to speak as long as she pleased and even affected to put her in some kind of impatience for an answer and when he thought that she had expected it long enough he gently replyed That not having foreseen the reproach she made to him it was not in his power to justifie himself on the sudden and that seeing his Crime was discovered she had no more to do but to punish him And then beholding her with so much the more calmness that she had spoken in passion but Madam continued he let mo be delivered into the hands of the executioner and let me dye you shall be Queen of France and it shall be to me a delightful comfort when I mount the scaffold to know that I am no more an hinderance to you to mount the Throne About a year ago you knew not what reason might make you become mine enemy now you have found it out I am desirous you should be a Queen Ah! Madam cryed he I cannot be guilty of a lovelier Crime With these words he would have departed but the Princess stopped him and being more out of countenance and more afflicted for the unjust reproach that she had cast upon him than for that she had drawn from him bursting forth in Tears at the door of the Closet she gave but too evident signs of her trouble and repentance Suffolk on the other hand being deeply smitten with that new expression of grief which compleated his own had no thoughts of insulting over it He stood with his eyes fixed on the floor directing thither his sighs as well as looks and very far from telling her that she should let him go to the death to which she had condemned him which another perhaps might have done in a profound silence he considered how he might mollifie the deplorable condition which he saw her in though he did not endeavour it for fear of reducing her to another as bad He well perceived that his love disguised it self under all kinds of shapes and that when it should glance forth under the colour of respect and pity that would but revive in her the flames which he desired to smother by making it appear But as he clearly saw into the heart of the Princess so she likewise penetrated into his So that retracting of a sudden the unjust reproach which vexation had made her charge him with Why do ye force me said she to speak what I do not think And why must I be constrained seeing I cannot bend you by a real tenderness which you know so well to be rooted in my heart to attempt to terrifie you by an imaginary hatred which I affect as well as I can What is become of us Suffolk continued she that your virtue makes me despair and my affection oppresses you At these words animated by throbs sighs and tears which love being reduced to the utmost extremity forced from the loveliest mouth and fairest eyes in the world it was not in the power of poor Suffolk any longer to resist his strength failed him and he fell down upon a Couch The Princess affrighted to see him look pale and faint began to be in the same fears for him that he was daily in for her And as he had omitted nothing that might perswade and overcome her so then it fell to her turn to spare no means that could satisfie and bring him again to himself She told him that she yielded promised to do whatsoever he would have her and what could she indeed deny him in that sad condition And what was she not obliged to do to relieve him However their conversation could last no longer the Duke of Suffolk must withdraw and having with much ado crawled out of the apartment of the Princess the Marquess of Dorset who met him was obliged to Conduct him home The disorder nevertheless that appeared in his countenance was neither so considerable nor dangerous as that which no body saw But the one suspended the other The oppression of the mind hindered the distemper of body and though he had had a Fever all night long yet the Earl of Shrewsbury who went next morning in the Kings name to visit him found him up He went himself likewise to Court the better to cloak all appearances and having discoursed on several things with the King Suffolk finding his virtue supported by secret advantages which his master promised himself from the marriage of his Sister with the King of France they agreed between themselves on the means to bring her to comply But it was now no more necessary to come to extremities She began of her self to resolve on it and the death or flight of the Duke of Suffolk which she found to be otherways unavoidable won by little and little from her fears a condescension to the negotiation of the Duke of Longueville to which her Love could never have consented So that that worthy Lover but the most unfortunate of all Lovers seeing he was too well beloved being come to her apartment after that the King and he had agreed what could not be in any other way concluded found her still in the same disquiet for his health that he had left her in the day before But she spake no more to him of any thing which she knew might put him in trouble She fell rather into a kind of Lethargy and whilst she used violence with her self to conceal it for fear of stirring up his compassion he fell softly to entertain her with those wild and chimerical hopes which the worst of fortunes cannot take from the unfortunate when they have a mind to imagine them She made a shew of being flattered therewith as well as he She began to spare him as he spared her and whilst with a hard curb she checked her more tender passions giving the reins to the most violent that she was capable of the Duke of Longueville became the object of them She did nothing but detest the day of his Captivity and with so much the more violence that he revenged himself so cruelly on him that had taken him In a word