because he had it seems one of Mr. Varillas's Artifices of citing boldly Papers that never were and so cites those of Cardinal Campege Mr. Varillas upbraids me with my not having seen them but I believe both their Citations alike I have indeed printed a long Letter of that Cardinals writ to the Pope in conjunction with Cardinal Wolsey while he was in England in which he asserts the Justice of the Kings cause and presses him to give Sentence in his favour he assures the Pope that nothing but Conscience moved the King in the matter and in short says all that even Mr. Varillas would have said if he had been animated with the prospect of a good Pension XXXIII He says I contradict my self in denying that the K. of Scotland sought the Daughter of Henry the Eighth confessing it afterwards I denied only that the Father had ever sought it since he was dead before she was born and here Mr. Varillas has the confidence to deny all that long Scheme that he had given of the project that the King of Scotland had set on for his Son so that the Imposture of suppressing his Text with which he charges me lies on his side and he leaves out all that he had said of the Machines that the King of Scotland was managing for his Son the Prince who was no other than King Iames the Fifth so the King must be King Iames the Fourth his Father and for that which he says of King Iames the Fifths going with an Army to France it fell out many years after this so it could not be the Reason that made King Henry deny his Daughter to the King of Scotland it being long after even the year 1533. after which time he owns that he does not say that the King of Scotland pretended to her and whereas he pretends that he only said that the Scots had pressed the Marriage that is one of his common practices to which I will not give the name that it deserves for he had expresly named both the King and the Prince who he said asked her with all the Submissions that were compatible with the Dignity of Soveraigns whereas as the one was dead before she was born and the other was an Infant at that time His Discourse of the Design of Uniting the whole Island into one Monarchy and his taking a start over into Spain is one of his Impertinencies to which he fly's to cover his shame and the Contradiction with which he charges me before he ends this Article is worthy of him He says I own that King Henry was Master of his Parliament and yet I denied that his Government was Tyrannical I never denied this last on the contrary I have set it out as fully as was necessary but tho I had denied it the saying that he was the Master of his Parliaments is so far from being a Contradiction to that that it agrees exactly with it Queen Elisabeth was always the Mistress of her Parliaments tho guilty of no Tyranny and it was because she was not Tyrant but governed well that she was the Mistress both of her Peoples Hearts and Purses and likewise of her Parliaments so the Triumph that he makes upon this Contradiction which he says the most able Sophister of Europe will not be able to set to rights turns upon himself XXXIV He pretends to justify his Impertinence in reckoning the Emperour and the King of Spain as two of the Pretenders to Queen Mary by saying that Charles the fifth was for three years King of Spain before he was chosen Emperour and that during all that time he pretended to her but tho he cites his Florimond here yet he finds no such thing in him so that here the Eccho does not repeat but speaks of it self and as he cannot give the least shadow of proof for this confident Assertion of his so he himself contradicts it in his own words which he cites afterwards in which he had said that the Emperour was the second that pretended to this Princess so then he was not only King of Spain but already Emperour when he began that pretension All the digression that he makes concerning Charles the fifth is a continued Impertinence to hide his Shame the only thing he had to do was to prove that he began that pretension while he was no more than King of Spain 2. he trys how Raillery will do with him because I had only named Arragon and Castile instead of the many other Kingdoms that lie within Spain but he is equally sublime both in his Ridicule and his serious strains for since the conjunction of all these Titles rise out of the Marriage between Arragon and Castile I writ correctly in naming these two only instead of all the rest that lay in Spain XXXV Our Author will still justify what he had said concerning K. Henry's rejecting the match with Scotland because the King of Scotland had declared himself for France during the last War in which K. Henry had been engaged with Francis now it is to be considered that all the propositions for Queen Mary that our Author sets forth fell out before the year 1527 in which the sute of the Divorce was begun for after that time none courted her as he himself confesses therefore this War between England and France in which Scotland took part with the latter and for which the King lost his Unkles favour must be before that time since then there had been no war between France and England in which Scotland took part after that battel of Floddon in which K. Iames the Fourth was killed and after which during the interval between the year 1513. and the year 1527. which is the only time in debate nor indeed for many years after it all this is an ill-laid