Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	duke_n	king_n	normandy_n	8,526	5	11.2327	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54743	The minority of St. Lewis With the politick conduct of affairs by his mother Queen Blanch of Spain, during her regency. Being a relation of what happen'd most memorable under his reign during the year, 1226, 1227, 1228, and 1229.	Philipps, Edward, 1630-1696?.	1685 (1685)	Wing P2065; ESTC R220520	46,829	160

Bretaign became an arrier-fief to the Crown of France In this State it continued till the death of Covan Earl of Bretaign who left Issue only one daughter nam'd Constance This rich Heiress was courted by many but Henry the second King of England pretended as Duke of Normandy the Right of Marriage and partly by his Authority partly by his Addresses of Courtship obtain'd her and had four Sons by her Henry Richard Geoffry and John He design'd to leave to Henry the Crown of England to Richard the Provinces of Normandy Main Anjou and Tourain which fell to him by Succession from his Father and Mother and the Provinces of Guien and Poictou which he had in Marriage by his former Wife Eleanor Between these two young Princes and the two daughters of the most Christian King Lewis the 7th there was a solemn Treaty of Marriage and the King of England had Interest enough to bring both to effect John his 4th Son was design'd for Ecclesiastical Preferment so that a Match having been propos'd between the Heiress of Bretaign and the house of England she must now of necessity be married if to any to Geoffry King Henry's third Son In fine the was married to him upon considerations meerly Political for his person was no way taking with the young Lady but his death soon deliver'd her and left her to a second Marriage more to her content for she her self then made choice of Guy de Thouars a Knight the handsomest and bravest person of his Age by whom she had but one daughter her first Husband had left her big with Child of a Son nam'd Arthur whose death was the more unhappy for that he was depriv'd thereby of such an accumulation of Successions that of England and the French Provinces thereunto appendant fell to him by the death without Issue of his Fathers two Eldest Brothers and Bretaign being his at the same time in Right of his Mother he had doubtless in prospect had he liv'd the vastest Monarchy that had been known since the partage of the Imperial Dominion of Charles the Great but John sirnamed Lackland the only Uncle who surviv'd procur'd his death to get his Estate and by this means the daughter of Guy de Thouars became sole Heiress of the Earldom of Bretaign Philip the August who taking advantage of the villany of John Lackland had reunited the Dutchy of Normandy to the Crown of France pretended that since Henry these cond King of England had power as being Duke of Normandy to dispose of the Mother he both as Duke of Normandy and King of France together had so much the better Title to dispose of the daughter The branch of Dreux was at that time the most proper branch of the Royal Family his appennage was small he had neither Office nor Government his Alliances had not enrich'd him and it was to be fear'd he might lose his Rank for want of Estate as it hapned some time since to the branch of Cortenai supposing his publih'd Genealogy be altogether exact This made Philip the August the more willing to give the Heiress of Bretaign to Peter de Dreux with this Condition that Bretaign should henceforth be immediately held of the Crown of France that is to say that it should no more do homage to whoever should be Masters of Normandy in case that Province should ever be again dismembred from the Crown The Condition was advantagious to both the new married Parties since their Estates were now no longer held in arrier fiefs nor would depend for the time to come upon a single Duke of Normandy but only upon the first of Christian Kings Nor did any one receive prejudice by it in regard Normandy was reunited to the Crown No wonder then if Peter de Dreux and his Wife accepted gladly the Condition and observ'd it in all particulars But that soon befel the new Duke of Bretaign which is but too frequent with men of slender virtue that is to say he suffer'd himself to be drawn away and transported by this flowing Tide of good fortune The large Extent of this Country of Bretaign and its advantageous Situation gave it a very sufficient Title and Merit in this Princes opinion to an absolute and independent Sovereignty besides he was pleas'd to flatter himself with this conceit that his carrying on so high a design as the shaking of the French yoke would immortalize his Name to all Posterity which great undertaking the better to accomplish he was really perswaded that his siding with the Earl of Boulogne and his Party was as fair an opportunity as he could have wisht for taking it for granted that if the Earl succeeded he could do no less than remit his homage of Bretaign in recompense of his declaring for him In case he did not succeed the Regent in revenge that she might oblige those Princes of