He endeavours in conjunction with Gouffier Governour to the Count of Angouleme to root out of the hearts of their two Pupils the seeds of aversion which the Marriage of the Count with the Heiress of Bretagne who was promised to Charles had sow'd there and in the extreme difficulty that presented of remaining united with the Emperour or Catholick King Chievres wisely prefers the German before the Spaniard Of the Second BOOK Chievres takes all necessary measures for governing in the Low-Countries during the absence of the Archduke Philip of Austria who was gone to Spain to take possession of the Kingdoms of Castile fallen to his Wife But the Archduke dies not long after he had been Crowned King and Chievres is by the King of France made Governour of the Archduke Charles Eldest Son to Philip. He labours but in vain to hinder his Maternal Grandfather from the administration of Castile He endeavours to have it given to Maximilian the Paternal Grandfather of that Prince But Louis the Twelfth opposes it contrary to his own interests and thereby augments the power of his most dangerous enemy Manuel Secretary to Philip is persecuted by Ferdinand the Catholick King because he had too well served his Son-in-law Manuel withdraws to Flanders and Chievres receives him well in hopes that he 'll hinder Ferdinand from disposing of Castile at his pleasure But Ferdinand sets so many Engines at work that at length Chievres is forced to abandon the protection of Manuel and even to commit him to prison where he continues during the life of Ferdinand Cardinal Ximenes is no better treated for his having remained Neuter betwixt the Father-in-Law and Son-in-law Ferdinand resolves to take from him the Archbishoprick of Toledo and the Cardinal hath his recourse to Chievres who makes the Archduke his Pupil interpose He offers Ximenes a retreat in the Low-Countries and Ferdinand is so much afraid of it that he lets the Cardinal alone Of the Third BOOK FErdinand sets the Governour and Tutor of his Grandson against one another He perswades Dean Adrian that he will frustrate the Archduke of the Monarchies of Spain if Chievres be not deposed and the Dean possessed with the fear of that signs a Treaty whereby he engages himself to bring Chievres into disgrace But Chievres is informed of it and guards himself equally both against the Catholick King and the Dean He negotiates with the French a Treaty at Noyon and gives it so cunning a cast that he turns the accessory into the principal and the principal into the accessory He thereby secures to the Archduke the Succession of Spain and Ferdinand is so vexed at it that he joines with England for undoing him But in that particular the Archduke has no more regard to the offices of the King of England than to the exhortations of his Maternal Grandfather and Chievres remains in greater favour with him than before This puts Ferdinand out of all patience A dangerous design is formed against the life of Chievres He hath notice of it He acquaints the Archduke with the same and at the same time advises him most prudently to keep the thing secret The event made appear that the Council was good and Ferdinand at his death puts not in execution the design which he had formed of disinheriting the Archduke Of the Fourth BOOK CHievres being informed of the death of King Ferdinand resolved to have his Pupil declared King of Castile and Arragon during the life of the Queen his Mother and begins so difficult an Intrigue by obliging first the Emperour Maximilian and then the Court of Rome to give him the title of King. He writes immediately after to Cardinal Ximenes to assemble the States of the two Monarchies and there to cause the Archduke to be declared King jointly with the Catholick Queen Ximenes finds many more difficulties in it than he imagined but at length he overcomes them partly by policy and partly by his haughty way of acting There remains no more then but to take possession of the two Monarchies and the Archduke could not go thither without being in agreement with France He mediates a negotiation in the Town of Noyon where the Governour of Francis the first and of the Archduke in quality of Plenipotentiaries labour to unite their Pupils Gouffier Plenipotentiary of France acts sincerely but his candour succeeds not with him and Chievres signs a Treaty with him ambiguous enough to give the Archduke pretext of waving the execution of it when he might have a mind Francis provoked that his Governour had been over-reached favours the arming of John d' albert for the recovery of Navarre but the imprudence of that dispossest King makes him lose the occasion of re-establishing himself His forces having been unseasonably divided are cut in pieces and he loses his hopes of remounting the Throne by losing his life Chievres is moved at the oppression of the Indians whom the Spaniards forced to dig in the Mines He offers to perswade them to employ Negro-slaves in that toilsom labour but Cardinal Ximenes opposes it upon interest of State and the matter continues in suspence Of the Fifth BOOK XImenes having obliged the Catholick King to share with him his power in Castile enjoys not long the advantage of his Politicks The Grandees support him with so much the less patience that he continued to carry towards them with extraordinary haughtiness and not being able to dispatch him by open force they have recourse to artifice They give him a slow poyson and he takes it a minutes time before he who came to warn him of it arrived He takes Antidotes which do not serve his turn but only prolong his life for some Months For all he saw himself so near his end yet he undertook one of the boldest of all his actions by removing from the Infanto all his servants only one excepted The matter was carried on without tumult and the Catholick King arrives fortunately in Spain The Courtiers of his Majesty of whom Chievres was the most considerable resolve to acquire and preserve the friendship of Ximenes but his sternness makes it impossible for them He persists obstinately in solliciting the King his Master to exclude them all out of the Council of Spain and by that means obliges them to unite for procuring his disgrace They obtain it of the Catholick King and the news that the Cardinal received of it affects him so sensibly that a few hours after he expires After his death the weight of affairs lyes upon Chievres who discharges himself of his trust to a wonder in two occasions the one by all means to get the Infanto Ferdinand removed out of Spain and sent into Germany and the other in disposing the Emperour Maximilian who would have yielded the Empire to the Infanto to change his design and chuse the Catholick King for his Successor Of the Sixth BOOK THE greatest part of Spain conspire together for the disgrace of Chievres and this great man is
causes of misunderstanding which the change of time and the malice of men might for the future raise to disturb their friendship They met in the Town of Montpellier in Languedock in the beginning of Autumn one thousand five hundred and nineteen and it is not doubted but that they would have concluded a Peace of long duration betwixt the two Monarchies if God who thought fit to chastise the French by the Spaniards and the Spaniards by the French had not broken up the Negotiation by the death of Gousfier The Spanish writers who here do double their calumnies against the memory of Chievres have not been sensible that they wronged themselves more than him They blame him in the first place for having accepted a French Town for the interview and for not having stood upon it that the Conferences should be held upon the Frontiers of the two Kingdoms But it is easie to answer them that a neutral place had been good if there had been open War betwixt the two Crowns But seeing at that time they were in Peace and that a rupture betwixt them was only to be feared for the future it was not the custom to use any caution for the place of the Assembly and though it had been the question was decided in the preceding Negotiation The same Plenipotentiaries met in the Town of Noyon in Picardie for the same reason that obliged Henry the Fourth of Castille to pass the River Bidasloa and Treat in Guyenne with Louis the Eleventh of France that is to say by reason of the pre eminence of the French Monarchy before that of Spain and nothing had supervened since that which exempted Gouffier and Chievres from that rule For Charles was only Emperoâ— Elect and not Crowned and though he had the Imperial Dignity hindering not but that he held the Counties of Flanders Artois and Charolois in Fee of the most Christian King the least thing he owed to his Lord superior was to send his Plenipotentiary into his Country The same writers in the second place accuse Chievres of having imprudently trusted himself in a Town of Languedock where he was not in full liberty to Negotiate as was necessary But they mention not that Chievres could not take more security than he did and that it was so far from being violated that the Bishop of Badajox and Doctor Carvajal who seconded him in the Negotiation of Montpellier never complained of it Lastly they find fault in the third place that Chievres put himself in danger of being stopt