred Horse passing by Graveling and coming suddenly before Dunkirk Dunkirk surprized and while he was treating with the Inhabitants taking advantage of their Negligence he Surprized the place and having Plundered the Town he put a Garrison into it And Vinoxberg after which he took Vinoxberg without resistance though it was a Rich and a Populous Town which he treated in the same manner but then being seized by the Gout his usual Disease he committed his Forces to the Sieur Villebonne a Man too much addicted to Spoil and Rapine who wasted all the Country with Fire and Sword as far as Newport King Philip in the Interim had sent the Duke of Savoy to Liege with Orders to assemble Forces near Maleburg to oppose the Duke of Guise but when he saw Thionville and Arlonne lost and the Duke of Guise lye still he took the opportunity to Surprize these Frenchmen before any Succors were come up to them to which end he sent Count Egmont an Industrious Captain to whose diligence the Victory of St. Quintin was very much owing he coming to Graveling which lyes between Dunkirk and Calais and from the several Spanish Garrisons got together Twelve thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse and a great number of Peasants who being inraged at the Spoil of their Country were desirous of an opportunity to Revenge their Losses This being known to Thermes who expected the Duke of Guise every day according to his order he recollected his scattered Forces and although he was not well took Horse and posted to his Camp near Graveling being very solicitous though too late to secure his Retreat to Calais Count Egmont being now at his heels with his Forces A Council of War was thereupon held in the Night and it was resolved that the French should take the advantage of the Ebb the next Day and march by the Sea-shore towards Calais They passed the River Aa that Morning without any difficulty at the Low-water which Egmont observing he passed it too and met the French. Thermes who saw now there was no security but in their Valour having the Sea to the North the Dike of Boulaie on his Back and the Enemy on his Front and Side thereupon drew up his Men in the order of Battel being secure on two Sides to the South which was his left-hand he placed his Wagons and planted his Field-pieces in the Front which consisted in six Culverins and three Faulcons and on his Wings he placed his Horse that they might cover the Gasconers who were in the Front the other French were in the Middle and the Germans in the Reer Count Egmont had for haste left all his Cannon on the other side of
Contradicting each other found it to be a mere Lye. But when it was discovered so to be they went unpunished the Hatred against the Sectaries drowning the Voice of Publick Justice However the Places of Meeting being thus discovered great Numbers of Men and Women were taken and imprisoned and others left the Kingdom whose Goods were seized and confiscated Many Children were left by their Parents which filled the Streets with their Cries and Lamentations to the great Affliction of almost all Men. This Example was soon after followed at Poictiers Tolose Aix and generally in the Province of Narbonne George d' Armagnac the Archbishop of that See a Cardinal imploying all his Interest and Industry that the suspected might be taken up They were by this time become so numerous that their very Number gave them Boldness which being thus exasperated vented it self in severe Reflections on the King Queen and Guises in which there seemed to be more than a private Anger and Liberty The King of France had been a long time afflicted with a tedious Quartane Ague Other Slanders spread against the poor persecuted Protestants but overgrowing that Disease he shot up in heighth and grew apace but was very Pale and of a sickly Constitution being removed to Blois which was his Native Air his Face of a sudden was overspread with Redness Spots and Carbuncles whereupon a Report was raised That he had the Leprosie and that a great number of Children of less than six Years of Age had been torn out of the Arms of their Mothers about the Loire to make a Bath of their Blood for the Cure of the King. It was uncertain whether the Guises or their Enemies had invented this Story for different Ends but the Blame of it was certainly cast upon the Protestants and the King by that means was exasperated against them by the Guises The Protestants on the other side put out a Book to shew that this Story was invented and fathered on them by the Cardinal of Lorrain And after this one of the Spreaders of this Report being executed for it averred with his last Breath That he had Orders from the Cardinal so to do In the mean time the Process was carried warmly on Du Bourg condemned to Death against Anna du Bourg and the rest of the Members of the Parliament who were Prisoners in the Bastile who were sent thither by the Orders of Henry II. Du Bourg had appealed first to the Parliament of Paris and after to the Archbishop of Sens but his Plea was over-ruled by both and the Sentence of the Bishop of Paris was also confirmed by the Archbishop of Lions He declared himself willing after this to be degraded That the Sign of the Beast in the Revelation being blotted out he might have nothing of Antichrist left in him However