the blood who had taken part with him to desert him would be glad to condescend to what ever they should demand of her Thus the Duke of Bretaign turn'd Rebel upon false surmises with which he fed his fancy but the most cross and untoward occurrence in his Revolt was his drawing in upon a quite contrary principle his Brother Robert de Dreux This Person had a Soul so sensible of all benefits and so prone to grateful returns that he thought he could not better testifie the high obligation he had to the Duke of Bretaign for having left entire to him the Apennage of their branch than by serving him for or against whom soever he desir'd except the King Thus he put himself under the Banner of the Malecontents by a Motive the most excusable that ever was if any excuse can be admitted in matters of Treason The last Prince of the blood that the Earl of Boulogne drew in to his Party was Robert of Courtenay whom he found the more pliable to his Temptations by discontent because the branch of the Dreux had been preferr'd before his by the Match of Bretaign and to engage him the more deeply he had opportunity given him to make himself Master of certain summs of the Kings mony Raimond the 7th of that Name Earl of Tholouse sirnamed the young was before hand with the Malecontents to whom without staying for any Invitation from them he went and joyned of his own accord upon the first prospect he had of a civil war His main inducement to this proceeding for he had none of those pretences which the rest made use of was only to save himself by fishing in other mens troubled waters The Court of Rome whose Thunders ruin'd without Exception all those petty Princes upon whom they lighted was altogether inexorable toward this Prince and would not quit him of those Ecclesiastical Censures which had been pronounc'd against him though the refusal thereof was the greatest obstacle to the recovery of Languedoc This Interdiction had so powerful an ascendant upon his Subjects minds that they thought they might be very well

them and brought their Troops timely enough into the Field to save the State by preventing the Earl of Bologne from seizing upon his Nephew the Young King and by an Action so seasonable even to finish the War as soon as it was begun The Earl thus frustrated of his first Design fore-saw that it would not be so easie a matter as he first fancy'd to himself to Degrade his Sister-in-Law wherefore the better to make sure of his Accomplices he endeavour'd by all means possible to make them irreconcileable with the Regent He knew where the greatest part of the Kings Treasure was kept and there it was that he made his second Effort accordingly he seiz'd on it and distributed it to those of his Party with this Condition that those who were nearest to him should have the greatest share This done he led them towards Calais there to joyn the King of England who following the measures he had taken from the Male-contents was to make his Descent at that very time But there is nothing so uncertain as the managing of great Enterprizes by reason of that general concourse of different Causes whereupon they depend for success The Regent lost neither her Courage nor her Judgment at a conjuncture when on the one side she had little or nothing to hope for and on the other very much to fear Never was there known to come out of her Mouth either Complaint or Reproach She knew exactly the bad condition of her Affairs and used all the Art of Dissimulation she was capable of to conceal what she thought for fear of discouraging those faithful Persons she had remaining about her She guess'd at the Earl of Bologne's Design from the very moment he took his March and wisely gain'd her Advantage by the needless stop he made in Eureux for the hindring of his passage Moreover as she concluded that France was in all likelyhood inevitably lost if the Male-contents should joyn the English she had recourse to an Artifice which I cannot but stand astonish'd that no Historians ever yet made mention of There was in England a Person named Hubert de Bourg so considerable in all respects that he was equall'd by no Man either in Favour or Merit he had a Wit beyond the Common rate and his shape was such as what Poets use to attribute to Heroes He was at once both the most accomplish'd Cavalier and the most expert Captain of his Nation and never was there English-man a truer Lover and more Zealous Patriot of his Countrey He served both King and Kingdom to that degree that both had an equal share of Obligation to him It was by him that the Crown had been preserv'd in the Family of the Plantagenets and that England had not been made a Province to the Crown of France He defended to the utmost Normandy and Guien against Philip the August and had successively in the chief places of both these Provinces held out long Sieges and by his obstinate Resistance ruined whole Armies never yielding to come to Capitulation till such time as the very Horses were all eaten up Even the French his Enemies both admiring and honouring him for his Valour thought they could never enough commend him