fiction which destroys it self so what K. Iames the fifth might do ten years after the year 1527. cannot be brought to excuse that which had been given for a reason of K. Henry's rejecting him before that year XXXVI He accuses me for denying in one place that the Emperour pretended next and yet afterwards confessing it but I only excepted to this because he says the Emperour pretended the second after the K. of Scotland whereas I shew that the Dolphin was the first that pretended and by the Contract for that Marriage which is yet extant it appears that his dream of Charles's pretending to her while he was yet King of Spain is not only without ground but is a downright falsehood for that contract bears date the ninth of November 1518. so that during this Interval in which Charles was only King of Spain she was promised to another 2. Whereas I had discovered his Ignorance of those Transactions by this that he knew nothing of Charles the fifth's coming to England in Person to contract this Marriage he tells me that he had writ of this in his History of Francis the first where he had
of the Narration makes me believe that Mr. Varillas denies this with the same sincerity that he affirms other things why did he call him a Gentleman without adding any other Description of his Quality for let him say what he will of the Honour of that Title yet all the world knows that when a man is upon such an occasion qualified barely as a Gentleman that it is understood that he has no higher rank nor any particular distinction and that which comes after this that by this Marriage the Queen grew contemptible to all her Subjects shews that even tho Simple were not to be found in the Paris Editions yet it must be understood But because Mr. Varillas will pretend to know the Scottish Story he offers to recriminate In short those who sent him that Story of my life have also furnished him with some Errors for which he charges me in such heinous terms as to call them Faults of vast importance which the meanest of all the little Schollars at Edinburgh would have avoided I ought to fall a trembling here for I know there would be no quarter for me if I fell into Mr. Varillas's hands yet all these dreadful words come only to this that she whom I called the Lord Darnley's Grandmother proves to be his Great Grandmother and that she whom I call Isabel was Margaret And are not these justly to be aggravated with such severity as to say that these were Faults of the grossest sort against the first Elements of the History of my Countrey I forgive Mr. Varillas for magnifying those mistakes since he can meet with no other and I do not find my self a whit troubled if writing in Holland where I had not the requisites of Books or Papers I did not carry the race of the Family of Lennox so exactly in my memory but that I might mistake so far as to call a Great Grandmother a Grandmother and there having been a famous Lady Isabel Dowglas if I mistook Isabel for Margaret this is no great matter But he charges me with a third because I said that the Branch of the Lennox's came out of the Family of the Stewards before the Crown came into it by Marriage whereas he tells me I should have said at the same time since the first of the Family of Lennox was Brother to him that married the Heir of the Crown If I had said long before he might have challenged me for it but the younger Brother being born before that Marriage and not being descended from it I used all necessary caution in my words my design being only to shew that the House of Lennox by the Paternal descent had no relation to the Crown after this our Author to make some reparation to the Royal Family reckons up the Honours that some Branches of the House of Lennox had in France as that they were Marquisses Counts of Aubigny Viceroys of Naples Admirals of Sicily and Mareshals of France tho to make up this Catalogue of honour the same man runs Charles the fifths fate to be subdivided into two or three Dignities But Mr. Varillas ought to know that the Dignity of the K. of England's birth is too great a thing to receive any addition by the Imployments that those of the Family of Lennox might have merited in France So mean a man as Mr. Varillas who has nothing in his thoughts but the smiles of Versailles fancies he gives a lustre to one of the greatest Kings in Europe when he says that some of his Family served in France which rather lessens his Race than exalts it As for his Impudence in putting the Crown of Scotland instead of the Crown of England and his making me say that the Lord Darnley might have been a dangerous competitor to Mary Queen of Scots for that Crown when not only my words but the whole series of the Discourse shews that I meant only of the Crown of England was already observed It will indeed bear a repetition for it is a remarkable instance of Mr. Varillas's sincerity and shews how safely the world may rely on his word He shews his Ignorance again in saying That his Marriage of the Queen of Scotland was the first cause of the change of Religion in Scotland The change of Religion was made before the Queen came out of France and so was setled some years before this Marriage and this was rather a step towards the subverting of the Religion then established since the Lord Darnley lived and died a Roman Catholick IV. What he says to shew that the greatness of Queen Maries spirit does not