this variety of Appeals prolonged their Process some Months After this he sent them a plain Confession of his Faith which agreed in all things with that of Geneva Frederick Elector and Count Palatine of the Rhine also so far espoused his Cause as to write a Letter to the King in his behalf desiring his Life might be spared and that he might be sent to him December 18. Anthony Minart the President was shot dead Minars a Persecutor slain in the Night as he returned Home which was charged upon du Bourg as done by his Procurement because he had foretold That he would be forced from giving Sentence against him if he did not willingly forbear it upon his challenging him as his suspected Enemy However it hastened the Sentence of Death against du Bourg who heard it with great constancy of Mind he saying He pardoned his Judges who had pronounced it according to their Consciences tho' contrary to the Word of God and sound Knowledge At last he advised them to extinguish these their Fires and repent of their Sins Du Bourg led to Execution and taking his Leave of them said He went willingly to the Stake From thence he was carried in a Cart to the Place of Execution and having spoken a few Words to the People was first hanged and afterwards burnt He only said My God forsake me not that I may not forsake thee He was 38 Years old and was born at Riom in Auvergne of a Rich and Noble Family Anthony du Bourg a Branch of which had been Chancellor of France under Francis I. His Character He took his Degrees at Orleance and was esteemed a good Lawyer and an upright Judge and many of the most zealous Catholicks interceeded for him during his Imprisonment and his Death was deplored by many very heartily The rest of the Members of Parliament were restored His Constancy partly confirmed and partly exasperated the Minds of the Protestants so that from his Ashes there sprung up a Crop of Rebellions and Conspiracies which for a long time kept this once most flourishing Kingdom in a low condition The rest of the Members were restored by the Court at last de Thou one of the Members of that Court opposing and at length mastering the more bloody Guisians The meaner People who being then in Prison were dispatched with less Difficulty some being condemned to Death others to Renuntiation and others to Banishment Images erected in the Streets to be Worshiped About the same time there was another Project set on foot in France they erected Images of the Saints and Virgin Mary in the Streets and Market Places and burnt Candles before them in the day-time singing Songs to their Honour and seting Chests and if any passed by without giving Money and worshiping the Images he was presently set upon by the Rabble as an Heretick and he escaped well if he was only beaten and trodden into the Channel and lost not his Life Which only served to irritate and unite the Protestants the more King Philip having made a Peace with France King Philip prepares for Spain resolved this Year to return into Spain in order to this he came to Gaunt and there summoned a Chapter of the Knights of the Golden Fleece from thence he went to Zealand committing the Government of the Netherlands to Margaret Dutchess of Parma the Wife of Octavio his Sister with a guard of 3500 Spaniards which were all distributed on the Borders of France in the Fronteer Towns. After the Peace he had principally imployed Granvel Bishop of Arras who had advised him to leave this Guard for fear of the Lutherans which were very numerous in these Provinces by reason of their Neighbourhood to Germany The principal Care of these Countries was committed to William Prince of Orange and the Count of Egmont who were Men of great Birth and had particularly deserved well of Philip in his last War with France these remonstrated against the leaving of the Spaniards and freely said They had not much mended their Condition if when they had preserved their Country with their Swords they must now be exposed in
his care That the King could not neglect the cause of this sorrowful Widow and her Orphan and Children who appeal'd to his fidelity and the Memory of his Ancestors who had in all times of affliction succoured the Princes of Germany Spain and England That Philip the Bold the Son of St. Lewis had with a potent Army defended an Orphan-Queen of Navarr and brought her into France where she was after Married to Philip the Fair from whom Joan the present Queen of Navarr was lineally descended And that John Labrett the Grandfather of this Queen being in like manner persecuted by one of the Popes and driven out of a part of his Kingdom the rest had been defended and preserved by Lewis the Twelfth and his Successors That the Popes themselves have heretofore fled to the French for protection when they have been expelled out of their Sees who had often restored them defended and enriched them with the grant of many Territories That this Queen was so near a Neighbour and such an Allie to the Crown of France that no War could be made upon her without the great damage of France That all Princes were Interested in the Friendship and Peace of their Neighbours and obliged to keep all Wars at a distance from them for the preservation of their own quiet and security Since therefore his Majesty saw by this Bull that there was