she could not look on him but as a mortal enemy whose sight she protested she could never endure and it may be said of that French Prince that desiring by indirect ways to gain all he lost all and that as there was never any Lover whose notions were more foolish so likewise was there never any who took falser measures However his negotiation succeeded according to the orders which he had received and the General of Normandy extraordinary Ambassadour of France came to London to conclude the marriage and peace in the treaty of which the young King of Scotland was comprehended with excommunication against the breakers because it was authorised by the Pope After this the King of England and Duke of Suffolk made it all their care to recover the cheerful humour of the Princess which seemed to be banished from her soul for the rest of her days The Marquess
The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
that therefore he would not have him be troubled at the fopperies and idle talk of people That he should suffer his jealous Rivals to speak what their own jealousie would sufficiently hinder from being believed That it ought to suffice him that he knew the virtue of his Sister That he was willing he should love her and that he pretended that whatsoever was done with his approbation was above obloquy and censure In a word dear Brandon said he I will not that your virtue be the reason why you leave me My honour is concerned that I retain you and after all this what would be said of the King of England if it were known that a wise and discreet man could not live with him I shall not then comply with your desire your virtue has revenged you on my imprudence and my favours shall revenge me on your diffidence and though now you see some in my Court that create you trouble it is possible that shortly seeing none above you but my self you shall see nothing there but what may give you content At these words Brandon casting himself at his feet would have answered that he could never deserve the favours which he mentioned but the King embracing him no more of this said he we shall never make an end Delay your thanks for what I say until you have seen what I can do return to me with as sincere an heart as I desire you to do it and let nothing take up the cares of us both but my Sisters health I wish the time were come that I might give you her In this manner the illustrious Brandon escaped the shipwrack wherein most people thought him over-whelmed He grew greater after his disgrace than he had been before and the King to keep his word to him having repealed all the proceedings of the Mayor of London against him and given Woolsey a severe check for the violence he had used in that Rancounter condemned the Earl of Kildare in the charge of maintaining two Fregats in the Irish-Seas Of all the Rivals of Brandon there was none but the officious Gray exempted The generosity that he had shewed for an unfortunate enemy was of no small use to settle the good opinion which in the sequel he was held in But Bourchier Sommerset young Buckingham and the rest met with sharp Reprimands from the King and his Majesty having exprest himself with discontent against the scoffers and libellers which spared not so much as his own Palace men became more reserved and spake no more of the affairs of others In the mean while the Princess having been in great danger of her life gave shortly assured signs of a speedy cure Besides her young age and good constitution that which contributed much to it was the relation that Brandon gave her of the long discourse which he had had with the King the day that he was released Though he persisted in the design that the King had endeavoured to divert him from yet at that time he gave no signs of it On the contrary in the necessity of pleasing her he himself was willing to seem flattered with the things that he thought no more on but with grief and that complaisance working its effect the tranquillity of her mind recalled so effectually her bodily health that she recovered from her sickness more beautiful than before But as the King had only delayed his expedition to the War of France for her sake so he hastened his departure so soon as he knew her to be out of danger and used the more precipitancy because knowing better than any other the trouble that she and Brandon would have to bid adieu he would not have them have time to prepare for it nor to revive their passions Few arms have marched out with a more victorious air than that of England The King the Commanders Soldiers and every thing else seemed to go in triumph and there was no appearance as the affairs of Lowis the twelfth stood that he could be able to withstand them The League formed against him by the intrigues of Pope Julius the Second who had resolved at what rate soever to be revenged of him because that by his Ambassadours he had maintained the Council of Pisa where his life had been so severely examined raised him as many enemies as he had neighbours His allies had already felt the cruel effects of his misfortune And amongst others poor John D'albert lost the year before his Kingdom of Navar for Ferdinand of Arragon who desired nothing more than to joyn it to Spain failed not to lay hold on the specious pretext offered him by the Interdict of Rome and though that Pope a man of a froward and turbulent spirit upon his recovery from a great fit of sickness seemed to repent his bad designs yet he had engaged so many other potentates that he was now no more the Master of Peace All Italy was in arms The most part of the small Princes hoping to raise themselves to greatness in the disorder and running to the noise