contradict the character that He gives of her is so poor that I will not examin it the subject is too tender to admit of it as well as what he says is too dull to deserve it V. He gives a long Citation of his own words by which it does not appear that I supprest any thing that needed to be told by me if this Book had been printed two years sooner than it was I should have believed that Mr. Varillas was in Pension to some body else than the King of England by the pains he is at to justify the putting a Bastard into the Succession of the Crown for I do not believe that at this time any body thinks him considerable enough to be corrupted 2. His alledging that I had accused him as if he had said that the King had composed whole Volums on this subject is another mark of his sincerity for it is visible I had said no such thing 3. The Proofs he brings to justify what he had said of the baseness of the Race of the Tudors from some Strangers and Harpsfield one of the worst of our Writers are not to be put in the ballance either with Polider Virgil's Testimony or the more Authentick Evidences that I had given particularly in my Appendix to which he says not a word 4. There is a great difference between saying that the Tudors were not Gentlemen and the denying that he was a fit match for a Queen-Dowager And tho Mr. de Courteney is perhaps of a higher degree of Nobility than I pretend that the Tudors are yet I believe he would be thought an unequal match to a Queen Dowager of France so tho the Tudors might perhaps drive up their pedigree to Cadwaller yet they had been for some Ages reckoned only as one of the best Families of Wâ—les and this puts an end to all that trifling of his when he pretends to argue against his Birth by saying that if he was so descended he was an equal Match to the Queen Dowager 5. There might be very good reasons that might make the Queen conceal her Marriage all that was possible even tho Tudor had been ever so good a Gentleman for she being a Queen-mother and having a Son newly born which gave the prospect of a long share in the Government she had reason to hide her Marrying a Gentleman had he
Proposition This is to make him resolve to accept the Marriage of one that was to be declared a Bastard by the Divorce and yet he act knowledged before that the King of Scotland would never ask her after that But now he makes an Ambassadour of France lesse sensible of this point of Honour and content to have both these Marriages made at once But besides all this the great advantage of Marrying the Daughter of England was because she was the Heir of the Crown so then if the Bishop of Tarbes would have concurred to help the King to another Marriage by which that Succession might have been cut off from Mary we must conclude him to be as fit a man for Negotiations as Mr. Varillas is for Histories or Panegyricks but he must be pardoned if he cannot alwayes carry up his Fictions to a probability All that he adds of the General powers given to Ambassadours upon which they depart sometimes from all their Instructions and act contrary to them has nothing to do here in a matter of such vast consequence especially when a few dayes delay could have procured him positive Instructions upon any new propositions that might be made him XLVII I had cited his words concerning Cardinal Wolsey exactly and he repeats my quotation wrong that he might give himself a colour to reproach me Then he gives me a long Citation out of Florimond and sends his Reader back to another that is much longer and so he thinks all is well proved XLVIII He argues against a positive Instrument and thinks that some of the Probabilities that he offers and Florimond's Testimony ought to overthrow the plain Proof of a Matter of Fact XLIX He opposes to what I had said concerning Sr. Thomas Wiat his constant Voucher Florimond and then he runs out in his way to argue upon this Foundation of the Truth of that Testimony But instead of pursuing him in such trifling stuff I will here add a more importance Discovery of the Falsehood of all this matter by an Original Paper which fell into my hands since I writ my History but was not in my power when I writ my Reflections on Mr. Varillas yet it comes in here properly enough It is a long account that Sr. Thomas Wiats Son writ of that matter as soon as Sander's Book appeared He says it was never so much as spoken of before that time that his Father was Squire of the Body to King Henry all the while that that Marriage with Anne Bullen lasted and for many years after and yet neither did he in discretion retire out of the Court nor did the King seem jealous nor the Queen offended at him and he shews further the Improbability of the Fiction for upon her fall it was very probable that as Queen Catherine Howards ill life as well before as after her Marriage was examined when she was condemned so the like method would have been observed towards Anne Bullen if there had been any room for it and as to Anne Bullen he says that her Tryal was managed secretly in the Tower and that the Evidence upon which it was pretended that she was condemned was kept so secret among the Peers that tried her that it was never certainly known some of the Lords confessed afterwards that her Defence had cleared her entirely and to all this he adds one remarkable particular that there was none of all her Ladies brought to swear any thing