whom they thought privy to their designs Only the Prince of Conde and Monsieur de Tore escaped fleeing first to those places which belonged to the Prince in Picardy and from thence without delay unto the Hans Towns of Germany which adhered to the Protestant party The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre either trusâ—ed to their nearness of Blood or to shift off the fault of this conspiracy from themselves and lay it as the custom is upon the weakest confessed freely that they had been sollicited to depart from Court and become Heads of the Hugonots and Male-contents and that sometimes they had lent an ear to those motions rather to discover the intents of those Seducers than out of any desire to adhere unto them and that they waited an opportunity to discover the whole plot unto the King as soon as they were fully informed of it and that in the mean time the Duke had given some hint of it though but obscurely to his Mother which might serve to prove the sincerity of their intentions upon the ground of these confessions which contained many particulars the accomplices of meaner quality being kept close and strictly examined la Mole about whom were found certain Images of the King in Wax encompassed with inchantments charms and other fooleries the Count de Coconas convicted of many crimes and divers others were condemned to die the Mareshals of Momorancy and Cosse to the great satisfaction of the Parisians were put into the Bastile and for the Princes it sufficed only by a Declaration to manifest unto the World that it was never their intention to alienate themselves from the Kings obedience nor to offend his Person in any manner whatsoever much less to make themselves Heads and Protectors of the factious and seditious party of the Kingdom but that it had been falsly and cunningly divulged by men of turbulent malicious Spirits to stir up and seduce the people under that pretence a thing utterly disallowed and detested by them who desired that such rebellious and seditious persons might be brought to condign punishment that by their sufferings the fuel might be taken from that fire with which they had endeavoured to inflame the Kingdom After which Declaration they were nevertheless not restored unto their former condition but on the one side were used as Kinsmen and on the other with diligent guards were kept as Prisoners Those that make a sinister interpretation of all the actions of Princes say That the Duke of Alancon had no other end but to make himself King after the death of his Brother which he saw drew near and that the counsels of the Mareshals and his other adherents aimed at that very mark but that the Queen-Mother who loved the King of Poland much better and under his Reign promised her self the absolute Government made the business seem different from the truth and caused the King to imprison the Princes and the Mareshals to secure the Kingdom to the true Successour which was the King of Poland whose Reign was abhorred by all those that were Enemies to the House of Guise 〈◊〉 had any dependance upon the Hugonots These matters whatsoever they were or from what cause soever derived happened in the beginning of the Year 1574. a Year destined to renew the old wounds of France for toward the latter end of March and all the month of April following the Hugonots already up in Arms by reason of the late designs and suspecting themselves to be discovered the fomenters of that Conspiracy breaking again the bridle of all respect attempted every where to surprise Forts Castles and Cities and as if the business at St. Germains had succeeded just according to their own desires they ran hastily without stop to the taking up of Arms in all Provinces and that with so much the greater boldness and security because they were freed from the general fear they were wont to have of the valour and celerity of the King of Poland whom they had to their exceeding loss found to be so resolute and powerful an Enemy The first commotion was begun by Monsieur de la Noue who staying in Poictou gathered Forces suddenly and possessed himself of Lusignan Fontenay and Mesle and with the help of the Rochellers raised and disordered the whole Country shewing manifestly by that action that neither his desire of peace nor his promise made to the King had caused him to leave Rochel when it was besieged but trouble for the affront he had received from the Ministers and fear lest the Citizens should confer the chief Command upon the Count Montgomery The signal of War being as it were given by this Insurrection it was followed by many others in Daulphine Province Gascogne and Languedoc every private Captain and every Gentleman among the Hugonots endeavouring with his own Forces to seise upon some strong place from whence robbing and pillaging all the Country cutting off passages laying taxes upon the people and plundering the rich houses they in a few days brought the whole Kingdom of France into great confusion But a more dangerous fire was kindled on the Sea-coasts of Normandy for the Count Montgomery after he was hindred by the Kings Fleet from relieving Rochel being returned into England and recruited landed in the Country which they call le Pays de Constantine belonging to the Province of Normandy but bordering upon Bretagne where being welcomed by the Hugonots and the discontented party of that place in a few days he made himself Master of Danfront Carentane St. Lo and Valognes and seditious people running to him from all parts as to a Head of great Authority it was beginning to be doubted that Queen Elizabeth invited by this opportunity though she made shew not at all to favour or assist the Count had resolved once again to set foot in that Province just over against her Kingdom which in times past had long been in possession of the Kings of England her Predecessors At the so freqâ—ent news of these tumults and insurrections the King who by nature was very cholerick brake forth into such terrible rage and fury that his sickness became daily more violent and dangerous wherefore neither having strength of body nor ability of mind to undergo so weighty a business often changing and varying his resolutions by that uncertainty gave them that were up in Arms far greater opportunity to increase their Forces which as soon as he perceived his disease which could find no remedy still continuing he resolved to refer the whole business to the counsel and authority of his Mother ever giving order and directions to take sharp severe courses which could hardly be done because the condition of the present affairs would not permit that Armies and Governments should be trusted in the hands of any but persons of great maturity and long experience who by reason of their age and gravity were averse from bloody violent resolutions wherefore the Queen being brought into great
cost pains nor danger but using all military force and industry to storm it yet the Citizens and Souldiers and even the very women as well as men defended it with admirable valour and constancy sustaining for a long time the force and power of a whole Kingdom and holding out against hunger and famine no less than against the assaults and batteries of the Enemy Amongst the various events of this Siege Monsieur de la Noue had opportunity to regain the Kings favour and get leave to live privately at his own house for while the Council of the Citizens treated of yielding to that force which they saw they could not much longer resist he being fallen into a contestation with some of the Ministers whose authority was infinite over the minds of the common people and who without any regard to reason exhorted them still to constancy one of them named la Place was so bold and inconsiderate that after having basely abused him and many times called him Traitor he insolently offered with his hand to strike him in the face which injury though he seemed to pass by for quietness sake and though the Minister was kept in prison many days for a mad man yet inwardly it troubled him very much and moreover foreseeing that at the arrival of the Count Montgomery who was expected with supplies from England the chief command would be taken from him and conferred upon the Count with whom by reason of an ancient emulation he had no very good correspondence he resolved within himself to leave the Town and the next day sallying out of the works as he often used to skirmish with the Enemy he went over with some few in his company to the Duke of Anjou's camp making that pass for the fulfilling of his promise to the King which upon new considerations he resolved to do either for revenge of the affront he had received or for the securing of his own safety which he saw exposed to the calumnies and practices of the Ministers But whatsoever the motive was his example was followed by a great many Gentlemen and Officers yet all that shaked not the perseverance of the Citizens nor abated the courage of the Souldiers supporting with gallant resolution the furious bloody assaults which night and day were made against them on every side and enduring with constancy of mind the great scarcity of victual and the perpetual duty which they were forced to undergo without intermission For towards the Sea were raised two Forts one at the point called de Coreille the other over against it in the place which they call Port-neuf which being mann'd with a thousand Souldiers were kept by Captain Cossein and Captain Gas each with fifteen pieces of Cannon and between them a great Carack was fastened at anchor which furnished with Culverins shot into the mouth of the Haven and hindred the entrance into it so that by continual industry it was blocked up on that side and on the other toward the Land all the Princes and Lords of the Army had divided the work among them in such manner that the Trenches and Redoubts touched one another every where not did they cease to redouble their assaults every hour and yet the resistance of those within equalled the courage and industry of those that were without The valour and constancy of the Defendants was much increased by the intelligence which they secretly received from their friends which were in the Camp for not only among the private Souldiers but also among those that commanded there were some that did not desire the destruction of Rochel nor the extirpation of the Hugonot Faction and Byron who commanded the Artillery following his former intentions did with great dexterity as many were of opinion delay the progress of the Batteries and strengthened the resolution of the besieged But for all these arts their most constant Citizens and most valiant Souldiers were already consumed the hopes of relief from England and Germany were vanished of themselves for the Protestant Princes perswaded by Gaspar Count of Schombergh who was sent to them by the King had resolved not to interpose in the commotions of France there being now no Prince of the Blood who with his authority and supplies of money might maintain the War and the Queen of England to whom the King had sent Alberto Gondi for the same cause had refused to send them either men or shipping and the Count de Montgomery being departed to relieve the besieged with a good number of ships but ill mann'd and armed though with much ado he got a ship of Ammunition to enter the Haven yet being chased by the Kings Fleet and despairing to do any more good in the business he made out to Sea laid aside all thoughts of raising the siege or relieving the City now brought to extremity and only as a Pyrate annoyed the coasts of Britagne and Normandy Their victuals were likewise quite spent and their ammunition almost all wasted and on the other side though the Duke of Anjou in a siege of so many months had lost the Duke of Aumale killed in the Trenches with a Cannon-shot an infinite number of Gentlemen and Officers and above twenty thousand Souldiers killed and dead of the sickness and the Duke of Anjou himself whilst he was viewing the works wounded though but lightly in the neck in the side and in the left hand by a Harquebuze a croc charged with tarling had more need of rest than continual action yet neither the fierceness nor frequency of the assaults were at all allayed but there arriving daily new forces at the Camp among which six thousand Swisses newly entered into pay the siege grew rather streighter and the service hotter than at first so that the City was reduced to an impossibility of holding out longer and would at last have been taken by force and utterly ruined by the King if a new far-fetcht occasion had not saved it and prevented its so imminent destruction There had been a treaty many months before of electing the Duke of Anjou to be King of Poland the hope whereof being begun in the life of Sigismund Augustus King of that Kingdom with this proposition That the Duke taking Anne the Kings Sister to Wife should by the States of those Provinces be declared Successour to the Crown after his death it was much increased for though Ernest Arch-Duke of Austria Son to the Emperour and Sigismond King of Sweden were both Competitors in the same design yet neither of them seemed comparable for valour and glory to the Duke of Anjou whose name by reason of his many victories flew through all parts of Europe with a most clear same of singular vertue and renown The King of France applyed his mind wholly to that end and much more the Queen-Mother for the infinite love she bore to that Son and therefore they neither spared money promises pains nor industry necessary to effect that business which being brought very
a while before was chosen High Chancellor in the place of Michael de l' Hospital already dead had passed the Patents for these matters and registred them in the Parliament the King recommending the Peace of his Kingdom to his Council and his little Daughter the only Child which he had by the Queen his Wife and Charles his Bastard Son who was yet a Child unto the care of his Mother with grave and pious discourses having dismissed all those that were present he held his Mother still fast by the hand and ended the course of his troublesom Reign upon the Thirtieth day of May before he was full Five and Twenty years of age leaving his Kingdom after the revolution of so many Wars in no less danger and confusion than he had found it in Fourteen years before when he came a Child unto the Crown The End of the Fifth BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The SIXTH BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Sixth Book contains the Arts used by the Queen Regent to hold matters in suspence till the coming of the King Henry the Third out of Poland He departs secretly from that Kingdom and passing through Italy comes to Turin The Queen sends thither to inform him of the affairs of France and thither also comes the Mareshal d' Anville The King denies to resolve upon any thing till he have conferred with his Mother he restores those places to the Duke of Savoy which for security had till then been kept from him He passes at Pont Beauvoysin is met by the Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre by him they are set at liberty He meets the Queen his Mother and they enter the City of Lyons The Kings designs and ends to which he intends to direct the course of his Government are particularly set down he desires Peace and to procure it resolves to make War coldly He treats of Marriage and resolves to take to Wife Louyse of Lorain Daughter to the Count de Vaudemont He is Crowned at Rheims and there marrieth her He labours to get his Brother elected King of Poland but he is put beside it The War continues in the mean time and Mombrun Head of the Hugonots in Daulphine is defeated taken and executed The King alters the manner of Government to lessen the Authority of the Great Ones The Duke of Alancon deprived of the hopes of Poland and not being able to obtain the Title of Lieutenant-General flees from Court and becomes Head of the Politicks and Hugonots All the other Lords of that party put themselves under him and the Prince of Conde sends him great Supplies out of Germany which passing through Champaigne are routed and dispersed by the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mother goes to confer with the Duke of Alancon and concludes a Truce in the mean time the King of Navarre leaves the Court flees into Guienne and declares himself Hugonot The Prince of Conde advanceth with the German Army and at Moulins joins with the Duke of Alancon The Queen returns and concludes a Peace but with such exorbitant Conditions that all the Catholicks are offended at it The Duke of Guise and his Brothers lay hold of the occasion declare themselves Heads of the Catholick party and make a League to oppose the Establishment of the Hugonots the grounds and progress of that League are related The King of Navarre thereupon pretending that the Catholicks began first by the means of the Prince of Conde takes up Arms. The King assembles the States General in the City of Blois to settle things in order but after several attempts and contrivances they break up without concluding any thing The King desires Peace but seeing the Hugonots inclined to War raises two Armies against them The Duke of Alancon with one of them takes la Charite Isoire and other places the Duke of Mayenne with the other takes Thone-Charente and Marans From War they come to a Treaty of Agreement Peace is concluded and the Queen-Mother goes to confer with the King of Navarre to make it the stronger The King intent upon the design of his hidden thoughts imploys his time wholly in Religious Exercises assumes all Offices to himself and disposes of them to his Favourites among whom the Dukes of Joyeuse and Espernon are especially exalted by him He Institutes a new Order of Knighthood called du S. Esprit The Queen-Mother goes from the King of Navarre and visits a great part of the Kingdom The Duke of Alancon to obtain Queen Elizabeth in Marriage goes over into England is much honoured but notwithstanding publick demonstrations nothing is determined The Hugonots renew the War the Prince of Conde takes la Fere in Picardy and the King of Navarre possesseth himself of Cahors and other places The King dispatcheth several Armies against them by which la Fere is recovered but little done in other places The Duke of Alancon being returned into France interposes and settles the Peace again He goes into Flanders to command the States that had cast off their Obedience to the Crown of Spain does little good there returns into France and dies THE death of Charles the Ninth happening just at that time when the remedies used by him to purge the humours of his Kingdom were in the height of their operation He left not only all parts of France in great disorder and confusion but also the state of the Crown in exceeding danger and uncertainty by the subversion or at least weakning of all the foundations of the Government For besides the lawful Successour so far distant in a strange Country who if he had been present might by assisting at the Helm in a time of so great peril have steered and moderated the doubtful troublesom course of the Commonwealth all the Instruments of Rule and Power were also either very much weakned or utterly perverted and even those means which usually maintain and preserve others were universally bent to the distraction and ruine of that Kingdom The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre nearest of the Blood Royal and by that prerogative chief of the Council of State were held as guilty of a most hainous crime and straitly guarded as prisoners The Prince of Conde though very young yet of an ancient reputation by the same of his Ancestors not only absent and fled from Court but protected by the favour of the Protestant Princes and ready by foreign Forces to bring in new Inundations The Hugonots up in Arms in every Province and manifestly intent by all means possible to surprise and possess the chiefest Cities and Fortresses Many of the greatest Lords some secretly some openly were alienated and divers of those who had most experience in affairs most authority with the people and most reputation in war were already if I may use that word Cantonized in their several Provinces and Governments the Treasury empty or rather destroyed the Gentry wearied and impoverished the Militia wasted and consumed the people
and oppressions of War by so much the sooner would they extort an universal consent to the necessity of Peace and make the authors of those discords odious and detestable rendring disfavoured unto all the formerly so much favoured endeavours of the League wherein his inclination agreeing with the splendour and subtilty of his design it was impossible by any reasons in the World to alter that determination But whilst the King is infinite busie and the Courtiers most ardently studious in ordering these affairs a most powerful Army was preparing in Germany for the relief of the Hugonots for the King of Navarre having long foreseen that the King would easily be brought to an agreement with the League to his disadvantage and having learned by former experience that all the hopes of his party consisting in the aid of the Germans which the union of the Protestant Princes was wont to afford unto the Hugonots had sent the Sieur de Pardaillan thither a wise man and by long travel versed in their several customs who treating confidently and particularly with every Prince and every Hans-town might shew them the danger of their common Religion aggravate the hatred of the Guises to the Protestant party and exhort them to continue the assistance formerly lent unto the Hugonots against the persecutions of their Enemies which business being excellently managed by Pardaillan had not only stirred up the minds of those Princes in favour of the Hugonots but had also much raised the hopes of the King of Navarre so that having turned his thoughts that way at the beginning of the War he had dispatched the Sieur de Clervant into Germany to ripen the fruits of that seed which had before been opportunely sown by Pardaillon And because both the Princes and people of those parts very great honourers of that Religion which they hold to be the true one and also of an easie mind and flexible nature to the urgency of entreaties and efficacy of reasons might more easily be moved to consent unto it Theodore Beza a most eloquent Preacher of the Hugonots went to the same effect from Geneva into Germany and Swisserland who by his authority and discourses stirred up every one of the chief men to imbrace the enterprise in favour of those who were of the same or at least a very little different Religion The Queen of England endeavoured the same not onely by countenancing it and by words but also by her actions for keeping in prison Mary Queen of Scotland Cousin to the Guises who was obstinately linked to their faction she desired that the League and the House of Loraine should be utterly suppressed or at least so busied in France that she might have free power to dispose of her life and of the affairs of Scotland and England Wherefore she not onely assisted the King of Navarre with her authority which was very great in Germany but had also deposited a good sum of Money to be laid out in raising of Soldiers there To the Negotiation of Clevant to the exhortation of Beza and to the money of England the Duke of Bouillon added also his assistance who holding Sedan a very strong place and other Towns and Castles about the Confines of France and Germany that were of the Hugonots Religion and in their Counsels united to the King of Navarre was a fit instrument for the expedition and Levyes of the German Soldiers for the Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Wittenbergh and the Protestant Cantons of the Swisses consenting and the King of Denmark concurring but above all the Count de Mombelliard a Lord bordering upon Bourgongne labouring in the business there began to be raised the most powerful Army that ever had come out of that Country to relieve the Hugonots But because the Princes knew they had no occasion at all to offend the King of France and to enter in a hostile manner into his Country they resolved before the Army which was preparing against the next spring to send this year for a colour a numerous Embassy to complain in the Names of them all of the breach of that Peace and violation of that Faith which had been given unto the Hugonots with whom they were interessed and united in Religion and to demand of the King a cessation of Armes and a confirmation of those Edicts so often granted to his Subjects for the Liberty of Conscience foreseeing well that if the King consented to their demands the Hugonots would be relieved without further noise of Armes and if he should persist and deny them they might thereby make a fair pretence for the War and take an occasion not altogether unreasonable to raise those Forces they intended This determination of the Germans did very much disquiet the King of France being not onely displeased that others should presume to meddle with the affairs of his Kingdom but also terrified with the fear of forrain forces who with perillous commotions used to destroy Provinces ruine the People disturb all things both Divine and Humane and to put the state of the Crown into extreme danger But as a Prince accustomed to govern himself by the subtilty of his wit to whom though oftentimes very unsuccessfully probable appearances of cunning inventions did alwayes represent themselves he began to think with himself that from that evil he might draw another good and might use the coming of the Germans for the speedy execution of his designs for seeing the King of Navarre reduced to such a weakness that though he made fearless resistance he was yet brought to the last extremity of his fortune and being himself every day more out of hope to have issue since by a continued incurable Gonorrhea and by infinite other proofs he knew himself unable to get children he thought it best to unite himself by all means streightly and sincerely with the King of Navarre as the lawful Successor of the Crown to draw him to the Court near unto his own Person to make him partaker in matter of Government and by his means to make use of that forreign Army for the utter suppression of the Guises and the factions of the League which being unexpectedly overwhelmed between his Forces and the approaching storme of the German Soldiers could not possibly be able to make resistance but would presently be quite extinguished and dissipated Two things amongst the rest were principal hinderances of this intention one the King of Navarr's Religion being resolved for the satisfaction of his own Conscience and to avoid the scandal that would arrive from thence not to reconcile himself unto him unless he would first return into the bosome of the Church the other was that of his Sister Queen Margaret Wife to the King of Navarre who having given her self over to a licentious life for fear of her Husbands anger was fled from him but being taken by his order and the Commission of the King her Brother she was put as a prisoner into the Castle of