that had awakened them joyned themselves to the party of the League though they knew not why so that what secret attempts so ever Julius the Second made at that time to make an end of the War yet the loss of the Battel of Navar which drew after it all the Milanese that the French then sustained was nevertheless a chick of his hatching The sad news of this came to Paris at the same time that the English embarked for their passage and many cross accidents together befel the King of France during the joys that his Court could not refuse to the marriage of the Count of Guise with Anthonet of Bourbon Sister to the Count of Vendosme Not but that in the apprehension of the storm which he foresaw from England having already dealt with the King of Scotland to make a diversion and Pregent his Vice-admiral in the Mediterranean who had no more to do with the Genowese being ready to pass over the Channel with Primanget Commander of the British-Ships to ravage the Coasts of Ireland he had a great many good Troops on foot and Officers of extraordinary merit Lowis de Halewin Marquess of Pienne a man of consummated Valour who was their General had Rendezvouzed them at Hedin The Marquess de Potelin of a boyling hot Courage commanded the Cavalry and after him in several charges were the Count de la Plaisse a warlike man the Chevalier Bayard characterised without fear and without reproach The brave Aimard de prie Imbercourt Clairmont D'anjou Bussy D'amboise Bonnivet Bonne-val Fonterailles and a great many more all capable to command Armies not to reckon those who in respect of Birth were above them as the Counts of Guise and Vendosme and the Duke of Alencon whom the affairs of State obliged to remain with his Person But the loss of the Milanese put him in great Consternation and the King of England being Landed at Calais at the head
them The End of the first Part. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The Second PART THE DUKE of Longueville with some other French being at London Prisoner at large under no other Confinement but his word lived at Court in Princely Magnificence and having occasion daily to see the beautiful Princess Mary though his arm which he carried in a scarf since his hurt still pained him had nevertheless but too many easie minutes to consider all the charms of her Beauty For nine or ten Months time he had endeavoured by all probable arguments to resist the vanity of such thoughts the Quality of Daughter and Sister to a King promised already in marriage to the heir of the Crown of Spain and the open War betwixt France and England allowed him no great hopes But he became at length passionately in love by frequent representing to himself the reasons that should have hindered it He thought it no error to take pleasure in beholding the fairest Princess in the world He looked upon the frequent occasions that he sought of entertaining her to be but the amusement of a Prisoner and thinking to secure his heart from love by the many impossibilities of enjoyment he fancied there was no great danger in desiring to please her In the mean time it befel him as he would have foretold to any other in the like disposition He came even to forget that he was a Prisoner and as love delights in mystery and intrigues entering into confidence with Mary of England he gave her a full discovery of the secret of his King and Masters Court The aversion that the late Queen of France had against the Duke of Valois and the fear that she was in lest the Dutchy of Bretannie should be for ever united to the Crown of France afforded him ample subjects of discourse He told her all the attempts which that implacable Queen had made to hinder that Union from taking effect by the marriage of her eldest Daughter to a Prince whom she could not endure She added that though the matter was accomplished yet the Duke of Valois seemed not much satisfied therewith and that having no Children by Madam and most people doubting whether ever he should have any he was already perhaps projecting to do with her as the King his Father-in-law had done with Jane of France so that the Daughter was very like to undergo the same fortune and usage which her Mothers beauty had occasioned to the Sister of CHARLES the Eight that the King was very infirm and gave no hopes of long life and by the instance of the Princess her self to whom he was speaking who had been ineffectually engaged to the heir of Spain making no account of the Marriage of Claudia of France with the presumptive heir of LOWIS the Twelfth he easily concluded that if she would accept of his service in that negotiation without any long expectation she might see it successfully brought to a period And thereupon giving way to his own thoughts he cryed That his greatest happiness would be to see her Queen of France and though to say the truth his intentions were neither the most sincere nor discreet that might be imagined yet it was not so easie for the young Princess to penetrate into the folly of them What vivacity and briskness so ever she had mischief and disorder were far from her thoughts Her tender and passionate air was sometimes injurious to her virtue and as she was every way obliging so it was most commonly imagined by all that had the honour to see her that the Conquest of her was not very difficult In this then the Duke of Longueville as well as many others found himself deceived who in stead of a lawful hope feeding his love with the vain expectations which his desires and appearances shaped for him by making Mary of England Queen of France he entertained hardly any thought for her which he expressed not under so fair a pretext Though the