a loss very inconsiderable for the taking of a place accounted impregnable and one of the principal ones of all France in so few days but it had always been alike ill-defended by the carelesness of those within the effects being no way correspondent to the same of the place But the so easie and so sudden loss of Calais did not only much perplex the King but also put him in a necessity of agreeing with the Queen of England and the States of Holland for la Fere being not yet given up he thought it very hard to rise from that siege and lose the expences and labours of so many months to the no small decrease of his reputation and on the other side if he did not speedily receive Supplies from both places he was not able to draw another body of an Army together wherewith he might resist the victorious force of the Enemy so that all other places in the Province would be given over with little hope that they should defend themselves more constantly than Calais had done a place excellently fortified by art and nature Being moved with this consideration and judging that the authority of the Duke of Bouillon would be very prevalent to work upon the Queen whose determination he was certain would be followed by the Hollanders he dispatched him into England with resolute orders to the end that concluding a reciprocal Confederacy the Fleet might set sail with all speed to land men in the Port of Boulogne But the difficulties were great and the Queen had no inclination to it partly because she intended to make use of the Kings necessity to get a Port in his Kingdom for which end before Calais was lost she had been backward to relieve it that she might constrain the French to put it into her hand partly because seeing the King reconciled to the Catholick Religion she thought it was in the King of Spain's power to conclude a Peace whensoever he would resolve no longer to molest the Kingdom of France and therefore she difficultly inclined to put her self to new expences which it was in the will of her Enemies to frustrate and make ineffectual wherefore having stifly denied for many days to hearken to any Treaty of new Obligations she only profferred to give those assistâ—nces for the time to come which she could without such great inconvenience to her self as she had done in times past and because the French pressed very earnestly to have the Earl of Essex come to Picardy with the Fleet the English answered That it was for the most part composed of ships and men that were Voluntiers who had put themselves together under the conduct of the Earl to make prize upon the Coasts of Spain from which design the Queen had not power to take them off having granted them licence for that purpose and that nevertheless they would be of great advantage to the King of France his affairs for the damage the Kingdom of Spain would receive thereby would divert the Catholick Kings Forces from the War of Picardy But these hopes and remedies were very far off and the Duke of Bouillon offering to consideration the interests of their common Religion if the prosperity of the Spaniards should still increase excited both the principal Ministâ—rs and the Queen her self to imploy her uâ—most Forces in so urgent and so near an occurrence and he moved much with his authority eloquence and reasons but most of all by being of the same Religion for he seemed to be principally zealous for the common interests and for the conservation of the Hugonot party in France to the end the King might not be constrained to come to such an Agreement with the Spaniards as might be prejudicial to the States of Holland to the quiet of England and to the Liberty of Conscience in his own Kingdom and yet the business went on so slowly and with such weighty difficulties that though the Confederacy with England was at last concluded differing little from the other contracted with King Charles the Ninth and without obligation to consign any Place for shame made the English to desist from that demand and though the Duke of Bouillon went with an Ambassador from the Queen into Holland where the same Confederacy was established yet the time was so far spent that the affairs of Picardy were no way relieved by it and the Eâ—â—l of Essex his Fleet having scowâ—ed the Coasts of Spain was dissolved without having done any thing considerable While this League was treated of in England the Cardinal Archduke not depending upon any body but himself after he had spent ten days in making up the breaches at Calais Guines and Han having surrendred at the bare summons of a Trumpet he determined to set upon Arâ—res a place of a good circuit excellently fortified and standing but three leagues from Calais by the taking whereof he thought he should absolutely secure what he had gotten and though the situation of it seemed very difficult because standing on the top of an Hill it as a Cavalier commands all the Plain below it which extends it self a little more than Cannon-shot and from the Plain there are Mountains and Woods as unfit to encamp in as opportune for the Ambushes of an Enemy yet the Cardinal encouraged by his prosperous successes sided with the opinion of Monsieur du Rosne who hoped to carry it before the King could be disintangled from la Fere and able to relieve it There were in Ardres the Marquiss de Belin Lieutenant of the Province Monsieur d' Annebourg Governour of the Town and the Sieur de Monluc who was come in to re-inforce it and they had with them little less than Two thousand Foot an Hundred and fifty Horse and convenient provisions of Artillery Ammunition and other things necessary for defence And because the Siege had been foreseen by the Commanders they had laboured with all possible diligence not only to better the Fortification of the Town but also to repair those of the Suburbs that stands towards Boulogne for that being the side on which Batteries might most easily be raised they determined by defending the Suburb to keep the Enemy as far as was possible from the Wall The Author of this counsel was the Governour of the Town a Souldier not only of much valour but also of great experience whose design was to defend the ground span by span to give the King so much time that la Fere falling he might come to succour that place before the last extremities but the Marquiss de Belin was of another mind and thought it a pernicious counsel to lose men in defending useless places and such as were not tenable wherefore he would have had them only engage themselves in maintaing those Posts which for their quality might be long made good and yet all the other Commanders being of opinion that the holding of the Suburb would be a benefit of great importance the Governours advice carried it
That the Emperour the Catholick King the Queen of England the Republick of Venice the Duke of Savoy and the Commonalty of the Swisses should give security That neither the Duke of Guise nor the Constable should return into the Kingdom or raise any Army until such time as the King came to the age of two and twenty years Every man being incensed with these Conditions the Governours of the Kingdom resolved to send Monsieur de Fresne one of the Kings Secretaries to Estampes in the mid-way between Orleans and Paris who with a publick Proclamation should warn the Prince of Conde the Admiral Andelot and the rest of their Adherents within ten days after to lay down their Arms to deliver up the Towns they possessed and to retire privately to their own houses which if they did they should obtain pardon and remission for all that was past but if they refused to obey this his Majesties express Command it being an immediate Act of Treason and Rebellion they should be deprived of their estates and dignities and proceeded against as Rebels Which being published accordingly it was so far from working any thing upon the Hugonots that on the contrary either through desperation or disdain become more resolute they united themselves by a publick Contract in a perpetual Confederacy to deliver as they said the King the Queen and the Kingdom from the violence of their oppressors and to cause obedience to be rendered to his Majesties Edicts through all his Dominions They declared the Prince of Conde Head of this Confederacy and with their wonted liberty published in print a long Narration of the causes and end of this their Union The Queen for all this still employed her thoughts how to compass an agreement For besides the hopes she had to effect it nothing was more advantageous to her then gaining of time and by delaying the War to keep things from coming to an issue till her Son was out of his Minority which they pretended was at fourteen years of age She began already to endeavour by her usual arts to regain the Constable and the Guises and having given evident proof of her resolution to persevere in the Catholick Religion and continue constant to that party since when she was even in the Hugonots Camp she returned notwithstanding back to them again she had in great part removed and purged her self of those jealousies which they were wont to have of her inclinations insomuch as besides that they left her a more absolute power in the Government they sought by complying to make her approve of their proceedings Wherefore having more hope than ever to find some means of accommodation she began to deal with the Catholick Lords under the pretence of Justice and detestation of a Civil War that to shame the Hugonots and for their own honour they should be content to depart first from the Court as they were the first to come thither She laid before them how greatly it would commend their sincerity by one action only to extinguish that horrible flame which was now kindling in every part of the Kingdom to consume all things both sacred or prophane That they would merit much more of their Country by this so pious a resolution than by all their former exploits put together though never so glorious and beneficial For this would bring safety whereas those added only greatness and reputation She told them further that to absent themselves from the Court was but a ceremony of a few months for if nothing happened before to make it necessary to call them back again when the King came to age which would be shortly he would soon sâ—nd for them and in the mean while this short time of absence might be employed to their honour and advantage For every one retiring to their several Governments with which they were intrusted they might with industry keep the Provinces in peace and purge those that most needed it of the pestiferous humours that infected them whereas staying at the Court they served for nothing else but to foment and stir up a War She assured them she would never change resolution in matters of Religion or the Kings Education that never any thing of importance should be determined without their privity that the present Insurrections once quieted she would take care that with the first possible opportunity they should be recalled and that in all times they should find her gratitude answerable to so great a benefit if really they resolved to perform what she proposed With which kind of practises she so far prevailed that at the last the Duke of Guise the Constable and the Mareshal de St. Andre were contented to depart first from the Court and the Army provided that the Prince of Conde came presently without Arms to render himself to the Queens obedience and to follow such orders as she should think most expedient for the welfare of the Kingdom which though every one of them thought a very hard condition yet such was the general applause that resulted from thence to their own augmentation and glory and so firm the belief that the Prince would never be perswaded to return to the Court unarmed as a private person that they were induced to consent to it believing withal perhaps that there could not want pretences and interpretations speedily to licence their return and so much the rather because the King of Navarre being then so exasperated that they thought him irreconcileable with his Brother remaining still an assistant in the Government they were in a manner secure that the form of things would not be changed and that they should have the same power in their absence as if they were present But the Queen having gotten this promise from them and keeping it very secretly to her self forthwith sent the Bishop of Valence and Rubertette one of the Secretaries of State to the Prince of Conde who having given them this answer That if the Catholick Lords departed first he would not only lay down his Arms and return into obedience to the Queen but also for the more security forthwith leave the Kingdom and often reiterating and making large professions of the same though with an assured opinion that those Lords would neither for their reputation nor safety be willing first to lay down their Arms and depart The Bishop and Rubertette praising his readiness desiring he would write what he had said to the Queen shewing that whereas for the present he was held for the Author of these scandals and of the War by this free offer he would silence his enemies and confound the Faction of the Guises justifying to all the World the candour of his intentions and counsels The Prince perswaded by the fair apparence of the proposition and with hope to add to his force a shew of reason which is always of very great moment among the people was content to write to the Queen That when the Catholick Lords were retired to their houses
learn what was said she began to make her excuses to their Ministers but had a long private conference to that purpose with the Venetian Ambassador who being less interessed and more moderate than the rest was likeliest to credit her reasons wherefore beginning with the original of things she related to him at large every particular circumstance That King Francis the Second her eldest Son being very young when he came to the Crown and of a disposition rather to be governed than to exercise the charge of a King was forced of necessity to confer upon her the Supream Power in managing the affairs that it might neither fall upon the Princes of Bourbon not only the chief pretenders to the Crown but infected with Heresie and inclined to favour it nor yet upon the Guises men full of ambition and high pretences who nevertheless were so far Masters of the Kings will in regard of his Marriage with their Neece that she was constrained to admit them to a great part in the administration of the Government and in many things to yield to them for fear they might to the prejudice of the publick and her own private disgrace have cast her out of the Court and perhaps out of the Kingdom also That she had nevertheless ever endeavoured so to carry matters that the Kingdom might remain in quiet and enjoy the blessing of peace under a pious religious King and tender of the preservation of his people if the violence of the Prince of Conde and the malitious subtilty of the Admiral had not disturbed the course of things by turning not only against the Guises with whom they professed an open enmity but even against her self contriving through hate by wicked practises to deprive her of her life That the conspiracy of Amboise being discovered when all the Council concurred to proceed with extream severity she used her uttermost endeavour that a moderate way might be taken to quiet those troubles forgetting through desire of the common good her own private injuries and dangers That the Prince having continued to raise Insurrections in the Cities and Provinces and to plot even against the King himself at length fell into her hands at which times she ever proposed ways very far from cruelty or revenge saving the King of Navarre and divers others that were privy to the Princes counsels which was manifestly to be known when the Kings infirmity began to be mortal for the Princes of Guise pressing very earnestly that the sentence of death might be put in execution against those of Bourbon she resolutely opposed it approving rather gentle means than violent sharp remedies That she being afterwards left with the King a young Child not obeyed and her other Children yet as it were in the Cradle and her self a stranger with very few Confidents but an abundance of persons of interest about her though she had more need than ever to guard her self from those who plotted some one way some another the ruine or division of the Kingdom and her death and her Childrens yet overcome by so great and so streight a necessity to preserve the peace maintain the Crown and her Childrens Patrimony and to gain time till â—he King came of age she many times suffered the Princes fury and the insolencies of the Hugonots but that the impatience of the great ones with their discords and enmities the ambition of the Princes of Lorain and the contumacy of the Hugonots had at length raised a War to avoid which God was witness with her how much she had done and suffered that seeing the Kingdom through the infection of Heresie in a general combustion and the English and Germans called in to invade it she resolved to try whether by a resolute War she could extinguish and eradicate this evil and not be wanting in any thing that might be justified by Religion she had resolved to put it to a Battel which her Letters written to the Constable that were certainly amongst his Papers for she knew he kept them would still testifie That in the Battel the Constable was taken prisoner and the Mareshal of St. Andre killed and though the Victory inclined to the Kings Party with the taking of the Prince of Conde yet the Admiral remained still with a considerable Force to which was added the succours sent from England and a fresh powerful supply that came out of Germany That since this hapned that accident to the Duke of Guise whereby the Kings Party were deprived of a Head because for heâ— to command the Army was neither agreeable to her Sex or profession and there was not any body else fit to be trusted with so great a charge whence being led by the perswasions of many and particularly by the advice the Duke of Guise gave her just at his death to which she gave so much the more credit because at that time men use to forget private interests and speak truth succeeded a Peace by granting to the Hugonots a Liberty of Conscience though for no other end but to stay those enormous outrages desolations plundrings rapines sacriledges violences and tyrannies that destroyed the whole Kingdom hoping time would spend that humour which she was very well assured proceeded rather from private enmities and desire of â—ule than from love of Religion That she knew divers Princes very much blamed her for this Treaty by the same token there wanted not those who raised doubts concerning her belief but that she being satisfied in her own Conscience having placed her hopes in God expected from him her Justification That it could not be denied but the peace had rid the Kingdom of the Reiters who cruelly wasted the Country and driven the English out of Havre de Grace who were neasted there and given the poor people time to breathe from so many troubles and calamities by which they were ruined and devoured That the Peace brought one great advantage by taking from the Hugonots all manner of pretence to rebel That many things were done and suffered for no other purpose but to reduce the great ones to reason and to mitigate the fury of heresie trying divers means to arrive at this just holy end and to maintain the union of the Kingdom so profitable to Christianity and establish Peace so beloved of mankind but no remedies or agreement prevailing the Hugonots at length came to the taking of Arms That she had used all possible endeavour speedily to assemble the Kings Forces that the Enemy might not have time to receive supplies from abroad That she had very much pressed a Battel as it followed at St. Denis but with so little success that it was notoriously known things were afterward in a far worse condition than ever That since she had procured of the King to make the Duke of Anjou General of the Army to be assured no private inâ—erests should hinder the publick good That she hoped on Christmas-Eve last there would have been an absolute decision of the differences and
and retire with the reliques of their Army into the Mountains of Gascogne and Languedoc The Duke lays Siege to St. Jean and takes it but with the lessening of his Army and loss of time he goes sick to Angiers and thence to St. Germains The Princes join with the Count Montgomery in Gascogne they pass the Winter in the Mountains and at the Spring-time draw into the plains pass the Rhosne and inlarge themselves in Provence and Daulphine They march toward Noyers and la Charite with an intent to come near Paris The King sends an Army against them under the command of the Mareshal de Cosse a slow man and not desirous to ruine the Hugonots They meet in Burgogne but the Princes shun the Battel a Treaty of agreement is begun and in the end concluded at the Court The Princes and the Admiral retire to Rochel the King endeavours to beget an assurance in them and for that cause offers to give his Sister the Lady Margaret in Marriage to the Prince of Navarre and to make War with the Spaniard in Flanders the Match is concluded and they come all to Court The Queen of Navarre is poisoned after her death the Marriage is celebrated amidst the triumphs whereof the Admiral is shot in the Arm The King resolves to prosecute and free himself of the Hugonots upon St. Bartholomews-Eve at night the Admiral and all the rest of them are Massacred in Paris and many other Cities of the Kingdom The King attempts to surprize Rochel and Montauban but neither design takes effect many Treaties pass to bring the Rochellers to subjection but they resolving to defend themselves the Duke of Anjou draws his Army together and besiegeth them with all his Forces They hold out many months till the Duke of Anjou being Elected King of Poland condescends to grant them very good conditions with which they in appearance return unto the Kings Obedience The King of Poland departs The Duke of Alancon his next Brother pretends to succeed him in all his Dignities is repulsed whereat being discontented he applies his mind to new designs The King of Navarre the Prince of Conde the House of Momorancy and the Hugonots unite themselves with him and plot a Conspiracy which being discovered the Duke de Alencon the King of Navarre and many others are imprisoned the Prince of Conde escapes into Germany The King falling into a dangerous sickness commits the troubles of the Kingdom unto his Mothers care Armies are raised in Poictou Languedoc and Normandy where the Count de Montgomery coming out of England lands and takes many places Monsieur de Matignon goes against defeats besieges and takes him he is brought to Paris condemned and executed King Charles having declared his Mother Regent yields under the burthen of his disease and departs this Life in the flower of his Age. THE Duke of Anjou's resolution to dissolve his Army for a time and draw into Garisons put the Hugonots affairs into a very hard condition for having such a multitude of men and so little means to nourish and maintain them which way soever they turned their thoughts they met with exceeding great difficulties To pass the River of Loire as many advised and to endeavour the subduing of the largest and most spacious Provinces of the Kingdom and even Paris it self the Seat and Basis of the Catholick party though it represented hopes by cutting the sinews of the contrary Faction to end the War victoriously and though visibly it administred occasion to rob and plunder the only end of the Germans and the only way to keep them together yet in effect it appeared a design full of danger and uncertainty for putting themselves without money ammunition good store of Cannon order for Victuals and which imported most without any Town or strong place whither they might upon any occasion retreat and defend themselves into the middle of an Enemies Country they saw plainly that any the least sinister incounter or light impediment that crossed their attempts was enough absolutely to ruine and destroy them nor were the hopes of gain or success such as could counterpoize this danger for the principal Towns were strongly guarded and the Kings Army being rather divided than dissolved was easily to be re-united upon any occasion and capable to drive them into great streights if rashly they engaged themselves amongst the Enemies Forces without conveniency to retire or provide against necessities which would be likely daily to grow upon them On the other side to spend their time in besieging those Towns which in Aquitaine and beyond the Loire held yet for the Catholick party and by taking them to gain the absolute Dominion of that Country whereof they already possessed the greatest part and from which they expected the chief support for their Army had two weighty oppositions the first That in besieging the strong places one by one which were so well provided of all things necessary for their defence would occasion the loss of much time and greatly waste the Army a thing well foreseen by the Catholicks and one of their chiefest aims the other That by staying there they should destroy that Country with taxes and contributions from which they had their subsistence so that they should neither be able to raise money enough to pay the Souldiers nor to get such booty as would satisfie their greediness and impatience But it being necessary of two evils to chuse as it is usual the least the Princes and the Admiral at length resolved to attempt those which were nearest so to make an absolute conquest of all that Country beyond the Loire and establish their party securely in that Canton as I may so say of France hoping to have such supplies of money out of England and by the prizes taken by the Fleet since the death of la Tour commanded by Monsier de Sore as would suffice to supply the Army for some time in which interim an occasion might perchance arise of a more fortunate and more happy progress With this deliberation having taken the rich Monastery of Branthome and to make them more ready and obedient granted the pillage thereof to the Germans in which manner they used divers other lesser places the Admiral with the Army went to Chastel-rault in which Town he had many days before held secret intelligence with some of the inhabitants nor was the enterprize at all difficult for the Conspirators having raised a tumult and made themselves masters of one of the gates let in the Hugonots which unexpected accident struck such a terrour in the Governour who held it for the King that he fled away to Poictiers without making any resistance and the Town without dispute remained absolutely in the Admirals power who received it as he did all the rest in the name of the Prince of Navarre by whose authority as first Prince of the Blood all matters were dispatched and governed Chastel-rault being taken the Admiral advanced to besiege Lusignan
Armand Sieur de Byron his Lieutenant who no less famous for wisdom than valour had already shewed himself very favourable to the Hugonots Matters of War being settled and balanced in this manner the King began to think of Marriage for the hopes of the Family depending upon him and the Duke of Alancon both without Children it was necessary to provide for the succession of the Kingdom Before he went into Poland he was not a little taken with Louyse the Daughter of Nicolas Count of Vaudemont and Niece to the Duke of Lorain being besides the beauty of her person infinitely pleased with the modesty of her disposition and discreet behaviour but the fear of augmenting the greatness of the House of Lorain and of bringing the Cardinal into the management of affairs whose genius was wont to rule the wills and sway the affections of his Predecessors did much disswade him from that thought and recalling to mind the late occurrences under the Reigns of Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth and the great pretentions and authority of the Cardinal he could not bend his mind to suffer by that means a new increase of that Power the abatement whereof he had with so much labour and so long patience propounded to himself For which considerations turning his thoughts another way he purposed to demand Elizabeth Sister to Iohn King of Sweden a Princess for wit and beauty not inferiour to any and Secretary Pinart was presently sent to treat about the match But in the mean time while the King stayed at Avignon the Cardinal of Lorain whose power and wisdom he so much feared chancing to die of a Burning Feaver he suddenly changed his determination recalling Pinart from his treaty and being swayed by affection which in all but especially in great minds prevails above all other respects he took to Wife Louyse de Vaudemont who in the beginning of the next year was brought to Rheimes by the Duke and Dutchess of Lorain The Kings third consideration was how to settle his Brother the Duke of Alancon who being of a seditious spirit and fickle turbulent nature was not likely to be more quiet in the Reign of the present King whom he already hated and envied than he had been in the late Reign of Charles who had not given him such causes of hatred and emulation Two Propositions came into his mind for that purpose one was to procure Elizabeth Queen of England in Marriage for him but that had been often treated of and always waved by her resolution not to marry the other to resign the Crown of Poland to him but that could not be done but by the consent and election of that people the which they believing themselves injured and deprived by the King in his so secret departure from them was very hard to be obtained But not being to be discouraged by difficulty from making trial what might be done he chose two Ambassadours to treat about the business Guy Sieur de Pibrac a man of great learning and experience one of his intimate Counsellors and Roger Sieur de Bellegarde substituting in the command of the Army Alberto Gonai Count of Retz who because he was an Italian brought up and raised by King Charles and the Queen-Mother was infinitely trusted by him and made partaker of many of his most hidden secret intentions With these designs but with a shew of feasts and triumphs began the year 1575. For the King being departed from Avignon to be consecrated with the accustomed Ceremonies was come to Rheimes where the holy Oyl is kept in a Viol commonly called the Sancte Ampoule destined by ancient Veneration for the anointing of the Kings of France The Ceremonies were performed with solemn State by Lewis Cardinal of Lorain the Duke of Guises Brother and the next day after the King married the Princess Louyse all the sadness of former troubles dissolving it self into delightful thoughts dances tournaments and all manner of pomp and jollity then having visited the Church of St. Maclou where the Kings with a fast of nine days and other pennances use to receive that famous Gift of Healing the Kings Evil with nothing but a touch the King in the end of March came into the City of Paris In the beginning of April the Deputies of the Prince of Conde the Mareshal d' Anville and of the associated Provinces were come thither by his permission to treat of Peace to whom were joined the Ambassadors of the Queen of England and of the Cantons of Swisserland to exhort and perswade the King to grant those conditions to the Hugonots which they thought necessary for their security but their demands were so exorbitant though the King were of himself inclined to embrace Peace yet could he not bend his mind to hearken to them and the Catholick party with bitter murmurings spoke openly against the insolence and impertinence of their propositions wherefore after a long ambiguous Negotiation the Deputies took leave returning to relate the Kings pleasure to those that sent them and left Arenes one of their number at the Court to keep the business iâ— agitation and not utterly to cut off the treaty of Peace which was so much desired on both sides About this time though it were contrary to the Kings intent the War was not at all less active than it was before for mens minds being inflamed of themselves by the fire of each faction much blood was daily spilt in several encounters and it happened that Mombrun grown proud by the success of many Victories thinking to have his wonted fortune in a sudden disorderly charge which he gave the Forces of Monsieur de Gordes the Kings Lieutenant in Daulphine was not only repulsed but also so streightened between a River and a Hill by the multitude of the Catholicks that all his men being defeated and scattered he was first wounded and after taken prisoner so that being brought to Grenoble he was by publick decree of the Parliament condemned to death and the sentence executed without delay he not only bearing the punishment of those infinite troubles which he had brought upon that Province but also of his boldness in daring to plunder the Kings own Carriages and Servants From this battel wherein Mombrun was defeated escaped Francis de Bonne Sieur de Lesdiquiers a man of great wisdom and no less boldness and vivacity who in process of time being made Head of the Hugonot Faction in Daulphine advanced himself by his prudence and courage so far above his own private condition that in the end he came with incredible reputation to be made High-Constable of the Kingdome Nor was the state of affairs any quieter in the other Provinces for the Mareschal d' Anville having called a meeting at Nismes and another afterward at Montpellier had declared himself Head of the Politicks and joining in confederacy with the Hugonots had openly attempted those places which held of the Kings party In the