when the Conferences ended by the death of Gouffier and their blindness in that particular is the more ridiculous that they see not that the fault which they impute to Chievres reflects upon Charles the Fifth who twenty years after put himself into the hands of Francis the First by crossing over all France upon the word of that Prince upon no other motive but the appeasing of the tumult of Ghent What the same writers add that Chievres had been Arrested in Montpellier if he had not left it at the very instant that he heard of the death of Gouffier and escaped with all diligence to Roussillon is no truer than the rest For it appears by the Journal of the Conferences written by the Secretary Robertet who was present at them that Chievres stayed in Montpellier some days after the death of Gouffier that he paid his last duties to his friend That he did not break up the Conferences but because the power of concluding for France was committed solely to Gouffier who was dead and that before he departed he took leave of Poucher Bishop of Orleans Robertet and the rest of the French who were concerned in the Treaty of Montpellier as Subaltern Ministers He had one cause to regret the death of Gouffier which he had not foreseen and which all the advantages that Charles obtained afterwards over France were not able to repair Gouffier promised Chievres to procure for him from the most Christian King peaceable possession of the Estate of Gaston de Foix which Queen Germana had made over to him and the thing had infallibly been accomplished after the separation of the Plenipotentiaries and the signing of the Articles But these well-grounded hopes so totally evanished by the death of Gouffier that whatever Chievres could do afterward the Estate that Gaston had possessed was given to his three Cousin-germans by the Fathers side Lautrec Asparant and the Mareschal de Foix without any recompence made to the Heirs of Chievres The unsuccessfulness of the Negotiation of Montpellier obliged the Catholick King to use as great caution before he departed out of Spain as if the French had already declared War against him He appointed a whole Army for the Guard of the Pyrenees and hastened his Voyage for Germany that he might engage in his interests Henry the Eight his Uncle by touching at England He durst not leave a Grandee of Spain to govern the Country in his absence for the same reasons which diverted his Grandfather upon his death-bed from chusing one of them and seeing he had occasion to make use of Chievres in England and Germany whither he was going and that he had already as hath been said cast his eyes upon the Cardinal of Tortosa for discharging that office in conjunction with Ximenes he thought it his best to continue him both in gratitude and civility He had no regard in that particular to the Remonstrances which were made to him thereupon by the Castillians on the one hand and the Arragonese on the other when he assembled them with design to bid them farewel and the Agents whom he entertained at the Court of England having given him advice that Henry the Eight would be at Calais the first of June one thousand five hundred and twenty for an interview with Francis the First near the Town of Ardres he apprehended and not without reason that these two Monarchs might unite against him In that case England would have cast the balance to the side of France and upon the account only to take the King of England off of that he hastened his departure out of Spain He embarked in the Port of Corugna the twentieth of May and was so happy as to make his Voyage into England with so much expedition as was necessary to break the most Christian Kings measures with Wolsey Cardinal of York the Favourite of Henry A favourable Wind in six days time brought him in the very nick to Dover where he found the Court of England making ready to go over into France He conferred two whole days with Henry none being present but Chievres and the Cardinal of York the two chief Ministers of the two Princes and the effects of extraordinary civilities in interviews appeared as much in that rencounter as ever It seemed that the Catholick King had forgot that he was chosen Emperor so respectful he was to his English Majesty and his complaisance condescended so far as to call the Cardinal
as the ancient Patriarchs did in a continual Pilgrimage and so to distribute his cares time travels and presence that the Low-Countries Germany and Italy would have the better share oâ— them and Spain the least That there was no other way to ward so dangerous a blow than by insensibly bringing back the Catholick King into the course that Nature and the Law of Nations required of him and by convincing him by his own experience that the elder of his Grandsons deserved better to succeed to him than the younger and that so all that Charles had to do was to become more virtuous and better qualified than Ferdinand Chievres advised Charles in relation to the two other Crowns of Spain which were those of Navarre and Portugal that it would be convenient to continue the Project of the Catholick King for reuniting them to the â—est of the Spanish Monarchy by means of â—lliances but that there was but little appearance that that could be so soon accomplished seeing on the one hand Cathaâ—ine de Frix Queen of Navarre and â—ohn d' Albert her Son had such near Alliâ—nces with the Crown of France that â—ey would never dispose of their Children but with the consent and approbation of Louis the Twelfth And on the other hand Manuel King of Potugal had Five â—sty Sons by the Aunt of Charles his seâ—nd Wife and that by consequent the â—aughters of the same marriage could not â—pect to succeed so soon but that the â—gagement of the King of Navarre with tâ—e French might some time or other be â—…nare to him and that besides as the â—…sterity of Charlemain was extinct in the â—…ce of Eighteen years though it was so â—…merous that it consisted of thirty two â—…gorous Princes all married so that of Manuel might fail by a like or more unhappy Fate England was more important in all respects to Charles and his Governour advised him to look upon it at all times as a Kingdom able to do him great services and proportionably to hurt him for the Low-Countries in the condition they were then in needed not fear to succumb unless they had France for their Enemy and then they could not expect any assistance greater speedier more suitable to their necessity nor nearer at hand than that of the English That if the necessity of that assistance did not encrease after he came to the enjoyment of the Successions which he expected it would at least be as great seeing Spain would then become a Monarchy that might counterpoise France and none but England could be in a condition then to turn the balance to which side of the two it adhered That Charleâ— would always have the advantage of the French when he competed with them tâ— draw England over to his side since be sides the invincible antipathy betwixt the English and French Nation and the inveterate hatred fomented by so many Wars Henry the Eighth of England was marrieâ— to the last Infanta of Spain Sister to Charle his Mother and constantly favoured hâ— Father-in-law Ferdinand the Catholick against Louis the Twelfth In relation to Scotland it behoved Charles to reason from a quite opposite Maxime and that he must not expect upon any Juncture that could be offered to him to engage that King into his Interests The Alliance of that Nation with the French had without interruption continued seven hundred years from King to King and from Crown to Crown and though it had not been so old nor so strict yet it would be enough for the Scots that Spain courted the friendship of the English to make them declare against it for France though they had not as yet spoused any Party Italy came next in course into the thought of Chievres of which he only represented to the Archduke four principal Powers from whom the Inferiour were 〈◊〉 receive their influence to wit France â—pain the Holy See and the Republick of â—enice France held there the Dutchies of Genoa and Milan Spain the Kingdom of Naples â—…e Holy See ten Provinces besides the â—…ity of Rome and the Venetians the State â—hich is called Terra Firma The Italians â—…d no reason to fear that the Popes or â—enetians would trouble their repose because both had almost an equal interest to preserve it But if the French and Spaniards grew weary of Peace and took up Arms again they must infallibly have the same success which they already had that is to say that the Nation of the two which could get the Pope on their side would overcome and as the most Christian and the Catholick Kings did not conquer nor divide betwixt them the Kingdom of Naples but by the consent of Alexander the Sixth as the Spaniards had not driven the French from thence two years after but in pursuance of a secret Treaty concluded for that end betwixt the Great Captain and the same Alexander and as the Pope Julius the Second contributed most to hinder the most Christian King from recovering what he had lost by ruining the formidable Army of that Prince upon the side of the River of Garillan so the Spaniards in their turn would be driven out of the Kingdom