Princess was not affected by his Discourses in the manner that he could have wished she was nevertheless well-pleased to hear them His truely French humour and gallantry had so great a resemblance to her own that she still entertained the Duke of Suffolk with all that he said to her and he who had received no disquiet from his former Rivals was but at first slightly moved with this last He imputed this new correspondence to the natural freedom of the Princess and did not condemn her jollity But jealousie that began to work in him began likewise to shake his confidence and the disquiet of mind by little and little following the emotions of his heart he took the allarm at last and grew so jealous that he became uneasie to himself The care and means that the Princess essayed to reassure and compose him wrought no great effects and his grief encreased so much that he having refused all the gentle remedies which with greatest sincerity she offered to him she resolved without speaking a word at length to employ the strongest For that end she denied the Duke of Longueville any more access to her and because he continued obstinate to the contrary she was about to have spoken to the King that he might send him back into France upon his word or confine him to some of his houses in the Countrey The noise of that would have been great without doubt and the King who could not prevail on the mind of Suffolk by other means would not have spared that way of curing him had she but in the least proposed it The repose of that favorite was now become as dear to the King as his own and if the Princess had not been promised to the young Arch-Duke by a solemn treaty the breach whereof had not as yet been approved by the two Houses of Parliament it is certain that he would have bestowed her on him upon his return from France when he made him Duke of Suffolk But he had measures to observe in that affair by reason of the King of Spain who would not have failed to have complained of such a marriage to the contempt of his Grandson He had the like to observe with his Queen who was Aunt to that Prince and being divided betwixt so important considerations he found it one of those thorny affairs wherein Kings are in some manner afraid to make use of their absolute power And that was the reason that he spake no more of it which at first troubled all the Court and gave grounds of believing that he entertained other thoughts But the removal of the Duke of Longueville would have cost him nothing so that Suffolk no sooner understood that the Princess intended to propose it but he prevented her and resolving to over-come himself or to dye rather than to admit of such a remedy the interest of the person whom he loved wrought on his heart what he was unable to perform for his own repose Matters then reassumed almost
unseasonable and fruitless sensibleness rendred him somewhat more afflicted than he was He regrated the loss of her the more that judging of her heart by some Sentiments which on that last occasion she scrupled not to discover to him he found her more and more worthy to be beloved But at length they must part and the grief that thereupon he conceived so deeply affected him that it would have lasted much longer than it did if he had not soon after met with great affairs that first suspended and by degrees removed it at length In the mean time the fair Queen arrived in England after a passage as fortunate as carried her from thence and the King her Brother received her at London with a countenance full of the kindness that he had always had for her resolving immediately to compleat Suffolks bliss but finding that the decorum of the Widow-hood of a Queen of France would not for some time allow it that he might of a sudden cut off that and all other difficulties which might be raised by his subjects he caused them to be privately married reserving the publication thereof until he thought it time to celebrate the Solemnity They were married by the old Cardinal of York and few were present there being none on the part of the Duke of Suffolk but the Marquess of Dorset and Earl of Kildare It would be now time to speak of their great and mutual satisfaction were it not very easie to be conceived that the possession of a desired happiness is so much the more pleasant that it hath cost dear in the purchase Never was Queen so satisfied to strip her self of Royalty nor man so pleased with a Queen To conclude they deserved as they enjoyed a Soveraign felicity on earth They were from their infancy the sole delight of one another They loved to the utmost extent of love and their humours and inclinations suited so perfectly in all things that notwithstanding the difference of their fortunes their souls had all the Qualities that might contract an indissoluble Union And therefore have they deserved the glorious name of true Lovers and in my judgment there are but few that can aspire to the Honour of such a Character FINIS Postscript THE design that I proposed to my self in Writing of the English Princess and Duke of Suffolk suffers me not to proceed any farther Yet if any desire to know the rest of their Lives I shall endeavour to satisfie them About the time that they were married HENRY the Eighth giving way to the bad counsels of Bishop Woolsey the most part of the Grandees of England conspired against that Minister The Duke of Suffolk was one of the first and Woolsey declared against him with the greater heat that looking on him as the most considerable of his Enemies he found occasion to charge him with the restitution of certain sums of money that had been furnished him out of the Treasury for his Embassy in