when they saw him here in England and how just their Commendations were he ceas'd not afterwards to give them fresh demonstrations since he alone it was who snatch'd out of Prince Lewis his hands the Conquest of this Island He it was who by his Gallantry recovered the Town of Dover and Defended it with that perseverance that all the French Forces sent against it were not able to re-take it He afterwards beat them twice once at Lincoln another time before Bedford In fine he it was who having dispos'd the English to acknowledge him set King Henry upon his Throne And as the Obligation of this King Henry was very great so His Majesties care and study to recompense him was no less he confer'd upon him all the Principal Offices in the State except that of High Admiral for he was Grand Marshal Lord High Treasurer and Chief Justiciary all at one time He bad the Charge of the Transportation of those Troops which were design'd for France which Trust while he was discharging with his ordinary care and vigilance he received at that very juncture a Present of 5000 Marks of Silver with a Letter which neatly and wittily rallied upon his Vanity by insinuating to him that to make himself the most Illustrious Person that ever England bore he who had lately settled the Crown of England upon the Head of Young King Henry his Master maugre all the Force of France ought now to make it his next business to set the Crown also upon the Head of the Young King of France against all the united Forces both of his own Subjects and of England The weakness of Humane Nature never discovers it self more plainly than when in a moment it yields to lesser Temptations when at other times it hath for a long while withstood greater This was the Case of Du Bourg who after he had been inflexible to the vast Offers of Philip the August and Lewis the 8th suffered himself at last to be overcome with a petty Present and a poor frivolous bait of Vain glory offered him by a Foreign Princess He Equipp'd forth but half the number of Ships necessary for the Transportation of the English Army and when the Noblemen who had almost all in general provided to attend the King personally in this Expedition came to Dover to see their Goods dispos'd of on board the Ships there was not room nor Convenience found for them nor could it be doubted but that either the Knavery or Negligence of Du Bourg was the cause whereupon immediately Complaint was carried to the King Du Bourg was sent for to give an account to His Majesty but when he came he made so lame a Defence for himself that the King incens'd against him called him Old Traytor and drawing his Sword had certainly run him through the Body had not the Earl of Chester an intimate Friend of Du Bourg put by the thrust and given Opportunity to other Persons interested in the Fortune of this Favourite to interpose in his behalf and to avert His Majesties displeasure for the present In the next place they made him keep out of the way till such time as they had made his Peace which was not long for the King however touch'd in the most sensible and incurable part namely that of Ambition yet in the end suffer'd himself to be convinc'd that the old Obligations he had to this his Favourite ought to weigh with him more than the injury lately committed He gave him his Pardon freely and in some time receiv'd him into his wonted Grace and Faour The Regent encourag'd with the success of her first Project namely her obstructing with so much ease the passage of the English Army over into France put in execution a second Design as no

since he could not dive into the true cause and was not satisfied with any of those he revolved in his mind he fix'd upon that which had been suggested to him never examining the probability of it or considering that it was infinitely more ridiculous than any thing he could imagine beside Thus imputing the Queens indifference for him to the love which it was surmised she had for the Legate upon this sullen supposition he resolv'd upon the suppressing of a passion with which he was even ready to burst Upon this he entred into the Earl of Boulogne's Party and drew along with him his Brother of Arms Hugo de Dampmartin Count of Ponthieu whose Eldest Brother was Renald Count of Dampmartin Auscon Islebon and Domfront He having married the Niece of King Philip the August took the boldness and Authority upon him under pretext of this Alliance to besiege and having taken it to rase down to the ground a Castle belonging to the Bishop of Beauvais a Prince of the blood and Cousin German to the said Philip the August who glad of an occasion to bring down this Count of Dampmartin whom he knew to be the most turbulent and dangerous person of his whole Realm took speedy course with him and confiscated all his Estate The Earl thus reduc'd from his former heighth to a dependance upon others for maintenance was forc'd at last to beg the Kings pardon but in vain for all the Answer he could obtain of the King was that though he had no obligation to give an account of his actions to any one whatsoever yet nevertheless he was content