with reason that their common Enemies being the same and the same interests pleading for them both he would labour with that candour and that efficacy which the exigency of the matter required To these reasons the Queen answered That as his Conversion was easie so neither could it want just pretences for if the King should make a League with him while he was disobedient to the Catholick Church and openly excommunicated besides the infamy which his name would incur by mingling in a conjunction not only abhorred and never so much as in thought consented to by any other of the most Christian Kings but also immediately contrary to the Vow and Oath taken solemnly at his Consecration he should moreover give colour to the complaints and justifie the practices of the League and which was of very great consideration he should stir up all other Catholick Princes of the World against him That upon their agreement would presently ensue the revolt of the City of Paris already in an uproar with but seeing that they treated with him and the rebellion of many other chief Cities as also the alienation of all the Catholick Nobility and the greater part of the Kingdom that this was the way to facilitate the King of Spain's assistance of the League who would presently be forced to turn those preparations into France which were made against England That at the first news of it the Pope of an angry hasty nature would run precipitately to Excommunications and Interdictions would presently dispatch great Supplies in favour of the League and stir up all the Italian Princes to unite themselves with him for the defence of Religion That the Duke of Lorain would not consent the marriage of his Daughter should be consummate whilst he was an alien from the Church nor would the States endure he should be declared the lawful Successor of the Crown whilst he held the Faith of the Hugonots In conclusion that his perseverance was accompanied with all manner of difficulties and impediments but his conversion did wonderfully facilitate and lay open the way to all his hopes neither doubtful not uncertain but well grounded and secure The King of Navarre excused himself sometimes with the indecency of changing sometimes with his Conscience sometimes discovering his fear of being brought into the net again but in his excuses the perplexity of his mind and the force of the Queens reasons appeared whereupon new time was taken and another Conference appointed within two or three days wherein to facilitate the business the Duke of Nevers was admitted on the Queens side and the Viscount de Turenne on the King of of Navarre's but they contrary to expectation did rather increase the difficulties than open the way to any resolution for the Duke of Nevers desiring to shew his Eloquence and Learning as he was wont to do wrought greater doubts in the mind of the King of Navarre to whom the Italian arts were suspected and the Viscount a man no less wise and cunning than stout and valiant though he shewed a great inclination to favour the Queens reasons yet the common opinion was that for fear of being abandoned with the Duke of Momorancy so they called the Mareschal d' Anville after the death of his Brother and of losing those great hopes which he had of power and command in the Hugonot party neither desired Peace nor the King of Navarre's Conversion and that therefore he secretly disswaded him from it wherefore neither in this third Conference could they conclude any thing but at the very time the King of Navarre had warning given him to take heed of the artifices of the King and Queen who at the same instant while they treated with him did assure the Popes Nuncio the Duke of Guise and the people of Paris that whatsoever was done was in favour of the League and that the end would justifie that this Treaty included such a design as would at last break forth for the good of Religion whereby his jealousie increasing not thinking it safe to trust either the Kings inconstancy or the Queens too much cunning he resolved in the end to follow the fortune of the Hugonots and not to trust the Court neither would he come to the Conference any more himself in person but continued to send the Viscount of Turenne who treating very dexterously with the Queen would never come to any conclusion at all With these Negotiations began the year 1587 upon the first day whereof the King celebrating the Ceremonies of the Knights of the St. Esprit in Paris swore solemnly not to suffer any other Religion than the Roman Catholick This Oath of his as it was sudden and inconsiderate so both then and many times after it was blamed as absurd and contrary to his own designs for to treat of an Agreement with the King of Navarre and vow the extirpation of the Hugonots did immediately contradict one another But neither they that spake of it then nor they that looking upon things afar off reprehended it did so afterwards when they knew either the Kings intention or the contents of what was secretly treated with the King of Navarre for Monsieur de Rambouillet being come post from Pâ—ictou and arrived already at Court upon the 27 of December with Letters from the Queen and with a Relation of all that had passed with the King of Navarre whereby the King was certified that it was impossible to conclude any thing he standing averse from changing his Religion and proposing an Agreement without speaking any thing about matters of Faith the King to take away that hope from the King of Navarre and to make him consent to be converted or if he would not change his mind being resolved or rather necessitated to join with the League to oppose the German Army made this Protestation very opportunely whereby he at once beat down all the complaints and calumnies of the Heads of the League and appeased in great part at least for a time the minds of the Parisians who as the commotions of the people are wont varied their thoughts and inclinations with the breath of every the slightest accident whereupon he was afterward able to stir to gather an Army and turn against the foreign Forces without being molested by the Parisians though the wonted Incendiaries did not fail to strive to raise them more than once The Kings inclination was clearly seen in this That when the course of affairs did necessarily force him to treat of any thing in favour of the Hugonots he consented to it very slowly ambiguously and after long consideration But if the business were to favour or unite himself to the Catholick party he concurred in that with so much readiness and resolution that his motion to the benefit to the benefit of the Catholick Faith plainly appeared to be natural but the other produced by necessity and violently constrained And as for the King of Navarre the news of the Kings Proteâ—â—ation being
the valley making it so fenny deep and dirty that there is no passing to the City along the Plain but only upon the two Hills and by another way which made by art leads along the foot of the Hill on the left hand and with many turnings and windings comes to the Gate of the Town So that only two ways lead to the City one upon the top the other at the bottom of the Hill on the left hand and the way which is upon the top of the Hill on the right hand leads straight to Pollet which Bourg is divided from the City by the interposition of the Haven and the Current of the small River Bethune The Country from one Hill to the other is all moorish and rotten by the standing of the waters and there is no passage but only by a very narrow way interrupted by many Bridges because the River divides it self into many streams Upon the Hill on the left side which is no less steep and craggy than the other stands the Castle of Arques little more than a league from the Town a place excellently fortified both by Art and Nature which commands a great Bourg of the same name that lies under it just upon the way which at the foot of the mountain leads to Diepe along the bank of the River The right-hand Hill which is much more woody than the other doth not run on equally united in one ridge as that on the left hand doth but about a league from Pollet is parted by a great Valley which extends it self as far as over against Arques and in it upon the right-hand is Martinglise a great commodious Village and on the left an Hospital of St. Lazarus which the French commonly call a Maladery The King having with his Commanders diligently surveyed every one of these places resolved to quarter with all his Army at Arques believing that if the Duke of Mayenne followed him he would not pass along the Hill on the right side which leads only to Pollet thorow the Valley and the Wood but would keep the straight way that goes to the walls of Diepe Wherefore the whole Army working speedily and likewise those few peasants which could be got together he enclosed the Castle and Bourg with a good Trench of about eight foot wide and as much in depth making Works on the inside with all the earth and distinguished it with Redoubts and Ravelines about sixty paces distant from each other and then having placed his Cannon to the best advantage he himself lodged in the Castle with all the French Foot and the Mareschal de Byron in the Bourg with the Regiments of the Swisses shutting up in that manner both the ways which lead towards the Town as well that at the top as the other at the bottom of the Hill The Horse quartered in that space which reaches from the Trenches as far as Diepe lay ready behind the Army to move where need should require there being left room enough in fitting places of the Trench to sally out conveniently fifty Horse in front a sufficient Body for any action they should undertake Many Ships were appointed at Diepe to fetch Victual for the Army from England and the Coasts of Normandy from Caen St. Lo and Carantan places which held for the King which succeeded marvellously well for some winds brought in Barks from England others those that came from Normandy supplying with interchangeable assistance the necessities of the Souldiers who in that convenient season of the year had also many miles of a most fertile Country in their power by the fruits whereof both Horse and Foot were plentifully furnished In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne having received the Marquess du Ponâ— who was come with the Army of Lorain to assist the League and likewise the Duke of Nemours who had brought up the Forces of Lyonoise Monsieur de Balagny Governour of Cambray and finally the German Horse and Foot which had been levyed by his order with the help of Spain that he might preserve his reputation and fulfil the infinite hopes he had to conquer and drive the King out of the Kingdom was moved from Paris upon the first day of September and with six thousand Swisses four thousand German Foot twelve thousand Muskettiers between French and Lorainers and with four thousand and five hundred Horse received Poissy Mante and Vernon which yielded to him and having in two days taken Gournay which would have made resistance marched on diligently towards Rouen whence finding the King departed he took along with him the Duke of Aumale and so increasing his Forces which augmented every hour continued on his Voyage with the same speed towards Diepe but he took a different way from what the King and his Commanders thought he would for leaving that by the hill on the left hand which goes to Diepe by the way of Arques and upon which he knew the Army was prepared to make opposition being excellently quartered in places of advantage he marched on by the hill on the right hand with a design to come to Pollet and making himself Master of it to block up and command the mouth of the Haven that the King being deprived of the use of Shipping and cut off from his passage to the Sea might not only want the assistance he hoped to receive from England but also be reduced to extream necessity of victual thinking he should this way very easily conquer and make an end of the War But the King to whom the Sieur de Baqueville who had the care of discovering the motion of the Enemy had brought word in time that the Duke of Mayenne had taken the way toward the hill on the right hand perceiving his aim and desiring to prevent it left the Mareschal de Byron at Arques with the Swisses besides a thousand Muskettiers and six hundred Horse not only that he might hinder the passage of the Enemy on that side as had been the first intention but also that passing cross the Valley he might advance to the foot of the right hand hill and there draw a line about the Maladerie and then make another great trench toward the bottom to shut up the Duke's passage on that side also by a double impediment to the end that he might not be able to get over to the left hand hill which if he could do he might either assault the Army in their works or else putting himself between might streighten it and separate it from the Town Care being thus taken for matters without the King with the rest of the Cavalry and the remainder of the French Muskettiers went presently thorow the City to Pollet where with continual labour day and night the Lords and Commanders taking no less pains than the common Souldiers and inhabitants of the place he environed the whole Bourg with a deep trench which ending in the form of a sput made a sharp angle in the point whereof a great Mill
those who followed him at that present to uphold the Rights of the Royal Family Now whilst Perron and Balbani the one within the other without the Kingdom did labour to plant the root of this third party the Cardinal staying at Tours as Head and President of the King's Council that resided there did by himself and by the means of Touchard try to work upon the minds of many and particularly of Gilles de Souvray Governor of that City a man of exceeding great Piety and no less Prudence and who in the Court had alwayes been wonderfully famed for goodness and knowledge But these designs which being communicated to many could not be kept secret were come to the ear of Philip Cardinal oâ— Lenon-court an old dependant upon the House of Navar who likewise following the Kings party resided in Tours and was one of the Council and there being no very good correspondence between him and the Cardinal of Bourbon he was the first that gave the King notice of it representing confusedly unto him what he had been able to find out concerning those designs that were contriving The King knowing the emulation that was between the Cardinals did not absolutely credit Lenon-court's relation and yet he remained a little perplexed in mind and began to stand at watch that he might come to more certainty of the business which Fortune brought him as it were of her self in such a way as a mans own imagination could not have thought for Balbani who was already come into Italy having in his journey met with Des Portes the Duke of Mayenne's Secretary who was likewise going to Rome about the present affairs made friendship with him as they use to do that are interessed in the same Nation after which either inconsiderately or that he might begin to scatter some seeds of it in the League he imparted the business to him for which the Cardinal sent him to the Pope and shewed him the Commissions which for his information he had given him distinctly comprised in writing Des Portes a subtil man and a wary manager of things knew how to behave himself and to flatter Balbani in such manner that he not onely sounded the depth of the business and what adherents the Cardinal had but withal got a copy of his Instructions out of his hands whereof he sending several duplicates in his Letters to the D. of Mayenne it so fell out that one of them was intercepted by the Garrison of Auxerre and came to the Kings hands with full information of the whole Plot. For the clearing and confirmation of this intelligence gotten by the Letters of Des Portes it happened that Iaques du Quesnay a Norman Gentleman who was bred Page to the Duke of Longueville as he was one night on the far side of his Lord's bed where he was unseen by reason of the Curtains the custom of France being to entertain great persons while they are undressing by chance heard a long discourse of du Perron to the same purpose which he thinking nothing related to Iehan d' Espinay his Kinsman but he being a Hugonot and of a discreet understanding delayed not long to discover all to Monsieur de Chaseron under whom he served in the War by whom afterwards the King was distinctly informed in every particular When the King knew what was plotting against him he was extremely afflicted and troubled in mind and having told the business to the High-Chancellor and Monsieur de la Noue desired to have their advice in it The High-Chancellor intent upon the King's Conversion or because he so thought it best said it was in the Kings own power to remove those obstacles and dispel those Clouds for by turning Catholick he might at once take away the foundation of all those contrivers and open a most secure way to Peace and Union That to think of any other remedy was not onely vain but destructive for by alienating the Cardinal of Bourbon and other Princes of the Blood who sided with him he should cut off one of his own Arms and weaken his party in such manner that he would no longer be in a condition to resist his Enemies and on the other side by dissembling the knowledge of their machinations they would have conveniency to perfect the design drawing with them a great part of the Catholicks discontented at the so long delay of his conversion Whereupon to shun those two inevitable dangers it was necessary at last to give satisfaction to all his servants while the state of Affairs permitted him to do it with his honor for when the Catholick party should fall from him it would be no longer time to convert nor to give them satisfaction thinking to lure them again as they do Hawks when they are loose from the fist that therefore he should rouze up his courage and with a Royal resolution cut off the Roots of those evils that were creeping about so dangerously Monsieur de la Noue said That he would speak the more freely because his Majesty and all the World knew he had said from the very beginning That if the King did not turn Catholick he should never be King of France but that now it was neither time nor conjuncture to make that determination That the King knew how great a power of his Enemies was like shortly to come upon him the Pope and the Catholick King having made wonderful great preparations to assist the League that to oppose those Forces he had no other prop but the Supplies of the Queen of England and of the Princes of Germany who were drawing a great Army together under the Viscount of Turenne to uphold them in so great need which Provisions and Supplies would all vanish in a moment if he at that present should change his Religion for not onely they being offended would forsake him but all the Hugonots of the Kingdom that followed him would fall away whereby at the arrival of the Enemies Forces he would be found alone unprovided abandoned without any means to resist and left to the discretion of his Enemies That the exigency of Affairs would not give way to the counsel of preventing the future with a present ruine That the Forces of Italy were already set forward the Duke of Parma already was gathering an Army nor did the straitness of time permit the thought of things that were far off but perswade the use of present remedies That the Cardinal of Bourbons design had no very firm foundation and though it should succeed yet it required a great length of time That at the present not very resolute and powerful remedies were to be applied but such as might mitigate and defer the disease till means might be had to purge it away That it was needful to separate those Lords into several places to have an eye upon their actions to seek to pacifie them and keep them in till the event were seen of the coming of the forreign Forces
to defend their posts the Duke of Aumale was constrained though still fighting to retire in which Retreat with the loss of sixty of his men and the death of Sieur de Longchamp a Soldier of great experience and of Francisco Guevarra a Captain of Spanish Light-horse he was followed to the very Walls of Han not having been able to give any relief at all to the besieged But the Duke of Mayenne being advertised of the siege of Noyon had diligently sent for the Sieur de Rosne with the Forces that were in Champagne and for the Prince of Ascoli sent by the Duke of Parma with Eight hundred Horse and Three thousand Foot and being joyned with them at la Fere came up to Han upon the tenth of August and having quartered his Army upon the way towards Noyon but with the River between he thought his presence would give sufficient courage to the defendents But the King having setled his quarters in the most convenient places and having made his approaches so far had begun already to batter the Abbey that stood without the Fauxbourg which was obstinately defended by the besieged to keep the Enemy as far as possible they could from the wall The King having caused five Pieces of Cannon to be planted against this Abby had so beaten it down that being assaulted by the Foot upon the eighth day they took it killing thirty of the Defendents and taking above fifty others of them which did so much the more weaken the Garrison that of it self was too weak to defend the circuit of the Town But it was necessary to suspâ—nd the progress of the siege by reason of the Duke of Mayennes coming for his strength being 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse lit was thought that not being able to relieve the place any other way rather than lose it he would joyn battel with the King Yet the opinions in his Camp were very different for the Prince of Ascoli thought not the loss of that place of so great concernment that to divert it it was fit to incurr the uncertainty of a Battel with the hazard of those onely Forces that were in being to resist the Enemy and considered that the Popes and Catholick King 's supplies which had already passed the Mountains being expected it would be a very strange rashness to put that now in the power of Fortune which within a few dayes might be made more certain and more secure The Duke of Aumale on the other side thoroughly vext at his late misfortune and longing to piece it up again argued that the loss of that place was of great moment to the affairs of the Province for that in those quarters there remained no other important Town of their party but that their reputation was of much greater importance which would be much diminished if being come up to the very face of the Enemy with Forces in number not inferior to theirs they should let that place be taken from them without stirring or disputing it with the Sword The Duke of Mayenne assented to the more secure advice partly because he was of a nature not much inclined to dangerous resolutions partly because with the Prince of Ascoli and the Spaniards he did more by intreaty than command and he saw them very resolute in not consenting by any means to the hazard of a Battel But the King desirous to find out what the enemy intended having no quicker way to make himself certain of it caused the Mareschal de Biron to pass the River with the greater part of his Horse to see if the Duke would move to fight or keep fast in his quarters But assoon as the Mareschal was advanced within sight of Han and of the Army of the League which was encamped in the midst of the great high way he found the Country clear and free nor did any stir out of their quarters to skirmish in the plain field which having come to pass not one day alone but three together successively the King apprehending that the Duke thought to defend Noyon with nothing but the reputation of his being near it took heart and caused the Courtine of St Eloy to be battered upon the fifteenth day and having beaten down the Works on each side on the sixteenth day in the morning being resolved to give the assault he made his Cavalry pass over the River as he was wont to do that they might be in readiness if the enemy should stir and having drawn his Foot into their divisions gave the Baron de Biron order to advance and assault the Town Monsieur de Ville having as long as possibly he could expected relief in vain and seeing himself now in such a condition that he was not able to resist that fierce assault which was preparing against him caused a sign to be given that he would parley and in a few hours concluded to surrender if within two dayes the Duke of Mayenne did not either fight or put at least Five hundred men into the Town which being agreed upon and Hostages given on both sides he dispatched a Gentleman to the D. of Mayenne to let him know the Agreement who having consulted again with his Commanders and concluded as they before had determined drew off to the Walls of Han the same evening and the Sieur de Ville sincerely performing the Agreement delivered up Noyon upon the Eighteenth day into the hands of Monsieur d' Esâ—ree for the King After the taking of Noyon mens minds on both sides were â—aken up with the expectation of the Forraign Forces which with equal fortune delayed to appear for the Germans who to the number of 8000 Foot and 4000 Horse had been raised by the Viscount de Turenne by the help of the Protestant Princes moved with great difficulty for want of money and expected that for the drawing together and maintenance of them a great sum should be furnished from England which the Queen being to raise upon her people who had promised to pay it upon certain conditions matters were not so soon ordered nor did the conditions prove of mutual satisfaction for the English continuing desirous to recover footing in France and particularly in Normandy a Province in former times long possessed by them had promised the Queen Three hundred thousand Ducats to be spent in the affairs of France provided she got some convenient Sea-port to be given her not onely for security of their Money but also for a landing-place of Commerce and that they might have more commodiously traffick in the Kingdom of France which being at first demanded and now again under pretence of the earnest importunity of her Subjects effectually urged by the Queen no less than liberty of Conscience for the Hugonots kept the King in a great deal of trouble not being willing to deprive himself of Diepe the place where he had tried and sustained the first encounters of his fortune much less of Calais upon which the English had too strong