France It was a Largess of the Kings but that Minister who then had all the power in his hands alledged it was but lent Insomuch that the young Queen Dowager having offered for Suffolk a part of her Jewels whereof Woolsey immediately made use to procure a Cardinalship their marriage came thereby to be declared in an unseasonable time which obliged them both to retire into the Countrey to the shame of the Soveraign that suffered it without taking notice thereof There for the space of three years they led a most happy life notwithstanding the little rubs which sometimes they met with from Court and with regret they left their solitude when the King of England recalled them to accompany him at that famous Interview which he had with the King of France betwixt Ardres and Guines in the year One thousand five hundred and twenty The King of France had a great desire once more to see the lovely Queen with whom he had been so much in love and the King of England who in the inconstancy of mind wherewith he is charged repented that he had consented to her retirement omitted not that occasion to put an end to it Vpon his return they began at London to call her the Dutchess-Queen in opposition to the French who at Ardres and Guines called her always the Queen-Dutchess The King of France seeing her at that time in a Beauty to which nothing could be added though she had already had two Children felt his old flames revive again The action which one morning he did when he went almost alone to visit the King of England and which some Historians have taxed with imprudence was an effect of his love His design was not to see the Brother the Sister was his object though he had no ground to promise himself success and though he had not so much as any intelligence about her But so soon as he was known the Seigneur de Chalbot and another that waited on him advised him to come off as well as he could which he did and the matter past for a frolick of FRANCIS the First who intended to give the King of England a clean shirt and the King of England himself was thereby so deceived that two days after without any other design he rendred him the like frolick If I had continued the History so far it would have been pleasant to have enlarged upon that adventure and upon all the Gallantries that then passed between the two Nations where by prodigious expences they displayed all their Glories The King of France for love of the fair Queen made at that time the Duke of Suffolk a Knight of his Order and that illustrious Husband was so far from taking that for a subject of jealousie that being so well perswaded of the virtue of his Wife he wore always the Chain and Medal even at that time when being General of the English Army he took from the French the Towns of Mont-didier and de Roy. Brandon Duke of Suffolk as he was one of the greatest Captains of his age so was he likewise one of the wisest Councellors of his King and whether in the affairs which that Prince had at the Court of Rome and with the Emperour CHARLES the Fifth when he intended his divorce with Catherine of Spain or otherways when the business was to ruin Cardinal Woolsey or in the domestick disorders which obliged him to put to death Ann of Bolen his second Wife in all these he received from him very considerable services though on that last occasion when there was a necessity of condemning a beautiful Criminal for whom he had always entertained a great esteem the generous Suffolk was very loth to engage And the truth is after that time he never enjoyed himself more Queen Catherine dying a little before that cruel execution which would have but too much revenged her on her Rival if it had been performed in her life-time the Dutchess-Queen died shortly after to wit in the twentieth year of her marriage with
their former face and the Duke of Longueville who knew nothing of the disorder which he caused nor of the evil wherewith he had been threatned continued his Gallantries but with this difference that the Princess concerned at the troubles of Suffolk seemed not to him to have the same freedom of humour as formerly He judged of that sometimes in her favour and sometimes to her prejudice according to the freakishness of Lovers who for one and the same thing are many times both glad and sorrowful and as he had a good conceit of himself so he enclined rather to the one side than the other But hardly was that disorder appeased when it broke out again more cruelly than before for some Letters by a strange fatality being come to London which gave advice that the King of France designed a new marriage with an Italian Princess that bad rumour which seemed not in the least to have any relation to the fortune of Suffolk was the utter overthrow of all his hopes The Duke of Longueville who found no fairer pretext to Colour his Love for the English Princess but that of seeing her Queen of France and considering that all that he had said in respect of the Duke of Valois heir of the Crown was but a dull notion wherewith he was not himself much flattered seeing that he knew several things of the marriage of that Prince with the Princess Claudia that were far different from what the pleasure of discourse and his passion had made him say on that subject so soon as he was informed of the news from Paris without examining whether it was false or true he conceived a more sensible and specious notion and the interest of the Kingdom joyned to that pretended desire of a new marriage which was published of his King perfected in his mind that Image The age of LOWIS the Twelfth afforded him new delights whensoever he reflected thereon and if it be free once to declare what