Princes for their security till the Articles were fully and perfectly performed viz. Beaucaire and Aiguemorte in Languedoc Perigeux and la Mas de Virdun in Guienne Nyon and Serres in Daulphine Isoire in Auvergne and Seine la Grand Tour in Provence The sentences against la Mole the Count de Coranas the Admiral de Coligny Briquemaut Cavagnes Montgomery and Mombrun were revoked and declared null and further it was declared that no fault was to be imputed to the Visdame of Chartres and Beauvais for having contracted or negotiated any agreements with the Queen of England for the Duke of Alancons Apennage so they call the maintenance which is allowed to Kings Sons and Brothers they assigned Berry Touraine and the Dutchy of Anjou three of the greatest and most fertile Countries in all France and 100000 Crowns of annual pension To the Prince of Conde they allotted the Government of Picardy and for his security the City of Peronne a very strong place seated near the Sea To Prince Casimir the Principality of Chasteau-Thierry a pension of 14000 Crowns the maintenance of one hundred Lances and the entire payment of all arrears due to the German Army which amounted to 1200000 Ducats To the Prince of Orange the restitution of all those States he was wont to possess in the Kingdom of France which for Rebellion had been taken from him by the sentence of Parliament and added to the Kings Revenue finally an Assembly of the States General was promised within six months who were to represent unto the King the grievances of his Subjects and consult of their remedies which condition proposed by the Princes to set a better gloss upon their cause and to win the applause of the people was willingly received by the King as a convenient means to dissolve and disanul the Articles agreed upon which with many others less considerable but not less unreasonable and exorbitant as soon as they were known to those of the Catholick party exasperated most of their minds in such a manner that they not only murmured freely against the King himself as one of a mean spirit drowned in the effeminate delights of the Court and the Queen-Mother as if to recover her Son the Duke of Alancon from the way of perdition she had neglected the Majesty of Religion and precipitated the general safety of the Kingdom but many were already disposed to rise and would have taken Arms to disturb the unjustness of that Peace which was generally esteemed shameful and not fit to be kept if within a while they had not manifestly understood that the King and Queen purposely to recover and draw home the Duke of Alancon had consented to conditions in words which they were resolved not to observe in deeds for the foreign Army being first of all sent away by having disbursed part of the arrears to Prince Casimir and given him security for the rest partly by pawning Jewels partly by engaging the word of the Duke of Lorain and having exactly performed all things promised to the Duke of Alancon none of the other Articles were observed either to the Hugonots in general or to the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde in particular but the King permitting and tacitly consenting to it the Assemblies of the Hugonots were every where violently disturbed the Government of Picardy was not given to the Prince of Conde nor the City of Perronne assigned to him the Courts of Justice which were to be formed in the Parliaments were deferred with several excuses and of so many Counsellors which ought to have been elected the King having named only Arenes one of the Deputies which had treated the Peace to be President of the Parliament of Paris they refused to accept of him the King not being at all displeased at it which things clearly discovering the Kings mind though they quieted those Catholicks who judged of the state of affairs without interest or passion and disposed the most part of peaceful-natured men to expect the issue of the Assembly of the States which the King had appointed to be in the City of Blois on the fifteenth day of November yet the Guises who were not slack in laying hold of any opportunity to augment their own greatness and to secure the state of that Religion which was so straightly linked to their interests began upon the conjuncture of so great an occasion secretly to make a League of the Catholicks in all the Provinces of the Kingdom under colour of opposing the progress and establishment of Heresie which by the Articles of Peace was so fully authorized and established but in effect to reduce the forces of the Catholick party into one firm entire united body which they might dispose of as occasion served for their own security and for a foundation of that party whereof they hold the principality Henry Duke of Guise Charles Duke of Mayenne and no less than they Lewis Cardinal of Guise their third Brother were left not only Heirs to their Fathers greatness and reputation and Possessors of the Rule and Government of the Catholick party but had also by their proper valour and industry acquired wonderful renown and love among the people partly by their liberal popular nature partly by their care and zeal shewed in preferring before all other respects the protection and maintenance of that Religion whereof they were the sole Champions and Defenders These Brothers to whom were joined the Duke and Chavalier d' Aumale the Duke d' Elboeuf the Duke de Mercoeur with his Brothers though allyed unto the King yet all of the same house of Lorain when contrary to their expectation they saw the Peace concluded and ratified with Articles so unjust and prejudicial to the Catholick Religion and to the credit and power of their party stirred up with anger and disdain which often use to lay open mens resentments began to enter into a great suspition of the Kings counsels and designs thinking that a Prince of a noble Warlike nature would never have suffered the temerity of his Subjects to draw him to such shameful conditions but that he concealed some deeper thoughts and more weighty undiscovered resolutions wherefore though the King by means of the Queen-Mother and many others which they both confided in gave them to understand that his intention was to break or at least to moderate those conditions by the Assemâ—â—â— of the States at Blois and that he had consented to those dishonourable Articles â—nly to deprive the Hugonots of so powerful a prop as the person of the Duke of Alancon but that he would settle all by convenient proportionable remedies yet those Princes were not altogether satisfied but every day by various conjectures penetrating more deeply into those mysteries as also being highly displeased at the Kings Decree whereby taking away the power in appearance from all but in effect from them alone of procuring gifts and interceding for favours for the followers and dependents of the Catholick party and
Saluzzo Bellegarde had for many years held the chief place in the Kings favour and in the beginning of his Reign was by him created Mareschal but afterward for some jealousies the King conceived of him and by the instigation of his competitors Chiverny and Villeguier he was faln out of favour and under pretence of sending him into Poland to negotiate for the Duke of Alancon he had cunningly sought to put him from Court But being openly favoured by the Mareschal d' Anville and secretly by the Duke of Savoy he went into the Marquesate of Saluzzo where having found a light occasion of dispute with Carlo de Birago the Kings Lieutenant who held the principal places he easily drove him away by force and having without much difficulty made himself Master of that State he carried himself in imitation of d' Anville obeying the King's orders onely so far forth as he himself thought fit This action of his did not onely prove very prejudicial to the Affairs of France but likewise wrought great suspicions in the Italian Princes who with reason doubted that Bellegarde set on by the Catholick King to deprive the French of the Marquesate of Saluzzo might give the King occasion for the recovery of his own to bring the War into Italy and put the affairs of that Province into confusion and that so much the rather because they saw Bellegarde leavy Soldiers and fortifie places and yet knew not with whose money he could do those things Wherefore the Pope being moved had prayed the Venetian Senate as Friends to the King to interpose their wisdom to take away the occasion of that fire the preparations whereof were so near at hand The Senate undertook the business very carefully and having caused their Ambassador Grimano to treat with the King and Francesco Barbaro Resident in Savoy with the Mareschal de Bellegarde was the occasion that the King committed that affair unto the managing of his Mother For this cause the Queen not being able to draw Bellegarde unto Grenâ—ble whither the Duke of Savoy and the Venetian Ambassador were come to meet her was content to go to Montluel according to her custom making small account of Ceremonies which use so much to trouble Princes so she might obtain her ends in the substance of things There having wrought the Mareschal to acknowledge the King and receive the Patent of his Government from him she dispatched it for him with many demonstrations of honor but whatsoever the occasion were the Mareschal died suddenly as soon as he was returned unto Saluzzo and before the Queen departed from those Provinces the Governours and Guardians of his Son delivered up that State into the hands of the King of France The Queen being gotten out of that trouble passing thorough Bourgogne was returned unto her Son to assist in the administration of the Government whilest he retired from the management of affairs seemed onely to mind Feasts and Solemnities leaving all businesses to her and to his Council though indeed every least particular passed thorow his own hands by which arts he thought himself so secure of present and certain of future matters that he believed he had already fully executed all that he had secretly contrived in his mind Onely he thought the course of his designs was stopt by the Duke of Alancon who fickle and unconstant in his desires sometimes retiring himself from Court sometimes returning confidently again now holding intelligence with the Male-contents and within a while refusing to meddle with them kept him still solicitous with many jealousies and anxieties The Queen-Mother endeavoured principally to remedy that fear as a thing so material that the tranquility or disturbance of the Government depended on it Wherefore the people of the Low-Countries being already withdrawn from the subjection of the Catholick King having first besought the King of France to receive them into his protection and after he refused it having offered the Command of themselves to the Duke of Alancon if with a powerful Army he would deliver them from fear of the Spanish Tyranny the Queen desirous to free one Son from his suspicions and to provide a convenient State for the other exhorted the King to let the Duke of Alancon accept of the protection of the States of Flanders and to raise an Army upon fained pretences within the limits of France alledging that all unquiet factious spirits would go along with the Duke and diminish that pestilent matter which maintained the discords and troubles of the Kingdom and the better to ground and settle that design she tryed to renew the so often rejected Treaty of Marriage between the Duke and the Queen of England which though it could not be concluded yet at least this consequence might result from it That the Queen by her Forces and Authority would incline to favour the Duke in his new Command wherefore omitting nothing that could advance that end after many Embassies on both sides Alancon himself went this year personally into England where being honourably and sumptuously received by the Queen he stayed there a great while and though she abhorâ—ed to submit her self to the yoke of Matrimony and that the State of England did likewise abhor the Government of a French King yet because the interest of State required to dissemble as well to encrease the Dukes reputation and by consequence the strength of the States of Flanders as also to cause a jealousie in the Catholick King who at that time was intent about many other designs which were much suspected by all the Princes his Neighbours the Queen famed to consent unto the match and amongst the pomps and delights of her Court honoured and favoured the Duke of Alancon very familiarly in whose behalf the King dispatched an honourable Embassie the chief whereof was Francis de Montpensier Prince Dauphin a Lord of winning carriage and often imployed being known to be of a sincere minde an honest but not crafty nature and very far from medling or conforting with factious minded men At the arrival of this Embassie which was received with great tokens of honour the articles and conditions were treated of which were to be observed by both parties and the business went so far that the Duke and Queen gave each other a Ring in token of future Marriage though she nevertheless persevered constantly in her resolution of a free single life and therefore would by no means suffer it to go any further But these things happened in the course of the year following In this year the King of Navar after the departure of the Queen-Mother did assemble a Congregation of his Party at Mazere in the County of Foix to deliberate in what manner they should behave themselves for the time to come where amongst the discourses of Peace the spirits of many that desired War shewed their inclinations in the end it began to be debated whether the Peace should be continued or that they should return to the hazard
and oppressions of War by so much the sooner would they extort an universal consent to the necessity of Peace and make the authors of those discords odious and detestable rendring disfavoured unto all the formerly so much favoured endeavours of the League wherein his inclination agreeing with the splendour and subtilty of his design it was impossible by any reasons in the World to alter that determination But whilst the King is infinite busie and the Courtiers most ardently studious in ordering these affairs a most powerful Army was preparing in Germany for the relief of the Hugonots for the King of Navarre having long foreseen that the King would easily be brought to an agreement with the League to his disadvantage and having learned by former experience that all the hopes of his party consisting in the aid of the Germans which the union of the Protestant Princes was wont to afford unto the Hugonots had sent the Sieur de Pardaillan thither a wise man and by long travel versed in their several customs who treating confidently and particularly with every Prince and every Hans-town might shew them the danger of their common Religion aggravate the hatred of the Guises to the Protestant party and exhort them to continue the assistance formerly lent unto the Hugonots against the persecutions of their Enemies which business being excellently managed by Pardaillan had not only stirred up the minds of those Princes in favour of the Hugonots but had also much raised the hopes of the King of Navarre so that having turned his thoughts that way at the beginning of the War he had dispatched the Sieur de Clervant into Germany to ripen the fruits of that seed which had before been opportunely sown by Pardaillon And because both the Princes and people of those parts very great honourers of that Religion which they hold to be the true one and also of an easie mind and flexible nature to the urgency of entreaties and efficacy of reasons might more easily be moved to consent unto it Theodore Beza a most eloquent Preacher of the Hugonots went to the same effect from Geneva into Germany and Swisserland who by his authority and discourses stirred up every one of the chief men to imbrace the enterprise in favour of those who were of the same or at least a very little different Religion The Queen of England endeavoured the same not onely by countenancing it and by words but also by her actions for keeping in prison Mary Queen of Scotland Cousin to the Guises who was obstinately linked to their faction she desired that the League and the House of Loraine should be utterly suppressed or at least so busied in France that she might have free power to dispose of her life and of the affairs of Scotland and England Wherefore she not onely assisted the King of Navarre with her authority which was very great in Germany but had also deposited a good sum of Money to be laid out in raising of Soldiers there To the Negotiation of Clevant to the exhortation of Beza and to the money of England the Duke of Bouillon added also his assistance who holding Sedan a very strong place and other Towns and Castles about the Confines of France and Germany that were of the Hugonots Religion and in their Counsels united to the King of Navarre was a fit instrument for the expedition and Levyes of the German Soldiers for the Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Wittenbergh and the Protestant Cantons of the Swisses consenting and the King of Denmark concurring but above all the Count de Mombelliard a Lord bordering upon Bourgongne labouring in the business there began to be raised the most powerful Army that ever had come out of that Country to relieve the Hugonots But because the Princes knew they had no occasion at all to offend the King of France and to enter in a hostile manner into his Country they resolved before the Army which was preparing against the next spring to send this year for a colour a numerous Embassy to complain in the Names of them all of the breach of that Peace and violation of that Faith which had been given unto the Hugonots with whom they were interessed and united in Religion and to demand of the King a cessation of Armes and a confirmation of those Edicts so often granted to his Subjects for the Liberty of Conscience foreseeing well that if the King consented to their demands the Hugonots would be relieved without further noise of Armes and if he should persist and deny them they might thereby make a fair pretence for the War and take an occasion not altogether unreasonable to raise those Forces they intended This determination of the Germans did very much disquiet the King of France being not onely displeased that others should presume to meddle with the affairs of his Kingdom but also terrified with the fear of forrain forces who with perillous commotions used to destroy Provinces ruine the People disturb all things both Divine and Humane and to put the state of the Crown into extreme danger But as a Prince accustomed to govern himself by the subtilty of his wit to whom though oftentimes very unsuccessfully probable appearances of cunning inventions did alwayes represent themselves he began to think with himself that from that evil he might draw another good and might use the coming of the Germans for the speedy execution of his designs for seeing the King of Navarre reduced to such a weakness that though he made fearless resistance he was yet brought to the last extremity of his fortune and being himself every day more out of hope to have issue since by a continued incurable Gonorrhea and by infinite other proofs he knew himself unable to get children he thought it best to unite himself by all means streightly and sincerely with the King of Navarre as the lawful Successor of the Crown to draw him to the Court near unto his own Person to make him partaker in matter of Government and by his means to make use of that forreign Army for the utter suppression of the Guises and the factions of the League which being unexpectedly overwhelmed between his Forces and the approaching storme of the German Soldiers could not possibly be able to make resistance but would presently be quite extinguished and dissipated Two things amongst the rest were principal hinderances of this intention one the King of Navarr's Religion being resolved for the satisfaction of his own Conscience and to avoid the scandal that would arrive from thence not to reconcile himself unto him unless he would first return into the bosome of the Church the other was that of his Sister Queen Margaret Wife to the King of Navarre who having given her self over to a licentious life for fear of her Husbands anger was fled from him but being taken by his order and the Commission of the King her Brother she was put as a prisoner into the Castle of
Pietro Gaetano and the Spanish one of Alfonso Idiaques to stay in France and absolutely to obey the Duke with whom he also left Four hundred Horse and One hundred Walloon Carabines which Supplies added to the German Tertia of Collalto paid by the King and to the other French forces he thought a sufficient Body to uphold the affairs of the League especially in a time when the King having divided his Army for want of Money and because of the past misfortunes was manifestly declining The End of the Eleventh BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The TWELFTH BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Twelfth Book relates the various Turbulencies in several parts of the Kingdom the progress of the Duke of Mercoeur in Bretagne and of the Duke of Savoy in Provence and Dauphine The King takes Corby he is troubled in mind by reason of the contrary importunities of the Catholicks and Hugonots of his own party He sends the Viscount de Turenne into England and Germany who raises a great Army to bring it into France the Spring following The Duke of Mayenne also is no less troubled than the King The Parisians attempt to surprise St. Denis but effect it not and the Chevalier d' Aumale is killed there The King on the other side attempts to surprize Paris and that design likewise proves vain Pope Sixtus Quintus being dead Gregory the Fourteenth succeeds who declares himself favourable to the affairs of the League and dispatches his Nephew the Duke of Montemarciano into France with strong Supplies The King in the mean time besieges and takes the City of Chartres The Duke of Mayenne not having strength to relieve that place marches towards Champagne takes Chasteau-Thierry and goes to Rheins to confer with the Duke of Lorain Marsilio Landriano the Popes Nuncio arrives there he publishes a Monitory against those that follow the King from whence divers alterations do arise The young Cardinal of Bourbon tries to form a third party of Catholicks to bring himself to the Crown the King advertised of it applies divers remedies to that important accident The Duke of Mayenne makes an attempt upon Mante which takes not effect The King besieges Noyon and after many encounters it not being relieved he takes it The Popish and Spanish Forces pass the Mountains they assist the Duke of Savoy and there happen several encounters The Duke of Guise escapes from his imprisonment at Tours The King and the Duke of Mayenne advance the King to receive the Duke to oppose the Viscount de Turenne and the Germans in Lorain The Armies draw near to one another at Verdun The King having received the Viscount with the Supplies retires The Council of Sixteen make an Insurrection in the City of Paris and cause the first President of the Parliament and other Counsellors to be executed The Duke of Mayenne hastes thither brings the City into obedience and punishes the Delinquents The King marches into Normandy lays siege to the City of Rouen defended by Monsieur de Villars and a great number of choice Souldiers and Commanders the various accidents of that siege are related The Duke of Parma with the Spanish Army marches to relieve that place The King with part of his Army goes to meet him they encounter one another and fight at Aumale the King is wounded his men routed and he has much ado to save himself Villars sallying out of Rouen enters the Trenches and gains the Artillery The Duke of Parma advances but finding the City secured by that sally resolves to retire and watch his opportunity The King returns to Rouen and renews the siege The Duke of Parma also returns to bring relief and the King his Forces being wasted rises from the siege and marches to the Banks of the River Seine MEns minds were no less inflamed nor the revolutions of the War less bloody in the other parts of the Kingdom than they were in those places where the chief Armies lay for the affections of Religion mingled in their hearts with particular interests and with the already inveterate animosities of the Factions every one forward of himself as in his own cause and as in a controversie that concerned him did with all his power apply thoughts to the exercise of Arms. Wherefore the War was made both by the Heads and Governours of the two parties and by private persons of their own voluntary accord with the same contention thorow every Province but with various successes and different fortune on both sides The principal and most dangerous commotions were in Bretagne a great and rich Province well peopled full of Gentry considerable for the greatness of its Cities and convenient for the benefit of the Ocean Sea along the coasts whereof it extends it self towards the North. Henry of Bourbon Prince of Dombes Son to the Duke of Montpensier a youth of exceeding high courage was for the King and had the name of Governour for him but there were so few Towns under his obedience that if it had not been for the help of lower Normandy which confining with that Province held of the Kings party and was governed by the Duke his Father he would either have been driven out of the Province or easily suppressed by the greater forces of the League On the other side Emanuel of Lorain Duke of Mercoeur governed the party of the Vnion who had not only from the beginning been as Governour of the Province in possession of the best Cities and strongest holds but also pretending that the Dutchy of Bretagne it self belonged to his Wife Mary of Luxembourg Countess of Ponthieure he had a wonderful great dependence of all those who rather desired a Prince of their own than the union with the Crown of France which was not very pleasing to them and longing above measure to establish himself in that possession with the opportunity of present affairs he had negotiated secretly in Spain by the means of Loreno Tarnabuoni a Gentleman of his who was sent by Sea unto that Court and had obtained that the Catholick King should send and pay Four thousand Foot for his assistance upon condition that Blavet should be consigned to him for his security a place as then not considerable but which with the benefit of a very large Port fortified and improved by the Spaniards came by little and little to be of exceeding great consequence not only to the affairs of that Province but also of the whole Kingdom Which as soon as it was known to the Prince of Dombes though his Forces were but weak so that till then he had only exercised himself in actions of small importance to keep the Kings name alive in that Province yet now helping with art in so great need he turned himself to oppose the entrance of strangers And having routed Three hundred of the Duke of Mercoeurs Light-horse which were going to join themselves with his Army he assaulted Annebont suddenly a place near
might march out of the City armed in rank and file their Drums beating Colours flying and light Match to go whither they thought good That two hundred thousand Crowns should be paid to the Count de Brissac in recompence of his expences and losses and that he should have twenty thousand Franks of an annual pension the Charge of Marshal of Frâ—nce conferred upon him by the Duke of Mayenne should be confirmed and the perpetual Government of Corbie and Mante granted to him which things with many other of less moment being agreed upon both sides applyed themselves to the execution of them The King at this time was at Chartres where he had caused himself to be Crowned and Anointed or as they call it Sacré about which there had been many difficulties which nevertheless by the authority of the Council were seasonably removed for he that he might take away the doubts of scrupulous minds desiring to his Conversion to add this Ceremony which is wont to be used to all Kings some objected that the Consecration by an ancient custom could not be but at the City of Reimes nor by the hands of any other than the Archbishop of that Church but having diligently over-looked the History of former times the learned found that many Kings had been Consecrated in other places and since that City was not in the Kings power reason consented not that he should therefore remain without that due Ceremony which they thought necessary for his perfect Establishment This difficulty being removed there succeeded another how the King could be Anointed without the Oyl of St. Ampoule which was kept in the Cathedral of that City and which as fame reports was brought down by an Angel from Heaven purposely for the Consecration of King Cloüis and the other Kings of France his Successors but neither of this was there any other necessity save bare tradition whereupon it was determined that neither the City nor the Oyl being in the Kings power the Oyl should be brought that is kept in the City of Tours in the Monastery of the Friers of St. Martin of which there is a report confirmed by the authority of many Writers that it was likewise brought from Heaven to anoint that Saint when falling from the top of a Ladder all his bones were broken and shattered in pieces wherefore Monsieur de Souvray Governour of Tours having caused that Vial to be brought out in Procession by those Monks that had it in keeping and having placed it under a rich Canopy of State set round pompously with lights in the top of a Chariot made expresly for that purpose and guarded by four Troops of Horse he himself going before it all the journey brought it along with him to the City of Chartres and with that Oyl they Anointed the King at his Consecration causing it afterward to be carried back to its place with the same Ceremony and Veneration There arose also a Competition among the Prelates Which of them should perform the Act of Consecration for the Archbishop of Bourges pretended that Function belonged unto him as Primate and on the other side Nicholas de Thou Bishop of Chartres alledged That the Ceremony being to be Celebrated in his Church it could not be taken away from him The Council sentenced in favour of the Bishop of the Diocess and so upon the Twenty seventh of February the King was consecrated with great Solemnity and Pomp both Ecclesiastical and Military the twelve Peers of France being present at the Ceremony six Ecclesiastical and six Secular which were the Bishop of Chartres Nantes Mans Maillezays Orleans and Angiers representing those of Reimes Langues Laon Beauvais Noyon and Chalons and for the Secular Peers the Prince of Conty for the Duke of Bourgogne the Duke of Soissons for the Duke of Guienne the Duke of Montpensier for the Duke of Normandy the Duke of Luxemburgh in stead of the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Retz in stead of the Count de Toulouse and the Duke of Vantadour in stead of the Count de Champagne the Archbishop of Bourges did the Office of Grand Aumosnier the Mareshal de Matignon of High Constable the Duke of Longueville that of High Chamberlain the Count de St. Paul that of Grand Maistre and the High Chancellor Chiverny holding the Seals in his Right Hand sate on one side of the Cloth of State The King according to the custom of the Kings of France upon the day of this Solemnity received the Communion in both kinds took the Oath which all the Kings of France are wont to take to maintain the Catholick Faith and the authority of the Holy Church and at his coming out of the Church touched those that had the Kings Evil to the number of three hundred from the Church he went unto the Feast where according to the custom sate the twelve Peers that had been present at the Ceremony the Princess Katharine Sister to the King with the other great Ladies that were at Court and the Ambassadors of the Queen of England and the Republick of Venice After Dinner the King went to Vespers where he received the Order of the St. Esprit renewing his Oath for the conservation of the Faith and the persecution of Heresie which Ceremonies as they filled the hearts of his own party with great joy and gladness so did they the more move the inclination of the others to acknowledge and obey him In the mean time the Treaties in Paris were ripening for the reducing of that City being managed with great dexterity and secresie by the Governour the Prevost des Marchands and President le Maistre but thwarted more than ever by the violent perswasions of the Preachers who ceased not to cry from their Pulpits that the Kings Conversion was feigned and dissembled and no body could acknowledge him with a good Conscience The business was likewise crossed by the practices and boldness of the Sixteen who since the accident of President Brisson having remained with small credit and less power being now fomented by the Legat and the Spaniards and no less by the Dutchesses of Nemours and Montpensier who had turned their Sails according to the Wind they began to rise again meeting frequently often stirring up commotions and proceeding audaciously against those that were suspected to be of the Kings party but the Governour making use of his authority and also of the Duke of Mayenne's Name laboured to dissipate and suppress them under colour that he would have no Conventicles nor armed insurrections in a time of so great suspition and finally having accorded with the Parliament they caused publick Proclamation to be made That upon pain of death and confiscation of goods none should go to any Meeting except in the Town-House and in the presence of above five Magistrates Upon the foundation of this Decree the Governour sharply using force did within a few days destroy and take away the opposition of the Sixteen insomuch