of Naples whensoever it should be their misfortune to displease the same Julius or one of his Successours So that the Archduke in the sense of his Governour ought chiesly to apply himself to entertain his Holiness in the good disposition he was in in relation to Spain and if the matter was not difficult by reason that Julius hated Louis so much the more that formerly he loved him no more would it be in regard of succeeding Popes since on the one hand their State bordered immediately upon the Kingdoms of Naples and that they were next Neighbours whereas the Territories of divers Princes lay betwixt theirs and the Dutchy of Milan and that so the Court of Rome were not so much exposed to be surprised by an Invasion from the French as from the Spaniards and on the other hand it was not so much to be apprehended that the Spaniards would usurp all Italy if they retained the possession of Naples as it would be that France might reduce Italy into a Province if they added the Kingdom of Naples to the Dutchy of Milan because then they could march by Land into the Milanese having only the Alpes and Piemont to cross whereas the Spaniards could not go thither but by Sea and have a Voyage of five hundred Leagues to make The Republick of Venice according to Chievres was no less to be considered in matter of Politicks than the Court of Rome but for power it was not so much since the Holy See the Emperour France and Spain having entered into a League to ruine it Louis the Twelfth alone had defeated all its Forces at the Battel of Giaradadda and taken from it all it possessed in the Terra Firma It is true it afterward recovered part of that State but seeing it was not so easily regained as lost and that in all
THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM de CROY Surnamed the WISE Governor to the Emporour CHARLES V. BEING A PATTERN FOR THE Education of Princes CONTAINING The Memorable Transactions that happened during his Administration in most of the Courts of CHRISTENDOM from the Year 1506. to the Year 1521. In Six Books WRITTEN In French by Mr. VARILLAS Historiographer of France And now made English LONDON Printed for George Wells and Abel Swalle at the Sun and at the Vnicorn in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII THE AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT SEeing the publick hath taken in good part both my boldness in offering to write the History of Charles the Ninth after The Historians are placed here according to the order of time they wrote in La Popilimore Masson Thuanus Aubigne Matthieu Tortora Davila Dupleix and Mezeray as also the Preface in the new manner that I prefixed to the beginning thereof perhaps it will not take it ill that I have made an essay upon a subject that hath not as yet been handled That I give it now the Pattern for the Education of Princes and that I add some illustrations upon the principal Manuscripts from which it hath been taken All that I have to do before I proceed further is to intimate to the Reader that he is not here to expect Regular Elogies but bare remarks which I make not so much as curious but as being necessary to the understanding of what comes after The Emperour Maximilian the first hath been the most singular Prince that wore a Crown in these last ages He was dumb until the age of ten years and as the skilfullest Physicians could not discover the cause of his distemper so neither could they find a remedy for it at the end of that time precisely his speech came to him and by the volubility of his tongue nature made amends for her slowness in allowing him the use of it He was the Son of the Emperour Frederick the Third and Leonora Infanta of Portugal and he had almost an equal share of the predominant inclinations of his Father and Mother Frederick loved money beyond what can be imagined and Leonora loved as well to spend it Maximilian was subject to both these failings and as no man ever more solicitously sought out ways to fill his coffers when they were empty so never any man was more impatient to empty them when they were full He only received that he might give away by handfuls and without distinction and resembled those pipes that never retain the water that comes into them as if they only received it to spill it as fast He had not one hundred Crowns when he went to marry the Heiress of Burgundy and he was so happy as to have no other rival but the abominable Adolph of Gueldres who was become the horrour of mankind through the inhumanity he had practised towards his own Father Maximilian was soon a Widower and fortune offered him the Heiress of Bretagne for a second Wife but his Father refused him money to defray the charges of his journey and no man would lend him a farthing had it not been for that Bretagne would have escaped from the French Monarchy and been annexed to the Low-Countries His prosperities were blended with some misfortunes Maximilian continued long the prisoner of the Flemings after they had set him at liberty they refused him the Guardianship of the Archdukes Philip his Son and Charles his Grandson and forced him thereupon to write Letters which are very far from the stile of his life which he himself wrote afterwards He strips himself of Majesty to demand from the Governours of the Archduke gratuities in ready money and hath so forgotten his quality that he would be vexed that one should think on 't It 's all one to him whether these Gratuities were made as a due or a present and that he might obtain them the sooner he consents to things misbecoming his dignity Nothing can be more generous than the Letters of Louis the Twelfth to Chievres all Europe was informed that his most Christian Majesty had made him Governour to the Archduke and the favour was so great that it could not sufficiently be acknowledged Nevertheless Louis seems to be apprehensive that Chievres may suspect that he hath not obliged him for nothing His Majesty writing to him thinks no more of that favour which had been the most approved of all his kindnesses and he is for having Chievres forget it as well as he He never desires any thing of him but with such cautions as leave him fully to his liberty nor does he neither apply himself directly to him upon the differences arisen betwixt the Provinces of Picardy and Champagne and the Walloons He makes him believe that he reserves him for better occasions and chuses rather to write to the Council of Bruxelles though he is not ignorant that Chievres is the head of it and that nothing can pass therein but what is approved by him He pretends to convince the most incredulous that he demands nothing of him but what the Flemings shall think reasonable and by that means he is sure to obtain what he desires and Chievres not to be suspected to have obliged him in granting it Louis follows not altogether the same Conduct in respect of the Archduke and always remembers that he is his feudatary Not but that in some rencounters he treats him as his equal because the Monarchy of Castile belonged to him already and that he was presumptive Heir of that of Arragon but on other occasions his Majesty labours indirectly to put him in mind that he is not considerable but because of the Territories which he holds of the Crown of France and that he may forfeit them in case of fellony The Catholick King Ferdinand of Arragon at first managed Chievres by all the ways that policy hath invented and prudence permits so long as he had any hopes of rendering him favourable unto him But so soon as the Low-Countries had declared for the Emperour Maximilian there was no more place for dissimulation or it appeared so useless that it was neglected Ferdinand proposed to himself to remove Chievres from his Grandson and some relations are so malicious as to add that it was none of his fault if revenge went not farther Chievres had timely enough notice to remedy it but he always confined his resentment within so narrow limits that his Majesty had ground to imagin that he had safely offended him Nor did he think neither that he ought to take greater liberty after that Doctor Adrian was raised up against him and he discontinued not to respect the Maternal Grandfather of the Archduke though he knew him to be the greatest and most formidable enemy that he had Henry the Eighth King of England neglected the Politicks of his Predecessors and took a way of his own that succeeded not with him The five last Kings from whom he held the Crown supposed that it was enough for them to keep in