he had always in his thoughts he imagined that the lovely Princess in the embraces of an old Husband oppressed with the Gout and many other infirmities might be very well allowed some liberty This idle fancy then made his flame sparkle so that having rendered her a visit upon occasion of the report that went of the King of France with eyes glanceing with the joy that he desired to raise in her having premised such circumstances as he judged proper for his design he expressed himself with so prepossessed and contented an air that he left her hardly the liberty to say any thing against his overture The Princess only seemed not at all surprised and as if she had thought on nothing less giving him a cold answer that he designed her for every body she allowed him no opportunity of insisting in his discourse The jealousie of Suffolk created her too much trouble to entertain him on such a subject and she was so far from giving the least check to the hopes which she desired him to continue in by so vain a consideration that for all the Crowns of the World she would not have disturbed the quiet of his heart So that the Duke of Longueville finding her not so easie to be perswaded in respect of LOWIS the Twelfth as he believed she might have been in favour of the Duke of Valois and imagining that the old age of the former caused in her that aversion and as he was not much concerned whether she was satisfied or not to be Queen of France provided she were so he thought it best in that conjuncture to make a matter of state of it But the King with whom he was to negotiate being prepossessed to the contrary as well as the Princess gave him no more satisfaction than she had done and when he was pressed to speak his mind he answered him That a proposition wherein all Europe was concerned sounded not well from the mouth of a Prisoner Yet for all this the Duke was not discouraged He wrote to the King his Master and with his Letter sent the Picture of Mary of England and being a more successful negotiator at distance than in presence the affairs of Italy being now somewhat composed by the death of Pope Julius to whom LEO the Tenth succeeded and the Ministers of France finding their advantages in an alliance with England he received an answer according to his desire Then it was that poor Suffolk perceived his ruin manifest The Duke of Longueville was the first that drew his blood at the Battel of Spurs he was the first that infected his mind with the sullen poyson of jealousie which troubled all his delights at London and as a fatal enemy was now to disquiet the rest of his days And indeed he strove no more to resist the matter nor did he so much as seek ease by complaining lest that by flattering so his grief it might break out against his will and that his virtue whereof he then stood so much in need should be weakened thereby It was to no purpose for the Princess to discourse him about that subject It was to no purpose for her to employ all her Charms with him and to upbraid him with the sharpest cuts of Love that she found he loved her no more since that he yielded her to another for he had not only the power to be silent before her but he maintained to the last that rigorous conflict wherein nothing but the love oâ— her made him resist and the King his Master with all his dexterity and goodness produced but still less effects on him Never was there so much constancy in so tender and afflicted a soul He entertained the Princess Mary no more but with the Grandure and Beauties of France He urged to her by solid reasons that the most glorious passion was the desire to reign over the most illustrious people of the Universe He went farther to encourage her by pretending that his own interest was therein concerned and as if he had been the most covetous of all men who was indeed the most liberal he seemed only then possessed with the hopes of the great riches that he expected from her Crown The soul must without doubt be great which can love in that strain and ordinary passions are unable to renounce themselves in that manner But the fair Princess to whom he rendered so rare an instance of a perfect love repayed it by another no less wonderful on her part The Crown of France seemed nothing to her in respect of Suffolks heart and being sensible to the utmost of the unspeakable pleasure that is found in being loved as one loves that was to her so Soveraign a blessing that no other earthly advantage could equal it She disputed therefore with him the possession of his heart which she desired still to enjoy as he contended for the loss of hers which he was willing she should deprive him of and her lovely eyes bore already the marks of the wrong which the
of his But that was a day that produced strange adventures for the fury of the Earl of Kildare ceased of a sudden and that fiery man was so affected with Suffolks action that throwing his sword into the same place of the Wood as he had done he came running towards him with open arms crying with tears That he would never be any more his enemy After which there was no kind of friendship which they showed not to one another and this days adventure having interrupted the design which Suffolk had to wander over the world he yielded to go to Calais with the Earl of Kildare saying sometimes within himself by a tenderness of heart which makes true Lovers know the force of their love that he went only to London to endeavour the re-establishment of his defender And in effect the procedure of that generous enemy was the first thing he told the King his Master and that Prince who loved rare and singular adventures the more admired that action of the Irish