began now to be troubled with the Bloody Flux and the Plague in such manner that the Treasurers putting him in mind that all means of paying his Foot was utterly gone the King resolved to disband his Army and to apply himself heartily to the Treaty of Peace which now being high in reputation and honour and having satisfied himself and the expectation of his people he desired more boldly and openly than before This reciprocal desire of both Kings facilitated the Treaty of Peace but the Duke of Savoy's interests kept all things in difficulty For though the War these two last years had been various and with hot encounters and bloody assaults rather disadvantageous than otherwise and though Monsieur de Lesdiguieres having taken St. Iehan de Morienne and all that valley in the Alps was gone down into Piedmont to the ruine and spoiling of the Country yet he being resolved to retain the Marquesate of Saluzzo either crossed the Peace or cared not to have it concluded But yet the meeting at Vervins held whither Monsieur de Bellieure and President Sillery came from the King of France and President Riccardotto Iuan Boptista Tassis and Ludovicâ— Verichen Auditor of Brabanza for the King of Spain The French Deputies were brought by the Popes Nuncio and the Spanish by the General of the Cordeliers and the Cardinal-Legat came to the same place by whose Authority all difficulties of precedency being removed they entred upon the Treaty of the business but not before the beginning of the month of February in the year 1598 a year destined by Divine Providence to close up the grievous wounds of forty years past Great was the desire of Peace on both sides and great likewise the Authority of the Legat with each party nor were the demands very different For the Spaniards proffered without difficulty to restore Ardres Dourlans la Cappelle Castelet and Montaulin in Piccardy and the Port of Blauet in Bretagne and desired only to retain Calais as long as the War with the Hollanders lasted and to give the King of France an equivalent exchange in the mean time And the French stood to have Calais restored freely they likewise demanded Cambray and renewed some old pretensions upon the Confines of Flanders The Spaniards shewed that all old pretensions were terminated in the Peace concluded between the two Crowns at Chasteau Cambresis in the year 1559 and that Cambray was not of the King of France his Jurisdiction but a City of the Archbishops usurped a few years before by the Duke of Alancon's Forces and that therefore being a free Town the King could not pretend any right unto it but that the Master of the Low-Countries had the ancient protection of it and yet not a direct Dominion but one established by reason Upon these Answers the French easily gave off their old pretensions and the demand of Cambray and with as much facility did the Spaniards lay aside the demand of retaining Calais Whereupon all the difficulty was reduced to this point That the King of France would have had Blauet in the condition it then was with all the Artillery Shot and Ammunition of War and the Spaniards stood totally to demolish the Fort they had built and to carry away the Artillery and other things which they had brought thither of their own but this difficulty also was easily taken away for the Treaty being managed with great sincerity the French satisfied themselves knowing that the Spaniard had reason on their side All other matters were of small importance so that nothing remained save to treat about the interests of their adherents for the King of France desired there might be an Agreement made with the Queen of England and the States of Holland and the King of Spain would have had the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mercoeur comprehended in the Peace About this there arose a sharp contention for the French having said that they would not include the Duke of Mercoeur as being the Kings Subject the Spaniards answered That also the States of Holland were the King of Spâ—iâ—s Subjects and here mutually upbraiding one another that they fomented Rebels they grew extreamly angry and broke forth into words of indignation and yet the Cardinal-Legat interposing they agreed to make their Princes acquainted with the business and expect their resolute orders But within a few days these difficulties were removed for the King having left the Constable with reasonable Forces in Picardy was gone personally to Angiers to draw his Army together and march with all his Forces into Bretagne Wherefore the Duke of Mercoeur seeing his designs ruined and not being willing to hold out till the last necessities which he was not able to resist condescended to the Agreement by which marrying his onlâ— Daughter to Caesar the Kings Bastard Son and receiving other recompences of Pensions and moneys he delivered up that part of Bretagne that was in his possession unto the Kings obedience whereupon the occasion ceased for which the Catholick King endeavoured to include him in the Peace Nor was there any need to contend long for the Queen of England and the States of Holland for those Princes after they had done all that was possible to hinder the Treaty of Peace shewing themselves ill satisfied with the King because in the League of the year before he had promised not to agree without them declared that they would not be comprehended as Adherents and that they would have no Peace with the King of Spain There remained only the point concerning the Duke of Savoy which was like to have interrupted the whole agreement when it was brought to perfection for the Marquiss de Lullin the Dukes Ambassadour being introduced into the Conference said That President Sillery one of the Deputies there present had from the year before treated an accommodation with the Duke and that the King was then contented he should hold the Marquesate of Saluzzo in fee from the Crown The President answered That it was true the King was so contented but at a time when the state of his affairs perswaded him by all means to divide the Duke from the King of Spain and that to that condition the Marquiss knew well there were others joined which he would not mention lest he should set discord among Friends by which words he meant to infer that the Duke to retain the Marquesate had proffered to make War against the State of Milan Many contentions there were about it and the whole Treaty seemed to be discomposed but the General of the Cordeliers going to the King and Iuan Baptista Tassis to the Archduke they returned within a few days and concluded that the Duke and the King should retain what they possessed at that present and that the difference about the Marquesate should be referred to the Pope who was to give judgment within the space of one year and then what each held of the others would mutually be
c. 367 Secretary Villeroy and Duke d'Espernon fall into such a discord as in process of time produces many evil effects 280. foments a Conspiracy at Angolesme against the Duke by a secret Order from the King 356. goes over to the League where the Duke of Mayenne will not let the King speak with him who desired it 412. he dissuades the Duke of Mayenne from causing himself to be made King 114. treating with the King at Melun persuades him to turn Catholick 454 Secretary Pinart Governor of Chasteau Thierry brings all his Goods into it treats a Composition with the Duke of Mayenne for Twenty thousand Crowns and renders it 497 Sieur de Baligni in necessity at Cambray Coins Copper-money 640. makes composition with the King upon large Conditions 652 Sieur de Monthelon made Lord-Keeper 357 Sieur de Vins receives a Musquet-shot at Rochel to save Henry III. 151. he and the Countess de Seaux conclude to give the Supâ—riority of Provence to the Duke of Savoy c. 483. repenting himself begins to disfavour the Duke of Mayenne's designs though he wrote resentingly to him 484 Skyt-gate what it is 524 T. TAvennes vid. Viscount Tercera Islands 244 A kind of Toleration permitted to the Hugonots 46 Toquesaint an Alarum-Bell used as the Ringing of Bells backward with us 72 Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne marries Charlotte de la Mark Hâ—ir to the Dutchy of Bouillon 511 Tours taken by the Kings Army at the first Assault 70. an Interview there between the Most Christian King and the King of Navarre 397. made the Head-quarters Henry IVs. Party 416. is there acknowledged King of France by Publick Solemnity Page 427 Triumvirate vid. Union A Treaty of Agreement between Henry IV. and the Duke of Mayenne 436. Treaty propounded the L gat and Cardinal Gonde meet the Marquis of Piâ—ani but nothing concluded 465 A â—ruce made for two months in the new King Henry IIIs absence 205. Truce propounded to the Duke of Mayenne who refuses it 388. concluded for a year between the Most Christian King and King of Navarre 391. concluded for four Leagues about Paris and as much about Surenne 600. for three months making first a Decree for receiving the Council of Trent 614. prolonged for two months 624 V. VALois see Crown and House Anthony of Vendosme of the House of Bourbon that was Father to Henry IV. marrieth the Daughter of the King of Navarre by whom he inherits the pretensions of the Kingdom 10 Vendosme taken by the League by agreement with the Governor 397. taken by Henry IV. who gives the Pillage to the Soldiers condemns the Governor for his Infidelity and Father Robert a Franciscan for commending the killing of Henry III. 426 Veedor-General is Commissary-General c. 235 Verdun the first City taken by the League 265 In Victory moderation more profitable than at another time 455 De Vins vid. Sieur Viscount de Tavenne's error in drawing up his divisions of his Horse 445. Governor of Rouen but not liking him an Insurrection there 504. defeated and taken Prisoner going to put relief into Noyen 506 Viscount de Turenne obtains assistance of Queen Elizabeth of England the Hollanders and Protestant Princes of Germany for Henry IV. 486. brings him German Supplies 512 Union of the King of Navarre Duke of Guise and the Constable called by the Hugonots the Triumvirate 52. opposed by Queen Catharine 53 Holy Union a Decree so called made to combine themselves for defence of Religion 379. its Council consisting of forty of the chiefest persons of the League 384 W. WAR with Spain breaks out against Charles IX his will 178. between the Catholicks and the Hugonots 288. against the League begun by the Duke of Monpensier 394 Civil War the Incendiaries thereof are persons of desperate fortunes 59 Wolphangus of Bavaria aids the Hugonots with Fourteen thousand men 144 A Woman kills eighteen German Soldiers with a Knife 328 A Writing set forth by the Legat to keep the League on foot 630 Y. YEar begun is taken for the Year ended in matters of favour 90 Z. ZEalots in Religion and men disaffected to the Government compose the Catholick League 251 FINIS The Franconians a people of Germany not being able to subsist in their own Country issue out in armed multitudes and possess themselves of the Gallia's Pharamond chosen first King of the French at the river Salâ— and the Salique Law established The Salii Priests 419. The Franks began to invade the Gallia's in the year 419. being then possessed by the Romans Clodian the second King made himself Master of Belgia and this was first conquered Meroue the third King continues his Conquests as far as Paris and unites the two Nations into one Princes of the Blood The Assembly of the States hath the power of the whole Kingdom The pre eminencies of the Royal Family Inheritance and Administration The Royal races The Meroue Caroli Capetts and Valois St. Lewâ—â— the Ninth The Crown continued in the House of Valois thâ—ee hundred years 1515. The House of Bourbon being next to the Crown and grown to a monstrous greatness was hated kept under and suppressed by the Kings Francis the first advanceth Charles of Bourbon and afterwards suppresseth him whereupon he rebâ—lleth The House of Momorancy descends from one of those who issued out of Franconia with the first King Pharamond and pretends to be the first that received Baptism Anne de Momorancy after the death of Bourbon made High Constable The House of Guise descended from that of Lorain reckons in the male-line of their ancestors Godfrey of Bullen King of Ierusalem and shews a pedigree from a daughter of Chaâ—les the Grâ—at Anne of Moâ—erancy and the Duke of Guise fall into disgrace with King Francis 1547. Momorancy and Guise are recalled to the management of the affairs by Henry the Second Emulation between the Constable and the Duke of Guise The three brothers of Guise made absolute administrators of the politick and military Government by reason of their alliance with the Dolphin Antony of Vendosme of the House of Bourbon he that was father to Henry the 4th marrieth the daughter of the King of Navarre by whom he inherits the pretensions of that Kingdom The birth of Henry the 4th Dec. 13. 1554 in the Territory of Paw in theViscounty of Bearâ—â— a Free State 1559. Henry the 2d killed in a Tournament by Montgomery Francis the 2d his Son being 16 years old succeeds to the Crown TheObsequies of King Henry the Second last 33 days The King by the perswasion of his wife commits the management of the affairs to his Mother the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorain The causes of the Constables disgrace at Court and his exclusion from the affairs The Constable retires the second time from the Court. Francis Olivier the High Chancellor and the Cardinal of Tournon are recalled the second time to the Court. Secret Assembly of the Princes of Bourbon and
Third sirnamed The Hardy and Robert the younger Count of Cleremont From Philip came the eldest Line which enjoyed the Crown more than three hundred years with the sirname of Valois from Robert descended the House of Bourbon so called as it is a custom among the French from that State of which they bare the Title and enjoyed a long time as their own Inheritance Now whilst the House of Valois possessed the Crown the House of Bourbon held by consequence the rank of first Prince of the Blood and enjoyed all those priviledges which we said before by Law and Custom belonged to that quality This Family great not only through nearness to the Crown but also in large possessions abundance of treasure reputation in war and fruitfulness of off-spring producing likewise frequently men of a liberal nature and popular civility easily exceeded the limits of a private life and with the sinews of its own strength together with the favour of the people established it self in an excessive state of greatness which begetting jealousie and envy in the Kings who were displeased at so great an eminence and authority bred many occasions of hate and suspition which sometimes also brake forth into open war For Lewis the Eleventh King of France made war upon Iohn Duke of Bourbon in the war intituled For the Commonwealth and Lewis the Twelfth though before he came to the Crown tried the success of Arms with Peter of Bourbon and so what by open defiance what through secret malice the Kings of France grew daily more and more jealous of the Authority of the Princes of Bourbon At the length Francis the First came to the Crown who in the beginning of his Reign led by the ardour and facility of youth began with great demonstration of affection to confer honour upon the chief Princes of the Blood it seeming a thing suitable to that magnificence he shewed towards all men and to the greatness of his mind that those Lords most nearly allied to him should be most exalted both for the honour of the Royal Line and for his own particular reputation And having observed in Charles of Bourbon who was the first Prince of the Blood a generous courage and a genius fit for any employment he promoted him to be High Constable of France and resolved that all the weighty affairs and principal charges of the Kingdom should pass only thorow his own hands and those that were nearest of relation to himself But when he came to age more mature the fervour of youth being past and finding by being conversant in affairs the reasons by which his Predecessors guided their counsels with how much greater earnestness he strove formerly to raise the House of Bourbon with so much the more anxiety of mind he laboured now to abase their excessive greatness Nor did fortune fail to present an occasion wonderfully proper for the execution of his design For there being a Process at that time between Louyse the Kings Mother and Charles of Bourbon for the same Dutâ—hy which he then held the King thought with himself that if he caused Judgment to be given in favour of his Mother and deprived the House of Bourbon of their fundamental revenues the Duke would easily fall from that power and dignity which was chiefly upheld by so splendid a fortune But Charles having by the preceeding of his business discovered the deceitful practices of the Chancellor Antonio del Prato by the Kings instigation against him disdain of the injury and fear of ruine which was inevitably prepared so much prevailed over him that joyning secretly with the Emperour Charles the Fifth and Henry the Eighth of England he began to conspire against the Kingdom and the very person of the King Which being discovered he was constrained to flee and afterwards bare Arms against him and continuing that course it so fell out that he was last of all General to Caesar in the Battel at Pavia where after a bloody slaughter in the the French Army the King invironed by divers Squadrons of Foot was at length taken prisoner For these facts Charles being declared Rebel and all his estate confiscate and having within a short time after at the taking of Rome lost his life also the House of Bourbon fell from that envied greatness which had caused such jealousie in the King This was not sufficient to stop the persecution now begun for although Charles were unhappily dead without children and though the others of the family did in no way partake of his counsels notwithstanding the King more swayed with revenge of the injuries past than the force of reason all the Lords of that House more through hate of their name than any delinquency in their persons were utterly deprived of all favour at Court and wholly removed from the management of affairs And although this rigour was in time somewhat lessened and the Kings mind so far mitigated as to forget things past and to lay by the ill opinion he had conceived of them notwithstanding he continued studiously to endeavour to cut off all means whereby those Princes might return to their former honour and that power to which they were formerly with so much favour advanced This secret intention of the Kings was very well observed by Charles Duke of Vendosme the chief of that House Wherefore forcing himself with moderation of mind to overcome the suspition and jealousies that so oppressed his family he refused during the Kings imprisonment to pretend to the Regency which of right belonged to him and after the King was delivered having retired himself to the quiet of his own domestick affairs sought not to be recalled to any part in that Government in which he knew himself so much suspected The rest of the same House following his example to shew how much they were strangers to the wicked counsels of Bourbon by being such ready Executors though to their own diminution and prejudice of the Kings inclinations voluntarily withdrew themselves from all business that might breed any suspition of them and standing retired little troubled themselves with the charges and commands at Court among which despising the little ones they already perceived it was impossible for them to attain to those dignities which they knew belonged to the greatness of their birth The House of Bourbon thus suppressed and removed from the affairs there sprang up under Francis the First two great families which within a short time got the whole business of the State into their own hands Momorancy and Guise neither of them any way allied to the House Royal but both the one and the other of very eminent Nobility That of Momorancy keeps a venerable record of the eminency of their Ancestors for they do not only shew a right descent from one of those Barons that accompanied the first King Pharamond in the Salique Expedition but prove also they were the first among the French Nation that received Baptism and the Christian Faith
For the Count of Cursol being returned to Court and having signified the Princes backwardness to come to the Assembly the Guises thereupon pressing and solliciting that force might be used to fetch them in and the Queen not dissenting from them through a desire she had to see the seeds of those discords eradicated and her sons quietly re-established in their States the King took a resolution to make shew of compelling them by Arms. To which purpose the Mareschal de Termes being dispatched into Gascoigne there began an Army to be formed under his command and all the Troops and Infantry that were distributed in the Neighbour-Provinces were sent that way The Princes of Bourbon were not only without Arms and unprovided but restrained also in Bearne a narrow Country at the foot of the Perinees and partly by France partly by Spain shut up and compassed in on all sides So that they were assured being attacked on one side by the French army out of Gascoigne and on the other by the King of Spain's forces who desired to extinguish those few reliques that remained of the Kingdom of Navarre they should easily be oppressed and subdued In France the Princes designs had no where prospered and in Bearne he had neither men nor money Wherefore the King of Navarre resolved not to hazard the rest of his state together with the safety of his Wife and Children who were all in the same place shewing the necessity to which all Counsels must yield at length brought his brother to be content to go all being of opinion that whilst the States were sitting the Guises would not dare to attempt any thing against them whereas if they continued obstinate to stay in Bearne they would undoubtedly be forced with eternal infamy to fall under the hateful name of Rebels Charles Cardinal of Bourbon their brother contributed very much to bring them to this resolution For he being a man of a facile good nature as appeared in the whole course of his life averse to novelties and extreamly affectionate to his brothers when he understood the Kings intent and the preparations that he made being perswaded by the Queen-Mother who desired their purposed designs might be effected without noise of Arms or the hazard of War he presently took post and went into Bearne to perswade them to come by magnifying on one side the greatness of the forces that were preparing against which they would not be able to make any resistance and by assuring them on the other that there appeared not in the King or the Queen-Mother any other shew but of good-will and a desire of peace and agreement So leaving the Queen with the young children in Pau they departed all three with a small train to give less cause of suspicion and went together towards the Court. The Constable was sent for though not with such earnestness because he was in a place where they might easily get him into their power when they pleased But he proceeded with greater dissimulation and more security For having not favoured the Faction of the Male-contents otherwise than with his counsel and that also ever tending rather to seek redress from the States than to move any Insurrection or Rebellion he would not by refusing to go to Court increase the suspicion against him but by other arts and dissimulations defer his coming thither till he saw what became of the Princes of Bourbon Wherefore being come to Paris there feigning he was troubled with a Catarrh and the Gout he returned till he could recover to his own house Many days after being again upon the way under pretence that too much motion offended him which by reason of his age was easie to be believed he made little journeys and went out of the way for commodity of lodging artificially delaying the time until he could hear that the others were arrived It is certain that his sons urging him to make more haste and telling him that neither the Queen-Mother nor the Guises would be so bold as to offend a man so much esteemed as he was and that had such great dependences in the Kingdom he grown wise through long experience made them answer That those about the King could govern the State as they pleased without any obstacle or impediment whatsoever and yet notwithstanding fought contradictions and assemblies of the States things that could not be without some hidden design which with a little patience would be â—rought to light By which reply his Sons being satisfied he sought still by delays to gain the benefit of time In the mean while the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were met upon the Confines by the Mareschal de Termes who under shew of honour conducted them with a great body of Cavalry to secure those Towns which la Sague mentioned in his Confession and at the same time sent other Companies of Foot and Horse to shut up and guard the ways behind them doubting that the Princes might change their resolution and endeavour secretly to get back again into Bearn But news being come to Orleans that the Princes being in their journey were come into the Kings dominions and compassed about by de Termes his Troops presently Hierom Groslot Baily of Orleans accused to have held intelligence with the Hugonots to make that City revolt to the discontented Princes was laid close up and by order from the King the Visdame of Chartres was committed to prison in Paris who still contriving new mischiefs had lingred there unadvisedly Andelot was not so easily intrapped who being as wise and cautelous in providing against dangers as he was precipitate and bold in contriving them had secretly conveyed himself away into the remotest parts of Britany near upon the Sea-side being resolved in case of necessity to pass over into England But the Admiral who with great art and dexterity had managed the business without being discovered went thither freely at the beginning with an intent to imploy all his power in the Assembly for the advantage of his party and being very much made of by the King and used as was her custom very civilly by the Queen he had opportunity nearly to observe all the passages of the Court of which afterwards with great wariness he gave secret advertisement to the Constable and the King of Navarre But now there was no further need of pretences insomuch as the Princes of Bourbon being neither met upon the way nor courted by any body but a few of their intimate familiar friends arrived at Orleans the 29 day of October where contrary to the custom of the Court though in time of War they found not only the Gates of the City guarded with a great number of Souldiers but the strong Holds secured the places manned and Watches appointed at the end of every street with a terrible shew of all warlike instruments and many Companies of Souldiers which passing thorow they arrived at the Kings lodging much more strictly guarded as if it had been
entertain their Religion To confirm them in which opinion as much as she could with outward testimonies she would often hear their Preachers argue and discourse in her own Chamber confer with great confidence and professions of affection with the Prince of Conde and the Admiral and was often in discourse with the Dutchess of Montpensier whom making her believe whatsoever she pleased with her excellent dissimulation she used as a means to entertain with hopes many other the principal of them And to lead them on with open demonstrations to a belief of her private protestations and practices she wrote obscure letters of ambiguous sense to the Pope one while demanding a Council such in every point as the Calvinists desired then licence to call a National one sometimes desiring that the Communion might be administred under both Species otherwhile requiring a dispensation for Priests to marry now solliciting that Divine Service might be said in the vulgar tongue then proposing other such like things wished for and preached by the Hugonots in which she knew so well how to dissemble by the help of Monsieur de l' Isle Ambassador at Rome that putting the Pope in doubt and the Catholick party and so necessitating them to proceed warily lest they should finally alienate her wholly from the Roman Religion at the same time she won the Hugonots making them believe that she was altogether inclined to favour them that of bitter enemies they became her greatest friends and confidents Nor were the vulgar only deluded by these artificial dissimulations but the Admiral also who was by nature so wary and of such a subtile wit gave such credit to them that he was induced to give the Queen a full accompt of the number of the forces and designs of his Faction of the adherents they had both within and without the Kingdom and every other particular She seeming desirous to be informed at large before she declared her self and promising openly to take that party when they were once so established and provided with force as she should not need to fear the power of the Catholicks or the Triumvirat Thus with a sudden and in apparence incredible change the King of Navarre went over to the Catholick party and Queen Catherine though dissemblingly took upon her the protection of the Hugonots Which change to them that knew not the true secret reasons of it appeared strange and extravagant and therefore many did then attribute it to lightness in the one and womanish inconstancy in the other and many that have written since ascribe the fault also to the same causes not penetrating into the hidden foundations upon which the engines of this counsel were moved The End of the Second BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The THIRD BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Third Book relates the Deliberation of the King of Navarre to drive the Prince of Conde already become formidable out of Paris for this purpose he sends for the other Catholick Lords to Court The Duke of Guise makes a Iourney thither and passing by Vassy lights upon an Assembly of Hugonots at their devotions thereupon follows accidentally a bloody conflict to revenge themselves of which the Hugonots rise in all parts of the Kingdom The Prince of Conde leaves Paris The Queen together with the King because she would not be constrained to declare her self for either party retires to Fountain-bleau On the other side the Princes of each Faction endeavour to possess themselves of the persons of the King and Queen The Catholicks prevent the Hugonots and lead them both to Paris The Prince of Conde having lost his opportunity takes other resolutions possesses himself of Orleans and prepares for the War The Catholick Lords under the Kings Name likewise raise an Army Many Writings are published on each side Both Armies go into the Field The Queen-Mother avoids the War and labours for a Peace To this end she comes to a parley with the Prince but without success notwithstanding she continues to treat of an Agreement which at length is concluded The Prince by the perswasion of the rest repents himself thereof and again takes arms purposeth to assail the Kings Camp by night but fails of his design Forces come to the King out of Germany and many thousands of Swisses thereupon the Prince is forced to retire unto the Walls of Orleans where not being able to keep the Army together he divides it He sends for succours into Germany and England consents to give Havre de Grace to the English and to receive their Garisons in Deipe and Rouen to obtain aids of them The Queen is offended and grievously afflicted therewith and for that cause joyning with the Catholick party causeth the Hugonots to be declar'd Rebels The Kings Army takes Blois Tours Poictiers and Bourges besiegeth Rouen and takes it The King of Navarre is kill'd there Succours come to the Prince out of Germany with which being reinforced he makes haste to assault Paris The King and the Queen arrive there with the Army wherefore after many attempts he is necessitated to depart Both Armies go into Normandy and there follows the Battel of Dreux in which the Prince of Conde is taken prisoner on the one side and the Constable on the other The Duke of Guise being victorious layeth siege to Orleans and is ready to take it but is treacherously slain by Poltrot After his death follows the general Peace and the Kings Army recovers Havre de Grace from the English The King cometh out of his minority The Queen useth divers arts to work the discontented Princes to her will and to compass her ends together with the King makes a general visitation of the Kingdom cometh to a parley at Avignon with the Popes Ministers and at Bayonne with the Queen of Spain It is agreed between the most Christian and Catholick King to aid each other in the suppression of seditions The Queen of Navarre cometh to the Court The King maketh a reconciliation between the Families of Chastillon and Guise but within few days after they return to their former enmities The Queen of Navarre in distaste leaves the Court and plots new mischiefs Divers Marriages are celebrated but the civil dissentions nevertheless continue AFfairs of the State being thus on the sudden put into another posture there were none so short-sighted who did not clearly perceive that the animosity of the Factions would finally shew it self in a War and that there wanted nothing to make this cloud break into a storm but the conjuncture of some fit occasion Which as if all things had concurred to hasten the calamity of France did forthwith arise from a marvellous opportunity The King of Navarre after he had declared himself of the Catholick party stayed as by chance in Paris which City as it is placed in the middle of France so in frequency of people riches dignity and power far surpasseth all others in the Kingdom Wherefore believing
years by the Kings of England her Predecessors and at last recovered by the Duke of Guise in the Reign of Henry the Second But because the Hugonots were not Masters of that place she demanded that in the mean time they should consign to her Havre de Grace a Fortress and Port of less consequence upon the coast of Normandy and that they should receive her Garrisons into Diepe and Rouen These conditions seemed to many intolerable and not to be consented unto through any necessity whatsoever knowing the infamy and publick hate they should undergo if they made themselves instruments to dismember the Kingdom of such important places and bring into them the most cruel implacable enemies of the French Nation But the Ministers who in all deliberations were of great Authority and in a manner reverenced as Oracles alledged that no consideration was to be had of worldly things where there was question of the heavenly Doctrine and propagation of GOD's Word Wherefore all other things were to be contemned so as Religion might be protected and Liberty of Conscience established The Prince of Conde and the Admiral being desirous to continue their Commands and necessitated by their own private affairs to pursue the enterprise were of the same opinion so that their Authority overcoming all opposition after many consultations it was at last concluded to satisfie Queen Elizabeth and by all means to accept the conditions proposed To which effect they presently dispatched Monsieur de Briquemaut and the new Vidame of Chartres with Letters of credit from the Prince and the Confederates to confirm the agreement in England Andelot and the Prince of Portian with such a sum oâ— money as they could get together went to sollicit the levies of the Germans the Count de la Roch-foucaut went to Angoulesme the Count de Montgomery retired into Normandy Monsieur de Soâ—bize to Lyons the Prince the Admiral Genlis and Bouchavenes stayed to defend Orleans and the places adjacent But many of the Commissioners for the confederacy which was treated with England not being able to endure such dishonourable conditions began to forsake them amongst which Monsieur de Pienne went over to the Kings Army and the Sieur de Morvilliers chosen by the Prince to be Governour of Rouen that he might not be forced to admit an English Garrison into a Town of such consequence leaving that charge retired into Picardy to his own house Whilst by these means the Hugonots endeavoured to provide themselves with Forces the Catholicks designed to make an attempt upon Orleans as the chief sourse and seat of all the War But in regard it was exceedingly well provided for Defence and furnished with Munition of all kinds they knew it was an enterprise of great difficulty Wherefore first to cut off from it the hopes of succours they resolved to take in the places round about that so they might afterwards with more facility straighten it with a siege or being deprived of succours assault it by force For which purpose they raised their Camp the 11 of Iuly and the Duke of Guise leading the Van and the King of Navarre the Battalia whilst every one of both sides expected to see them setled before Orleans they leaving that Town on the left hand and passing sixteen leagues farther on a suddain assailed Blois which though it were full of people beautified with one of the noblest Castles for a Kings house in the whole Kingdom and situated upon the same side of the River of Loire yet it was not so fortified that it could hope to make any long resistance against the Kings Army Wherefore after the Souldiers which were in guard saw the Cannon planted being terrified with the danger they passed the River upon the Bridge and throwing away their Arms sought to save themselves by flight which though the Duke of Guise knew who with the Van-guard was nearest to the wall yet being more intent to take the Town than to pursue those that ran away whilst the Citizens dispatched their Deputies to capitulate he sent a party of foot to make an assault who finding the breach forsaken that was made by a few Cannon shot took the place without resistance which by the fury of the Souldiers their Commanders not forbidding them was miserably sackt From Blois the Army marched towards Tours a much more noble populous and ancient City wherein the name of the Hugonots first took vigour and force but the people who for a few days at the bginning of the Siege made shew that they would stand resolutely upon their defence when they perceived the Trenches were made and the Artillery planted of their own accord cast out the Commanders and rendered the place saving their goods and persons which conditions were intirely observed In the mean while the Mareshal de St. Andre with the Rear of the Army went another way to besiege Poictiers a City likewise famous for antiquity great and spacious where the â—atholicks thought they should find a strong resistance But it fell out to be a work of much less difficulty than they imagined For the Mareshal having battered it two days together with his Artillery and made an assault upon the Town rather to try the resolution of the Defendants than with any hope to gain it the Captain of the Castle who till then had shew'd himself more violent than any other of the Hugonot party suddenly changing his mind began to play from within with his Cannon upon those who stood ready to receive the Assault by which unexpected accident the Defendants losing their courage not knowing in such a tumult what way to take for their safety as men astonished left the entry of the breach free to the Assailants who not finding any resistance entered furiously into the Town which by the example of Blois was in the heat of the fight sackt and many of the peole put to the sword The Catholicks having thus in a few days taken those Towns which from Poictiou and Touraine backed and succoured Orleans and stopt the passage for supplies from Guyenne Gasâ—oigne and other places beyond the River it remained that turning backwards and passing to the other side they should take in Bourges so to cut off those aids that might come from Auvergne Lyonoise and other Provinces joyning to Daulphine Bourges anciently called Avaricum is one of the greatest and most populous Cities in France a residence for Students of all sorts but especially famous for the Civil Law This Town being within twenty leagues of Orleans and by reason of the Traffick of Wooll as also through the great concourse of Scholars much replenished with strangers was at the beginning possest by the Hugonots and afterwards as an important passage for the Commerce of those Provinces that being nearest depended upon it diligently guarded and fortified so that now foreseeing a Siege Monsieur d' Yvoy Brother to Genlis was entered thereinto with two Thousand French foot and four Troops of horse