growing greater seeing he had the Pyrenean Mountains for a Barriere and crossing that Chain of Rocks which Nature seemed to have laid to hinder the two most powerful Kings of Christendom from marrying together he found on the other side France so powerful in that part where it bordered on him that there was much greater cause to fear that it might take from him his Territories of Biscay Arragon and Catalonia if he attacked France than there was hopes of conquering Guyenne and Languedock in it He resolved then to weaken it before he attacked it and seeing it had got footing in Spain by the acquisition that the most Christian King Louis the Eleventh had made of the Counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne from whence it might easily seize Catalonia the places whereof were not at all fortified at that time he made it his whole care to recover them and succeeded therein by a way not before practised Christian Princes having not been as yet accustomed to cheat under a pretext of Religion Louis the Eleventh had bought of John King of Arragon the Father of Ferdinand In the Contract of Engagement the two Counties by a Contract of Engagement which bore that his most Christian Majesty should lend upon the Counties three hundred thousand Livers that both should be put into his hands for security of the debt That the King of Arragon should have full liberty to redeem them within nine years to be reckoned from the Date of the Contract upon payment of the Principal and Interest but that if he failed upon any cause or pretext whatsoever to do it within the limited time he should lose his reversion and the propriety of Roussillon and Cerdagne should remain to France The King of Arragon let the time clapse through a mere inability of redeeming the Counties and Louis the Eleventh perceiving the ninth year almost expired without any offer from the King of Arragon of repaying his Money observed a formality which was not necessary and served only to give him what in Law is called abundantiam Juris He caused the King of Arragon to be summoned by a Herald to redeem the Counties and that Prince not having done it his most Christian Majesty united them to the French Monarchy and left them at his death to Charles the Eighth his only Son. Charles had been already nine years in peaceable possession of them and seeing by the Law of his State what had been united ten whole years successively could not for the future be dismembred Roussillon and Cerdagne were no more alienable than the other Provinces of France seeing two most Christian Kings had enjoyed them without molestation during the space of thirty years But it had pleased Louis the Eleventh to bring up Charles the Eighth in such a gross ignorance that he had no knowledge of his own affairs and Ferdinand taking that young Prince on his weak side corrupted as they say by money Oliver Maillard a Monk of the observance his Confessor That Cordelier represented to Charles that Christian Charity allowed not Christians of what quality soever they were to take advantage from the misfortunes of others and that notwithstanding that was a thing which the late King had done and which his most Christian Majesty continued to do That when Louis the Eleventh had caused the late King of Arragon to be summoned to repay the money lent upon the Counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne he found him in an utter incapacity of satisfying him and that nevertheless his Majesty had therefrom taken all the advantages that are allowed by the Law of Nations That the King of Arragon was at that time pestered in a Civil War and a Foreign War both at once seeing on the one hand the King of Castile incomparably stronger than he had entered his Dominions with an Army and on the other hand the Catalonians had revolted That his Majesty of Arragon died before these Affairs were concluded and that Ferdinand his Son was no more in a condition than he to redeem the two Counties since he was forced to employ all his own Revenue and that of the Queen of Castile his Wife for driving the Mahometan Moors out of the Kingdom of Granada and that by consequent the prescription expired not in respect of him because he was taken up in a Holy War That his most Christian Majesty therefore was no less obliged in conscience to restore him the Counties and that though in the Court of Man he had a very good right to demand the Money and the Interest of the Debt which his Predecessor had lent yet he had not so in the Court of Heaven since France had recovered more out of the same Counties than amounted to the first Sum lent That he must not neither make deduction of the Expences that the late most Christian King was forced to be at in raising an Army of forty thousand men even according to the account of Spanish Authors and sending them into Roussillon for the reduction of the Town of Perpignan that had revolted That the Rebellion of that important place ought neither to be imputed to the late King of Arragon who had no hand in it nor to Ferdinand his Son that had neither directly nor indirectly countenanced it and that so Roussillon and Cerdagne ought without farther delay to be restored to him Charles who was not sharp-sighted enough to distinguish the truth from the falshood in this Discourse of his Confessour obeyed the Father but not so implicitely as the Cordelier pretended he should His Majesty indeed restored the Counties without receiving either Principal or Interest of the money disbursed by his Father but in return he required two conditions of Ferdinand which would have been no less troublesom to him than the payment of the money had they been as faithfully performed as they were stipulated in a solemn Treaty * In the last Treaty of France for the Counties The first was that Ferdinand should enter into no League offensive or defensive against France the other that he should not marry any of his four Daughters neither in Germany England nor Flanders and that he should not give them any Husbands without the consent of the most Christian King or his Successours but before a year was over Ferdinand broke the first condition and made no more scruple afterward to violate the second Six months after he entered into the Pyrenean League of Italy against Charles his Benefactor and had the greatest hand in robbing him of his Conquests Not long after he formed the project of hedging in France on the side of Picardy Champagne and Burgundy as he bordered it already on the side of Guyenne and Languedock and made account of bringing into his Family the Low Countries and the ten Hereditary Provinces of the House of Austria That House was reduced to Maximilian the First the Emperour the Archduke Philip and the Archdutchess Margaret his Children The Archduke was so tender and had cost so
evident a thing that it would have served to confound the Enemies of Chievres but the words of the Institution must exactly be stuck to and it was maintained that Chievres was guilty in not having exactly observed them Upon this these Cases of Conscience were proposed to several Divines of Spain Whether Chievres by disposing his Pupil to give the Order to such kind of Persons had not mortally sinned against God Whether there were not three different sorts of Injustice in the sin he had committed first in regard of his Divine Majesty who is jealous that the Ordinances authorised by his Church should be punctually observed secondly against the Order of the Golden Fleece of which the most important Statute was violated and lastly against the Nobles of Flanders accustomed to draw the chief proofs of their Nobility from those of their Ancestors who had had the honour to receive the Order of the Fleece Whether Chievres was not obliged to make restitution of the Salaries paid to those undeserving Knights and lastly whether he was not an accomplice in the false proofs of Nobility which they had produced before they were received into the Order The Divines decided all the Cases to the disadvantage of Chievres and their resolutions were immediately sent into Flanders to the Ambassador of the Catholick King who shewing them to the Archduke pressed him on the part of his maternal Grandfather that he would at least send the guilty person home to his house seated in the Province of Haynauld if the Services which he had rendred him protected him from being punished in a more exemplary manner The Archduke instead of having any respect to the Proposition of the Ambassador and the authority of the Casuists that back'd it defended his Governor upon the spot by two reasons first that if there had been any fault committed in the creation in question he was as much to be blamed as Chievres seeing they had examined the proofs together and that if they had been surprised in it the surprize was no less common to both Secondly that though Chievres were more guilty than he yet it followed not that he ought to be banished the Court and that a little mistake should make him forget the long and indefatigable pains of his Education The Catholick King who managed the whole Intrigue though he acted only by such instruments as seemed to have no concerns with him being unsuccessful in his first essay changed Battery and applied himself to Henry the Eighth King of England his Son-in-law He represented to him that the greatest interest of his English Majesty consisted in opposing by all means the Alliances betwixt the French and the Flemings That the wisest of his Predecessors had laid down that maxim as a fundamental in their Politicks That they found the advantage of it so long as they practised the same and that on the contrary they lost all for having neglected it That the late King Henry the Seventh had exactly observed it in the beginning and towards the middle of his Reign but that he had omitted it towards the end when old age and the extraordinary infirmities it had brought upon him had rendred him unable to apply himself long to business that nevertheless that was the