against her now it is certain that no Queen especially in such a Court as that of England was then the Household being the greatest in Christendom could be guilty of so many disorders as were laid to her charge without taking some Woman into the Confidence and yet none were either accused of it or brought to Witness it He adds that his Father was afterwards Ambassadour for several years in Charles the Fifth's Court where he conceived that aversion to the Spaniards and to their Councils that this threw him into the Rebellion that he raised against Queen Mary when she was treating about the Spanish Match for I must here warn the Reader that Mr. Varillas transforms this Wiat into Haviet and makes a long story of him elsewhere In Conclusion a man must be as ignorant of our Affairs as Mr. Varillas is not to know that a Privy Councillor thinks an Ambassy no disgrace but on the contrary a preferment to him and those who know that by the forms of our Court no Officer has a more free and frequent Access to the King's person than the Squire of the Body tho he is but one of the second Rank in the Household will see how ridiculous a contrivance all this story is of Wiats having corrupted Anna Bullen and his revealing it to the Privy Council and their imploying the Duke of Suffolk to acquaint the King with it who was so far from believing it that he would not accept the conviction that Wiat offered to his own eye sight but on the contrary disgraced him for it L. Here is a new long citation of his Garand but at the end of it our Author seems not to comprehend how More could be for the Divorce without being for the Schism and thinks the distinction is a little too Metaphisical but the difficulty of apprehending this must lie in Mr. Varillas's dulness since there is nothing easier to be understood than that More thought there was just reason to move the Pope to annul a Marriage that had been made by vertue of a Papal Bull and yet tho More would have approved of the Divorce if it had been obtained in that manner he did not like K. Henry's doing it by the Authority of his own Clergy and his separating from the Court of Rome upon it More 's works make a huge thick Volum in Folio and were printed in Queen Mary's time by her positive Order nd so great a Book while Printing was yet so low as it was then in England could not be so easily carried thro the Press without some particular Assistance from the Court All that understand English will see that I have cited his Letters true and Mr. Varillas's Reasons against this is arguing against a plain Matter of Fact which can make no Impression upon any mans spirit unless it be to shew the Impertinence of him that undertakes it After this there comes another Impertinence of a Citation of five Pages out of Florimond LI. Before I examin what he says concerning Cajetan I will state the Matter in short He had given a long Abstract of Reasons which he had pretended to have drawn out of Cajetan's Consultation that had no appearance of truth in them such as that of the blocking up of Constantinople the avoiding to Mary in Houses suspect of Heresy with several other Follys I upon that concluded this must be as true as his other Quotations were so I searcht for Cajetans Works not having then by me those Extracts that I
been ever so nobly born The Dowager of France that was King Henry's Sister had none of those considerations for hiding her Marriage with Brandon and the other Sister the Queen Dowager of Scotland had no reason at all to hide her Marriage for she made it to secure her in the Government Dowglas Earl of Angus being then the greatest Subject in the Nation so the keeping this Marriage with Tudor secret does not at all prove that He was no Gentleman 6. But Mr. Varillas does not pretend to answer the main thing that I laid to his charge which was that he speaks of the Tudor that married into the Family of the Plantagenets as a mean man when he was the Kings uterine Brother so that I shewed that when he writ his History he knew nothing of that Marriage since it is not to be imagined that any man who knew it could pretend to reckon up the Race of the Tudors without mentioning its chief Dignity 7. If I had thought so slight a fault which Mr. Varillas magnifies so much in me of calling a Great-grand-mother a Grand-mother worth mentioning here I have proved him guilty of it for he calls the Tudor that married the Plantagenet Great-grand-father to King Henry the VIII whereas he was only his Grand-father 8. He tells us in his Justifying the Succession of Bastards that the Rank of the King's Bastard was much higher than Owen Tudors was but tho the French have so far flattered the Lewdness of their Kings as to esteem their Bastards Princes born yet in England they have no Rank at all till the King gives them a Title and then their Rank is only according to the degree and the date of their Creation VI. He confess here the very words that I cited out of him and yet he pretends that I had accused him falsely But that he may have some colour for this he charges on me words that are not in my Reflections He had said The four principal Cantons had suffered themselves to be seduced in less than a year whereas this was ten years work and now he thinks to save this by saying that a great part was abused in less than a year but even this belonged only to Zurich whereas he had said that the four