very divers Some thought it most expedient first of all to make an attempt upon Orleans and to cut off at one blow the head of the Hugonot Faction For the chief of that party being suppressed who were in the Town and the Magazine destroyed all the rest would be overcome with ease and facility But the King of Navarre and the Queen more intent to cast out the English than any thing else thought that Rouen once taken and the aids of England cut off from the Hugonots Orleans would be more easily reduced which for the present they thought very difficult and a work of much time by which the English would have the commodity to confirm their possession and perhaps make themselves Masters of all the Province of Normandy where the Duke of Aumale had so inconsiderable a force that he was not able to make head against them This opinion at last through the Queens inclination prevailed and it was resolved without any delay to go upon that design The situation and commodities of Rouen are admirable For the River Seine upon which it stands rising out of the Mountains in Burgundy and distending it self through the plains of the Isle of France after it joyns with the Matrona commonly called Marne and by the confluence of many other little streams is made deep and Navigable passeth through the midst of the City of Paris and then running with an impetuous torrent quite through Normandy falls with an exceeding wide channel into the Ocean which ebbing and flowing and continually filling and feeding the River with salt water affords spacious room for Vessels of any burthen to ride On the right hand of the mouth where the River at last falls into the Sea over against England stands Havre de Grace a secure large Port which with modern Fortifications being reduced into the form of a Town by King Francis the First serves for a defence against the incursions of the English But in the mid-way between Havre de Grace and Paris near to the place whither the salt waters flow mingled with the fresh about twenty two leagues from the Sea stands the City of Rouen upon the River grown noble rich abundant and populous by the commerce of all Northern Nations From one side of the fortress of Havre de Grace upon the right hand a tongue of land advancing many miles into the Sea makes as it were a spacious Peninsula which the common people call the Country of Caux and in the extreamest point and promontory thereof is Diepe placed directly opposite to the mouth of the Thames a most famous River in England These places which lie so fitly to damage France and to be supplyed by their Fleets the English had made themselves Masters of For though at Diepe and at Rouen French Governours were chosen by the Council of the Confederates yet the Garisons kept there by Queen Elizabeth being very strong they could so curb them that all the rest was absolutely at their dispose The Resolution being taken to besiege Rouen the King and the Queen marching together with the Army in fourteen days arrived at Darnetel at which place less than two leagues distant from the City the whole Camp lodged the 25 day of September The chief Commanders of the Army considering that the body of the City is defended on the one side by the River beyond which there is nothing but the Fauxburg S. Sever and on the other side by S. Catherines Mount upon the top of which is placed an ancient Monastery reduced into the form of a Modern Fortress they thought it best to make themselves Masters of the Mount it appearing very difficult to make any attempt or assault upon the Town it self if they did not first gain the Fort without which flanked and commanded the entrances on all parts Upon this deliberation Sebastien de Luxemburg Signeur de Martigues made Colonel General of the Foot in the place of Randan advanced the night of the 27 of September and sate down under St. Catherines Mount in the great High-way that goes towards Paris which being hollow almost like a Trench covered them in great part from the shot of the Fort. The Count of Montgomery who commanded in the Town in chief with 2000 English and 1200 French Foot four Troops of Horse and more than 100 Gentlemen of quality besides the Citizens having foreseen that the enemy must of necessity first take the out-works besides the old fortifications on the top of the Mount had raised half way up the Hill a Half-moon of earth which having the Fort behind and fronting upon the campaigne might not only hinder the ascent but also flank the walls of the Town and force the Catholick Army to spend much time and lose many men in the taking of it Nor was the effect contrary to what he intended For though Monsieur de Martigues leaving the direct way and ascending in a crooked line advanced by help of the spade between the Fort and the Half-moon to gain the top of the Hill yet the work proceeded with much difficulty and great slaughter of the Souldiers who the more the Foot advanced with their gabions and trenches were so much the more exposed to the Cannon planted upon the Fort to the annoyance of the Musquet shot to the fury of the fireworks and other inventions with which they within very resolutely defended themselves To these main difficulties was added the quality of the weather which being in the beginning of Autumn as it always falls out in those parts was very rainy so as the waters continually falling from the top of the Hill into that low place where the Army lay it was no small inconvenience unto them Likewise the great Sallies the Hugonots made night and day were not of little moment For though they were valiantly sustained so that the success thereof was not very doubtful yet they kept the whole Army in motion and in work Nor were their Horse less diligent than the Foot in their Trenches insomuch as many times the Siege was interrupted and hindered Considering these so great impediments it would have proved a tedious painful business if the negligence or arrogance of the defendants had not rendered it very short and easie For Iean de Hemery Signeur de Villers who afterwards married a Sister of Henry Davila's that wrote this History being upon the guard in the Trenches with his Regiment observed that about noon there was very little stirring in the Fort and that they appeared not in such numbers upon the Ravelins as at other times of the day Wherefore having sent for a Norman Souldier called Captain Lewis who two days before was taken prisoner in a Sally they made out of the Fort he asked him as by way of discourse What was the reason that at certain hours so few of the Hugonots were to be seen upon the Rampart The Souldier not concealing the truth without looking farther what the consequence thereof would be told him that
good order to the assault which being begun with great fierceness by the assailants and received with no less resolution by the Hugonots continued with great slaughter on both sides from twelve of the clock at noon till the evening the Catholicks not being able to make themselves Masters of the wall The night after the assault those of Diepe endeavoured to put succours into the Town to which purpose the Sieur de Corillan being advanced into a wood not far off with four hundred firelocks he thought by the benefit of the night to delude the guards and to steal in at the gate that answers to the lower part of the River But being discovered by Monsieur d' Anville who with his light horse scoured the fields he was with little difficulty defeated and routed and the Town remained hopeless of any aid Wherefore having already so many days sustained such hot skirmishes and the violence of the Cannon and it being therefore known that they within were reduced almost to nothing the twenty sixth of October in the morning about break of day the Catholicks not to lose more time went very fiercely but in good order to make another assault which they of the Town through weariness and weakness being not able to withstand Sancte Coulombe he that took the Bastion upon the Mount was the first with his men that passed the breach and entred into the City right against the Celestines street though mortally wounded and falling upon the place within three days after he ended his life At the same time Villers Regiment forced their passage at another breach and Sarlabous entred at the Street of St. Claire but not without some difficulty by reason of a barricado of cask that was made in the way After these that were the first entred furiously the whole Army and with great slaughter of the Souldiers and Inhabitants sackt the Town in the heat of their anger sparing no persons whatsoever but putting all to the Sword both armed and unarmed only the Churches and things sacred by the great diligence and exact care of the Commanders were preserved from violence The Count of Montgomery when he saw things in a desparate condition and the Town reduced into the power of the enemy getting into one of the Gallies that brought the succours wherein he had before imbarqued his wife and children passing down the River through all the Catholicks Cannon saved himself in Havre de Grace and from thence without delay passed over the Sea into England There saved themselves with him Monsieur de Columbiere and some few of his servants all the rest being left to the discretion of the Conquerour came to divers ends Captain Iean Crose who had introduced the English into Havre de Grace being fallen into the Kings hands was as a Rebel drawn with four Horses Mandreville who from being the Kings Officer carrying his Majesties money with him becamâ— a follower of the English and Augustine Marlorat who from an Augustine Frier turned to be a Hugonot Minister were both condemned to be hanged Many were slain and many remained prisoners in the Army who afterwards redeemed themselves for a ransom The City continued forty eight hours at the mercy of the Souldiers the third day the King making his entry at the breach together with the Parliament and the Queen his Mother who in the heat of the sack sent all her Gentlemen and the Archers of her guard to take care that the women which fled into Churches might not be violated there was an end of the slaughters and rapines committed by the Army which being drawn out of the City quartered in the neighbouring Villages In the mean while the King of Navarre through the pain of his wound finding no rest either in body or mind would by all means imbarque upon the River to go to St. Maure a place near Paris whither by reason of the wholsomness of the Air and privacy he used often for recreation to retire himself and nothing prevailing that the Physicians could say to the contrary he caused himself to be carried into a boat accompanied by the Cardinal his Brother the Princes de la Roche-sur and Ludovico Gonzaga with some few servants amongst which some were Catholicks and others Hugonots and the principal among them Giovan Vicenzo Lauro then a Physician by birth a Calabrian who was afterwards Bishop and Cardinal But he was scarce arrived at Andeli a few leagues from Rouen when through the motion of the journey his feaver increasing upon him he began to lose his senses and in a short time after died He was a Prince as of high birth so of a noble presence and affable behaviour and if he had lived in other times to be remembred amongst the most famous men of his age But the sincerity and candour of mind with which he was indued and his mild tractable disposition in the distractions of a Civil War held him all his life-time in care and pain and many times doubtful and ambiguous in his deliberations For on the one side being drawn by the headlong violent nature of his Brother and spurred on by the ardour of his Faction in which he was the principal person and on the other side restrained by his love of justice and a natural inclination disposed to peace and averse from civil broyls he appeared many times fickle in his resolutions and of a wavering judgment For at the first he was reckoned and persecuted amongst those that fought to disturb the quiet of the Kingdom and afterward was seen head of the contrary Faction bitterly pursuing those that were up in arms And for matters of Religion sometimes through his Wives perswasion and Beza's preaching inclining to the Calvinists party sometimes through the general opinion and the Cardinal of Lorain's eloquence to the Catholick Religion he became mistrusted by both parties and left behind him an uncertain doubtful report of his belief Many were of opinion that being in his heart a Calvinist or rather inclining to that which they call the Augustan Confession yet nevertheless his vast insatiable Ambition withdrew him from that party which perceiving the Prince his Brother through his high spirit and resolution was of much greater reputation amongst them made him chuse rather to be the first among the Catholicks than the second among the Hugonots He died in the two and fortieth year of his age and in such a time when experience had made him so wise as would perhaps have produced effects very contrary to the common opinion that was conceived of him He left behind him his Wife Queen Ieane with the title and relicks of the Kingdom of Navarre and only two children Henry Prince of Bearne then nine years old and the Princess Catarine an Infant who remaining at Pau and Neraâ— with their Mother by whom they were very carefully brought up at the same time received deep impressions of the Hugonot Religion Now whilst so much blood was spilt on both sides
be able to make a bold resistance until the arrival of their Fleet which was coming with great preparations not only to succour that place but also to land men and to infest the borders of the lower Normandy and all the coasts towards the Brittish Sea But the Queen having summoned them by an Herald within the tearm of three days to deliver up the Town which contrary to the Articles of Peace they had unjustly usurped that short time being expired the Army was brought before it and Batteries raised in divers parts Not many days after the Constable arrived at the Camp whose presence added a greater vigour to the Assiegents and however the pains and directions was divided between him and the Mareshal de Brissac all the authority and command remained in the Queen who lodging in the Abby of Fecan rode every day to the Army solliciting the advancement of the siege in such a manner that one of the Towers which stood at the entry of the gate being already taken and Colonel Sarlabous with a good number of Foot lodged therein the Defendants were reduced to great extremities which daily more and more increasing by reason of the heats it being then about the middle of Iuly the Town was infected with such a grievous Plague to which the English through the temper of their bodies and manner of diet are exceeding subject that a horrible mortality consumed in few days the greatest part of their men Wherefore the Earl of Warwick not being able longer to resist the force of the Army and the anger of Heaven at length upon the seventeenth day of Iuly agreed to render himself upon these Conditions That he should freely deliver up Havre de Grace into the hands of the Constable for the use of the most Christian King with all the Artillery and Munition belonging to the French and all the Ships and Merchandize taken or seized upon since the War began That all the prisoners on both sides should be set at liberty without ransom and that the English within the term of six days should transport their arms and baggage without receiving any impediment whatsoever The Capitulation was scarcely confirmed and Hostages given on both parts when the English Fleet consisting of sixty Ships and well furnished with men appeared at Sea steering their course with a very favourable wind directly to the Haven But the Earl of Warwick thinking it dishonourable not to stand to his Capitulation gave notice to the Admiral of the Fleet that the Town was already rendred Wherefore casting anchor till he had received the Souldiers of the Garison aboard when they were all imbarked he set fail again and without making any other attempt returned into England The Queen having with such facility dispatched the strangers she presently applyed all her endeavour to pacifie the troubles of the Kingdom and to reform things in the Government Her intention was since the King was in the fourteenth year of his age to cause him to be declared past his Minority and capable to govern of himself knowing that such a Declaration would take away from the Princes of the Blood and other great Lords the right of pretending or aspiring to the Government and that through the Kings youth and the absolute authority her counsels had over him she should still continue in the same power and administration of the Kingdom But this design was opposed by the opinions and authority of many Councellors and Lawyers who disputed That the King could not be freed from the Government of his Tutors nor have the Rule put into his own hands nor be declared out of Minority if he had not fully finished and altogether accomplished the time prefixed of fourteen years of which he yet wanted many months With the Archives of the Crown that are kept in the Monastery of Monks at St. Dennis amongst the Acts of the Court of Parliament there is a Constitution of Louis the Fifth King of France he that was surnamed the Wise made solemnly in the Parliament of Paris in the year of our Salvation 1363. sealed by the High Chancellor Dormans and subscribed by the Kings Brothers the Princes of the Blood-Royal and a great number of the chief Barons and Lords of the Kingdom by which it is declared That the Kings of France may in the fourteenth year of their age assume to themselves the Government and Administration of the Kingdom But it is not clearly specified whether this Constitution be of force at the beginning or else at the end of the fourteenth year For which reason many Councellors particularly those of the Parliament of Paris perhaps knowing they had greater power during the Minority of the King and therefore desiring to enlarge the time of exercising it affirmed That it could not be said the Pupil was come to the age of fourteen years if he had not fully accomplished them nor could by any means before that time free himself from the obligation of a Minor On the other side the High Chancellor de d' Hospital a man of profound learning and those that favoured the Queens intentions alledged That in matters of honour and dignity they were not to count the minutes of time as is usual in the Reintegration of Pupils the Laws having an aim to be gracious in the favour of those in minority to whom it was a benefit to have the time prolonged before they be setled in their Estates But in confeâ—ring honours it was matter of advantage and favour to abbreviate the term and cut off delays that the space of a few months was of no moment for the confirming the judgment and understanding of a man and that the Laws prescribe the age of fourteen years for a man to remain in his own power These their reasons they proved with the same testimony of the Imperial Laws by which all Christian Potentates are governed and with the clearest and most famous Expositors of them who in the distribution of Honours and Offices have by a common rule practised in civil right ever reckoned the year begun and as they say inchoatus for the year ended and finished But because the Parliament of Rouen had ever shewed it self more obedient to the Kings commands than all the rest and in the late restitution of the City the particular Counsellors thereof had received many special graces and favours from the Queen they resolved to make this Declaration pass in that Parliament rather then expose themselves to the contradiction of the Counsellors of Paris who had gotten a custom to take upon them to moderate by their sentences the Royal Decrees So the King and the Queen after the reduction of Havre de Grace returning with great reputation to Rouen the 15 day of September they went solemnly with all the Court-Lords and Officers of the Crown to the Parliament where in the presence of the Councellours the King took upon him with the wonted Ceremonies the free absolute Government of the Kingdom The
dissentions in the Kingdom That her Son had not failed in his part who though he were young and not accustomed to inconveniences had marched a whole night with a resolution to fight but that which she had formerly feared in the General was fallen out in the Counsellors for the Enemy had time given him she knew not how to pass the Meuse and join with the Germans That all things were running on to ruine and destruction which she had ever so much abhorred for she saw certainly that this body of France losing so much blood on all sides could not escape a violent death That the Siege of Chartres had produced an unavoidable necessity either to hazard the whole Kingdom upon the cast of a Die against an Army of desperate Gamesters or else to endeavour to put an end to these mischiefs by a Peace That by this Capitulation the Germans were again dismissed time given to take breath the Enemy divided the danger removed for the present and the care of the future left to Gods Providence with some lively reasonable hopes at length to attain to the desired end and that one day the candour of her intentions would appear and the justness of her designs But though the Ambassador communicated these reasons to whom he thought good and the Senate ever favouring Peace disliked not this counsel yet the more turbulent Spirits forbore not to find fault with the Accommodation and to make sinister constructions of the Queens intentions Nevertheless those that governed the affairs agreeing upon it and the Capitulation being signed on the 20 of March the Peace was published with these conditions That those of the pretended Reformed Religion should have free exercise of their Religion in all parts of the Kingdom according to the former Act of Pacification and that all Edicts published since to the prejudice thereof should be held as void That the Prince of Conde the Admiral and the rest should not be liable to those sentences which had passed against them the King declaring he was certified whatsoever had been done was with very good intentions and for the publick good That the Hugonot Lords should be restored to their Estates and that they should send away Prince Casimir with his Army the King contributing a certain sum of money towards their payment but before they left the Confines of the Kingdom the King should dismiss all the Swisses the Italian Forces both Horse and Foot and those the Catholick King sent into France That of the money which was disbursed to Casimir part should be held as a gift from his Majesty and the rest be repaid within a certain time by the Prince of Conde and the Hugonots Lastly That all the Commanders and Gentlemen of the Religion might retire whither they pleased enjoying their offices and goods without any let or contradiction Which Agreement being published by the Parliaments the Articles began to be put in execution but neither the one side nor the other proceeded therein with that readiness and candour as was necessary for the quiet of the Kingdom on the contrary both sides endeavouring what they could to hinder it interposed difficulties and impediments upon every the least thing whatsoever for the Hugonot Lords who consented to the Accommodation against their wills though they had dismissed Prince Casimir who having received the pay promised by the King was marched towards Lorain and from thence after much spoil done in the Country retired into his Fathers Dominions yet they came not to an entire restitution of the places but still held Sanserre Montauban Albi Millaud and Castres and the Cities of Rochel denying that they were to submit to a Capitulation made without their consent not only refused to admit the Governour and Garison sent them by the King but prepared with much diligence to defend and fortifie themselves The Prince and the Admiral not daring to go to the Court and much less to remain disarmed were retired the one to Noires and the other to Chastillon and there stood upon their guard to watch for an advantage or to imbrace any occasion whatsoever and still maintained a Negotiation with the Protestant Princes of Germany to enter into a new league and to make new levies Many of the common Souldiers who knew they could not be safe at their own houses and had not wherewithal to live or subsist assembled upon the Confines of Picardy with a pretence to pass into Flanders to aid those that were up in Arms there a thing expresly forbidden and which the King had by divers severe Edicts prohibited but having put themselves under the command of Monsieur de Coccaville they got possession of the Castle of St. Veleri in the County of Caux a place opportunely situated as well for a passage into the Low-Countries as to hold a commerce with England which was conceived they durst not have done without the approbation and incitement of the Prince of Conde and the other Hugonot Lords On the other side the King alledging that all the places were not returned to their obedience neither dismissed the Swisses nor disbanded the Italians but with sundry exceptions and under divers pretences restrained in many things the liberty of Religion granted to the Hugonots who were many of them ill treated by the people and many though in appearance for other reasons punished by the Magistrates and driven out of the Cities At which time the King and the Queen consulted perpetually what course was to be taken to free themselves from these troubles and then was first established and not before that Council which is called the Cabinet Council which consisted not of those persons which by their birth or priviledge of their places are usually admitted but of a few choice men that the King liked to whom he imparted secretly in his own private Chamber his most hidden inward thoughts The first chosen to this confidence besides the Queen-Mother upon whom the deliberations for the most part depended were the Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother the High Chancellor de l' Hospital Lewis de Lansac Iohn de Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans Sebastian de l' Aubespine Bishop of Limoges Henry de Mesmes Seignieur de Malassise the President Renate dâ— Birague and Ville-Roy Secretary of State These consulting together of the present affairs through the diversity of reasons found it a very hard matter what to resolve for taking Arms again the same difficulties would arise which in the greatest fervour of the War made them chuse and conclude a Peace and on the other side it was not possible by policy to put the former counsels in execution for the Heads of the Hugonots were not in any degree disposed to return to their obedience and to make sure of their persons was not at all easie for neither the Prince the Admiral Andelot nor any of the rest the chief amongst them would be perswaded to come to Court but being full of jealousies kept themselves armed in
Wife his Son-in-law and his Daughter were all three of the Hugonot Religion and that he himself held a great correspondence with Teligny destined for the Admirals Son-in-law a young man full of subtilties and dissimulation and therefore liked of by him to marry his Daughter as understanding those arts wherewith he ordinarily governed his actions which jealousie of the High Chancellour grounded only upon report and a general consent prevailed so much with the King that though there were no material proofs against him whereby he could be deprived of his Office yet the King not only put him out but commanded him from the Court and gave the Seals to Monsieur Morvilliers a man of great experience and no less wit who being an Ecclesiastical Person was very averse to the Faction free from any intelligence with the Hugonots and a dependant upon the House of Guise Michael de l' Hospital being removed from the Court and the affairs the King and the Queen desiring to take away all matter that might administer fewel to the fire that was again ready to break out caused an Edict to be published in which they promised to observe the Capitulation and that accordingly a Liberty of Conscience should be tolerated to all those who remaining peaceably in their Houses abstained from Arms and from joining with them who went about under several pretences to stir up the people to Rebellion But not many days after either perswaded by the reasons the Catholicks alledged against this Edict as a means to advance the designs and practices of the Enemy or else seeing that the Hugonots neither restrained by fear nor pacified by the Kings favour were with a general consent and with the same intentions as before gone all to Rochel nor could not with any promises whatsoever be withheld from running furiously to take Arms being willing to satisfie the requests and to confirm the fidelity of the Catholick party which at that time was the main prop of the Royal Authority and desirous likewise to gain the Amity of the Pope Pius Quintus who both by threatning messages and particular graces granted to the King perpetually sollicited the prohibition of the Hugonot Religion and being resolved to declare their affections in this point till then much doubted of by all Christendom caused another Edict to be published in which the King after a long distinct Narration of the indulgence and benignity he had shewed to reduce the Hugonots to a right understanding and after a particular mention of the seditions and conspiracies by which contemning his Majesties grace and goodness they had continually disquieted and molested his Kingdoms bringing in strangers and mortal Enemies to the French Nation to possess and invade the strongest places and most flourishing parts of the Kingdom at length revoking all Edicts published concerning Religion during his minority and nullifying the last Capitulation made pro interim and by way of provision ordained and commanded that the exercise of any Religion whatsoever except the Roman Catholick ever observed by him and the Kings his Predecessors should be prohibited and expresly forbidden and interdicted in all places of the Kingdom banished the Calvinist Ministers and Preachers out of all the Towns and places under his Dominion commanding them upon pain of death within the term of fifteen days to avoid the Kingdom pardoned through special grace all things past in matters of Religion requiring for the future under pain of death a general conformity to the Rites of the Catholick Church and finally ordained that no person should be admitted to any Office Charge Dignity or Magistracy whatsoever if he did not profess and live conformable to the Roman Religion This Constitution being published with an incredible concourse of the Parisians and received with exceeding joy by all the Parliaments gave a clear testimony that the King and Queens intentions had ever been to suppress and destroy the Hugonot party but desired to do it without the noise of War and with as little prejudice to the people or danger of dismembring the Kingdom as was possible Wherefore their arts and dissimulations after so long patience proving all vain at length taking off as the saying is their Mask they declared an implacable War against the followers of the Hugonot Faction They were not less diligent to make provisions for the War than severe and resolute in their decrees For the Duke of Anjou being declared Lieutenant General of all the Provinces presently got an Army together with a resolution immediately to advance into Xaintonge to suppress the Hugonot Forces before they received any succours from other parts or from the Queen of England or the Protestant Princes of Germany On the other side the Prince and the Admiral remembring thâ— success of the late Accommodation had obliged themselves and all the rest by a solemn Oath at Rochel to persevere until death in the defence of their Religion nor ever to condescend to an agreement without the general consent of all the Commanders and sufficient security for the preservation of their lives and to injoy a full Liberty of Conscience After which Covenant thus sworn and established amongst themselves they sent forthwith into England and Germany to procure Aids from thence And because the Admiral a man who by long experience had learned the true discipline knew that food and other necessary provisions are the only means whereby Armies subsist and prosper wherefore he usually said An Army is a certain Monster which begins to be formed by the belly seeing they were shut up in a corner which though fruitful was yeâ— streightned on the one side by the River Loire and on the other by the Mountains which from Languedoc and Gascony extend themselves to the Pirenees perswaded the Prince and the other Chiefs that all manner of care should be used to get store of Corn Money and Munition whereby they might supply their present occasions and the necessities of the ensuing Winter to which end they made ready a Fleet of thirty sail of several kinds and burthen which should scour the Sea and run up into the Rivers robbing Merchants ships and little Towns upon the coasts not only to bring what Corn they could from other places to Rochel but to take what booty they met with in money to supply their present want Nor was this counsel without effect for in the space of a few months having taken many Vessels which without any fear of such an encounter put freely to Sea they got such a considerable Sum as was sufficient to defray the expences of the Army for some time after but they had much more help by the industry of the Queen of Navarre who with often Messages and earnest Letters so sollicited the Queen of England that she disposed her notwithstanding the peace newly made with the most Christian King not only to accommodate the Hugonots with Ships Corn and Munition but with 100000 Crowns also for the payment of their