might march out of the City armed in rank and file their Drums beating Colours flying and light Match to go whither they thought good That two hundred thousand Crowns should be paid to the Count de Brissac in recompence of his expences and losses and that he should have twenty thousand Franks of an annual pension the Charge of Marshal of Frâ—nce conferred upon him by the Duke of Mayenne should be confirmed and the perpetual Government of Corbie and Mante granted to him which things with many other of less moment being agreed upon both sides applyed themselves to the execution of them The King at this time was at Chartres where he had caused himself to be Crowned and Anointed or as they call it Sacré about which there had been many difficulties which nevertheless by the authority of the Council were seasonably removed for he that he might take away the doubts of scrupulous minds desiring to his Conversion to add this Ceremony which is wont to be used to all Kings some objected that the Consecration by an ancient custom could not be but at the City of Reimes nor by the hands of any other than the Archbishop of that Church but having diligently over-looked the History of former times the learned found that many Kings had been Consecrated in other places and since that City was not in the Kings power reason consented not that he should therefore remain without that due Ceremony which they thought necessary for his perfect Establishment This difficulty being removed there succeeded another how the King could be Anointed without the Oyl of St. Ampoule which was kept in the Cathedral of that City and which as fame reports was brought down by an Angel from Heaven purposely for the Consecration of King Cloüis and the other Kings of France his Successors but neither of this was there any other necessity save bare tradition whereupon it was determined that neither the City nor the Oyl being in the Kings power the Oyl should be brought that is kept in the City of Tours in the Monastery of the Friers of St. Martin of which there is a report confirmed by the authority of many Writers that it was likewise brought from Heaven to anoint that Saint when falling from the top of a Ladder all his bones were broken and shattered in pieces wherefore Monsieur de Souvray Governour of Tours having caused that Vial to be brought out in Procession by those Monks that had it in keeping and having placed it under a rich Canopy of State set round pompously with lights in the top of a Chariot made expresly for that purpose and guarded by four Troops of Horse he himself going before it all the journey brought it along with him to the City of Chartres and with that Oyl they Anointed the King at his Consecration causing it afterward to be carried back to its place with the same Ceremony and Veneration There arose also a Competition among the Prelates Which of them should perform the Act of Consecration for the Archbishop of Bourges pretended that Function belonged unto him as Primate and on the other side Nicholas de Thou Bishop of Chartres alledged That the Ceremony being to be Celebrated in his Church it could not be taken away from him The Council sentenced in favour of the Bishop of the Diocess and so upon the Twenty seventh of February the King was consecrated with great Solemnity and Pomp both Ecclesiastical and Military the twelve Peers of France being present at the Ceremony six Ecclesiastical and six Secular which were the Bishop of Chartres Nantes Mans Maillezays Orleans and Angiers representing those of Reimes Langues Laon Beauvais Noyon and Chalons and for the Secular Peers the Prince of Conty for the Duke of Bourgogne the Duke of Soissons for the Duke of Guienne the Duke of Montpensier for the Duke of Normandy the Duke of Luxemburgh in stead of the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Retz in stead of the Count de Toulouse and the Duke of Vantadour in stead of the Count de Champagne the Archbishop of Bourges did the Office of Grand Aumosnier the Mareshal de Matignon of High Constable the Duke of Longueville that of High Chamberlain the Count de St. Paul that of Grand Maistre and the High Chancellor Chiverny holding the Seals in his Right Hand sate on one side of the Cloth of State The King according to the custom of the Kings of France upon the day of this Solemnity received the Communion in both kinds took the Oath which all the Kings of France are wont to take to maintain the Catholick Faith and the authority of the Holy Church and at his coming out of the Church touched those that had the Kings Evil to the number of three hundred from the Church he went unto the Feast where according to the custom sate the twelve Peers that had been present at the Ceremony the Princess Katharine Sister to the King with the other great Ladies that were at Court and the Ambassadors of the Queen of England and the Republick of Venice After Dinner the King went to Vespers where he received the Order of the St. Esprit renewing his Oath for the conservation of the Faith and the persecution of Heresie which Ceremonies as they filled the hearts of his own party with great joy and gladness so did they the more move the inclination of the others to acknowledge and obey him In the mean time the Treaties in Paris were ripening for the reducing of that City being managed with great dexterity and secresie by the Governour the Prevost des Marchands and President le Maistre but thwarted more than ever by the violent perswasions of the Preachers who ceased not to cry from their Pulpits that the Kings Conversion was feigned and dissembled and no body could acknowledge him with a good Conscience The business was likewise crossed by the practices and boldness of the Sixteen who since the accident of President Brisson having remained with small credit and less power being now fomented by the Legat and the Spaniards and no less by the Dutchesses of Nemours and Montpensier who had turned their Sails according to the Wind they began to rise again meeting frequently often stirring up commotions and proceeding audaciously against those that were suspected to be of the Kings party but the Governour making use of his authority and also of the Duke of Mayenne's Name laboured to dissipate and suppress them under colour that he would have no Conventicles nor armed insurrections in a time of so great suspition and finally having accorded with the Parliament they caused publick Proclamation to be made That upon pain of death and confiscation of goods none should go to any Meeting except in the Town-House and in the presence of above five Magistrates Upon the foundation of this Decree the Governour sharply using force did within a few days destroy and take away the opposition of the Sixteen insomuch
Alvaro Osorio notice that he should keep some little Boats ready to come forth of the Town as soon as the sign was given him and to draw near the Banks of the Fen to receive the relief which he would attempt to bring unto that place which intelligence being happily got into the Town and the appointment made he marched from Doway with Six hundred horse and came by night to Chasteler where he caused the Gates to be kept lock'd to the end that the French might not know any thing of his design And having that day provided that every one of his men should carry a Bag of Meal behind him and a bundle of Match about his neck for they had also great want of that in la Fere he set forth when it began to grow dark and having past the River Somme went upon the way of St. Quentin and leaving that Town upon the right hand marched with so much diligence that upon the sixteenth day of March in the morning he came neâ—r the quarters of the Kings Cavalry who being advertised by the Sentinels shootings took the Alarm and got speedily to horse believing that some relief of the enemy was near but a thick mist which by chance rose by break of day was so favourable to Basti's designs that the Kings Corpes de Gardes betaking themselves to their arms on all sides could not discover which way the Enemy came and while they warily endeavoured to know and make discovery Basti without meeting any body passing between the quarter of the Reiters and that of the Duke of Bouillon came to the bank of the Fen near the current of the River aâ—d having found Osorio ready with his Boats to receive the relief he made the Meal and Match be unladed with great celerity faced about and with the same speed seeing the French and German Cavalry who at last having notice of his arrival had placed themselves upon the Road of St. Quentin to hinder his retreat he took a contrary way and falling into that which leads to Guise came back fortunately to Cambray without meeting any opposition This relief in which industry and fortune were equal sharers gained Basti a wonderful reputation yet gave but little help to the besieged the Meal that was brought lasting them but a little while by reason of their great number and the King who from day to day had new Forces came up to him streightned the siege more closely and stopt up all the wayes which being cut off and fortified with Banks and Trenches and kept with strong guards of Horse left no hope at all of thinking of new relief But the siege being prolonged by the constancy of the Defendants the King was perswaded by the reasons of some of his Engineers to stop the course of the River which caused the Fen on the lower side thinking to make it swell and rise in such manner that the Defendants should be constrained either to yield or drown This work was begun with an exceeding great â—umber of Pioneers drawn together from all the neighbouring places but though they wrought at it with great art and no less assiduity yet the rains of the season which from time to time increased the current of the River which ordinarily was quiet and gentle hindred the progress by breaking down the Banks often carrying away the Piles and in one hour frustrating the labours of many dayes and yet the King being himself present at the work it was at last brought to perfection But it was no sooner finished when it appeared how deceitful the fancies of Engineers prove oftentimes for the Town being much higher than the Fen a thing foreseen from the beginning by many and constantly oppugned by the authors of the design the water rose not above a foot or two in the Town and was so long making that increase that the inhabitants had conveniency to remove their things into higher places without receiving any damage though the water falling within two dayes by having broke through the lowest part of the Fen in many places the Town remained full of dirt and mud by the exhalation whereof the Air being corrupted caused dangerous diseases in the Town so that the besieged being endamaged onely by accident and after the space of many days the labors and endeavors of the Kings Army proved fruitless in their principal intent There yet remained the wonted hope of Famine which after so many moneths siege encreased exceedingly and was already become irrepairable nor did any thing make the Defendants hold out but hope of relief The Cardinal was intent with his utmost endeavors upon giving it to them for having in great part quieted those that had mutined and conveniently paid his men he had set the Army in a readiness to attempt the effecting of it but none of his Commanders among which the principal were the Duke of Arescot the Marquiss of Ranâ—y and Francisco de Mendozza the Admiral of Aragon counselled him to adventure his Camp upon that enterprize and the reason was in a readiness for not onely the King in the space of many moneths had had full conveniency to fortifie his own quarters extraordinarily but that which imported more he had put strong Garrisons and many Horse into S. Quentin Monstrueil Boulogne and all the other Towns that stand round la Fere in such manner that if the Spanish Camp should pass beyond them to raise the siege they remaining at their backs would cut off the wayes and take away the concourse of Provisions so that if the enterprize of making the King dislodge should require many dayes as it was certainly to be doubted the Army would be put in danger of some hard encounter To this was added that the King having after the publication of the Agreement received the Duke of Mayenne with great demonstrations of honor being come with his attendants to wait upon him in the Camp before la Fere and the Constable Montmorancy the Duke of Montpensier and the greater part of the Lords of all the Kingdom being come unto the Army he had under his Colours Eighteen thousand Foot and little less than Five thousand Horse an Army so potent especially by reason of the valour of the Cavalry that it was necessary to proceed with great circumspection in advancing so far into that Province against so great Forces and in the midst of so many of the Enemies Towns The Cardinal likewise was not ignorant that the States of Holland desirous that the War should continue in Franâ—e had set forth a fleet of many Ships to land men at Boulogne in relief of the King of France and that the Queen of England though the King consented not to all her demands had yet to uphold the common interests sent out a Navie to his assistance with Eight thousand Foot aboard it which it was believed were to land in the same place wherefore the Commanders doubted that these Forces uniting together it would not onely be vain
prisoner with Montecucoli still fighting valiantly Belgiojoso advanced with the Reer and for some time gallantly withstood the fury of the Conquerours but the other Bodies being routed and he himself wounded with two Pistol-shots in the Arm was at last constrained to save himself by flight leaving the Field free to the Mareschal de Byron and free power to go where he would so that he would have done more harm to the Country and perchance have made greater progress if the Rains of Autumn which that year fell much before the usual time had not put a hindrance to his incursions About this time there happened an accident at Court which as it gave private men an example of that moderation wherewith they ought to curb their passions so did it advertise Princes how far they ought to bear those terms of necessity in their Subjects to which Honour constrains them for a Controversie in words arising in the Kings Ante-chamber between the Sieur de Coqueinvillier one of his Gentlemen-Waiters but a man of approved Valour and Monsieur de Bonivet a Cavalier of ancient Nobility and great note Coqueinvillier forgetting the place where he was struck Bonivet a Box on the Ear who restraining his own fury in respect of the place they went both out of the Court and being separated by their Friends into several places Bonivet sent to challenge his Enemy that he might be revenged of the affront he had received but he acknowledging his errour in having wronged him in a place where it was not lawful for him to draw his Sword to right himself refused to meet him in the field and offered to ask him pardon which all men knew was not for want of courage whereof he had given proofs in other Duels but out of remorse of Conscience yet Bonivet notwithstanding the common opinion reiterated his challenge oftentimes which not only was answered with the same moderation but Coqueinvillier kept within doors for some time to avoid the occasion of fighting and yet the other urging him with injurious Letters and Messages and not accepting the offer he made to refer himself to his discretion he was at last constrained to meet him in a private place hand to hand where having made his former proffers and protested that he acknowledged himself much to blame he was constrained by Bonivet's fierceness to draw his Sword wherewith having wounded him with a thrust in the first bout retiring back he would have ended the business at the first blood but Bonivet furiously insulting and making many thrusts at him he being so hard pressed ran him thorow the body and laid him dead upon the ground The news being come to the Kings ear who knew all that had passed very well and bearing not only with the necessity that had forced Coqueinvillier to fight but for his Valours sake forgiving also the offence he had committed in striking in the Court said publickly That since one of them was lost it was not good to lose the other too and granting him his pardon he commanded the Magistrates not to proceed against him In the mean time the Deputies were met together at Rouen whither the King came upon the eighteenth of October accompanied with the Cardinal-Legat the Duke of Montpensier Governour of that Province the High Constable Montmorancy the Dukes of Nemours and Espernon the Prince of Iainville the Mareschals of Retz and Matignon the Admiral d' Anville the Cardinals of Giury and Gondy and a select number of the principal Lords of the Kingdom and being received with a very solemn pomp he spoke to the Assembly the fourth day of November showing them how much need the affairs of the Kingdom had of a Reformation and the urgency of Supplies to maintain the War upon the Confines Which things after they were more at large unfolded by the High Chancellor every one set himself with great desire to think upon those remedies which they judged might prove convenient But the infirmities of that Body afflicted with so long distempers were such as could not be so easily cured and every one perceived how necessary a general Peace was to introduce and establish a wholsom permanent Reformation since that amidst the necessities of War new disorders still spring up nor can the strictness of Reformation be observed where Military exigencies continually extort licentious dispensations Nor was there any body who thought not that the proper means to obtain peace was to have a great strength for the War to the end that recovering their reputation and the places that were lost the two Crowns might agree in peace with equal honour But as the remedy was known so was the means of attaining it very difficult for the whole Kingdom was so exhausted and weakned that the people could confer but little to the Kings assistance who to maintain the Armies in Dauphine and Bretagne and to raise a greater one in Picardy was forced to think of great preparations of Men Money and Ammunition which was gotten out of England and Holland at a very great charge and though it was hoped that some Provinces which had not been so much divided might with good order taken afford some considerable supply yet that required length of time which the Exigency and the War would not allow But nevertheless not being able to forbear doing all that was possible every one applied himself heartily as well to reform as to make preparations With the consultation of these affairs ended the year 1596. And though the Assembly continued in the beginning of the year following yet the Reformation was but very weak for the matter was not disposed to receive it and the times were unseasonable for the rigours of a resolute course only the expence of the Kings Houshold was lessened some supernumerary Offices were taken away and the Pensions of particular men were restrained but not in such manner that the Treasury was much eased by it The provisions made for the King were something more considerable for the payment of the debtâ— of the Crown were suspended for the two next years but without prejudice to the Creditors an increase was granted in the peoples name upon the Gabelle of Salt one of the chief Revenues of the Crown all Usurpers of Confiscations were by a severe Edict constrained not only to restore the Land but the profits so usurped from which business there resulted no small benefit And finally many of the Treasurers and of the Clergy voluntarily obliged themselves to contribute a certain sum of money though no very great one But the King having ended the Assembly at Rouen and being come into the quarters about Paris to take Physick for some private indisposition to the end that being freed from it he might more freely apply himself with the first season to the toil of Arms a new important accident gave beginning to Actions of War before the time Hernando Telles Portocarrero a man who in a very small stature of body contained