Cantons suffered themselves to be seduced besides that what he speaks thus of the Cantons in general cannot be meant of some Individuals but must be understood of the Magistracy and yet now he confesses that they were ten years a considering this matter before it was generally received by the Government to whom only the name of the Cantons belongs and as the Bigness of the Town of Basil does not hinder its being one of the little Cantons so the pensions that France might pay an Age ago to Schaffhouse will never change its rank among them nor does he say a word to justify his Mustring up of the seven Popish Cantons among the small ones or his raising Appensel and Glaris to be among the middlesised VII Here he remembers me of my Fault of having said That his way of writing wanted none of the Beauties of History except that of Truth which he thus repeats according to his ordinary sincerity that I my self had avowed that he wanted none of the Qualities proper for writing History without putting in my exception of that of truth that even by this citation he might justify my accusing him of want of truth but he tells us that by his Copyers fault his Preface to his third Book was lost so he was forced to make that up the best he could and then he comforts himself with his meditation that the Books of Authors are subject to Fortune as well as other human things but I was not bound to know the secrets that past between him and his Copyer no more than I am bound now to believe what he says of it The Books of Authors are subject to Fortune for by a great chance his were once in some esteem but as we say of the Dead that they are beyond the reach of Fortune so his Books very likely may be soon exempted from Fortune in that sense In short he seems to confess that the Preamble he sets before Luthers affair is Impertinent and I said no more of it VIII He gives me an Advice how I should have begun my History With the Indignation that the English Nation had to the Papacy ever since King John had subjected his Crown to the Holy See and had established the Peterpence that this was encreased because a Pope had made them lose Guienne by binding one of their Kings to levy the tenths on the Church Lands that King Henry the Eighth's lewdness gave him a great byas to schism which he pursues in a full career and repeats those Absurd Calumnies concerning Anne Bullen which I had to copiously refuted and at last he adds That King Henry raised mean persons to great Imployments that these by the Laws and Government of England could not enrich themselves but moderatly and in many years and therefore since they resolved they would be rich all of the sudden they saw they must do it at the Churches cost I do not wonder that Mr. Varillas should advise me to have made up a Preface in this manner that so I might write in his own way but I think I have sufficiently convinced him that I have not such an esteem of him as to be much inclined to follow his Councel 1. It was King Ina and not King John that setled the Peter-pence 2. K. John's Action was a personal Baseness in him which did not at all affect the Kingdom so that there was scarce any notice taken of that meanness of his unless it was to make him that was guilty of it contemptible for a King of England can neither alienate nor subject his Crown to any forreign power 3. What he says of Guienne seems to be one of his Discoveries for it is not mentioned by any of our Historians that I know of 4. At the time that Guienne was lost the Popes by residding at Avignon and being considered as in the power of France had so little credit in England that as there were many Laws made all that while against the Papal Pretensions so a Bull at that time could not have been so much as executed in England without the Kings leave much less could it have obstructed the Subsidies levied upon the Clergy 5. He understands the Interest of England as little as he does other things that fancies the Nation was much troubled for the loss of Guienne which lay at so great a distance and was defended at so vast a charge that the Nation that received no profit by it in an Age in which there was little trade was glad of getting out of this necessity of giving the King so many Subsidies If he had apply'd that which he says of Guienne to Normandy it had been more pertinent but Mr. Varillas is as
inconvenient that the French Ambassador should have proposed that Marriage And whereas I had denyed that the French Ambassadors writ Relations of their Ambassies he mentions some that writ them And whereas I had shewed the Improbability of a design of the Court of France's advancing the Count d'Angolesmes Sister to the Crown of England He tells me that Lewis the twelfth never intended to cut off his Cousin Francis ' s Right of Succession and that his Sister was of a Rank fit to be a Match to the Heir of the Crown of England and that the Duke of Lorrain married one that was many degrees further from the Crown than Margaret of Valois was And now are not all these good substantial Proofs and as he calls them Discoveries of Errors that are insupportable in me I never deny'd that Henry the Eighth's Parents would not think of this but I lookt upon the whole thing as a Fiction 2. If it was ordinary in those days to contract Children does that prove that this Proposition was ever made 3. Mr. Varillas's new discoverys in Logick makes him