bring it to a conclusion for the Lady Marguerite partly by her Mothers perswasions partly by her Brothers threatnings partly not to bring her honour in question which already was something doubtfully spoken of though she gave no absolute consent yet denied no more so openly to marry the Prince of Navarre But all these practices being ripe in the beginning of Iune the Queen of Navarre comes to Paris received with so much joy of the whole Court that France had not seen a day of greater rejoycing in many years Two days after arrived the Prince of Navarre and the Prince of Conde accompanied with Count Lodowick the Count de la Roch-fou-cault and all the Trains of the Princes being the chief Commanders Cavaliers and Gentlemen that had held the Hugonot party among which Piles Briquemaut and Pluvialt Colonels who in the course of that War had by their Valour acquired so much glory and renown the Sieur de Guerchy he that defended Sanserre the Marquess de Renel the Sieurs de Noue de Colombiere and Lavardin famous Commanders of Horse and a great many other men of quality and reputation The League Offensive and Defensive was already concluded with the Queen of England Prince Casimir and William his Brother both Sons of the Elector Palatine of the Rhine were already perswaded to receive pensions from the King when the Admiral forgetting all his former jealousies full of incredible pride and intolerable pretensions returned to Court with a great train of his adherents and to put the King upon a necessity of making War with the Spaniard even against his will he so ordered the matter that Count Lodowick and the Sieurs de Genlis and de la Noue who were gotten to the confines of Picardy where a great many Hugonot Gentlemen and Souldiers were privately drawn together suddenly surprized the City of Mons in the County of Heinault a principal place and of very great importance to the Provinces of Flanders which rashness though it inwardly much troubled the Kings mind yet with admirable patience seeming very well pleased with he thereby took occasion presently to dispatch Philippo Strozzi with a great many old Companies into places near about Rochel under pretence of imbarking them in Ships that were made ready in that Port to pass them over to those coasts of the Low-Countries which were held by the Confederates of Flanders but indeed they were to be ready upon all occasions to surprize and possess themselves of that City as soon as the present designs were brought to maturity Thus with cunning policies they went deluding the subtilties of the Admiral who held in the highest esteem as Arbitrator of the Court and Government seemed alone to rule the Genius and direct the will of the King of France And because to begin a War of so great moment it appeared necessary to take away the obstacle of civil discords the King earnestly intreated the Admiral that the enmities between him and the House of Lorain might by some means or other be accommodated which was propounded for no other end but because the help of the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Aumale and the forces of the Catholick party were necessary for the execution of the designs that were in agitation they sought that colour to bring them to the Court without suspicion of the Hugonots Under this pretence the Lords of the House of Lorain being come to Paris with all the train of their Faction they promised as also did the Admiral in the presence of the King that they would no more offend one another referring all their differences either to his Majesties arbitrement or to the opportunity of other times when the King and his Council should think fit by which ambiguous promises the inveterate hatred and enmity which had so many years continued between them and which was the original cause of all the present miseries and troubles seemed rather smothered for a time than utterly extinguished But now matters were not only brought to the point intended but the execution of them could no longer be deferred for on the one side the Ambassador of the Catholick King after the taking of Mons had not only left the Court but was also gone out of the Kingdom and on the other side the Hugonots without expecting further order or Commission tumultuously ran to the aid of their adherents with too great boldness and too dangerous commotions whereby contrary to the Kings intentions the War with the Spaniards was kindled in the Confine of his Kingdom The first thunderbolt of so great a tempest fell upon the Queen of Navarre who being a Woman and a Queen they thought fittest to take her away by poison administred as was reported in the perfume or trimming of a pair of Gloves but in such secret manner and in such just proportion that having worn them a while a violent Feaver seised upon her which ended her life within four days She was a Lady of a most high spirit and invincible courage much above the condition of the female sex by which vertues she not only bore up the degree and estimation of a Queen though she had no Kingdom but assaulted by the persecutions of so many and so powerful Enemies she sustained the War most undauntedly and finally in the greatest dangers and most adverse fortune of her party she built up that greatness of her Son from whence as from the first root in after years sprung forth the exaltation of his State and the renowned glory and immortality of his Name qualities besides her chastity and magnificence worthy eternal praise if thinking it lawful for her without the help of learning to search into and expound the deepest mysteries in Divinity she had not obstinately persisted in the opinions of Calvinism Queen Iane being dead because the Hugonots began to suspect something by that so unexpected accident the King knowing that the poyson had only wrought upon her brain caused the body to be cut up in open view the parts whereof being all very sound the head under colour of respect was left untouched and the testimony of skilful Physicians divulged that through the malignity of her Feaver she died of a Natural Death After her Funeral her Son assumed the Arms and Title of King of Navarre but his Marriage with the Kings Sister was deferred for a few days not to mingle joy unseasonably with that grief for which the King himself and the whole Court had put on mourning about which time the Citizens of Rochel constant in not trusting any body not willing to return unto the Kings obedience but fortifying continually and even in the midst of Peace providing all things necessary for War perswaded the Prince and the Admiral to retire from the Court which exhortations as well of the Rochellers as those of Geneva and others of that party were more earnestly reiterated after the Queen of Navarre's death every one thinking that so sudden an
Office and was of great authority among the people they fell a killing the Hugonots throughout all the lodgings and houses where they were dispersed and made an infinite slaughter of them without any distinction of age sex or condition All the people were up in arms under the Masters of the Parishes and candles were lighted in every window so that without confusion they might go from house to house executing the directions they had received but though those that commanded were very diligent about it yet could they not take so good order but that many of the Catholicks either through publick hatred or private spleen were slain amongst the rest as Denis Lambin and Peter Ramus men very famous for learning and divers others The Louvre was kept shut all the day following and in the mean time the King and Queen comforted the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde alledging that they were constrained to do that which the Admiral had so often endeavoured and had still a purpose to do to them but they whose errours were excused by their youth and pardoned for their nearness of alliance were reserved alive and should for the future be loved and cherished so they would but profess the Catholick Religion acknowledging and yielding obedience to the King to which words the King of Navarre serving the time and dissembling that which could not be helped being resolved to preserve himself for a better fortune answered with very great complyance That he was ready to obey the Kings will and commandment wherewith Charles being very well pleased to gratifie him saved the lives of the Count de Granmont and Monsieur Duras who as they promised served him faithfully ever after But the Prince of Conde either through the inconsiderateness of his age or a natural fierceness derived from his Ancestors in his answer made shew of opposing the Kings commands saying He desired only that no violence might be used against his Conscience whereat the King exceedingly displeased reproved him bitterly often calling him insolent mad stubborn Traitor Rebel and Son of a Rebel and threatned to take away his life if he did not within three days turn Catholick and give evident signs of his repentance so guards were placed both upon him and the King of Navarre all their chief Servants being taken from them and presently cut in pieces in whose places new ones were provided by the King according to his own mind Those Hugonots that were lodged in the Fauxburg St. Germain beyond the Seine among which were the Count de Montgomery and the Visdame of Chartres who presaging some mischief would not remove to the Admirals quarter when they heard the noise the Parisians not making haste enough to hinder their passage instantly fled but were followed by the Duke of Guise who at break of day passed the water with a great many Horse and Foot and being overtaken some without shooes some without arms some without saddles some without bridles but all equally unable to make resistance were scattered and cut off except the Count of Montgomery and the Visdame of Chartres who with about ten in company saved themselves and after many difficulties getting unknown unto the Sea side escaped over into England There were killed in the City that day and the next above 10000 whereof above 500 were Barons Knights and Gentlemen who had held the chiefest imployments in the War and were now purposely met together from all parts to honour the King of Navarve's Marriage Monsieur de Briquemaut and Arnauld Cavagnes were taken prisoners and by sentence of the Parliament were afterwards quartered as Rebels The Admirals body was pulled out of the stable and cruelly abused by the fury of the common people who detesting his very name tore his head from his shoulders cut off his hands and dragging him thorow the streets to Montfaucon the place of execution left him hanging by one of his feet upon the Gallows and a few days after all the people rejoycing at it they set fire on the same Gallows half burning it their barbarous cruelty finding no end till two Servants of the Mareshal de Momorancy stole away the relicks of his miserable carcase and buried them secretly at Chantilly Thus died Gasper de Coligny the Admiral whose name for the space of twelve years had with no less fame than terrour filled the Kingdom of France an evident example to the whole world how ruinous and sudden the end useth to be of those who not considering any thing but their own interests think by subtile cunning practices to establish a lasting greatness upon the sole foundation of humane wisdom for it is not to be doubted but that he bred up from his youth in the chief Commands of War and brought by his valour and conduct to the highest pitch of honour would have equalled if not exceeded all other Souldiers of his time and have attained to the degree of Constable and all the greatest Offices in that Kingdom if against the authority of his Prince he had not chosen to exalt himself by factions and civil dissentions since that the clear lights of his industry valour constancy and above all a marvellous ability in managing the greatest designs shined forth even in the deepest obscurity of discords and insurrections The day after the Admirals death the Duke of Anjou going from the Louvre accompanied by the Regiment of the guards went thorow all the City and Suburbs causing those houses to be broken open that made any resistance but all the Hugonots were either already dead or else being terrified had put white crosses in their hats which was the general mark of the Catholicks endeavouring by that means and by hiding themselves to save their lives but being pointed at in the streets by any one or discovered any other way they were without mercy torn in pieces by the people and cast into the River The day before this terrible execution the King dispatched posts into divers parts of the Kingdom commanding the Governours of Cities and Provinces to do the like but this Commission was performed with more or less severity according to their several inclinations for the same night at Meaux and the days ensuing at Orleans Rouen Bourges Angiers Tholouze and many other places but above all at Lyons there was a most bloody slaughter of the Hugonots without any respect of age sex or quality of persons on the other side in those places where the Governours were either dependents on the Princes or followers of the Family of Momorancy the order was but slowly and remisly executed and in Provence the Count of Tende refused openly to obey it for which cause being within a while after at the City of Avignon he was secretly made away and as it was believed by the Kings Commission Most sad and lamentable stories might be here related for this cruelty was prosecuted in so many several places with such variety of accidents against people of all
cost pains nor danger but using all military force and industry to storm it yet the Citizens and Souldiers and even the very women as well as men defended it with admirable valour and constancy sustaining for a long time the force and power of a whole Kingdom and holding out against hunger and famine no less than against the assaults and batteries of the Enemy Amongst the various events of this Siege Monsieur de la Noue had opportunity to regain the Kings favour and get leave to live privately at his own house for while the Council of the Citizens treated of yielding to that force which they saw they could not much longer resist he being fallen into a contestation with some of the Ministers whose authority was infinite over the minds of the common people and who without any regard to reason exhorted them still to constancy one of them named la Place was so bold and inconsiderate that after having basely abused him and many times called him Traitor he insolently offered with his hand to strike him in the face which injury though he seemed to pass by for quietness sake and though the Minister was kept in prison many days for a mad man yet inwardly it troubled him very much and moreover foreseeing that at the arrival of the Count Montgomery who was expected with supplies from England the chief command would be taken from him and conferred upon the Count with whom by reason of an ancient emulation he had no very good correspondence he resolved within himself to leave the Town and the next day sallying out of the works as he often used to skirmish with the Enemy he went over with some few in his company to the Duke of Anjou's camp making that pass for the fulfilling of his promise to the King which upon new considerations he resolved to do either for revenge of the affront he had received or for the securing of his own safety which he saw exposed to the calumnies and practices of the Ministers But whatsoever the motive was his example was followed by a great many Gentlemen and Officers yet all that shaked not the perseverance of the Citizens nor abated the courage of the Souldiers supporting with gallant resolution the furious bloody assaults which night and day were made against them on every side and enduring with constancy of mind the great scarcity of victual and the perpetual duty which they were forced to undergo without intermission For towards the Sea were raised two Forts one at the point called de Coreille the other over against it in the place which they call Port-neuf which being mann'd with a thousand Souldiers were kept by Captain Cossein and Captain Gas each with fifteen pieces of Cannon and between them a great Carack was fastened at anchor which furnished with Culverins shot into the mouth of the Haven and hindred the entrance into it so that by continual industry it was blocked up on that side and on the other toward the Land all the Princes and Lords of the Army had divided the work among them in such manner that the Trenches and Redoubts touched one another every where not did they cease to redouble their assaults every hour and yet the resistance of those within equalled the courage and industry of those that were without The valour and constancy of the Defendants was much increased by the intelligence which they secretly received from their friends which were in the Camp for not only among the private Souldiers but also among those that commanded there were some that did not desire the destruction of Rochel nor the extirpation of the Hugonot Faction and Byron who commanded the Artillery following his former intentions did with great dexterity as many were of opinion delay the progress of the Batteries and strengthened the resolution of the besieged But for all these arts their most constant Citizens and most valiant Souldiers were already consumed the hopes of relief from England and Germany were vanished of themselves for the Protestant Princes perswaded by Gaspar Count of Schombergh who was sent to them by the King had resolved not to interpose in the commotions of France there being now no Prince of the Blood who with his authority and supplies of money might maintain the War and the Queen of England to whom the King had sent Alberto Gondi for the same cause had refused to send them either men or shipping and the Count de Montgomery being departed to relieve the besieged with a good number of ships but ill mann'd and armed though with much ado he got a ship of Ammunition to enter the Haven yet being chased by the Kings Fleet and despairing to do any more good in the business he made out to Sea laid aside all thoughts of raising the siege or relieving the City now brought to extremity and only as a Pyrate annoyed the coasts of Britagne and Normandy Their victuals were likewise quite spent and their ammunition almost all wasted and on the other side though the Duke of Anjou in a siege of so many months had lost the Duke of Aumale killed in the Trenches with a Cannon-shot an infinite number of Gentlemen and Officers and above twenty thousand Souldiers killed and dead of the sickness and the Duke of Anjou himself whilst he was viewing the works wounded though but lightly in the neck in the side and in the left hand by a Harquebuze a croc charged with tarling had more need of rest than continual action yet neither the fierceness nor frequency of the assaults were at all allayed but there arriving daily new forces at the Camp among which six thousand Swisses newly entered into pay the siege grew rather streighter and the service hotter than at first so that the City was reduced to an impossibility of holding out longer and would at last have been taken by force and utterly ruined by the King if a new far-fetcht occasion had not saved it and prevented its so imminent destruction There had been a treaty many months before of electing the Duke of Anjou to be King of Poland the hope whereof being begun in the life of Sigismund Augustus King of that Kingdom with this proposition That the Duke taking Anne the Kings Sister to Wife should by the States of those Provinces be declared Successour to the Crown after his death it was much increased for though Ernest Arch-Duke of Austria Son to the Emperour and Sigismond King of Sweden were both Competitors in the same design yet neither of them seemed comparable for valour and glory to the Duke of Anjou whose name by reason of his many victories flew through all parts of Europe with a most clear same of singular vertue and renown The King of France applyed his mind wholly to that end and much more the Queen-Mother for the infinite love she bore to that Son and therefore they neither spared money promises pains nor industry necessary to effect that business which being brought very
Power which being voluntarily given him at the first he afterwards confirmed upon himself by his own courage and renowned Victories For all these reasons the King refusing him the Title and Power of his Lieutenant-General his Mother began to entertain him with other hopes of procuring for him some free State as they had done for his Brother propounding to him a marriage with the Queen of England or the command of the States of Flanders which had shaken off their obedience to the Catholick King the Treaties concerning both which were begun more out of a design to feed him with hopes and to keep him in good correspondence united with his Brother than out of any grounded reason or belief that either of them could be effected But his hasty impatient nature gave no leisure to her politick delays for as soon as the Hugonots and Male-contents knew that he was spitefully enraged at this repulse and that his mind was ready to attempt new designs with a common consent they offered him the command of all their party telling him that he might by that means create unto himself a more free and absolute Power than that which his Brother had injuriously refused him The King of Navarre consented to this deliberation having from the beginning sought some opportunity to advance his own fortune and to free himself from that imprisonment rather than subjection which he lived in under the King and Queen his Brother and Mother-in-law besides disagreeing and displeased with his Wife he hoped by those tumults and changes to remedy all those inconveniencies and open some way to his own greatness or at least to his liberty which by nature he was very much inclined to The Prince of Conde consented to it likewise being well assured to have great Authority among the Hugonots if they by any means could rise again whereas by reason of his Fathers memory he was much depressed among the Catholicks but above all the rest this design was approved by the three Mareshals de Cosse Momorancy and d' Anville the Heads of the Male-contents knowing that they should sway and moderate the will of the Duke d' Alancon who unable to govern of himself would doubtless give them the same power the Admiral had in the minority of the Princes of Bourbon After many contrivances and consultations the web of the business was laid by them in this manner That the Duke of Alancon should suddenly and privately depart the Court and that for his more secure retreat some Troops of Hugonot Cavalry which were drawing together should secretly go to meet him That the Mareshals of Momorancy and Cosse should go along to advise and counsel him in his actions That the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde should get secretly away within two days after and follow them the same way That the Mareshal d' Anville Governour of Languedoc should go into that Province a while before and draw cunningly to himself the absolute power of those places gather as many of the Nobility as he could and endeavour the same in Guienne and the parts adjacent by means of his Nephew the Viscount de Turenne and of his Brother-in-law the Duke of Vantadour to the end that the Princes departing from the Court might have a secure place to retire unto and also Forces to defend themselves to these grave solid resolutions were joined also light youthful follies by some Servants of the Duke d' Alancon proposing by witchcrafts and inchantments to take away the Kings life who already was in great danger by reason of his sickness and he being dead and the King of Poland far off to settle the Duke d' Alancon in the Crown with these various designs the taking up of Arms was again endeavoured The Mareshal d' Anville went into Languedoc with the Kings consent under colour of visiting his Government and there began craftily to sound the minds of the Gentry and of the Governours of places but as a man of great wariness and discretion doubting his plots might be discovered he sent Chartier his Secretary unto the King and Queen-Mother shewing that he treated with the Hugonots of Nismes Montpelier and other places to reduce them to his Majesties obedience and that if men of trust might be sent to treat he hoped with honourable conditions to bring them unto an absolute subjection with which hopes the King being moved presâ—ntly dispatched Monsieur de S. Sulpice and Secretary Villeroy to treat jointly with d' Anville about the reducing of the Hugonots but he having by this artifice gotten a liberty of treating with the Hugonots without being suspected at Court when he heard the Kings Commissioners were arrived at Avignon he sent the same Chartier to let them know that matters not being yet ripe it would be best for them to stay there a while and defer their coming to him till he had setled a surer foundation for that business So holding the Commissioners in hand and in the mean time treating in every place he went by little and little opening his way to an absolute Authority in Languedoc and the same did the Viscount de Turenne and the Duke de Vantadour in other places But while the rest not managing their business so cunningly as d' Anville spread these designs abroad by discovering them to the Hugonots thorow all the Provinces of the Kingdom and that Coconas and la Mole passing yet further conspired the Kings death and the usurpation of the Kingdom the Duke of Alancon inconstant in his resolutions and of a mind very unfit for so great an enterprise imprudently gave some suspicion of it to his Mother and while by her wonted arts she sounds the depths of those secret treaties and searcheth the bottom of those designs the Hugonots impatient of delay perfected the discovery of the plot for the Duke having given them notice that he with the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde intended to leave the Court and retire into the places of their party there to declare himself Protector of the Reformed Religion and of the Male-contents of the Kingdom they not staying for a more mature advice nor a more fitting opportunity appeared unexpectedly upon Shrove-tuesday to the number of about two hundred Horse running up and down armed under the command of the Sieur de Guitry near unto St. Germains where the Court then was to secure the passage of the Princes who were secretly to leave the Court at the news whereof the Duke of Alancon and his Counsellors frighted and dismayed because their designs were not yet ripe and not thinking that small number of Hugonots sufficient to execute their deliberations were so different and unresolved in their opinions that they stirred not at all and the King and Queen now certain of what they before suspected retiring with all speed to Paris imprisoned the Duke d' Alancon the King of Navarre and all his Counsellors and dependents as also the Mareshals of Cosse and Momorancy with many others
whom they thought privy to their designs Only the Prince of Conde and Monsieur de Tore escaped fleeing first to those places which belonged to the Prince in Picardy and from thence without delay unto the Hans Towns of Germany which adhered to the Protestant party The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre either trusâ—ed to their nearness of Blood or to shift off the fault of this conspiracy from themselves and lay it as the custom is upon the weakest confessed freely that they had been sollicited to depart from Court and become Heads of the Hugonots and Male-contents and that sometimes they had lent an ear to those motions rather to discover the intents of those Seducers than out of any desire to adhere unto them and that they waited an opportunity to discover the whole plot unto the King as soon as they were fully informed of it and that in the mean time the Duke had given some hint of it though but obscurely to his Mother which might serve to prove the sincerity of their intentions upon the ground of these confessions which contained many particulars the accomplices of meaner quality being kept close and strictly examined la Mole about whom were found certain Images of the King in Wax encompassed with inchantments charms and other fooleries the Count de Coconas convicted of many crimes and divers others were condemned to die the Mareshals of Momorancy and Cosse to the great satisfaction of the Parisians were put into the Bastile and for the Princes it sufficed only by a Declaration to manifest unto the World that it was never their intention to alienate themselves from the Kings obedience nor to offend his Person in any manner whatsoever much less to make themselves Heads and Protectors of the factious and seditious party of the Kingdom but that it had been falsly and cunningly divulged by men of turbulent malicious Spirits to stir up and seduce the people under that pretence a thing utterly disallowed and detested by them who desired that such rebellious and seditious persons might be brought to condign punishment that by their sufferings the fuel might be taken from that fire with which they had endeavoured to inflame the Kingdom After which Declaration they were nevertheless not restored unto their former condition but on the one side were used as Kinsmen and on the other with diligent guards were kept as Prisoners Those that make a sinister interpretation of all the actions of Princes say That the Duke of Alancon had no other end but to make himself King after the death of his Brother which he saw drew near and that the counsels of the Mareshals and his other adherents aimed at that very mark but that the Queen-Mother who loved the King of Poland much better and under his Reign promised her self the absolute Government made the business seem different from the truth and caused the King to imprison the Princes and the Mareshals to secure the Kingdom to the true Successour which was the King of Poland whose Reign was abhorred by all those that were Enemies to the House of Guise 〈◊〉 had any dependance upon the Hugonots These matters whatsoever they were or from what cause soever derived happened in the beginning of the Year 1574. a Year destined to renew the old wounds of France for toward the latter end of March and all the month of April following the Hugonots already up in Arms by reason of the late designs and suspecting themselves to be discovered the fomenters of that Conspiracy breaking again the bridle of all respect attempted every where to surprise Forts Castles and Cities and as if the business at St. Germains had succeeded just according to their own desires they ran hastily without stop to the taking up of Arms in all Provinces and that with so much the greater boldness and security because they were freed from the general fear they were wont to have of the valour and celerity of the King of Poland whom they had to their exceeding loss found to be so resolute and powerful an Enemy The first commotion was begun by Monsieur de la Noue who staying in Poictou gathered Forces suddenly and possessed himself of Lusignan Fontenay and Mesle and with the help of the Rochellers raised and disordered the whole Country shewing manifestly by that action that neither his desire of peace nor his promise made to the King had caused him to leave Rochel when it was besieged but trouble for the affront he had received from the Ministers and fear lest the Citizens should confer the chief Command upon the Count Montgomery The signal of War being as it were given by this Insurrection it was followed by many others in Daulphine Province Gascogne and Languedoc every private Captain and every Gentleman among the Hugonots endeavouring with his own Forces to seise upon some strong place from whence robbing and pillaging all the Country cutting off passages laying taxes upon the people and plundering the rich houses they in a few days brought the whole Kingdom of France into great confusion But a more dangerous fire was kindled on the Sea-coasts of Normandy for the Count Montgomery after he was hindred by the Kings Fleet from relieving Rochel being returned into England and recruited landed in the Country which they call le Pays de Constantine belonging to the Province of Normandy but bordering upon Bretagne where being welcomed by the Hugonots and the discontented party of that place in a few days he made himself Master of Danfront Carentane St. Lo and Valognes and seditious people running to him from all parts as to a Head of great Authority it was beginning to be doubted that Queen Elizabeth invited by this opportunity though she made shew not at all to favour or assist the Count had resolved once again to set foot in that Province just over against her Kingdom which in times past had long been in possession of the Kings of England her Predecessors At the so freqâ—ent news of these tumults and insurrections the King who by nature was very cholerick brake forth into such terrible rage and fury that his sickness became daily more violent and dangerous wherefore neither having strength of body nor ability of mind to undergo so weighty a business often changing and varying his resolutions by that uncertainty gave them that were up in Arms far greater opportunity to increase their Forces which as soon as he perceived his disease which could find no remedy still continuing he resolved to refer the whole business to the counsel and authority of his Mother ever giving order and directions to take sharp severe courses which could hardly be done because the condition of the present affairs would not permit that Armies and Governments should be trusted in the hands of any but persons of great maturity and long experience who by reason of their age and gravity were averse from bloody violent resolutions wherefore the Queen being brought into great