began now to be troubled with the Bloody Flux and the Plague in such manner that the Treasurers putting him in mind that all means of paying his Foot was utterly gone the King resolved to disband his Army and to apply himself heartily to the Treaty of Peace which now being high in reputation and honour and having satisfied himself and the expectation of his people he desired more boldly and openly than before This reciprocal desire of both Kings facilitated the Treaty of Peace but the Duke of Savoy's interests kept all things in difficulty For though the War these two last years had been various and with hot encounters and bloody assaults rather disadvantageous than otherwise and though Monsieur de Lesdiguieres having taken St. Iehan de Morienne and all that valley in the Alps was gone down into Piedmont to the ruine and spoiling of the Country yet he being resolved to retain the Marquesate of Saluzzo either crossed the Peace or cared not to have it concluded But yet the meeting at Vervins held whither Monsieur de Bellieure and President Sillery came from the King of France and President Riccardotto Iuan Boptista Tassis and Ludovicâ— Verichen Auditor of Brabanza for the King of Spain The French Deputies were brought by the Popes Nuncio and the Spanish by the General of the Cordeliers and the Cardinal-Legat came to the same place by whose Authority all difficulties of precedency being removed they entred upon the Treaty of the business but not before the beginning of the month of February in the year 1598 a year destined by Divine Providence to close up the grievous wounds of forty years past Great was the desire of Peace on both sides and great likewise the Authority of the Legat with each party nor were the demands very different For the Spaniards proffered without difficulty to restore Ardres Dourlans la Cappelle Castelet and Montaulin in Piccardy and the Port of Blauet in Bretagne and desired only to retain Calais as long as the War with the Hollanders lasted and to give the King of France an equivalent exchange in the mean time And the French stood to have Calais restored freely they likewise demanded Cambray and renewed some old pretensions upon the Confines of Flanders The Spaniards shewed that all old pretensions were terminated in the Peace concluded between the two Crowns at Chasteau Cambresis in the year 1559 and that Cambray was not of the King of France his Jurisdiction but a City of the Archbishops usurped a few years before by the Duke of Alancon's Forces and that therefore being a free Town the King could not pretend any right unto it but that the Master of the Low-Countries had the ancient protection of it and yet not a direct Dominion but one established by reason Upon these Answers the French easily gave off their old pretensions and the demand of Cambray and with as much facility did the Spaniards lay aside the demand of retaining Calais Whereupon all the difficulty was reduced to this point That the King of France would have had Blauet in the condition it then was with all the Artillery Shot and Ammunition of War and the Spaniards stood totally to demolish the Fort they had built and to carry away the Artillery and other things which they had brought thither of their own but this difficulty also was easily taken away for the Treaty being managed with great sincerity the French satisfied themselves knowing that the Spaniard had reason on their side All other matters were of small importance so that nothing remained save to treat about the interests of their adherents for the King of France desired there might be an Agreement made with the Queen of England and the States of Holland and the King of Spain would have had the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mercoeur comprehended in the Peace About this there arose a sharp contention for the French having said that they would not include the Duke of Mercoeur as being the Kings Subject the Spaniards answered That also the States of Holland were the King of Spâ—iâ—s Subjects and here mutually upbraiding one another that they fomented Rebels they grew extreamly angry and broke forth into words of indignation and yet the Cardinal-Legat interposing they agreed to make their Princes acquainted with the business and expect their resolute orders But within a few days these difficulties were removed for the King having left the Constable with reasonable Forces in Picardy was gone personally to Angiers to draw his Army together and march with all his Forces into Bretagne Wherefore the Duke of Mercoeur seeing his designs ruined and not being willing to hold out till the last necessities which he was not able to resist condescended to the Agreement by which marrying his onlâ— Daughter to Caesar the Kings Bastard Son and receiving other recompences of Pensions and moneys he delivered up that part of Bretagne that was in his possession unto the Kings obedience whereupon the occasion ceased for which the Catholick King endeavoured to include him in the Peace Nor was there any need to contend long for the Queen of England and the States of Holland for those Princes after they had done all that was possible to hinder the Treaty of Peace shewing themselves ill satisfied with the King because in the League of the year before he had promised not to agree without them declared that they would not be comprehended as Adherents and that they would have no Peace with the King of Spain There remained only the point concerning the Duke of Savoy which was like to have interrupted the whole agreement when it was brought to perfection for the Marquiss de Lullin the Dukes Ambassadour being introduced into the Conference said That President Sillery one of the Deputies there present had from the year before treated an accommodation with the Duke and that the King was then contented he should hold the Marquesate of Saluzzo in fee from the Crown The President answered That it was true the King was so contented but at a time when the state of his affairs perswaded him by all means to divide the Duke from the King of Spain and that to that condition the Marquiss knew well there were others joined which he would not mention lest he should set discord among Friends by which words he meant to infer that the Duke to retain the Marquesate had proffered to make War against the State of Milan Many contentions there were about it and the whole Treaty seemed to be discomposed but the General of the Cordeliers going to the King and Iuan Baptista Tassis to the Archduke they returned within a few days and concluded that the Duke and the King should retain what they possessed at that present and that the difference about the Marquesate should be referred to the Pope who was to give judgment within the space of one year and then what each held of the others would mutually be
putting him out of his office confers it upon Monsieur de Mâ—rvilliâ—rs The King setteth forth an Edict against the Hugonots by which all the former are revoked New preparations for War The Hugonotâ— set out a Fleeâ— to fetch in provisions Whilst the Duke of Anjou batters Loudun on the one side the Prince of Coâ—de coming to relieve it lodgeth in the suburbs on the other and being both resolved to fight they are hindred by the coldness of the season 1569. Through their past sufferings a great mortality seiseth upon the Armies 1569. The Hugonots being in a streight the Prince of Câ—nde sells the goods of the Churcâ— The Monastery of St. Michael in â—remo destroyed by the Rochelleâ—s Anno 1569. Andelot mingles with the Enemy in such manner that lifâ—ing up the Duke of Monsalez Beaver he discharges a Pistol in his faâ—e In the Battel of â—rissâ—c the Prince of Conde is shot in the head of which he dies the 16 of Marcâ— 1569 The body of the Prince of Conde was carried in triumph upon a Pack-horse by the Catholicks and afterwards restored to his Nephew the Prince of Navarre Andelot after the loss of the Battel dieth of grief The Prince of Navarre and Henry Son to the Prince of Câ—nde are approved of and received for Heads of the Hugonot Faction The Prince of Navarre was fifteen years of age and the Prince of Condâ— a child Money coyned by the Queen of Navarre with her owâ— figure on the one side and her Sonâ— on the other The care of the Aâ—my committed to the Admiral Wolfâ—ngus of Bavaria with an Army of 14000 men comes to the aid of the Hugonots The Duke of Dâ—ux-ponts enters into Fâ—ance wasting and spoiling the Country The Duke of Deux-ponâ—s dies of eâ—ceâ—â— of drinking before he joiâ—â— with the Priâ—â—eâ— Count Mansfield succeâ—ds him in the charge of the Army The Pope the great Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Alva send supplies to the King The Armies front each other and the Admiral sets upon Sâ—rozzi's quarter who through his too much forwardness is taken prisoner The Hugonots for want of provision are forced to rise from before the Catholicks The Duke dismisseth the Nobility of his Army sends the rest into Garison and goeth himself to Loches The Hugonots resolve to take in as many places as they can by intelligence possess themselves of Chastel-rault and Lusignan with the Castle there Poictiers after Paris a City of the greatest circuit of any in France A great mortality in the Hugonot Army The Admiral sickneth yet desisteth not from the siege of Poctierâ— After many assaults bravely sustained the Admiral quits the siege and goes to relieve Chastâ—l-rault The Duke of Guise who had sustained the siege gets great reputation The Catholicks besiege la Charite which being stoutly defended they give it over Fab. del Monte Head of the Tuscan forces killed before Chastel-rault The Catholicks raise the siege from before Chastel-rault Henry Duke of Guise admitted to the Cabinet-Council The Kings decree Against the Admiral The Marquess de Villars made Admiral in thâ— place of Coligny The Armies join Battel The Admiral wounded flees with the Princes In the Battel of Mâ—nâ—oniouâ— the Catholicks took all the Baggage Cannon and Ammunition of the Hugonots and 200 colours The Count St. Fiore sends to Rome 26 Ensignâ— taken by his Souldiers The Duke of Anjou recovers many places from the Hugonots Monsieur de Piles defends S. Iean d'Angely 46 days and after yields it upon honourable conditions 1570. In the beginning of the year the King disbands part of his Army which advice in the end proves very hurtful The Hugonots not being opposed do great outrages and rise with considerable forces By reason of a conspiracy discovered against the Queen of England the Hugonots despair of help from from thence whereupon a Treaty is begun but not concluded The Admiral being sick is carried along with the Army in a Litter The Duke of Anjou being sick the Army is commanded by the Mareshal de Câ—sse who inclining to Calvin's Doctrine makes no progress against the Hugonots Through suspition of the Mareshal de Câ—ssâ— and d' Anville the Treaty is renewed The Peace is concluded and published but full of jealousies Charles the IX marrieth Isabella the daughter of Maximilian the Emperour Anno 1570. 1571. The Kings answer to the Duke of Guise The Duke of Guise resolves to marry Katherine de Cleves The Duke of Savoy grows suspicious of the Admiral for having against his will married Madam d' Antramont a Savoyard Ligneroles killed by the Kings command for shewing that he knew that which the King desired keep secret The Admiral after so many wars with the King prostrates himself at his feet and is graciously received 1572. The King dissembles so with the Hugonots that he is suspected by stranger Princes Cardinal Alessandrino Legat to Pius Quintus refuseth a rich jewel presented to him by the Kings own hand Gregory the 13 succeeding Pius Quinâ—us granteth a Dispensationâ— for the marriage between the Prince of Navarre and the Kings Sister The Admiral causeth the Hugonots to surprise the City of Mons in Heinault in Flanders to force the King to a War with Spain he is displeased but dissembles it The Lords â—f the House of Lorain and the Admiral are seemingly made friends before the King The War against the Spaniards breaks out against the Kings will The Queen of Navarre is poisoned with a pair of gloves The Prince of Navarre assumes the title of King The Admiral prefers himself before Iulius Caesar and Alexander the Great The Lady Marguerite being asked if she would have the King of Navarre for her Husband answered not but being urged by the King bowed her head The King takes order with the Duke of Guise to have the designs put in execution Maurevell shoots the Admiral in the left elbow and saves himself by flight The King and the Queen-Mother visit the Admiral and under pretence of defending him set strict guards upon his house The Duke of Guise besets the Aâ—mirals house The Admiral is slain thrown out at the window and dragged into a stable All the chief Hugonots in the Louvre are killed At the ringing of the Bell the Hugonotâ— are massacred and amongst them Denis Lambin The King of Navarâ—e and the Prince of C nde are kept in the Kings chamber during the massacre and after are kept prisoners Ten thousand Hugonots killed in Paâ—â—â— whereof five hundred 〈◊〉 Barons and men of 〈…〉 to the Admirals â—ody The like Commissions against the Hugonots sent through the whole Kingdom Where executed and where not It is reported that 40000 Hugonots were killed in the Massacre The Admirals Statue burned and his Palace razed The King of Navarre turns Catholick Words of the King to the Prince of Conde The Prince and his Brothers turns Catholicks Monsieur de la Noue sent Governour by the King to Rochel turns General to the Hugonots Sanserre taken
that the Edict of Ianuary was intirely observed with full Liberty of Conscience to those of the pretended reformed Religion notwithstanding it depended wholly upon the Kings will to call in those Edicts whensoever he should think sit especially that of Ianuary made by way of provision and which was accepted by the Parliaments only for a time That the Hugonots had of themselves violated the Edict made in their favour because contrary to the form thereof they went to their assemblies armed without the assistance of the Kings Officers conditions expresly mentioned in the same And besides this rashness they were likewise so bold as in all places to raise tumults and commit disorders and slaughters Wherefore their rebellion could not be excused with so slight a pretence seeing many Towns were openly seized upon Souldiers raised the Munition consumed Artillery cast Moneys coyned the publick Revenues spent Churches thrown down the Monasteries laid desolate and infinite other proceedings no way agreeing to the Duty of Subjects but express acts of Felony and Rebellion Wherefore they exhorted the Prince of Conde that following the example of his Ancestors he should return to the King abandoning the society of Hereticks and factious persons and not so cruelly wound the bosom of his own Country the welfare whereof as Prince of the Blood he was obliged to maintain with the hazard of his own person even to the last period of his life The Constable likewise and the Guises made an Answer in their own behalf and after a long narration of the services they had done to the Crown concluded that they were ready not only to depart from the Court but to enter into a voluntary exile upon condition that the Arms taken up against his Majesty might be laid down the places kept against him delivered up the Churches that were ruined restored the Catholick Religion preserved and an intire obedience rendred to the lawful King under the Government of the King of Navarre and the Regency of the Queen-Mother After which Declarations past on both sides the King and the Queen together by the advice of the Council made another Answer to the Prince of Conde and caused it to be divulged in print in which they avowed That they were in full liberty and that they had voluntarily removed the Court to Paris to remain there in great security and to advise with the Officers of the Crown how to remedy the present disorders That they were ready to continue the observation of the Edict of Ianuary and to see it should be entirely kept until such time as the King came of Age And since the Catholick Princes whose loyalty and vertue was sufficiently known to all France were contented to retire themselves from Court That the Prince of Conde nor his Adherents had any manner of excuse longer to keep at such a distance and in Arms but that they ought presently to put both themselves and the places they possessed into obedience of the King which if they did besides a pardon for what was past they should be well lookt upon by their Majesties as good Subjects and punctually maintained in all their priviledges and degrees Whilst these things were in agitation the Queen endeavoured to bring it so to pass that both parties to colour their proceedings and not to seem to condemn themselves of any violence to the Kings person should retire to their several charges and leave the Government of the State to her and the King of Navarre who being of a facile nature was a fit instrument for the establishment of her Sons in the Kingdom But after much Treating and many Declarations on both sides all was reduced to this point That neither of them would be the first to disband their forces and upon this cavil they made large Propositions in writing without concluding any thing in fact At the same time that these Manifests were published to the world and every man busie about the Treaty the Prince of Conde and the Admiral used means to draw all the greatest Towns and those that lay most convenient for them to their party To which purpose having scattered men of understanding and trust in the several Provinces they with divers policies by the assistance of the Hugonots and other seditious persons which abounded in all parts of the Kingdom easily made themselves Masters of the principal Cities and other strong places of greatest consequence With these practices revolted the City of Rouen the residence of the Parliament of Normandy and in the same Province Diepe and Havre de Grace situated upon the Ocean on that Coast that looks toward England In Poictou and Touraine with the like skill they got into their hands Angiers Blois Poictiers Tours and Vendosme In Daulphine Valence and at last after many attempts the City of Lyons also and in Gascoigne Guienne and Languedoc where the Hugonots swarmed most except Burdeaux Thoulouse and some other Fortresses they had in a manner possessed themselves of all the Cities and walled Towns By which Insurrections all France being in an uproar and not only the Provinces but private houses and families divided amongst themselves there ensued such miserable accidents that every place afforded spectacles of desolation fire rapine and bloodshed And because the Contributions they had from the Hugonots though they gave very largely and their own private Revenues with the pillage they had in those Towns that they took was not sufficient to maintain the charge of the War the Prince of Conde made all the Gold and Silver in the Churches to be brought to him and coyned it publickly into money which was no little help to them For the ancient piety of that Nation had in every place adorned the reliques and filled the Temples with no small Treasure Nor was their diligence less to provide Munition and Artillery For in the Towns which they surprised and particularly in Tours having found a great quantity they sent it to Orleans to supply their present occasions where having appointed the Convent of Franciscan Fryars for a Magazine they kept there in very good order all the Stores and Provisions that they made with exceeding industry for the future But the Governours of the Kingdom having resolved and determined a War with no less diligence brought the Catholick Army together near about Paris where entering into consultation what they should do concerning the Edict of Ianuary though there was some difference in their opinions they all concluded it should be observed partly not more to sharpen the humours already too much stirred and partly not to add strength or colour to the Hugonots cause who whilst the Edict was maintained had no manner of reasonable pretence to take Arms. But because the People of Paris reverencing as in the greatest troubles they have ever done the Catholick Religion instantly desired that no Congregations of the Hugonots might be permitted amongst them First to take away an occasion of tumults and dangeâ—s in the principal City which
years by the Kings of England her Predecessors and at last recovered by the Duke of Guise in the Reign of Henry the Second But because the Hugonots were not Masters of that place she demanded that in the mean time they should consign to her Havre de Grace a Fortress and Port of less consequence upon the coast of Normandy and that they should receive her Garrisons into Diepe and Rouen These conditions seemed to many intolerable and not to be consented unto through any necessity whatsoever knowing the infamy and publick hate they should undergo if they made themselves instruments to dismember the Kingdom of such important places and bring into them the most cruel implacable enemies of the French Nation But the Ministers who in all deliberations were of great Authority and in a manner reverenced as Oracles alledged that no consideration was to be had of worldly things where there was question of the heavenly Doctrine and propagation of GOD's Word Wherefore all other things were to be contemned so as Religion might be protected and Liberty of Conscience established The Prince of Conde and the Admiral being desirous to continue their Commands and necessitated by their own private affairs to pursue the enterprise were of the same opinion so that their Authority overcoming all opposition after many consultations it was at last concluded to satisfie Queen Elizabeth and by all means to accept the conditions proposed To which effect they presently dispatched Monsieur de Briquemaut and the new Vidame of Chartres with Letters of credit from the Prince and the Confederates to confirm the agreement in England Andelot and the Prince of Portian with such a sum oâ— money as they could get together went to sollicit the levies of the Germans the Count de la Roch-foucaut went to Angoulesme the Count de Montgomery retired into Normandy Monsieur de Soâ—bize to Lyons the Prince the Admiral Genlis and Bouchavenes stayed to defend Orleans and the places adjacent But many of the Commissioners for the confederacy which was treated with England not being able to endure such dishonourable conditions began to forsake them amongst which Monsieur de Pienne went over to the Kings Army and the Sieur de Morvilliers chosen by the Prince to be Governour of Rouen that he might not be forced to admit an English Garrison into a Town of such consequence leaving that charge retired into Picardy to his own house Whilst by these means the Hugonots endeavoured to provide themselves with Forces the Catholicks designed to make an attempt upon Orleans as the chief sourse and seat of all the War But in regard it was exceedingly well provided for Defence and furnished with Munition of all kinds they knew it was an enterprise of great difficulty Wherefore first to cut off from it the hopes of succours they resolved to take in the places round about that so they might afterwards with more facility straighten it with a siege or being deprived of succours assault it by force For which purpose they raised their Camp the 11 of Iuly and the Duke of Guise leading the Van and the King of Navarre the Battalia whilst every one of both sides expected to see them setled before Orleans they leaving that Town on the left hand and passing sixteen leagues farther on a suddain assailed Blois which though it were full of people beautified with one of the noblest Castles for a Kings house in the whole Kingdom and situated upon the same side of the River of Loire yet it was not so fortified that it could hope to make any long resistance against the Kings Army Wherefore after the Souldiers which were in guard saw the Cannon planted being terrified with the danger they passed the River upon the Bridge and throwing away their Arms sought to save themselves by flight which though the Duke of Guise knew who with the Van-guard was nearest to the wall yet being more intent to take the Town than to pursue those that ran away whilst the Citizens dispatched their Deputies to capitulate he sent a party of foot to make an assault who finding the breach forsaken that was made by a few Cannon shot took the place without resistance which by the fury of the Souldiers their Commanders not forbidding them was miserably sackt From Blois the Army marched towards Tours a much more noble populous and ancient City wherein the name of the Hugonots first took vigour and force but the people who for a few days at the bginning of the Siege made shew that they would stand resolutely upon their defence when they perceived the Trenches were made and the Artillery planted of their own accord cast out the Commanders and rendered the place saving their goods and persons which conditions were intirely observed In the mean while the Mareshal de St. Andre with the Rear of the Army went another way to besiege Poictiers a City likewise famous for antiquity great and spacious where the â—atholicks thought they should find a strong resistance But it fell out to be a work of much less difficulty than they imagined For the Mareshal having battered it two days together with his Artillery and made an assault upon the Town rather to try the resolution of the Defendants than with any hope to gain it the Captain of the Castle who till then had shew'd himself more violent than any other of the Hugonot party suddenly changing his mind began to play from within with his Cannon upon those who stood ready to receive the Assault by which unexpected accident the Defendants losing their courage not knowing in such a tumult what way to take for their safety as men astonished left the entry of the breach free to the Assailants who not finding any resistance entered furiously into the Town which by the example of Blois was in the heat of the fight sackt and many of the peole put to the sword The Catholicks having thus in a few days taken those Towns which from Poictiou and Touraine backed and succoured Orleans and stopt the passage for supplies from Guyenne Gasâ—oigne and other places beyond the River it remained that turning backwards and passing to the other side they should take in Bourges so to cut off those aids that might come from Auvergne Lyonoise and other Provinces joyning to Daulphine Bourges anciently called Avaricum is one of the greatest and most populous Cities in France a residence for Students of all sorts but especially famous for the Civil Law This Town being within twenty leagues of Orleans and by reason of the Traffick of Wooll as also through the great concourse of Scholars much replenished with strangers was at the beginning possest by the Hugonots and afterwards as an important passage for the Commerce of those Provinces that being nearest depended upon it diligently guarded and fortified so that now foreseeing a Siege Monsieur d' Yvoy Brother to Genlis was entered thereinto with two Thousand French foot and four Troops of horse