Juncture when he ought to have eluded the Article of the last Will and Testament of Philip of Austria which entreated Louis XII King of France to take the care of the education of his eldest Son That his Majesty had opposed it with all his might because he foresaw the dangerous consequences thereof but that he could not prevail for want of the assistance of England That the most Christian King had placed Chievres about the Archduke and that Chievres being in that nature obliged to France strove to shew himself but too grateful That it was not enough for him to adjust all the affairs of the Archduke to the Interests of Louis his Benefactor so long as that Prince lived but that after his death he had continued the same conduct in regard of Francis the First his Successor That the Treaty of Marriage of the Archduke with Renée of France was an undeniable proof of it That there was no doubt to be made but that that Marriage would be accomplished and that by consequence France and the Low Countries would act joyntly so long as Chievres were about the Archduke That his Catholick Majesty had made it his business to oblige the Archduke to remove him and that there wanted only the Offices of the King of England for succeeding in it Henry the Eighth with extreme trouble understood that Francis the first for his first Essay had recovered the Dutchy of Milan He imputed the easiness of that young Prince's Success to his having employed all the Forces of France in Italy without being obliged to leave Troops for the Guard of his Frontiers of Picardie and Champaigne The last Negotiation of Chievres with his most Christian Majesty was in his Judgment the cause of it and the Marriage of the Archduke with the Sister-in-law of Francis the First was like so to secure him in his Conquest that neither Spain Germany nor Italy could snatch it out of his hands These four considerations inclined his Majesty of England to send to the Archduke and to represent to him by the Ambassador which he had at his Court that seeing he had more wit for his age than any Prince mentioned in History ever had had and that he was already capable of Reigning alone by himself it was not only useless but also disgraceful to him to retain at his Court such a man as Chievres who so long as he continued there would ecclipse his Reputation That Politicians who could not call to mind that ever they had seen or read of a Prince that at the age of fifteen years had more prudence readiness of wit address and experience than the eldest Monarchs of Europe had would never believe that the Judicious Councils taken in Flanders about the nicest matters of State came immediately from him That they would always imagine Chievres to be the Author of them that he suggested them found out proper expedients for putting them in execution and that being now satisfied with the glory which he had already acquired in Governing the Low-Countries during the non-age of the Archduke with so great wisdom that the Flemings had found no effects of the minority of their Prince he acted like a compleat Courtier in endeavouring to procure by times a high Reputation to his young Master by attributing to him all the projects and important resolutions that came from himself whereas if Chievres were consined to his House in Haynauld whereof he carried the name there to spend the rest of his days in quietness or if it were thought fitter to send him to the Emperors Court there to manage the German Princes for the future Election of his Pupil to the Empire Men would do Justice to the Archdukes merit and nothing would
hereafter hinder the People from admiring him as he deserved Henry the Eighth added that he was his Neighbour and more his Uncle and that in both these respects he could not endure that Chievres should continue at the Court of Bruxelles That that Fleming to say no worse of him was too much French and that as thereby he was become suspected to England so Spain would less suffer him to remain the chief Minister and Favourite of him whom they looked upon as next apparent Heir of almost all their Kingdoms The Archduke made answer to these so urgent reasons that the fairest reputation he could acquire was that of being grateful and that he neither ought nor would be thought so if he were not so in reality That he could not tell whether he was more obliged to those who had given him life than he was to Monsieur de Chievres who had brought him up and that it would not vex him if he continued all his life-time in that doubt but that he knew very well that there was no man living to whom he had more disinterested obligations and that he should be guilty of the blackest ingratitude if he made it not known in the world not only by words and declarations but in effect and deeds That the least of these effects was to continue not to undertake any important Affair without acquainting him with it and that he was willing his Majesty of England should know that he was so punctual in concealing nothing from his Governour that he had shewed him the Letter which he had received from him That he knew Monsieur de Chievres so well that he would answer for him that he was no more Frenchified than he had reason for and that after all God had been so gracious to him as to make him a Sovereign That he was free to admit of such persons into his Council as he thought capable That his Neighbours had no right to take exceptions at that provided he did them no injustice in the case and that his Majesty of England had far less than the rest since he acknowledged in his Letter that Monsieur de Chievres was a man of parts and honesty notwithstanding all that he subjoyned to his prejudice That he had rather believe the best than the worst and that the esteem which he had for his Majesty was concerned that he should do so Nothing so much afflicts those who are extraordinarily sensible as Kings for most part are than when they see that their firm resolutions of ruining the fortune of a Favourite encreased instead of lessening the same The Archdukes answer to Henry was conceived in such terms as made it sufficiently apparent that nothing was to be got by persisting to press him to remove Chievres and they who examined it were so well convinced of that that their hatred to him transported them to the utmost extremity They resolved by all means to dispatch him and seeing the extraordinary care that the Archduke took of his Governour from the time of the Letter we have been speaking of put him without all danger of being assassinated they had recourse to the way of Poyson Diligent search was made in Flanders for those who were discontented at Chievres and seeing it was difficult considering the place he held but that a great many thought they had reason to complain of him because as we shall see hereafter the Archduke took pleasure to bestow the chief Charges and richest Benefices upon the Relations of his Governour without being sollicited by him there was a Conspiracy formed to poyson him All measures for that end were taken and the day appointed for putting it in execution drew nigh when God who suffers not always innocence to be oppress'd were it only that persons but of ordinary virtue should not be too much scandalized permitted Chievres to be informed of the mischief that was a preparing for him He acquainted the Archduke with it but in so unconcerned a manner as if he had not spoken in his own Cause He told him that he had bad news to inform him of and that he would not do it but upon condition that he should shew no more resentment of it than if he were ignorant of the same or as if it did not at all concern him That there were some crimes that out of a principle of Policy ought to pass unpunished and that as God did not always punish the most enormous faults here in this world so neither did he sometimes take it ill that Sovereigns should refer the punishment of them to him who would not fail to do exemplary Justice in the other world That the Poysoning in question was one of these and that it ought of necessity be winked at seeing it must have been dissembled if it had taken effect That the enquiry made into it must either be exact or but superficial if it were exact it would be to no purpose on the one hand because the quality of the parties guilty would of it self exempt them from all sorts of Process and on the other hand it would do infinite prejudice both to the Archduke who might pretend to be offended at an unseasonable time and to his Governour who would be exposed to a second attempt better concerted and by consequent more inevitable than the former If the enquiry were but superficial it would still exasperate the Poysoners as much and be no less inconvenient for him who had escaped their rage That in an indictment and trial wherein the Publick was so much concerned informations and other proceedings would go too far and insensibly pass from the Actors to the Authors That perhaps these might be found to be so nearly related to the Archduke that the disgrace inconsiderately put upon them would reflect upon himself and that in a word there was nothing to be done but to have a care for the future of the like inconveniences that is to say to be so vigilant and circumspect that if he must needs still fall it might be by such an unavoidable fate as humane prudence could not prevent The Archduke more out of compliance than inclination followed the counsel of his Governour but though the matter was not brought to a trial yet it broke forth and was so well known that the Historians of Spain have not dared to smother it though they speak of it in most general and consequently most insignificant terms The rebound of so great a mischief nevertheless must needs hit the weaker Party and it was the misfortune of Chievres to be in that case at that time The Catholick King uncertain whom to be revenged on because Chievres was not banished made Dean Adrian smart for it whether it was that he suspected him of having thwarted his design or that he accused him of not having seconded it with the credit which he had acquired at the Court of Bruxelles He confined him to Guadalupa where he hoped that his abode would be so uneasie as to