a design to deprive his Ancient Allies of their Dominions and at pleasure to set up others in their stead he had just reason to fear that as the Spaniards had heretofore on such pretences possess'd themselves of all the Countries to the Pyrenaean Hills so that in time they might pass them too and descend into the Plains of France and so a dismal and destructive War might be rekindled between these powerful Princes to the great hazard and ruin of Christendom Lastly the Queen of Navarr being a Feuditary of the Crown of France and having great Possessions in that Kingdom was under the Protection of the Laws of it and could not be drawn out of it to Rome either in Person or by Proxy no Subject of France being bound to go to Rome but if the Pope had any cause against them he was obliged to send Judges to determine upon the place even in those Cases that came before him by Appeal That therefore this Citation was against the Majesty Law and Security of the Crown of France and tended to the diminishing of the esteem of that King and Kingdom That if the Form of this Proceeding were considered what could be more contrary to the Civil Law than to force a man out of his proper Court and condemn him in another without any hearing For there are Laws That no accused person shall be cited out of the Limits of the Jurisdiction in which he lives and that the Citation shall not be obscure and perfunctory but declared to the proper person or to his family And the Constitution of Pope Boniface the Eighth That Citations set up in certain places of Rome should be of force was recall'd by Clement the Fifth and the Council of Venna as hard and unjust or at least mitigated and it was decreed that they should not be used but when there was no safe coming to the person accused But in France where the Queen of Navarr resides it cannot be pretended that there is no safe coming to her And what can be more contrary to Natural Equity than to condemn unheard It is forbidden by the Canons and Decrees of Councils and there is a noble example of this in Ammianus Marcellinus where Pope Liberius being urged by Constantius to condemn Athanasius chose rather to be banished than to sentence him without hearing And in the Judgment against Sixtus the Third who was accused of Incest Valentinian the Emperor observed the same method and made him appear and answer in a Synod before Fifty Bishops For the same reason the Sentence of Nicholas the First against Lotharius the Son of St. Lewis for having two Wives was thought void and null Nor was this Sentence against the Queen of Navarr of better force because she was absent and unheard That the Popes have always shewn that respect to Crown'd heads as to admonish them by their Legates before they decreed ought against them So Alexander the Third sent two Cardinals to Henry the Second into England when he was accused of the Death of Thomas a Becket A.B. of Canterbury That he might purge himself before them of this crime So of late Clement the Seventh did the like in the case of Henry the Eighth to whom he sent Cardinal Campeius And if it were granted that the Judgment were rightly passed how could the Dominions of the Queen be exposed for a prey and given to the first Invader they belonging to the King as Lord of the Fee Therefore the King believes that the Pope is deceived by false reports and instigated by the craft of his Ministers who not regarding the publick peace have drawn him from his natural goodness to Counsels which are dishonourable to his Holiness and destructive to his Authority and to that of the See of Rome tending to the alienating of the hearts of his friends from him and the disturbing of the Peace of Christendom And his Majesty is the more perswaded of the truth of this because his Holiness so earnestly espoused the Interest of Anthony the Husband of this Queen in his life-time and endeavoured to perswade King Philip to restore to him the Kingdom of Navarr or at least to give him the Island of Sardinia as an Equivalent But then there is nothing more offends the King than the considering that whereas so many Kings Princes and Free States above Forty years since have defected from the See of Rome and committed the offence charged upon the Queen and so by the rule of Justice ought to be first punished as first offending yet the Pope has not proceeded in the same way or with equal severity against any of them so that from hence it is clear that an occasion is sought by her enemies to oppress and ruin her by surprize whilest she is a Widow her Children Orphans the King of France who ought to protect her being a Minor and disturbed by Civil Wars and for this reason the King is the more obliged to defend her from injury and himself from contempt seeing without acquainting him with it they have begun this Process against a Queen so nearly related to him That if this Accusation had been made on the account of Religion and for the Glory of God the Pope ought in the first place to have shewn his care of her soul and from the Word of God to have administred fitting Remedies and not to have proscribed her Kingdoms and Dominions The Deposing of Princes and disposing of their Dominions the cause of great Calamities and given them for a prey to the first Invader The Pope has a Supremacy given him That he