a while before was chosen High Chancellor in the place of Michael de l' Hospital already dead had passed the Patents for these matters and registred them in the Parliament the King recommending the Peace of his Kingdom to his Council and his little Daughter the only Child which he had by the Queen his Wife and Charles his Bastard Son who was yet a Child unto the care of his Mother with grave and pious discourses having dismissed all those that were present he held his Mother still fast by the hand and ended the course of his troublesom Reign upon the Thirtieth day of May before he was full Five and Twenty years of age leaving his Kingdom after the revolution of so many Wars in no less danger and confusion than he had found it in Fourteen years before when he came a Child unto the Crown The End of the Fifth BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The SIXTH BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Sixth Book contains the Arts used by the Queen Regent to hold matters in suspence till the coming of the King Henry the Third out of Poland He departs secretly from that Kingdom and passing through Italy comes to Turin The Queen sends thither to inform him of the affairs of France and thither also comes the Mareshal d' Anville The King denies to resolve upon any thing till he have conferred with his Mother he restores those places to the Duke of Savoy which for security had till then been kept from him He passes at Pont Beauvoysin is met by the Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre by him they are set at liberty He meets the Queen his Mother and they enter the City of Lyons The Kings designs and ends to which he intends to direct the course of his Government are particularly set down he desires Peace and to procure it resolves to make War coldly He treats of Marriage and resolves to take to Wife Louyse of Lorain Daughter to the Count de Vaudemont He is Crowned at Rheims and there marrieth her He labours to get his Brother elected King of Poland but he is put beside it The War continues in the mean time and Mombrun Head of the Hugonots in Daulphine is defeated taken and executed The King alters the manner of Government to lessen the Authority of the Great Ones The Duke of Alancon deprived of the hopes of Poland and not being able to obtain the Title of Lieutenant-General flees from Court and becomes Head of the Politicks and Hugonots All the other Lords of that party put themselves under him and the Prince of Conde sends him great Supplies out of Germany which passing through Champaigne are routed and dispersed by the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mother goes to confer with the Duke of Alancon and concludes a Truce in the mean time the King of Navarre leaves the Court flees into Guienne and declares himself Hugonot The Prince of Conde advanceth with the German Army and at Moulins joins with the Duke of Alancon The Queen returns and concludes a Peace but with such exorbitant Conditions that all the Catholicks are offended at it The Duke of Guise and his Brothers lay hold of the occasion declare themselves Heads of the Catholick party and make a League to oppose the Establishment of the Hugonots the grounds and progress of that League are related The King of Navarre thereupon pretending that the Catholicks began first by the means of the Prince of Conde takes up Arms. The King assembles the States General in the City of Blois to settle things in order but after several attempts and contrivances they break up without concluding any thing The King desires Peace but seeing the Hugonots inclined to War raises two Armies against them The Duke of Alancon with one of them takes la Charite Isoire and other places the Duke of Mayenne with the other takes Thone-Charente and Marans From War they come to a Treaty of Agreement Peace is concluded and the Queen-Mother goes to confer with the King of Navarre to make it the stronger The King intent upon the design of his hidden thoughts imploys his time wholly in Religious Exercises assumes all Offices to himself and disposes of them to his Favourites among whom the Dukes of Joyeuse and Espernon are especially exalted by him He Institutes a new Order of Knighthood called du S. Esprit The Queen-Mother goes from the King of Navarre and visits a great part of the Kingdom The Duke of Alancon to obtain Queen Elizabeth in Marriage goes over into England is much honoured but notwithstanding publick demonstrations nothing is determined The Hugonots renew the War the Prince of Conde takes la Fere in Picardy and the King of Navarre possesseth himself of Cahors and other places The King dispatcheth several Armies against them by which la Fere is recovered but little done in other places The Duke of Alancon being returned into France interposes and settles the Peace again He goes into Flanders to command the States that had cast off their Obedience to the Crown of Spain does little good there returns into France and dies THE death of Charles the Ninth happening just at that time when the remedies used by him to purge the humours of his Kingdom were in the height of their operation He left not only all parts of France in great disorder and confusion but also the state of the Crown in exceeding danger and uncertainty by the subversion or at least weakning of all the foundations of the Government For besides the lawful Successour so far distant in a strange Country who if he had been present might by assisting at the Helm in a time of so great peril have steered and moderated the doubtful troublesom course of the Commonwealth all the Instruments of Rule and Power were also either very much weakned or utterly perverted and even those means which usually maintain and preserve others were universally bent to the distraction and ruine of that Kingdom The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre nearest of the Blood Royal and by that prerogative chief of the Council of State were held as guilty of a most hainous crime and straitly guarded as prisoners The Prince of Conde though very young yet of an ancient reputation by the same of his Ancestors not only absent and fled from Court but protected by the favour of the Protestant Princes and ready by foreign Forces to bring in new Inundations The Hugonots up in Arms in every Province and manifestly intent by all means possible to surprise and possess the chiefest Cities and Fortresses Many of the greatest Lords some secretly some openly were alienated and divers of those who had most experience in affairs most authority with the people and most reputation in war were already if I may use that word Cantonized in their several Provinces and Governments the Treasury empty or rather destroyed the Gentry wearied and impoverished the Militia wasted and consumed the people
side desiring that the King of Navarre should be repressed but not utterly suppressed because he would not cast the Scale so much on that side and make the Faction of the Guises Superior which had no other counterpoise so proper as his party he sent Armand Mareschal de Byron to the end that by his old inclinations he might proceed very warily in opposing it And being necessitated to employ some one of the Lorain Princes by reason of the power of the House of Guise to which it was requisite to bear a convenient respect and because he would not utterly alienate those of the Catholick League he made choice of Charles Duke of Mayenne for Dauphine as well because he esteemed him to be of a more setled nature then his Brother as out of a belief the business of those parts was very easie and of but small consequence Nor did the effect differ from the Kings expectation for Monsieur d' Matignon having besieged la Fere from whence the Prince of Conde was already departed and gone into England he within a small time recovered it though not without some blood The Duke of Mayenne having taken la Mure and put the Hugonots of that Province in a very great terror did not onely reduce the Gentry and Commons to obedience but also the Sieur des Diguieres himself And the Mareschal de Byron having about Nerac defeated some Companies of Gens d' armes and taken many weak places in Guienne at last his horse falling under him and his thigh being hurt in two places he drew his Army into Quarters without any further progress So that the King of Navarre not being able to keep the Field nor undertake any design by reason of the opposition of the King's Army yet shewing much more courage than strength maintained himself still in Armes with actions of small importance In this interim the Duke of Alancon being returned out of England full of hopes by the Queens promises but without any certainty of the future Match and preparing for the journey of Flanders interposed between the King his Brother and the King of Navarre his Brother-in-law to settle businesses in the former Concord fearing that if the War should break forth in good earnest in France he should not then be able to draw those helps from thence which he expected for the accomplishment of his design wherefore being gone personally to Libourne and la Freche Towns in the County of Foix whither also came the King of Navarre and on the Kings part the Duke of Montpensier the Mareschal de Cosse and Pompone Sieur de Bellieure he wrought so far that he brought the business to a good conclusion for the King by nature was inclined to it and the King of Navarre besides the smallness of his Forces and the ill success of his late enterprises had no hopes at all of any assistance from abroad the Prince of Conde who went into England and thence into the Low-Countries and after into Germany found all their mindes intent upon the business of Flanders weary of the instability of the French Hugonots and unsatisfied at the taking up of Arms without any lawful occasion whilst the King living in peace observed punctually the Conditions of the Agreement wherefore having no hope of aid and not daring to set up his rest within the Kingdom the former Articles were willingly accepted by him and the Edict of the late Peace confirmed as also the Conference held at Nerac with the Queen and in this manner Armes were laid down again and all things were composed in a peaceful way The Civil broils being quieted two different enterprises kept all France in action That of the Duke of Alancon who with the tacite permission of his Brother prepared himself to go into the Low-Countries against the Catholick Kings Forces under the Command of Alessandro Fernese Prince of Parma And that of the Queen-mother by occasion of the Kingdom of Portugal For the King Sebastian being dead in the War of Affrica and after him King Henry Cardinal without sons among many others who pretended to that Crown the Queen-mother as heir of the House of Bologne and descended in a right line from Robert the son of Alfonso the third and the Countess Matilda his first and lawful Wife pretended also to that succession alleadging that all the Kings who had reigned since Alfonso being descended from Beatrice which could not be the lawful Wife but the Concubine of Alfonso Matilda being yet alive were illegitimate and because by reason of her being so far distant and many other respects she thought her self not so powerful in Forces as some of the other Competitors she pretended that the business was to be decided by the way of Justice without coming to force of Arms. But the King of Spain out of a confidence of his power and nearness having in the mean time usurped that Kingdom with an Army and causing himself by the Governors thereof to be proclaimed the lawful Successor the Queen joyning Counsels with Anthonio Prior of Crato who pretended to the same Kingdom but had been put beside it by the Spaniards set forth a mighty Navy under the command of Filippo Strozzi against King Pâ—ilip to relieve the Tercera's Islands in the Ocean Sea belonging to that Kingdom which were yet held by Anthonio and to make new acquisitions if they could land upon the Coasts near the City of Lisbon The death of Strozzi the dispersing of that Navy and other things that happened in that business I leave to those Authors that shall write the History of Portugal it not being necessary to enlarge this Narration and make it more prolix by the addition of forraign matters that little or nothing concern the knowledge of the French affairs The same silence and for the same reason I observe in the business of Flanders whither the Duke of Alancon having with the Kings tacite consent levied a very great Army went the following year being 1581 to relieve the City of Cambray and after he had succoured it and reduced it into his power passed on with greater Force into the Low-Countries to receive the Title and Possession of those States which having withdrawn themselves from obedience to the Catholick King had put themselves under him with certain limited conditions Nor did the King of Spain and the Pope fail by means of their Ambassadors to complain of the King of France as well for what concerned the Duke of Alancon as because Antonio of Portugal was received into France and by the Queen-mothers attempts abetted in his pretensions to that Kingdom But he answered the Ambassadors and by means of his Agents at Rome and in Spain excused himself to both That Antonio had been received by his Mother and assisted as her Vassal she her self pretending to the Crown of Portugal That the Fleet which had been set forth was made ready at her own charges without his knowledge or consent and though it should be
upheld that it is exceeding necessary to make some wise and speedy provision against them for the avoiding of those very apparent inconveniencies the calamities whereof are already known unto all the remedies to few and the manner of applying them almost to none and so much the rather because one may easily judge by the great preparations and practices every where the raising of Souldiers as well without as within the Kingdom the withholding of Towns and strong places which long ago should have been delivered up into his Majesties hand that we are very near the effects of their evil intentions being sufficiently informed that not long since they have sent to treat with the Protestant Princes of Germany for the procuâ—ing of Forces to the end that they may more easily oppress all good men as their designs aim at no other end but to secure and possess themselves of necessary means to destroy the Catholick Religion which is the common interest of all especially of the Great Ones who have the honour to hold the first and chiefest Offices and Dignities of this Kingdom and whom they labour to ruine in the Kings life-time nay more by his authority to the end that there being no body left who for the time to come can be able to oppose their desires they may more easily work that change of the Catholick Religion which they endeavour to enrich themselves with the Patrimony of the Church following the example of what hath been done in England Moreover all the world knows very well and plainly sees the actions and deportments of some who having insinuated themselves into the favour of the King our Sovereign whose Majesty hath ever been and shall be to us most holy and sacred have in a manner totally possessed themselves of his authority to maintain that greatness which they have usurped favouring and advancing by all means possible the effects of those aforesaid changes and pretensions and have had both the boldness and the power to remove from the private conversation of his Majesty not only the Princes and Nobility but all that naturally are most near unto him not admitting any but such as are their own dependents wherein they have advanced so far that none of them now have any part in the Government and Administration of the State nor the whole power belonging to their places some having been deprived of the Titles of their Dignities and others of the Authority though the empty imaginary names be still left unto them The same likewise hath been done to many Governours of Provinces Commanders of strong Holds and other Officers who have been forced to leave and resign their places in consideration of certain sums of money which they have received against their wills and desires because they durst not contradict those that had the power to constrain them to it A new example and never before practised in this Kingdom to get Offices by money from them to whom they had been given for a reward of their Loyalty and faithful service and by this means they have made themselves Masters of all Forces both by Sea and Land Nor do they cease to endeavour the like daily to others that are in possession so that there is not one of them who is not in fear or who can assure himself that his place shall not be taken from him notwithstanding that having been bestowed upon them for their deserts they cannot nor ought not to be deprived of them by the Laws of the Kingdom unless for some just and reasonable consideration or that they have failed in something that depends upon them and that such their fault be proved by the means of Justice Moreover these men have drawn into their own hands all the Gold and Silver out of the Kings Coffers into which they put only the smaller sums of the general receipts for their particular profits keeping all the Great Ones at their own devotion as also all those that have the management of them which are the true ways to dispose of this Crown and set it upon whose head they please And by their avarice it is come to pass that abusing the easiness of the Subjects they have exceeded all bounds laying still heavy Taxes upon the poor common people not only equal to those the calamities of War had introduced which have not at all been lessened since the Peace but much more grievous ones by infinite other Impositions growing daily from the greedy appetite of their unbridled wills Indeed some glimpse of hope appeared when upon the frequent cries and complaints of the whole Kingdom the Convention of the States General was appointed at Blois which is the ancient remedy of home-bred evils and as it were a Conference between the Prince and People meeting together upon the terms of their due obedience on the one side and of the due protection on the other both sworn both born at the same time with the Royal Name and Fundamental Rules of the State of France but this deaâ— and laborious enterprise produced nothing saving the authorizing of the evil counsel of some who feigning themselves to be good Polititians were indeed wonderfully illâ—affected to the service of God and the good of the Kingdom who not being contented to turn the King by nature most inclined to piety from the holy and profitable resolution which he had made at the most humble request of all his States to unite his Subjects in one only Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion to the end they might live in that ancient piety wherein this Kingdom had been established preserved and afterwards increased to become the most powerful of all Christendom which then might have been effected without danger and almost without resistance they perswaded him quite contrary that it was necessary for his Majesties service to weaken and diminish the authoâ—ity of the Catholick Princes and Lords who with exceeding zeal had infinitely hazarded their lives in fighting under his Banners for the Defence of the said Catholick Religion as if the reputation which they had gained by their vertue and loyalty had been a means to render them suspected in stead of being honoured and esteemed Thus the abuse which began to swell by little and little is since fallen like a torrent from so violent a precipice that the poor Kingdom is even upon the point of being overwhelmed by it having but very slender hopes of safety for the Order of the Clergy notwithstanding all the Assemblies and just Remonstrances which they could make is now oppressed by extraordinary Tenths and Impositions besides the contempt of the sacred things of the Holy Church of God wherein now all things are taken away and polluted the Nobility brought to nothing enslaved and unnobled and evâ—â—y day miserably burthened with infinite payments and unjust exactions which they â—ust pay to their exceeding damage if they will sustain their lives that is to say eat drink and clothe themselves the Cities the Kings Officers and the common people so
at their first arrival provided they might be furnished with a strong large and convenient Harbour where they might securely enter that there was no place more fit then Boulogne seated in those parts which were nearest the City of Paris placed right against England hard by Flanders to receive supplies from thence the Duke of Parma being there raising a very great Army to join with the Forces of the Fleet They shewed that the Enterprise was not difficult for the Provost Vetus a faithful instrument of the League using every three months to ride his circuit and visit those parts with fifty of his Archers which were commonly wont to go along with him might surprise one of the Gates of the Town at his entry and keep it till he were releived by the Duke of Aumale with the Forces of the Province at whose coming those few Soldiers which were there in the Garrison being cut off it was most easie to make themselves Masters of the place which being a very principal one was greatly desired also by the Duke of Aumale himself who never having been able to attain to the absolute Government of Picardy tried all wayes and plots though bold and dangerous to compass it This attempt of Boulogne did very much please the Confederates hoping that all the Spanish Forces would turn unexpectedly in favour of their designs but it was no less hopeful to the intents of the Ambassador Mendozza considering the great benefit the Navy would receive by so important a place and so large so commodious an Harbour as well in the prosecution of the Enterprise upon England as if it should be imployed in the affairs of France wherefore the common opinion concurring to the same end it was resolved in the Council that the business should be attempted and the Provost being informed thereof who was most ready to undertake it the fitting assignation was given to the Duke of Aumale who by reason of his wonderful inclination to the affairs of the League and his desire to make himself absolute in the Government of Picardy did with as much readiness put himself in order for the design But Lieutenant Poulain was no less sollicitous then they to give the King intelligence of all the business by means of the High Chancellor so that Monsieur de Bernay being advertised and carefully prepared received the Provost in so dextrous a manner that in the entry of the Gate between the Draw-bridge and the Percullise he was taken Prisoner with the greatest part of his men and the Duke of Aumale appearing a while after under the Walls was by the fury of the Canon shot forced to retire Yet for all the failing of this Enterprise did not the Confederates find that their secret Consultations were laid open to the Kings knowledge but ascribing the succesless event of that attempt to chance and to the wonted diligence of the Sieur de Bernay they continued their accustomed inclinations with so much ardour that they consulted of taking the King himself returning with a slender Guard as he was wont to do from the Boys de Vincennes whither he retiring himself from time to time to the exercise of his devotions or as his detracters said of his debauches at his return entred by the Porte S. Antoine the farthest part of all the City from the Louvre where his Guards were and about which the Court was lodged But they themselves had not courage to prosecute that attempt not having any Head of the Confederate Princes there present and the King having notice of it by the same means began to take better heed to himself and to go with more caution thorough the City and the places about it causing himself alwayes to be attended by the Captains of his Guards and by a good number of his most trusty Gentlemen not suffering the five and forty appointed for that service particularly to stir far from his Person He was oftentimes thinking to chastise their temerity and to revenge himself as well of the contempt which the Preachers shewed speaking publickly against him as of the conspiracies of those stirers up of the people which had caused the greatest and most important City of his Kingdom to revolt against him but many things withheld him from it the Treaty begun with the King of Navarre the end whereof he desired to see before he gave any new disturbance to the League the neer coming in of the forreign Army to oppose the violence whereof if he should not agree with the King of Navarre he was necessitated to make use of the Forces of the League and keep united with the Lords of the House of Lorain much less was that a fit conjuncture to break out into open War with them by punishing the Parisians the so numerous Forces of such a populous City alone requiring many preparations to subdue them and the absence of the Queen his Mother without whose advice he was not wont to take any resolutions of such consequence as concerned the whole summ of his affairs To these weighty respects and the unfitness of the time was added the Office also of Monsieur de Villequier who being Governor of Paris either out of a certain propension which men have to defend and excuse those that are under their command or out of a belief that they conspired not immediately against the King but onely for the good of the Catholick party and against the Duke d' Espernon or else disdaining that in his Government others should know more of the secret affairs of that People than he himself and should in a manner tax him of negligence laboured to make them appear lyers and satisfied the King by assuring him that the people did not bear him ill will and that they plotted not any thing at all against him and finally endeavoured by several meanes to perswade him to dissemble and bear with some indiscretions of the People who were jealous of their Religion In which opinion Secretary Villeroy did often also concurr being intent by all wayes possible to hinder the further greatness of Espernon Thus the King by dissembling increased the popular boldness and temerity so that the Duke of Mayenne being about this time returned to Paris who seeing his Army destroyed by toil and sickness in Guienne and not having been able to obtain from the King either recruits of men or supplies of money was come personally to Court after the taking of Chastillon the Heads of the Parisians were ready to make their addresses to him aspiring to bring their designs about under the protection and conduct of his authority Hot-man Bussy la Chapelle Mortel President Nully Prevost the Curate of S. Severine and the Preacher Vincestre went secretly by night unto him and made him acquainted with their Forces the union of the people the Armes already gathered and with the intention they had not only to reduce the City under the power of the League but also to seize upon
Exchequer residing there was made the Metropolis of his Party There he made shew to the Catholicks That in the Congregation of the States he would be instructed in the Roman Religion by learned pious men whom he had sent for from all parts and with words and demonstrations professed that he would submit himself to what should be determined in the Assembly Although the Hugonots affirm that he told them otherwise in secret which was not much to be wondered at in the doubtfulness of his present condition These things being dispatched all necessary and fundamental to the establishing of his Kingdom not to stay for the whole Army of the League which was to follow him within 〈◊〉 few days he marched towards Compeigne taking with him the King 's dead body and having by the way taken Meulan Gisort and Clermont arrived there upon the Four and twentieth of August And there having laid the Body in the great Church with very little pomp and such as the necessity of the times would permit he went towards Normandy with all possible speed At his entering into that Province as it were for a prosperous beginning of good fortune Captain Rolet came to him a man no less valiant than discreet who held Pont de l' Arche a most important place three Leagues above Rouen and as it were the Key of the River Seine and taking the Oath of Allegiance delivered up the Fortress into his hands Being come into the Province the King in three days march came to Darnetal a Town less then two leagues distant from Rouen and there having incamped his Army he resolved to make as if he meant to besiege that City in which the Duke of Aumale and Count de Brissac were not that he thought he had either strength or preparations sufficient to take it but to shew a resolute mind and a good courage and to amuse the enemy till he had disposed what he had intended to do wherefore the Army being encamped and the Mills which were without the Works being burnt whilst there pass frequent skirmishes with the Garrison the King having left the care of the Army to the D. of Montpensier and the Mareschal de Biron went speedily with Three hundred Horse as far as Diepe which City governed by the Commendatory de Chattes had acknowledged him When the King had carefully considered the City of Diepe the Haven of it very capacious upon the shore of the Ocean and the Country that lay near about it he resolved to remove thither with all his Forces and there to sustain the first violence of the Army of the League being perswaded to this resolution because the Town is seated upon the Sea right over against England with a sufficient Harbour to receive any Fleet how numerous soever by which means he might have supplies of Men Money Cannon and Ammunition from Queen Elizabeth And in case he should be so straitned by the Enemies as to see himself not able to resist he might go away for England to return afterwards and land at Rochelle or in what other place he should think fit He was the more confirmed in this determination by the strength of the City and the Castle of it by the largeness of the Suburbs fit to quarter his men by the strong situation of the passages about it which was such as every place might be defended span by span so that they could not without a long time and much fighting be reduced within the circuit of the Castle For all these reasons he presently dispatched Philip Sieur du Fresne unto the Queen of England to whom he had formerly been sent by the late King and was returned about that very time to let Her know his necessities and to desire Her assistance of Men and Money And having made this most important Expedition with most exquisite diligence he joined his Horse to the Garison of Diepe and took Eu and Neuf-Chastel but weak Towns yet not far off that he might take away all near impediments and having purged the Country very carefully on all sides he returned to the Army at Darnetal to bring it with a commodious march to quarter at Diepe He marched from Darnetal the second of September with One thousand and four hundred Horse two Regiments of Swisses which amounted to the number of Three thousand and Three thousand French Muskettiers to so small a number were his Forces reduced since the Kings death There were with him the Duke of Montpensier who led the Van the Count d' Auvergne Grand Prior anger for the Kings death and desire of revenge having made him forget all former disgusts Armand Mareschal de Byron who had the chief authority in the Government his Son Charles Baron de Byron Charles of Montmorancy Seigneur de Meru or as they called him Lord d' Anville who commanded the Swisses Monsieur de Chastillon General of the French Infantry Monsieur de Reux Field-Marshal Monsieur de Baqueville who commanded the Light-horse the Sieurs de Rembures de Larchant de Mignoville de Guitry du Hallot and de la Force the other Lords and Gentlemen according to the first resolution being gone into several parts of the Kingdom With these Commanders and with this Army the King being come near Diepe gave order that the Commendatory de Chattes should continue in the City and in his wonted Command of the Cittadel with the ordinary Garison of Two hundred Souldiers and two Companies of French Infantry extraordinary which made in all the number of Five hundred Foot and he with the whole Army resolved to keep possession of the Field The City of Diepe as hath been said before is situated upon the shore of the Ocean Sea just over against England and hath a Port on the right side which extending it self like a Half-moon is able to contain a great many Vessels with great security and on the left hand stands the Cittadel which being of a four square form and seated something high doth with four great Towers scowr the Field on one side and on the other masters and commands the Town The seat of this City is strong and advantageous For on the side toward the Sea it is fortified with Flankers Ravelines and Platforms besides the so powerful defence of the water and on the side toward the Land the Country is so rough that Armies cannot be brought thither without much difficulty nor Cannon without much more and the manner of the way round about affords an infinite number of convenient obstacles for defence For it lies between two steep uneven woody Hills which from the bank of the Sea shoot out many miles into the Country and between these two lies a narrow Valley thorow which runs the River Bethune which dividing the City from a great Bourg called Pollet falls into the Haven and thence consequently straight into the Sea By this River the Sea-waters entring when it is high tide do spread themselves for many miles over