the rest they forced through with Sword in hand and so saved themselves in the mountains of the Asturias Ximenes having missed the prey which had escaped from him turned his anger against Villa-fratre which he caused to be demolished to the very foundations By his orders the place where it stood was Ploughed up and Salt sown therein Seven of the chief Burghers were whipt for having affronted the Messenger whilst they were a beating of him and a Servant of the Admiral of Castille was served in the like manner for having carried Soldiers to his Masters Son. The Grandees of Spain incensed at this rigour wrote both publickly and privately to their King in Flanders importuning him by all means to deliver them from the tyranny of Ximenes They prayed Chievres to joyn his credit to their requests and this is a proper place to convict the Historians of Castille and Arragon of falshood who pretend that the Cardinal had not a greater Enemy at the Court of Bruxelles than Chievres Certainly if his aversion had been such as they set it forth to have been Chievres found the most favourable occasion that he could have wished for for supplanting of Ximenes seeing he needed not so much as to be seen in the disgrace of that Cardinal He had no more to do but to stand aside and leave him alone to defend his Cause against so many Enemies combined for his ruine He would infallibly have lost it and the Catholick King seeing himself reduced to the necessity of discontenting irreconcileably the Nobility of Castille or of sacrificing Ximenes unto them would have preferred the second before the first But Chievres forsook not the Cardinal at such a pinch where he absolutely stood in need of assistance to save him from an utter disgrace He represented to his Catholick Majesty that now it was his true interest more than ever to support Ximenes and if he yielded but the least in that point he would immediately have cause of repenting it That so long as the Cardinal was protected the Royal Authority was in no danger in Spain seeing on the one hand he would keep the Nobles in their duty by a strict observation of the Laws and on the other hand the People loved him too well and were too much obliged to him for the Justice he rendred them against the Nobles to make any Insurrection or to second the discontents of the great men But if it appeared that the Cardinal were no more in so great favour at Court the Nobility would instantly rise in Arms under pretext of deposing him but in reality to raise the Infanto Ferdinand to the Throne and the People beginning to despise the Regent as they commonly do those who are out of favour what way soever their misfortune befal them would be less reserved in following the example of the Gentlemen Chievres's discourse had the effect which he promised himself In the Letters of Charles the Fifth to Ximenes and the young King approved the Cardinals conduct so stedfastly that the Grandees of Castille having in vain solicited the Citizens of Leon Burgos and Vailladolid who remained in obedience were forced to receive the Law which the Cardinal was pleased to impose upon them It appears not neither by the Orders which at that time he received from the Court of Bruxelles nor by the Letters that Chievres wrote to him that he was enjoyned to manage the affair that then was upon the stage with more moderation than he was wont to do Nevertheless he did it and the clemency which he used was the more admired that he had never till then practised the like nor did ever any more for the future He at first rejected the overtures of accommodation which his friends made to him in favour of the four Criminals and seemed so inflexible to those who spake to him of pardoning that they despaired of disposing him to it The Criminals were forced by their own Fathers to go and deliver themselves up to prison in Vailladolid and to submit to what the Magistrate should order concerning their persons The Sentence of the Judges was conform to the severity of the Laws but Ximenes who had the Royal Authority in his hands grew milder when it was least expected He not only suspended the execution which would have drawn tears from all Castille but gave them an absolute pardon and did it in so noble a manner that the severity whereof he had given so many instances appeared not to be natural to him and that if he used not indulgence often it was because he thought it not possible to keep the Castillians from abusing it under a Regency He had the better on 't also of the Duke of Alva in a controversie they had together about the richest Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem that was in all Spain Anthony of Zuniga had been provided to it in the usual forms but King Ferdinand had taken it from him by his own absolute power and given it to Diego of Toledo third Son to the Duke of Alva by reason of the services which that Duke had done him in the Conquest of Navarre Ximenes so much hated Injustice that he could not suffer it even in his Master though otherwise he was extreamly obliged to the Duke He heard favourably the complaint that Zuniga made to him of being contrary to all right turned out of his Benefice and promised to do him justice The Duke of Alva who was sufficiently perswaded that the Cardinal would be as good as his word would not suffer his Son to appear before the Council of Madrid at the day to which he was cited by his adverse party He evaded the decision of the Process by all the tricks of Law and in the mean time made friends with the Catholick King to have the Cause evocated to the Council of Bruxelles He could not indeed obtain it because his Majesty as hath been said was engaged to Ximenes not to allow any more evocations from Spain to Flanders But notwithstanding there was so great a faction for the Duke of Alva that the Kings of France and England wrote to the Catholick King in his favours and their Ambassadors in their Masters names solicited Chievres to use his interest that Diego of Toledo might not be molested The same Kings pressed Ximenes also to suspend the decision of the Suit till the arrival of King Charles in Spain But the Cardinal who made no doubt but that Zuniga as being the weaker would be cast by the Catholick King caused the Process to be tried before his Majesties coming and represented so strongly to the Judges that they ought to consider nothing but right that the Son of the Duke of Alva was cast by unanimous voice However it was not so easie a matter to put the Sentence in execution as to pronounce it because the Son of the Duke of Alva gathered together Forces and took the Field to preserve his Priory But the Militia
of York Father though he was not ignorant that that Prelate was a Butchers Son. Chievres who had taught him the art of insinuating into the affections of men seconded him so well that if the Court of England could with honour not have gone over to Calais it would have immediately returned to London But matters being now too far advanced and the Court of France being already in the Frontiers of Picardie the Emperor was satisfied with the promise that the King of England his Uncle gave him not to conclude any thing to his disadvantage at Ardres whither he was going to confer with the most Christian King and afterwards to grant his Imperial Majesty a second interview wherein an Offensive and Defensive League betwixt Spain and England should be Negotiated The promise was fulfilled in its whole extent The Conferences of Ardres ended and no new engagement entered into by the English with France Henry received a second visit from the Emperor so soon as he had dispatched his affairs in Germany In the Treaties betwixt Charls the Fifth and Henry the Eight and Chievres so effectually perswaded his Majesty of England that it was his interest to have the French driven out of Italy that he promised in writing to contribute to it The fruit that Spain reaped from that was the conquest of the Dutchy of Milan But Chievres who lived not to see it lived long enough to see himself levelled at by the Castillians and Arragonese in the strangest manner that a Subject could be without falling It hath been already observed that the Spaniards could not endure that he should be President of their Council and their Treasurer and that it was chiefly to deprive him