very divers Some thought it most expedient first of all to make an attempt upon Orleans and to cut off at one blow the head of the Hugonot Faction For the chief of that party being suppressed who were in the Town and the Magazine destroyed all the rest would be overcome with ease and facility But the King of Navarre and the Queen more intent to cast out the English than any thing else thought that Rouen once taken and the aids of England cut off from the Hugonots Orleans would be more easily reduced which for the present they thought very difficult and a work of much time by which the English would have the commodity to confirm their possession and perhaps make themselves Masters of all the Province of Normandy where the Duke of Aumale had so inconsiderable a force that he was not able to make head against them This opinion at last through the Queens inclination prevailed and it was resolved without any delay to go upon that design The situation and commodities of Rouen are admirable For the River Seine upon which it stands rising out of the Mountains in Burgundy and distending it self through the plains of the Isle of France after it joyns with the Matrona commonly called Marne and by the confluence of many other little streams is made deep and Navigable passeth through the midst of the City of Paris and then running with an impetuous torrent quite through Normandy falls with an exceeding wide channel into the Ocean which ebbing and flowing and continually filling and feeding the River with salt water affords spacious room for Vessels of any burthen to ride On the right hand of the mouth where the River at last falls into the Sea over against England stands Havre de Grace a secure large Port which with modern Fortifications being reduced into the form of a Town by King Francis the First serves for a defence against the incursions of the English But in the mid-way between Havre de Grace and Paris near to the place whither the salt waters flow mingled with the fresh about twenty two leagues from the Sea stands the City of Rouen upon the River grown noble rich abundant and populous by the commerce of all Northern Nations From one side of the fortress of Havre de Grace upon the right hand a tongue of land advancing many miles into the Sea makes as it were a spacious Peninsula which the common people call the Country of Caux and in the extreamest point and promontory thereof is Diepe placed directly opposite to the mouth of the Thames a most famous River in England These places which lie so fitly to damage France and to be supplyed by their Fleets the English had made themselves Masters of For though at Diepe and at Rouen French Governours were chosen by the Council of the Confederates yet the Garisons kept there by Queen Elizabeth being very strong they could so curb them that all the rest was absolutely at their dispose The Resolution being taken to besiege Rouen the King and the Queen marching together with the Army in fourteen days arrived at Darnetel at which place less than two leagues distant from the City the whole Camp lodged the 25 day of September The chief Commanders of the Army considering that the body of the City is defended on the one side by the River beyond which there is nothing but the Fauxburg S. Sever and on the other side by S. Catherines Mount upon the top of which is placed an ancient Monastery reduced into the form of a Modern Fortress they thought it best to make themselves Masters of the Mount it appearing very difficult to make any attempt or assault upon the Town it self if they did not first gain the Fort without which flanked and commanded the entrances on all parts Upon this deliberation Sebastien de Luxemburg Signeur de Martigues made Colonel General of the Foot in the place of Randan advanced the night of the 27 of September and sate down under St. Catherines Mount in the great High-way that goes towards Paris which being hollow almost like a Trench covered them in great part from the shot of the Fort. The Count of Montgomery who commanded in the Town in chief with 2000 English and 1200 French Foot four Troops of Horse and more than 100 Gentlemen of quality besides the Citizens having foreseen that the enemy must of necessity first take the out-works besides the old fortifications on the top of the Mount had raised half way up the Hill a Half-moon of earth which having the Fort behind and fronting upon the campaigne might not only hinder the ascent but also flank the walls of the Town and force the Catholick Army to spend much time and lose many men in the taking of it Nor was the effect contrary to what he intended For though Monsieur de Martigues leaving the direct way and ascending in a crooked line advanced by help of the spade between the Fort and the Half-moon to gain the top of the Hill yet the work proceeded with much difficulty and great slaughter of the Souldiers who the more the Foot advanced with their gabions and trenches were so much the more exposed to the Cannon planted upon the Fort to the annoyance of the Musquet shot to the fury of the fireworks and other inventions with which they within very resolutely defended themselves To these main difficulties was added the quality of the weather which being in the beginning of Autumn as it always falls out in those parts was very rainy so as the waters continually falling from the top of the Hill into that low place where the Army lay it was no small inconvenience unto them Likewise the great Sallies the Hugonots made night and day were not of little moment For though they were valiantly sustained so that the success thereof was not very doubtful yet they kept the whole Army in motion and in work Nor were their Horse less diligent than the Foot in their Trenches insomuch as many times the Siege was interrupted and hindered Considering these so great impediments it would have proved a tedious painful business if the negligence or arrogance of the defendants had not rendered it very short and easie For Iean de Hemery Signeur de Villers who afterwards married a Sister of Henry Davila's that wrote this History being upon the guard in the Trenches with his Regiment observed that about noon there was very little stirring in the Fort and that they appeared not in such numbers upon the Ravelins as at other times of the day Wherefore having sent for a Norman Souldier called Captain Lewis who two days before was taken prisoner in a Sally they made out of the Fort he asked him as by way of discourse What was the reason that at certain hours so few of the Hugonots were to be seen upon the Rampart The Souldier not concealing the truth without looking farther what the consequence thereof would be told him that
France might not encourage his Subjects to rebel but at the same time declared That the King her Son intended not to violate the League with the Spaniards nor to resolve upon a War unless he were necessitated and provoked first by them Which uncertain kind of discourse rather increased the doubts than any way satisfied concerning the truth The Pope was not alone deceived with these dissimulations but the Prince of Conde of a disposition apt enough to receive any new impressions counselled the King to take this occasion to make War with the Spaniards offering to bring him a great number of men of the Hugonot Faction which served only to exasperate the King who could not be well pleased that any body should presume to have a greater credit or authority in his own Kingdom and with the Subjects thereof than himself and though the Queen perpetually desired him to dissemble his passâ—on and the other Catholick Lords did â—he same yet he could not forbear to express his displeasure with the Prince and to reprove him for what he had said though afterwards he excused himself to the Queen that he treated him so on purpose to take him off from the hopes of being Constable for which the Prince at length moving the King himself the Duke of Anjou being first throughly instructed by his Mother without expecting the Kings Answer replyed in a disdainful manner That his Majesty having promised to make him his Lieutenant-General he was not of such a temper to suffer that any body else should pretend to command the Army but himself which repulse displeasing the Prince he shortly after left the Court the same did the Admiral and Andelot with much greater reason of discontent for the Colonels Brissaâ— and Strozzi having refused to obey the command of Andelot General of the French Infantry the Council through hate of him determined it contrary to custom in their favour Nevertheless the Queen continuing her wonted aâ—ts endeavoured by many demonstrations of kindness still to entertain the Hugonot paâ—ty with hopes often discoursing of her diffidence in Spain of the jealousies of the Duke of Alva of the troubles in Scotland where there were commotions of great consequence for which she seemed to take exceeding thought by reason of the reciprocal intelligence ever held 〈◊〉 that Crown and of the little correspondence with England for having refused upon the instance of that Queen to restore Callais with many more things of the like nature which all tended to lull the restless curiosity of the Hugonots But it is a hard matter to deceive those who are full of jealousies and careful to observe every little accident The Prince of Conde and the Admiral who knowing the guilt of their own Conscience put no trust in the flatteries of the Court calling to mind all the past occurrences and considering them throughly resolved not to be prevented but to gain the advantage of being first in Arms. Wherefore at the beginning of the Summer in the year 1567. six thousand Swisses arriving in the Isle of France under the conduct of Colonel Fifer a man of great esteem amongst his own Nation the Heads of the Hugonots being come to Valeri shewed their adherents certain secret advertisements which they said they had from a principal person at Court in which they were advised to stand upon their guard for the intention of those that governed was to seize upon the persons of the Prince and the Admiral with a resolution to keep the first in perpetual imprisonment and presently to put the other to death then making use of the Swisses and other Souldiers on a sudden to clap Garisons into those Cities which they thought inclined to the Reformed Religion and revoking the Act of Pacification to forbid the exercise thereof in all parts of the Kingdom At the beginning there were many different opinions amongst them for divers gave no credit to this advertisement others were diffident of their own strength and a great part abhorred the necessity of a War insomuch that they left Valeri with a resolution not to proceed any further till they were better assured of the truth of their intelligence but the Swisses being already come into the Isle of France who at first it was said should stay upon the Confines and the Cardinal de S. Croix from his Bishoprick of Arles arrived at Court who the Hugonots suspected came as Legate from the Pope to authorize with the Kings consent the observation of the Council of Trent the chief Leaders of the Faction re-assemble themselves at Chastillon where the Prince the Admiral and Andelot perswaded them without further delay to take Arms which opinion though with some difficulty at length prevailing they presently entered into a consultation what course they should take in the administration of the War Some thought it best to get possession of as many Towns and places as they could in all parts of the Kingdom to the end to separate and divide the Kings Forces Others by the example of the late War thought this advice both unprofitable and dangerous and perswaded having made themselves Masters of two or three strong places at a reasonable distance one from the other where the Forces of the Faction might assemble as soon as was possible to put it to a Battel seeing without some notable Victory they could never hope to bring their business to a prosperous end But the Admiral who with long premeditation had throughly weighed these opinions placing all his hope in expedition and prevention proposed a more desperate indeed but far more expedite way and advised that before they were thought of they should make an attempt on a suddain to seize upon the persons of the King and Queen-Mother who imagining they had with their arts brought the Hugonots into a stupid security or else believing they could not so soon or so easily bring their Forces together passed their time without any apprehensions for the present at Monceaux a House of the Queens and at some other places of pleasure in Brye where they might with much facility be surprised and carried away He made appear to them that by this suddain alteration they should gain that power that appearance of reason and those Forces which in the late War their adversaries had and through which the Victory at length inclined wholly to their side and concluded that though the King and the Queen for their security kept the Swisses in the same Province in a place not far from the Court yet if they came upon them on a suddain they would not have time to expect their aid so the King being taken they might presently set upon the Swisses who being divided in their quarters would be easily suppressed and they once defeated there remained in no part of the Kingdom a body of men together that could make resistance or hinder the progress of their Arms. This stratagem wonderfully pleased them all and without further dispute they appointed to
of the War the other parts of the Kingdom were not a quiet but through the frequent continual Insurrections of the Hugonots all places were full of tumults and blood for they having at the beginning of these commotions gotten many Towns in all parts into their hands the Provinces were so divided that through the animosity of both Factions a dangerous War was kindled in every the most remote hidden corner in France In Languedoc Monsieur de Acher ruled all the Country the Vicount de Ioyense who commanded there for the King not having force sufficient to suppress the multitudes of the Hugonots or to oppose the industry and boldness of their Leader In Provence Mouvans and Mont-brun men that by their violent proceedings got themselves an esteem with more than ordinary success crossed the Catholick party under the Command of the Count de Summerive In Gascony there wanted not store of troubles that Province being all in Arms but Monsieur de Monluc an old experienced Captain had in so many incounters abated the fury of the Hugonots that the Incendiaries thought it best for them to quit the Country and many of them though with much difficulty fled to their main Army In Daulphine des Gourdes the Kings Lieutenant and the Sieurs de Monsalez and Terride who were in their march towards Paris many times fought with Hugonots forces and beat them and at last forced Monsieur de Ponsenac to leave those parts by which means the ways to Lions were open but he being afterwards joined with the Vicounts de Montclair de Paulin and Bourniquet valiantly incountred the forces of Auvergne and Daulphine and though the fight were long obstinate and bloody the Kings Party in the end got the advantage with so much the greater detriment to the Enemy by reason that Ponsenac who by his violence more than any thing else gave life to the War was at last in the retreat together with many others killed At the same time Lodovico Gonzaga Duke of Nevers who brought four Troops of Horse out of Piedmont that were raised in Italy by the Pope together with six companies of Italian Foot two French Regiments and four thousand Swisses that were newly entertained to join with the Duke of Anjou's Army arrived opportunely in Burgundy to suppress the remainder of the Hugonots in those parts for having divers times encountred and defeated them he at length laid siege to Mascone which being taken the Rebels had no place of retreat left whither they could retire for safety From Burgundy the Duke went to join with the Duke of Anjou but not many days after as he returned with a few Horse to visit his own Country he was set upon by the Enemy and though with his wonted Valour he put them to flight yet he received such a grievous wound in one of his Knees that he continued lame ever after But the Kings Party received a greater and more considerable blow in Xantonge for through the negligence or connivence of Monsieur de Iarnac the Governour and through the diligence of Tracares the principal Deputy called by them the Scabin of Rochel that City revolted to the Hugonots which standing upon the Ocean over against England strong of situation being every way incompassed with marsh grounds or the Sea rich with traffick numerous in people abundant in provisions and commodious to receive succours from other parts hath ever since been the Sanctuary and main prop of all those who adhered to that Faction In the mean while both Armies continued their march through Champagne keeping the direct way that leads to Paris The Hugonots kept close together and durst not attempt the taking of any Towns by the way for fear of giving the Catholicks an opportunity to fight with them at an advantage The Kings lodging in strong secure quarters had no other design but to hinder the Enemy from effecting any important enterprise with which circumspection they both kept on their march till they were arrived at the end of February the Hugonot forces in Beausse and the Kings not far from Paris But the Prince of Conde having raised the siege at Orleans for at the news of his approach la Valette and Martinengo not having forces to resist him retired of themselves was brought into great difficulties through the Counsels of the Duke of Anjou who he saw was resolved to avoid all occasions of fighting and to draw out the War in length by which kind of proceedings knowing his Army would be soon destroyed by reason he had neither money nor provisions to sustain or keep his own men together that were all Voluntiers nor wherewithal to satisfie the importunity of the Germans who were ever craving he was in a mighty perplexity and every day held a Council of War to advise what was best to be done in so great a streight At length to try whether the Catholicks might be forced to that which otherwise they would not do willingly he resolved to besiege Chartres for extent and numerousness of people one of the principal Cities in France and so near Paris that with the Country about it furnished a great part of the provisions that went thither believing that the Duke of Anjou for his own credit and the reputation of the Kings Army would never suffer that place to be taken for want of relief and not to give them longer time to reinforce the Garison or fortifie it having in two days with his Horse marched twenty leagues which are forty English miles the second day of March sat down before it There went to command in the Town Monsieur de Lignieres a Cavalier of much esteem and with him entred fifteen Companies of old Foot and about two hundred Horse with which forces at the beginning of the siege he exceedingly annoyed the Enemy and by frequent skirmishes kept them off a while but was at length forced to keep in to maintain the Walls for the Hugonots having taken all the passages and placed guards upon the advenues with four pieces of Cannon so furiously battered that part of the Wall which joins to Dreux-Gate that the sixth day they had made an assault if the Defendants had not with great labour and diligence raised a Rampart within with Casemats and other works which hindered them from entring upon the breach But the siege of Chartres changed the face of things and put the Catholicks to a great streight for to relieve the Town with all their Army was contrary to their former resolution and to let that City be taken was besides so considerable a loss a very great prejudice to their reputation and that which then happened to Chartres would afterwards be the condition of many other great Towns by succouring of which they should hazard the uncertain issue of a Battel and if they succoured them not they would be lost before their eyes wherefore after many attempts had been made but in vain to put men and munition into the Town
getting secretly on horse-back with their Wives and Children accompanied only with two hundred Horse that they might go the faster and not be so easily discovered they marched in great diligence towards Rochel end left Captain Bois behind with so many Horse more to hinder as much as was possible the advancing of the Enemy if he offered to follow them that so they might have time to save themselves and by good fortune through the extraordinary drought of the Summer the waters were so exceeding low that they might foord the Loire a great rapid River without any danger at Rouen which otherwise all the Bridges being possessed by the Kings Forces they could not possibly have passed Captain Bois had not the like success who being followed by Martinengo and overtaken near the River his men were without much dispute absolutely broken and defeated and he flying to a certain Castle not far off was constrained to yield himself at discretion to Martinengo who sent him prisoner to the Court But the Prince and the Admiral who had foorded the River long before without any impediment marching an incredible pace arrived without being overtaken in a few days at Rochel a place in all considerations most proper to make the principal seat for their party their place of Arms and their Arsenal for the War for the Princes having lost those great strong Towns Orleans and Rouen which lay so convenient to found and maintain the Faction it was necessary for them to provide some other place which being situated in a rich fertile Country had the commodity likewise of a Haven nor could they chuse any more advantagious for them then Rochel for possessing that Port and the Neighbouring Islands that were fruitful and populous they might at pleasure receive succours out of Germany Flanders England Scotland Britany and Normandy all Countries full of their partisans and settle themselves in a Town very hardly to be taken from them so that in the streights they were then in there was not much doubt to be made of the place whither they should retire Wherefore being received with great joy by the Bourgers of Rochel and by many of their chief Ministers who were retired thither before for their safety they began to dispatch Curriers and Letters into all parts summoning their Friends and Adherents to come in to them without delay as well to secure their own persons from the treacheries of their Enemies as to unite themselves and form such a body of an Army that they might be able to resist those Forces which they knew were intended against them There was no need of many invitations for at the report only of the flight and danger of the Prince of Conde all those of the same Faction began to rise and that they might be ready as soon as they were called upon presently took Arms even those very persons which at the conclusion of the Peace were so violent for it now as that Nation is of an unconstant voluble disposition being weary of lying idle a few months already desired a War and were more ardent than the rest to imbrace it So the sign being given within a few days they assembled all their Forces together at Rochel Those of Poicâ—ou under the conduct of Messieurs d' Ivoy and Blosset those of Perigorâ— under Soubise and de Puviaut those of Cabors under Piles and Clairemont those of Normandy under the Count of Montgomery and Colombiere and those of Britany under the Vidame of Chartres and Lavardine Andelot and la Noue having in their passage over the Loire had divers skirmishes with the Duke of Montpensier and Monsieur de Martigues though in three or four encounters they lost many of their men yet they arrived safe with a good number of Horse at the same place At length the Queen of Navarre either doubting no less than the rest her own safety or desirous to animate and strengthen her party and to advance the fortune of the Prince her Son now fifteen years of age having raised a considerable number of Horse and Foot in Bearn came her self in person to the general rendezvous at Rochel Only Odetto late Cardinal of Chastillon who lived at Beauvais and was encompassed with the Kings Forces not thinking it possible to make such a long journey in safety to join with the rest went disguised in a Mariners habit to the Sea-side and from thence passed with much danger into England where being received with great respect by the Queen he afterwards did very good service to his party remaining in that Court as Agent for the Hugonots But the Hugonot Lords having in a short time raised a great Army about Rochel according to their old custom before they would do any thing to justifie their reasons and give a fair pretence for their proceedings published a Manifest in which after a long Narration made of all the injuries done in divers places and at several times to those of the Reformed Religion setting forth at large the great danger they were continually in whilst they continued unarmed to be abused and oppressed concluded at last That they had taken Arms only for the defence of their Liberties Lives and Religion which under God they professed without any other end or design desiring still to live as Subjects in obedience to his Majesty so they might be secured for their Lives and Consciences At the same time Queen Iane published certain Letters directed to the most Christian King the Duke of Anjou and the Cardinal of Bourbon in which repeating the same things the Hugonots had set forth in their Manifest she declared That she could do no less than join with the Prince of Conde and the rest of the same Religion with her self as well for the maintenance of that Doctrine in which she only believed as to secure her self from the treacherous designs which the Cardinal of Lorain on the one side and the Spaniards on the other had continually upon her life and her Sons and upon the miserable relicks of the Kingdom of Navarre which reasons though they were set forth with great flourishes of Rhetorick yet it appeared plainly she either invented or added to them and that nothing moved her more than the exceeding desire she had that Calvin's Religion flourishing and increasing her Son should become the Head of that Faction as the Prince of Conde then was and as her Husband the King of Navarre had been formerly But the most Christian King and the Queen his Mother seeing in a moment all the Hugonot Commanders not only retired into a place of security and advantage but an Army raised on a sudden and a War begun which with so many arts and dissimulations they had sought to avoid plainly perceived the secrets of the Cabinet Council were revealed nor could any body be suspected thereof save only the High Chancellour who besides his not consenting to what was resolved upon concerning the Prince and the Admiral it was known his