the valley making it so fenny deep and dirty that there is no passing to the City along the Plain but only upon the two Hills and by another way which made by art leads along the foot of the Hill on the left hand and with many turnings and windings comes to the Gate of the Town So that only two ways lead to the City one upon the top the other at the bottom of the Hill on the left hand and the way which is upon the top of the Hill on the right hand leads straight to Pollet which Bourg is divided from the City by the interposition of the Haven and the Current of the small River Bethune The Country from one Hill to the other is all moorish and rotten by the standing of the waters and there is no passage but only by a very narrow way interrupted by many Bridges because the River divides it self into many streams Upon the Hill on the left side which is no less steep and craggy than the other stands the Castle of Arques little more than a league from the Town a place excellently fortified both by Art and Nature which commands a great Bourg of the same name that lies under it just upon the way which at the foot of the mountain leads to Diepe along the bank of the River The right-hand Hill which is much more woody than the other doth not run on equally united in one ridge as that on the left hand doth but about a league from Pollet is parted by a great Valley which extends it self as far as over against Arques and in it upon the right-hand is Martinglise a great commodious Village and on the left an Hospital of St. Lazarus which the French commonly call a Maladery The King having with his Commanders diligently surveyed every one of these places resolved to quarter with all his Army at Arques believing that if the Duke of Mayenne followed him he would not pass along the Hill on the right side which leads only to Pollet thorow the Valley and the Wood but would keep the straight way that goes to the walls of Diepe Wherefore the whole Army working speedily and likewise those few peasants which could be got together he enclosed the Castle and Bourg with a good Trench of about eight foot wide and as much in depth making Works on the inside with all the earth and distinguished it with Redoubts and Ravelines about sixty paces distant from each other and then having placed his Cannon to the best advantage he himself lodged in the Castle with all the French Foot and the Mareschal de Byron in the Bourg with the Regiments of the Swisses shutting up in that manner both the ways which lead towards the Town as well that at the top as the other at the bottom of the Hill The Horse quartered in that space which reaches from the Trenches as far as Diepe lay ready behind the Army to move where need should require there being left room enough in fitting places of the Trench to sally out conveniently fifty Horse in front a sufficient Body for any action they should undertake Many Ships were appointed at Diepe to fetch Victual for the Army from England and the Coasts of Normandy from Caen St. Lo and Carantan places which held for the King which succeeded marvellously well for some winds brought in Barks from England others those that came from Normandy supplying with interchangeable assistance the necessities of the Souldiers who in that convenient season of the year had also many miles of a most fertile Country in their power by the fruits whereof both Horse and Foot were plentifully furnished In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne having received the Marquess du Ponâ— who was come with the Army of Lorain to assist the League and likewise the Duke of Nemours who had brought up the Forces of Lyonoise Monsieur de Balagny Governour of Cambray and finally the German Horse and Foot which had been levyed by his order with the help of Spain that he might preserve his reputation and fulfil the infinite hopes he had to conquer and drive the King out of the Kingdom was moved from Paris upon the first day of September and with six thousand Swisses four thousand German Foot twelve thousand Muskettiers between French and Lorainers and with four thousand and five hundred Horse received Poissy Mante and Vernon which yielded to him and having in two days taken Gournay which would have made resistance marched on diligently towards Rouen whence finding the King departed he took along with him the Duke of Aumale and so increasing his Forces which augmented every hour continued on his Voyage with the same speed towards Diepe but he took a different way from what the King and his Commanders thought he would for leaving that by the hill on the left hand which goes to Diepe by the way of Arques and upon which he knew the Army was prepared to make opposition being excellently quartered in places of advantage he marched on by the hill on the right hand with a design to come to Pollet and making himself Master of it to block up and command the mouth of the Haven that the King being deprived of the use of Shipping and cut off from his passage to the Sea might not only want the assistance he hoped to receive from England but also be reduced to extream necessity of victual thinking he should this way very easily conquer and make an end of the War But the King to whom the Sieur de Baqueville who had the care of discovering the motion of the Enemy had brought word in time that the Duke of Mayenne had taken the way toward the hill on the right hand perceiving his aim and desiring to prevent it left the Mareschal de Byron at Arques with the Swisses besides a thousand Muskettiers and six hundred Horse not only that he might hinder the passage of the Enemy on that side as had been the first intention but also that passing cross the Valley he might advance to the foot of the right hand hill and there draw a line about the Maladerie and then make another great trench toward the bottom to shut up the Duke's passage on that side also by a double impediment to the end that he might not be able to get over to the left hand hill which if he could do he might either assault the Army in their works or else putting himself between might streighten it and separate it from the Town Care being thus taken for matters without the King with the rest of the Cavalry and the remainder of the French Muskettiers went presently thorow the City to Pollet where with continual labour day and night the Lords and Commanders taking no less pains than the common Souldiers and inhabitants of the place he environed the whole Bourg with a deep trench which ending in the form of a sput made a sharp angle in the point whereof a great Mill
mischief for the most part comes by forsaking old friendships and confederacies to give ones self up wholly to the will and discretion of new ones He considered that not having changed his Religion at that time when being more strong and victorious he might have done it with his reputation now that he was declined in strength it might seem he did it timerously by force the need he had at that very present of the assistance of the Protestant Princes of Germany and of the Queen of England represented it self unto him so that he was necessitated to think of not making them distrustful of them But on the other side he knew moreover that if he lost the Catholicks he should no longer have strength to resist and that except the Name of King of France he should return unto the same condition wherein he found himself so straightned before he went from Rochell In this uncertainty of mind he knew but two remedies one to give full satisfaction to the Great Ones of his Army to the end that they not stirring all the rest might stay likewise the other to keep his men in perpetual exercise that idleness and rest might not suggest those thoughts unto them For this cause knowing how great authority the Duke of Nevers had in the Catholick party and how conspicuous his actions were as a Prince that had always given testimony of Conscience and Religion he conferred upon him the Government of Champagne a great and principal Province and which he had long before desired And to the Baron de Byron for the eminent reputation of his Father and for his own merit and valour besides the Office of Field-Mareschal he promised the dignity of High-Admiral and using terms of infinite kindness to all the rest shewed himself gracious and liberal always disposing places and honours to those Catholick Lords who for birth desert or ancient devotion towards the Church were proper to keep those loyal who were like to fall away because of the delay of his promises And that he might not give way to idleness and to those thoughts that take birth from thence he recalled the Duke of Espernon to his Army not only with a desire to reconcile him unto himself but also to make use of him and likewise of the Duke of Nevers who at that time besieged Provins the Duke of Longueville the Count de St. Paul his Brother and many other Catholick Lords intending when he had drawn them together to set himself upon some enterprise which with the advancement of his own affairs might keep every one of them honourably imployed After this resolution succeeded that of gathering Forces that he might be able not only to oppose the progress of the Spaniards in Bretagne and the attempts of the Duke of Savoy in Provence but also so to re-inforce his Army that if the Duke of Parma should return and join with the Duke of Lorain he might be equal to resist them in the Field Nor being to address himself for supplies of money and to obtain a numerous leavy of men to any others than the Queen of England and the Protestant Princes of Germany since he saw both she and they were slack and cold alike he determined to send a person of eminent vertue quality and authority unto them who conferring with every Prince in particular and afterwards casting up the whole and treating with all in general might be able to procure that fruit which the urgent necessity of his affairs required First he thought upon the Mareschal de Byron a man of renowned fame and prudence equal to so great an exigent but then judging him much more necessary for the conduct of his Army because the Order Discipline and Foundation of all enterprises rested chiefly upon him he resolved to send Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne a man not only by ancient Conversation and by having run the same fortune with him long known to be most faithful but also for his wisdom and singular eloquence sufficient to manage a business of so great importance and moreover for Valour and Military Discipline fit to lead and conduct those Supplies that should be granted and so much the rather because he being a Hugonot would be so much the more acceptable and proper to negotiate with Princes of the same Religion since Monsieur de Beauvis who till the death of the late King had been Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth being a Catholick was not very well received and the Count de Schombergh who had already been a long time in Germany was likewise in respect of his Religion grown suspected to the Duke of Saxony and to Prince Casimir the Guardian of his young Nephew the Palatine of the Rhine but much more to the Marquiss of Brandenburgh who was jealous that he under colour of negotiating the Kings affairs endeavoured to discover their intents and found their designs to make them known unto the party of the League The Viscount went presently into England where things were not so well disposed in favour of the King but that the Queen thought to make her advantage of his present exigency and upon occasion of the necessity he was in to induce him to restore Calais unto her or else to give some other Fortress of no less importance into her hands a thing not only desired by all the Kings that had possessed that Crown but impatiently longed for by all the people of England But because the business was to be cunningly treated of nor did the Queen want prudence or dexterity to manage it she first made known that the Merchants of her Kingdom demanded to have a secure Port upon the Coasts of France where their ships might put in and secure their persons and goods when they had occasion Then she urged the reasons she had to desire it from a King that was her Friend and Confederate and whom she always called by the name of Brother since she had made the same demands to King Charles and to King Henry his last Predecessors by reason of the Duke of Guise's unjust Usurpation of the Town of Calais due unto her Crown by the possession of so many Ages But because the Viscount with no less industry did not openly deny to satisfie her but avoided and deferred it with several excuses sometimes alledging the hatred that would thereby result unto the King not yet established if he should think to alienate any place That the revolt of the Catholicks who were already more than moderately offended and disgusted would follow upon it sometimes telling the Queen her self that she ought not to make that demand at that present lest she should shew a desire to put the King upon a necessity of consenting unto it and in the urgency of his occasions put as they say the noose about his neck she seemed to desist and reserving the pressing of that point till the time that the promises were to be fulfilled which would be a more proper and a
be disposed to their due ends and that the difficulties might be removed which hindered the interests of their House from being brought to perfection These things were contrived at that time by the Duke and negotiated with great diligence in all places by men of prudence and experience But the King whilst opportunity and the weakness of his Enemies invited him not to lose time without advantage firm in his design to streighten still the City of Paris in the fall of which he thought the principal strength of his adversaries must fall too resolved to lay siege to Chartres from the Territories whereof Paris is wont to receive the greatest part of its ordinary provisions and because the City being great populous and very well fortified represented at first view the difficulty of the enterprise he determined to prevent those Supplies which for the well-furnishing of a place of so great importance might be sent by the Parisians and the Duke of Mayenne who with those Forces he had left lay still at Soissons to be ready to turn which way soever need should require Wherefore having sent the Mareschal de Byron toward Diepe to receive and conduct the Ammunition and other necessaries come out of England he taking a contrary way went with the Duke of Nevers once more to besiege Provins a place of small moment and for the defence whereof they of the League were resolved not to run any hazard but after that the Mareschal de Byron having received the provisions which were at Diepe began to return back the King gave him order that making as if he would assault the City of Dreux he should on the sudden clap aside before Chartres and surround it in such manner that the relief which should be dispatched thither might have no opportunity of entrance Byron having passed the Seine at Vernon with his men and his Artillery pointing sometime this way and sometimes that way did at once give his Souldiers conveniency to refresh themselves and hold the Enemy in doubt to what place he would bend at last making shew sometimes that he also would go to join with the rest of the Army at Provins sometimes as if he would put himself in order to besiege Dreux now he placed himself upon the great high Road to Paris and then at last having marched twelve leagues without resting he came upon the sixteenth of February under the Walls of Chartres The City of Chartres is seated in an uneven place varied with fertil rising hills so that the East-side stands upon the top of an hill and the West spreads it self in the bottom of the Plain thorow the midst whereof runs the River Eure which assoon as it comes to the Walls of the City on the South-side divides it self into three branches one of which entring into the Town drives a great many Mills the second passing under the Walls falls into the Moat and runs along thorow it and the third taking a compass about a hundred paces from the Wall invirons the circuit of the Suburbs till being all come to the limits of the City turning towards the North they meet again and run together toward Normandy The East-side which stands upon the hills by reason of the difficulty of bringing Cannon thither and because it looked toward those places from whence there was no expectation of any relief was not besieged by the Army but the other side which distends it self along the Plain and looks towards Paris was all blocked up at the same instant for the Sieur de Vivans with his Harquebusiers on Horseback quartered on the North-side in the Bourg des Espars Monsieur de Sourdis with the French Infantry lay over against the Porte de Dreux and the Mareschal de Byron with the remainder of the Cavalry and the Swisses encamped himself on the South-side over against the Gate and Bastion of St. Michel The Governour of the City was Monsieur de la Bourdaisiere a careful diligent Cavalier The Foot of the Garison was commanded by Captain Pesseray a very famous Souldier but the rest of the provisions were not correspondent to the valour of the Commander for there were but few Foot in the Town and much fewer Horse and the supplies that were lately come into it were so weak that they had made but a small addition for the Sieur de la Croix who departing from Orleans was suddenly come with sixty Cuirasâ—iers and two hundred Harquebusiers on horseback to enter into the City inconsiderately fell for haste into the Army which was drawing near the Walls and being routed and put to flight hardly got in with eighty of his men on the other side Monsieur de Grammont who was upon his march to go into Normandy returned speedily that way but brought not with him above forty Gentlemen and an hundred Souldiers and Monsieur de Vitry who doubting the Enemy would go to Dreux had shut himself up in that Town had not had means nor time to get thither so that the number of the Garison was much inferiour to what need required To this defect was added the want of Ammunition for though when at first the Governour visited those stores there were found three hundred Barrels of Powder yet the cozenage of the Officers had so diminished it at a time when it was exceeding dear in all places that the first day of the siege to la Bourdaisiere's great grief of heart there were not left above eighty and there likewise appeared a great want of those other things that are necessary for defence These important wants were in part supplied by the forwardness of the Citizens who with a free courage exposed themselves to all services and the same did a great many Country-people who were got into the City and laboured with the spade to make up the Works For the first days the Mareschal thought it sufficient to shut up the Avenües to the City to exclude all relief till the King should come to the Camp with the rest of the Army and therefore he advanced at the first dash to quarter in the Suburbs The Governour endeavoured to deprive him of that convenience very necessary in respect of the season and set fire on the houses to burn them down but the remedy was so late by reason of the Enemies sudden coming that they had means to quench the fire before it could destroy many of the buildings and so the Assailants had free possession of the Suburbs in which after that the Mareschal de Byron was commodiously quartered the King arrived upon the nineteenth day yet did they not presently begin to raise Batteries as well because the Commanders were not well agreed among themselves on which side they should assault it as also because the want of Ammunition was perchance no less in the Army than that of the Defendents within the Town the provisions that came from England being far short of the Kings demands and of the promises made to the Viscount de Turenne
â—ot taken in good part he thinking they desired his abode in the City that they might confer the charge of the Army and of managing the wâ—r upon the Duke of Guise indeed he was something moved by the perswasions of his Mother Madam de Nemours she telling him that the sum of all things consisted now in the conservation of Paris and that she had discovered some practises that past between the Politicks of the City and the new Governor but neither was that able to disswade him from his departure for it diminished his reputation and prejudiced the course of affairs too much to stand with his hands at his girdle and let himself be straightned to the last necessities without seeking any remedy and he considered that if the King being Master of Pontoyse and Meaux and by consequence also Master of the Rivers and having Dreux Orleans and Chartres in his power should have a mind to besiege Paris he should be locked up in the City and not be able to do any thing to relieve it and having notice that the King had made a Levy of Six thousand Switzers which were ready to enter into the Kingdom and knowing that the Queen of England was sending new supplies of Men and Ammunition he thought it necessary to draw the Forces of the Confederates together to make opposition in the Spring-time if the King should take the Field with a great Army which could not be done unless he himself in person were active in the business not judging the Duke of Guise or the Duke of Aumale either for authority or experience sufficient to raise or command the Army in which charge the secret intentions of men now more suspected by him than ever would not suffer him to trust any other person Moved by these reasons and not being able to perswade himself that the Count de Brissac would forsake him and change that Faith which he his Father and his Grandfather had ever constantly kept he at last departed and took his Lady and his Son with him leaving his Mother his Sister the Cardinal-Legat and the Spanish Ambassadors at Paris But he was no sooner gone when the Governour finding himself alone and little valuing all the rest that were in the City thought that occasion for the raising of his fortune again was not to be lost wherefore having drawn Iehan Viller the Prevost des Marchands and the two chief Eschevins which were Guilliaume du Ver Sieur de Neret and Martin l' Anglois Sieur de Beauripaire unto his party he went on to deal with the first President and the other Counsellors of the Parliament These were displeased with the Duke of Mayenne because in many occasions and particularly in the last of changing the Governour he had as they said used them sharply and ingratefully and openly derided and abused them and much more were they disgusted at the Spaniards by reason of the Proposition of the Infanta against whose election they had shewed themselves openly but that which imported most of all was That the Presidents and Counsellors of the Parliament as men distrusted and disaffected were ill used by the Catholick Kings Ambassadors and by the Garison of Italians Walloons and Spaniards which depended on them so that they not only heard proud threats and opprobrious speeches against themselves to their very faces with often mentioning the name of Brisson but their Servants and Caterers were abused in the Markets by the Souldiers even to the violent taking away from them whatsoever they bought for which they having often complained to the Duke of Mayenne had not gotten any remedy but only perswasions to be patient but at last from this long sufferance they turned to fury which wakening mens minds as it was wont had made them see how near they were to the hated servitude of strangers and how much better it was to secure their own fortune with the stronger party and free themselves at last from anguish and trouble wherefore it was not hard to draw them to the opinion of the rest and bring them to consent to submit the City to the Kings obedience Things being thus setled within and the Governour thinking himself to be in such a condition as to dispose of the people his own way began to treat with the King by means of the Count de la Rochepâ—t with whom he had an exceeding near affinity and friendship and being come from the beginnings of a Treaty to agree upon the conditions the Count de Schomberg Monsieur de Bellieure and the President de Thou were employed in the business who within a few days concluded what was to be done as well to satisfie the Count de Brissac as to gain the City without tumult or bloodshed and finally the Count himself having conferred in the Field with the Sieur de St. Luc who had married one of his Sisters under pretence of treating about her Portion about which they had been long in suit it was jointly agreed upon That in the City of Paris the Fauxbourgs thereof and ten mile round about there should be no publick exercise permitted save of the Roman Catholick Religion according to all the Edicts of former Kings That the King should give a general pardon to all of what state or condition soever that had in word or deed upheld and fomented the League stirr'd up the people to sedition spoken evil of his person written or printed against him thrown down or despised his Royal Arms or the Arms of the Kings his Predecessors or that were guilty in any kind whatsoever of the past seditions excepting those that had traiterously conspired against his Person or that were accessary to the murther of the late King That the goods and persons of the Citizens should be free from violence and plunder all the Priviledges Prerogatives and Immunities confirmed and kept in the same degree they were wont to be in the times of former Kings That all Places Offices and Benefices into which the Duke of Mayenne had put men when they were vacant by death as well within the Parliament as without should be confirmed unto the same persons but with an obligation to take new Patents from the King That all the present Magistrates of the City should be confirmed if they would submit themselves to the Kings obedience That every Citizen that would not stay in the City might have free liberty to depart and without further leave carry away his goods That the Cardinal-Legat Cardinal Pellevé and all the Prelats with their Servants might with their goods and furniture freely stay or go how and when they thought it seasonable That the Princesses and Ladies that were in the City might stay or go in like manner with full liberty and security That the Spanish Ambassadors with their attendants goods and families might also have Pass-ports and Safe-conducts from the King to go securely whither they pleased That the Souldiers of the Garison French and strangers of any Nation soever
all his own affairs had in times past troubled and little less than conquered the King himself in the heart of his own Provinces and in the midst of his Forces it seemed to them a ridiculous thing that now with his Forces still divided and discords still burniâ—g in his State he should dare to think of offending the States of the Catholick King founded upon the Basis of so great a Monarchy wherefore they should have thought it much more to the purpose for the King to have endeavoured by some tolerable conditions to attain Peace than to provoke and stir up War so much the more by the vanity of a publick Declaration But the Causes that moved the King were very powerful for he foresaw that the overture of a Foreign War would help to close the wounds of a Civil War as skilful Chirurgions are wont with seasonable Cauteries to divert the hurtful humours that corrupt and infect our Bodies He knew there was nothing that could move the French more to a Reconcilement and Re-union than the appearance of a War with the Spaniards the natural Enemies of their Nation he desired the War might no longer carry the name of a Civil War for Religion but of a Foreign one for interest of State and that in the flame of this Controversie between Crown and Crown the yet remaining sparks of the League might be extinguished he knew that howsoever he should still have the Catholick Kings forces against him which since they could by no means be avoided it was less hurtful to have them open and publick than treacherous and dissembled He thought the Princes confederate with the Crown of France would have much less caution in lending him favour and assistance in the War between the Spaniards and the French for matter of Empire than between Frenchmen and Frenchmen whether they were real or feigned for matter of Religion He considered that nothing would more please nor satisfie the Hugonots than War against the Spaniards in which they being imployed with their utmost spirits their minds might be withdrawn and diverted from the thoughts of new designs besides all these causes having made a League offensive and defensive with the United Provinces of the Low-Countries with a mutual obligation of concurring jointly in War and hoping to draw the Queen of England and some of the Princes of Germany into the same confederacy it was necessary to imploy his forces in some enterprize of common profit and conveniency in Flanders and the County of Bourgongne and being desirous to do it for his own reputation and to interess the other Confederates he judged the Declaration of the War to be very proper to stir up the minds of his Subjects and to necessitate the forces of the Confederates But above all being again to treat of his Reconciliation to the Apostolick See and knowing he should have all the power of the King of Spain against him he desired to have him known for his open Enemy and that he and his Ministers might not be admitted to that deliberation as being excluded and excepted by the publick and open War which should yet be between the Crowns and if the minds of great persons among so many interests of State are sometimes also moved and driven by passions the old persecution he had suffered from the Catholick King stirred up and spurred on by the so late danger in which he was like to have lost his life by the suggestions of persons whom he esteemed to be dependents upon that Crown had perchance some part in this resolution for the execution whereof upon the Twentieth day of Ianuary he caused a Declaration to be published and the same to be proclaimed by Heraulds in the Towns upon the Confines wherein after having related all the injuries done by the King of Spain unto himself and the King his Predecessor imputing also the act lately attempted against his person to the suggestion of his Champions he denounced open War against him by Land and Sea took away all Commerce between the two Nations and permitted his Subjects to invade spoil and possess the States under the Dominion of that Crown King Philip answered this Proclamation about two months after with another Writing wherein reckoning up the benefits and supplies lent to the most Christian Kings his Confederates and Allies he declared and protested that he would not break the peace which he had with the most Christian Crown and the good Catholicks of the Kingdom but persevere in their assistance and defence to the end they might not be oppressed by the Prince of Bearne and the Hugonots his Confederates and commanded all his Subjects not to molest or hurt those French that should follow the Catholick party in the Kingdom giving order on the other side to his Governours and Commanders to defend his Countries and likewise to offend the Prince of Bearne and his adherents This Declaration was slow but so were not the preparations for not only in Flaâ—ders Count Charles his Army was recruiting to enter upon the Confines of Picardy in the Spring but also Hernando de Valeseo Constable of Castile and Governour of the State of Milan was preparing a great Army in Italy to march into Bourgongne and in Spain new Forces were raising that they might send new Supplies to Don Iuan del Aquila in Bretagne as soon as the season would permit the like preparations were made in France Holland and England so that the course of this year seemed on all sides likely to prove formidable and bloody In the mean time the King cured of his hurt had celebrated the solemnity of the Knights of the Holy Ghost among the Ceremonies whereof he renewed his Oath of living and dying a Catholick and of defending Religion and afterwards with great pomp and demonstrations of honor he had received Vincenzo Gradenigo and Giovanni Delfino Ambassador of the Venetian Senate who came to congratulate his assumption to the Crown and Pietro Duodo that came to reside in the place of Giovanni Mocenigo who for the space of seven years together had made his residence with him and the King his Predecessor having with exceeding great praise of singular prudence managed the most weighty businesses in the ambiguous revolutions of past affairs The first action in the War of this year was the taking of Beaune a principal Town in the Dutchy of Bourgogne wherein some of the chief Citizens having begun to mutiny from the year before to put themselves under the Kings obedience the Duke of Mayenne who had a special jealousie concerning the affairs of that Province as being his own particular government went speedily at his return from Lorain into that City where having found businesses all in a combustion he caused fourteen of the Citizens which seemed to him more inclined to an alteration than the rest to be imprisoned in the Castle and having removed that difficult scruple he in all things else sought to appease the generality of
Alvaro Osorio notice that he should keep some little Boats ready to come forth of the Town as soon as the sign was given him and to draw near the Banks of the Fen to receive the relief which he would attempt to bring unto that place which intelligence being happily got into the Town and the appointment made he marched from Doway with Six hundred horse and came by night to Chasteler where he caused the Gates to be kept lock'd to the end that the French might not know any thing of his design And having that day provided that every one of his men should carry a Bag of Meal behind him and a bundle of Match about his neck for they had also great want of that in la Fere he set forth when it began to grow dark and having past the River Somme went upon the way of St. Quentin and leaving that Town upon the right hand marched with so much diligence that upon the sixteenth day of March in the morning he came neâ—r the quarters of the Kings Cavalry who being advertised by the Sentinels shootings took the Alarm and got speedily to horse believing that some relief of the enemy was near but a thick mist which by chance rose by break of day was so favourable to Basti's designs that the Kings Corpes de Gardes betaking themselves to their arms on all sides could not discover which way the Enemy came and while they warily endeavoured to know and make discovery Basti without meeting any body passing between the quarter of the Reiters and that of the Duke of Bouillon came to the bank of the Fen near the current of the River aâ—d having found Osorio ready with his Boats to receive the relief he made the Meal and Match be unladed with great celerity faced about and with the same speed seeing the French and German Cavalry who at last having notice of his arrival had placed themselves upon the Road of St. Quentin to hinder his retreat he took a contrary way and falling into that which leads to Guise came back fortunately to Cambray without meeting any opposition This relief in which industry and fortune were equal sharers gained Basti a wonderful reputation yet gave but little help to the besieged the Meal that was brought lasting them but a little while by reason of their great number and the King who from day to day had new Forces came up to him streightned the siege more closely and stopt up all the wayes which being cut off and fortified with Banks and Trenches and kept with strong guards of Horse left no hope at all of thinking of new relief But the siege being prolonged by the constancy of the Defendants the King was perswaded by the reasons of some of his Engineers to stop the course of the River which caused the Fen on the lower side thinking to make it swell and rise in such manner that the Defendants should be constrained either to yield or drown This work was begun with an exceeding great â—umber of Pioneers drawn together from all the neighbouring places but though they wrought at it with great art and no less assiduity yet the rains of the season which from time to time increased the current of the River which ordinarily was quiet and gentle hindred the progress by breaking down the Banks often carrying away the Piles and in one hour frustrating the labours of many dayes and yet the King being himself present at the work it was at last brought to perfection But it was no sooner finished when it appeared how deceitful the fancies of Engineers prove oftentimes for the Town being much higher than the Fen a thing foreseen from the beginning by many and constantly oppugned by the authors of the design the water rose not above a foot or two in the Town and was so long making that increase that the inhabitants had conveniency to remove their things into higher places without receiving any damage though the water falling within two dayes by having broke through the lowest part of the Fen in many places the Town remained full of dirt and mud by the exhalation whereof the Air being corrupted caused dangerous diseases in the Town so that the besieged being endamaged onely by accident and after the space of many days the labors and endeavors of the Kings Army proved fruitless in their principal intent There yet remained the wonted hope of Famine which after so many moneths siege encreased exceedingly and was already become irrepairable nor did any thing make the Defendants hold out but hope of relief The Cardinal was intent with his utmost endeavors upon giving it to them for having in great part quieted those that had mutined and conveniently paid his men he had set the Army in a readiness to attempt the effecting of it but none of his Commanders among which the principal were the Duke of Arescot the Marquiss of Ranâ—y and Francisco de Mendozza the Admiral of Aragon counselled him to adventure his Camp upon that enterprize and the reason was in a readiness for not onely the King in the space of many moneths had had full conveniency to fortifie his own quarters extraordinarily but that which imported more he had put strong Garrisons and many Horse into S. Quentin Monstrueil Boulogne and all the other Towns that stand round la Fere in such manner that if the Spanish Camp should pass beyond them to raise the siege they remaining at their backs would cut off the wayes and take away the concourse of Provisions so that if the enterprize of making the King dislodge should require many dayes as it was certainly to be doubted the Army would be put in danger of some hard encounter To this was added that the King having after the publication of the Agreement received the Duke of Mayenne with great demonstrations of honor being come with his attendants to wait upon him in the Camp before la Fere and the Constable Montmorancy the Duke of Montpensier and the greater part of the Lords of all the Kingdom being come unto the Army he had under his Colours Eighteen thousand Foot and little less than Five thousand Horse an Army so potent especially by reason of the valour of the Cavalry that it was necessary to proceed with great circumspection in advancing so far into that Province against so great Forces and in the midst of so many of the Enemies Towns The Cardinal likewise was not ignorant that the States of Holland desirous that the War should continue in Franâ—e had set forth a fleet of many Ships to land men at Boulogne in relief of the King of France and that the Queen of England though the King consented not to all her demands had yet to uphold the common interests sent out a Navie to his assistance with Eight thousand Foot aboard it which it was believed were to land in the same place wherefore the Commanders doubted that these Forces uniting together it would not onely be vain