of those two Offices that they attempted to frustrate strangers of the Dignities and Benefices of Spain The Emperor had taken so little notice of it that they were offended thereat and seeing his Voyage into Germany in their opinion furnished a singular occasion of snatching from his Imperial Majesty by force what he would not grant them by fair means they engaged into a revolt for the space of two years by the following degrees The great men of the Country by their Emissaries and Agents disposed the Burghers and Country people of Castille first to complain in secret and then openly that their Laws were violated and no regard had to their priviledges That in less than three years time the Flemings had plundered Spain and transmitted into their Country so much robb'd and stoln money as amounted to the summ of six millions of Livres That no Office nor Benefice escaped them seeing if either the one or other were convenient for them they appropriated them and if they were not they procured grants of them for such of the Native Spaniards as offered them most mony That hitherto it had been suffered not only out of the reverence that they had for the Catholick King but also because they believed that his Majesty would condescend to the prayers and be moved with the Remonstrances of his most humble Subjects who begg'd him to deliver them from those Leeches But now that he was gone to Germany and had abandoned the Spaniards to the mercy of the same Flemings notwithstanding the infinite number of Petitions that had been presented to him to the contrary there was no other remedy for the evils which Spain actually suffered and for those wherewith it was threatned but that the Spaniards themselves should put in execution during the absence of their King what could not justly be denied them that is to say by their own Forces to recover their ancient Liberties The Burghers of the Towns of Andalusia moved at these discourses were the first that mutinied and in less than a fortnights time the revolt was propagated in the other Kingdoms of Spain They refused to receive the Orders of the Cardinal of Tortosa and the City of Segovia had the boldness to declare against them The Cardinal thinking to quiet the Sedition by dividing the power that had been given him with Native Spaniards shared it first with the Constable and afterwards with the Admiral of Castille But the Seditious who had now obtained part of what they demanded without drawing a Sword abused the easiness of the Cardinal and prest him with greater heat than before to be gone out of Spain and to carry with him all the Flemings who were there That instance was too audacious to be suffered and the Spaniards whom the Emperor had left to be Counsellors to the Cardinal thought it ought to be exemplarily punished and that the commission for doing it ought to be given to the boldest and severest Provost of Spain who was the Aclayde Ronchillo Upon that advice the Cardinal gave him Troops and commanded him to reduce the Segovians to their duty Ronchillo put it in execution the more punctually that the Order which he had received agreed best with his temper He marched streight to Segovia commanded the Burghers in a haughty manner to open the Gates to him threatned them with utmost extremity if they delayed a moment took the desire of some hours to deliberate in which they made to him as a premeditated refusal instantly began the Judiciary procedures prescribed by the Laws of Castille in such cases hastened the conclusion of them and had no sooner finished his verbal Processes but that he executed the Cardinals Orders more like a common Executioner than a Commissary He fell to burning demolishing oppressing killing and desolating in all the Territory of Segovia The Burghers of Toledo who waited only for a plausible pretext for an Insurrection took that of the Military executions which were practised in their neighbourhood and went out to put a stop to them with the greater licentiousness that as yet they had not a head their young Archbishop being gone with the Emperor They met Rouchillo when the Officers were in a negligent posture not apprehending that they had any to fight with but those whom they securely abused They defeat him returned back in triumph within their walls and that first advantage was enough to engage into a publick Rebellion the Towns of Burgos Vailladolid Salamanca Avila Zamorra Leon and Toro The Great men who had Estates in their Territories followed their example and the Cardinal of Tortosa who had chosen Vailladolid for the place of his ordinary residence and for the sitting of the Council that was left with him not being able to hinder the Town from confederating with the rest thought he could not with honour continue there He pretended to yield to the entreaties of Pedro Giron and John de Padilla who came to wait on him in name of the Inhabitants to assure him that he might stay in the house where he was That neither he nor his Servants should suffer any prejudice That they were perswaded of his innocence and that they had nothing to say against him but he gained a Priest who made his escape out of Vailladolid through a hole
pains but that was for Henry d' Albert his Cousin who could reward him but meanly and out of the Estate which he possessed in France the Lands of Navarre not being of a nature to be held by strangers Whereas if he advanced his conquests into Castille he would at least retain them until the Peace and in the mean time raise vast contributions from them which might render him the richest Subject in Christendom These selfish considerations of Asparaut were backt by the clamours of the young Officers of his Army who importuned him that he would be as good as his word to them when they were enrolled which was to let them have a brush with the Enemy They added that he had not so much as shew'd them the Castillians and that they were come into and had recovered Navarre without a view of them That if they stopt there they would leave no marks of their valour to posterity Whereas by entring into Castille if they found the people still in Rebellion there they would subdue them without trouble and if they found them again reduced under obedience to the Emperor they would still come to as good a Market since the two parties would be so weakened by fighting one against another that hardly could they make any resistance The most dangerous Counsels are most commonly followed in Armies where young men have the chief Authority Asparaut's Army was subject to that inconvenience and it was resolved there that the French should march out of Navarre That they should pass the River Ebre which separates that Kingdom from Castille That they should lay siege to the Town of Logrogno and that having taken it they should extend their conquests farther The design was rash Nevertheless the most expert in the Art confessed since that it would have succeeded if it had been as hastily put in execution as it was formed The Town of Logrogno though the Council of Spain lookt upon it as a key of Castille had been ungarisoned as well as the Towns of Navarre and not so much as a Soldier left therein They had also taken the Ammunition out of it and left there only the Provisions For at least half an Age the Inhabitants had had no necessity of carrying Arms and that long rest joynedto the fertility of their Country entertained them in a softness that would have obliged them to surrender upon the first summons if it had been made when there was no body to help them to defend the place But Asparaut by a second fault less to be repaired than the former made a stop three whole days to refresh his Army in the neighbourhood of the little Town of Arcos and thereby gave time to the Nobility of Spain who had continued loyal to the Emperor to provide for the security of Logrogno They put into it Pedro Velez Guevera a prudent and expert Captain with a strong Garison who at first made himself absolute Master of the place He turned out of it all useless mouths and caused them to be conducted farther in into Castille to places where they might be maintained at publick cost He received in the nick of time the Ammunition he stood in need of the Gentlemen of the Country having provided it at their own charges and the Governour thought it not enough to dispute every inch of ground with the Besiegers he besides drowned all the Fields about Logrogno by means of the Banks of the Ebre which he caused to be cut and so much the more confounded the French that at that time they were not skilful enough in that part of Mathematicks which teaches Besiegers how to defend themselves against waters Asparaut though he found upon his arrival matters in this state yet for all that undertook the siege and vigorously prosecuted the same But besides the prodigious resistance he met with there happened an impediment which he had not foreseen The Civil War ceased so suddenly in Castille and Arragon after the Battel of Villalar that the three Governours had time to send their own and the Rebels Army of which the Rear had only fought to the relief of Logrogno and the Emperor was informed that that important place was besieged at the same time when he had notice that an Army was marching to the