now a second time offer to prove a thing because it was not Inconvenient 4. It is no proof that Mr. de Piennes writ a Relation of his Embassy because some others writ their own Memoirs and this was the thing in question so he should have justified that Citation 5. There is a great difference between the not cutting off of Francis's Succession and the raising his Interest by giving him so powerful an Ally In short I denied the Fact and he instead of proving it tells me it was not inconvenient nor a Match below Henry which I had never pretended XXIX He tells mighty things of his performances with Relation to England and says it is but too well known how it comes that these things appear not in his History But if what is lost is of apiece with what appears now the world may wellbear the loss 2. He denys that I have cited any passage of his Book in which he had raised the power of the Parliament above the King 's Tho I told him that in this very place he had said that the Parliament being careful to maintain the Authority which they had over the King obliged him by repeated Remonstrances to marry 3. But if he has said it he will make it good and he tells me that he will cite two Authorities for this which I dare not contradict the one is of King Iames the First who in his Advice to this Son says That the Parliament of England had not always kept its power within its due Limits but had often enlarged it to the prejudice of the Royal Authority to this he adds another long Citation of his that filled a Page indeed but had not one word to prove a Superiority in the Parliament to the King on the contrary it proves that it was a Court assembled by the King for the great Affairs of the Kingdom now tho I will not presume to dispute this Authority yet I will take the Liberty to tell Mr. Varillas that it makes against him for if Parliaments have sometimes gone beyond their Limits and have carried their power to the prejudice of the Kings Authority then by our Laws the Parliament is not Superiour to the King but has its Limits and it exceeds those Limits when it attempts to raise it self above the Kingly power 4. His second Authority is taken from an Italian of Bologna and he sets down in Capitals his words whereas ordinary Letters served for the Citation of King Iames's words but he thought the one did him not such service as the other and therefore he bestowed the Capitals in gratitude to him that did him the best service The Writer of Bologna indeed does say That the Parliament of England has pretended a great Superiority above the King of England As for this Author Count Majolino Bisaccioni I know nothing of him so whether this is one of Mr. Varillas's Inventions or not I will not determin but I cannot imagin why this should be such an Authority that I dare not dispute it It is true the Author is of Bologna where men are easily assassinated yet I do not think that this Count or his Heirs are so spiteful as to send one to the City of Holland according to Mr. Varillas's Geography to Murder me if I contradict this Authority for besides this I cannot imagin what should make me not dare to dispute the Authority of one of Bologna in a matter relating to the Government of England But after the pains our Author has been at to depress the Dignity of the Kings of England and the Capitals that he has bestowed upon it I confess he needs no more deny that he pretends to a Pension from thence 5. In conclusion he cites his Florimond tho he had the confidence to cite on the Margin the Articles of the Parliament 1509. but now he runs to his Author but tho he has done himself the Honour as to say he is his Eccho yet I never heard of Eccho's that repeated more than had been said some repeat over and over again but none add yet Mr. Varillas who cited Florimond to prove that the Parliament had obliged the King by reiterated Remonstrances to marry the Infanta finds neither these Remonstrances nor the Parliament in the Citation that he gives us out of him for he says only that the Princes the Lords the Council and the People of England approved of it by their consent and made no Opposition to it XXX For the Kings five Children by Queen Catherine He brings again Florimond who says She bore him three Sons and two Daughters and as if this had been a solid proof Mr. Varillas triumph and says He does not know upon what principle in Arithmetick I reckon if I deny that 2. and 3. make 5. I think I may allow Mr. Varillas so much of Arithmetick as this essay amounts to but I will scarce allow him much more of it or of any thing else XXXI He does indeed give an Author here for that which I thought was his own Invention but still it is no other than Florimond I do confess I read him very carelesly I found Sanders was transcribed by him and that he could not pretend to any good Information but now I see one Writer of Legends refines upon another and as Mr. Varillas adds some few things of his own Store to Florimond so the other had added a great deal to Sanders but his Voucher was an Author of so little credit that I confess I read him so superficially that finding some strokes in Mr. Varillas that were new to me I fancied that he was the Author of them but now I see he has an Author such as he is For what he says concerning Flattery it is to so little purpose that I use him kindly in passing over it XXXII He cites again Florimond for his Garand and