and the Admiral were in very great perplexity of mind because they had received news from England That by reason of the discovery of some intended conspiracy against the Queens Person that Kingdom was in such distraction that they could not expect much help from thence besides they found not that readiness which they had imagined in the Princes of Germany and they knew that Nation could not move to come into the Kingdom without a good sum of money to raise and furnish their Army They saw likewise that the Prince of Orange who was sent to solllicite the Protestants was a great deal more careful of the Low-Country affairs wherein he had a very great interest than of the business of France wherein he was not so much concerned whereby finding themselves destitute of moneys and unprovided of all other things without other means of living than what they got by rapine which already was grown very scarce every one having conveyed their goods into the strong Cities their horses tired and lamed not having so much as means to shooe them for which cause they had lost above four hundred of them by the way they foresaw that at last they must necessarily be ruined and destroyed by the Kings Forces against whom in the end they could not possibly make resistance though for a few months they might be able to defend themselves For these reasons the Princes with a desire to conclude but the Admiral only to gain time by the means of the Queen of Navarre began to introduce a Treaty of Peace and to that end with great humility and submission sent Monsieur de Beauvais and Monsieur de Teligny to Court with a safe conduct who nevertheless propounded conditions very far different from what the King intended to grant who holding himself as Conquerour pretended they should submit themselves wholly to his mercy so they were sent away without any hope of agreement but they obtained That Monsieur de Byron should go back with them to the Princes Army to know their final determination who returned to the Court with nothing but general terms matters not being yet ripe nor the Princes resolution setled for any conclusion But in the beginning of Spring-time Fortune varying as the chance of War useth to be uncertain the state of affairs varied also for the Princes having past the sharpness of the Winter in Languedoc with five or six thousand Foot and two thousand five hundred Horse for toil and hard duty had brought the Reiters to the number of but one thousand two hundred were come down from the Mountains to the banks of the Rhosne to enlarge themselves in a more fertile the Country the greatest difficulty they had there was to pass the River for Monsieur des Gordes the Kings Lieutenant in Daulphine had placed himself there with a considerable strength to hinder them yet Monsieur de Mombrun knowing the Country very well found means to pass over his Regiment in boats unknown to the Catholicks and defeated them who advanced in disorder to fight with him in the heat of which Victory having made a Sconce close by the River Count Lodowick under favour of it passed over first and at last the Princes with all the Army and the Admiral who sick of a malignant Feaver made himself be carried almost half dead in an open Litter Being past the Rhosne and come into the Country of Forests thence into Beurbonis and the Dutchy of Nevers sacking and spoiling all they could they endeavoured to draw near to la Charite and the places adjoining which yet held of their party not only to re-inforce themselves by the addition of those Germans but also to supply their want of Powder and other Ammunition whereof their store was totally exhausted and without which their Arms seemed to no purpose Their design was when they were recruited and provided with those necessaries which they wanted to over-run and pillage the Countries about Paris to open to themselves by that last attempt some way to a better and more tolerable state of fortune remembring that the Hugonots had never obtained advantageous conditions of agreement but when they had made the seat of the War in the heart of the Catholick party and brought both fear and damage unto the City of Paris it self whose danger and jealousie had always extorted an assent to peace from those that bore the sway in the Government But if they could not grow to a strength sufficient for the execution of that design they resolved to repass the Loire and return into their old nest Xaintonge where since the departure of the Duke of Anjou they heard the state of their affairs was not a little amended for Monsieur de la Noue with admirable conduct and no less valour sallying out of Rochelle had recovered many places near unto it given a great defeat to Pugalliard one of the Kings Commanders taken one of the Gallies of the Fleet and over-running all the Country ceased not sometimes by cunning surprizes sometimes by open force to improve the condition of his party and though giving a sudden assault to Fountenay he had received a shot in the arm for which it was necessarily to be cut off yet being cured and returned to the exercise of Arms fiercer than before he kept the whole Country in fear and trouble The King by this means seeing the War renewed contrary to his expectation and and the Duke of Anjou's sickness still continuing for which cause he was gone to St. Germains a place of pleasure few miles distant from Paris was constrained to put his Army again in posture to oppose the Princes and as soon as it was in order he unadvisedly resolved to give the Command thereof to the Mareshal de Cosse for not daring to put it in the hands those Subjects who for greatness power adherents or animosity were very much suspected by him he trusted it to a person who not at all digressing from his wonted inclinations gave greater opportunities to the Enemy for inclining to Calvin's Doctrine in his heart he was nothing forward in prosecuting the Princes of the Blood and being a man of a slow heavy nature his intention was only to hinder the Hugonots from getting foot in those Provinces which they aimed at but not at all to venture the hazard of a Battel and much less totally to suppress that party as he easily might have done finding the Princes far inferiour to him in strength without Cannon without Victual without Money and their Souldiers with long marches quite wearied and disheartned having gone above three hundred leagues in the space of a few months This counsel was attributed by many to the Duke of Anjou who by reason of his indisposition not being able or for some private ends not willing to make a perfect end of the War would have been displeased that another should enjoy the glory and reap the fruits of his labours wherefore rendring all the other Princes and
bring it to a conclusion for the Lady Marguerite partly by her Mothers perswasions partly by her Brothers threatnings partly not to bring her honour in question which already was something doubtfully spoken of though she gave no absolute consent yet denied no more so openly to marry the Prince of Navarre But all these practices being ripe in the beginning of Iune the Queen of Navarre comes to Paris received with so much joy of the whole Court that France had not seen a day of greater rejoycing in many years Two days after arrived the Prince of Navarre and the Prince of Conde accompanied with Count Lodowick the Count de la Roch-fou-cault and all the Trains of the Princes being the chief Commanders Cavaliers and Gentlemen that had held the Hugonot party among which Piles Briquemaut and Pluvialt Colonels who in the course of that War had by their Valour acquired so much glory and renown the Sieur de Guerchy he that defended Sanserre the Marquess de Renel the Sieurs de Noue de Colombiere and Lavardin famous Commanders of Horse and a great many other men of quality and reputation The League Offensive and Defensive was already concluded with the Queen of England Prince Casimir and William his Brother both Sons of the Elector Palatine of the Rhine were already perswaded to receive pensions from the King when the Admiral forgetting all his former jealousies full of incredible pride and intolerable pretensions returned to Court with a great train of his adherents and to put the King upon a necessity of making War with the Spaniard even against his will he so ordered the matter that Count Lodowick and the Sieurs de Genlis and de la Noue who were gotten to the confines of Picardy where a great many Hugonot Gentlemen and Souldiers were privately drawn together suddenly surprized the City of Mons in the County of Heinault a principal place and of very great importance to the Provinces of Flanders which rashness though it inwardly much troubled the Kings mind yet with admirable patience seeming very well pleased with he thereby took occasion presently to dispatch Philippo Strozzi with a great many old Companies into places near about Rochel under pretence of imbarking them in Ships that were made ready in that Port to pass them over to those coasts of the Low-Countries which were held by the Confederates of Flanders but indeed they were to be ready upon all occasions to surprize and possess themselves of that City as soon as the present designs were brought to maturity Thus with cunning policies they went deluding the subtilties of the Admiral who held in the highest esteem as Arbitrator of the Court and Government seemed alone to rule the Genius and direct the will of the King of France And because to begin a War of so great moment it appeared necessary to take away the obstacle of civil discords the King earnestly intreated the Admiral that the enmities between him and the House of Lorain might by some means or other be accommodated which was propounded for no other end but because the help of the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Aumale and the forces of the Catholick party were necessary for the execution of the designs that were in agitation they sought that colour to bring them to the Court without suspicion of the Hugonots Under this pretence the Lords of the House of Lorain being come to Paris with all the train of their Faction they promised as also did the Admiral in the presence of the King that they would no more offend one another referring all their differences either to his Majesties arbitrement or to the opportunity of other times when the King and his Council should think fit by which ambiguous promises the inveterate hatred and enmity which had so many years continued between them and which was the original cause of all the present miseries and troubles seemed rather smothered for a time than utterly extinguished But now matters were not only brought to the point intended but the execution of them could no longer be deferred for on the one side the Ambassador of the Catholick King after the taking of Mons had not only left the Court but was also gone out of the Kingdom and on the other side the Hugonots without expecting further order or Commission tumultuously ran to the aid of their adherents with too great boldness and too dangerous commotions whereby contrary to the Kings intentions the War with the Spaniards was kindled in the Confine of his Kingdom The first thunderbolt of so great a tempest fell upon the Queen of Navarre who being a Woman and a Queen they thought fittest to take her away by poison administred as was reported in the perfume or trimming of a pair of Gloves but in such secret manner and in such just proportion that having worn them a while a violent Feaver seised upon her which ended her life within four days She was a Lady of a most high spirit and invincible courage much above the condition of the female sex by which vertues she not only bore up the degree and estimation of a Queen though she had no Kingdom but assaulted by the persecutions of so many and so powerful Enemies she sustained the War most undauntedly and finally in the greatest dangers and most adverse fortune of her party she built up that greatness of her Son from whence as from the first root in after years sprung forth the exaltation of his State and the renowned glory and immortality of his Name qualities besides her chastity and magnificence worthy eternal praise if thinking it lawful for her without the help of learning to search into and expound the deepest mysteries in Divinity she had not obstinately persisted in the opinions of Calvinism Queen Iane being dead because the Hugonots began to suspect something by that so unexpected accident the King knowing that the poyson had only wrought upon her brain caused the body to be cut up in open view the parts whereof being all very sound the head under colour of respect was left untouched and the testimony of skilful Physicians divulged that through the malignity of her Feaver she died of a Natural Death After her Funeral her Son assumed the Arms and Title of King of Navarre but his Marriage with the Kings Sister was deferred for a few days not to mingle joy unseasonably with that grief for which the King himself and the whole Court had put on mourning about which time the Citizens of Rochel constant in not trusting any body not willing to return unto the Kings obedience but fortifying continually and even in the midst of Peace providing all things necessary for War perswaded the Prince and the Admiral to retire from the Court which exhortations as well of the Rochellers as those of Geneva and others of that party were more earnestly reiterated after the Queen of Navarre's death every one thinking that so sudden an
Saluzzo Bellegarde had for many years held the chief place in the Kings favour and in the beginning of his Reign was by him created Mareschal but afterward for some jealousies the King conceived of him and by the instigation of his competitors Chiverny and Villeguier he was faln out of favour and under pretence of sending him into Poland to negotiate for the Duke of Alancon he had cunningly sought to put him from Court But being openly favoured by the Mareschal d' Anville and secretly by the Duke of Savoy he went into the Marquesate of Saluzzo where having found a light occasion of dispute with Carlo de Birago the Kings Lieutenant who held the principal places he easily drove him away by force and having without much difficulty made himself Master of that State he carried himself in imitation of d' Anville obeying the King's orders onely so far forth as he himself thought fit This action of his did not onely prove very prejudicial to the Affairs of France but likewise wrought great suspicions in the Italian Princes who with reason doubted that Bellegarde set on by the Catholick King to deprive the French of the Marquesate of Saluzzo might give the King occasion for the recovery of his own to bring the War into Italy and put the affairs of that Province into confusion and that so much the rather because they saw Bellegarde leavy Soldiers and fortifie places and yet knew not with whose money he could do those things Wherefore the Pope being moved had prayed the Venetian Senate as Friends to the King to interpose their wisdom to take away the occasion of that fire the preparations whereof were so near at hand The Senate undertook the business very carefully and having caused their Ambassador Grimano to treat with the King and Francesco Barbaro Resident in Savoy with the Mareschal de Bellegarde was the occasion that the King committed that affair unto the managing of his Mother For this cause the Queen not being able to draw Bellegarde unto Grenâ—ble whither the Duke of Savoy and the Venetian Ambassador were come to meet her was content to go to Montluel according to her custom making small account of Ceremonies which use so much to trouble Princes so she might obtain her ends in the substance of things There having wrought the Mareschal to acknowledge the King and receive the Patent of his Government from him she dispatched it for him with many demonstrations of honor but whatsoever the occasion were the Mareschal died suddenly as soon as he was returned unto Saluzzo and before the Queen departed from those Provinces the Governours and Guardians of his Son delivered up that State into the hands of the King of France The Queen being gotten out of that trouble passing thorough Bourgogne was returned unto her Son to assist in the administration of the Government whilest he retired from the management of affairs seemed onely to mind Feasts and Solemnities leaving all businesses to her and to his Council though indeed every least particular passed thorow his own hands by which arts he thought himself so secure of present and certain of future matters that he believed he had already fully executed all that he had secretly contrived in his mind Onely he thought the course of his designs was stopt by the Duke of Alancon who fickle and unconstant in his desires sometimes retiring himself from Court sometimes returning confidently again now holding intelligence with the Male-contents and within a while refusing to meddle with them kept him still solicitous with many jealousies and anxieties The Queen-Mother endeavoured principally to remedy that fear as a thing so material that the tranquility or disturbance of the Government depended on it Wherefore the people of the Low-Countries being already withdrawn from the subjection of the Catholick King having first besought the King of France to receive them into his protection and after he refused it having offered the Command of themselves to the Duke of Alancon if with a powerful Army he would deliver them from fear of the Spanish Tyranny the Queen desirous to free one Son from his suspicions and to provide a convenient State for the other exhorted the King to let the Duke of Alancon accept of the protection of the States of Flanders and to raise an Army upon fained pretences within the limits of France alledging that all unquiet factious spirits would go along with the Duke and diminish that pestilent matter which maintained the discords and troubles of the Kingdom and the better to ground and settle that design she tryed to renew the so often rejected Treaty of Marriage between the Duke and the Queen of England which though it could not be concluded yet at least this consequence might result from it That the Queen by her Forces and Authority would incline to favour the Duke in his new Command wherefore omitting nothing that could advance that end after many Embassies on both sides Alancon himself went this year personally into England where being honourably and sumptuously received by the Queen he stayed there a great while and though she abhorâ—ed to submit her self to the yoke of Matrimony and that the State of England did likewise abhor the Government of a French King yet because the interest of State required to dissemble as well to encrease the Dukes reputation and by consequence the strength of the States of Flanders as also to cause a jealousie in the Catholick King who at that time was intent about many other designs which were much suspected by all the Princes his Neighbours the Queen famed to consent unto the match and amongst the pomps and delights of her Court honoured and favoured the Duke of Alancon very familiarly in whose behalf the King dispatched an honourable Embassie the chief whereof was Francis de Montpensier Prince Dauphin a Lord of winning carriage and often imployed being known to be of a sincere minde an honest but not crafty nature and very far from medling or conforting with factious minded men At the arrival of this Embassie which was received with great tokens of honour the articles and conditions were treated of which were to be observed by both parties and the business went so far that the Duke and Queen gave each other a Ring in token of future Marriage though she nevertheless persevered constantly in her resolution of a free single life and therefore would by no means suffer it to go any further But these things happened in the course of the year following In this year the King of Navar after the departure of the Queen-Mother did assemble a Congregation of his Party at Mazere in the County of Foix to deliberate in what manner they should behave themselves for the time to come where amongst the discourses of Peace the spirits of many that desired War shewed their inclinations in the end it began to be debated whether the Peace should be continued or that they should return to the hazard