relief of it He communicated the news of both to Chievres who was dissatisfied with Francis the First ever since his most Christian Majesty had refused to approve the donation which Queen Germana had made to him of the Inheritance of Foix and probably in that heat of resentment Chievres counselled the Emperor to make use of the imprudence of Asperaut in such a manner as would infallibly gain Spain the advantage over France The Letters which the Emperor had received from the three Governours contained a particular which they had inserted without any design And it was this that when Asparaut first approached to Logrogno a pair of Colours had been discovered in his Army with this Inscription To the glory of the King of France and the Lilies If the thing was true and if the Spaniards invented it not as the French pretended since the Colours must have been made by some capricious Captain of Foot without the knowledge of his General since it is certain and the writers of both Nations agree that Asparaut when he entred Navarre and Castille declared himself to be General of the Army of Henry d' Albert and not of the Army of Francis the First and that he executed the orders of the former of those two Kings and not of the latter Nevertheless Chievres took occasion from it to represent to his Master that that particular well managed would be enough to engage England in his interests He put his Imperial Majesty in mind that in the last conference which he had had with King Henry the Eight his Uncle where he had the honour to be present his Majesty of England had let fall a word that if the War broke out again betwixt France and Spain he would declare for that Monarchy of the two which should be first attacked That though the word perhaps drop'd from him as in course and without deliberation yet he ought to make his best of it and send an extraordinary Ambassador into England to demand the performance thereof and to exaggerate the ambition of Francis the First in the Court of England whilst the Imperial Agents should every where give it out that the French had not very long made use of the pretext of Henry d' Albert for entring hostilely into Spain and for favouring the Rebellion of the Emperors Subjects That they had taken off the Vizor when they passed the River of Ebre and had retaken the Flowers de Lice upon their entry into Castille That under their own Colours they besieged the Town of Logrogno and that so the juncture was come wherein the King of England had promised to declare himself That Spain was constantly attacked and that it challenged
the promise of England The Emperor who run no risk in following the counsel of Chievres sent the Count of Raeux to London with instructions drawn according to the reasons which we have now abridged The Count who was never before employed in any Negotiation succeeded in this which was his first Essay but not altogether because of his ability though it was already very conspicuous The King of England made no such account of the word which as was signified unto him he had past as to think himself obliged to keep it but he set before himself other considerations which were not in the Counts instructions He examined which of the two France or Spain he had most reason to be afraid of as affairs then stood and he found it to be France for though the Emperor was raised to a prodigious power and that there was none in the world comparable to it in extent yet it was not suspicious to England seeing the Emperor could not attack it by Land before he had conquered all France which could never be in the opinion of the English and as to the Sea England would be always superior to Spain Whereas if the French Monarchy having re-established its Authority in Italy by the recovery of the Dutchy of Milan should enlarge it self beyond the Pyrenees by conquering there the Country of the best Soldiers which lay along the River of Ebre it would not only not own the King of England for Arbitrator of the differences which it had with the Emperor but also might very well take the advantage of the first favourable occasion that should present and confine the English to their own Island by taking from them what they still retained in France Henry the Eighth concluded from that principle that it was his interest by all means to hinder the Spaniards from taking footing upon the Banks of the Ebre and upon that sole consideration signed a League Defensive and Offensive with the Emperor against the most Christian King which he would not have done as he many times declared afterward if Asparaut had stopt in Navarre or that if he would have continued his Conquests he had only carried them on along the Pyrenees without advancing at first into the very heart of Spain Before a fortnight was over the King of England found that his fear was vain and repented that he had declared so soon but the Count of Raeux having obtained what he desired was already gone from his Court when the news was brought to England that the French were driven out of Castille The Spaniards having joyned the Rebellious Troops as they called them to those whom they named Obedient made an Army of forty thousand men and marched in good order to the relief of Logrogno at the time when the number of the Besiegers was so diminished that it was no longer sufficient for guarding all the Avenues to the place The Enemy perceived it and took such good measures that they put into it four thousand Foot. Having done so with the rest of their Forces they cut off the Besiegers Provisions and forced them to raise the siege after they had made many unsuccessful assaults Asparaut repassed the Ebre and retreated in all haste to put himself under the cover of the Guns of Pampelona there being no Town nearer where he could lie safely and the Spaniards had almost suffered him to do it There happened amongst them upon their coming into Logrogno a debate which would have hindred them from recovering Navarre had it not been almost as soon ended as begun Their chief Officers agreed easily in a Council of War that the French must be close pursued in the Rear but at first they could not agree about the choice of him who should be their head after that they had passed the Ebre The Count of Haro who till then had commanded them pretended still to the command and alledged for his reason that he being declared General against the French his Commission could not expire till he had defeated them or sent them beyond the Pyrenees He added that that Commission was indeed no more but an Accessory of that which Chievres had procured him to pursue the Rebels by Arms and to resettle Spain in its former tranquillity He maintained that the French had first entred Navarre and then Castille through intelligence with the Rebels and from thence concluded that his command could not be taken from him without injustice until Navarre should be recovered or that the Emperor had given other orders The Duke of Najara on the contrary said that he was actually Viceroy of Navarre and that the Letters Patents which he had for it from the Emperor were not recalled That it was expresly mentioned in them that he should be General of all the Forces that acted in that Kingdom for his Imperial Majesty for what cause and upon what occasion soever they should be brought together and that there was no limitation made in that particular That the revolution which had since happened in Navarre could do no prejudice to his power and that in true policy it ought not to be considered but in the sence that Lawyers look upon Torrents which though for some time they overflow the Lands of private men yet do not deprive them of their possession nor so much as interrupt it when once it hath been lawfully established The Count of Haro had no ground to question the Letters Patents of the Duke of Najara but he alledged that the power thereby conferred had expired by the Dukes fault That he had abandoned his Vice-royalty upon the approach of the Enemy and that he had so absolutely lost it that there was not so much as one Village in all Navarre where his Authority was owned That that Kingdom having wholly changed its Master the business was to conquer it of new and by consequence to take such measures as no more concerned the Duke than as he had never been Viceroy The reason and inclination of those who gave their Votes seemed to give the cause to the Count Nevertheless he lost it and the Duke was preferred before him by an effect of Spanish prudence which hath hardly ever failed in the signal occasions of sacrificing justice to interest when the good of the Monarchy was thought to be concerned The Army which had relieved Logrogno and earnestly desired to recover Navarre was so wholly made up of Voluntiers that there was not so much as one Company of Foot or Troop of Horse that had any pay from the Emperor The Duke of Najara was the Grandee of Spain who had brought most Soldiers to the Camp and it was to be feared that these Soldiers who only came upon his account would return back with him if he withdrew as he must be obliged to do in honour if he obtained not the General command His Son had gathered together five or six thousand men from the Provinces bordering upon the Mountains and Don Gaspar de Butron his