to remit the hearing of all matters in Controversie to the Chamber Royal and the Barons of the Realm But this proposal relish'd not at all with the Earl for besides that he expected no other than to be condemned if they should proceed to the utmost rigour against him he knew well enough the power and credit his Majesty had in that Court where he was to plead So that seeing no other remedy he took part with the English and had the misfortune to be taken with other Prisoners at the Battel of Bovines where he had languish'd out a long Confinement though in a spatious Prison of about 22 Years his Brother the Earl of Ponthieu not being able to procure his Releasement And indeed the two last Kings Philip the August and Lewis the 8th and after them the Regent had ever held it as a sure Political Maxim that it very much imported to keep in durance all his life time that Vassal of theirs who was most potent and formidable so long as there was any advantage to he taken without any absolute violation of Justice so that there was no probability of this Earls deliverance but by force of Arms. The Earl of Boulogne promis'd Ponthieu to act with all the vigour requisite upon such an occasion for the setting his Brother free and that if it were not done before the Overtures of a Treaty of peace the said Treaty should never be concluded but upon Condition he were first releas'd The Earl of Boulogne being thus assur'd of those Feudataries who were nearest about the heart of the French Monarchy made it his next design to gain those who were more remote and more especially address'd himself to Jane Countess of Flanders and Hainault This Princess was married to Ferdinand Infant of Portugal and Eldest Son of King Sanchius who according to the Custome of the Cadets of noble Families had sought his Fortune in France and behav'd himself like one of those old Knights errant so renown'd in Story and in truth he lighted upon better fortune than ever he could have hop'd for Balduin Emperor of Constantinople dying without Issue Male had left King Philip the August Tutor to his daughter Princess Jane with power to marry her to whom he thought fit The King having a good opinion of Ferdinand's Merit or else not willing to bestow her upon a French man for fear of making him too potent match'd her to this Portuguess who had not made his pretension to her but as resolving to stand in Competition with any pretenders whatsoever though their hopes were built upon never so much better a Foundation But no sooner was Ferdinand by this Match become Master of two Estates more considerable at that time than the Crown of Portugal it self but he stain'd his Reputation by a most horrible Ingratitude He suffer'd himself to be deluded by the same Renald de Dampmartin whom we have already mention'd so far as to bear Arms for the English against his Benefactor for which deservedly he had the same fate being likewise taken Prisoner at Bovines after he had receiv'd six wounds in the body by the valiant Hugode Marevil a Gentleman of Xaintogne However his being taken Prisoner troubled him nothing near so much as the course they took with him afterwards for the King who knew him to be the proudest Prince of that Age knew also what would most touch him to the quick and bring down the pride of his haughty heart he caus'd him to be led in Triumph through the Streets of Paris in which disgraceful march he was saluted with such kind of Language as the Mobile commonly bestow upon persons of his Circumstance After he had been kept for some time without any other hopes than of perpetual Imprisonment it was thought fit to give him up a Freeman to the tears and submissions of his Wife who was come to cast her self at the Kings feet and to let him live in peace only all the strong places of Flanders and Hainault were to be ras'd to the ground Hereupon he was shortly to have been releas'd upon Geoffry Son of the Earl of Brabant his standing surety for him but whether it were that Geoffry refus'd to yield to that clause of the Treaty or that the King had taken fresh displeasure from any words Ferdinand had let fall since this Negotiation he was still kept a Prisoner and his Wife thus frustrated of her hopes of seeing him again at liberty yielded to the first invitation made to her of entring into the League The Earl of Boulogne encourag'd by this so speedy and prosperous success made his next Address to two Brothers Princes of the Blood viz. Peter Duke of Bretaign and Robert Earl of Dreux As for the Duke of Bretaign he was no less oblig'd to the Crown of France then the Earl of Flanders and his Ingratitude was of no less tendency to the violation of all Right and Justice Now for the better understanding of an Entreague which hath not been sufficiently made known neither in the History of France nor of any other Nation it is to be noted that Rollando the first Duke of Normandy compell'd by force of Arms the first Earl of Bretaign to do him Homage for his Earldom in the same manner as the Dukes of Normandy have since done Homage for their Dutchies to the Kings of France that is to say