at their first arrival provided they might be furnished with a strong large and convenient Harbour where they might securely enter that there was no place more fit then Boulogne seated in those parts which were nearest the City of Paris placed right against England hard by Flanders to receive supplies from thence the Duke of Parma being there raising a very great Army to join with the Forces of the Fleet They shewed that the Enterprise was not difficult for the Provost Vetus a faithful instrument of the League using every three months to ride his circuit and visit those parts with fifty of his Archers which were commonly wont to go along with him might surprise one of the Gates of the Town at his entry and keep it till he were releived by the Duke of Aumale with the Forces of the Province at whose coming those few Soldiers which were there in the Garrison being cut off it was most easie to make themselves Masters of the place which being a very principal one was greatly desired also by the Duke of Aumale himself who never having been able to attain to the absolute Government of Picardy tried all wayes and plots though bold and dangerous to compass it This attempt of Boulogne did very much please the Confederates hoping that all the Spanish Forces would turn unexpectedly in favour of their designs but it was no less hopeful to the intents of the Ambassador Mendozza considering the great benefit the Navy would receive by so important a place and so large so commodious an Harbour as well in the prosecution of the Enterprise upon England as if it should be imployed in the affairs of France wherefore the common opinion concurring to the same end it was resolved in the Council that the business should be attempted and the Provost being informed thereof who was most ready to undertake it the fitting assignation was given to the Duke of Aumale who by reason of his wonderful inclination to the affairs of the League and his desire to make himself absolute in the Government of Picardy did with as much readiness put himself in order for the design But Lieutenant Poulain was no less sollicitous then they to give the King intelligence of all the business by means of the High Chancellor so that Monsieur de Bernay being advertised and carefully prepared received the Provost in so dextrous a manner that in the entry of the Gate between the Draw-bridge and the Percullise he was taken Prisoner with the greatest part of his men and the Duke of Aumale appearing a while after under the Walls was by the fury of the Canon shot forced to retire Yet for all the failing of this Enterprise did not the Confederates find that their secret Consultations were laid open to the Kings knowledge but ascribing the succesless event of that attempt to chance and to the wonted diligence of the Sieur de Bernay they continued their accustomed inclinations with so much ardour that they consulted of taking the King himself returning with a slender Guard as he was wont to do from the Boys de Vincennes whither he retiring himself from time to time to the exercise of his devotions or as his detracters said of his debauches at his return entred by the Porte S. Antoine the farthest part of all the City from the Louvre where his Guards were and about which the Court was lodged But they themselves had not courage to prosecute that attempt not having any Head of the Confederate Princes there present and the King having notice of it by the same means began to take better heed to himself and to go with more caution thorough the City and the places about it causing himself alwayes to be attended by the Captains of his Guards and by a good number of his most trusty Gentlemen not suffering the five and forty appointed for that service particularly to stir far from his Person He was oftentimes thinking to chastise their temerity and to revenge himself as well of the contempt which the Preachers shewed speaking publickly against him as of the conspiracies of those stirers up of the people which had caused the greatest and most important City of his Kingdom to revolt against him but many things withheld him from it the Treaty begun with the King of Navarre the end whereof he desired to see before he gave any new disturbance to the League the neer coming in of the forreign Army to oppose the violence whereof if he should not agree with the King of Navarre he was necessitated to make use of the Forces of the League and keep united with the Lords of the House of Lorain much less was that a fit conjuncture to break out into open War with them by punishing the Parisians the so numerous Forces of such a populous City alone requiring many preparations to subdue them and the absence of the Queen his Mother without whose advice he was not wont to take any resolutions of such consequence as concerned the whole summ of his affairs To these weighty respects and the unfitness of the time was added the Office also of Monsieur de Villequier who being Governor of Paris either out of a certain propension which men have to defend and excuse those that are under their command or out of a belief that they conspired not immediately against the King but onely for the good of the Catholick party and against the Duke d' Espernon or else disdaining that in his Government others should know more of the secret affairs of that People than he himself and should in a manner tax him of negligence laboured to make them appear lyers and satisfied the King by assuring him that the people did not bear him ill will and that they plotted not any thing at all against him and finally endeavoured by several meanes to perswade him to dissemble and bear with some indiscretions of the People who were jealous of their Religion In which opinion Secretary Villeroy did often also concurr being intent by all wayes possible to hinder the further greatness of Espernon Thus the King by dissembling increased the popular boldness and temerity so that the Duke of Mayenne being about this time returned to Paris who seeing his Army destroyed by toil and sickness in Guienne and not having been able to obtain from the King either recruits of men or supplies of money was come personally to Court after the taking of Chastillon the Heads of the Parisians were ready to make their addresses to him aspiring to bring their designs about under the protection and conduct of his authority Hot-man Bussy la Chapelle Mortel President Nully Prevost the Curate of S. Severine and the Preacher Vincestre went secretly by night unto him and made him acquainted with their Forces the union of the people the Armes already gathered and with the intention they had not only to reduce the City under the power of the League but also to seize upon
Blavet and having easily taken it began with infinite celerity to build a Fort by the Sea side which might command and hinder the entry of Ships that should come unto that Port and bestirred himself in such manner that he would have brought to perfection the service he had in design if the Duke of Mercoeurs Army still increasing which was advanced to Vannes seven leagues from Blavet he had not been constrained though the Fort were not yet quite finished to retreat into the places of his own party Nevertheless having left a strong Guard in the Fort with six pieces of Cannon and having put Eight hundred Foot into Annebont he hoped that those places might be able to hinder the entring and setling of the Enemy The Spanish Fleet arrived at Blavet with Six and thirty sail of Ships and four Gallions and with so prosperous a gale that notwithstanding the shot from Fort Dombes redoubled with infinite fury by the defendents it entered the Port without receiving much harm and landed Four thousand and five hundred Foot commanded by Don Iuan de l' Aquila who to free the Port from all impediments set himself without delay to take in Fort Dombes Which not being brought to perfection and having no hopes of relief from any place yielded it self the fifth day of the siege and was presently demolished by the Spaniards After which enterprise being joined with the Duke de Mercoeur they recovered Annebont and the other neighbouring places with the same facility and at last under favour of the Fleet began to fortifie Blavet securing it no less with two Forts Royal built at the entry of the Haven for conveniency of bringing in relief by Sea then they strengthned it with Moats Bastions and all other kinds of Military Fortifications on the Land-side But the King and the Prince of Dombes knowing that they could not resist the power of the Duke and the Spaniards with the Forces they had in that Province sought for assistance from England which lying over against it hath conveniency of giving relief to that coast no less than Spain And having obtained Six thousand Foot from the Queen they expected their Landing at St. Lo the farthest Port of Lower Normandy With the like variety and as great danger did the War rage on the other side of the Kingdom For Dauphine and Provence Provinces bordering upon the Duke of Savoy and spred in length to the very foot of the Alps wavered with various fortune in the management of Arms. The Duke of Savoy from the very beginning of the War had applied the greatness of his mind to divers and those not ill-grounded hopes For the affairs of Piedmont being secured by his seizing upon the Marquesate and lying conveniently for the affairs of Dauphine by the near adjoining of Savoy he hoped by fomenting the League in some sort to enlarge his confines On the other side being interessed in Provence by the Towns he holds there he had an eye set upon getting the whole whereof already he possessed a part So that he held intelligence in both Provinces and with Money and Arms endeavoured to advantage the course of his designs Nor did his hopes stay there but seeing the Kingdom in so great distraction â—nd ready to break the Salique Law and to cut off the Legitimate Succession of the Royal Family in the King of Navarre there arose a certain conceit in him that the States might perhaps incline to make choice of him as being born of a Daughter of France which he thought would prove so much the more easie to him by how much more his name was famous in Arms and by how much greater merit he should acquire with the Catholick party and in the opinion of the Pope the principal mover in respect of Religion in the determination of the affairs of France Nor did he forget whatsoever event these designs should have that the opportunity of present affairs gave him an occasion of subduing the inhabitants of Geneva now that the King of France being busied by himself could not afford them any present relief With this height of hopes which increased his courage having sent his Agents to treat with the Duke of Mayenne and having contracted a reciprocal intelligence with him he had raised a great Body of Horse and Foot and had sent forth Count Francesco Martinengo General of his Army into Provence and his Brother Don Amadeo of Savoy against Geneva and by means of the Governours of his Garisons he gave help and assistance to the Forces of the League in Dauphine Nor was the beginning unlike the greatness of his design For the Sieur de Vins and the Countess de Seaux a Lady of more than manly spirit who both held for the League in Provence finding themselves inferiour in strength to Monsieur de la Valette the Kings Lieutenant not only willingly received supplies and assistance from the Duke but began also to treat of giving him the Dominion of that Province and to put themselves under his protection and superiority Which being treated and concluded by the Duke he went in person to his Army carrying with him some addition of Horse and Foot which by Commission from Spain he had obtained from the Governour of Milan At his arrival the Kings party inferiour in strength going down the wind though Les Diguieres being come out of Dauphine into that Province did labour marvellously with his wonted valour and celerity which were singular the affairs of the League grew up to such a height that his Arms already gave the Law to the whole Country Wherefore the Duke being come into the City of Aix where the Parliament of Provence doth reside and being received with those pomps and solemnities which are wont to be given to Sovereign Princes though he imitating the Duke of Mayenne refused to use the Cloth of State he was in the Parliament declared Head of the War and of the Civil Government in that Province to preserve it in the Union of the Catholicks and under the obedience and Royal State of the Crown of France This business displeased the Duke of Mayenne no less than it did the King thinking not only that the Duke of Savoy sought after and usurped that Authority which the general consent had conferred upon him but also that he had an aim to dismember Provence and with the help of Nizza and his other Towns by little and little to make himself Master of it where he wrote sharp resenting Letters not only to the Parliament but also to the Sieur de Vins and to the Countess shewing them the fault they committed in separating themselves from the rest of the Union and in putting themselves in danger to alienate so great and so important a portion of the Crown These Letters wrought a very great effect in the Sieur de Vins an old dependent upon the House of Lorain and he began to shew himself more backward in complying with the
put it to a day judging the Italian Forces to be yet raw and the Duke of Lorain's not well assured and therefore no way be compared to his Wherefore being departed from Attigny upon the first of October he quartered that night with his Van-guard at Grandpre upon which day Monsieur d' Amblise who commanded part of the Lorain Forces having marched from Montfaulcon joyned with the Army of the League The next day aâ—â—ut noon the King arrived with his Army within sight of Verdun spreading his â—â—uadrons largely imbattelled along the Plain On the other side they of the League who were encamped without the City drew themselves up in Battalia under the Walls the Italians having the right Wing the Duke of Lorain the Battel and the Duke of Mayenne's French the lâ—ft yet the Duke himself commanding and ordering the whole Camp as he pleased At the first arrival there began so great and so hot a skirmish between the two Armies that many of the Commanders themselves thought it would be a Battel for the Sieurs de Praslin de la Curee d' Arges and the Baron d' Giury with the Kings Light-horse in sour Divisions advanced to the very face of the Enemy to skirmish being seconded on the right hand and on the left by the Count de Brienne and the Sieur de Marivaut with Two hundred Cuirassiers and on the other side Cavalier Avolio Ottavio Cesis and Ascanio della Cornia were likewise advanced with the Popes Light-horse and the Sieur d' Amblise seconded them with a Body of Lorain Lances But though the skirmish was very fierce in the beginning the Sieur de Praslins Horse being killed under him and the Sieur de la Curee thrown to the ground with the shock of a Lance the Italians behaving themselves very gallantly every where yet were the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne resolved not to fight because the Catholick Kings Forces that were come out of Italy following their wonted Counsels had denied to follow them and were marched streight to joyn with the Duke of Parma and the Popes Swisses were not above Three thousand Wherefore not thinking themselves strong enough to deal with the Kings Army in so open a place as is the Plain that lies before Verdun the skirmish by their order cooled by little and little and they drawing back their men under the Walls yet without shew of fear the King took up his Quarters and entrenched himself within sight of the Town and of their Army All sorts of provisions came in plentifully to the Camp of the League and the City furnished them with many conveniences not onely for victual but for lodging under cover whereas the King in the midst of an enemies Country and the weather being very rainy suffered both for want of victual and conveniency nor could his Soldiers accustomed to another kind of Discipline endure the hardship and incommodities of lying in the field in so contrary a season To other things was added a most cruel storm that night with thunders whirlwinds and infinite rain which spoiling all the Soldiers Huts and overflowing all the Plain put the whole Army in wonderful confusion Wherefore next day the King after he had stood firm in Battalia for many hours and none of the enemies appearing in the field faced about with his Army and marched back to quarter again at Grandpre There the Germans were like to have mutinied not being paid the money that had been promised them Wherefore the King who could now do no less than perform his promises to the Queen of England that he might receive the other Two hundred thousand Ducats having made provision at Sedan with the Jewels and credit of the Princess Charlotte of a certain sum of money to quiet his Germans took without delay the way towards Normandy to besiege at last the City of Rouen The Duke of Mayenne contrary to whose expectation the Popes forces had so long delaid their coming and who had also seen the King of Spain's march streight towards Lorain without making any stay presently dispatched the Count de Brâ—ssac to the Duke of Parma to protest unto him that if he entred not into the Kingdom or sent not such Supplies as should be sufficient to oppose the King the affairs of the League and the state of Religion would be very much endangered and that he should not be able to hinder many from making their peace as seeing the slowness and ill counsels of the Confederates they daily threatned The Duke made this protestation more at large to Diego d' Ivarra who was there present shewing him the wonderful ill effect which the delays and secret practices of the Spaniards did produce for if all the Catholick Kings expences and forces which he had granted severally to this man and to that in Bretagne Provence Savoy and Languedoc haâ— been put into one Body and all imployed to the root of the business and to the Spring-head of affairs the victory over the King would thence have ensued and also the suppression of their Enemies in all places but whilst the division of the League was endeavoured whilst his counsels were not believed and whilst the Duke of Parma would not advance the King had found opportunity to receive his Foreign Forces and now being grown powerful he over-ran all France at his pleasure to the admiration and grief of all good men But these Protestations and Reasons not availing with Diego d' Ivarra who had received another impression and was otherwise inclined and the cause from whence this hardness proceeded being clearly seen by the relation of President Ieannin the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne not being able any other way to hinder it agreed together though secretly in this general to keep close and united together and not to suffer that any should be admitted to the Crown not only who was a stranger but who was not of their own Family and that if they were constrained to yield to any other persons a Prince of the Blood of the Catholick Religion should be chosen and never to consent either to the alienation or division of the Kingdom With this firm resolution confirmed also by a Writing which they signed the Duke of Mayenne set himself in order to prosecute the War and being departed from Verdun with the Popes Army and his own and with the Supplies he had obtained from the Duke of Lorain who gave way that the Count de Vaudemont the Count de Chaligny and the Sieur de Bassompierre should follow him he took the way toward Champagne that he might not go too far from the Confines till he heard the determinations of Flanders When the Duke was arrived at Retel in Champagne the Duke of Guise came up to him accompanied with Six hundred Horse all Gentlemen who upon the same of his being at liberty were come in to him and though at his arrival their greetings and outward actions shewed kindness and confidence in one another
which he should gain by the Imposts and Revenues thereof He absolutely made himself Master of a large Country full of great Towns and a great many Castles abounding in Gentry numerous in people plentiful in victual and so situate that on the one side it was open to the Ocean convenient for the near Supplies of England and on the other it extended it self near the City of Paris cutting off from it the passage of the River Seine which was most important for its present conservation wherefore being intent with his utmost endeavours upon this enterprise he had given charge to the Mareschal de Biron who when he went into Lorain stayed behind with part of the Army in those parts to seek to possess himself of all the places about it and to make the greatest provisions he could of victual ammunition and other things necessary for that siege Biron after the taking of Louviers where he had found wonderful great store of corn which he caused to be carefully kept had assaulted and taken Gournay and then passing further into the Country of Caux had likewise taken Caudebec seated upon the River Seine between Havre de Grace and Rouen and possessed himself of the Castle of Eu which stands upon the great high-way of Picardy after which successes being already absolute Master of the field he set himself diligently to make provisions storing up corn some at Eureux some at Ponteau de Mer and most of all at Pont de l' Arche because it was the nearest place to Rouen At Caen he caused great store of Tents to be made and other clothes for the Soldiers use At Diep he gathered together plenty of Ammunition and of those Iron-instruments that were fit for the intended siege and in all places businesses went on with infinite diligence and order but without any noise or apparent stir And yet there was not any of the contrary party who perceived not that things were setting in order to besiege Rouen and the Duke of Mayenne being confident that that was the King's intention did with no less diligence busie himself in making those provisions that were fit for the defence of it and to give it reputation he had sent his son Henry thither to give such orders as were needful to confirm the people and to give them assurance that they should not remain without relief The Military affairs and the weight of the defence he laid wholly upon the Sieur de Villars a Cavalier not onely of high spirit and courage but absolutely depending upon his name and authority who going first to Havre de Grace a Fortress abundantly furnished by former Kings and leaving the Government of it to the Sieur de Guijon who likewise was a Provencal by birth returned to Rouen with two and thirty pieces of Cannon of several sizes and with every thing necessary to make use of them all which he caused to be carried in great Boats up the River and brought thither Six hundred Horse of that Country and One thousand and two hundred of those Provencal Foot which had long followed the War under his Command in those parts and as a man to whom learning which he was adorned withal suggested generous spirits and the experience of many years supplied with wary prudent Counsels knowing how much good order is wont to produce in Military affairs and desiring therefore that all things might proceed with a due disposal under their proper Heads and that every one might know and execute his own Charge he called all the Heads of the Clergy the principal men of the Parliament the chief of the People and the Officers of the Souldiery and distributed to every one his part of those labours that were to be undergon in their future defence He destined the Sieur de la Londe an old Soldier well known in the City by having lived there many years to the Office of Serjeant Major to the defence of St. Catherines Mount wherein the sum of the business consisted he chose the Chevalier Piccard with his Regiment and two hundred other Musketiers commanded by the Sieur de Iessan The old Palace standing between the Porte de Chaux and the River Seine on the North-side he gave to the Sieur de Banquemare first President of the Parliament with One hundred Swissers and Three hundred French the old Castle with the part adjoyning towards Maistre he assigned to his brother the Chevalier d' Oyse to whom he gave the Regiments of Colonel Boniface and of Commendatory Grillon and the West-side toward the Fauxbourg de St. Severe beyond the River he gave to Captain Giacopo Argenti of Ferrara with his Regiment Carlo Siginolfi a Neapolitan Engineer of great experience commanded the Artillery Captain Basin the Fire-works which were made in very great abundance and at every Gate one of the ancientest Presidents and one of the Counsellors of the Parliament assisted as well for security as reputation The Citizens were divided into Ten Companies under ten Commanders chosen by them whereof eight were to guard eight Bulwarks or great Towers lined with earth which were in the Circuit of the City and the other two had the Main-guard in the great Market-place and in the Palace of Justice were lodged two hundred Swissers and as many French Fire-locks to be ready to help where need should require The Governor also caused some little Barks to be furnished with small Pieces of Artillery and manned with twenty Soldiers to each of them as well on the upper as on the lower part of the Seine which under the command of their Admiral the Sieur d' Anquetil were to run up and down the River to make Prize of such Vessels as should stir and to take Cattel and other provisions along the banks of it to keep the City in more plenty of Victual Two Counsellors of the Parliament and two Deputies of the City were employed in the distributing of bread and the old Sieur de Coursey had the care of delivering out the Ammunition With this order very well contrived and exceeding well executed by the diligence of the Governour and the experience of those to whom it was intrusted things went on so quietly and so happily that during all the time of the siege there neither happened any disorder nor did any body suffer for want of Victual the price of provisions not much differing from the ordinary rate Against these provisions the Mareschal de Biron after he had received Three thousand English Foot that had landed at Boulogne and were led by the Earl of Essex had under his Colours between Nine and ten thousand Foot and One thousand and eight hundred Horse and to give a beginning to the Siege he came and lay within sight of the City at a place called Darnetal upon the Eleventh of November which day the Cavalry of the Camp over-ran all the Plain to the very Walls of the City and of St Catherine Captain Borosey a soldier of great valour with Two