Earl that he thought him not capable of such generosity So that he gave him a very favourable reception and restoring him again into favour by that means united these two Rivals into so strict a bond of friendship that nothing could afterward dissolve it In the mean while as the return of the Duke of Suffolk was in agitation and that upon the complaints which the Queen made by her Letters the King of England intended to stand on his points with the Court of France hardly had he projected the measures he was to take in that conjuncture when the Marquess of Dorset wrote an account of the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth It would be hard to give an exact relation of what the Duke of Suffolk conceived upon this great news It wrought a new change in him not to be expressed only after he had done all that could be done for Mary of England after that he had sacrificed her to her self by an excess of Virtue by sacrificing himself for her in an excess of Love nothing else can be said but that the reward which so high and extraordinary an action deserved began to shine in his eyes There was nothing able to moderate his joy but a false report that was spread abroad of the Queens being with Child For besides that this would have left him no hopes it being unlikely that the Mother of a Dolphin of France could leave her Sons Kingdom or enter into a second marriage with a person such as he was taken to be he dreaded likewise that the Duke of Valois whom she would thereby disappoint of a Crown might not revolt against her He likewise feared the Calumnies which the Favourites of that Prince would not fail to publish after that they had already slandered her and that fatal conception at length seemed to rob him of all that he thought was left him by the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth But it happened to be a mistake And the Queen having her self declared the contrary that the Proclamation of the Duke of Valois might not be held in suspense it was quickly perceived that she was the first who acknowledg'd him King of France by the name of FRANCIS the First and the Marquess de Sanferre who in the name of that Prince arrived shortly at London to renew the Treaty of Peace which the King his Father-in-law had concluded the year before put an end to the troubles of the Duke of Suffolk So that his heart being filled with joy HENRY the Eighth whose care it was also to render him happy would no longer delay his bliss He condescended to all that was proposed to him for the continuation of the Treaty and because with the interests of the two Crowns it behoved him likewise to regulate the concerns of the Queen his Sister in Quality of Dowager he took that pretext to send Suffolk into France with the title of Ambassadour Plenipotentiary which he discharged with so great splendour that Prince Henry Count of Nassaw who came to Paris at the same time in name of the Arch-Duke about the affairs of the Low-Countries was somewhat troubled to see a subject of England so highly out-do him But as there was nothing in France that could equal the Magnificence of the English and all the Court of FRANCIS the First were envious at it as well as the Flemings so there was nothing in the same Kingdom at that time comparable to the Beauty of the Queen The air wherewith she received the Duke of Suffolk at the Palace des Tournelles made the wits at Court say That she needed not too much virtue to comfort her for the death of a husband and it must be acknowledged that under her mourning Veil and Peak which by the light of a vast number of Torches set more advantageously off the delicate whiteness of her skin nothing was to be seen in her that day which might occasion melancholy or grief That raillery was carried as far as possibly it could be whilst the necessity of the affairs which they had to regulate with the King of France and his Ministers obliged them often to speak together and to be by themselves But whatever hath been said of them and whatsoever reports have been raised of their mutual complaisances or the joy that they had to meet again yet it is still true that they never gave any ground for Calumny and Reproach If they were so near to make a slip as men imagined yet they were cautious and in dangerous occasions when they might have done otherways they virtuously resisted temptation The new King of France was not of that temper for that Prince naturally very free with women would have made no Ceremony to have perswaded the Queen had she been in the least inclined to hear him He had many times much ado to leave her when the affairs of his Kingdom required it and for all the Grandure and Magnanimity which hath appeared in the course of his life yet being at that time too weak for his passion he appeared sometimes so peevish and out of humour that the same detracting tongues which have endeavoured to sully the reputation of Mary of England have given it out that his amorous fever made him so light-headed as to detest his marriage with the Daughter of LOWIS the Twelfth and to protest more than once that he had rather have enjoyed his Widow than his Kingdom Whether it was an effect of the Queens sweet disposition or that she was pleased to revenge her self for the troubles that he caused her before he was King she appeared not altogether inexorable Yet she was still the same at the heart and never what he took her to be So that one day when her beauty so surprised him that he forgot some of his measures thinking to take her on the right side he told her That since he himself could not expect to be happy it behoved him at least to endeavour to make her so that therefore he