make an Agreement between those Crowns to the end that both together or at least the King of Spain for the common interest of the House of Austria might be able to lend his assistance He therefore had given strict Commission to the Legat that as soon as the Kings Absolution was ratified he should presently begin to introduce this business which he accounted not only necessary for the security and repose of Christendom but also highly glorious to the memory of his Papacy Neither was the Cardinal being a man of a mild peaceable nature and full of experience in the affairs of the world less ready to procure the general good and his own particular honour than the Pope was careful to incite him to it so that in the first meetings after the publick audience at St. Maur he deferred not to sound the Kings inclination who no less quick-sighted than others in discovering the wounds of his Kingdom and agreeing with the general opinion of all men that peace was the only remedy to cure them was inclined to imbrace any kind of peace wherein his reputation might not suffer The difficulties which his Ambassadors found in treating the League with England perswaded him the same for he perceived very well that the Queen aimed without regard to get some place in his Kingdom that she might have means to keep him bound and to procure greater matters as occasion should serve and it was not unknown to him that she by reason of the Irish commotions which were then in their height was so much taken up that though she had a desire to it she was not able to spare many forces to his assistance To this was added the condition of the Hollanders who though they endeavoured to have the War continue in France that the Spanish Forces might be diverted and divided yet had they not any ability to lend supplies unto their Neighbours whilst the War was so hot in all places at their own home Neither were the Protestant Princes of Germany whose minds were now bent upon the urgent necessity of the Turkish War either able or willing to trouble themselves about the Kingdom of France which they thought powerful enough of it self to make head against the Arms of Spain Insomuch that the King being able to promise himself little of the Foreign Aids of his â—onfederates was fain to make his whole foundation upon the Forces of his own Kingdom But these were hindred and debilitated by many weighty accidents For the Royal Revenues by the ruines of Civil Wars and the multiplicity of abuses introduced were subverted and little less than brought to nothing and the profit that was wont to rise from Imposts and Gabels in the Merchant Towns of the Mediterranean and Ocean Seas was extreamly diminished by interruption of the commerce with Spain the West Indies and the Catholick Kings other Territories Nor did the trading in English and Dutch-bottoms help much for navigation being interrupted the business was reduced rather to a kind of Piracy than Traffick To this want of money the vital substance of the War were added other perturbations The Duke of Mercoeur yet in Arms and potent in Bretagne who with his forces over-running and disquieting the Country sometimes toward Normandy sometimes towards Poictou and Xaintongâ— kept those Provinces in continual commotion Provence and Dauphine not yet well reduced to obedience and fiercely molested by the Duke of Savoy so that it was necessary to keep two Armies there continually employed and which imported most of all the Hugonots either incensed or grown jealous at the so near conjunction between the King and the Pope were in a manner up in Arms and asking liberty to meet together to take some course about their own affairs shewed designs of new Insurrections Whereupon there was great danger that before the Peace was totally established with the Catholicks it would be necessary to begin a War with the Hugonots These causes moved the King to wish for Peace but the spur of reputation which had ever been very sharp in his mind did make him in appearance desire War Wherefore in the first Treaties with the Legat he told him resolutely that he would not accept of any kind of Peace unless first all the places taken were restored and all the losses of the Crown repaired adding such lively aâ—â—ent speeches as shewed he would not lend an ear to a negotiation of Peace till first by his Arms he had set his reputation up again in War and yet the Legat gathering the Kings secret intention from the state of affairs which were very well known to him being upon the place and judging it by all means necessary to break the Ice first though there appeared no glimpse of hope he dispatched Father Bonaventura Calatagirone General of the Order of St. Francis to the Court of Spain to sound how mens minds corresponded on that side But the diligence the Legat shewed for Peace hindred not the King of France from being intent upon Provisions of Arms and preparations for the year following wherefore having called a Congregation of all the Officers of the Crown principal Magistrates and Treasurers of his Kingdom in the City of Rouen where besides regulating many disorders and abuses he intended to establish and settle his Revenues and to perswade the Heads of the Provinces and the chief of the Clergy and common people to assist him in such manner that he might be able to uphold the weight of the War by himself which he accounted not difficult as well by reason of the urgent necessity well known to them all as of the good condition many rich and fertil Provinces were getting into since Civil Wars had ceased in them if necessary rule and order were added to the benefit of quiet and he thought every one would run willingly to contribute to that expence which was not made as in former times either to satisfie the Kings appetites or to move domestick Arms against those of the same Blood but to maintain a War against strangers and to defend the Crown assaulted and invaded by its ancient Emulators and inveterate Enemies And because from the year before there had been a Truce though an uncertain one and from time to time violated and interrupted with the Duke of Mercoeur to treat in the interim and find some temper of Agreement with him the King at this time deputed the Count of Schombergh and President de Thoâ— who were to go to the Queen Dowager of France to treat in her presence with the Dukes Deputies But this Treaty was not only doubtful but also various and unsetled for the Duke a subtil man of a deep reach and one not easie to be withdrawn from his designs held several practices both in Spain and France promising himself yet that he should dismember the Dutchy of Bretagne from the Crown which had been united no longer than since the times of Lewis the Twelfth and Francis the First to establish
and do Penance for the Cardinals death 402. resolves to send assistance to the League against the King 431. his Commissions to Cardinal Gaetano Legat in France 432. his Breve published at Paris and the Contents thereof 434 grows jealous Gaetano inclines to favour the Spanish designs 453. his death 4â—8 Pope Urban VII lives but Twelve dayes and is succeeded by Gregory XIV a Milanese ib. who resolves to send men and money to assist the League 493. chooses Mastilio Landriano Legat to France assigns Fifteen thousand Crowns per mensem for the League ibid. sends Twelve hundred Horse and Six thousand Foot into France under command of Monte-Martiano 503. dyes 530 Preheminences of the Royal Family are Inheritance and Administration 4 Princes of the Blood ib. Prince of Condé set at liberty 28. practises to possess Lyons but without success 32. committed to Prison excepts against his Tryal and appeals to the King but not accepted 37. Sentence pronounced against him 38. set at liberty and declared void 44. his Manifesto 61. Coins the Plate belonging to the Churches 63. his demands in favour of himself and the Hugonots 65. returns to his Army 67. going to besiege Paris amuses himself before Corbiel whereby he fails of his design 78. taken Prisoner by the Duke of Guise 83. sups and lies in the same Bed with the Duke his bitter Enemy 84. offers the King a great number of Hugonots to make War with Spain 109. incenseth the King with a Letter of Protestation 128. sells the Goods of the Church for the Hugonots 137. is shot in the head at the Battel of Brisac and dyes 140. his Body is carried in Triumph upon a â—ack-horse by the Catholicks and after restored to the Pâ—ince of Navarre his Nephew 141. his Son a Child and the Prince of Nâ—varre made Heads of the Hugonots 142. is kept in the Kings Chamber duâ—â—â—g the Massacre and after kept Prisoner 183. he and his Brother turn Catholicks 186. made Head of the Hugonots 206. brings a great Army out of Germany and declares the Duke of Alanzon Head of the Hugonots 215. offended at his power seek to make Peace with him 219. is declared Lieutenant General of the Hugonots 226. will not acknowledge the Assembly at Blois to be the States General nor treat with their Commissioners 230. excommunicated by Sixtus Quintus and declared incapable of Succession to the Crown 284. poisoned at St. Jehan de Angely by his own Servants 235 Princess of Condé dexterously refer'd by the King to the Parliament of Paris about imputation of her being guilty of her Husbands death and is clear'd by them she promising first to turn Catholick and instruct her Son in the same Religion 672 Prince of Navarre marries the Kings Sister by dispensation from the Pope 177. assumes the Title of King 179 Prince of Orange formerly declared Rebel is restored to his Estate 220 Q. QUeen Blanch Mother to St. Lewis taking upon her the Government in her Sons minority the Barons take Arms to maintain the Right in whom it belong'd 1â— Queen Catherine joins with the Prince of Conâ—â— and the Admiral in opposition to the Triumvirate 53. feigns an inclination to the Hugonot Religion ibid. forced to declare for the Catholicks and at the same time maintains hopes in the Hugonots 60 Queen Elizabeth of England offers Conditions to the Hugonots 6. imprisons Mary Queen of Scots 296. grants assistance to Henry IV. by Viscount de Turenne 487 Queen Margaret Wife to the King of Navarre her licentious Life causes the King and Queen-mother to resolve to break the match and give him Christien Daughter of the Duke of Lorrain to Wife who afterwards married Ferdinand de Medicis Grand Duke of Tuscany 397 Mary Queen of Scots Cousin to the Guises imprisoned by Elizabeth Queen of England 296 Queen-mother and Prince of Condé parley 64. persuades the Duke of Guise Constable and Mareschal de St. André to leave the Court hath it promised under their hands they will whereupon the Catholick Lords leave the Camp 65 66 is threatned in a Letter to be killed 107. with the King she visits the Admiral and under pretence of defending him set strict Guards upon his House 181. sends three Armies into several parts of the Kingdom to suppress Insurrections 198. favours Lugi d'Avila the Authors Brother 274. she is resolved to break the match between the King of Nâ—varre and Queen Margaret by reason of her licentious Life and give him Christien Daughter to the Duke of Lorrain to Wife 397. treats an Accommodation with the Hugonots ibid. an Interview between her and the King of Navarre but nothing concluded 305. A Saying of hers 335. becomes pale and afrighted at the Duke of Guises waiting upon her dissuades the King from his thoughts against him 338. is strongly guarded for fear of him 339. goes to him in her Sâ—dan being denied passage in her Coach confers with him but brings back nothing but complaints and exorbitant demands 344. goes with him to the King at Chartres 354. dyes on Twe fth-Eve in the 50th year of her age 30 whereof she spent in the Regency and management of greatest affairs and troubles of the Kingdom of France Page 374 Queen of Navarre causes Churches to be ruined and expels the Priests 94. goes with all the Hugonots to the Prince of Condé and the Admiral at Rochel 129. her Letters and their Manifesto 130. Coins money with her own Figure on one side and her Sons on the other 143. is poisoned with a pair of Gloves 178 An ancient Question Whether the Assembly of the States or the King be Superior 228 R. REformed Religion began to spread in France in the time of Francis I. 20 Reiters are German Horse 260.327 those of the League fight till they are all destroyed 448 Religion a veil of private Interests 46 Remedies used by Henry IV. to conserve the affections and obedience of his Party 486 Renard Procurer of Chasteler with others put to death for crying Bread or Peace 464 Renaudie a man of a desperate fortune Head of the Hugonot Conspiracy 21 Republick of Venice acknowledges Henry IV. King of France and Mosenigo their Ambassador to Henry III. passes a Compliment with him in publick 427 Rhenus a Vial of Oyl kept there wherewith the first Christian King Louis was Consecrated 47. a meeting there dissolved without any determination 503 River Vare divides Italy from France 565 Rochel revolts to the Hugonots which serves them ever after for a Sanctuary 122. its strong situation 190. yielded to the King 192. they break the Truce 205. permit Catholicks to say Mass at the intercession of the King of Navarre 226 Rouen taken by the Catholicks and sack't 75. disliking their Gâ—vernor de Tavennes they make an Insurrection 504. A Relation of its Siege 523 524 c. Royal Races 5 S. SAla the River where the Salique Law was established 3 Salii Priests ibid. Savii de Terra Firma are Magistrates of Venice so called
other discontented Lords The King of Navarre goeth to the Court solliciting the King in the name of the Princes of the blood that they might participate in the Government Queen Blanch Mother to St. Lewis having taken upon her the Government of the Kingdom in the minority of her Son the Barons took arâ—s to maintain the right in those to whom it belonged So did Lewis Duke of Orleans in the time of Charles the eighth The Admiral maketh a proposition to the Male-contents to protect the followers of those opinions in Religion introduced by Calvin and it is embraced Iohn Calvin a Picard preacheth and publisheth in print 128 Principles differing from the Roman Catholick Religion which at first are hearkned to only in curiosity but at last make great impressions in the minds of men and produce great mischief Calvins opinions had their first foundation in Geneva The Reformed Religion began to spread in France in the time of Francis the First Henry the Second was very severe against the Calvinists 1560. The Calvinists use to boast much of the death of Henry the Second The name of Hugonot derived from certain places under ground near Hugo's gate in the City of Toâ—rs whâ—re thosâ— opinions â—irst took growth The manner of the Hugonots proceedings Renaudie a man of a desperate fortune is made Head of the Hugonots Conspiracy 1560. The fifteenth of Maâ—ch was a day more than once appointed for the execution of great designs in France and this day Anno 1560. the Hugonots determined to meet at Blois where the King then was The Conspirators arrive near Ambois where the Court was and are all defeated 1560. After the suppression of the Conspirators in a secret Council held in the Kings Chamber it is resolved to punish the favourers of the Hugonots To get the favourers of the Hugonots into their power it is resolved to call an Assembly of the States at which amongst others the Princes of the blood are to assist The Prince of Conde who was as a prisoner is set at liberty By the death of Olivier Michel de l' Hospital is made High Chancellor Anne of Mâ—morancy with all his adherents goes to the Assembly at Fountain-bleau The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde go not thither The Assembly at Fountain-bleau The Admiral pâ—esents a Petition from the Hugonots in which they demand erection of Temples and Liberty of Conscience A National Council proposed A general Assembly of the States is resolved upon and the present Assembly dismissed Saga a servanâ— to the King of Navarre is taken prisoner at Estampes with divers Letters about him and being tortured confesseth certain practices against the Crown The Prince of Câ—nde practiseth to possess himself of Lions but without success The three Estates of the Kingdom The Prince of Conde committed to prison The King of Navarre kept 〈◊〉 a prisoner The Assembly of the States begins The Prince of Conde excepts against his trial and appeals to the King but the appeal is not accepted Sentence pronounced against the Prince of Conde The King under the Barbers hands taken with an Apoplexy Charles the IX All the Nobility and the Militia is divided between two Factions Pope Iulio the second excommunicates the Kingdom of France and the Adherents thereof in which the King of Navarre being included he applieth himself to follow the opinions of Beza and Peter Martyr The Constable Anne of Momorancy restored to his Command The Prince of Câ—nde set at liberty and the Sentence pronounced against him declared void 1561 The 〈◊〉 of the States d smissed A kind of toleration permitted to the Hugonots The Kâ—ys of the Kings Palace taken frâ—m the Duke of Guise and delivered to the King of Navaâ—re The private interests and enmities are covered with the vail of Religion and the two Factions take the name of Hugonot and Câ—â—holâ—ck At Rhâ—â—ms a vial is kept with the oyl whereof the first Christian King â—louis was consecrated The Dâ—ke of Guise as first Peer of France is declared to precede all the rest The Peers are twelve six Ecclesiastical and six Secular An â—dict th t no â—oâ—y shoulâ— be mâ—lâ—sted for matters of Religâ—â—n with the reâ—â—itution â—f confiscated goodâ— The Hugonots grow insolent towards the Catholicks The Cardinal of Lorain in the Kings Council inveighs against the Hugonots The Edict of Iuly The Parliament of Paris expels the Hugonots out of the Kingdom The juâ—gment of heresie committed to the Bishops The conferenâ—e of Poissy The divers opinions of the Hereticks There are Eight Parliaments in France 1562. The Edict of Ianuary The Cardinal Hippolito d' Est Legat in France Propositions to exchange Navaâ—re for Sardinia The union of the King of Navarre with the Duke of Guise and the Constable which the Hugonots called the Triumvirat Queen Câ—theâ—ine in opposition to the Triumvirat joins with the Prince of Conde and the Admiral The Queen feigning an inclination to the Hugonots Religion In a conflict between the Duke of Guise his servants and the Hugonots the Duke is hurt wiâ—â— a stone A saying of the Duke of â—uisâ— which made him thought the author of the ensuing War Persons of desparate â—ortunes the incendiaries of Civil Wars The Queen is forced to declare her self fâ—r the Catholicks and at the same time maintains hoâ—es in the Hugonots Charles the IX wept at his restraint Orleans made the seat of the Hugonot Faction The Prince of Conde's Manifest The Parliament of Paris Answer to the Princes Manifest The Answer of the King and Queen The Prince of Câ—nde coynâ— the Plate belonging to Churches An Edict published at the instance of the Parisians to forbid the Hugonot Assemblies in their City or neâ—â— the Court. The Kings Army movâ—s towards Oâ—leans * Brigues a French word signifying factions or contentions The Cardinal of â—hatâ—llin changing his Religion calleâ—h himself Count of Fâ—â—â—vais The Parley between the Queen-Mother and the Prince of Câ—nde The Prince of Conde's demands in favour of himself and the Hugonots The Kings Edict slighted by the Hugonots The Queen perswadeth the Duke of Guise and the Constable and the Mareshal de S. Andâ—â— to leave the Court which they promise The Queen having it under the Princes hand that he woulâ— retire himself the Catholick Lords leave the Camp The Prince of Conde returneth to his Army ROYALISTS and HUGONOTS The Hugonots through the faults of their guides march all night without advancing The Armies face one another and retreat wiâ—hout fighting The Protestants of Germany are Lutherans Conditions offered by Queen Elizabeâ—h of England to the Hugonots That Montgomery who killed Hâ—nâ—â— the Second Blois taken and pillaged by the Kings Army and Tours the first Assault Poictiers taken and saâ—kt Bourges reâ—dred upon condition The Heads of the Hugonot Faction are declared Rebels * Toquesaint an allarum Bell used as the ringing of the bells backwards with us The English received by the Hugonots to Havre de Grace Diepe and Râ—â—en * The
Author is a little mistaken in his Cosmography for Dâ—epe stands just over against â—ye The Fort of Rouen taken Anâ—hoâ—y of Vendoâ—â—ne King of Navarre shot in the shoulder Rouen taken by the Catholicks and sackt The King of Navarre dieth The Prince of Conde going to besiege Paâ—is amuseth himself before Corbeil by which means he fails of his principal design In Paris were 800000 Inhabitants yet during the Siege neither the Lecturers nor the Lawyers discontinued their Lectures oâ— Audieâ—â—es Negligence the ordinary defect of the Hugonots The Battel of Dreux The Constable taken prisoner and his Son with many others killed The Constables Division being broken â—he Swisses only with exceeding gallantry sustain the fight The Prince of Conde thinking he had won the Battel being charged aâ—resh by the Duke of Guise is taken prisoner The Hugonotâ— lose â—he day The Admiral made General of the Hugonots The two bitter enemies Conde and Guise sup and lie together in the same bed The Duke of Guise made General of the Kings Forces 1563. The Siege of Orleans sustained by Andelot with the reliques of the Hugonot Army Iâ—â—n Pâ—lâ—rot feigns to forsake the Hugonot party leaves Orleans insinuates himself into the Duke of Guises Câ—urt whilst the Duke gives order for an assault shoots him in the shoulder whereof he dies Polâ—rot taken and condemned A Hugonot Captain offâ—ring to kill Andelot the Queen sends him to the same Andelot Conditions of Peace concluded at Orleans the 18 of Mâ—â—câ— â—563 Havre de Grace delivered up upoâ— conditionâ— * Livery made â—o Wards In matters of â—avour the year begun is taken for the year ended Aftâ—â— much opposiâ—iâ—n 〈◊〉 the Ninth is declared out of minoriâ—y by â—he Parliamâ—nt of Rouen Francis Duke of Guâ—sâ— left his wiâ—ow Anne d'Est sister to the Duke of Ferrara with three sons Henry Duke of Guâ—se Lodovick that was Cardinal whom Hâ—nâ—y the Thirâ— caused to be murthered and the Duke of Mayennâ— who was afterwards Head of the Catholick League The Council of Trâ—nâ— breaks up in Novâ—mb 1563. in the Papacy of Piâ—s Quartus The Pope the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoâ— send Ambassadors of Câ—arles the Ninth to sollicite the publication of the Council 1564. The Queen of Navarâ—â— causeth Churches to be ruined and expelleth the Priests Whereupon the Pope sends out a Monitory against her which is opposed by the King of France The Principality of Beaâ—ne hoâ—â—s not of the Crown of France The King and the Queen make a general visitation of the whole Kingdom The Queen treats wiâ—h the Protestants of Germany Lyons the first that rebelled and the last that returned to obedience An Interview between the King and the Duke of Savoy The King meeteth with the Popes Ministers at Avignon 1565. Charles the IX and the Queen-Mother come to an interview with the Queen of Spain at Bayonne The King not being able to perswade the Queen of Navarre to change Religion moves her to restore the Mass and Priests to their formeâ— liberty 1566. The Assembly at Moulins and the decree made there An interview between the Princes of Guise and the Chastillons â—ut no reconciliation Provost de l' Hostel called now adays le grand Provost de l' Hostel is the ordinary Judge of the Kings Household his power extends to all unpriviledged places within six leagues of the Court. Lodovico Gonzago Son to Frederick Duke of Manâ—ua marrieth Henrieâ—â—a de Câ—eve Sister to the late Duke of Nevers who was killed in the Battel of Dreux This was Father to Câ—arles Duke of Nevers now Duke of Mantua Pius Quinâ—us who succeeded Pius Quarâ—us requires thaâ— the Cardinal of Chastillon be deprived of his Cardinals habit and Ecclesiastical preferments because he followeth the belief of Calvin which being delayed for that and other things he iâ— displeased with thâ— Queâ—n The Proâ—â—stant Princes of Germany send Embassadors to the King in favour of the Hugonots and receive a sharp answer Charles the IX sharply answereth the Admiral and takes a severe resolution against the Hugonots An Hugonot Minisâ—er prin t a B ook and preacheth that it is lawful to kill the King A Prisoner confesseth that he was hired by the Admiral to kill the King The Queen-Mother is threatned in a Letter to be killed Gueux a Sect of Hereticks The Prince of Câ—nde perswades the King to make war with Spain and offers him a great number of the Hugonots whi h more exasperates the King 1567. The Hugonots jealousies of the Kings preparations resolve upon a War Colonel Fifer with 6000 Swisses saves the King the Queen and the Royal Family frâ—m a great Army of the Hugonots and marching in an excellent order fighting wiâ—h the â—nemy conducts thâ—m safe to Paris The Cardinal of Lorain saves himself by flight from the Hugonots The Hugonots resolve to besiege Paris stop the passages whereby provisions are conveyed to the City make incursions into the Suburbs and burn the Mills * Any kind of imposition espeâ—ially that which is paid unto the King upon sale of Salt The City of Orleans taken again by the Hugonots and divers others The Constable comes to parley with the Hugonots the lye passeth between him and the Cardinal of Chastâ—llon and no hopes remain of an agreement Paris besieged and streightned for victuals On St Marâ—ins Eve the Kings Forces meet with the Hugonots Army out of Paris In the Battel of St. Dennis the Catholick Army prevails but is much damnified Henry Duke of Anjoy made Lieutenant-General of the Arâ—y On Christmas Eve the Catholicks having an opportunity to fight with the Hugonots would not to prevent the effusion of so much of their own blood by which means the Hugonots save themselves Prince Casimir Son to the Palatine of the Rhine enters F â—nce with an Army and joins with the Hugonots 1568. The Pope sends aids to the King * Or Judge Rocâ—el revolts to the Hugonots which ever after serves them for a Sanctuaâ—â— The Hugonots having besieged Charâ—res the Queen makes new motions for an Accommodation * The Order of St. Francis of Paul The Hugonotâ— accept not the conditions of agreement The conditions of the treaty are not performed The beginning of the Cabinet Council The King to chastise the Heads of the Hugonots takes occasion to demand the money paid to Prince Câ—simir upon their account The Prince of Conde answereth and incenseth the King with a Letter of Protestation Order given by the King to take the Prince of Câ—nde and the Admiral prisoners The Prince and the Admiral save themselves by flight at Rochel where all the Hugonots and the Queen of Navâ—rre come to them with great forces Odâ—tâ—o Cardinal of Châ—stillâ—n who called himself Count of Beauvaiâ— flies disguised like a Mariner into England and afterwards remaineth with that Queen as Agenâ— for the Hugonots A Manifest of the Hugoâ—ots and Letters of the Queen of Navarre The King enters into a jealousie of the High Chancellor de l' Hospiâ—al and
Catholicks The Cardinal of Bourbon his pretensions to the Succession of the Crown 1585. Conditions agreed upon between the Deputies of the King of Spâ—in and the Heads of the Catholick League A meeting between the King of Navarre and the Duke d' Espernon sent from Henry the Third The Low-Countries send Ambassadors to the King of France intreating him to take the Protection and Dominion of their States Bâ—rnardino de Mendozza the Spanish Ambassador having received a sharp answer from Henry 3. begins openly to set forward the League * German Horse The King Edict forbidding the raising or gathering of Souldiers together A Declaration published by the Heads of the Catholick League * Contrary to their Majesties hopes Note that this addition and all the other alterations and additions in the following Declarations standing in the margin are according to the French Book intiâ—uled Memories de la Ligue * Projects Verdun the first City taken by the Army of the League The Insurrection at Marseilles The Kings answer to the Declaration published by the Catholick League [* Which would not have come to pass if in the Assembly of the States General held at Blois when the Deputies induced thereunto by his Majesties servent affection to the Catholick Religion had requested him utterly to prohibit the exercise of the pretended reformed Religion in this Kingdome whereupon followed the determination which was there taken and sworn which his Majesty hath since laboured to execute they had at the same time provided a certain stock of Money to prosecute that War unto the end as it was necessary to do and as it was motioned by His Majesty * And they would now have had no pretence of complaint who nevertheless publish c. Mem. de la Lâ—gue [* Whatsoever is published to the contrary Mem. de la Ligue * Evocation is a transferring of causes from one Court to another * And preservers Mem. de la Ligue [* Who onely will triumph and make advantage of the publick miseries and calamities Mâ—m de la Lâ—gue * Desolation Mem. de la Ligue * As well by reason of the good and gracious usage which they have ever received from him as because His said Majesty is c. Mem. dâ— la Ligue * Luigi Davila the Authors elder Brother was favoured by the Queen-Mother and esteemed by the King who made use of him in the managing of affairs and of the War in those times Whilst the Cardinal of Bourbon Head of the League stands wavering to reconcile himself to the King the Duke of Guise makes a specious Proposition of Agreement * These which the Author calls Harquebuziers on horseback differed from our Dragoons in that they did serve both on foot and on horseback and it is conceived by men experienced in War that they were the same with those which they call Argolâ—ttiers The King of Navarre's Declaration There ariseth such a discord between the Duke d' Espernon and Secretary Villeroy as in process of time produced many evil effects The Kings Edict against the Hugonots The Hugonots Answer to the Kings Edict The King calling the Heads of the City of Paris together demands moneys for the War which the Catholicks laboured for against the Hugonots * This particular is not in the French Original of the Kings Speech which is in a Book called Memoires de la Ligue A saying of Hen. the third * The Hugonot Sermons Monsieur Angoulesme Grand Prior France being dead the King confers the Government of Provence upon the Duke of Espernon Gregory XIII dies in 1585. Sixtus Quintâ—â—â— succeedâ—â—â— Sixtus Quintus on the ninth of September 1585. Excommunicates the King oâ— Navarre and the Prince of Conde declaring them incapable of succession The King of Navaâ—râ— makes the Bull of Sixtus â—uintus to be answered and the Answer set up in Rome De Robbe Lâ—â—gue The War is begun again between the Catholicks and Hugonots The Castle of Angiers taken suddenly by the Hugonots The Castle of Angiers is recovered by the Catholicks before it is relieved The enterprise of Angiers being vanished the Hugonot Army encompassed by the Catholicks and reduced to great streights disbands it self and part of them with the Commanders save themselves by flight 1586. Maran besieged by the Catholicks Great Forces are prepared in Germany in favour of the Hugonots Mary Qu. of Scots Cousen to the Guises imprisoned by Elizabeth Qu. of England Hen. the Third despairing of issue resolves to further the King of Navars right to the Crown and to unite himself with him for the destruction of the Guises By reason of the licentious life of Margaret wife to the K. of Navarre the King and Q. Mother resolve to break the Match and to give Christiâ—nnâ— the daughter of the Duke of Lorain who after married Ferdinando de Medici Great Duke of Tuscany An accommodation treated with the Hugonots by the Queen-Mother and much disliked by those of the League The Ambassadorâ— of the Protestant Princes of Gâ—â—mâ—ny â—eing come to â—â—is to treat in favour of the Hugonots having spoken highly to the King are sharply answered and depart unsatisfied from the Court. The Parisians by the suggestions of thâ—â— Heads of the League being set against the King frame a Councel of 16 principal persons by whom they were governed receiving their Orders and resolutions * Or Companies * Le berceau de la Ligne Nicholas Poulain discovers all the Plots of the League unto the King They of the League plot to surprise Boulogne by the Spanish Fleet which is revealed by Pâ—ulain * The Author in many places calls that the Ocean Sea which we call the Brittish Sea * Attendants or guard so called because in old time they went with Bowes and Arrowes 1585. They of the League consult about taking the King as he returned from hunting The Dâ—sign of taking the Bastile Arcenal Paris and tâ—e Louvre and to cut in pieces the Minions and the Kings adherents and to take the King himself prisoner revealed and not effected 1586. * Captain of the ordinary VVatch of Paris * A Court of Justice in Paris as Guildball in London where also many are imprisoned * The Magazine of Arms. * Atturney-General * The Garden of the Louvre * Master of the Horse Aussone a strâ—ng place in the Dutchy of Bourgongne besieged and taken by the Duke of Guise The interview between the Queen-mother and the King of Navarre at S. Bris wherein nothing was concluded 1587. The Solemn Oath of Henry the Third A saying of Henry the III. * Maistres de Camp The King sends an Army against the King of Navarre andgives secret order to Lavardin to oppose but not suppress him The Count de Bouchage Brother to the Duke of Ioyeuse turns Capuchin after the death of his wife whom he dearly loved The Duke of Espernon marries the Countess of Candalâ— a rich Heir the King honours the wedding with great presents The Protestant Princes of Germany