all his own affairs had in times past troubled and little less than conquered the King himself in the heart of his own Provinces and in the midst of his Forces it seemed to them a ridiculous thing that now with his Forces still divided and discords still burniâ—g in his State he should dare to think of offending the States of the Catholick King founded upon the Basis of so great a Monarchy wherefore they should have thought it much more to the purpose for the King to have endeavoured by some tolerable conditions to attain Peace than to provoke and stir up War so much the more by the vanity of a publick Declaration But the Causes that moved the King were very powerful for he foresaw that the overture of a Foreign War would help to close the wounds of a Civil War as skilful Chirurgions are wont with seasonable Cauteries to divert the hurtful humours that corrupt and infect our Bodies He knew there was nothing that could move the French more to a Reconcilement and Re-union than the appearance of a War with the Spaniards the natural Enemies of their Nation he desired the War might no longer carry the name of a Civil War for Religion but of a Foreign one for interest of State and that in the flame of this Controversie between Crown and Crown the yet remaining sparks of the League might be extinguished he knew that howsoever he should still have the Catholick Kings forces against him which since they could by no means be avoided it was less hurtful to have them open and publick than treacherous and dissembled He thought the Princes confederate with the Crown of France would have much less caution in lending him favour and assistance in the War between the Spaniards and the French for matter of Empire than between Frenchmen and Frenchmen whether they were real or feigned for matter of Religion He considered that nothing would more please nor satisfie the Hugonots than War against the Spaniards in which they being imployed with their utmost spirits their minds might be withdrawn and diverted from the thoughts of new designs besides all these causes having made a League offensive and defensive with the United Provinces of the Low-Countries with a mutual obligation of concurring jointly in War and hoping to draw the Queen of England and some of the Princes of Germany into the same confederacy it was necessary to imploy his forces in some enterprize of common profit and conveniency in Flanders and the County of Bourgongne and being desirous to do it for his own reputation and to interess the other Confederates he judged the Declaration of the War to be very proper to stir up the minds of his Subjects and to necessitate the forces of the Confederates But above all being again to treat of his Reconciliation to the Apostolick See and knowing he should have all the power of the King of Spain against him he desired to have him known for his open Enemy and that he and his Ministers might not be admitted to that deliberation as being excluded and excepted by the publick and open War which should yet be between the Crowns and if the minds of great persons among so many interests of State are sometimes also moved and driven by passions the old persecution he had suffered from the Catholick King stirred up and spurred on by the so late danger in which he was like to have lost his life by the suggestions of persons whom he esteemed to be dependents upon that Crown had perchance some part in this resolution for the execution whereof upon the Twentieth day of Ianuary he caused a Declaration to be published and the same to be proclaimed by Heraulds in the Towns upon the Confines wherein after having related all the injuries done by the King of Spain unto himself and the King his Predecessor imputing also the act lately attempted against his person to the suggestion of his Champions he denounced open War against him by Land and Sea took away all Commerce between the two Nations and permitted his Subjects to invade spoil and possess the States under the Dominion of that Crown King Philip answered this Proclamation about two months after with another Writing wherein reckoning up the benefits and supplies lent to the most Christian Kings his Confederates and Allies he declared and protested that he would not break the peace which he had with the most Christian Crown and the good Catholicks of the Kingdom but persevere in their assistance and defence to the end they might not be oppressed by the Prince of Bearne and the Hugonots his Confederates and commanded all his Subjects not to molest or hurt those French that should follow the Catholick party in the Kingdom giving order on the other side to his Governours and Commanders to defend his Countries and likewise to offend the Prince of Bearne and his adherents This Declaration was slow but so were not the preparations for not only in Flaâ—ders Count Charles his Army was recruiting to enter upon the Confines of Picardy in the Spring but also Hernando de Valeseo Constable of Castile and Governour of the State of Milan was preparing a great Army in Italy to march into Bourgongne and in Spain new Forces were raising that they might send new Supplies to Don Iuan del Aquila in Bretagne as soon as the season would permit the like preparations were made in France Holland and England so that the course of this year seemed on all sides likely to prove formidable and bloody In the mean time the King cured of his hurt had celebrated the solemnity of the Knights of the Holy Ghost among the Ceremonies whereof he renewed his Oath of living and dying a Catholick and of defending Religion and afterwards with great pomp and demonstrations of honor he had received Vincenzo Gradenigo and Giovanni Delfino Ambassador of the Venetian Senate who came to congratulate his assumption to the Crown and Pietro Duodo that came to reside in the place of Giovanni Mocenigo who for the space of seven years together had made his residence with him and the King his Predecessor having with exceeding great praise of singular prudence managed the most weighty businesses in the ambiguous revolutions of past affairs The first action in the War of this year was the taking of Beaune a principal Town in the Dutchy of Bourgogne wherein some of the chief Citizens having begun to mutiny from the year before to put themselves under the Kings obedience the Duke of Mayenne who had a special jealousie concerning the affairs of that Province as being his own particular government went speedily at his return from Lorain into that City where having found businesses all in a combustion he caused fourteen of the Citizens which seemed to him more inclined to an alteration than the rest to be imprisoned in the Castle and having removed that difficult scruple he in all things else sought to appease the generality of
to attempt to relieve la Fere but also very dangerous to make their retreat These causes fully debated in the Counsel made the Cardinal take a resolution to try to do it by way of diversion for by encamping before some Place of importance belonging to the King either he should constrain him to rise from la Fere with his whole Army to succor the place so straightned or if persisting in the siege he should not care to relieve it he might easily get another place as good as la Fere. But there arose no less difficulties in chosing the place that should be pitched upon for Guise Han Guines and the other such like places that were nearest to Flanders were not to be compared unto la Fere and S. Quentin Monstrueil and Boulogne were so well fortified and mann'd that it was impossible to think of attaining them so that between the ambiguity of these considerations the Cardinal would have been long unresolved if Monsieur du Rosne had not secretly perswaded him to a new enterprize not foreseen by any other body Monsieur du Rosne was by long experience versed in all the King of France his Fortresses and the example of things past made him remember how easily Calais might be taken for by how much more the strength of it by situation and art made it in appearance be counted impregnable so much less carefull were the defendants to guard it with that diligence wherewith places of such high importance ought to be kept wherefore while that Town was under the Dominion of the Kings of England the smallness of the Garrison they kept in it had invited Francis Duke of Guise to besiege it in the year 1557 which also had so happy an event that contrary to the Common expectation he made himself Master of it only by that defect which coming often into du Rosne's mind he as being curious and full of industry had got certain information that Monsieur de Bidassan Governor of the place at that present had not above Six hundred Foot in it a Garrison no way sufficient to make it good either private interest or the general error of men having perswaded him to trust more to the strength of his Works than to the number and valour of the defendants some add that the King of France having sent the Sieur de la Noue and de la Valliere to view the condition of all the places standing upon the Frontiers of Picardy they not making their visitation with that secrecy which ought to go along with such businesses had with the same French lightness discoursed very freely of the weak estate of those Frontiers and the strength of Calais so magnified by fame being objected to them they inconsiderately answered that whosoever should assault that Fortress in the place and manner that was fitting the taking of it would be but twelve dayes business which words being told du Rosne by one that he had imployed as a Spie excited him to search out the place and manner which these discoverers had intimated Thus being fallen into a thought that he might obtain the Town famous for its fortification by reason of its standing upon the Sea and the quality of the Haven opportune for the affairs of Flanders and England he with his reasons made the Cardinal Arch-Duke incline unto it and so much the rather because all other enterprizes were thwarted with exceeding great difficulties But having determined between themselves to apply their mindes to this attempt without making any outward shew of it they made all the other Commanders believe they would assault Montrevil a place standing upon the straight way that leads to la Fere and less considerable than either St. Quentin or Boulogne and with this pretence having caused great provision to be made of Victual and Carriages to bring them to Doway Arras and the other confining places the Cardinal having appointed Valentiennes for the general Rendezvous of his Forces went thither personally upon the thirtieth of March where having mustred his Army in which were Six thousand Spanish Foot Six thousand Walloons Two thousand Italians and Four thousand Germans Twelve hundred men at Arms and Cuirassiers and little less than Two thousand Light-horse he divided his Forces into many parts and made them march several wayes to hold the Enemies in the greater suspence He sent Ambrogio Landriano towards Montrevil with part of the Light-horse and with the Marquiss of Trevico's Tertia with the rest of the Light-horse Basti marched into the Territory of Cambray Agostino Messia with a Tertia of Spaniards and two of Walloons went towards St Paul and the Count de Bossa with the Flemish Troops took towards Arras and Bethune which outward shews while they held those of their own side in suspence no less than the French Monsieur du Rosne with the Spanish Tertia's of Ludovico Valasco and Alonso Mendozza and Four hundred Horse went out of Valentiennes upon the fourth of April in the evening and marched all the night to St. Omer where having joyned with Colonel la Berlotte and the Count de Buquoy who stayed there for them with two Tertia's of Walloons he took along with him three pieces of Cannon and four of smaller Artillery and advanced speedily towards Calais where he arrived so much the more unexpectedly because being a place out of the way standing in the utmost point of a tongue of Land which advances it self a great way into the Sea neither the Spaniards nor the French had ever thought of defending or besieging it Calais stands upon the shore of the Ocean Sea in the furthest parts of a Promontory not above Thirty Leagues from England and hath a very large Haven which sheltred on each side with great high banks of sand which they commonly call les Dunes is made secure and commodious for a very great number of Ships The Town is invironed almost quite round with low grounds where the Sea overflows and drowns the Plain for many miles and being shut up within four banks by a very large moat it is of a square form having at three of the angles besides many great Towers and Ravelines along the Courtine as many Royal Bastions of modern structure with their Cavaliers within them and at the fourth angle which reaches from the West unto the North stands the Castle built likewise of a square form but with great Towers of the old fashion that flank it round about The moats are very large and deep for they receive the water on both sides and the Town which is little less than a League in circuit is all fortified round with thick Ramparts though by reason of the carelessness of the Governors in many places by length of time grown defective and in some decayed and fallen down On the outside along the Haven there is a great Suburb full of Inhabitants in regard of Traffick and the conveniency of Marriners and on that side a great Current of
Author is a little mistaken in his Cosmography for Dâ—epe stands just over against â—ye The Fort of Rouen taken Anâ—hoâ—y of Vendoâ—â—ne King of Navarre shot in the shoulder Rouen taken by the Catholicks and sackt The King of Navarre dieth The Prince of Conde going to besiege Paâ—is amuseth himself before Corbeil by which means he fails of his principal design In Paris were 800000 Inhabitants yet during the Siege neither the Lecturers nor the Lawyers discontinued their Lectures oâ— Audieâ—â—es Negligence the ordinary defect of the Hugonots The Battel of Dreux The Constable taken prisoner and his Son with many others killed The Constables Division being broken â—he Swisses only with exceeding gallantry sustain the fight The Prince of Conde thinking he had won the Battel being charged aâ—resh by the Duke of Guise is taken prisoner The Hugonotâ— lose â—he day The Admiral made General of the Hugonots The two bitter enemies Conde and Guise sup and lie together in the same bed The Duke of Guise made General of the Kings Forces 1563. The Siege of Orleans sustained by Andelot with the reliques of the Hugonot Army Iâ—â—n Pâ—lâ—rot feigns to forsake the Hugonot party leaves Orleans insinuates himself into the Duke of Guises Câ—urt whilst the Duke gives order for an assault shoots him in the shoulder whereof he dies Polâ—rot taken and condemned A Hugonot Captain offâ—ring to kill Andelot the Queen sends him to the same Andelot Conditions of Peace concluded at Orleans the 18 of Mâ—â—câ— â—563 Havre de Grace delivered up upoâ— conditionâ— * Livery made â—o Wards In matters of â—avour the year begun is taken for the year ended Aftâ—â— much opposiâ—iâ—n 〈◊〉 the Ninth is declared out of minoriâ—y by â—he Parliamâ—nt of Rouen Francis Duke of Guâ—sâ— left his wiâ—ow Anne d'Est sister to the Duke of Ferrara with three sons Henry Duke of Guâ—se Lodovick that was Cardinal whom Hâ—nâ—y the Thirâ— caused to be murthered and the Duke of Mayennâ— who was afterwards Head of the Catholick League The Council of Trâ—nâ— breaks up in Novâ—mb 1563. in the Papacy of Piâ—s Quartus The Pope the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoâ— send Ambassadors of Câ—arles the Ninth to sollicite the publication of the Council 1564. The Queen of Navarâ—â— causeth Churches to be ruined and expelleth the Priests Whereupon the Pope sends out a Monitory against her which is opposed by the King of France The Principality of Beaâ—ne hoâ—â—s not of the Crown of France The King and the Queen make a general visitation of the whole Kingdom The Queen treats wiâ—h the Protestants of Germany Lyons the first that rebelled and the last that returned to obedience An Interview between the King and the Duke of Savoy The King meeteth with the Popes Ministers at Avignon 1565. Charles the IX and the Queen-Mother come to an interview with the Queen of Spain at Bayonne The King not being able to perswade the Queen of Navarre to change Religion moves her to restore the Mass and Priests to their formeâ— liberty 1566. The Assembly at Moulins and the decree made there An interview between the Princes of Guise and the Chastillons â—ut no reconciliation Provost de l' Hostel called now adays le grand Provost de l' Hostel is the ordinary Judge of the Kings Household his power extends to all unpriviledged places within six leagues of the Court. Lodovico Gonzago Son to Frederick Duke of Manâ—ua marrieth Henrieâ—â—a de Câ—eve Sister to the late Duke of Nevers who was killed in the Battel of Dreux This was Father to Câ—arles Duke of Nevers now Duke of Mantua Pius Quinâ—us who succeeded Pius Quarâ—us requires thaâ— the Cardinal of Chastillon be deprived of his Cardinals habit and Ecclesiastical preferments because he followeth the belief of Calvin which being delayed for that and other things he iâ— displeased with thâ— Queâ—n The Proâ—â—stant Princes of Germany send Embassadors to the King in favour of the Hugonots and receive a sharp answer Charles the IX sharply answereth the Admiral and takes a severe resolution against the Hugonots An Hugonot Minisâ—er prin t a B ook and preacheth that it is lawful to kill the King A Prisoner confesseth that he was hired by the Admiral to kill the King The Queen-Mother is threatned in a Letter to be killed Gueux a Sect of Hereticks The Prince of Câ—nde perswades the King to make war with Spain and offers him a great number of the Hugonots whi h more exasperates the King 1567. The Hugonots jealousies of the Kings preparations resolve upon a War Colonel Fifer with 6000 Swisses saves the King the Queen and the Royal Family frâ—m a great Army of the Hugonots and marching in an excellent order fighting wiâ—h the â—nemy conducts thâ—m safe to Paris The Cardinal of Lorain saves himself by flight from the Hugonots The Hugonots resolve to besiege Paris stop the passages whereby provisions are conveyed to the City make incursions into the Suburbs and burn the Mills * Any kind of imposition espeâ—ially that which is paid unto the King upon sale of Salt The City of Orleans taken again by the Hugonots and divers others The Constable comes to parley with the Hugonots the lye passeth between him and the Cardinal of Chastâ—llon and no hopes remain of an agreement Paris besieged and streightned for victuals On St Marâ—ins Eve the Kings Forces meet with the Hugonots Army out of Paris In the Battel of St. Dennis the Catholick Army prevails but is much damnified Henry Duke of Anjoy made Lieutenant-General of the Arâ—y On Christmas Eve the Catholicks having an opportunity to fight with the Hugonots would not to prevent the effusion of so much of their own blood by which means the Hugonots save themselves Prince Casimir Son to the Palatine of the Rhine enters F â—nce with an Army and joins with the Hugonots 1568. The Pope sends aids to the King * Or Judge Rocâ—el revolts to the Hugonots which ever after serves them for a Sanctuaâ—â— The Hugonots having besieged Charâ—res the Queen makes new motions for an Accommodation * The Order of St. Francis of Paul The Hugonotâ— accept not the conditions of agreement The conditions of the treaty are not performed The beginning of the Cabinet Council The King to chastise the Heads of the Hugonots takes occasion to demand the money paid to Prince Câ—simir upon their account The Prince of Conde answereth and incenseth the King with a Letter of Protestation Order given by the King to take the Prince of Câ—nde and the Admiral prisoners The Prince and the Admiral save themselves by flight at Rochel where all the Hugonots and the Queen of Navâ—rre come to them with great forces Odâ—tâ—o Cardinal of Châ—stillâ—n who called himself Count of Beauvaiâ— flies disguised like a Mariner into England and afterwards remaineth with that Queen as Agenâ— for the Hugonots A Manifest of the Hugoâ—ots and Letters of the Queen of Navarre The King enters into a jealousie of the High Chancellor de l' Hospiâ—al and
Catholicks The Cardinal of Bourbon his pretensions to the Succession of the Crown 1585. Conditions agreed upon between the Deputies of the King of Spâ—in and the Heads of the Catholick League A meeting between the King of Navarre and the Duke d' Espernon sent from Henry the Third The Low-Countries send Ambassadors to the King of France intreating him to take the Protection and Dominion of their States Bâ—rnardino de Mendozza the Spanish Ambassador having received a sharp answer from Henry 3. begins openly to set forward the League * German Horse The King Edict forbidding the raising or gathering of Souldiers together A Declaration published by the Heads of the Catholick League * Contrary to their Majesties hopes Note that this addition and all the other alterations and additions in the following Declarations standing in the margin are according to the French Book intiâ—uled Memories de la Ligue * Projects Verdun the first City taken by the Army of the League The Insurrection at Marseilles The Kings answer to the Declaration published by the Catholick League [* Which would not have come to pass if in the Assembly of the States General held at Blois when the Deputies induced thereunto by his Majesties servent affection to the Catholick Religion had requested him utterly to prohibit the exercise of the pretended reformed Religion in this Kingdome whereupon followed the determination which was there taken and sworn which his Majesty hath since laboured to execute they had at the same time provided a certain stock of Money to prosecute that War unto the end as it was necessary to do and as it was motioned by His Majesty * And they would now have had no pretence of complaint who nevertheless publish c. Mem. de la Lâ—gue [* Whatsoever is published to the contrary Mem. de la Ligue * Evocation is a transferring of causes from one Court to another * And preservers Mem. de la Ligue [* Who onely will triumph and make advantage of the publick miseries and calamities Mâ—m de la Lâ—gue * Desolation Mem. de la Ligue * As well by reason of the good and gracious usage which they have ever received from him as because His said Majesty is c. Mem. dâ— la Ligue * Luigi Davila the Authors elder Brother was favoured by the Queen-Mother and esteemed by the King who made use of him in the managing of affairs and of the War in those times Whilst the Cardinal of Bourbon Head of the League stands wavering to reconcile himself to the King the Duke of Guise makes a specious Proposition of Agreement * These which the Author calls Harquebuziers on horseback differed from our Dragoons in that they did serve both on foot and on horseback and it is conceived by men experienced in War that they were the same with those which they call Argolâ—ttiers The King of Navarre's Declaration There ariseth such a discord between the Duke d' Espernon and Secretary Villeroy as in process of time produced many evil effects The Kings Edict against the Hugonots The Hugonots Answer to the Kings Edict The King calling the Heads of the City of Paris together demands moneys for the War which the Catholicks laboured for against the Hugonots * This particular is not in the French Original of the Kings Speech which is in a Book called Memoires de la Ligue A saying of Hen. the third * The Hugonot Sermons Monsieur Angoulesme Grand Prior France being dead the King confers the Government of Provence upon the Duke of Espernon Gregory XIII dies in 1585. Sixtus Quintâ—â—â— succeedâ—â—â— Sixtus Quintus on the ninth of September 1585. Excommunicates the King oâ— Navarre and the Prince of Conde declaring them incapable of succession The King of Navaâ—râ— makes the Bull of Sixtus â—uintus to be answered and the Answer set up in Rome De Robbe Lâ—â—gue The War is begun again between the Catholicks and Hugonots The Castle of Angiers taken suddenly by the Hugonots The Castle of Angiers is recovered by the Catholicks before it is relieved The enterprise of Angiers being vanished the Hugonot Army encompassed by the Catholicks and reduced to great streights disbands it self and part of them with the Commanders save themselves by flight 1586. Maran besieged by the Catholicks Great Forces are prepared in Germany in favour of the Hugonots Mary Qu. of Scots Cousen to the Guises imprisoned by Elizabeth Qu. of England Hen. the Third despairing of issue resolves to further the King of Navars right to the Crown and to unite himself with him for the destruction of the Guises By reason of the licentious life of Margaret wife to the K. of Navarre the King and Q. Mother resolve to break the Match and to give Christiâ—nnâ— the daughter of the Duke of Lorain who after married Ferdinando de Medici Great Duke of Tuscany An accommodation treated with the Hugonots by the Queen-Mother and much disliked by those of the League The Ambassadorâ— of the Protestant Princes of Gâ—â—mâ—ny â—eing come to â—â—is to treat in favour of the Hugonots having spoken highly to the King are sharply answered and depart unsatisfied from the Court. The Parisians by the suggestions of thâ—â— Heads of the League being set against the King frame a Councel of 16 principal persons by whom they were governed receiving their Orders and resolutions * Or Companies * Le berceau de la Ligne Nicholas Poulain discovers all the Plots of the League unto the King They of the League plot to surprise Boulogne by the Spanish Fleet which is revealed by Pâ—ulain * The Author in many places calls that the Ocean Sea which we call the Brittish Sea * Attendants or guard so called because in old time they went with Bowes and Arrowes 1585. They of the League consult about taking the King as he returned from hunting The Dâ—sign of taking the Bastile Arcenal Paris and tâ—e Louvre and to cut in pieces the Minions and the Kings adherents and to take the King himself prisoner revealed and not effected 1586. * Captain of the ordinary VVatch of Paris * A Court of Justice in Paris as Guildball in London where also many are imprisoned * The Magazine of Arms. * Atturney-General * The Garden of the Louvre * Master of the Horse Aussone a strâ—ng place in the Dutchy of Bourgongne besieged and taken by the Duke of Guise The interview between the Queen-mother and the King of Navarre at S. Bris wherein nothing was concluded 1587. The Solemn Oath of Henry the Third A saying of Henry the III. * Maistres de Camp The King sends an Army against the King of Navarre andgives secret order to Lavardin to oppose but not suppress him The Count de Bouchage Brother to the Duke of Ioyeuse turns Capuchin after the death of his wife whom he dearly loved The Duke of Espernon marries the Countess of Candalâ— a rich Heir the King honours the wedding with great presents The Protestant Princes of Germany